Dragon Age Difficulty

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Yea my $39 copy from amazon came with shale and blood dragon armor. One thing that concerns me is that (from what other folks have said) you have to be logged in for dlc to work. This means if your inet goes down your dlc party member/items vanish? I hope it isn't that anal but that is what it sounds like.

Yes, you have to be logged in to load the games you started with the DLC enabled. If you try and load a game with DLC and you're offline, it says that you must log in before loading the game.

I get this message sometimes because apparently, I hit the Resume Game button faster than Dragon Age can log in.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Well I would be eternally impressed if someone can defeat the Revenant in the Brecilian Forest with no mages - the one who spawns up the hill from you with the mage.

Well, I oftentimes have to finish up big fights with Alistair and Leilanna chain-chugging pots because squishy mages have a nasty habit of going from full to dead in an instant, especially when a ton of guys instantly spawn and target their closest target. I know at least one of the Revenant fights in the forest went this way.

Does that count?

 

[exar333]

Well I would be eternally impressed if someone can defeat the Revenant in the Brecilian Forest with no mages - the one who spawns up the hill from you with the mage.

The Revenants weren't too difficult; IIRC you fight them on three separate occations with a mixed-group of skeleton archers/fighters/mages. I just have one Mage in my party, but Morrigan didn't reallt participate much. Each time I fought them, the Revenant went right for the Mage, regardless of my attempts to Taunt them away. With my other two fighters, and my Rogue backstabbing, it wasn't too bad. I think the fighters used a couple minor healing potions, but nothing major. My Rogue/Assassin really hit for some big-time backstabs that made a huge difference. Hard difficulty BTW...

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

My Rogue/Assassin really hit for some big-time backstabs that made a huge difference.

Imagine how good Rogues will be when BioWare finally gets around to fixing the DEX bug...

 

[exar333]

Imagine how good Rogues will be when BioWare finally gets around to fixing the DEX bug...

True. I always use my assassin ability to "mark" high-level enemies to increase the backstab damage, and coupled with the other assassin backstab bonues, it's pretty good.

Morrigan is too powerful IMHO, so I usually set her tactic slots to non-CC spells unless they are really needed. I actually like playing the combat out a little longer and having more fun backstabbing.

 

[erwos]

The Revenants weren't too difficult; IIRC you fight them on three separate occations with a mixed-group of skeleton archers/fighters/mages.

Unless I'm misremembering, you actually fight them more like 10 times - there are two separate quest lines involving them.

The trick is to take out the weaker enemies (if present) and then tank it with one character and have the rest of your party smack it with ranged attacks. You may want o consider a teensy bit of health micromanagement for the tank, as the revenant hits pretty hard.

 

[sourceninja]

What is the appeal of the AW/BM combo? I've heard nothing but rave reviews about it, and I finally got AW last night, and so far I am underwhelmed. Is the proper build to just put a bunch of points into passive/sustained talents for the mage, or do you actually cast a lot of spells? With the way the AW operates, it'd be tough to cast a bunch of high cost spells like Blizzard and Tempest.

I've also noticed that my AW attacks way slower than my warrior with comparable weapons. I asked about it in the other DA thread, but is it just me, or is there something I'm missing?

It is cool though to have my mage walking around in a full set of Blood Dragon Armor.

I had no attack spells until about level 20. Just passive and CC abilities.

My basic play style was this
16 cunning (for skills)
42 magic
the rest of the points in dex and will power (to increase hit chance and mana).

1) Walk around with mage armor, Shimmering Shield, rock armor, and telepathic weapons on.
2) Don't use a shield, it has an attack penalty.
3) on the start of combat, I would cast CC spells.
4) Once mana was gone (2-3 spells), I would fire up Combat magic and any other abilities I wanted to use.
5) Then I would click blood magic and use Blood Wound to stop huge crowds with no cast time, or blood control for some extra help.
6) Finally I would either turn off blood magic and drink the weakest health potion possible (the first recipe) and be full health
7) Turn back on blood magic if you need more CC

The rest of my party was on cruse control. Wynne for healing only, Alister as a tank, Leliana as a archer with ranger for a extra party member.

When I fought Loghain I just used my sword on him for fun as he couldn't do enough damage on hard difficulty to seriously make me worry.

 

[you2]

I just did that fight last night on hard. I'm around level 10 or 11. Found it rather difficult and unexpected. My team had wyrm, morrigon, alstar and myself (rogue). I had to do it 3 times (failed the first two). I suspect my level was too low for this encounter as it frequently did massive damage per hit to my warrior and my rouge had a bit of difficulty hitting/stunning it. Basically morrigan cold cone did the trick; wyrm was an absolute waste (though heals helped save a few potions). If I had planned for the fight I would have used shale as the main tank and dropped morrigion or wyrmm or both. Not too sure how well shale could have buffed it.

The Revenants weren't too difficult; IIRC you fight them on three separate occations with a mixed-group of skeleton archers/fighters/mages. I just have one Mage in my party, but Morrigan didn't reallt participate much. Each time I fought them, the Revenant went right for the Mage, regardless of my attempts to Taunt them away. With my other two fighters, and my Rogue backstabbing, it wasn't too bad. I think the fighters used a couple minor healing potions, but nothing major. My Rogue/Assassin really hit for some big-time backstabs that made a huge difference. Hard difficulty BTW...

 

[ZzZGuy]

Yes, you have to be logged in to load the games you started with the DLC enabled. If you try and load a game with DLC and you're offline, it says that you must log in before loading the game.

I get this message sometimes because apparently, I hit the Resume Game button faster than Dragon Age can log in.

No, no you don't.

I just unplugged my computer from the internet and loaded a game with shale & blood dragon armor and both are there and working. I do not have warden's keep but to the best of my knowledge all DLC uses the same DRM method.

You do have to be logged the first time you play with the DLC, but after that you do not require a internet connection.

-edit- Wait, do you have a physical copy or a digital copy? I have a physical copy and IIRC the digital copy's DRM works differently.

 

[exar333]

Unless I'm misremembering, you actually fight them more like 10 times - there are two separate quest lines involving them.

The trick is to take out the weaker enemies (if present) and then tank it with one character and have the rest of your party smack it with ranged attacks. You may want o consider a teensy bit of health micromanagement for the tank, as the revenant hits pretty hard.

I don't think I have picked-up that quest yet then. IIRC, I fought maybe 5 revenants, but not much more than that. My party was level 12-13 as I completed a number of quests elsewhere before heading to the elf rhealm.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

No, no you don't.

Yes, yes you do.

If I load up the game and click Resume Game quickly, it will say I need to be logged in because the save game was created using DLC, and that I need to log in to the BioWare servers in order to load the game. Every. Single. Time.

In your example, it sounds like you already had Dragon Age open before you unplugged your computer. The first thing Dragon Age does is log into the servers, hence your DLC was already "validated".

Google around and you'll find official posts from BioWare confirming what I said...you need to at least be able to log in to the servers to "validate" your DLC, but they can be installed on any number of computers.

 

[ayabe]

Unless I'm misremembering, you actually fight them more like 10 times - there are two separate quest lines involving them.

The trick is to take out the weaker enemies (if present) and then tank it with one character and have the rest of your party smack it with ranged attacks. You may want o consider a teensy bit of health micromanagement for the tank, as the revenant hits pretty hard.

The one I referred to was the hardest one for me by a mile, mainly because you can't really target them immediately and have to either charge up the hill, or wait for them to come down - usually from two sides - which makes CC difficult.

Trying to melee those guys is a joke, I use my tank for meatshield purposes and that's about it, I don't connect very often with any of my melee characters and when I do, it's for crap damage. Have to have morrigan for cone of cold on the Revenant, kill the minions, then I use my bows to kill him.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Trying to melee those guys is a joke, I use my tank for meatshield purposes and that's about it, I don't connect very often with any of my melee characters and when I do, it's for crap damage.

The first time I fought a Revenant in the Magi Tower, it totally took me by surprise. I had to finish the fight meleeing with Alistair because everyone else bit the dust pretty quickly. It was...painful, to say the least. I think I quaffed like 30 potions just to make it through that fight.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I had no attack spells until about level 20. Just passive and CC abilities.

Well shoot, I made my mage like a normal mage, loaded down with all the ice and lightning attack spells, and very few sustained abilities. Now I'm finding them to be fairly useless ever since I unlocked Arcane Warrior.

WTB respec ability in DA, PST!

 

[ayabe]

The first time I fought a Revenant in the Magi Tower, it totally took me by surprise. I had to finish the fight meleeing with Alistair because everyone else bit the dust pretty quickly. It was...painful, to say the least. I think I quaffed like 30 potions just to make it through that fight.

Yeah I had to try this one about 10 different times until I finally got him. With the same party I took out the High Dragon the first time around.

Go figure,

 

[JoshGuru7]

Well shoot, I made my mage like a normal mage, loaded down with all the ice and lightning attack spells, and very few sustained abilities. Now I'm finding them to be fairly useless ever since I unlocked Arcane Warrior.

WTB respec ability in DA, PST!

The third tier DPS spells are all pretty useful because they incorporate crowd control. Cone of Cold really makes a big difference, for example, if you have a rogue/assassin in the group who crits a lot.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Yes, yes you do.

If I load up the game and click Resume Game quickly, it will say I need to be logged in because the save game was created using DLC, and that I need to log in to the BioWare servers in order to load the game. Every. Single. Time.

In your example, it sounds like you already had Dragon Age open before you unplugged your computer. The first thing Dragon Age does is log into the servers, hence your DLC was already "validated".

Google around and you'll find official posts from BioWare confirming what I said...you need to at least be able to log in to the servers to "validate" your DLC, but they can be installed on any number of computers.

No, no you don't.

I unplugged my internet THEN started the game. Never before have I encountered this issue. But as I said, I do not have Warden's Keep and my copy is a physical one. -edit- Stone Prisoner & Blood Dragon Armor was installed before I began the game.


I also installed the game while online, then play a bit with it auto logging in then I disabled the auto log in so it always says "Logged Out".

From what I remember of looking into the digital copy DRM, it only requires a internet connection the first time you play the game so it can download content to allow the game to work.

If I was you I'd contact customer support.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

No, no you don't.

I unplugged my internet THEN started the game. Never before have I encountered this issue. But as I said, I do not have Warden's Keep and my copy is a physical one. -edit- Stone Prisoner & Blood Dragon Armor was installed before I began the game.


I also installed the game while online, then play a bit with it auto logging in then I disabled the auto log in so it always says "Logged Out".

From what I remember of looking into the digital copy DRM, it only requires a internet connection the first time you play the game so it can download content to allow the game to work.

If I was you I'd contact customer support.

I'm just calling it like I see it. Perhaps it is a customer service/technical issue, but meh...if I wait a few seconds for it to log on, it works just fine. Maybe the game just hasn't finished loading yet and that is an out-of-place error message? Who knows?

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

The third tier DPS spells are all pretty useful because they incorporate crowd control. Cone of Cold really makes a big difference, for example, if you have a rogue/assassin in the group who crits a lot.

Even before I got Arcane Warrior and started wearing heavy armor and using Combat Magic, my mage was running OOM after like Cone of Cold, Blizzard and Tempest. That's the major issue. If I had known this, I would have allocated my points differently, but oh well.

 

[exar333]

Yes, you have to be logged in to load the games you started with the DLC enabled. If you try and load a game with DLC and you're offline, it says that you must log in before loading the game.

I get this message sometimes because apparently, I hit the Resume Game button faster than Dragon Age can log in.

I also get this same message and I have all the DLC items loaded. If I try to load the game too quickly, just as RPS, it displays the error and I wait a few more seconds.

 

[sticks435]

I also get this same message and I have all the DLC items loaded. If I try to load the game too quickly, just as RPS, it displays the error and I wait a few more seconds.

Yea, that's happened to me before too. I thought I remember there being something mentioned about only having a one-time internet check, so maybe things changed since then.

 

[ZzZGuy]

I also get this same message and I have all the DLC items loaded. If I try to load the game too quickly, just as RPS, it displays the error and I wait a few more seconds.

Physical or digital copy of the game itself?

Perhaps you should try setting the game to not log you in, see if this would resolve the issue. My only guess is if it is allowed to connect to the internet it has to phone home before it lets you play.

 

[ayabe]

I also get this same message and I have all the DLC items loaded. If I try to load the game too quickly, just as RPS, it displays the error and I wait a few more seconds.

Ditto, sometimes it takes a full minute for everything to sync for me.

 

[exar333]

Physical or digital copy of the game itself?

Perhaps you should try setting the game to not log you in, see if this would resolve the issue. My only guess is if it is allowed to connect to the internet it has to phone home before it lets you play.

Physical copy...

 

[NoSoup4You]

Huh, when I start Dragon Age I have to wait probably exactly 1 second before hitting 'Resume' or I'll get that message. 1 second, literally, it's definitely not 2 seconds...etc. Obviously, this is not an issue but if it's taking other people up to a minute that would definitely be annoying.

Although, some games have almost a minute worth of splash screens you have to sit through whereas Dragon Age allows you to cancel through everything and be on the main menu screen in no time.