31 réponses à ce sujet

[VelvetV]

For some reason I'm not allowed to start a new topic in Combat Strategy forum and not allowed to post there, so excuse me for asking this here...

 

My characters have little problem with any type of damage, except range attacks. Especially mage inquisitor and archers (Varric, Sera) suffer from this.

 

It's most problematic around rifts. A rift spawns a few range-shooting demons, and unless there are places to hide from projectiles, my character is toast. Once she deals some damage and demons "spot" her, she can only run around chugging potions until dead.

 

Surely there's some solution to this? It's so stupid.

 

The only thing I can think of is range defense. But maybe it's magic defense. But measly percentages of such defenses that items give don't sound like enough.

 

How do YOU protect your character and archers from a few demons shooting projectiles at them? Please don't say to kill them faster, I'm playing Nightmare and it takes a while for a party to kill demons off.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Use Barrier. Use stealth to break aggro. Craft better armour. Dispel their Barriers. Dispel the wraiths before they spawn. Use high-damage attacks to one-shot them at range (entirely possible).

[c0bra951]

Use a tank to draw aggro (challenge, war cry, etc).  Farm for fade-touched obsidian and (later) silverite, so you can craft weapons or armor which give you +3 or +5 to guard per hit.  Guard is the key to an easier life for normally weak-armored party members.  Choose the passive ability to reduce the chance of squishy ranged characters getting attacked.  Mages have it under the Spirit tree, and I can't remember offhand where Sera's is.  [Edit:  Sera's is in the Subterfuge tree.]

 

You can't post in the Combat and Strategy forum if you're not active online.  Personally, I think that's a poor reason, but you can't fight city hall.  Feel free to ask such questions here.  I sure do.

[Sylvius the Mad]

For more detailed advice, what level are you, what level are the wraiths (or Despair Demons), which party members are you using, what abilities do you have active, and what gear are you using?

[caradoc2000]

The OP has a double thread here

[VelvetV]

Why has the thread doubled? I didn't post it twice. Must be a glitch.

But thanks to everyone, it's very useful advice.

 

 

For more detailed advice, what level are you, what level are the wraiths (or Despair Demons), which party members are you using, what abilities do you have active, and what gear are you using?

 

I'm afraid it would take too long to specify everything, if you want even gear!

 

And how do you look up the level of the wraiths? I was not aware it was possible.

 

My party is lvl 18, high enough, nightmare mode, and normally fights are no problem at all. Save for dragons (they're too beautiful, but anyway I didn't kill a single one yet, although I tried) and a few rifts with ranged wraiths (notably an Emprise du Leon first rift and this whole region are still too hard for me). I play mostly only my own char, so I don't even know about other character's abilities all that much, that's how I missed the usefulness of barrier that my mage didn't have. I just don't like fighting in this game enough to study it in details, it happens too fast, but I guess I'll have to.

[VelvetV]

You can't post in the Combat and Strategy forum if you're not active online.  Personally, I think that's a poor reason, but you can't fight city hall.  Feel free to ask such questions here.  I sure do.

 

What does it mean, "not active"? I need a bigger number of posts? Otherwise, if I try to post there, of course I'm active, how could I attempt to post while being offline 

[caradoc2000]

What does it mean, "not active"? I need a bigger number of posts? Otherwise, if I try to post there, of course I'm active, how could I attempt to post while being offline 

You need to have played the game while connected to your EA account. You can easily see for which games you have done so by looking at the small icons above your post count under your avatar to the left

<-here. In your case that would be none. You can also see these games in "My Profile-Games".

[Sylvius the Mad]

And how do you look up the level of the wraiths? I was not aware it was possible.

The level and resistances and weaknesses of an enemy are displayed when you hover your cursor over them in Tactical Camera mode.

On PC, you can simply hover your nouse cursor over an enemy to get that information. On all platforms, you can move your targeting reticule onto an enemy to do the same.

[c0bra951]

What does it mean, "not active"? I need a bigger number of posts? Otherwise, if I try to post there, of course I'm active, how could I attempt to post while being offline 

 

Oh, sorry for the confusion.  I meant online in the game. 

 

A mod should be able to merge the duplicate threads, no?

[VelvetV]

Dispel their Barriers. Dispel the wraiths before they spawn. Use high-damage attacks to one-shot them at range (entirely possible).

What is the ability to dispel barriers and how do you know that enemy is using barrier?

 

Dispel wraith is spell purge from Cassandra, right? I wonder why she never autonomously uses it.

[Sylvius the Mad]

What is the ability to dispel barriers and how do you know that enemy is using barrier?

Dispel wraith is spell purge from Cassandra, right? I wonder why she never autonomously uses it.

Dispel. It's a Mage ability in the spirit tree (same as Barrier).

Just like how your health bar turns blue when you have a Barrier up, so does the enemy's.

[Sylvius the Mad]

I must say, that you managed to get to level 18 on Nightmare without making any real effort to learn the mechanics suggests that the game is insufficiently difficult.

[VelvetV]

I must say, that you managed to get to level 18 on Nightmare without making any real effort to learn the mechanics suggests that the game is insufficiently difficult.

 

You took the words from my mouth and thoughts from my head!

 

It's really surprising.

 

I don't even know how to pause in combat, to be honest. The game pauses automatically when I pick some spells, but that's about it. Well, at least you can't take on dragons like this and are bound to have trouble at the end of the game, but it's amusing.

[caradoc2000]

Try Jaws of Hakkon. It is more difficult than the main game.

[VelvetV]

Thanks, but I'm not looking for more difficulty!

 

The combat is not enjoyable enough to study it in more detail than needed. In DA:O I knew all the mechanics of the game inside out and played all characters, but that's because I loved the combat. Then I tried DA2 briefly, hated its combat, dropped the game and never played it. With this game I hated the combat, too, but decided to still give it a go, and found out that it can be played for the story.

[Sylvius the Mad]

You took the words from my mouth and thoughts from my head!

It's really surprising.

I don't even know how to pause in combat, to be honest. The game pauses automatically when I pick some spells, but that's about it. Well, at least you can't take on dragons like this and are bound to have trouble at the end of the game, but it's amusing.

Are you on PC?

I found it extremely helpful, before I ever played the game, to go through all the control options to see what could be changed. For example, by default the game pauses automatically when you actuvate the tactical camera, or cast an AoE spell, and then automatically unpauses when you stop.

I changed those settings to allow me to pause and unpause at will, and have the game never do it automatically. I basically only give commands while paused.

Also, I read through all the ability descriptions to see what might be useful when combined. There are many abilities that become vastly more powerful when combined with other abilities. If you're not exploiting those synergies, you're leaving a ton of damage on the table.

Because the combat is actually quite a bit easier than you think.

It can also, with the Tac Cam and KBM inputs, be played a lot more like DAO and a lot less like DA2.

[VelvetV]

I read the ability descriptions initially, however, my mage can't perform combos alone. For example, freezing an enemy + stone fist? Not gonna happen. And I do not control other characters, so I decided to allow them to finish my combos automatically. Hopefully that's what they do, although I cannot be sure, it's all so fast that combat is a blur. (Me is a fan of slow, turn-based party combat...)

 

In DA:O it was easy to control the whole party and you could queue commands! In DA2 when I tried it you couldn't queue commands, and since characters finish what you told them to do at different speeds, they often started making their AI-moves despite my control. So I felt like I had no real control over other companions, at times I had it, at times I did not, and I couldn't predict when I'd have it and when they'd be doing their AI stuff.

 

I guess I'll try out doing what you did to enable normal pausing in combat, however, from the looks of it it's going to be a repetition of my brief DA2 experience. I can't quite remember why it was different in DA:O, but in DA:O I never felt like characters were randomly doing stuff out of my control, disrupting my planning. Maybe there was an option to turn AI off, in addition to an ability to queue?

 

And stealth in this game! I remember trying to use Cole to put a flag in the middle of two giants' favorite place to go for a walk. He could sneak there without an issue, but no matter what I did, other companions stupidly ran after him and got killed (that was an early level party). I even googled for this and remember how others said to use tactical mode to make companions hold position, well, that didn't work for me. They held position for a while and then ran after Cole anyway. Eventually I figured out that the party can just run away from the giants and they'd give up the chase, that's how I managed to put the flag over there, but it's so disappointing that I couldn't properly use stealth to do it! So now Cole only uses stealth in combat on his own. It's such a loss, though, I wish he could crawl around scouting ahead, since I always take a rogue anyway. And I wish the party could pass undetected among all those low-level trashy mobs, but that's too much to ask.  Sorry for rant, I just really dislike the combat and stealth and I really wanted to like them.

[Sylvius the Mad]

DAO let you queue only a single command beyond the current action. I remember complaining that wasn't enough. Now we don't get any.

I wasn't thinking of actual combos - just synergies. Like combining Static Cage with anything that hits multiple times.

For example, Leaping Shot hits up to 13 times on a single target. Combined with Flask of Fire, that's 26 hits. Done inside a Static Cage, that's 52 hits. All of that done inside a Mark of Death is suddenly 104 hits in maybe 4 seconds, and all that without having the warrior do anything other than hold aggro. And all that without using any Focus abilities.

[CronoDragoon]

And stealth in this game! I remember trying to use Cole to put a flag in the middle of two giants' favorite place to go for a walk. He could sneak there without an issue, but no matter what I did, other companions stupidly ran after him and got killed (that was an early level party). I even googled for this and remember how others said to use tactical mode to make companions hold position, well, that didn't work for me. They held position for a while and then ran after Cole anyway. Eventually I figured out that the party can just run away from the giants and they'd give up the chase, that's how I managed to put the flag over there, but it's so disappointing that I couldn't properly use stealth to do it! So now Cole only uses stealth in combat on his own. It's such a loss, though, I wish he could crawl around scouting ahead, since I always take a rogue anyway. And I wish the party could pass undetected among all those low-level trashy mobs, but that's too much to ask.  Sorry for rant, I just really dislike the combat and stealth and I really wanted to like them.

That's weird. Whenever I stealth on my Tempest rogue my party immediately stops and doesn't follow me. What are their follow settings on? Wonder if that makes a difference.

One way to get past a bunch of ranged on the first Rift spawn is to stealth and position your rogue behind them, then have just your warrior run in, and as soon as they aggro him or her, start one-shotting the spirits. Alternatively, Pull of the Abyss does well to group at least a few of them for easy pickings.

Once you're done the first wave, use Dispel and Spell Purges to eliminate most enemies before they even spawn.

[c0bra951]

I read the ability descriptions initially, however, my mage can't perform combos alone. For example, freezing an enemy + stone fist? Not gonna happen. And I do not control other characters, so I decided to allow them to finish my combos automatically. Hopefully that's what they do, although I cannot be sure, it's all so fast that combat is a blur. (Me is a fan of slow, turn-based party combat...)

 

. . .

 

Then why aren't you playing in tactical-cam mode?  True, you can't queue up more than one command per character, but you can micromanage every move the party makes, then just hold down a button to move time forward until something happens, and then queue another command for whoever you want.  I played this way through my entire first PT, and part of the second.  But then, I discovered Knight Enchanter.  (See talk about that in another thread.)  Now I rarely use tac-cam.  Only when I want Dorian to dispel, or Sera to use flasks well, or thousand cuts--things like that.

 

To use 2 mage abilities in rapid succession, bring 2 mages.  Simple.  You only need one tank and one rogue.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Then why aren't you playing in tactical-cam mode? True, you can't queue up more than one command per character, but you can micromanage every move the party makes, then just hold down a button to move time forward until something happens, and then queue another command for whoever you want.

Just to be clear, that Advance Time feature only exists when using a controller. The KBM interface doesn't have it.

But, you're absolutely correct about the usefulness of Tac Cam.

[VelvetV]

That's weird. Whenever I stealth on my Tempest rogue my party immediately stops and doesn't follow me. What are their follow settings on? Wonder if that makes a difference.

 

Do you mean "defend" instead of "follow" in Targeting Behavior under AI Tactics? If so, it's follow and I never changed it.

 

I think what happens is that the party does hold for a while, but when the distance between it and the rogue becomes bigger than default (whatever it is), they run after him. I tried to put up that flag in the valley while hiding party behind two different huge rocks. From the first one Cole could only make half-way to the flag point before the party ran out. From the second one, which was a shorter way, he could make it all the way, but when he reached the flag spot the party would run out and get spotted by giants.

 

Then why aren't you playing in tactical-cam mode?  True, you can't queue up more than one command per character, but you can micromanage every move the party makes, then just hold down a button to move time forward until something happens, and then queue another command for whoever you want.  I played this way through my entire first PT, and part of the second.  But then, I discovered Knight Enchanter. 

I am regretful that I didn't chose knight enchanter and now it's too late.

 

The major reason I disliked tactical mode from the start is because it was breaking my immersion in the game. It switched from being a 3D game to being 2D if that makes sense (not really 2D but you know what I mean), and the fact that you suddenly had to click to move made the change feel even worse. Maybe one can get accustomed to that? I really couldn't. I wanted to have either a game with over-the-shoulder POV or with view-from-above, not both. I should give it another go, and I guess I'll have to, if I want to try and kill the dragons.

[c0bra951]

Just to be clear, that Advance Time feature only exists when using a controller. The KBM interface doesn't have it.

But, you're absolutely correct about the usefulness of Tac Cam.

 

Maker's breath, that really stinks!  Hasn't someone made a mod to fix it yet?  Mods are the one huge advantage of playing on PC.  I guess that explains why the OP wasn't using it.  From his comments, it would be perfect, if it worked properly for him.  Well, then my suggestion to him is: get a controller.  They made sure to limit input to what's achievable easily with one anyway.  As long as you can still type with a KB, why not?

[c0bra951]

. . .

 

The major reason I disliked tactical mode from the start is because it was breaking my immersion in the game. It switched from being a 3D game to being 2D if that makes sense, and the fact that you suddenly had to click to move made the change feel even worse. Maybe one can get accustomed to that? I really couldn't. I wanted to have either a game with over-the-shoulder POV or with view-from-above, not both. Maybe I should give it another go, and I guess I'll have to, if I want to try and kill the dragons.

 

 

My suggestion came as a result of you saying that you like slow turn-based combat.  Tactical cam (with available time advance) is close enough to that.  But you're right in that it completely changes the character of the game.  Personally, I love that choice of approaches, and how easily you can switch between them.  For example, I said I played with tac-cam through my first PT, but that's not entirely true.  I did for any fight with any challenge.  But to roll over easy mobs, I played in real-time mode controlling Blackwall.