152 réponses à ce sujet

[spiritage]

X) Arcane warrior blood mage

I'm kinda new at this, but I'll go straight at it :| Also, this build takes down "hard" boss fights

Talents

Get swarm, its extremely helpful. The very first arcane warrrior specialization allows magic to become str armor wise. You can get the rest, but thats all that you need. Get all blood mage specialzations

Gear

NO DLC -Tevinter mage robes, gotten from elven alienage plot quest
DLC- Blood dragon armor / wardens armor

harvest ring and surveyor are nice, you can replace surveyor though. Wardens oath for the constitution.

Stats

medium, pure magic conditionally

base str
base dex
15 willpower
base con
max magic
16 cun   <--- You need coercion

[xCobalt]

I disagree a lot with your AW/BM, assuming you're trying to make him a tank.

[termokanden]

Here's my idea of a pure caster build.

Spec.: Blood Mage/Spirit Healer

Race: Elf.

Stats:
Max magic.

Skills:
4 ranks of Coercion (you will need to visit the circle tower early to unlock these).
4 ranks of Combat Training.
Whatever you want for the rest. Survival is OK.

Talents:
Mages get so many points that you have a lot of freedom. These are recommendations that still leave some choices for personal preference (up to means up to and including below):

The fire line up to Fireball.
The cold line up to Cone of Cold.
The telekinesis line up to Crushing Prison.
The mana line up to Mana Clash.
The glyph line up to Glyph of Repulsion.
The hex line up to Affliction Hex.
The blood magic line up to Blood Wound.
The spirit healer line up to Group Heal.

I further recommend getting some AoE spells. A powerful combo is to grab Tempest and Blizzard (cast Blizzard, then Spell Might, then Tempest, be very far away ). But really, any of the massive AoEs work, particularly when you have Glyph of Repulsion.

Tactics:

Crowd control:
Quite simply, the key to survival is to keep everything controlled. Fireball and Blood Wound are great openers, whereas Cone of Cold is great when something gets a little too close. Force Field, Glyph of Paralysis and Crushing Prison are excellent single-target CC abilities.

Glyphs are also amazing at crowd control. A good tactic is to set up a Glyph of Repulsion in a choke point such as a doorway. Furthermore, it can be combined with Glyph of Paralysis for an AoE stun. Another tactic with Glyph of Repulsion is to cast it on yourself if you are surrounded.

AoE:
There are many good AoE spells in the game. But they are no good if enemies just run through them. Therefore, you should set up a Glyph of Repulsion first, or perhaps make sure you cast Blizzard as the first thing.

Virulent Walking Bomb is a criminally underrated AoE ability. It's great together with crowd control and does absolutely huge damage. Sometimes it may even be worth casting in the middle of your own group. If you can heal and they can't, you win.

Storm of the Century is incredibly powerful AoE. Preferably cast it at max range. Open with Blizzard to slow anything that notices you, then activate Spell Might and cast Tempest.

Singe target:
As an AoE/CC specialist, your single-target damage may seem somewhat lacking. For boss fights, I highly recommend using hexes to increase your damage, and you may also want to use AoE even in these fights.

Emergencies:
Group Heal is amazing for emergencies. If a character gets grabbed, or cursed with Curse of Mortality, or is otherwise subject to something incredibly damaging, Force Field that character. If you get too much aggro on a character, Force Field that character.

Dealing with mages:
In fights involving mages, Mana Clash should be either the first spell you cast, or it should follow immediately after some crowd control. Mana Clash should eliminate most mages immediately, even sometimes bosses.

Mana preservation:
You may think you'll run out of mana if you don't put points into willpower or constitution. However, you should always carry tons of mana poultices. They are cheap, and with max magic you get a lot out of them.

Other than that, the general strategy is to alternate between Blood Magic mode and normal mana usage. You will often be using Group Heal anyway, so why not refill some of that lost health in that way.

Modifié par termokanden, 03 janvier 2010 - 05:49 .

[dkjestrup]

I dunno about you, but on that mage, considering you only need 1 more talent for Glyph of Neutralization, why bother with Mana Clash? Sure, it's good, but you can just use the Glyph of Neutralization and then bomb the mage with you ranged attackers. Glyph of Neutralization can also dispel any bad status effects. 3 points into something else, like Miasma?



Also, whoever said they like 16 cunning. You get +5 cunning from the fade. So you only need 1 point in cunning to get a total of 16, unless you're a human, in which case, you don't need any!



I'll probably update this soon, just got back from a long holiday irl.

[Kelandria]

Thank you for your contribution to the Dragon Age: Origin community.  Your guide has been added to the "Guide Compilation for Dragon Age: Origins"

[l3uGsY]

VenomStriker wrote...

Decent guide imo, should be stickeed or something.


Maybe format it a little better though, like bold or underline/etc the headings and such to make it easier for folks to spot what they're looking for.

I agree better formating would be awsome.  Its also wise to seperate it into saved reply sections for linking and managing what in the end will be a very indepth guide.  Thats of the plan is to do all the classes and subclasses.  Click the above posters links for a perfect example


All and all awsome  handbook,  Great work

Modifié par l3uGsY, 09 janvier 2010 - 09:44 .

[cvaj12]

This is GOOD! Thank you for the upload!

[dkjestrup]

Thanks a lot, guys. I'm playing through as a Dalish Rogue Archer right now, so soon I'll have the Rogue builds done. For Mages, I'm going to just talk about some good spell synergy type things.



For example, get Glyph of Repulsion, Fireball, Virulent Walking Bomb, and Stinging Swarm. Cast a Glyph of Repulsion in the doorway, and all the enemies will gather there, trying to get to you. Then Glyph of Paralysis on top, for Paralysis Explosion. Then cast Virulent Walking Bomb and Stinging Swarm on one target, Walking Bomb on another. Then Grease + Fireball, to kill them. The enemies with Walking Bomb (or Virulent) will die, exploding. Stinging Swarm will jump to nearby targets, and everyone else will die from the Grease Fire + Bombs.



Also, as far as formatting, does this site just have regular BB code, using square brackets? I might look at that after I finish.



Again, thanks for kind comments.

[dkjestrup]

Okay, updated the formatting a little bit. That better? And can you change the size of fonts?

[auxleyleonard]

It is actually unwise to go for minimum str and full dex for tanks especially in hard/nightmare. Spell damage can rip you apart in 2 shots with base con, or even some lucky crits in hard/nightmare. It is also unlikely that everyone will buy Lifegiver. There is quite limited gold in this game, and good character builds should be practical without relying on expensive goods. And yeah, player should share those wonderful items among party members to bring out the best performance overall. The last thing is if you really want to go for full dex build, you should never consider anything as main weapon but dagger. Dagger will outperform any sword/mace/axe by far with this much dexterity.

[dkjestrup]

Sorry, but did you miss the whole Templar spec part? It costs about 25 or so gold for Knight Commanders Plate. Even without the Spellward, you will be able to get about 70% or so spell resistance. There is no reason you should ever be killed in two shots by a Mage. Crushing Prison can be dangerous, but your mage will be carrying Force Field 99% of the time anyway (at least one of them, it's a tier 2 spell in an awesome line, why wouldn't you want it?).

I also disagree on there not being much gold in the game. This guide is for min-maxing. You will have plenty of Gold.

And you'll never be one shotted, or even close, with base constitution. Just wear the right armor, like Wades Superior for Flemeth, Corruption for the Archdemon, Knight Commanders for Mages, and you'll be fine.

Also, unless you're royally stupid, you will have a reliable way of dealing with mages in your party, from a Stealthed Backstabber, Arrow of Slaying from an Archer, Mana Clash from a mage, or 100% spell resistance from a warrior.

And please show me where I said to use a full sized weapon on a tank? I recently posted in a thread supporting Daggers on Dex Tanks. Personally, I use the Thorn of the Dead Gods (t6) usually, because my Dual Wielder is usually using Roses Thorn and Dead Thaig Shanker. Or I would, if Dex was patched on consoles already

EDIT: Also, considering 90% of players will have the Stone Prisoner and Blood Dragon Armor DLC, because it comes with the game, you have access to the Blood Dragon Armor (extremely cheap, ~10 gold for all the rest of the pieces) and the Blood Gorged Amulet (you have no need for added strength or willpower on a tank anyways) you will have plenty of health, no matter what.

Modifié par dkjestrup, 15 janvier 2010 - 09:41 .

[BlackVader]

Already asked this in another topic but just to be shure that you see my question:

Why woud anyone use the Whitewood Bow over Far Song? Longbows are superior to shortbows in every single way except aim speed which is remedied by Far Song's Rapid Aim abiliy (making FS even faster than WwB...).

[dkjestrup]

Because Shortbows get 1 damage per point in dex, Longbows get 0.5 damage per point in dex or strength.



So with 90 dex and 50 strength (just an example here) the Shortbow gets an 80 damage bonus, but the Longbow only gets a 60 damage bonus. Considering you'll be pumping dex either way...



Also, range is irrelevant, as the Archery skills don't use the Bow in calculating their range. So while the shortbow has much less range, when using skills like Critical Shot they both have equal range.



Also, you can get rapid aim on the Whitewood Bow, through a helm (name escapes me) if you wish, which doesn't stack with the Rapid Aim on the Far Song, making the Shortbow faster.

[-Conspirator]

Hi - thanks for you guide. What about dualwield rogues with fullsize weapons? Is this not recommended at all? It's not that different to the warrior fullsize dw, is it?

[killpillz09]

any Archer needs Melee Archer from the start otherwise it will fail untill it has combat stealth, and even then you might still have a use for Melee Archer, so get that first.

[dkjestrup]

You found melee archer that useful? I mean, it's good, but I am almost always attacking from a distance.



Conspirator, you can, but you have to go cunning. But you'll still have to get strength to use the best weapons (apart from Biteback Axe). Thing is though, runes etc don't work on special attacks, so you only care about damage. Warriors get higher damage per level, and also will have much higher attack, because that bonus doesn't carry with lethality.



It's an option though. Suppose you could try a strength build on a Rogue. Never really hear much about it though. Dual Wield Warrior is better though.

[SusanStoHelit]

dkjestrup wrote...

Because Shortbows get 1 damage per point in dex, Longbows get 0.5 damage per point in dex or strength.

I thought longbows got 0.5 damage per point in dex and strength? Darn, I wonder how I got that wrong?

[killpillz09]

Yes, if there is a strong enemy that pulls off your tank and your stealth is on charge, all you can do is run away/stun him if you don't have melee archer, or you can continue attacking if you had melee archer. In close-quarters sometimes enemies may hit your archer with an AoE (rarely) or they might go for your character. Sure stealth + taunt can keep the enemies on your tank, but sometimes they may slip by without you knowing.

[dkjestrup]

I'd hardly call it an essential skill. You will only grab aggro on enemies you're attacking, and by the time you do you've more than likely taken them down to at least 50%.



It's a good skill. But it isn't so special that you HAVE to have it early.



Also, it's very rare that you will have stealth on cooldown, and taunt on your tank also on cooldown. You should also be well back most of the time, so you have plenty of time to kill the enemy. If the enemy is strong, then you WANT to run away, kiting it for your mages until you lose the aggro or your abilities have cooled down. At least on Nightmare difficulty.



@SusanStoHelit: I don't get what you mean. But basically, you get twice as much damage for each point in dex on a shortbow compared to a longbow. But Longbows also get a 0.5 damage bonus for each point in strength. So if your Strength = Dex, then Longbows are better, simply because there are better longbows. But considering both builds will want higher dex than strength (except cunning archers, who use cunning for other reasons like lockpicking or Bard songs) you might as well use shortbows most of the time.

[BlackVader]

dkjestrup wrote...

Because Shortbows get 1 damage per point in dex, Longbows get 0.5 damage per point in dex or strength.

Do you have a source for that? According to the missing manual AND the wiki, long- and shortbows both get 0.5 damage per point in either str or dex.

The only mention of shortbos being 100% dex I can think of is the dex-hotfix. However, unlke the dagger-fix, the archery changes of the hotfix were NOT implemented in patch 1.02. At least they aren't mentioned in the patchlog.
So unless someone is still uses the (outdated) hotfix, shortbows sould be 50% dex and 50% str, just like longbows, making longbows the better choice.

I think I had Zev respecced to archery using Far Song with a dex-build on my last playthrough. I'm gonna check whether he does more damage with long- or sortbows.

Modifié par BlackVader, 16 janvier 2010 - 10:12 .

[dkjestrup]

Really? Are you sure? I play on console, so I cannot test dex builds. However, I remember in the solo archery thread the TC originally supported Cun/Longbow, but tried Dex Shotbow and said it was stronger. I would test, but I'm on PS3

[BlackVader]

Well, i just DID a test. Loaded a save where Zev is level 20 and and used the respec-mod and pumped EVERYTHING into dex. Even took duelist and assassin and used some items for additional dex.

I didn't find the Whitewood Bow which I sold somewhere, so I used mundane tier 7 weapons for the test.

Base-Damage
T7 Shortbow: 8,00
T7 Longbow: 9,60

Zev's stats looked like level 20, Dex 91, str 13. I did not learn a single talent which also means NO LEATHALITY!
With these stats, his damage with those weapons was:
SB: 41,3
LB: 43,3

Then I had him equip Anduril's blessing (+2 ALL attributes) instead of his initial +2 dex belt, raising his str by 2 points, resulting in Dex 91, Str 15
SB: 41,9
LB: 43,9

Result: Longbows and Shortbows both get +0,3 damage per point Str OR Dex.

Oh, and don't ask me why this is not 0,5 as it should be as they have 100% attribute modifier. I also have no idea why the damage difference between the two is 2 and not 1,6 like their difference in base damage would imply.

But anyway, currentliy there is NO reason to EVER use a shortbow over a longbow.

[SusanStoHelit]

Thank you both for your responses, it was as I thought then (more or less), but I couldn't remember where I got the information from so that I could check.

[Sarevok Anchev]

Very nice builds



"Sarevok Approves +20"



2 things:



Warrior-Archer: As i remember Heavy and Massive Armor are reducing your Attack-Speed when

attacking with Bows/Crossbows. Archer-Mastery negates it for Heavy, but not for Massives.



2h-Warrior: I prefer for start-to-mid-game a Light-Armor like Wades Drakeskin, because with a tank you will pull less Aggro at the beginning, so you can position behind the enemys and deal some good crit-attacks from the flank + you can spam your talents.

First after about lvl 15 i would change to maybe the Dragonbone Armor, because of DR.



Also a question: When you talk about the recommended Armor, are you ALWAYS talking of the complete Sets? As i see it, there are 1-2 Gloves and Boots, which have much better stats then the ones of certains sets, maybe even better usage then Set-boni.

[-Conspirator]

dkjestrup wrote...

You found melee archer that useful? I mean, it's good, but I am almost always attacking from a distance.

Conspirator, you can, but you have to go cunning. But you'll still have to get strength to use the best weapons (apart from Biteback Axe). Thing is though, runes etc don't work on special attacks, so you only care about damage. Warriors get higher damage per level, and also will have much higher attack, because that bonus doesn't carry with lethality.

It's an option though. Suppose you could try a strength build on a Rogue. Never really hear much about it though. Dual Wield Warrior is better though.

Thank you. As I am planning to solo the game with this character, I do the rogue one. As you said in the guide - utility is most important for solo-runs.
I'll try different variations with the Respec mod. Once on cunning, once on strength etc.