The Focus spell takes one of the eight slots, but it seems It Can be used more then We thought, since if has three tiers that will likely be related to the aumont of focus you possess.
If the focus is something you just "get" if you fight really well, how can one prepare it in advance? Each class has a separate focus ability, though. So that means we are down to 7 abilities on the quick bar. I doubt anyone will ditch focus.
I am ok with the new combat mechanics but I do kinda wish the Potion count would be higher because I am very OCD and will explore everywhere and grind to lvl up and having to travel a good ways back to refill my 8 Potions all the time is gonna suck A**. 
I am ok with the new combat mechanics but I do kinda wish the Potion count would be higher because I am very OCD and will explore everywhere and grind to lvl up and having to travel a good ways back to refill my 8 Potions all the time is gonna suck A**.
You can upgrade the potion limit with an Inquisition perk. Probably not worth it for me, but it's your choice.
If the focus is something you just "get" if you fight really well, how can one prepare it in advance? Each class has a separate focus ability, though. So that means we are down to 7 abilities on the quick bar. I doubt anyone will ditch focus.
You can upgrade the potion limit with an Inquisition perk. Probably not worth it for me, but it's your choice.
Yeah I know and I will maybe the 8 will become 10 or 12 available for use. I think after getting my hands on the game and really get used to the Combat then the Potions might not a issue but only time will tell.
Spamming barrier/guard is also gonna' be even worse without automatic healing, because every time you don't do it in combat you are affecting the rest of your travel time. Where as choosing not to spam healing was only a problem during really difficult battles, and not literally 100% of all combat forever.
That's also because health regen existed and it meant that if a combat wasn't innately always threatening a complete party wipe, it was irrelevant with no risk.
That's also because health regen existed and it meant that if a combat wasn't innately always threatening a complete party wipe, it was irrelevant with no risk.
Quite true that. Full health regen after each combat wasn't all that cool a feature. Made the games too easy.
You know, I never really noticed that potion chugging/heal spam in DAO was really an issue. Did someone on the design team play Skyrim by accident and account for that instead?
You know, I never really noticed that potion chugging/heal spam in DAO was really an issue. Did someone on the design team play Skyrim by accident and account for that instead?
Potion chugging was ridiculous in DAO (doubly so since you could literally craft them while paused as long as you had the mats). Especially since the cooldown only applied to a specific type of potion meaning you could drink different potions (lesser/greater) in quick succession.
I wouldn't say that the heal spell was a huge issue, but the issue here is more the removal of health regen. Get rid of that but still have a heal spell and you've made people sit there casting a heal spell after fights.
Ugh...so I HAVE to have a mage in my party....
That's one thing I'm not liking about the change....the have to have a mage with.
The limited health potions....eh, but in Mass Effect your barriers would recharge if you took cover. Barriers drop and your health starts going down? Take cover! Recharge! Limited medi-gel capacity made you play smarter with duck and cover mechanics to recover.
That same thing doesn't appear to happen in DAI. You have to have a mage to cast barrier on your team, or some other sort of damage mitigation ability slotted. Or use your limited weapon/armor upgrade slots to do damage mitigation/guard increase (thinking of which....if you don't have guard slotted, would it even do you any good to have a +2 guard per hit slot in armor? I don't recall.....or is guard a passive and not a slotted/active ability? Or do we also have to have passives slotted into the 8 abilities to have them actually be 'in use'?)
So limited to 8 ability slots.....have to have a focus ability and a guard/barrier ability slotted.....so it really drops you down to an effective 6 ability slots.
(and I don't really get the mechanic of how Cass kills something and it builds the focus for Solas to use a spell...do we have a red thread of destiny linking us all?)
Potion chugging was ridiculous in DAO (doubly so since you could literally craft them while paused as long as you had the mats). Especially since the cooldown only applied to a specific type of potion meaning you could drink different potions (lesser/greater) in quick succession.
I wouldn't say that the heal spell was a huge issue, but the issue here is more the removal of health regen. Get rid of that but still have a heal spell and you've made people sit there casting a heal spell after fights.
Why is this a negative?
Why is this a negative?
Because it's just a more tedius form of health regen. It's like how BG2 realized people just cast their heals before resting, so automated it.
I still don't want to tank, so I question the value of Barrier and Shield. Ideally, no one will be hitting me.
Because it's just a more tedius form of health regen. It's like how BG2 realized people just cast their heals before resting, so automated it.
You could say the same about returning to camp to restock healing potions. I like the change, but some people will do anything to regain full health after a fight, and if it's tedious they'll complain about it even though the game is balanced to remove that need. I suspect that if I didn't know about the rationale for this change in advance, I'd be in that group.
I still don't want to tank, so I question the value of Barrier and Shield. Ideally, no one will be hitting me.
From the (muted) gameplay videos I've seen, I think encounters are designed in such a way to be quite easily exploited with a well-planned combination of CC and ranged (AOE) attacks.
Bosses I think will still (sadly) tend toward the same type of platforming element as in DA2, but at least the regular encounters will be very much approachable with an (almost) all ranged party.
You could say the same about returning to camp to restock healing potions. I like the change, but some people will do anything to regain full health after a fight, and if it's tedious they'll complain about it even though the game is balanced to remove that need. I suspect that if I didn't know about the rationale for this change in advance, I'd be in that group.
It wasn't my intention to say that any feature that takes time should be eliminated; just that healing after battle in a game where mana regenerates is just a needless mechanic - you could simply have health regenerate.
You could say the same about returning to camp to restock healing potions. I like the change, but some people will do anything to regain full health after a fight, and if it's tedious they'll complain about it even though the game is balanced to remove that need. I suspect that if I didn't know about the rationale for this change in advance, I'd be in that group.
There's a very fine line between "This is a good mechanic they threw in for balance" and "This is just needless busywork they threw in to waste time". I'll save my opinion for the game, but between all the other switching these new systems are adding, it's seeming more akin to the latter.
This, the ability slot limits and having to mess with tactics every time you want to reset anything or change weapons, the attributes being entirely gear-driven, etc.
There's a very fine line between "This is a good mechanic they threw in for balance" and "This is just needless busywork they threw in to waste time". I'll save my opinion for the game, but between all the other switching these new systems are adding, it's seeming more akin to the latter.
This, the ability slot limits and having to mess with tactics every time you want to reset anything or change weapons, the attributes being entirely gear-driven, etc.
I like this a lot.
It removes most of the reasons I don't like auto-health and mana systems. It does feel weird that there's not gonna be any healing spells, for 'realistic' reasons. I mean, we're in a world of magic, and there should be healing magic. It's customary. In novels as well as games. But if you're gonna have mana, that could be the way.
What will seem to happen now, is that strategic concerns will have to spread out over several fights. Just like in BG and IWD. I like this a lot. It feels much more like role-play and less than clearing a typical videogame level. 'Locking' areas with high level enemies is also something I've asked for. Brilliant.
So far, I'm very happy. ...Now, the combat animations, otoh... But <sigh>, I suppose I'll have to say that if you made the above for me, I can live with that you made the animations for someone else, and just suck it up.
Have they confirmed the game does not let us memorize ability loadouts?
I haven't heard a peep neither confirming nor denying it, so until then I'm taking it as a "no".
There is an healing spell. Yes, it's focus based, but it's still a spell that heals people. Regardless of the problem lorewise about a spell that doesn't require mana, there's still one in the game.I like this a lot.
It removes most of the reasons I don't like auto-health and mana systems. It does feel weird that there's not gonna be any healing spells, for 'realistic' reasons. I mean, we're in a world of magic, and there should be healing magic. It's customary. In novels as well as games. But if you're gonna have mana, that could be the way.
What will seem to happen now, is that strategic concerns will have to spread out over several fights. Just like in BG and IWD. I like this a lot. It feels much more like role-play and less than clearing a typical videogame level. 'Locking' areas with high level enemies is also something I've asked for. Brilliant.
So far, I'm very happy. ...Now, the combat animations, otoh... But <sigh>, I suppose I'll have to say that if you made the above for me, I can live with that you made the animations for someone else, and just suck it up.
I think the greatest benefit that the new health system offers is add gravity to your decisions to help with events that don't effect your grander mission. Like that town that Varric wanted to save in the demo video. Normally I'd go for the ultimate good-guy approach, saving everyone, having my cake and eating it too, because that decision has never really had much at stake, other than maybe pissing off Morrigan by being too helpful.
In DAO and DA2, if someone came out of the woods and asked me to save her cat from a giant, I'd be like "LEAD ME TO THINE CAT."
In DAI, if I'm running low on potions and there's an actual mission to do... "Sorry, Whiskers."
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