Poll: Playstyles and You

[shrekfan246]

I'll experiment, but generally speaking if a game with that kind of customization keeps me coming back for more than two play-throughs, I'll probably have a preferred gameplay style that I default to.

In Mass Effect I've got five or six different Shepards but not a single one of them are either an Engineer or Sentinel. In Knights of the Old Republic, I'm almost always a Consular. In Dragon Age I tend to make an archer. In JRPGs that allow for it, I tend to make the main character mostly physical/melee focused. I also almost always try to build the main character as one that can take a lot of damage regardless of game, unless I'm trying to go for a particular role with the character and that wouldn't fit.

I actually always use Mage in DA:O. I'm with you on running with the most physically imposing character, but in that game Mages are so wonderfully overpowered and explosive.

While they're unarguably the most interesting class to play, I've never really liked Mages in Dragon Age and I think it's because they're presented with too many options for my liking. I'll certainly admit it's probably due to how long I played World of Warcraft, but I like my magic users to be specialists and while you can make specific kinds of mage in Dragon Age, it's never the optimal way of playing the class.

Playing a warrior may be really boring in comparison, but at least I can actually choose that class with an idea of the progression path I want to take for it. XD

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

If a subsequent playthru is a NG+, the option to change things up isn't always present. Generally I'll change a few of the factors which might affect story or character interactions, to experience more of what the story offered. For example, in BioWare RPGs changing gender, good/evil alignment and occasionally class (f.ex BG2) can have different effects in the game.

I might try a different class in a party-based game since it allows a new dynamic and party combination. I might go for something I feel I missed out on or do again a thing I enjoyed first time around. Some games over the years:

- Skyrim: Always female, different followers/marriage partners, weapons/playstyles. Skyrim didn't have an alignment and missions are either done or not done so I generally do the guilds/MQ regardless.
- BG2: Always male, always mage, always Chaotic Good. Always male because the only female-love interest (anomen) is a doofus. Always mage as there isn't enough magic available from NPCs otherwise and the progression is great. I might change up romances (eg. Jaheira, Aerie, etc) but Viconia is my fav
- Jade Empire: Played both genders, romanced all the options, played good and evil, kept Death's Hand and freed him, tried different weapon/style choices, different Arena name Tried them all. Tho I do have a NG+ Master-diff save I'd reuse if I played it again.
- ME series: Played both genders, played good and evil, made all (at least the big ones) the different story choices, always vanguard. I'll play most things differently though I liked the vanguard playtyle and would pick it again in a heartbeat. None of the others interest me. Biotic Charge and Claymore make me happy.
- DA:O: Played twice as mage, twice as rogue, both genders, different romances. Let Loghain live and die, sided with wolves/dalish, mages/templars, Behlen/Harrowmont, etc.

I love NG+ mode in games, I adore it. I like it more when there's opportunity to change some things up but I'm more likely to replay a game with NG+ than one that doesn't. (Obviously it doesn't make sense in all games).

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

While they're unarguably the most interesting class to play, I've never really liked Mages in Dragon Age and I think it's because they're presented with too many options for my liking. I'll certainly admit it's probably due to how long I played World of Warcraft, but I like my magic users to be specialists and while you can make specific kinds of mage in Dragon Age, it's never the optimal way of playing the class.

That's not strictly true. You have 3 real choices to make and the rest is just flavour. You're either a healer, crowd-controller or DPS. There are enough levels and points to do two of those but that's generally the choice. And whichever you make, you have party-members to complement you. And that's ultimately the main crux of the game; there are party members for each role and your real choice is what you want your Warden to do.

If you choose CC or DPS for a mage, you take Wynne along and forget Morrigan. If you're a tank, dump Alistair. If you're an archer, you don't need leliana. You just choose what kind of mage you want, pick Morrigan or Wynne as appropriate, take Alistair and whichever DPS you like from Leliana, Zhevran, Shale or Sten. As for advanced classes, they complement the different playstyles so the choice is not really too imposing.

 

[shrekfan246]

While they're unarguably the most interesting class to play, I've never really liked Mages in Dragon Age and I think it's because they're presented with too many options for my liking. I'll certainly admit it's probably due to how long I played World of Warcraft, but I like my magic users to be specialists and while you can make specific kinds of mage in Dragon Age, it's never the optimal way of playing the class.

That's not strictly true. You have 3 real choices to make and the rest is just flavour. You're either a healer, crowd-controller or DPS. There are enough levels and points to do two of those but that's generally the choice. And whichever you make, you have party-members to complement you. And that's ultimately the main crux of the game; there are party members for each role and your real choice is what you want your Warden to do.

If you choose CC or DPS for a mage, you take Wynne along and forget Morrigan. If you're a tank, dump Alistair. If you're an archer, you don't need leliana. You just choose what kind of mage you want, pick Morrigan or Wynne as appropriate, take Alistair and whichever DPS you like from Leliana, Zhevran, Shale or Sten. As for advanced classes, they complement the different playstyles so the choice is not really too imposing.

I should have specified that I like my particular brands of DPS magic users to be specialized as well.

I get that Dragon Age is its own beast, but only being able to choose between Warrior/Rogue/Mage at the start of the game feels too arbitrarily limiting when you have Mages that can specialize as (to use WoW terminology) Priests (healers/buffs), Druids (shapeshifter/buffs/CC), Warlocks (later blood magic/Death/the Entropy tree), Shaman (earth/lightning magic/buffs/CC), and "normal" Mages (arcane/fire/ice). And I'm not the type of person who likes to min-max or anything like that, so I often mix and match my team on various missions based on how much I like or how much I have used the characters.

But especially once you compare it to the Warrior/Rogue skill trees (and consider that they both have Archer), the Mage skill tree just seems to be almost constricting in the amount of choice it seemingly offers. It's not a problem everyone else has with the game, sure, but I think that it's to the detriment of the game that so much content was stuffed under the catch-all umbrella of "Mage".

Then, I guess considering the fact that your party can only have up to four people in it they did have to make a few concessions, though. I dunno, I guess I would be happier with the way they did do it if they had gone a little further with it; put in Holy damaging spells for mages who want to specialize as healers, put in more curses that deal damage over time for Entropy mages and perhaps a direct damage spell like Lightning or Winter's Grasp as a filler spell instead of Arcane Bolt or whatever else, make shapeshifting more viable for regular use, etc. etc. Obviously I haven't played a Mage all that often, but it's because the game just throws too much at me and I'm never really sure of what I should try to build.

EDIT: On the plus side, now I feel like playing Dragon Age again.

 

[Jacques Joseph]

I like to change things up. I don´t have a build I´d always go to on a first playthrough of a game and when/if I replay it, I usually go for something different to see how it works.

In games where you can make character/story decisions (RPGs and such), I try to change things up also but I find it more difficult. At least on my first playthrough, I very often tend to make the choices I´d make if I were in the protagonist´s shoes, regardless of what sort of character I originally imagined him as...

 

[DirgeNovak]

Depends on the game, really.
If it's a game like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, where you pick a class at the beginning of the playthrough and are stuck with it, I'll try out different classes in each new playthrough.
In a game like The Elder Scrolls or Fable, where you can switch back and forth and use whatever abilities you want at any given time, I tend to go back to my old favorites after a little while and stick with them. There are schools of magic in Oblivion I have never leveled up more than once or twice, because I generally stop using them and go back to my usual playstyle after an hour, even if I put them in my primary skills. It's a really annoying habit.

 

[King of Asgaard]

If my Dark Souls play time is anything to go by, it shows that I try everything. I created several characters devoted solely to certain weapon styles or magic types. The same goes for most RPGs I play.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I am very set in my ways when it comes to gaming styles so very few games can tempt me away from my habits even if it's my n[sup]th[/sup] time through.

I choose either rogue for stealth, daggers and bows or a flashy offensive mage.

In general, not counting magic cast time, I favor fast, accurate weapons over more powerful slower ones.

I'll tend to have more class variety in shooters like Mass Effect or Borderlands though.

I never really stray from playing the good path... or at least until Kingdoms of Amalur. I used to never kill npcs deliberately and quest givers especially never were a target but... Damnit, some of the Fae are so bloody annoying!

There's only one path and one ending I'll ever choose in Bastion.

In RTSs(I only play single player), I turtle build up and try to roll the map... This strategy is not as viable in more recent RTSs as it was in the late 90s. I don't really play them much anymore as a result.

If a game has content locked behind certain builds or skill checks, I tend to pursue those skills over combat centric ones, usually to the point where the game starts getting very hard. Ex. Mass Effect 1 - playing as an Adept and focusing on the conversation/persuasion skill made the fight against the Krogan/Geth after saving Liara nearly impossible.


[small]I used to not steal(as defined in game as stealing) before Amalur as well...[/small]