I have a Female two handed Templar Hawke.
I am playing a no mage party (Fenris Aveline & Varrick) on hard and we are in Act 2 (level 14) about to choose my second specialty - looking for advice - suggestions - pros & cons?
You can see some details of the party and it's progress in another thread here:
http://social.biowar...2836/1#13559531
TIA
Two handed Templar Hawke - Beserker or Reaver - pros & cons?
Débuté par
wanderon
, août 07 2012 08:47
Retour en haut
#2
Posté 08 août 2012 - 03:33
mr_afk
-
- Members
- 1 605 messages
I assume you just want advice on which spec to choose? Not on your party setup?
For your second spec, it depends on whether you prefer auto-attacking or spamming abilities/having sustains.
Berserker increases your base damage based on your stamina and gives the ability to increase your attack-speed by 50%. Keeping a high stamina level is important with this spec, so having sustains or using too many abilities won't be very ideal. But if you intend on auto-hacking your way through enemies with the occasional ability, berserker will be useful.
Reaver increases damage based on how injured you are as well as granting a passive that increases attack speed by 30% (after you kill an enemy). Stamina isn't as important for this spec which allows you to load up on sustains and dish out loads of spike damage with abilities. Reaver provides a large damage boost while near-dead, so if you're willing and able to run around without much health, reaver will probably provide a larger damage boost.
Personally I prefer reaver since it allows a better crit-build, but berserker isn't too bad for a 2Her.
For your second spec, it depends on whether you prefer auto-attacking or spamming abilities/having sustains.
Berserker increases your base damage based on your stamina and gives the ability to increase your attack-speed by 50%. Keeping a high stamina level is important with this spec, so having sustains or using too many abilities won't be very ideal. But if you intend on auto-hacking your way through enemies with the occasional ability, berserker will be useful.
Reaver increases damage based on how injured you are as well as granting a passive that increases attack speed by 30% (after you kill an enemy). Stamina isn't as important for this spec which allows you to load up on sustains and dish out loads of spike damage with abilities. Reaver provides a large damage boost while near-dead, so if you're willing and able to run around without much health, reaver will probably provide a larger damage boost.
Personally I prefer reaver since it allows a better crit-build, but berserker isn't too bad for a 2Her.
Modifié par mr_afk, 08 août 2012 - 03:34 .
#3
Posté 08 août 2012 - 02:18
wanderon
-
- Members
- 624 messages
mr_afk wrote...
I assume you just want advice on which spec to choose? Not on your party setup?
For your second spec, it depends on whether you prefer auto-attacking or spamming abilities/having sustains.
Berserker increases your base damage based on your stamina and gives the ability to increase your attack-speed by 50%. Keeping a high stamina level is important with this spec, so having sustains or using too many abilities won't be very ideal. But if you intend on auto-hacking your way through enemies with the occasional ability, berserker will be useful.
Reaver increases damage based on how injured you are as well as granting a passive that increases attack speed by 30% (after you kill an enemy). Stamina isn't as important for this spec which allows you to load up on sustains and dish out loads of spike damage with abilities. Reaver provides a large damage boost while near-dead, so if you're willing and able to run around without much health, reaver will probably provide a larger damage boost.
Personally I prefer reaver since it allows a better crit-build, but berserker isn't too bad for a 2Her.
Thanks for the reply - I did in fact decide to go with reaver for essentially the reasons you stated - playing a templar in a no mage party I didn't think I wanted to restrict my use of abilities in order to maintain stamina at a level that would be useful to the beserker.
I skimmed over your all melee link as well - interesting stuff - i just finished the game (for the first time) with a DW Hawke a week or so ago with a fairly standard party - I've muddled about in Act 1 & 2 with quite a few characters some of which were lost in a HD crash some just abandoned after leaving them sit too long to even recall what I was doing with them (RP wise).
If I don't have my fill of DA2 for a while once my current "no mage" party is done I may look into an all melee run or maybe an all mage group.
#4
Posté 08 août 2012 - 07:37
mr_afk
-
- Members
- 1 605 messages
Yeah, I never really liked having to rely on berserk too much. It does allow for the maximum base damage though, which is why I sometimes ended up using it. But the pure strength reaver templar is pretty solid and much more fun. The crit-reaver was even better pre-patch, before they nerfed blood frenzy apart. Ah well.
Anyway, my all-melee guide isn't that relevant for you I think. Besides been a DW guide, it also is mainly focused on dealing with the friendly-fire issues in nightmare. In your case, since you're playing on hard, you can get away with using abilities without killing every other party member.
I personally would go with a two S&S, two rogues setup for an all-melee party on hard - that way you can maximise your CCCs and damage.
Basically you should either use threat management (high dps or threat abilities) to cluster enemies around S&S hawke/Aveline, get varric to use a (upgraded) fatiguing fog and confusion on the clustered enemies, then pump out assault and scatter CCCs for massive damage.
Fenris is mostly useless in such a setup, and you'll probably be better served with Isabela, using lacerate to dish out double damage to enemies, ideally elite enemies shield bashed or pommel struck by hawke/aveline.
But I suppose you're not missing out on too much if you're intent on keeping Fenris for his anti-mage ideals. It's just probably better to go S&S then 2H unless you really like swinging around massive weapons.
I don't think you can actually do an all mage group (unless you can mod bethany into the game?). But three mages + Varric is a pretty standard nightmare setup which works really well with force mages. Just grab enemies, stick a grav ring on them, then drop triple firestorms on them haha.
Anyway, my all-melee guide isn't that relevant for you I think. Besides been a DW guide, it also is mainly focused on dealing with the friendly-fire issues in nightmare. In your case, since you're playing on hard, you can get away with using abilities without killing every other party member.
I personally would go with a two S&S, two rogues setup for an all-melee party on hard - that way you can maximise your CCCs and damage.
Basically you should either use threat management (high dps or threat abilities) to cluster enemies around S&S hawke/Aveline, get varric to use a (upgraded) fatiguing fog and confusion on the clustered enemies, then pump out assault and scatter CCCs for massive damage.
Fenris is mostly useless in such a setup, and you'll probably be better served with Isabela, using lacerate to dish out double damage to enemies, ideally elite enemies shield bashed or pommel struck by hawke/aveline.
But I suppose you're not missing out on too much if you're intent on keeping Fenris for his anti-mage ideals. It's just probably better to go S&S then 2H unless you really like swinging around massive weapons.
I don't think you can actually do an all mage group (unless you can mod bethany into the game?). But three mages + Varric is a pretty standard nightmare setup which works really well with force mages. Just grab enemies, stick a grav ring on them, then drop triple firestorms on them haha.
