[Tapper]

Luzburg, on 23 February 2011 - 09:09 PM, said:

Played some of the demo. Not bad. The mages are way cooler now, not got around to trying the Rogues yet.

Rogue felt much, much less squishy than in 1 and with enough escape options to finally allow it to go melee as a first option rather than a last ditch effort when you ran out of strafing room.
There are a lot of really cool movement options when playing a rogue in the demo, making it the king of one-on-one while still relying on a tank to take the heat.
Overall, the class feels better than it ever did to me in Origins, although I bet it is much more gear (read: requires the most expensive pointy sticks) dependent than the other two are to remain effective.

[Morgoth]

melee as a last ditch? Did we play the same game?

I did two rogues (one dexterity and one cunning based), both finished at about 70% of total damage.. neither used bows.

[Tapper]

Morgoth, on 23 February 2011 - 11:46 PM, said:

melee as a last ditch? Did we play the same game?

I did two rogues (one dexterity and one cunning based), both finished at about 70% of total damage.. neither used bows.

Then play a double wield warrior and be amazed at the amount of punishment they can soak and deal. Sure, you're nearly forced to add Leliana to the party to open locks, but you can tank/off-tank with the warrior, too, giving much more freedom for the rest of your party.

I'm not talking damage spam. They were pretty fine in that regard (see also the comments on the demo of 2, I mention escape actions there, not damage). Imho, rogues were not viable for melee because they needed too much nurturing and heal attention and couldn't stay alive if they got aggro - which they would get if you needed them to protect your healer or mage.

Also, 70% is a high percentage but it also depends on your 3 remaining party members. If they were Shale in tank-mode, Wynn in heal-mode and Morrigan specced for crowd control and the occassional damage spam, then 60% to 70% is about standard, I'd say .

This post has been edited by Tapper: 24 February 2011 - 10:37 AM

[drinksinbars]

always played rogue, but think in the new game its desinged to swpa your initial support characters to support your role choice. so if you choose mage you get a rogue and a warrioor. choose a warrior you get a rogue and mage etc. was really impressed by the demo. defo getting this baby when it comes out.

[Morgoth]

Tapper, on 24 February 2011 - 10:33 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 23 February 2011 - 11:46 PM, said:

melee as a last ditch? Did we play the same game?

I did two rogues (one dexterity and one cunning based), both finished at about 70% of total damage.. neither used bows.

Then play a double wield warrior and be amazed at the amount of punishment they can soak and deal. Sure, you're nearly forced to add Leliana to the party to open locks, but you can tank/off-tank with the warrior, too, giving much more freedom for the rest of your party.

I'm not talking damage spam. They were pretty fine in that regard (see also the comments on the demo of 2, I mention escape actions there, not damage). Imho, rogues were not viable for melee because they needed too much nurturing and heal attention and couldn't stay alive if they got aggro - which they would get if you needed them to protect your healer or mage.

Also, 70% is a high percentage but it also depends on your 3 remaining party members. If they were Shale in tank-mode, Wynn in heal-mode and Morrigan specced for crowd control and the occassional damage spam, then 60% to 70% is about standard, I'd say .

I generally pick the others based on roleplay more than powergaming. With the cunning based rogue I used Morrigan, Shale and Sten. With the dexterity based rogue I used Leliana, Wynn and Ogren. With full focus on dexterity nothing could touch him and so no tank was needed really. Leliana dealt with any mages.

With the cunning rogue things were just too easy. Sneak into position and backstab - stun- backstab. Killed pretty much anything including most boss creatures. There was just no way for anyone to fight him and live. Shale did her thing, Sten dished out the occasional damage and Morrigan I used sort of as a backup for the unexpected. The cunning rogue did more damage pr attack than any other character I made, and his attack speed with ... momentum?.. made sure he got in 3 hits to a regular warrior's 1.

[Luzburg]

Morgoth, on 24 February 2011 - 11:00 AM, said:

Tapper, on 24 February 2011 - 10:33 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 23 February 2011 - 11:46 PM, said:

melee as a last ditch? Did we play the same game?

I did two rogues (one dexterity and one cunning based), both finished at about 70% of total damage.. neither used bows.

Then play a double wield warrior and be amazed at the amount of punishment they can soak and deal. Sure, you're nearly forced to add Leliana to the party to open locks, but you can tank/off-tank with the warrior, too, giving much more freedom for the rest of your party.

I'm not talking damage spam. They were pretty fine in that regard (see also the comments on the demo of 2, I mention escape actions there, not damage). Imho, rogues were not viable for melee because they needed too much nurturing and heal attention and couldn't stay alive if they got aggro - which they would get if you needed them to protect your healer or mage.

Also, 70% is a high percentage but it also depends on your 3 remaining party members. If they were Shale in tank-mode, Wynn in heal-mode and Morrigan specced for crowd control and the occassional damage spam, then 60% to 70% is about standard, I'd say .

I generally pick the others based on roleplay more than powergaming. With the cunning based rogue I used Morrigan, Shale and Sten. With the dexterity based rogue I used Leliana, Wynn and Ogren. With full focus on dexterity nothing could touch him and so no tank was needed really. Leliana dealt with any mages.

With the cunning rogue things were just too easy. Sneak into position and backstab - stun- backstab. Killed pretty much anything including most boss creatures. There was just no way for anyone to fight him and live. Shale did her thing, Sten dished out the occasional damage and Morrigan I used sort of as a backup for the unexpected. The cunning rogue did more damage pr attack than any other character I made, and his attack speed with ... momentum?.. made sure he got in 3 hits to a regular warrior's 1.

I always picked human rogue for my play throughs. I don't think I ever bothered completing the game with any other origin or class.

I am the same with picking parties. Only picked different parties to experiment for a short while.

Sten is my main man. Alistair and Morrigan I tend to keep. Though Wynne is awesome, she seems too overpowered.

[Primateus]

My first playthrough of DA:O was with the classic warrior. And I promise you, there was plenty of ass-kicking for everyone. I'm playing a mage now, and there's plenty of fireballs for everyone too.

When I've done that I'll try with a rogue.

[Slow Ben]

Yeah, that demo was pretty damn sweet.

I like the changes to combat so far. I dont know why, but the distinction in characters seems better with this one. The rogue is actually faster and moves the way you'd expect one to move, especially the backstab moves. And it seems there is actually a benefit now to playing with the warrior over the rogue. When I played through a second time with the warrior it was much easier to kill enemies. At the beginning when you start with higher skills that warrior was killing 3-4 enemies with one swing. But we'll have to play more to see for sure.

[Gothos]

In Origins there was nothing that could beat a dagger/dagger CUN rogue on single-target damage. Hooray for 110+ hits from backstab every second!

[Gothos]

Allright, took a moment to play through the demo yesterday evening, and... well, it looks good enough.
However.
Every bit of this game so far has been painting Hawke as the fantasy Commander Shepard. It's like the DA:O team looked at how much better the Mass Effect games are and decided to copy them. But they're missing one thing:
You can fight like a Krogan,
You can run like a leopard,
but you'll never be better
than Commander Shepard.
Fighting seemed a tad arcade-ish, plus the locked inventory and locked specialization trees were infuriating.
I do, however, love the friend-rival system, even if I've no idea what effects it would make. I like the amount of numbers and statistics. I like the specialization trees, these seem a large step forward from the last game.

Last but not least, the freckles girl is annoying. The dwarf seems cool. Hawke's sister seems bland. Isabella will likely repeatedly make me cream my pants across the full game.

I do also hope they'll include a description of the various dialogue icons.

[Primateus]

One of the things I actually really liked about the demo is that it seems as if it'll be a game told as a story. I've always thought that was a neat little thing. In any case. I agree with Gothos, the friend/rival thing can be very awesome considering that this is a game about a "rise to power" I wonder if some of those party members might turn traitor if their rivalry score becomes too high.

[Tapper]

Gothos, on 28 February 2011 - 12:30 PM, said:

Allright, took a moment to play through the demo yesterday evening, and... well, it looks good enough.
However.
Every bit of this game so far has been painting Hawke as the fantasy Commander Shepard. It's like the DA:O team looked at how much better the Mass Effect games are and decided to copy them. But they're missing one thing:
You can fight like a Krogan,
You can run like a leopard,
but you'll never be better
than Commander Shepard.
Fighting seemed a tad arcade-ish, plus the locked inventory and locked specialization trees were infuriating.
I do, however, love the friend-rival system, even if I've no idea what effects it would make. I like the amount of numbers and statistics. I like the specialization trees, these seem a large step forward from the last game.

Last but not least, the freckles girl is annoying. The dwarf seems cool. Hawke's sister seems bland. Isabella will likely repeatedly make me cream my pants across the full game.

I do also hope they'll include a description of the various dialogue icons.

Someone already printed a table of which talents provide and/or profit from the effects each class can provide in combat (mages Brittle, warriors Staggered and Rogues Disorientated), and who can profit from it (the class that provides can't). Seems balancing your party in some interlocking class and spec combos can totally make damage explode like a nuclear bomb.

[Lusipher]

Tapper, on 28 February 2011 - 03:53 PM, said:

[
Someone already printed a table of which talents provide and/or profit from the effects each class can provide in combat (mages Brittle, warriors Staggered and Rogues Disorientated), and who can profit from it (the class that provides can't). Seems balancing your party in some interlocking class and spec combos can totally make damage explode like a nuclear bomb.

More than rolling with three mages in DA:O?
I went through Origins on Normal with a rogue as my character, Morrigan, Alistair and Shale and found it challenging enough to keep me interested. The second time around, I created a mage, picked up Wynne (as opposed to killing her the first time around) and rolled with her, Morrigan and Shale/Leliana. We absolutely obliterated every single thing we came across. I started out on Normal, found that too easy and went to the hardest difficulty and still found it less challenging than my rogue's party. It was almost ridiculous how easy some things were in comparison.

[Tapper]

Lusipher, on 01 March 2011 - 06:45 PM, said:

Tapper, on 28 February 2011 - 03:53 PM, said:

[
Someone already printed a table of which talents provide and/or profit from the effects each class can provide in combat (mages Brittle, warriors Staggered and Rogues Disorientated), and who can profit from it (the class that provides can't). Seems balancing your party in some interlocking class and spec combos can totally make damage explode like a nuclear bomb.

More than rolling with three mages in DA:O?
I went through Origins on Normal with a rogue as my character, Morrigan, Alistair and Shale and found it challenging enough to keep me interested. The second time around, I created a mage, picked up Wynne (as opposed to killing her the first time around) and rolled with her, Morrigan and Shale/Leliana. We absolutely obliterated every single thing we came across. I started out on Normal, found that too easy and went to the hardest difficulty and still found it less challenging than my rogue's party. It was almost ridiculous how easy some things were in comparison.

Never tried rolling with three mages. But warriors and rogues get huge damage bonuses with some talents on frozen targets, etc, so a 2/2 split where your peeps cycle through several ability chains to optimize profiting from the bonuses might well be better than 3x a top damage class that cannot profit from the statuses it gives its opponents.

[Lusipher]

Tapper, on 02 March 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

Lusipher, on 01 March 2011 - 06:45 PM, said:

Tapper, on 28 February 2011 - 03:53 PM, said:

[
Someone already printed a table of which talents provide and/or profit from the effects each class can provide in combat (mages Brittle, warriors Staggered and Rogues Disorientated), and who can profit from it (the class that provides can't). Seems balancing your party in some interlocking class and spec combos can totally make damage explode like a nuclear bomb.

More than rolling with three mages in DA:O?
I went through Origins on Normal with a rogue as my character, Morrigan, Alistair and Shale and found it challenging enough to keep me interested. The second time around, I created a mage, picked up Wynne (as opposed to killing her the first time around) and rolled with her, Morrigan and Shale/Leliana. We absolutely obliterated every single thing we came across. I started out on Normal, found that too easy and went to the hardest difficulty and still found it less challenging than my rogue's party. It was almost ridiculous how easy some things were in comparison.

Never tried rolling with three mages. But warriors and rogues get huge damage bonuses with some talents on frozen targets, etc, so a 2/2 split where your peeps cycle through several ability chains to optimize profiting from the bonuses might well be better than 3x a top damage class that cannot profit from the statuses it gives its opponents.

I just might try that out...

[Tapper]

FYI, I was not talking DA:O but DA 2 about the interlocks
Also: pre-load available on Steam.

This post has been edited by Tapper: 07 March 2011 - 09:38 AM

[Slow Ben]

This comes out tomorrow! TOMORROW!!!!


Been too long since i've had a game i'm looking forward to.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Ok ,so I'm not sure if I made a good choice or not. Ordering Dragon Age 2 online, couldn't decide between getting it for 360 or PS3. (Shut it, PC people, I'm not interested in your propaganda.) I was going to get it for the 360 as that is the system where I played the first DA and I prefer the controller for xbox. Then Dr. LuxuryWife saw that there was a Signature version for the PS3 for the same price that came with extra content beyond the standard preporder bonus. I talked myself into ordering the PS3 version. What do you guys think?

[Gothos]

Get a PC already.!

This post has been edited by Gothos: 08 March 2011 - 09:03 AM

[The Seguleh 46th]

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 08 March 2011 - 08:59 AM, said:

Ok ,so I'm not sure if I made a good choice or not. Ordering Dragon Age 2 online, couldn't decide between getting it for 360 or PS3. (Shut it, PC people, I'm not interested in your propaganda.) I was going to get it for the 360 as that is the system where I played the first DA and I prefer the controller for xbox. Then Dr. LuxuryWife saw that there was a Signature version for the PS3 for the same price that came with extra content beyond the standard preporder bonus. I talked myself into ordering the PS3 version. What do you guys think?

Do it.

(i'm biased though as a PS3 owner....)