Dragon Age Difficulty

[Looney]

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.

BS, the game doesn't force you to use 2. I used 1 95% throughout the game the first time on Normal.

This time i'm on nightmare, my char is a duel-wielding tank, and i'm at level 13 now, with only Morrigan unlocked so far. And once i get some better armor, i imagine this game will be back on easy mode.

 

[Malladine]

Yep...

LVL 8 warrior here on Normal and yeah it's tough.

I'm in Redcliffe right now, first place I went after Lothering. The revenant took me several tries and now I'm stuck trying to make it to the Circle of Mages in order to enlist their aid to save Arl Eamon...you know what's stopping me? Wolves. Every attempt I make to get to the circle i end up encountering a pack of wolves and they absolutely SLAUGHTER my entire party in seconds. I take maybe 2 of them down before i'm done. WTF.
This is with Morrigan, War Dog and the Bard. Haven't tried with Sten or Alistair yet, but they aren't gonna stand for long against the 8 wolves that seem to be left standing when i'm dead.

I'm pretty close to restarting as a rogue or another warrior with traps or something. I refuse to start as a mage since they are twice as powerful as the other classes it seems. I'll probably try one on Hard after I complete it on Normal.

PS I'm early on, try not to use spoilers

 

[Malladine]

BS, the game doesn't force you to use 2. I used 1 95% throughout the game the first time on Normal.

This time i'm on nightmare, my char is a duel-wielding tank, and i'm at level 13 now, with only Morrigan unlocked so far. And once i get some better armor, i imagine this game will be back on easy mode.

How are ya lvl 13 with only Morrigan unlocked, did you just skip the other characters and move on??

 

[Udgnim]

Yep...

LVL 8 warrior here on Normal and yeah it's tough.

I'm in Redcliffe right now, first place I went after Lothering. The revenant took me several tries and now I'm stuck trying to make it to the Circle of Mages in order to enlist their aid to save Arl Eamon...you know what's stopping me? Wolves. Every attempt I make to get to the circle i end up encountering a pack of wolves and they absolutely SLAUGHTER my entire party in seconds. I take maybe 2 of them down before i'm done. WTF.
This is with Morrigan, War Dog and the Bard. Haven't tried with Sten or Alistair yet, but they aren't gonna stand for long against the 8 wolves that seem to be left standing when i'm dead.

I'm pretty close to restarting as a rogue or another warrior with traps or something. I refuse to start as a mage since they are twice as powerful as the other classes it seems. I'll probably try one on Hard after I complete it on Normal.

PS I'm early on, try not to use spoilers

try going to Bercilan Forest. I think the random encounters are setup as a blocker until you obtain sufficient level / gear to get into the desired zone.

game gets easier as you level especially if you cheese it with mage (s)

I just completed Normal with a Female Human Rogue and will probably be a Male Elf Mage w/ Shale, Morrigan, and Sten / Oghren / Zevren as party members and play on hard on my next playthrough. going to try to get a bad ending. might decide to turn Sten into a tank since I barely used him on my first playthrough and 2H spec seems weak.

 

[Darklife]

I'm running with Allistair, Shale and Morrigan, me also being a warrior, so party balance is practically thrown out the window. However I'm not having any trouble at all. The game becomes simple once you get some decent crowd control spells and cone of cold. Especially cone of cold, that thing is invaluable to me. A heal spell will also go a long way.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

words

Thanks for the spoiler you stupid wise and beautiful woman.

 

[homercles337]

Here is an interesting observation. Im a level 14 Warrior with uber armor (juggernaut) and im in the Deep Roads when a Hurlock Emissary puts me in a Prison Cage (or something like that) and im dead. One spell takes all my health while out doing the "usual exploring." Once i got Wynn it was easy for a short while, but it rapidly went back to WTF hard. I have tried every tactic and this game is still crazy hard. I dont get it, and im an RPG fan. Next play will definitely be Mage since this game is so biased toward that class.

 

[sourceninja]

I'm almost finished with my no mage on hard difficulty run. It has been 'interesting' to say the least. But ultimately not that hard. I've found the best party so far is shale, me (rogue/assassin/dualist), Leliana (bard/dualist), and zeveran (assassin/bard) (or however your spell it).

All that is left for me is the dwarfs and end game. I might try switching my party to include the dwarf once I get him.

My focus is mostly trap and poison based with a lot of hiding and backstabing. I hide, lay down some lures/throw some aoe potions, hide again. etc. Leliana uses her bard song to stun a few of the bad guys and shale or allister (depending on my mood) keeps the rest ticked off. Then it's a simple matter of pop in and backstab. I'm working Zeveran up as a bard too and I'm planing on using him to stun as well.

 

[Zkal]

I'm currently at around lvl 15 (can't remember, been taking a break) and so far the game has been easy at normal difficulty as long as I've had a mage with me. Without mages with all melee group...ughh. Few fights have been bit tricky since I haven't been really trying to micromanage what each character do. I know there are the tactics stuff for them but so far, they fail. I haven't yet seen Wynne do a single heal ever on her own even with proper tactics set up.

 

[Malladine]

try going to Bercilan Forest. I think the random encounters are setup as a blocker until you obtain sufficient level / gear to get into the desired zone.

game gets easier as you level especially if you cheese it with mage (s)

I just completed Normal with a Female Human Rogue and will probably be a Male Elf Mage w/ Shale, Morrigan, and Sten / Oghren / Zevren as party members and play on hard on my next playthrough. going to try to get a bad ending. might decide to turn Sten into a tank since I barely used him on my first playthrough and 2H spec seems weak.

Zevren? I killed him
Still using Sten/Leliana mostly and either Morrigan when I HAVE to since her attitude annoys me, or Alistair. I don't have Shale since I haven't bought any extra content yet, and haven't found Oghren yet. I just made it to Denerim after completing the Dalish part (good advice there btw).

My warrior just became a berserker, lvl 10. Gonna try dual wield i think, though it kinda hurts since I've committed 6 talent pts into two handers and 2 into shields. But oh well. I wasn't too thrilled with 2h, and besides, sten takes the cake with them

 

[homercles337]

Zevren? I killed him
Still using Sten/Leliana mostly and either Morrigan when I HAVE to since her attitude annoys me, or Alistair. I don't have Shale since I haven't bought any extra content yet, and haven't found Oghren yet. I just made it to Denerim after completing the Dalish part (good advice there btw).

My warrior just became a berserker, lvl 10. Gonna try dual wield i think, though it kinda hurts since I've committed 6 talent pts into two handers and 2 into shields. But oh well. I wasn't too thrilled with 2h, and besides, sten takes the cake with them

Dual wield is the way to go. I also wasted a number of slots to shield and two-handed, but im level 17 now and dual is all i use. I should have known since this is like KoToR with a LoTR wrapper...meh. Second play will be very different.

 

[AlgaeEater]

@homercles337

On your second play-through, if you want to go pure lock-down and blasting style of mage, go Blood Mage/Arcane Warrior. (Do BM first, as AW doesn't really come into its own until level 16 when you can access the last ability on its tree. Make sure to save some points or books from level 12 though)

If you want to try a "cleric", go Spirit Healer/Arcane Warrior. In a party with Morrigan, Wynne, and Allistar, it's pretty epic. Have Wynne's second class as Arcane Warrior and make sure you and her both take Miasma. Morrigan should have haste, and have her auto-cast Heroic Offense on you. Allistar should have threaten on at all times to pull as much aggro as always.

Basically you have 3 Mage - 1 Tank party setup which can deal awesome Melee damage with haste, make everyone miss with dual Miasma running AND still lock-down + heal like there's no tomorrow. (You and Wynne both have Revive to boot). Just make sure to press Q (Weapon Swap) when you want to cast a spell so you don't have to sheath your weapon.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Playing through a second time with two mages (myself and the witch girl) and it's so much easier it's a joke. I haven't even died yet.

Cone of cold, chain lightning....half of them are dead just from that. Then the witch can blast them to finish them off. My rogue and tank are just there to sniff each others asses.

No wonder mages are so feared in this universe. They're unkillable.

 

[erwos]

No wonder mages are so feared in this universe. They're unkillable.

ESPECIALLY if you're playing one. A micro-managed mage is insane.

I've noticed that the "I don't use two mages" statements are almost always followed with "I use Shale". Shale is also overpowered, from everything I've seen. Do a game with no mages and no Shale, then I'll be impressed.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

So far the game has been difficult but not impossible, but now I'm officially stuck. Anyone got any tips for killing Jarvia (in Dust Town)? This battle just seems utterly impossible, there are a million archers and a bunch of yellows as well as this ridiculous mage, how the fuck am I supposed to beat this? Even on Easy this is ridiculous, and not at all fun.

Edit - oops I was on Normal, thought it was on easy. Beat it first time on Easy

 

[Malladine]

So far the game has been difficult but not impossible, but now I'm officially stuck. Anyone got any tips for killing Jarvia (in Dust Town)? This battle just seems utterly impossible, there are a million archers and a bunch of yellows as well as this ridiculous mage, how the fuck am I supposed to beat this? Even on Easy this is ridiculous, and not at all fun.

Edit - oops I was on Normal, thought it was on easy. Beat it first time on Easy

I don't recall visiting Dust Town yet, but if I find Jarvia anywhere and win i'll let you know how

I'm going to guess you aren't using a mage or two since surely you'd win then

 

[sourceninja]

yea, with my mage in that fight I just cased mass paralyze, ran away and casted ice storm and earth quake. Fight over.

 

[Praxis1452]

Man I almost want to start my character over just so I can do Circle of the Magi first, that way I can get a healing mage. Right now I've got Sten, My dual-wielding rogue, lillian, and morrigan.

Sten is ok, morrigan is amazing with cone of cold but I need it too often especially because I'm doing nature of the best now, and ther are just masses of skeletons. My rogue does good damage and is relatively hearty. Lillian is just horrible. But I don't really wanna go all the way back to camp just to change character. I'm so deep into the game now that I feel like I should just grind through the next few hours battling it out. Would be so much easier with another mage. A healing mage specifically.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Man I almost want to start my character over just so I can do Circle of the Magi first, that way I can get a healing mage. Right now I've got Sten, My dual-wielding rogue, lillian, and morrigan.

Sten is ok, morrigan is amazing with cone of cold but I need it too often especially because I'm doing nature of the best now, and ther are just masses of skeletons. My rogue does good damage and is relatively hearty. Lillian is just horrible. But I don't really wanna go all the way back to camp just to change character. I'm so deep into the game now that I feel like I should just grind through the next few hours battling it out. Would be so much easier with another mage. A healing mage specifically.

It's tough without a healer and you'll definitely want to give Morrigan the basic heal spell if you haven't already. Adding another layer of crowd control would probably help you a lot too, be it another spell (sleep->waking nightmare) or giving leilana some crowd control along the bard path. Ultimately, however, you may want to look into swapping out leilana for a sword/board tank. Properly geared they don't need heals beyond the occasional health pot and they can keep aggro off everybody else who does need heals.

 

[JoshGuru7]

ESPECIALLY if you're playing one. A micro-managed mage is insane.

I've noticed that the "I don't use two mages" statements are almost always followed with "I use Shale". Shale is also overpowered, from everything I've seen. Do a game with no mages and no Shale, then I'll be impressed.

It's very easy to complete the game with one mage and no shale (re: your first statement), and doable with no mages and no shale if you use your rogues for crowd control (poisons/bard) and drink plenty of pots. Nevertheless, mages have a lot of fun spells so I'm not sure why you'd want to play without one.

 

[you2]

Well I finished the game. I only used Shale once and that was on Morg's Mother. I was caught off guard at the end since I didn't expect anyone to pout and walk away. So at the end I had my character (rouge); two fighters and the healer. I played most of the game on hard and only found two fights to be difficult (though I did die a lot).

It's very easy to complete the game with one mage and no shale (re: your first statement), and doable with no mages and no shale if you use your rogues for crowd control (poisons/bard) and drink plenty of pots. Nevertheless, mages have a lot of fun spells so I'm not sure why you'd want to play without one.

 

[Tequila]

I thought mages were OP'd but wait till you see a dual-wielding STR rogue with Blood Dragon armor. My 12th lvl duelist has the Blood Dragon BP and helm. Switched out the gaunts for Red Jenny Seekers for more backstab crit. Totally insane damage output now. Combined with poison and traps makes it even more crazy. Now it's must me, Alistair and Wynne. Don't need a 4th now that I specced up to Fireball with Wynne Nightmare settings and crusing through Redcliffe with this trio(did mages 1st, werewolf ruins 2nd and some Denerim quests).

Rogue damage sucks from frontal but as long as I make Alistair taunt I'm ok. If he goes down my damage drops but at least I can stay alive a while in that armor.

I don't think they implemented fatigue very well in this game. When I'm out of STA I can't use my DW skills but I'm still hitting ridiuculously fast blender style with Momentum stance and for a ton of damage.

 

[Praxis1452]

Just completed the 4 main quests. I'm at around 30 hours in game. I played normal until combat got boring. Then I just played easy. I played hard to kill the high dragon with the urn because I thought that might be fun. Took me 6 tries heh. Also still have to kill flemeth.

I think I'll just open the console and use runscript killallhostiles to get through most of the story. I kinda wish I could combine fallout 3's fps/rpg hybrid + the voice-acting and storyline of dragon age. I kinda just tire of micromanaging my team after hours and hours.

 

[rchiu]

Dragon Age Difficulty is just right for me. At normal, you have to know what you are doing and who you are fighting. This is a good change from many recent games where you can just run in and finish the fight by clicking around.

My only complain is yes, mage is overpowered. Not overpowered as they can put up huge damage, they can, but my problem is they are the damage dealer, the healer, the disabler and a tank if spec'ed correctly. Warrior and rogue seemed so narrow focused compared to mage and feel like you are missing out if you are not playing mage. Would be nice if they had dual class like BG2 so you can have healing warrior/paladin or fire ball casting rogues to widen the class combinations.

Other than that small complain, Dragon Age is like the Lord of the Ring of RPG, one of the most epic, well voice acted, and complex RPG in the past 10~20 years.

 

[Malladine]

Nevertheless, mages have a lot of fun spells so I'm not sure why you'd want to play without one.

Cause it's too easy is my reasoning..i use them now and again when I really need their abilities, but try to avoid it. For me it's usually more satisfying when I win a fight without a mage in my party.