17 réponses à ce sujet

[caladorne]

Alright

So generally, my pcs have found Alistair to be a bit of a bumbling idiot...endearing on some lvl...but mostly annoying. Now, however, my female elf mage is quite taken w/ him. *blush*
I decided to persue a romance and have him tank for my party. The problem I'm having is that when battle ensues he runs straight into my fireballs/inferno, CoC, etc. Vaarg (dog) on the other hand for whatever reason tends to do a better job of getting there after the CC.

Note: I'm not complaining in anyway, I'm still getting used to using magic so often and think there's something I'm missing.

Should I change his tactics? I don't really wanna micro every battle and manage hold/move freely ALL the time. Can I time this better in someway? I've used him as a tank before and know he's gonna take some licks, but Neariel is blushing quite a bit after battle for the damage she is doing to him.

Will experimenting w/ the glypgh line help some? I'm afraid that'll just leave him attacking stunned opponents just in time to drop an inferno on his head.  

[ZelaineGW]

You can set him up the be 100% spell resistant if you want to. Or use the spell shield spell. Or get a lot of fire resist gear.

Or get animate dead, send that in first throw down a few fire spells, then send everyone else in for clean up, pretty much what I do. Some micro management needed but not much.

So you have a lot of options. Fire resist gear is easy to get.

Modifié par ZelaineGW, 01 mars 2010 - 07:45 .

[SOLID_EVEREST]

I always put force field on Allistair when he is at about 25% health. Watching those enemies actually wait until the spell is finished to whack him is pretty funny. Keep shield defense on him at all times, have his tactics set to drinking health poultices at 25% health, and keep him healed up with Wynne or Morrigan. I use an arcane warrior so I can fight alongside him, and put force field whenever he's almost dead, and use a heal spell on him.

[kombra]

ZelaineGW wrote...
You can set him up the be 100% spell resistant if you want to.

Why do people keep saying that? You can't. Spell Resistance only works against magic from hostile mages.

[caladorne]

Thanks for the replies



I didn't think he would resist my spells so I'm not trying to force his spell reistance. I'll do that later in the gamew/ more mana based attacks start happening.



The force field idea works pretty well now that I have Wynne in the party as she has gobs more mana than me (got her later than usual) and I can just use her tactics to hook him up. I've also changed my battle strategy a bit so that I"m more aggressive. BUT w/ both of these combined I find that I'm drawing a TON of aggro. Dog is 'off-tanking' for me right now but not pulling the aggro. I will try to come up w/ a way to handle this. I wish 'Mind Blast' stunned for a couple more rounds so I could retreat to leave Al there chopping away, but alas no dice. I may go w/ the Sleep line for better CC later (only lvl10) and see how that works.



Thanks again.

[kombra]

Sleep requires some micro-management as well (so that you don't wake up enemies). Waking Nightmare is one of my favorite spells - incredibly powerful, no friendly fire, no micro-management needed.



Sleep + Horror can do a huge amount of damage, even to tough monsters (especially combined with the first 2 Hex spells).



Glyph of Repulsion / Glyph of Warding can be very useful to save your mage(s).



Anyway, mages only work very well when you micro-manage them and the rest of the party.

[caladorne]

kombra wrote...

Sleep requires some micro-management as well (so that you don't wake up enemies). Waking Nightmare is one of my favorite spells - incredibly powerful, no friendly fire, no micro-management needed.

Sleep + Horror can do a huge amount of damage, even to tough monsters (especially combined with the first 2 Hex spells).

Glyph of Repulsion / Glyph of Warding can be very useful to save your mage(s).

Anyway, mages only work very well when you micro-manage them and the rest of the party.

What do you think about the Mass Paralysis line? I wasn't planning on taking any spells from that line, but is it worth it?

In fact, I wasn't planning on going down the sleep line either, but may reconsider. What are your thoughts on Affliction Hex/Sleep/Horror as a common opening?

Thanks for the help

[kombra]

I don't like the Mass Paralysis line. Mass Paralysis is slow to cast, has a physical resistance check and doesn't work against Lieutenants / Bosses (you only get the slow effect for those).



IMO, both the Glyph Line (Paralysis Explosion can be tricky to use, but doesn't have any resistance check and lasts 20s against non-bosses - longest stun duration you can get) and the Sleep line are quite a bit better.

What are your thoughts on Affliction Hex/Sleep/Horror as a common opening?

It's certainly good. But there are a lot of monsters that seem to resist sleep, but not waking nightmare. At least on higher difficulties, you don't have much time to cast the Hexes on Bosses (on Nightmare, on bosses, Sleep only lasts 2.4s).

[BowElk]

Not sure how tapping the "H" key (hold) would be micro-managing. I personally am not a fan of letting anyone in the party go storming into an area until I know what is going on.

[caladorne]

kombra wrote...

I don't like the Mass Paralysis line. Mass Paralysis is slow to cast, has a physical resistance check and doesn't work against Lieutenants / Bosses (you only get the slow effect for those).

IMO, both the Glyph Line (Paralysis Explosion can be tricky to use, but doesn't have any resistance check and lasts 20s against non-bosses - longest stun duration you can get) and the Sleep line are quite a bit better.

What are your thoughts on Affliction Hex/Sleep/Horror as a common opening?

It's certainly good. But there are a lot of monsters that seem to resist sleep, but not waking nightmare. At least on higher difficulties, you don't have much time to cast the Hexes on Bosses (on Nightmare, on bosses, Sleep only lasts 2.4s).

I didn't think I wanted to go for the Paralyze line so I'll just skip it. Definitely good to know about the bosses too. Thanks.

I originally wanted to be a Nuker/DPS mage and have sorta drifted from that core concept. I try to think a few lvls ahead, but perhaps got a little sidetracked b/c of a lack of party members. I just entered the fade and having Wynne accompany me through the tower worked great for her healing/CC (she's using the glyphs ). So I'll likely go back to the 'elementalist' root w/ a few CC spells mixed in

[SOLID_EVEREST]

In order to get more aggro on the dog, use the a tactic slot and set dog to use taunt whenever someone attacks you or Wynne. I use Morrigan though because her hex spells are pretty awesome, and coupled with spirit healing (heal all spell) she was a big help for me on Hard difficulty. Also, you can never go wrong with Cone of Cold make sure you have that spell it's a life saver. I hate Wynne because she makes me go broke after any battle because she guzzles down lyrium like water.

[caladorne]

So, I've got some updates on my mage.



1st Al gave me his rose last night and it was the sweetest thing! This is my first female PC and she really had her eye on him from the start. Turns out that she's quite the Ms. Promiscuity though. Leliana was her first love, but a spat after some of Neariel's decisions made her impetously have a fling w/ Zevran. Leliana was up for one last go w/ Isabella and Zev, but I had to call it quits after that. During the RTO gameplay and a chat w/ my mother...I mean Wynne I knew that Alistair was the right choice....to bad he's gonna dump my mage $ss soon.



For the gameplay, I just needed some time to fell out combat w/ a mage and upgrade my companions a bit. I went w/ BM/SH as I'm sure many do so I could transition b/w mana pools at my choosing and to add some more CC. Tactically, I actually now try to draw aggro from mages/archers/rogue, go w/ Affliction Hex and primal damage or Crushing Prison and/or CoC/Sleep w/ Crushing prison for single target elimination.



I have to say that I'm LOVING playing w/ a mage. I started out wanting to be a nuker, then thought strongly about focusing on Entropy. BUT Neariel is rather impetuous and likes to have lot's of options. I guess that makes her a 'utility' mage w/ some CC/damage/Healing. BUT it suits her perfectly well. It also makes me look forward to playing other mages. I've rotated Wynne/Morrigan into the group for different combos and am heading to the Deep Roads to try a Storm of the Century.



Thanks for all your help

[caladorne]

Yeah!!! I got the Heavy Hitter achievement last night using Sleep/Horror on a room full of Jarvia's thugs!!!



And as an aside. Wynne is definitely sounding more like my mother. Now she's gone from just lecturing me about love to giving Alistair loads of grief too. I may start leaving her w/ Ohgren after we leave the Deeps.

[Ayanko]

Ever thought of actually putting the party on Hold while you attack? While your casting switch to Alistar move him to the enemies you actually want him to attack, his gambits are always set as "Enemy:- Nearest" He'll be to busy dealing with those around him than deciding to play "Lets run into the flame inferno it might have some cheese".

[caladorne]

Ayanko wrote...

Ever thought of actually putting the party on Hold while you attack? While your casting switch to Alistar move him to the enemies you actually want him to attack, his gambits are always set as "Enemy:- Nearest" He'll be to busy dealing with those around him than deciding to play "Lets run into the flame inferno it might have some cheese".

Good thought. In a way that's actually what I've been doing. I leave him attacking the mobs and soaking up aggro while Leliana and Morrigan do the damage. My pc focuses on taking out support enemies (mages/rogues/whites). When I'm done w/ those (minimal threat as there are only a few in most situations), i turn back to the main group for CC/AoE. Ultimately I decided that Al just has to live w/ a fireball sometimes. And since my other party members are typically ranged, they can help to whittle out the crowd w/ more DPS. I'm almost done w/ the Deeps and haven't really had much reason to pause down there.

[Marso40]

Hold him in formation at the start of combat until you detonate your first fireball, and then unleash him.

[caladorne]

Marso40 wrote...

Hold him in formation at the start of combat until you detonate your first fireball, and then unleash him.

Good advice

I've taken a page out of the Darkspawn playbook. I have Al as the 'last' member of the party. That way I rush ahead, cast a fireball, then let Al run in to attack knocked down foes. He can then use his Champion abilities to do some CC for himself. I'm keeping Mom and Lesbiana in the group for rp, but will definitely use a different group next time. I must say that Wynne does have to good uses. 1. Healing/buffs 2. A great target for 'blood sacrifice.'

Incidentally, the fight w/ the Broodmother was a joke this time around. I just used the first two hexes and lit that puppy of w/ Inferno a couple of times. The darkspawn...errr... spawns had that old campfire trance apparently....As in, "Oh big flames are pretty...let's go run into it." Hehehehe hahahaha

[caladorne]

I guess fairytales are just that...tales.



The Archdemon has been defeated. Alistair refused to let me sacrifice myself. Anora sits on the throne. The Landsmeet was a disaster. Sure Loghain was executed by Alistair after Neariel dueled him. Neariel is grief stricken however. As a boon from Anora, she had hoped at least to gain more power for Erving and the Circle. However, the "Epilogue" only mentioned that the Tower was restored!!!



I've no idea how this all went so badly. I can honestly say that it was all sooooooo depressing really. The Blight is ended in theory, but Neariel's personal story is such a disaster!