17 réponses à ce sujet

[voteDC]

Why is it that every mage I encounter during the game has the damn Misdirection Hex in their arsenal?

It means my Cousland Rogue is pretty much rendered useless for half the fights or I have to make sure to take characters to counter the enemy mages. Since most battles seem to have mages I'm stuck with a limited choice of who to take and can't get the great banter from other combinations.

Suggestions please. Is there a better way to go about countering the Misdirection Hex? At the moment I'm tempted to just use the 'killallhostiles' command every time I see a damn mage.

This has actually made me want to wipe out the tower on this play through.

[Krypplingz]

Get dispel or glyph of neutralization on one of your mages, cleanse for a templar or sneak up and murder the mages before they see you? 

I've heard increasing your critical chance also works, since critical hits at least hit as normal hits. 

 

Who you want to have in your party might also help in figuring out a way. 

[voteDC]

See that is the problem, to counter the misdirection hex, I am essentially being forced down one route.

I can max out my Stealth talent but that isn't always useful in situations such as the Kolgrim fight (where I am at), where the two mages keep you in the misdirection hex permanently from the very start of the fight. It's only really useful  when there is one enemy mage. As soon as there is one or more, Stealth becomes a waste of time. It's a good job I had a healthy potion supply as taking out those mages while the other enemies battered the team was a nightmare.

I think I will take your suggestion and go for upping my critical chance. At last that way I'm not limiting my squad choice.

My current team make up is Leliana, Oghren and Sten. It's a combination I've never taken on this mission before. I think if I want to remain with this team for more of the game one of the guys is going to have to go on Templar duty, which just robs points from their other talents.

[Krypplingz]

If Leliana is going the archery path, then Arrow of Slaying is useful to knock out at least one mage at the beginning of a fight.

Stocking up on grenades might also be a clever move. I don't know if they are affected by the spell, but I don't think so (can't test it right now).

Also consider tracking down items that give you spell resistance. 

 

The Kolgrim fight is always a hassle, especially if you don't have a mage.  If it doesn't break your roleplay you could accept to be his champion, then kill him and his mooks once you leave the temple. They are more spread out that way and I think you only have to handle one mage. You also get an extra drake to kill, which is always fun. 

Also what difficulty are you on?

[dainbramage]

See that is the problem, to counter the misdirection hex, I am essentially being forced down one route.

 

In rough order of effectiveness, you can

• Use mana clash, which is basically the KillAllHostiles console command but costs 50 mana and only works on mages
• Have a mage cast dispel magic/glyph of neutralization/anti-magic burst/etc to dispel it
• Stack magic resistance on your rogue
• Keep a templar around to disable enemy mages, use cleanse area, or just act as an idiot magnet and tank spells for your rogue
• Kill the mages out of stealth. Two shouldn't be a big problem if they're relatively close, between dirty fighting and riposte you have two stuns
• Stack crit chance on your rogue
• Use (autohit) grenades while you're cursed rather than try and hit stuff

[SherryGold]

Zevran already has stealth and it's useful in taking out mages, but in boss fights, stealth is no use at all. When I play as a rogue, I always go for two mage, two melee rogue set up. The first priority of mages is to paralyze or petrify the mages until they learn mana clash. Your rogues should be able to dispatch them in no time. In the meantime, the mages can use glyph of paralysis, horror, etc. to hold back the other three until the rogues come back. With double haste on, Kongrim fight never presented me a problem, even on the nightmare difficulty. Fighting arcane warrior, two drakes and hoards of warriors, dragonlings are tougher. The arcane warrior doesn't die promptly with an arrow of slaying and I usually lose one or two mages on the nightmare difficulty, but the rogues stand standing at the end of the day. Two rogues and two arcane warriors who can cast haste is pretty hard to beat.   

[capn233]

I know it is a little frustrating if you are going melee, but the flip side is that if you are running a mage you can cast it on an enemy melee and laugh.

 

One of the things I appreciate about this game is that enemies more or less have similar skillsets as the player's characters.

 

The various dispel type abilities are really useful.  If you want to run a party without a mage at all, then if a melee gets hexed, you will just have to rotate around squad members and limit the hexed character to auto-hit, auto-critical, or support abilities.

[Dai Grepher]

Depends on your main character. Warrior or rogue?

Whenever my dual weapon warrior was hexed, which wasn't often since he was an off-tank DPS'er, he would switch to using abilities that were area of effect, or buffs, or knockdowns.

Dual Weapon Sweep is unaffected by Misdirection Hex, as is Whirlwind. Cripple is a critical hit, which means it ends up being a normal hit, though this can sometimes miss normally. Punisher is critical and knockdown. Riposte has a critical chance.

You can also use Momentum to increase your rate of attack.

Grenades are unaffected by Misdirection Hex. War Cry is unaffected by it, and fully upgraded it knocks enemies down. Rally buffs all party members.

Two-Handed has less useful abilities, but Pommel Strike might work, and I think the move where you swing the sword sideways and knock everyone down works. But that's pretty much it.

Weapon and Shield is mostly worthless, though you could theoretically just use such a character as a tank and a magnet for the hexes.

For rogues, aside from the dual weapon talents already stated, Dirty Fighting, Mark of Death, Captivating Song, Summoning, all the buffs, etc.

Basically, you can't auto attack anymore. You have to switch to your abilities until the hex wears off. Honestly, Misdirection Hex isn't even the worst mage ability you can run into. Crushing Prison and Curse of Mortality are far worse spells to be assaulted with, especially if you don't have any templars or dispelling mages in your party.

[SherryGold]

The best way to avoid misdirection hex is to remove mages before they can cast the spell. Failing that, you can always invest on the equipment for the spell resistance of your melee characters. I use spellward for both the warden and zevran, plus the runes, and any items that give spell resistance. Very rarely, one of them is affected by the hex (that is, if the enemy mage(s) gets the chance at all). More often than not, the spell is resisted.

[SherryGold]

In my experience, crushing prison followed by overwhelm is the worst combination your melee character can encounter. Force field is probably the only way to save your melee character when that happens, if you cannot invest on dispell, which I never do. I'd rather go for mana clash.

[capn233]

What is the check for Misdirection Hex?  Is it against Physical Resistance?
 

In my experience, crushing prison followed by overwhelm is the worst combination your melee character can encounter. Force field is probably the only way to save your melee character when that happens, if you cannot invest on dispell, which I never do. I'd rather go for mana clash.

Heh, the combo I hate the most is Crushing Prison -> Curse of Mortality.

[Mike3207]

No checks mentioned for either the Drain Life or Hex Line-they might not have checks. There's not even a check for spellpower listed for Misdirection Hex.-it may not scale with spellpower.

[voteDC]

The only place I seem to get hit with Crushing Prison is at the Circle Tower. Never seems to happen anywhere else.

Curse of Mortality, that's a devil I get hit with a lot. There is this fight in Denerim, I forget exactly where, with three mages and a lot of Archers. As soon as I show my face I know I'm going to get hit with both the misdirection hex and curse of mortality.

Then I have to hope that the other three (or four if I am using a summon) can take down at least one of the mages by the time the curses wear off, while I'm hiding back in the previous room.

I did one play through though where that fight turned out to be easier than I expected. I was using the extra dog slot mod but got Leliana to summon a wolf as well. Felt rather nice to field a six person team against them. Never did that again though as it did make things quite easy. Don't use the dog slot mod that often either, as while having an extra character is useful you miss out on all the associated squad banter.

[capn233]

No checks mentioned for either the Drain Life or Hex Line-they might not have checks. There's not even a check for spellpower listed for Misdirection Hex.-it may not scale with spellpower.

 

Hmmm.  I don't know if I missed it before or forgot, but a couple greater shades have tried to use this on me and it was resisted both times.  I don't think I had any spell resist at all the first time.

[DeathWalksBehindYou]

You and me both!

The only place I seem to get hit with Crushing Prison is at the Circle Tower. Never seems to happen anywhere else.

Consider yourself lucky. I’ve found that those &*%$ Darkspawn Emissaries LOVE to cast this, especially on my squishy mages. That last battle before Fort Drakon, where there’s two of them, is my nightmare.

[capn233]

^Yeah it is the emissaries.  I don't recall human / elf mages using that one all that much, they are usually into the hexes and primal spells IIRC.

[SherryGold]

What is the check for Misdirection Hex?  Is it against Physical Resistance?
 

Heh, the combo I hate the most is Crushing Prison -> Curse of Mortality.

I forgot about that one. Pretty nasty. I think I got in once in Ostagar.

[DeathWalksBehindYou]

^Yeah it is the emissaries.  I don't recall human / elf mages using that one all that much, they are usually into the hexes and primal spells IIRC.

On the plus side, when I found out what that spell was, I learned it and got my revenge, casting it on the emissaries before they could launch it on my party! Hahahahahaaaaa!