Dragon Ages: Origins

I decided to actually buy the game and It's the best purchase I've made since VF5. I expect to put many hours into this game. It's like playing a MMORPS but w/o all the bull crap.

 

I'm stuck fighting that thing on Nightmare difficulty.

I will take the advice on using the tactics from here though. I haven't used them much and I should have.

Thanks!

 

Using a rogue...I think I'll try again tonight

 

I have to get it then. This is all I need to hear...

*flies to GameStop ASAP*

 

Some fights are difficult, but the game is awesome. Having played 25 hours so far I can say that it's worth the money. Definitely something I'm gonna go through more than once.

 

In the Ogre fight, if your PC is non-mage, the NPC mage *might* have access to Paralysis spell ...

Most of the bosses have a good chance of shrugging off most disabling spell effect, BUT, if you manage to get the Paralysis spell to work, it goes without saying you get some cheap hits in. One of my other characters had the mage score with Paralysis right at the start - the ogre got wacked down by 1/3 before he struggled free.

 

So what do I do with a rogue lol

 

I'm guessing the same thing as a warrior. Pelt it with arrows from a distance if you have a bow. Run when it gets near and fire from a distance. Just run and fire and heal when necessary.

You might also want to switch to the mage at the start to see what he has. Anything like Paralysis or Winter's Grasp or Cone of Cold is a good opening move. You can immobilise the ogre with those for some free hits.

Also, try and get it's attention. I forget if rogues get an attract special like warriors do, but if the ogre is concentrating on you, keep running around while Alistair and the mage smack it's head in. If you don't have a bow, then do the same, with dual weapons. You'll kill it eventually.

By the way, Rogues get a really powerful bow skill later on called Arrow of Slaying. Probably the most powerful move in the entire game.

 

Bah, I never bothered with Archer talents on my Rogue now I start hearing of how kickass Arrow of Slaying is. :< Next time I guess.

 

Just like ppl said cast offensive spells with the mage, use lesser "mana potions" (I always forget the actual name), don't waste the normal one though, not worth it.

For me I remember the Ogre just kept chasing the mage, so I kept running away while the rest of the cast kept cracking the enemy's skull. Other than that Alistair should be able to have threaten stance by now (lol, Jeff ) so he can attract Ogre's attention when hitting him.

 

This game seems very cool so far. A LOT of the system seems based on the real rules of D&D. I love D&D btw. I also like the Ultima inspired inventy screen. How or when do you get to use the golem you download with the code they give you along with the retail version? I expect we will see a good amount of DLC too. The game looks great too imo. Blows Mass Effect off the map graphically- way more detail to the game world. Cant wait to get farther in and see more. Bioware knows how to make RPGs...

 

What are you talking about? Mass Effect looks way better than this game, particularly the in-game character models. Check out Virmire for the best looking environments in Mass Effect. The environments look kind of sterile compared to DA, but texture-wise they are much better.

 

Yeah, I can't see how anyone could say DA looks better than ME. The graphics of ME are of a much higher quality.

 

Hey, guys, regarding my 'Ogre' advice, I said that a NON-MAGE PC will have an NPC mage follow him into the tower!

My Dwarf Warrior's team just surrounded the ogre from all sides (IIRC you get attack bonus from flanking) and gulped healing poutrices like no tomorrow - Alister went down from the Ogre's grab and bash attack before my dwarf PC got the killing blow - MATRIX time deathblow animation plays.

As previously mentioned, my Human Rogue's team got lucky when the NPC mage got lucky with the first cast of Paralysis, catching the Ogre still while my party hacked away 1/3 of the health bar. Like others said, sometimes the Ogre will dumbly chase the mage, ignoring the others slowly chipping away, so that's what that Ogre did and this time no team member when down and my PC got the killing blow again, except this time it's with dual daggers.

Remember rogue has backstab bonus so try to draw aggro with your warrior and move your rogue to the enemies' back (shown by the darken part of the circle indicator of the target) to start backstabbbing.

On the graphics comparison with ME: I have both games on the PC so I will say that ME looks better - but maybe due to the futuristic setting (easier to look nice in a squeaky clean spaceship or station) as DA:O is set in a medivial/fantasy setting with wooden huts and rough stone castles/ruins. Zooming into the PC's face and I feel that DA:O has more detail there.

P.S. : I tried to recreate Pai Chan's face without success (shameless Pai fanatic) - I think DA:O's character creator leaves a lot to be desired compared to ME's; e.g. IIRC there are only 4 or 5 different settings for a female PC's eyebrows.

 

That's basically what I meant by my post. Mass Effect had some of the blandest environments period. I hate getting that feeling that everywhere you go looks pretty much like the same place. The original Wolfenstein had better environments ... That's an overstatement but you know what I'm getting at.

I think the attention to detail is MUCH better in Dragon Age. Honestly, I thought ME's graphics were bland to the point that I just got bored. Plus, riding around in that stupid ass 6-wheel car is as boring as it gets to me.

Dragon Age uses a new game engine too so I really do think it looks better. You can move around faster than in ME, where your character runs around at 0 miles per hour. I like DA a lot more than ME in general I guess... I think the customization is better too.

DA is sort of a mix between Mass Effect and Baldur's Gate in my opinion. It has the D&D inspired rule set (not exactly but very similar) and it has the attention to conversation that ME made famous. It's a best of both worlds mix to me.

 

You should check out videos of Mass Effect 2. The game looks incredible, and the Mako parts don't look boring anymore either. I hope they won't repeat maps with stuff rearranged differently this time around. I want unique environments for all of the side quests.

 

I've been pleasantly surprised numerous times already playing this game. The plot is very mature and cool. I'm only like 2 or 2.5 hours into the game but some of the plot twists are very cool and caught me off guard.

I'm playing a boring old human fighter and I'm using a sword and shield. My history is the human noble which has a really cool beginning imo (a couple of the people that were killed really wowed me and really made me want to keep playing...) I'm currently only in the first tower to light the beacon but haven't finished the tower yet. But, the ceremony to become a Grey Warden totally surprised me and I thought what happened (I will NOT ruin it for anyone) was just awesome, I did NOT see that coming. The cut-scenes are really nice too.

I'm really liking the game though, it's got all the RPG elements in there to make the game-play solid. Thanks to all of those here that recommended it, I would do the same.

I bought Modern Warfare 2 cause I had to see what the hype was about but I still haven't even unwrapped it because I've been playing Dragon Age. This weekend (or maybe sooner) I will crack MW2 open and see what's up!

 

After beating the game once, and starting another character and getting about half way through, theres only one problem I have with it. The lack of areas. It's actually a really small game, sure there's lots of dungeons, but it's not the same as having 4 large towns with content. Theres really only like 2 towns.

Maybe I'm spoiled by BG2 but pretty much every zone you NEED to go into for the main questlines. I preferred BG2's style of like 50% of the zones being main story related, the other 50% we're for side-quests only. Made the game feel much more free. This one is kind of linear in that regard. No matter how many times through the game, you're going to see the same zones every time. BG2 had so many side-quests with their OWN zones, you would find yourself in a zone you'd never seen before on your 2nd play through.

Still a fantastic game. I can't remember the last game that made me clock this much game time within a few weeks... *checks steam account* 40.6 hours in the past 2 weeks. Fuck this game is like another full-time job ><

 

I've really been exploiting this game on Nightmare difficulty. I've been relying on casting the Drain and Frost spells on my enemies through walls. When I'm facing big groups of enemies, I'll have my party members hold their positions and send one member to expose himself to the enemy, kill one of them, and then retreat. Afterwards, my health and mana regenerate and I just repeat the process. If that party member is killed, I'll just send another party member to the same area, reveal myself to the enemy, and then run away until they stop pursuing me. That way, my formerly dead comrade will become resurrected.

As for the Ogre, all I had to do was switch to Alistair and pummel on it with my other party members helping. He has high constitution and consumed the Quick Heal potions quickly.

 

Oh yeah! Gay sex with that male dwarf at The Pearl was the best sixty silvers I ever spent!

What are you people's parties in this game???

-- I'm a human fighter (yes, very plain ) using sword and shield (no specialization yet cause I haven't found any trainers for fighting specializations yet...) I use Assault first, then the triple shield bash, then I try to keep my enemy knocked down or stunned until I can Assault again.

-- Sten, using two-handed weapons. He is my tank, with heavy armor and high damage, due to his two-handed weapons. I might have messed this up too as I was thinking of making my guy (Aedan) the tank because he uses the shield so he might be better equipped in the long run.

-- Morigan, with a emphasis on ice magic (opened spells all the way up to blizzard and try to use +frost damage items - for example, the Ashen Gloves + 20% frost damage.) Also, I got her to Master Shapeshifter, which I think was a mistake, and a waste of points if I could go back. Mostly because you can cast spells when you shape-shift so you basically lose your mage for a monster -- you the monster's abilities instead which are OK but you can't cast Heal which is the sucky part IMO...

-- Mubari Hound (I named him Rusty), I can't decide if I should have used him in the first place but I feel like it's too late now and my girl thinks he cute and wants me to keep him. Remember to have him piss on the landmarks! His one really good power is called Overwhelm IIRC, where he runs down the enemy, tackles them and mauls their face for a while. It'll kill an enemy mage in one use and the dog is really fast so he can run down anyone quickly.