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A little late to the party since it's been out a while but I just picked up Dragon age ultimate edition this weekend, so far it's been hella fun. I wanna play through it then get the sequel later. But right now I'm kinda stuck on ...

Necros wrote:A little late to the party since it's been out a while but I just picked up Dragon age ultimate edition this weekend, so far it's been hella fun. I wanna play through it then get the sequel later. But right now I'm kinda stuck on ...

Spoiler:

the part where you gotta kill the french girl's bard master lady in Denerim. I saved right before the fight, kinda annoying because you gotta sit through 5 minutes of dialogue before you start fighting, then everyone just ends up dead :( anyone know a good way to get through the fight? My party right now is the 2 girls, and the big grumpy warrior guy. I've tried it with my dog but it's still just as tough. I don't use alistair that much, cuz he's a whiney baby. And I have that elf assassin guy, but never used him. Everyone is level 8 or 9. My main guy is a warrior/templar and I specced him to use shields so he can bash stuff around and stun them but it hasn't helped much in this fight, between the tough boss and the mages in the other rooms I get my butt kicked pretty quick. Should I skip it and run around and try to get everyone another level or 2?

I had trouble with this part myself. I think I was using the taunt special move or something. Basically it made everything attack my characters. Since I was the tough character it made it hard when I died and the others couldn't handle it their self. Check and see if your character is using that ability. Sometimes having your character swarmed isn't a good idea.

Make sure you have plenty of potions too. If you have to, visit the elves in the forest and get plenty of the root that you need to make potions and then get flasks from the guy in your camp. Set your tactics so the characters use a potion if the are less than 75% health.

I started speccing leleana as more of a rogue so should I have her try and disable the traps? I tried taking her over and doing it myself but that didn't work well.. there was too much going on to see what I was doing. but maybe I can set her to automatically disable traps? then maybe we can take out the mages and that will be a big help.

I have a bunch of potions, I actually rarely use them.. didn't think about automatically using them. I also had the mean mage lady learn the first heal spell and set her to heal people that get below 50%, and that helps but she can't keep up when there's tons of enemies swarming us. I'm a little low on cash at the moment since I just bought an overly expensive mage robe.

I never bothered learning potion making or anything like that though, I always specced my party with more combat related things.

This is the first fight that's really given me a lot of trouble. Most of the time worst case is 1 guy might go down, usually me because of taunt seems like even if I turn it off, it decides to turn itself back on. I also keep ice weapon on and the bard song of valor or something like that. After about the 5th try I really got sick of hearing the story again and again before the fight. I wish we could just jump right into it. Maybe I can try and save the game the second we start fighting if it will let me.

Sounds like all you need is to tweak the potion thing then.

They are expensive but the components are not. Basic potion making should be available to morrigan. The flask is from the dwarf at the camp and the root is with the elves. Just make you about a 100 of them and set your guys to automatically use the potion if their health drops below 75%. You may have to adjust that number based on how fast you are being killed.

If you have the potions then all you need to do is set up the tactics to use them. This should help you out a lot.

I killed her dead. Did the potion thing and also ran back into the front room when the fight started and all her minions came at me 1 at a time, so it ended up being pretty easy this time around.

Now I'm stuck on some blood mage quest in Denerim, I managed to crawl my way to the end mostly by pulling bad guys to previous rooms to kill em, but now I'm at the end where the leader and his buddies blow the crap outta me. I can't pull to another room because the cutsceene makes everyone start in his room, and if I try to run back outside everyone else stays inside and fights and dies. Might have to ditch this one and come back when we're tougher.

Normally if you keep restarting and get lucky with the micro you will eventually get the AI to mess up and hand you a win. They'll come at you one at a time or stop and give you enough room to rest. Bit of a cheap win but preferable to boring grinding for the sake of it. Keep trying!

Necros wrote:I killed her dead. Did the potion thing and also ran back into the front room when the fight started and all her minions came at me 1 at a time, so it ended up being pretty easy this time around.

Now I'm stuck on some blood mage quest in Denerim, I managed to crawl my way to the end mostly by pulling bad guys to previous rooms to kill em, but now I'm at the end where the leader and his buddies blow the crap outta me. I can't pull to another room because the cutsceene makes everyone start in his room, and if I try to run back outside everyone else stays inside and fights and dies. Might have to ditch this one and come back when we're tougher.

How much are you trying to control the fight via stuns, lockdowns and the like?

DA:O becomes so much easier when you focus on controlling the fight, using spells like Crushing Prison, Force Field, Glyph of Paralysis etc to lockdown powerful enemies, especially mages, before they can cast, and allowing you to kill them before they do damage.

Likewise, warrior and rogue abilities like Shattering Shot (It has a knockdown component that's rather useful), Shield Bash, Dirty Fighting can also be used to gain a moment of no damage, which you can use to kill or gain a better position, although they aren't as easy to get up quickly at a range as the spells are.

Well my main guy uses a shield, and I have my 3 buttons set up for sheild bash, then the 2 hit stun, then the 3 hit knockdown. Leelana has cheap shot, but I try to use her as more of an archer. If I bring my dog, he can howl and stun everyone and morrigan can freeze stuff, she can also do cone of cold but she usually hits my own members with it. If I bring Bren instead of the dog, he can knock down stuff with his 2H sword skill. He does a lot of damage, but I don't have the greatest armor and can't afford it :(

But I think my problem is, everyone seems to be attacking random targets, and in big fights where you get jumped like this blood mage one, there's just no time to switch to each character and pick a specific target or action or whatever. By the time I tell what the 2nd person in my group has to do, everyone else is dead.

I haven't really dug into the tactics thing but I also didn't pick really any good crowd control skills on previous levels and now that I know I need them, I gotta go get 3 or 4 levels for everyone to get all the skills and spells I want. Is there anyway to re-spec your talents and skills? It's kind of a pain, it seems like I have to redo my tactics for every member before every battle and I don't know what half the skills are because I have to back out of the tactics screen to look them up, then go back and lose my place and start over...


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Oh and, yeah there were a few times where I was able to pull just 1 or 2 guys. I thought of it like a MMO, getting agro on a few so you can clear a big room easier. I'd order the party to stay behind, set up lelana and morrigan to shoot stuff from the back, and then run the guy I pulled right in front of my other tank. It worked well for the most part.

I don't want it to be a cakewalk but it just gets real discouraging when you get your butt kicked so quick, over and over. It just makes me think I need to come back in a few levels but it's taking longer and longer to level now too.

Necros wrote:Well my main guy uses a shield, and I have my 3 buttons set up for sheild bash, then the 2 hit stun, then the 3 hit knockdown. Leelana has cheap shot, but I try to use her as more of an archer. If I bring my dog, he can howl and stun everyone and morrigan can freeze stuff, she can also do cone of cold but she usually hits my own members with it. If I bring Bren instead of the dog, he can knock down stuff with his 2H sword skill. He does a lot of damage, but I don't have the greatest armor and can't afford it :(

But I think my problem is, everyone seems to be attacking random targets, and in big fights where you get jumped like this blood mage one, there's just no time to switch to each character and pick a specific target or action or whatever. By the time I tell what the 2nd person in my group has to do, everyone else is dead.

I haven't really dug into the tactics thing but I also didn't pick really any good crowd control skills on previous levels and now that I know I need them, I gotta go get 3 or 4 levels for everyone to get all the skills and spells I want. Is there anyway to re-spec your talents and skills? It's kind of a pain, it seems like I have to redo my tactics for every member before every battle and I don't know what half the skills are because I have to back out of the tactics screen to look them up, then go back and lose my place and start over...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and, yeah there were a few times where I was able to pull just 1 or 2 guys. I thought of it like a MMO, getting agro on a few so you can clear a big room easier. I'd order the party to stay behind, set up lelana and morrigan to shoot stuff from the back, and then run the guy I pulled right in front of my other tank. It worked well for the most part.

I don't want it to be a cakewalk but it just gets real discouraging when you get your butt kicked so quick, over and over. It just makes me think I need to come back in a few levels but it's taking longer and longer to level now too.

/chuckle

Take the time to pause my friend. Hit that spacebar key, issue your orders, then watch your group fulfill them. Then, as you need to, continue to pause and issue orders. DA:O isn't designed to be playable as an action RPG (They changed this in the sequel), but rather as a turn by turn strategic game. You shouldn't be needing to change tactics, if you control them for most part, and give them tactics like 'Drink Health potion here' to help you out, you'll do far better. There is no way to re-spec, but unless you've made truly terrible decisions (And even then you can get around it), you don't truly need to.

This also allows you to aim your Cone of Cold better . Follow it up with something that forces a crit, and watch your foes fall.

I'm on a PS3, is spacebar the bit circle menu? seems all that's good for is casting a spell or drinking a pit. maybe I missed something, about all it seems I can do is switch and take over a different character and then go attack something with them. I have the whole group set to drink a health pot at 50% health as their first action though, and then their other attacks after.

Necros wrote:.....but never used him. Everyone is level 8 or 9. My main guy is a warrior/templar a.....

There is your problem. Do other quests first. Fix the Dalish wolf problems, clear Arl Howes village and castle of the undead, and get the main character's boosts from the Fade.

Necros wrote:I'm on a PS3, is spacebar the bit circle menu? seems all that's good for is casting a spell or drinking a pit. maybe I missed something, about all it seems I can do is switch and take over a different character and then go attack something with them. I have the whole group set to drink a health pot at 50% health as their first action though, and then their other attacks after.

I think it's the left trigger button on the PS3, bringing up the radial menu. Certainly not as good as the PC version, where you can simply pause the game so you can look at what you want to do.

Can also change it to toggle it on and off instead of having to hold it in the options.

Had to look it up .

OK I'll experiment some more, but I think for this fight anyway I'm gonna need to go and get some more levels & gear and figure out how to start making my own health potions cuz I'm running out a lot. I buy up all that I can find too and that's not enough.

I also taught morrigan the level 1 heal spell and it works ok but the cooldown kinda sucks. I read there's some healer character I can find so I might have to add them, then I'll have me as the tank, then a rogue, mage and healer and that should be well rounded enough.

The game gets a lot easier when you have a mage with group heal in your party.

I kept the Dog in my party and set his tactics to use his knockdown attack on any mages as a #1 priority. Helps knock enemy magic out of the fight.

You can change the setting so that you do not have to HOLD the trigger to pause. I really recommend that.

While paused you can select everyone and have them attack one target. Once that is started, you can pause again and set up particulars.

Focus fire helps, especially in close-quarters fights like that one.

(Also, do not start by killing the warriors. They take longer.)

yeah I have it set to stay open. I just never thought of that as setting up tactics, I figured it was just for casting some spells and using items here and there on the fly

my last save I had the dog with me so when I go back I'll try and set him to jump the regular mage and Leilana and Morrigan will shoot him, and I'll make a beeline for the big mage and start bashing. Hopefully with my taunt on the warriors will go after me too and not the ladies.

I've mostly been playing it like action fights instead of being more tactical, didn't even know thats how it was supposed to be

Necros wrote:I've mostly been playing it like action fights instead of being more tactical, didn't even know thats how it was supposed to be

It is supposed to be both. Or either, depending on how you read it.

Use it all!

Am I at all close to picking up Wynn? I read she's in some mage circle tower quest but none of that sounds familiar at all. Or should I just start speccing Morrigan as my healer?

I think if I could get some good healing going a lot of the tough fights will get much easier.. but right now morrigan just has the 1 heal spell and is usually burning her mana on nukes and freezing people. I never bothered getting into her shape change stuff...

Necros wrote:Am I at all close to picking up Wynn? I read she's in some mage circle tower quest but none of that sounds familiar at all. Or should I just start speccing Morrigan as my healer?

I think if I could get some good healing going a lot of the tough fights will get much easier.. but right now morrigan just has the 1 heal spell and is usually burning her mana on nukes and freezing people. I never bothered getting into her shape change stuff...

Don't bother with the shifting. It's pretty useless, and she's unable to cast while in animal forms.

Wynne is right at the start of the Circle quest when you go seek their aid via treaty. You'll get her within the first 5-10 minutes if that. Recommend you don't take Morrigan when you go in there though, tis rather easy to pick a wrong choice trying to make Morrigan happy and have to fight and kill her instead.

VenerableBrotherPelinore wrote:Wynne is right at the start of the Circle quest, when you go seek their aid via treaty. You'll get her within the first 5-10 minutes, if that. Recommend you don't take Morrigan when you go in there though, tis rather easy to pick a wrong choice trying to make Morrigan happy, and have to fight and kill her instead.

The time-frame on that is not the whole story though, it will take you maybe 10min to get her in your party, but it will take significantly longer before you can get her help with anything else; do not think you can just run over there and get her to help you with other quests.

Not too bad, but just in case:

Ah, so I guess I have a ways to go since I'm still on my first treaty getting the urn thingy for Radcliffe. I guess I'll just leave Morrigan home at home then when the time comes.. but once she does join everything will be ok then? I'm worried my party members are gonna start hitting each other, they're always arguing about stuff... would be kinda cool if that could happen, not that I want it to

tactics didn't help much with those blood mages.. just a tough fight. I decided to ditch it, and I left and went to the wood elves and did that whole werewolf storyline.. wasn't too tough so I think I may have just gone to Denerim a little too early. but, once my main guy leveled I was able to finally crank his str up high enough to wear the blood dragon armor I got, and now he's a real tank.. stuff is got a lot easier as soon as I did that. I think for now I'll keep it with me and Sten as the tanks, leilana as the rogue and morrigan as more of a healer & crowd control. seems to be working well now but I guess we'll see how it goes later.

One thing that's bugging me though, is I would rather Leilana just shoots stuff with her bow. I have her tactics set up for all archery skills.. but every fight she switched back to her sword. I have the bow as her 2nd weapon config.. should I just unequip the sword and make the bow her only weapon or will she start punching stuff then? Or should I just ditch the bows and just let her swing at stuff since thats what she wants to do anyway?

Necros wrote:One thing that's bugging me though, is I would rather Leilana just shoots stuff with her bow. I have her tactics set up for all archery skills.. but every fight she switched back to her sword. I have the bow as her 2nd weapon config.. should I just unequip the sword and make the bow her only weapon or will she start punching stuff then? Or should I just ditch the bows and just let her swing at stuff since thats what she wants to do anyway?

Change her to "Archer" or "Ranged" or somesuch, instead of the default. I cannot recall the actual name, but it is not ONLY a matter of setting the tactics, but also the option right . . . above(?) that.

I think it is "Behavior" that needs to be set to "Ranged".

ohhh... I didn't think that meant anything.. I figured that was just so you could have a bunch of different sets and names for things. guess that makes sense

She does do good damage with the sword I gave her, I'd just rather the weaker ones hung back and did ranged stuff and let the tanks take care of getting hit.

I wish I could also set her to automatically sneak around and disarm traps that get discovered, can't seem to find any settings for that.

Necros wrote:I wish I could also set her to automatically sneak around and disarm traps that get discovered, can't seem to find any settings for that.

That you need to do manually, it is not just you.

bah.. maybe they'll fix that in the sequel. Gonna be a while till I get to that though, I wanna play through all the expansions and stuff before I move on. I'm like 12 hours in so far and I think I have way way more to go...