I'm not fixated on that "fantasy", but I still stand by my previous points. It seems like there are more trees than 4: We know of Inferno and Winter, and we've seen Spirit.
Have we seen "Spirit" recently? I mean, in the latest gameplay since the combat trailer showed off Inferno and Winter?
I'm not fixated on that "fantasy", but I still stand by my previous points. It seems like there are more trees than 4: We know of Inferno and Winter, and we've seen Spirit. What's the last tree? Entropy/Lightning or Creation/Earth? Can't be both cuz that would be 5. Assuming there's not a 6th which is an Inquisitor one (as seen in the latest Gamescom demo).
Bottom line: We aren't going to know until we know, so I'm dropping out of this conversation. I'm sick of talking in circles about it.
@Eluvianus: No, but we saw a lot of it from E3. Whether it's representative or not has yet to be seen, but it's what we saw, and it looked complete (unlike other trees that looked buggy/didn't have description text/or had weird combos like ice spells with Seeker's Swarm thrown in ("Discipline") when it didn't match up with the more recent footage of "Winter".
That's sort of my point - I think we're drawing too much from demos; they're incomplete info. Granted, it's all we have except two shots of Inferno and Winter.
@Andy69156915: I realize Spirit took over healing, but that's not all Creation was. I cling to the idea of Creation because of that green icon, and we could still have: Glyphs (Paralysis and Repulsion, for instance), buffs like heroic aura, spells like Grease and Stinging Swarm. I suspect they'll throw Earth into that mix and make it a nature school or something.
@Andy69156915: I realize Spirit took over healing, but that's not all Creation was. I cling to the idea of Creation because of that green icon, and we could still have: Glyphs (Paralysis and Repulsion, for instance), buffs like heroic aura, spells like Grease and Stinging Swarm. I suspect they'll throw Earth into that mix and make it a nature school or something.
You cling to it like a small stick while you're in a raging flood river. There's only 4 trees and we know what they are, and your refusal to acknowledge it because you dislike what you see doesn't change what the magic trees are in DAI.
You cling to it like a small stick while you're in a raging flood river. There's only 4 trees and we know what they are, and your refusal to acknowledge it because you dislike what you see doesn't change what the magic trees are in DAI.
I disagree. There are a lot of unanswered questions still. But I also don't think there's any sense in fighting over it.
You cling to it like a small stick while you're in a raging flood river. There's only 4 trees and we know what they are, and your refusal to acknowledge it because you dislike what you see doesn't change what the magic trees are in DAI.
Y'know what? I actually like what I've seen so far, and I'm really looking forward to playing the game. I just don't think we've seen enough to draw conclusions yet, but, hey, maybe I'm wrong about this and you're right. If that's so, then great. Either way, I'm sure we'll all have a lot of fun.
Where on earth are you getting all of this? What are your sources?
Gameplay videos, devs interviews, pics shared on the net, official announcements etc.
You cling to it like a small stick while you're in a raging flood river. There's only 4 trees and we know what they are, and your refusal to acknowledge it because you dislike what you see doesn't change what the magic trees are in DAI.
This.
Try not to delude yourselves too hard, guys, because it's pretty clear what bioware has in mind for the DA series' characters development system and I'm sure that none of their plans will be pleasant to swallow for the long-standing fans.
Depends on what you think their plan is.Gameplay videos, devs interviews, pics shared on the net, official announcements etc.
This.
Try not to delude yourselves too hard, guys, because it's pretty clear what bioware has in mind for the DA series' characters development system and I'm sure that none of their plans will be pleasant to swallow for the long-standing fans.
Gameplay videos, devs interviews, pics shared on the net, official announcements etc.
No, the answer is you are pulling your "conclusions" out of your butt. I've watched and looked at all of those same gameplay videos, dev interviews, pics etc. as you and have seen nothing to indicate your assertions that require HUGE leaps in logic and assumption. You claim:
- "The 'Blink' ability is only usable by Cole." Please show me all of the complete skill trees for the mage Inquisitor because that's the only way you can prove that claim.
- "There are 3 primal trees for the mage Inquisitor." Please link me a screenshot or video that shows all of these trees in the mage Inquisitor's character screen. The very first picture in the OP of this thread is a screenshot of 5 Inquisitor ability trees. I see from left to right: The Horror Symbol (from Entropy in DA2), a purple version of the Anders' Vengeance Symbol (from Vengeance in DA2), Spirit (currently selected), a green Entropy school of magic Symbol, and a Primal school of magic symbol (Inferno as seen in Dorian's screenshots). Furthermore, there is a "Winter" ability assigned to RB on the loadout on this same screenshot. What does this tell me? That all of these "in-development" screenshots have one thing in common: inconsistency. Logic tells us that at this point, with the current available evidence, it's impossible to make definitive claims regarding ability trees because the game is IN DEVELOPMENT.
- "Mark of the Rift tree is removed." Please quote a Bioware employee because I haven't seen this claimed anywhere by anyone except here by you.
I'm sorry to sound harsh here, but you are spreading misinformation, same with the other dude above who has been arguing with people claiming they are "clinging to sticks in the middle of a raging river" or something of that nature. If you guys want to frame your posts in the proper context: that you have educated GUESSES about what's going on with the ability trees, then that's fair play. But acting like you know for sure what the final layout is in the game is only going to serve to confuse people.
IDK where all this random arguing is going round and round about, but Mages will almost certainly have 4 skill trees + spec, the exact same as every other class. There might be some pictures that conflict with each other (primarily the really old ones with creation icons splattered about [no doubt as place holders]), but I wouldn't get your hopes up for 5-6 trees for mages. We saw them displaying Viv's trees (or was it Dorians?) and we saw 5 total trees. 1 of those was undoubtedly a spec, and the 4 remainder were the general trees. Sorry to disappoint.
IDK where all this random arguing is going round and round about, but Mages will almost certainly have 4 skill trees + spec, the exact same as every other class. There might be some pictures that conflict with each other (primarily the really old ones with creation icons splattered about [no doubt as place holders]), but I wouldn't get your hopes up for 5-6 trees for mages. We saw them displaying Viv's trees (or was it Dorians?) and we saw 5 total trees. 1 of those was undoubtedly a spec, and the 4 remainder were the general trees. Sorry to disappoint.
My guess too would be the four standard trees that all mages share are Inferno, Winter, Spirit, Entropy. It seems the Inquisitor most likely has (for his/her 5th starting tree) Mark of the Rift, or some variation depending on what class you are: the green Inquisition symbol and sword. The companions seem to each have one of the specializations as their 5th starting trees. Then presumably you can get a 6th tree as the Inquisitor by learning a specialization from a companion.
My response above was refuting the people claiming they have "certain knowledge" of what all is going on with the ability trees. Furthermore, some of the claims I saw being made were highly unlikely, such as "mark of the rift" tree being removed (considering the most recent demo had that tree included; the two-handed weapon female Inquisitor who takes Earth Shaking Strike as the upgrade in the demo).
Depends on what you think their plan is.
And depends on which fans he is talking about. The bioware fans that like change, or the fans that once liked a bioware game, and want nothing to do with anything other than that one game they liked and rage for everything that's new and different.
No, the answer is you are pulling your "conclusions" out of your butt. I've watched and looked at all of those same gameplay videos, dev interviews, pics etc. as you and have seen nothing to indicate your assertions that require HUGE leaps in logic and assumption. You claim:
- "The 'Blink' ability is only usable by Cole." Please show me all of the complete skill trees for the mage Inquisitor because that's the only way you can prove that claim.
- "There are 3 primal trees for the mage Inquisitor." Please link me a screenshot or video that shows all of these trees in the mage Inquisitor's character screen. The very first picture in the OP of this thread is a screenshot of 5 Inquisitor ability trees. I see from left to right: The Horror Symbol (from Entropy in DA2), a purple version of the Anders' Vengeance Symbol (from Vengeance in DA2), Spirit (currently selected), a green Entropy school of magic Symbol, and a Primal school of magic symbol (Inferno as seen in Dorian's screenshots). Furthermore, there is a "Winter" ability assigned to RB on the loadout on this same screenshot. What does this tell me? That all of these "in-development" screenshots have one thing in common: inconsistency. Logic tells us that at this point, with the current available evidence, it's impossible to make definitive claims regarding ability trees because the game is IN DEVELOPMENT.
- "Mark of the Rift tree is removed." Please quote a Bioware employee because I haven't seen this claimed anywhere by anyone except here by you.
I'm sorry to sound harsh here, but you are spreading misinformation, same with the other dude above who has been arguing with people claiming they are "clinging to sticks in the middle of a raging river" or something of that nature. If you guys want to frame your posts in the proper context: that you have educated GUESSES about what's going on with the ability trees, then that's fair play. But acting like you know for sure what the final layout is in the game is only going to serve to confuse people.
I might have sounded as if I was certain of everything I said. Well, I'm obviously not but there is little room for imagination left by what they showed us.
In any case I'm sure time will unveil everything, darling, and we'll see how far this easily deductible image of the layout will be from the final version of the trees.
To answer you:
- In a gamescom gameplay video the devs said that leap power is one of Cole's. I think that they would have said that it's a rogue talent otherwise. I might be wrong, but that's what I understood.
- The fifth icon among the mage trees is clearly a spec: the purple goatish icon was most probably a necromancer spec, the orange Chtulu one may be the temporary symbol for the lightning-earth-"neo-entropy" tree or for winter and in general in that screenshot icons were just placeholders. In other images the sword icon clearly reperesent the knight enchanter spec.
- I haven't ever said that mark of the rift tree is removed. I said that most probably it doesn't even exist in the first place.
Do I even have to remember you all what Darrah said, written in the Kotaku article?
"Four playable races, two genders, and a choice of voices, as well as our unique, brand new facial customization system that offers over a billion possible faces...21 different combat skill trees..."
So: 3 specs * 3 classes = 9 total specs;
21 total trees - 9 total specs = 12 nonspec trees;
12 nonspec trres / 3 classes = 4 nonspec trees per class.
4 basic trees per class and nothing we ever looked at denied it.
And depends on which fans he is talking about. The bioware fans that like change, or the fans that once liked a bioware game, and want nothing to do with anything other than that one game they liked and rage for everything that's new and different.
Or maybe the fans who just want to play a roleplay game which allows them to actually roleplay on full potential, without any oversimplification to please the masses of casual, action-oriented players. But, I know, that is asking way too much.
- The fifth icon among the mage trees is clearly a spec: the purple goatish icon was most probably a necromancer spec, the orange Chtulu one may be the temporary symbol for the lightning-earth-"neo-entropy" tree or for winter and in general in that screenshot icons were just placeholders. In other images the sword icon clearly reperesent the knight enchanter spec.
- I haven't ever said that mark of the rift tree is removed. I said that most probably it doesn't even exist in the first place.
How do you explain this then? This is the most recent build shown, detailing the Warrior Inquisitor's ability trees. There are the 4 standard ones, and then there's the green sword one. This symbol does not match any of the specialization symbols (Knight Enchanter, Champion, or Reaver). If you want to talk about deduction, then the deduction here would be that the Inquisitor starts with FIVE ability trees, one that is unique to him/her, and can learn up to one specialization for a total of six. That's what the latest build shows. And this is just my guess, but that purple Vengeance symbol (the same one used for Anders' tree) seems to indicate spirit possession for me. As a mage, I'm guessing instead of being "marked by the rift" you actually are now harboring a spirit inside you.
As for where you saw the Knight Enchanter spec (the other sword symbol I'm assuming you're talking about, which is now outdated), that was on VIVIENNE's character screen, not the Inquisitor's. Companions probably have 1 less ability tree than the main character.
How do you explain this then? This is the most recent build shown, detailing the Warrior Inquisitor's ability trees. There are the 4 standard ones, and then there's the green sword one. This symbol does not match any of the specialization symbols (Knight Enchanter, Champion, or Reaver).
On this matter I agree with Adhin, who said:
"The mark not being a tree (but still showing up as a tree) makes some sense though. Give you away to look at it, but not have you spend skill points on it".
Furthermore since we don't have a talent wheel this time around, talents must be placed together in a common menu area in which they can be selected to be mapped on the controller. It would make perfectly sense if that place was the talent trees' area.
Or maybe the fans who just want to play a roleplay game which allows them to actually roleplay on full potential, without any oversimplification to please the masses of casual, action-oriented players. But, I know, that is asking way too much.
mmhmmmyesss. But I'm sorry, that has become something of a niche, these days... And bioware maybe once was in that niche, but that doesn't mean that they as a company want to stay there.
An although I respect that you want to play a game like that, Bioware deserves equal respect to want to make a game that is NOT that. They deserve no crass for wanting to go a different way, even though it is not the same way some people would want it to go.
In any case, the 'hand' tree is probably a skill tree in which you have to invest no skill points. Kinda like 'dog' in DAII 
You can watch it, but don't have to do anything other than progress story to evolve it.
Depends. When in the Gamescon demo they spend some ability points, they switched to a list page with all abilities (there where both two-handed talents and S&S talents), which I guess might be selected by the Y button that says 'View abilities'.On this matter I agree with Adhin, who said:
"The mark not being a tree (but still showing up as a tree) makes some sense though. Give you away to look at it, but not have you spend skill points on it".
Furthermore since we don't have a talent wheel this time around, talents must be placed together in a common menu area in which they can be selected to be mapped on the controller. It would make perfectly sense if that place was the talent trees' area.
Wasn't there a "plain ability list" menu shown in Gamescom gameplay video, separate from tree view?Furthermore since we don't have a talent wheel this time around, talents must be placed together in a common menu area in which they can be selected to be mapped on the controller. It would make perfectly sense if that place was the talent trees' area.
Wasn't there a "plain ability list" menu shown in Gamescom gameplay video, separate from tree view?
Yes. Near the beginning of the demo, there was a screen with all abilities listed.
EDIT: To avoid my tone and ensure you get the impression this are my thoughts, I insert some "I thinks".
Guys, who cares how many skill trees the Inquisitor has exacty. We know we will have those 4 basic skill trees depending on the class, and then the specialization tree.
Maybe the "mark" skill is a new one and fits it in its own tree, or maybe that tree at level 7 (or whatever) becomes the specialization tree, or whatever, it doesnt matter. In any case, it is a good thing and an improvement of what we had so far. Now our Inquisitor I thinkwill be at least a little different from the companions, maybe we have another skill related, or maybe some passives, we will see.
In a gamescom gameplay video the devs said it banishes demons.
I really hope the guy there is playing in easy mode: there is no tactical depth in what he's doing (not to say he's pushing buttons randomly) and yet he seems to be advancing through the area without a problem...
It takes time to kill the demons and undead, but the party takes little damage. I guess the difficulty of the game now is not a matter of burst combat encounters, but more a war of attrition, meaning that in any given sidequest (like the Avvar one), you must defeat the boss without going through all your consumables. If you start losing too much health in those early encounters, maybe you have to go back to Skyhold or a camp, replenish consumables, and try again.
This is somewhat refreshing, since I always play hard/nightmare, and difficult encounters are those were you wipe in a matter of seconds due to an unattended mage/rogue, or are overrun fast. With this new philosophy, maybe an encounter were you lose 50% of the health of a couple of party members can be considered a failure, since you are using resources you will need in the incoming boss battle.
Im curious about it, and I will not be able to decide if I like it or not, until I try it. (It depends on how it is implemented)
But I am really interested and looking forward to it! 
I definitely think we'll see a few, if nothing else in the Necromancer tree. But we'll see few around I'm pretty sure. I just hope Necromancer tree also has a animate dead spell as well. I'll honestly be a little bummed if 'Necromancer' is just copy/paste entropy and that's that. I'll still end up getting it on my planned necro char but gonna be a little bummed if thats 'all' it is.
Stop saying things like "seeing a few in the Necromancer tree". This is not confirmed, but everything we have seen so far indicates that the Necromancer tree will have THREE spells. One, two, and three. That's it! 
If it follows the same rules as what they have shown us, each specialization tree I think will change they way we play a lot, but with only 3 new skills. They would have around 10 skills: 3 actives/spells, and 7 upgrades/passives. So these passives I think will be a huge change in gameplay, I think they will give major advantages (think on old sustainables).
I am sorry but I do not want you to be put down later. Necro I think will surely have 3 spells, and I guess one of them would be a "raise undead" or something like that. So that would leave room for 2 more spells. There is no way I think it will have "some entropy spells thrown there" or something like that, since there is no room.
However, among the skills there can be a lot of interesting stuff: a passive that gives you health/mana from nearby corpses, a passive that gives you a debuff aura (miasma for example), etc.
The specializations can be really cool and interesting, but keep in mind the number of spells I think will be limited severely from DAO.
Of course I miss having more spells and combinations for the basic trees, but I really like the idea of specializations with passives. I need huge changes in the way my character plays from the specialization, independently of the skills I use. A templar I think will have a HUGE magic resistance, a knight enchanter I think will have a HUGE boost to melée damage, etc.
P.S. Necromancer spec interests me. How is it going to work without sustained spells? Will Raise Undead be a time-limited active you have to recast all the time?
If I had to wildly guess, I would say:
- Raise dead spell (focus if it is a good asset, regular spell if it is just a trash mob to offtank)
- Debuffing passives: miasma, ultramini death cloud, chance to apply a debuff when auto-attacking or casting a spell, etc
- Necro passives: taking regen/mana from nearby corpses, doing more damage to undead or causing them less aggro
One thing that I'm very curious about is:
We've seen quite a bit of the Spirit tree, but there are two spells missing from it that I would have expected: Seeker's Swarm and the Teleport/Blink move (especially considering Blink LOOKED like it had the same kind of green energy as spirit spells/the Fade.
I wonder if there's a general tree...maybe combined with Mark of the Rift and all those? Sort of like Arcane or the Mage skills in Origins.
This is my confusion I keep coming back to: if there really are only 4 trees, and one each was an element, than we have no room even for Spirit or the Inquisitor tree we've seen...or what was that purple icon in the old demo? And what about the Cthuluhu Skull (Horror Icon I am convinced was Entropy)? The idea of there being only 4 base trees with 7 total with specializations does not fit with what we've seen (albeit in demos).
For reference:
http://i498.photobuc...rk/specDAI1.jpg
Winter (Snowflake)
Inferno (Fire Burst)
Spirit (Blue-Green Book)
Inquisitor (Green sowrd and eye); could have been Warrior Specific, but I doubt it, it's too critical for story
Green Bloom (I think Creation, and MAYBE Earth was lumped into this tree)
Suggested as Specializations
Sword and Shield for Knight Enchanter
Purple Thingy: Suggested as Necromancer
Cthulhu Skull (I can't spell Chthuluuhulluhtlu)...I think Entropy, but could be Necromancer
Even if we look at what seems to be the base mage trees, we're over 4 trees, and we STILL don't know where Seeker's Swarm goes (could be Inquisitor, as mentioned).
So confused... O.o
This is why I think there are 2 likely explanations (I think about this too much):
1.) Inferno and Winter are like basic weapon trees for other classes, and the other two are Creation and Entropy (that combine Earth and lightning into them respectively).
2.) I prefer this one: Mages get more trees since they live and die on their abilities more than the others (particularly Warriors): Base trees are: Inferno, Winter, Tempest, Earthquake, Spirit, Entropy, and Creation and then specs. That would definitely be a lot.
Noteable absences: Walking Bomb is apparently Mike Laidlaw's favorite ability, and we haven't seen it ANYWHERE (not even in Spirit, where it would normally go). Crushing Prison (Iconic and a fan favorite).
Speculation warning!!
I would guess this is due to the order in which they create and decide content. First the developers I think created a lot of spells which are cool and want to show, since I think they believe are fun, and innovative, are important, take advantage of the frostbite engine, are lore-imposed, or whatever. And then I think MUCH later, I think they have to create the skill trees and decide how to organize the spells, how much power they give to each spell, etc.
Evidently I think they did not think at the beginning "we are going to have a frost-only tree". No, they just created content and worked, and at one moment I think they saw they had enough spells, I think they did not have time for more, or did not want more, and that they had a lot of frost spells and fire spells. When they started organizing the spells, I think it made sense to put all fire in a tree, all frost in a tree, and I think they saw it was good. The "Discord / Discipline" temporary trees I think were born. But then I think they thought that since they already have 5 fire spells, and there is only room for 5 spells in any given tree, it would make sense to call it something more mass-friendly, like "Inferno" which is awesomely appealing. So I think the Inferno / Winter trees were born. But heck, we have in the winter tree a blink/teleport and a seeker's swarm (element given by staff), what do we do with that?
And that's it, I think we have no more clue to speculate further. I think It can happen a lot of things, for example:
- Let's call the blink spell something like "freeze time" and give it a lorely solution so the spells remains the same and it is a blink spell.
- Let's impose frost element to seeker's swarm, instead of letting it be decided by the staff.
- And a huge lot of etc. Maybe they even destroyed the Winter tree and called it discipline again, and leaving inferno. Who knows?
That's sort of my point - I think we're drawing too much from demos; they're incomplete info. Granted, it's all we have except two shots of Inferno and Winter.
@Andy69156915: I realize Spirit took over healing, but that's not all Creation was. I cling to the idea of Creation because of that green icon, and we could still have: Glyphs (Paralysis and Repulsion, for instance), buffs like heroic aura, spells like Grease and Stinging Swarm. I suspect they'll throw Earth into that mix and make it a nature school or something.
I think you are correct in the first sentence, indeed we are drawing too much from the demos. Just think that every icon is a placeholder.
However, I think we know more or less the amount of spells we will have, and I think we haven been shown a lot of them. Always basic spells, never specializations. I would not think about the creation thing, since we know we have:
- A full inferno tree, with 5 fire spells: flash fire, fire mine, wall of fire, flash burst and firestorm.
- A winter tree, with 5 spells although I think this are less final: winter grasp (/cold snap), wall of ice, frost glyph, blink/teleport and a final one (we guess focus-blizzard, but I dont think it is confirmed)
- A messy lightning/entropy one, which included: chain lightning, lightning bolt, static cage, focus-haste, and a misterious one.
- A spirit tree with: barrier, dispel, and tree more spells.
And I think that's it, there would be only room for 5 more spells in that setup.
However, we know there are also the following spells: seeker's swarm, mind blast, stone fist.
Initially the discipline/discord trees had 6 spells, but when they turned them into inferno/winter they had only 5 spells. And we saw a pattern, where the final 5th spell had the requisite of getting all the tree's skills. This kind of screams "INSERT FOCUS SPELL HERE" to me, and judging by the placing of the haste spell (only focus confirmed spell) in the entropy tree, I think it matches. So I think we would have firestorm as focus, blizzard (or whatever frosty one) as focus, haste as focus, and another as focus. Since I think mind blast, seeker's swarm and stone fist are not focus, I think this would mean that of the 5 spells not-confirmed, I think we would have 2 more focus (blizzard?, spirit one?), another in the entropy tree, and I think 2 more in the spirit tree.
So I think we need room for 3 spells, and I think we have room for 3 non-focus spells.
To sum up, if there are truly only 5 spells per basic tree, I think we already know all the spells except for the specialization ones.
If you are a pesimistic, I think this is it, there are no more spells. Live with it. And I think those 2 other trees are going to be a little mess (they have to separate into 2 trees: 3 lightning spells, haste, mind blast, stonefist, barrier, dispel, seeker's swarm and a focus new spell (supposedly to heal/revive).
If you are optimistic, I think there might be more spells, and then I think we have 2 options: Each tree has more than 5 spells (and maybe they go back to discord/discipline), or maybe mages have 1 more basic tree and organize spells better with 5 spells per tree. But please, remember I think we are taking about a couple more spells, not much. Keep your hopes balanced!!!!! 
And also, please, remember the spells have not been confirmed. We just saw them. Maybe they totally remove one, like seeker's swarm or lightning bolt, in order to make room for other spells and leave a coherent and consistent skill trees system.
@Kage: your post is scary so im going to just comment on the one part where you told me not to state my opinions then went ahead and stated yours. No. (edit) Also, I'm not a dog, no ones going to 'put me down' anytime soon un...unless someones payed for an assassin? Heh, he... you - you guys aren't trying to get me killed are you? 
(this was a joke 
)
@Kage: your post is scary so im going to just comment on the one part where you told me not to state my opinions then went ahead and stated yours. No. (edit) Also, I'm not a dog, no ones going to 'put me down' anytime soon un...unless someones payed for an assassin? Heh, he... you - you guys aren't trying to get me killed are you?
Oh, you mean about the necro tree? Don't take it bad mate, I'm just saying that everything we have seen points to the fact that specializations have 3 spells, just be aware of that. You are free to think whatever you want, and I can agree or like your guess, as long as it includes 3 actives only aprox, since that is what I believe we will get. 
Edit: LOL, im not english, maybe I used an incorrect expression? LOL xDD
I meant I dont want you to be disapointed later xD
@Kage: I don't even know where to begin with you post, and I'm a little overwhelmed, so I'll just say that, for the most part, I'm not really concerned about specific spells being in or out. My concern is with breadth, and a lot of fantasy rpg's do this thing where casters do nothing but throw out elemental powers. One of the things I love about DA is that they dare to go beyond that and have mages that have things like healing and hexes and buffs -- it offers interesting variety for builds over multiple playthroughs as well as fascinating tactical options (I.E. Merrill can blast enemies with lightning or she can hex a specific enemy so allies can move in on them - these are both interesting, different, and valid combat options).
I don't want to lose that. Now, I will say this: at least their elemental spells have interesting uses beyond deals damage. Lightning seems to have a lot of control elements to it with paralysis and static cage, and ice has always had those abilities (and now we have things like Wall of Ice). So that's definitely a pleasant thing to see.
I'm afraid, I guess, that if the focus is more on purely elemental stuff + Spirit, we will lose variety. Maybe it won't be that bad; I don't know. I like what I've seen, but they keep showing us fairly narrow builds with the same abilities, so there are at least a few surprises left. And we barely know anything about specializations, and I tend to forget about those (because I don't usually do much with them)...maybe I will enjoy them more this time around.
One thing that I'm very curious about is:
[snip][/snip]
- Let's call the blink spell something like "freeze time" and give it a lorely solution so the spells remains the same and it is a blink spell.
- Let's impose frost element to seeker's swarm, instead of letting it be decided by the staff.
- And a huge lot of etc. Maybe they even destroyed the Winter tree and called it discipline again, and leaving inferno. Who knows?
- A full inferno tree, with 5 fire spells: flash fire, fire mine, wall of fire, flash burst and firestorm.
- A winter tree, with 5 spells although I think this are less final: winter grasp (/cold snap), wall of ice, frost glyph, blink/teleport and a final one (we guess focus-blizzard, but I dont think it is confirmed)
- A messy lightning/entropy one, which included: chain lightning, lightning bolt, static cage, focus-haste, and a misterious one.
- A spirit tree with: barrier, dispel, and tree more spells.
Retour en haut
