This was copy pasted from word...sorry if structure may seem a bit weird.
This guide assumes that you’re familiar with the game already, as you must be to unlock the arcane warrior
(AW) specialization. A lot of guides that I’ve seen seem to lack that
special something concerning strategy that I discovered as I played my
AW. My favorite part of this build is definitely the versatility and the
tactics that are required to master it, especially maintaining
threat and keeping your party alive. A well-played AW is truly a sight
to behold and an absolute monster.
This guide is meant for a Nightmare play through, PATCH 1.04) of a sword and shield ( in my opinion the most fun
variant) of DAO. My party was my AW, Leliana, Wynne and my mabari Big Johnson. This
guide also assumes you ditch Alistair as soon as you hit level 7. Sorry
in advance for any misspellings, but youll get the idea. Pay special attention to the Tips/Playthrough/Items ( covers items and quests) and Tactics sections as they are awesome.
Any questions or suggestions are welcome through private message or
postings. In addition I know pretty much everything about DAO so feel
free to ask off topic stuff also. I will try to refrain from using WOW
terms.
If you copy this without giving me proper credit I will sue you
-Aurust
Mechanics
An AW is a mage that is able to use their magic stat as their strength
stat and thus equip heavy armor and melee, generally acting as a tank.
They could also be a heavily armored spell caster but is silly to do so
as your fatigue will be through the roof with heavy armor on. At lvl 12
you will really feel the power of the AW, especially since you’ve
followed this guide and know how to play one. ** Special AW casting
mechanics are in the spells section**
Strengths – You become an indestructible tank with awesome and most importantly very fun utility
such as dropping crushing prisons, force fields, glyphs, heals. Real
good stuff. The real fun compared to a Warrior tank is that it is not a simple get stats to not die and just hit taunt.
Weaknesses – Initially very low attack rating that will make you want to bash your
head into a wall. Initially terrible threat that improves over time BUT REQUIRES TACTICS using your spells endgame to keep your threat high, and party alive. You do not have a taunt so a big part will be
knowing when to use what spells. The problem is your fatigue due to
armor and combat magic ability ( +50%) will limit how often you can cast
the big spells. This is greatly mitigated by using tactics and
strategy. You will also learn to despise abilities that lower your armor
such as shattering shot, which is probably the one of the very few
situations in which you will be roflstomped. Additionally very low
physical resistance unless using shimmering shield which you get much
later.
Finally spells that get through, and overwhelm type
abilities will really hurt because of your low physical resist and
health pool.
**http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Threat** Threat mechanics from dragon age wiki. VERY important read.
Skills
Nothing too hard to figure out here, but of note….
Coercion - You will want four points here eventually, but at least 3 points by
the time you do Orzammar in order to do the super duper lucrative quest
“Precious Metals” ( dragon age wiki it to find out how to do it
properly…be sure to pickpocket the NPC first with Leliana)
Combat Training - You will also want four points in here eventually since you
receive mana regeneration as well as minor attack bonuses ( a huge
weakness for AW)
Poison - I suggest getting one point in here,
specifically to use Acid Flasks as a great way to deal damage and gain
threat. You will need two points to craft them, but you can leave that
to another companion. KEEP AND SAVE ALL YOUR LIFE STONES.
Stealing – You will want one point in here to unlock the “Crime Wave” quests in
Denerim. I suggest you use a Tome of Skill and Sundry for this, and use
it before you go to Redcliffe and initiate the Landsmeet.
Stats
NOTE** These level 12 stats I’m mentioning are INCLUDING the bonuses from the fade.
Strength – No points in here since your AW abilities allow you to use magic as your strength requirement
Dexterity – One of the harder decisions to make since being able to hit things is problematic for an AW
initially. This is an incredibly frustrating thing to watch as you miss a bandit 5 times in a row. You will want to pump 2 levels into this fairly early on, either 2 in a row on your first major area (post redcliffe) or 1
level in the first area and another in the second****More on this
later, but YOU WILL WANT TO DO Redcliffe> Urn or Circle > Urn or
Circle. Combined with other abilities and sitting at 21 base dex at
level 12, I was very very comfortable with my hit rate. Bonuses from the
rest of the AW abilities will further boost your attack.
Willpower – You will want to pump a few points into this here and there early on.
I was at 22 willpower by level 12, and by that point was very
comfortable with my mana pool and ability to use spells. ***VERY VERY
IMPORTANT*** Stamina is the same as mana for an AW, that is a shield
with +25 stamina will give you 25 mana, and + stam regen items will
regen your mana.
Cunning – You will want 16 cunning eventually. The fade section of the circle tower give you + 5 so take that into
account.
Magic – Your main stat. Increases the amount of damage you do in melee, the
amount of damage you do with spells, your spells ability to not be
resisted. Pump it hard and pump it fast.
Constitution – Initially, AW are vulnerable to non-melee attacks such as spells and
especially overwhelm. Pump some points into it early. I was at 15 points
by level 12.
Specialization
Arcane Warrior – Obviously….get each ability in this as soon as it is
available and UNDERSTAND what they do. Notice however the much higher
level requirement for these abilities compared to other specializations.
Two abilities are passive, the other two are……..
Combat Magic- This is the ability that allows you to use your magic score are
your strength score for determining damage and basically allows you to
melee. Passively it allows you to wear armor even if it is not active.
It adds 50% fatigue on top of the fatigue from your armor however, so
after its popped your spell casting becomes severely limited ( right
equipment setup will mitigate this later on), especially early in the
game. By no means have this ability active before a fight. You will
generally unload your spells then use this along with your other
sustainables.
Shimmering Shield- Pretty much makes you invulnerable to everything at the cost of rapid
mana consumption (mitigated by having mana/stam regen items, and abilities
like song of valor and rejuvenation). Once your mana reaches zero, this
spell deactivates ( your other sustainables will still be up). This is
one of those spells you use here and there when you know you will need
massive magic or physical resist such as fighting dragons or Kangaxx errrr…… Gaxxkang ( These damn demi-liches are hard to keep track off).
Your second specialization will be either spirit healer or blood mage. I
very much prefer spirit healer because being able to cast group heal as a
tank is an absolute delight every time.
Spirit Healer – I just get this specialization for Group Heal only which is so incredibly
awesome to use on Nightmare especially if you have another on your main
mage. Revival and Lifeward are far too expensive to use as an AW, and
Cleansing Aura is terrible.
Blood Mage – Works well with an AW since you will be using health to cast your spells. BUUUUUT, you will
not have a lot of health, and as I mentioned, I was very comfortable
with my ability to cast spells at level 12. The REAL reason to get this
specialization is Blood Wound, basically an area crushing prison, and
an awesome threat generator ( aggro for those that play wow)which is a
major problem of AW. Two things however which prevent me from getting
this specialization and lean toward spirit healer is that you won’t have
Blood Wound until level 16 at the very least , and that it is extremely
fun and satisfying to use the tools you already have to generate
threat, save party members etc. If you go blood mage route you will need
to pump constitution a bit more.
Spells
I will only be describing the spells ( not what they do exactly as you
should have a general idea, but why they are useful for an AW) I believe
are necessary or have some notable utility. If the spell isn’t listed
here you probably shouldn’t get it. I will not waste my time talking
about other spells such as other guides that seem to find some silly use
somewhere. These spells get the job done for your AW. Eventually when
you have left over points feel free to spend them anywhere you want, as
by that point you will know how to play an AW and generally know what to
do.
YOU WILL HAVE IMMENSE FATIGUE DUE TO COMBAT MAGIC ( + 50%)
in addition to your armor, so it is essential to know when to use what
spells, especially during the early stages of the game. On nightmare,
early on a single miscast spell will result in a wipe.
Some spells can be cast with your weapon out, while others require your weapon/shield to be sheathed. That is if
you are in combat and want to cast a mindblast for example, your char will
tuck away his weapons, cast the spell, and take out the weapons again.
This process takes about a little over 1.5 seconds. Other spells such as
Arcane Bolt are cast right away.
This can be worked around if you either pause or in real time, swap weapons to a staff, cast the
spell and swap back. The swapping action is instant and can be used in
combat. I personally prefer to not swap and just cast with my weapons as
I feel it is a more “Arcane Warriorery ?” thing to do. DO NOT LET THE
SHEATHING ACTION stop you however from choosing to use the spells. If
your good at playing your AW the sheathing of your weapon should be a
minor concern.
http://dragonage.wik...or_spellcasting lists all the spells and whether or not they require your weapon to be sheathed.
Sustainable spells such as Rock Armor, Arcane shield etc. are the bread and butter
of this build and are what make a well played AW indestructible.
Generally, you will dump your spells until you are out mana, then pop
your combat magic and other sustained spells as they don’t require you
having mana to activate them. READ THE TACTICS SECTION ON HOW TO USE
YOUR SPELLS. Essentially, you will want to have a lot of control type
abilities to save your party members from doods that you just couldn’t
get threat on ( it will happen quite often).
**After the spell descriptions, there is a discussion of when to get what**
Spells that can be used with your weapon out are denoted by an asterisk ( * )
Mage Tree
Arcane Bolt* - Cheap spell that does a decent amount of damage. Useful to tag
enemies from a distance. Also a prereq for Arcane Shield.
Arcane Shield* - Buffs your defense, get this ASAP.
Arcane Mastery (Passive) - 5 spellpower bonus. This is good but not worth the useless staff focus
to aim for early in the game. Maybe something you want endgame.
Primal Spells
Rock Armor* - Buffs your armor, get this ASAP.
Fireball – Requires your weapons to be sheathed. Can be used as an opener to
gain threat on a large group and makes a very loud boom. Additionally
lets you tag those groups of pesky archers from a distance, which
is very preferable to moving towards them and meleeing them due to the way
threat mechanics work. I really like this spell on my AW, plus what mage
worth his salt doesn’t have fireball. Flaming weapons are also a decent
prereq.
Flaming Weapons* - You get this if you plan on using
fireball. The most damaging of the weapon enhancements, and a nice
little option that’s available if you need more melee damage should the
case arise.
Petrify* - Another paralyze type ability, not too bad
but not worth the two extra points. Get this if you have spare points
endgame. Pales in comparison to Glyph of Paralysis.
Creation Spells
Heal* - Get this ASAP. Due to the way AW plays, when you pop all of your
sustainables and are running on empty this spell will often be
available. ALL MAGES SHOULD HAVE THIS.
Glyph of Paralysis* - Words cannot describe ( except now I guess) how useful this spell is to
an AW. Get it ASAP. Use it to shut down a dangerous mob, shut down a
mob that broke free and is hacking away at your party, or set it up with
a repulsion glyph combo for an aoe paralyze that is far superior to
Mass Paralysis spell.
Glyph of Repulsion* - Another super awesome
spell for an AW. Get it ASAP. First, you can use it to setup an aoe
combo with glyph of paralysis ( Drop repulsion glyph then paralysis on
top of it). This combo has friendly fire so don’t use it near your
party. Generally use it as a trap ahead of time, or especially on ranged
attackers during combat to shut them all down with Glyph of Paralysis
combo. Additionally, use it when your vulnerable party members are
being attacked and watch the hilarity ensue as monsters keep trying to
attack them, get flung back and keep trying to attack them like a fly
trying to fly through a glass window. Don’t drop this on yourself, since
you wont be able to actually hit the enemies. Finally, the repulsion
effect is a physical resistance check VERSUS your spell power, which you
should have tons of. Very effective.
Glyph of Warding* - Super Awesome. Get ASAP. GREATLY increases defense rating of you and your
companions. Drop it on you self if you’re getting pounded or drop it on
a ranged friendly if a bomb broke away from you and you can’t get it back effectively.
Spirit Spells
Dispel Magic* - I suggest getting this on another mage. If you don’t have this spell, prepare to
learn to effectively take out emissaries very fast or eat crushing prisons, curses
of mortality and stinging swarms. Don’t forget about misdirection hex as that
will make you cry quite often as well. Note, that these spells usually get
dropped on you, so you can have shimmering shield on in advance and heal
through a crushing prison/ take greatly reduced damage from the curse. If your
melee companions get tagged with curse though they’re as good as dead.
Mana Drain*- A cute little utility spell. Costs zero mana and will get you
enough mana back to cast a heal or another glyph. With a 10s cooldown,
you can use it repeatedly if your initial plans to take out the casters
failed and the fight becomes a drawn out one. I like this spell because
it adds flavor and the Magic: The Gathering card from legends expansion
was also boss ( They were man o’ wars not jellyfish amirite).
Mana Clash* - Pretty much one shots casters, but imo not worth the 2 points
required before hand to get it. You have more effective ways of dealing
with casters.
Walking Bomb/ Virulent *- A bit too unwieldy for my
tastes to use effectively, and will damage you also, but they do draw a
lot of threat. I personally don’t use them but you can….not a priority
by any means.
Mind Blast – This required your weapons to be sheathed, but don’t let that stop you. Especially early game, when a ton of melee for example are about to rush you and pwn your face, you can
stun them giving you enough time to set your defenses up. ** NOTE –
Mind Blast resets the NON DISTANCE threat on those effected. What this
means is you can mind blast, tell your companions to run away during the
stun and if done correctly all the mobs will come out of stun attacking
you assuming you’re the closest one. Generally depending on what
priorities you’re going for ( more on spell acquisition priority after
these descriptions) you may or may not want to take this early.
Force Field* - Awesome spell that shuts down a target. You can target a
friendly member and the AI wont register that their attacks are not
working. I generally dislike AI exploiting so I don’t use it as such.
However, use this spell to shut down an attacker that is harassing a
squishy, or shutdown any other dangerous NPC. It is rarely resisted and
works on all enemies. On nightmare however, bosses stay in it for about 2
seconds. Im pretty sure that every mage should have this spell however. Get ASAP
Crushing Prison* - Im sure you are all familiar with this spell. Like force
field except it deals damage and the mob can be attacked at the same
time. Use this the same way you would use a forcefield. The damage
being dealt will also draw a lot of threat. I generally use this on a
non-elite to outright kill them, or on an elite when it is obvious I
will not draw threat on them. Not as effective on elites on Nightmare as
they generally survive even if your party members are also attacking them, and will then proceed to pwn your other companions. Get ASAP.
Entropy Spells
Miasma* - One of your bread and butter spells and a definite priority. Get ASAP
and probably your top priority especially since the two spells before
it a very good also. DRAWS AOE ( area) THREAT, Reduces enemy attack,
but far more importantly reduces their defense thus making up for the AW
weakness of weak attack score. Also slows enemies down. Annoying 30s
cooldown and has a bug where it deactivates during area transitions. As
the AW play style generally involves dumping your initial spells, then
activating your sustainables, deactivating and reactivating this one with its 30s cooldown isn’t really an option. When your dungeon crawling and facing fight after fight just keep this one up all the time.
Weakness* - A great little cheap spell that you will get on your way to Miasma.
Does the same effect as Miasma to a single target AND STACKS with
Miasma. Works very well on bosses. Use it to help out your allies or
yourself. Works great on hard hitting two handed wielding NPCS
especially with Miasma up also.
Paralyze – Requires Weapons to be sheathed. Inferior to glyph of paralysis, but another paralyze effect
is good to have. Use this as you would the other spells described ( save a buddy, control etc.)
Spell Acquisition Priority
Before hitting level 7 and getting your AW skill ( Combat Magic), you must
decide what type of spells you will have available once you start
tanking and where to take your AW from there. You will want Heal as your
first spell taken, and Rock Armor + Arcane Shield taken by level 6 the
latest. Then you will need to decide what path to take, and there are 4
of them the way I see it. You will either aim to get the three glyphs,
max out the crushing prison tree, go for miasma, or take the initial
useful spells of each of the previously mentioned trees. I suggest
taking a tree and just going for it, and choosing which one depends on
how active you want to be with your casts. Early on, the glyph tree has
the cheapest spells and is probably the most active use of the three.
The Miasma chain is probably the most effective and will save you tons
of headaches with threat management, but you will be pretty limited
early on with your casting because of having Miasma on most of the time (
30 s cooldown and area transition bug) as opposed to other sustainables
which you activate when your mana is nearly empty. The crushing prison
tree gives you forcefield and crushing prison which is um….good, but
prison will be very mana consuming in
the initial stages. Party composition also plays a role, most notable in that initially your melee
companion will be drawing threat from being in close proximity. You
will want to maybe get glyph of warding or miasma. You can use
the hold command function to let you work your thing but I hate using it on a
consistent basis as it slows the game down too much and tends to be
glitchy.
Once you reach your “goal” spell, filling out the other
two spell trees is your next set of priorities. After that point, you
should start picking up some of the other spells I mentioned in the
previous section such as fireball or mana
drain. Then you will have free reign to build and add flavor to your AW as you see fit, as at that
point, especially if you used the right items, casting spells and
having the mana to do so shouldn’t be an issue. This is when you
pick up stuff like curse of mortality and such.
Tactics
So how does an AW actually function. I think the best way to go about this
is to go through several scenarios to paint the clearest picture. The
most important thing to keep in mind is that once you pop Combat Magic
your spell casting options are severely, to say the least, limited
especially early game. As mention before however, proper equipment setup
will help out tremendously and I will go over that in the next section.
Using the hold command will greatly help with threat management
and set the situation up. I find however that it slows the game down
too much for my liking and seems to make your companions, ummm, not do
stuff when you really really want them to do it. These scenarios assume
you are not using the hold command at the onset
of the battle, and that it is relatively early in the game.
As the game progresses you will learn to build on the experiences you
gained. I generally prefer to keep rock armor on at all times as it will
allow you to survive the initial hits ( Arcane shield I found to be
less effective to keep on at all times as opposed to rock armor). Focus
fire by your other companions, in most cases on non elite targets, is
crucial so that they only pull one guy away from
you at a time. I had my tactics setup so that everyone would attack Leliana’s target. While
playing an AW may be sometimes frustrating initially, I guarantee that
is only because it is truly a difficult build to master compared to
others in the game. The first scenario should give you a good idea of
how to play and those that follow will be based of the tactics described
but switched accordingly depending on the type of enemies you face.
KEEP IN MIND THAT YOUR PHYSICAL RESISTANCE IS NON EXISTANT AND THAT
SHIELD BASHES ETC WILL HIT EVERYTIME.
Scenario 1 –
Your party consists of all ranged attackers (squishy) and yourself. Your
facing 5 melee with one of them being a heavy hitting two hander elite.
You should always be the one charging in ahead of your party as this will create distance threat especially if
you have Miasma, and will “stick” enemies to you more effectively. At
this point you wont have your defenses to full potential so an
unfortunate sunder armor from the elite will proceed to make you dead.
As we assume it is relatively early in the playthrough, you are able to
cast only a few spells before going into combat
magic. I would have my ranged attackers group fire on a single non elite preferably one that
escaped your initial threat. If there is another one breaking away, use
a paralyze type ability on it. When your ranged group kills,
the first one have them switch to the paralyzed mob.
Meanwhile you’re about bashed on by three to four NPCs especially the heavy
hitter. This is where you would use your first, I don’t want to die
spell on the elite such as weakness or glyph of warding. If you still
have a paralyze type spell available use ASAP on whatever else. Assume
you’re pretty much out of mana. At this point pop your Arcane Shield
FIRST followed by combat magic and proceed to melee the elite to hold
his threat. Most likely as you will often notice especially early on, is
that after you pop combat magic the two spells available are heal and
arcane bolt. This is where depending on the health status of your party
you must decide whether to drop a heal on someone or use that arcane
bolt to hit the elite ( and build more threat) because you will be
missing him with your melee attacks a lot. As fight progresses drop your
low cost spells as they become available ( high cost
spells at this point are out of the picture because of combat magic).
Your party should be picking off the non elites one by one, as they should have no problem dealing with a single guy at a time.
Scenario 2 –
Same party setup. This time you get ambushed by 4 shades out of the ground
from all the directions with one of them being elite. The elite pops out
next to you so his threat is focused on you. Note this surround ambush
is probably the most difficult scenario to deal with. The hardest scenario
I can think off is during the urn quest when you open one of the chests
and two elite ash wraiths and a single regular one come out.
Because of distance threat mechanics the shades will seem to run around at
random party members. Miasma would be a big help here but you can be
pretty sure most of the mobs will not go to you. In fact, it’s a good
start if only one of them decides to stick to you. It is crucial that
your party focuses down one of the non elites that is running rampant.
If the one mob you face pulled was the elite and is hitting you, you are
in a very solid position. Unless it’s a heavy hitting mob like a two
hander elite you can just take the hits from the elite and use your
control abilities to stop THE MOBS NOT BEING FOCUS FIRED ( in this case
if it was a heavy hitter you would probably want to weaken him first
before taking control of the others ). Now that you are low on mana, try
to fire off an arcane bolt to hopefully draw threat of one of the other
mobs or drop a last heal. Pop Arcane Shield, combat magic and start
fighting the elite. You do not want to run around with the elite hitting
on you without sufficient threat on him otherwise he may just pull off
and head for your squishies and pwn them. Hopefully, the first shade
that was focus fired is now dead. Tell your group to focus on another
one. Your job in this scenario can be summed as controlling the elite,
having one shade paralyzed, one is being focus fired on, as you attempt
to either regain control or out heal the damage from the loose one.
Later on in the game you will obviously have more
tools to paralyze/control more than one.
Scenario 3
Party has one melee. Same enemy type and tactics as the first two.
The difference here is that your melee companion will most likely pull on
or two guys because of distance threat. Not as big of a problem as they
have the armor to take some hits. The crucial thing here is what to do
next. Let’s assume, another non elite goes for your squishy ranged. In this
case you want to focus fire one of the non elite hitting your melee as
you paralyze the loose NPC. You would want to weaken an elite. In this
case the best option is to weaken the one hitting your melee
companion, or just drop a glyph of warding to help both of you out. Pop
combat magic and start meleeing the elite hitting your melee friend to
draw the NPC attention to you. If there is no elite hitting your melee
companion, have your party just focus fire the others attacking him as
you keep control of the elite, control of the loose NPC, and try to draw
attention of any others as you can.
You absolutely DO NOT WANT to have your melee run to the loose NPC as the ones currently engaged on
him will follow him and decide they want to switch to your squishies.
Scenario 4
Party has one melee. Now there is a mage.
This is where crushing prison does the trick, and why you want to have it (
and the reason of having that whole spell acquisition priority thing
going). Use it on the mage. If the mage is non elite have all your
companions focus fire it regardless of what is going on. An elite mage
will survive your prison, and there is no really set tactic here other
than trying to keep it paralyzed which it will probably resist. This
will become a survival fight, but the best idea here is to play
defensively and have your party do whatever they can to bring the mage
down while you try to keep your party alive with heals, glyphs, and
weakness spells. I found setting Wynn’s tactics to cast stone fist if
target is using magic attacks to be quite effective.
Scenario 5
Party setup irrelevant. You are facing a group of melee and a group of archers.
Run into the melee head first, and have your party start focusing on the
archers. Depending on the melee opponents your facing and whether or not
an enemy archer got a shattering shot off on you, you will want
to drop a glyph of warding on yourself. You DO NOT want those archers
aiming for your squishies, especially on nightmare and early on in the
game where you don’t really have the equipment for your companions to
take too many hits. This is where you would use the glyph paralyze combo
to stun all the archers, or if later in the game you have fireball
shoot one of towards the group so they attack you. If there are two
groups of archers wait for the fireball cooldown and shoot another at
the other group. Proceed as usual. If a melee breaks off paralyze it or
have the party switch to it once one archer is down and if not yet
engaging the archer have them focus fire the melee first.
Scenario 6
Party setup discussed below. You are facing a huge wolfpack or other physical resistance checks. ( Lothering)
Not having shimmering shield early on, or not having enough gold to slot
your weapon with good physical resistance runes will ensure you will be
overwhelmed multiple times, or eaten by a dragon. Combined with you low
health pool you will die very quckly
These are pretty much the basic scenarios you will face in the early part of the game. Later on as you face
more than one elite, double elite casters etc. you will have far more tools
at your disposal and the mana to use them for more control and survivability.
Tips/Playthrough/Items
Items
I DO NOT INCLUDE ITEMS FROM DLC AS THEY ARE VASTLY OVERPOWERED AND I
BELIEVE SHOULD NOT BE USED. They take away from the fun of the game and
were just meant to satisfy your pixel addiction . That is my opinion,
feel free to use them, but I will not include them in this guide.
The playthrough section will give a good idea of an efficient method of getting some of these things.
I will pretty much list the best items for each slot ( some honorable
mentions) and why. If you do not know how/are too lazy to acquire them
then you have a basic idea for the stats you are looking for. You always
have dragon age wiki for all your reference needs. Any missed useful items here are open for suggestions.
KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO EASILY PURCHASE ALL OF YOUR “DREAM
ITEMS” especially if you do the key quests described in the playthrough
section combined with general selling of items you find.
Weapon
The Spellweaver.
Quick Note, in Ostagar you can acquire a nice sword with + 2 attack, Ser Garlen’s Sword.
Another Quick note, you can go to Denerim right after Lothering and fight the
knight who challenges you to a duel. Defeat him and get a nice mace and
possibly some heavy plate armor.
Head
Three headpieces really stand out here. The earliest piece you will be able
to get is The Libertarian’s Cowl from the Circle of Magi Quest. No
fatigue, huge defense boost, and mana regeneration. Only downside is
no armor. The toss up for best helm I believe goes to Executioner’s Helm
for the huge stamina boost ( + stamina is + mana for an AW) which you
can get mid game or Corruption with a huge dex boost and high armor.
Corruption you get towards the very end so aim for Executioner’s helm
which can be a random drop or purchased from Cesar’s special stock for a low price.
Armor Set
The Reaper’s Vestments can be used here for the chest piece along with
gloves and boots of diligence, but I believe you should save your gold
for…..Evon the Great’s Mail. Obviously awesome stats BUT the key here is
that Evon’s can be replace for the chest piece of Wade’s Superior
Dragonscale Armor and you still get the set bonus, which coincidentally
is -20% fatigue. Yea, so being able to cast 20% more spells with huge
defensive bonuses is good.
Diligence armor set can be acquired very early and easily, has low fatigue and will serve you well until you
get Evon’s/Wade setup going. I would spend my first batch of gold on Evon’s Mail.
Shield
With + stamina = + mana for an AW. Eamon’s shield is by far the best choice
until the endgame when you get Duncan’s shield. Fade Wall is a nice
although rare option (rare drop from Kangaxx err Gaxxkang) but there is a
huge bug that makes + healing received stat useless and still broken as of patch 1.04. There is a mod to fix this but must be installed before you start your campaign.
Amulet
The Spellward is the clear winner here. The 30% spell resistance is huge
considering your low health pool will make you hate getting hit by
Winter’s Grasps or anything else for that matter. Apprentice’s Amulet or
Warden’s Oath is a solid choice until then. Midway you can acquire The Magister’s Shield.
Belt
Andruil’s Blessing is the best belt. +2 to all stats and the mana and stam regen
stack, oh and phys resist which is pretty much everything you need. Very
early game, buckle of the winds ( +3 defense) is your best bet.
Midgame, Belt of the Magister Lords ( + 3 spellpower) or Destructionist’s Belt (
+3 Spellpower, mana regen) will get the job done.
Rings
Key to the City ( + 2 to all stats) and the Lifegiver are the clear winners
here even despite the healing received bug on the Lifegiver. Ring of
the Warrior ( +2 strength, + 2 dex as strength does still increase your
attack) is also a nice option until you get the money for the Lifegiver. Everything else is meh.
Tips/Playthrough
I have no doubt that this path is the ideal early game choice to take. For reasons that will be clear.
At Ostagar make sure you get Ser Garlen’s Sword and the Thane Helmet from
the Korcari wilds. In Lothering make sure you do the bandits chantry
board quest and pick up the set of heavy chainmail armor. Now here is
where you must make the choice. Your best options are to first complete
Redcliff ( to get some levels so the others aren’t a complete pain) then Circle or Urn followed by the other, with the order having various benefits, then heading to Orzammar.
In RedCliff, after you defeat the possessed Bann Teegan, MAKE SURE YOU
KILL THE CHAMBERMAID in the side room with the possessed knight statues.
You will need the key he drops to unlock a door that Leliana will
probably not have the ability to pick. Also DO NOT KILL CONNOR, you
will want to go into the fade to get an extra spell point from the
demon.
You should head to Denerim to kill that knight that
challenges you to a duel to pick up a quick weapon. Now the decision to
either do the Urn first or Circle of Magi. Doing the Urn quest first
will let you get Armor of Diligence essentially right away, Ancient
Elven Gloves, followed by the Spellweaver Sword soon after.
Additionally, you will get the drakescales for rogue armor as well as
the Belt of the Magister Lords. Doing the Circle of Magi, will result in
you getting SEVEN levels of stats which will help immensely for your
attack rating http://dragonage.wik...nd_Fonts_(Fade), and the Libertarian’s Cowl, as well as a pretty sweet two hander Yusaris if
your using Sten in your group. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THE FIRST ENCHANTER ( or
don’t) so you don’t have to kill Lady Isolde to enter the fade to save
Connor.
Somewhere around here make sure you have activated
Leliana’s quest to get her the Tier 7 bow. Additionally, you should have
around three points of Coercion by now ( needed for the quest in
Orzammar).
This all comes together now when you enter the fade
to save Connor and get an extra spell point. You will then get a ton of
XP for healing the Arl and another spell point. Then you will use the
Chambermaid’s Key to unlock the room on the second floor of the castle
to get the awesome Eamon’s Shield. At this point you should have around
enough money to buy Evon’s Mail, which is now unlocked in Wade’s shop.
Keep in mind that creating the second set of drakeskin armor will close
the shop forever, so make sure u get Evon’s before your second set.
Additionally make sure you pay him 10 sovereigns when requesting to make the first
set so you can get the superior versions later.
This path will give you a great set of gear to start off your adventure.
Next head off to Orzammar and quickly pick up the awesome Key to the City
ring AND MAKE SURE YOU DO the Precious Metals quest CORRECTLY for a huge
amount of gold http://dragonage.wik...Precious_Metals ( Make sure to pickpocket the NPC beforehand ). When in the deep roads make sure you do the quest “Asunder” for an additional 25 gold.
Thanks for a Great Game BioWare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Modifié par Aurust, 25 juin 2011 - 10:58 .
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