What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

Kara is starting to feel like her usual offensive juggernaught. I did decide to go for to experiment with the stealth mechanics and the results have been...frustratingly inconclusive. Like sometimes it seems to pop out of stealth immedietly, sometimes it seems stealth lingers, and not entirely sure I get crit hits off on each hit even as she is coming out of stealth then the first one. On the bright side though one of the tactics I think I have started to develop in this playthrough is all this stuff really pairs nicely with explosive shot. Like its a huge juggling of tactics and combat situations if I start an engagement off on Full Draw, Explosive SHot, or long shot. But while I am not sure of the above the really great part is that explosive shot every single one of its 'shrapnel' counts as a critical hit so she can go in and just devestate entire groups of enemies if anyone is standing close enough or if my companions have pulled them in. Plus this can also help on Hidden Blades and setting it off as well. Now Hidden Blades I don't think is a power that I ut on my Inquisitor's stuff last play through, think I went for immolate, and it is one of the like 3/4 rogue abilities in the game I think of as being kind of problmatic...but it still also does pack a wallop and the FTMs are meant to be magical anyways. Plus I think I got a 12000+ damage Full Draw in against a skeleton.

As I mentioned last time first big objective of the day was to 'finish' the Exalted Plains or at least the preamble for Wicked Eyes that I do, I figure that rescuing the Orlesian soldiers trapped by the Undead 'should' net me reputation in court so now i roleplay that is what Kara does and why she does it...like assaulting Griffon Wing before Adamant as an easy staging area. The game does not actually acknowledge these decisions...but they make sense. First off though I thought I was on the last step of that but I forgot that Riverside Garrison was not actually the last quest and nor was it the quest across the river so had to do that first but fortunatley the operation put me right in the path so it was easy. 'For the Empire' actually turned into a really neat set piece given the above and Kara starting to finalize her build. Its weird even though I think in general Dragon Age works best as a squad on squad game some of the best set pieces are just you cutting through swaths of Undead or Darkspawn in the Deep Roads. Here there were a LOT of Skeletons and me and the crew just cut through them like big damn heroes. I actually found it funny on my party composition that A. I technically had two and a half tanks with me (Blackwall, Cassandra, and Vivi though I may still need to finish her build.) And speaking of Vivi I actually traded in her crafted staff for one of the trial rewards that deals constant cold damage. And B. despite choosing friendly faces to rescue the Oreslians still realize that Cassandra and Blackwall hate Orlesians and Kara is...kind of bitter. Only Vivi really stands them. The combat even with my tanks did get a bit rough with the Archane Horrors but I was even really tempted on taking video but even then I felt like it stretched on too long and did lose soem of its punch towards the end.

In the run up to Adament mistakes were made. So because reasons I was going to take Iron Bull to the ritual site and Sera to the main assault on Adament. I ended up taking Sera to the Ritual Site and Bull to the assault...entirely by flipping them and unconsiously. Oops. The wife was even upset since she likes Sera's freakout in the Fade...but we can't take anyone. Also forgot to take Blackwall but then realize I don't think Kara has done that for playthroughs. Justification? She still thinks he is a Warden so does not want to risk exposing him to Cory. Mistake 2 I forgot to restock everyone on potions so we are a bit...low.

Oh and I also started Cullen's romance a bit earlier then normal. The good news is I get the dance the bad news is for my usual RP I make sure that I do 'Last Resort of GOod men first' so Kara knows, for a fact, Dorian is gay that way the love triangle ends. I should have done Last Resort of Good Men earlier then this to preserve it...but now I am wondering if I get 'I think you led me on' option. Like I clicked on it on a lark because 'oh dancing' but then realized what I had done, no biggie though.

Adamant is not as bad as I thought it was going to be...yet. Bull still likes to live dangerously with the low health but through multiple combat encounters he has only used up two health pots so its a win. Bit worried about the final boss but hey...what can you do? And so far keeping my RP intact and the objectives, dealt with the enemies on the battlements first mainly. Getting the Wardens to surrender. Feels kind of like a weird one since for my RP that A. Karaa really likes the Wardens and B. I want to justify her keeping the Wardens in the South around by having as few casualties as possible during Adamant. But yeah metagame knowledge i know if she gets them to surrender that they fight to the death. So this causes some glumness with me and wondering if this is the right choice but in the end she is also a hard ass, practical, and the Wardens are a legit enemy faction at this point so she has no idea what they would do if she lets them 'retreat safely' while armed. And like surrendering should be a legit thing to do if you are that freaked out about what is going on, like I don't think 'fighting to the death' is entirely unjustified either, but it just helps add to the tragedy of that choice. THough more on that when I reach Wicked Eyes because I will have mroe thoughts...if I remember...eventually. The other big RP note from all this is I do make Kara a bit of a Warden fan girl...so of course she would know enough about their history to recite it at them to convince them that Livius might not be playing with a full deck. But then its annoying that level of bsaic knowledge Kara would only have via a Wartable dialogue perk, sometimes I wish dialogue options were a bit more...natural in that regard? Also think it occured to me for the first time that Clarel was probably next on the MC chopping block given she just killed that one older Warden and the demon was being pulled through. We came very close to loosing the Wardens in their entirety.

I stopped after the first memory recollection. Obviously also trying to make sure I can get that one quest done in the Fade to have the perfect crafting material to boost Dawnbringer's stats when I get there.

After all these years I finally did it, collected every bloody shard in the game. After I finish off the last of the dragons in Emprise Du Lion I am going to see what the fuss about these was about.

Hello fellow Dragon Age lovers.

A couple of days ago i started a new playthrough of DA Inquisition and i can say i'm finally home.



To me this is where the game "finally" starts.

And I'm (finally) done. Platinum for Inquisition with the final 15 achievements I needed, on Nightmare difficulty.
And every side quest (including the Tiniest Cave), astrarium, bottle, dwarven mug, gear, dragon, landmark, region, mosaic piece, shard, skyhold customisation, schematic and song collected.

Only took me 10 years.

Nicely done. I've onl yeve rdon ei tonce. These days I onl yfocu son opening a fewmostl yth ecol ddoors fo rthe resistanc ebonuses a si tcomes in handy when dealin gwit hthe Hakkonites

My Western Approach adventuring has been quite boring. It's like Cassandra and Vivienne purposely ignore Cole. Poor kid-spirit.

We killed more fauna and bandits, which are also fauna I guess. And found a lonely University professor who needs help with his research now that his entire team was killed or ran away. We kinda only found 1 corpse of them and there supplies here and there.

There is a lots of corpses around the Western Approach, also lots of bandits for a place that is a desert with no towns with lots of aggressive fauna and darkspawns. And I doubt stealing from Wardens is healthy.

Yeah bloody Vivienne became Divine for me in my most recent PT and I wholly endorsed Cassandra and told Leliana and Vivienne not to be the Divine.

Someone mentioned or I read it someone if you actually tell Leliana NOT to be The Divine that causes Vivienne to be the Divine but I do not know if that's true.

I was actually hoping for Leliana so encouraged her in the final conversation. Maybe I should have done the opposite?

Damn I did that, any wonder Vivienne became Divine!!!!!