Dragon Age: Origins.

[AndreaDraco]

Just a curiosity or two from the other mage users around here (or other class that heavily use mage companions):

1. What's the most efficient spell you've learned?
2. What the most useless?
3. What's the most powerful spell chain?
4. What the most useless?
5. What type of mage are you playing?

[Tawmis]

Just a curiosity or two from the other mage users around here (or other class that heavily use mage companions):

1. What's the most efficient spell you've learned?
2. What the most useless?
3. What's the most powerful spell chain?
4. What the most useless?
5. What type of mage are you playing?

My Mage is my 2nd X360 account I am playing... and I have not gone far with him. However, when I play Morigan I have found one of the best spells to be Death Cloud. (When there's a cluster of them fighting the warriors, I will switch to Morigan and drop a death cloud on the group). A nice combo I have found is the Blizzard + Death Cloud. The Blizzard will typically freeze and/or knock the enemy down; the Death Cloud right after that does DOT (damage over time) on the enemies; which is nice when they can't move OUT of the death cloud's area of effect.

[Datadog]

I should really experiment with combos more. Trap-making, herbology, tactics... there's just so much in the game to work with, that it doesn't quite fit in with my "run in with guns blazing" strategy that I love so very, very much. Only 27% in and I'm already pulling out my hair on some of these fights.

Also, I want revenge on the game designer who decided the dwarf part should take 10 hours to complete. Just when you think it's over, NO! The would-be King has another task! And you run around in caves fighting thugs! And another part of the Deep Roads is unlocked! And another! And another! And every boss takes 20 minutes to kill! And there's freakin' Golems everywhere! I HATE CAVE LEVELS!!! AND WHY ARE ALL THESE DUNGEONS SO HUGE?! WHO LIVES LIKE THIS?!

Good story, though.

[Tawmis]

That's where I am right now Datadog.

[DeadPoolX]

Just a curiosity or two from the other mage users around here (or other class that heavily use mage companions):

1. What's the most efficient spell you've learned?
2. What the most useless?
3. What's the most powerful spell chain?
4. What the most useless?
5. What type of mage are you playing?

Seeing as how I'm relatively new to DA, let alone using a Mage, I have limited experience with spells so far. So whatever I answer may change in the near future.

1. Paralyze. Actually, all of the spells within the Debilitating spell group are fantastic. Everyone seems to love Cone of Cold and while it's useful, it's damn hard to target correctly. The same can be said for most spells that can accidentally hit your party members.

2. Although I haven't used these spells yet, I'd say spells within the Mana Alteration group and to some degree, the Glyphs and Summoning groups. How useful the Healing spells are to you depend on WHO you like to keep in your party and how many items you have on you to heal yourself.

3. I've heard that casting both Tempest and Blizzard is supposed to create something fans have dubbed as "The Storm of the Century." I haven't used it, but from what I've read, it can kill almost anything -- including you and your team.

4. Not sure, really. I suppose just about ANY combination of spells could be useless or ineffective. The trick is finding which spells work well together.

5. As I've said before, I'm new to DA and a Mage. I haven't really thought out my "type" of Mage yet. I tend to prefer spells that can't inflict friendly-fire. I know most of the really powerful offensive spells can hurt your party members, so I'm trying to limit those spells to those that I absolutely need.

I'm planning to take Arcane Warrior whenever it's available, so maybe my interest spells that debuff, buff and are AoE/DoT might work to my advantage.

[AndreaDraco]

OK, it's my turn to answer my questions

1. What's the most efficient spell you've learned?
2. What the most useless?
3. What's the most powerful spell chain?
4. What the most useless?
5. What type of mage are you playing?

1. Mana Clash (against magical users it's perhaps the most devastating spell, since it both drains them of mana and inflicts massive spirit damage)

2. Rock Armor (my mage never gets in melee, so it is pretty useless. An error I won't make when I restart the game)

3. While Storm of the Century is indeed devastating, I prefer Crushing Prison + Force Field

4. Grease + Fire Damage. Maybe it's me, but I can never manage to pull this combo off.

5. I'm playing a massively offensive mage (only damage-dealing spells and crowd control ones), with a specialization in Spirit Healer. I know that it sounds strange, but I don't particulalry like any of the Mage specialization, and Spirit Healer at least grants a permanent bonus Magic +2 and allows me to support Wynne in supporting the party with Group Heal, when she's low on mana or has already casted her healing chain.

I'm planning to take Arcane Warrior whenever it's available, so maybe my interest spells that debuff, buff and are AoE/DoT might work to my advantage.

Chances are that you already know this, but...

If you really want the Arcane Warrior specialization, run to the Brecilian Forest as soon as you can and follow the Nature of the Beast quest, since it is the only available spot to learn the specialization. I'd even advise you to do that quest before Broken Circle, even if this means that you'll acquire the permanent attributes' bonus later on

[Collector]

Another take on the game, may not be work appropriate.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... ge-Origins

[Datadog]

Not work appropriate? You realize that means I HAVE to watch it now.

Ah, and it's Yahtzee. Always fun to watch those.

On the whole, it actually took me almost exactly 40 hours to finish the game, and there were still plenty of side-quests I didn't bother finishing (I wasn't really psyched to find all the hidden love letters or toxin extracts.) But it's still a pretty good game. Definitely more forgiving than "Final Fantasy XII" which had very similar game-play (and ended up taking 60 hours to complete.) I think my favorite thing about "Dragon Age" is that it's still beatable on a normal difficulty setting without needing to master every single game-play option. And I definitely liked the characters more than the ones in KoToR - I even warmed up to Alistair after a while and kept him in my team in spite of wanting an all-girl attack squad at first. My least favorite thing: cave levels. GRRR.

[AndreaDraco]

I didn't even bothered watching. I don't know his opinion about the game, but I know that I can't stand his snobbish attitude (in general) and his horrible voice, plus I hated everything the man has done so far, wholeheartedly, and I utterly believe that he represents almost everything that he's wrong with the adventure market today, that's saying the snobbish, preposterous attitude of these amateurish developers.

Edit: sorry for the rant about him, I guess I could have remained silent

[Tawmis]

Ya know, I don't know if he SERIOUSLY means half of what he says - or just says it to be "funny."

[Tawmis]

That said... a few non spoilery things...

- I was just about to enter the area in the Dwarven Caves that seal you off from going back (if you have been there, you know what I mean) and decided to truck it out of the caves for now and clear out some other quests that I had finished but rushed around and forgot to turn in... which led me to ... The Mountain with the High Dragon... son of a bitch has anyone beat this bastard? I know it's not required but I want to try and finish everything... I finally beat that blood mage that was troubling me so much in Denerum in the abandoned building... but man this High Dragon isn't even giving me half a chance to make it... I do believe I need to be considerably higher in level - but I don't think that's that much more to the game for me to earn the kind of levels I need - and I have done just about everything else but finish off the dwarf caves and the end game...

- My co-worker Greg, who I got interested enough to buy the game, has beat it. That said, however ... He used the known glitch I mentioned to him (that I learned too late) where when you are asked to go get three vials of darkspawn blood and the treaties; if you go and get the blood and not the treaties, and go back to Duncan and keep talking to him over and over, he gives you XP everytime for the darkspawn blood, if you don't have the treaties; so if you keep talking to him, in like 20 minutes, you can be level 20... this is what he did... this has just recently (as in yesterday) been fixed with a patch for the PC... not sure about the X360...

[AndreaDraco]

But what level is your character? If you're so close to the end-game, probably 18 or 19 right? If that's so, this is probably not a matter of level as much as party. Are you sure that there isn't another party configuration that can be more efficient?

I haven't seen this High Dragon yet, but based on what you said, and bearing in mind my Mage (offensive) character, I'd say: Alistair to tank him, Wynne to heal and two characters to heal heavy damage, possibly with some combos like Crushing Prison + Force Field, and Force Field to protect the tank. What kind of damages does the dragon do? Fire? If so, you could also try the Storm of the Century (Blizzard + Storm + Spell Might), which is almost unbelievably powerful.

Unfortunately, I haven't played other classes so much, so my advice is limited to the sole mage. Anyway, where exactly is this foe? I'd like to try it personally

[Datadog]

Ya know, I don't know if he SERIOUSLY means half of what he says - or just says it to be "funny."

It's half-and-half. Back when he started, he did one positive review for a game, and got almost nothing but negative feedback from the comment people who wanted to see more ranting.

[AndreaDraco]

Unfortunately, I haven't played other classes so much, so my advice is limited to the sole mage. Anyway, where exactly is this foe? I'd like to try it personally

Found it!

The High Dragon just before the Gauntlet, right? It took me twenty minutes to bring the beast down. Pant! It was enormously rewarding though, and the armor Wade can craft with a dragon scale is simply outstanding. I beat it with my character, Zevran, Alistair and Wynne

Right now I'm in Orzammar, and I'm about to complete the Paragon of Her Kind quest, which is my last Treaty Quest. After that, I'll have every force of Ferelden united under the Gray Wardens' banner.

It took me a while to figure out whether I wanted to endorse Lord Harrowmont or Prince Bhelen, basically because I disliked them both for being greedy and paranoid and ruthless, but in the end I went with Prince Bhelen, who at least promised a little more freedom for the Orzammar's dwarves.

[Tawmis]

Okay - HOW did you beat the High Dragon? What level are/were you?

That beast is stepping all over me.