Dragon Age: Inquisition

[PrincessCiri]

I've seen posts on tumblr where people have found dialogue between Alistair and Morrigan, talking about Kieran, if Alistair is the father. Shame we never got that in the game, it would have been interesting.

To be honest, as much as I'm glad to be playing the game now, I would rather DA:I had been delayed again so they could finish it. You can tell especially with Solas' romance that it was done very last minute. A lot of features are missing and you can't even flirt with him unless you're a female elf.

Maybe we'll be lucky and DLC will give us a few more things but major stuff like that is never going to be changed. I just hope the DLC gives us something more for after the main quest, because the game feels pointless and empty when you play after the final main quest.

 

[Unkindled]

Actually I think Solas being for female elves was a design choice, one that to me makes sense. Besides that though, it was tacked on basically, as it wasn't meant to be there originally. Despite that people love it a lot. I was a bit jealous at first from the lore drops and such, since Cassandra's romance is a bit more traditional, but the Divine decision kills me every time, and she has a lot of really good moments. Great background too and funny mentions in relation to your romance with her.

That and whether or not we have a depressing ending is up to us. Solas though... lol.

---------- Updated at 08:29 PM ----------

And I can't get over how adorable she is when you tell her you're into her, lol. You actually make her nervous, scared even because of what you can do and who you are. It's a rare moment to see from her.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I think Solas should have been a bi romance option or w/e, I just mean that it's annoying that with other characters even if you're not their preferred 'type' you can still flirt with them. But with Solas you can't do that unless you're a female elf, which I find a bit sad.

I also read on the bioware forums that someone found audiofiles that suggest Bioware were originally planning to make Cullen bisexual, until they decided they didn't have enough time to finish it, so it got scrapped.
Now normally I'd be all for more bisexual romances, but this seems too much like Mass Effect where they took Kaidan and decided to just make him bi, despite the fact that he hadn't been in Mass Effect 1. I think it's sloppy characterisation and I'd have preferred Bioware had spent their time developing something else, personally. It would be like playing Dragon Age 5 and suddenly Sera is attracted to male characters....

 

[Unkindled]

Thank God, I crack jokes on Cullen all the time, but he doesn't come off as bisexual to me. Jesus.

Someone on the forums did complain about people talking about Solas only for straight women, lol. Some people.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Thank God, I crack jokes on Cullen all the time, but he doesn't come off as bisexual to me. Jesus.

Someone on the forums did complain about people talking about Solas only for straight women, lol. Some people.

Yeah, to me Cullen is straight. I know I'm not the writer but it's how I see it. Also I know if Cullen was bisexual I would never manage to romance anyone else besides him -__-" So I'm glad he's straight so I can play a male elf and romance Dorian. Honestly imo it would be more realistic to have Cullen romance gated to mages only, lmao.

Also I have a question in terms of combat, I notice most people here play on a higher difficulty than me, and I tried playing on normal this time, and whilst I'm not having any issues generally, I have attempted twice now to kill a dragon and both times I have died too many times so I gave up. And I was wondering, since I normally take Iron Bull with me, do you guys know how to make it so he actually has guard? Because he dies so easily when I take him with me to fight Dragons, that I end up spending all my barriers on him, which means I have less mana for spells.

My regular team for Dragon killing is Mage (me), Dorian, Vivienne and Cassandra, but Vivienne doesn't seem to be very good at anything unless I micro-manage her (sooo many times she has run into fireballs and died) and Cassandra moans when we go Dragon hunting so I wanted to try using Bull instead... but he has no guard and dies too quickly. What are people's tactics for killing dragons?

 

[Unkindled]

What works best for me, and without the help of masterworks, is to bring at least two tanks. Three is best, but you're a mage, so that's off the table.

First, Vivienne is your best bet for your second mage, since you're already one. All she needs to be good is knight enchanter perked out, If she has skills elsewhere, respec them. After that, put some points in the section with barrier and revive spells and the rest in your choice for elemental damage, preferably one the dragon isn't resistant to of course.

Iron Bull is just not the dragon killing type ironically, though on normal you could probably get away with it. I didn't get iron bull to stop sucking until I gave him fade touched obsidian, which gives guard on hitting, but if you spec him right, he might do fine without it on normal.

What you need to make sure he doesn't have is that reaver attack that costs health. Also, he needs bull charge (how appropriate) as it builds guard every time he hits with it, he needs war cry, and finally he needs unbound and the second perk for that along with it. Make those skills favorites for him and he should fight better than before. Make sure he uses those abilities if his guard drops and he doesn't do it on his own. I made these changes around the same time I gave him fade touched obsidian, so he might not even need that and might've just needed an optimum build.

But even so, for dragons I'd bring you, Vivienne, cassandra and blackwall. You know how to spec tanks correctly?

 

[SumoBeans]

And just finished my first complete run. The last parts of it are…underwhelming.

DAI's is still a solid decent game IMO, but there was something I think after the Orlesian Ball that made me feel a lot less interested in seeing how the story continues. I think the only incentive that made me keep on playing was just to stare at my really pretty male qunari for a bit longer. @_@

Tempted to do another playthrough though. The game is addicting, like eating junk food that you know better about, but you really really can't.

@Princess_Ciri
I could make it through Hard surprisingly easy with my Knight Enchanter without editing any tactics or having special potions, but I micromanaged my Adaar the most. It was the Fade Shield passive that made barriers long lasting for my KE so I could focus on putting barriers on other companions if they're really too far away.

Also recommended spells: Static Cage is the best offensive spell and is really handy for crowd control. Fade step, energy barrage, immolate that you should get and can ignore rest. I have barely touched anything on the Frost school. And the two mages I had in my party all had to have barrier. Also having them wear cooldown amulets really help.

I also used this build for Cass. I never recruited Bull or Blackwall, but being the only warrior she barely ever died on my watch.

 

[Unkindled]

Only thing I see off the top of my head that I wouldn't get from that build is shield wall and the bear mauls the wolves for the companions. I never noticed my warriors needing the don't get flank damage perk even on nightmare, and shield wall just doesn't work well with AI, it's a perk meant for the player when controlling someone. If you spend long times playing as other characters, then sure, but otherwise its a junk ability. Besides that, a warrior build is rather straightforward. Spec out their specializations, go for passives. Except trust in the steel, as that is unfortunately bugged.

 

[Sana_mia]

Also depends on what dragon on what level... the storm coast one, killed everyone except the inquisitor in 10 seconds flat. Okay I ran into that one at lvl 14 and said let's give it a shot...

Hissing wastes one? By the time you reach that one it should be mostly goulash before it stirs.

 

[Unkindled]

Level 14 should be high enough to kill that dragon. With me, it ran away when I got close after deflecting its attacks. After that you gotta go get it later when the templars come.

Equipment makes a big difference. Very big. So it's worth farming for ore. Or you could just cut the middleman and dublicate stormheart ore. Which you can get from Crestwood under ground near the sea rift.

 

[Arius87]

I would have loved to see Anders in DA:I. I never blamed him solely for what happenend because it was Justice/Vengeance's fault equally. It would be interesting to hear if he regrets anything. But I think Justice wouldn't back down.

I never recruited Bull or Blackwall...

Wait what...why? Both of them are good companions. Especially Iron Bull.

By the way this is how you kill a dragon

Anyway I used to bring along Cassandra, Cole and Dorian. I myself as Qunari used a two-handed sword. The problem is that you ran out of healing potions in a dragon fight very quickly. So I changed tactics and brought Cassandra and Blackwall both plus Dorian. So 2 tanks one mage how casts the barriers and I was the dmg dealer. Though it lasted a bit longer than normal (10 to 15 minutes) it was the easiest dragon fight I had so far on hard difficulty. Because both Cassandra and Blackwall are nearly immortal with full specs. And I used the healing potions only for Dorian.

 

[Unkindled]

I wonder if I'm the only one that refuses to give Varric any of that acrobatic bs, lol.

 

[SumoBeans]

@Dystopia90 Roleplay reasons actually. xD Every Dragon Age character of mine must have one companion leave or never be recruited. Makes them more flawed, kiss less ass, and prevents them to solve everyone's problems, where you kind of get into Mary Sue mode. (It was 10x easier though to make a non-Mary Sue Warden compared to an Inquisitor which I think is somewhat impossible). It also adds incentive to make an alternate playthrough with a new character who would see things differently.

My male Qunari would not trust Ben Hassrath for his life, and he originally didn't think Blackwall wouldn't be that useful to even recruit. But in my next playthrough my human rogue would not take any crap from Sera and kick her out and would never trust anything spirit like to have Cole in the Inquisition.

 

[Sardukhar]

Cornflakes will die horribly from that 200+ damage mage staff.

What kind of damages are you seeing, San? On Nightmare. I'm running a 172 or so DPS staff right now.

 

[Sana_mia]

What kind of damages are you seeing, San? On Nightmare. I'm running a 172 or so DPS staff right now.

Mostly damage is all over the board... Corrupted creatures usually start off at 180-250 depending on resistance. Energy Barrage lowers resistance, so it goes up over time.
Giant Spiders I do about 12 damage with the lightning staff *g*.
Spirit Blade ranges from 250 (rare cases) to 1K, mostly around 500. Highest hit I've seen was 6800 against a dragons Guard. There aren't many creatures that have much spirit resistance, so that helps.

I did however build a whole set of staffs, one of every damage type all masterworks and my whole equipment is build around barrier/guard breaking and having lots of barrier.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Thanks for the help guys. Just after I posted that message I went and tried to kill the Dragons I had not managed to kill before and had no issues at all, and my party was Cassandra, Dorian, Varric and me. I didn't even use all my potions or anything and they were fairly easy fights. I think once my mage has her Knight Enchantment specs she becomes pretty much unkillable, which made casting barriers less of an effort, especially since Dorian is pretty good at covering that.

I think my mistake before was trying to attack the dragons before I had high enough specs. Honestly Knight Enchanter is so awesome, sometimes with my spirit blade I'm getting like 2000+ DPS in one hit.

I would have loved to see Anders in DA:I. I never blamed him solely for what happenend because it was Justice/Vengeance's fault equally. It would be interesting to hear if he regrets anything. But I think Justice wouldn't back down.

Me too! I'm still holding out hope that we might see more of the DA2/DA:O companions in DLC or at least Dragon Age 4. I would love to think that it was possible to cure Anders and remove Justice/Vengeance. Of course Bioware would never give us that option without having to sacrifice another favourite character lol. And I know if I had to make a choice between Anders and someone like Fenris or whatever, poor Anders wouldn't make it.

edit:

ooh also, regarding masterworks, I don't really understand how they work. If I use ironbark or another masterwork crafting thingy, do I get told if it's a masterwork or not? Because all the times I've used it nothing seems to have happened so... I don't know if I need to reload the game or it's just hidden? @_@

 

[Sana_mia]

reloading a bunch of times helps to get masterworks, the game tells you if it's one There are also really really rare ingredients that guarantee a masterwork. But the % chance ha... 30% chance equaled 23 re-loads for one of my staffs...

 

[Unkindled]

If nothing happened, it failed. I think the percentage is fucked. I use dragonteeth to improve certain things that suck but I want to keep using. Sometimes it works first try, other times.... Fuck me. Countless reloads. Last time I just destroyed the dragontooth out of anger and just went farming for a fade touched bloostone for my darkspawn alpha shield, which was better anyway. Took forever too but at least it wasn't as boring.

If you want fade touched obsidian, there's always one in the chest on the dwarven ship past the dragon in the hinterlands, or if you have deft hands, there's one in that locked house in redcliffe. You can just take the obsidian, leave everything else and it'll respawn every time you load up an area and come back. I wouldn't abuse that though if you're on normal. Would make the game waaaay too easy. I consider fade touched obsidian something for characters that just blow, like the rogues lol.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Ahhhh okay lol, I was wondering if I was getting something wrong but I guess I've just been unlucky.
I have 3 fade touched obsidians at the moment... but I always feel like I want to save them for when I get better schematics. I finally cracked a while ago and used some good resources to craft things for my companions and unsurprisingly, Vivienne and Solas suck less when they're using 96 dps staffs instead of 55.....

What's the best mage staff you can make in the game? I know depending on your choices in Iron Bull's personal quest you can get a good staff, but I don't think I can complete the quest that way.... it makes me too sad, so I'd like an alternative lol

 

[Unkindled]

Ahhhh okay lol, I was wondering if I was getting something wrong but I guess I've just been unlucky.
I have 3 fade touched obsidians at the moment... but I always feel like I want to save them for when I get better schematics. I finally cracked a while ago and used some good resources to craft things for my companions and unsurprisingly, Vivienne and Solas suck less when they're using 96 dps staffs instead of 55.....

What's the best mage staff you can make in the game? I know depending on your choices in Iron Bull's personal quest you can get a good staff, but I don't think I can complete the quest that way.... it makes me too sad, so I'd like an alternative lol

I think the best staffs are the ones you can buy or find throughout the game, like the one in the frozen ruins in The Western Approach, or the Lifetaker staff in Val Royeaux, staff of the void in the dragon at Emprise du Lion, level 17 item, and then there's a weaker one called enchanter's staff in the hinterlands dragon. Level 15 item.

Weapon schematics kinda suck in this game compared to what you can actually find, but if you must make something, make sure to use top knotch materials. That'll really boost the damage. Emprise du lion drops lots of really good materials for crafting. And of course dragon materials are good though not always the best.

---------- Updated at 01:36 PM ----------

@Princess_Ciri, Actually, I think I did find a tier 3 staff schematic before, it was in the Emprise du Lion, at that fort you have to liberate. Forget the dps, somewhere in the 120's. That's about as good as they get.


For staffs that is. Without runes.