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[capn233]

Last night I fired up the game and started an SnS character and picked this origin.  I have read some old threads about the character in solos, and I have played this origin before albeit in a full team.  I was not equipping promo-dlc gear and I didn't steal Gorim's shield from him (although maybe I should have), didn't have enough strength to equip his sword even if I wanted to (oddly Gorim didn't either).

 

I really only have one somewhat specific question about this origin, and then I suppose a more general question about SnS. 

 

So for the specific question:  Is it possible to get through this origin solo without the team taking any damage? 

 

I played the merc encounter a bunch of times last night and couldn't figure out anyway to both prevent my useless team from being targeting while not getting killed.  I could have limited success with the team taking 0 damage if I moved the three of them over the bridge and stayed in front of all the mercs, but that led to a pretty quick death and wasn't even always effective at preventing their damage.

 

I tried several times to run with them, backtracking through the map with the hopes of letting the party get well out of range while I could hold the tunnel, but I couldn't get that to work.  Besides just taking arrows, the 2H merc really wanted to chase the squad.  One time I went all the way to near the beginning and tried to hold the choke while the team hid by NPC guards.  I stunned the merc leader with Pummel (that worked maybe 40% of the time), then shield bashed the 2H.  Started in with auto attacks on the merc leader, but the 2H got up and just b-lined to the squad.

 

Eventually I just gave up on the idea and instead just left the three by the mercs while I retreated over the bridge and waited for them to be killed.  Then I proceeded to "solo" the mercs.  This felt a little unsatisfying to me only because it seems like letting them tank while I cross the bride isn't strictly a solo, even if it somewhat loosely approximates skipping the cutscene and attacking the mercs straight-away with no crew.  Still took 3 health pots for me to kill the merc.  I had wasted 1 pot on the yellow darkspawn before this, so had 0 after that.

 

Incidentally this was a little different than a normal "pull a guy then regen in between" since the dead squad seemed to prevent me from dropping out of combat ever.  Although I did drop out (and squad was rezzed) when I looted the merc leader and got a cutscene.  I had forgotten this happens.  There was a merc archer still left by that point, who was standing around until I re-engaged him.

 

As far as preventing squad damage in the darkspawn ambush, this was actually achievable at least by somewhat cheesy methods.  If I immediately ran the squad and myself back through the map, it was somewhat possible to tank the arrows myself (a lot of luck), but the blight wolf and 3 darkspawn would seemingly follow forever... at least until you hit the cutscene with the warning from Gorim.  This required good pathing to put enough distance on the blight wolf that he didn't just run right at us after the scene.  Anyway post scene I was able to move the squad even further in the tunnels and backtrack to solo the darkspawn with my 0 health pots, since I could drop out of combat.  It felt a bit like skirting the rules unfortunately.

 

This is getting to be the world's longest post for two questions, but the next is about the rest of the thing.  I know this character is relatively tedious, but I also have the fix pack mod one of which "fixes" shield wall's 20% damage penalty.  Is it going to be practical to get through nightmare with the penalty (str - axe build)?  I guess I could actually toggle it if need be.

[Qis]

The problem with the mercenaries is because of the cut scene, placing the PC and all party members in the middle while the enemies are at strategic places, it is a common problem for cut-scene combats, especially for ranged character.

 

There is no way taking no damage but you can do ganking one by one, select all party and focus attack on one enemy, when done move to other, attack the yellow rank first. It is funny but enemies killed faster this way

 

Well, you have to build a tank to survive solo, means lots of health, you will take time to kill enemies because of low damage, but that's the point of being a tank. You have little choice, because if you want to focus on damage, W&S isn't build for that, and you gimp it's tanking potential.

 

You can go all strength W&S but you will never be satisfied, because it is not like 2H or DW build, and your defense is not as it supposed to be, meaning your damage is not great and your defense not great either, so what is the point playing W&S? A defensive 2H build is better than an offensive W&S

[dainbramage]

Despite the extra gold, I think DN may actually be the hardest solo just because of the origin.

 

I think you'll be OK with the damage mod on shield wall. It's not that great before picking up shield mastery+expertise so you can use defence. And in my experience hitting level 12 was when my SnS solo was out of the woods, by then the damage reduction shouldn't hurt too much.

[capn233]

The problem with the mercenaries is because of the cut scene, placing the PC and all party members in the middle while the enemies are at strategic places, it is a common problem for cut-scene combats, especially for ranged character.

 

There is no way taking no damage but you can do ganking one by one, select all party and focus attack on one enemy, when done move to other, attack the yellow rank first. It is funny but enemies killed faster this way

 

Well, you have to build a tank to survive solo, means lots of health, you will take time to kill enemies because of low damage, but that's the point of being a tank. You have little choice, because if you want to focus on damage, W&S isn't build for that, and you gimp it's tanking potential.

 

You can go all strength W&S but you will never be satisfied, because it is not like 2H or DW build, and your defense is not as it supposed to be, meaning your damage is not great and your defense not great either, so what is the point playing W&S? A defensive 2H build is better than an offensive W&S

 

Right it is the cutscene, couldn't get the party to simply get out of there without them tanking something since they were so close, and that spot isn't a place I could hold solo even if I could manage to get all aggro (which practically never happened).  Even trying to move the guys way back in the map, many times the 2H warrior would blow past me to attack a squadmate even though they were set on "cautious" with just self:any -> wait and no weapons.

 

As far as the build itself, will be getting 36 dex, but I don't really want to run a dagger and shield attacks scale with strength IIRC, so was going mostly str.  Not sure if damage will be high enough for some encounters if I shoot for a lot of dex, or even 50:50 str / dex split.

 

Despite the extra gold, I think DN may actually be the hardest solo just because of the origin.

 

I think you'll be OK with the damage mod on shield wall. It's not that great before picking up shield mastery+expertise so you can use defence. And in my experience hitting level 12 was when my SnS solo was out of the woods, by then the damage reduction shouldn't hurt too much.

 

Yeah I saw a few of your posts talking about WnS and the DN origin and how they are both pretty tedious.  Makes sense, and that's part of why I wanted to try it this time.

 

The odd thing was perusing even older threads there are guys that were talking about how easy WnS was and doing no pot runs with it.  I might have missed where they talked about gear, or since I wasn't playing back then I don't know if a patch altered the balance (and haven't gone back to patch logs).

[Mike3207]

With SNS, I make it a priority to put in enough strength to get the offensive talents first-then catch up on Shield Defense talents. I can usually overpower most foes early-but I've always done Cousland SNS and not dwarf nobles.

 

I wouldn't think you need more than 26 dex unless you are also picking up Dual Wield mastery or some of those talents. SNS doesn't need more than 26 for talents, I don't believe.

[Qis]

Right it is the cutscene, couldn't get the party to simply get out of there without them tanking something since they were so close, and that spot isn't a place I could hold solo even if I could manage to get all aggro (which practically never happened).  Even trying to move the guys way back in the map, many times the 2H warrior would blow past me to attack a squadmate even though they were set on "cautious" with just self:any -> wait and no weapons.

 

As far as the build itself, will be getting 36 dex, but I don't really want to run a dagger and shield attacks scale with strength IIRC, so was going mostly str.  Not sure if damage will be high enough for some encounters if I shoot for a lot of dex, or even 50:50 str / dex split.

 

 

Yeah I saw a few of your posts talking about WnS and the DN origin and how they are both pretty tedious.  Makes sense, and that's part of why I wanted to try it this time.

 

The odd thing was perusing even older threads there are guys that were talking about how easy WnS was and doing no pot runs with it.  I might have missed where they talked about gear, or since I wasn't playing back then I don't know if a patch altered the balance (and haven't gone back to patch logs).

 

STR :40+
DEX :40+
WILL :25

MAG :20
CUN :20

CON: 30+ (344 health at level 25)

 

Templar - have high mental and magic resistance to fight against Mages, Holy Smite for crowd control

Champion - War Cry for crowd control

 

I think this can be W&S solo without much trouble, depends on your gear and items of course. I think Templar armor is armor to get early, you play as Dwarf, already have magic resistance, just buff it up with Templar armor, but it is funny on Dwarf, lol. Your problem will be Mages because they can hit you without being anywhere near you

[capn233]

Mike: You're right, it's 26 dex for Shield Mastery, don't know what I was thinking when I typed that.

 

I finished Korcari Wilds.  I couldn't tell a whole lot of difference between my SnS and DW there, with the gigantic exception of Gazarath since I fought him in melee with the DW, but used "clever" tactics with the DN.  Fighting him straight up in that DW solo was the hardest thing I have done in DA I think, if not simply the most frustrating.

 

Power order so far:

 

Pummel, Powerful

Shield Defense

Shield Balance

Overpower

 

Qis:  Templar will be what I take at level 7 for sure.

[capn233]

Joining / 5:  Took Shield Wall and Precise Striking.

 

Tower of Ishal was long and tedious and needed some reloads since it was too easy to get 4 or more guys all aggro'd in certain situations.  Granted, I had 6 Health Pots and 20 Lesser Health pots as well as some grenades, but I didn't want to spend too many.  Probably could have gone through faster with more potion use.  Acid flasks weren't hugely effective anyway though and only had 1 fire grenade.

 

Level 6: Shield Block

 

Deserted Farmland (dog encounter, whatever it is).  Acid Flask and Fire Bomb took out most of them in one swoop.  Dog helped a little, although mostly by distracting the last guy while I was fighting the alpha.  Alpha's sunder took me to 0 armor, which was nice.  But I was able to outdamage him, then just knockdown the last guy.

 

Bandits Outside Lothering: Part of the reason I was trying to save grenades was for this encounter, since in my DW run I hit it with 0 grenades and hardly any health pots.  I was able to beat them since I had so many consumables, but it wasn't exactly inexpensive.  Basically I rushed Morrigan, Alistair and MrBojangles past them to the ramp, while I lobbed an acid flask.  Then I pushed past to behind the first wagon and fought them there.  One archer had moved back down the road and was out of LOS, and the other was incompetent.  The melee units all fought me though.  Pummel worked on the leader, then SB on the other.  Shield Defense.  Took a soul rot bomb and a health pot plus several lesser pots to take out the melee guys and beat the leader.  I took his money then fought him again.  Think I needed another lesser to finish him and the archers though.  So it was expensive and perhaps not worth the cost, but I wanted to beat them with melee.

 

I don't know if I will try to leave Lothering and then come back.  Most likely I will though.

[Mike3207]

A bit surprised you haven't picked up Assault. That's one of my go-to Tank skills that I look to get as soon as possible. That and Perfect Striking are enough to deal with most foes in Origins once you can get both skills.

[capn233]

Well at level 6 I only have 30 Str so far so can't get Assault.  I guess I could have skipped a couple of the points I put in Dex, but I also thought I didn't have enough stamina to use many activated powers anyway, and I prefer having stun and knockdown from the other three.

 

I don't know how late I will get Perfect Striking.  It's pretty expensive given that the two points leading up to it aren't very handy in a solo.  Death Blow and Shield Expertise are also Level 12 unlocks that I definitely need.

[capn233]

In the blogging mood...

 

I ended up finishing Lothering before I left it.  Had 18 gold but was hanging on to some loot to sell to Gorim, so when I got to fake camp I wasn't going to be able to buy an extra Tome of Physical Technique this run.  Oh well.  Got the Dalish Hunter's Belt though.  At Level 7 I took Threaten and Templar.  I had sold only 3 traps to the woman, but Leliana stole a lot of little items from people around town, including the Imperial Crossbow.

 

In Denerim I met Gorim, got the Aeducan shield and bought his old sword (replaced nearly new Oathkeeper), fought Landry and started Solving Problems, then went to take care of Pearls Before Swine.  Couldn't fight honorably in the ambush coming back, but Kylon can solo it anyway if you don't aggro too many yourself.  Picked up Aodh from that, but it is sitting in inventory.  In the market, did Crimson Oars and finished Solving Problems, bought a Master Dweomer Run then left.  Lightning Rune and Dweomer run into Gorim's Sword.  Encounter on the road was the mission where you fight the apprentice who had turned into an abomination.

 

Went to the Frostback Mountains, skipped the bounty hunters, and then bought KCP.  Then I went to Sulcher's Pass.  Met old Tegrin on the way and bought the Ornate Leather Belt (+1 str).

 

Road to Honnleath had repeated failures.  I got the random encounter with the darkspawn in the field of a million traps (Bloody Plains, don't know how this is doable early game for melee), then kept getting the one with 3 blight wolves and the bereskarn which didn't look beatable without a million pots.  I couldn't find a good spot, although there is one by the tree that might limit units at a time to 3.  Got Desolate Highway (wolves) and thought "I know how to beat this one" so tried it and seemed like my character wouldn't attack from the spot I thought I used before.  Whatever the case, I am pretty sure I did this one solo with DW pretty early game in that run, and thought I could do it with SnS.  Figured I would get another shot at it, but next time it was Treacherous Path (3 yellow shades, 1 greater shade boss) which was practically over before it started (couldn't hit them in Aura of Weakness).  Also this was not "between Denerim and Lake Callenhad,"

 

Anyway the next time I hoped for wolves and it just gave me Tegrin, so I was a bit disappointed that I failed my way to Honnleath.  Darkspawn in Honnleath were tedious, but not horrible.  The hardest fight turned out to be the dust wraith and its friends.  Was hard to do damage, and took several tries as I didn't want to burn too many potions before Kitty.  I got the minions to group for an acid flask the last time, which worked really well, and then needed several health pots for the wraith.  Hit Level 8 afterwards, took Bravery.  Put on Harvest Ring, switched to Ornate Belt, 3 in Str from Level and threw on KCP to replace my old Superior Dwarven Guard armor.  I beat Kitty on the first try, I think she only managed to CC me once.  Took a health pot and a lesser or two though.  Switched Barbarian Helmet to Honnleath and then went back to Dalish Hunter's Belt.

 

Back to Denerim without a road encounter at all.  Did Back Alley Justice, which actually wasn't bad with KCP, although I needed some health pots for the second one (which I somehow managed to do much better as DW in the same spot with worse armor).  The third alley was actually easier for me as SnS than it was as DW, but I think that had everything to do with better armor and toggling on Shield Wall.  Got my money for that and Blood Mage relatives, then went to Circle Tower.  Turned in mushrooms at the docks, bought grenades and balms / salves from the Spoiled Princess.

 

Tower was relatively straightforward.  Hit Level 9 in there, and took Assault.  I skipped the early black vials Revenant because I figured it would be a pain.  For the Arcane Horror encounter, just killed the first wave of skeletons relatively near the door, then went through the door immediately when the second spawned and shield bashed the Horror in the face.  Easy to keep chain cc'd.  Then finish the Skeletons.  Precise Striking handy.

 

Used two grenades for the first Desire Demon + mob of templar (fire, then soul rot).  The one with the cutscene before Sloth was a bit of a pain, since I had Wynne and Leliana in tow.  One skeleton always wanted to chase after them if I left the room, so I ended up just staying in there.  Shield Bashed the demon first, then moved slightly to get everything grouped, and hit them with lightning bomb then fire bomb.  Desire Demon died after a pummel and a hit, and then I could work on the rest.  Moved to the doorway for them, and tried to keep the bewitched templar cc'd.  Took a couple pots though.

 

Next room is the blood mage and templars.  Busted straight through the door planning to shield bash the mage first thing, and she decided to use Fireball and ragdolled herself and her templars, ha.  Killed the mage first, then fought the templars.  Think I toggled to Shield Wall until there was one, then went back to Defense.

 

Fade is next.   I saved my Skill point at 9 because I couldn't decide if I wanted Stealing 1 or if I should wait for a fade point in cunning to get Coercion 2.

[capn233]

Ended up going Coercion 2 with that skill point.

 

Fade was not much different than usual.  Dwarf doesn't get to use lyrium, but I had better armor than I typically do and I used my regular form for a few things.  Interestingly, the closest I came to dying was the room before Varaveel (Templar's Nightmare) where there was an Arcane Horror and some minions.  The Horror got off a spell before my fireball hit it, and I was ragdolled and took some damage.

 

Sloth actually went relatively smoothly, although not necessarily quickly.  Short version was Golem for everything except Rage form, which I mostly just used Burning Man against for fire immunity.

 

Back in the tower, there were two remaining notable encounters.  First is the room where you are ambushed by the rage demon and a bunch of shades.  Used a greater warm balm and some health pots, and it was pretty annoying.  The dead templar in the room had three health pots on him though.  I had hit Level 10 on that floor and took Righteous Strike (couldn't really think of anything else to take).

 

Uldred was annoying, the biggest annoyance is that it is hard to hit him in melee before you need to avoid an attack.  Wasn't doing a great job avoiding massive attacks to start with, and even on the successful attempt I botched one completely, and got mini staggered on many of them.  I should have tried to accumulate more swift salves to up melee, but I only had one.  Ended up using lesser warm balm, lesser spirit balm, deathroot extract, soulrot coating, swift salve, 2 greater health pots, 4 health pots maybe, and like 1 or 2 lessers (they don't do much anyway).  I ended up not bothering to try my active talents against him for the successful run since they took too long.  The one time he knocked me down he tried Crushing Prison, but it was resisted.  He did manage to freeze me several times (should have ran lesser ice salve, but didn't think about it).

 

Had 20 gold at the end, spent right under 2 gold on some health pots and balms, then killed Shah Wyrd.  Fire from the mages is annoying.  Spent a lesser warm balm.

 

Went towards Logain's Push, got the Five Pages Four Mages encounter.  Their mage helps you out by sending fireballs on top of their melee guys.  I burned lesser warm and elixir of grounding as well as a health pot.  Logain's Push gives you a lot of help.

 

Got the Zevran ambush en route to Denerim.  Again, their mage was more harmful to their units than to me, and I just used a health pot and lesser warm balm.

[dainbramage]

A bit surprised you haven't picked up Assault. That's one of my go-to Tank skills that I look to get as soon as possible. That and Perfect Striking are enough to deal with most foes in Origins once you can get both skills.

 

IMO assault's quite lacklustre compared to pummel and overpower (higher stamina cost, less damage, no CC). It's worth getting eventually, but only after shield mastery, shield expertise and deathblows.

 

Depending on the character you might also want poison 1-2, stealing 1 or coercion before getting combat training 4

[Ferretinabun]

Despite the extra gold, I think DN may actually be the hardest solo just because of the origin.

 

 

Seconding this. The origin is built around party combat - it's as simple as that. And W&S is a particularly non-offensive build, so you'll struggle early on.

 

That said, it sounds like you're over the worst now. Not saying it'll be a cakewalk, but after the first treaty mission the difficulty curve flattens out considerably.

[capn233]

Sold things to Gorim in Denerim, turned in quests.  Didn't do much else there.  Turned around and went to Frostback.  Killed the deserter for the guild, then killed Logain's men at the gate.  I ended up using a rock salve along with several health pots and venom.  I had tried to kill the mage first a couple times, but didn't have any luck with that.  Ended up going into a tent to fight the melees one at a time, then just killed the mage at the end.  Had about 54 gold at this point

 

In Orzammar I got the ball rolling on the first phase, while Leliana pick pocketed some people and got me Gloves of Diligence.  Went to Dust Town, killed the welcome party, killed the thief, and started Precious Metals by robbing Rogek, then agreeing to deliver the Lyrium.  Returned love letters for money to the fighter, agreed to take Dagna's request to the Circle.

 

Went to the Circle and sold the lyrium for 60 then blackmailed the guy.  Was up to about 125 gold.  Left the tower for Orzammar and got Twisted Path.  Handled that.

 

Returned to Rogek, got another 20 from him and had 145 and some change before buying Lifegiver.  Then I realized I forgot about Dagna, and went back to the Circle yet again.  Decided to kill the Black Vials Revenant while I was there.  Hit 11 and banked the talent point.  On the way back to Orzammar I got Bloody Plains.  Wish I had a Leliana with Combat Stealth tagging along to get all the traps at the end for XP, oh well.  Anyway it was not bad at this point... just killed the Emissary first, the Alpha next, and the archers last.  Used 1 deathroot and 1 lesser pot.

 

Finally got rid of the Bounty Hunters on the road in Frostback Mountains, their mage helped me slightly by fireballing the melee guys with me.  Gave Dagna the good news and got another 8% spell resist rune from her.  Traveled back to Denerim again to sell off some equipment to Gorim.  Have 70 gold lying around.  Apparently I have spent 192 so far.

 

Also of note, when I checked that number I noticed my contribution to party damage had dropped to 99% with 7 FF damage dealt.  I didn't think about it at the time, but I hit myself in the Fade.  Gotta love this math.

 

Gloves of Diligence helped a bit by boosting the armor, and Lifegiver should help.  I don't know if I should bother switching back and forth between Harvest and Lifegiver for a little more damage in some cases.  I probably won't.

 

I have run Gorim's Sword since I first caught up with him, although Aodh should do slightly more damage now (at least to non Darkspawn).  Don't know if I really want to switch.

[capn233]

Before I get back to the game tonight, have a question about Redcliffe.

 

Is there any practical way to keep all the militia alive during Attack at Nightfall with a solo melee character?

[dainbramage]

They fare well if you wait until they get scattershot. Otherwise... Not really.

As for friendly fire, obligatory self-promotion
http://www.nexusmods...age/mods/4384/?

[capn233]

Do you recall level that happens at?

 

Not sure how to even go about it without being able to heal the militia.  Do they keep scaling up forever, or do they also have a cap?  I don't really want to get Taunt all that much.

 

If I could buy "unlimited" fire bombs from some place it seems like it would get a lot easier.

 

Will take a look at the fixes.  The FF change is nice.

[Mike3207]

I recall hearing the NPCs skill level scales with difficulty. They're pushovers on Casual, immortal or close on Nightmare.

[capn233]

I tried to look back at my saves, my solo mage didn't save right before the attack, but was 13 after finishing the attack.  My DW solo character was 11 before the attack.  Might be level 12 where they get scattershot.

 

Might be able to just do Brecilian Forest with my 41 armor though.

 

One other thing, reading the descriptions for the fixes reminded me about the Overpower damage getting worsened with Shield Mastery.  This never affected the resistance check, right?

[dainbramage]

Nope, only forces the shield damage roll to do its "max" damage.

 

Can't remember what level they get scattershot at, sorry.

 

EDIT: Oh, and since the shield talent tweaks actually modify gameplay a bit, probably want to leave it off if you're interested in a 'pure' solo. Though there's very little difference in your overall power (particularly as enemies get the same benefits).

[capn233]

Right, I don't run any combat tweaks.  It seems odd that they would set shield damage to 5 and max to 0 though, I wonder what they were trying to do.

 

Ended up cutting it short yesterday to play a few ME3 games with friends.  But did a couple things:

 

Took care of Notices of Termination and left Denerim with ~74 gold.  Thought I could do a few side quests to get enough for Spellward.  Got the Low Road encounter (blight wolves and bereskarn) which was now not challenging given 41 armor and some health regen.  I went back to the corner by the tree to limit attackers to 2 at a time though.  Bereskarn could still knock me down, but overall they couldn't do enough damage to matter.

 

Desperate Haven took two attempts.  The first time it seemed like the Emissary Alpha wasn't using spells and I didn't mind, although his staff damage was a consistent drain.  Took care of the rest of the units and went to bask him in the face, and he finally got around to a spell which was Curse of Mortality and was not resisted.  The second time he was using chain lightning and fireballs nearly the whole time, but I resisted nearly all the lightnings and the Fireballs mainly just helped me with the other darkspawn.  Only saved one refugee.

 

In the Brecilian Forest I took care of side quests that I could including the favor with the arrow.  The only enemy that could do any damage that I ran into was the yellow ogre near the mystical site of power.  He grabbed me after coming out of a stun, and then rammed me a couple times.  Knockdown immunity would have been nice, but I only ended up using 2 lesser pots for that encounter anyway.  I turned in the quests in the Dalish camp and then went back to Denerim to sell loot, which brought me to 95g.

 

I had intended to buy Spellward next, but if I was to do Redcliffe it isn't going to be all that beneficial.  IIRC there isn't really any hostile magic at all.  Alternatively I could use it to clear the abandoned building in Denerim, since that is a mage fest.  That might let me hit 12 before Redcliffe.  Or I could go back to Brecilian and just finish that line.

[Ferretinabun]

Keeping the militia alive is hard enough with a full party (and Wynne really is your trump card here).

 

My only tip is to not get the oil from the warehouse when making your preparations. It's a complete liability since the knights think nothing of running straight into it to fight the skeletons.

[capn233]

Keeping the militia alive is hard enough with a full party (and Wynne really is your trump card here).

 

My only tip is to not get the oil from the warehouse when making your preparations. It's a complete liability since the knights think nothing of running straight into it to fight the skeletons.

 

Yeah I haven't decided on the oil.  I think it is slightly easier to keep the knights from running into it in a solo than with a full party, but it doesn't seem to make a large difference for killing the enemies either.

 

Heal and good CC powers are out of the cards sadly.  I don't know if blowing a talent point on Taunt will be enough to get enough of them on me as opposed to the militia.  Maybe I will just bite the bullet and get the physical technique tome and use it for Taunt, then delay Spellward.  Then maybe pick up fire or cold iron runes for Aodh and run that.

[capn233]

Procrastinated more yesterday:

 

Went to camp and spent the gold for Spellward and ensuing 100% spell resist.  Decided to go around buying up fire bomb ingredients.

 

Got Desolate Highway (wolves and traps) but at this point it is not all that hard.  Of course I should have beaten it the first time around en route to Honnleath, but botched some clicks.

 

In Lake Callenhad I took out Skinny Frank and Sammuel the Desserter, then bought fire crystals.  Went to the tower for more, robbed some people, and headed to Orzammar.

 

Got the post-Circle mage roadside encounter, which is amusing if you can wade into the friendly AOE.  One of the apprentices ran into it as well, but he didn't have spell immunity.

 

In Orzammar just completed the thief quest (sold the book to the shady guy for 2 gold), bought some flasks and fire crystals, then went outside to get the concentrated deathroot recipe.  Headed back to Denerim to make fire bombs and to take care of Last Request and the first Crows target.

Random encounter in the alleys, then the Pearl for for the target, and then the next random encounter had the black vials Revenant.  Most of that was unremarkable save the Revenant, who I could hardly hit.  Had to burn a fair amount of pots on him.

 

Last Request is mostly straightforward with high armor and spell immunity.  The only things to mention are the room with the 3 mages and a bunch of troops and the final encounter.  I managed to aggro all the guys at once the first time, and it was a bit expensive to do it like that, so I redid it.  Tried to pull fewer of them, which sort of works.  Both times a mage did Cone of Cold on top of their guys and allowed me to unlock "Shatter" codex, which is amusing.

 

For the last fight I ran in and killed the lower ranked mage first since he has Cleansing Aura and heals.  Then I tried to pull the melee guys and LOS the mage since his staff damage can add up over time.  He did help me with a nice fireball one time though.

 

I hit Level 12 in the middle of the building and had saved my point at 11, so I was able to get both Death Blow and Shield Expertise at the same time.  Then I got Stealing 1.

 

In the Market Slim was unlocked, so I started Crime Wave.  Took care of "restocking the guild" afterwards and I was back up to 69 gold.

 

It's a shame I can't get War Cry with Superiority before Level 16 to knock down some corpses, I don't know if I want to do Redcliffe that late.  Then again Brecilian should be pretty straightforward with spell immunity and good armor.