39 réponses à ce sujet

[Apathy1989]

Feranel wrote...

Why do people assume Keepers can heal?

Keeper specialization in DA:A had self healing, so does Merrill.

Zathrian's family is dead, his clan keeps getting pwned, his Hala keep dying, yeah, he's a real "healer."

Velana is a complete B----, she couldn't protect her sister, and was exiled for being "too violent." Not healer.

Marithari loses people to corruption, injury, etc... Her Hala all died off, somehow I don't think she's a "healer".

If anything, merrill follows the trend of elves being crazy and usually linked to blood magic

[YourFunnyUncle]

Feranel wrote...

Why do people assume Keepers can heal?

Keeper specialization in DA:A had self healing, so does Merrill.

Zathrian's family is dead, his clan keeps getting pwned, his Hala keep dying, yeah, he's a real "healer."

Velana is a complete B----, she couldn't protect her sister, and was exiled for being "too violent." Not healer.

Marithari loses people to corruption, injury, etc... Her Hala all died off, somehow I don't think she's a "healer".

Did you play the Dalish Origin? It was only Marithari's exceptional healing skills that kept the taint in check long enough for you to be able to join the Wardens.

[naughty99]

IMO it would disrupt the game balance to give Merril healing spells.

She already has access to all the offensive Primal and Elemental CCC spells, as well as hex of torment and she is a blood mage.

I like the fact that in the current setup, all companions have some drawbacks. This makes it a bit more challenging to decide which companions you will bring along. In other words, the current setup feels balanced.

Modifié par naughty99, 06 avril 2011 - 07:29 .

[Zhijn]

sean-camel wrote...

Link, please - I couldn't find it on nexus.

There you go, have fun!:
http://dragonagenexu...ile.php?id=2158

Modifié par Zhijn, 06 avril 2011 - 07:46 .

[SuicidalBaby]

sean-camel wrote...

SuicidialBaby wrote...
creation on Merrill is available by mod

Link, please - I couldn't find it on nexus.

no idea, im ps3. i do know of its existence. - edit: ty zhijn


btw potions drop automatically when you fall under a threshold, which is different for each difficulty. (nightmare being 4.)

Modifié par SuicidialBaby, 06 avril 2011 - 07:50 .

[Killjoy Cutter]

naughty99 wrote...

IMO it would disrupt the game balance to give Merril healing spells.

She already has access to all the offensive Primal and Elemental CCC spells, as well as hex of torment and she is a blood mage.

I like the fact that in the current setup, all companions have some drawbacks. This makes it a bit more challenging to decide which companions you will bring along. In other words, the current setup feels balanced.

What does "game balance" have to do with a single-player game? 

[Waltzingbear]

Killjoy Cutter wrote...

What does "game balance" have to do with a single-player game? 

A lot. One of the defining things of a game is that it has rules and limitations. This is what creates complexity and challenge. If you could as a player in a game do anything that possibly come up to your mind it just wouldn't be very interesting; there would be nothing to think about or any strategies to apply.

[Forst1999]

A single player game doesn't have to be perfectly balanced, not every player class has to be equally powerful. But some balance is needed, so that companions don't get obsolete compared to others. Anders as fragile damage dealer alternating with healer vs. Merrill as indestructable Nuker is a nice choice.

[Killjoy Cutter]

Waltzingbear wrote...

Killjoy Cutter wrote...

What does "game balance" have to do with a single-player game? 

A lot. One of the defining things of a game is that it has rules and limitations. This is what creates complexity and challenge. If you could as a player in a game do anything that possibly come up to your mind it just wouldn't be very interesting; there would be nothing to think about or any strategies to apply.

That's between me and myself when playing a game where there are no other players. 

The rules are there for fairness to other players, that's all.  It's impossible to cheat when there is no one else involved in the game.

[SuicidalBaby]

replay ability drops to 0 with out balance. Without it the game falls to only storyline to be judged....lol Leaving you with 30+ hrs of no challenge, making the option of yardwork more appealing.

Modifié par SuicidialBaby, 06 avril 2011 - 09:27 .

[Killjoy Cutter]

SuicidialBaby wrote...

replay ability drops to 0 with out balance

Depends on the value that replay has for that particular player. 

In a single-player game, being able to tweak the game, change the balance, make different combinations and setups feasible adds replay value, at least from where I sit.

[Waltzingbear]

And that is why you have the ability to tweak the game with mods and such. Naughty said that [from a development point of view] Merrill has her own unique strengths and giving her access to healing spells would create imbalance; and I agree with that.

That doesn't mean that it's wrong or hurtful in any way of you to change the game mechanics to your liking

Modifié par Waltzingbear, 06 avril 2011 - 09:36 .

[skyrend]

Waltzingbear wrote...

And that is why you have the ability to tweak the game with mods and such. Naughty said that [from a development point of view] Merrill has her own unique strengths and giving her access to healing spells would create imbalance; and I agree with that.

That doesn't mean that it's wrong or hurtful in any way of you to change the game mechanics to your liking

You're right.  Didn't realize there was a mod out for this considering the lack of a proper tool set and all.

Modifié par skyrend, 07 avril 2011 - 01:51 .

[Gnoster]

naughty99 wrote...

IMO it would disrupt the game balance to give Merril healing spells.

I agree that Merril as a companion would feel overpowered with healing as well. My problem is that the only healer in the game is then Anders (not counting the player character being as healer here). This annoys me, not because I dislike his character story (hate him, but not his story), but because I would like to play a couple of times with someone else in my party.

My point is that every other class can be replaced.
You have 3 rogues, who can easily replace each other. Sure ok, only 1 melee rogue, but still.
You have 2 warriors (Aveline and Fenris), and Fenris can be specced for tanking.
With mages you have Merril and Anders. Anders can easily be specced to be at least just as good a dps'er as Merril thanks to Vengeance, but Merril can't be specced to replace Anders as a healer.

This means that if you play as a rogue or warrior, you are confined to either using Anders as a healer or take the chance to go through Hard-/Nightmare mode without  healer, which is very difficult for most people to do.

It just seems odd that you haven't got a second option for healing. For me it is not a question of game balance, because Merril would be overpowered as a healer, and it's not a question on Lore (if Keepers are all healers), I think some are and some are not. For me it is purely a question of me being forced to either use Anders as a healer or play the game at normal mode. The first removes some interesting party combinations, and the second is extremely dull because all fights are too easy.

[Waltzingbear]

While I agree that the lack of another companion with any healing capabilities is a bit confining, heck it's very confining! I want to be able to run with other companions as well, it is not impossible to build a party without Anders even on Nightmare difficulty.
At the last part of the game I killed Anders- the most valuable party member I had and was forced to use Merrill instead without any healing done at all. I used all of my healing potions in the Orsino encounter and I had to do a bit of fighting before I was able to restock which forced me to play exactly that- minimal party damage with no ability to rectify critical mistakes.
Merrill definitely bring her own set of tools- high survivability, no shortage of resources for spell casting and specialization options that allow a good variety of debuffing, damage and crowd control spells.
If Anders complements the party by buffing and healing, Merril has the same effect only in reverse on the enemies- debuffs, crowd-control and strong offense.

That is not the problem of the game nor why it is so hard to build a party without healing at all.

In Origins I was able to build a party without any healing spell use at all. Even when I was using Wynne which had the healing spells I did not use them and balanced the party around other aspects. I was able to strategize and play in a way that almost never brought me to a critical state of health; and even then using a potion once in a while is nothing bad.

This, however, is not true in Dragon Age 2. There are situations in the game where damage is just inevitable or only avoidable by kiting or micro-managing for a long long time.

It is not a bad game design to have only one companion who is able to heal. As many have said before, each companion has its own strengths including Merrill.
It is a balancing issue and a flaw to create situations that can not be solved using other companions' strengths; for example having two Rage Demons and a hell lot of other Shades in one battle.

I've said this before and I'll repeat it here. The classes, specialization trees and abilities are well designed and balanced. In that respect I can admit that they are somewhat an improvement from Origins and more fun to play.
What brings the entire combat experience down is bad level, combat flow, enemies and their abilities, and some special effects (kncokbacks) design which just produces very cheap ways of offering challenges, and forces you to use tactics that require a great deal but almost zero real strategic depth.

Blame the encounters' design not the companions' design.