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Post by Catilina on Nov 22, 2016 0:17:56 GMT
Wow. Am I the only one who plays blood mage? I am doing my second nightmare playthrough (first SB warrior, now mage), and I specialize deep in the Blood mage tree and started the force tree. I think both sinergize well. First time trying blood mage... ... and, BTW, blood mage is amazing. I have all blood per mana upgrades, and my equipment all gives .25 mana per health. As I've been speccing for constitution instead of mana I have over 50 points of health. In practice, this means that I have free casting. My sustaineds are all free, and my health follows so slow on cast that is negligible, and upgrade grave robber cools faster than I can deplet health. For all practice purposes, I have free casting, my only limitations are cooldowns times and what abilities I chose. Also, blood magic AoEs do not cause FF, an exception on nightmare, thus becoming an extra useful specialization, in particular against crowds. I guess that is one of the reasons why I am kicking ass in this playthrough, and nightmare is not too nightmarishy this time (unlike previous try). There is a story disconnect, yes... but if you can overlook it, go get blood mage Asap; it is possibly the most powerful specialization in the game... No! I like play as blood mage, elemental/blood/force is amazing! But primal/blood/force as well. This two, what I tried before, as blood mage. Role play view point a bit harder for me, because of Fenris/Anders... but I can explain, that happened before Hawke knew him... and magic is magic, it's depend on the user. (How I hate Inquisition Hawke's hypocrisy! I think this is one of the reasons, because the people don't like it.)
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Post by phoray on Nov 22, 2016 1:16:19 GMT
Is there a picture of what you guys spec as?
I dabbled in blood magic in Origins just recently, but have yet to bother in DA2, even for Merrill. Because I'm like. I'm a mage, already have to worry about health? It'd be cool to spec Merrill properly. She gets all this hate for her blood mage status but I never spec her as one.
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Post by Catilina on Nov 22, 2016 1:24:32 GMT
Is there a picture of what you guys spec as? I dabbled in blood magic in Origins just recently, but have yet to bother in DA2, even for Merrill. Because I'm like. I'm a mage, already have to worry about health? It'd be cool to spec Merrill properly. She gets all this hate for her blood mage status but I never spec her as one. My Hawke at Hadriana and Danarius with Fenris (There where some bad moments, but this is only my lameness, the spec works well) Not hurts too much, but need to watch on the health bar)
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Post by fredlc on Nov 22, 2016 12:55:33 GMT
Is there a picture of what you guys spec as? I dabbled in blood magic in Origins just recently, but have yet to bother in DA2, even for Merrill. Because I'm like. I'm a mage, already have to worry about health? It'd be cool to spec Merrill properly. She gets all this hate for her blood mage status but I never spec her as one. Ok; so here is my team build breakdown. Keep in mind that this isn’t an optimize build. For example, I’ve kept starting talent that I don’t really need… but I also been able to cruise the game without needing to change it. I will, though, if the challenge demands it. First an overview. Team photo: Than a breakdown: Aveline, as the Tank, was meant to be the cornerstone of this build. In gaming, though, I saw that replacing her with Fenris wielded similar performance, only changing the defense focus too offense focus. Still, I consider her to be part of my A team in this playthrough, and she is a better tank than Hawk can be when played as a S&B warrior. In terms of Attributes, in my fisrt nightmare playthrough I gave little strength to my tank. Just enough to equip whatever I wanted to equip, and just enough stamina for a taunt and a sustained; than I poured a lot of points in constitution. This time I made a balanced approach, and I feel my tank is surviving much better than before. Increased fortitude must be downgrading attack effects received enough to offset the diminished health, granting a better tank overall. Funny enough, I had a casual and a normal playthroughs of the game when I was learning the mechanics, and that is the way I built back then. When I decided to go for a nightmare run before, I looked online for builds and got the high constitution approach, which I followed. I didn’t think I had a dependable tank, but I chalked that up to the difficulty increase. Goes to show you can’t trust all you read online. First, the DEFENDER tree: I used to invest in the whole of this tree for my tank to be sturdy. This time, though, it’s basically the 5% resistance increase passive and “Turn of the Blade” plus upgrades. Damage deflection, fortitude and about 10% increase in defense as a whole. What’s not to like? Stonewall was in the original game setup. I just kept it, and it can be an useful emergency tool, but mostly it sits unused. The BATTLEMASTER tree is where the magic begins: Funny thing is I used to mostly ignore this tree in favor of the defender and a few upgrades on S&B for combo setups. However this tree does wonders for agro control in short areas, and gave my team a whole new flexibility, as now I do well in both long range and close quarters. This one came to stay. Rally (and upgrade) I always used to keep mana going. Battle synergy is new for me, and it is amazing. With upgrades It really keeps agro and damage on the tank, allowing me to fight in close quarters with any team. I haven’t tried it yet with a close quarters oriented team, but I imagine this is what will make Isabella survive. She was in my main team in my first nightmare run for experimentation purposes, and she used to drop like a fly, even with my babysitting. Bolster is there just to get taunt back in working order. The tank does not have to dish much damage, just take it, so having her stop and breath for a few turns after using a talent causes negligible loss of performance and downgrade the recovery of my main aggro management tool to the length of it’s cooldown. Because the tank mostly uses no talents, I don’t need the deep reserves or second wind. Now, WARMONGER: It is all about taunt. Keep the heat on the tank. Funny thing that with battle synergy I need it much less than before. Still, sometimes aggro changes, and taunt always revert that trend. I begun filling bravery as well. The idea is for it to replace battle synergy when I want the tank ahead and the rest of the team casting from a distance, as it also boast the tank’s threat generation, but does not require proximity. Probably useful only in open areas with overwhelming numbers of enemies, so it’s more situational, but still… This here is an experimentation; arguably I would be better using the bodyguard sustained from the specialization tree to protect Merrill (9 out of 10 times when someone steal aggro, it’s her), but having 5 sustaineds at a time might be too much. And the name of the game, for me, was always not to let my squish caracthers get hit in the first place. I might re-spec eventually, though. WEAPON AND SHIELD: The Weapon and Shield tree matters because of shield defense. Get it, get all upgrades. Shield bash and scatter are there for point requirements. They can be useful sometimes though, especially in chokepoints. I could bolster them with upgrades to setup combos as I used to, but maybe these points are best spent elsewhere. GUARDIAN: Finally, Guardian. Immovable is the sustained that makes Aveline the best tank in the game. I believe Aveline have not fallen, not once, in my playthrough, save for the two times I had total team failures due to the game cheap attacks (an arcane horror comes out of nowehere and one-shot kills my whole team with a spell). No drops in regular gameplay though. Never got the upgrade. Don’t need it. Don’t care that she is slowed, what matters is that she can take it, not that she can dish it. Obviously the thick skin passive is a must for crazy 15% damage resistance. Retaliation is useless IMHO, I’ll only get it in the way to bodyguard if I decide to go for that route. Gotta say that I am ignoring immunities on S&B and DEFENDER, and even GUARDIAN because some trinkets already give most of them (save stun resistence). You should get at least immunity to crits if not using jewelry that grants it. Varric Is my damage dealer, and kinda troublesome as he has many abilities with friendly fire; there's a rogue for you. Archer’s lance can one-shot Merryl, and it happened at least twice when I screw up the execution of a combo I use (ensnare all lesser foes than pierce through them). Anyways, here he goes: In terms of attributes, no great mistery: A balance of dexterity, cunning and willpower. I’m working my way to make critical chance 100% though. In SABOTAGE: I am using only non-upgraded miasmic flask. Don't get me wrong, this is a great tree, but I always use it, so I am trying new things. This talent came with the character, and I’m thinking of re-speccing to get that point back. In SCOUNDREL: Blindside passive is a nice 20% damage increase, as rarely someone is actually attacking him. Cheap and nice to have. The rest are aggro tools, and I’m needing those less and less. This here is a tree I might abandon; some increased chances of crits are simply redundant with my high critical chance, and my working taunt and battle synergy are managing to keep the agro without extra tools; not that armistice haven’t saved Merrill sometimes. And also I’m thinking on getting Brand, a nice 25% crit chance to my mages is great. Still, this tree is under consideration. In MARKSMAN: Bianca’s song and upgrade are utter priorities. Upgrades of 20% movement speed, 40% attack speed and 50% critical chance? Yes please. This alone makes Varric more than twice as effective. The other actives are straightforward one-to-one damage dealers that are good for not having FF, and Well oiled gives another 20% increase in attack speed. I get everything in this tree except overtime because I’m having no mana problems. Might get it though just to throw some points entirely in critical chance. In SPECIALIST: Another tree I always used to ignore; didn’t like the "all sustaineds" approach. I’m beginning to explore it now, and I might throw the scoundrel and confusion points here. Upgraded “precision” will get my critical chance to nearly 100%. And finally the BIANCA tree. Everything except the rain of arrows, and even so just because of Friendly fire. In anything but nightmare I’d get this whole tree. When it comes to Merrill, she is my interrupt/disabler specialist: Not too much mystery in attributes. Like Varric, spare some points in constitution, but mostly it’s one to one between magic and willpower. In SPIRIT: Again, a talent the game gave me. Will come out in case of a Re-spec. I’d like to say I got dispel, but unlike inquisition, it barely works in DA II; I could never properly undo effects, and arcane horrors casting was too fast for dispel to react. Unless I’m using it wrong, that talent is utter crap in this game… ENTROPY is her bread and butter: Horror I cast whenever an elite foe comes up so I can focus-fire it and take it off the game. Against Arcane Horrors, it’s the only way for them not nuke a character (the whole team if clustered), in one move, save, perhaps, petrify. The Hex of Torment is my only tool to diminish foe resistance (that is why I’m considering the rogue’s “brand” talent)... but it is amazing in it's own right. A must, again, when a foe that can one-shot you spawns. Misdirection is pretty useful, though not as much as the other two. Sleep is more situational, but works great when there are crowds in your tank. What is the problem in having your tank sleep, it all foes around it are asleep as well? You just bought extra casting time to take out foes from a distance. Entropic cloud, however, is useless in nightmare difficulty. It does more damage to your team than to foes, and as it follows the afflicted enemy, you can’t control it’s placement. I tried to use it in my previous playthrough, and half my tank’s deaths were due to it. Don’t get it, it’s liable to be your own worst foe. PRIMAL: The primal tree is delicious. My first AoE attack without FF in the game, the ability to petrify enemies (taking a foe off the equation for a few seconds or interrupting an imminent attack even if you still can’t take advantage of “brittle”). I used to get everything in the tree, but rock armor , now, I’m dubious about. Merrill is my most fragile - and attacked - non-tank, and I do have a large mana pool. Might be useful, but I’m not gunning there. I would like to get the whole tree though, if I have the points to spare. The PARIAH tree is great, IMHO. In this playthrough, with my team fighting within 10 meters of the tank to be able to get the benefits of Battle Synergy, Wrath of the Elven means constant enemy damaging and health replenishing without me doing anything, making it my second AoE without friendly fire, happening constantly in the background. Ensnare not only is another AoE without friendly fire, it also gets foes nice and clustered for bombs, Varric's Archer’s lance, or another AoE. Just remember to get squishy Merryl out of the way first. I’m on my way to get Wounds of the Past for my 4th non FF AoE, making the whole “crowd control” thing a walk in the park, and protecting the tank from cumulative damage from overwhelming numbers, as well as denying command unit foes anything to command. Finnally, there is Blood Mage Hawk: Here you can see my points go all to constitution instead of mana. I do this to keep blood magic on all the time. Seriously, I NEVER turn it off. Why should I? All my sustaineds go for free with effects benefiting the whole team, and I never lack power for my activated spells. In ARCANE: Elemental weapons and Arcane shield have teamwide effects improving offense and defense. I never bothered with the elemental resistences because my tank’s fortitude is holding up. Mind blast sits mostly unused, but is the path to the shield I used to bolster Aveline against boss enemies or yet unmanaged crowds, or to make her immune to elite backstabbing rogues. In ELEMENTAL: Got the cold spells in act two just for the Arishok fight. My plan was to re-spec these points to a Force Mage build, but they are so useful I’m unsure. Let’s see what the future holds. In FORCE: I like the spells and I’m thinking of going all the way to gravity ring… still too early on it, though. And they cause FF, what is too bad. I suppose I could revert these points to primal, but I like the variety. Anyway, I’m still too shallow in this tree for it be among my main toolset. In CREATION: Heroic aura is a must, again, for team wide effect bolstering attack and critical chance. Heal is obvious, and haste is there to help focus-fire Arcane horrors and other cheap one-shot killers before they can hurt my team. And Finally, the cream of the crop, BLOOD MAGE: I got hemorrage thinking of the great spell Blood Wound in DA Origins. It’s functionally equivalent but it is not as powerful, at least without the paralyzing upgrade that I didn’t get yet. I’ll eventually get there. Still, it is yet another non FF AoE, my 5th one. Grave robber is the best power on the tree, arguably on the game. When upgraded, does great damage to foes around, outright killing foot soldiers, making it my 6th non FF AoE. Crowds have no chance of surviving all those rolling one after the other. Ah, and it replenish your health while doing it, usually to the full, even when the enemies you faced are already dead. This one here is THE power that makes blood mage the best tree in the game. Blood sacrifice is last resort healing. It’s there for emergencies only, and I used it maybe twice on the game. Generally unnecessary though. Blood slave is hit and miss. Normally, works only in lesser foes, and as this game is characterized for large crowds, and I already have means of demolishing the lesser ones with AoE, that talent is mostly meaningless. Also, the upgrade does not attract, because foes rarely attack the blood slave, going for your character that held the aggro. If I could turn the enemy commanding unities with consistency this would be the most powerful skill in the game. As it is, it’s mostly cosmetic. Oh, and sometimes even foot soldiers resist, despite the 100% control chance against them. Maybe a bug? Anyway, that is my build, and I’ve been destroying in nightmare with it. Hope it helps convincing that blood mage is quite worth it. Regards.
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Post by Catilina on Nov 22, 2016 13:27:46 GMT
Is there a picture of what you guys spec as? I dabbled in blood magic in Origins just recently, but have yet to bother in DA2, even for Merrill. Because I'm like. I'm a mage, already have to worry about health? It'd be cool to spec Merrill properly. She gets all this hate for her blood mage status but I never spec her as one. Ok; so here is my team build breakdown. Keep in mind that this isn’t an optimize build. For example, I’ve kept starting talent that I don’t really need… but I also been able to cruise the game without needing to change it. I will, though, if the challenge demands it. [...] Nice summary! My Hawke's talent builds only for fun not for nightmare. Maybe not fully optimized, but seems much more thoughtful, than mine. (I never use Sacrifice. Hawke have this talent, ofc, because need for the talent bild, but this is the "moral barrier".)
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Post by fredlc on Nov 22, 2016 21:52:43 GMT
Eh; in DA Origins, I'd have a ranger on the game so I could leech the animal companion for the blood, sparing the companions. Not more unethical than eating a blood steak, really, though less appetizing, specially when I had a corrupted spider on. Maybe you can always heal the wound with a health spell later? the equation is usually favorable, and maybe they wouldn't mind knowing it would resulti in a net gain of health? Anyways, I don't roleplay as much as many people here. I'm ma pragmatist, and what works, works. No ethical concerns with bitmap beings. I only use it little because it is generally unneeded.
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Post by Catilina on Nov 22, 2016 22:49:21 GMT
Eh; in DA Origins, I'd have a ranger on the game so I could leech the animal companion for the blood, sparing the companions. Not more unethical than eating a blood steak, really, though less appetizing, specially when I had a corrupted spider on. Maybe you can always heal the wound with a health spell later? the equation is usually favorable, and maybe they wouldn't mind knowing it would resulti in a net gain of health? Anyways, I don't roleplay as much as many people here. I'm ma pragmatist, and what works, works. No ethical concerns with bitmap beings. I only use it little because it is generally unneeded. Yes, I got it. But I like to roleplay, and I can live without using this, not that important thing, just another healing stuff. And I have potions and Anders for it. As I see you prefer Merrill. It can be healed, yes, but think about it, may disrupt them with pain. Bah... why I say that, you don't care about roleplay
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Post by fredlc on Dec 10, 2016 21:28:25 GMT
Just a little update. Finished the game, plus Legacy (skipped MoA, I don't care much for it) a few weeks ago. Did my respecs, and Merryl also became a bona fide blood mage, with the points going to constitution intead of mana. Anyways, this made her better but not as good as Hawke, for two reasons; her entropy spells attract more aggro than blood mage spells, and she was attacked more, and her healing options are far less powerful. Gave her the rock armor (with blood mage on, sustaineds became essencially free, so why not?) and used the bodyguard skill to keep her alive, what helped matters, though I feel Hawke still used to outlive her without these buffs, even though both had the 1 to 1 ratio and two .25% ratio increase gear on. Anyways, I went down the Force Mage tree and it does kicks ass. Synergizes great with blood mage, and in some bossfights, like Orsino, I basically kept the boss frozen in place for half the duration with a few well placed gravity rings. I never cared for that specialization before, but now I do think it might really be almost on par with blood mage. Maybe I just never gave spirit healer it's due love. Maybe it rocks too. Anyways, I'm done with DA II now and went to Inquisition to finish my full nightmare run of the series. Having a ball by using Bull and Cole for the first time, and figuring out how to tank with a two handed warrior on a high difficulty. Just one trial on, though - enemy leveling up - because I think this one actually improves the game. I don't like the others that force me to specific play paths just to get bragging rights by way of trophies.
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Post by Dovahkiin N7 on Dec 19, 2016 18:35:41 GMT
Just a little update. Finished the game, plus Legacy (skipped MoA, I don't care much for it) a few weeks ago. Did my respecs, and Merryl also became a bona fide blood mage, with the points going to constitution intead of mana. Anyways, this made her better but not as good as Hawke, for two reasons; her entropy spells attract more aggro than blood mage spells, and she was attacked more, and her healing options are far less powerful. Gave her the rock armor (with blood mage on, sustaineds became essencially free, so why not?) and used the bodyguard skill to keep her alive, what helped matters, though I feel Hawke still used to outlive her without these buffs, even though both had the 1 to 1 ratio and two .25% ratio increase gear on. Anyways, I went down the Force Mage tree and it does kicks ass. Synergizes great with blood mage, and in some bossfights, like Orsino, I basically kept the boss frozen in place for half the duration with a few well placed gravity rings. I never cared for that specialization before, but now I do think it might really be almost on par with blood mage. Maybe I just never gave spirit healer it's due love. Maybe it rocks too. Anyways, I'm done with DA II now and went to Inquisition to finish my full nightmare run of the series. Having a ball by using Bull and Cole for the first time, and figuring out how to tank with a two handed warrior on a high difficulty. Just one trial on, though - enemy leveling up - because I think this one actually improves the game. I don't like the others that force me to specific play paths just to get bragging rights by way of trophies. Did you set her (Merrill's) tactics right? With disable blood of the first when health < 25% as FIRST tactics? She is absolute beast and a mass murderer if speced right, at times outliving Avelin. Although I never ever brought myself to play as bloodmage, but I heard bloodmage Hawke is even more powerful.
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Post by shechinah on Dec 19, 2016 19:25:02 GMT
Greetings, The thing with DA2 is that playing as a mage is fantastic gameplay wise ( I would argue that DA2 mage is the best in the series in terms of spell diversity and combat animations) but playing as one require lots of justifications, explanations and head-cannoning.
While I would have liked more reactivity, I quite enjoy this because it led to a lot of thinking of how my character would approach a situation with this in mind. How would they hide their usage of magic in battle? How would they behave as to not attract attention? Would they hide their stance on certain things to avoid seeming suspecious?
Additionally in DAI, Hawke is shown to detest Blood Magic. Yet, Blood Mage is a specialization in DA2 and Merrill is a Blood Mage. Do you play a mage Hawke who has a rival relationship with Merrill and who is not a Blood Mage ? Lady Hawke, my canon mage, had a rivalry relationship with Merill despite the two actually getting along otherwise. The reason she developed a rivalry relationship with Merill was because she distrusted her relationship with the fade creature and felt that the mirror might be bad news, corrupted or uncorrupted, which was why she began impeeding Merrill's efforts to see it fixed. She also worried Merrill was beginning to develop an obsession with it.
I consider it to be possible for Hawke to have a rivalry relationship with Merrill even if Hawke is a blood magic. Hawke can dislike and argue with Merill over how she is using her blood magic and have the same or similar opinions as the one listed above about her goals.
So my question is how do mage Hawke players play him/her in a somewhat believable manner ? What do you do in game to accomplish this ? For those playing on the PC, what mods do you use to aid you ? Do you only wear specific robes or pick specific specializations or have Varric and/or Aveline with you in the party when you go adventuring at all times (Varric for the bribery factor and Aveline for the guard protection factor) ? Did you stick with being Diplomatic personality because Sarcastic and Aggressive personalities might attract too much unnecessary attention ? Due to technical issues, I was unable to play Dragon Age II on my PC and so instead rented a copy for Xbox from my local library but even so, I tend to go unmodded for my first playthrough.
I headcanoned that the Circle had donated clothing to refugees in need which was why Lady Hawke had Circle robes and why no one was blinking twice at that.
Lady Hawke would often order many varieties of grenades and use them in combat alongside her magic. She did this to make it seem to others that what looked like magic was just grenades. Her staff had a blade so she pretended it was a spear or polearm.
One of her specialisations was Force Magic which she was careful in using so it did not appear like an invisible force was throwing people around, rather she made it look like it was due to physical attacks. If nobody was around then she went to town with it. Her other specialisation was Spirit Healer which is a bit easier to hide the use of since most of her companions wore armor or clothes that covered much of their skin. She carried health potions.
Lady Hawke generally had a pleasent disposition: if Varric was the Team Dad then she was the Team Mom. Depending on her company and situation, she would speak openly, keep her opinions more subtley or just hold her tongue. Two examples of the latter would be in the company of templars or in public. Even her companions chattered on in public, she tried not to and also avoided displays of obvious magic such as with Feynriel's father.
Lady trusted she had a good enough set-up doing the above so that she did not always feel like she needed specific companions to cover for her except when doing certain quests. Most of the time, she selected companions based on what made sense. Although sometimes she was already out and about with them like because she was looking at charms and trinkets with Isabella, trying to find a new sword for Aveline as a gift or patrolling with her, going hunting for herb resources with Merill or taking a stroll on the beach with Fenris to get him out of the house and city for some fresh air.
Example: When she was going to the lowest tier of Kirkwall and doing quests there, she might bring Anders along or Varric, sometimes Isabella. Outside of the city, she might bring Merrill. When visiting the compound, she'd bring Fenris and maybe Aveline. That way on.
Example: She brought Aveline along on some of the quests that had to with Templars to make her seem less suspecious if anything unusual came up. Basically, having the captain of the guard with her made sense and made it seem less likely that she'd be suspected of something. This was also because she was a refugee and was worried that might make her scapegoat for some.
As a sidenote, I always imagined that Varric keeps an eye out for Hawke similar to how he does for Merrill especially if he has high friendship with Hawke.
When I was finally able to play it on PC, I modded some more clothes options so I could have armor and clothes that looked less Circle and more normal although I actually ended up using Bethany's clothes set for a time. I just imagined that she and Bethany had similar clothes although I think I headcanoned that she took Bethany's scarf as a keepsake and wore it in memory of. I also modded in some staffs: the staff I loved to use with her had this awesome fire effect to it and I just pretended that she credited it as being due to a fire enchantment.
Oh, I modded Isabella some pants. Heh, I imagine Lady and Isabella had an argument about this and reached the compromise that Isabella would wear pants but no undershirt.
I see if I gather a list of the mods I used. Do you want all the mods or just the ones related to Hawke being a mage?
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Post by shechinah on Dec 19, 2016 20:00:08 GMT
Here are some of the mods that I've used for my mage. I've added in some extras that have been released since then.
Note: Spoiler-marked due to size.
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Post by fredlc on Dec 22, 2016 10:23:45 GMT
Just a little update. Finished the game, plus Legacy (skipped MoA, I don't care much for it) a few weeks ago. Did my respecs, and Merryl also became a bona fide blood mage, with the points going to constitution intead of mana. Anyways, this made her better but not as good as Hawke, for two reasons; her entropy spells attract more aggro than blood mage spells, and she was attacked more, and her healing options are far less powerful. Gave her the rock armor (with blood mage on, sustaineds became essencially free, so why not?) and used the bodyguard skill to keep her alive, what helped matters, though I feel Hawke still used to outlive her without these buffs, even though both had the 1 to 1 ratio and two .25% ratio increase gear on. Anyways, I went down the Force Mage tree and it does kicks ass. Synergizes great with blood mage, and in some bossfights, like Orsino, I basically kept the boss frozen in place for half the duration with a few well placed gravity rings. I never cared for that specialization before, but now I do think it might really be almost on par with blood mage. Maybe I just never gave spirit healer it's due love. Maybe it rocks too. Anyways, I'm done with DA II now and went to Inquisition to finish my full nightmare run of the series. Having a ball by using Bull and Cole for the first time, and figuring out how to tank with a two handed warrior on a high difficulty. Just one trial on, though - enemy leveling up - because I think this one actually improves the game. I don't like the others that force me to specific play paths just to get bragging rights by way of trophies. Did you set her (Merrill's) tactics right? With disable blood of the first when health < 25% as FIRST tactics? She is absolute beast and a mass murderer if speced right, at times outliving Avelin. Although I never ever brought myself to play as bloodmage, but I heard bloodmage Hawke is even more powerful. Oh, I'm a a micromanaging fiend. I use all powers mannually, and disable all tactics. Anyways, Merryl outliving Aveline seens odd, because Aveline is nigh impossible to kill. In my playthrough, she was on my main team, going to everything except the story bits that required Fenris; still, she died only twice, and only in cheap kills (like when an Arcane Horror spawn unexpectedly and instakill the team with a single spell). In normal game conditions, Aveline was impervious. A truly crazy tank when specced right.
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Post by Lulupab on Dec 28, 2016 7:11:41 GMT
Is there a picture of what you guys spec as? I dabbled in blood magic in Origins just recently, but have yet to bother in DA2, even for Merrill. Because I'm like. I'm a mage, already have to worry about health? It'd be cool to spec Merrill properly. She gets all this hate for her blood mage status but I never spec her as one. Its not that hard. You need to respec and not put any points on willpower at all, instead put everything on constitution. It will server as both mana and health.
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Post by Lulupab on Dec 28, 2016 7:18:30 GMT
Also a bit of off-topic, but the best mage in the game in terms of DPS is Vengeance spec Anders, so long as you protect him and know what you are doing.
Perhaps the biggest advantage is the fact that Anders can permanently keep the haste on the party by sacrificing health to reduce all his cooldowns. He gains health back when he delivers killing blows, which should be easy as all of his damage is increased in Vengeance form. Mind you though that his utility would never match Hawke's in terms of disabling enemies and other effects, but in pure DPS, he always pulls ahead.
You should definitely try it. Play spirit healer Hawke, and take Aveline, Anders and Varric with you. Spirit healers are pretty tough, so make Aveline use talents such as bodyguard on Anders, he will need it. This is the best party the game has to offer. Best damage, best utility, best defense, best healing etc.
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Post by Dovahkiin N7 on Dec 28, 2016 20:36:45 GMT
Also a bit of off-topic, but the best mage in the game in terms of DPS is Vengeance spec Anders, so long as you protect him and know what you are doing. Perhaps the biggest advantage is the fact that Anders can permanently keep the haste on the party by sacrificing health to reduce all his cooldowns. He gains health back when he delivers killing blows, which should be easy as all of his damage is increased in Vengeance form. Mind you though that his utility would never match Hawke's in terms of disabling enemies and other effects, but in pure DPS, he always pulls ahead. You should definitely try it. Play spirit healer Hawke, and take Aveline, Anders and Varric with you. Spirit healers are pretty tough, so make Aveline use talents such as bodyguard on Anders, he will need it. This is the best party the game has to offer. Best damage, best utility, best defense, best healing etc. This , I am so tempted to try.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2017 15:09:02 GMT
Why there would be a problem playing a Mage in DA2? There are only 3 classes as is, making one of them not available to the PC would be a terrible idea. And it's the only class with healing so far, unless things change compared to the Origins.
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Post by Catilina on Jan 3, 2017 15:23:49 GMT
Why there would be a problem playing a Mage in DA2? There are only 3 classes as is, making one of them not available to the PC would be a terrible idea. And it's the only class with healing so far, unless things change compared to the Origins. Because in Southern Thedas the mages considered dangerous (cursed), and shouldn't be free. Especially in Kirkwall. The free mages be branded as apostates, and pursued by the Chantry (Templars), so they forced to hiding. Hawke is an apostate.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2017 15:35:24 GMT
Why there would be a problem playing a Mage in DA2? There are only 3 classes as is, making one of them not available to the PC would be a terrible idea. And it's the only class with healing so far, unless things change compared to the Origins. Because in Southern Thedas the mages considered dangerous (cursed), and shouldn't be free. Especially in Kirkwall. The free mages be branded as apostates, and pursued by the Chantry (Templars), so they forced to hiding. Hawke is an apostate. So, it's still valid for the PC. Bio started with a protagonist that was a child of the Lord of Murder and slotted to be eliminated by the well-meaning Harpers, lest Bhaal rises again. Right in the same vein, very Bio.
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Post by Catilina on Jan 3, 2017 16:13:39 GMT
Because in Southern Thedas the mages considered dangerous (cursed), and shouldn't be free. Especially in Kirkwall. The free mages be branded as apostates, and pursued by the Chantry (Templars), so they forced to hiding. Hawke is an apostate. So, it's still valid for the PC. Bio started with a protagonist that was a child of the Lord of Murder and slotted to be eliminated by the well-meaning Harpers, lest Bhaal rises again. Right in the same vein, very Bio. Not exactly, but probably somewhat similar: The point is, that mages are dangerous, and need to be prisoned, and shouldn't beget/raise children (for example Wynne), and according of the Chantry's standpoint, they aren't able to control their power without Templar's "help", and easy prey of demons. The latter is true from the aspect, that the demons easier to contact with them, than the non-magic people. UPDATE:So: playing as apostate, in the city of Templar, quite hard.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2017 16:24:04 GMT
So, it's still valid for the PC. Bio started with a protagonist that was a child of the Lord of Murder and slotted to be eliminated by the well-meaning Harpers, lest Bhaal rises again. Right in the same vein, very Bio. Not exactly, but probably somewhat similar: The point is, that mages are dangerous, and need to be prisoned, and shouldn't beget/raise children (for example Wynne), and according of the Chantry's standpoint, they aren't able to control their power without Templar's "help", and easy prey of demons. The latter is true from the aspect, that the demons easier to contact with them, than the non-magic people. Well, if it is just that, I am happy. I was worried it broke dialogues in the game, or whatever. As long as it is a mage that walks free when she should have been handcuffed to a Templar, I am taking it in stride. Outcast that rises to greatness, because she cannot do otherwise, an exception to all the mundane rules is an all too familiar role in videogames. And, well, Mages always get the best toys in the games imo, and in this one they get the healing too, taking two traditional roles, so a Mage PC makes a perfect sense to maximize your ability to create a party that both works and uses the NPCs you like, rather the ones you have to use functionally.
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Post by Catilina on Jan 3, 2017 16:30:26 GMT
Not exactly, but probably somewhat similar: The point is, that mages are dangerous, and need to be prisoned, and shouldn't beget/raise children (for example Wynne), and according of the Chantry's standpoint, they aren't able to control their power without Templar's "help", and easy prey of demons. The latter is true from the aspect, that the demons easier to contact with them, than the non-magic people. Well, if it is just that, I am happy. I was worried it broke dialogues in the game, or whatever. As long as it is a mage that walks free when she should have been handcuffed to a Templar, I am taking it in stride. Outcast that rises to greatness, because she cannot do otherwise, an exception to all the mundane rules is an all too familiar role in videogames. And, well, Mages always get the best toys in the games imo, and in this one they get the healing too, taking two traditional roles, so a Mage PC makes a perfect sense to maximize your ability to create a party that both works and uses the NPCs you like, rather the ones you have to use functionally. There are some "interesting" dialogues and the game isn't perfect, but many people like it, better than the others (and many people hate it...). Somewhere isn't too believable to playing as apostate in Kirkwall, but if you have enough imagination, it's possible, and more enjoyable, than the others (but I enjoyed the warrior with mage sister and mage lover, it was different viewpoint). The game mechanic is a mess: throwing fire balls on public street, but there are informations, that this not really happen; Hawke able to fight without magic. (There are mods to hide the staffs, and Hawke don't need wear robes.)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2017 16:39:22 GMT
Well, if it is just that, I am happy. I was worried it broke dialogues in the game, or whatever. As long as it is a mage that walks free when she should have been handcuffed to a Templar, I am taking it in stride. Outcast that rises to greatness, because she cannot do otherwise, an exception to all the mundane rules is an all too familiar role in videogames. And, well, Mages always get the best toys in the games imo, and in this one they get the healing too, taking two traditional roles, so a Mage PC makes a perfect sense to maximize your ability to create a party that both works and uses the NPCs you like, rather the ones you have to use functionally. There are some "interesting" dialogues and the game isn't perfect, but many people like it, better than the others (and many people hate it...). Somewhere isn't too believable to playing as apostate in Kirkwall, but if you have enough imagination, it's possible, and more enjoyable, than the others (but I enjoyed the warrior with mage sister and mage lover, it was different viewpoint). (There are mods to hide the staffs, and Hawke don't ned wear robes.) All good I honestly have more troubles with the idea that my character will have this huge family than with being an Apostate. But, then again, if my sister is an Apostate, it makes more sense that it runs in the family and all that, plus Bio seems to want to put it in all the games now, to skip the whole Orphan Hero trope so better get used to it. Cheers
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Post by Catilina on Jan 3, 2017 16:44:22 GMT
There are some "interesting" dialogues and the game isn't perfect, but many people like it, better than the others (and many people hate it...). Somewhere isn't too believable to playing as apostate in Kirkwall, but if you have enough imagination, it's possible, and more enjoyable, than the others (but I enjoyed the warrior with mage sister and mage lover, it was different viewpoint). (There are mods to hide the staffs, and Hawke don't ned wear robes.) All good I honestly have more troubles with the idea that my character will have this huge family than with being an Apostate. But, then again, if my sister is an Apostate, it makes more sense that it runs in the family and all that, plus Bio seems to want to put it in all the games now, to skip the whole Orphan Hero trope so better get used to it. Cheers At the begining Hawke have two sibling: a mage and a warrior... so: its no matter, Hawke mage or not, the family still together take care of each other, and Hawke is the eldest. Then there is not real contradiction. (Their father was also a mage.) You will see: an apostate can be useful, if we are talking about "semi-official" work (mercenary, for example, in a non-legal organisation), so an apostate able to support his family, just yes, it's dangerous.
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Post by ergates on Jan 11, 2017 10:31:38 GMT
I generally leave Anders in his Darktown clinic for 90 per cent of the game, except when I have no choice but to bring him along - such as during his personal quests. He's far too judgemental, annoying and supercilious for my tastes, I'll sometimes use Fenris as a substitute tank to replace Aveline, but for the most part my core party consists of mage Hawke, Merril, Aveline and Isabela. Varric will sometimes replace Isabela when the situation warrants it.
Like others on this thread, I tend to headcanon that Hawke is doing a style of 'staff fighting' when engaging in combat witnessed by others who may not be sympathetic to apostate mages. Assisting Cullen for the first time in Act 1 is one such example. After the the Arishok is defeated and Act 3 begins, Hawke declares herself openly as a mage. There's no point hiding it any longer, and Meredith is already aware.
I don't use armor mods or even the official item packs, as I find that most of them unbalance the game, making party members overpowered, but I do use the mod to hide staves and other two-handed weapons. I consider this mod absolutely essential for roleplaying.
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Post by Lazarillo on Jan 12, 2017 1:59:13 GMT
My Mage Hawke took Blood Mage as his second Specialization, but no abilities from it. Justified as saying he learned about it, so he could know how to recognize it, and counter it, and other such wholesome things. Incidentally, I gave Wynne Blood Magic for her second Specialization in Origins in the same way for the same reasons.
As for his Mage-y appearance and the whole "tossing fireballs in front of the Templars" stuff, I headcanon that the same way I headcanon the repetitive environments: Varric's bad at describing it, or possibly just Cassandra's bad at imagining it. Hawke's story is of a larger than life sort of hero, so of course from the perspective of seeing him/her in a story, the idea of a gigantic rain of fireballs being dropped by the mighty Champion is, well, what you'd expect, if you're caught up in Varric's tale. Incidentally I feel like this is even sort of justified in DAI, since Hawke's spells there seem to be pretty subtle if s/he shows up as a Mage. Similarly, if I ever played a Hawke that ever actually used Blood Magic, I'd probably do the same sort of headcanon, after Inquisition: any time we see it is just Cassandra assuming s/he'd use it, because she believes Hawke to be a villainous sort.
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