Dragon Age Origins: Getting your ass handed to you again and again as a rogue

[high_castle]

Honestly, I found ranger rather overrated anyway. Useful only to a support style rogue and not really another damage dealer. There are so many other ways you can draw threat and distract enemies, while summoning those pets eats up a colossal amount of stamina. You won't be able to use combat skills nearly as often. And you also won't be able to use Momentum most likely, since that too is a sustained skill. At higher levels or with the right equipment, it gets easier, but...meh. I never felt like the ranger pets made a great difference in battles. Certainly never one that could justify the stamina hit it takes to keep them around.

If you spec well as a ranger, by putting more points into willpower, etc... you can be very good. I had a ranger / archer rogue, and the poisonous spider comes in really handy. Will poison and web ball people for you as well, and draws some of the aggro. Combine that with archer talents like Scattershot and Arrow of Slaying and you're a pretty effective support group. I had Sten / Oghren for tanking and Morrigan for healing but I hardly ever got touched.

Exactly. Ranger works decently for an archer/support rogue, but is basically useless for a melee one. I've never gotten into a situation with my DW rogue that couldn't be handled without one of the ranger pets. Al as my tank draws enough of the threat to keep enemies focused on him. With Stealth IV and about 60 dex, I'm weaving in out of the mob without even taking damage. The pets just aren't needed. I found out the same thing when I invested in that spell chain that ends with Animate Dead. I thought it would be really useful...and never needed to use it.

 

[TPiddy]

Exactly. Ranger works decently for an archer/support rogue, but is basically useless for a melee one. I've never gotten into a situation with my DW rogue that couldn't be handled without one of the ranger pets. Al as my tank draws enough of the threat to keep enemies focused on him. With Stealth IV and about 60 dex, I'm weaving in out of the mob without even taking damage. The pets just aren't needed. I found out the same thing when I invested in that spell chain that ends with Animate Dead. I thought it would be really useful...and never needed to use it.

They're not needed but, that's not to say they're not helpful.... whenever I roll with either Zev or Leilana I always make one of them a Ranger and give them the pet because it's just so helpful in the numbers game.

 

[high_castle]

Exactly. Ranger works decently for an archer/support rogue, but is basically useless for a melee one. I've never gotten into a situation with my DW rogue that couldn't be handled without one of the ranger pets. Al as my tank draws enough of the threat to keep enemies focused on him. With Stealth IV and about 60 dex, I'm weaving in out of the mob without even taking damage. The pets just aren't needed. I found out the same thing when I invested in that spell chain that ends with Animate Dead. I thought it would be really useful...and never needed to use it.

They're not needed but, that's not to say they're not helpful.... whenever I roll with either Zev or Leilana I always make one of them a Ranger and give them the pet because it's just so helpful in the numbers game.

Yeah, I usually give Leliana the ranger spec, but only because duelist is pretty much useless for her and Zev and my PC are already specced as assassins. That being said, I tend not to use Leliana that much. *shrugs* Meh, to each his own. The nice thing about this game is that you really can play it just about however you want.

 

[Bigsmith]

LOL my first complete run through was as a rouge, when stealth gets high enough for u to use it in combat its gets realy easy...
this is how i beat logain:
stealth
back stab
stealth
back stab
stealth

Repeat untill he falls over.

 

[nomzy]

D/W warrior > Rogue imo.
But rogue isn't to hard if you can keep the agro on the tank.
Micro-management ftw.

 

[Smokescreen]

I've been having a lot of trouble as a rogue too, so some of these suggestions have been really helpful. Thanks everyone.

 

[high_castle]

D/W warrior > Rogue imo.

I think it depends on how you spec either character. My DW rogue far out-performed my sole attempt at a DW warrior, mostly because of the assassin spec and the massive damage from backstabs. But I haven't fooled much with the warrior class because it's just not my playstyle, so might not have specced the character optimally.

 

[cieply]

As a mage i got my arse handed to me a lot. It seems pretty unbalanced class wise to be honest. I thought rouges would have been ok though

Mages are the most overpowered class in the game, masters of crowd control, if you are playing on harder diff than mage is the way to go. You most likely play it wrong. Truth to be told, it requires a ton of micromanaging to get everything right but later you just make a ton of lyrium potions, cast a blizzard or inferno, then start throwing in some fireballs and laugh. If someone wil get to you, stand in some choke, cone of cold, all your team starts shattering and then you laugh again.
Bosses? Stack -res hexes on the target and then nuke it to oblivion.

Still, rouges do suck, I tried zevran once but it was just a waste of slot that another caster or tank could have used. At least this is my opinion.

 

[Taneer]

OT: Rogues are naturally incompatible with real-time combat. They worked so well in DnD because you had time to plot out your attacks and co-ordinate with your allies in a turn-based style. Try fighting with a bow. I don't know how well that works in Dragon Age, but it worked in several other RPGs as a stealth character.

As far as mages go, it's long and arduous to get to the point where mages start being good, and you're useless until then.

 

[RollForInitiative]

As far as mages go, it's long and arduous to get to the point where mages start being good, and you're useless until then.

Given that I've been playing a solo mage on Nightmare since the start of the game, I'm inclined to disagree with that comment.

 

[Eisenfaust]

rogue goes well, your party might just suck... (more so for an archery rogue since they can better defend you)... if you're just looking for a sit down and play thingo go with dual wield rogue but if you plan out an archery rogue you can 1-hit ko alot of the games bosses... and make sure to ignore strength...

 

[Taneer]

As far as mages go, it's long and arduous to get to the point where mages start being good, and you're useless until then.

Given that I've been playing a solo mage on Nightmare since the start of the game, I'm inclined to disagree with that comment.

Well, I'm not even sure what game you're referring to, so I can't say much to that, but from my knowledge in a lot of RPGs, especially ones that follow the DnD Mechanics, mages are useless early on unless multiclassed.

 

[Neverseen6]

I have a rouge, and I am fairly good at it
Well, except for Redcliffe, I can't even beat that fucking place as my Mage. Seriously, I here's my setup
Me: Rouge
Leliana
Morrigan
Wynne
I can't think of a better setup unless I buy a crapload of junk for Sten, WHAT DO I DO?!?!

 

[AlphaOmega]

Once you get momentum and a fast dagger with sockets it shows just how much utility a rogue can give, paralyze runes hell yeah.

 

[El Poncho]

I loved my rogue, I was pretty good at it also. I did have shale and Alistair tanking together and Morrigan healing and doing some dps, maybe your party isn't suited to your style?

 

[Neverseen6]

and Morrigan healing and doing some dps,

You had Morrigan healing? I think Wynne is better, she also has Revive (Spirit Healer spec)

 

[veloper]

Rogues are great if you plan them with reason.

Earliest part is the hardest, but later a dex rogue never gets hit and a dualwielding rogue does more damage than warriors. Combat stealth is brutal.
Traps and grens are also good and as a rogue you can develop the skills faster.

Mages are generally better, specced as bloodmages and/or arcane warriors, but rogues come close after a dozen levels.
It's the warriors that suck. Only a templar/champion tank can be moderately useful.

 

[Captain Picard]

As far as mages go, it's long and arduous to get to the point where mages start being good, and you're useless until then.

Given that I've been playing a solo mage on Nightmare since the start of the game, I'm inclined to disagree with that comment.

Why do people do this? Just to say they did it? Enemies have more health on nightmare, higher resistances, and the duration of hexes and disables used against them are reduced. Don't tell me that a mage has enough disables at 75% of normal duration (or less) to deal with an entire room of high health baddies.

I mean, sure you can be cheap and run and dance around, exploiting A.I. bugs that break enemy pathfinding. Sure, you can crawl from room to room, earthquaking, infernoing, blizzarding, and blocking the doorway, but why would you want to take the time?

And don't tell me you can solo Ser Cauthrien and her dozen henchmen on nightmare without dashing out of the room and relying on the broken pathfinding of your enemies to win the encounter (bringing the number of opponents you have to deal with down to Ser C and 2 or 3 guards).

 

[El Poncho]

and Morrigan healing and doing some dps,

You had Morrigan healing? I think Wynne is better, she also has Revive (Spirit Healer spec)

I prefer'd Morrigan, I'm planning Wynne in my current playthrough though.

 

[Jenova65]

It's a tough game.

I had to drop the difficulty halfway through my game as a warrior, but I'm determined to keep it at normal for my mage playthrough.

Mage was very dominate for me. Arcane Warrior + Blood Mage = hax.

It certainly helps a lot being able to heal yourself in the solo parts without wasting all your potions.

That's the biggest problem I have, I can never seem to have enough potions and they run out real quick.

Go mage tower and get Wynne. Your healing needs will be all covered if you set up her tactics properly.

I love Wynne... my game got way easier when I found her.

SHe needs micro management though, she never does what I tell her in the tactcis screen!

My son killed her before ever getting her (trying to impress stupid Morrigan) I watched him do it and couldn't pull my jaw back for nearly an hour! Plus she has some great dialogue with Alistair and with Zevran