10 replies to this topic

[smw]

Hello,

I am a HUGE fan of the original Dragon Age: Origins.
It had a fantastic real-time combat system and rich/deep storyline.

I really want to like Dragon Age : Inquisition but like many others who start this game,
the beginning is very bog-standard MMO. I seem to be stuck in the Hinterlands, and
everyone says to get out of there asap. But I find that I still seem under-leveled to
continue the main story arc. I am currently Level 7.

I've closed all the rifts I can find. I have sided with the mages and gone forward
in time, but the next phase when I seem to close the rift and play with the catapults, there are
too many enemies and I run out of healing potions.

 

I am at the brink of giving up on this game, please help.

What else can I do to level up more so that I can continue the main story arc ?

 

What order should I do the areas, and what recommended level should I be in each area ?

When I am out of the Hinterlands does the game play more like DA:O or is it still more standard MMO ?

[HeartOfRage]

Hinterlands

Val Royaux

main quest (mage/templar)

forbidden oasis

fallow mire

hinterlands (lvl 9+ content)

main quest (lvl 10+)

 

Don't give up, inquisition is the BEST ps4 game.

Set difficulty on easy if u r in trouble.

 

Crafting also helps a lot. What class r u playing? Which skills did u choose?

The 'close the rift' main quest shouldn't be done before lvl 10...

[PapaCharlie9]

Hinterlands
Val Royaux
main quest (mage/templar)
forbidden oasis
fallow mire
hinterlands (lvl 9+ content)
main quest (lvl 10+)
 
Don't give up, inquisition is the BEST ps4 game.
Set difficulty on easy if u r in trouble.
 
Crafting also helps a lot. What class r u playing? Which skills did u choose?
The 'close the rift' main quest shouldn't be done before lvl 10...

I agree with all that, except Fallow Mire -- that's too tough for someone struggling with the Hinterlands at level 7. I also don't agree that you have to wait to close the Breach until level 10.

On nightmare, level 6-7 is plenty to do Champions of the Just or In Hushed Whispers, and then 7-8 is plenty to do In Your Heart Shall Burn.

In fact, I wrote a guide just for those cases.

https://forum.biowar...-until-skyhold/

[PapaCharlie9]

Hello,

I am a HUGE fan of the original Dragon Age: Origins.
It had a fantastic real-time combat system and rich/deep storyline.

I really want to like Dragon Age : Inquisition but like many others who start this game,
the beginning is very bog-standard MMO. I seem to be stuck in the Hinterlands, and
everyone says to get out of there asap. But I find that I still seem under-leveled to
continue the main story arc. I am currently Level 7.
I've closed all the rifts I can find. I have sided with the mages and gone forward
in time, but the next phase when I seem to close the rift and play with the catapults, there are
too many enemies and I run out of healing potions.
 
I am at the brink of giving up on this game, please help.

What else can I do to level up more so that I can continue the main story arc ?
 
What order should I do the areas, and what recommended level should I be in each area ?

When I am out of the Hinterlands does the game play more like DA:O or is it still more standard MMO ?

You're falling into the same trap as a lot of first-time players: there are portions of the Hinterlands that are much harder than the main quest! Don't judge your ability to do the main quest based on the trouble you are having with the Hinterlands.

I bet you tried to close the rift in the river near the farm. That's one of the highest level rifts in the early game. It's not meant to be done until you return to the Hinterlands in the mid game.

If you are level 7, you can do Champions of the Just or In Hushed Whispers for the main quest easily. If you've been closing a lot of rifts, you should have power enough to do so.

One thing: you don't have any Trials enabled, do you? That's a mistake if this is your first-time. Turn them off and you'll have an easier time. Trials for for follow-up playthroughs to make things more challenging once you've figured out how to beat the game easily. Or for pro players.

[ArcadiaGrey]

Have you been to the Storm Coast?  You could go do some of that, and the Forbidden Oasis, to gain more power.

[Captain Wiseass]

Yeah, Storm Coast and Forbidden Oasis are good spots to level up a bit. You shouldn't need more than another level. (Don't go inside the temple in the Forbidden Oasis, though. That's for higher levels.)

 

For In Your Heart Shall Burn, I'm guessing the part you have trouble with is with the last trebuchet, after you leave the Chantry. There is a supply cache right there, but I assume you're using it and still having trouble. Since you're gonna restart the quest anyway after leveling up, some tips:

 

The fights on the way from the Chantry to the trebuchet will be easier if you leave the supply caches inside Haven alone during the first part of the quest. You get a full party heal and health potion refill after the cutscene at the Chantry. You can also skip the fights on the way to the trebuchet by using a Rogue with Stealth.

 

Since you're fighting the Red Templars, focus on the Marksmen first, as they can do the most damage. Knights and Horrors next, then Guardsmen, and vanilla Red Templars last. I don't recall fighting any Shadows during this quest, but if I'm wrong, put them on the same level as Knights and Horrors.

 

The basic plan is to crank the trebuchet until you can't anymore, then kill the bad guys, then repeat. You can and usually should keep cranking even once bad guys start to appear; let your companions handle them until you're done, then join the fray. Once the last enemy is dead, go back to cranking. The last wave of enemies includes Knight-Captain Denam as a behemoth; you don't actually have to kill him (or finish the wave) to start the last round of cranking. If your defense is high enough, it might be better to just finish the trebuchet. I would also take out the Marksmen in the last wave before tackling Denam; those guys are assholes.

 

I find Cassandra makes a good tank for this part; Blackwall is cromulent, too. I usually bring along a mage with Barrier as well; you can have them cast it on you while you're cranking. You don't really need a rogue on this quest unless you want to Stealth past some fights, so if you want to bring two tanks or two mages, go for it.

 

For warriors, keeping Guard up should be the #1 priority. This goes for companions as well; you can set guard-enhancing abilities as preferred on the Behaviors menu. Mages should have Barrier as preferred as well. As a mage or an archer rogue, try to keep out of the melee as much as possible (Leaping Shot is very helpful with this for archers). Stay close to the trebuchet, ideally between it and the supply cache (which you should wait to use until you're down to 1 or 2 potions). Bringing along some Regeneration Potions or Rock Armor Tonics is not a bad idea, either.

 

Crafting yourself some gear with the best schematics and materials you've found so far is not a bad idea. There are some decent Tier 2 schematics for sale in Val Royeaux and at the Black Emporium, or maybe you've found some already.

 

Good news is, the rest of the quest is basically cutscenes. Enjoy Skyhold.

[smw]

Thanks for your responces.

 

I leveled up to Lv 9 before I re-attempting the main storyline.

 

I didn't know about the supply caches so knowing this helped alot on my new attempts.

I never touched the NPC behaviour menu, so I played around with it and got my magic-user to

have preference for Barrier spell.

 

After a couple of attempts I managed to complete the mission. Thanks everyone for your helpful advice.

Most of the mission was straight forward until I got to winding up the last catapult. The last wave of enemies

has a enemy that is about TWICE as large as the rest and that got me. But I finally manged to wine-up the catapult

to trigger the cut-scene.

 

I got to what seems to be the new HQ.

 

From this point does the game become more story-line based (like the previous games) or will it still be

alot of MMO mini-quests ?

 

 

Thanks

[Bear43]

The story-line is actually rather short. One of the complaints many have is all the fetch quests and various side stuff. So, to answer, there is a lot of MMO side stuff.

[PapaCharlie9]

From this point does the game become more story-line based (like the previous games) or will it still be
alot of MMO mini-quests ?

The way I would put it is that there is plenty of optional MMO grinds and side-quests, but you can ignore all of that stuff (though I'll make a suggestion, below). You can stay on the main quest storyline and get most of the story content.

Is it as rich as DAO? Debatable. There is a lot of story, don't get me wrong, it's just maybe not quite to the same level as DAO. Not that it's terrible. Say a solid B+ to DAO's A.

Keep in mind that your new HQ, Skyhold, works very similar to the DAO camp, so talk to everyone. They are way spread out all over the place, so get used to making the rounds running everywhere each time you come back to Skyhold. A good part of the content, particularly Romance and Companion approval stuff, is progressed by this talking in Skyhold. Talk to everyone every time you return to Skyhold.

If you want to minimize the MMO grinds, don't open any other optional maps except Emprise du Lion, unless you need to open one for a companion/romance quest. Several of those require the Exalted Plains to be opened, so you may need that too. But Emprise du Lion, while MMO side-questish, is some of the best of that type of stuff. Plus, it has some of the best loot and the best crafting materials of any map. Plus, the MMO stuff is kind of fun. It can be grindy, but capturing the Keep at the end of a long gauntlet grind is pretty satisfying, and has good loot, and rewards a ton of Influence (particularly if you capture all 3 keeps, one in Crestwood, one in Western Approach). BUT, the whole map is tough. Don't attempt until level 14-16 or so.

[Bigdawg13]

I think the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia paints a prettier picture of DAO than most people realize.  DAO's base story was pretty simple, and the only real "depth" of DAO was that it was the first game to introduce the Dragon Age world to gamers.  DAO's storyline was basically archdemon+hero...go rally the armies and kill it.  The only unique features were the origin stories that were over in an hour.  The origin stories let you create a more unique hero.  But the primary storyline (oh no...a big demony dragon...must kill it after getting army support) is rather simple.

 

I think the story telling in Dragon Age games have only gotten better.  The characters from each game are fleshed out and more varied. DA2 had a nice little plot twist at the end, but the game's narrative itself felt a bit random between acts and it was stuck in Kirkwall for the most part. In DAI, we see a larger view of the world rather than just a snippit of Fereldan or a single city.  And the DAI narrative is turbulent, twisting in on itself and intertwining with the past 2 games made it absolutely fascinating.

 

In DAO we met the Grey Wardens and couldn't imagine a world that didn't have them on the center stage.  DA2 felt more like a mini-series to fill in the gaps up to DAI.  And in DAI we learn that the Grey Wardens are a very small chess piece in a rather large world, and that big things are coming...bigger than anything we could expect.  It'll make the arch demon nemesis from DAO look like a cannon fodder IMHO.  I can't wait for DA4 because the world just keeps getting bigger and more exciting.

[PapaCharlie9]

I think the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia paints a prettier picture of DAO than most people realize.  DAO's base story was pretty simple, and the only real "depth" of DAO was that it was the first game to introduce the Dragon Age world to gamers.

That's likely true. DAO does have the honeymoon period going for it. One comes to DAI a bit jaded with DA lore. Of course, since it is all subjective in my head, I can't really tell the difference. Best I can do is have some skepticism about whether DAO really was an A vs. DAI's B+.

But all that said, the tragic story of the Wardens vs. the Blight hasn't been topped yet, at least for me. Sure, we've got more spectacle and bigger stakes now, but nothing that is quite the same ... I dunno what to call it, impact? Epicness? Ass-kickingness?

EDIT: Oops, forgot that the OP hasn't played the rest of the game yet, some story spoilers:

Spoiler

I'd say a big part of my lower grade for the DAI story is my irritation with how the Grey Wardens have been brought low. Ok, I get that the Wardens need to be taken down a peg or two every Age or so, ends-justify-the-means hubris and such, but so soon after the HoF? And for such a stupid reason? Bleah.