15 réponses à ce sujet

[mikerm1985]

I like the combat system of DA2 but I still have trouble playing a mage as Hawke. I'm not sure what skill trees to use an I don't like blood magic. Can some one give me some pointers, advice or help.

[tirnoney]

It's a big topic for one post but I'll try to give you some pointers. The standard mage build for anyone wanting to play on the harder difficulties is primal and force. They synergise really well together and there is no friendly fire on nightmare. If you're playing on normal then elemental might be more fun. The problem is it has less utility, even though the spells look more powerful in the character build.

At the other end of the spectrum is a spirit healer build. Fully specced you'll be nigh invulnerable, but given that Hawke is capable of putting out more damage than any other party member regardless of class, you're sacrificing that and making the fights last longer while you keep your party healthy.

Most of the other trees are best left to experienced players who want to experiment with builds, apart from the 'horror' spell which is useful for controlling high damage bosses, and heal if you find potion tactics insufficient. Heroic aura upgraded is good as a high level character on hard difficulty and higher when critical hits become more useful.

Cross-class combos are the best way to make your mage unbeatable. The best ones are where your companions set them up and you complete them. e.g Fenris specced for high stagger chance. As soon as you see little stagger arrows above their heads, fire off upgraded chain lightning or fist of the maker and wipe them out. With upgraded petrify, you can do CCCs the other way around. Fenris/Carver with upgraded mighty blow can exploit that, but it's usually not as good as staggers because you can do more damage than your companions. The best approach is string them along one after the other. You can put it in tactics too. e.g. Fenris (Enemy:BRITTLE - Mighty Blow) If you put it at the top of their tactics, you'll rarely need to tell them to do it.

If you search for Force mage videos on youtube you'll demos of what it's capable of, but the basic idea is pull of the abyss to pile the enemies up in one spot, gravitic ring so they can't move, then chuck a thuderstorm on top of the whole mix, send in Fenris to stagger them all, then fist of the maker. Works on any difficulty setting.

It also helps to get the best staff for each act. e.g. Staff of the primal order in act 1. The biggest contribution to the basic damage of your spells is the DPS of your staff and your magic score. Pump magic and the bare minimum of willpower to equip the gear you want.

Personally, I hate being a squishy mage, so I almost always add in blood magic and pump constitution from level 14 onwards.

Don't ignore companion builds and who you choose for your party. It can make a big difference to your survivability. I tend to favour the ones I can exploit CCCs with. Fenris, Varric, Sebastian. Aveline only has upgraded shield bash for stagger but it's still a good way to take out bosses. You can also set up CCCs between your companions if you don't want to be stuck with the same party all the time. With the sabotage tree and upgraded pinning shot, Varric and Aveline can wipe out mobs in seconds leaving you to focus on the boss.

The default companion tactics are pretty awful in my experience. Aveline for instance is capable of impressive DPS if you turn off her shield defense and have Varric confusing everyone.

I hope that helps, but bear in mind that copying someone elses build only works if you share the same playstyle!

[mikerm1985]

Will it help by having all of the class item packs?

[tirnoney]

Yes, is the short answer. A lot of the items have level requirements which are quite generous. Aldenon's Vestments for example can be worn from level 17 and are better than the Champion's set you get in Act 3. There are two mage item packs but I can't remember which one it's in. One of them also contains Malcolm's Honor - a staff which levels up with the player. When you get to be high level it's arguably the best staff in the game. Some people say the packs ruin the fun of finding loot, but you can always choose not to use them in a later playthrough when you feel more confident.

All the packs come with jewelry restricted to your companions which also level up and a bunch of level up weapons similar to how Varric's crossbow works. Some people hate them but at the same time, some people hate having to continually check their companion's gear to change from a +44 attack ring to a +46 one.

It's also worth downloading all the special edition stuff. It's in one pack on the bioware site somewhere and it's free.

[mikerm1985]

I've been trying out the primal tree. Its been good so far. I was thinking about the spirit branch because I thought not many enemies have resistance to spirit damage. Is the spirit branch worth putting points into?

[Kalamah]

I play on casual, and usually as a mage. I mostly focus on elemental and force mage, with the rest put into creation or spirit healer, especially toward the end. I have a whole separate build for the Arishok fight that takes care of him within 15 minutes at most, but my average build tends to be a mix of crowd control/AoE and one-on-one. I find blood magic only useful in the last 1/3 of the game, and only if I've put enough points into constitution, as it's really only an alternative to mana and difficult to balance without careful management at least for me.

 

My favorite starting build is elemental/force mage, then later on creation/spirit healer. The DLC armor and weapons are a great bonus as well. As for attributes I put everything into magic/willpower, then dump the rest into constitution to at least 25 so my mage doesn't get shanked in one hit from later enemies. Really, the most important part of playing mage is to make sure the squishy mage stays out of enemy range for AoE's and stealthed backstabbing assassins, but still within range to pummel enemies with spells.  I only turn on spirit healer in large mob or boss fights, and only if my party is getting walloped.

[SerFowler]

With all the buzz from inquisition, I decided to replay through both Origins as well as DA2. In my newest playthrough of DA2, I made a full-on Creation/Spirit Healer Hawke, and she is pretty amazing. She has "Allure's Crook" from Sebastian's DLC as a weapon, and honestly, I haven't needed much of anything else.

 

With Glyph of Paralysis and Glyph of Repulsion, she has decent crowd control, add in Heroic Aura and Haste (with upgrades, of course) she has pretty good buffs as well. With the latter two in place, we (Female Hawke, Elemental-spec Anders, Sebastian, and Aveline) took out the Arishok and all of his men in less than a minute and a half. In fact, the increased speed from Haste lets Hawke cut down most enemies with just the staff most of the time, especially if they are the smaller, quarter-bar/"weak" enemies. Plus, with "Radiant Aura's" two upgrades (Faith and Radiance) I really only have to heal in boss battles and when something like a Saarebas or Blood Mage enters the picture (and that is if I don't paralyze them first).

 

All of that being said, I am about to face off against the final boss, and I have not given Hawke a single damaging spell in any tree. It's been a bit of a challenge, but it has been a fun one.

[tirnoney]

I've been trying out the primal tree. Its been good so far. I was thinking about the spirit branch because I thought not many enemies have resistance to spirit damage. Is the spirit branch worth putting points into?

It requires substantial investment of points to be properly useful. Some people love walking bomb though so it comes down to personal taste. For me it has always felt like the poor cousin to blood magic which has upgraded blood slave and grave robber (much better than death syphon since it doubles as a powerful offensive spell when upgraded).

Dispel magic is useful against Arcane horrors so I sometimes get it if I can't put them out of action long enough with petrify, horror and varric's pinning shot.

Spirit bolt has a short cooldown and can CC with disorient. Never found it particularly useful myself because my few experiments with a spirit tree build usually ended in a maker's sigh potion. I'd say investing a few points in the upper tree of elemental would be more useful. Can't think of any enemies off the top of my head that are resistant to both. Certainly not on hard or lower.

[Ferretinabun]

I've been trying out the primal tree. Its been good so far. I was thinking about the spirit branch because I thought not many enemies have resistance to spirit damage. Is the spirit branch worth putting points into?

 

The Spirit tree is generally pretty underwhelming. There simply aren't a lot of magic enemies (compared to, say, DA:O), so Dispel Magic is of limited use. If I recall correctly, there was some sort of bug with Death Syphon (which may or may not have been fixed in a patch). Walking Bomb is a lot of fun, and definitely viable when pared with the Force Mage tree, but you can achieve the same effect with other AOEs like Tempest or Firestorm. Spirit Bolt is very good because it is so cheap with a fast regen, so it is almost always available to sling out, but it comes right at the start of the Spirit tree. I often pick this spell up, but don't bother going any deeper into the tree.

[mikerm1985]

I need to get my mage set up for the duel with the Arishock once I complete Act 1. So force mage, blood mage and primal sound good?

[Elhanan]

Force magic has been an outstanding option for me; never have chosen Blood Magic. Force spec allows a little for selection or a lot, depending on what that Player wishes to utilize.

I often go with Primal and Elemental for the Magika Regen bonuses and effective spells, esp for AoE. Creation is also handy for filling in gaps not covered by other Mages chosen for the team. Arcane school is also something I often choose for the same reasons.

[tirnoney]

I need to get my mage set up for the duel with the Arishock once I complete Act 1. So force mage, blood mage and primal sound good?

Unfortunately the Arishok is irritatingly different from any other enemy in the game and probably one of the most difficult to beat with primal and force. He ignores most of the force spells for instance. If you don't want to respec just for that fight, then i'd avoid the duel and go for the full on battle with everyone instead.

There are lots of different techniques for the Arishok as a mage, but most of them involve kiting. It's not hard in that sense, just tedious. I usually stock up on combustion grenades and alternate that with the horror spell to keep him stunned. It gives you time to set up a thunderstorm around one of the pillars then just run around it as he chases you. Or you can respec with upgraded cone of cold, run a figure of 8 around the pillars firing off the spell every time it cools down. It's a boring technique but it's reliable. On hard or nightmare you need frost to get anywhere since he's resistant to electricity and fire.

[mikerm1985]

For now I'm the only mage in the team and I don't have any healers. So far so good on normal difficulty. So my party is mage Hawke, two warriors and varric.

[tirnoney]

For now I'm the only mage in the team and I don't have any healers. So far so good on normal difficulty. So my party is mage Hawke, two warriors and varric.

That's the sort of team I usually run with on hard or lower. I wouldn't worry too much about cross class combos until you get to act 2 anyway. Even on hard I don't bother with a healer (and frankly the only option is Anders and I find him hard to take), i just put health <25% use potion lines in everyone's tactics. Except Varric who gets <50% in his tactic since he loves to charge in to do a melee thing then dead. He also has a enemy rogue target painted on his back!

[mikerm1985]

Since I'm not a rogue I have to set Varric up towards picking locks. I need the exp and the loot so I can sell it. I'll have to add the potions to his tactics. I've had to have him use injury kits time to time. I'm saving the DLC missions till act 3 to maximize the xp gained.

[Kalamah]

This is just one of my own mage builds for the Arishok fight, on casual. Note that Force Mage might not have much effect on other difficulty settings, but on casual he seems to be slowed by it. The important thing is to keep him immobilized as much as possible, and to stay out of his melee range. For my fight I didn't have to kite around much at all and only used a health potion and two lyrium potions. He was only able to hit me all of three times total because I kept pummeling him with freeze/slow/etc. spells and then using Stonefist or some other offensive damage spell. I mainly used the radial menu to fire off spells too, which helped minimize the need to kite around the columns. Easier to stay out of his range when he's slowed/stunned than running when he's at full speed, I say.

 

Elemental: Winter's Grasp, Winter's Blast, Cone of Cold, Deep Freeze

Primal: Stonefist, Golem's Fist, Rock Armor

Creation: Glyph of Paralysis, Glyph of Binding, Glyph of Repulsion, Glyph of Defiance

Force Mage: Fist of the Maker, Maker's Hammer, Maker's Fury, Unshakable, Telekinetic Burst, Telekinetic Blast, Pull of the Abyss, Gravitic Ring

 

If there are any points left, you can put them in Creation's Heal or Spirit Healer. Or Blood Magic if you've got enough constitution and don't want to use lyrium potions. I didn't time my fight, but it didn't last all that long comparatively, and he went down within 15 minutes. As an alternative, I suppose you could use Arcane and Entropy instead of Force Mage, but I haven't tested the effectiveness personally. The best spells for him are those that deal damage and freeze/slow, or a mix of both, and be mindful of his resistances (fire and electricity are basically useless, and spirit isn't worth it either).

 

As for attributes, I'd recommend focusing on willpower/constitution and put the rest into magic, as the DLC armor and weapons don't have stat requirements.