Dragon Age is hard....

[Ganthrinor]

Warriors take a certain touch to really shine. I personally prefer the Sword-And-Board Champion or Templar (or both) approach. A well-managed Templar can lock down a caster really, really fast and really, really hard while still being able to soak damage up with Shield Wall.

That said, if you want to experience over-powered, play yourself a mage, and be a Arcane Warrior because holy shit, they're amazing.

 

[CD-R]

ok i dont mean to troll.....

but ive never played or read much about dragon age but it seems like the game being described here is WoW, i mean the tactics just seem so similar to 5 man heroics (obviously before you could do them in 10 mins with a 45kunbuffed tank)

Well probably because they're both fantasy rpgs.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

If you beat that when you 'met' it you are hereby declared winner of Dragon Age.

I suppose beating it the first time by modifying the game files so you can use the console to activate an invincibility cheat doesn't count, right?

OT: Get a Spirit Healer, 2 mages and a tank. The term "hard" will cease to exist for you.

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

You need: A tank - Get Shale and get him to use taunt and stuff so the enemies go for him
A healer - Get Wynn from The Circle of Magi, and get her to use heal when an ally's health goes below 50%, get her to use revival and any buffing moves if you feel like it. Oh yeah and get her to use 'spirit shield' (or whatever the move that paralyses and ally and whoever's paralysed can't take damage) when an ally's health is below 10%.
An attacking mage - Use morrigan and get her to use cone of cold and that other freezing move that freezes a single target, oh and once she's done this get her to use earthquake. And glyph of paralysis on the nearest/most powerful target.
A dual rogue - get him to use stealth, backstab, paralyse and back up your tank

That's what I've got and hard mode has been a cake-walk so far. I've never had to change from my created character and I've only died a few times (Stupid fade with a rogue).

 

[Snowalker]

Shale... Seriously, if you still do bad with this girl in your party your might wanna think about starting over.

 

[RatRace123]

The console version has been viewed as the harder version, with the PC it was more of a tactical, almost RTS style of battle which really works better (I think).

Yeah, it's hard. My advice is have a healer (most likely Wynne) in your team at all times, stock up on Health Poultices and Lyrium Potions, and lastly, ALWAYS TARGET THE MAGES FIRST IN A FIGHT Mages are the leading cause of non-mage death, swearing, and flipping off the televison.

 

[asteroth21nox]

No matter what class or person you are, simply do this. Get a mage, either you or wyne or morrigan, and teach them to be a spirit healer, teach one of them all those moves and the heal spells. Ajust tactics to your needs or simply play as this healer in the hard parts. Trust me, you wont defeat the arch demon on any mode without a mage with powerful healing abilities. So put this is your mind, must spend 8 spell points on healing when decideing what your mage is learning. Arcane tomes if you have the money will be a big help here. Learning how to make healing potions and pultrices will help too.

And if your still haveing difficulties....well son...then it's time to hang your head in shame lol.

 

[Kaim89]

Here's a few tips:

BEWARE!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!
-If you're going to use Morrigan a lot, then be sure to get her in bed. All of your party members get MAJOR bonuses if you're buddy-buddy with them. There are 4 tiers of bonus level: be sure to get them all buy buying/finding presents for your pets and listening to their stories. When your fighters got Inspired Major Strength (or Con) and your mages get Inspired Major Magic, all of a sudden your party will be made up of Bruce Lee, Samurai Jack, Gandalf, and the Death Star.

I lol'ed

 

[WolfThomas]

The order of quests can affect difficulty greatly, I did the Dalish first, really hard but once I had completed nearly everything (and obtained Juggernaut Armour) everything else seemed easier.

My advice would be to always first kill the mages. Just like you slaughter as a mage, mages will just rip your party apart (I found, anyways). Kill 'em quick, or they'll AOE, glyph, and spell you like it's Christmas. I hate enemy mages.

My screams of "Mage dies first!" often distracted my housemates.

 

[Actual]

all of a sudden your party will be made up of Bruce Lee, Samurai Jack, Gandalf, and the Death Star.

I would love to play this game, hilarious comment.

- Here's something you can exploit like a champ. The game levels enemies according to what level you are when you first encounter them. Put on some fireproof gear and go kill Flemeth when you're around 12th level (safety tip: STAND BEHIND HER THE WHOLE TIME). Then when you counter that dragon during the Urn of Sacred Ashes and you're level15 or so? Guess what? Big as it is, that dragon is lower than you! Now here's a pop quiz: what were you killing at Ostagar?

Do you have some source for this one? I don't believe that once you meet one dragon all dragons will be the same level, or all darkspawn would be level 5 throughout the whole game.

I think you can exploit it by loading up an area you know is going to be tough, which loads all the monsters in at a certain level, then leaving and coming back once you've leveled up a couple times, you'll now be tougher than you should be when killing them.

If you HAVE to play a mage (how many of you named theirs Dr. Orpheus?)

I did not, and I now regret it, I must go roll a new mage..

I could make a party of two mages and a blackula slayer!

Oh yeah!On topic:

Shale is a win button, unfortunately the best tank in the game.

You need two mages. One set up as a healer (you don't need the spirit healing specialisation):

ally health <70% Regeneration, this is the best healing spell.
Ally health < 50% Heal.
Lowest instruction should be to attack target of the tank.

And one as crowd control, I'm afraid you'll need to micro manage this one a lot, unless you're a wiz with the tactics as mine always froze the wrong characters. Force field, shattering prison, and sleep are the first abilities you should aim for.

Crowd control is the hardest part of the game (unless you use Shale), make sure your tank has definitely got everyone's attention before the rest of your party joins in.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Guys...

There are too many great posts in this thread to reply to each individually, so just a big thanks to all of you.

There's a tonne of advice here that looks really useful, keep it coming!

It seems I'm not the only one who is going to benefit from the tactic sharing, a few more people are getting good tips too.

I love this community.

 

[Danpascooch]

I honestly don't, I found it very easy (I am not being an ass, just a fact)

My recommendation would be to NOT try to make your own tactics set for your party members from the ground up and instead make small tweaks to the existing tactical presets, the completely made from scratch custom ones don't always work correctly.

 

[.Warheart]

I haven't used tactics and such so far.. but I just like playing on Easy because Easy is more intended for real time play and not the intermediate pauses to adjust your tactics and such.
I could still enjoy the game though. My party consisted of Alistair as tank, Leliana as Ranged DPS and Wynne as healer, with me as rogue doing melee DPS.

Worked like a charm and all these people are for those do-gooders out there.

 

[Zero47]

Just another peice of advice, Arcane Warrior mages are absolute win. Right now
I'm practically soloing on hard, with ease my AW can solo Revenants and other tough
enemies.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Thats what she said!

No seriously, it is pretty hard.

 

[Cryo84R]

Play as an Arcane Warrior.

Also known as "Super Easy mode"

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I'm running Mage/Morrigan/Shale/Alistair on Normal and doing pretty well. I've run into several areas that were very tough (Revenants in that Forest area, anyone?) but overall it's been simple. Both Morrigan and my Mage heal the 2 tanks and I just beat enemies out of attrition. Liberal use of Glyph of Paralysis and Cone of Cold to neutralize some of the enemies at the start, then just let Shale and Alistair beat them down over time.

I had a HELL of a time with that Blood Mage area in the large city (forgot the name), but I got through it after a few tries.

 

[Jenova65]

I haven't read all replies, sorry, so don't know if this has been suggested
Human rogues start with best rogue stats, so pick human noble rogue (very useful because those chests early on contain useful supplies for one thing, armour, weapons, healing items)
Always keep Alistair in your party (ALWAYS)he is a great all round tank.
Other than that get Wynne as early as possible and keep her in the party always too.
Pick from your other party members who you like best. I have a real soft spot for Zevran, but pick a character that you feel balances your party (Shale has good defense, the archdemon had trouble doing damage to her in my game)
And if you have to dial the difficulty down do it, maybe you get used to the game and dial it back up later or in another playthrough but don't feel like less of a gamer, it is supposed to be challenging but fun

 

[Ben Jamin]

Do so, and you will have won Dragon Age. Sometimes I feel a little cheap... but honestly, no amount of swords can compare to summoning a whirling, frigid lightning storm on fire.

I did this with 2 Mages but i added Death Cloud. Making it a freezing cloud of electricity and death on fire!