Bioware should take a look at the sword and shield combat of "Dark Souls" and "Skyrim" and redo the combat for dragon age
They need to fix combat in general. Right now DA combat suffers from over simplification. Playing any class feels largely the same with the only difference being range, and that is really it. Being a Sword and Shield fighter shouldn't feel like being a Rogue, or a Mage, in that you pretty much only need to be within a certain range then hit the attack button, different thought should go into it, and into your weaponry and how to use it.
I guess the best way to explain it would be to compare and specify what areas of combat are off.
1.) Skills vs Weaponry. The of the biggest issues i've come to dislike about DA Rogue and Warrior combat is that skills do what the weaponry you equip should be doing. Explosive Shot, Caltrops, and a few others like them are all things that unique weaponry should be taking care of, not some special skill. This goes back to how classes are designed though. If the Rogue is meant to be a stealth lightly armored fighter than that's what they should have skills based around. Trying to take unique weapon abilities and make them the center of what a class is, is fundamentally wrong. A explosive arrow or bolt is just that, it's not something a rogue conjures out of thin air, or only the Rogue knows how to find, buy or make, that is a skill anyone who bought a few dozen explosive tip arrows or bolts and knows how to use a bow or crossbow should be able to do. Shield Bash, and Shield Block aren't special skills exclusive to a Warrior either and work along similar lines of thinking as the above.
2.) How to look at classes is what DA:4 needs to do. What is a Warrior is the first question the developers should ask themselves. Then strip away anything that is something a Rogue could also do if a PC so chose to do so, and vice versa, and this hurts to say it but it needs to be said, they need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel. If they want to simplify their world and say only 3 types of generalizations exist so be it, but at least keep the fluidness of said classes open for customization because not every Warrior is Sword and Shield, or Two Handed Weapon wielding. Some use dual weapons and some use Bows, and again vice versa with Rogues and what they do. The only real area of expertise is how they approach combat and the benefits of each within a party system.
Warriors Tank, they can do so by drawing aggro from weaker allies, they can do so by being able to withstand more damage than weaker allies, they can also do so by being the biggest threat in the immediate area of the enemy by doing considerable damage and being impossible to get around. This should be the only real focus of the warrior, nothing about any of these things should be regulated to 2 types of weapons and fighting. There is just as much reason for a Warrior to dual wield weapons as their is for a Rogue to wield a Two Handed one. Weapon skills need to be weapon skills, not class restricted skills. Class skills need to cover what the job needs to do with no filler in between save for specializations. ie The Warrior has Intimidate, Second Wind, Health Bonuses, and the ability to learn more Weapon and Armor Skills than the other two classes.
Rogues are Stealth Specialist, and more generally are dirty fighters. Their skills should reflect skills that aren't considered traditional, up front, honorable or fair. Backstabbing, Stealth, Feinting, Evasive, and so on. They throw dirt in your eyes, stomp on your feet, stab you in the back, hit you when you're down, Say things that make you feel bad, and of course they steal, but that is more out of combat. They steal when they want something, they pick locks when they need to open something, and when a fireballs headed your way they usually manage to be alert enough to dodge out the way in the neck of time.
Mages are Powerful, this could have its own thread on what it should be like all together, but for this I'll say for now they need to play like something entirely unique unto themselves. Not some magical archer, or a magic warrior. A Mage should always be casting spells, when they aren't using a spell they should be using very crud attacks like a peasant being told to fight for their lives with a staff or dagger, unskilled but still competent. This is a little different for DA but I would suggest making every spell you learn its own unique power, that has its own cooldown AND casting time, all of which should vary from spell to spell based on the strength of the spell and its purpose, obviously this would take advantage of the pause and play tactics of the game, but i get the feeling that's what people liked about the earlier games. Beneficial spells obviously would have longer cooldowns but quicker casting times, while offensive spells would have lower cooldowns but longer casting times. (takes time to summon up that fireball, but once you get that first one off, the lighting bolt spell is probably going to follow up pretty soon.) Basically mages are versatile in that their spells have a rhythm to them, and once they start getting into them they become progressively more dangerous.
This is just one way they could have improved the combat in the DA franchise as a whole. Take a little from what you've learned from the past and build on it, as well as draw from the source of all modern day RPG's anyway, stop acting like they didn't spend hours or days playing D&D in their bedrooms with friends or family, and truly thrust that inner nerd. The Cool Kids of today are yesterday's Nerds, we know what made those games fun, so listen to us when we tell you "You're doing it wrong."
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