Dragon Age is hard....

[WolfThomas]

The order of quests can affect difficulty greatly, I did the Dalish first, really hard but once I had completed nearly everything (and obtained Juggernaut Armour) everything else seemed easier.

My advice would be to always first kill the mages. Just like you slaughter as a mage, mages will just rip your party apart (I found, anyways). Kill 'em quick, or they'll AOE, glyph, and spell you like it's Christmas. I hate enemy mages.

My screams of "Mage dies first!" often distracted my housemates.

 

[Actual]

all of a sudden your party will be made up of Bruce Lee, Samurai Jack, Gandalf, and the Death Star.

I would love to play this game, hilarious comment.

- Here's something you can exploit like a champ. The game levels enemies according to what level you are when you first encounter them. Put on some fireproof gear and go kill Flemeth when you're around 12th level (safety tip: STAND BEHIND HER THE WHOLE TIME). Then when you counter that dragon during the Urn of Sacred Ashes and you're level15 or so? Guess what? Big as it is, that dragon is lower than you! Now here's a pop quiz: what were you killing at Ostagar?

Do you have some source for this one? I don't believe that once you meet one dragon all dragons will be the same level, or all darkspawn would be level 5 throughout the whole game.

I think you can exploit it by loading up an area you know is going to be tough, which loads all the monsters in at a certain level, then leaving and coming back once you've leveled up a couple times, you'll now be tougher than you should be when killing them.

If you HAVE to play a mage (how many of you named theirs Dr. Orpheus?)

I did not, and I now regret it, I must go roll a new mage..

I could make a party of two mages and a blackula slayer!

Oh yeah!On topic:

Shale is a win button, unfortunately the best tank in the game.

You need two mages. One set up as a healer (you don't need the spirit healing specialisation):

ally health <70% Regeneration, this is the best healing spell.
Ally health < 50% Heal.
Lowest instruction should be to attack target of the tank.

And one as crowd control, I'm afraid you'll need to micro manage this one a lot, unless you're a wiz with the tactics as mine always froze the wrong characters. Force field, shattering prison, and sleep are the first abilities you should aim for.

Crowd control is the hardest part of the game (unless you use Shale), make sure your tank has definitely got everyone's attention before the rest of your party joins in.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Guys...

There are too many great posts in this thread to reply to each individually, so just a big thanks to all of you.

There's a tonne of advice here that looks really useful, keep it coming!

It seems I'm not the only one who is going to benefit from the tactic sharing, a few more people are getting good tips too.

I love this community.

 

[Danpascooch]

I honestly don't, I found it very easy (I am not being an ass, just a fact)

My recommendation would be to NOT try to make your own tactics set for your party members from the ground up and instead make small tweaks to the existing tactical presets, the completely made from scratch custom ones don't always work correctly.

 

[.Warheart]

I haven't used tactics and such so far.. but I just like playing on Easy because Easy is more intended for real time play and not the intermediate pauses to adjust your tactics and such.
I could still enjoy the game though. My party consisted of Alistair as tank, Leliana as Ranged DPS and Wynne as healer, with me as rogue doing melee DPS.

Worked like a charm and all these people are for those do-gooders out there.

 

[Zero47]

Just another peice of advice, Arcane Warrior mages are absolute win. Right now
I'm practically soloing on hard, with ease my AW can solo Revenants and other tough
enemies.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Thats what she said!

No seriously, it is pretty hard.

 

[Cryo84R]

Play as an Arcane Warrior.

Also known as "Super Easy mode"

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I'm running Mage/Morrigan/Shale/Alistair on Normal and doing pretty well. I've run into several areas that were very tough (Revenants in that Forest area, anyone?) but overall it's been simple. Both Morrigan and my Mage heal the 2 tanks and I just beat enemies out of attrition. Liberal use of Glyph of Paralysis and Cone of Cold to neutralize some of the enemies at the start, then just let Shale and Alistair beat them down over time.

I had a HELL of a time with that Blood Mage area in the large city (forgot the name), but I got through it after a few tries.

 

[Jenova65]

I haven't read all replies, sorry, so don't know if this has been suggested
Human rogues start with best rogue stats, so pick human noble rogue (very useful because those chests early on contain useful supplies for one thing, armour, weapons, healing items)
Always keep Alistair in your party (ALWAYS)he is a great all round tank.
Other than that get Wynne as early as possible and keep her in the party always too.
Pick from your other party members who you like best. I have a real soft spot for Zevran, but pick a character that you feel balances your party (Shale has good defense, the archdemon had trouble doing damage to her in my game)
And if you have to dial the difficulty down do it, maybe you get used to the game and dial it back up later or in another playthrough but don't feel like less of a gamer, it is supposed to be challenging but fun

 

[Ben Jamin]

Do so, and you will have won Dragon Age. Sometimes I feel a little cheap... but honestly, no amount of swords can compare to summoning a whirling, frigid lightning storm on fire.

I did this with 2 Mages but i added Death Cloud. Making it a freezing cloud of electricity and death on fire!

 

[FROGGEman2]

Christ, you guys actually fit tactics in? I just mass them all to death.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Is Shale a man or a lady?

I see some differing views there.

Tactics seem to working pretty well for me, just sticking to easy for my first playthrough to enjoy the story.

 

[Jenova65]

Is Shale a man or a lady?

I see some differing views there.

Tactics seem to working pretty well for me, just sticking to easy for my first playthrough to enjoy the story.

She is female (you will find out later...) Won't spoil it for you

 

[Wolvaroo]

Comming from a strong backround of heavy BG/IWD/PS playing even I had trouble on Normal at a few spots. Keep in mind most of the tougher encounters can be avoided completely. One failsafe strategy that has always gotten me out of a jam is simply keeping the party a good ways held back and pre-emptively setting 5-20 traps in a bottleneck just before an encounter. Survival helps a lot with preperations on your first playthrough but saving before opening doors into large rooms and reloading can work just aswell.

My first playthrough party went smoothly on normal as:
Myself: Dwarven two handed Beserker/Reaver
Alistar: Shield tank Templar/champion with heavy spell resistance
Leliana: Bard/Ranger straight archer
Wynn: Spirit Healer/Shapeshifter, straight healer/buffer never put a single point into shapeshifting but the +2constitution was more appealing than the other passive bonuses

As you can see it's a very plain time-proven set-up. One thing I believed made entirely the difference on some of the tougher fights with 3 or more magi was Alistar having the Knight Commander templar armour that offered some 40% spell immunity.

Don't neglect spending talents on more tactics slots. I at first thought it silly as they offered no actual improvement, but for some spellcasters it can save you hours of pause-time and frustration.

 

[TotallyFake]

Slight question regarding the final area of the game:

Spoiler

Am I supposed to be one-shot-killing all the minor enemies from Redcliffe to the end? Emissaries, Alphas, Assasins and the like are just as tough as before, but Hurlocks, Genlocks and the grunts go down instantly. The archer damage was insane, so it was still a challenge despite my rogue being able to take down 6 enemies in two attacks (Sweep and Whirlwind).

Did they do this just so they could throw phenomenally large hordes of enemies at you (like the Yaga-Shura fight in BG2) or was I just obscenely over-levelled - had my entire party at lvl 20.

 

[Wolvaroo]

Slight question regarding the final area of the game:

Spoiler

Am I supposed to be one-shot-killing all the minor enemies from Redcliffe to the end? Emissaries, Alphas, Assasins and the like are just as tough as before, but Hurlocks, Genlocks and the grunts go down instantly. The archer damage was insane, so it was still a challenge despite my rogue being able to take down 6 enemies in two attacks (Sweep and Whirlwind).

Did they do this just so they could throw phenomenally large hordes of enemies at you (like the Yaga-Shura fight in BG2) or was I just obscenely over-levelled - had my entire party at lvl 20.

Same thing for me.

Spoiler

I assume it's just for extra Dramatic "Look how awesome you've become this is our way around letting you actualy fight an entire war like we've been leading you on to"

EDIT: also after playing both a two-hander and a dual-wielder. My Dual Weapon warrior did insanely more damage than my two-hander warrior. Just slap on Dual-striking and momentum and you wont even need to use abilities. Also as somebody else mentioned the same strategy as a rogue nets even more benefits at the low cost of more fatique, but as I mentioned you will hardly need to use any stamina.

 

[BENZOOKA]

I feel you. I have the same exact problem, on the PC version though. Switching to easy feels so bad, but on normal: I can finally win some battles after losing them up to ten times. It has taken a long time to get used to the battle system and usually I don't like to control every one in the party. playing as a mage might be some kind of a solution, but I don't like to play as one at all; for now, at least.

 

[Kazturkey]

ok i dont mean to troll.....

but ive never played or read much about dragon age but it seems like the game being described here is WoW, i mean the tactics just seem so similar to 5 man heroics (obviously before you could do them in 10 mins with a 45kunbuffed tank)

Naw, WoW is for 13 year old kids mostly. Hell, their next expansion is dedicated to making the game even easier. Dragon Age is actually difficult. You can breeze through any of the content in WoW if you're geared up right and know the tactics. In Dragon Age, the enemy mages are a PROBLEM. Kill the Mage first doesn't always work, especially if the mage decides to use cone of cold just as you reach them, because that freezes your entire party and YOU ARENT THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN SHATTER ON A CRITICAL.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Now, first of all, let's keep this thread free from comments like 'LOLZ U JUST SUCK AT RPGs' or 'I dunno whatz wrongz with u, I'M BETTER THAN YOU HAHA.'

I am aware of these points already, hence why I am posting this thread.

Now...

I am finding Dragon Age very, very difficult.

I am not entirely new to Bioware RPGs, but I never played KOTOR or Baldur's Gate. I breezed though Mass Effect with no problem but that was shooter based so I don't think it really compares.

It seems any time I get into a battle in DA:O I get my ass severely kicked, I can't seem to beat certain foes no matter how much pausing and lining up commands I do.

I'm had to move it to easy difficulty now (just before the Circle of Magi) and feel like I'm not experiencing the game as it was meant to be played. (even though I still get killed sometimes, even on easy).

I want to at least be able dial it back up to normal.

Does anyone have any general guidelines or tips in how to manage this kind of combat system?

What party members have you had success with?

Was choosing a human noble warrior a mistake?

It seems mages are more powerful in battle than tanks.

Edit: I'm on the 360 version

Any advice or tips welcome.

Huh... what have you been spending your attribute points on?

EDIT:
And for those of you that have the PC version and are complaining that the game is getting too easy... take a look at the Nightmare Plus mod.