Dragon Age II

[AndreaDraco]

Regarding the fate of You-Know-Who, yes, Leandra falls victim to the White Lily Killer. It was an incredibly powerful and emotional scene. Heart-breaking, for sure, but very effective.

As for the battle with the other You-Know-Who, did the Arishok proposed you a duel or the whole thing degenerated in a colossal battle? I duelled him and it was quite fun. I had to keep running away and freeze him after he did that particular move where he charges at you and remains still for a couple of seconds. If Winter's Grasp succeeded in brittling him, I was then able to unleash on him every single spell I had!

Oh, and since you finished Act 2, of course Isabela betrayed me. I never really got a chance to know her and build a friendship/rivalry and then I made the choice, upon entering the foundry, to ask her to return the relic to the Qunari. So she basically took the relic for herself, left me and bailed.

About Sebastian: it's not that he's part of the Chantry. Leliana also was a lay sister and I liked her. It's that he constantly blabs about the Maker. The Maker is his only answer and, furthermore, he struck me as a close-minded zealot with the intelligence of a shrimp.

[Tawmis]

As for the battle with the other You-Know-Who, did the Arishok proposed you a duel or the whole thing degenerated in a colossal battle? I duelled him and it was quite fun. I had to keep running away and freeze him after he did that particular move where he charges at you and remains still for a couple of seconds. If Winter's Grasp succeeded in brittling him, I was then able to unleash on him every single spell I had!

It was One On One duel. Sadly warriors don't have much in the way of stopping or freezing Airshok or making him brittle. One of the trees I took up, was Templar because of the Stun they do. Of course, Airshok is 100% immune to this, since I tried about six times, and never - not once - did it stun him - and that's with the improved Stun thing! So it was a lot of hitting with whatever powers were available, run, run, run, run, heal, stamina potion, hit with whatever powers were available, run, run, run, run, heal, stamina potion... Oh, and unleashing the dog, that would, from time to time, stall him, but didn't seem to do any damage to him.

Oh, and since you finished Act 2, of course Isabela betrayed me. I never really got a chance to know her and build a friendship/rivalry and then I made the choice, upon entering the foundry, to ask her to return the relic to the Qunari. So she basically took the relic for herself, left me a not a bailed.

She's a pirate. What do you expect? I still love her.
That said - she did return for the Airshok battle and returned the tome - but then when I went to do the duel - she insisted it would be her - but Airshok, thankfully said she wasn't worthy enough, pretty much - so it came down to me. But despite her returning for that - in Act 3, she's not available to select? Is this a bug? Or is there a reason why she's not selectable despite returning? And at least, now I finally know why she always left when it came to entering the area with the Airshok...

About Sebastian: it's not that he's part of the Chantry. Leliana also was a lay sister and I liked her. It's that he constantly blabs about the Maker. The Maker is his only answer and, furthermore, he struck me as a close-minded zealot with the intelligence of a shrimp.

Well he was pretty much raised by the Chantry for most of his life, yes? Because there's the whole "Wanting an Heir and a Spare" and he was the third - so he was of no use. So off to the Chantry he went. So it makes sense that he'd be spouting stuff about the Maker and how awesome the Maker is... it's pretty much all he knows, and they're the only ones who ever truly showed him any love, from the sounds of it.

[AndreaDraco]

But despite her returning for that - in Act 3, she's not available to select? Is this a bug? Or is there a reason why she's not selectable despite returning? And at least, now I finally know why she always left when it came to entering the area with the Airshok...

There's a quest you must complete before being able to select Isabela again, I think. Try to visit her. She should apologize and then you'll be able to continue the friendship/romance.

So it makes sense that he'd be spouting stuff about the Maker and how awesome the Maker is... it's pretty much all he knows, and they're the only ones who ever truly showed him any love, from the sounds of it.

Well, that's not exactly true. I quote from the Wikia:

If one is to calculate Sebastian's age from what info he tells about himself, Sebastian says he was thirteen when his grandfather made a promise to give him the Starkhaven Bow, and he was given to the Chantry some time after this. In Act 3, he states that he hasn't been to Starkhaven in fifteen years. That puts Sebastian's age at at least twenty-eight.

Furthermore, he states that, before going to the Chantry, he was quite the party boy, always getting drunk and laid in places like the Hanged Man. And now he has seen the light... and yet he still wants the noble title, and yet he wants to serve the Chantry, and yet he doesn't care for who will rule his people, and yet he wants revenge. Some coherence, boy! Sorry, I can't help myself. I hate him.

[AndreaDraco]

I just read on the official forum the most hilarious description of Isabela to date. Mind you, it was in a thread complaining about the romances, so we must take with a grain of salt, but it made me laugh.

Isabela... who's just a giant disease carrying uterus.

[Tawmis]

Isabela... who's just a giant disease carrying a uterus.

Yes, but she's my giant disease carrying uterus!

[AndreaDraco]

Yay! I defeated the High Dragon!

After a fight 45 minutes long! I am literally exhausted.

[Tawmis]

Yay! I defeated the High Dragon!
After a fight 45 minutes long! I am literally exhausted.

So is that the end then?

[DeadPoolX]

Okay, here's what I've discovered so far:

1. There's a friendship talent bug with BOTH Isabela and Sebastian. Once you gain their friendship, you'll experience a bug that decreases your attack speed (Isabela) and/or defense resistance (Sebastian).

After some extension testing by people on the BioWare Social Site, they've discovered that in order to prevent this bug from occurring you HAVE to have both of them in your party (if you've gained their friendship) when LOADING your game. You can save whenever and wherever you want, with or without them, but if you load the game without them in your active party, you'll suffer negative hits to attack speed and/or defense resistance.

Example: if you load a game saved at Hawke's house, the bug will affect you if you've gained Isabela's and Sebastian's friendship. This is because you don't have your active party at hand.

Contrast that with loading a saved game at Merrill's house, where's possible to save your game with your active party. Assuming you have Isabela and Sebastian in your active party when you reload, the bug won't affect you.

The problem is that Isabela and Sebastian's friendship talent is supposed to positively affect Hawke when either one is in your active party. The game should remove the bonus when they're not in the party, but for some reason, there's a bug that removes that bonus from your core value.

So the bottom line is this: if you've befriended Isabela and Sebastian, you MUST have them in your active party when loading your game. This includes loading quicksaves and autosaves.

2. The good news (if you can call it that) is there's a DA2 Editor, in which you can adjust the attack speed and defense resistance values. Technically it's designed for DA:O, but it works in DA2.

The attack speed ID is 42 and the defense resistance ID is 32. Normally the values for both the base and modifier numbers are zero-point-zero (0.0). When Isabela's or Sebastian's friendship talent is activated, the modifier number changes to five-point-zero (5.0).

If you experience the attack speed/defense resistance bug, you can fix it by going into the editor and changed the base value back to its original number.

3. Maia and I also noticed that, contrary to what many people say (including the DA Wiki), you DON'T need to boost a companion's friendship or rivalry to 100% in order to gain their bonus talent.

Neither one of us have gotten Varric up to 100%, but his friendship talent is active. For me, Isabela's friendship talent is also active and her icon shows up on Hawke's talent screen, right next to the dog icon.

I used the editor to check the exact numerical value of my friendship with Varric and Isabela and they're both at 65. Apparently that's sufficient to gain their friendship talent, even though I've read that you need 100% to do so.

[AndreaDraco]

Yay! I defeated the High Dragon!
After a fight 45 minutes long! I am literally exhausted.

So is that the end then?

No, no. It's a side quest that you don't even have to undertake!

Maia and I also noticed that, contrary to what many people say (including the DA Wiki), you DON'T need to boost a companion's friendship or rivalry to 100% in order to gain their bonus talent.

Are you sure that they don't mean other activated skills in their unique talent tree? It's true that - as soon as your relationship leans more heavily toward friendship/rivalry - you get the passive ability right away (even if you can lose it if you return to the "middle" of the relationship), but maybe there are other unique talents that require full friendship or rivalry, I don't know.

Anyway, so you have Varric at 65? What about the others? More friends or rivals?

[DeadPoolX]

Are you sure that they don't mean other activated skills in their unique talent tree? It's true that - as soon as your relationship leans more heavily toward friendship/rivalry - you get the passive ability right away (even if you can lose it if you return to the "middle" of the relationship), but maybe there are other unique talents that require full friendship or rivalry, I don't know.

I don't know which talents would require full friendship or full rivalry. As you said, their passive bonus talent is activated before they reach 100% on either side.

The other talents in their unique talent tree are already open. Some require prerequisites by level or number of talents already acquired, but they're available. I've given Varric Rhyming Triplet, so unless there's another bug (which is quite possible given the number that exist in DA2), I can take talents from their companion-only talent tree.

As for Isabela's bug: I've used the cheat console to deactivate Isabela's bonus passive talent and although her talent tree shows it's not active, the talent's icon still appears in Hawke's talent screen. I've also noticed that her bonus talent gets reactivated if I gain her approval or she levels up.

What I wonder is if I change her "animation speed modifier" to 0.0 (it's normally 5.0 when you've gained enough approval from Isabela), would that circumvent the bug? The bug removes 5% from your base value and 5% is what Isabela's bonus talent is supposed to apply to Hawke, so if that 5% is changed to 0%, theoretically the stat loss should also be 0%.

I haven't tested this out and I can't find any information for it online. So far I've only seen people readjust the base value after the bug has already occurred.

Anyway, so you have Varric at 65? What about the others? More friends or rivals?

Well, according to the editor, here's how I stand:

Bethany: 100 (friendship)
Aveline: 20 (friendship)
Varric: 65 (friendship)
Merrill: 0
Anders: 5 (rivalry)
Fenris: 20 (friendship)
Isabela: 65

Bethany's already upgraded her outfit as well. Too bad there aren't any unique talent trees for your siblings.

[AndreaDraco]

Bethany's already upgraded her outfit as well. Too bad there aren't any unique talent trees for your siblings.

I didn't know Bethany has an alternate outfit!

I wonder if Carver has too and if it's unlocked upon achieving full friendship, which, by the way, is impossible with Carver.

[DeadPoolX]

Bethany's already upgraded her outfit as well. Too bad there aren't any unique talent trees for your siblings.

I didn't know Bethany has an alternate outfit!

I wonder if Carver has too and if it's unlocked upon achieving full friendship, which, by the way, is impossible with Carver.

Not with console cheats or the editor!

Anyway... I've got good news for anyone who wants to romance or just befriend Isabela and Sebastian. Someone on DA Nexus created a mod to fix (or at least work around) Isabela's and Sebastian's friendship bugs. It's aptly called the Friendship Bug Fix.

By the looks of it, the mod-maker did what I hypothesized earlier: change the friendship modifier from 5% to 0% to prevent decreases in attack speed and/or defense resistance.

Hopefully BioWare will release an official patch that fixes this problem, but in the meantime, I can play my game safely.

[AndreaDraco]

I'll download the mod instantly.

In the meantime, I'm back to reluctantly help Knight-Commander Meredith.

[Tawmis]

Anyway... I've got good news for anyone who wants to romance or just befriend Isabela and Sebastian. Someone on DA Nexus created a mod to fix (or at least work around) Isabela's and Sebastian's friendship bugs. It's aptly called the Friendship Bug Fix.

Wonder if said bug effects consoles (since there's no way to view the stats) - if so, that's one advantage of MODS for the PC over Console Gaming.

So far DA2 for X360 has no patches. Including, apparently the import issue PC folks experience. Wonder if it is the same for X360?

Interesting to note - that Varric mentions the Hero dying against the main opponent in Dragon Age: Origins - but then Anders later mentions venturing with someone into the Black Marshes.

[AndreaDraco]

You've imported your Ultimate Sacrifice save then?

Well, I guess Anders went to the Blackmarsh with the Orlesian Warden.

About Orlais... I just met King Alistair. Apparently Orlais is up to its old game and is hoping to reclaim Ferelden for its own. Another war brewing?