33 réponses à ce sujet

[Aether99]

Ive heard nothing but praise for this ability but perhaps I made my AW in a way that it cant really use it?

I usually start a fight with nothing but miasma activated (its a long CD so I just have it on all the time) and start the fight with some crowd control measures.  Forcefield a mage in back (I dont use the threaten+forcefield strat), then paralyze another.  Mind blast the group near shale (by now there usually is), then set up my buffs.  Telekinetic weapons, combat magic.  If I think its gonna be a tough fight then arcane shield and rock armor.  Then Ill turn on the blood mage aura (magic/constitution build, no points in willpower).  and lay in.  However, This also means that shimmering shield lasts about 5 seconds in combat before I run out of mana nad it winks out.  

I would start a fight with it on, but It will run out even faster by the time I run thru forcefield, paralyze and maybe a mindblast.

Perhaps I just made the AW in such a way that it cant make good use of it /shrug

[Genraku]

Depends on your mana pool, and what role you're trying to use your mage in, it looks like he's on cc/support duty. does he have enough mana to maintain this? does your healer have a rejuvinate to toss on him? I believe this is one of the reasons some AWs grab Bm so they can tap into their hp when mana is low. That said,shimmering shield shield and stone armor really aren't necessary if your mage isn't taking damage, and having it on will deplete your mana (as well as limiting it if you don't have enough mana regen) It seems like you're using a lot of sustained abilities on your mage and that's gotta be murdering your mana pool, I'd advise spreading those around so that your mages actually have some mana to cast with, (I know spellmight/CM,weapon mod,raise dead,shimmering shield, will reduce my mage's mana pool by over half if I use them simultaniously)

This is my opinion anyway but I prefer to use shimmering shield as an "oh shi*" button along with force field. when something turns to look at my AW, I don't usually make AW tanks so if they have aggro its because Shale/allistair's taunt is on CD. But again, I am not running a CC build so to each their own. My 2 mage setup usually tends to have Wynne packing mass/single rejuvenate and vessel of the spirit for mana replenishment in a pinch, with a 2 forcefield capable mages to keep people alive when they get low. I only end up usign shimmering shield when there is a clear danger of my mage getting one shot before a forcefield or taunt can pull his ass out of the fire. the onyl other purpose I see for shimmering shield is to make an AW tank, which is another story.

[Ironhandx]

a BM/AW combo is so overpowered you can nearly solo the game with it, you could definitely duo it with the other toon just sitting there as your health/mana battery. If you could life tap shale, that would be the most awesome thing ever, put him in totem mode and go buck nasty.



The reason for this is that you're going to need to heal, and you need someone ELSE around that you can heal and then leach the health back from, or steal their health and then top them off again, either way, since health pots and heal won't work on you if you're planning on leaving blood magic up, which given your mana pool probably being @ 25% from sustained abilities.... is probably a good idea.

[Aether99]

well I dont run a typical team. I have Shale as the tank (already maxed out his tank line and the warrior talents that help with him tanking, so im putting points in his "totem" line to see what it does). Leliana using archery and specializing in ranger.



Wynne is my dedicated healer. I plan on getting her forcefield but I dont think I got it yet.



Then my charafcter. I only use arcane shield and rock armor if the fights looking to get tough. So typically Ill run around with just miasma on (because of the long CD) then when a fight starts I burn through my mana with hexes or paralyze/forcefield. Then I cast telekinetic weapons (I have wynne with flaming weapons on) and combat magic. At this point my mana max mana is at roughly 50% of what it would be without sustained abilities. If the fight gets tough or shale dies (happens so rarely) I throw on arcane shield and rock armor...which leaves me with a very small bit of mana. I feel as though maybe I shouldnt of gotten arcane shield and rock armor if I wanted to use shimmering shield. Or maybe ones good vs a melee tough fight and the other is good for a tough spell caster?



Was sorta hoping it would leech my health after it depleted my mana when I turn the BM aura on, but no luck.

[DrekorSilverfang]

Hmmm, it doesn't turn off when I run out of mana... either way you shouldn't be casting without BM up; If you went Magic/Con then you'll have a huge HP pool to cast from and with shimmering shield and typical AW setup you're incredibly durable. Worst case scenario just turn off BM and pop a healing poultice and turn BM back on when it cools down. Essentially your mana pool is only there to use sustained spells, use your HP pool to cast everything else.

[Aether99]

DrekorSilverfang wrote...

Hmmm, it doesn't turn off when I run out of mana... either way you shouldn't be casting without BM up; If you went Magic/Con then you'll have a huge HP pool to cast from and with shimmering shield and typical AW setup you're incredibly durable. Worst case scenario just turn off BM and pop a healing poultice and turn BM back on when it cools down. Essentially your mana pool is only there to use sustained spells, use your HP pool to cast everything else.

ya...turns off when I run out /shrug

But I usually use my mana pool for some openers to get some use out of it then I turn on my other buffs.  Ill turn on BM when a tough opponent shows up so I can cast my more powerful spells.  Death hex is expensive but awesome in a boss fight, as is misdirection hex.

[Zenthar Aseth]

You're playing on a console? On PC Shimmering Shield doesn't turn off when you run out of mana.

[themaxzero]

Hence why its balanced on console and 'OP' on PC.



Its bug that it does not turn off when you run out of mana. Once that bug is fixed we will see if AW is still as powerful as people claim.

[T0rin3]

I never used Shimmering Shield on my AW (because I assumed it would run me out of mana), and I think the Spec is OP as hell. You really don't need it at all, with all the magic resistance, defense, armor and physical evasion you get.

[alexandros777]

The thing that makes me curious is whether or not you can make the AW capable of damage dealing. It seems to me to be a tank more than anything.

[Aether99]

Ok to be fair I wanted to do AW/BM spec before the game had even come out. So it being overpowered isnt my fault, im just playing what I wanted to play.



Regardless of whether or not its overpowered, I dont see it as an excuse for building a poor spec for it. So saying "your so overpowered you dont need it" isnt a good enough reason for me.



My AW currently dualwields a unique dagger I got in the first town where you get leliana and sten, and a dragonbone axe with 3 different elemental runes on it. It does good damage when it hits. But its probably not as good as a warrior/rogue specced for dealing damage. I augment it with flaming weapons and telekinetic weapons. Essentially if shale dies, I can pop my other shields and tank. Though thats happened very rarely so far.

[Lord Phoebus]

I'm playing on the PC and my mana isn't draining when I use shimmering shield, I don't know if that's because I'm using the sword with mana regen some other amulet with the same and fade shroud.



It was fun tanking the High Dragon on Nightmare.

[Aether99]

hmm, drains on mine. I admit I have it on 360. If only because I dont have a good enough of a PC to play it.

[Kavva]

Damn it my whole build is broken due to the fix of shimmering shield in 1.02

Modifié par Kavva, 07 décembre 2009 - 08:19 .

[Ranik15]

Kavva wrote...

Damn it my whole build is broken due to the fix of shimmering shield in 1.02

If your build is broken because the ability that was broken got fixed, does that mean your build got 'fixed'?

[Matthew Young CT]

Looks like this was something they fixed for the 360 version.



And yeah no complaining that your build based on a bug got owned

[sinosleep]

It's fixed for the pc now as well with patch 1.02.

Many of the fixes affecting balance, gameplay, or plot scripting are already included in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Dragon Age: Origins.

Balance
o Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
o During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
o When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
o The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
o The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
o Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
o Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.
Gameplay
o In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
o Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
o In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
o The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
o The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
o The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.
Plot *Spoiler Warning*
o Promotional downloadable content items now remain in the player's inventory when standard items are removed at the end of the dwarf noble origin.
o Repeatedly talking to Duncan after gathering the vials in the Korcari Wilds but not the treaties no longer provides duplicate experience.
o Leliana's personal plot can now be completed if the player substantially increased her approval (through gifts) before talking to her.
o During the siege of Redcliffe, enemies are no longer able to spawn in locations that would break the plot.
o Bann Teagan no longer disappears when he is supposed to be accessible during Urn of Sacred Ashes.
PC Specific
o Controlling a summoned creature (like a ranger's pets) during certain special area transitions no longer results in odd behavior.
o Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs.
o In some cases, the class icon was set incorrectly for characters imported from the downloadable Character Creator. This no longer occurs.
o The options menu now includes a setting to automatically download previously purchased content that is not currently installed.
o After installing new downloadable content, the game now always reminds the user to restart the game.
o The icons for some promotional downloadable content items were missing. They now appear correctly.
o The screenshot upload GUI would stop working from time to time on the client. There was a memory override that was fixed. It is a client fix. It doesn't affect the other problems we have seen on the server.





For some damned reason the official bioware patches page hasn't updated yet, even though it's available on fileshack

http://www.fileshack...gins Patch 1.02

Modifié par sinosleep, 07 décembre 2009 - 08:35 .

[Kavva]

Ranik15 wrote...

Kavva wrote...

Damn it my whole build is broken due to the fix of shimmering shield in 1.02

If your build is broken because the ability that was broken got fixed, does that mean your build got 'fixed'?

Well technicaly yes... but my aim was to abuse the flaw in this skill :] (to build a char with no points in willpower and just focus on constitution as my mana pool for bm/aw spec and dex for melee atacks, kinda pointless to take a shimmering shild now with 0 mana build)

[Matthew Young CT]

The official page is fine....maybe something wonky with your browser's cache.

[sinosleep]

Matthew Young CT wrote...

The official page is fine....maybe something wonky with your browser's cache.

Crap you're right. Weird, firefox is usually pretty good about that since I have it set to kill my cache/history/etc every time I close the browser and I hadn't been by the offical page in weeks. Just opened it up in safari and it was updated, oh well.

[kasanza]

Well, shimmering shield depletes mana by 10/s. If you get enough mana regen, you can abate the effect. I'm not sure if you can negate it, I'm trying to find all mana regen I can. Maybe I will list them here to help out soon.

Andruil's Blessing: +1/s
Spellweaver: +2/s
Tevinter Mage Robes: +1/s
Libertarian Cowl: +0.5/s
Staff of the Magister Lords:+2/s (+4/s on PS3)

Well, Fade Shroud gives +1/s so I guess you can ofset SS by 5.5/s. Still quite expensive. The bonus is enough to ofset the mana drain from Spell Might wearing that gear without Fade Shroud.

Modifié par kasanza, 20 décembre 2009 - 06:04 .

[Relshar]

I have a AW build but without the Blood Mage spec.

My sustainables are

Arcane Shield

Combat Magic and Shimmering Shield

Telekinetic Weapons

Miasma



If there is an enemy mage I use Mana Clash this usualy kills an enemy mage outright. Or if its yellow/orange takes a huge chunk of health off it and alot of mana.



I think my mage has a full mana pool of 396 with all sustainables on it drops to 169. At level 18.



I have been through some fights now and my Shimmering shield has stayed up till the very end. Using Spellweaver and Wades Supiour Dragon Scale armour. I found the Stamina Gains from this armour equate to mana as well which gives me a huge pool to draw from.

[kasanza]

Yes, Relshar is right. With my mage, she keeps Shimmering Shield (SS) and Arcane Shield up always. I turn on Blood Magic (BM) when exploring and enter fights with Blood Wound. Turn off BM and then turn on Combat Magic (CM) if I feel I'm done casting. Sometimes I leave CM down and cast Death Hex/ Death Cloud for nice AOE. Many spells can be cast while your sword is drawn, but some will make you sheath it to cast.



A list of some sword-drawn castables:



Arcane Bolt; Arcane Shield; Mana Cleanse, Clash and Drain; Afliction and Misdirection Hex; Death Magic and Cloud; Curse of Mortality.



I've been soloing Brecillian Forest and only have trouble against creatures with powers that can't be resisted (Revanant Grasp, Ogre charge and grasp), but I still manage to beat them all without a team (actually easier without because you don't have to micro-manage three other characters). This build is somewhat boring since mostly you will board and sword enemies without much flourish. Hexes draw aggro if you want to tank with a party. This game is meant to be partied, since you get NPC reactions throughout. But if you really want to go it alone, you can. Just pick up arcane at level 7 and you'll be on your way.

[Zhu Neng]

With regeneration and high armour, you should be able to outlast most of the enemies without using shimmering shield. Fighting in corners in which the enemies can't surround you will help too as you will take on a few enemies at a time. It works in every battle, be it Revenants, Ogres, Bosses. A mage staff to keep firing while they hack away at you, not knowing that you are nearly indestructable. Or if you like, use a sword. You probably have to use a few potions along the way too. Even as a mage with shimmering shield activated, you probably will have to use potions too in certain battles not?

Modifié par Zhu Neng, 08 janvier 2010 - 02:44 .

[LightSabres]

The only spell my AW walks around with always on is Shimmering Sheild.

IT give +Armour
sets your Physical and Mental Resistances to 100
Sets ALL your resistances to 75%

Best defensive Mage spell in the game.

Modifié par LightSabres, 08 janvier 2010 - 04:47 .