49 réponses à ce sujet

[Murrdox]

I'm getting sick and tired of this.

Every enemy spellcaster I'm running into spams this idiotic red vortex of death ability.  I call it the "Red Vortex of Death" because bascially as soon as I see it, my entire party dies.  I'm playing on "Hard".

I expect "Hard" to be Hard, and I'm fine with that.  But whatever this spell is is just annoying to the point of stupid.  As soon as I see it on the battlefield, it's too late.  Whatever party members are in the middle of it are dead, no matter if they're my full health tank or my weak mage.  Because party members don't MOVE if they're in the middle of an animation, they will freely continue casting whatever spell they were in the middle of while their health merrily drains away at light-speed.

The game gives me no feedback at all, so I don't know what this spell is, what kind of damage it is, and how to protect against it.

I'm so pissed off at this freaking spell.  I had to re-load the fight against the Desire Demon in Sabastian's end quest 5-6 times becuase the demon just kept getting the spell off, no matter how many times I threw stunning spells her way.  She'd invariably catch 1-2 party members in the AOE, and then it's all over.

AFTER finally finishing that fight I do a silly side quest to kill a few Elven Mages and they ALL spam it.  After 6 MORE times reloading my game I decided that this wasn't worth my time, turned the difficulty to "Casual" and muredered them.

So before I just uninstall the game over this, someone please enlighten me.  Searching the forum on this hasn't yeilded me any results.  WHAT is this stupid spell, and WHAT kind of damage does it do so I can load up on resistances to it.

The fact that it's a damage over time AOE effect that drains my party members so fast it might as well be instant-death is just beyond annoying.  I'd be LESS annoyed if I had time to run my party members out of the AOE... but like I said.  Because of animations, that is frequently impossible.

[Murrdox]

Oh yeah this ability is probably my second-favorite next to fighting battles against 2-3 assassins who can vanish at will and basically insta-kill whichever of my party members they want except the tank with a backstab which I can't do anything at all about.

Lots of fun that one.

[Irish Porkchopp]

It annoys me as well. In dimly lit areas it's hard to even see where it is (like Sebastians side quest) My solution to this was concentrate fire on mages as first priority. They also telegraph when they are casting spells. They have a long animation before it is cast- they sort of float, and curl up in the air. This can be interupted with a powerful attack like mighty blow or a spell like petrify. But you have to be watching for it. In fact, upgraded petrify works great on these enemies and many more- like assassins

I'm not sure what kind of damage it is...maybe spirit?  Magic resistance might help too.

Hope that helps.

Edit:  What kind of character are you using, and who is in your party?  Maybe someone has advice that could help along those lines as well.

Modifié par Irish Porkchopp, 14 avril 2011 - 02:07 .

[bunnies]

it seems to be the same ability as your blood mage can do... upgraded to paralyze.
i try running out of it while its in the middle of spawning, when its brownish yellow . also spread your party out.

[naughty99]

As soon as you see an enemy mage is not hiding in his bubble, either retreat far away or use spells and talents that can interrupt or paralyze the mage.

(Mighty Blow, Scythe, Petrify, Stonefist, Glyph of Paralysis, Pommel Strike, Kickback, Punishing Lance, Gravitic Ring, etc.)

Modifié par naughty99, 14 avril 2011 - 02:14 .

[gingerbill]

i agree those things are annoying , especially assasins.

I find however as long as you see the mages/assasins its not too bad . Dont get me wrong its a bit silly sometimes but i've worked out how to deal with it now. Assasins have far too much health in my opinion , and i dont like the mages invulnerabilty shield and teleport , both very cheap tactics.

assasins - Just move your squishy characters away from them when they go invisible , they then attack your tank . And i get my whole party to stack them asap , and use CC spells like horror and petrify if theres more than 1. Soon as they go invisible i move my characters away.

mages - i find them alot easier than assasins as they die alot quicker but still can kill me when they spawn in and i dont notice them . I just CC them instantly , its easy to do one CC after another , im sure every party can do at least 3 in a row and they dead by then.

Modifié par gingerbill, 14 avril 2011 - 02:20 .

[sestrensaz]

Pretty sure it is a blood mage ability and so there is probably no resistance you can build against it.

I understand your frustration, however.  I have been caught out a few times by it; it's pretty ridiculous that I can fight a couple 'trash mob' mages on Hard mode using this ability and die 5 times in a row, but can beat the final boss first time without a single death in my party.

It's a very imbalanced ability indeed.  I genuinely wonder if making them so leathal was a narrative device, to smack you over the head constantly with the notion that blood mages are ridiculously over powered and dangerous.... or it's simply bad enemy design.

Best advice is to watch for the casting animation, blood mages tend to float in the air before they cast, so if you see one of those buggers doing that then you need to CC them ASAP.

Modifié par sestrensaz, 14 avril 2011 - 02:49 .

[RubiconI7]

Standard procedure of seeing ANY mage is stun-lock and concentrate dps, interrupts and CCCs.

The blood mages' ability, is, I believe, Grave Robber. I never used the ability myself for my mage so I cannot really enlighten you on the damage it deals. I know the quest you are talking about though, I had a good laugh about it as the only one left in my party was Fenris and still managed to kill the elven blood mages. I assume you play PC since you said you can uninstall, you should really try to utilize the pausing and look for and concentrate on the mages indefinitely.

[SuicidalBaby]

They cast both enemy versions of Grave Robber (upgraded) & Hemorrage (upgraded). All of which can be interrupted. Dispel will interrupt as well as remove Blood Magic sustained ability from them, forcing them to recast Blood Magic before casting either offensive spell again.

[Roxlimn]

Wow. I didn't know they could do that! So that's what desire demons do. Eh.

In my Mage playthrough, Merrills targeted it with Petrify/Dessicate while Mage Hawke used Master-level Winter's Blast on the Harimann Mage. Then Sebastian speared them both through with Archer's Lance. I believe the Desire Demon survived the Lance, but not for very long.

In my Rogue playthrough, Dessicate followed by Assassinate killed the demon before it did anything.

In my Warrior playthrough, I bashed the Mage, Pummeled the Demon, then Chain Reaction, then Dessicate/Blast with the usual Archer's Lance.

All of those were layered with Tempest/Firestorm. I get ansty around Mages, so I have a bad habit of abusing no-FF mechanics on Hard. I just cast Firestorm and Tempest right on top of the party and force the Shades to walk through killzones just to hit anything.

Protecting your party with Tempest/Firestorm is also a pretty good way to ward off Assassins. Most of the time.

[Crocodiles]

Lady Harimann is the blood mage, she casts the grave robber spell, the desire demon is a commander, they have a swirl buff which heals their allies.

[iTIMMEH]

Yeah this ability is ridiculous. Fighting that stupid elf near Merrill's home was a joke. In a couple of seconds he had 3 or 4 of the vortex type type things active plus his aura and playing on hard it was killing people in 1-2 seconds.

[brazen_nl]

I don't get it. It's a mage, it's squishy. Just interrupt it and kill it. The assassins are much harder since lots of times, right when you cast, they stealth, and you've got a spell on cooldown. Then, when you finally get him you have a major health bar to battle and potions. In contrast, the squishy mage just dies.

[Darqion]

When not meta gaming like crazy a mage could surprise you and catch half your party in 1 cast. I think thats the biggest problem. Have fun "just killing" a mage when your dps is paralyzed

[Roxlimn]

Shouldn't be a problem. A Brittle-Shattering Blow combo should kill a mage on Hard just as well as a Brittle-Archer's Lance combo. Actually, a Stagger-CR combo ought to work as well. Mages don't have the best HP pool.

[Khayness]

The Saarebas are more fun.

[tanarri23]

Oh yes. Huon in particular was very, very bad.

It helps to spec one character for one-hit-slaughter by maxing out their crit chance and damage (full dual-wielding/assassination rogue Hawke is best, Isabela second-best). Keep a paranoid eye out for mages (especially blood, as the red vortex of wipe is exclusive to them) and assassins and set that character on them the moment you spot them. It helps even more if the character can sneak up on the mage and slaughter them before they've spotted you.

Modifié par tanarri23, 14 avril 2011 - 08:23 .

[Running_Blind]

Until I learned to love dispel, I hated the Blood Mage's self targeting spell, the one that does loads of damage and heals them up.

Aren't enemy blood magic spells elemental? I know the player ones aren't, but I remember late game my warrior could just ignore those spells, he had low MR and DR, but all of his ER were maxed out.

[Knal1991]

that spell is lore wise correct though, blood mages being dangerous and all... crappy thing is is that you aren't nearly as powerfull... Just take out the spell caster as soon as possibly I guess... try to disable them with a spell of your choice and caste Haste (If you have it)

[brazen_nl]

Meta gaming ... is that what happens if you die and you go from a reload, thus knowing what exactly it is you are facing? o.O

[Knal1991]

Somewhat I guess, it's planning your playthrough before playing it as far as I know...

[Morocius]

Well atleast those guys are dangerous as opposed to the mages that mostly just forcefield themselves, or the commanders with their i'm trying to outheal your damage ability.

[Murrdox]

I guess I have to keep a closer eye on the animations the mages are doing, and time my disruption abilities better against this. I was hoping this was a Nature or Spirit damage spell which I could use some Runes or something to protect against.

However, I think you're right, it's a Blood Magic spell, so that's out.

Still, even though I'm on "Hard" I don't think this spell should suck the life out of you nearly as fast as it does. If my Tank is in the middle of it and happens to be in the middle of an attack animation, there's no way he can finish that animation AND walk out of the vortex before he dies.

My party setup for those interested was Hawke Mage, Sabastian, Anders, and Fenris.

[Morocius]

The best defense is offense when dealing with them, or petrify/horror i suppose.

Your tank can try to charge another enemy to get out asap, other back ups are barrier and heal and pots if you don't get stun/knockback or knockdown locked. Don't know if items could give immunity against the effect it causes.

[Apathy1989]

Blood mages have 2 powerful skills.

Grave Robber - This is a red swirl around the mage, suck up health from nearby enemies and friends. Its mildly funny when they kill their friends with it, but since there is a huge different between NPC and player HP, the ability is far more deadly when NPCs use it.

Haemorrhage - This is red swirls around the place that will paralyse your people. Less damage than grave robber from npcs, but your people can get paralysed there.

Either make sure you spread out your people since these are AoE ability, or make sure you have enough skills such as knockdowns, petrify and horror to suitably disable the casters until they are dead.