[PC/Console] Dragon Age Inquisition 11-18-2014

[reyler]

I suppose Sera's Tempest tree is useful to some degree, but I honestly don't think much of any of the rogue specializations. The first two passives in stealth reduce a rogue's threat level; my archer Inquisitor went almost full archer tree, plus enough stealth to reduce threat, plus Poisoned Weapons and the two support passives. Poisoned Weapons + Explosive Shot + Explosive Toxins makes for a lot of walking bombs.

 

Blackwall was too much tank and not enough dps? Have you looked at his specialization? It is absolutely designed around tanking; if you fill out Champion, then sure, he's not going to be spending a lot of time attacking, but everything will be attacking him and failing to do anything at all while the rest of your team does the damage. Cassandra is also more tank than dps, but her specialization prioritizes boosting everyone's defenses rather than making huge boosts to her own; that's why I use the both of them for bosses. Also, unless you haven't come across many Amulets of Power, you should be able to fill out the majority of specialization and two other trees for most characters; there isn't much point in filling out trees completely, especially since that means missing out on useful passives in other trees, ones that also give you stat boosts.

[SinisterDeath]

 

 

Blackwall was too much tank and not enough dps? Have you looked at his specialization? It is absolutely designed around tanking; if you fill out Champion, then sure, he's not going to be spending a lot of time attacking, but everything will be attacking him and failing to do anything at all while the rest of your team does the damage. Cassandra is also more tank than dps, but her specialization prioritizes boosting everyone's defenses rather than making huge boosts to her own; that's why I use the both of them for bosses. Also, unless you haven't come across many Amulets of Power, you should be able to fill out the majority of specialization and two other trees for most characters; there isn't much point in filling out trees completely, especially since that means missing out on useful passives in other trees, ones that also give you stat boosts.

I mean because he went champion + that other tanking tree (the one with the taunt) it basically granted him everything he needed to hold threat & take damage, but he basically didn't dish anything out. And that wasn't cutting it. Which is why I went champion + sword & board. Putting more points in the other tank tree soonish.

 

I've come across several amulets of power (mostly for everyone but the inquisitor) And yea, I've already maxed out 2 trees on all of my characters.

Still not -min-maxing my skill trees at this point. IF I go for a harder difficulty I might, but at this point I'm just kinda letting maxing out a tree and moving onto the next one.

[Rasheta Ardashir]

I didn't read the whole topic..sorry. I have spent over 100 hours on it so far and am continuing on because I have to complete everything. *laughs* 

 

The Dragons are fun, I beat them all. I found that Cass and Blackwall worked really well as a tag team for them. Me and Solas just pretty much provided support to Cass and Blackwall. The Shards thing is starting to bug me and the lack of ways to get certain things is starting to make my eye twitch but I'll get there. 

[reyler]

I'm conflicted on whether I minded the shards or not. I think if I hadn't had at least one ocularum that I spent five mintues hunting the last shard it had to show, I'd be less bothered. I think if shard hunting didn't necessitate dealing with some of the worst interactions between the halfhearted platforming element and the exact same terrain physics that made driving the Mako in Mass Effect 1 such a pain, I'd be less bothered. When I slide down a slope I think I should have been able to climb, my natural instinct is to jump forward to counter. Nope, jumping just keeps you going backwards, only faster and further and probably off a ledge.

 

Found all the party banter on Youtube. I'm going to have to take Cole along sometime when I'm not playing at a difficulty where I prefer as many non-tanky characters as possible be ranged, because he's so much more awesome there than in any of the initial interactions I had with him in my first game.

 

Found out about an exploit on Gamefaqs that lets you dupe crafting items (and make money in the process), which means if I get just one piece of a higher-tier material I can turn it into hundreds and sell extras off to buy schematics, and thus largely breeze through Nightmare difficulty because I'm wearing weapons and armor about 50 points higher than anything I should be able to make when I haven't even gotten to Skyhold. I don't feel the slightest bit of remorse over this.

[Rasheta Ardashir]

 

 

 When I slide down a slope I think I should have been able to climb, my natural instinct is to jump forward to counter. Nope, jumping just keeps you going backwards, only faster and further and probably off a ledge.

UGH that bothered me so dang much! I spent a good half hour sliding down cliffs to get one shard and after that long not only are you frustrated you're angry and feel like throwing things....or that's how I felt. LOL 

 

 

 

Found all the party banter on Youtube.

Me too. Vivi and Bull's banter made me crack up. Solas is DAI's Anders as Solas and Bulls banter, other then the chess game, is pretty much the same that Anders whined about in DAII. I'm kind of bothered by this, Solas isn't AS annoying as Anders but he still makes me sigh. I found much as I love Varric I missed Oghren. *laughs* 

 

 

 

 I don't feel the slightest bit of remorse over this.

As you shouldn't. :) My sister and I, playing on two different consoles, ended up having the same problem Ie: we crafted things that we then could not wear. Ugh this makes me so annoyed. It was one of my beefs with DAO's extra stuff they gave me, Blood Armor, I got it at the beginning of the game but couldn't use it till way later and by that time I had better armor for my warriors, I always am a Mage unless it's DAII I hate Carver, so why give me stuff I can't use!!! 

[reyler]

Wait, what? I haven't seen anything like level restrictions on crafted equipment. Found or bought, yes, but everything I've made, no matter how relatively overpowered, I've been able to equip right away.

 

I never played DA2, so I can't speak to anything about Anders, but I rather doubt he and Solas have the same particular foundation for their viewpoints. Solas gets a bombshell of a scene that answers every question you might have had about him, and opens up a bunch more, hence my yelling on the subject on the previous page. He's one of those characters that bugged me more until I learned the whys. Now I'm pretty much left with Vivienne that I can't stand. Everyone else is cool. Except for Bull and his terrible fake accent that I will never stop talking about.

[Rasheta Ardashir]

I couldn't stand Sera, still can't, Vivienne I don't ever take anywhere and her whole "The Circle is everything" annoyed me. I'm always a mage and i'm against the whole Circle thing. Cassandra and Blackwall make a great Dragon team but otherwise I just bring the Warden with me. Although his thing annoyed me, since I'm not sure how to use the spoiler tags I'll not go into that but his thing annoyed me. LOL Blackwall I found is more of a tank then Cassandra. I maxed him out on two of his skill trees, his own specialization and I think weapon and shield, and he stays alive longer then anyone. My team I refer to as "the boys" because it's pretty much always the same. Me, Varric, Blackwall, and the Bull. I didn't think I'd like the Iron Bull much because i'm so not a fan of Freddie Prince Jr. but Bull grew on me. If I need a good mage Solas is the one for that. Dorian I think of as Snidly whiplash because of his mustache. *laughs* So I can't bring him anywhere because I just want to yell...run snidly. *shifty* 

 

Hmmmm maybe the bioware boys fixed it. I have some armor that I can't use yet that I crafted. I know my sister did too she's on the PS4 and i'm on the PS3 so I dunno. That's weird. 

[reyler]

I love Sera, but I can totally see how people could be annoyed with her, because she's very much a brat. I just love her laugh. Vivienne's pro-Circle stance doesn't bug me anywhere near as much as her overly elitist attitude. Like I said earlier, Blackwall's specialization is designed around straight tanking more than Cassandra; even the passives in the Champion specialization all give boosts to constitution. I didn't really have an opinion on the specifics of Blackwall's plot details, but it definitely took him off the "boring" shelf where I'd put him. Like Solas, there's so much more depth to every word that comes out of his mouth the second time around, after you know what's up. I like Varric as a character, but I find it hard to make myself use him in my team, simply because of the effort it takes to keep him contributing. You can't just equip better bows on him, you have to keep upgrading parts for Bianca, and it's a long, long time before you can get schematics to actually get his dps on par with your other characters as a result. Unless you build him towards daggers, but why would you ever do that.

 

I honestly haven't encountered a level requirement on anything I've built, even before the patch. Is that what the problem is, you have to be a higher level? I seriously have only seen that on bought or looted equipment.

 

A note on exploited crafting: I knew Dorian was going to join with crap for equipment, so I threw some armor together to put him in as soon as I was able. He went from his starting armor of 79 to armor at 136 plus 20% melee damage reduction and 4-9 point boosts to magic, willpower, and constitution. Alexius barely scratched him. On Nightmare. I had a bit more difficulty in the assault on Haven, but I was probably underlevelled for trying that on Nightmare; I just didn't want to level up too much further before making specializations available.

[SinisterDeath]

 

 

 and it's a long, long time before you can get schematics to actually get his dps on par with your other characters as a result. Unless you build him towards daggers, but why would you ever do that.

 

Boo!

 

Sera & Varric have some good interactions.. and this is why I've stopped using him. Bianca is doing like 50 dps tops. <_>

[Rasheta Ardashir]

I've beaten the game twice now, once on easy and once on hard, I'm on Nightmare now and it's....sucky. LOL I can barely get anything done and i'm a level 17 nearly 18 and I still die like no tomorrow. I'm not sure how I'm going to beat the game really. LOL I can't get past the fade demon...anyone have any tips for it? 

[Zander?]

can't wait for the new DLC!!!!  im so excited...time for some more Rougish backstabbin!!!

[reyler]

I've beaten the game twice now, once on easy and once on hard, I'm on Nightmare now and it's....sucky. LOL I can barely get anything done and i'm a level 17 nearly 18 and I still die like no tomorrow. I'm not sure how I'm going to beat the game really. LOL I can't get past the fade demon...anyone have any tips for it? 

 

Mark of the Rift, which does multi-hit damage inside a fixed area (and pounds the tar out of demons), combined with Lightning Cage (if you have it in your party), which traps enemies inside a fixed area and adds an additional lightning-elemental hit for each hit inside its boundaries.

 

Also, spirit damage will rip demons apart like nobody's business.

 

Also also, equipment with hella boosts is super goddamn important on Nightmare. See: my numerous posts about unashamedly abusing the crafting system for my Nightmare run. It's not especially difficult to straight-up double your class-relevant stats.

[Rasheta Ardashir]

can't wait for the new DLC!!!!  

Me either!!! I'm always a mage though so I'm a bit more into magic. LOL 

 

I have to find the armor and weapon schematics i'm not sure where to get them all....I supose that is what google is for.  

[Zander?]

did u get the deluxe version some good schenatics there.  i love the rogues. played one in all 3 dragon ages.

[reyler]

You've probably found a bunch of schematics over the course of the game, and most shops have some (though whether they have any relevant to your character is another matter). Also make sure you're crafting things for upgrade slots as well (arm and leg armor, blades and grips for your staff, etc). I think they patched the exploit that let you get infinite money and crafting materials, which is what I used to thoroughly wreck Nightmare, though if you don't play online you won't have gotten that update. You seriously need to be crafting to get through Nightmare without pulling your hair out; dropped/found equipment is crap compared to what you can make.

[Arez Al'Loke]

So I gather people like the game? I've been waiting for the game to work out all the kinks and bugs before buying it.

[SinisterDeath]

So I gather people like the game? I've been waiting for the game to work out all the kinks and bugs before buying it.

Its a single player RPG, not an MMO so... its fairly polished of bugs/kinks.

[Arez Al'Loke]

 

So I gather people like the game? I've been waiting for the game to work out all the kinks and bugs before buying it.

Its a single player RPG, not an MMO so... its fairly polished of bugs/kinks.

 

 

So you agree with the common sentiment that the game is good?

[SinisterDeath]

 

 

So I gather people like the game? I've been waiting for the game to work out all the kinks and bugs before buying it.

Its a single player RPG, not an MMO so... its fairly polished of bugs/kinks.

 

 

So you agree with the common sentiment that the game is good?

 

Yea. Any bugs it had at launch were minor.. At least from what i saw. Nothing game-breaking like some games.. (specially mmos)

[reyler]

Bugs mostly involved various dialogue glitches and achievement progress. Last-gen versions also have a hell of a problem with texture pop-in, but that's cosmetic.

[Arez Al'Loke]

Alright, I'll look into getting it next time there's a sale!

[reyler]

Simplest thing to do (when no demo is available) is to watch a couple Let's Plays on Youtube. Just watch someone play the first hour or so, and you'll get a feel for if you'll like the game or not.