Dragon Age: Inquisition - Nov. 18

I can't remember a game outside of mmo's that kept introducing new features and mechanics 20 hours in. I just wish I could find a guide on building parties. I normally go with an archer, a mage, and two tanks. Been good so far but I want to improve.
 
Finally found the helmet that the Inquisitor wears in the Trailers. Takes alot of work to get it.

One of the things I appreciate about this game is the way it sometimes gives you an area to search -- the big purple circle -- rather than pointing you to a specific spot. That preserves some sense of exploration and discovery, as opposed to games that point your nose exactly where you're supposed to go.

One of the things I don't like about that, though, is that it can sometimes be hard to find what you're looking for. For instance, earlier today, I ran around in a big purple circle for about half an hour, looking for special bear claws. I found lots of other stuff (enemy soldiers, wildlife, other bears), but not the bears I was looking for. Maybe by "bear claws" they meant donuts, but I didn't see any Winchell's either. Oh well, back at it later.

Yeah that's a bit frustrating. I was looking for Quillback intestines from a creature and had to farm it as its not a 100% drop from the enemy. Took me 2 days to find it.
 
Built my first Fade-Touched weapon :banana: It gave me 15% less stamina/mana depletion on all abilities :banana: Also is the first weapon I put a rune in. I went with a frost rune that gives a +10 overall damage to everything:banana:

I can't remember a game outside of mmo's that kept introducing new features and mechanics 20 hours in. I just wish I could find a guide on building parties. I normally go with an archer, a mage, and two tanks. Been good so far but I want to improve.


I have the same set up. No point changing it IMO, it seems to work extremely well. If I was a mage/warrior though I might change the archer for dual dagger cole.
 
Built my first Fade-Touched weapon :banana: It gave me 15% less stamina/mana depletion on all abilities :banana: Also is the first weapon I put a rune in. I went with a frost rune that gives a +10 overall damage to everything:banana:




I have the same set up. No point changing it IMO, it seems to work extremely well. If I was a mage/warrior though I might change the archer for dual dagger cole.

I'm the archer in the party. I've spent so much time tweaking and learning my own character's strategy, I don't want to take the time to learn the same for everyone else in my party. I'm just lazy like that.
 
OK, I'm finally getting ready to jump in (I've tinkered around but am going to start over) and have two questions before I do. What difficulty would you guys/gals suggest if I plane to use tactical mode 100% of the time and am not new to these types of games? Secondly, what are the classes of the first companions you end up with? I ask this because I always hate making a character that ends up having the same skillset as a companion you are stuck with for awhile.
 
OK, I'm finally getting ready to jump in (I've tinkered around but am going to start over) and have two questions before I do. What difficulty would you guys/gals suggest if I plane to use tactical mode 100% of the time and am not new to these types of games? Secondly, what are the classes of the first companions you end up with? I ask this because I always hate making a character that ends up having the same skillset as a companion you are stuck with for awhile.
You'll meet a warrior immediately at the start. Then a rogue and mage immediately after. The rest just depend on which quests you tackle first.
 
OK, I'm finally getting ready to jump in (I've tinkered around but am going to start over) and have two questions before I do. What difficulty would you guys/gals suggest if I plane to use tactical mode 100% of the time and am not new to these types of games? Secondly, what are the classes of the first companions you end up with? I ask this because I always hate making a character that ends up having the same skillset as a companion you are stuck with for awhile.

If you really want to use tactical, then it'd probably be best to put it on hard. You'll be able to turn it down at any point if fights start becoming tedious. In normal mode, tactical is not really a must unless you are fighting high level creatures (which will probably one-shot you anyway, so it's still pointless).

As far as party goes, I recommend doing some story missions in different areas as soon as you can. You can get two more warriors, at least one more mage or two, another archer, and so on. The first character I made, I spent way too long in Hinterlands and got stuck with the starting party of a mage, archer, and warrior (I was an archer too). It did not leave me with many options. My second character I played a bit smarter, and ended up with a much greater party selection not too far in the game.
 
I'm the archer in the party. I've spent so much time tweaking and learning my own character's strategy, I don't want to take the time to learn the same for everyone else in my party. I'm just lazy like that.

Yeah, the archer mage and two tanks is a solid strategy.

I have been wondering what 2 mages would be like with one warrior and an archer. Have one mage all spirit with the team play focus, then the other to let lose all the cool elemental damage( and keep barrier). 2 mages giving one warrior barrier should be pretty tight, right ?
 
I have been wondering what 2 mages would be like with one warrior and an archer. Have one mage all spirit with the team play focus, then the other to let lose all the cool elemental damage( and keep barrier). 2 mages giving one warrior barrier should be pretty tight, right ?

Yeah I guess the theory is sound. What I did is set set Sera to defend me, set Cassandra to defend iron bull and set iron bull to kill everything in sight. So Sera follows me around attacking those who target me,and the two tanks engage in melee while I buff them and do AOE attacks . its been working great so far.
 
I'm trying to circle the perimeter of the Hinterlands. It's something I do in RPGs sometimes -- make my way around the perimeter of the map. Naturally, I keep getting sidetracked. I'm on day two of my journey. I'm about halfway around.
 
What I did is ... set Cassandra to defend iron bull

Hm, that's a good idea. I didn't think of that. I might try it. In my party anyhow, Iron Bull takes the most damage, quaffs the most health potions, and could use a little assistance.
 
Hm, that's a good idea. I didn't think of that. I might try it. In my party anyhow, Iron Bull takes the most damage, quaffs the most health potions, and could use a little assistance.

Yep. Same here. With Cassandra dedicated to helping him, and both get sheikd buffs, they can keep swinging a long time. I also set Cassandra to have shield and sword skills where as iron bull is two handed.
 
See I'm having trouble setting AI behavior. Don't see where I can set behavior to defend certain members or anything like that.
 
See I'm having trouble setting AI behavior. Don't see where I can set behavior to defend certain members or anything like that.

It's under "Behaviors" in the Character Record. It's called Targeting Behavior.
 
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What does defending another character actually do? Does anyone know the specifics of what all they will do?
 
More impressions (3hrs in). I take back 50% of my comments on the underwhelm visual. I am in the Hinterlands now & the visuals have improved.

The layout of the map is pretty good, & places are marked nicely.

I am still getting the hang of the tactical view, but things are going well. Still alot of stuff to learn like crafting, upgrades, but I am taking my time.
 
Yeah I guess the theory is sound. What I did is set set Sera to defend me, set Cassandra to defend iron bull and set iron bull to kill everything in sight. So Sera follows me around attacking those who target me,and the two tanks engage in melee while I buff them and do AOE attacks . its been working great so far.
With you being the mage I can see how that works. I have both warriors protecting my Mage. I do not need protecting thanks to stealth, evade, and leaping shot. So my Mage is the most vulnerable.
 
More impressions (3hrs in). I take back 50% of my comments on the underwhelm visual. I am in the Hinterlands now & the visuals have improved.

The layout of the map is pretty good, & places are marked nicely.

I am still getting the hang of the tactical view, but things are going well. Still alot of stuff to learn like crafting, upgrades, but I am taking my time.


Honestly, 2-3 hours is not really enough to form an opinion on this game. I am roughly 30 hours in and only recently unlocked things and learnt to use new stuff. I still have places to unlock and still have 3 places to visit that I have unlocked. I have only completed one area too, but that was a pretty small one with not a lot to do.
 
Another game i have no time to play right now. Guess i shouldn't complain since i started playing Skyrim again, the pinnacle of RPGs. I'll get to DA: I sometime next year for sure.
 
Another game i have no time to play right now. Guess i shouldn't complain since i started playing Skyrim again, the pinnacle of RPGs. I'll get to DA: I sometime next year for sure.

This is the new pinnacle in my opinion.
 
45 hours into the game, used way too much time on side quests (they never seem to end).
Great to unlock the specializations classes, went for champion.
 
Just played through to SKYHOLD, what an epic two hours that was........someone just told me the whole of the game up to that point is a kind of tutorial......that took 45 hours on my life and I fecking loves it!!!!!

 
Just played through to SKYHOLD, what an epic two hours that was........someone just told me the whole of the game up to that point is a kind of tutorial......that took 45 hours on my life and I fecking loves it!!!!!



Yep. The point in time until you reach sky hold is basically the beginning of the game. I'm the same. Nearly 40 hours in before I got there and now the game is just really starting. Lol
 
More impressions (3hrs in). I take back 50% of my comments on the underwhelm visual. I am in the Hinterlands now & the visuals have improved.

The layout of the map is pretty good, & places are marked nicely.

I am still getting the hang of the tactical view, but things are going well. Still alot of stuff to learn like crafting, upgrades, but I am taking my time.

You can tell that Bioware took a lot of time and care with this game. Too bad it still suffers from bugs, but what are you gonna do. Save often, I guess. I save every 10 minutes or so. I also keep a save for every hour, going back for about the last 10 hours. I'm in hour 30 now. I've had a dozen harmless little glitches, but nothing serious so far.

Damn game. "I'm going to play for an hour, then stop." Three hours later ...
 
One of the things I don't like about that, though, is that it can sometimes be hard to find what you're looking for. For instance, earlier today, I ran around in a big purple circle for about half an hour, looking for special bear claws. I found lots of other stuff (enemy soldiers, wildlife, other bears), but not the bears I was looking for. Maybe by "bear claws" they meant donuts, but I didn't see any Winchell's either. Oh well, back at it later.

Morrowind was f***ing infamous for that. They wouldn't tell you much, only the direction and say good luck. You could spend hours, or even days trying to find something. You actually had to look for s***.

This is the new pinnacle in my opinion.

Skyrim is a great game, especially on PC, the mods make it better. But I like a game with a story. Dragon Age doesn't have Skyrims seemingly unlimited freedom, but it does have a great story and characters that I actually care about. Bioware always delivers on that front.

Inquisition takes GOTY for me.
 
I think I'm near the end. Got that end game type vibe. Going to delay it for a while and do some of these nagging side quests. Got a few of timed ones left to clear off the board. And if you guys didn't know, yes they have an impact on the main storyline.

Playing on the pc I've encountered 1 bug. Origin doesn't recognize 1 of my BIG non story achievements
(Killed 10 High Dragons
). Other than that, its been cool.

I can see myself sometime in the future replaying this with a different character and class.

Also can't wait to see what type of story DLC bioware cooks up for this.