25 réponses à ce sujet

[SomeoneStoleMyName]

For me it has been first and foremost - wall of fire. Playing on nightmare, this skill really helped more than I thought, and was powerful throughout the game. The damage is ok, nothing grand, but its ability to chain-panic foes constantly makes this an extremely good survival tool. It also prevents guard enemies to regain guard. When guard is down they are vulnerable to chain-panic until dead.

The synergy with fire mine, flashfire and other party members is fantastic. Using flashfire and firewall would constantly send enemies back and forth in a constant panic and into my fire mines if the fire mine wasnt positioned right. 

The other is static cage, it synergizes well with energy barrage, dots and can really destroy enemies. 

I havent played rogue or warrior enough yet. Feel free to share any skill or passive you found lackluster or underwhelming on paper but really provided bang for its buck.

[konfeta]

I was pleasantly surprised by Stonefist and Fadestep.

 

Stonefist upgrade makes it into a very universal spell rather than the filler single target nuke I expected it to be; and I initially assumed that Fadestep was a vanilla forward facing blink - the fact that you can change direction mid-port and disjoint enemy attacks with it was a fun discovery.

[Battlebloodmage]

Fade step helps me immersely against those annoying Despair demons.

[Matth85]

Dispel.

At first I never bothered. I could manage. But then I saw it.. you can dispel enemies coming out of rifts. I can pick off 1 or 2 incoming razge demons/terror demons. It also makes life so much easier when **** put barrier up, as they become immune to CC. 

My life became so much easier, on nightmare, when I started using dispel!

[GhoXen]

I figured that I had a very reasoned approach to abilities, and indeed many of the abilities I initially preferred turned out to be excellent or essential, such as ensuring all characters have Combat Roll/Evade/Fade Step or something similar.

 

The only ability which I truly underestimated is "To the Death". Initially I thought the ability would be unusable on Nightmare due to enemy's damage output. However, after discovering how easy it is to cap enemy's damage to 1 dmg per hit on my tank, To the Death combined with Bodyguard, Walking Fortress (usually after 30+ seconds) and Counterstrike has made my tank a super damage buff machine. The rewards are amazing, and now my tank is actually capable of dying if I play poorly.

[Hellnhavoc]

Will the AI use combat roll? 

[Selea]

Will the AI use combat roll? 

Yep and either efficiently. The AI is very good at using skills like Evade, Fade Step, Combat Roll and Shield Wall; practically all the defensive skills it uses well. Less so active skills, sadly.

[Matth85]

Odd. I have yet to see Cassandra use combat roll, so I figured the AI couldn't handle the awesomeness and usefulness of rollin'. I might need to give it another shot then!

[Hellnhavoc]

One that I have been wondering about is "warrior within" do you gain stamina as you lose guard?  The game defines guard as extra health so I wondering if it works withit? Wondering if it is even worth grabbing if my tank is only losing guard/barrier and not health.

[Jackal19851111]

Mark of death, I did plenty of damage with Twin Fangs/Hidden Blades/Spinning Blades so I didn't get it until the very end when I was simply putting points whereever at level 23.

 

Then I managed to do 20K damage in one burst and doubled it with mark of death (Seeing 20K damage onscreen made me go "holy crap!")

[GhoXen]

One that I have been wondering about is "warrior within" do you gain stamina as you lose guard?  The game defines guard as extra health so I wondering if it works withit? Wondering if it is even worth grabbing if my tank is only losing guard/barrier and not health.

 

Nope. Guard works like Health in function, but it's never defined as Health. All items/abilities that work with Health will only work with Health.

[knownastherat]

Horror, Mind Blast, Dispel. 

[Hellnhavoc]

Thanks GhoXen.  It seems a bit on the pointless side then.  Do you guys push in to the Battle Master tree at all on your tanks?  I was thinking the horns might be worthwhile?

[Magma_Axis]

Thanks GhoXen.  It seems a bit on the pointless side then.  Do you guys push in to the Battle Master tree at all on your tanks?  I was thinking the horns might be worthwhile?

Nope, just standard SnS tree with taunts from Vanguard tree, then switch to spec when available

[Adhin]

I go in Battlemaster only for 2 things. Combat Roll and Crits Weaken enemies. It's easy to get a little crit chance on anyone, and 20%+ pretty much ensures everythings weakened rather consistently through fights. Which ultimately results in easier tanking for your tanks. The horns would be useful though, the issue is having enough active skills though. Chances are your going to want most if not all your skills from a specialization which leaves you with 5 active skills to use. Add in Counter or Shield wall, combat roll and a taunt and that's now down to 2 skills. Oh add Focus skill into it (weather you go with the mark or your specializations focus) and you only have 1 more active remaining.

 

Personally, I prefer Charging Bull over any of the other skills. It's extremely useful for closing distances, building guard, and repositioning. It's kinda a universal survival skill with bonus CC.

[GhoXen]

I also think people tend to underestimate passives in general. Although some passives are indeed merely marginal improvements over the active ability, most passives completely change how the active ability works and should be used.

 

For example, "Elegant Defense" completely wrecks the usage potentials for Barrier.

[Basheda]

For example, "Elegant Defense" completely wrecks the usage potentials for Barrier.

 

Does you really mean "Elegant Defense"? Its the Barrier upgrade and no passive and I dont see the potential of this upgrade so I never trained this upgrade on any mage.

[Jester]

Fade Step and Dispel. 

In DA2 dispel was pretty much useless - here it's one of the most flexible spells. Removes burning from companions after badly placed Fire Mine, dispels enemy barriers, makes Rifts' second wave easier...

And Fade step is just brilliant. The best among mobility skills I think, evades AOE, Terrors, dodges projectiles, escapes from malee range... And looks cool as hell. 

 

Oh, and Shield Wall. In previous titles it was just a sustain giving some passive bonuses to armor and defense, Good, but nothing special. Here it's more like "I'm immortal, as long as I have stamina". 

[WillieStyle]

Upgraded Fade step. Mobility, crowd control and sets up combos.

Upgraded Hook and Tackle. The mobility upgrade is a game changer. And it helps deal with two of the most annoying enemy types in the game: teleporting mages, and archers on higher ground.

Upgraded Flank attack. Mediocre mobility, and unreliable damage. But it grants invulnerability frames, can put you in flanking position, activated stealth, and still deals damage. Great skill. It's the "avoid big bad enemies move of death" that evade was supposed to be.

[octavian1127]

The whole Templar tree. The passives are great for making your whole party tankier.

[Shallyah]

Flashpoint. 
 
Chaining two spells of your choice in a row is really overpowered. Even my frost mage has Flashpoint, as the investment needed to get it is minimal (just 2 ability points).
 
Double Barriers in time of need, double Dispels to get rid of half a Rift before it even spawns, double Fadestep to get out of anything, Revive someone without triggering its cooldown so you have it ready for another emergency (it's a 1 minute cooldown, that one), et cetera. And the best of all is, it procs every 10 seconds, which is a shorter cooldown that what most spells have.
 
When I first took Flashpoint I thought it'd be useful, but if I had to choose one single talent point that has carried me through Nightmare, that'd be the one.

[themaxzero]

For me it has been first and foremost - wall of fire. Playing on nightmare, this skill really helped more than I thought, and was powerful throughout the game. The damage is ok, nothing grand, but its ability to chain-panic foes constantly makes this an extremely good survival tool. It also prevents guard enemies to regain guard. When guard is down they are vulnerable to chain-panic until dead.

The synergy with fire mine, flashfire and other party members is fantastic. Using flashfire and firewall would constantly send enemies back and forth in a constant panic and into my fire mines if the fire mine wasnt positioned right. 

The other is static cage, it synergizes well with energy barrage, dots and can really destroy enemies. 

I havent played rogue or warrior enough yet. Feel free to share any skill or passive you found lackluster or underwhelming on paper but really provided bang for its buck.

 

Fire Wall for me too. Such an awesome control.

[Kage]

Ice mine, when I saw it I thought it was pretty bad considering we have winter grasp, but after realizing it can freeze multiple enemies at the same time, it won me over.

It is quite fun to use, rewarding, and set ups combos for burst or CCs several mobs.

 

It is not the best spell, but has surprised me.

 

Wall of fire I knew it was OP the moment I read it, but seeing how the AI behaves, it is just awesome. Instead of chaging targets if you are behind a wall of fire, they will try to get you over and over, renewing the DoT and getting panicked all the time... Beautiful sight.

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

Flashpoint. 

 

Chaining two spells of your choice in a row is really overpowered. Even my frost mage has Flashfire, as the investment needed to get it is minimal (just 2 ability points).

 

Double Barriers in time of need, double Dispells to get rid of half a Rift before it even spawns, double Fadestep to get out of anything, Revive someone with triggering its cooldown so you have it ready for another emergency (it's a 1 minute cooldown, that one), et cetera. And the best of all is, it procs every 10 seconds, which is a shorter cooldown that what most spells have.

 

When I first took Flashpoint I thought it'd be useful, but if I had to choose one single talent point that has carried me through Nightmare, that'd be the one.

 

 

I don't think I'll ever have a mage Inquisitor without Flashpoint + Clean Burn.

[Sevitan7]

Stone Fist, mostly because the upgrade doesn't tell you that damage is AoE too. Nice strong AoE Debuff on a low cooldown that ensures you have unlimited mana as a Rift Mage, couldn't be happier with it.