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But it might mean I have a slight possibility of beating one of the dragon's someday. Except I don't have an ice staff, but I could improvise. Honestly I'd like to beat at least one dragon. Its not a matter of fun, Dragons are too poorly implemented to be "fun" fights, I would just like my (currently level 19) characters to be able to beat one of those a-holes
I'm still on the fence about getting DAI; I played DAO a while back, never got DA2, but the price and the game bugs are off-putting. Any word about a bug fix patch coming?
If I were you I'd go play DA2 & the DLCs first. The base game at least is pretty cheep these days (and is probably in a sale right now) and I think going from Origins to Inquisition will be a bit jarring.
If you're dead set against playing DA2, I'd say at least watch a "Let's Play" of it on youtube or something.
As for patches for DAI, patch 2 came out a week or two ago, no word on patch 3 yet but I think most of the major problem have been at least partially addressed if not totally eliminated.
But it might mean I have a slight possibility of beating one of the dragon's someday. Except I don't have an ice staff, but I could improvise. Honestly I'd like to beat at least one dragon. Its not a matter of fun, Dragons are too poorly implemented to be "fun" fights, I would just like my (currently level 19) characters to be able to beat one of those a-holes
I've been doing pretty well so far on normal difficulty. At almost 80 hours into it, I haven't run into any huge problems, except for the stupid dragons. The dragon's are just over leveled and cheap. They're made to one shot you regardless of level. They weren't designed to be good fights, they were designed to be hard fights. Bioware succeeded in that regard, but that's not really a good goal to shoot for.
It would be more acceptable if they weren't just flying around in spots I want to go. If they need to be so hard they're practically broken, they should be in specific dungeons that are clearly marked and easy to skip without cutting off other side quests. I mean, its only a few quests that become unbeatable because of dragons, but traveling in DAI and seeing/hearing a dragon is a horrible feeling, because you know your fun in that area is done and you need to flee before they one shot you.
Uhm.. if you're level 19 (which means your companions should also be around that level) some of the dragons should be a cakewalk by then.
Especially the one in the Hinterlands, Crestwood and the one in the Western approach should be comparatively easy as they are in the level 12-14 range.
I recently dropped the one in Western Approach/ level 14 (which is a hassle since you need to complete a lengthy quest before it appears) with my group of level 17/18 heroes without even needing many healing potions or exploiting some imbalances such as the Knight Enchanter Blessed Blade combo.
So check your gear, craft some which is nearly always better than the ones you find (unless you make a lucky loot find) and invest some thought in your skill tree (you can always redo it with special amulets you can buy in your forge in Skyhold).
Tactics which almost always work is to get your party to the sides or back of the dragon and close to avoid its head attack which can one shot you. Pay attention to its attack patterns as they are "announced" before such as when the dragon lifts its fron leg indicating a powerful hit coming, it gives you 2-3 seconds to get away in which case the attack will not hit anything.
Use tactical view to position your people accordingly and then hack away until it's dead.
With maxed out gear, proper skill builds and goodd tactics you are also able to take on dragons on the same level though it will be a hard and long fight.
Eh, I'm not going to make a big production of a Dragon fight. I can only craft things that are ridiculously weaker than my current stuff, so that's out, and I'm certainly not re-assigning skill points, since every character already works how I want them too (at least as far as they can in the game). I've decided to not waste my time on them. Its poorly designed content, and DAI has too much stuff to do to waste time on something Bioware obviously didn't care about doing right.
The only problem is that I think there will be a dragon fight as part of the main game near the end, which will probably end up screwing me over if it acts like the wild dragons. Oh, well. I'll just have to trust that Bioware didn't break the main story near the end with an unbeatable dragon fight.
You do realize that people have already finished the game on top of beating several dragons so your arguments and line of reasoning is dubious at best.
I don't want to start a flame war so i'll just stop here. Have fun anyway.
I wasn't saying it was impossible to beat a dragon, just that they were designed badly, and made to be difficult instead of fun to fight. It is vaguely possible that if I leveled up as far as the game let me, spent about 30 hours finding materials for crafting and then 5 hours fighting a dragon that I could beat it, I just don't find that a very fun idea. Of course people have beat it, people beat badly made/stupid things all the time. Heck, there are people capable of spending hundreds of hours 100% completing games, no matter the quality. I'm just not that hardcore. I enjoy the game a lot, its generally great. I'm just going to stop thinking about the stupid dragons. I would have ignored them completely if Bioware hadn't used them to artificially limit exploration in parts of maps and make some side quests unbeatable.
^You seem to be under the misapprehension that the words "badly designed" mean "thing I can't do, or can't be bothered to learn how to do" and "stupid" means "thing I don't understand". I suggest you consult a dictionary mate.
I can assure you that from and objective, game mechanics stand-point, the dragon fights are quite well designed and balanced. It's just that this is a tactical RPG and you seem to be approaching it as if it were a hack & slash. It's got nothing to do with being "hardcore" you simply need to be willing to understand and apply the necessary strategy and tactics. If you don't want to do that, then you're playing the wrong game. Indeed, what you're saying is like listening to a person claiming that they like Tetris, but hate how everything moves downwards and that they're expected to make shapes fit together.
It's really not that hard. Hell, I practically stumbled on the dragon in the Exalted Plains and took it down first try, totally unprepared with precisely the wrong staff type equipped and without the appropriate elemental resistance tonic. And I am by no stretch of the imagination a "hardcore" gamer.
As for impeding exploration....they really don't. All of the High Dragon battlegrounds are located in isolated corners of their respective maps. No paths are blocked and no major items (save those dropped by the dragons themselves) are kept out of the player's reach. Mostly they're just enclosed areas with some destructible terrain.
^You seem to be under the misapprehension that the words "badly designed" mean "thing I can't do, or can't be bothered to learn how to do" and "stupid" means "thing I don't understand". I suggest you consult a dictionary mate.
I can assure you that from and objective, game mechanics stand-point, the dragon fights are quite well designed and balanced. It's just that this is a tactical RPG and you seem to be approaching it as if it were a hack & slash. It's got nothing to do with being "hardcore" you simply need to be willing to understand and apply the necessary strategy and tactics. If you don't want to do that, then you're playing the wrong game. Indeed, what you're saying is like listening to a person claiming that they like Tetris, but hate how everything moves downwards and that they're expected to make shapes fit together.
It's really not that hard. Hell, I practically stumbled on the dragon in the Exalted Plains and took it down first try, totally unprepared with precisely the wrong staff type equipped and without the appropriate elemental resistance tonic. And I am by no stretch of the imagination a "hardcore" gamer.
As for impeding exploration....they really don't. All of the High Dragon battlegrounds are located in isolated corners of their respective maps. No paths are blocked and no major items (save those dropped by the dragons themselves) are kept out of the player's reach. Mostly they're just enclosed areas with some destructible terrain.
I've been playing Dragon Age since the beginning. I've also played KOTOR, which was similar gameplay wise to DAO. I've barely played any "Hack and slash" games, so I'm definitely not approaching DAI as a "hack and slash". I love the gameplay of the series, and no other bosses or scenarios cause me such a huge amount of problems, so I can safely say it isn't that I'm playing the game wrong, or that don't understand the combat at least decently. I'm no master or anything, but I get by fine. Dragon's are over powered, over armored, and basically just attack with impunity. They're harder than the big dragon fight in DAO, and that was the main boss arch demon.
Also, the Dragons do screw up exploration. Specifically, they interfere with Cassandra's quest Unfinished Business, since one of the areas is in a heavily infested dragon area (specifically Emprise du Lion). Also, the one in one of the desert areas (The Hissing Wastes I think, but it might be one of the others) also seems to cut off side quests.
I actually did do something successfully that was Dragon related, though
I did the Taming the Dragon Quest, where I had to beat up a dragon to, well, tame it. But, this dragon didn't just stay in the air flying, and I only had to take it to half health. It was still really tough, but it wasn't designed like the BS dragon fights in the open areas, probably because they realised this one had to be beatable or people could get stuck in the main story quest
But, that was something designed as a (possible, depending on your choices) main quest, so they obviously reigned in the fight. hopefully, if there is another main story dragon fight (and I'm pretty sure there will be) it will be designed like this one.
Anyway, the dragon talk is probably pointless. I'm a huge Bioware fan, but Dragons are the biggest misstep in this game in my opinion. They should just have left dragons out altogether (except for a few main story fights) if this was the way they were going to design the fights. I'll continue loving the game, I just hate this horrible part of it.
I'm only maybe 5-6 hours in (Dragon Age was a Christmas present) and I've gotten totally sidetracked by all the stuff to do in the Hinterlands. I've pretty much abandoned the Inquisition at this point so I can find missing cows and give some dude's mom an inhaler.
I'm only maybe 5-6 hours in (Dragon Age was a Christmas present) and I've gotten totally sidetracked by all the stuff to do in the Hinterlands. I've pretty much abandoned the Inquisition at this point so I can find missing cows and give some dude's mom an inhaler.
The ending was kind of anti climatic. No awesome battle where all my friends are involved in some way (like DAO, ME2, etc). At the end, the companions that didn't go directly into battle just kind of wander up after the fight. I got mostly good things in Morrigan's ending narration, although Divine Leliana is a bit extreme.
Solas's identity was interesting, and it kind of explains his disdain for the dalish. Learning more about Flemeth was interesting. My inquisitor drank from the pool, so I'm the one connected with the elven goddess, not Morrigan, which I think was a good choice.
I have a lot of sidequests, and I'll probably do ones that sound interesting. Overall, DAI was a great game, although the ending was just kind of average (which still makes it 1000x better than ME3's original ending). The companions were pretty good, although I think DAO and DA2 had better companions overall. My favorite companion was either Varric or Cassandra. My least favorite was Sera. The main story had a lot of cool moments, and overall was very good. I just wish the ending had been more exciting.
I'm only maybe 5-6 hours in (Dragon Age was a Christmas present) and I've gotten totally sidetracked by all the stuff to do in the Hinterlands. I've pretty much abandoned the Inquisition at this point so I can find missing cows and give some dude's mom an inhaler.
Really you'll want to be getting out of the Hinterlands ASAP as you don't want to end up getting too over levelled. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of opportunity to come back later. Go check out the Storm Coast and the Fallow Mire and you should be OK to move the main story on a bit.
On my second playthough now and initially, I just took out the mage & Templar encampments, did the horsemaster quest and then just made a beeline for Redcliffe. Came back at around level 11-12 to mop up what's left and slay the dragon.
My advice re: the Hinterlands is to go do Val Royeaux ASAP, then recruit the four companions that become available following it, then continue Hinterlands questing. Otherwise you'll be running around with Cass, Varric, and Solas for ages. Better to have options!
My advice re: the Hinterlands is to go do Val Royeaux ASAP, then recruit the four companions that become available following it, then continue Hinterlands questing. Otherwise you'll be running around with Cass, Varric, and Solas for ages. Better to have options!
I've recruited everyone now (Done Haven and Adamant) but still got a few of the sidequests to do in order to build up more power.
I'm usually using my mage, Cass, Varric and whoever seems useful for the particular quest in the final slot.
The Mark of the Rift seems completely overpowered but it gets rid of the mobs.
One of my quests seems to have screwed up (The Solas All New/Faded one) as nothing happens when I get to the site.
I also seem to have lost Cullen at Skyhold
I haven't faced off a Dragon yet because they keep disappearing but I've taken down a couple of dragons.
I'm also not using the mounts so much. The official reason is that you miss out on banter. (The unofficial reason is that I haven't quite got the hang of using them yet)
What do you mean you lost Cullen? Did you piss him off so much that he left?
Didn't think that was possible.
I have just finished the main story and for the last 2-3 Story missions i just blew through in 2 hours or so (i was overleveled at 21 with very good gear so most of the time the fights were not very challenging, not even the final fight).
I know the game has tons of interactions but to get it all i would probably still be playing and doing sidequests (stopped in the Hissing Wastes midway through as i wanted to get it over with).
I have played a human twohanded Reaver Warrior and before the last storymissions i rebuilt the skill tree to focus on the Reaver abilities and the damage output was insane (even with normal attacks i was pushing 1000 points of damage per hit, with special abilities over 2000 was happening quite often).
Group wise i stuck with Cassandra (also my love interest), Varric and Vivienne.. the banter between Varric and the ladies was sometimes hilarious.
The game is still awesome even though i feel the end was a bit of a let down, i.e. a little bit anticlimactic but it wrapped it up nice and sets up the next game or the next big DLC nicely (though i knew something would come even as the last cutscene was rolling after the final fight).
I'll give the game a good rest now after 80+ hours i sunk into it.. maybe i'll try to get all the dragons (there's 3 left in Emprise de Lion on top of the others i didn't bother with yet) and finish most of the sidequests (except for the huge one with the shards, i read that you need to have all the shards in all the areas to be able to do it fully, too much for me).
Occasionally, there's a bug where certain people just vanish from their location and from the map at Skyhold.
After the first reload, Bull went missing as well, but after a few attempts, they've now come back. There's a few mentions of it on the Bioware forum. Apparently, it can also hit Blackwall
(For head-canon purposes, Iron Bull went off to talk about getting Qunari support as that's the first conversation we had when he the reload got hum back and Cullen was begging for his clothes back from Jo after the Wicked Grace game )
^Watch out for that Cullen bug. Sometimes it's just a case of him not loading properly (easily fixed with a reload, or leaving & returning) but sometimes he can be permanently lost.
What's supposed to happen is that at a certain point, you'll go to his room and there'll instead be a messenger waiting and talking to them triggers a cutscene. However, if you do Sera's "pranks" quest while that messengers is in the room, it can cause a bug whereby when to come to talk to the messenger, the NPC interact icon won't come up and Cullen is effectively gone.
Not to spoil nything but that can be a significant problem later on since there's a fairly important quest that has to eb turned into Cullen to progress. The only way around it is to reload to before Sera's quest, so as a precaution, it's always advisable to go visit Cullen before Sera.
I'm also not using the mounts so much. The official reason is that you miss out on banter. (The unofficial reason is that I haven't quite got the hang of using them yet)
The only place I found mounts to be useful was the Hissing Wastes, as there are huge stretches of open nothingness there that you pretty much have to mount up to get from place to place.
I've set aside my dual wield dwarf for the time being, don't know when or if I'll come back to her. Reason being, melee combat is tedious and annoying as fuck on a rogue. Can't tell you how many times I've tried doing a flank attack on something, only to watch as the dwarf flies past the target and miss them completely. Or try to do a twin fangs attack and missing them by 5 inches because shit's constantly running around the battlefield.
So for now I'm currently replaying DA2 with a mage, the only class I haven't done a complete playthrough on.
I applaud you guys for being able to tackle such huge games (not just Dragon Age but any 50+ hours games like Skyrim, Mass Effect, GTA etc) again and again.
I don't think i'll be touching Dragon Age for quite a while now and then only to tie up some loose ends.
