Dragon Age II - Gen. Discussion and Info - Mark of the Assassin DLC 10/11 800 pts.

Ryuu:

I used anders for a majority of the game, since bethanny was taken by the circle, and I never really clicked with merril, all blood magic and doom crap...also she's an elf...and I dont like them, so once again I slaughtered every last dalish in the camp, and pooped on their graves, nice people the dalish....just dont care for em.

To answer your question, I had to kill Anders, since I grew to like sebastian and didnt want to risk losing him, and at that point Anders was far past redemption I couldn't stand to have him in my party any longer. I had Aveline and she was a tank, if the rest of my party got wiped out, I would still have Aveline with more than half her life left just pounding away on anything that got in the way.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Though I may have to add "fear" in there, as presently I'm very much afraid that Merrill's sidequests are bugged to the point that I won't be able to continue with them.[/QUOTE]
Did you get the mini-quest about Merrill's reaction, right at the beginning of Act 3? I think that's happening to everybody. In my case I was able to do the rest of her quests normally after that-- it just kind of spoiled what was going to happen at the end!

"A New Path" didn't get added to my journal until after I visited Sundermount though, so if you're supposed to have it but don't, try traveling to Sundermount and see if it triggers.
 
I also have a love/hate thing for this game. I like the characters and the first halfish of the story. I really hate the reuse of environments. After 5 hours you have seen the whole game. Near the end I thought the shit hit the fan a little too quick. I really hope an expansion moves you out of the fricken city and do more adventure.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel like I rushed or anything. I did pretty much every sidequest that I encountered, though I know I missed the companion quests for Fenris and Isabela since I never built up adequate friendship or rivalry with them. Also some of the ones where there was no objective marker because you just had to find X number of books or whatever on your own, I didn't finish all of those if I hadn't naturally found them all by the time I was ready to move the plot along. Combat went very quickly since I was playing on Casual. Also, Act 1 is by far the longest, Act 2 is a good deal shorter, and Act 3 is over in a flash.

To those who have finished,

what do you think about having Anders, the party's only healer unless Hawke is a mage, play the role in the story that he does, such that you could end up opposing him or even killing him in Act 3? It definitely raises the stakes of the decision you need to make, since it becomes a pivotal party-composition decision instead of only a role-playing decision. From one perspective, it makes the decision that more dramatic and consequential, but from the other side could look like shunting players into a certain story outcome because of a gameplay mechanic. And if you need to stop and consider whether to make a decision you don't agree with just because you depend on the unique skills that a specific character brings to your party, is that meta-gaming, or is it still role-playing? It's food for thought in any case.
[/QUOTE]

I let Anders live because he was the best healer and the best gear of the group. I'm going to do things a bit different on my other playthroughs. Merrill and Bethany can be quite capable healers, but Anders friendship tree make him THAT much better of a healer.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']So, since I'm slogging through DA: O in the beginnings, I should wait on doing Golems and Witch Hunt until after I've done DA: O - A? The other DLC missions for DA: O won't have bearings on DA2, so they can be done at any time?[/QUOTE]

Return to Ostagar, Warden's Keep, and Stone Prisoner are meant to be played in your main game. Darkspawn & Liliana are side stories u can play anytime. Golems & Witch Hunt are epilogues that take place after Origins/Awakening.
 
pissed that they cheapened out and reused so many maps

ok the main city is Kirkwall so they use it over and over, fine

but the caves and other map layouts, it's the same fucking one map but with a door blocked or rock here or there or the layout turned sideways or some shit

It only took me 2 maps to realize they were the same and it only pissed me off more as the game progressed

did they think they game was going to sell poorly or what? put in the fucking money and time
 
Can you go into any of the relationships with more then one person? Or will it dump if you progress partially into it with multiples? (I know you can only finish with one)
 
[quote name='Tony208']pissed that they cheapened out and reused so many maps

ok the main city is Kirkwall so they use it over and over, fine

but the caves and other map layouts, it's the same fucking one map but with a door blocked or rock here or there or the layout turned sideways or some shit

It only took me 2 maps to realize they were the same and it only pissed me off more as the game progressed

did they think they game was going to sell poorly or what? put in the fucking money and time[/QUOTE]
The game was rushed. DA:O = 8 years of dev.
DA:2= 18 months of development.

I am nearly 20 hours in on hardcore first act. Still several quests to finish.
 
I like having just the city-and-area as a setting, but I prefer a smaller scope in my RPGs, anyway.[quote name='Ryuukishi']
Did you get the mini-quest about Merrill's reaction, right at the beginning of Act 3? I think that's happening to everybody. In my case I was able to do the rest of her quests normally after that-- it just kind of spoiled what was going to happen at the end!

"A New Path" didn't get added to my journal until after I visited Sundermount though, so if you're supposed to have it but don't, try traveling to Sundermount and see if it triggers.
[/QUOTE]
Alright, that works for me. Though I heard there was supposed to be
a cutscene of her smashing the mirror right after her reaction bit, which I haven't seen, and I don't think the mirror is in her house anymore so I dunno what the fuck. I just killed off her clan and didn't get any more quests for her so I'm moving on with the rest of the game. We'll see what happens.
 
Second playthrough, I'm going for all the collect-a-thon stuff, along with Great Minds Think Alike-- I'll be siding with the Templars, so I'm thinking that Varric, Aveline, Isabela, and Fenris will be my easiest group to max out friendship. Maybe I'll try to max Anders' rivalry as well.
 
Dear everyone going into the final boss fight:

Pack some anti-fire runes.

Woulda done just fine on that on my first try if not for that bullshit. Time for round two...

EDIT: Alright, done. Way easier this time. Barely even had to heal my guys. Main character (tank), Aveline, Merrill, and Varric on hard.
With Cullen, Bethany, and Aveline's husband, I think, supporting. They actually all died on my first run at Meredith, but they made it this time. The only difference between my final group and my main group was swapping Fenris for Aveline.

GhostShark: Careful. Merrill can't heal.

Ryuu: I could write a thousand god damn pages on that topic. Minor spoilers and a wee bit of a wall of text for a couple non-DA2-games ahead:
I like hard games. I had the patience for I Wanna Be The Guy, for fuck's sake. And I love hard RPGs. I love cobbling together shitty-ass equipment and blowing all my money on, like, three healing potions that I'll use up in the next fight I get in to. Shit like that warms the cockle of my hearts.

Yet I'm also very much of the opinion that role playing agames are meant to be role played, and if certain choices have dramatic effects on the difficulty, then something is inherently fucked. A particularly egregious example exists in the otherwise balls-out glorious Planescape Torment: if your main character is not lawful good in the classic D&D sense, you're fucked out of the best weapon in the game. The fuck is that shit? The guy whose cold, dead hands you take the weapon from wasn't even lawful fucking good.

To a lesser extent, this applies to things like the friendship/rivalry system in DA2 or the oft-maligned (by me, at least) paragon/renegade meters of Mass Effect. If you want the bonuses, you will play this way. Do you violently oppose slavery, yet think Fenris is being a little bitch when it comes to mages? Alright, then you aren't getting his bonus. Do you save the hostages in Bring Down the Sky but think it's too dangerous to let the Rachni Queen escape? Then you might as well have "0" for your charisma, Shephard.

It's a nearly impossible balance. Your decisions must have consequences for them to have any weight - like killing Anders, or saving the Rachni Queen. But consequences encourage people to ignore the RP part of the RPG, and play only for what gets you the best results (killing the queen so their renegade meter isn't fucked even if they think it's a dipshit idea, or keeping Anders so they have a healer even if they think he deserves to die, or...). The only solution that I can think of is to make games easy, so that you still suffer the losses that come from the choices you make, but your game itself doesn't become horribly borked because of it.

In this particular case: it was acceptable. This was my first run-through, and as soon as I got Merrill, I didn't even use a fucking healer. Healing spells are just so god damn weak in this game, and sure they'd have been great to save stunlocked guys in the Orsino fight and I'd have given a basic heal spell to Merrill if I had the option, but everything is doable as fuck without 'em. On hard, at least. And since I found DA2's hard to be about the same as Origin's nightmare, well... fuck. I am not planning a nightmare run of this game any time soon.

Also: save the hostages, save the Rachni Queen, and stab Anders in his god damn back. Dumb cunt.

Thoughts on the game in general: Still love-hate. Ending was weak. A step or two above, say, Neverwinter Nights 2 or KotOR 2, but still not what I wanted at all. Ambivalent towards the new looks of things. Eyebrows look funny, but at least everyone's clothes aren't shiny as fuck anymore. I'm not a huge fan of voice acting in games period, though it was all well done. Negative on the conversation wheel; it fucked me a couple times when the expected and actual lines were very, very different. Negative on the new inventory system. I'm not an alarmist or anything, but Jesus tittyfucking Christ, Bioware, you make it hard not to run through the streets yelling, "MASS EFFECT 2 IS TAKING OVER!" Horrible, horrible loot, very rarely any real choices to make with regards to weapons and armour, and the lack of flavour text was really missed. I didn't even know what the fuck I was picking up sometimes. I think I once sold a merchant a "fell residue" that I picked up off a giant spider or some shit. I preferred the focus on Kirkwall rather than running around a whole country, and I very much preferred the cast of characters this go 'round - the only Origins teammates I really liked were Alistair and the dog, whereas now, everyone that's not a whiny bitch any time mages are brought up and brood brood my hair is a different colour than my eyebrows also I think I was in Dirge of Cereberus is actually a pretty entertaining character.

Also, this post is too fucking long.
 
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So I messed around with the brittle/disoriented/stagger system.


I guess it's clear to some people, but for me the easiest way to get it to work is to upgrade pinning shot for disorient, upgrade shield bash for stagger, and upgrade, petrify for brittle. In tactics set those abilities to be used on either enemy highest health or enemy elite or higher (not sure which is better consistently).

Then upgrade any ability that takes advantage of those states, seems easiest with archers and mages. Tactic, if enemy staggered, then chain lightning. Does an incredible amount of damage.

I was suprised petrify works on bosses. I'm so used to RPGs making all your status effects worthless on bosses or strong enemies and thus mostly worthless overall.

Are shadow assassin's the strongest normal enemy in Act 2? They seem to be able to one shot all my non warriors.
 
Hey guys,

I have a simple question about this game. My backlog is huge so I was planning on waiting to buy this one used when it gets a lot cheaper.

However, I read something on EA's board that sounds like you get a DLC campaign if you buy a new copy of the game. Is this true, and will this offer only be available for a limited time?
 
Does the game get better?

I'm at the beginning of Act 2 and the game hasn't grabbed me like Dragon Age Origins did. I do like some of the banter between the characters though.
 
[quote name='LordVila']Does the game get better?

I'm at the beginning of Act 2 and the game hasn't grabbed me like Dragon Age Origins did. I do like some of the banter between the characters though.[/QUOTE]
If you've played all of Act 1, you've seen what the game has to offer, honestly. There are some plot twists and stuff, but the questing and general atmosphere does not change radically.

No patch today as far as I'm aware.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']So for anyone that has played today did they patch anything? (i.e. Exiled Prince achievements)[/QUOTE]

Or better yet, made it free? Day 1 dlc...BAH!
 
[quote name='Lawyers Guns N Money']Controversy:
http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/...-allegedly-caught-boosting-metacritic-scores/[/QUOTE]
I couldn't get that link to load, but here is another article on the controversy:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...mployee-Busted-in-Dragon-Age-2-Review-Scandal

I've got a novel idea for BioWare's PR department: Let the game's quality speak for itself. Release a commercial or trailer that depicts the character-driven RPG that you actually get when you open the box. Stop stepping on your own dick with shenanigans like this that a kindergartener should have known would backfire.
 
There's an interview out with the game's composer who basically admits he had to rush because EA wanted the game out quick to capitalize on DA:O's success. The fecal matter has hit the oscillating climate control implement.
 
I heard about that PR thing and well that's too bad. It is a shame they rushed the game but I've played plenty of other games that were rushed as well yet they're way worse to play.
 
wow ok so DAO came out 12/09, DA:A in 3/10, and DA2 a year later

not bad a game for 16 months but still no excuse for bioware letting EA fuck them in the ass
 
Hmm. You know, I called the hard mode on this game really hard, but I just realized.

I never picked up a single lifeward/whatevertherevivepotionsarecalled.

There was probably some artificial difficulty for, like, the second half of the game there.

Also (end-game spoiler),
Orsino? fucking really, Bioware? Couldn't give me a cutscene of him, like, wrecking a bunch of templar's shit before he lost control and attacked me? Weak.
 
hm, I have skimmed through the various threads for this game has anyone else gotten the the bug that progressively slows down only the main character in combat? seems to be caused by friendship with sebastion and Isabela stat boosts and had even gotten so bad its unplayable.
 
Yeah, I don't know about that interview. Even if EA was leaning on the composer to meet a deadline, that doesn't necessarily speak to the meat of the game development.

And in any case, AFAIC, the only thing about the game that would indicate a rush job is the environment asset reuse (which is admittedly a pretty severe problem). The graphics and gameplay are an improvement over Origins, and the story, writing, and voice acting are the best in the industry. If that's what BioWare produces when they're rushing, then great, keep on rushing.
 
Well, some of the cutscenes did seem to be seriously off at the end.

Or missing, more like.
The thing with Orsino that I complained about was just bizarre. And in the final fight with Meredith, like, twenty templar disappeared in the space of one camera cut. And no resolution to Isabella's disappearance after siding with Aveline. Is she dead? Did she run away? Whathafuck?

And all of Act 3 seemed really rush-rush in general.

And how in all of holy horse cocks do you not notice the Merrill bug?

And I've heard the game can't be played on single-core computers, though I don't know too much about that one.

And...
 
No doubt that the Merrill cutscene bug and the glitched Sebastian achievements are serious problems. But that's par for the course with BioWare. Origins was in development for what, 6 years? 8 years? and it has way more serious bugs.
 
Oh, hey, if we wanna talk about a bad game for bugs, Bioware ain't the folks to go for - look more towards Bethesda or Obsidian.

But man, the Merrill one just stares you right in the fucking face. It's just sitting there yelling, "HEY! QA DEPARTMENT! I'M RIGHT fuckING HERE! WHAT UP?"

And, y'know, the game being reportedly unplayable on single-core computers.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Or missing, more like.
The thing with Orsino that I complained about was just bizarre. And in the final fight with Meredith, like, twenty templar disappeared in the space of one camera cut. And no resolution to Isabella's disappearance after siding with Aveline. Is she dead? Did she run away? Whathafuck?
[/QUOTE]

Orsino during the second phase of his battle had fallen off the platform and I could not see or attack him. Thankfully Isabella jumped down there somehow (she wasn't in my party) and kept wailing away until that phase died and he re-appeared up top. Of course Isabella never got back up, but oh well.

And siding with Aveline? I never had that option unless you're talking about a part that I don't remember off the top of my head.

I went mage side in the end and every single one of my characters sided with me. Fenrir didn't initially but I talked him into it right before the fight with Meredith. Though I killed Anders and Carver died at the end of Act 1.


I was pretty disappointed with the game. Had some nice improvements, but not enough to wow me or anything. It's clearly obvious it's rushed. I'm also glad I got it on PC because no auto-attack at release would have driven me nuts (I don't know if they patched it in yet or not).
 
Draekon:
The only weird thing I had in the Orsino fight was one templar who got trapped behind the forcefield. As I recall, I used him for minor healing for Merrill via her Wrath of the Elvhin spell.

Siding with Aveline came at the end of Act 2, when her and Isabela were fighting over whether to deal with the Qunari or the relic.

Also, holy shit Carver can die at the end of Act 1?

Also also, fuck Fenris; killed that traitorous bastard. Brood in hell, ya twat.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Draekon:
The only weird thing I had in the Orsino fight was one templar who got trapped behind the forcefield. As I recall, I used him for minor healing for Merrill via her Wrath of the Elvhin spell.

Siding with Aveline came at the end of Act 2, when her and Isabela were fighting over whether to deal with the Qunari or the relic.

Also, holy shit Carver can die at the end of Act 1?

Also also, fuck Fenris; killed that traitorous bastard. Brood in hell, ya twat.
[/QUOTE]


Ah, that. Then:
I was 'friended' to Isabella when that came up. I picked the 'Give it to the Qunari' option. Isabella jacked the tome and ran off. However when I made it to the keep throne room and was about to fight everybody in there, Isabella bursted in saying she was halfway to some place I can't remember and she felt bad so she came back (Romance option may be required). Then I had a 1 on 1 duel with the boss and they all walked out of there with their book.

And yeah, I had that single Templar stuck behind the force field too. Varric kept trying to kill the bitch but couldn't touch him yet the Templar could hit him since Varric was hugging that field. I just cast an AoE spell on it and ended the poor little sucker (Well, I switched from my main character briefly and she casted it on her own on him).
 
Well time to go back to Fable III DLC and Dead Space 2 DLC and hope they fix the achievement bugs. Can't progress any further without missing out on stuff.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']Well time to go back to Fable III DLC and Dead Space 2 DLC and hope they fix the achievement bugs.[/QUOTE]
I've heard reports about bugs with the Fable DLC achievements too, you might want to check around first.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']I've heard reports about bugs with the Fable DLC achievements too, you might want to check around first.[/QUOTE]

Oh freaking hell!

The main one I saw is about 10-20 minutes in which I'm past. I haven't seen any others but I'm sure they are there.

God doesn't anyone Quality Control lately?
 
Saw this on the PS3 board not sure if unique to them or on 360 as well.

[quote name='Jodou']FYI, game-breaking bug was discovered that is potentially unavoidable since you must group with certain characters during your playthrough. Without spoiling anything, if you achieve friendly status with Sebastian and Isabela they will bestow a passive buff on Hawke while they're in the party. Problem is, when they're removed from the party it permanently debuffs your stats (rather than removing the buff) with a penalty to damage taken and movement/attack speed depending on what character(s) you're using. This stacks over time for each time they're removed, so eventually the game becomes unplayable. Theoretically speaking, if you let them join your party and never remove them then you'll be fine. However, visiting your house will remove them from the party as part of the RPLoL.

PC owners can work around this by fixing variables in a save game editor; not sure if console users can do the same. It is confirmed for all versions, so my recommendation is simply not to use those characters for now (which is a shame since Sebastian is the DLC character and a powerhouse for damage). If you suspect your save is corrupt, you can tell by checking attack speeds or your resistances tab. Some players have like -10% damage modifiers on their saves, so it's pretty devastating lol.[/QUOTE]
 
Wow, that is a real burn. And I was trying to achieve full friendship with Isabela and Sebastian on my current PT as part of the Great Minds Think Alike achievement. This really sucks.

Hmm, I guess I could just stop using them as soon as they hit full friendship.
 
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[quote name='Ryuukishi']Wow, that is a real burn. And I was trying to achieve full friendship with Isabela and Sebastian on my current PT as part of the Great Minds Think Alike achievement. This really sucks.

Hmm, I guess I could just stop using them as soon as they hit full friendship.[/QUOTE]


I got it midway in Act 2 through Isabela, Varric, Aveline, Bethany and Anders without to much trouble. I just started using Fenris and nearly have him maxed already, he is pretty easy.

Merrill is a pain and I still don't have Sebastian.
 
On my first PT I only maxed Varric and Merrill. Varric practically maxes himself (bro's not offended by anything), but I don't remember Merrill being any special challenge. Just treat mages well and give her both gifts. I did romance her though, so I was kind of going out of my way to be nice to her. This time I'm going to max her rivalry and try the hate-sex thing.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']On my first PT I only maxed Varric and Merrill. Varric practically maxes himself (bro's not offended by anything), but I don't remember Merrill being any special challenge. Just treat mages well and give her both gifts. I did romance her though, so I was kind of going out of my way to be nice to her. This time I'm going to max her rivalry and try the hate-sex thing.[/QUOTE]

I don't like blood mages so I think that ticked her off a lot. LIke when I was destroying those books and getting +10 Rivaly for each one.

Let us know if the rivalry romance is any different.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']Saw this on the PS3 board not sure if unique to them or on 360 as well.[/QUOTE]

How do we tell if this is an issue, I didn't quite understand how to check from the quoted post. I've never used Sebastian outside of his quests but I use Isabella quite a bit (at full friendship in the middle of the romance) and I thought my attacks had slown down but I wasn't 100% sure.
 
How did you guys get Isabela to full friendship? The only thing she seems to like is when I press a quest-giver for more money, but it's not like you get that opportunity every time. She doesn't seem to have any position on Templars vs. mages. What else does she like?
 
Finished playthrough 1 yesterday after clocking in 42 hours on Normal with the female Mage.

When I get more time this evening, I'll go more in-depth about the things I did like and the things I didn't like and about what builds/abilities/tactics worked out for me. For now, I'll say that I ended up enjoying this game a lot more than I thought I would - and I was really sucked in by certain aspects of the game (and wasn't even really affected by some of the shortcomings of the game's design).

I think I'm already 10 hours deep into playthrough 2 with the male Rogue Archer. I'm definitely going to make some different decisions this time through, because I'm not sure I like how some things turned out in my first playthrough :cool:
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']How did you guys get Isabela to full friendship? The only thing she seems to like is when I press a quest-giver for more money, but it's not like you get that opportunity every time. She doesn't seem to have any position on Templars vs. mages. What else does she like?[/QUOTE]

Sex.

No. Really. I'm serious.
 
[quote name='Draekon']Sex.[/QUOTE]
Don't you need to get her up to +50 friendship before that even becomes an option? Or is that only Merrill? :lol:
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']How did you guys get Isabela to full friendship? The only thing she seems to like is when I press a quest-giver for more money, but it's not like you get that opportunity every time. She doesn't seem to have any position on Templars vs. mages. What else does she like?[/QUOTE]

I never asked for more money and got to full friendship with her.

In the Fade when she turns against you being understanding will get you something like +20

Then a gift will get you +15 or so, and if you have a sense of humor on some responses she'll give you +5 here and there. Also generally being against/killing slavers will get you +5 or +10 with her. (I also got +5 for being anti-blood magic a few times). Flirting with her will also get you +5 to +15

When she talks to you, you can joke with her but don't get to nasty and you'll get bonuses as well.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']
In the Fade when she turns against you being understanding will get you something like +20
[/QUOTE]
Who else did you bring with you? I brought Merrill (can't remember who else, possibly Anders and Varric) and she turned against me despite being near full friendship. I've been wondering which characters could turn against you and if there was any way to prevent it.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Don't you need to get her up to +50 friendship before that even becomes an option? Or is that only Merrill? :lol:[/QUOTE]

She's an easy woman. You get the option to romance like the very first encounter with her. Then she's in your pants two scenes later more or less.
 
[quote name='Draekon']She's an easy woman. You get the option to romance like the very first encounter with her. Then she's in your pants two scenes later more or less.[/QUOTE]
Hmm, I hope I didn't mess something up. I thought I chose a flirt option during the initial meeting but I haven't had any chances since then and I've done several quests.
 
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