Got back into it.

Remove all ads!

And after a couple of days I remember why I quit the game back when I first got it.

Roughly 45% time spent reloading from another 45% of the time spent watching low level mobs, whom you on most occations both outnumber and outlevel (most likely), hammerslaughter you on the lowest setting.

And then the remaining 10% spent advancing with snail-like speed through the game. Am I to expect more of the same in DA2 and onwards? 'Cause then I'll pass.

 

I've had more or less the same experience from DA:O, so I haven't bothered with the sequels. From what I understand, though, DA2 is more action oriented than DA:O, and has about 7 locations that compromise about 90% of the game, and nearly 100% of the dungeons.

Don't know about DA:I, but at this point one might wonder if you'd want to know.

 

There are mods to make both walking and fighting speed faster, bringing it more in line with the faster action in da2 and da:i.
Personally i've never had issues with staying alive vs the enemy mobs though, withthe exception of games played on nightmare difficulty.

 

Wut? DA:O is one of the easier RPGs out there. How do you manage to suck at combat?

 

DA:O is not the type of game in which you can just rush a group of enemies, or at least not so in my experience. Sure, you auto-heal after each encounter, and the only death that actually matters is that of the PC, but it seems to balance this, they made each encounter fairly hard.

I didn't die much myself, but combat is slow, repetitive, and boring. And your first encounter is pretty much equally difficult than the last one, because everything is directly scaled to your level.

 

I guess we have different views on the DA:O combat then - i do think it is a bit slow compared to the combat in DA2 and DA:I, though like i said there are mods to fix that - but overall i think that if you spend some time building your pc and companions, you can facecheck 90% of the stuff the game throws at you.

The build i love the most is a mage with specialization in arcane warrior and blood mage, wearing either the entire Cailan's armor set if you have the return to ostagar DLC, or Wade's superior heavy dragonscale armor set if you don't.

Start off battle with firing off an AoE towards the biggest cluster of enemies to damage them and lure them in, then when they s warm your group just use some of the great crowd control spells the game offers - the blood mages 'Blood Wound' spell is especially effective, basically being a mass paralysis without the long casting time.
Blood magic also allows me to use my health to cast my active abilities, allowing me to keep up 7 sustained abilities - Shimmering shield, Combat magic, Rock armor, Arcane Shield, Spell Wisp, Flaming Weapons and Haste.
Especially the latter two help out the rest of your party a ton.

For my companions, i like taking a second mage with the spirit healer skill tree (wynne, anders and finn) and put most of their ability points in skills that offer healing and more crowd control.
I also take a fighter to take the brunt of the damage - alistair is especially suited for this with his sword and board skills. the Templar tree is useful as well, and once you get to 14 i like giving him the Champion specialization to boost his defensive skills even more.
As for my rogues, i usually spec leliana into a ranged bow user, and keep zevran as a high dps dual dagger wielding assassin. In both cases though, their job in the battle is to take out any ranged enemies that usually stay far enough away to not get hit with the aoe spells.

Once you have a basic team composition that works well together though, i'll agree the battle can get a bit repeptitive, since you can use the same tactic every time to mop the floor with all the enemies.

Fire in Aoe -> Once grouped up, fire crowd control spells like glyphs of paralysis/warding, blood wound and (mass) paralysis. -> have your rogue and dps mage focus any tough enemies like ogres or enemy spellcasters, using spells like stonefist/cone of cold to knock them down/freeze them so they dont get any high damage abilities/spells off on your party.
Once the main threats are down, enjoy smacking down the weak mooks that are left standing.

 

Combat in DA:O isn't fast paced and action packed like DA:2 but that's because it's a much deeper and more challenging game. You're really gonna want to make the most of all your parties abilities in order to not have a tough time of it. Do you have doggo? His dread howl and Morrigan's stunning spells are good for keeping you from being overwhelmed.

 

I facerolled everything even on harder difficulties, so I'm not really sure what was "deep and challenging" about it. I did use the mod for more customizable companion AI though.

 

The only thing that makes nightmare difficulty a bit harder is friendly fire being enabled, making AoE spells like blizzard/firestorm/earthquake really situational - you can only use it to open a battle, and even then not in tight quarters where you might have to move into the space while the spell is still going off.

 

Well, I don't really know what I'm doing wrong. I throw everything I've got at the enemies. I use skills, potions, backstabs etc. galore. The tactics are set up to use any kind of ability to either dish out damage or tank, like say Alastair. My party still have their innards smeared all over every available surface in encounters I suspect are comparable to a high level party running into a band of goblins in Throne of Bhaal.

Ahh well. Maybe that game just isn't for me.

 

Friendly fire is manageable in DA:O what with spells like Heal, Group Heal and Dispel and Force Field. The real danger in nightmare difficulty comes from enemy spell resistance, which occasionally allows them to ignore spell effects.

My mage basically just destroys everything in his way with primal school AoE spells while throwing the occasional support spell at allies. Mages reached their peak in DA:O, the only game that allows them to do everything all at once (kill everything, survive everything and keep everyone else alive). DA:I comes closest with the Knight Enchanter specialization, but even that pales in comparison to the DA:O mage which can become pretty much immortal with just gear and spells. Specializations are optional.

You're probably not doing anything wrong, but games like DA:O follow a sort of MMO-ish meta - if you want to excel, then it's all about using the right gear/spells. That kind of thing only comes from experience, either your own or someone else's (like from forum posts/FAQs and guides).
MMO players will have an advantage though because many skill/stat effects from DA:O are standard MMO fare and should be familiar to them - patterns, combinations and potential exploits will be easier for them see.

 

Maybe if I'd stuck with the game, I'd have bothered to try any of the cheesy builds.

But anyway, there'd never be encounters like in BG, where e.g. goblins are something to carefully kite in early BG1, something to easily dismiss by the beginning of SoA, and barely a bump in the road by the end of SoA.

All the battles in DA:O are the same, same difficulty, same enemies, no matter if it's the beginning or the end of the game. Combat is a grind, though probably my playing style aggravates this. I could try one of the cheesier builds, but I'd have more fun playing another game.

 

Along with every D&D game ever made...

 

Have you played the sequels? Admittedly i'm a fan of every game in the series, but there's no denying that DA:O has the most options available to you of any other game.

Take DA:I. All of your protection spells have turned into one. All of your healing spells have turned into one. Warriors and rogues are more limited in weapon styles. You have exactly four spell trees sans specializations.

The more I think about it the saltier I get...

 

No, it would be a waste of my time.

 

years after, I still think about some parts. I really liked it.