Fights of Interest
The following strategies will work consistently. There is need to reload until you succeed -- you'll be able to win these battles every time.
Screenshots.
(pict.com is a little buggy: the arrow buttons won't advance you to page 2 -- you have to click on "2" or "Next" to see the second page.)
- Gazarath and tower ogre
These are handled by running + Dual-Weapon Sweep.
For the ogre, run around in circles (I follow the circular pattern of tiles on the floor). Every 15s or so the ogre will fall behind, which is enough time needed to recharge Sweep. When there is a nice gap (not too large, not too small) between you and him, turn around, hit Sweep, then run away the instant damage is made (see pictures). The ogre only swipes at you -- he won't do a special move like Grab or Ram.
If the ogre does a Ram or Grab, it means you've gotten too close or stayed too long within melee range. Unlike Grab, the effects of Ram can be mitigated if it happens. Run behind him the moment you see Ram activated. You'll be thrown in the opposite direction he's ramming, which buys you enough time to get up and chug a potion.
For Gazarath it's basically the same thing except you're running all over instead of in a circle. Gazarath can be slowed by trees, rocks, etc., allowing you to create the necessary gap for the Sweep trick.
- Sloth demon
Engage immediately and just hack away at him; don't shapeshift; don't disengage from combat. If you do Circle Tower first then he doesn't appear to have Crushing Prison. For his first form (ogre), if you stay engaged with him then he won't use any special ogre talents like Ram or Grab.
- Uldred and the Fade Beast
Engage immediately. Never leave melee range, otherwise he'll start casting (Crushing Prison = the end). Run to his backside, do one backstab, and run again. He won't push you away with Massive Attack, or if it's activated then it won't hit. Just run circles around him: stab and run, stab and run.
Another strategy is to get him near a wall so that Massive Attack will not launch you out of melee range. Although that works, I couldn't make it 100% reliable like above. If you inch away from him, he'll sometimes follow but sometimes cast. The best you could hope for is to run the same times he does, pushing him towards the wall (he does the Moonwalk), but I couldn't get that reliably either.
- High Dragon, Flemeth, Archdemon
Run to his (or her) backside, at approximately the 4 o'clock or 8 o'clock position. It will look like you're stabbing him in the leg (see pictures). Keep stabbing until you either get swept away or he turns. Unlike Uldred, there's no danger for being out of melee range as long as you have fire resist gear (Wade's Superior). When he begins to turn, just turn with him and start again. Never enter melee range on his frontside.
- Gaxkang
With gear and runes you can reach 100% spell resist. Trivial fight.
- Werewolf Lair
While stealthed, walk to the end of first hallway on the left or right. Plant yourself in a corner then unstealth. You should attract at most two Shadow Werewolves. With Felon's Coat and Lifegiver you should be able to survive two consecutive Overwhelms. If you can't then Rock Salve should put you over the top. Since you're in a corner, you won't get hit by other werewolves while down. Do the same for the other dead-end hallway.
Don't forget to buy the Rock Salve recipe at Ostegar since it's your last chance until Landsmeet.
- Corrupted Spider Queen
Lifegiver and Rock Salve for Overwhelm, Deadhead Charge for Web. You should be fine. If you save Deep Roads as the very last task before Landsmeet, then nothing is much of a danger here.
- Broodmother
Shoot her with a bow to avoid Grab. Wear the Heart of Witherfang for the belches. That's pretty much it.
- Revanants, Orzammar Proving, Jarvia
They can't hit you.
Other Screenshots
Final counts.
Final attributes.
My favorite screenshot.
General Strategy Notes
Take out the mages first, of course. For multiple mages or for an uber mage that can't be killed with one stun, put on spell resist gear (outlined later). Once the mages are gone, change back to normal gear.
Fight with your back against a corner. If you suspect the target could be a rogue then be sure to stun him first, as getting stunned yourself is bad news. Otherwise you can usually get in a couple stabs first, then stun, then back to stabbing.
Before Coup De Grace it is sometimes worthwhile to move to the backstab area after stunning.
Origin: Dwarf Noble
10% spell resist is a win, and the 25 gold for taking the bribe (grr, wish it was the promised 100 gold) lands you two early Grandmaster runes (the first things I recommend spending money on).
Sequence of Quests
It seems obvious that Circle Tower should be first for the ability increases. Other than that, I generally did quests in the order of what gear I most wanted and was easiest to obtain.
Circle Tower -- ability bonuses
start Orzammar -- Key to the City
Stone Prisoner -- Helm of Honnleath, Harvest Festival Ring
Denerim stealing errands -- money
Denerim blood mages -- Magister's Shield
Warden's Keep -- storage chest
Haven, Ruined Temple (not yet Caverns) -- Ancient Elven Gloves (spell resist)
Redcliffe -- money for Lifegiver (for Drake's Overwhelm), Shielded Dwarven Armor (spell resist)
Caverns, the Gauntlet -- Master Dweomer Rune, unlock Felon's Coat
Brecilian Forest -- Dusk Ring (used just for opening chests; go back to Haven and get Antivan Leather Boots)
Elven Ruins -- money for Felon's Coat (for Shadow Werewolves)
Werewolf Lair -- money
Orzammar Proving, Carta -- money
High Dragon -- Grandmaster Fire Rune, Deadhead Charge
Flemeth -- since my daggers were already configured for High Dragon (no fire runes)
Deep Roads -- Master Dweomer Rune (from Branka)
finish Crows -- Grandmaster Dweomer Rune, Red Jenny Seekers, another Crow Dagger
Gaxkang -- since I reached 100% spell resist
Abilities
5 points into Cunning gives you 30 Cunning (with gear) which opens any chest and disables any (or most any?) trap. Everything else goes into Dexterity.
First pants, then shoes. You need to hit first, then you can do damage. I need to power through Weakness, Growl, and other attack penalties. I can still miss with debuffs like those, and I don't like missing.
I'll take the defense bonus, attack bonus, physical resistance bonus, and 1/2 damage bonus with Dexterity over a mere damage bonus with Cunning. A party-based rogue (where high Cunning is reasonable) is a totally different concept.
With such high defense you are mostly not hittable (special attacks aside: Rake, Sweep, etc). The exception is, oddly enough, the archers in the arl's estate. Friggin Jedi Masters, those archers are. And they aren't even using talents like Aim. Also there is Ser Cauthrien, who hit me once. Out of curiosity I re-fought the battle but couldn't reproduce her hit. Maybe it was a fluke.
Talents
Roughly in order:
Dual-Weapon Training
Dual-Weapon Sweep, Flurry, Momentum
Deft Hands
Stealth
Dual-Weapon Finesse
Dueling
Stealthy Item Use
Combat Stealth
Improved Tools, Mechanical Expertise
Master Stealth
Device Mastery
Upset Balance, Keen Defense
Combat Movement, Coup De Grace
Dual Striking, Riposte
Mark of Death, Exploit Weakness
Below the Belt, Deadly Strike, Lethality
A more powerful build could be made by ignoring the Deft Hands tree, but I prefer to disable traps and unlock chests. I didn't need more power; utility is nicer. Avoiding traps with foreknowledge of their location is cheesy, as is reloading when you hit one. Also, Antivan Leather Boots are in a strongly locked chest.
You might be surprised that I took Coup De Grace so late. Here my philosophy is, again, "first pants, then shoes." The first order of business is attack and defense. I can live without Coup De Grace, but I can't live with missing or getting hit. +10 attack and +10 defense from dueling mode is a big win.
Riposte comes later because it requires more stamina, because it's not as reliable at stunning as Dirty Fighting (perhaps because Riposte is a physical resistance check), and because Combat Stealth makes it slightly redundant.
I've never seen Dirty Fighting and Riposte work consecutively on the same target. After a Dirty Fighting stun, a successful stun with Riposte is ignored, and vice-versa. For a given target it's as if there is a cool-down interval for stunning as a whole. Though a nice talent, Riposte isn't quite as nice as it looks.
Lethality is last because the bonus is small.
With a 5-minute recharge time, Feign Death can't be incorporated into a combat strategy. It might be useful as a fallback, but if that is the case then your strategy failed. Find a different strategy, one that works every time.
Though it looks promising, Evasion is disastrous for a solo rogue. There is an animation tied to Evasion: daggers are held up in a defensive posture with a distinctive "chinggg" sound effect. Say you've sneaked into the middle of a hoard of archers to assassinate a caster. You begin wailing on him, but every other second you stop, hold up your daggers, and wait for the "chinggg". Meanwhile the stun wears off and you haven't killed the caster. The problem appears to be that Evasion is applied before the normal attack/defense check. But whatever the reason it's better to get hit than to interrupt backstabbing a stunned target.
Skills
The only points I really cared about were:
1 point stealing (for Denerim quests)
2 points Coercion
2 points Herbalism
After that, in order:
max Coercion
max Herbalism
max Poison
I didn't use traps or bombs.
I didn't use poison until after Landsmeet. Having no other use for my money, right before Landsmeet I bought ingredients for loads of health potions, Swift Salves, and Quiet Deaths. The buffs aren't strictly necessary, just convenient.
I didn't make any salves besides Swift Salves, but I hoarded whatever I came across.
Gear
I carried around three sets of gear.
default gear:
- The Rose's Thorn, Crow Dagger
- Helm of Honnleath
- Red Jenny Seekers (Backhands until Crows is finished)
- Felon's Coat (if unavailable: Senior Enchanter's Robes by default, Duster Armor for Overwhelm)
- Bard's Dancing Shoes
- Magister's Shield; Deadhead Charge for Web and knockdown attempts
- Harvest Festival Ring; Lifegiver for Overwhelm; Ring of Ages for Archdemon
- Key to the City (always on)
fire resist gear:
- Wade's Superior Drakeskin Armor, Gloves, Boots.
spell resist gear:
- Crow Daggers: 10% 8% 8% | 8% 6% 6% (or the best Dweomer runes you have)
- Spellward: 30%
- Ancient Elven Gloves: 4%
- Shielded Dwarven Armor: 4%
- Antivan Leather Boots: 4%
- Key to the City: 4%
Adding 10% for Dwarven spell resist makes 102%.
If your Crow Daggers are not Dragonbone with 3 rune slots, give them to a merchant to upgrade (I use Levi).
During Dead Trenches and the final battle sequence, swap in the two Grandmaster Silverites for the default gear set.
Ground Rules
- Don't use party members. If they are forced into your party, set their tactics to Self:Any -> Wait to avoid auto-attack.
- Don't use party members during peacetime for skills or talents.
- Don't split up enemy groups by luring.
- Don't call in armies during the final battle, except for the encounter where your character is not in the party. In this case all my party members were naked so I summoned Dwarves, which is why my screenshots say 44 Dwarves. I could have equipped them, but I didn't bother.
I violated the luring rule in two places: the fields of Lothering, and the three-Drake ambush at the goat cages. Otherwise I was not at all tempted to lure. With pumped Dex I didn't get hit much, and it's more fun to do it right. Much of the time I didn't even use stealth -- I just planted my butt in a corner and hacked away. Sometimes I didn't even bother using corners. I stood in the middle of the room and pounded on Witherfang, with hordes of werewolves jumping this way and that; not one hit me, nor did Witherfang.
I use the term "luring" as distinct from "pulling" because pulling refers to groups. You can't pull groups in Dragon Age. Luring (as I use the term) refers to drawing out individuals from a group, which is in my opinion an exploit. (Please, no arguments about luring here; take it up in the other thread.)
Regrets
- I wanted to do Deep Roads last, however I supported Harrowmont, causing the palace rooms to be locked, causing the Crows quests to blocked, causing Red Jenny Seekers to be unavailable. When I realized this I was too far along to redo it, but Backhands (10% crit damage instead of 15%) was good enough anyway.
- I forgot to buy Ring of Ages for the Archdemon. I don't enjoy chugging more potions than necessary.
- I thought the Sloth Demon might be impossible at 8th level, so I went paranoid and brewed 50 regular (not lesser) health potions. It turns out Slothy was quick and easy. Wasting money early in the game hurts. Plus, those 50 potions went unused throughout the game.
- Helm of Honnleath and Harvest Festival Ring are too uber. I got them at the beginning and rarely took them off. It's as if I payed money to rig the game in my favor. A play-through without any DLC items would feel more legitimate.
- I regret the two cases of luring. I probably could have hatched a plan with traps or something. I didn't use traps, and I didn't use salves or poisons until the end battle, so those options were unexplored. (I was obsessed with saving money.) The problem with Lothering is that in the open fields there are no walls (preferably corners) to cover your back, and enemies don't follow you into town. And the problem with Drakes is consecutive Overwhelms. Without Felon's Coat I can survive one Overwhelm, but not two or three. Yet traps + Rock Salve + Swift Salve + Quiet Death may have solved the problem.
Background
I've always done post-BG2 Bioware games solo. It's a way to make them more challenging since (after BG2) they are not really made for RPG strategists. (Please don't flame here; that's not the point.)
On my first play-through of Dragon Age I tried a solo assassin/duelist on Nightmare. I failed in most of the fights mentioned at the beginning of this post.
I also did quests in the exact wrong order. I looked on the DA wiki to see which daggers were nice, and I chose Dead Thaig Shanker from the Shale quest. Thus I did Orzammar first. Little did I know what was in store for me. Doing all of Deep Roads as a low-level solo rogue was absolutely exhausting. Each encounter had to be planned specially. I kept thinking the Shale quest (and my dagger) was just around the corner. Holy crap. I eventually resorted to luring, and I hated it. So that is the story behind the (now cringeworthy) post I made on luring.
And I did Circle Tower last, not knowing about the ability bonuses. Phooey.
On my second run I did Deep Roads last, which didn't require any luring. Pumping Dexterity yields disproportionately favorable results at higher levels. And doing Circle Tower first means you get Combat Stealth for free, and right when you need it.
I was glad to find reliable strategies which solve the problems I encountered, and I write this post to share them. I hope you found something useful.
Modifié par Naked Fury, 03 janvier 2010 - 03:44 .
Retour en haut
You try to apply some/yours/know from the so-called real world "logic" to a virtual game without realizing or accepting other people can have their own "logic". So how is yours .. better? Because it is classic military strategy? Gimme a break ..
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