Dragon Age is hard....

[Kazturkey]

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.

Yes, you are meant to be doing that. It's so they can throw the large numbers of enemies at you. Just be careful not to get too cocky, there is one point

Spoiler

In the Elven Alienage where you'll be fighting ~100+ enemies at once. There are alphas in there, and an orange named general mob. Oh and a TON of Ogres.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

No, that's just the horrible combat system.
Make sure you have a Mage in your party, they are hideously overpowered.

on offense yeah, but if you get anywhere near them it takes 2-3 hits to kill em, or use the bitchslap command as a rogue and they are yours for the taking, mages are killers if you let them sit in the background, just like you as the player do as a mage

mage is easy for easy and normal, but warrior slowly has the favor switched to it on nightmare for difficulty, as mages get literally teebagged and pooped on on nightmare

 

[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.

Yes, you are meant to be doing that. It's so they can throw the large numbers of enemies at you. Just be careful not to get too cocky, there is one point

Spoiler

In the Elven Alienage where you'll be fighting ~100+ enemies at once. There are alphas in there, and an orange named general mob. Oh and a TON of Ogres.

Spoiler

Oh yeah, that was kinda annoying. I just sat back, dropped some AoE, shot the crap out of the ogre and flooded the area with Redcliffe Militia. Would probably have been smarter to go for the mages and nuke the hell out of them. Still worked.

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

A Blood Mage/Spirit Healer with good crowd control is a game breaker. All pretence of challenge is thrown out of the window. But if I do give you one serious piece of advice... Kill enemy mages first. For the love of all that is fraggable, kill them first. Many a times when I was starting out would my party be shredded by an enemy mage throwing fireballs left and right.

 

[Belvadier]

mage is easiest to play as and the recipe for success party is mage as player character, wynne healing and buffing, alistair to lay down the melee hurt and take hits (use blood dragon armor, or, if that's unavailable, Juggernaut plate or wade's superior dragonbone plate), shale to tank.

also, i feel like "nuking" as a mage should be the last thing you do after your dots and crowd control spells are already used/recharging.

run in...mind blast/mass paralysis/curse of mortality/crushing prison and THEN start nuking.

that's how i played at least and had no problems with normal difficulty and even bumped it up the next notch for my second playthrough without any problems so far...

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Well, you're on 360 so I can't help a lot as I have no idea how to play without the tactical overhead. That's an old war wound from too many hours of Baldur's Gate.

What I will say is this: hte difficulty in DA:O is god damn wobbly. One second you're breezing through anything, next second I'm getting raped by a random encounter.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[

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

Strength, constitution and dexterity.

 

[TheDoctor455]

[

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

Strength, constitution and dexterity.

What class? And what skill tree?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[

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

Strength, constitution and dexterity.

What class? And what skill tree?

Human Noble Warrior

Skill tree thing: combat tactics and combat training

Skills: Warrior, Weapon and shield, Templar

Wearing Juggernaut armour

I also have Alistair on the same setup

Then Wynne with healing spells, buffs, Ice spells and paralyse

And Leiliana with buffs and ranged attacks

 

[Sedweiler]

I have learned this one principle from the Baldur's Gate -games, that can help you out: Ranged attacks are your friend.

This is about setting ambushes; when you are certain that there are enemies in the next room/around the corner, have your companions stand still, with ranged weapons ready. Then go to lure the enemies out of their place towards your friends, and start blasting! AoE spells are important in this tactic. This tactic helped me conserve healing potions in places like Redcliffe castle and Circle Tower. Also, if there is a big baddie, try to have it chase one of your guys around, while the others blasts it with ranged attacks.

And close AoE spells/abilities like Mind Blast or the mabari's Dread Howl are very convenient.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Crushing Prison 2x = fun

 

[TheDoctor455]

[

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

Strength, constitution and dexterity.

What class? And what skill tree?

Human Noble Warrior

Skill tree thing: combat tactics and combat training

Skills: Warrior, Weapon and shield, Templar

Wearing Juggernaut armour

I also have Alistair on the same setup

Then Wynne with healing spells, buffs, Ice spells and paralyse

And Leiliana with buffs and ranged attacks

Well... that setup sounds pretty good. Have you expermineted with the tactics screen? If not, you should do so, because it will be one of your greatest allies. Other than that, the only basic advice I can give is for you to just pause the game every now and then to check on your party's status and switch between them to give them orders.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

There are some issues with enemies being improperly leveled to you in areas where they are supposed to, unlike some areas where they aren't leveled to you.

I had a ***** of a time in Orzammar because of this. The mercs outside the gate killed me 1346323 times. And then I put it on Casual.

 

[aaronmcc]

I'm playing through it contently on easy. I was just constantly frustrated in normal mode at getting my balls kicked in. I'm not ashamed of it at all. This is the only game I've ever played in easy mode but there's no achievements for doing hard or whatever, plus I'm currently flying through MW2 in veteran.

I'm just not hat good with the DA:O combat system.

 

[Emilie Diabolica]

oh god i feel you. i'm on the fucking EASY setting, yet i still suck

no matter how i tweak the party tactics and stock up on health poultices, i'm securely stuck right before the archdemon!

*facedesk x 934873*



ARGHHHHH FRUSTRATION!!!!!!

P.S.
I think i'm in love with zevran.
[small]ohhhhh baby ^^[/small]

 

[ace_of_something]

Everyone seems to think mage is your solution. I got my ass handed to me when I was a mage. I found the (dwarven noble!) rogue the way to go. Mostly because every locked box I found made seeth with rage.

There are a few battles that are definitly tough where I found the only way I could win was to 'pause: quick heal potion: unpause for one second: move to another character quick heal chug potion: repeat and hope the tactics I have assigned will win the day. Sometimes it helps to switch at least one character to using a bow too because then at least ONE person is doing damage when the party gets knocked over.

 

[ShadowofaAirmen]

Well i beat the game once alrdy as a Mage and now rolling as a Dwarf Noble Rouge. On the Mage i used Sten.Leliana and Alistar Sten can butcher just about any thing with that nifty StarFan blade in his hand and Alistar Disrupts mages so well they dont pose to much of a Threat as for my self i went the BLood mage/Spirit healer path. And i found Blood Magic to be my best friend turning people againts each other and a Huge Area CC Granted the mage went threw on easy. MY current rouge is on hard and her group is Her a rouge who is Assassin.dulist/ Zehvren same spec. Shale To tank and Morgian to Heal and CC...and even on hard i only had to reload once so far and that was Vs that Damn Brood Mother but Shale in my opinion is like.. the best tank in the game and me and Zevhren kill stuff so fast ya blink and the fight is over as for Morgian she keeps use alive and with plenty of Stanmia regen