[GUIDE] Dragon Age Origins Quest Order - Where Do I Go After Lothering?

Damn, this thread is a bit old but I really miss discussing DAO strategy or builds.

I have to say that I generally have trouble actually role playing and am stuck in a min-max meta-game state of mind. So that lends itself to generally to the same rough order over and over. Good points already made in the thread, but I will throw in my two coppers, and a third for soloing.

I honestly can't remember the order I tried to do things in my very first run. All I remember from that was mostly that I was an SNS warrior with crap stat allocation, poor build order, and the game seemed extremely difficult. I think I was trying to grind Brecilian Forest, and as I finally got tired of being terrible, looked at a guide. Generally now Broken Circle is the first treaty area I complete. Complete is a distinction I want to make, since not all quest areas lock you in until it is finished.

I am sure that soloing isn't all that popular, but once I started it was a pretty interesting change of pace and really lets you learn the ins and outs of basically every class. It has some influence on the order as well. In party games, you might be tempted to do something like Circle, Redcliffe, Brecilian, Urn, Orz... whatever, but in a solo it might be worthwhile to try something a little more fluid, or at the least slightly different.

In a solo I have found it is generally a good idea to go to Denerim first thing after Lothering. There are a couple reasons for this that are consistent for all backgrounds and classes. For one thing, some random encounters are non-trivial at Level 7, and various encounters are keyed to map location. Desolate Highway (the area with a zillion wolves with traps) can appear between Lothering and the Tower, and has a good chance of occurring since there are few plot related encounters that have been unlocked. On the other hand, it does not occur if you go from Lothering to Denerim and then to the Tower.

Denerim is also a decent place to make some gold early. The tasks the Sgt of the guard gives you (Pearls Before Swine, Crimson Oars) aren't too horrible and you can get a decent 1H weapon (Aodh). Also with positioning it is possible to complete the Back Alley Justice early before the archers learn Scattershot, which on the whole makes this a doable mission. Dwarf Nobles especially should consider Denerim early since they can sell loot to Gorim for double gold. You can also start on some "Favors for Certain Interested Parties," and activate quests from the Denerim Mage's Collective (which can help avoid Bloody Plains, which blows to solo early for most classes).

Although there is a gating encounter, it is also worth considering heading to the Frostback Mountains / Orzammar early, especially if you are a Warrior - Templar. There is an exploit where if you walk completely to the left side of the map, you can stroll right past the Bounty Hunters, and so that gating encounter is skipped. If you have the gold, you can buy Knight Commander's Plate which is easily the best armor a warrior can obtain early, and is arguably the second best armor in DAO for soloing anyway.

Getting into Orzammar proper requires passing either a persuade check or another gating encounter vs Loghain's men. Once you do though it isn't all that bad to obtain the Key to the City ring for +2 stats, the only real fight you have to do in Orzammar is the first one in Dust Town.

After that, I prefer to do one of two things. For warriors or rogues, I will choose between Honnleath or the Circle Tower. Mages should proceed to the Circle Tower post haste (and can consider skipping Denerim and Orzammar altogether). The reason for this is that the Templar enemies will learn "Holy Smite" at Level 10, and that can ruin your day as a mage in a couple of rooms. I had real trouble with the Desire Demon and Bewitched Templar on my very first mage solo due to this. Warriors and rogues don't have this issue, and to some extent it is better for them to have leveled or geared up slightly more to fight against the magical enemies (eg meet STR requirement for KCP). Grab Yusaris if 2H and not using DLC weapons. As far as Uldred, he is also easier to solo at lower levels, and he is also easiest to solo with characters using ranged weapons (since he does not use Massive Attack against them). The absolute easiest character I used against him was rogue dex archer. It is possible for early game dex archer with Defensive Fire sustain to have enough defense that Uldred essentially can never hit the character (pop Incense of Awareness that you can buy at Spoiled Princess). It went slow as hell though since that character had crap DPS, but I could have went to get a coffee in the mean time.

If you go to Honnleath early (which is easier than later), try to save a couple acid flasks for the last encounter. You can funnel the Rage Demons to the steps and nuke them with flasks. Cold and Fire resists don't hurt either.

Generally people like Redcliffe as the second treaty quest if they do Circle first, but this is problematic in a solo. At least if you want to keep everyone alive in the Attack at Nightfall. In a solo, especially with a melee character, it will be near impossible to save everyone unless they have learned Scattershot, which happens at Level 12 IIRC. So many times I ended up going back to Denerim or starting Brecilian Forest to get some XP.

Except as a rogue, there isn't much of a compelling reason to stop by the Forest out of Lothering. A rogue may want to at least buy the bikini armor from the merchant, since it is the only worthwhile rogue armor until you get Felon's or Wade's, really. If I am grinding XP before Redcliffe, I will agree to do fetch nonsense (Ironbark, Lost to the Curse) and whatever junk, and try to clear the W Brecilian up through the very start of E Brecilian (where you find Danyla).

Another consideration is starting Urn of Sacred Ashes so that you can obtain the Ancient Elven Gloves from the Temple. As solo melee, spell resist is very useful and every little bit helps. Can also pick up Armor of Diligence here, but for the most part KCP is going to be more useful.

Back to Redcliffe, if you do all you can to prepare the militia (consider avoiding the oil), and they have Scattershot, it is doable to beat Attack at Nightfall solo with no casualties. Don't get me wrong, it is still a PITA as a non-mage, but it is doable. Otherwise the only thing that is really potentially a cluster is the room of armored suits with overlapping Rally. Corners can be your friend here if a melee character. Mages should have been rofl-stomping everything by the end of the Tower (assuming non-hipster build order). Going into the Fade with the help of the Circle is probably the easiest, but I don't find the other version of the fight all that difficult by this level.

Next you can finish Urn or the Werewolf quest, it doesn't matter a whole lot. Or you can do DLC junk (Warden's Keep, RtO). Cailan's armor is good, but probably not quite ideal as a set for solo warrior. The Warden Commander armor is very good for a Strength Rogue (semi hipster character) and ok on 2H warrior. But in general KCP mixed with gloves and boots from these is better.

Benefits of working on or finishing Urn first is getting Drake scales so you can start getting armor from Wade. 3 Drake room is probably best semi-cheesed in a nook by cages so as to limit exposure. Kolgrim is slightly easier if you fight him in the first encounter (level scaling difference) as opposed to after getting the Ashes. You don't have to fight the High Dragon right away. This is a pain for a lot of solo characters, especially if you want to really be a masochist and try it without healing pots. AW's will get Spellweaver, but in reality a staff is the best weapon for solo AW, and a couple other 1H will beat out Spellweaver anyway (eg Veshialle, Maric's, Starfang).

Alternatively, Nature of the Beast is more steady in difficulty and has a lot of loot and gold. Not so much in the way of useful unique items though. Best item here is probably Dusk Ring, which you can pick up before Redcliffe and is really only decent for rogue. Falon'Din's Reach is just adequate for an archer. Jugg set is good for gold. For Lair of the Werewolves, you need to have a way to deal with Overwhelms. Mage can nuke everything, but warrior and rogue should have some armor and health regen. Traps can also be employed to good effect here. Final fight isn't too bad, especially amusing as Templar or rogue vs Zathrien.

I find Orzammar a bit tedious, and the Deep Roads especially so which is why I do the bulk of it last. You can and should travel here as needed since the best early solo big purchase (besides KCP for warriors) is Lifegiver. The next best expensive item sold here is Rose's Thorn, which is in every top combination of dual weapons. Diligence gloves in the Shaperate aren't bad for armor buff, so grab if you can. 2H can get Ageless if you are helping Bhelen early, but it is probably redundant (should have obtained Yusaris, Starfang or even Chasind Great Maul by then).

Boss fights in this quest can be rough depending on class, and is another reason I like to put it off. You are pretty exposed in most places in the Jarvia fight, and she has decent amount of defense. Also the DOT from Dual Wield Expert that they apply can add up. But typically if you have made it this far, you will get past it.

Corrupted Spider Queen is basically a cheater though. She uses the stacked DOT bug against you (via Poison Spit) and so you have to be careful how you engage her, or it will become impossible to heal through the DOT. Nature resist can help, but really you have to avoid letting her camp at range and stack the DOTs. Cheesing behind the rock formation is the easiest way.

Branka is practically the only challenge for a late game mage in the game, and can be tough for some melee. She has high spell resistance, and decent physical resistance. She also has the help of Golems, which oddly are immune to critical hits IIRC. 2H warrior came to kick ass and chew gum, but is all out of gum.