Testing:
After finishing the campaign on Nightmare with my 2H warrior, someone asked me about my build and so here I share. It's not as difficult as people seem to make it out as. I went without anyone dying but this is my second playthrough, (my first was on Normal).
Party setup:
-Alistair (tank: templar/champion)
-PC (2h: berserker/templar)
-Leliana (archer: bard/ranger)
-Wynne (healer)
So the main question people seem to ask is if they should go 2h or dw. I don't know much about dw but I hear it is ludicrous dps, something the 2h isn't (at least, compared to other damage builds). It's a different playstyle, I guess, I didn't play a dw rogue because I really don't want to wear the ridiculous looking light armor. It's okay on Leliana but er, well I guess it's just not my taste. I require massive plate. In my head.
What 2h excels at is being an off tank. With Indomitable, you will not get knocked down. With massive armor, this makes you the ideal candidate to "pull" mobs because you won't get knocked down from fireballs and is safe enough to be able to take a lot of hits.
You should get 2h sweep as soon as possible because it will be important when the mobs are catching up to your healing or when your weaker party members need a taunt that Alistair doesn't have the stamina/health for. The soonest you get this talent is level 10.
Same goes for Indomitable. Also, Sunder Arms is a very big deal starting out. You won't have haste so you'll be relying on Mighty Blow, Sunder Arms and Critical Strike to reset your swing timer. Sunder Arms hits twice but doesn't force a critical and also provides a melee debuff.
As for my party selection... a lot of people seem to like having Morigan instead of Wynne which I can see as doable, but she starts off sans spirit healer and with a bunch of different things. Also, she's a cold, ...
What I was going for is a party where I can run into a room without having to pause too much and only issue commands to the PC. I wanted the fight to be automatic and it's worked out well for me. You have to set up your tactics pretty well but later in the game, I only pause on very difficult fights (vs Ser Cauthrien) or when there are mages present.
I had Alistair and the PC both be templars because I megaloathe mages (unless I'm playing them). Crushing prison on the PC or Alistair used to hurt like nothing else until I got cleansing aura. And even then, cleansing aura will knock off haste so it is still annoying. Basically when the fight starts, I pause and plan where Alistair will tank one side of the room and I will go on the other side.
Leliana is pretty crucial even though I didn't really plan her to be. She started off as extra dps and support (bard song and extra tank from ranger). I had her tactis set to kill whoever is lowest on health. With a 2h, especially before I got haste, one swing would take a mob down to 1/8th their health and I can move on to the next mob and Leliana wuld finish whoever off.
Alistair I had to be aggressive dps who taunts whenever a mob is attacking Leliana (this tactic doesn't work too much as it doesnt check range of the mob against current position).
The key to beating nightmare without having ridiculous cc with mages is pulling. Take the fight with ser Cauthrien for example (or a lot of the fights in the prison of that dungeon). It will take basically all of the party to take her down, you can't be messing with the an additional 10 scattershot spamming archers and 1 mage. I had my party run to the next room where only two guards chased us. After killing them, I had my party wait while my PC run to let Cauthrien see me and chase me. Only an additional two guards came and we killed them too before focusing Cauthrien down.
By the way, I hate her, I had such high hopes for her when I saw she was actually hesitant in retreating but then she called me a churl FFtactics style, so obviously I will never let her live.
Anyway, you do have CC with this group. Alistair has single target knockdown from shield tree. Holy Smite seems to knock a lot of people down but I reserve that for mages. I had Alistair have full champion so he can aoe knockdown as well for emergency heals. I had 2h sweep, pommel strike and the rare 2h stun. The 2h stun seems to be automatic with Mighty blow and Critical Strike but it doesn't happen too much with white hits.
Wynne had the repulsion and paralysis glyph though I think I only used it once vs a certain general in a certain alienage.
Lastly, I want to mention how simple 2h is. Really, all you have to do is pump strength. I think I had a constitution of 20 but that's not really necessary. As for gear, I used 2H Starfang (I also used Yusaris for a time) and Warden Commander's armor. Both of these by the way, is something you can get right out of Lothering. If you don't have DLC, you should use Wades Superior Dragonbone Plate (wade says dragonbone funny) and I guess Yusaris or Ageless?
Also, the fights are pretty simple. Pause at the start of battle, have Alistair tank one side (the more crowded side) while you run off to either kill archers or the mages before rejoining the group. If you think it's going to be rough, throw lifeward and regen before running in. If you think you won't make it to the mages/archers before dying, then you should pull the mobs into a different room. That way, you can funnel them into a very small botttleneck (doorway) and also not have to run the gauntlet to the squishy archer/mages in the back. Other than dealing with mages and archers, I don't think you'll need to pause too much as long as you have your tactics set right.
Oh and one last thing, the most difficult part of this game on Nightmare is pre-Lothering as you basically have no healer and limited amount of healing items. Remember to collect ALL elfroots and poultices that you come across (there's enough in the beginning area to get you to Lothering, but you will have to conserve).
After this, you should definitely making the Dalish quest a priority because you get unlimited Elfroots there. By the way, I never bothered with crafting anything higher than the first tier potions until the end when I crafted the second tier and bought the rest. Lesser Lyrium potions are very important for Wynne and they are unlimited and cheap from the Circle tower.
So, there it is, my rambling on about nightmare mode with 2h. I figured there's not a lot of talk about it as most people seem to go mages or dw so I hope someone finds it at somewhat amusing.
Someone told me that 3 mages and a tank is the way to go but that's not my style. Also, that someone looked like Sten. Sten is creepy.
Hooray.
Also, that Hespith girl is creepy. Also, Loghain is cool. Though not as cool as Duncan.
Also, if you don't take the purple pills, do not take the red and the blue pills together. Not the same thing. I am hungry.
Modifié par sils621, 29 novembre 2009 - 04:59 .
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