50 réponses à ce sujet

[dainbramage]

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.

 

All weapons have a base damage and a damage range, defined in a 2D array. Max damage is base*range.

 

In that array, shields have a base damage of 0 and damage range of 1. In the damage formula, they increase the base damage by 5 if it's a shield, but forget to touch the max damage.

 

Well, code speaks for itself anyway.

    float fBase = DmgGetWeaponBaseDamage(oWeapon);

    if (GetItemType(oWeapon) == ITEM_TYPE_SHIELD)
    {
        fBase += 5.0f;
    }

    float fMax = DmgGetWeaponMaxDamage(oWeapon);

    float fDmg = fBase + ((bForceMaxDamage)?fMax - fBase: RandFF(fMax - fBase));

[capn233]

Yeah I am curious what they were trying to accomplish.  Did they want shield to always be 5?  If they wanted it static, doesn't seem like Overpower should have even had a blurb about maxing damage rolls.  Did someone think adding 5 somehow gave them a range of 5 to 6?  Guess it doesn't matter.

 

More random questions:

 

I noticed that Warden damage + his FF damage is one short of total party damage.  Everyone else in the party is listed as 0 damage, 0 percent.  Game is just rounding floats or something?

 

Also something I might not have really bothered to notice before, but low tier WnS enemies seem to sometimes hit for "0" damage with the last hit of Assault.  I thought min damage was 1, but is the damage penalty for each Assault applied after armor damage reduction?

 

Last night I ended up finishing the Dalish quest line.  Not much to say about most encounters when you have 40 armor and some health regen (lost one armor going Aprentice Amulet to Spellward, oh well).  Overall the night was expensive in health pots though due to "optional" fights.

- I managed to aggro pretty much all the spiders at once in the first part of the ruins.  I thought you could split them, so I probably messed it up.  I could have gone to get a drink while they all wasted Webs and Overwhelm on me and hit for 1 damage each.  Eventually you can fight them.  The poisonous spider did some damage with spit though because I forgot to use nature resist.

-Similarly, the ambush with multiple poison spiders took a bit of life away before I remembered the nature resist salve / balm I had.  Fortunately when they go into melee range they don't keep spamming it.

- Similarly to the spiders, first encounter in the Lair had a bunch of chain overwhelms initially.  I think I did that a bit better as DW, but had set some traps.  This character doesn't have traps, but again it didn't matter because high armor.  Good thing there is no sunder effect in the entire quest.

- Zathrien is no match for 100% spell resist.  Unlike my DW, I didn't have Cleanse Area, so it took a little longer to kill him.

-In the forest and ruins all the health pots I spent except for 1 went to Revenants.  Mage's Treasure Revenant in E Brecilian, then the two Black Vials revis in the ruins.  I can't think of any way to fight them with this character other than attrition.

- Dev meeting "We forgot to have any sunder effects in Nature of the Beast.  We need to make up for it with a random encounter.  We'll call it River Crossing."  The best I could come up with for this one was standing near a tree to limit some arrows and drinking health pots.

- I went to Denerim to sell off the loot (maxed after fighting the dragon actually), and had ~126 gold.  Returned to the ruins with Leliana (for chests) and Wynne (for Haste) to pick up more stuff.  Triggered Hillside Path en route back to Denerim.  Seems like keeping Wynne from getting hit initially is partly luck based.  Managed to do it without either of them "tanking" anything though, but it took some health pots for me (more sunders, yey).

- Selling the rest of the loot got me to 142 g and some change, which makes about 452 total gold "collected" so far (current + spent).  Thanks Gorim.  Guess I could buy Veshialle (my least purchased "end game" item probably).

[dainbramage]

You're seeing assault do 0 damage for the same reason your damage and ff don't add to total party - rounding.

 

Assault's 40% reduction takes place after minimum damage of 1 is enforced. So each hit is doing 0.6 damage. When that's displayed on screen it gets rounded down to 0. If you watch your hp though your hp will go down 3 (really 2.4, but again... displayed hp is rounded down).

[capn233]

Yeah I thought it was truncated or rounded floats.  I was mostly surprised that Assault was reducing damage after armor reduction, I guess I didn't realize any talent behaved like that.  I had tried to look for some mechanics on Assault and other melee talents but wasn't finding much.

 

---

 

Obviously I am paid by the word, so the rest of the post:

 

Camp - Bought Veshialle.  I haven't hardly played any wardens who run regular 1H fullsize, so that is why I haven't bought this very often.  This SnS is actually only my second warden SnS (first was my fist character ever), and I am usually way too cheap to spend 130 gold on Alistair.  I might have been better off running my DW warrior solo with dagger-fullsize, but I wanted dex for defense.

 

Rocky Road (post-elf) - didn't save any of the dalish.  Couldn't keep all the Shrieks aggrod, I took too long killing them.

 

Aeducan Thaig - The only dangerous spot is really the first big room with columns that has a genlock alpha and an emissary plus other mooks, at least if you are trying to be cheap and not use pots or salves.  I used a lesser pot in a later encounter though where there are a couple emmisaries because I thought a paralysis glyph was just a glyph of warding.  Woops.  Hit Level 14, took War Cry and Rally (hadn't used level 13 talent point), which is more an investment for the future.

 

Orzammar - killed the ambassador.  There are a lot of units that can sunder armor if you pull them all.  I managed to keep a couple in the room, then backed to a corner.  I used War Cry and Rally a bit, but not sure they did much except limit stamina.

 

Denerim - got more money

 

E Brecillian Forest - killed the Revenant by the ruins.  I should probably make swift salves for these guys.  Fast traveled to the Dalish Camp and got Dark Forest (spiders).  Then I went towards Redcliffe with Wynne in party and got her Low Road encounter.

 

Redcliffe - I had stockpiled and made 21 fire bombs over the past few days, not that I could use them all here. Prepared town with every available resource except Lloyd, who was kind enough to gift me the tavern.  Used oil. Windmill section is relatively straightforward, just stay back.  I have never had luck fighting on the hill, too many run past me. 

 

The chantry fight took a lot of tries to save everyone.  I tried it a few different ways.  War Cry and Rally to try and "buff" the militia didn't really help.  Best way was just to keep all sustains off and try to CC corpses going after wounded militia, at least at this level.  Used fire bombs when off cooldown and I could hit more than 1 at a time (so only used 4 or 5 total). Taunt and possibly other grenade types might have made it easier, but I didn't want to spend points / gold to get Taunt.  This part seems partly luck based, specifically how the militia uses talents as you run down the hill, and who the first two yellow corpses are attacking.

 

When I ran DW here it was much worse, and that was probably because it was weaker in CC and didn't have enough DPS to make up for it in that build.

[capn233]

Sold the tavern to Bella then took care of the castle.

 

There were two fights I needed health pots: Courtyard Revenant and the 6 suits of armor at once.  Didn't have the knights help me with either.

 

I went ahead and did the fight against Connor the first time around just for the hell of it.  And partly because I found a solo thing buried in the wiki mentioning it as one of the hardest warrior solo fights (at least with the restrictions in that article), but I did it without any consumables.  Reloaded and went to get the mages.  Coerced Irving into going, which is the first time I actually used him.  His powers were mediocre IMO given that it was mostly electricity, and he had an apprentice staff of all things.

 

Owen sold me Diligence boots and GM Hale rune afterwards.  Went to Denerim and sold off excess loot which brought me to 89g (460g spent).  Then I took care of Caravan Down.

 

Headed to the Brecilian Forest to finish the last Revenant, then took care of Wynne's Regret and bought a backpack.  Then it was back to Denerim for Allistair's Family.  Hit Level 16 (shield tactics).  Sold more stuff.

 

Took Leliana with me to travel and get her encounter (Forest Stream).  Irritating fight.  Then took care of Brothers and Sons.  Traveled from there to Orzammar to buy the Tome of Physical Technique and used it for Shield Mastery.

 

Then took care of Sten's Sword, and went back to Denerim yet again to kill Marjolaine.  Finished the Favors for Certain Interested Parties line and then took care of the Crow Hostage fight.  It was pretty irritating since all the Howe soldiers were lt level and the crow allies lasted 5 seconds.  Finished the Deserters quest for the Blackstone Irregulars and sold off more loot.  That brought me to 118g (495g spent).

 

Went to the Circle and bought Andruil's Blessing as well as lyrium dest.  Went back to Redcliffe yet again for Gift of Silence.  Sold more stuff in Denerim, then bought the Swift Salve recipe.

 

Traveled to Haven and the whole of the Urn quest was relatively straightforward.  Hit Level 17 before the 3 Drakes, took Motivate.  I fooled around with the 3 Drake fight trying to do it as cheaply as possible.  In order to use nothing I had to run Rally and debuff with War Cry, which prevented enough hits from the Drake so as not to need any pots, or back into a spot where they couldn't get me for regen.  I fought them one at a time though, of course.

 

I used a pot in the area with the enemy Arcane Warrior, since he wouldn't come off of the ramp and to fight him I had to trigger all the little dragonlingss and drakes.  The pot was used when I was down to the Drakes only, and I might have been able to do the fight without it if I would have managed to block the ramp better.

 

The Kolgrim fight was possible without a health pot by getting the enemy mages to help me.  As the cutscene ended, I went straight for a mage and auto attacked it.  Then he tried Cone of Cold which froze the melee units.  Used Overpower on one of the white units, then finished the mage.  Went towards the second and auto attacked him to get him to go CoC and freeze the melee units again.  Overpower was off cooldown and I shattered the other white melee enemy.  Used Concentrated Death Root and Rally w/ War Cry to keep Kolgrim stunned and debuffed so he didn't hit me much, and I could CC him with the other powers.

 

Didn't fight the High Dragon, went back to camp.  Got the camp ambush and everyone except Sten and Alistair took a nap (dunno if blanking their tactics makes them worse here or not).  Then back to Denerim.  Sold loot to get to 115g, paid Wade 10g for armor, then turned in the Bannistor quest to bump back up to 111g.  Bought Evon the Great's Mail.

 

Took care of Gaxkang.  Used two swift salves and two soulrot coatings.  Rally and War Cry made the Revenant form miss a fair amount, although I was missing him a good deal in that form as well.  He had the decency to drop Fade Wall the first time so I wouldn't have to open console and give it to myself.  I put a 2 and a 3 dmg lightning rune in the Keening Blade.  Thought I might use it on the dragons.

 

Brought the ashes to Redcliffe, and picked up Superiority (finally some AOE CC).  Left Redcliffe to go back to the Temple and got the post-Arl road encounter where I could laugh at Darkspawn as I knocked them down with War Cry.

 

****

 

Is there any decent way to fight a dragon with SnS solo that is legitimate but also does not involve burning 1000* consumables in the fight?  This guy can't hardly get through an auto attack swing without getting kicked out of range, unless Swift Salve is up... and even so he is doing crappy DPS.  I didn't think he would have enough attack speed even with SS to warrant loading up on paralysis runes, but maybe I am wrong.

 

I guess Rose's Thorn would let me attack faster, and buff health regen, at the expense of damage per hit.  Not sure that is what I would want to do either, plus I would need to get the gold together.

 

*May not really be 1000, but I spent 8 swift salves killing her + greater warmth balms and lots o health pots.  Maybe I should have spammed grenades.  With 43 armor rating, her hits / swipes were anywhere from 24-62 dmg IIRC.

 

Occasionally I could get her to stand around if I used an Assault from the right position, but I couldn't do it very reliably.  Didn't bother with poison since I can't stack them.

[capn233]

Well I killed Flemeth without using any health pots or grenades, but it was sort of annoying to do.  It helped that I had Wade's Superior Heavy Dragonscale gloves and boots for the buff to fire resistance and stamina regen to go with Evon's.  Also went back to Veshialle.

 

Basically screwed around until I could relatively repeatedly use Assault from the 2mm square area to her side where she wouldn't automatically kick me.  I am not sure if Shield Pummel and Overpower have the same range as it seemed harder to pull off with those talents.  Of course the Warden wants to randomly walk to stupid spots or get too close, which is where most of the annoyance comes from.  Could use up to one power per "hop" as long as I had the stamina and they weren't on cooldown.

 

I did use 3 Greater Warmth Balms though as I couldn't completely get her not to lob fireballs at me.  Helps to get close to her leg so she goes out of fireball mode after she lobs one.

 

Didn't use auto attack at all except when the character decided to ignore my command and use a slow ass swing instead of the power I ordered (the other annoyance).  Would get kicked whenever he did that if I wasn't fast enough to move away about as soon as he tried to do the wrong swing.

[Mike3207]

Get at range, fire 1000 crossbow bolts/arrows is the best alternate method. It's not really a fight you normally do solo. It counts a lot having a healer for that battle.

[capn233]

Get at range, fire 1000 crossbow bolts/arrows is the best alternate method. It's not really a fight you normally do solo. It counts a lot having a healer for that battle.

 

Yeah I didn't want to go ranged, but since I found out something new or that I had forgotten I guess it was worth it.

[capn233]

Did some Orzammar stuff yesterday:

 

Proving - fought in the Proving, partly because I had forgotten the ins and outs of what you could do if you are trying to work for Bhelen and Harromont simultaneously.  With my gear and level it wasn't particularly hard, War Cry w/ Superiority is especially handy here since targets are usually in range right off the bat.  I didn't use any health pots, but used a Concentrated Deathroot for the last one.

 

Unofficial Proving - similar to the above, although I think the enemy composition is a little harder.  I used one lesser health pot in the last fight because of an error in judgement (didn't kill mage first essentially).  Hit level 18 somewhere in between a match and took Survial 1 and Cleanse Area.

 

Carta - Pretty much nothing here can stand against a character with all late game gear.  Ran KCP all the way through the mission until right outside Jarvia's door, where I switched to Evon's.  No health used for the whole mission, although I had to kite Jarvia a little bit to get some regen (DWE dots add up...).  I did use 4 Concentrated Deathroots for this fight though.  I basically did it from near the pillar and brazier to the left from the entrance.

 

Went to Denerim to sell off loot.  Had 111g afterwards (746g spent).  I am tracking this mostly because I never really paid much attention to it, and because of what the Money Making Guide on the wiki says regarding gold before Landsmeet.  Specifically it says something like "you can earn 350g before the Landsmeet, or up to 1000g with all DLC."  I only have Stone Prisoner installed, and might be on tract to have 1000g if I get lucky from loot in the Deep Roads or find more random encounters.  This is of course with the best origin for money.  Not all of this gold is from loot, but would assume any other character could have ~ 430g by now using the "worst case" estimate.  At least assuming some coercion and stealing to supplement income.

 

Might look up more gold breakdowns, or at least rewards for quest to find out what fraction of my money was from loot to get a better estimate.  With their numbers it is unclear to me if they are including selling DLC items for the wiki estimate.  I did not, and would make a good deal from that.  Also, my party is "fully equipped," in that everybody has something in every slot.  Part of that was just to get promo items out of inventory, and partly because I don't want them to stand around naked.  The team isn't horribly equipped either; they have gear I might put on them in a team game (usually give out hand-me-downs anyway).  Not sure exactly how much gold that would add up to, maybe I will strip them all and sell everything just to see.

[Mike3207]

I think the reference is to the Reaper's Cudgel, a weapon that sells for 350k after you do the dwarven adventure DLC.

[capn233]

Yeah I am not sure.  I went back to get the exact quote:

 

 

You will be able to accumulate at least 350g prior to The Landsmeet, if you've collected all the loot items and sold everything to merchants without donating anything. It is also possible to accumulate over 1,000g prior to the Landsmeet without making any Potent Lyrium Potions. This requires you to do all the available quests (including DLC), pass all the money-related coercion dialogues, steal from all out-of-combat NPCs and in-combat enemies, and sell all items to merchants, except for the items of your four party characters.

 

This character is on pace to accumulate near 1000 gold near the Landsmeet without all DLC though.  Is passing most money checks, but did not steal from remotely everybody.  Don't know how much selling they are talking about, I have all party members equipped. Only lyrium crafted was the 10 lessers for the Gift of Silence.

 

I suppose the 1000g could be for the more pedestrian origins, and DN can get much more than that.

[capn233]

Finished the Deep Roads.  I had meant to go to the Dalish camp to by a Tome of Skill and Sundry to put another point in Survival (for nature resist), but I forgot until a little later.

 

Caradin's Cross

 

Ogre Alpha - pretty much the only dangerous enemy.  Used Evon's and Concentrated Deathroot for the Ogre, and KCP for most other encounters, even though there are only a couple emissaries in this area.  Shield Pummel stuns ogres pretty reliably.  Used Rally w/ War Cry to reduce the number of hits.

 

Level 19 - took Mental Fortress

 

Ortan Thaig

 

Physical Resistance stat at Level 19 w/ GM Hale rune was 95.  That makes this section a bit more bearable.

 

Missed Asunder the first time around because I forgot to go into the part of Caradin's with all the deepstalkers and one of the bags.

 

Last Emissary Before Queen - this is actually an irritating encounter due to the poison spit / staff attacks.  I used a lesser nature here and remembered the tome I forgot to buy.  You can pull the spiders back a bit though.

 

Spider Queen - took two attempts because I was trying to do it without any health pots. I was held out of position by the last group of minions the first time and got spit dots stacked on my.  For the second attempt I used grenades to thin out the last two waves.  In total spent 2 Greater Natures, 3 Conc. Deathroots and 2 each of Fire, Acid and Lightning bombs.  I don't think this guy has enough DPS to get through the spiders without either grenades or health pots.  Was using Evon's here of course.

 

Went back to Denerim to clear inventory (189g, 747g spent), then went to the Dalish Camp for the tome and got Survival 2.

 

Revisting Caradin's and Ortan

 

Went back to get the missing bag and do Asunder.  I had originally planned to kill the beast and then reload and take the deal (just so I could kill him as solo SnS then get money), but I didn't end up reloading for the gold since I don't need it.  He does a lot of physical damage, and I didn't have as much luck avoiding his massive attacks as I did against Uldred.

 

Dead Trenches

 

Forgemaster - he's actually pretty dangerous even one on one if you are fighting him in 2H mode.  Stunning poison helps, rotate knockdowns.  Also if you briefly LOS him or move slightly out of range, he goes back to bow and wastes time.  Whole encounter is best if you break it up.  Used Evon's here.

 

Shrieks on Bridge - there are a lot of them, but actually it isn't bad with Evon's and a little help from poisons.  High armor rating and some CC meant I could hack away at them.  Used 2x Venom since I wanted to clear it from inventory.

 

2 Emissaries and Spiders - this is right before Hespith, and always feels like one of the most irritating encounters in the Deep Roads to me, and was the first time I really missed Holy Smite.  I was able to pull the two emissaries with only one or two spiders though, which makes it easier.

 

Broodmother - fought her in melee because I didn't want to just hide and use a bow.  2 Lesser Nature's, 2 Swift Salves, 2 Soulrots, a Health pot and Lesser Health pot.  Used the health after the first phase when I had botched control of the character.  Kill the tentacles, then fight her up close.  You can move away from her when it says sweep or grab and she will miss if you are fast enough.  Swift Salve obviously helps.  I was able to outlast the area poison in the last phase since she I was avoiding all her physical attacks by then.

 

Anvil

 

Golem Rooms - used a lesser pot or two here.  This character does hardly any damage to Golems.  Knockdown powers work, but have to pass the check.  Rate was good enough to relatively comfortably fight a golem 1v1 without consumables, but 2 at a time were problematic.  Tried to fight in doorway to get only one at a time, but dps too low to hold the door every time (slam knockback).

 

Spirit Anvil - This encounter takes forever.

 

Branka - There are two major annoyances I have with soloing this fight.  The first is that Oghren is mandatory and always draws aggro, especially when Branka does her clone bs; and secondly that dwarves can't use lyrium, but Branka does.  The hard part is the first phase just because this character does hardly any damage to the golems, and the friendly golems suck.  Branka has high resistance, but 1 on 1 she isn't bad.  Used health in the first part, and concentrated deathroots when fighting Branka.  Oghren took some small damage when fighting the clones because that is like herding cats.

 

Assembly

 

Named Harrowmont king, killed Bhelen.  Lot of friendlies here, if you got through the Deep Roads this is near trivial.  Hit Level 20, took Holy Smite.

 

To Denerim

Winding Road - this is the encounter where the dwarves are fighting darkspawn and 2 ogres.  They all died.

 

Sold loot and had 312g in my pocket with 759g spent.  That makes 1071g total accumulated.  114 people robbed. Pretty much every chest opened, at least since Leliana was acquired.  I could have a bit more if I sold off all gear.  For instance, Sten is in Juggernaut with Yusaris and Asala.  Alistair has Diligence + generic gloves, Aodh, and Executioner Helm (T6... the only time I recall getting this as loot).  Also could add 25g for Asunder if would have taken the deal.

[pprincess50]

I'm playing a Solo Dwarf Noble on Nightmare right now, but doing DW Rogue build. Not taking characters with me except in forced story portions. Learned about adding gambit Self Any Wait after entering Lothering, so I wasn't able to stop Morrigan from using a basic attack in the Dog and Bandit section. I just waited until she and Alistair died. Other than that, I've fought solo.

So far finished Ishal, Lothering, Honnleath, Soldier's Peak and a couple of non-combat missions in Denerim. On the road, I've completed the Darkspawn with traps, the wolves, Refugees (they all died), bandits and spiders. This pretty much cleared out the road for now, since I haven't accepted any other map-based quests.

Toughest so far was Kitty and then the Desire Demon at Soldier's Peak. Kitty would have been easier had I set up traps in advance but I didn't. I surprised myself by defeating Sophia Dryden, thought I'd have to side with her. For Soldier's Peak I trapped the heck out of the final area with spring traps, and then stacked an Acid Trap, two Large Claw and a small Claw along with a spring trap which took out 4/5 of the Demon's health.

Opened the Brecelian Forest just for elf root right now. Now am about to start Circle Tower. Not sure I have enough pots but I bought Andruil's Braid which is why. Debating where to put my next skill point, I really need a second point in each of traps, poisons and potions. Am using Morrigan in the Dalish village to make pots, but that is all.

[capn233]

^I think I only took traps 1 in my DW warrior solo so I could use traps, but didn't use all that many to my recollection (used some I looted).  The specific place I do remember setting some was in Werewolf Lair, right near the first door, as that helped slow down the Shadow Wolf rush.

 

I haven't done a run where I required that the warden do all the crafting, although I thought about that restriction if I end up doing a rogue.  However, I might go poison 2 in your shoes since I like concentrated deathroot a lot, and it is relatively inexpensive to make while giving good stun chance.  I feel like most of the time I find enough health pots, but it is harder to get the specific poison you like.

[capn233]

Gonna catch my little blog up I guess.

 

Miscellaneous

 

Shopped for crafting supplies, mainly to get a few more grenades, swift salves, and concentrated deathroots.  I have much more gold than I could spend unless I planned to outfit the whole squad with best available.  Even then I might have leftover gold.  Did Oghren's Old Flame, unlocked Shale's quest.  Got Forest Incline, which is the ambush by dwarf rebels.  Also of note, I had gone to camp in between the Anvil and returning to the Assembly, and had dropped Oghren out of the party... he delivered his lines with Tactical Cloak enabled before the Assembly.  But it looks like Paragon of Her Kind is not showing as complete in the journal.  Just an oddity.

 

Cadash Thaig

 

100% spell resistance... so really the only darkspawn who is marginally dangerous is the Genlock elite who likes Arrow of Slaying and sunders.  The Ogre Alpha at the end seemed to be noticeably tougher than the one at Caradin's Cross, although I am chalking that up to level differences.  I ended up using 2 lesser health pots to beat it, as I couldn't reliably stun him and I didn't feel like kiting him for miles.

 

Redcliffe - Denerim

 

Talked to the Arl and launched the endgame.  Went to Denerim and worked on random things.  The ambush with Zevran wasn't all that notable, the Crow Hostage mission was harder.  Toured Isabela's ship with Leliana.  Stole Loghain's Crown (just used intimidate there), then went to Fanderal's Estate.  The first group with the elite archer is moderately annoying, but the next group with mages is not.

 

Rescue the Queen

 

The dungeon part was straightforward, if not quick.  Enemy damage has basically caught up with armor rating though.  Had to back up a bit against the torturer room.  The fight vs Howe did not require health pots, I just used an SS and Concentrated Deathroot.  Kill the mages, kill his lackeys, kill him.

 

Cauthrien was a different matter.  For no good reason I wanted to fight her in the room, which took a lot of tries before I decided to just go ahead and spend the consumables.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to do this given how often you will be under a sunder effect, even with 100 physical resist.  The only CC power that seemed even semi-reliable against Cauthrien was War Cry.  And I don't think she even used Indomitable, the rest just failed checks.  So by the last attempted I didn't even bother to use actives against her, except War Cry.

 

After the cutscene, used Holy Smite on the mage.  Then made a beeline for him and the door.  Assault on Mage, then War Cry to knock down everyone, then Shield Pummel, which would usually kill the mage.  Most likely would get stunned a bit between the Assault and War Cry by chain scattershots.  Sometimes would get stunned after holy smite by magic unlimited range Shield Pummel.  If that happened it was a doomed attempt.

 

When the mage was dead, I turned on Rally, tried to get as near the door as possible.  As minions grouped, used 4 grenades (Soul, Fire, Lightning, Acid).  Turned on SS and Conc Deathroot.  Tried to keep Cauthrien stunned.  Finished the nearby melee minions, worked on Cauthrien.  There was always at least one archer who had LOS no matter where I went, and it was not practical to venture away from the door while it was alive due to stuns and Cauthrien one/two shotting me.  As such, it was common for sunder to be up and that required a fair amount of healthpots to counter Cauthrien's hits.  After she was dead, I could bait one archer to come relatively close to the door, and used CC powers to lock him down while I got stunned, and then finished him.  Retreat and repeat.  When the last couple were left I could rush them.

 

I think I hit 21 somewhere in here.  Took Taunt and Survival 3.

 

Denerim Market

 

Sold loot again, was up to 338g with 894g spent. Finished Couriers, Scraping the Barrel and Correspondence Interuptus.  Had to go back to Orzammar to get one I missed, and bought Leliana Rose's Thorn for no good reason.  Then did the final Blackstone mission where you agree to kill the son.  This one was pretty hard to do without healthpots.  Rally and SS up and prioritize the archers.  As the melee mooks catch up, use War Cry to knock them down and hopefully finish an archer.  Then just try to find a spot near a cart where the melee mobs can't all fight at once.  Fighting the melee first just resulted in sunders and DWE Dots.  My DW and Mage were much better here, as DW has nearly the same armor but much more damage and higher defense, and mage is mage.  Without bugfixes this would probably be simpler as I would have more damage, and the enemies would have had less damage.

 

Alienage

 

The beginning is relatively simple if you have gotten this far.  The alley before Devera was the first test if you don't want to use any pots, with several archers using sunder and scattershot.  Then the Devera encounter took several attempts to do without using a healthpot, and in the end required grenades and other consumables so it isn't like it was free.  Rushed the archers (can avoid traps at the edge), War Cry to knock everyone down, grenades on the archers, then SS and Concentrated Deathroot to finish them ASAP.  After that you can try to get in a corner near the table to bait Devera to poke her head around the corner.  Stun / knock her down and work on her.  If she runs away, get back in the corner and work on mooks.  The main thing was rotating CC and not allowing Devera to just hit you with constant arrow effects and damage.

 

Calandrius is easy compared to the Devera encounter, at least if you have 100% spell resist.  I stunned him with Holy Smite at the beginning, killed the two mooks at the right stairs, then the two at the left stairs.  At this point a single mook would run up the stairs at a time and I could just kill them without interference from the others.  They did this until 3 and Calandrius were left.  So I used HS again, ran down and got their attention.  Went back up the stairs and all the mooks chased me. Calandrius helps at this point by using AOE against you that just hurts his own guys.  When I had to fight him, I used a lesser warm pot because his staff attacks did do a fair amount of damage.

 

Something Wicked was sort of annoying.  For the first fight where a bunch of shades are summoned, I broke out Taunt for the first time in this run, and mostly tried to kill shades as Otto worked on the demon.  The last fight is somewhat annoying, but the way I did it was to go greater warmth balm at the beginning, and then SS and Lightning coating against the main demon.  When his mooks showed up I would use my actives against them after a War Cry against the main one.  If you just attack the main one, too many rages show up.  If you move to the wrong spots, you get hit with fire traps.

 

Bought a tome from the guy in the Alienage to get Survival 4.

 

Selling loot got me to 309g and 1060g spent.

[pprincess50]

Nice work on Ser Cauthrian! That is one of the big tests of a solo build. I am going to have to fight her outside the room I'm sure, though it doesn't worry me as on Nightmare in the past I've had to put the party on hold anyway just to have control of the battle.

I am feeling in agreement with Poison 2 for the next point, the only point of consideration though is crowd control since the Rogue has none to speak of. So it is traps versus bombs. Bombs are nice but they don't do that much damage on Nightmare compared with laying traps. But Deathroot is the best all purpose coating for sure.

Haven't used any money exploits aside from selling the Reaper's Cudgel and felt forced to sell it early instead of waiting for Gorim. I need cash for the Rose's Thorn next. The only way I can see getting it is with the lyrium quest, but I don't have any points in Coercion to get the full gold from that quest. I need points in Coercion also to pass Cammen in the forest, I'm down to the only option of convincing Glynna, should have waited til later and saved the wolf pelt option.

[capn233]

Yeah it makes more sense to fight her in the bedroom.  I just wanted to see how expensive it would be to do it with this guy I guess.

 

Have just been tracking gold for the novelty of seeing how much I could get without going into the lyrium crafting business.  Might be more instructive with another origin, but even at only 50% it is still nearly 700g before the Landsmeet.

 

As far as Potent Lyrium Pots as an exploit, it is unclear to me why people thought this was unintended unless there was a developer comment back in the day.  Up front cost isn't cheap and usually won't have the skill points until Level 12 unless you spam tomes I guess.

[pprincess50]

By 700g before the Landsmeet, you're referring to your current purse or total earned by that point?

I have Rose's Thorn, Red Jenny Seekers and spell resist ring or amulet left to buy. I think I can do without the Felon's Coat since I have the DLC armor from Leliana's Song. Where I'm at with money is really going to determine some story decisions, like fighting dragons or not.

[capn233]

By 700g before the Landsmeet, you're referring to your current purse or total earned by that point?

I have Rose's Thorn, Red Jenny Seekers and spell resist ring or amulet left to buy. I think I can do without the Felon's Coat since I have the DLC armor from Leliana's Song. Where I'm at with money is really going to determine some story decisions, like fighting dragons or not.

 

No I meant that as an estimate for total accumulated for non-Dwarf Noble origins.  That was just by taking my total accumulated (309 purse + 1060 spent) and dividing by 2 to approximate lack of Gorim's increased payout (although that is actually 684).  Basically anything I sold, I sold to Gorim this run.  Just said 700 since money found, stolen, or rewarded for quests should be the same between characters, only sold loot is worth less... it's just a rough guess for other origins.

 

The most I ever had at one time on this character was something like 338g, which was right after the Cauthrien fight.  I had basically bought most big money items before doing the Urn and Orzammar, so money was starting to just pile up after that.

 

This is only with Stone Prisoner installed (and promo dlc gear but I didn't sell any of it), with more DLC more gold should be able to be accumulated.

[pprincess50]

Plus, you're equipping other characters too, right?

Aside from using Leliana as a clothes closet for my character I sell everything else.

I missed above if you killed Gaxcang yet. Might be some cash out for runes for that fight.

[capn233]

Plus, you're equipping other characters too, right?

Aside from using Leliana as a clothes closet for my character I sell everything else.

I missed above if you killed Gaxcang yet. Might be some cash out for runes for that fight.

 

Yeah the squad is equipped with loot and the promo dlc stuff.  That was to get some things out of inventory.  I would have some extra if I sold everything.  Maybe if I remember tomorrow I will sell it all and see how much it is worth.

 

I killed Gaxkang already.  I have Keening Blade and Fade Wall as weapon set 2, but don't really use them.  You also get some gold from him, I don't remember how much exactly.

[capn233]

Ok so here is the value of the loot I had equipped on the party.  It is worth noting that I have an unobtainable item fix, so I have a few extra loot items that you don't normally get, but that doesn't make all that much difference to the value.  I didn't sell the promo dlc items, and I didn't sell some of their starting or plot items.  Also, I had a few more items laying around than were just equipped on the party since halfway through this run I downloaded the camp chest mod and put some stuff in it just in case I ever wanted to use it (but I never did).
 
Total value was 107g 96s 24c (309g 47s 42c -> 417g 43s 66c).  That means I could have had 1476g accumulated at this point.
 
List of junk I sold off to Gorim is below in spoiler.  It would be worth half as much for Warden's who aren't Dwarf Nobles.
 

Spoiler

Ageless
Yusaris
Oak Branch
Juggernaut Armor Set
Rock Knocker
Black Hand Gauntlets
Robes of Possession
Lifedrinker
Cord of Shattered Dreams
Ring of the Warrior
Frostshear
Seal of Rat Red
Silverleaf
Surveyor
Bloodline
Biteback
Aodh
Topsider's Honor
Falon'Din's Reach
Longrunner's Cap
Executioner's Helm
Cinderfel Gauntlets
Effort's Gloves
Magus War Boots
Antivan Boots
Cadash Stompers
Armor of Diligence
Eamon's Shield
Libertarian Cowl
Archon Robes
Apprentice Amulet
Mixed Metal Rounds
Belt of the Magister Lords
Harvest Festival Ring
Blood Ring
Dreamsever
Red Jenny Seekers
Dusk Ring
Dead Thaig Shanker
Thorn of the Dead Gods (T6)
Beastman's Dagger
Summer Sword
The Green Blade
Helm of the Red
Ancient Elven Armor Set
Templar Armor
Redcliffe Elite Shield
Barbarian Helmet

[pprincess50]

Nice list. I screwed up and sold stuff at the Circle Tower. Forgot about Gorim. But I have a tough encounter on the road getting back to Denerim, not sure I can beat it and get there at the moment.

Finished the Circle Tower, the actual floors went rather quickly compared to other full party Nightmare runs I've done. Had a few retries on the Desire Demons. The third floor demon is always tough. Trapped the hallway but really what did it was a lucky proc from the Grandmaster Paralyze rune. When that proc'd on the Desire Demon, I had it beat.

The Fade is more tedious than difficult since it is already designed as a solo. I only had Wynne with me. I realized I missed out on some EXP not bringing two other people. Am only level 11 now.

Uldred took three tries just to not get knocked back and time my bombs so he couldn't use the Horror or Prison spell, whatever it is that locks you down.

So now I'm on the encounter with the forgers or whoever they are. I keep getting stunned by something, maybe one of the arrows, and then the Mage decimates me. I don't quite have a winning strategy figured out yet. I can tell I'm a bit low level for those enemies. Maybe I'll head to Orzammar instead.

[capn233]

So now I'm on the encounter with the forgers or whoever they are. I keep getting stunned by something, maybe one of the arrows, and then the Mage decimates me. I don't quite have a winning strategy figured out yet. I can tell I'm a bit low level for those enemies. Maybe I'll head to Orzammar instead.

 

Trade Route with Joam.  I had high spell resistance both times I did this as warriors, so their mage wasn't a big deal.  I don't remember the exact enemy composition there, the wiki just lists 3 enemies but that seems low.

 

Haven't played it as a solo rogue, so can't give any specific advice.  Solo mage can just blow everyone up more or less, I had best luck as a warrior killing the melee units first then the mage last, fighting near the cart to try and avoid hits from the mage's staff. Warrior has better armor rating to protect when stunned though.

[pprincess50]

Joam has three lackeys on his side of the cart, including one archer. Another archer on the other side who stays put. The Mage above has an archer also. So yeah there are three archers on Nightmare, total of six enemies. I was trying to take out the archers and Mage first, if I can't avoid this encounter I'll try the four guys on the side of the cart first and try and avoid the others.

Hopefully I can get to Orzammar instead, and gain another level before trying again.