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[Killthee]

Is this the one for the dex fix? or what is in it?

Dragon Age: Origins 1.02
Patch details:

Many of the fixes affecting balance, gameplay, or plot scripting are already included in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 versions of Dragon Age: Origins.

You do not need to download patches prior to Patch 1.02. Downloading Patch 1.02 contains all previous patches. Downloading Patch 1.02 will provide you with all patch data available.
Balance

* Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
* During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
* When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
* The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
* The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
* Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
* Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.

Gameplay

* In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
* Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
* In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
* The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
* The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
* The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.

Plot *Spoiler Warning*

Spoiler

* Promotional downloadable content items now remain in the player's inventory when standard items are removed at the end of the dwarf noble origin.
* Repeatedly talking to Duncan after gathering the vials in the Korcari Wilds but not the treaties no longer provides duplicate experience.
* Leliana's personal plot can now be completed if the player substantially increased her approval (through gifts) before talking to her.
* During the siege of Redcliffe, enemies are no longer able to spawn in locations that would break the plot.
* Bann Teagan no longer disappears when he is supposed to be accessible during Urn of Sacred Ashes.

http://social.bioware.com/page/da-patches

 

[Basileus777]

Probably not. Dex Fix patch isn't out on PC yet.

The dagger fix is in the 1.02 patch. Though they have done anything about archery yet.

 

[perryfarrell]

Seeing all the positive experiences in this thread, I'm trying to get into this game. But I just can't. The combat is a bit messy (I give the people in my party explicit instructions in the Tactics screen, but sometimes they still just stand there while others are being slaughtered). Do I have to pause the fight after every hit to give my people new instructions? Frustrating. The camera is sub-optimal (the most zoomed-out view doesn't show what's in front of you, while the other views are too close-up). The jokes in the writing are okay, and I bet the story is better than your average RPG, but I still would call it traditional. The production values of the cut scenes and voice acting are top-notch, though.

Anyway, I'll see what I think at 10 hours. Hopefully it'll have clicked.

 

[I'm an expert]

So here's a question, PS3 version. Can you still queue one command for each character before unpausing? I bring up the radial menu, pick an ability, and it automatically unpauses and does it. Can't you assign each char their next ability and THEN unpause?

Seeing all the positive experiences in this thread, I'm trying to get into this game. But I just can't. The combat is a bit messy (I give the people in my party explicit instructions in the Tactics screen, but sometimes they still just stand there while others are being slaughtered). Do I have to pause the fight after every hit to give my people new instructions?

I def understand where you're coming from and I'm only 3 hours in. I hope I get used to the interface and tactics quickly..I also hope the answer to my above question is yes.

 

[Minsc]

Dragon Age: Origins 1.02
Patch details:

Many of the fixes affecting balance, gameplay, or plot scripting are already included in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 versions of Dragon Age: Origins.

You do not need to download patches prior to Patch 1.02. Downloading Patch 1.02 contains all previous patches. Downloading Patch 1.02 will provide you with all patch data available.
Balance

* Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
* During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
* When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
* The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
* The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
* Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
* Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.

Gameplay

* In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
* Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
* In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
* The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
* The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
* The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.

Plot *Spoiler Warning*

Spoiler

* Promotional downloadable content items now remain in the player's inventory when standard items are removed at the end of the dwarf noble origin.
* Repeatedly talking to Duncan after gathering the vials in the Korcari Wilds but not the treaties no longer provides duplicate experience.
* Leliana's personal plot can now be completed if the player substantially increased her approval (through gifts) before talking to her.
* During the siege of Redcliffe, enemies are no longer able to spawn in locations that would break the plot.
* Bann Teagan no longer disappears when he is supposed to be accessible during Urn of Sacred Ashes.

http://social.bioware.com/page/da-patches

That will certainly change the game's difficulty a bit if it works as it sounds, for the people who thought perma-stunning their opponents through battles was making the game too simple.

Also, make sure you remove your dex hotfix files before patching, if you are using the hotfix! (per the hotfix's instructions)

Edit: Though I guess steam will automatically update the game on it's own at some point soon, so I wonder how that works if you don't remove the files in time... probably nothing bad happens.

 

[I'm an expert]

So here's a question, PS3 version. Can you still queue one command for each character before unpausing?

Well apparently if you set the radial menu to toggle it'll do that, but if I set it to being open while holding L2 I can assign multiple commands. Weird, but I don't mind.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

These random ambushes while traveling are kicking the hell out of me. I've just completed the Mage Tower and I decided to do some chantry board sidequests on my way back to Redcliffe. My party is all around level 10 and consists mainly of Myself a 2H warrior, Alistar, Leliana, and Wynne. Xbox 360 version.

The scenario is a random ambush with darkspawn. Several start around me and then 4 archers including the leader are on an outcroping overlooking the area were I start in. I've tried just about every combo of party members I can think of at this point, damn arrows always get me eventually though.

Can't believe I'm actually thinking of dropping down to casual to get through the ambush. Maybe I just need to be a better potion spammer or something.

Sounds like what you need is some CC. Wynne is nice and all for healing but she has minimal CC except for stupid-ass Earthquake which knocks your party down twice as much as the mobs.

My party is me (dual-wield assassin), Alistair, Leliana, Morrigan. My strategy for these annoying random ambushes goes like this:

Alistair runs up to the melee mobs and spams his shield skills. It doesn't matter much if he gets the stun or not, he's just solo tanking them for a oouple seconds.

Me and Leliana drop into Stealth immediately and the mobs ignore us as we walk behind the mobs Alistair is tanking, then we both spam Dual-Weapon Sweep. (Yes, I run my Leliana as a dual-wield melee. I prefer her to annoying Zevran.) This is usually good for 1/2 to 2/3 of their life depending on whether we crit or not. Then we mop them up as quickly as possible.

Morrigan runs for the cliff and spams Cone of Cold and Winter's Grasp. The goal is to freeze as many mobs as possible quickly. I always, always prioritize enemy mages first. I HATE ENEMY MAGES AND THEIR BULLSHIT AOEs! Once I've got a majority of ranged mobs frozen, I Vulnerability Hex the meanest looking one (usually the leader, he has a yellow name) and Lightning him.

Meanwhile the rest of the party is running their asses off to get to the ramp which is always really far away to climb up to the ranged mobs, they gotta get there before everyone unfreezes and fills Morrigan with arrows like a pincushion. Then it's just some guys and gals with sharp objects stabbing the helpless archers who can't do anything when I'm cutting heads clean off of shoulders in a very satisfying manner. I'm playing the PC version and it has a mod where you can make all kills into fatalities and it's great for when I'm slaughtering helpless ranged mobs at point blank. :lol :lol

There's this really annoying ambush you get after you start

Spoiler

Leliana's companion story

and it's a super bullshit one with a qunari mercenary, a dog (which knocks your party down repeatedly), a mage on the cliff who Winter's Grasp and then that stupid AOE inferno spells your party, and the leader guy who's a yellow archer and his shots do stupid damage. God that one made me angry, the darkspawn ambush is really easy by comparison, I mopped the floor with those darkspawn but these guys really pissed me off.

 

[Ricker]

Uggh at one of the Boss fights in Orzammar...time to drop the game on easy...ridiculous.

Speaking of there`s been 3 patches for the PC,fixing these awful spikes in difficulty and the Rogue dexterity thing etc etc but where are the patches for the consoles...and why do I keep getting an error when I start the game that says can`t connect to the Dragon Age servers,the game encountered an error.

 

[Doytch]

Uggh at one of the Boss fights in Orzammar...time to drop the game on easy...ridiculous.

Speaking of there`s been 3 patches for the PC,fixing these awful spikes in difficulty and the Rogue dexterity thing etc etc but where are the patches for the consoles...and why do I keep getting an error when I start the game that says can`t connect to the Dragon Age servers,the game encountered an error.

In console-land certification, where all patches go to die.

 

[Zaptruder]

Oh shit. I just broke the game. I found out that you can buy unlimited Lyrium dust from the merchant in the mages tower.

This game was hella challenging when I thought I was always in short supply of lyrium.

Like... beating bosses when out of lyrium would involve a lot of creative footwork!

Welp... that's all over.

At least I can turn the difficulty up without thinking "How... the... hell?!"

 

[Johnlenham]

Also, make sure you remove your dex hotfix files before patching, if you are using the hotfix! (per the hotfix's instructions)

Edit: Though I guess steam will automatically update the game on it's own at some point soon, so I wonder how that works if you don't remove the files in time... probably nothing bad happens.

ruh roh..

 

[Minsc]

ruh roh..

Given that no one on the Steam version probably did this until now, I doubt it's a problem. I don't think my Steam has updated since it still says the update will run when Steam is restarted, but I am going to try and remember to remove the hotfix when I get home. I wonder if running the hotfix with the new patch is doubling the modifier or something... probably doesn't even cause a conflict, and removing the patch will make all my enemy archers easy again.

Uggh at one of the Boss fights in Orzammar...time to drop the game on easy...ridiculous.

Speaking of there`s been 3 patches for the PC,fixing these awful spikes in difficulty and the Rogue dexterity thing etc etc but where are the patches for the consoles...and why do I keep getting an error when I start the game that says can`t connect to the Dragon Age servers,the game encountered an error.

Well, the notes from the 1.02 patch say it's already all incorporated in the console releases:

Many of the fixes affecting balance, gameplay, or plot scripting are already included in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 versions of Dragon Age: Origins.

Seems strange, but who knows.

 

[Doytch]

Oh shit. I just broke the game. I found out that you can buy unlimited Lyrium dust from the merchant in the mages tower.

This game was hella challenging when I thought I was always in short supply of lyrium.

Like... beating bosses when out of lyrium would involve a lot of creative footwork!

Welp... that's all over.

At least I can turn the difficulty up without thinking "How... the... hell?!"

Which is why I quite like the Lyrium addiction system worked into the Nightmare Plus mod. Makes you think twice before downing that pot in a random battle, or a second pot in a boss battle.

 

[bengraven]

Started my second playthrough because Orzammar is broken. :/

 

[markatisu]

Started my second playthrough because Orzammar is broken. :/

Which part? I had to sit there for a good 15 min when I got stuck in a loop talking to the guards.

 

[Exhumed]

Wow had a ton of fun with Redcliffe. I imagine it'd be much harder if my party wasn't level 16-17.

Spoiler

Glyph of repulsion, glyph of paralysis, crushing prison, force field, blizzard, cone of cold, and winter's grasp were enough to CC and funnel the undead properly. Only lost one militiaman during the second fight and none during the first! Had Leliana with dual wield swords (Starfang and that sword from the quest in Orzammar) with some sick 60+ dmg backstabs, Zevran with a bow and his kick ass bear, and Allistair tanking it up with Shield Wall. Only healing I had to do was with my mage, just gave her the group heal, thats it. Between the scatter shots, paralyze runes on Leliana's weapons, shield bash, etc. there was very little damage given out. It took a ton of micromanagement but it turned out to be very fun! Did this on normal.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Given that no one on the Steam version probably did this until now, I doubt it's a problem. I don't think my Steam has updated since it still says the update will run when Steam is restarted, but I am going to try and remember to remove the hotfix when I get home. I wonder if running the hotfix with the new patch is doubling the modifier or something... probably doesn't even cause a conflict, and removing the patch will make all my enemy archers easy again.



Well, the notes from the 1.02 patch say it's already all incorporated in the console releases:



Seems strange, but who knows.

I've been waiting on the Ostagar DLC before continuing my 2nd playthrough (This time as a warrior) but I wonder how archers are without the hotfix. There were a couple areas on my rogue that I was ready to scream bullshit. Archers using scattershot and completely decimating my entire party right off the bat. One section in particular, I remember my entire party being hit as soon as the fight began and knocking us all down to like 1/2 or 1/4 health :lol

 

[Exhumed]

I've been waiting on the Ostagar DLC before continuing my 2nd playthrough (This time as a warrior) but I wonder how archers are without the hotfix. There were a couple areas on my rogue that I was ready to scream bullshit. Archers using scattershot and completely decimating my entire party right off the bat. One section in particular, I remember my entire party being hit as soon as the fight began and knocking us all down to like 1/2 or 1/4 health :lol

A well placed blizzard pretty much disables archers. Give it a shot!

 

[Tokubetsu]

A well placed blizzard pretty much disables archers. Give it a shot!

I beat it already but yea. I was on some BG2 shit, casting stuff in and on doorways and picking off stragglers :lol

 

[pr0cs]

Wow had a ton of fun with Redcliffe. I imagine it'd be much harder if my party wasn't level 16-17.

At level 8 this was really hard, first battle was easy but second part I lost all the NPC soldiers and my mage. I didn't have taunt on my tank which made keeping aggro very difficult. I had to retry it several times and be a lot more proactive in making sure the archer/mage didn't get too crazy in healing/damage.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I was like 6-7 when I did redcliff, was very easy.

 

[Xapati]

I'm not sure I want to install that patch, it seems they still haven't fixed bows unlike in the hotfix. That said, I'm waiting for the Ostagar DLC before I continue my playthrough. I'm hoping you don't need the patch to play that.

Also Orzammar is pure BS. Somebody should warn you not to go there until last. I know people are not fond of heavy scaling, but if you're not going to have it in the game, at least include some suggestions where to go first. I was forced to turn the difficulty down in the last fight,

Spoiler

which imo was unnecessairy and completely reduces the signifigance of fighting the Brood Mother.

. Afterwards, when I visited Redcliff, it was rediculously easy and unchallanging.

 

[Yottamole]

This is so weird...Shale just randomly disappeared from my party. He didn't even say goodbye to me... He was still part of my team in my save before I tackled the Broken Circle, but not anymore. I could reload that save, but I just don't want to go through

Spoiler

Fade

again. Just have to reiterate, the DLC of this game is so broken. [/rant]

 

[Tokubetsu]

I'm not sure I want to install that patch, it seems they still haven't fixed bows unlike in the hotfix. That said, I'm waiting for the Ostagar DLC before I continue my playthrough. I'm hoping you don't need the patch to play that.

Also Orzammar is pure BS. Somebody should warn you not to go there until last. I know people are not fond of heavy scaling, but if you're not going to have it in the game, at least include some suggestions where to go first. I was forced to turn the difficulty down in the last fight,

Spoiler

which imo was unnecessairy and completely reduces the signifigance of fighting the Brood Mother.

. Afterwards, when I visited Redcliff, it was rediculously easy and unchallanging.

What lvl are you? It's not well known but I'm fairly certain someone from bioware said on their forums that Orzimmar should be done at 10+. Regarding that last fight, yea, it was a fucking bitch and I was like 17 at the time. By far the hardest fight for me in the game. Doesn't help that I fucking HATED Orzimmar and the deap roads. All 12 hours of it.

 

[Pancakes]

Oh shit. I just broke the game. I found out that you can buy unlimited Lyrium dust from the merchant in the mages tower.

This game was hella challenging when I thought I was always in short supply of lyrium.

Like... beating bosses when out of lyrium would involve a lot of creative footwork!

Welp... that's all over.

At least I can turn the difficulty up without thinking "How... the... hell?!"

Just figured that out last night after 2 playthroughs :lol.

All this time, saving up lyrium potions, buying them from overpriced shopkeepers, going in the deep roads, ALL FOR NOTHING :'(.

I imagine there is also an Elfroot equivalent as well?

 

[JudgeN]

Just figured that out last night after 2 playthroughs :lol.

All this time, saving up lyrium potions, buying them from overpriced shopkeepers, going in the deep roads, ALL FOR NOTHING :'(.

I imagine there is also an Elfroot equivalent as well?

Yes at the Dalish camp :lol

 

[Basileus777]

Edit: Though I guess steam will automatically update the game on it's own at some point soon, so I wonder how that works if you don't remove the files in time... probably nothing bad happens.

Nothing bad happens, anything in the override folder just takes priority over everything else. If you have mods/the hotfix installed, you just might not see some of the changes from the patch.

 

[Zaptruder]

Just paid 9 bucks for Warden's Keep DLC...

very disappointed. So very short. I expected something at least the size of RedCliffe Castle... :/

And the shield dropping 1/10 - 1/20 times off the commander? Who's dumb idea was that? It should've been another quest in the tower.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Just paid 9 bucks for Warden's Keep DLC...

very disappointed. So very short. I expected something at least the size of RedCliffe Castle... :/

And the shield dropping 1/10 - 1/20 times off the commander? Who's dumb idea was that? It should've been another quest in the tower.

Buh? What shield? Anyone got a mod of it I can install?

 

[Minsc]

Nothing bad happens, anything in the override folder just takes priority over everything else. If you have mods/the hotfix installed, you just might not see some of the changes from the patch.

Well, they did remove the dex hotfix download explicitly due to patch 1.02 they say, so I'd rather be safe and just remove it as well, since Steam updated my game automatically.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Just paid 9 bucks for Warden's Keep DLC...

very disappointed. So very short. I expected something at least the size of RedCliffe Castle... :/

And the shield dropping 1/10 - 1/20 times off the commander? Who's dumb idea was that? It should've been another quest in the tower.

Hmm, there's a shield? Is it any good? I killed her twice, no shield. For the new run I'm doing I'll keep killing until I get the shield if it's good.

 

[McHuj]

Did I fuck up?

I wanted to unlock the duelist, but

Spoiler

didn't play Isabela's game at the pearl for a long time and thought i could come back to it later, well, she's not there anymore

. So I take it there's no other way to unlock duelist?

I'm already level 14 and haven't used my two specialization techniques. i wanted duelist/assassin (haven't unlocked assassin yet), now i guess I'll have to go with ranger/assassin or bard/assassin?

 

[Meier]

Oh shit. I just broke the game. I found out that you can buy unlimited Lyrium dust from the merchant in the mages tower.

This game was hella challenging when I thought I was always in short supply of lyrium.

Like... beating bosses when out of lyrium would involve a lot of creative footwork!

Welp... that's all over.

At least I can turn the difficulty up without thinking "How... the... hell?!"

Where can I find the formula for higher than lesser potions for lyrium?

 

[Exhumed]

Did I fuck up?

I wanted to unlock the duelist, but

Spoiler

didn't play Isabela's game at the pearl for a long time and thought i could come back to it later, well, she's not there anymore

. So I take it there's no other way to unlock duelist?

I'm already level 14 and haven't used my two specialization techniques. i wanted duelist/assassin (haven't unlocked assassin yet), now i guess I'll have to go with ranger/assassin or bard/assassin?

I'm pretty sure you did. I will say that the bard/assassin is pretty awesome with the melee buff song.

 

[bengraven]

Which part? I had to sit there for a good 15 min when I got stuck in a loop talking to the guards.

I played both sides, so I locked out the possibility to move on.

I have quite a few arrows pointing to quest NPCs, but none of them do anything but give ambient dialogue.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I think its good to ask in here.

I need some help on the fighting. Im new to this types of games and I had some trouble yesterday in the "first" big mission, the one were Duncan tells you and your party to go in the forest to get the blood and papers for the ritual.
I just beat it yesterday, but it was hard and they were totally killing me when an evil mage attacked me with fireballs and ice while some berserks surrounded me.

I dont know how to do good strategies, as when I choose the archer for example to go far and attack he always does something stupid. Then theres the tactics page were you make your party do different things and I dont understand it very much.

Now im playing like this: I attack with all the party the same enemy and when Im low of health retreat far away so the life regenerates. I now that its not the way to play the game so I would like some tips so I become better.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Exhumed]

I played both sides, so I locked out the possibility to move on.

I have quite a few arrows pointing to quest NPCs, but none of them do anything but give ambient dialogue.

Spoiler

You can play both sides and still move on. I know when I was working for Harromont after the tournament the fighters had quest indications but did not do anything like you described. I had to go find the guy in the tavern to move on. He did not have a quest indication on him. Have you read the quest objectives or the codex entries? I know a couple of times I had to read those to find out what to do.

 

[SlasherJPC]

Ok I'm like 25 hours in but still can't seem to figure out the tactic to make my characters attack the enemy I'm attacking, can anyone give me the specifics for tactics on that?

 

[Owzers]

Ok I'm like 25 hours in but still can't seem to figure out the tactic to make my characters attack the enemy I'm attacking, can anyone give me the specifics for tactics on that?

My main character is a brutish tank so i mainly set him to to attack and use skills on the nearest visible target, then for one or two of my party members i'd do: Enemy, Target of Party Member, Target of Main character. That way even if i was playing a different character, they'd still be attacking the target of my brute guy.

 

[SlasherJPC]

My main character is a brutish tank so i mainly set him to to attack and use skills on the nearest visible target, then for one or two of my party members i'd do: Enemy, Target of Party Member, Target of Main character. That way even if i was playing a different character, they'd still be attacking the target of my brute guy.

Sweet. Thanks I will try these out tonight.

 

[stupei]

I played both sides, so I locked out the possibility to move on.

I have quite a few arrows pointing to quest NPCs, but none of them do anything but give ambient dialogue.

I played both sides too and was fine. It could be you're missing something else required to trigger further progression. Not knowing exactly what you've done for them already it's hard to know

Spoiler

but it's possible you might need to trigger the back alley thugs in the common area in order to receive that quest or you might need to speak with Oghren in the tavern.

Granted, I did end up with a bug near the end of Orzammar that made me go back to a previous save just a little bit before (it kept looping a cut scene), so in general I think it's a good idea to have several save slots going at once, just in case.

 

[Des0lar]

I think its good to ask in here.

I need some help on the fighting. Im new to this types of games and I had some trouble yesterday in the "first" big mission, the one were Duncan tells you and your party to go in the forest to get the blood and papers for the ritual.
I just beat it yesterday, but it was hard and they were totally killing me when an evil mage attacked me with fireballs and ice while some berserks surrounded me.

I dont know how to do good strategies, as when I choose the archer for example to go far and attack he always does something stupid. Then theres the tactics page were you make your party do different things and I dont understand it very much.

Now im playing like this: I attack with all the party the same enemy and when Im low of health retreat far away so the life regenerates. I now that its not the way to play the game so I would like some tips so I become better.

Thanks in advance.

Pause as often as you can. Try to evaluate the situation. Is everyone doing what you want him to do? Is the mage being occupied by a tank/rogue. Stun him as often as you can. He is a priority target! Look for the casting bar above him as he is casting a spell, and try to interrupt him.
If you know he's going to cast fireball or something to that extent, send your allies to different directions so the blast radius doesn't hit them.
Use magic combos like Cone of Cold and Stonefist to shatter weaker enemies instantly.
Use your potions, don't hord them.
On PC, press Tab often to find useful stuff in your area.

 

[Anerythristic]

For the "which console should I get this on?" people. This is way late, but I love this site as a multi console owner.

here - http://www.lensoftruth.com/?p=16618

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Pause as often as you can. Try to evaluate the situation. Is everyone doing what you want him to do? Is the mage being occupied by a tank/rogue. Stun him as often as you can. He is a priority target! Look for the casting bar above him as he is casting a spell, and try to interrupt him.
If you know he's going to cast fireball or something to that extent, send your allies to different directions so the blast radius doesn't hit them.
Use magic combos like Cone of Cold and Stonefist to shatter weaker enemies instantly.
Use your potions, don't hord them.
On PC, press Tab often to find useful stuff in your area.

Thanks a lot, this will make tonight's playthrough more enjoyable.

 

[John]

I finally got back to this now that finals are over, and after a few hours of playing I caught myself enjoying it. Fuck.

 

[Meier]

I am up to 16 now so I'll probably go try

Spoiler

Flemeth

again. Got raped at lvl 11 or so when I first went. :lol

What're everyone's thoughts on Shale? I finally added them to my party but for essentially the entire game I've used Wynne, Leliana and Alistair as my team so it's weird using someone/some thing else. I am a dual wielding warrior with Alistair as an off-tank typically.

 

[Doytch]

I am up to 16 now so I'll probably go try

Spoiler

Flemeth

again. Got raped at lvl 11 or so when I first went. :lol

What're everyone's thoughts on Shale? I finally added them to my party but for essentially the entire game I've used Wynne, Leliana and Alistair as my team so it's weird using someone/some thing else. I am a dual wielding warrior with Alistair as an off-tank typically.

Best character in the game. Truly this age's HK-47.

 

[Ashodin]

I am up to 16 now so I'll probably go try

Spoiler

Flemeth

again. Got raped at lvl 11 or so when I first went. :lol

What're everyone's thoughts on Shale? I finally added them to my party but for essentially the entire game I've used Wynne, Leliana and Alistair as my team so it's weird using someone/some thing else. I am a dual wielding warrior with Alistair as an off-tank typically.

Beat the dragon at the Urn quest when I was level 13. Normal difficulty rating. NO healer except Morrigan's one heal spell.

Group Heal and Regenerate are cheats, makes the game MUCH easier, when I got to Orzammar my ArcaneWarrior/SpiritHealer was mopping the floor + healing everyone like crazy.

 

[Meier]

Best character in the game. Truly this age's HK-47.

Disregarding dialogue, I mean in terms of usefullness.

 

[Doytch]

Disregarding dialogue, I mean in terms of usefullness.

I used him in his DPS mode exclusively, and I rolled with Alistair, him, Morrigan and my main Archer/Bard. He's really useful in an off-tanking role, where you drag some enemies away from Alistair and onto Shale, because then you can use your AOEs freely, and allows you to use a single healer to keep them up which wouldn't be possible in some cases with everyone hitting your main tank.

After I finished, a lot of people mentioned how useful his Aura mode is, and a lot of people use him as a tank also, but I never did so I can't comment.