Dragonage 3 - Spoilers, Just Frickin' buy it already. Options

[Tiralee]

Ok, been a few days deep in DA3 Now, so I'm pretty versed.

Firstly, Bioware made a really, really good game.
Secondly: and haven't patched it properly yet.
Thirdly: Aaaaaaaaaaaand EA published it. Fuck EA.

Forthly: if you've invested a good few weeks of game time in DA1 & 2, please, PLEASE go to the dragonage keep website and import your custom world, when EA (Fuck EA) finally have the servers working properly, because it'd be too fucking hard to include that glorious summary and plot details in the frickin' game.

Again, fuck EA.

As I was unable to do so, I'm playing through the Bioware generic crapsack world with my champion klepto and all-round face-stabbing poisoner of worlds.

Seriously, if they made MA$$ Effect 3 half as good as DA3, they'd still be lining up to suck the rancid, unwashed cocks of the publishers (fuck EA) rather than bitch about the wonky abortion that wobbled onto our gaming platters so many years ago.

Plot's awesome, Dialogue is funny, epic, tragic, hilarious, combat is chaotic BUT you can pause-and-assign like the PC Version of DA:Origins, which can be helpful in some of the more stupidly complicated battles, the strategy and tactical choices a lot better than "we need more Crystals, Sheppard".

Yes, there's some grinding - and you'd going to be thankful for that come the second act of OMGWTFBBQ, when the "huh, choices ae looking a bit sparse" turns into "OMGodfuck, that was the TRAINING MODE" and you bitterly, bitterly regret all those influence perks you've wasted on stupid things.

Influence perks are crack. Sweet, glowing addictive crack. (Avoid the herbalism Trainee/expert/master, and the "get a shipment of semi-rare, rare goods" as they will do NOTHING for you in the 2nd act. Now recommend unlocking someof the more martial stuff, but the extra search area is a godsend.)

Influence points are mechanics, letting you know that, yes, you might want to level a bit twinky because the baddies have the gloves off and the swords to hand.

Oh, and don't be a dick, find interesting people and use their skills wisely. Never will you wish for more than 5 spymasters than when you've got 6 irons in the fire and another lot of crap avalanching downhill to ruin your perfectly-apportioned plan.

Oh, and collect ALL the things. Seriously, I spent 34 hours without finding a single piece of velveteen, until I wandered into a new area and has a gross drop out of the undead. Seriously Bioware, the fuck?. Now I have a mental images of rotting corpses dressed like Prince in Purple rain.

Some not-too-spoilery stuff:
Make some weapons ASAP, the stuff for sale or drop are crap. You won't get runes until act 2, so just find some patterns and have at it. Forget Bianca upgrades.
Make your gear out of Tier 2 materials as soon as you can, that's Paragon's Lusture or Obsidian (can be found in the first map, where the dragons are) and bear's hide and then you're cooking with evil gas.
Get patterns - cheaper than buying the suits when they start getting good.
If you're lucky enough to get Tier 2 patterns (god yes) as a random drop early on, make it with the best stuff you have and don't be afraid of upgrading. Your damage will double.

Classes?
Mages: Get dispell. Trust me. The hurty-mind stuff is great to, but don't neglect the elemental awesomeness that is the lightning school. Also, everything resists, get magic up fast.
Rogues, Stealth, Poison and if you can, the grappling hook (It beats walking over to stab someone in the face) Cunning = Crit. Crit = fast/instakill. The math isn't hard.
Warrrrrriors, come out to plaaaaaay...and yes, also get grappling hook/tumble asap. makes the battle run hard and fast if you don't just waddle over there.

Balance your party. You will need a warrior, a mage and a rogue, not all the time, but enough to make you curse your all-mage party.
Note: all-mage party = lyrium-fueled armageddon. Be wary, your tricks are used by the npcs.

Oh, and enjoy the pub music. God DAMN, some it if is catchy.

-Tir.

[bannockburn]

I concur. That is all.

[Tanegar]

There's a possibility that, one of these days, I might actually make some progress in DA: Origins.

[Tiralee]

Update - All rogue party is non-stop explosionations of doom.

Sara and Bianca just spew arrows everywhere, often setting off a monsterous chain reaction if Sara's pulled the bottle and gone elemental.
Made Cole a stabby. Still gets all the aggro (full assassin! FFS) and dies if you stare at him too hard.

My Spec-assassin face-stabber has double the armour and dps of my nearest warrior, I'm the tank. (Leather Tank, Ho!)

Notes: Having 3 x 2-hander warriors is hilarious. I saw one rag doll be battered for 7-9 consecutive slams/attacks, and then be launched into a dam. Magic.

Also: Death-class mage spec is BRUTAL, as in "I am Shiva, destroyer of worlds" because if you'd already specced your mage out to do the healing, your regen/life/mana refresh means that you can simply steamroller the opposition, as long as there's people dying. Main problem is that pesky ability cooldown, oh, wait, you've got a massive boost to that as well, say it ain't so?!

Dragon battles are a slog - get resists, get a LOT of DPS, bring Seeker Meatshield if you've specced her that way, her seeker tree is awesome good for this sort of thing.
Iron Bull's ravenger class is obscene, but he loses waaaaaaaaay too much HP for a boss battle.
Captain "safeword" Blackwall is a good, solid class. As you get deeper into his speciality tree, he just won't die.

Ice + 2-hander earthquake can mean 4-5 figure damage criticals. You're going to need those.

Posion was awesome, now everything's immune to it, so might need to respec.
Rogues, if you can, do "AOE in an arc" damage. Fastest drops then, as you're poisoning and stabbing and critting EVERYONE.
If you can, get focus boost/crit items, or at least "heals 1-3% damage on strike" because you're going to hit everyone.
Oh, and bleed! That's actually useful if you're citting a lot. Please note, this assume you use the "fade to shadows/lose the aggro" ability frequently

-Tir.

Also, Sara needs a bitchslap. Seriously. If she's not going to help, she's going to die.

[binarywraith]

Great game. Replay value not so much, as a lot of what seems like world-shaking choices the first time around

[ Spoiler ]

is revealed to be scripted, and not nearly as much changes as you'd think

, but still a testament to how well it's written that it surprises you when that happens.

[bannockburn]

Well, my replay value just started. As soon as my vacation comes around (which is tomorrow evening), I'm going to generate a whole new world-state starting from DA:O. This time with a mage, burning all the mages and backing the templars.
Come to think of it, that's one of the few things, DA2 did right: Incorporating decisions from DA:O into its gameplay in form of availability of side-quests. I laughed very hard when Alistair showed up in my tavern, drunk and downtrodden.

[Smash]

I've sunk about 120ish hours into it and dispite this I really don't think that much of it.

1) The world. Yeah, it's big but it's full of fetch quests. Yes, fetch quests. Now don't get me wrong: I don't mind fetch quests in principle, but if i'm playing a single player game the quests shouldn't feel like an MMO. In this it does. It feels like another 'Sacred'. Not only that, but later in the game they spread the fetch quests over multiple zones........ and it all just feels tacked on. Bioware can do so much better than this........

2) The combat. It's alright, but it just feels formulaic. Tank and spank 100% of the time and when fighting dragons or other bosses you need to micro-manage your barriers more.

3) Skill trees. They just feel so limited, and not very well explained. For example, Mages almost all need at least a few points into the spirit tree to get barrier and dispel and other trees have abilites that assume that you have, but you don't have to and you're not really encouraged to. There's also just not that much to them.

4) Party AI. It's better than DA1, but that's not saying much. I'm constantly finding my Mage in melee or my rogue not flanking (oh yeah, nothing seems to suggest what flanking actually is). Not only that but the programable behaviour is too limited (at least on PS4). Later in the game my Mage specialised in the knight specialisation, but the mainm ability chews mana so you can't use it all the time. So you basically have to micro-manage this character 90% of the time. I want to be able to tell them to reserve a certain amount of mana, or to have more than 3 levels of importance for abilities (which are basically, always use it, use it when everything else is on cooldown and never use it).

Basically, this is a really pretty, dressed up Action-RPG. If you are looking for the next Baldurs Gate or Morrowing or Wizardry or Fallout then this game is really not for you. If you want Diablo with a bit more plot and a party then this will probably suit.

[Tiralee]

Ok, done and starting the replay (Dalish mage - oh, this is gonna be fun.)

Finished it at level 28 - was about 3 levels higher than I should have been for such a rompa-stompa vs the big baddie. Can anyone else say, DLC forthcoming?
Also not spoilering one of the funniest moments in the series. Even the Mrs was laughing and shouting at the screen with me.

I just wish Sandal and Dagna hooked up to make demon-stomping mage-enchanting doorf babies.

Also - The Chasened (spelling) chief is getting a ton of internet love. I WANT him as a part of the Inquisition.
Seriously, that was almost as hilarious as judging the box.


Firstly, please, please be patient, log into the EA shitbox (cough - Dragonagekeep - cough) and fill in the tapestry of souls. Varric's voiceover is awesome and you do NOT want the crapsack world they start you off in.

Wow...mages really don't do damage compared to rogues, even arrow rogues.

There are a lot more conversational details this time around, and the game-dialogue isn't as kindly-fluffy as when I was a Human noble scion.
Being an abrasive Dalish is hilarious, as are some of the conversations you walk on past and go, "oh no, they didn't.". ("Oh, you're here to clean? The mop and bucket's over there and if anyone calls you a Knife-ear, let me know....Oh shit, you're her."

Bit disappointed my player didn't get hit on by the tavern-keeper in Haven this time. Must be the ears. Whoof.

Giving multiplayer a bash - apart from terrible connections (EA!) and 3 maps, it's rather fun. If you've got friends it'll be a smash-fest, but if it's the usual pick-up crowd, you'll get a bunch of newbs who don't bother to clear behind them and wonder why the squishy mages die when the opposing rogues stab them to death while they save the tank's ass.

Cheats: Some like them, some don't, I just want ALL the frigging blueprints this time, so it's dupe-ahoy for my cashed-up team of rampant misfits.

CHESTS & Containers: Very important - don't loot all if there's more than one thing. They respawn. BWHAHAHAHAHA.
This goes for the spirits guarding the rifts, so if you need 4000 lightning essences, dupe them because forget reloading that map 4000 times. But chests with amulets of power (like the one for the PC player, AKA: "I am the GOD EMPEROR, taste my lightning wrath, feed me a psyker.") should be carefully noted and abused.

Don't rush through the game - take your time. The scripted developments happen if you clear or manage to accidentally complete objectives (Shades of Fallout) but haven't had too many game-breaking bugs this time (The Tiventer Mage always caused my cutscene dialogue to hang - digital edition) and there's been a lot less teleporting enemies....but a lot more teleporting landscapes... Damn EA patching.

Mounts - Still want to collect them all, haven't done it yet and believe me, with 300K+ gold, I'm going to buy the most pimped beasts imaginable. I got the giant nug, that thing be FREAKY. Love the bog unicorn.

Repeatability? surprisingly good. Mages and Rogues and Warriors are all very very different flavours of fun (Still miss the whole "spider rogue - goes where ever the daggers go" thing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) ) and they all mesh nicely.

Recommendations: Get some shield (stealth, barrier or magic bubble) up as soon as you can, then go for mobility (Hook-and-chain, grappling hook or mysterious-whoosh-mage-thing) and debuffs/DOTs.
Mages can hook up the combos faster than any other class (apart from higher-end rogues) so use them that way.
Fighters should be drawing the aggro - spec them to make the opposition hate on them rather than the more squishy clothies.
Rogues are either one-hit killers or AOE debuff/death/poisoners.

Opposing forces and tactics?
Rogues, mages and bow-users should die first - the pointy ones are never your friends.
Scavenge everything that's a herb or stone, unless you dupe, in which case, herb herb herb.
Forget the purples - the stuff that drops is vastly inferior to what you can make yourself, apart from some very odd (1-3% health recovery per hit) items, which tend to be outclassed as soon as the first dragon has been brought down and turned into draco mcnuggets.
Talk! Explore! Seduce - but forget Scout Harding, looks like there's a permanent scrip hole where some hot Scouting Dwarf on PC action isn't there.

Love?
There are rumors of some supposed orgy mode (like the DA1 foursome) but all I've seen is badly-meshed Cullen doing his streak, horizontally.
Loved making Cassandra awkward with the whole girl-girl romance but she gives you mad props if you end it gracefully.
A jealous Nightingale is a funny Nightingale.
Sara? Eh, don't stick your dick (or whatever) in the crazy. Works in RL too.
Cole is like hitting on your brother. Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.
Always got the feeling Blackwall wanted a nice hardbody elf to snuggle up with, but couldn't get out of the closet. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)
Quinari will do anything, any time, anywhere. ANYTHING. (Sten was not a good representative of the race.)
Solas - yyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeee, nope. Fine as a mage, good friend and fighting companion, just get the feeling that his browser history would make you end up on a FBI watchlist.

That's about it:)

Happy Slaughter!
-Tir!

Oh, and the "bad play/ evil inquisition/ bad ending" is best described as...
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD