191 réponses à ce sujet

[Matth85]

Suddenly got an urge to play another playthrough ( or 5...) of DA:I. I should get them recorded, and get some quick videos of each of my builds!

[kamia34]

Question for you Matth. On your optimal run through, do you save codexs until you've aquired the codex perks, and in that note do you get 2 codex perks before deft hands? My other question is, do you do the hinterlands in its entirety before you move on to stormcoast/fallowmarsh and dont even bother with main story quests until you reach 12? Just want to know what you do exactly for your runs, I saw it in a thread earlier but just want more clear info haha. Thanks again!

[Matth85]

Yes and no. Out of reach codexes I take when I get them, but I generally wait until I get 2 codex perks before I grab them. This means I turn 12 either just before the Ferelden Frostback, or right after.

 

I do everything but the level 12 rifts and level 12 area in Hinterlands. The only main story I really do, is to get to the Val Royeaux. Generally, this is my route:

 

I go down south in the Hinterlands, and do every quest available to me. I take out the level 8 rift if I play a class that can (ala; I do it on my mage and archer). Then I move upwards to the horsemaster, doing every quest on the way. I go down to the crossroad, then clear out up to Redcliff. By now I go to Val Royeaux, unlock Redcliff and I proceed in Hinterlands. I clear out every quest, and close all rifts but the level 12 one. Finally I go to the level 8 area to the west (At about level 6). 

To end the run off I go to that dwarven ruin (I forgot the name!) and clear that one as well. 

This takes about 4-4,5 hours on average. I am not speed running and I end at level 7.

 

Then I head over to Storm Coast. A full clear of storm coast (Including that rebel mage side quest for the Mighty Offense tonic!) takes an hour.

 

Then I do the Oasis. It's very quick, yet chaotic. 45 minutes for a full clear, and I get to choose 1 of the doors to get to the end of. The fire one gives me a 30% fire resistance belt and a master fire rune (Which I use on Bianca, by the way!), which helps for the incoming dragon fight! At this point I got enough Perks for the Deft hand. I also got 2x Codex perks and all I need now is the extra potion perk. So I backtrack to Hinterlands, open the 3(I think) doors with Deft Hand, close the 3 level 12 rift and smile -- Hinterland is now 98% complete. Only a a few collectibles and a dragon to slay! 

 

Lastly I do the Mire. It's rather difficult, but since you can fast travel to each of the points I can safely chug 8 potions per waypoint and deal with the Terror Demons and undead spawn. I do all the quests, find all the places and loot all the stuff. 

 

Now I am level 11, with everything done but a couple of things in Hinterlands and the main questline(Templar or Mages). First I make sure I got enough inquisition perk for the extra 4 potions. Not needed -- but can help me! I surely needed them when I had to deal with the bloody dragon using a level 9 and a level 1 dagger on my dw rogue no-craft run!

Anyways. I go to Val Rouyeaux and get all the codex entires. I buy the Mystery Box (What else to spend the money on? ) and get every codex entry. I then go to Haven and get all codex entries. If things goes well, I reach level 12. If not, I am just a bar from level 12. 

 

Then I head over the hinterlands, use the save-load trick (Run in to the dragon area. Save. Wait for her to fly and be a pain, then quick load. Now she doesn't bother me!) and collect the remaining collectibles. I kill some dragonlings and explore the area. Finally.. Finally I head over and beat the High Dragon until she falls over Then I loot what's around her. Smile. Save.

 

That's my runs, using the builds listed. No complications anywhere! The only difficult areas, not counting the dragon herself, is when entering the level 8 area of Hinterlands at level 6. The 3 Great Bears tend to attack at once, and they can take ages. Varric hitting for 20 per hit, my Two level 1 daggers hitting for 1-2, Solas only having Frost spells and Cassandra not built for damage. My trick there is to lure them to the base camp, and just rest every time Cassandra is about to die. 

The second difficult area is the dwarf area. Especially the lower part where you open  the door and fight 2-3x archers, 1 assassin and 1 mauler. My trick to survive that (If I ran out of potions.. which i have lots of times!) is to run up the stairs. They phase out, and I can resurrect my team. Cheap.. but otherwise I got to run out, heal, and redo!

 

A few things to notice.

 

- There is a masterwork Tier 2 greatsword schematic are Mire. You can grab that very early!

- There are 2, big, chest near the Templar encampment in Hinterlands than can spawn Tier 2 schematics. If you want to farm that, you can just save/load there.

- There is another chest at the south, near the tower which lets you transit from the lower part of the area to the top, which can drop tier 2 schematics.

- I end up with 5 inquisiton perks. 3 in Secrets (Optimal Cutting, Arcane Knowledge and Deft Hand), 2 in Force (Underworld Knowledge and More Healing Potions) and 

- I don't really craft myself. I have, however, done a few runs using crap equipment. It's possible, even on nightmare!

- I am not going to lie. I don't actually do 100% runs. I am missing a few pieces of the Mosaics. I do, however, get everything gameplay-related as efficient as possible!

[Duelist]

So question (although more a bump for a great thread if I'm honest): am I the only one who finds the value of Full Draw rather dubious?

[Matth85]

So question (although more a bump for a great thread if I'm honest): am I the only one who finds the value of Full Draw rather dubious?

Early game (1-9, or so) it's a godsend. 2k crit at level 5. 3,3k crit at level 9.

As an assassin it's a godsend.

 

Otherwise it does fall a bit off. An artificer will be spamming leaping shot on big enemies, and Long shot. A tempest doesn't got the time to be spamming it either.

Well, that is not counting the bug. Nothing beats 2x full draw on pull. That's 2x wraiths/archers dead on initiation!

 

As you get more levels, it's less likely to 1-shot at initiation, at which it's only value is as a wraith/archer killer, or as a filler in between long shot spam as an artificer.

I like it, though! Although it's getting exponentially worse as the levels grows --> It is always a solid initiator and a way to thin out a rift quickly!

[shazza53]

Thanks again, Matth85. I used your thread to help with my archer, and now my 2H Warrior.

I also read your post about your pre12 activities with interest. I've been following a similar path in my playthroughs, but I usually get to Skyhold at Level 8 or so. This is not too difficult if you craft and buy Tier 2 Schematics in Val Royeaux as soon as you have enough gold. I enjoy that there are so many ways to play the game.

[Sugarkills]

Thanks for posting these builds, have definitely helped me thus far.

 

Quick question, The 2 chests in The Hinterlands that can spawn Tier 2 schematics. Are these the ones in the templar camp near the waterfall with the Ironbark loot mount or is it a different camp?

 

Thanks

[Sugarkills]

Might be blind but didn't see an edit option. 

 

Backtracking my progress and have found 2 bigger chests at the camps before the main camp and assume these are in fact the mentioned chests.

[Matth85]

They are both at the road, near the encampment. One is near the little camp containing lots of archers, the other besides the 2 templar knights.

These chest are bigger than the others.

[RVallant]

Looks like some good builds.

 

I've been away for a while, has the AI use of skills been patched/fixed? Last I recall they were utterly dire with them. 

 

So, do these builds work with the AI too? Not much of a fan of tac-cam.

[Matth85]

The Ai is as terrible as always.

 

They work fine for the party members as well! I only use tact-cam in High Dragon fights early game (well. One High Dragon that is). Otherwise they all go on auto pilot. 

I got a few tips though:

 

- Don't use a melee-heavy team. AI sucks at melee. Run with:

 

You

Tank

Support mage

Archer/Second, dps, mage.

 

I personally run with:

 

Me - As any dps build/class.

Cassandra - Tank. I swap her out for Blackwall after Skyhold, as he allows for higher dps output via Champion tree!

Varric - I can't stand the others, and Varric is awesome. He becomes even better once he gets Artificer, and start decemating stuff!

Solas - I like the dude, okay! He's also the perfect support mager with Rift mage after Skyhold. Oh, and gets a free skill point as early as Hinterlands. That helps!

 

 

- Make sure you disable abilities that is not needed or innefficient!

 

Varric will run into melee if he got any sort of trap abilitites. He will also shoot himself down ledges constantly with leaping ****. Solas will dispel to unleash combos, which is a waste of a stun, mana and a dispel! Disable! 

 

- Potion discipline.

 

Make sure nobody but the tank, and maybe the support mage, can drink potions. Trust me. The other team members are not vital, and you can manually do a quick pause - click - heal - click pack- unpause within half a second if it's a crisis. 

 

- Reserve stamina.

 

Make sure the reserve stamina/mana is set to about 50% for the tank and support mage. You need that mana for when barrier or CL is back up. The stamina is needed when the taunts are off CD. Nothing is worse than a lose enemy wailing on your sorry ass, and the tank just used the stamina on some trivial damage ability. 

 

- The AI is horrible, and handles classes at a different level of efficiency.

 

Support Mage - good.

Damage Mage - OK.

 

Tank warrior - good.

Dps warrior - Very mediocre. They rush in and get killed half the time though.

 

Archer Rogue - Good.

DW rogue - Horrible, terrible, awful. Never do this. The AI can't handle it at all. The whole DW rogue playstyle is a risk/reward playstyle meant for the player, apparently. 

[ebevan91]

This is a good thread. I've been using some of OP's builds during my current playthrough which is still pre-Skyhold.

[Matth85]

Can't have this drop off the first page! What's the point then?

[Matth85]

Question to the masses: Are these builds still viable? I haven't played in a while, but am willing to run a few runs through pre skyhold to update them if necessary.

[Bigdawg13]

I still use them as my go-to pre-skyhold.  I haven't noticed any problems.

[capn233]

Question to the masses: Are these builds still viable? I haven't played in a while, but am willing to run a few runs through pre skyhold to update them if necessary.

 

These builds still work pretty well.

 

I wanted to mention one minor thing, although it doesn't really affect the progression.

 

Player SnS warrior does start with War Cry and Payback Strike, but Cassandra actually starts with Payback Strike, Shield Wall and Challenge.  Not sure exactly why that is, but that is what she has.

 

Oh and my experience is that they largely work fine with FF on, although with a couple caveats.  AI shouldn't run the DPS Fire Mage or 2H Warrior, especially the latter.

 

DPS Storm is nearly set and forget, unless you do the optional switch of Winter's Grasp for Chain Lightning.  Chain Lightning is basically the only ability I would label as "unusable" for an FF on run.  I agree that the damage isn't particularly high early game compared to FM build.

[Bigdawg13]

Wondering with patch 10 if livid should be worked into 2h

[Dabrikishaw]

Livid is fine for a 2hander.

[Bigdawg13]

Livid is fine for a 2hander.

I never said it wasn't. Did you even look at the OPs post / guide for 2h pre-skyhold?

[Dabrikishaw]

I have plenty of times, that's why I gave the answer I did. 

 

From War Cry to Charging Bull to It'll Cost You to Livid and it's upgrade, 5 points. At level 12 you'll have 13-14 ability points depending on class, so let's say the remaining 8 points (for non humans) can be put into Might Blow+Upgrade, Grappling Chain+Upgrade, Block and Slash to Flow of Battle to Pommel Strike, and either upgrade Charging Bull or get Crippling Blows. 

 

This is just an example of course. 

[Bigdawg13]

Sorry I didn't see it in the OP guide. Hmmm I still don't. Maybe Matt doesn't agree with you.

[capn233]

Wondering with patch 10 if livid should be worked into 2h

 

I was thinking about that, but it is somewhat expensive pre-Skyhold probably.

 

To create a decent build path that has Livid relatively early is going to be a bit different than OP, which mainly works with Chain->MB with supporting passives.  Given that crit chance is kind of low early anyway, maybe you can get away with delaying the left side of the 2H tree to pick up Livid around 12.  Or you could delay Combat Roll and try to get away with BnS and CB.  My first 2H used those and no roll.

[Dabrikishaw]

Sorry I didn't see it in the OP guide. Hmmm I still don't. Maybe Matt doesn't agree with you.

I wouldn't expect it to be in the guide at all, I only posted an example build just now.

[Bigdawg13]

I wouldn't expect it to be in the guide at all, I only posted an example build just now.

"I have plenty of times, that's why I gave the answer I did."

[Dabrikishaw]

"I have plenty of times, that's why I gave the answer I did."

That didn't meant I haven't used his builds before, I was answering your questing about seeing the first post in the topic. 

 

I don't know what's causing this disagreement, so I'll just apologize if I had a misunderstanding. I don't want to get into an argument with you.