Dragon Age II

[Tawmis]

DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'RE ON ACT III:

Does it have to do with Hawk's mother? If so - this is why I hate the social forum - because someone mentioned it in a non spoiler forum...

Yes.

Yeah. I could snap the neck of the shithead who posted that in a non spoiler forum, asking if there was a way to prevent that event by not doing the side quests that lead to it.

[AndreaDraco]

The social site is literally filled with idiots. I'm sorry if they spoiled you.

At least know that it's a deeply emotional moment and I'm sure you will appreciate the tragedy. Alas, no, there's no way to prevent it. Gaider explained the reasons behind this choice.

[DeadPoolX]

So Maia and I just installed DA2 and it's working fine (with the patch) for me; I don't know about Maia, but I'm sure I'll find out.

I'm right at the beginning where Hawke is running away with his brother, sister and mother, so I haven't gotten far (or really anywhere) yet, but that's good. It gives me a chance to ask this: which do you think is better, two-handed or weapon-and-shield? Both look good this time around.

I noticed that the two-handed sword Hawke starts out with does barely more damage than his longsword. The shield also boosts his armor rating from 33% to 54%. At this point, weapon-and-shield is looking better, but maybe that changes down the road.

[AndreaDraco]

This time around it really depends on your play-style. Two-Handed is more exciting and visually rewarding, where Sword and Shield is more about the dirty work of combat, but - personal preference - it's not very enticing to play, since what you do the most - or, at least, what Aveline (my tank) does the most - is standing still and soaking damage. Perhaps with the player specializations this changes, but I'd go with Two-Handed.

[DeadPoolX]

I decided to look up some info on the Hawke-Isabela romance and I'm glad I did. There are a few bugs involved with her romance/friendship.

According to the DA Wiki, the following bugs appear if you romance Isabela. Two of those bugs can ruin the game for anyone, even if you didn't romance her!

If Isabela is romanced, her outfit may not properly update to the newer version. Using the Maker's Sigh potion from the Black Emporium to respec her skills will update her outfit.

Similarly, if the Supportive Corset has been purchased before romancing her, the rune slot will disappear. Using a Maker's Sigh does not restore the rune slot.

There is also a well documented bug with her friendship bonus- if you have it and remove her from your party the game will remove the attack speed bonus from your base rate instead of the increased one. This effect is cumulative leading to greatly reduced attack speeds. There is no fix known other than the preventative measure of not using her in your party if you have full friendship.

It is possible that Varric will say that she stayed with the Champion, indicating that you romanced her, even if you had romanced someone else. This may happen even if she has left your party.

So for my purposes, I need to know: do you have to max out a companion's friendship or rivalry meters in order to fully and successfully romance them?

[AndreaDraco]

So for my purposes, I need to know: do you have to max out a companion's friendship or rivalry meters in order to fully and successfully romance them?

Yes. The final stage of the romance requires full friendship or full rivalry, or, at least, this is what the official game guide says.

[AndreaDraco]

DPX, I don't know if it can help, but I found this pretty long post on the Isabela bug. It may be worth reading, if you're planning on romancing her.

[Tawmis]

So for my purposes, I need to know: do you have to max out a companion's friendship or rivalry meters in order to fully and successfully romance them?

Yes. The final stage of the romance requires full friendship or full rivalry, or, at least, this is what the official game guide says.

To romance them? I don't think so. Because I don't have Isabella at full friendship... yet, we did the deed.

[AndreaDraco]

To romance them? I don't think so. Because I don't have Isabella at full friendship... yet, we did the deed.

You misunderstood. Full friendship is required in Act III to unlock the final stage of the relationship. See what the guide says:

If you have completed all quests for a particular companion and
have also reached a full 100% friendship or rivalry, the following
quests will unlock to acknowledge the final stage in Hawke’s
relationship with that character. This guarantees the loyalty of
most allies during Dragon Age II’s epic denouement.

And also, about Isabela in particular:

The final steps [of the romance] are to find and bestow both gifts, reach 100% friendship,
then begin the Questioning Beliefs final-stage relationship conversation.
Last, but not least, converse with her in the Gallows
Prison or Gallows Courtyard in The Last Straw to complete the romance.

[DeadPoolX]

Okay, I looked up the console cheat menu (it's on the PC version) and there seem to be ways to set approval rates, romances and add or remove talents. I'm hoping that between those cheats I can safely romance Isabela and not have the friendship "Thumbs Up Skill" bug affect me.

In addition, there are also bugs involving both Merill's quest and Isabela's quest, where the console cheat menu is needed to fix the problem. If you don't use it, then their quests can become unachievable.

I don't like the idea of using cheats, but if it fixes bugs that BioWare missed (which they did a lot!) then I'm more than willing to use them. I don't know when a patch might come out, if at all, so I'm not going to sit by and wait for however many months for BioWare to fix it.

[AndreaDraco]

The console is a wonderful tool, and incredibly fun to use!

[DeadPoolX]

I think there's a bug with Aveline. No matter how many positive approval points (toward friendship) I get with her, she approval meter doesn't budge. I've tried looking online and apparently everyone says raising her approval is easy, but not for me.

Looks like another fix via the cheat console. Damn, I'll need to use that to simply make the game play like it should, not to cheat!

[AndreaDraco]

Are you still in Act 1, DPX?

Aveline's approval is tricky until you do her personal quest. Have you tried it yet?

[Tawmis]

Oh, I just saw your post on the social site!
Here's what I did.
Aveline in full Tank mode (that is with some damage-resisting modes activated) engages Ser Varnell and Varric and Anders run right away at the two extremes of the room. Then my DPS mage casted, in rapid succession, Firestorm on the area and then tempest. These two spells combined are enough to get rid of the first wave. When the second appears, I casted a Force Mage spell - can't remember the name - at the center of the two AoE spells, so that the enemies where drawn at the center of the area, suffering heavy damage, and then Fireball and whatever damaging spell I got. In the mean time, Varric and Anders always select the same enemy to attack and, starting for the easiest one, pick them off one by one. It took me almost twenty minutes to beat the fight and it was really hard, but eventually I did.
What is your current party?

You know the first time - I went in with Varric, Isabella, myself and Anders.

This time I went in with: Myself, Fenris, Ava-whatever, and Anders.

The cool thing is - I had never used Fenris and Ava-whatever, really - so they had some level ups. I pumped them full of Constitution. I said, "I am going to melee the f*ck out of this mother f*cker!"

And that, my friends, is what I did. Anders nuked the room with fire, to take care of the fantatics. I melee'ed the archers, and took them down. Then went to the pain in the f*cking ass templar - and pummeled the f*ck out of him. He didn't last but two minutes with three melee and Anders dropping fire and ice on him. I also had bought about 150 Elfroot healing potions too.

But now - I found another area... that kicked my ass.

Over by the Dalish - there's a "Recently Opened Cave" right by their camp. Go in and it has like the three fire traps - go into the first room - and there's skeletons (so you KNOW they're going to animate) and a corpse. There's also a golem that's stuck. As soon as you loot the corpse - the skeletons animate, the golem animates, a Reaver appears, and a Rage Demon appears. Between the Reaver, the Rage Demon and the Golem - it's near f*cking impossible. That golem takes no damage. So I work on the rage demon and the reaver - by the time I have taken them down - I am left to one party member to widdle away at the golem - and after like 20 minutes of neither side losing, I gave up. He couldn't damage Ava-whatever enough to kill her before I could quaff another potion to full health, and her attacks couldn't widdle in any damage to take the golem down.

So I decide to skip that room and go into the main room - and in there - Rage Demons, Reavers, Desire Demons, and Shades come out in MASSIVE numbers!

[DeadPoolX]

Are you still in Act 1, DPX?

Aveline's approval is tricky until you do her personal quest. Have you tried it yet?

Yeah, still in Act 1. I'm not sure what Aveline's personal quest is (which means I probably haven't encountered it yet), but when I get to it, hopefully her approval will raise. If it doesn't, well... no huge loss, but I'd prefer having everyone's approval if at all possible.

Today I finished collecting every companion. I've been switching them in and out to see which ones I like the best in terms of both personality and usefulness.

The cool thing is - I had never used Fenris and Ava-whatever, really - so they had some level ups. I pumped them full of Constitution. I said, "I am going to melee the f*ck out of this mother f*cker!"

I think that's the first time I've ever seen you say something like that!