Dragon Age: Origins?

[Morty]

I've never seen a game where having a dedicated healer was a choice, rather than a requirement. Well, I guess you could do without in DA2, but only on lower difficulties.

[Keltest]

I've never seen a game where having a dedicated healer was a choice, rather than a requirement. Well, I guess you could do without in DA2, but only on lower difficulties.

I generally don't play on the "I need to minmax the crap out of my party" difficulties. I just don't swing that way. Ive played a few parties where the best defense was a good offense, and while I did have some token healing, I didn't run around with a dedicated healer, just a blaster or tank of some kind who had a couple healing spells just in case.

[Giggling Ghast]

I've never seen a game where having a dedicated healer was a choice, rather than a requirement. Well, I guess you could do without in DA2, but only on lower difficulties.

Objection: I played DA2 on Hard and frequently did not need a healer. Merrill was in my party far more often than Anders.

[Morty]

Objection: I played DA2 on Hard and frequently did not need a healer. Merrill was in my party far more often than Anders.

Maybe DA2 was even more different in this regard than I thought, then. I do remember running without any mages at all sometimes, but I played on Normal. Inquisition isn't that different, anyway - it just replaces magical healing with barriers.

[LibraryOgre]

TBH, one reason I'm considering a Mage Warden (aside from trying it out) is to have my PC be the dedicated healer, so I can have others doing other jobs.

[Keltest]

TBH, one reason I'm considering a Mage Warden (aside from trying it out) is to have my PC be the dedicated healer, so I can have others doing other jobs.

While I generally don't mind being the healer in an MMO where I can talk to other people, in a single player game that's something I would prefer to put on autopilot. Its probably one of the least interesting ways to play a mage in Origins, until you end up in the super late game and/or Awakening, where you have enough points to be a solid healer and still get in some good offense.

[Morty]

I think just putting a point in the basic healing spell and the mass healing one from Spirit Healer can work well enough on Normal difficulty, but then it's been a while. I did eventually give in and take the mass heal with my mage Warden in Awakening, but I think Anders and Velanna did invest in it more heavily.

[Rynjin]

Going Arcane Warrior/Spirit Healer isn't a bad combo, but it's definitely not "dedicated healer". You just get crazy sustain on your own character and then can zap healing into somebody in an emergency.

Typically though the all Mage comp works well. Just travel around with your Warden (typically Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage for me), Wynne (Spirit Healer/Arcane Warrior), Morrigan (Shapeshifter/Blood Mage), and some muggle scrub to pick locks for you like Zevran or Leliana (or just Alistair to tank for you, but your two Arcane Warriors should be plenty enough for that) and your team is pretty much invincible in the most fun way, and healing shouldn't be too plentifully needed.

[Inarius]

Objection: I played DA2 on Hard and frequently did not need a healer. Merrill was in my party far more often than Anders.

Ill add an objection as well, DA1 doesnt really need a dedicated healer either. The crowd control abilities in that game are so absurd that you can get by with only supplemental healing even on nightmare. Not only that but with a high dex/defense build you can make your tank be pretty much unhitable.

[Morty]

I guess it depends on whether "give Morrigan the basic Heal spell and Mass Heal" means having a dedicated healer. I remember trying to go without healing magic in my first playthrough years ago, and getting stomped flat in Redcliffe. It's yet another way in which combining the warrior/rogue/mage steup with the tank/DPS/healer one is really awkward - mages are both DPS and healers, and in Origins they can even be tanks.

[LibraryOgre]

Uggggggghhhhh....

As I progress through DAO (I am up to Ortan Thaig in Orzamar, having done everything but the meat of Denerim), I am thinking "Am I going to want to get DA2 or DAI?"

And I see, to get them, I have to go through Origin. Which is gonna charge me new-game prices for games that are 5+ years old. Because Origin is ****.

[Dienekes]

Uggggggghhhhh....

As I progress through DAO (I am up to Ortan Thaig in Orzamar, having done everything but the meat of Denerim), I am thinking "Am I going to want to get DA2 or DAI?"

And I see, to get them, I have to go through Origin. Which is gonna charge me new-game prices for games that are 5+ years old. Because Origin is ****.

Wait for a sale. Honestly, that's my suggestion for buying all video games really.

[Morty]

Aren't those games coming back to Steam anyway? I think I've heard something along those lines.

[Keltest]

Aren't those games coming back to Steam anyway? I think I've heard something along those lines.

Ive heard something similar. EA and Valve reached an agreement of some kind. Don't know if its old games or just new ones going forward, but the new Star Wars game, at least, is on Steam.

[Rynjin]

Uggggggghhhhh....

As I progress through DAO (I am up to Ortan Thaig in Orzamar, having done everything but the meat of Denerim), I am thinking "Am I going to want to get DA2 or DAI?"

And I see, to get them, I have to go through Origin. Which is gonna charge me new-game prices for games that are 5+ years old. Because Origin is ****.

TBH the DA:O experience is better if you just pretend the series ended there (including Awakening in DA:O). Dragon Age 2 is just kind of okay until the ending (well, entire 3rd act) ruins everything, and Inquisition is a hot garbage fire of a game.

[Dienekes]

I must respectfully disagree with Rynjin on that one.

DA:O is certainly the best of the series. But in my mind DA2 is pretty crap. A lot of interesting ideas, in a rushed final product that instead of making actually interesting and morally complicated decisions just decided to make literally everyone in the setting an idiot. It was infuriating.

DA:I has a fair few problems on its own. But I felt it actually explored the setting details set up back in DA:O much better. Though still not as good as DA:O I actually felt there was some interesting debate to be had about the decisions in the game and I didn't want to slap everyone as soon as they started giving me their opinions.

[Morty]

Well, I guess this thread lasted for a while without another argument about which game is the best/worst.

[Giggling Ghast]

Despite the archaic graphics and clunky mechanics, I still view DAO as the best of the bunch. DAI is more polished but less involving and a bit of a grind to play through. DA2 has its positives but is undermined by those recycled dungeons and repetitive waves of enemies.

Aren't those games coming back to Steam anyway? I think I've heard something along those lines.

Yes, though it will probably take a while for DAO to get to Steam.

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/3...rning-to-steam

[Morty]

Yes, though it will probably take a while for DAO to get to Steam.

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/3...rning-to-steam

Looks like it, yeah. So if someone wanted to play DA2 or Inquisition now they're still stuck with Origin.

I still have Origins and Awakening gathering dust on a shelf, but I don't feel like replaying either. Origins has just aged poorly for me for various reasons. And Awakening was a bit of a mess right off the bat, so I've only finished it once. There's a pretty interesting main story there, undone by everything else.

[Giggling Ghast]

Feeling nostalgic, I actually took a stab at Awakening over the weekend. It was quite fun, except for the ****ING RUNECRAFTING

[Morty]

Maker, I'd actually forgot about runecrafting. It was so, so bad.

[LibraryOgre]

Feeling nostalgic, I actually took a stab at Awakening over the weekend. It was quite fun, except for the ****ING RUNECRAFTING

You mean slotting runes into items? Or am I missing something?

[Dienekes]

Looks like it, yeah. So if someone wanted to play DA2 or Inquisition now they're still stuck with Origin.

I still have Origins and Awakening gathering dust on a shelf, but I don't feel like replaying either. Origins has just aged poorly for me for various reasons. And Awakening was a bit of a mess right off the bat, so I've only finished it once. There's a pretty interesting main story there, undone by everything else.

Honestly, I've found these old games that I've beaten but want to look through again, it's more rewarding to just knock the difficulty down to nothing and enjoy the story. It's not like the gameplay for any of the Dragon Age games really holds up. For me anyway. But it's easy to enjoy the story and world.

[Giggling Ghast]

You mean slotting runes into items? Or am I missing something?

In Awakening, you gain the ability to craft your own runes with a new Runecrafting Skill. Sounds awesome, right? But not only you need to find/purchase schematics, runestones and etching agents for all the runes you want to make, you can only make higher-tier runes by combining lower-tier runes!

ie. 1 Novice Rune can be turned into 1 Journeyman Rune
2 Journeyman Runes make an Expert Rune
2 Expert Runes make a Master Rune
2 Master Runes make a Grandmaster Rune
2 Grandmaster Runes make a Masterpiece Rune
2 Masterpiece Rune make a Paragon Rune

In short, to make ONE Masterpiece Rune, you need at least 32 Novice Runes, 63 Runestones and 56 Etching Agents. And the Dweomer Runes cost even more! AND EACH RUNE COUNTS AS ONE ITEM IN YOUR BACKPACK, SO YOU CAN ONLY CRAFT A COUPLE HIGH-LEVEL RUNES AT A TIME!

IT'S ENOUGH TO DRIVE A MAN PANCAKES!!!

[Morty]

I also think you couldn't access the crafting panel in the Vigil Keep, so every time you wanted to craft something, you had to go outside. Or maybe that's just if one of your companions knew the skill (for me it was Anders).

[Aeson]

I never really bothered with the rune crafting system in DA:A. Runes are nice to have, but they're not really necessary even on Nightmare difficulty, and you can probably fill out every slot on every piece of equipment that you actually use with suboptimal-but-still-good-enough runes just from random loot.

In short, to make ONE Masterpiece Rune, you need at least 32 Novice Runes, 63 Runestones and 56 Etching Agents. And the Dweomer Runes cost even more! AND EACH RUNE COUNTS AS ONE ITEM IN YOUR BACKPACK, SO YOU CAN ONLY CRAFT A COUPLE HIGH-LEVEL RUNES AT A TIME!

Personally, I think that the player was meant to make low-level runes to fill out weapon/armor slots early in the game and then upgrade those runes as the game progressed and higher level runecrafting skill and higher level rune recipes became available, rather than making Masterpiece runes from scratch in one go. Of course, that only really works if you have the rune recipes that you want early on, know roughly how many runes of each type that you'll need for the equipment you'll be using at the end of the DA:A campaign, and are willing and able to invest resources and skill points into runecrafting early on.

[Giggling Ghast]

I never really bothered with the rune crafting system in DA:A. Runes are nice to have, but they're not really necessary even on Nightmare difficulty, and you can probably fill out every slot on every piece of equipment that you actually use with suboptimal-but-still-good-enough runes just from random loot.

That you don't absolutely need to interact with the system doesn't make the system any less flawed.

Besides, you might be wanting those high-level runes for an import into Golems of Amgarrak.

[Aeson]

That you don't absolutely need to interact with the system doesn't make the system any less flawed.

I wasn't defending it.

[Inarius]

The rune system in awakening was atrocious, but those crit runes were godly. 5% chance to crit and 25% crit damage that you can put 3 of in a high end weapon? yes please! It totally changes how you want to build a dual wield warrior and makes rogues backstabs even crazier.

[factotum]

Looks like it, yeah. So if someone wanted to play DA2 or Inquisition now they're still stuck with Origin.

From the sounds of it they'd be stuck with Origin regardless--even if you purchase the game on Steam it will launch via Origin, according to the article. Ubisoft did something similar with a game I have (I think it was Driver: San Francisco?) where, when you launch the game from Steam, it fires up UPlay and then launches the game from there.