Started playing Dragon Age: Origins again, solely so that I can beat it and then beat Awakening (which I never did beat). Biggest gripe with the game so far from what I've seen from a gameplay standpoint is how poorly archery is treated. You pretty well have to use a guide just to make it viable.
@elminster: Archery does start out pretty terrible but it's a good tree. You just have to go into it to use it for what it's worth: reliable CC and debuffs. A lot of creatures are immune to CC spells from your mages so having someone else in the party to slow or cripple guys is a big deal.
For the record, I refuse to play that game on anything less than Nightmare because it's just not hard. Unless we're talking the Harvester, but that fight is f***ing stupid and I hate it.
Then you get into Awakenings and magically archery does 140 damage a hit from one of it's toggles. It's pretty slick.
I kind of ruined my DA:O experience for me, because of my ridiculously high expectations, since it was called a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. It was a good game but had nothing to do with BG, so I was extremely disappointed. DA2 on the other hand was far worse game than DA:O, but I happened to enjoy it more than DA:O, because I expected absolutely nothing from it. It is funny how things work sometimes, but the words "Baldur's Gate" should have never ever been mentioned.
You know, that's a good point. I know that's why so many people hated Dark Alliance 1 and 2. I loved both games, but appreciated them for what they were. I wasn't expecting a game involving the Bhaalspawn, or CRPG mechanics. It was a hack and slash and a pretty well made one at that. It just alienated the fan base because people are silly.
@sandmanCCL Personally I'd never play this game on nightmare, though I did play Mass Effect 2 on insanity and enjoyed it. For me Orzammar would be enough of a disincentive to want to play it on nightmare. The sooner I'm out of that quest, the happier I am.
I also don't see archers being any good until I get combat stealth.
My archer, and Leliana, kicked ass. It is definitely slow at first (but what isn't?) but about halfway through the game you can pick off bothersome targets pretty easily.
The only playthrough I had an easier time with was with a mage.
@elminster: The game is a lot more fun on Nightmare. Each fight stands out a lot more and you absolutely have to pay attention to what all of your guys are doing. If anything, it made going through the Deep Roads a lot more fun because on the other difficulties, there's maybe two fights worth mention?
Also, I never bothered getting combat stealth with archers. They can't do bonus damage out of stealth like melee rogues can. Rush Arrow of Slaying or whatever it's called because then you can insta-gib any white-rank mob, and other than that stick with pinning arrow and the like.
I found Archers were not really needed when I beat it on normal or hard but they stood out on Nightmare when you really have to abuse debuffs. My mage was responsible for like 70% of the kills in the party anyway so it was more important keeping everyone alive than it was increasing overall damage output.
I myself didn't find DA:O that much of a challenge even on nightmare truth be told. Rogues with plenty of dexterity and a warrior capable of disabling mages as soon as possible is enough to beat the game without too much effort.
Best time I had was 26 hours of gameplay on Nightmare I believe, without rushing or any speed playing - just powerplaying, the only thing I am good at. But I can't remember what kind of character I played. Think it was Dwarf Noble rogue female, with two daggers if I am not mistaken, built to dodge EVERYTHING (and dodge I did XD )
I added some mods, and started up my Mage Playthrough, only to find out that I didn't even finish the Mage Tower yet. Heh.
The new additions in mods were the Grey Wardens of Ferelden, which gives the Ferelden Grey Wardens the DA2 Armor, Kirkwall Exports, which gives out the Champion, Fenris, Templar, Meredith, Merrill Armors, and the Staff of Parthalan, some new hairstyle mods, and Made Merrill and Marathari have their DA2 appearances.
However, I've never played the game on Nightmare, but rogues seemed pretty awesome to me, like one of my wardens is an Archer Rogue. At the start, Archers may not be that good, but once you get Arrow of Slaying, and Multishot, they seem to get better. Especially, if you have the best bow in Origins.
I was lurking in that thread about soloing BG with no deaths. I get the impression that you are far more competent with RPGs than the average player. I for one struggled with DAO when I first played it.
@State_Lemming : I wouldn't put it that way, I'd rather say that I don't overthink it too much. I play casually, and if something goes wrong... then whoops :P For instance in BG, instead of casting every single protection possible, I'll try to minimize it to some small essentials to save me from dying.
I should also point out that I completed DA:O 14 times if I am not mistaken, the first time I had to keep it on easy for several battles (broodmother comes to mind) - After a couple of runs, I got a simple tactic : The broodmother is *MUCH* easier on level 9 than she is on level 17 :P
@Cheesebelly I have to confess that I have never tried to eliminate the broodmother on level 9. Having crashed and burned a couple of times I did get the hang of defeating her on the standard setiing by tactical use of my party. However it really was not half as much fun or as challenging as trying to defeat a dragon in BG2. Now that was several minutes of buffeted chaos!
On lower levels, the broodmother simply doesn't have nearly as much health, or doesn't deal nearly as much damage - you can kill her tentacles more easily as well as the Darkspawn reinforcements. Truly, the only problem of a Paragon of a Kind on low levels is the party waiting for you outside the Orzammar entrance and Jarvia. The rest is a walk in the park, and your reward is possibly the best armor in the game and the best long sword in the game! And Oghren on lower levels seems to have more Talents than he should have (on level 8 or something, he already has most of the Two handed and Berserker trees! Which requires 16 talent points total... seems legit!)
Defeating the Broodmother in the Deep Roads was a walk in the park for me. I just put a lot of area of effect spells on her and kept my party out of reach while having all of them switched to ranged weapons. I had MUCH more trouble killing the Revenants for that one side quest with the notes, can't remember the name...
The trick to the Broodmother is just to attack at range. Her only significant attack comes if you get in her melee range, so just don't do it. I usually do the Deep Roads last just because it seems to fit story-wise in my head the best. Your strong melee guys can still run around and attack the tentacles and adds that spawn mid-fight.
Interesting, I always avoid the Deep Roads at early levels because of all the emissaries. I always do the quests with very few mages first (which oddly enough, includes the Circle).
In playthroughs of yesteryear I recall always having more trouble with the Branka/Caridin fight than the Broodmother, I don't think I ever had much trouble with her.
@State_Lemming: Oh yeah, I remember that fight! It took me about five tries to finally beat Branka (I chose for Caridin as I was of the opinion that this Anvil would only lead to abuse again). I had to use a lot of freezing and paralysis spells on her to keep her in check while taking on the golems accompanying her. It was a true challenge, much like the Queen of Blackmarsh in Awakenings.
In my case, I usually side with Branka - not because of the fight (but it *is* true that Branka is twice as strong as Caradin) but rather to Keep Oghren at 100% approval (he's my favorite NPC), and siding with Branka is the only way (and then convince her to destroy the anvil that is) As for the fight itself, having Morrigan throughout the Deep Roads with debilitating spells was essential (if I wasn't going with a mage myself that is)
Also, I always found it peculiar : During the Dwarf Noble origin you can hear the folks of Orzammar say "Branka left almost 2 years ago", which is still true for when you come back (Oghren says "Two years tomorrow".) But if you go to the circle of magi and recruit Wynne, she'll tell you in dialogues that 1 year has passed ever since Ostagar. Which causes me to make a mental map of how the questlines should go.
Which for me is :
Paragon of her Kind (don't laugh now) Sacred Ashes Nature of the Beast Broken Circle Redcliffe (yep, after sacred ashes and all else, I love Teagan's expression when you're all like "Dude, I have the ashes already!" Plus, getting here at late 19-21 level, will have the Citizens have SCATTERSHOT to be used against the zombies invading town)
Usually I go with Denerim and the DLC quests (more specifically Shale and Return to Ostagar as they are the only ones I got) after Paragon of her Kind, so I am around level 13-14 for the high dragon, which is enough
Well, that can be troublesome, but I like Shale and usually don't want to kill it. On the top of my head, nothing comes to mind tactic-wise, usually it's useful taking care of ALL the golems first and then take care of Caradin. It's also useful to keep the mages close to Lyrium for mana-replenishing purposes.
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For the record, I refuse to play that game on anything less than Nightmare because it's just not hard. Unless we're talking the Harvester, but that fight is f***ing stupid and I hate it.
Then you get into Awakenings and magically archery does 140 damage a hit from one of it's toggles. It's pretty slick. You know, that's a good point. I know that's why so many people hated Dark Alliance 1 and 2. I loved both games, but appreciated them for what they were. I wasn't expecting a game involving the Bhaalspawn, or CRPG mechanics. It was a hack and slash and a pretty well made one at that. It just alienated the fan base because people are silly.
I also don't see archers being any good until I get combat stealth.
The only playthrough I had an easier time with was with a mage.
Bland gameplay, awful magic system, and one of the absolute worst plots of any game I've ever played.
Also, I never bothered getting combat stealth with archers. They can't do bonus damage out of stealth like melee rogues can. Rush Arrow of Slaying or whatever it's called because then you can insta-gib any white-rank mob, and other than that stick with pinning arrow and the like.
I found Archers were not really needed when I beat it on normal or hard but they stood out on Nightmare when you really have to abuse debuffs. My mage was responsible for like 70% of the kills in the party anyway so it was more important keeping everyone alive than it was increasing overall damage output.
Best time I had was 26 hours of gameplay on Nightmare I believe, without rushing or any speed playing - just powerplaying, the only thing I am good at. But I can't remember what kind of character I played. Think it was Dwarf Noble rogue female, with two daggers if I am not mistaken, built to dodge EVERYTHING (and dodge I did XD )
The new additions in mods were the Grey Wardens of Ferelden, which gives the Ferelden Grey Wardens the DA2 Armor, Kirkwall Exports, which gives out the Champion, Fenris, Templar, Meredith, Merrill Armors, and the Staff of Parthalan, some new hairstyle mods, and Made Merrill and Marathari have their DA2 appearances.
However, I've never played the game on Nightmare, but rogues seemed pretty awesome to me, like one of my wardens is an Archer Rogue. At the start, Archers may not be that good, but once you get Arrow of Slaying, and Multishot, they seem to get better. Especially, if you have the best bow in Origins.
I was lurking in that thread about soloing BG with no deaths. I get the impression that you are far more competent with RPGs than the average player. I for one struggled with DAO when I first played it.
For instance in BG, instead of casting every single protection possible, I'll try to minimize it to some small essentials to save me from dying.
I should also point out that I completed DA:O 14 times if I am not mistaken, the first time I had to keep it on easy for several battles (broodmother comes to mind) - After a couple of runs, I got a simple tactic : The broodmother is *MUCH* easier on level 9 than she is on level 17 :P
I have to confess that I have never tried to eliminate the broodmother on level 9. Having crashed and burned a couple of times I did get the hang of defeating her on the standard setiing by tactical use of my party. However it really was not half as much fun or as challenging as trying to defeat a dragon in BG2. Now that was several minutes of buffeted chaos!
And Oghren on lower levels seems to have more Talents than he should have (on level 8 or something, he already has most of the Two handed and Berserker trees! Which requires 16 talent points total... seems legit!)
Actually makes me think, Revenants are powerful in all games, but none gave me so many nightmares than the ones in Lionheart O_O
Interesting, I always avoid the Deep Roads at early levels because of all the emissaries. I always do the quests with very few mages first (which oddly enough, includes the Circle).
In playthroughs of yesteryear I recall always having more trouble with the Branka/Caridin fight than the Broodmother, I don't think I ever had much trouble with her.
As for the fight itself, having Morrigan throughout the Deep Roads with debilitating spells was essential (if I wasn't going with a mage myself that is)
Also, I always found it peculiar :
During the Dwarf Noble origin you can hear the folks of Orzammar say "Branka left almost 2 years ago", which is still true for when you come back (Oghren says "Two years tomorrow".)
But if you go to the circle of magi and recruit Wynne, she'll tell you in dialogues that 1 year has passed ever since Ostagar. Which causes me to make a mental map of how the questlines should go.
Which for me is :
Paragon of her Kind
(don't laugh now) Sacred Ashes
Nature of the Beast
Broken Circle
Redcliffe (yep, after sacred ashes and all else, I love Teagan's expression when you're all like "Dude, I have the ashes already!" Plus, getting here at late 19-21 level, will have the Citizens have SCATTERSHOT to be used against the zombies invading town)
Usually I go with Denerim and the DLC quests (more specifically Shale and Return to Ostagar as they are the only ones I got) after Paragon of her Kind, so I am around level 13-14 for the high dragon, which is enough
On the top of my head, nothing comes to mind tactic-wise, usually it's useful taking care of ALL the golems first and then take care of Caradin. It's also useful to keep the mages close to Lyrium for mana-replenishing purposes.