Dragon Age 2 - v1.03 Patch Released

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BioWare has released the expected v1.03 patch for Dragon Age 2. A snip from the patch notes:

GAMEPLAY

- In many fights, enemies now move less quickly at the start of combat. This slower initial pace makes tactical positioning more useful and important.
- If the force of an enemy attack interrupts a party member's current action, the party member now resumes the action once he or she has recovered. This means, for example, that party members who have been instructed to consume a health potion will now do so as soon as they are able, and do not need to be told to consume a health potion again if they are interrupted.
- Enemies are now much less likely to explode into body parts upon death.
- Attacks that hit a stealthed assassin are now more likely to disrupt stealth.
- Abilities that apply a silence effect now also cancel the target's current action in addition to preventing the target from using further abilities.
- When an enemy wakes from a sleep effect due to suffering damage, other status effects that were applied by the same ability that caused the sleep effect are no longer removed at the same time.
- Items that bear the property "100% of basic attack damage vs. enemies that attack in melee" no longer harm the user when equipped in conjunction with abilities like Blood Magic or Sacrificial Frenzy that reduce the user's health.​

 

Hm, seems this patch really changes balance of the game (and I read only about half of that list).

 

Most of the changes seem to make the game harder for all game play levels. I have no problem with the game difficulty. I had a problem with other things within the game – reusing the same maps, lack of options for companion armor and weapons, equipment restrictions for all classes, etc… The fix does seem to fix some of the game stopping bugs; hopefully they go back and do minor updates to the game engine as well later on to make the game more enjoyable.

 

I don't see any mention of the friendship bugs with Sebastion and Isabela being fixed (the ones that permanently reduce attack speed and damage resistance). That's a pity. At least there's a mod to workaround those.

 

I'm pretty sure those were fixed in 1.02.

 

I didn't see that fix in those patch notes either, but you could be right. I haven't played since 1.01, so I wouldn't know.

 

I haven't played since I beat it the first time. I'm waiting for a DLC or two before I play it again. Besides, DAO is keeping me busy anyway with my male human mage.