Dragon Age 2

[Odie]

It depends on if you bring Anders to the Deep Roads and how friendly you are with him.

Good to know. I would (probably) always do that.

[Odie]

I just finished it:

I'm not sure if it's a bug or just wierdly written, but Varric tells that the Circles rose and that Anders followed me... Despite Anders being well... Dead!

Well, Justice used to live in the body of a dead guy... maybe Anders just isn't quite dead yet! ;)

[Galactus]

Well, Justice used to live in the body of a dead guy... maybe Anders just isn't quite dead yet! ;)

Spoiler

I suspect it's the fact that my rogue romanced Anders and then killed him, I'm not certain they considered that possibility :P

[Odie]

Spoiler

I suspect it's the fact that my rogue romanced Anders and then killed him, I'm not certain they considered that possibility :P

<Zevran>Slander and lies!</Zevran> ;)

[Tobin]

Spoiler

I suspect it's the fact that my rogue romanced Anders and then killed him, I'm not certain they considered that possibility :P

Same. Thus the 45mins of tears...

**Ok, that either speaks volumes of the game's writing, or that I'm an emotionally vulnerable.

**looks over at the IM window with chatter from my now x-husband**

yeah....

maybe i'm a little vulnerable right now, :frown5:

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

I have a theory about the totally retarded encounter design. It's an attempt to compensate for the totally retarded combat balancing. Tobin's thing last page, where she does a couple AoE spells and the wave is done? Every character and spec--except for maybe Aveline and sword/shield warriors (possibly dual wield rogues, depending on how you spec them. Though Isabela gets all hands on deck, which is hilarious)--can do ridiculous AoE damage. There's nothing short of a miniboss, on normal, that can survive Fenris' whirlwind/spirit pulse combo. For the minibosses, he adds the SUPER STRONG SLICE! and they're done too. I only played two hours of hard, and that was in the first act, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I don't believe it was materially different on that difficulty either.

So. If there weren't any waves, each and every encounter would be over in ten seconds flat; pop all your AoE and you're done. If the waves spawned in sensible places, they'd be instagibbed as well. Use one or two characters per wave, victory. As is, though, the enemies are so spread out that while you can do real damage to their numbers with your AoE, it's not quite so easy to obliterate entire encounters in seconds.

So basically, the problem is that someone decided DA2 needed to be MOAR AWSUM! (see also people exploding into fountains of blood every fight, the FF reject elf, the FF reject swords). In order to be MOAR AWSUM characters need to be MUCH MOAR AWSUM than most enemies. While we could use friend fire to balance out the retardedly powerful AoE damage, worrying about position and such isn't AWSUM, so we'll skip that. But enemies that appear all over the place and swarm you, those are AWSUM!, so we'll use those.

That's my theory. It's probably wrong, but I like it anyway.

[Galactus]

That seems incredibly likely.

[Relic]

That's my theory. It's probably wrong, but I like it anyway.

No, that's exactly what happened. There's even a tip that comes up during load screens telling you to "hold choke points so your casters don't get overwhelmed". LOL. They realized the characters were too powerful but liked the way game play felt (as do i, i think the combat in this game is a lot of fun) so they introduced secondary spawn waves towards the end of development. that's gotta be it.

[Sariel]

I'm now replaying it, dubbing my new character "Hawke the Angry Mage".

It's surprisingly entertaining, but BOY do you piss people off :P

My first playthrough was with Hawke the Angry Mage, and in all honesty it was a lot more fun than my second playthrough with a warrior.

[Tobin]

My first playthrough was with Hawke the Angry Mage, and in all honesty it was a lot more fun than my second playthrough with a warrior.

I have trouble sticking with the 'angry' - it's against my normal nature, so I have to stretch to be a bitch to people.

Now, I do have a character in mind that would make it easier if I just played though as if it were her....

Bug is a mage with an unhealthy preference for fire.

I guess I should be thankful I didn't see any Flame demons trying to strike deals, or she would be the first to sign up.

[Relic]

Has anyone played it on Nightmare on a console?

[DemonKing]

The trash mob combat is woeful - the whole basic concept of having your warrior-types protect the weaker mages and archers fails completely when enemies teleport in right behind your back ranks.

While there were occassional battles in the Infinity Engine games where monsters would get behind you, it was the exception rather than the rule and far better for it.

[Galactus]

The trash mob combat is woeful - the whole basic concept of having your warrior-types protect the weaker mages and archers fails completely when enemies teleport in right behind your back ranks.

While there were occassional battles in the Infinity Engine games where monsters would get behind you, it was the exception rather than the rule and far better for it.

To be fair, I think the idea is that you should use your aggro-deflection skills (Goad/Evade/Mind Blast/Taunt) to get rid of the teleporters.

[Tyrellius]

I got pretty handy with grouping up when only 2 or 3 mobs left.

Anders did always pick the mob around the corner and through the wailing packs of undead to target and run up to though.

My Mabari always was handy in that he ran wherever the fuck he wanted to and always drew a few mobs with him.

[Kosciuszko]

Has anyone played it on Nightmare on a console?

I plan on it once I get it in a few days.

[Shael]

Has anyone played it on Nightmare on a console?

Yes, but I don't recommend it. Halfway through Act 2, I set it back to normal and just played for the story. The lack of a tactical camera view coupled with no auto attack means you're maniacally mashing your attack button while reaching across the controller with your left thumb to manipulate the right thumbstick to look around. Your characters are rather indifferent towards the 'move to' command, with a penchant for charging into AoE shitstorms. And the waves of enemies thing is heinous, but you all already know that. Just when you get your casters to a nice sniping spot, five more trash mobs fall out of the sky on top of them. Ass.

One feature that does shine however are the cross class combos! My 2H taunting warrior was pretty fun against brittle enemies.

Oh, playing on the 360 btw.

[Kosciuszko]

^

That sounds... unpleasant. I can only hope the control scheme isn't so bad on the PS3.

ETA: I also find it bizarre there's not auto-attack on the console version. That seems pretty unnecessary to me, though I've not really looked at DA:2 demos or anything. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Relic]

Yes, but I don't recommend it. Halfway through Act 2, I set it back to normal and just played for the story. The lack of a tactical camera view coupled with no auto attack means you're maniacally mashing your attack button while reaching across the controller with your left thumb to manipulate the right thumbstick to look around. Your characters are rather indifferent towards the 'move to' command, with a penchant for charging into AoE shitstorms. And the waves of enemies thing is heinous, but you all already know that. Just when you get your casters to a nice sniping spot, five more trash mobs fall out of the sky on top of them. Ass.

I just beat it on Hard with a rogue and i want to play thru again as a mage but i can't see Nightmare being any fun at all. If i had the ability to move my characters out of AoE at will it would be a different story. I think im going to use the exp cheat to play thru at a lvl 40 mage on hard, should prove challenging.

[Shael]

That sounds... unpleasant.

Well, to each their own of course, but for me it was just too much of a headache. Along with the pervasive bugs, the game just wore me down. Maybe the PS3 version will be a little easier to handle! :thumbsup:

I just beat it on Hard with a rogue and i want to play thru again as a mage but i can't see Nightmare being any fun at all.

Nightmare might not be any fun, but its certainly a challenge haha, and not in a good way. :shocked: I thought about dropping the difficulty to hard, but that means no friendly fire... actually, I didn't check that, I could be wrong. So yeah, I copped out to normal. Shameful!

Anyway, despite the 'consolization' of Dragon Age, I'd still say this is one best played on a PC.

[haLobEnder]

ETA: I also find it bizarre there's not auto-attack on the console version. That seems pretty unnecessary to me, though I've not really looked at DA:2 demos or anything. Maybe I'm missing something.

That should be something addressed in a console patch. If you believe what they're saying, it was meant to be included in the console versions, it just 'accidentally' got left out at the last minute.

I thought it would be a hindrance to my play, but as it turned out it actually wasn't; There's so little strategy involved in the console version that the button mashing actually gives you something to do.

(Wow, I seem to be sounding more bitter about the game the more time I spend away from it... I actually did enjoy it, truly)