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[Cheech]

I have not played Fallout 3 yet. So question, should I play that before Dragonage? As in, will Dragonage make Fallout 3 feel old and not worth it.

Fallout 3 actually feels like a more modern game. Dragon Age shows every year of its 4+ year long development cycle. The graphics aren't even as good as Mass Effect, FFS.

That said, Dragon Age is incredible. It will stand up there as one of the best RPGs of the decade.

 

[Walshicus]

Lockpicking is just a lazy way to give rogues a purpose and they're pretty meh otherwise. I enjoyed playing as a rogue on my second playthrough, but I plan to ditch them completely on my next one because they're so pointless.

I don't know, in my first playthrough as a Rogue>Ranger/Duelist I found summoned creatures to be very useful.

 

[dionysus]

Strength, mostly. You could almost go pure Strength with a 2 handed warrior. You can invest some points into Constitution if you want more survivability, and Willpower if you feel you need more stamina.

Miss miss miss miss miss. Don't you need dexterity to actually hit anything? I know my low dex warriors are worthless. Might just be that everything in the game sucks except for mages.

 

[commish]

I have not played Fallout 3 yet. So question, should I play that before Dragonage? As in, will Dragonage make Fallout 3 feel old and not worth it.

As others have said, they are very different games. If anything, playing FO3 first may make DA feel old and not worth it, if the "Free formness" of FO3 matters a lot to you. DA is pretty much on rails, whereas FO3 allows you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. DA is the better game, though.

 

[koji]

Miss miss miss miss miss. Don't you need dexterity to actually hit anything? I know my low dex warriors are worthless. Might just be that everything in the game sucks except for mages.

Chance to hit (attack score) is based on; 0.50 STR and 0.50 DEX

 

[ethelred]

Miss miss miss miss miss. Don't you need dexterity to actually hit anything? I know my low dex warriors are worthless. Might just be that everything in the game sucks except for mages.

If you put a high charisma bard in your party with that low dexterity warrior, you shouldn't have any issues. If the warrior is a champion and has rally, that should help, too.

 

[darkjedi187]

Aw that sucks got my copy yesterday and registered it. Seems you only got the dagger if you registered before Nov 30. 1 day late!

 

[K.Jack]

Note about the Edge dagger/DLC items (PC gamers only):

You can have The Edge, or any other preorder/bonus items whenever you want. Just go to this topic, skip to section 4.1, and download whatever items you want in your game. Follow the instructions to install them.

This had been posted before, but someone may have missed it.

 

[Mystagogue]

Picked up this game yesterday after reading all the good things about it on GAF. RPGs have never really been my cup of tea, mainly because I just haven't played that many at all. Decided to dive in head first and see what happens. Started the origin story (Dalish Elf) and haven't gotten that far yet. A little overwhelming to an RPG noob but I'm learning! One look at the inventory screen, and my brain broke. :lol

 

[dionysus]

Chance to hit (attack score) is based on; 0.50 STR and 0.50 DEX

Ahh, so everything in the game does suck except mages. The ideal party in this game is 4 mages except when fighting bosses and you must have a tank because the boss is immune to crowd control. Hell, the only reason to not have as many mages as possible is because they are a pain in the ass to micromanage.

 

[darkjedi187]

Note about the Edge dagger/DLC items (PC gamers only):

You can have The Edge, or any other preorder/bonus items whenever you want. Just go to this topic, skip to section 4.1, and download whatever items you want in your game. Follow the instructions to install them.

This had been posted before, but someone may have missed it.

Thanks unfortunately I have the ps3 version.

 

[Anerythristic]

As a mage user is the mage spell line useful at all. I notice Arcane Mastery gives you a +5 spell power boost but the other skills suck IMO.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Holy crap @ Gaxking. Now that was an epic goddamn fight.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

As a mage user is the mage spell line useful at all. I notice Arcane Mastery gives you a +5 spell power boost but the other skills suck IMO.

I got it later in the game when I had nothing else to get. I think it helped my healing a great deal

 

[Rustymonke]

Damn, this game is tough.
I'm only starting the main quest after doing 7 origins (I did all 6 then I realised I wanted a male mage :lol), but it's gotten hard pretty quick. I started with Redcliffe and the zombie attack wiped me once, and I had to switch to easy to kill the last half dozen without dying the second time. I read about luring groups up to the soldier's, and gaining your health back each time, but that seems cheaper than switching difficulty!

/waits-for-people-to-say-I-haven't-seen-anything-yet

Is Sten any good? My party atm is: me as a healer, defensive mage, Morrigan, Alistair and Leiliana. I don't really care about having the optimal party (besides a rogue), but the most interesting bickering characters.

 

[Naix]

If you put a high charisma bard in your party with that low dexterity warrior, you shouldn't have any issues. If the warrior is a champion and has rally, that should help, too.

Yep, there's several ways to increase your attack score...Rally, Precise Striking, Heroic Offense, Song of Courage...That's more than enough for a high STR warrior to hit pretty much all the time.

 

[Drek]

Has anyone gotten their tactics to the point where your allies are reasonably competent, or does everyone just aggressively micromanage/pause the game every few seconds to tell them what to do manually? I want to know if I should bother trying.

I've gotten some good specs going, but it can be tricky.

A few examples:

I have Alistair set up as a straight tank, so he just has a lot of self:any > sustainable buff lines, ended with a nearest enemy > attack. Assuming I have the free tactics slots I'll put as many enemy:HP >75% > shield bash/pummel/shield assault etc. kinds of commands. He autos pretty well. The only initial thing I do is send him after a different group of enemies than my main, a two handed 'serk/templar who tanks pretty well himself despite being more of a DPS build.

With Leliana I got quite a bit more complex. I used to respec mod and made her into a dual wield/archer bard/duelist. Her chain basically has her run the 3rd bard buff (which is awesome) and the duelist buff constantly with self:any > buff lines. Then it goes into something like this:

3. enemy: middle to long range > switch weapons to ranged
4. enemy: middle to long range > go to tactic spot X
5. enemy: middle to short range > switch to melee weapons
6. enemy: hp > 75% > use activated attack skill)
Repeat 6 for as many skills as you can, but then end it with tactic X.
X. enemy: any > attack

The final command will keep her attacking pretty consistently, and as long as enemies are at middle to long range she'll stay with the bow. Once one gets within middle to short range she changes over and goes melee. This primarily works thanks to the very high cunning score she has, since I took the passive that lets her use cunning instead of strength with melee weapons. A high cunning gives her more tactics.

For casters it gets kinda hard. I like to just give them a list of basic upkeep spells and then micromanage the big spells myself.

What stats should I focus on for a dps 2 hand weapon warrior? One more thing, is there an option to turn off helm display?

You need at least a 36 dexterity for the tier 4 dual wield skill that lets you have two main hand weapons equipped at once. Big part of making a good DPS guy, besides the high dex makes your attack ridiculous so you also almost never miss.

Other than that? For my main (the previously mentioned berserker/templar dual wield DPS) I just made it up to a 16 cunning to max out coersion, 36 dex for the tier 4 dual wield, and then about 2:1 or 3:1 strength to constitution.

 

[Pancakes]

The new Penny-arcade comic is spot on :lol.

Minor spoilers in the comic btw

 

[Zalasta]

Is Sten any good?

Sten does good damage as a 2-hander but dies really quickly if he grabs aggro. I can't count the times when he gets face planted a few seconds into the fight because I didn't pay attention to what he was doing.

 

[darkjedi187]

does bioware have a customer support number for dlc code issues?

 

[GHG]

Just a quick question. Looking to buy this game and wondering if the Collectors edition is worth it over the standard one in terms of game content? I don't care much for the case, extra DVD, etc.

 

[Lan_97]

Just a quick question. Looking to buy this game and wondering if the Collectors edition is worth it over the standard one in terms of game content? I don't care much for the case, extra DVD, etc.

No. The only DLC difference is 3 items, and two of them you still have to buy in game.

EDIT: As I mentioned before the metal case I got was SteelBook rather than MetalPak that some people have. Also, the game disc art indicates that it is part of the CE, which is kind of neat.

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

I just started my second game yesterday, this time as a male elven mage (Arcane Warrior) and I am loving it. It plays like my old D&D Eldritch Knight; defense self-buffs, offensive party-buffs, VERY capable as a tank - oh, and he can heal, too.

The main issue is that if I actually end up using most of my sustainable buffs, my mana is reduced to maybe just enough for an emergency heal and one Crushing Prison. Thankfully, this character sits in a fairly gray area on the morality scale, so I feel the mana problem will be remedied pretty easily by choosing Blood Mage for my second spec. On the other hand, I considered pumping more points into Willpower for more mana and then taking Spirit Healer for better survivability. Any other Arcane Warriors out there have some insight on this, maybe?

 

[BattleMonkey]

Ok I just did the Shale quest thing and pretty much did the whole thing and got Shale in like 1 hour. Is all the DLC this friggin short? I was considering dipping into the other dlc packs but the Shale dlc was insanely crappy and short (though Shale is awesome party member).

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

Ok I just did the Shale quest thing and pretty much did the whole thing and got Shale in like 1 hour. Is all the DLC this friggin short? I was considering dipping into the other dlc packs but the Shale dlc was insanely crappy and short (though Shale is awesome party member).

There's more to Shale's story later.

 

[Wallach]

Miss miss miss miss miss. Don't you need dexterity to actually hit anything? I know my low dex warriors are worthless. Might just be that everything in the game sucks except for mages.

Bards, Champions and flanking are more than enough for your melee to be hitting without pumping dexterity.

Mages are great at a lot of things, but they don't really compete with rogues (I don't have a clue about DPS warriors) at single target damage. I would take one specifically for those encounters, as well as the utility of lockpicking/traps.

 

[markatisu]

Ok I just did the Shale quest thing and pretty much did the whole thing and got Shale in like 1 hour. Is all the DLC this friggin short? I was considering dipping into the other dlc packs but the Shale dlc was insanely crappy and short (though Shale is awesome party member).

That is all for the quest to get him into your party, there is much more when you go to visit the Dwarves in Orzammar.

 

[Exhumed]

Bards, Champions and flanking are more than enough for your melee to be hitting without pumping dexterity.

Mages are great at a lot of things, but they don't really compete with rogues (I don't have a clue about DPS warriors) at single target damage. I would take one specifically for those encounters, as well as the utility of lockpicking/traps.

Using the respec mod I played around with the Arcane Mage with a 2handed axe. Even with Champion and Bard buffs, my character was missing consistently with 14 dex. I pumped her dex to 25 and haven't missed since. Not only that she seems to have better survivability now. Its crazy that her suvivability is much greater than Shale's or Alistair's. However, her damage output with a 2hander is lacking due to damaging skills. Its consistant, but a 2hander warrior hits harder.

If the character is not tanking, dex is not as important since you can flank like Wallach says.

 

[Wallach]

Using the respec mod I played around with the Arcane Mage with a 2handed axe. Even with Champion and Bard buffs, my character was missing consistently with 14 dex. I pumped her dex to 25 and haven't missed since. Not only that she seems to have better survivability now. Its crazy that her suvivability is much greater than Shale's or Alistair's. However, her damage output with a 2hander is lacking due to damaging skills. Its consistant, but a 2hander warrior hits harder.

If the character is not tanking, dex is not as important since you can flank like Wallach says.

I was only referring to melee as DPS. Your tank should have stupid amounts of dexterity - it is a better tanking stat than constitution. In fact I would probably just sit somewhere between 15-25 constitution for a tank and the rest would be dexterity.

 

[Minsc]

I was only referring to melee as DPS. Your tank should have stupid amounts of dexterity - it is a better tanking stat than constitution. In fact I would probably just sit somewhere between 15-25 constitution for a tank and the rest would be dexterity.

Sounds like dexerity would have been more balanced if it didn't give any damage bonuses. I didn't realize with a high DEX you basically never miss, never get hit, and do as much damage as if you spent the point on STR.

What do people tend to run on their stamina for spellcasters / tanks? It's quite easy to hit -30% or more, but very hard to keep it above 0, unless you skip the heavily armor or pump the heck out of Cunning or whatever raises stamina.

 

[John]

*post*

Hm, thanks. I've done largely the same, but I haven't respecced Leliana.

Is there anywhere I can go to grind? I've lowered the difficulty to (PC) easy, I micromanage every second of a fight but now I'm just thinking I'm underlevelled or something; I don't even win this fight when I potion chug. I went to Redcliffe directly after the first town. I've done every little extra sidequest I could.

 

[Johnlenham]

Can you make Shale into a tank? like will he lose his golem thing if I respec potion him/

 

[WanderingWind]

Can you make Shale into a tank? like will he lose his golem thing if I respec potion him/

Shale is a tank.

 

[Wallach]

Sounds like dexerity would have been more balanced if it didn't give any damage bonuses. I didn't realize with a high DEX you basically never miss, never get hit, and do as much damage as if you spent the point on STR.

What do people tend to run on their stamina for spellcasters / tanks? It's quite easy to hit -30% or more, but very hard to keep it above 0, unless you skip the heavily armor or pump the heck out of Cunning or whatever raises stamina.

Actually I think it just should not give as much of a defense bonus as it does. Either that, or they should have added a talent for Warrior somewhere to gain more HP & physical resistance from each point of constitution.

 

[Johnlenham]

Shale is a tank.

Well I wouldn't say that when you get him he has three sections done where as id want to dump all my points in the def part and boost his warrior skills.

 

[Naix]

Even with high DEX, bosses will still hit you.

Dexterity may be better for tanking everyday's mobs, but better than Constitution for tanking bosses ? I doubt it.

 

[Arde5643]

Sounds like dexerity would have been more balanced if it didn't give any damage bonuses. I didn't realize with a high DEX you basically never miss, never get hit, and do as much damage as if you spent the point on STR.

What do people tend to run on their stamina for spellcasters / tanks? It's quite easy to hit -30% or more, but very hard to keep it above 0, unless you skip the heavily armor or pump the heck out of Cunning or whatever raises stamina.

Wha? DEX doesn't give you damage bonuses.

Only STR or CUN (for rogues with lethality) gives you damage bonuses.
Only willpower raises stamina, which is retarded for non-mage classes.

If the attributes were more balanced, CON would increase stamina for non-mage classes.

 

[Drek]

Well I wouldn't say that when you get him he has three sections done where as id want to dump all my points in the def part and boost his warrior skills.

Shale can basically be used as a tank, a dps melee, a ranged, or support. It can't be used for a combination of the above, just one, as to activate one path you must deactivate the other.

Tank is going down the Stone Heart path. When Stone Heart is active only the talents within its line of progression can be used. The same goes for all the rest of Shale's talents. You basically pick the sustainable off our list and that unlocks the higher tier talents from that same row.

It would probably be ideal to respec him and focus entirely towards the warrior and stone heart skills if that is all you want out of shale, but the second row for Warrior talents will have very little progression for him, since the 3rd tier requires a higher dex than you'd even want to give Shale.

I felt no need to respec Shale. Doing so would in fact take away what I like most about him, versatility. I start almost all fights with him as a tank, then once the number of enemies is dropped down to a manageable ammount I flip him over to Pulverising Blows and have him help finish off the enemies. Once we're down to the last bits of clean up I put him on stone aura and help get everyone's stamina back up a little faster before the next fight while I'm dropping the last enemy or two and looting corpses.

 

[I'm an expert]

So I was doing my required reading while I wait for my copy to arrive and I have a few questions..

Do all new, regular copies of the game come with the Stone Prisoner DLC?
When are the DLC events available? For example if I buy Warden's Keep is it available right away? Or is for after having cleared the game first?
Are the DLC essential or worth it?

 

[Manus]

Okay I don't get this. It keeps saying my inventory is full yet I've gotten rid of so much stuff. What's going on?

Btw.

Spoiler

I'm at the point where you light the tower and just defeated the big ogre

If that helps.

 

[markatisu]

Okay I don't get this. It keeps saying my inventory is full yet I've gotten rid of so much stuff. What's going on?

Btw.

Spoiler

I'm at the point where you light the tower and just defeated the big ogre

If that helps.

Are you destroying the junk or just saying things are junk? Your inventory does not actually go down until you sell, use or destroy items

When are the DLC events available? For example if I buy Warden's Keep is it available right away? Or is for after having cleared the game first?
Are the DLC essential or worth it?

Wardens Keep does not become accessible till you get to use the Camp. I think Stone Prisoner is available as soon as you buy and install it, I would say the DLC with Shale is essential, his story in regards to what happens in the Dwarf realm is too intertwined to be just an add-on

 

[Manus]

Well when I go to junk slot I got rid of it. I don't know why. I keep getting rind of stuff, but nothing.

I do have a 71/70 at the bottom of the menu. Could that be something?

Edit: Never mind, I thought remove from junk meant getting rid of it. I didn't see the destroy option.

 

[Fredescu]

Do all new, regular copies of the game come with the Stone Prisoner DLC?

Yes.

When are the DLC events available? For example if I buy Warden's Keep is it available right away? Or is for after having cleared the game first?
Are the DLC essential or worth it?

The DLC events are available once you have access to the world map. It takes a few hours to get to that point. Once you're there you can do it at anytime until you initiate the end game. Stone Prisoner is essential. Hold out on Warden's Keep until you decide how much you like the game. For me it was worth it, but I may be in the minority.

 

[johnsmith]

So did anybody else find the game ridiculous easy in the later half? The game was pretty tough in the beginning even on normal, but once I got into the teens in levels the difficulty just disappeared. I switched over to hard difficulty and even on bosses I'm not being challenged at all. And I'm not even running a 3 mage uber party but a warrior tank, Alistair 2h, Morrigan healer, Leliana archer group.

Maybe it'll get tough again now that I'm at the very end.

 

[Arde5643]

So did anybody else find the game ridiculous easy in the later half? The game was pretty tough in the beginning even on normal, but once I got into the teens in levels the difficulty just disappeared. I switched over to hard difficulty and even on bosses I'm not being challenged at all. And I'm not even running a 3 mage uber party but a warrior tank, Alistair 2h, Morrigan healer, Leliana archer group.

Maybe it'll get tough again now that I'm at the very end.

Nope, enemies stop scaling once you get to level 10.

There's a rebalance mod called nightmare+ which fixes this problem.
It has modules you can install if you don't want the wholesale changes.

http://social.bioware.com/project/667/


And here's the log that details what was changed for each module:
http://www.jramods.com/#changelog

One of the most interesting things he did was fix the mob ai so that you cannot pull one enemy one by one with bows/arrows like you were able to do in vanilla dragon age.
If you attack one enemy, it will alert the others close to it to attack you as well now.


EDIT: Holy cow! He's actually building a lyrium addiction system where if you keep on drinking lyrium potion continually without resting, you get an addiction level where the lyrium you restore continually falls off with each lyrium you drink.
And eventually you can suffer lyrium withdrawals as it gets worse and even death if not treated. Dang!

 

[TheFallen]

Any word on the status of the achievement bug for Warden's Keep?

 

[legend166]

Halp with Morrigan's quest:

Spoiler

How am I supposed to get into Flemeth's house to kill her? It says I need a key. Or can I get someone to pick the lock?

 

[Doytch]

Halp with Morrigan's quest:

Spoiler

How am I supposed to get into Flemeth's house to kill her? It says I need a key. Or can I get someone to pick the lock?

You're not supposed to be there with Morrigan. Read the dialogue next time. =p

 

[legend166]

You're not supposed to be there with Morrigan. Read the dialogue next time. =p

I thought'd she run away automatically or something

 

[ElectricBlue187]

do i need to download something to get the edge or does it just show up like the collector's edition stuff?

I don't see anything under the DLC section