25 réponses à ce sujet

[Prethen]

I don't recall having this problem with any other RPG before (including any DA, BG, etc games). But, I have a horrible time with keeping my party healthy.

 

Currently, I'm sort of between a rock and a hard place, because my entire party is at minimal health and we have to complete this task. We've already used the Supply Cache (and I don't think there's another one) and there's no rest.

 

Regardless of this current situation, I'm almost always in a similar situation. I'm a (lightning) mage and I have Cassandra, Blackwall, and Varric. I try to outfit them the best way I can based on anything we find, but I'm guessing that's not enough. I only have 8 spots for healing potions and they go fast.

 

In many battles now, I watch as the enemy does something (and I have no idea what) that instantly blows away most/all hit points from my fellow party members and they're struggling to drink the remaining healing potions or are dead on the ground until I can hopefully finish off whoever is remaining by blasting away.

 

I admit that I let the rest of the party battle away based on their default AI simply because I don't want to tinker with every single aspect of the battle which will get extremely tedious. But, perhaps, I've overlooked some obvious stuff here.

 

What the heck am I doing wrong? I'm 8th level now and I'm constantly having to go back to camp to resupply the tiny handful of healing I have or I try to skimp my way through battles by attack/retreat when my party has no healing and hit points left.

[X Equestris]

Giving your party regeneration potions in their second slot might help. Also, make sure you're slapping barrier on your party whenever it runs out.

[wepeel_]

- Try to send the tank into combat first. If you use the "attack my target" function, ranged party members tend to engage before the tank and get aggro they aren't equipped to deal with.

 

- Make sure to disable channeled/movement-intensive abilities like shield wall and bull charge that the AI can't use efficiently. Use upgraded versions of both taunt and war cry.

 

- Make sure ranged players don't run into melee range and take unnecessary damage from aoe abilities. This will cause them to spend healing potions better used by the tank. You can also go into the AI settings and limit the number of healing potions each NPC is allowed to consume.

 

- As the poster above says, regeneration potions increases your ability to keep party members alive immensely. With a full party, rather than just 8 healing potions you can have 8 healing potions and 20 regeneration potions.

[Sidney]

1. Are you properly leveled? A lot of fights are to an extent unwinnable if you are the wrong level - there is a rift by the farm in the Hinterland with level 12 demons that will usually smoke your level 4 party for example. The whole area south of the west road in Hinterlands is a killer for under-leveled parties.

 

2. Equipment matters a lot. Be sure you are consistently upgrading by crafting or buying better stuff.

 

3. Tactics setup. Make sure you have 1-2 preferred skills you want your party really using, set somethings to do not use. Otherwise they are morons. For you shield warriors it is critical that the defensive guard generating things like taunt and war cry are set to preferred or they won't build guard and will die.

 

4. Behaviors - set mana reserves to 0 or they often won't use any powers because they won't have enough mana.

[UnknownWhisp]

Perhaps it is your party , having 2 tanks might be .. not so beneficial idea imo , unless you made  cass or blackwall go offensive , then check their skills and how they work , when they are about to die use the tacitcal view and make them drink a potion (sometimes they will just ignore their health and attack) and try to Fight Those who are in your lvl , if you go for higher it will not end well and set their mana reserves to 0 and be sure to give them the support they need like barriers and such (if you do not wanna support or go for cc grab another mage pref solas)  oh and make sure you deliver good damage as you receive reasonable amount 

[Elhanan]

Recommend taking another Mage instead of Blackwall or Varric; possibly both.

Set defensive Tactics to Preferred (eg; Shield Wall, Barrier, Stealth, Evade, etc).

Personally like the bonus potion perks for extra slots and extra Health potions.

And while I would not rely upon them, the use of combo abilities can be helpful. Try starting with Static Cage or Lightning Bolt, then others may use detonator abilities for greater effect. While not exhaustive, this article can be helpful:

http://www.vrworld.c...ll-combo-guide/

[wepeel_]

Set defensive Tactics to Preferred (eg; Shield Wall

 

Disagree with this one. Shield wall is a great situational defensive ability, but in my experience the AI isn't capable of using it properly. Very often it gets popped unnecessarily, resulting in a tank with no stamina to taunt with and/or at a distance from the target and moving too slowly to close in. To get good use out of this skill you need direct control of the tank or at the very least remove it from AI control.

[Elhanan]

Disagree with this one. Shield wall is a great situational defensive ability, but in my experience the AI isn't capable of using it properly. Very often it gets popped unnecessarily, resulting in a tank with no stamina to taunt with and/or at a distance from the target and moving too slowly to close in. To get good use out of this skill you need direct control of the tank or at the very least remove it from AI control.

Have Cassandra with Guard activations and SW on Preferred, and only have to go into manual orders if injured. And have observed only a few times with her Stamina depleted; have set Behavior usage to 20%; Difficulty on Nightmare.

[keesio74]

Also get that forces perk that increases your potions to 12.

 

The game is quite tough at the early levels. Once you get to skyhold, things get much easier as you pick up specializations, etc

[Alan Drifter13]

- Set the ranged characters to follow themselves, so they stay out of melee range. Leaping shot as a preferred skill tends to help with this too.

- If you are dying too much, have a wizard with barrier as preferred (and remember to remove the mana/stamina reserve)

- You only need 1 tank (so it should be either Cassandra or Blackwall, not both of them), but make sure that the skills that taunt enemies and add guard (such as war cry) as set to preferred.

- Craft good armor (as a general rule, anything you craft will be better than the stuff you find).

[Zeratulr]

I don't recall having this problem with any other RPG before (including any DA, BG, etc games). But, I have a horrible time with keeping my party healthy.

What difficulty level are you playing? What abilities do your characters have? A few key points: does your mage has barrier/what lightning spells does he have, does Cassandra and/or Blackwal have Warcry/Rushing bull/Challenge/Unbowed, any two of these at least, does Varric have Full draw? Did you try to craft anything? The loot you get from the battles is usually not very good. What is "this task" you have to complete?

[cJohnOne]

Yeah take a second mage to cast barrier. 

[Digger1967]

I don't recall having this problem with any other RPG before (including any DA, BG, etc games). But, I have a horrible time with keeping my party healthy.

 

Currently, I'm sort of between a rock and a hard place, because my entire party is at minimal health and we have to complete this task. We've already used the Supply Cache (and I don't think there's another one) and there's no rest.

 

Regardless of this current situation, I'm almost always in a similar situation. I'm a (lightning) mage and I have Cassandra, Blackwall, and Varric. I try to outfit them the best way I can based on anything we find, but I'm guessing that's not enough. I only have 8 spots for healing potions and they go fast.

 

In many battles now, I watch as the enemy does something (and I have no idea what) that instantly blows away most/all hit points from my fellow party members and they're struggling to drink the remaining healing potions or are dead on the ground until I can hopefully finish off whoever is remaining by blasting away.

 

I admit that I let the rest of the party battle away based on their default AI simply because I don't want to tinker with every single aspect of the battle which will get extremely tedious. But, perhaps, I've overlooked some obvious stuff here.

 

What the heck am I doing wrong? I'm 8th level now and I'm constantly having to go back to camp to resupply the tiny handful of healing I have or I try to skimp my way through battles by attack/retreat when my party has no healing and hit points left.

 

Well part of your problem is most likely the statement "I am a lightning mage". At lower levels your much better off taking a few quick regenerating spells that do good damage (particularly AOE) and alternating between them. My recommendations are Immolate (upgraded if possible), Winter Chill (nice because it stops an enemy from charging), and Energy burst. 

 

You can alternate between these three often in combat, put out a lot of damage and help keep the rest of your party on it's feet.  Fade Step is also a nice addition, it will get you out of melee range quickly.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

I play a mage most often and, yes, early on you can't concentrate on just one element except possibly Inferno, and then only with barrier and being very good at kiting and, tac caming the rest of your party or, in casual difficulty. Real time, even a young inferno mage is nothing but a flaming kite if you don't have barrier.

 

An electrical mage isn't going to come into its own until level 10-12 at least. Respec and get a variety of spells barrier then damage and, if you can fade step.

 

That and, learn to kite with that mage - WASD are your friends. Not so vital in DAI but, I'm a long time PvP mage too in other games and, even here it's a useful skill to master.

[Elhanan]

Kinda disagree with the need for Inferno early. Fade Step may be the only spell that I needed to re-spec, and perhaps a Passive that boosted Mana Regen. But between Spirit, Storm, and KE, there was no need to take other spells until 20+ lvl.

[Kurt M.]

Just a word: Fade-Touched-Silverite.

[wepeel_]

I learned the hard way that sealing forest rifts in the Hinterlands (and one by the farm) at a low level is almost impossible without disrupting the rifts. I die instantly from the despair demon's ice magic! Some places are best to avoid until you level up. I have 12 potions now and that helps a lot!

 

The rift close to the farms can be handled by combining it with the druffalo herding quest. Druffy tanks despair demons quite well, and can't be killed. Seeing as how the rift is right in the way of the escort path, this almost seems intended.

[200Down]

A few things for you:

 

1. Always send your tank in first. Like others have stated.

 

2. Never use the "defend" option for compainion AI targeting tactics. EVER. It's broken and your defending party member won't defend themselves at all. Always use the "Follow" option instead. It is more or less the only remotely fleshed out AI script available and they shouldn't have even let the player choose AI at all. Sales tactic I'm guessing.

 

3. You DO NOT have to do any gate closing early on which constitutes 90% of the hardest hitting  magic using enemies in the game and magic bypasses armor. Gear up with magic resistance upgrades and health if there's no other option. Then go steamroll the gates later on while on any difficulty level. Nearly all gates are optional to the main story.

 

4. Take the heal over time potion untel you get more familiar with the game mechanics. Don't feel bad because Bioware does garbage job of explaining the mechanics in this game.  Use it as much as you want in and OUT of combat untel you get your head wrapped around the odd mechanics. There is more than enough elfroot in the game to use it after ever combat for healing up your party to full. UPgrade this potion ASAP all the WAY. The last upgrade will save tons of elfroot if you get sic of picking it all game. Think of it as Bioware's idea of a regen system while not in combat but now you gotta work for it a tiny bit. Why on earth it doesn't cost you for FULL insta heals is beyond me. Hella wonky system for sure.

 

5. As far as the armor mechanic goes. It's nearly entirely based on difficulty level as to how much you can rely on it. Just stay away from hard and nightmare untel you get the deaths under conrol. Keeping your armor upgraded isn't nearly as important on normal and lower difficulties.

 

6. Abuse the gaurd system on your tanks. Gaurd makes use of your tank's armor values and defensive bonus's from upgrades. Gaurd is MUCH less affective on nightmare because of this. ( I won't get into why right here cuzz this post will get too long)

 

7. Abuse the hell out of the barrier system. Unlike gaurd it doesn't use bonuses from armor BUT you get A HUGE amount of it. Fully upgraded it's somewhere over 3 thousand which makes a nice buffer and works MUCH better at protecting agains MAGIC users  as opposed to stacking Gaurd which will do absolutely nothing if you have no magic resistance upgrades on your tank. No I'm not gonna tell you what upgrades you should take specificly but just know that most of them are fairly well ballanced between each other. Stay away from bleed and armor pen upgrades at anything but lower levels. This is the only tip I'll give you in this regard because much of what you take is going to rely on how you like playing. (bleed works like an armor pen which is timed. yea I know right?)

 

If it helps. I play on nighmare or hard and never use gaurd or barriers anymore. No, this isn't a big fat BRAG. I'm trying to point out that there is HOPE down the road once you understand how everything works. So don't give up

 

EDIT: One last thing. You WILL run into areas that your party WILL get WIPED on. Unless you're keen on upgrading defense to suit EVERY situation, It's going to happen. Regardless, your first time through the game when you aren't familiar with different enemies and if you don't check defenses when you run into a new one... you're likely gonna get killed OVER and over. Woulda been nice if they showed some info about attack damages on enemies but honestly the way the mechanics work... I think it woulda caused even more confusion.

[UnknownWhisp]

game's easy even on nightmare , all you need to do is to simply go the straight logical path  , just think how to solve the problem and notice things around you for example , they are stronger... why ? if level differences then come back later , some areas (even in the hinterlands) are meant to come back to later not finish at your first go , if not level then check your equipment , are they the best you can have?
if yes 
Check your build , sometimes a really screwed up build will screw you over 
if not 
See your materials and armor schematics and compare how the most defensive armor you can make with the one you have , same with weapons 
last and not least make sure to use tactics camera , no not gonna be like '' for strategy '' but for depending moments , sometimes one of your arty goes down and you have to barrier their asses  and deal most damage , use tactics cam , select one and right click on the down guy while you do your job , and also as i had stated before , Ai will attack rather than healing sometimes oh and they can't use more potions if you only have 2 left by default 

[PapaCharlie9]

1. Are you properly leveled? A lot of fights are to an extent unwinnable if you are the wrong level - there is a rift by the farm in the Hinterland with level 12 demons that will usually smoke your level 4 party for example. The whole area south of the west road in Hinterlands is a killer for under-leveled parties.

 

2. Equipment matters a lot. Be sure you are consistently upgrading by crafting or buying better stuff.

 

3. Tactics setup. Make sure you have 1-2 preferred skills you want your party really using, set somethings to do not use. Otherwise they are morons. For you shield warriors it is critical that the defensive guard generating things like taunt and war cry are set to preferred or they won't build guard and will die.

 

4. Behaviors - set mana reserves to 0 or they often won't use any powers because they won't have enough mana.

This, plus the more difficult battles, like the Envy Demon, have specific tactics for specific party compositions. When I would get stuck, I'd watch some YouTube of how other people dealt with the battle. Learned a ton that way. Sometimes just using tactical view and positioning all your peeps in the right spots makes the difference.

 

Also, deny healing potions to the AI. Some recommend setting Reserve All, but that's too much micromanagement for me. Five seems to work for me when starting with 8. It's sometimes necessary to let sacrifice one or two companions so they don't drink up all your healing early in a battle. In one battle my Inquisitor was the weakest link, so I let him die early on and didn't revive him until the batlle was almost over.

[McPartyson]

Take barrier on your mages and set it to prefered.

Take war cry + call to arms upgrade on warriors set to prefered (mitigates huge damage plus taunts)

Take regen potions on all party members if necessary and activate them just before a battle

 

If you do the above...you will stomp everything on nightmare no matter where you put your skill points in afterwards

[GoodFella146]

Disagree with this one. Shield wall is a great situational defensive ability, but in my experience the AI isn't capable of using it properly. Very often it gets popped unnecessarily, resulting in a tank with no stamina to taunt with and/or at a distance from the target and moving too slowly to close in. To get good use out of this skill you need direct control of the tank or at the very least remove it from AI control.

 

I don't agree with this at all.  The AI is very good with this ability, along with a few others.  I made a thread about this awhile back.

[Onyxfire]

There has to be some sort of fundamental error going on because whole parties should not be dying when almost any class should be able to solo the entire game without other party members.