Dragon Age: Inquisition (Plot Details in Spoilers!)

You know, talking to people who are playing DA2 is making me remember how nutty I was going trying to figure out where people were off to. In example, in DA2, it's mentioned that the grey wardens and Flemeth at least are going through kirkwall to get somewhere else because shit is happening. That was part of the reason I was excited for The Divine March, since I assumed it would explain where everyone is headed.

How required is a rogue playing through?

I'm really wanting to go Warrior, Mage, Mage, Mage but my dislike of Anders and lack of a rogue is kind of giving me pause.

Varric and Isabela are both excellent in combat anyway. I can't remember off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure there is some important loot in locked chests at some point or another in the game.

From what I remember, it won't be soul crushing if you don't take a rogue, but there are some chests you won't get, and a few traps that might mess with you.
At least I can't think of anything where is was absolutely required to advance.
Why don't you want varric in the party though?

Zhaun_sl said:

How required is a rogue playing through?

I'm really wanting to go Warrior, Mage, Mage, Mage but my dislike of Anders and lack of a rogue is kind of giving me pause.

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Not sure why you'd want to go Warrior and 3x Mage. Warriors and Rogues are both really powerful in DA2. It's nothing like DA1's lopsided balance and mages were the class I cared least about using in DA2.

I found area effect spells make a massive difference. I was just going to have a tank, heals and double mage AEs. Hardly a big deal as I use Merril to AE and Varrik to pewpew stuff.

Varric is by far the best written and voiced character - can't believe you wouldn't take him!

If you like the sets that they have in the game, a rogue is necessary, otherwise there are doors/chests you can't open and won't be able to complete them.

Zhaun_sl said:

I found area effect spells make a massive difference. I was just going to have a tank, heals and double mage AEs. Hardly a big deal as I use Merril to AE and Varrik to pewpew stuff.

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What difficulty are you on? AEs were a pretty huge liability on the two highest ones due to dumb AI and friendly fire rules. I played 2H warrior Hawke on the hardest difficulty and it was a real pain in the ass having Isabela along most of the time, and that was with me having full control over my AE'ing.

I'm on normal. I don't find the gameplay in these compelling enough to be worth playing on an increased difficulty, when the only real reason to play is for the story.

I like Varric as a character, I just don't easily see how good he is in a fight. I see "Boom, Marril's AE goes off, everyone dies or is derping for several seconds" and the fights with 5+ guys go from slogs to quick mop ups. I'm thinking Varric pays off on more "boss fights" actually, with his high, reliable DPS with lower threat.

Normal's easy enough that you don't have to plan around classes, but I still wouldn't recommend doing anything without a rogue for the utility.

On the highest difficulty, the game just felt like a chore. Every pack/spontaneous random mob ring event required either ideal group composition or over-the-top finesse. None of it was particularly difficult, but much of it was just plain tedious.

Binkles_sl said:

On the highest difficulty, the game just felt like a chore. Every pack/spontaneous random mob ring event required either ideal group composition or over-the-top finesse. None of it was particularly difficult, but much of it was just plain tedious.

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You mean just like DAO on the highest difficulty, unless you were starting every fight by dropping a storm of the century through a door?

Binkles_sl said:

On the highest difficulty, the game just felt like a chore. Every pack/spontaneous random mob ring event required either ideal group composition or over-the-top finesse. None of it was particularly difficult, but much of it was just plain tedious.

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No argument there, I wouldn't have even considered it on the highest difficulty except that 2H warrior was like ME2's Vanguard on Insanity.

And yeah, DA:O was even worse... abuse the shit out of mages, especially Arcane Warrior, or just forget about Nightmare. At least DA2 had some semblance of game balance in it.

With DAO, my memory is more foggy, but I recall less difficulties across numerous playthroughs/group comps and a contrast in tediousness. DAO was tedious in the sense of having numerous, inconsequential trash packs that required a modest amount of orchestration and micromanagement; or you could just stack 2 mages with off-heals and faceroll. DA2 was tedious in that a simple group of bandits had numerous waves and, should one of those waves spawn on top of your healer, you were generally boned. I remember kiting my melee characters around at low health to stave off death while never having any character (melee/mage/ranged) talented with any AE ability due to friendly fire.

Grand Inquisitor Kegkilla_sl said:

i can't believe anyone would consider playing this game after what a massive piece of shit the second one was.

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DA2 was utter shit but DA:O was golden! Hopefully EA will learn from the feedback and make DA3 closer to the first game..but knowing EA, I won't keep my hopes up.

Bioware is the failure, EA is the one paying the failure's salaries.

bixxby_sl said:

Bioware is the failure, EA is the one paying the failure's salaries.

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That's where my disconnect is with gaming. Who's really to blame? The corporate culture of EA, or BioWare letting people like Casey Hudson train wreck project design decisions?

Interesting. I forgot to talk to the skanky pirate queen there in the bar this play through and now in Act 2 she isn't there. I wonder if she is gone from the game permanently.

If you don't recruit her the first time you see her, she's not part of your party - I have to imagine you can get her later, because that changes at least one of the major parts of act 2, though not in a big way.

As far as DA:O, there was a lot of cheese you could do. Planting Alistair in a door to tank and having people cast/fire around him was tits. My rogue archer got ridiculous OP late game, to the extent that when I did the Morrigan expansion I literally solo'd the entire thing on the highest difficulty.

But bottle necking was a legitimate strat, even if it was cheesy, and I guess that was the reason for the random waves of shit, to prevent that.

My first playthrough was as a spirit healer in DA2; there was something borked about her in relation to her gear. It had some kind of hp regen that stacked in a weird way with spirit healer passives, meaning that she couldn't die. She had to literally be immediately smoked by 20 spells at the same time, otherwise her health just rocketed back to full a second later. When I upgraded her gear I found that effect stopped, so she was in weird gear even at the end.

But for me most of DA2 was just kiting. Spirit healer/Force mage combo was pretty legit, since I was able to knock back, slow etc and essentially keep aggro. That one event in the Felicia Day DLC where you click the altar was no joke though on the highest setting. You had to micromanage the fuck out of everyone every single second otherwise they were running into a ground effect that would instantly kill them. The AIs aren't awful, but there's no setting that 100% does the whole, "don't run through shit that hurts you".