Dragon Age difficulty

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sleepingzzz

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#1 sleepingzzz
Member since 2006 • 2263 Posts

Anyone having trouble with DAO's difficulty?

I picked a warrior as my main character and it's been hard. I hear the mage is much easier.

Anyway, I'm currently in Earl's castle and I'm getting pawned bad. The game started easy enough but now the enemies are much harder and is just kicking my butt. It seems like need to just load up with healing potions to win a regular battle.

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Frenzyd109

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#2 Frenzyd109
Member since 2007 • 2276 Posts
It is a difficult game, especially if you dont micro manage. If you have a lot of bad guys to take out, pause the game and go through each character for a strategy. If that doesnt help, turn it down to easy.
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deactivated-57e5de5e137a4

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#3 deactivated-57e5de5e137a4
Member since 2004 • 12929 Posts
Plan your attacks and make sure you know what the different abilities do so that you can use them correctly. If you don't have any companions yet, yes it can be hard.
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Crimsader

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#4 Crimsader
Member since 2008 • 11672 Posts

Well yes, it's pretty hard game... Its ery important to set up a good tactic.

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mrbojangles25

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#5 mrbojangles25
Member since 2005 • 58439 Posts

yea, the difficulty is a refreshing change. Ive been playing it on normal and easy, mostly easy tbh.

like the second response said, issue individual orders.

As for class, I find warrior (sword and board, aka "tank") the most difficult to play as. Tbh it is far easier just having a party member (Alistair, in this case) do that stuff as it is easier to micromanage your damage dealers when your main character is one of them.

I pretty much gave up on my warrior and started playing as a rogue, dual-weapon style, and its a whole lot easier. Send Alistair in first, threaten and taunt when enemies get around him, then poke and stab with my rogue while my mage heals and my bard attacks with her bow. If my tank loses aggro, its usually on only one or two enemies and my rogue (my main character) can pick them up fairly easy.

Also, in terms of general strategy, kill order should go:

1. Mages
2. non-named (white) melee
3. yellow melee
4. Boss/elites

I usually leave enemy archers for last since you can often position yourself so their shots are blocked. They dont seem to do much damage either

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deactivated-57e5de5e137a4

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#6 deactivated-57e5de5e137a4
Member since 2004 • 12929 Posts
I pretty much gave up on my warrior and started playing as a rogue, dual-weapon style, and its a whole lot easier. Send Alistair in first, threaten and taunt when enemies get around him, then poke and stab with my rogue while my mage heals and my bard attacks with her bow. If my tank loses aggro, its usually on only one or two enemies and my rogue (my main character) can pick them up fairly easy.mrbojangles25
I loved playing a Rogue in this game. You have a lot of overlapping abilities that you can skip, but the bread and butter Rogue powers are incredibly fun. Back on topic, I agree with everything mrbojangles said.
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Morphic

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#7 Morphic
Member since 2003 • 4345 Posts

Yes it is hard at times. I have had to reload tons of times when a swarm of enemies plus like an orange pops out of no where. Usuually it takes a time or two to get the stretegy down that works and able to pull through. But hard games are more fun IMO.

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Frenzyd109

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#8 Frenzyd109
Member since 2007 • 2276 Posts
Another thing I have found effective is having all four companions attack one enemy at a time, or maybe if its overwhelming, 2 to one enemy. I find that rather than all of my characters losing 1/4 of their health per enemy, only one loses a little health. If you send one character per enemy, it gets very difficult if they dont do significant damage.
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sleepingzzz

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#9 sleepingzzz
Member since 2006 • 2263 Posts

I was thinking of starting over as a mage. May have to do just that. Too many warrior companions as it is.

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ag3ntz3rox0x

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#10 ag3ntz3rox0x
Member since 2007 • 1534 Posts

I was thinking of starting over as a mage. May have to do just that. Too many warrior companions as it is.

sleepingzzz

mage is good but very boring imo, im having most fun with my rogue

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Im_single

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#11 Im_single
Member since 2008 • 5134 Posts
I play on easy to be honest, the difficulty feels just right on easy.
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Gooeykat

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#12 Gooeykat
Member since 2006 • 3412 Posts
You have to do the Mage's Circle quest first and pick up the healer for your party.
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Mochyc

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#13 Mochyc
Member since 2007 • 4421 Posts

yea, the difficulty is a refreshing change. Ive been playing it on normal and easy, mostly easy tbh.

like the second response said, issue individual orders.

As for class, I find warrior (sword and board, aka "tank") the most difficult to play as. Tbh it is far easier just having a party member (Alistair, in this case) do that stuff as it is easier to micromanage your damage dealers when your main character is one of them.

I pretty much gave up on my warrior and started playing as a rogue, dual-weapon style, and its a whole lot easier. Send Alistair in first, threaten and taunt when enemies get around him, then poke and stab with my rogue while my mage heals and my bard attacks with her bow. If my tank loses aggro, its usually on only one or two enemies and my rogue (my main character) can pick them up fairly easy.

Also, in terms of general strategy, kill order should go:

1. Mages
2. non-named (white) melee
3. yellow melee
4. Boss/elites

I usually leave enemy archers for last since you can often position yourself so their shots are blocked. They dont seem to do much damage either

mrbojangles25

I actually go for mages first, boss/elites, yellows, then white. I usually try to take out whites along the way with aoe ****attacks then I just finish them off while fighting the stronger guy.

As for the general difficulty, I would say it's quite hard. Sometimes I'm surprised how smooth it goes but there are many difficulty spikes. I usually play normal, though on rare occasions I go down to easy. The problem I find is sometimes normal is too hard, and easy is much too easy. Also, what I find a bit annoying is the length of quests. Theres nothing wrong with a grand adventure, but I like finishing the big quests in one game session, and it get's physically tiring to keep on fighting difficult enemies for a long time (If you stop paying attention, you'll die for sure).

I'm playing as a spirit healer mage and I gotta say this is one amazing game, I recommend it to any rpg fan.

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PcGamingRig

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#14 PcGamingRig
Member since 2009 • 7386 Posts

i play on nightmare with my rogue very hard u can scout 'em out first using stealth or if u have an archer get him to attack first from long range and get some enemies from the edge of the group to come to u and graduallyreduce there numbers

thats if they haven't seen u first and all charged lol

how many times should i talk to my team members in the camp? is it like mass effect where u can have a new conversation after every story mission or more?

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TheCrazed420

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#15 TheCrazed420
Member since 2003 • 7661 Posts
The main thing here is to use the environment to your advantage. Some battles require clever usage of corners and such to cut off archers and mages. I love how that particular gameplay aspect is present in this game, because all of the old Infinity RPGs had me using this same tactic. I also love how mages strike fear...every time I suddenly see the word Fireball appear on screen I usually curse myself for not scouting ahead, just before the aoe damage destroys me, causing me to reload with a smile on my face. DAMN, I'm loving this game right now. :P
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Gooeykat

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#16 Gooeykat
Member since 2006 • 3412 Posts
I still use these same environmental tactics in NWN2. DA:O has really suprised me how tactical the combat is, I'm enjoying it very much as well.
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sleepingzzz

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#17 sleepingzzz
Member since 2006 • 2263 Posts

I wonder how this would play on a console. I imagine it be a lot harder to control stuff with a controller and no top view.

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zomglolcats

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#18 zomglolcats
Member since 2008 • 4335 Posts
I play as a mage and Heal was one of the first spells i picked up. Makes life easier.
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mrbojangles25

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#19 mrbojangles25
Member since 2005 • 58439 Posts

I play as a mage and Heal was one of the first spells i picked up. Makes life easier.zomglolcats

yea, heal is a must, and it scales extremely well. Its the only heal spell you really need imo, though the spirit healers "group heal" helps too on occasion.

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Manyac

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#20 Manyac
Member since 2005 • 572 Posts

I wonder how this would play on a console. I imagine it be a lot harder to control stuff with a controller and no top view.

sleepingzzz
Yes I think the same way, but you can tell from how if you target an aoe spell the mouse "sticks" to enemies when you go near them. Also, I've read the console version is a lot easier.
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#21 Treflis
Member since 2004 • 13757 Posts
Tactics is key. Find out what your characters are good at and make sure they do what they're good at. It also helps to figure out who to attack first when you face opponents, I tend to aim for someone with a yellow or orange name first, then afterwards I help pick of the rest of them, if my long ranged people and healers are under attack I take away those baddies first. Also making sure each and every character has good equiptment also helps.
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illmatic87

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#22 illmatic87
Member since 2008 • 17935 Posts

The main thing here is to use the environment to your advantage. Some battles require clever usage of corners and such to cut off archers and mages. I love how that particular gameplay aspect is present in this game, because all of the old Infinity RPGs had me using this same tactic. I also love how mages strike fear...every time I suddenly see the word Fireball appear on screen I usually curse myself for not scouting ahead, just before the aoe damage destroys me, causing me to reload with a smile on my face. DAMN, I'm loving this game right now. :PTheCrazed420

pretty much this there are usually alot of pinchpoints before an enemy encounter to utilize & traps are there for a reason.

I prefer amassing the long list of the entropy & other freeze/stun/paralyze/sleep spells. with a 2 mage party you can pretty much keep anything (even bosses with cone of cold spam) at bay.

Simply rushing in and swinging will just get you killed

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AAllxxjjnn

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#23 AAllxxjjnn
Member since 2008 • 19992 Posts
Yeh, i also found Warrior hard in the beginning. I also made the mistake of doing the Orzammar questline first, without having Wynne yet. After beating that part though, the rest of the game has felt much easier. I even managed to beat the High Dragon on my first try.
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DigiTM73

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#24 DigiTM73
Member since 2009 • 801 Posts

Been playing it on normal as a warrior for the first playthrough. It is difficult, but loving it. I am finding if something is difficult in this game, it's because I haven't found the correct strategy to win. So many choices, so many items, excellent voicing, characters, design, plot twists. It's been some time since a game has drawn me into it like this one has.
Just remember space bar pausing is your best friend. Also be sure when you pause always move your mages further away, don't let the enemy near them.

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subyman

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#25 subyman
Member since 2005 • 1719 Posts

No the game is not extremely difficult unless you have never played a strategy game. Use mages, a full melee group is horrible. Look up tips there are plenty around.

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nimatoad2000

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#26 nimatoad2000
Member since 2004 • 7505 Posts

im playing on normal difficulty and the game is pretty much a joke, im going to ramp it upto hard most likely

im using allistar as a tank, my mage which is pretty much ice / earth spec , morrigan as the debuffer and wynne as uber healer.

honestly 99% of the time i dont need to pause the game, when i do its even easier.

if your smart with setting up tactics, the game becomes cake. when you level up, put points into the tactics things, screw professions.

set up your tank to have all his abilities usable with tactics, dont have the upkeep stuff on tactics ( precise striking / threaten), just turn them on always and let room for the other stuff on there.

i look at the game from a world of warcraft 5 man point of view. so i set up my two mages spells on tactics to " enemy - target of allistar" set all your stun attacks like sleep, horror, shield bash, prison exc.. to ' enemy - highest health " , which pretty much means an enemy your not attacking, so u can CC them and not break it.

just having wynne on default supporter with some slight modifications is good enough.

in a mob fight i just play with allistar so that i can target / taunt what i want, and have my 2 mages train off me, both my mages are set to use mind blast and cone of cold when anything gets within short range of them, so they never really get in trouble, i taunt or attack whatever runs to them, but nothing survives.

in boss fights i play as my mage since there usually is no micromanaging for the tank

all you need to do with my setup is to have wynne use lesser mana pots when she is OOM and GG.

i faught flemith using this setup and used allistar, pretty much just sitting there watching. set wynne's tactics to use mana pot when under 25% mana. pretty much afk'd and watched one of the hardest bosses die with 0 effort other than well thought out tactics and positioning allistar so flemith dosnt flame breath my mages.

GG. im looking forward to rolling a dual wield warrior and playing on hard once i beat the game.

EDIT : oh and knowing how you want to spec your party off the bat is key. save your game and do the xp cheat and get to lvl 25. plan how you want to allocate your talents. a bad talent tree means bad party. its just as bad as having bad talents in wow. warriors , rogues and healers are pretty self explanitory. but a dps mage can get complicated. know what you want to do the second you get a character, and run with it.

to anyone playing a mage - virulient walking bomb is the best thing in the game, force field tank exploit works, but i dont use it. frost is the way to go for primal, earth is a good compliment, fire and lightning just kill your own party.

if your running 2 mellee, get telechenetic weapons, it rips right through armor and is a huge dps increase. entropy is the best thing as well. dont bother with blood mage. shapeshifter and arcane warrior are stupid. spirit haler just for the bonus is worth just unlocking.

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vertex68

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#27 vertex68
Member since 2008 • 206 Posts

The game is not that difficult. Its abit of a throwback to the old RPGs like Baldur's Gate/ Icewind Dale in terms of difficulty. I find it challenging- there have been a handful of times Ive had to reload- but abit too easy for the most part (playing on normal).

Its really important to micro-manage and take out the right targets first. Its a nice change from all these newer games that you can just coast through.

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pishti_13

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#28 pishti_13
Member since 2009 • 61 Posts
The game is easy if you have set up appropriate tactics for your characters.
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ManicAce

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#29 ManicAce
Member since 2009 • 3267 Posts
Yeah it's difficult imo, played it on normal, and especially the fights that start after a dialogue so that you're automatically surrounded were hard for me. You can change the difficulty at any time though, on easy it's a cakewalk, it might be a noobish solution but still infinitely better than getting frustrated into quitting. On my second run I'll pay a bit more attention to the character stats, now I've just been leveling them as I feel.
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#30 naval
Member since 2003 • 11108 Posts
Played Playing it on hard with mage, most of the battles are not difficult if you micromanage your mage well and give him spells which stun/paralyze/free the oppnents and heal/revive spells. Some battles though like the one with a Dragon is pretty hard, I was beaten so easily the first time that I am still afraid to face it the second time