Dragon Age is hard....

[MiracleOfSound]

Now, first of all, let's keep this thread free from comments like 'LOLZ U JUST SUCK AT RPGs' or 'I dunno whatz wrongz with u, I'M BETTER THAN YOU HAHA.'

I am aware of these points already, hence why I am posting this thread.

Now...

I am finding Dragon Age very, very difficult.

I am not entirely new to Bioware RPGs, but I never played KOTOR or Baldur's Gate. I breezed though Mass Effect with no problem but that was shooter based so I don't think it really compares.

It seems any time I get into a battle in DA:O I get my ass severely kicked, I can't seem to beat certain foes no matter how much pausing and lining up commands I do.

I'm had to move it to easy difficulty now (just before the Circle of Magi) and feel like I'm not experiencing the game as it was meant to be played. (even though I still get killed sometimes, even on easy).

I want to at least be able dial it back up to normal.

Does anyone have any general guidelines or tips in how to manage this kind of combat system?

What party members have you had success with?

Was choosing a human noble warrior a mistake?

It seems mages are more powerful in battle than tanks.

Edit: I'm on the 360 version

Any advice or tips welcome.

 

[veloper]

mage is easiest. Good class for your first playthrough.

It's all about crowd control.
Play with force field, cone of cold, sleep+waking nightmare, crushing prison and all of the glyphs.
Fireball is also great because it does nice AoE damage.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Warriors are fine, when I played a warrior on nightmare, I thought many parts were easier than with a mage on hard... it just depends.

What type of warrior are you making? What skills/talents? Who are your party members?

 

[MadMikey]

Hmmm....are you assigning your new attack skills you purchase during level ups to your combat keys? Also, what version of the game are you playing...PC or console based. I'm playing the console based so if you're on the PC, I'm not sure I could really help. I'd imagine gameplay is alittle different.

I've had success with Alistair as a sword and board defender, myself as a dual weapon warrior, the bard as an archer and the witch ranged spell attacks.

Oh don't forget to tweak the tactics options so your teammates will drink healing potions when they get down below 25% of health. That can make a big difference!

Oh and save save save...can't emphasize that enough! Nothing sucks more than having to replay an hour or more of game because you haven't saved like every 5 minutes!

Good Luck!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Warriors are fine, when I played a warrior on nightmare, I thought many parts were easier than with a mage on hard... it just depends.

What type of warrior are you making? What skills/talents? Who are your party members?

I've been using sword and shield talents, shield bash, pummel that kind of thing. Simple vanilla warrior stuff.

I usually roll with Sten, Leliana and Wynne (though I just met Zevron so trying him out, and am on my way to collect Shale)

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Hmmm....are you assigning your new attack skills you purchase during level ups to your combat keys? Also, what version of the game are you playing...PC or console based. I'm playing the console based so if you're on the PC, I'm not sure I could really help. I'd imagine gameplay is alittle different.

360 version... sorry gonna put that in the OP now

 

[havass]

Well this may have somethign to do with the fact that im playing on "easy"..but ive had little trouble. My team's Morrigan, Alistair, Leliana, and me, a mage. I've stuck with this team since the very starting. Reason being you need a rouge for random lock picking, Alistair for tanking, and Morrigan to back me up.

Normally when i go in battle, i get Alistair to hit the strongest one, and back him up with my character. Then Morrigan and Leliana shoot random enemies. When any of my other characters get mobbed, I use Alistair to hit some of them a few times with the ability "threaten" on to lure them away.

Then there are various spell combos. Freezing the enemy and then hitting them with a spell like stone fist or that cage thing one-hit-kills them.

The key to DA:O's combat is basically strategically manuvering the battle. You cant spend points on random skills and spells. You'll get screwed hard.

 

[Baby Tea]

I found certain parts pretty hard too, to be honest.
I beat it on 'normal', but there were certainly moments where I struggled.
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.

 

[havass]

I found certain parts pretty hard too, to be honest.
I beat it on 'normal', but there were certainly moments where I struggled.
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.

That's what Alistair's for! To suck their mana dry. And Winter's Grasp is my best friend.

 

[Jandau]

First of all, use the Tactics screen. The game gets much easier if you properly automate healing and such. Also, buffs and certain special attacks can be programmed wonderfully, leaving you with less to worry about and reduces the chance of characters getting wiped out because you weren't looking.

Second, are you doing the usual stuff such as focusing your fire, making sure you have a good spread of various classes and such? Are you spending your talent points efficiently or are you just putting them into stuff that looks cool?

Third, you need a Mage. At least one Mage. And every mage you have should have at least the basic Heal spell with a Tactic to heal any ally that drops bellow 50% Health. Mages kick arse and are the most powerful characters in the game.

Fourth, did you try any of the "overpowered" spells? For instance, the Force Field line in Spirit is sick (Force Field and Crushing Prison remove two enemies from the fight right from the start). Cone of Cold is one of the best spells in the game. Also, get at least one Weapon Buff spell (Flaming Weapons is the best, but any will do).

For more, could you be more specific on what the problems are?

 

[Chipperz]

Well this may have somethign to do with the fact that im playing on "easy"..but ive had little trouble. My team's Morrigan, Alistair, Leliana, and me, a mage. I've stuck with this team since the very starting. Reason being you need a rouge for random lock picking, Alistair for tanking, and Morrigan to back me up.

The problem is that Bioware games suffer from a very strange type of difficulty curve. The easiest setting is just this side of boring, but Normal and up will happily beat you round the head with your own spine. I've given up trying, I just shove them onto the lowest setting and play for the story. Bioware can do many things right, but balance aint one of them.

 

[Baby Tea]

I found certain parts pretty hard too, to be honest.
I beat it on 'normal', but there were certainly moments where I struggled.
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.

That's what Alistair's for! To suck their mana dry. And Winter's Grasp is my best friend.

I was a rogue, so I would stealth, sneak up behind them, and stun them and just goto town on them with poison and backstabs. Then throw some grenades. The rogue class, for me, was just perfect. Using stealth and traps totally changes most encounters.

 

[havass]

And press F5 regularly. Its bloody irritating when you die and realise you never saved from an hour ago. Then you'll rush through the game to get to where you died. And lose stuff in the progress.

 

[high_castle]

Learn to love the Combat Tactics screen. Since you're playing a sword-and-board character, you're going to be your party's tank. I would leave Sten behind since he's one of the weaker warriors (two-handers tend to be). Leliana's good for opening locks, but I find her archery very underpowered. So I would quickly get Zevran's deft hands talents up so you can use him as your sole rogue. Wynne is almost a must-have as she's the best healer in the game (aside from a PC spirit healer). So with your PC, Wynne, and Zevran, you still have room for another spot. This can be filled in a variety of ways. You could add Morrigan for extra ranged DPS. Or bring in Shale (though she usually works best as a tank, but can off-tank if you set up tactics the right way).

Once you have your party, go into the tactics screen. Every character has one, and these are the actions they'll take when you're not directly in control of them. No matter how much you pause, there are going to be times when you want your characters acting on their own. For instance, you can set up your tank to always intercept characters who go after your mage. Another good tactic is to have your mage cast Crushing Prison or Petrify on the strongest enemy in the room (sometimes they'll be able to resist, but those spells work wonders to immobilize high-level enemies while you deal with crowd control). Another good one is to have your mage cast Mana Clash on enemy spell casters. This can be a one-hit kill against many enemies, and will decimate even orange name opponents. Also, consider having Wynne cast force field on your tank right as he draws all the threat on himself. He'll be unable to move and also immune to danger, meaning you can have enemies pound on him to their hearts' content while you pick them off a little bit at a time.

Remember that your party members work best when they play to their strength. So make sure to throw Zevran into stealth before entering combat, and to move him into back-stab position whenever you can, as the damage increases a LOT. Wynne should always be in the back and protected by some glyphs of repulsion or paralysis, and the off-tank or DPSer shouldn't be too far away so they can intercept any enemies who try to get to her. Her main task should be keeping the tank on his feet. The tank draws all the threat, and should get the mobs to focus on him.

Lastly, check out the official BioWare forums. There are great tactics there from people who have soloed this game on Nightmare.

 

[havass]

I found certain parts pretty hard too, to be honest.
I beat it on 'normal', but there were certainly moments where I struggled.
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.

That's what Alistair's for! To suck their mana dry. And Winter's Grasp is my best friend.

I was a rogue, so I would stealth, sneak up behind them, and stun them and just goto town on them with poison and backstabs. Then throw some grenades. The rogue class, for me, was just perfect. Using stealth and traps totally changes most encounters.

The rogue class, for me, was purely for lock picking. I normally rush into battle and pwn them with a giant fireball. Then maim them with Alistair's axe.

 

[Jovlo]

Bring a mage, that helps, a lot.
I played a mage on my first play-through and I never had to many difficulties in normal mode.

My general strategy was:
- Make sure everyone jumps on Alistair, teach him Shield Wall and such to survive.
- Cast Blizzard if attacked by a mob of ranged fighters/mages to disable those.
- Keep your party out of it and focus them on the melee fighters coming to you.
- If you like, you can cast Tempest over the Blizzard, for added (and thanks to Blizzard unavoidable) damage.
- Cast Cone Of Cold on as many enemies as you can
- Follow with Stone Fist (shatters them, remember, Wynne has it too). Make other party members shatter some more with critical hit making attacks like Overwhelm and Critical Strike.
- If some still stand, use Sleep, Horror and Waking Nightmare in that combination.
- Clean up whatever survived the blizzard.

Some extra things that can help:
Make your tank Taunt enemies that go after your mages.
Glyphs are awesome. Combine Glyph of Repulsion and Glyph of paralysis and you get a paralysis explosion, paralysing everything in a huge radius. Wynne can use Glyphs as self defense.
All your mages should know Heal. Order them to use it on whoever has less than 50% health, high priority in the tactics screen.
Crushing Prison, Petrify and Force Field can disable a powerful enemy so you can deal with them later.
Put in your non-mages tactics that they should drink a potion when below 25% health. Put in your mages (especially Wynne) tactics that they should drink a lesser lyrium potion when below 10% mana. Be sure to craft a lot of these! They are cheap to make.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Oh, you're on the 360 version. See, whenever I'm in a pickle, I just back the camera up into tactical view and line everyone up on one guy as I stand back and heal because I'm an elf mage. I would recommend being a mage instead of a warrior because warriors tend to fall on the battlefield a lot more than me.