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Haven't finished it yet but as others have pointed out in the internet. The start of the game is really really hard if you don't put your points right and it gets a LOT easier once you hit lvl 10-13 and have access to the retarded talents.
The threat system they use is beyond fucked up I don't get it at all. Aveline can keep agro on a dragon that was constantly stunning and knocking her back while using the talent that reduces attack speed to a crawl but increasing %DR but my main character (spirit healer with 0 offensive spells) pulls agro off off shitty enemies.
Most mobs just spawn with a predetermined amount of threat on a random character and completely ignore the tank until you taunt. Others just spawn with 0 and hit whatever is closest.
I just can't understand how they went for so much variety of talents and made it so hard to get a good threat talent early on. Aveline might as well not be there for the first 4 or so levels until you get improved battle synergy or imp bravery(i think that's what its called)
My biggest gripe about the game is how retarded the NPC backstab is. The rogues don't even go stealth they just simply disappear and you can't bring them out with AoE effects then proceed to instagib a cloth user.
Nevertheless. Once you hit level 13 and get the retardedly good talents everything just dies. Fenris/Isabella with heroic aura / enchanted weapons and haste just shit on everything so fast is not even funny. You can also just combo stagger/chain lightning or brittle lance/mighty blow but i went the passive route.
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On March 13 2011 15:20 Sadistx wrote:
I don't get this game's combat. On Hard I get absolutely plastered, because I don't want to dick around finding the best gear and buying up all the potions just to beat a fight (and some bosses just have ridiculous amounts of HP and don't seem to die), on Normal I don't have to control anything, because my allies steamroll everything at the speed of light. Isn't there a middle ground ? Ugh...
I'm supposed to be "The Champion" god damnit. Why does some city thug have 3x my HP.
Mob scaling has got to be the worst thing that happened to RPGs...
Back to starcraft, I guess...
You just answered your own question. If you just want to hack and slash, play normal. Hard and above is meant for RPG enthusiasts.
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So you guys think Fenris makes a better tank than Aveline? Because his mass aoe stun talents and higher damage output make up for the fact that he can't survive as much (I guess he does have those custom talents that let him avoid % damage, I haven't messed with him enough truth be told).
I do agree that the threat system has issues, I find that most of my time in combat is figuring out where to run my mages and rogues so that the threat priority shifts to a warrior on the field.
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On March 13 2011 17:51 Brad wrote:Show nested quote +On March 13 2011 15:20 Sadistx wrote:
I don't get this game's combat. On Hard I get absolutely plastered, because I don't want to dick around finding the best gear and buying up all the potions just to beat a fight (and some bosses just have ridiculous amounts of HP and don't seem to die), on Normal I don't have to control anything, because my allies steamroll everything at the speed of light. Isn't there a middle ground ? Ugh...
I'm supposed to be "The Champion" god damnit. Why does some city thug have 3x my HP.
Mob scaling has got to be the worst thing that happened to RPGs...
Back to starcraft, I guess... You just answered your own question. If you just want to hack and slash, play normal. Hard and above is meant for RPG enthusiasts.
Pretty much, except you have it backwards. Normal is for people who actually want to roleplay and advance in the storyline, instead of reloading and grinding 10000hp mobs like you do in MMOs. 
I like challenges in RPGs, but mob scaling and ridiculous swarming hordes are just stupid.
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I'm not really sure what you guys are talking about. I mean prior to like level 10 yes people were pulling aggro off my tank (Sword & Board Hawke) but after that/now I have next to no aggro issues save AoEs or fresh reinforcements joining the fray. I guess it's all up to how you want to play and what is fun for you. I enjoy having to tactically position my party to allow my tank to produce the maximum amount of threat (and again, it works - I've been destroying things quite easily since level 11). If you do not want to deal with that, play a different way like Fenris aggro-everything-through-dmg-tank or just lower the difficulty.
One things for sure though, the combat system is definitely not dumbed down like multitudes of hate train riding lemurs. It really does just feel like DA:O combat at a faster pace with a larger focus on reinforcements. I do not even see how the ability trees would be "dumbed down". I guess there are less unique abilities in general but all the upgrades and augments are fantastic and I personally like the new ability system, as well as the new combat system, a lot more than DA:O.
I will totally agree on the bullshit backstabbing though. I do not actually think it is broken or anything like that but it is super annoying getting backstab crit sometimes and getting one shotted unless you're the tank. Fortunately though, I have found that if you taunt the enemy rogue prior to it stealthing, it will always select the primary target (which is you) for its backstab. If I can get a taunt off, I'm pretty much golden on that front.
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I just beat the game as a reaver style warrior. I do kind of feel that the combat system the threat was a little weird, and I do agree with the idea that the difference between hard and normal is quite a large jump.
I did find the game overall very fun and enthralling it was able to suck me in and continue to play to want to advance the story.
My main party as Aveline (Tanking) Hawke as (Reaver style arms Warrior), Anders (Healer and backup DPS), and Isabela (DPS Trap Detection)
I didn't have too much issue with keeping agro on big boss's and never had to really worry about smaller enemy's as my team would just tear through them rather quickly that I didn't have to worry that Aveline wasn't keeping agro on everything at once.
I think overall it was a really fun game and given the few minor flaws here and there it was a very well put together and fun to play through game.
I personally can't wait for an expansion pack or DLC's to continue with the story.
Not sure if this is optional or not but there's a solo duel and I found it really hard and very challenging even on normal.
It took a fair amount of retrying to kill the boss one on one but I found it very gratifying to do it.
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Beat it earlier today, i think the combat system is much more user friendly and actually more fun to use than the previous one, the tech tree is also a lot of fun and does offer a lot more. The weapons were also improved a bit to fit around your character nicely. That being said though, i feel that this was one of the only advancements. What i felt was lacking was the absences of a major villain, it just felt like 3 side quests from DA:O crammed into one clusterfuck with 3 different villains and called the main story. I think whoever said they really took the mystery out of the blood mage's and all the dark parts out of DA:O and just used those for the game; truly nailed what i was felt about the storyline, all the 'holy crap, thats awesome' moments were taken from origins and made the mins story and it didn't work out the same.
I am probably going to sound like i am starting to rant but i think the BIGGEST reason i felt DA:O is vastly better is the adventure side of the game, there were quite a few places to go and long entertaining stories to go along with the main plot and DA2 just didn't have those compared to origins, you were stuck in the one area all game and the 3 main parts of the story line were all located there, i mean there were like 4 epic parts to origins; blood mages turning people into demons and trying to bring the underworld to life, the urn of sacred ashes with a crazy cult following over a huge freaking fire-breathing dragon, the deep roads with giant gollums and a champion literally gone crazy, daelish elves vs big fuck you wolves that will eat your face. What did DA2 have? a very VERY tame version of the deep roads with a pretty cool boss, a kinda sick qunari uprising but lacked any depth and development and a kinda difficult ending vs the templars and mages which proved pointless to even pick a side.
After that min rant i do feel DA2 was a good game but story and adventure wise, it has nothing on origins and thats what i look for in an RPG, not a combat system that has an inconvience or is to easy etc.
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Anyone who played blood mage? I feel like this tree in both games is very bad...
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Ok, having put a good few hours into the game, I think I can safely say that I am not feeling as bad as I felt when I completed the demo. But it is pretty clear the vision Bioware had with Dragon Age II was to merge the character-oriented storytelling of Mass Effect with the fantasy and lore of Dragon Age: Origins. Where they went wrong was in removing many of the great aspects of the first game (especially on the PC) and streamlining the experience (for lack of a nicer word) for consoles. That should explain the absolute hammering it has been getting on Metacritic's user review scales.
However, looking past all the obvious minuses, the game still contains that Bioware-effect which makes all their games so special. I personally feel the character interactions in this game are much better than the first. Although on some level, Origins may have had a better character roster (especially Morrigan and Alistair), this game has better inter-personal relationships woven in akin to Mass Effect. This is also increased by the fact that you stay with the same set of characters over a longer period of time. The rivalry between the hero and his brother, for example, that sort of a relationship was never present in the original game. And that makes playing this character much better than it did in Origins.
To be honest, that was one aspect of Origins I did not like. I never felt a part of my character like I did in Mass Effect. Sure the story was epic and the gameplay was awesome, but the characterization of the central character was just not there. In the end where you have to make the decision to kill yourself or Alistair, it felt like a formality than any of the major decisions in Mass Effect. So far, I would say Origins has the better and more epic story because it involved being this Grey Warden and leading the fight against the Darkspawn. Compared to that, becoming the Champion of Kirkwall seems a bit dull, some might stay. But the voice-overs and characterization make this games story and its protagonist have much more life to it than did Origins. And thereby playing as the Champion is much better than playing as the Warden.
And that is where the Mass Effect factor comes in. Clearly, Bioware have realized that their greatest achievement with ME was to let players write their own script. I still love my purely Paragon Shepherd (probably my greatest RPG creation) that I have created and plan to take him through the third game. If their plan was to provide something similar with The Champion, then so far, it seems to working well. Though whether the actual story is as epic when it reaches its conclusion remains to be seen.
The combat is not irritating me as much as it did in the demo. Probably because I am playing a mage and the spell effects look uber-cool and casting them make me feel fantastic. It's good that Bioware at least did not remove the tactics slot because that adds some much-needed depth to the combat which is just straightforward action for the most part. I am currently playing on Hard and haven't been challenged that much except in a few fights. It still requires proper use of all the talents at your disposal and, to a certain extent, proper placement of your party and the tactics you use. But it is highly dumbed down from Origins for sure, which is one of the main reasons for the general outburst from the PC side.
I have already completed Aveline's quest and it did not seem that much troublesome at all. Though the actual benefits will grow as she continues on with me, but it is definitely not similar to ME2 wherein you complete the quest and their bonus is applicable immediately. There are special abilities for each party member but the activation remains on their relationship with you which is a nice touch.
The main aspect of streamlining I like so far is the removal of different types of potions. There is no more Lesser, Medium, Greater or whatever (there might still be and I may not have stumbled upon it). There is only Health, Lyrium, Stamina Potions and injury kits. That is something that comes as a great addition over Origins. The way you can order enchantments and potions is also a nice touch.
The pre-order bonuses are certainly nice, though like the video above shows, it does make a strong message on the sorry state of the game industry. Although it sucks that the Blood Dragon armor is completely wasted for this playthrough. Though the other items like the Orlais sheild and the two swords are being put to good use, the Blood Dragon armor is unique to Hawke which means my Mage cannot wear it. I wonder why this restriction was placed on only this set and not the other pre-order bonuses. It still sucks.
And the high-resolution textures do give some oomph on the PC side of things. In general, the game is looking much better than it did in the demo where everything felt bland. I think that is due to the High-Res textures. But the game is a bit on the sluggish side as far as frame rates is concerned. That shouldn't be the case since my PC can blow Crysis 2 to pieces. That apart, the graphics do look much better than Origins in some cases. And in certain other areas, I cannot believe my eyes as to how low-resolution the textures actually are. They just look plain and jaded like the same texture pattern was applied to the entire area. Spell effects, on the other, just look uber-cool and much better than Origins and the combat effects are also really nice to look at.
So, TL;DR, I am definitely enjoying Dragon Age II as I thought I would. I am still underwhelmed that Bioware would remove these great PC features for streamlining the game to cater to a multiplatform audience (especially when that was not the case with Origins). But this game still has the same old Bioware charm which I know is going to make me play through it multiple times.
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On March 13 2011 23:14 Overpowered wrote:Anyone who played blood mage? I feel like this tree in both games is very bad...
I wouldn't say bad, I think blood mages are very strong. They're just....extremely difficult to manage, you have to babysit them or else they die pretty easily.
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Just pump stats into hp with the DLC black emporium respecing just to abuse the bloodmage tree isn't hard. But the issue is that you still need stats in willpower to equip stuff.
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Going through nightmare now using this guide. I don't care what people say about dumbed down gameplay/skill level or whatever. Nightmare would skill-wise be like GSL Code S. Where hard and casual would be gold and bronze :S. The difficulty jump is insane from hard -> nightmare.
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Vatican City State1650 Posts
The combat system is amazing. It's exactly how I had hoped to make the combat like through modding in DA1.
Those of you that say it's "easy" - I wonder if you tried Nightmare. :O It's pretty challenging.
On March 13 2011 10:38 Random() wrote:
For those who claim that combat in DA2 is stupid hack and slash, just try playing on nightmare. It's quite challenging and rewarding, although the amount of health on the stronger enemies may seem absurd. The long cooldowns on healing abilities make microing the characters in order to distribute the damage as evenly as possible really fun.
I really like the game.
The story is crap. Of course. It's a bioware sequel - what do you expect, after Mass Effect 2? But the combat is really fun. Enough that I think it compensates for the story.
It was 40 hours of enjoying the new combat system. I'm sure things will only improve given time.
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Is there any way to save the three Quanari prisoners with Petrice? The four dialogue options only kills them.
Oh fuck...
+ Show Spoiler +If I didn't kill the guy Emeric was chasing, and helped him, would I have saved Mother?
I want to redo if it'll change events, not much time lost since last save.
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It's probably for talking with the leader after so no.
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On March 14 2011 06:23 Blisse wrote:Is there any way to save the three Quanari prisoners with Petrice? The four dialogue options only kills them. Oh fuck... + Show Spoiler +If I didn't kill the guy Emeric was chasing, and helped him, would I have saved Mother?
I'm pretty sure there's no way to save the qunari
But it's not like I tried all the companion combos or something.
Do not know answer to Spoiler, since I always play the first run-through without guides or reloading for plot reasons.
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I actually enjoy the game more and more.. Just completed my second playthrough on hard, and I gotta say it grew on me. It's clearly not as good as DA:O on any aspect really, but hey.. It's still the next best thing.
The storyline could've implemented some other areas. Just moving around one city feels a little dull in the long run. Would be nice to check out the other empires of the lore, but I guess we'll have to wait for another sequal for that.
Awesome game tbh, and the ending looked promising.
Then again I enjoyed ME:2 more than ME:1, so I guess I'm into these kinds of games.
The worst part was probably the threat system.. Having a tank feels more or usess useless tbh. It would also be nice to be able to respecc other characters more thouroughly.. making Fenris into a tank and the elvish chick into a healer for instance, to avoid all the mage / templar likes dislikes shenanigans within the party to keep it all under control.
If you're waiting to buy the game because of bad rep on TL, I'd say it's totally worth it to buy it asap.
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I just finished the game and loved it
nothing else to say really other than I can't wait for DA:3 and I wish this one wasn't so short compared to the first
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On March 14 2011 06:23 Blisse wrote:Is there any way to save the three Quanari prisoners with Petrice? The four dialogue options only kills them. Oh fuck... + Show Spoiler +If I didn't kill the guy Emeric was chasing, and helped him, would I have saved Mother? I want to redo if it'll change events, not much time lost since last save.
+ Show Spoiler +No you wouldn't of, I helped him and she still died.
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On March 14 2011 06:47 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
I just finished the game and loved it
nothing else to say really other than I can't wait for DA:3 and I wish this one wasn't so short compared to the first
I didn't find the game too short I felt by doing all the side quests and etc it took a fair amount of time to get through the game.
I'm not a huge fan of how quickly the third act seemed to go though. It kind of felt like I just got my champions armor only to finish the game >,> I wish I had it a bit longer to be able to play through with it for a while.
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