I just wanted to say a few words having last night completed my first run-through of DAO.
This was my first-ever run at this type of game so I was a complete novice and just wanted to try it out. Played through on easy, just enjoying the story and experience. Very immersive and involving.
I had a lot of issues with crashes despite patches which was frustrating sometimes as it always happened in the midst of battles, forcing reloads and replays, but this didn't really spoil the game.
I was constantly worried that my inexperience would mean I wouldn't get through it all but I did it, albeit with a number of reloads in some battles. My pc mage was a lvl 20 at the end with other party chars at 19.
I spent 90-odd hours in total over a 3 month period but looking at the stats there was much more experience and equipment I could have gained. I did wardens keep and return to ostagar during main game too.
I used various chars and explored some of the personal quests of these and romances etc. The party I used most was my mage, alistair, morrigan and wynne, as this seemed to have most power. I relied on magic a great deal in battles, with tanks/warrior support at key times.
My combat improved as I went on - though your ability is very dependent on gaining experience and buying the (expensive and hard to acquire) weapons and armour, and this is a lesson for any future playthroughs.
I enjoyed all the main quests. I tried to develop a 'noble' main character, and some of the decisions were tricky at times, eg killing the child and loghain. I ended up doing morrigan's ritual and killing loghain and making anora queen.
I am no hard-core gamer but still really enjoyed this game and found the final onslaught and ending very powerful and cinematic on first playthrough.
Some fights I couldn't get through - revenant in the forest ruins with the skeletons (could have gone back after morrigan gained crushing prison and forcefield but didnt bother) and the one in denerim; gaxkang or whoever he was called; ser cauthrien the first time (slaughtered her the second); never fought high dragon; but generally I often found the tougher battles impossible at first but with a few retries I got through (you don't know until you try them what the specific conditions are going to be, and the forum advice/walkthrus are great but don;t always work exactly).
Hardest eventually winnable fights for me were -
abandoned building with blood mages: I went in too early; when I went back after levelling up, it was much easier;
fighting the back streets in denerim initially tough but soon got on top;
fighting the undead in redcliffe required a few reloads until I realised I needed the fire barrier and had to draw the enemy up the hill through it;
was worried about orzammar, but beat jarvia in 2 tries; a gang of darkspawn with the tough archer in deep roads required a few reloads; brood mother not too bad; it was a tough fight against the ghosts at the anvil place, a long dfraining fight; for the final boss in orzammar I was concerned, and branka was too much - I couldn't keep the golems away and branka was too tough and mobile and dangerous, so I switched to fight caradin and found him quite beatable;
flemeth absolutely torched us the first few times we tried, it seemed impossible; I went back after levelling up a lot, and eventually killed her by having alistair (wardens crossbow with ice bolts), leliana (spearthrower bow with ice arrows) and my mage (ranged magic) attacking from range while spread out, and having shale as a tank; I controlled shale, keeping shale moving as the dragon jumped and turned, and let the other three just keep attacking onm autopilot; agter a while, the dragon just went down; one of the great moments;
landsmeet was a bit of a pig with trying to escape from the fort a real pain, but I got out in the end with just me and alistair, once I worked out tactics;
fighting in the alienage warehouse was tough, needing a few reloads; caladrius was too much until I realised I had to move my party down off the balcony where they were sitting ducks;
final battles were great despite a lot of negative reviews I have read. denerim marketplace was not too bad; alienage was really hard, wityh a few retries needed, it seemed all about the timing (hitting the darkspawn with aoe spells while they were attacking the gates, trying to kill the ogre quickly, then running like hell back into alienage and letting reinforcements engage while my party stood back and dealt with what came thru; here I lost all the dwarves and then summoned redcliffe units who surrounded the general and kept him busy while we knocked him out (lost 2 party members);
fort drakon courtyard was one of the toughest battles; it was easy to destroy the nearer archers with blizzard, inferno, etc, but the emissaries and rangers on the stairs were brutal; dragons etc were not too hard if you were quick enought to hit them; quite a few reloads needed here, I got nearly there a few times but my last survivor always died, till in the end, in a desperate fight, it was Wynne believe it or not who got the last one while alistair was doing nothing way back in the yard! Elves helped here.
the area with the shades was hard because of the conjurer, he was hard to knock down; at 2nd attempt, with just wynne and alistair left, alistair chopped at him while wynne supported him and he finally went down! Here I finally began to believe I might actually get thru the game;
rest of the alphas and assassins etc were easy, thowing an aoe in in advance and hanging back really messed these up and making sure you didnt let the assasins get bnehind you was all you had to do to win easily;
the battle with the archdemon was epic; it didnlt look like I had enough power to beat it at first, as all thje darkspawn would come in and eventually my chars would get picked off and swarmed; three times I tried, and was pretty close in the 3rd attempt, getting closer each time; on the 4th try, I realised I had to get my party up off the lower level and onto the higher spots where the ballistas were; so right at the start I threw the party up to the nearest ballista, brought the templars in to attack the dragon, and shot it with ballista; when it moved we went to another ballista etc and did this after each ballista jammed (I have read that the ballistas only jam if you fire too quickly - you should leave 5 seconds between shots); being up there made it easier to deal with the darkspawn reinforcements, though it was still hard to fight the dragon AND the others. We had to move down in the end. When the templars were gone I fetched the elves who did a great job of ranging the dragon. My pc and morrigan died but wynne revived us. The battle continued with my party moving and fighting off darkspawn. I was pleased we were all still alive. The the dragon was back in the main area and low on health. We continued to attack it (mages from range; archers; and alistair running up to it and chopping at it). We dealt with the final adds that came in. The end was great, as alistair, my mage and wynne were all really low on mana/stamina (all lyrium used up), and only morrigan had a good mana level. AD was very low in health. I moved morrigan out away fro where the party was sheltering and had her attack the dragon while the elves shot at it. While she was getting hit with the blue flames, I had morrigan throw death cloud on the AD, and it was a great moment when it started to go down, and the battle ended with the coup de grace cut scene.
The epilogue left me wanting the story to go on.
Sorry for all this rambling, I am just debriefing and showing that even a novice got a lot out of the game; there were many frustrations at the difficulties, but I overcame these as I went on.
I'm going to miss it!
Retour en haut
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