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

[quote name='thrustbucket']Also, is anyone else playing a Mage Hawke with Blood Magic? What's the secret? Because all I do is die really fast.[/QUOTE]

Put as many points as you can in Constitution and get all the blood mage healing abilities, as well as some sustained self-protection abilities (e.g. Rock Armor) you can since you no longer need mana. Unfortunately, blood mage Hawke has a problem Merrill doesn't in that he/she still needs enough willpower to meet the equip requirements for mage armor despite the fact that it's a totally useless stat otherwise. So you're probably better off getting your blood mage fix from Merrill and focusing Hawke on something else.
 
Just started act 2.

Is Merrill worth teaching Blood Mage magic to? If so, which skills should I teach her if I want her as a damager?
 
[quote name='seanr1221']Just started act 2.

Is Merrill worth teaching Blood Mage magic to? If so, which skills should I teach her if I want her as a damager?[/QUOTE]

There's really no big downside, though she's vulnerable without the healing upgrade to Wrath of Elvhen. If you're going to head down that road you should probably just learn every skill in the tree, they're all quite good.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Good to hear that you'll still respect Merrill in the morning. :lol:[/QUOTE]

I dunno, once you use those pointy ears as handholds it is tough to look them in the eye.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']I dunno, once you use those pointy ears as handholds it is tough to look them in the eye.[/QUOTE]
:lol:

Has anyone else noticed that all of the love interests in this game are kind of bad people?
At least three of them are responsible for the deaths of dozens or hundreds of innocent people, and Merrill can make four depending on how the dispute with her clan plays out. It's like they're all Jack. :)
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']:lol:

Has anyone else noticed that all of the love interests in this game are kind of bad people?
At least three of them are responsible for the deaths of dozens or hundreds of innocent people, and Merrill can make four depending on how the dispute with her clan plays out. It's like they're all Jack. :)
[/QUOTE]

That's how they make it edgier and gritter. Also why I like Isabelle at least she is funny where the rest just whine in addition being bad people.
 
I can't believe all the flack this game is getting. It disgusts me! Sure, this game isn't as long or the story as intriguing as Origins. It's still a great great game! I love it, I beat it in 23 hours. Having completed >90% of the side quests too. I had a blast. Going back through Origins right now, then going to start another character on DA2.

9.5/10 Game for me!
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']That's how they make it edgier and gritter. Also why I like Isabelle at least she is funny where the rest just whine in addition being bad people.[/QUOTE]
Ryuukishi: +10 rivalry

Merrill 4ever!
 
Feastday_Gifts_module.png


Does this make it better?
 
Merrill is easily my favorite romantic interest. Just the fact that Eve Myles is voicing her is enough for me, but she's just so damn cute and awesome.
 
Ok, so I taught her blood of the first, elvhen, wounds, ensare and stones throw. Also some things from the spirit tree. I dumped a ton of points into magic and health. We'll see how this goes.
 
Anybody using a mage notice that after a AOE spell that the game stops auto-targeting enemies for you? You have to use the dpad everytime to switch to a new enemy.
 
1000, woo! And it'll be 1130 as soon as they fix that DLC.

Funny bug at the end of my second playthough; Bethany's hair turned bright white during the fight with
Orsino
.

I think I actually preferred
the ending sequence where you side with Meredith. Towards the very end of the game, she's kind of right-- every mage in Kirkwall seems to be summoning demons and becoming abominations.
 
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Just so Im clear, when blood of the first is activated, Merrill can't be healed by Anders, but all her magic attacks are more powerful and use HP instead of mana?

Also, does Elvhen just hurt the enemies if Merrill is standing near them?
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']1000, woo! And it'll be 1130 as soon as they fix that DLC.

Funny bug at the end of my second playthough; Bethany's hair turned bright white during the fight with
Orsino
.

I think I actually preferred
the ending sequence where you side with Meredith. Towards the very end of the game, she's kind of right-- every mage in Kirkwall seems to be summoning demons and becoming abominations.
[/QUOTE]
Again, a "fuck 'em all" option would be best, since the developers were apparently intent on forcing you down that route anyway. She's obviously crazy as shit, and the mages are obviously assholes.
 
[quote name='seanr1221']Just so Im clear, when blood of the first is activated, Merrill can't be healed by Anders, but all her magic attacks are more powerful and use HP instead of mana?

Also, does Elvhen just hurt the enemies if Merrill is standing near them?[/QUOTE]

Her attacks aren't more powerful she just uses HP instead of MP. Wrath of the Elven only works on nearby enemies.

Respec her and put all your points into magic and constitution (My meriil has like 50 magic and 35 con). Fills out her personal tree fully, then equip her with any blood magic items (MP per HP) items you can find. They stack with blood of the first (Supposedly you can get up to 9 or 11 MP/HP). I would also get some sustained talents like Rock Armor and elemental weapons (you should have wrath of the elveen, blood of the first).

I went primal (good for AOEs) and use tactics if enemies clustered then wounds of the past, tempest, chain lightning. I could also imagine lettting your tank get aggro, then using stones throw and using if surrounded by enemies ensnare, wounds of the past, tempest, chain lightning would also work (might have to make some of these clustered). You could also go Entropy and use her as a debuffer.

You could do if health
 
Thank you!

I did find a necklace for blood mages I happened to save for her.

One other thing I noticed is I taught Anders Heroic Aura and Elemental Weapons, and my Hawke will only take to Elemental Weapons, even when Aura is activated. Why is that? EDIT now it's letting me have both active on Hawke. Weird.
 
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[quote name='seanr1221']Thank you!

I did find a necklace for blood mages I happened to save for her.

One other thing I noticed is I taught Anders Heroic Aura and Elemental Weapons, and my Hawke will only take to Elemental Weapons, even when Aura is activated. Why is that? EDIT now it's letting me have both active on Hawke. Weird.[/QUOTE]

Buffs like those two have a funny way of "randomly" falling off without you noticing them.
 
From Chris Priestly @ BioWare:

Microsoft has posted a new version of “The Exiled Prince DLC” to the 360 Marketplace and we’re encouraging all “The Exiled Prince DLC” owners to redownload the content.

The new version should allow the 5 DLC achievements to properly unlock in future playthroughs of the “The Exiled Prince DLC” content. Customers who have previously completed this content will need to replay the content, either via a new game, or by using an save made prior to getting any achievements from this content.

Here is the steps users need to undertake to update their copy of The Exiled Prince DLC

Uninstalling Old Data:
1. Starting on the Xbox 360 dashboard, go to ‘System Settings’, located on the far, right end of the ‘My Xbox’ section.
2. Choose ‘Memory’.
3. Select the memory device on which the DLC is installed.
4. Choose ‘Games’.
5. Choose ‘Dragon Age II’.
6. Scroll down and choose ‘The Exiled Prince’ Marketplace Content.
7. Select ‘Delete’, then ‘Yes’ to confirm the action.

Installing New Data
1. Press the Xbox Guide button.
2. Scroll right to ‘Settings’ and choose ‘Account Management’, choose ‘Yes’ to confirm.
3. Choose ‘Download History’.
4. Choose ‘The Exiled Prince’ game add-on.
5. Select ‘Download Again’.

If after you have followed each step above, and replayed The Exiled Prince DLC and this still does not fix the achievement unlock issue for you, please let us know below.
Click to expand...

Mighty lame that they can't just detect the achievements on your BioWare Social Network profile and unlock them automatically.
 
I actually started my mage playthrough last night, and I was going to leave it on hold for a while until the Sebastian thing got sorted out, but I guess I will be diving right back in.

Also, if you want to get the now-unlockable Loyalty of the Prince achievement but are wary about using Sebastian because of the bug with his loyalty buff, there is a conversation loop exploit to gain unlimited rivalry with him.
 
I had just started a new playthrough, too, but I've only done 1/3 of the 'Duty' mission so far, so I'm hoping I'll be okay.

Overall, I'm not very happy with how this was handled. This is DLC that nearly everyone from Day One should've had, which means that a huge number of people are already over and done with one playthrough... or at least far enough that they've missed part of it. I understand that it's likely a Microsoft problem, but the sheer fact that they're visible and unlocked on the BioWare site is like a slap in the face. I have them, the people that made the game know I have them, so why should I have to play through again to get them? And a re-download? There was literally no way to patch this issue?

Sigh. I know. I get it, and I understand that this is likely the best way they had to fix it. I just needed to rant.
 
I guess a future title update might still unlock the achievements automatically based on your social network profile-- there's no technical reason why they couldn't do it. They might just not be ready to release a title update yet, until they can bundle all of the active bug fixes together. In the meantime, fixing the DLC download is at least something.
 
They patched the game-breaking "no saving on a single core processor" thing quite quickly, so hopefully the Isabela friendship thing will be out soon, too.
[quote name='Ryuukishi']What I really would have preferred is a
"wipe out Orsino and his advisors, leave the rank-and-file mages alone"
option.[/QUOTE]
Well, yes, that would be ideal. But the whole last-couple-hours-of-the-game seemed rather silly, anyway.
 
Thx for the Info Ryu, yeah I hate redownloading stuff, grrrrr. It'll have to be on my second playthrough though since I over-wrote that save lol. Looking for the Isabella patch as well. Hmm maybe I should just start a new game, hate to do that with the story though.
 
For those that paid MSRP (or close to it), is DAII worth the full $60? I should have bitten on the Amazon deal yesterday but wasn't around on my computer!
 
[quote name='drktrpr1']For those that paid MSRP (or close to it), is DAII worth the full $60? I should have bitten on the Amazon deal yesterday but wasn't around on my computer![/QUOTE]

I paid 60.00 with a 15.00 GC at TRU when they had that sale and I think it was def. worth it. I find it very entertaining and fun and I was on the fence because of all the so so reviews.
 
Hawke as an Archer is just so unfair :cool:

I feel like any playthroughs after this will suffer from the "this isn't Arcane Warrior!" disease that all my Warrior/Rogue playthroughs went through in Origins.
 
So last night I found even more bugs. Maybe they have already been discussed.

-As I stated before, after a respec, I am still able to use all my abilities that I had before the respec, so now I have double the abilities.

-Also, last night, I noticed that force mage's gravitic ring totally deactivated two boss's AI.
A Mature dragon and the Varterral
. After using gravitic ring they just sat there and took my damage and did nothing.

Edit: A quick google search shows this is a known bug, gravitic ring breaks most boss AI. But it doesn't look like Bioware has acknowledged it yet.

-I have the third armor upgrade for Varric; and it gives him +1,192 fire resistance. His stats show that to mean he's 93% fire resistant I think. I am assuming that is not by design.

-Suddenly my encumbrance is 90/80 and I can't pick anything up. I am assuming this is likely due to the bug of adding/removing party members with friendship buffs as mentioned before?

Also, I am not sure exactly what is going on with my stats, I haven't looked at them much, but on Hardcore suddenly the game is very easy. Nobody loses much health, it seems to regen super fast. I am assuming this is because something else is broken. I have a feeling that there is some bug in my save file that is slowly corrupting all kinds of things.

Really shocking how many bugs are in this game. :roll:
 
[quote name='drktrpr1']For those that paid MSRP (or close to it), is DAII worth the full $60? I should have bitten on the Amazon deal yesterday but wasn't around on my computer![/QUOTE]

I am enjoying the game, but since you waited already you might as well wait a little longer for it to be
 
Sorry for 2nd post in a row but I was thinking.

Can someone explain how the romances work a bit more. I love Merrill's alternate costume but haven't been romancing her, is there a way to still get it? (i.e. can you sleep with more then one person or when you try does it break off your original romance)

Also on a 2nd playthrough is the 2nd costume still unlocked or do you have to earn ti again?
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']Sorry for 2nd post in a row but I was thinking.

Can someone explain how the romances work a bit more. I love Merrill's alternate costume but haven't been romancing her, is there a way to still get it? (i.e. can you sleep with more then one person or when you try does it break off your original romance)

Also on a 2nd playthrough is the 2nd costume still unlocked or do you have to earn ti again?[/QUOTE]

I'm not quire sure on this, but
I believe you have to have Merrill live with you to get her awesome alternate outfit. I just got isabella to confess her lesbian love with me and her outfit didn't change :(

And yes, X, Archer Hawke is way too good. Especially when you delve into the Assassin tree.
 
[quote name='GhostShark']I'm not quire sure on this, but
I believe you have to have Merrill live with you to get her awesome alternate outfit. I just got isabella to confess her lesbian love with me and her outfit didn't change :(
.[/QUOTE]


Well her outfit not changing is a glitch. You can respec her with something from the Black Emporium and she'll get the new one
 
Am I the only one who really prefers Merrill's default costume to her alternate? I wish it was like ME2 where you could toggle it back.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Am I the only one who really prefers Merrill's default costume to her alternate? I wish it was like ME2 where you could toggle it back.[/QUOTE]


Yes you are. You've played the game at least twice, can you answer my question?
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']Yes you are. You've played the game at least twice, can you answer my question?[/QUOTE]
It's not still unlocked, you have to unlock it again the same way. In fact I don't think there's anything that carries over across playthroughs in this game, like the unlocked specializations in DA:O and the completion bonuses in ME.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']It's not still unlocked, you have to unlock it again the same way. In fact I don't think there's anything that carries over across playthroughs in this game, like the unlocked specializations in DA:O and the completion bonuses in ME.[/QUOTE]

That is hella-lame. Course maybe they intend it to and it is a bug, lol. Wouldn't be far-fetched.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']So last night I found even more bugs. Maybe they have already been discussed.

-As I stated before, after a respec, I am still able to use all my abilities that I had before the respec, so now I have double the abilities.[/QUOTE]

That's really just a species of the same save corruption bug that triggers the Isabela/Sebastian friendship thing. It's mostly beneficial in this case, obviously, but if you ever respecced Hawke out of any passive stat bonuses (e.g. crit damage) and then save, you'll probably end up with a net reduction in those stats.
 
Good to see the DLC is fixed. I missed a couple of crafting ingredients the first time through so I need to replay the whole thing anyway, so getting the DLC achievements won't be a big deal. Though I guess I might just wait for a patch to see if some more of the bugs are ironed out.
 
Merril's alternate clothes are terribad. Neck clipping through armour everywhere in this bitch.

I've long since modded it out for a less neck-tacular outfit.
 
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