Dragon Age The Joyguard (formerly Hype Train) [Spoilers]

Obviously it depends on where we are to begin with and your background. If you are a Tevinter mage then not an apostate, there is no such thing. If anything the Circles are the opposite in Tevinter in that you want to go and there would seem to be a hierarchy of Circles too in terms of the ones all the best people go to. Dorian got kicked out of several Circles for being a trouble maker, was sent to a very strict boarding school not attached to a Cirlce but ran away and ended up in a brothel, where Alexius scooped him up and took him under his wing. There were hints in the letter to his father that young apprentices should be in education and Alexius would have been well within his rights to call the Templars about the issue but decided against it. So being in some form of magical education would seem to be compulsory, for safety reasons if nothing else, but that doesn't have to be in a Circle as Calpernia was instructed in the basics by Erathenes and then left to her own devices, but then she was only a slave. I think half the reason the Altus insist on their children going to the mage boarding schools is because you can make useful future contacts there and if they don't go then it looks like you can't afford it. They also look down on anyone who hasn't received a Circle education.

The alternative I suppose would be a self-taught mage, for example a Vashoth, or a mage from one of the fringe societies, like a Rivaini seer or a Fog Dancer. I think they are more likely to be companions, though, than options for the PC. If they want to make it easy for themselves then you could simply be a Liberati mage, a former slave but not yet a citizen, who was either trained by their master at home or sponsored in the local Circle by them. There was a mage in Tevinter Nights a bit like this, although they had already achieved citizenship because it would seem the Soporati owner of the factory where his family worked decided to adopt him as that would then allow his own family to be elevated to Laetan class. Non citizen Liberati can still join a Circle, presumably if they have the coin to do so.

It would be interesting to play a Tevinter raised mage simply because the system is so different to what we have been used to in the south.

I think Blood Magic will return at the very least.

It depends on whether you mean general spells or specialism. With the latter I definitely think it should be possible to be a blood mage because even if your mage isn't from Tevinter, presumably they could find someone to teach them. Really there should be Necromancy as well because Dorian knew this, even though at least one of the writers thinks it is just another form of blood magic, which is odd considering the majority of the spells are either from the schools of entropy or spirit magic.

I'd quite like there to be a specialism, other than blood magic, that was specific to the area, in much the same way that Force Magic was said to have originated in Kirkwall. Rift Magic was said to have been specifically tied to the hole in the sky, even though you don't lose your ability once it is closed. If we have some connection with either Rivaini Seers or the Fog Dancers, I could see a unique specialism based on their culture.

In some ways, now they limit our own options so much with regard to specialism, I'd quite like them to return to the DA2 model, with our companions having their own unique specialism, so we are not simply duplicating them.

Yeah, I was always shoving my mages into rogue armor so I could crank up their crit chance to an absurd degree (Flashpoint shenanigans). Was kind of a bummer to pass up on all those unique mage robes for the generic cross-class armor look.

And the snofleur population has yet to recover.

Not particularly hyped. The artwork I've seen so far cleaves closer to World of Warcraft than Dragon Age as I remember it best. Only thing that has intrigued me yet is the promise of more Solas.

He’s just Corypheus 2.0 now. A crazy old mage who woke up in a time different from his so now plans to destroy the modern world to make one he likes more. Any potential with him is gone now.

No, not really. You could argue Corypheus also had a conscience. But both set those aside for their goal. 

I don't know who that is, so what do you mean? 

Is this based on new information I just haven't been arsed to notice? So far as I know from Tresspasser, they're two completely different kinds of villains.

Corypheous was a classic megalomaniac, his entire motivation was centered around the pursuit of personal power entirely to satisfy himself, and the fact that his plans involved the deaths of millions didn't mean shit to him even after prolonged exposure to their civilization because his humanity had been completely corrupted.

Solas is a classic anti-villain. He's motivated purely by compassion for and loyalty to people... who just happen not to be us. The fact that his plans promise to at the very least involve the ruin of civilizations does bother him, because he's an empathetic creature and strives for an honorable existence, he just considers his own people's existential value superior to ours for reasons that are very hard to argue with if you live in a world where there are actual manifest differences between different sentient species. And his people's existence and our modern world's continued stability just are't mutually compatible. Which means he's making a difficult choice, and not just threatening us because he wants to. MUCH more interesting.

We've had this conversation before, and I totally get your decision to dismiss him as a monster because naziism. But I maintain that in a hypothetical world where there are sentient beings with virtually infinite potential and sentient beings with decidedly limited potential... it'd be pretty rational for someone to decide that if you have to choose, the former trumps the latter. Especially if you were part of the former camp yourself.

Which obviously won't stop my dwarven rogue from jamming a knife in his kidney to stop him out of self-preservation. Assuming the game turns out better than it's looked so far and I'm actually inspired to buy it. 

it is a weird observation I see this all the time and am even guilty of it myself...yet when it comes time to actually enjoy something usually... I find the product better then my expectations.

The Last Jedi...was expecting a very different experience...loved it.

Game of Thrones...some things I called, some I didn't. Pretty much loved.

Because people on the hype train actually make use of their time rather than spending it complaining on the internet.

Maybe not whole train, but I bet we can find at least one carriage that welcomes cautious optimistic. I definitely plan to sit there with tea and popcorn, if the latter is needed. I hope I won't need it, but better be prepared.