How to semi-Hepler Dragon Age Origins?

[L. Declis]

Right, I am about to embark on the great Dragon Age trilogy. I like Mass Effect, so I should like this?

Except I don't. The gameplay isn't my cup of tea. I played it before and got to some maze thing in a dream where it ground to a halt and I couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. I would kill for a Hepler mode.

So, can the veterans or experts of Dragon Age Origins tell me what build do I need so I can most easily kill everything that is in my way and I can just enjoy the story?

 

[endtherapture]

Play on easy. Play as a destruction mage. Drop your massive AoEs on everything and watch everything die.

 

[omega 616]

The game on easy and then just about any build, with maybe the exception being archer.

The bit you're talking about with the maze, is by far the worst bit of that game, for me anyway. Just get a walk through and feel no shame for doing so, it's what I do.

The mage aoe spells are fucking amazing and devastating, not to mention things like virulent walking bomb and mana clash.

I prefer the dual wield rogue, just dance behind and crit for days.

 

[murrow]

I played it before and got to some maze thing in a dream where it ground to a halt and I couldn't bring myself to play it anymore.

You mean the fade level? You and half of DA:O players. That level is horrible. If you play on PC, there's a mod to skip it.

Anyway, here are some tips:

- Get Mana Clash on one of your mages ASAP. This spell insta-kills most enemy mages. Since mages pose the biggest threat, it shall make combat easier

- Always scout ahead in dungeons. Tell your party to hold position in a chokepoint and harass your enemies with a rogue or mage. Some of them will break formation and chase you. Killing enemies one by one will help you in tougher encounters.

- Some merchants have unlimited resources to sell. There's an elf in the Brecillian Forest, for example, that has infinite elfroots. By buying in bulk from them you can craft infinite health potions, which makes combat a breeze. You'll need points in the "potion-making" or whatever skill. It doesn't matter which party member has it; just bring him/her with you when you need some potions done.

- Most bosses (ogres, demons, dragons) are very tough head-on and deal massive damage, but they can be easily defeated by kiting. Get them to follow one party member and run around the battlefield until your ranged characters finish them off. If an enemy grabs you, have a warrior shild-bash him and he'll drop you.

- SAVE BEFORE TOUCHING ANY BLACK VIAL. I can't stress this enough.

- Get at least a point in the thieving/pickpocket skill, even if your character isn't a rogue. This will get you access to the Crime Wave quests in Denerim, which are lots of fun and get you a considerable reward. Don't worry, you can then max the thieving skill in one of your rogues and use them instead to complete the missions.

- Make sure you have at least 50 sovereigns when you get to darktown or whatever the dwarven slum is called. You'll know when you get there. That'll allow you to take the Precious Metals quest, which will make you the richest person in Thedas. More money = more potions, gear, etc.

- This is borderline cheating, but if you have the Warden's Keep DLC you'll get access to the strongest sword in the game with next to no effort. You'll also get a party storage chest, which you can use to "upgrade" equipment to higher tiers.

All in all, mages are the strongest class. But the game is easily beatable by any class if you follow this tips and play on easier difficulties. I myself love warriors.

 

[Diablo2000]

I didn't mind the fade, actually. Thought the rewards for exploring were really nice and helpful (Permanent Stat Boost, yes please).
And I think voleary already said what needed to be said, but if you have the Prisioner of Stone DLC, I recommend getting Shale as soon as possible. He's by far one of the most interresting companions and strong as fuck.

 

[Asita]

There's another little mage trick that breaks a few encounters: There are a few areas where enemies will spawn early and en masse (large rooms, for instance). Get Spell Might, Tempest, and Blizzard (This can be done with two mages). When you find these areas set your party on hold and inch your mages in until their Tempest and Blizzard is just in range. Cast both on the same area and run back to the rest of the party because the combo spell Storm of the Century has a larger area of effect which will hit the casters if they don't run back. Then just sit back and wait for the spell to dissipate. If you do it right you'll kill the mobs without even aggroing them.

 

[Windcaler]

If you want to get through fast without a chance of dying, go two handed fighter. Destruction mage is another good one though you get more killing potential for less survivability

The fade, that maze youre talking about, was interesting from a concept standpoint but IMO it dragged on a little to long and yet I felt Dragon age 2's trip to the fade didnt go long enough or at least wasnt interesting enough to make me care. There is a mod to skip the fade entirely if youre on PC but also IMO I think everyone should play it at least one time through.

The rest of the game isnt like the fade at all though. Still if youre that far into the game and you dont like it, youre probably not going to like the rest of it. Theres a ton of combat to go yet though Ive always felt the payoff at the end is really worth the bad bits to the game.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Did you intentionally write Helper as Hepler? Because if so, haha for reasons people who've played Dragon Age would know.

 

[WolfThomas]

As others have said, the combat can be turned down to easy.

As for builds. Arcane Warrior for mages (unlocked in the elf quest). If made right you turn your mage into a tank with decent melee dps on top of all his spells. It's so broken. They removed it from DA2 but brought it's spiritual successor Knight Enchanter to DA:I (which is pretty OP too).

 

[Avalanche91]

In DA1 I always prefered bringing both Wynne and Morrigan in my party, playing a rogue myself. I'd rush both of them to learn Haste, which made the more tedious dungeons (Deep Roads) a lot more tolerable. Also helps that it increases your dps, which as a dual wield rogue is always a good thing. Storm of the Century also gets initiated faster by having two mages each cast 1 of the required spells.

In DA2... Force Mage is completely hilarious to play? Play Benny Hill music during the Arishok bossfight to get in the spirit of things?

 

[small]

As others have said, the combat can be turned down to easy.

As for builds. Arcane Warrior for mages (unlocked in the elf quest). If made right you turn your mage into a tank with decent melee dps on top of all his spells. It's so broken. They removed it from DA2 but brought it's spiritual successor Knight Enchanter to DA:I (which is pretty OP too).

very true the arcane warrior and knight enchanter are basically completely unkillable. although in origins i tended to find the mage origin story pretty boring. female city elf was really interesting for me as was human noble

only thing you really need to master in origins is tactics, set the game to easy (no one will check your real gamer card) and set tactics for healing and you are set.. for myself i have my healer casting healing spells on any character who is under 75% health and have each character set to use a potion if they get under 50% health.

 

[TheArcaneThinker]

Become a mage , play on easy , get the Juggernaut armor set , give alistar the dragon armor , become a arcane warrior and thats it...

The spells to get are might , get the best of the ice and lighting spells and combine all 3 together .

Also get Grease , Fireball , to burn everything .

Become a Blood mage and suck every ones blood .

Basically become a arcane warrior and a blood mage , use combos , and try to get into the combat . I loved it .

 

[L. Declis]

Thank you all for the help, I'll go two-handed warrior so Morgan has a job.

Youtube is great for people who don't like playing video games.

I'm more hoping for Telltale's Dragon Age. I'll look past the implied insult.

Did you intentionally write Helper as Hepler? Because if so, haha for reasons people who've played Dragon Age would know.

No, I meant Hepler, as in the Bioware writer who wanted to have an option to skip combat the same way to skip cutscenes.

 

[RJ 17]

So, can the veterans or experts of Dragon Age Origins tell me what build do I need so I can most easily kill everything that is in my way and I can just enjoy the story?

Ahhh, DA:O, so easily broken if you pick the right class.

What is the right class? Mage, of course. As for builds, while there's plenty of viable and fun builds, you're going for "I wanna be so OP that combat is no longer a challenge!" In which case you're going to want to stick with the elements (fire, ice, and lightning...earth to a smaller extent, but fire, ice, and lightning are going to be your bread and butter). The objective is to get to the AoE spells in the fire, ice, and lightning branches. Once you do that you can just start filling the battlefields with AoE mage that will ensure everything is dead within a matter of moments. But that's just part of the trick.

Stat distribution is another big part. You're going to want to put 2 points into Magic every time you level up, putting the 3rd point in Willpower to begin with, but after you get your Willpower to about 25 or so you're going to want to start pumping up your Constitution (even put two points in it every now and then when you level up, but Magic is still going to be your primary focus stat), this is important as you're going to want to become a Blood Mage later on and when you do, your HP becomes your MP.

Alright, now to get you some Specialization Classes! First thing you're going to want to do is go to Red Cliff. The first bit has you fend off some undead and save the town. From there it depends on if you want to be a goody-goody or if you just want to become a blood mage. Basically to complete Red Cliff the "good" way, you have to first complete the Mage Tower which contains that (admittedly pain-in-the-ass dream maze...I'd suggest looking up a guide on gamefaqs when doing that section). Or if you don't care about the lives of others (i.e. don't mind killing an "innocent" person) you can go straight to the next bit which involves meeting with a demon. The demon will offer you a deal, and you can ask it for "forbidden magic" or power or something, in which case it will unlock the Blood Mage specialization which is all you're after.

Next stop is the Dalish Elves. This questline is great because it's very straight-forward, just go talk to the elves, they tell you what you gotta do, and you go do it. Eventually you'll end up in some ancient ruins, be sure to search through this place thoroughly, as there's a chest that has a talking crystal inside of it. You're going to want to be nice to this crystal, as it will eventually reveal to you that it used to be an Arcane Warrior and you can ask it to teach you that art. Boom! You just unlocked the Arcane Warrior specialization! You are now ready to engage in Mage God Mode.

Now here's the deal...Blood Mage gives you access to the most OP ability in the game: an AoE 6 second stun that oh, by the way, drains all the enemies caught in it of 50% of their health. You open every fight with this spell as 1: it does a lot of damage and 2: buys you the time you need to start dumping your elemental AoEs onto the field. As for Arcane Warrior, while there are some nifty abilities, the only real reason you need it is for the passive buff you get just for having it. You see, AW lets you use your Magic stat in place of the Strength stat for stuff that requires Strength....such as wearing heavy armor. So yeah...you're now a tank with obscenely powerful magic spells. :3

Follow those easy steps and congrats! Combat is no longer an issue! The best part is that you only have to do all that once. When you unlock a specialization, it stays unlocked for all subsequent playthroughs (so, for instance, the next time you play a mage you'll be able to pick Blood Mage as soon as you reach the appropriate level to pick a Specialization).

All that said, if your first impression of DA was "I don't like it" and the only reason you're playing it is because you like ME, I'd recommend not bothering with DA in at all. Just because they're both made by BioWare doesn't mean that they're similar. They have drastically different playstyles and formats. Might be better to save yourself some time and money and give DA a pass, as if you don't like DA:O, you're most likely not going to enjoy the other two games either.

 

[Littaly]

Thank you all for the help, I'll go two-handed warrior so Morgan has a job.

Youtube is great for people who don't like playing video games.

I'm more hoping for Telltale's Dragon Age. I'll look past the implied insult.

Did you intentionally write Helper as Hepler? Because if so, haha for reasons people who've played Dragon Age would know.

No, I meant Hepler, as in the Bioware writer who wanted to have an option to skip combat the same way to skip cutscenes.

I'm just curious why you would play a game that you don't find all that fun is all. Of course no one liked the fade section (which is why a mod that removes it is incredibly popular), but it seems kind of pointless to play it if you find the entirety of the game to be that bad. The story is good and all, but something like a Hamburger Hepler mode would make make me question why it's a video game in the first place.

I totally get why you would want a mode like that, sometimes all you want is the story. I've found this to be true for a lot of long-running game franchises where I'm interested in the latest installment but haven't played the previous. I really want to be on board to 100% with the story, but there are five games prior to it, all of which take more time to get through than I have time for, and some of which are so outdated that the gameplay just isn't fun anymore (Jedi Knight was a good example of this back when that series was still coming out).

Sometimes I feel like replaying Mass Effect, but I want to carry over a character from the first game which I just don't feel like replaying for a fourth time. Not because the story is bad (in that department I find it to be the best of the series), but because the gameplay is not fun enough to play for as long as I need to complete it.

I can see how a skip-gameplay-mode would seem weird for a newly released game, but there are cases where it totally would make sense to me, especially in older games, and definitely in games like Dragon Age where a save carries over.

 

[Maraskeen]

Like others, I'd recommend switching to easy mode if you're new. As for which build, depends on the way you yourself like to play... To me it's more of a matter of having a balanced party than concentrating on the PC's strenghts. Micromanagement and maintaining your team to the fullest of their capacities can prove more important in DA than in Mass Effect (at least in my experience) so I can understand why you'd be lost/ less enthusiastic.

Mage Destruction has its perks and supporters, but you'll need a good enough tank to make it work. Alistair's Templar abilities can be useful, but you might wanna look at custom guides if you're unsure of what competences to chose. Personally, my first build was a warrior, dps-oriented, simply because I like to play short-range. Alistair was doing most of the tanking, Wynne was heal, and I'd taught Morrigan all she could learn in terms of incapacitant spells. Elemental magic all the way. Not the quickest way to play, but I found the results to be pretty satisfying.

Other than that... Stock. Use the game's possibilities. You can teach herborism to one or several of your characters, and make yourself a buttload of potions. You can have another learn how to craft traps and make poison flasks. You can extort poor, guileless NPCs into giving you money to buy top-of-the-range weaponry if you're stuck with a particular challenge. There're a hundred and one things the game lets you exploit in your favor.

To be honest though, I really don't see the point in trudging through it if you don't like the gameplay? I love both ME and DA to bits; but it's really not the same feel as Mass Effect. The rhythm is definitely slower -in my opinion at least- and even with a 'game-breaking' build it's not a small game. That, being said, it's your business, but I'm curious about your reasons.



(and what are you talking about people I found the Fade quest really enjoyable- gimmicky, but enjoyable... visit all the rooms! collect all the forms! grab all the status buffs!
I mean dude you can walk through fire and punch the lights out of renegade mages as a golem... what else do you need? Kids these days, I swear. )

 

[dangoball]

Man, I feel your struggle so much. I adore Baldur's Gade and like Mass Effect very much, so by all accounts I should be all over DA:O, but it just doesn't click with me. I like the characters, I like the story, the combat system is kinda fun (heck, I finished Chronicles of the Darkspawn, which is nothing but combat), but for some unfathomable reason I just can't seem to finish the bugger. I only got as far as recruiting the bisexual elf assassin.
Anyway thank you for this thread and thanks everyone for their hints. Might try some of them.