14 réponses à ce sujet

[Googleness]

Read few guides and still got few points I want to consider.

 

First of all going Human, Can't stand elves models in this game for some reason.

 

At any rate was planning on doing few DLC contents then broken circle for the extra bonus points.

Add to that of course the double books u get from Bodhan from first and second time you visit the camp (store reset). I got all dlcs so I start the game with the 340 gold mace which I'll sell for starters then when I'll have Rank 4 potion maker I'll make Potent lyrium potions for cash to get all the gear I want.

 

Also planned doing Nature of the beast > elves > Unlimited xp for 70 silver method.

 

So next....

 

First dilemma > shimmering shield.

according to the mana regen (-10) you get from it it sounds pretty easy to fix this issue with proper item set and have it run all the time > what you think?

 

Second,

Was thinking using my AW as main tanker after I'll get few skills but instead of casting spells around I'll use sustainable spells for utilitty and damage (miasma etc...). Only spell I want to cast in the game is Mana Clash for epic I win button.

Considering all of the above...

Weapon of choice...

1. As secondary weapon I'll take a staff preferably Staff of the Magister Lord which I'll use when I quickly need to deal ranged damage.

2. As main weapon I want some melee action.  

* First option is Duncan's Dagger and Duncan's Sword.

All of the above got pros and cons and I just can't decide.

 

Armor wise I'm going with Wade's Superior Heavy Dragonscale armor set + switching chest piece into <a data-ipb="nomediaparse" data-cke-saved-href="http://dragonage.wik.../Evon_the_Great" href="http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Evon_the_Great" s_mail"="">Evon the Great's Mail. I'll be using  Helm of Honnleath as well.

 

For accessories I was thinking:

Amulet: The Spellward

Ring 1: Key to the City

Ring 2: Lifegiver

NOTE: need some clever way to mix Morrigan's Ring into the fray for some quest related missions and importing into dlcs.

Belt: Andruil's Blessing

 

Spells:

This are the spells I definitely think I'll use all times.

Entire Arcane Warrior line ofc (with some luck shimmering shield will be up all time), Entire Arcane Bolt tree (With main benefit of Arcane Shield), Rock Armor, Spell Wisp (got nifty trick iirc when u activate wisp + spell might few times u gain higher bonus to SP), Entire Mana Drain line (main here is spell might and rank 4 is mana clash for I win button, also pesky mages could be dealt with some Templar like spells which must be taken), Death Syphon (gets also Walking Bomb along the way), Miasma and Death Magic (Gets Drain Life along the way).

I'm aware that Death Syphon and Death Magic won't work at the same time but according to the need of the fight I'll be able to boost one field over the other.

 

Next is "Weapon" spell (fire\ice\telekinetic) most of those require at least one or more spells before that which I'm not planning to use at any rate, and I'll probably use damage runes of some kind on my weapons. Also most of the time I'll have either Morrigan or Wyne on the group and both of them always gets one of those buffing spells (wyne also gets haste). Then the Telekinetic Weapons looks nice and got some nice utilities on its line but over all I am not sure here at all.

 

Regarding healing spells I'll always have plenty of potions and both morrigan and wyne with heal spells \ buff spells.  

 

Next is second sepc.

 

At the start I though about spirit healer for the Protective aura \ combat res and group heal. But then I've seen the aura won't heal the caster and then the entire point of the tree is bit wasted.

Which leave us with Blood Mage. This is pretty cool spec and considering I'll get huge Con' bonus from gear, books and quests give some nice options to further the AW offensive abilities. BUT with Dark Sustenance from the DLC you can convert 40 hp into 130 mana so as long as I got left with enough mana pool to cast a spell I can abuse this ability instead, also considering the miasma active all the time mobs should drop quicker negating some of the need to use offensive spell. Though Blood mage get extra points for CC and epicness in general.

Also not sure here.

 

For Awakening I was thinking adding Battle-Mage as third spec.

 

Thoughts? tips? 

Thanks!

 

EDIT:

OK tested this idea.

on GOA Made new warden so I could level him to 20 instantly.

was pretty underwhelming... awful damage. decent tank capabilities but still died awfully fast to those trash mobs at the start area. All the sustains took most of the mana pool and shimmering shield barely remained active. Death Magic healing was pretty meh and didn't do the trick either.

Overall if I would have taken normal mage I could have snapped 1 spell and blast all of the mobs in that section pretty quick but my test toon for this build died awfully fast and was extremely underwhelming! must did something wrong.

Also Death magic \ Death Syphon can't be active at the same time so both of them kinda wasted points in here.

[Mike3207]

Maric's Blade/Cailan's Shield for the stamina regen.

It's hard to go wrong with Arcane Warrior as long as you put everything in magic.

[Abraham_uk]

I prefer to treat this as a normal mage, but with armour and back up melee weapons should enemies close in.

I like to focus on distance attacks and a mixture of healing and ranged dps.

If all else fails, I can go toe to toe warrior style.

 

 

Great thing about the arcane warrior is that all you need is a rogue and you have all bases covered.

The other two party members being whoever you prefer.

 

That said, I tend to struggle on higher difficulties.

Hardcore and Insanity are really tricky.

 

 

Blood mage isn't a bad idea. Not a fan personally but it works well if you don't want to spend lots of points into willpower.

As Mike said, the stamina works well.

[Googleness]

I don't really like to mix playstyles, except from mana clash for uber magical enemies I don't plan to cast spells at all.

 

At any rate...

Seems to me that Death syphon\magic is useless hence no need to take those and their preq' in first place which clear up some skill points.

 

Regarding the skills...

I planned to start 12 in cunning, then max it to higher level via "Broken circle" for coercion. 

for Con planned to start 10 get extra 4\5 (iirc) from broken circle and rest from the gear should be around 30.

 

so how much willpower you think I'll need for this build?

 

Also was thinking on AW at level 7 which gear I should use for lower levels until I'll be able to use the better stuff? 

[Mike3207]

The reason I mentioned magic is that it powers up your primary ability Combat Magic, and all your spells. As for the blood magic, how often were you plan on using it for your AW?

Con you can get from gear, same thing with willpower. Mana isn't a issue in Awakening.

Battledress of the Provocateur will give you a lot of mana early on, and it won't take long to get Cailan's Armor set or the Warden Commander armor.

[The Don's Hound]

I'll help you to kill yourself for playing DA:O

[DarthGizka]

OK tested this idea.
on GOA Made new warden so I could level him to 20 instantly.
was pretty underwhelming...

The ability to keep up Shimmering Shield depends a lot on special kit with mana regen, like Cailan's Arms. If you have saves from other campaigns then you could import a Warden with all the kit into GoA and use the respec tome. That would give you more levels than starting a new character, and you'd have the gear you need.

An alternative might be for experienced Arcane Warriors to go and see what can be done with a new character at the start of GoA (or Witch Hunt, maybe) and post a short video to show how an Arcane Warrior rules the roost... I've never played an AW as an AW, only as a caster mage with a wider choice of protective clothing, so I wouldn't know. Come on guys, show us how it's done!

[Abraham_uk]

This applies to any kind of mage you wish to build.

 

[Googleness]

oh well I thought the reason my GoA AW was bad is the fact it's not imported toon.

missing fade\books and other useful stuff.

 

At any rate anyone got replacement ideas for Death Syphon\Magic? they seem really lackluster overall....

[luna1124]

I use mods. Cheaper combat Magic... Dual weapon abilities or two handed abilities (not weapon and shield as it conflicts with my other mods)

Yes, my son says I cheat, but I did play the game a few times vanilla first, so I do know what it is like to want stuff

 

 

Mana clash is a life saver, it will kill almost all hostile mages and knock the heck out of fade demons.

[Mike3207]

I'm not sure it is possible to create a new toon for GOA and do well with a level 20 toon.Not so much not having the fade bonuses and using the tomes, as that's about 15 points either way-not enough toaffect GOA.I mean, unless you duplicates tomes to give yourself extra spells and/or stat points, but that's a personal choice.

It's not so much the points, but the gear/talents you are lacking. The Awakening skills are useful, and a high level of dodge is advised.The 20% you get from the last AW talent is good, but you'll want a bit more than that.

Specializations-maybe Keeper, Arcane Warrior, Spirit Healer. I favor Shapeshifter but not sure you'll do enough damage against the golems, and the golems would be immune to the nature damage from Swarm.I don't know how useful blood magic would be in GOA.

Spell replacements-no glyphs?-I'd get the first three.I'd also add in Weakness and Paralyze.An additional way to hold foes in place would be useful.One more-get at least a Vulnerability Hex.I think you'll want to use more spells than you mentioned.

I'd try a import from Origins at minimum-but that's me.

[Ribosome]

Gonna depend on what platform you're playing on (I thought I'd mention since you didn't state it in your post), because mana regeneration is doubled on the console versions and that gives you some more flexibility in equipment choices if that applies to you. 

 

I find Cailan's Arms a lifesaver on PC. In awakening I like to give myself a little more dexterity and equip the Avvar daggers, just for a change of pace. 

[DarthGizka]

In addition to what Mike said, it's easy to forget that a Warden gets a lot of bonus spells/abilities in Origins, and they can buy up to four spell tomes or so. That, and the Fade bonusses, make a Warden much stronger than a 'plain' character of the same level.

[Googleness]

Thought about something new to try on existing save I have pretty much around lothering.

The normal caster + staff Mage using Blood Mage (for the blood mage specific powers then switch back to normal mode) and AW.

 

Then iirc Evon + wade set gives Negative fatigue while wearing the set + Helm of Honnleath should look spicy and have decent enough stats to supplment a more armored defensive mage.

Then if u get focused by mobs > Shimmering shield. no need to activate the first sustained spell in AW chain as it will work passive only allowing you to use stuff with magic stats. Your weapon damage will be based on staves which don't need that skill to be active.

 

So more armored mage pretty resistant to fire (screw you fire traps and dragon breaths!) which use normal spells and staff to inflict damage.

This also make the choices of spells much easier as you can take whichever one you like and not look for specific sustained ones.

 

what you think?

[Googleness]

Update:

In Orzammar now so I got all the gear I wanted and I'm level 25.

 

So...

did the Evon + Staff path.....

holy andraste my mana regen so quick with my current items and such I can smack stuff with spells so quickly it's amazing.

 

For mages > Mana Clash > just did Gaxkang with 2100 Mana Clash!!!

For living creatures > Activate Blood magic > Blood Wound > Win.

For dead \ constructs etc.... spam some CCs, walking bomb, cone spells.

 

When spells are failing or out of mana > Combat magic > Sword and Board > Win.

 

So epic....