I went with Knight Enchanter but the game became too easy after that (was playing on Hard mode too).
Might go Dagger Assassin on Nightmare difficulty next.
Might go Dagger Assassin on Nightmare difficulty next.
Dragon Age Inquisition Specialisations: What did you pick, why and did you like it?
- Thread starter Gizmo1990
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Just finished my 1st play through as a Rift Mage, but was disappointed, felt it lacked nuker skills, ended up only ever using the Rock Fist ability for the aoe weakness. My 2nd play though I want to try a archer with Tempest or a sword and shield warrior Templar, they sound pretty fun.
I didn't pick any. I had finished the main quest before getting the items needed to unlock a specialisation.
I know about the Pull of the abyss bug (tho it dosen't happen every time at least) but what is the weakness bug?Zetatrain said:
It gets very boring that was my point. You simply cast barrier and then hold down the Spirit Blade button. Easy as hell and beyond boring.Spacewolf said:
OP is an understatment. There is a skill that restores barrier energy for every hit on a bad guy. There is a skill that increases the power of your barrier. You become unkillable.Shanicus said:
Ravager for my 2 hand warrior.
with a good weapon. Cassandra and viv giving armor and barriers. i ruined everything before it had a chance to do anything.
with a good weapon. Cassandra and viv giving armor and barriers. i ruined everything before it had a chance to do anything.
I played a Male Dalish Mage, and I decided to go with Rift Mage as my specialization. While I may miss my old favorite, Blood Mage, I don't regret going for Rift Magic this time.
I initially chose it simply because it seemed like the replacement for Blood Magic, while ALSO giving me one of my old favorite spells as a Focus Spell, Firestorm, which fit the fact that I was playing an Inferno Mage with a few points in Storm and Winter without actually giving me electric or ice-based damage. That's when I learned about the glorious synergy.
Rift Mage has a few passive skills that make it so that, the more damage you cause against a weakened enemy, presumably weakened by a Rift Spell, you'll gain Mana.
Inferno has a passive skill as well, that resets the cooldown of a spell if you land a critical hit, if I remember correctly, and another that shortens cooldowns with every spell you cast.
And Storm has one that also shortens cooldowns, and one that increases damage the less Mana you have.
All of that added up, means that if I can weaken an enemy, like a Pride Demon, or a High Dragon for example, I can spam magic to my hearts content, barely ever using my staff beyond bursts of Energy Barrage. Lots of fun.
I initially chose it simply because it seemed like the replacement for Blood Magic, while ALSO giving me one of my old favorite spells as a Focus Spell, Firestorm, which fit the fact that I was playing an Inferno Mage with a few points in Storm and Winter without actually giving me electric or ice-based damage. That's when I learned about the glorious synergy.
Rift Mage has a few passive skills that make it so that, the more damage you cause against a weakened enemy, presumably weakened by a Rift Spell, you'll gain Mana.
Inferno has a passive skill as well, that resets the cooldown of a spell if you land a critical hit, if I remember correctly, and another that shortens cooldowns with every spell you cast.
And Storm has one that also shortens cooldowns, and one that increases damage the less Mana you have.
All of that added up, means that if I can weaken an enemy, like a Pride Demon, or a High Dragon for example, I can spam magic to my hearts content, barely ever using my staff beyond bursts of Energy Barrage. Lots of fun.
I went with Rift Mage and it's bonkers.
Necromancer seems like a very support-oriented role, and I just don't like having a main character who isn't the main cannon of my team, glass or otherwise, so I never really used it (though I'm sure there are fun builds out there). I used Vivienne (despite hating her guts) to try out the Knight Enchanter specialization on a dragon, and yes, she was unkillable. The problem was the damage output really doesn't match the invincibility aspect, so I was just sitting there spamming the blade button plinking away for 500 damage at a time forever and ever. There are probably ways to play that don't involve that, but it was dull.
Rift Mage on the other hand, now that was a party. The gameplay really comes down to "how many fireworks do you want when you blow the shit out of anyone who so much as looks at you wrong?" Pull of the Abyss drags just about anything short of a dragon, so that plus a Fire Mine in the middle, plus a Static Cage on top of that, results in a very dead set of baddies. The whole point of the build is to convert damage to mana via the Weakness effect, so once you get going you're pretty much lobbing explosions and lightning bolts until everything is charred and dead. It's not nearly as invincible as the KE, but since you can herd all the bad guys wherever you want them to go and kill them really quickly, you very rarely take any serious damage. Hell, even a single boss will die pretty quick to just spamming Stonefist to keep the Weakness on and then just Energy Barraging until dead.
In short: Rift Mage just feels like a mage mage. Very powerful and very flashy.
Necromancer seems like a very support-oriented role, and I just don't like having a main character who isn't the main cannon of my team, glass or otherwise, so I never really used it (though I'm sure there are fun builds out there). I used Vivienne (despite hating her guts) to try out the Knight Enchanter specialization on a dragon, and yes, she was unkillable. The problem was the damage output really doesn't match the invincibility aspect, so I was just sitting there spamming the blade button plinking away for 500 damage at a time forever and ever. There are probably ways to play that don't involve that, but it was dull.
Rift Mage on the other hand, now that was a party. The gameplay really comes down to "how many fireworks do you want when you blow the shit out of anyone who so much as looks at you wrong?" Pull of the Abyss drags just about anything short of a dragon, so that plus a Fire Mine in the middle, plus a Static Cage on top of that, results in a very dead set of baddies. The whole point of the build is to convert damage to mana via the Weakness effect, so once you get going you're pretty much lobbing explosions and lightning bolts until everything is charred and dead. It's not nearly as invincible as the KE, but since you can herd all the bad guys wherever you want them to go and kill them really quickly, you very rarely take any serious damage. Hell, even a single boss will die pretty quick to just spamming Stonefist to keep the Weakness on and then just Energy Barraging until dead.
In short: Rift Mage just feels like a mage mage. Very powerful and very flashy.
I went Knight Enchanter because I loved Arcane Warrior in DAO. It is OP as hell, but pretty fun. Thinking of respeccing just to try out a new build.
Next playthrough will either be an elf rogue or a human warrior. Not sure yet. Anyone know if maining an archer is actually fun/good in DAI?
Next playthrough will either be an elf rogue or a human warrior. Not sure yet. Anyone know if maining an archer is actually fun/good in DAI?
I asked the same question last week. Personaly I found it boring but I am not the best person to ask as I tend to find any builds that are not Mages boring. Anyway this is what some of the nice people here at the Escapist had to say.Fappy said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.866949-DA-Inquisition-Are-archers-good#21680207
With the right build it does not take that long, after getting used to the class and with a good build. I was able to kill a level 19 dragon at lv 16 literally solo, did not even bring a party, in about 10 minutes. The fade cloack ability is actually really good it gives you 2 seconds invulnerability and 1000% weapon damage as spirit, than you pick up the fire passive that allows you to feed barrier into damage for fire spells, and top it all off with the fact that the spirit blade procs the once second cool-down reduction per cast passive, and you end up invincible like a third the time with 2k plus fire and spirit damage spikes every 6 seconds or so.Spacewolf said:
On topic i guess its clear I am playing knight enchanter at the moment which as others have said is op as hell, which is sad as it can do a bunch of cool stuff. With fade cloak and the parry function of spirit blade mixed with the ice dashes dodging/mobility you could really go full jedi, but it does not matter as you just can tank pretty much all the damages. Still coolest moment I have had with the game was first dragon I fought after getting the specialization was staring it down at the start of the fight and deflecting its first giant fireball, ice dashing up to it and fade cloaking and having its first swing go through me.
Its a bit complicated but the short version is that if you reapply weaken while the enemy is still weakened then it will become immune to the effect for about 20 seconds after the first application of the effect wears off.Gizmo1990 said:
Now this seems to only happen with the upgraded versions of veil strike and pull of the abyss. If you apply weakness with stonefist and then reapply with stonefist while the enemy is still weakened then I believe the bug doesn't happen.
Funny thing is that supposedly enemies affected by the bug will still take additional damage (assuming you have the passive ability unlocked) despite not being weakened though I haven't tested this part out for myself.
Tempest + Archer = OP beyond belief.
Fully upgraded fire potion will allow your archer to use the Long Shot ability at least 4 times. Depending on how far away you are from your target, that is a DEADLY combination. Then there?s the ice potion. If any enemies get close the ice potion makes you practically invulnerable. It beefs up your defense by a ton, but that?s practically irrelevant because anyone that tries to attack you freezes before they can finish swinging their sword. Then there?s plenty of time to get some distance or recall a warrior to help clear the enemies out. And the Lightning potion? CHRIST! When updated it practically stops time to the point where you can use it to refill any cooldowns and take pot shots to regain all stamina for a full 7 seconds. So overpowered I can?t even BEGIN to say.
Sera is annoying as heck, but she?s definitely my favorite rouge to keep in the party. Get poison weapons & cloud, caltrops, long shot, and then fill out the tempest tree. Nothing better to protect your mages AND help support the warrior.
Fully upgraded fire potion will allow your archer to use the Long Shot ability at least 4 times. Depending on how far away you are from your target, that is a DEADLY combination. Then there?s the ice potion. If any enemies get close the ice potion makes you practically invulnerable. It beefs up your defense by a ton, but that?s practically irrelevant because anyone that tries to attack you freezes before they can finish swinging their sword. Then there?s plenty of time to get some distance or recall a warrior to help clear the enemies out. And the Lightning potion? CHRIST! When updated it practically stops time to the point where you can use it to refill any cooldowns and take pot shots to regain all stamina for a full 7 seconds. So overpowered I can?t even BEGIN to say.
Sera is annoying as heck, but she?s definitely my favorite rouge to keep in the party. Get poison weapons & cloud, caltrops, long shot, and then fill out the tempest tree. Nothing better to protect your mages AND help support the warrior.
I played as a mage and I went for Knight-Enchanter. You get a sword made out of magic and any damage that you deal gives your character free barrier health. You can run into Dragon fights and not even lose a single point of HP. They are super OP, and it does admittedly make the game kinda less fun because of it, especially when you are playing on Normal (oops). Necromancers seem kinda enjoyable, especially for the support mage role.
For Rogue I really like the look of Assassin or Tempest because they both seem like they can generate some crazy DPS. Artificer just seems like ass, and it is a big shame that Varric is stuck with that one.
For Warrior, Champion is like the king of tank specialisations, and Reaver is the king of DPS warrior specialisations, but Templar just seems boring to me.
For Rogue I really like the look of Assassin or Tempest because they both seem like they can generate some crazy DPS. Artificer just seems like ass, and it is a big shame that Varric is stuck with that one.
For Warrior, Champion is like the king of tank specialisations, and Reaver is the king of DPS warrior specialisations, but Templar just seems boring to me.
Dual dagger Rogue as a Tempest. Lightning flask stopping time at the beginning of battle so I get the drop on everyone. Especially if I chain flasks and get the time extended. Then flank attacks and death blow with poison. Hell, Blackwall barely ever got to use those awesome armor and defense buffs of his, fight was over too soon(wave based fights excluded, of course).
I am an archer and went with that flask one, the name escapes me.
I saw a video of Sera take down the hardest boss in a few seconds with this spec, so I figured that if I basically made a Sera, then why not just go for something that can whittle away bosses like that.
I have told myself that I will only use it to destroy the dragons, otherwise I would trivialise the game and if I wanted to do that I could just 100% the Hinterlands before moving on
I saw a video of Sera take down the hardest boss in a few seconds with this spec, so I figured that if I basically made a Sera, then why not just go for something that can whittle away bosses like that.
I have told myself that I will only use it to destroy the dragons, otherwise I would trivialise the game and if I wanted to do that I could just 100% the Hinterlands before moving on
For my warrior, champion class all the way. I know Knight Enchanter is supposed to be the "best" solo class but if you ever want to have a warrior going 1v1 with a dragon, champion is the only class to roll 
Though it will take forever to kill said dragon, especially if you're sword and board (also doesn't help there is a lack of good tier 3 swords in this game... In fact Im pissed, I found out the only GOOD tier 3 sword schematic is a fucking preorder bonus), being a champion means you're too stubborn to die.
For my mage, went rift mage. Not because it's a fun or effective specialization (it's not, total lack of nukes was a disappointment considering "your trainer" speaks of using the power of the fade to tear your enemies apart...yeah lol sooo not true, what she meant was using the power of the fade to push your enemies around and weaken them) but for rp/lore reasons. Rift magic is meant to be this new and radical field which most mages dare not touch
Besides, the trainer for rift mage is a mage who literally emptied her brains JUST so she could teach you the secrets of rift magic so you wouldn't suffer the downsides of learning it like she did.
Faced with dedication like that, rift mage seemed the way to roll.
Though it will take forever to kill said dragon, especially if you're sword and board (also doesn't help there is a lack of good tier 3 swords in this game... In fact Im pissed, I found out the only GOOD tier 3 sword schematic is a fucking preorder bonus), being a champion means you're too stubborn to die.For my mage, went rift mage. Not because it's a fun or effective specialization (it's not, total lack of nukes was a disappointment considering "your trainer" speaks of using the power of the fade to tear your enemies apart...yeah lol sooo not true, what she meant was using the power of the fade to push your enemies around and weaken them) but for rp/lore reasons. Rift magic is meant to be this new and radical field which most mages dare not touch
Besides, the trainer for rift mage is a mage who literally emptied her brains JUST so she could teach you the secrets of rift magic so you wouldn't suffer the downsides of learning it like she did.
Faced with dedication like that, rift mage seemed the way to roll.