26 réponses à ce sujet

[Reef_Raider]

So I finished the game on normal difficulty with over 150 hours on my completionist playthrough as a dual wielding Dalish...I decided that I would replay the game on nightmare (somewhat to get the trophy) on a second playthrough.

I'm in the Hinterlands as a level 7 sword and shield human and had a question as to most people's opinion when playing on nightmare....

I'm finding my companions almost entirely useless in larger battles...sometimes worse than useless...I understand the concept of the tactical camera, but find it cumbersome and not extremely helpful. I'm by no means claiming to be an excellent player; however, I have played many RPGs especially Bioware's offerings on their highest difficulty setting without as much frustration.

I understand the concept of builds, schematics, crafting, finding the potions recipes...and have developed my character with a high guard potential with a Mage to cast barriers for additional protection. That said...my companions are completely overwhelmed upon entry in Witchwood or exploring where the great bears roam in the Hinterlands...

Is it possible to avoid complete handholding of companions through the use of the tactical camera or is this something I should come to accept as reality on Nightmare?!...I really enjoyed the queue system of the KOTOR series and the advanced tactics options of DA:O significantly more than the current tactical camera...

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated!

[Arvaarad]

Since this is the first Dragon Age game without level scaling, you sometimes have to be cautious about where you wander. Enemies 4 or more levels above you get a massive damage bonus. Unless you are very prepared, with unusually good gear and builds, it's best to avoid them.

Come back to those areas of the Hinterlands after you've gained a few levels.

[goofyomnivore]

Have you set their behaviors/tactics? Like setting their stamina/mana threshold to 0%, and putting useful abilities on preferred such as Stealth, Fade Step, Evade, Combat Roll, Shield Wall, Barrier, etc. I'd also have them follow themselves to prevent them from follow you (the tank) into close quarters.

 

I play on Nightmare, and the only fight I found micromanaging my companions was the Ferelden Frostback (fought pre Skyhold) and the trebuchet fight in Haven. Other than that I play in real time 99% of the time.

 

Binding the "attack target" button to something easily pressed (I use alt) helps your allies focus fire stuff you want them to quickly and easily. Dunno if you can do this on console.

 

The easiest way to play through the earlier levels imo is play as Varric or Sera when you open fights then just press F1 (dunno what it would be on a console), and go back to your Inquisitor. Varric/Sera can crit for 2k+ at around level 6 with Full Draw. It pretty much deletes any non Elite from the fight, and any Elite is half life.

 

Have your mage get Barrier and then rush Fire Mine (you can have both at level 6 iirc). Bears will melt, set those two skills to preferred. I dunno honestly the best defense is a good offense. With Full Draw and Fire Mine things will die before the enemy AI can beat up on your party AI.

[MaxxSteele]

Yea like goofy said check the behaviors\tactics and set the ones you want them to use to preferred, even turn some off if needed. Before you get your specialization is probably the hardest part of Nightmare. Probably Varric, Sera, Solus and you as the tank would be best combo. Set Solus to follow himself and Varric and Sera to Defend Solus. You should be able to agro most the enemies and the rogues for dmg and should keep range and protect Solus.

[shazza53]

I am not a particularly strong player, and have completed Nightmare without touching the tac cam. But, I do prefer ranged Inquisitors - makes it a little easier in the early game.

I agree, tackling the Apostates, great Bears, and some of the rifts in The Hinterlands are difficult until later in the game. What about your gear? Have you crafted or found decent armor and weapons?

[Reef_Raider]

I have set companion behaviors...such as setting mana/stamina threshold to 0 and setting their best abilities to preferred. Not sure if this is the best pairing...but I am the tank, have Cass as tank (focused on abilities to gain her guard so far), Solas, and Varric.

I am a completionist by nature and haven't ventured out of the Hinterlands to this point after unlocking Red Cliff to speak with the Mages. I know there are some spots (level 12) fade rifts come to mind that are just better skipped until later...But was a little disheartened that I think I'm doing a decent job and my party seems to enjoy walking into every Mage trap and nearly insta-die.

I've crafted the best weapons and armor that I've happened to stumble on, but again at this point in the game that isn't a whole lot. I'd say...I only have maybe (8-10) completed quests in the Hinterlands with way more open as I really enjoy being thorough and finding/reading all Codex entries as I stumble on them...

I can certainly still spend time in the Hinterlands completing quests...but maybe I'd be more productive in another low level area at this point.

Again appreciate the responses!

[Elhanan]

I have read it is recommended to only set Defensive Tactics to Preferred; not all of the favored ones. And in Behavior, set Companions to Follow themselves, or possibly ranged Companions to Follow the Tank of choice; most suggest the former. I personally recommend lowering Potion consumption to 20% to save on elixirs.

[kstarler]

One suggestion that I have for the early game is to be sure to bring along some regen potions on each character. The other stuff isn't going to be as useful until you get it upgraded, and the extra healing during or between battles can help considerably.

 

Also, I find in my own playing that having the order buttons in a place that they can be used easily (attack and disengage specifically) can be very helpful. Focusing down the small guys and cc'ing the bigger guys where possible is a good way to reduce potion consumption and increase overall survivability, and using disengage will allow you to move at normal speed in combat when you need to reposition/kite bigger enemies.

 

Finally, having a mage or two with dispel can greatly reduce the difficulty in closing early rifts.

[Biotic Flash Kick]

If you are sword and Shield get blackwall ASAP and make him SnS

having two tanks 1 ranged rogue and 1 mage will make the game much easier

 

and set your party's potion threshold to 5/6 at 8 potions 8/9 at 12 total potions and make the range character follow themself

 

varric follows varric

and disable melee or close range skills like throw daggers / poison cloud / caltrops / spirit blade

 

also disable fade step/evade because rouges and mages will actually go into melee combat instead of avoiding attacks

 

the AI is truly horrible 

 

and stock everyone up on regen potions and healing mist grenades 

 

also disengaging and running away will keep your butt alive and if you run away far enough your party will 'teleport' to you

[MaxxSteele]

Going to Val Royeaux and Redcliffe Village for the merchants to get tier 2 schematics and more potion\tonic\grendade options would be my suggestion. Val Royeaux is recommended lvl 4-7 on the war map. Whether you recruit Sera and Viv you could always do that later.

[iheartbob]

I am playing on Nightmare for the very first time myself and these are the general things/tactics I have been using:

 

1. Some areas are simply going to kick your bum. Especially pre-Skyhold. I generally avoided tackling rifts one level higher than me until I was about level 10 or so. If you can't beat it, don't beat yourself over the head. Come back later.

2. Getting the fade touched obsidian in the beginning is a god send. Use it on weapons that you can switch out between party members. There's also an exploit you can use where you don't take everything out of a chest and you can come back to that chest later and all the items will be back. There's a chest in one of the locked doors in Redcliffe Village that has one fade touched obsidian. Take it and leave everything else. Return periodically when you need to craft new armor/weapons with it. Getting that "+3 guard on hit" masterwork has pretty much saved me on Nightmare, especially with squishy mages and rogues. I always make sure my entire party has the fade touched obsidian on either a weapon or armor.

3. I run with the typical 3 ranged, 1 tank party set-up. Eventually I'll play around with it when I'm at a higher level and start changing things up, like using Sera as a DW instead of archer. I played around with her as a DW with her tempest skills on Hard and had an obscene amount of fun playing her.

4. Regen potions are your friend, especially in dragon fights.

5. Post-Skyhold is much easier. If you can make it to Skyhold you'll be good.

6. I still like to try and be two levels higher than the recommended "highest" level for the early main quests. Again, that changes after Skyhold.

 

Using all of these, I don't use tactical camera nearly as much as I thought I would need to. I still use it for positioning or to set up combos/AOE spells, or if the situation is starting to get a little harry. But for the most part, I don't have to do too much baby sitting.

 

If you find the "[Builds] Matth's Pre-Skyhold Builds" thread on this forum, it is really helpful for setting up your party and yourself Pre-Skyhold. I used it for Cassandra, Sera/Varric and my mage (I went the storm mage route) and it was really helpful.

 

Hope that helps.

[arkngt]

Enemies 4 or more levels above you get a massive damage bonus.

 

Exactly how big is this damage bonus from higher leveled enemies? My Lvl 15 team took on Northern Hunter (Lvl 13) on nightmare and it was quite easy - no one in the party even had to take a health potion. One level later I tried Vinsomer (Lvl 19) and he wiped the floor with my team. Sure, he has twice as much health as Northern Hunter, but that wasn't the problem. It took him one attack to kill Sera, for example. After a couple of minutes there was only two left and all health potions were gone.

 

In short, is there a formula for how much extra damage higher leveled enemies do (Vinsomer did have the red skull signifying enemies that you should beware of)?

[Biotic Flash Kick]

Exactly how big is this damage bonus from higher leveled enemies? My Lvl 15 team took on Northern Hunter (Lvl 13) on nightmare and it was quite easy - no one in the party even had to take a health potion. One level later I tried Vinsomer (Lvl 19) and he wiped the floor with my team. Sure, he has twice as much health as Northern Hunter, but that wasn't the problem. It took him one attack to kill Sera, for example. After a couple of minutes there was only two left and all health potions were gone.

 

In short, is there a formula for how much extra damage higher leveled enemies do (Vinsomer did have the red skull signifying enemies that you should beware of)?

enemies i think on nightmare get a 15% damage bonus for each level they are above you after 2

 

so vinsomer would be doing an extra 30% damage 

plus it's AoE lightning rings are really busted if you arent spreading out the team 

[Orian Tabris]

As long as you're at least the same level as enemies, the easy fights should be easy enough on Nightmare. Except rift battles.

 

Remember, you can have a mage or a Templar like Cass use Dispel or Spell Purge on many rift fights, where the demons spawn, and if you find you have to kill a Revenant or an Arcane Horror, dispelling the spawn points completely removes them.

 

If you do as little as possible before Skyhold, Mark of the Rift should make fights easier.

 

If all else fails, stay as far back from enemies as possible, and just have Solas or someone kill them.

[Reef_Raider]

Just wanted to thank you all for the varied and detailed responses! I'm cetainly not stuck; however, really wanted to make sure I wouldn't have to live in tactical mode all game as I still don't think it's very user friendly.

I might go ahead and recruit Blackwall then pickup the tier 2 schematics in Val Royal (sp?)...I also will certainly look into having my ranged compainions follow themselves as that isn't something I had thought of...

I won't post again, but to close this thread out...Is there a general consensus of how tactical view is/was received? I personally feel like the detailed tactics format of the first game led to a more enjoyable playthrough. Certainly still love the game...just feel like the tactical view should have been expanded/modified or maybe AI behavior significantly improved?!...

[Orian Tabris]

I won't post again, but to close this thread out...Is there a general consensus of how tactical view is/was received? I personally feel like the detailed tactics format of the first game led to a more enjoyable playthrough. Certainly still love the game...just feel like the tactical view should have been expanded/modified or maybe AI behavior significantly improved?!...

 

Hardly anyone likes it, and it's no surprise. It's very hard to use because it has what the PC version should have had outside of tactical cam. On PC, you can't fast-forward, but when BioWare was bragging about how good the tactical camera is, they failed to mention that only consoles can speed up time.

 

Honestly, I think the tactical camera isn't as bad as how the game will sometimes unpause automatically, when you switch characters. I would never rely on tac-cam for moving, because the camera doesn't move with the character, so it's easy to loose focus on where you're going. At least it shouldn't unpause without you telling it to.

 

Another thing about it, you can't view the world properly, because where and how the camera moves is so restrictive, so it's very hard to get a good view.

[arkngt]

enemies i think on nightmare get a 15% damage bonus for each level they are above you after 2

 

so vinsomer would be doing an extra 30% damage 

plus it's AoE lightning rings are really busted if you arent spreading out the team 

 

Right, thanks! Yes, my inquisitor was killed the first time I tried and Cassandra couldn't even revive her as she kept getting shocked by lightning...

 

This time I'll try to do boss/dragons while they still are a bit challenging as everything gets mundane even on nightmare when "too high leveled". On the other hand, you're pretty much toast if you're "too low leveled", so it's a bit difficult to get the zones/quests done at the right time.

[goofyomnivore]

.Is there a general consensus of how tactical view is/was received? I personally feel like the detailed tactics format of the first game led to a more enjoyable playthrough. Certainly still love the game...just feel like the tactical view should have been expanded/modified or maybe AI behavior significantly improved?!...

 

The BSN certaintly isn't everyone, but I've never seen anyone praise it on this site. People like tactical view, but this game's version is very clunky and tedious to use seems to be the popular opinion.

[hong]

You don't need to use tactical view anyway. I'm about to finish my Nightmare DW rogue playthrough (just wasting time farming mats for no good reason), and I almost never went into tac cam.

[arkngt]

Is there a general consensus of how tactical view is/was received? I personally feel like the detailed tactics format of the first game led to a more enjoyable playthrough. Certainly still love the game...just feel like the tactical view should have been expanded/modified or maybe AI behavior significantly improved?!...

 

I don't care much for what the "general consensus" is, but I use tactical view a lot, basically micromanaging my DW Rogue via it and adjusting what the other party members do as well (fade step for Dorian, shield wall for Cassandra etc). And I think it works rather nicely as well and have a lot of fun (300 hours using it), so let me be the first one on the site praising it.

[Biotic Flash Kick]

Right, thanks! Yes, my inquisitor was killed the first time I tried and Cassandra couldn't even revive her as she kept getting shocked by lightning...

 

This time I'll try to do boss/dragons while they still are a bit challenging as everything gets mundane even on nightmare when "too high leveled". On the other hand, you're pretty much toast if you're "too low leveled", so it's a bit difficult to get the zones/quests done at the right time.

Vinsomer is easy if you have one melee and keep all your ranged characters not stacked

 

his AoE ring bs is what kills your party 

[Orian Tabris]

Vinsomer is easy if you have one melee and keep all your ranged characters not stacked

 

his AoE ring bs is what kills your party 

 

LOL, I killed Vinsomer with 4 warriors - on Nightmare, of course.

[Biotic Flash Kick]

LOL, I killed Vinsomer with 4 warriors - on Nightmare, of course.

I've done it solo because i hate dispelling/spell purging that crap. 

[arkngt]

Vinsomer is easy if you have one melee and keep all your ranged characters not stacked

 

his AoE ring bs is what kills your party 

 

Not quite. He WAS easy when I fought him a couple of level laters with my previous char. I did have Sera and Dorian spread out now, but one of the first thing he did both times I tried was a short "jump", attacking one of them - and taking Dorian respective Sera out in like two seconds. Guess I could have planned it better and micromanaged it more, but he was definitely not "easy" when trying him on nightmare on Lvl 16 (my team on Lvl 15). It's just ridiculous to say so.

 

Also, my point wasn't if he is or isn't easy/difficult, but rather how it is that it's such a huge difference taking him on at Lvl 15 compared to Lvl 18 (which I think it was during my last playthrough, with basically the same team/builds).

 

EDIT: BTW, redid the fight on Lvl 19 and defeated him on the first trial without any major difficulties. I wouldn't call it "easy", though - in fact Vinsomer is probably the hardest dragon in the game IMO. His AoE rings combined with the slowing and lightning ball (which I think was what killed Dorian and Sera so quickly the first time) are quite tricky. Guess you can micromanage a mage to stay back and use dispel on the rings. But, anyway, huge difference taking him on at Lvl 15 compared to Lvl 19.

[MaxxSteele]

Cassandra can be good tank to bring along for Vinsomer if using her templar build, she can help dispel the AoE rings. With her challenge and shield wall alone occupies the dragon and she builds up so much guard and grappling chain if the dragon tries to move much. Other things that can help are the elec resist and rock armor tonics especially if upgraded.