Dragon Age Difficulty

[s44]

The dog is pretty awesome as a utility character (not a main tank): once he hits Overwhelm on the talent tree he rapes any normal-sized enemy, plus his AOE stun is surprisingly effective. And at least one +8 attack/armor collar drops for him...

If you're playing with a Dex-heavy archer I'd consider using the semi-official hotfix. And a shortbow.

 

[StinkyPinky]

You don't need to bring a mage on easy mode but it would be ludicrous if you didn't need a mage on a harder setting. Let's say a mage killed your cat when you were young and I had a dog that died when it ran out of .44 calibre ammo. Regardless of our personal feelings on the subject, developers are still going to put healing and crowd control into RPGs for the same reason they put in ammo limits. It's a layer of added complexity that makes the end product more fun for most.

I don't think you guys have carefully thought about what it would mean for the game not to need crowd control or healing on harder difficulty settings.

IMO you can complete the game on any difficulty with four mages. How's that balanced?

It would be impossible to complete Dragon Age even on normal without a mage.

 

[s44]

IMO you can complete the game on any difficulty with four mages. How's that balanced?

It would be impossible to complete Dragon Age even on normal without a mage.

Not true. It's probably not even that hard to solo a rogue on normal.

Remember: an acid flask does more damage than a fireball.

 

[JoshGuru7]

"Sure, you can use Sten and your war pup - but hope your main is a mage and has spells X,Y,Z or else -make your time."

You can easily use Sten OR the war pup, just not both at the same time because they both fulfill the same role in the group (melee DPS). There's plenty of room for a melee DPS char who isn't your main tank, you just need to choose the rest of the party carefully. If you're playing a melee DPS as well then it gets tougher to bring either but you can still bring one of them if you complete the group with a real tank and a mage you split between heals/CC. You'll end up taking a lot of health potions, but that's the downside of choosing an unbalanced party - and there should be a downside.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Not true. It's probably not even that hard to solo a rogue on normal.

Remember: an acid flask does more damage than a fireball.

You think you can complete the game with just one rogue?

I'd love to see that

 

[JoshGuru7]

IMO you can complete the game on any difficulty with four mages. How's that balanced?

For starters, the game doesn't give you four mages. More importantly, there's a huge difference between having an orange mob hit your caster for 1/3 of their health per swing or your tank for 1/15 of their health per swing. Playing a game on normal or harder without a tank sounds just as bad to me as playing the game without a mage.

A balanced party in pretty much every RPG I've ever played includes a healer, a tank, dps of any type, and a crowd controller. The fact that mages can fulfill three of the four roles in dragon age gives you MORE options than you'd have if healers were their own class, not fewer.

 

[DangerAardvark]

I tank with my dual wield warrior. His high Dex gives him more defense than Alistair and his fatigue is only -10% compared to -25% for Alistair wearing all massive armor. There are enough CC options in this game so he doesn't get overwhelmed.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I restarted last night as a mage, and the game is infinitely easier. I destroy any and every group of baddies with ease now, whereas with my warrior main, it was a struggle to defeat any random pack of mobs and people would always die.

This game is heavily imbalanced in favor of mages. Anybody who denies that is just making excuses because they love the OPness of mages being able to do everything and crush everybody.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

For starters, the game doesn't give you four mages. More importantly, there's a huge difference between having an orange mob hit your caster for 1/3 of their health per swing or your tank for 1/15 of their health per swing. Playing a game on normal or harder without a tank sounds just as bad to me as playing the game without a mage.

A balanced party in pretty much every RPG I've ever played includes a healer, a tank, dps of any type, and a crowd controller. The fact that mages can fulfill three of the four roles in dragon age gives you MORE options than you'd have if healers were their own class, not fewer.

If you get hit as a Mage, you are bad.

Read the official BioWare forums sometime...many people have easily soloed Nightmare with an Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage, and I've heard rumours of someone even soloing it with a Rogue, but you'll never hear anybody soloing Nightmare with a Warrior, because they suck.

 

[sourceninja]

Just for fun last night I played using Allister, shale, the dwarf guy, and my mage. My mage only used arcane warrior talents, rock armor, and shield. No Crowd control, no healing, no attack spells.

The game is still stupid easy on Hard.

 

[ayabe]

Hey guys, try playing a warrior main with no Arcane Warrior BS. Trust me, you must use Wynne and Morrigan or you're going to have a very tough time on Normal. Also, you must have Leliana if you want to open any chests - there's your party, thanks for picking for me Bioware.

I'm not a noob, I've played every Bioware title. I do not expect to play the game without any mages, but being forced to have two at a minimum is lame.

 

[HunterDT]

I was a Rogue on normal in my first playthrough. I have to say that, I do not think it would have been any fun trying to play without Morrigan in my party. (I did not have Wynne in my game.) I can imagine most of my encounters would have been downright impossible without some form of Mage CC.

If the enemy has more than one mage type character with a few archers and melee guys involved, and you have no CC abilities, good luck....

 

[Liet]

Wouldn't be so damn bad if other chars had some type of CC, and health potions weren't as difficult to make. I hate being forced into a specific party configuration.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Hey guys, try playing a warrior main with no Arcane Warrior BS. Trust me, you must use Wynne and Morrigan or you're going to have a very tough time on Normal. Also, you must have Leliana if you want to open any chests - there's your party, thanks for picking for me Bioware.

I'm not a noob, I've played every Bioware title. I do not expect to play the game without any mages, but being forced to have two at a minimum is lame.

Is there some reason you can't use Zevram to open those chests?

 

[Liet]

Maybe he doesn't have him yet? I know I don't, so I need to take Leliana to open chests.

 

[ayabe]

Is there some reason you can't use Zevram to open those chests?

When you get him, he has no points in the lockpicking skill - which is pretty dumb. I think I got him around level 10. When you're at that point in the game, you probably need to be a tier 2/3 in order to open the chest - which means if you want to run with him, you're gonna need to devote his next 4+? levels just to that to get him up to speed.

 

[sourceninja]

I think it's dumb that they don't have any other means of opening chests. Bashing, spells, etc. I can't use my giant axe to hack my way though a wooden box?

I just made a new character on hard difficulty, human warrior. My current group is me, dog, allister, shen. I'm heading to get shale, then dwarf town to get my last warrior. I think I can beat the game on hard with just 4 warriors. Allister going shield tank, I'm going dual wield, shale as buff/damage (mainly the line that just makes him stand there as a statue and buff, or sit at range and heave rocks, and The dwarf as a 2hded killing machine. I just don't like shen's attitude so he is just filling in until I get the dwarf.

My plan is to focus allister on stopping me from getting debuffed. I want cleanse area is quickly as possible and tanking. I'm going to use the dwarf as a mage hunter, using his high crits and ability to stay on his feet from the beserker line. Shale is just going to throw rocks at mages/archers and fill in as a buff or a damage dealer as needed. Finally I'm going to focus on dual wield damage dealing with high dex and cunning to help with armor penetration.

Judicious use of stun runes/abilities and careful micromanagement should help me control adds. One character will max out herbalism, one traps, and one poison. I'll use traps and pulling when possible to thin out the herd. I'll use aoe poison as much as possible to help quickly inflict damage.

So far I've had no trouble with the game, but I only made it past lothering and traveled to dwarf town last night. I do have a question that would make this a lot easier. If I give each character one point in traps and poison, can they then use any trap and poison my higher skilled crafters make? If that is the case everyone can lay traps and poison their weapons making it that much easier.

So far it just requires a different strategy. You have to 'lure' the bad guys to you. Keep their mages blocked from the view of your characters. This means a lot of micromanagement. For example. I always move my party away from a door and use a single character to open the door. Typically when I do this and run away back to my party I only get half of what would normally attack me. This isn't' true for every battle, but it helps lower the amount of health potions spent. Everyone shoots bows until I run past, then I pause, switch weapons, send in the tank, wait for him to get engaged, then send in the rest of the group with hold turned off. After they are killed I turn hold back on and go grab another group.

 

[homercles337]

I find it quite difficult. Every fight is definitely a struggle and I have to reload often. My group is Me (warrior), Leliana, Wynne and Morrigan. I'm only playing on Normal. My guys are all Level 9 and I had to leave Redcliffe Castle--got my ass kicked in the first few rooms.

Yeah, this is what im talking about. Im level 9 (maybe 8) with no Wynne and i CONSTANTLY get my ass handed to me. I cant even power level because i cant find anyplace to just gather XPs.

 

[StinkyPinky]

For starters, the game doesn't give you four mages. More importantly, there's a huge difference between having an orange mob hit your caster for 1/3 of their health per swing or your tank for 1/15 of their health per swing. Playing a game on normal or harder without a tank sounds just as bad to me as playing the game without a mage.

A balanced party in pretty much every RPG I've ever played includes a healer, a tank, dps of any type, and a crowd controller. The fact that mages can fulfill three of the four roles in dragon age gives you MORE options than you'd have if healers were their own class, not fewer.

I'm talking about hypothetical obviously.

The game would be a cakewalk with four mages. The mobs wouldn't even get to you to hit you. You'd blast them with four area effect spells at once and they're all dead.

 

[aigomorla]

LOL... yes f5 and f9 are very important keys.

I lost count how many times ive died.

 

[exar333]

Part of the issue with DA:O is the relative lack of spell immunity for the NPC enemies. This would help swing the pendulum back toward tanks/rogues if a large number of enemies resisted spells. This was the case in BG/BG2 where many tough enemies were resistant or immune to spells (or vice versa, immune to physical damage). This is a good check against unbalance parties. I don't think Bioware did enough playtesting to balance the number, strength, and abilities of the enemies to support a good team balance. The game should reward a good team balance such as 2 fighters, a rogue, and a spell caster, for example, and not reward all mages and screw the tanks/fighters. The ranged weapons are very weak, and there are few skills to enhance them.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah I don't want to sound like I'm complaining too much. The game is awesome, I really enjoy it. However the balance is just off. Next play through I'm playing with three mages and a tank. That would be unstoppable.

 

[coloumb]

From the Dragon Age guide:

Balanced Group - A balanced party contains a warrior as the tank, mage as the healer, rogue as the scout, and mage or warrior as support. This configuration spreads the talents around and prepares the group for any challenge. Some abilities overlap, which helps in cases where a companion may be overwhelmed at a critical time, or has already fallen in battle.

Warrior (Tank)
Mage (Healing)
Rogue (Scouting, DPS)
Mage or Warrior (DPS)

Blitzkrieg Group - The “blitzkrieg” configuration emphasizes speed and damage over healing or defense. You carry at least two tanks on the team, a combat-oriented rogue for more damage and some light healing with a mage who also has offensive spells at his fingertips. This type of party plans to rip through one enemy group before a second can engage them; they don’t have the defenses for prolonged fighting, so it’s got to be swift or not at all.

Warrior (Tank)
Warrior (Off-Tank)
Mage (Healing)
Rogue (DPS)

Control - A party that concentrates on control stands behind healing and crowd control abilities. You still need a warrior tank, and you need a dedicated healer, which falls to a spirit healer mage. The rogue lays down a lot of DPS, but must be flexible enough to off-tank once in a while or throw out some crowd control (such as a bard’s Captivating Song). A second mage brings offense to the table, of course, but also spells like Grease and Crushing Prison that can slow or stop extra enemies from engaging. This particular party may enter long fights, battling for continued periods of time with solid healing and abilities that dictate when enemies confront them.

Warrior (Tank)
Mage (Healing)
Rogue (DPS)
Mage (Crowd Control)

Unbalanced - Suicide An unbalanced party may not share abilities optimally, but it can be a lot of fun nevertheless. The idea is to overbalance with a single class or strategy and pursue it to the max. You can generally get away with any combination, so long as you have a mage healer in the mix (parties without a healer won’t do well unless you have unlimited health poultices at your disposal, and that gets very expensive).

Warrior (Tank)
Warrior (DPS, Off-Tank)
Warrior (Ranged)
Mage (Healer)

 

[sticks435]

Right now I'm playing a level 12 sword/shield warrior, Shale, ranged Leliana (with hotfix), and Wynne. Most regular mobs I take care of no problem, same with low level yellow enemy's. Single high level yellow's are easy to medium, more than 2 I sometimes have to do once or twice

Spoiler

(ex: Drakes),

same with orange's. Overall I think it's just right.

When I first started out it was a bitch. Could have been because I was low level char, or could have been because I didn't have Wynne. Though I've single handedly finished fights with just Shale and potion chugging.

 

[exar333]

Part of the fighting strategy in DA:O is manipulating the battlefield. Like BG1/2, depending on your party, you can't just run arpund a huge room and aggro everyone and fight a big battle successfully. If your party is like mine (2 fighters, 1 mage, 1 Rogue) I need to make the enemies come to me and then fight in an organized and cohesive way. I play on hard difficulty, and I will generally die if I just run right out and engage 2-3 groups of enemies. This is especially true in wide-open areas.