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Dragon Age diffculty

Vorark

Erudite
Joined
Mar 2, 2017
Messages
1,394
Nightmare gets better AI without hp bloat.

dao.jpg


More info: http://web.archive.org/web/20101115173807/http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/difficulty
 

Parabalus

Arcane
Joined
Mar 23, 2015
Messages
17,432
Don't play below Nightmare, especially if your PC is a mage.

There were also some decent mods like Combat Tweaks or Nightmare plus which spice things up a bit.
 

Technomancer

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 24, 2018
Messages
1,417
I would just play hard, full friendly fire damage and zero bullshit, perfectly normal difficulty. Nightmare starts the bullshit with adjustments intended for those who know the game well and build OP chars.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Mages are the only thing that made the mediocre MMO-lite combat half tolerable. All you guys who played no mage parties are masochists.
Rogues are interesting enough if you go wild with traps. Grenades do a lot too. Then are silly builds like the Willpower Warrior who goes Berserker + Templar so he can output a massive aoe stun with Holy Smite and a massive one-shot with Final Blow or the Pure Cunning Rogue swinging a giant 2H maul for maximum backstabbing damage.

Honestly you should put 1 rank of Poison-Making on every character so they can all use poisons and throw grenades, even the Mages, and buy pretty much every grenade you can get your hands on. Synchronized grenade tossing ends enemies fast, especially if you rotate grenade types to circumvent cooldowns or use the mage hexes that penalize resistances (but that's usually overkill).

Don't play below Nightmare, especially if your PC is a mage.
I strongly second this.

There were also some decent mods like Combat Tweaks or Nightmare plus which spice things up a bit.
Nightmare Plus was mostly stat inflation and scaling up enemy levels iirc. Shit that makes the game feel like more of a slog. I do miss the LoS targeting fix it had, but I think they removed it because it allowed you to aggro multiple rooms of enemies through walls (which made for some truly memorable encounters imo). Slinks S3 Ravage is much better for spicing up combat.
 
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Piotrovitz

Savant
Joined
Dec 21, 2017
Messages
805
Location
Paris, Texas
Don't go below nightmare, seriously, unless you aim for some wonky party build.

I did a blind run with DW dagger rogue with kinda optimal party (Alistair tank, Wynne AW/healer, Morrigan CC) and beside few fights it was smooth sailing. And I'm no cRPG veteran, mind you - I rarely play anything since years.

Most of the fights could go on an autopilot - DW rogue with momentum/lethality/etc just melts everything in seconds, Allistair just stands and tanks, Morrigan casts mostly cone of cold or one shots mages with mana clash, Wynne heals/buffs, and once she gets AW spec she can also tank. I crafted tons of high level poisons for rogue, but rarely even used them.

I wanted to try Awakening, but the main campaign and it's MMO-style quests wore me out so much, that I just couldn't give a fuck anymore.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
Full nightmare on, Im elf mage, and its fine difficulty wise so far. Trash mobs are ez-pz, but some encounters require reloading and proper positioning. Did dlc areas (except return to Ostragar) and im almost done with mage tower. Optimal party composition should be Shale, Alistair and Zevran. And yet, its not that hard, so I might mix it up in favor of flavour (i just love Alistair and Morrigans bickering). Wondering where I should go next. Redcliff is gonna be last, for sure, Orzimmar is a tad too long, but I always love gettting all the companions asap, while the elves give me AW. Prolly Elves then Orzimmar, but well see.

Its a pleasant game, far better than I remember it. Nothing spectacular, but good, at least so far. Characters aint particularly deep, plot is incredibly stale but easygoing and witty dialogue is pleasant.
 

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,647
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
Also, remember to use the Silverite Mines bug fix for the Awakening:

https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1762/

If you don't, there's a very good chance that you will permanently lose all of your equipped items during one quest. Happened to me once and I was really pissed as I didn't have a viable save to go back to.
In addition to this, you'll also want to install these Awakening bug fixes:

Blackblade Armor Dragon Drop Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1112
Endgame Cutscene Fixes - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3009/?
Baroness Reward Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3050/
Bombs Away Quest Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4835
Joining Ritual Fix for Awakening Companions - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/2997
Law and Order Fixes - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3046/

Yeah, I know.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Full nightmare on, Im elf mage, and its fine difficulty wise so far. Trash mobs are ez-pz, but some encounters require reloading and proper positioning.
Out of curiosity, what's your build? Mages are pretty much the one class with serious build potential based on how you select their abilities. Warriors and Rogues just get funneled into their weapon style trees and you end up looking for specializations (as well as traps and poisons) to try to add something interesting to their options.

Did dlc areas (except return to Ostragar) and im almost done with mage tower. Optimal party composition should be Shale, Alistair and Zevran. And yet, its not that hard, so I might mix it up in favor of flavour (i just love Alistair and Morrigans bickering). Wondering where I should go next. Redcliff is gonna be last, for sure, Orzimmar is a tad too long, but I always love gettting all the companions asap, while the elves give me AW. Prolly Elves then Orzimmar, but well see.
Warden's Keep is blatantly overpowered in its rewards, especially if you got the Power of the Blood abilities. I'd recommend not doing any of the DLC that are part of the campaign (or using any promo items) with the exception of the Stone Prisoner. For the most part EA was just selling cheats.

Its a pleasant game, far better than I remember it. Nothing spectacular, but good, at least so far. Characters aint particularly deep, plot is incredibly stale but easygoing and witty dialogue is pleasant.
The fix mods might be part of the cause for that. Qwinn's Ultimate Fixpack restores a bunch of broken cutscene triggers and botched attribute checks.
 
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visions

Arcane
Joined
Jun 10, 2007
Messages
1,801
Location
here
Warden's Keep is blatantly overpowered in its rewards, especially if you got the Power of the Blood abilities. I'd recommend not doing any of the DLC that are part of the game (or using any promo items) with the exception of the Stone Prisoner. For the most part EA was just selling cheats.

This may have contributed to why I found the game too easy, I played the ultimate edition (or whatever it was called) with all the DLC included and didn't go out of my way to avoid anything op.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Even if you avoid all of that, it's still easy when you know what you're doing, especially if you've got a lot of Mages or you actually use Small Claw Traps for their ridiculous CC (Large Claw Traps have the same physical resistance check, so they're not worth using). Slinks S3 Ravage will at least give you some challenge by randomly spawning enemies with better builds than the usual garbage but overall the game is just very poorly balanced.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
Out of curiosity, what's your build? Mages are pretty much the one class with serious build potential based on how you select their abilities. Warriors and Rogues just get funneled into their weapon style trees and you end up looking for specializations (as well as traps and poisons) to try to add something interesting to their options.

2 lvls of combat training (for now), 4 levels in coercion, once i complete combat training, the rest should go in herbalism. Atrribute wise, i lvled cunning so I can get lvl 4 coercion, and put like 5 points in willpower. Now I'm just pumping magic. Spell wise - I got Warden dlc special spells, but didnt really use them yet. I have maxed fire, ice and arcane (the default tree), and Im on my way to maxing telepathy. After that, Ill max Arcane warrior and blood mage lines, and then, if i have points left, glyph line or hex line. Ill also take the first earth spell sooner or later. Equipment wise - no idea, really, so far Im just wearing the best stuff i found. Ill def try weapons and heavy armor once i get arcane warrior, we 'll see how efficient it is tho.


I did get Warden dlc bonus spells, but i barely used them tbh. Sadly I already did both stone prisoner and warden keep, Ill leave Return to Ostragar till i get secret companion.


The difficulty (Nightmare) has been perfect so far - trash mobs are no challenge, and offer a chance to mess around, while particular encounters required some careful planning (Sloth demon and that one encounter with the guy on the road (5 pages, 4 something))

That aside, I cant comprehend why are there trash encounters in this game. Some of challenging fights are pretty good, and require careful positioning, but, trash encounters are just trash, that you can surely beat if you beat all the challenging ones. And you literally completely regenerate after each encounter, so its not a war of attrition either. They literally contribute nothing to the overall game.
 
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oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
13,609
Location
Winter
Dragon Age 2 is the best in the series, ignore the fucking imbeciles here. Origins is disgustingly overrated and don't get me started on Awakening.... You are going to enjoy DA 2 a lot more.

Dragon Age 2 is the gayest game Ive ever played. Not like gay = bad but like its full of homosexuals trying to put it in your ass. This is the last bioware game I ever bought.
 
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Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,647
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
Dragon Age 2 is the gayest game Ive ever played. Not like gay = bad but like its full of homosexuals trying top put it in your ass. This is the last bioware game I ever bought.
How is it that people can look at characters like Anders and Fenris without instantly knowing they're bottoms? Their cocks are not going inside any orifices.
 

oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
13,609
Location
Winter
DAO is more on the acceptable side of mediocre, especially once you mod it. It wasn't "very good."


Fuck Awakening. Do sea's mod Thirst instead.


Arcane Warrior Mage is pretty much easy mode, except your Arcane Warrior is just going to be a spellcaster in plate, since Arcane Warrior offers jack shit in terms of attack abilities, you can't cast with most weapons in hand, and it is just a pure set of tanking abilities to make your Mage an unkillable juggernaut that outtanks everything, so you generally end up just using a staff and spellcasting in plate. For bonus points get 12 strength and the Rock Armor spell so you can wear a leather armor set in Ostagar and have more armor than anyone (with a bit more strength you can wear the heavier armor sets too). Aside from that I recommend you put all your stat points into Magic since it also pumps your healing and mana potions so really, it's the only stat you need (except for a smidge of Cunning to get Coercion up). Play Nightmare difficulty, and contemplate installing Slinks S3 Ravage if you want a challenge and you may want to install the Grease Fire un-nerf (but Grease Fire is pretty broken pre-nerf if you use it yourself and utterly worthless after they stealth nerfed it in 1.04; mostly this is recommended because there is a memorable Tower of Ishal fight where enemies use Grease Fire against your party and if you play with the nerfed version that fight is just a stupid joke).

For pure bugfixing, I recommend installing Dain's Fixes, Qwinn's Ultimate Fixpack, and Two Specializations Sten. You might also want to install Detailed Tooltips and Advanced Tactics. Definitely get ready to either edit their tactics or disable them (if you want to disable tactics, it's best to empty their tactics slots but leave tactics active so they still autoattack properly) and manually control the party. With manual party control the game gets pretty easy.

Paging Lilura to add DAO mod recommendations.

Full nightmare on, Im elf mage, and its fine difficulty wise so far. Trash mobs are ez-pz, but some encounters require reloading and proper positioning. Did dlc areas (except return to Ostragar) and im almost done with mage tower. Optimal party composition should be Shale, Alistair and Zevran. And yet, its not that hard, so I might mix it up in favor of flavour (i just love Alistair and Morrigans bickering). Wondering where I should go next. Redcliff is gonna be last, for sure, Orzimmar is a tad too long, but I always love gettting all the companions asap, while the elves give me AW. Prolly Elves then Orzimmar, but well see.

Its a pleasant game, far better than I remember it. Nothing spectacular, but good, at least so far. Characters aint particularly deep, plot is incredibly stale but easygoing and witty dialogue is pleasant.

In addition to this, you'll also want to install these Awakening bug fixes:

Blackblade Armor Dragon Drop Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1112
Endgame Cutscene Fixes - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3009/?
Baroness Reward Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3050/
Bombs Away Quest Fix - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4835
Joining Ritual Fix for Awakening Companions - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/2997
Law and Order Fixes - https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3046/

Yeah, I know.

All you biodrones talking about mods but none of you suggest the only essential DA mod:

More options at the Pearl


1176-4-1511299939.jpg

1176-1-1272870281.jpg
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
2 lvls of combat training (for now), 4 levels in coercion, once i complete combat training, the rest should go in herbalism. Atrribute wise, i lvled cunning so I can get lvl 4 coercion, and put like 5 points in willpower. Now I'm just pumping magic. Spell wise - I got Warden dlc special spells, but didnt really use them yet. I have maxed fire, ice and arcane (the default tree), and Im on my way to maxing telepathy. After that, Ill max Arcane warrior and blood mage lines, and then, if i have points left, glyph line or hex line. Ill also take the first earth spell sooner or later. Equipment wise - no idea, really, so far Im just wearing the best stuff i found.
Ah, the basic Mage build (elemental trees + arcane). Cold has some solid crowd control and fireball's a strong enough source of damage though. Just try not to cast fire spells into a Blizzard because it gives everyone +50% fire resistance. Honestly I think the more interesting (and some of the more overpowered) Mage builds tend to be outside the fire/frost/lightning trees, but it does work.

Arcane Shield is kind of crap until you have massive amounts of spellpower. Really Arcane Mastery tends to be the only ability worth grabbing on the Arcane Tree, although Arcane Bolt at least tends to be somewhat useful. If you want a massive defense score it's better to just use Glyph of Warding + Heroic Defense.

Ill def try weapons and heavy armor once i get arcane warrior, we 'll see how efficient it is tho.
You'll end up doing weapon-sheathe animations whenever you try to cast anything, then weapon equip animations when you try to attack anything. Those animation times will successfully discourage you from either trying to cast spells or from trying to use a sword. Honestly Shapeshifter makes a better melee Mage than Arcane Warrior (especially if you stack extreme amounts of spellpower or do shit like a pure strength Mage, in which case you won't need Arcane Warrior to equip weapons and armor).

Here's a list of spells and whether you can cast them with weapons drawn: https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Arcane_Warrior_spellcasting

As you can tell, most of your fire and frost spells cannot be cast with weapons in hand. It's gonna suck. Definitely get ready to use some poisons and weapon runes so you can at least pretend you have a decent attack.

I did get Warden dlc bonus spells, but i barely used them tbh. Sadly I already did both stone prisoner and warden keep, Ill leave Return to Ostragar till i get secret companion.
Stone Prisoner has some slightly overpowered loot (Helm of Honnleath mostly) but it's pretty much fine. It's Warden's Keep that just gives you a bullshit sword and retarded overpowered abilities. The bonus spells basically give you on-demand mana restoration and a giant pile of damage. Those abilities are both lazy and powerful.

The difficulty (Nightmare) has been perfect so far - trash mobs are no challenge, and offer a chance to mess around, while particular encounters required some careful planning (Sloth demon and that one encounter with the guy on the road (5 pages, 4 something))

That aside, I cant comprehend why are there trash encounters in this game. Some of challenging fights are pretty good, and require careful positioning, but, trash encounters are just trash, that you can surely beat if you beat all the challenging ones. And you literally completely regenerate after each encounter, so its not a war of attrition either. They literally contribute nothing to the overall game.
Genre convention/filler for the sake of filler. In most D&D-like games trash combat at least serves as a form of attrition and threat to your resource management, but then with the proliferation of easy healing and refillable mana it's a non-issue to be in top condition after every single trash fight (DAO streamlined it further with out of combat regen) which turns trash fights into nothing but gameplay filler. Nowadays the biggest reason for all the trash fights is because combat serves as the half-assed "gameplay" component to role-playing games so they stick it in there so it feels like a game but keep it too easy to be a meaningful challenge gameplay wise owing to a combination of lazy game design and a desire to avoid putting up roadblocks for players (this is also why they nerfed Grease Fire, because it savaged parties in the Tower of Ishal). Like I said, install Slinks S3 Ravage if you want to spice it up. Then those trash combat encounters will actually spawn enemies that pose some form of challenge and drop loot worth grabbing.
 
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Mexi

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
6,811
By the way, it's quite hilarious seeing "Oh, it's so easy" *plays with overpowered equipment, overpowered build, and overpowered party set up*. I usually play with an unoptimized build because I try to make "realistic" looking stat builds based on the characters in the game. For example, if I don't want to be an idiot, I get more cunning than Alistair, etc. Usually makes the difficulty for games seem more organic.
 
Unwanted
Dumbfuck
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
999
Location
Free Market Paradise
Dragon Age 2 is the gayest game Ive ever played. Not like gay = bad but like its full of homosexuals trying top put it in your ass. This is the last bioware game I ever bought.
How is it that people can look at characters like Anders and Fenris without instantly knowing they're bottoms? Their cocks are not going inside any orifices.
You need a progress injection. That kind of gay stereotyping is a thing of the past and many prettyboys fuck beefy and hairy men in the ass. So the next time you see a goblin with mannerism that is a parody of a lady together with a gruff orc then think about that little gay goblin cumming in the muscled green bootyhole of the orc with a feminine moan. I should be a Larian writer kek.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
Fyi - Im a retard. I try to read all (ingame) Codex shit, and its so fucking dull i want to gorge my eyes out.

Havent given up yet.
 

Semiurge

Cipher
Joined
Apr 11, 2020
Messages
6,074
Location
Asp Hole
The fix mods might be part of the cause for that. Qwinn's Ultimate Fixpack restores a bunch of broken cutscene triggers and botched attribute checks

I hear that it's the mod to use if you could only use one. I think it also restores some missing items into the game.

How is it that people can look at characters like Anders and Fenris without instantly knowing they're bottoms? Their cocks are not going inside any orifices.

Which do you think Dorian is? My bet is on bottom.

latest


All you biodrones talking about mods but none of you suggest the only essential DA mod:

More options at the Pearl


1176-4-1511299939.jpg

1176-1-1272870281.jpg

For a moment I wondered why Zevran also has a strap-on.
 

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