AerynShep
How much respecing costs after the first amulet? Is it worth to respec immediately after you get the change or is it better to wait until you have more gold?
after the first one respect amulets cost 350 gold. make sure you visit the blacksmith in haven and don't just go straight to the hinterlands or you'll miss the first one for 1 gold. I don't find 350 to be a lot because I'm constantly selling crap gear that I loot.
350 gold as in sovereigns? Isn't that a lot? In DA2 I didn't get that much money even when I didn't bought almost anything and sold all the unnecessary equipment. Is money easier to get this time than in the previous games? Maybe I understood this wrong 
350 gold as in sovereigns? Isn't that a lot? In DA2 I didn't get that much money even when I didn't bought almost anything and sold all the unnecessary equipment. Is money easier to get this time than in the previous games? Maybe I understood this wrong
Copper and Silver are gone in DAI.
Copper and Silver are gone in DAI.
Has anybody tested/noticed if Chaotic focus applies to spells other than fire? I realize the tool tip says fire spells, but since passives from one weapon type actually apply to other despite the description, I was wondering if the same were true for this passive.
Has anyone made sure yet that Chaotic Focus works with Firestorm? (Even though Firestorm is in Rift Mage not inferno, and is a Focus ability, it definitely seems like a fire spell... and Chaotic Focus says "fire" spells, not "Inferno" spells... maybe that's why they didn't rename it Meteor Swarm, to clear up any confusion. Trying to decide whether to get Chaotic Focus and lots of barrier-building spells for a huge Firestorm....)
So one person said Lightning hasn't been as good as Inferno and Winter so far... what about Lightning Cage and Conductive Current? Could be great with Firestorm at 0 mana (since Focus doesn't require mana and tier 3 Firestorm consists of 55 meteor strikes that should be 50% damage * (55*50% weapon damage + ordinary Firestorm damage)). Looking forward to using Lightning Cage with a whirling dervish style Tempest. Do enemies run into the Lightning Cage and get paralyzed, or does the AI know not to do that unless Panicked?
How common is elemental resistance or magic resistance? That seems to be where lightning... shines.
Are Panicked enemies difficult to melee with? Do they run really fast away from your melee chars?
Can you start giving companions specialization abilities right away? How good are the Rift Mage abilities? It seems like it might be better to get weaken / panic from cross-class combos, since they do massive damage and build Focus.
Has anyone gotten to test out Simulacra yet? Do you control the spirit version of your necromancer, or does it have AI pick whatever spells you've put into tactics? Do the simulacrum's spells have no cool-down (as someone suggested)? I'd guess that Death Siphon stops working once you're knocked out (otherwise, when someone revives you, you could have full mana and health... assuming revival doesn't also restore you to 100% health?). Does Conductive Current still enhance the simulacrum's damage if you're at 0 mana?
Thanks for the info (Ice Mine affecting multiple targets is huge, may have to rethink my builds completely), can hardly wait to start playing... just a few more days....
[Edit: Also, does Lightning Cage have Friendly Fire when you cross the border / take damage? And DoT effects stack so that you get 1 lightning strike per DoT effect per second (so Burning and Despair/Walking Bomb/Spirit Mark = at least 4 lightning strikes / second)?]
Whoever asked about what 2H abilities are worth it... dunno, all of em? Kinda depends if you have FF on or not. I've run across a few things now that has me re-thinking my builds. Not my warrior/reaver build though but I only used the counter in 2H tree anyway so... yeah. Counter can't block heavy stuff. It can block an auto-attack from the 2H maul guys, but it wont stun them or cause them to flinch, so you'll often get hit by there 2nd hit anyway. Still, with enough hp/guard the original counter could net you enough to absorb the 2nd hit and counter the third.
My main advice, for anyone doing a 2H warrior - especially in Nightmare like me... get Counter, and get the dodge roll. That combination can keep you alive about as good as Shield Wall. Course, Shield Walls just universally better but it beats getting pummelled to death. Also the guard bonus from block is, maybe, misleading. It says 15% guard, but I've gained more then that before... think it varied depending on what you block.
Anyway some other awkward bits (and semi-good news). Static Cage is FF-friendly... Chain Lightning, for some reason isn't. It will chain to your party, and it will screw you over. More so then that you have no real way to control it. Unlike Immolate, or Winter's Grasp it's not a directed AoE. It's not 'where you point' or just around your target - it's all over the goddamn place. You upgrade it and you will hit your ENTIRE party rather consistently. A lot of stuff in this game feels designed around having FF off. MP has no option for it being on, and even if you turn FF on the enemies aren't subject to it. Only enemies that are hostile to each other will hurt each other.
FF feels like an absurd handicap for no other reason then to handicap your self. It's not the survivaly/believeable toggle I was originally hoping for. I mean you basically kill a bunch of builds in the game, and make a bunch of skills just blindly useless.
So you know, lesson of the day, if your gonna play with FF on (which only YOU suffer the negatives of, enemies apparently keep there FF to off) don't use Chain Lightning. If the AI uses it, it'll hit your party. If YOU use it... it'll hit your party. The only way it doesn't hit your party? You fire it far enough away (maxed out that's like 9 meters from the closest possible target to you) and have at 'least' 6 enemies for it to bounce between. Anything less then that and your party is getting zapped.
Static Cage is awesome though... short lived, but awesome.
Then it doesn't sound so bad. In DA2 I loved that I could respec my party whenever I wanted. Glad it's still an option.
It's not bad, but it isn't cheap either. I mean...it's a dent, so you probably don't want to be respec-ing all the time.
Thankfully, companions (except for the starters) come as blank slates. Praise be to Bioware for that.
Friendly Fire setting feels like an afterthought in general. Firewall inexplicably doesn't hit allies, making it automatically the best damage AoE with the god awful party AI.
Thanks for the tip about Friendly Fire... is Pull of the Abyss still worth it with friendly fire off? Is the game too easy if you ignore friendly fire? Maybe I'll turn friendly fire off but play as if it were on for directed AoE spells (in an ideal world where the AI isn't dumb).
Curious how Pull of the Abyss works---will it hold enemies against a Fire Wall? Can it make a single Fire Mine hit a whole horde, or does that only work if they're not too far apart (what's the AoE of fire mine / ice mine and how fast does Pull of the Abyss work...)?
How much does Magic impact spells? Does it improve the affect of barrier? Or does it just improve staff damage? Does Magic have any other benefits (spell duration, etc.)? Wondering whether it will eventually be worth it to invest in all the +magic passives, especially since the Storm and Winter passives are early in their trees. +15 Magic Rift Mage casting Firestorm with at least two Lightning Cages active....
No idea, wont be using it in a playthrough for awhile. If they do some heavy FF patching down the road It'll be something I look more toward. ATM, I think I'm gonna be sticking to Nightmare with FF on since it just... it's to weird. **** that has been FF before isn't, stuff that has no business being Friendly are, and enemies ignore the setting entirely lol.
The game is 100% balanced around FF not existing, which is a shame, but there ya have it. Hopefully we get a patch for it some day. I also hope console gets a patch to make it so anytime I switch targets I don't snap back to my target cause thats, driving, me CRAZY right now.
As for you magic question. Magic boost your Attack (as does Willpower for every class) by a %, which works off your base weapons DPS. Dmg spells are effected by your DPS, so are barriers. So... get a lot of it. 
Say, on the topic of Dispell nuking demons around rifts, does that cost XP/loot at all? I can't really tell since demon drop rate seems to be low to begin with, and there is a random looking chunk of XP upon completing a rift.
You definitely get XP, not sure about loot. In either case it counts as killing em from what I can tell. On nightmare, at least at earlier levels it's sometimes the only way you effectively get through any rift really. Far as I'm concerned, Dispel is invaluable, and I don't think Ill do a playthrough with out it... well I might. But it's definitely a priority for me atm, and having a Dispel and a Templars variant on it is a hell of away to just crap all over rifts like they don't eixst... well, past the initial horde of baddies.
Wait, I think I miss this thing about Dispel. What does it do to demons?
dispel the ground where the demon is being summoned between waves, it kills the demon thats being summoned.
So Dispel sounds too cool to pass up eh ? Nice. By the way, which is better, Energy Barrage or Lightning Bolt ? Energy Barrage is cheaper and has higher damage out of the box but an upgraded Lightning Bolt seems to be an excellent crowd control spell.
Depends on the radius of lightning bolt for its stun. It doesn't do jack unless there are nearby enemies. And I can tell you right now you rarely have enemies 'that' grouped up together in such away that you could use it to put out a target for long that you'd want taken out. That said, it could prove more useful in a group fight (initially) compared to Winter. Though It'll knock enemies away which can screw things up too, where as Winter, upgraded, would freeze one while doing dmg to everything around it.
So... I dunno, it's good but super situational and less reliable?
Whoever asked about what 2H abilities are worth it... dunno, all of em? Kinda depends if you have FF on or not. I've run across a few things now that has me re-thinking my builds. Not my warrior/reaver build though but I only used the counter in 2H tree anyway so... yeah. Counter can't block heavy stuff. It can block an auto-attack from the 2H maul guys, but it wont stun them or cause them to flinch, so you'll often get hit by there 2nd hit anyway. Still, with enough hp/guard the original counter could net you enough to absorb the 2nd hit and counter the third.
My main advice, for anyone doing a 2H warrior - especially in Nightmare like me... get Counter, and get the dodge roll. That combination can keep you alive about as good as Shield Wall. Course, Shield Walls just universally better but it beats getting pummelled to death. Also the guard bonus from block is, maybe, misleading. It says 15% guard, but I've gained more then that before... think it varied depending on what you block.
Anyway some other awkward bits (and semi-good news). Static Cage is FF-friendly... Chain Lightning, for some reason isn't. It will chain to your party, and it will screw you over. More so then that you have no real way to control it. Unlike Immolate, or Winter's Grasp it's not a directed AoE. It's not 'where you point' or just around your target - it's all over the goddamn place. You upgrade it and you will hit your ENTIRE party rather consistently. A lot of stuff in this game feels designed around having FF off. MP has no option for it being on, and even if you turn FF on the enemies aren't subject to it. Only enemies that are hostile to each other will hurt each other.
FF feels like an absurd handicap for no other reason then to handicap your self. It's not the survivaly/believeable toggle I was originally hoping for. I mean you basically kill a bunch of builds in the game, and make a bunch of skills just blindly useless.
So you know, lesson of the day, if your gonna play with FF on (which only YOU suffer the negatives of, enemies apparently keep there FF to off) don't use Chain Lightning. If the AI uses it, it'll hit your party. If YOU use it... it'll hit your party. The only way it doesn't hit your party? You fire it far enough away (maxed out that's like 9 meters from the closest possible target to you) and have at 'least' 6 enemies for it to bounce between. Anything less then that and your party is getting zapped.
Static Cage is awesome though... short lived, but awesome.
Thanks so block and slash is good for 2h reavers. Btw is whirlwind needed if one goes for dragons rage? I was planning on getting the roll, not sure on Horn of valour whther it buffs me or not. SO out of the 2handed tree is investing in it worth it?
Ehh, Whirlwind and Dragon-Rage are completely different skills. I think whirlwind, especially with the 10% stamina back passive in 2H can let you whirlwind infinitely in groups but that'll.... get you killed on higher difficulties. Great for normal/hard. Then again with +guard on hit, I could see you surviving well enough. Issue you got is 8 skills, Reavers taking up 4 if you want the Focus.
So for me, I want all 4 skills from Reaver. Ring of Pain, Devour and Dragon-Rage with the Rampage Focus (using it instead of the Mark). Doesn't really leave a lot of wiggle room for the other stuff. I like the block skill due to the guard build and absorbing a single hit. I think I build more guard the more enemies I hit with it, it's kinda hard to tell how that works exactly. It could be doing more depending on the attack I block... I dunno. Anyway that and dodge roll are good... I might, late game, respec to switch out counter for Pummel Strike since it's a stun and I might be able to get enough guard via a weapon on hit.
Anyway, that only leaves 2 spots. I go with War Cry for the 200% Armor, though late game I might switch that for the singular taunt for the stamina per second as that might help ring of pain more. Also, you can use it more often. Anyway, that only leaves 1 more skill, I like Bull Charge for a multitude of reasons but you could replace it with anything really.
Crazy thing, btw, Rampage upgrade apparently reduces Devours CD by 2 seconds, 3 attacks in - no more Devour CD... that's not counting Ring of Pains upgrade which already cuts it by 4 at base, that would just be 1-2 attacks with Dragon-Ragebefore you could devour. Course, unless Dragon-Rage gains you stamina like auto-attack you wont be able to devour 'that' often, especially using ring of pain as that'll kill your stamina regen massively. All the more reason I might switch to challenge instead of War Cry for the stamina... I just have no idea atm to be honest, not high enough.
Thanks for the response, what about combat roll and grapple hook? I also take it you are playing on nightmare thats why you went with a bit more guard generation. Iwas thinking regarding the slots as well, dragons rage already hits as an AOE from what i gather thats why was thingking if i actually even need whirlwind or earthshatter striker after i get reaver spec.
Initially I was interested in making a CC focused mage build, so Flashfire being a starting spell didn't bother me. Now, after I used it, it doesn't seem so hot. Unlike Horror in DAO/DA2, panicked enemies run away in random directions AND damage to them breaks the effect. So you either manage to not hit this enemy and have to search for him afterwards, or somehow hit him without even meaning to and realise you've spend 65 mana for 300% damage you could have gotten from Immolate for just 35 mana.
Lightning bolt's definition of "nearby enemy" is rather restrictive too, so you get 4 seconds of stun at most on a normal rank enemy most of the time, which is often not enough to combo off.
I have to agree with that also.
Even if you are to use TAC cam and have other party members focus on other targets, with the amount of AOE in the game its very very difficult to utilize the full effects of Flashfire. I feel it's another one of those skills that look great on paper but don't translate into real play as well and as you mentioned for the mana plus the cost of the skill and upgrade cost it's not efficient.
God i love this game though so far 
OK, to settle an earlier argument, and probably ruin a few people's specs, you definitely can't backtrack in the trees. Tried it last night with the sabotage tree, had Poisoned Weapons, Fighting Dirty and Hook and Tackle (upgraded), and couldn't take Looked Like It Hurt, need Caltrops first.
Hey folks, check this thread out :- http://forum.bioware...e-backtracking/
Please let Bioware know that we like to have the option to backtrack in our skill trees. There is no description saying we need an ability to unlock another ability.
This is just streamlining BS.
Retour en haut
