32 réponses à ce sujet

[wanderon]

Ok I just finished a mostly non-mage game (Two hand warrior Hawke with Fenris, Aveline, & Varrick most of the time) and now I'm starting a mostly mage group.

Tentative plans are for Male Mage Hawke to romance Izzie and work with brother Carver when he's available and when he's not to go with a 3 mage/rogue set up (usually Izzie).

I'm thinking SH/FM for Hawke and expect to play on Hard setting.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as always...

[CuriousArtemis]

Might have more luck discussing this in the "Characters, class, and Builds" forum 

[Renmiri1]

I usually work 3 mage / rogue or me as tank , 2 mages and rogue. FM is OP You don't need SH with Anders on the party but is handy to have an extra ressurect. You will save a lot of gold not needing potions and Mythals

[wanderon]

motomotogirl wrote...

Might have more luck discussing this in the "Characters, class, and Builds" forum 

Actually I chose this forum becuase I am more interested in discussing how I might want to interact with and utilize my companions than in how I should spec my Hawke...

[wanderon]

Renmiri1 wrote...

I usually work 3 mage / rogue or me as tank , 2 mages and rogue. FM is OP You don't need SH with Anders on the party but is handy to have an extra ressurect. You will save a lot of gold not needing potions and Mythals

I chose SH for two reasons -

1) becuase it can give me a better healer than Anders and/or one to replace him if/when he is gone...

 2) becuase I didn't want to go BM which only leaves SH/FM...

[CuriousArtemis]

wanderon wrote...

Actually I chose this forum becuase I am more interested in discussing how I might want to interact with and utilize my companions than in how I should spec my Hawke...

Oh I see  Well, not too much to say about that; you'll have no problem keeping Isabela after Act 2 since you're romancing her.  I really enjoy her banters with Merrill, too; they're adorable.

Anders is pretty hard on Merrill, though not as mean to her as Fenris.

That group should get along pretty well.  You biggest dilemma will be deciding who gets which staff 

[berelinde]

Yeah, but there are so many staves in the game, he'll have plenty of choices.

Make sure you don't neglect Isabela's constitution score. Yeah, you'll want to stack her dex, but she has a tendency to die when used as a tank.

[wanderon]

I'm probably going to have to read up on suggested builds for Izzy - I haven't fooled much with her but the few times I did she had a tendency to put a serious dent in our injury kit supply - maybe she just liked the taste...

Meanwhile the party has run through the "fast money" start guide and recruited both Anders and Merril and everyone is on the low end of level 8 ATM as we putter around raising cash for our great Deep Roads adventure.

I think I have Carvers quests done for now so the last few quests have been with the 3 mage/rogue group and I have to say they have been pretty easy so far - enough so that I am becoming tempted to try nightmare instead of hard .

I have never played on nightmare but from what I have gathered just from general posts about it I suspect the biggest issue I will have to deal with is freindly fire - so perhaps having two SH in the group will be a plus!

I'm going to try it for a while today and if it turns things into a reload fest I'll just back down to hard...

[wanderon]

Well I went to Nightmare just as we met up with Isabel - the first few battles as we took on her quest were a little more difficult - mostly adjusting to the freindly fire aspect and trying not to nuke the party to oblivion along with the enemy but we managed to get through them without a reload.

Getting the Viscounts wandering son back was another thing entirely...

First time out we made through the first two waves but died near the end of the third and perhaps if we had remembered to stock up on health potions before setting out (we had 5 or 6 each of health & lyrium potions) we might have made it through.

Second time we didn't make it past the second wave...

Third time I turned it down to hard and we wiped them out without a single death in the party...

I'm going to crank it back up to Nightmare and carry on in that manner - if the first two trys don't work it's back to hard and move on...

Think I'm going to respec Isabel as well and we will plan to stick with her, Anders & Merrill until we head to the deep roads when I want Carver along to develop his stuff so it will have to be Carver, Anders & Varrick.

[Renmiri1]

Carver and Isabella have some fun dialog. Make sure you take Carver along when you are in town for potions and such, he has fun dialogs with Fenris, Anders, Merril ,.. Him and Fenris and Anders are my favorite banter pairing.
Anders: You got a chip on your shoulder
Carver: I've got a big blade on my shoulder magey!
Anders: Right.. one wonders what you are compensating for

Modifié par Renmiri1, 20 août 2012 - 07:05 .

[wanderon]

Renmiri1 wrote...

Carver and Isabella have some fun dialog. Make sure you take Carver along when you are in town for potions and such, he has fun dialogs with Fenris, Anders, Merril ,.. Him and Fenris and Anders are my favorite banter pairing.
Anders: You got a chip on your shoulder
Carver: I've got a big blade on my shoulder magey!
Anders: Right.. one wonders what you are compensating for

Good idea there is a lot of wandering around in town in Act 1 anyway and several places where you can switch your party out without heading back to Gamlens! I took Carver Anders and Isabel as we cleaned up the Enemy Within and I'll probably grab Fenris tomorrow.

I'm starting to get the hang of the Nightmare - it definately calls for some changes in battle plans but I've only had to go back to hard for one other battle so far and managed to get through all but that one without a reload - (I think)

I actually like the concept of freindly fire since it never made much sense to me that your mage could drop a fireball in a crowd and only the bad guys got burnt - unless of course the good guys have some protection .

Speaking of protection I'm thinking it will get a little easier  to do some more nuking when I can drop some elemental protection on the party when they get some armor upgrades in Act 2.

The enemy immunities are a pain in the patootie we need a wagon full of different staves & weapons to drag along and a quartermaster that will look over the battlefield and remember to check the enemy list before he issues the weapon of the day ( while the referee keeps order during the time out <pause>)

[wanderon]

Well Nightmare has been a struggle more often than not but when I have reloaded a battle a couple of times and then turn it back down to Hard it's really too easy so once we move on I suck it up & turn it back up again until the next reload fest. 

I think I made it through most of today without backing down but some of the finishes were pretty ugly - the starkhaven mage cavern was down to only a near death Isabel left with 2 undead types left to kill (an archer and a melee) - she ran upstairs into the chest room and dropped a firebomb on them as they came through the door and then stealthed so they went away until her health potion cool down was finally over and she was able to finish them off with a bit more kiting...

We just entered the deep roads and the only reason a lone Anders was able to finish off that monstrous spider in the pit was because he had wedged himself in between one of the chests and the wall (getting out of the way of one of Hawkes fireballs) and apparently the spider could not turn around to attack him and just sat there so he just spammed attacks up it's big hairy butt until it died...ugly but I wasn't going to reload and do it again just to be fair to the spider... 

Anders saved the day again just now as the last man standing with a low health arcane horror and two half healthy darkspawn left with some hit and run tactics and some potion & firebomb help- (thank the maker neither darkspawn was an archer or it would have been reload time) .

I did a respec on Hawke earlier today and gave him a bunch of FM stuff then decided that was too much like cheating and reloaded his old normal self again and just muddled on with his willy nilly build as is - a little fire & ice - a pinch of healing - a dash or two of spirit and a wagonload of potions and off we go again - seriously I took Dougals offer and still only went into the deep roads with 20 gold in my purse after funding our potion wagon through Act 1...

This is almost as exciting as my old BG "no reload" games - well except for the reloading...

[Renmiri1]

Awesome news ^^

You taking Carver ? His character really shines as a Warden later, on the DLCs and the ending. 

Modifié par Renmiri1, 23 août 2012 - 04:00 .

[AbsoluteApril]

wanderon wrote...
ugly but I wasn't going to reload and do it again just to be fair to the spider... 

an accidental opportunity to get the upper hand in battle is never a bad thing

[wanderon]

Renmiri1 wrote...

Awesome news ^^

You taking Carver ? His character really shines as a Warden later, on the DLCs and the ending. 

I am - I did Carvers quests in Act 1 and took him along at times for banter around town and it's Carver, Anders, and Isabela with me in the deep roads altho I am a bit concerned about what will happen when I lose Carver to the joining - will that be at the end of the deep roads or will I get to replace him with someone else or will I have to finish the deep roads with a party of 3?

[Renmiri1]

He only succumbs to the taint at the end, when you are going back to the surface. Is a nice set of scenes with you, Anders and the gang looking for Wardens (no combat) and some additional talk. You never get to fight short handed. Then you get to Act 2 and you can get Aveline or Fenris to tank

[wanderon]

Renmiri1 wrote...

He only succumbs to the taint at the end, when you are going back to the surface. Is a nice set of scenes with you, Anders and the gang looking for Wardens (no combat) and some additional talk. You never get to fight short handed. Then you get to Act 2 and you can get Aveline or Fenris to tank

That'll work fine then altho once I get back I'll go back to my Merry Mage Mob (Hawke, Anders & Merrill) with Isabela for locks & traps and romance  - we don't need no stinking tanks...

Well actually we will probably take the tanks along from time to time just to do their personal quests but mostly we will work our magey magic...

[Dwarva]

Every time I see the title of this thread I think it says Mage Hawke and his Merry Flash Mob.


I'm tempted to write a fic just to get the damn image out my head. xD

[wanderon]

Isabela has done most of the flashing for the mob so far...

[Renmiri1]

rofl..

How goes the playthrough ?

[wanderon]

Renmiri1 wrote...

rofl..

How goes the playthrough ?

On hold until Sunday - I work 33+ hours between 3pm Thurs and 10pm Sat

[esper]

wanderon wrote...

Renmiri1 wrote...

He only succumbs to the taint at the end, when you are going back to the surface. Is a nice set of scenes with you, Anders and the gang looking for Wardens (no combat) and some additional talk. You never get to fight short handed. Then you get to Act 2 and you can get Aveline or Fenris to tank

That'll work fine then altho once I get back I'll go back to my Merry Mage Mob (Hawke, Anders & Merrill) with Isabela for locks & traps and romance  - we don't need no stinking tanks...

Well actually we will probably take the tanks along from time to time just to do their personal quests but mostly we will work our magey magic...

This should work fine, my canon Hawke (points to avatar) goes mostly Hawke (Blood mage support)/Anders/Merrill and then I tend to have varric and sebastian most in the team. My blood mage and Merrill can do all the tanking necessary. If I can do it with an all ranged you can do it certainly with an Isabella.

The other gets to come around mostly for friendship/rivalry points, sometimes, but mostly not.

[wanderon]

Well the deep roads continues to be challenging and mostly interesting on nightmare - we got past the ogre without a reload in spite of  losing all but Hawke to some freindly fire near the start  thanks to some creative kiting around some pillars and some help from dog.

The dragon required 2 or maybe 3 reloads and a considerable amount of cussing as the damn thing was just a frogs hair from death each time when he took out the final survivor - in hindsight perhaps I should have given either Hawke and/or Anders thier dead raising skills before we entered here .

Took a single reload for the first shade battle after Bartrand shut the door and we have just encountered our first profanes without incident -
 
I may not have the patience to reload the final rock wraith battle if needed without turning down the difficulty as it's one of my two least favorite/most annoying finals in the game - even on hard I usually end up reloading and dropping it to normal -

[esper]

Personally I think the hunger demon was worse, but perhaps that is because I tend to rely on spirit damage... Shades = doom.

But yeah, the revial skill would really help... Please tell me that you at the very least have group heal?

Be prepared for kiting the rock wraith, espically keep and eye out for when it rolls... Mages can die by being rolled over by a giant turning rock.

[wanderon]

esper wrote...

Personally I think the hunger demon was worse, but perhaps that is because I tend to rely on spirit damage... Shades = doom.

But yeah, the revial skill would really help... Please tell me that you at the very least have group heal?

Be prepared for kiting the rock wraith, espically keep and eye out for when it rolls... Mages can die by being rolled over by a giant turning rock.

Nope no group heal yet - the group has been relying on potions (elfroot, restoration & health) and the single target heal spell (Anders & Hawke) altho I did just take the first level of revival on Hawke now that we are out of the deep roads and moving forward in Act 2.

My premonition was correct after a breif unsuccessful attempt at the rock wraith on nightmare I turned the difficulty down to hard and when that failed as well at the last minute turned it down to casual and moved on - 
 
I suspect with enough reloads I might have finished it on nightmare and I'm sure I could on hard but I just could not be bothered -

<insert rant> I really dislike it when the devs pull stuff like the rock wraith and Legacy final where all of a sudden the bad guy is immune to everything and you have to go hide or take out some minions or yada yada yada before you can go back and attack the real boss again - it just feels so fake -

Throw as many minions/traps/etc as you want but let the player have the option of attacking anything that's in front of him and don't suspend all the rules that you have played with all game just becuase it's a boss fight...<end rant>

Meanwhile Carver is now a Grey Warden and we are back to our Merry Mage Mob of Hawke, Anders & Merrill with Isabela on point () and as she gains levels she has become a bit more hardy and mostly we are progressing fairly well on Nightmare with the occasional set-back or two.

Re: difficulty levels is there anywhere you can see exactly what changes between Hard & Nightmare - a list of the game mechanics that are added or subtracted or go into effect differently?

I reloaded the bounty hunter cavern in Act 2 (Search & Rescue from the mage underground) a half dozen times or more and could not get more than one of the two assasins nor the commander down before we all went down - yet reloading on hard we wiped the floor with them in a couple minutes without losing a single team member - I am certain that this is not just from FF and immunites/resistances but can't find any specifics anywhere on what else changes. (Google turned up a few documents but none were very specific at all - mostly conversational descriptions from reviews)

Speaking of that fight -what category on the elemental immunity/resistance list do those bounty hunters fall under? 

IIRC we are currently level 14 and we are about to let Isabela take a day off while we do Sebastions quest - that should be interesting on nightmare...