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 Psienesis wrote:
You can also build weapons, for anyone of any non-mage class, that adds points of Guard per hit. This works out well for a two-hander, as you still get the damage mitigation and such, on top of any Barriers your mage is casting, and the AOE damage that two-handers offer.

Y'know I was wondering about that, I haven't seen any +to guard per hit weapons or anything, but how I have my skills set up I tend to spam Whirlwind (the skill is so damn cool too) so if I had something that added guard per kill or hit that would be INSANE.

I'm tempted to start a second playthrough already as a mage or a rogue, given the videos I've seen online of both classes basically kicking wholesale ass with minimal effort, but I'm determined to finish this one first, despite 2h being a rather difficult path.

Also, BARRIER. BARRIER. BARRIER. The demons that have that fething frost beam? Yeah, feth those guys. Chain pull+stun+mighty blow. 2k damage, suck it you little bastards.

My Inq is a Rogue, so I built a pair of daggers that adds 2 points of Guard per hit, and heals me for 16% of my total HP per kill. I'm nigh-immortal.

Did anyone else have corypheus bug out so that he just stands there while your fully ranged party just nukes him?

I did. Then ruined his dragon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frankenberry wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
You can also build weapons, for anyone of any non-mage class, that adds points of Guard per hit. This works out well for a two-hander, as you still get the damage mitigation and such, on top of any Barriers your mage is casting, and the AOE damage that two-handers offer.

Y'know I was wondering about that, I haven't seen any +to guard per hit weapons or anything, but how I have my skills set up I tend to spam Whirlwind (the skill is so damn cool too) so if I had something that added guard per kill or hit that would be INSANE.

I'm tempted to start a second playthrough already as a mage or a rogue, given the videos I've seen online of both classes basically kicking wholesale ass with minimal effort, but I'm determined to finish this one first, despite 2h being a rather difficult path.

Also, BARRIER. BARRIER. BARRIER. The demons that have that fething frost beam? Yeah, feth those guys. Chain pull+stun+mighty blow. 2k damage, suck it you little bastards.

Mage sucks in the early game. Most staffs have a low dos and you have no cool spells. I'm currently debating going fire/ice KE for maximum obnoxiousness.

 thedarkavenger wrote:
Did anyone else have corypheus bug out so that he just stands there while your fully ranged party just nukes him?

I did. Then ruined his dragon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frankenberry wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
You can also build weapons, for anyone of any non-mage class, that adds points of Guard per hit. This works out well for a two-hander, as you still get the damage mitigation and such, on top of any Barriers your mage is casting, and the AOE damage that two-handers offer.

Y'know I was wondering about that, I haven't seen any +to guard per hit weapons or anything, but how I have my skills set up I tend to spam Whirlwind (the skill is so damn cool too) so if I had something that added guard per kill or hit that would be INSANE.

I'm tempted to start a second playthrough already as a mage or a rogue, given the videos I've seen online of both classes basically kicking wholesale ass with minimal effort, but I'm determined to finish this one first, despite 2h being a rather difficult path.

Also, BARRIER. BARRIER. BARRIER. The demons that have that fething frost beam? Yeah, feth those guys. Chain pull+stun+mighty blow. 2k damage, suck it you little bastards.

Mage sucks in the early game. Most staffs have a low dos and you have no cool spells. I'm currently debating going fire/ice KE for maximum obnoxiousness.

Good, I prefer playing a mage from rags to riches in the way that old school RPGs did it; basically an apprentice with NO idea of what's going on that eventually solo's dragons and demon lords.

Anyhow, I was wondering if it's possible to go as far as you can into the AOE skills the mage has and supplement it with JoB's that are upgraded, basically guaranteed panic and mass element damage over time to a pretty decent radius.

On crafting, I'm aiming to make a masterwork item and I'm seeing the x% to turn into masterwork and then there's things that don't have a percentage, just an inherent bonus. The ones without a percentage didn't craft into masterwork weapons...so I'm guess there's still a % I'm not seeing. My question is, if there a point where you can reliably make masterwork gear? Or is it going to be a 'get massive stockpiles of mats and then just spam until profit'?

so whats the best masterwork armour and ... where it be please

I just got some Masterwork Battlemaster Armour for Cassandra. Item level 19, 264 armour value.

I also just got some Masterwork Prowler Armour for Sera, Item level 19, 238 armour.

All it took was killing a level 19 and then a level 21 dragon!

Best MW armor is stuff you build with Dagna's assistance. I go dragon-hunting specifically for the ultra-rare components to make MW items.

I went to the end-game (level 25ish or so) with my entire party kitted in MW stuff I had built myself, at level 19 or so, save a bow that I found for Sera that fired 3 shots with every pull, simply because I couldn't duplicate that effect (though I could build items that, situationally, provided superior DPS, but that bow was simply too good in most situations to bother swapping out).

Also, there's "Masterwork" and then there's "Masterwork". Some recipes will automatically create an MW item, regardless of what you put into it, and then there's things like dragon fangs which offer a percentage chance to create a MW item (which features a +10% bonus to all the stats on the item). I found that recipes that make MW items, adding in components that added whatever proc or effect I wanted, worked best. When I built sets of dragon-killing items (all the resists I could stack, +Guard and Supremed Dragon-slayer Runes), I found myself able to take on High Dragons 3-5 levels higher than my party without losing everyone (often losing no one during the fight, using Healing Mist bombs and the AOE effects of well-researched healing tonics).

Well, I've found the level 23 dragon. I'm currently level 22, with the rest of my party being level 21.

As I'm playing the game on hard mode... I might let that one sleep a while then come back to it. So, I'm off to the Hissing Wastes now, to find the last remaining normal dragon I have to kill.

I'm trying to avoid visiting the Arbor Wilds, just in case it locks me in for a while.

I still have about half of Emprise Du lyons and the entirety of the Hissing Wastes to do.

*Is a bit of a completionist*

thanks guys, im aboot 20 hours in now and not sure what to do next, im now hunting the grey wardens, any sugestions on where to go after?

What level are you?

16 at the mo

 Formosa wrote:
16 at the mo

Go Emprise de Lion, had a lot of fun there myself.

I would have thought Emprise De Lion would be a bit too tough for level 16. Incidentally, I just killed my last dragon. I probably would have been stuffed though, if I wasn't playing a knight enchanter, she was a difficult one to beat. Surprisingly... Noone in Skyhold seemed to give a monkeys about me killing my 10th dragon. There wasn't even any comments after the fight either. I'm a little disappointed.

I've just got the Hissing Wastes to do of the wilderness areas (Assuming the Arbor Wilds isn't a wilderness area). The Hissing Wastes seem incredibly boring :(

The best armor schematics in the game (IMO) are the rare ones sold by the dog vendor in the Hissing Wastes if you've got the Short List perk (it adds rare stuff to all merchants). It's a pain in the arse to farm for though, as you have to exit and enter your save every time the wrong item spawns for sale.

For a Knight Enchanter, Fade-Touched Silverite (5 guard on hit) seems rather broken, with my already significant barrier generation normally preventing me from even taking damage, having guard on top of that is beyond stupid and firmly in the realm of "It does WHAT? COOL!".

Yeah, I think it's been agreed pretty much unanimously that Knight Enchanter is a fair bit broken in general.

Even if I wasn't nigh immortal already, I'm doing pretty silly damage going invisible, then reappearing inside someone and spirit blading. - I think it's 2000+. And I can do it pretty much constantly too. I gave some fade touched obsidian/silverite to Sera, who has Flask of Lightning as a preferred ability. Now THAT's pretty damn scary. Her bow becomes a machine gun quite regularly, giving her full guard. - She's not squishy anymore!

And that's the Hissing Wastes done - Except for 2 flipping notes pages. - I'll probably google to find them later on. Seriously though, what a massive waste of a tame that was. No real storyline for the quests, no named badguys that I saw, ages and ages riding to get now-where (It could have been done with being shrunk by 15%). And all of it for a rune schematic that I'm not going to use. In all that free space as well, there wasn't even a keep.

- If you're looking for areas to skip out. Pick that one, it's literally the worst one of the lot.

I'm lvl 18, Sword and Board Dwarf.

I've been trying to go slowly on the story, since I don't want to get to the end before i've explored everything else. I've completed the Ball/Assassination Plot thingy, killed a couple dragons, captured a couple keeps.

Biggest thing I'm focussing on right now is gathering shards up, so I can clear the temple in the Oasis. I think I'm down to the last door of the three elements.

Ran through a playthrough in Nightmare with a Qunari mage and now back to my human rogue to catch all the quests and side stuff (normal difficulty).

While cool, the 2-handed warrior route is not as fun as I though it would be. While it's definitely a mixture of DA:O and DA2 (squishiness and absurd violence) I'm not sure I'm playing him right. I went Reaver when I could and did most of the right side of the 2-handed tree with a few Battlemaster bits.

He still dies like a bitch though. Perhaps I need to find better gear, but I figured at 19 he'd be the powerhouse everyone else in my party is, but he's not. /shrug

Started a Qunari bow rogue and I'm having a stupid amount of fun. The amount of damage I can do before the enemy even knows a fight has started is just silly. I can't wait to get a specialization and see what happens.

Yeah bow rogues are awesomely fun. Assassin is supposed to make it wrong.

 Frankenberry wrote:
While cool, the 2-handed warrior route is not as fun as I though it would be. While it's definitely a mixture of DA:O and DA2 (squishiness and absurd violence) I'm not sure I'm playing him right. I went Reaver when I could and did most of the right side of the 2-handed tree with a few Battlemaster bits.

He still dies like a bitch though. Perhaps I need to find better gear, but I figured at 19 he'd be the powerhouse everyone else in my party is, but he's not. /shrug

Started a Qunari bow rogue and I'm having a stupid amount of fun. The amount of damage I can do before the enemy even knows a fight has started is just silly. I can't wait to get a specialization and see what happens.

You need to get some gear with the +guard masterworks and/or a specialist barrier mage or some +guard abilities for two hand to be viable. They can do ridiculous damage if they stay up. Adding in some gear with Berserk is awesome once you have some +guard gear.

Blackwall's now doing something in the region of 2000 to 3600 odd damage with each hit now at level 23 with the Sulevin blade. It's rather impressive. He seems to be staying alive ok too, I've equipped him with the Superb belt of healing and the Superb Ring of Life Steal (I'm not even sure if they work together to be honest). However, by spending 1 point in 'challenge' it seems to do well enough by building up guard to keep him alive.

 pretre wrote:
Yeah bow rogues are awesomely fun. Assassin is supposed to make it wrong.

I'm running the assassination/stealth abuse rogue.

Good fun.

I lunge, set stealth, do twin fangs for obscene damage.

Trigger stealth again, use the assassin thrown dagger ability for obscene damage. (Killing the enemy, which resets stealth.)

Lunge, trigger stealth again, twin fangs for more damage.

Trigger stealth, and backstab.

My first Rogue went Assassin and, yes, they are stupidly deadly. My 2nd character is a 2-hander fighter, but since I know how to build +Guard items, plus I know there will be rings that grant a +10% (or higher) bonus to War Cry (which grants Guard)... well, we'll see how that goes.

The sword-and-board build for fighters, though, is the true tank class. I've watched Cassandra and Blackwall stand through just stupid amounts of combat, against stupid-nasty foes, without even needing a heal tonic, let alone a potion.

 Psienesis wrote:
My first Rogue went Assassin and, yes, they are stupidly deadly. My 2nd character is a 2-hander fighter, but since I know how to build +Guard items, plus I know there will be rings that grant a +10% (or higher) bonus to War Cry (which grants Guard)... well, we'll see how that goes.

The sword-and-board build for fighters, though, is the true tank class. I've watched Cassandra and Blackwall stand through just stupid amounts of combat, against stupid-nasty foes, without even needing a heal tonic, let alone a potion.

I've found that after getting to 24 and completing the game with a 2-hander Reaver, +guard items are a MUST if you want to survive. I'm not sure War Cry will help, but I did Charging Bull with the +25% total guard passive coupled with some fade-touched silverite and my character wouldn't die. The speed in which I built guard, was able to spam Dragon's Rage and subsequently Devour made most fights a joke.

Same here with Cassandra, before I'd even gotten her specialization she would simply ignore most damage. Hell, I was 3 levels below the Storm Coast dragon and she soloed it after my party died, it was nuts. I'd like to make a s/s toon, but after having run a warrior already, I want something different - hence my rogue.

Speaking of rogues, as a bow-user should I stack armor pen or stagger? I figure I'll add +guard to an armor at some point but I figure in the mean time I should be doing more damage.

I can't say I've ever really felt the need to go into the mega detail of 'should I have +% bleed, +stagger, +% armour penetration, or +% Critical chance/damage.'

Generally speaking, I just go for the same things other things have.

Question to mages: How can you bear to play the opening? I'm trying to run a mage and it's just so boring pre-spec.

 pretre wrote:
Ran through a playthrough in Nightmare with a Qunari mage and now back to my human rogue to catch all the quests and side stuff (normal difficulty).

Strangely enough my normal was Human Rogue and my Nightmare was Qunari Mage. Don't suppose you have a hard run with Dwarf Warrior by chance?

lol nope. Not yet at least. I think, if I play a third time, it'll be a Warrior though. Was Dwarf interesting?

 thedarkavenger wrote:
Question to mages: How can you bear to play the opening? I'm trying to run a mage and it's just so boring pre-spec.

Mostly by giggling like a schoolboy whenever I use chain lightning. Zappity, zappp zapppp zappity zap. I was a combined Spirit / Lightning mage, so early on a lot of the things I was doing was based around positioning myself to be in the right spot to put barriers on for most of my team.

Gaspard's the man.