Dragon Age Difficulty

[omber]

Aye it is a very difficult game at least for me it was. I officially gave up on trying to play on Medium after I got to the final boss in battle of Ostagarr (not saying which one but people who played it will know) and switched it down to Easy. I enjoy games for the story and abusive difficulty (in my opinion) would be the deal breaker.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Well every fight was pretty easy up until the sloth demon, now I am just getting my ass handed to me repeatedly. Me (an 8th level rogue, dual weild), Alistar, the other rogue chick and the healer mage woman (can't remember either of their names.
I've gotten close a couple times, but just can't quite get the job done. He's a bad mofo.

 

[exar333]

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.

This really made me laugh. It is akin to "getting tired" of running and shooting in a FPS. If you don't like RPGs, don't have patience for them, or are just downright lazy, don't play them.

 

[ayabe]

Well I'm on my second run now with my rogue, I have to say the game is really easy compared to playing with my bow warrior.

Playing with Morrigan, Sten, either Dog or Shale and I'm owning big time. Once you get coup de grace it's game over.

 

[Ika]

This really made me laugh. It is akin to "getting tired" of running and shooting in a FPS. If you don't like RPGs, don't have patience for them, or are just downright lazy, don't play them.

I like to micromanage too (re: starcraft, baldur's gate, heck most party-based RPGs), but Dragon Age's tactics system is downright stupid. I select my character to go here and attack this person, and the second I pick another character the first one goes right back to trying to smack a darkspawn with her daggers as a mage. My rogue detects a bunch of traps, and instead of telling my party to stop, of course they run through all of them - trip wires, bear teeth, flame traps, everything. I ask Leliana to go defuse a trap and then tell Morrigan to throw a fireball here - oh look, Leliana's "duh=hur, here's a darkspawn! lets play! *runs through trap*" Then I try to make Alistair sit back and not run through the freakin FIRE TRAP that was set up by the storyline, until I realize I can't do it without babysitting his stupid ass the entire time or telling my entire party to stop moving - but when I do that, Alistair won't attack ANYONE who isn't shoving their butt in his face, even if they're an arm's length away.

/rant

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

On my Dragon Age profile page it lists my most powerful foe slain as 0. Anyone actually got a number in that stat? Not a big deal but I'd like it to record my stats properly if possible.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I like to micromanage too (re: starcraft, baldur's gate, heck most party-based RPGs), but Dragon Age's tactics system is downright stupid. I select my character to go here and attack this person, and the second I pick another character the first one goes right back to trying to smack a darkspawn with her daggers as a mage. My rogue detects a bunch of traps, and instead of telling my party to stop, of course they run through all of them - trip wires, bear teeth, flame traps, everything. I ask Leliana to go defuse a trap and then tell Morrigan to throw a fireball here - oh look, Leliana's "duh=hur, here's a darkspawn! lets play! *runs through trap*" Then I try to make Alistair sit back and not run through the freakin FIRE TRAP that was set up by the storyline, until I realize I can't do it without babysitting his stupid ass the entire time or telling my entire party to stop moving - but when I do that, Alistair won't attack ANYONE who isn't shoving their butt in his face, even if they're an arm's length away.

/rant

Ditto to this. Even when you tell a player to do something the minute you click off them they default back to whatever their Tactics are. Also, it would be nice if you could have individual members of your part stay in once place and not just your whole group at once. And having them stay in one spot shouldn't mean they don't attack when enemies are next to them.... it just means "stay here and attack".

DA:O has a lot of bugs that need to be fixed. The AI is poorly done, IMO.

 

[exar333]

Ditto to this. Even when you tell a player to do something the minute you click off them they default back to whatever their Tactics are. Also, it would be nice if you could have individual members of your part stay in once place and not just your whole group at once. And having them stay in one spot shouldn't mean they don't attack when enemies are next to them.... it just means "stay here and attack".

DA:O has a lot of bugs that need to be fixed. The AI is poorly done, IMO.

I agree with this completely. I couldn't have been the only one who thought this was odd too.

Overall, I thought the AI did it's job. Most of the work was in programming the characters and they did a pretty good job. It did come down to timing sometimes though, when they were readying an action, and you wanted them to do something else.

 

[Praxis1452]

This really made me laugh. It is akin to "getting tired" of running and shooting in a FPS. If you don't like RPGs, don't have patience for them, or are just downright lazy, don't play them.

I don't mind micro-managing one character, but having to command all 4 characters repeatedly is a pain. Yes, I would prefer either turn based or strategy.

As I said, I didn't actually play Dragon Age for the rpg side, but because I play games to enjoy a story. DA does actually offer a very good one.


Also running and shooting in an fps is a lot less tedious.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Half way through my second play though. Last time I was a warrior, with Alistair, Leliana, and Wynne. With that party the game was quite a challange.

Now with myself as a mage, Morrigan, Shale, and the gay elf assasin...game is piss easy. No one even touches me. I don't even bother with tactics much. If I see them in the distance I'll just cast Blizzard to slow/freeze them, and then blast them with lightning storm and chain lightning. They don't survice. Morrighan just cone of colds anyone that gets out of the blizzard.

If i'm surprised i'll just get Morg to cone of cold them and I'll hit them with chain lightning. Then when the revive (if they're not dead) then Morg can mind blast (or i can cone of cold). No contest.

 

[Malladine]

You guys complaining about micromanaging or poor AI need to use the "hold position" button

Helps a ton

 

[sourceninja]

You guys complaining about micromanaging or poor AI need to use the "hold position" button

Helps a ton

On my current playthough I turned off all tactics except "target and attack at range" for Morrigan. I was sick of her using all her mana in ways that didn't help us. Whinn and Allister have very custom tactics and I almost never have to touch those two. I'm playing as a rogue and again, no tactics setup for me.

 

[exar333]

On my current playthough I turned off all tactics except "target and attack at range" for Morrigan. I was sick of her using all her mana in ways that didn't help us. Whinn and Allister have very custom tactics and I almost never have to touch those two. I'm playing as a rogue and again, no tactics setup for me.

That was one of two main issues I have with spellcaster tactics. I mitigated this by crafting a ton of minor mana potions for her to take. The other issue was she would regularly use global spells with friendly fire on my team. Its very difficult to include these spells in her tactics without a lot of collateral damage. Its far easier to take control of her and use them manually in safe areas between you and the enemies.

 

[Ika]

You guys complaining about micromanaging or poor AI need to use the "hold position" button

Helps a ton

Counter-example:
X - myself
A - Alistair
D - Darkspawn

XD......A

each . is a character length. I'm being attacked by a darkspawn, and I'm an archer. Alistair has used his taunt already (on enemies that were an entire screen's length away, but I digress). If I put him on Hold, he'll sit there, watching me get my ass beat. There's no compromise to this stupid situation except completely disabling the tactics, but tactics *are* useful because there are so many mundane encounters in this game that microing everyone becomes a pain in the ass.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Okay, for anyone having trouble with Dragon Age: Origins, I've prepared a mini-walkthrough that will allow you to cruise through the game with ease.

1. Make your main character a Mage
2. Use a party of you, Morrigan, Wynne and Alistair/Shale
3. Give Blood Magic to all of your Mages
4. Make your main an Arcane Warrior, have Wynne spam heals and have Morrigan do whatever you want (Cone of Cold, Mind Blast, Blizzard, etc.)
5. ???
6. Destroy everything with minimal effort
7. Profit
8. Secret! = your fourth party member doesn't even matter since Mages can do anything and everything!

With three Blood Mages, I'm fairly certain you could keep a group of enemies locked down with the blood paralyze for perpetuity, since I don't think CC has diminishing returns in DA:O. I only use my main as a Mage and Wynne, and I could keep the enemies locked down for the entire fight.

You're welcome.

 

[a123456]

Counter-example:
X - myself
A - Alistair
D - Darkspawn

XD......A

each . is a character length. I'm being attacked by a darkspawn, and I'm an archer. Alistair has used his taunt already (on enemies that were an entire screen's length away, but I digress). If I put him on Hold, he'll sit there, watching me get my ass beat. There's no compromise to this stupid situation except completely disabling the tactics, but tactics *are* useful because there are so many mundane encounters in this game that microing everyone becomes a pain in the ass.

I have a tactic for just this kind of stuff since I'm a squishy mage that should never be getting attacked.

My tank usually has
Enemy highest health: Taunt (which does have the taunt across the screen uselessness)
blah blah talents
Enemy: attacking main character: Attack
Enemy: lowest health or Enemy: target of main character: Attack

 

[snikt]

I don't mind micro-managing one character, but having to command all 4 characters repeatedly is a pain. Yes, I would prefer either turn based or strategy.

Since I learned to use the Tactics feature, I haven't been micro-managing as much. In fact, I finished the Circle of Mages quest last night. The way I finished the last "boss" in the quest was actually pretty hilarious. Without giving away too much, I entered the room, went through the cutscene. As soon as the battle began, the boss's minions went straight for Alistair, so I pull him out of the melee and make him run around dodging the minions, all the while making Three Stooges sounds to myself, think "woo, woo, woo." As I'm controlling Alistair, my other 3 characters, Aedan, Wynne, and Morrigan are going toe-to-toe with the boss. The only characters I really micro-managed were Alistair and Aedan: Alistair playing dodge-the-minions, and healing Aedan.

 

[Slew Foot]

......Room full of baddies....


.............AListair............
..Me(mage).Wynne.....Morrigan


At the start, WYnne casts Earthquake, I cast Tempest, Morrigan casts Blizzard. Once those go off, WYnne casts Glyph of repulsion, I cast Inferno, Morrigan casts sleep on any stragglers. Alistair gets anyone who gets by, win game.

 

[coloumb]

......Room full of baddies....


.............AListair............
..Me(mage).Wynne.....Morrigan


At the start, WYnne casts Earthquake, I cast Tempest, Morrigan casts Blizzard. Once those go off, WYnne casts Glyph of repulsion, I cast Inferno, Morrigan casts sleep on any stragglers. Alistair gets anyone who gets by, win game.

AOE spells ftw.

I had 2 mages - one with Blizzard, other with Inferno. Just out of site of the enemies - cast both and just wait for all of them to fry or freeze to death

 

[StinkyPinky]

AOE spells ftw.

I had 2 mages - one with Blizzard, other with Inferno. Just out of site of the enemies - cast both and just wait for all of them to fry or freeze to death

Blizzard and Tempest is probably a better combo. The reason being enemies impacted by Blizzard get higher fire resistance so the inferno spell is less damaging if blizzard is also active.

 

[Marty502]

Currently trying to solo with an Arcane Warrior. At most, I'll have a tank. (Probably Oghren)

Mages really make the game easier. They're insanely powerful.

 

[homercles337]

I like to micromanage too (re: starcraft, baldur's gate, heck most party-based RPGs), but Dragon Age's tactics system is downright stupid. I select my character to go here and attack this person, and the second I pick another character the first one goes right back to trying to smack a darkspawn with her daggers as a mage. My rogue detects a bunch of traps, and instead of telling my party to stop, of course they run through all of them - trip wires, bear teeth, flame traps, everything. I ask Leliana to go defuse a trap and then tell Morrigan to throw a fireball here - oh look, Leliana's "duh=hur, here's a darkspawn! lets play! *runs through trap*" Then I try to make Alistair sit back and not run through the freakin FIRE TRAP that was set up by the storyline, until I realize I can't do it without babysitting his stupid ass the entire time or telling my entire party to stop moving - but when I do that, Alistair won't attack ANYONE who isn't shoving their butt in his face, even if they're an arm's length away.

/rant

I completely agree with this. Micromanaging in this game is like herding cats. They dont even obey their default behaviour settings most of the time. When in battle and having to pause every "round" is just stupid.

 

[homercles337]

You guys complaining about micromanaging or poor AI need to use the "hold position" button

Helps a ton

Except that "hold" also means "stand there and do nothing" while in battle.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Honestly guys, there are a lot of good tactic suggestions already posted for each class that really alleviate the micro-management issues. The only thing I couldn't get working to my liking on my second playthrough was mage AOE DD and spirit healing, both of which require direct control to be used effectively.

You can look up tactics, but I would recommend first playing with the behavior tab (IE.. set Alistaiir to Defender) and learning from the defaults. A lot of the complaints have underscored a basic lack of knowledge about the tactics settings (if your healer goes after something with a knife, you probably have them on Aggressive!).

 

[Looney]

This really made me laugh. It is akin to "getting tired" of running and shooting in a FPS. If you don't like RPGs, don't have patience for them, or are just downright lazy, don't play them.

I don't micromanage my groups, and i finished it on Hard and more than halfway through it on nightmare now. If i have Wynne, she does all the healing without any management from me. If i have Morrigan, she does all the crowd control without my help. I set her up to cast sleep on groups of mobs then follow with horror. Neither of these are friendly fire. Wynne, Morrigan, and Leileana are set up to lock down mages with either paralyze, imprisonment, or pinning shots. If any of the casters or rogue gets aggro, they're set up to defend themselves. Wynne is set up to cast paralyze, Morrigan will use Mind Blast and Imprisoned, the rogues have a bunch of self defense like dirty fighting, distraction, pinning shots, etc. And i have the tanks set up to grab aggro from the casters who are being attacked.

I think the difficulty is just about perfect, even on nightmare. It's a challenge, but not impossibly so.