so far it's been easier to pick up mages ... might have to play with main character as rogue just for the assassin class.

btw - seems like the Healer tree is replaced on all the NPC's i've seen so far too.

Varric is pretty powerful as an archer. I haven't like Sebastian as much. He seemed to get knocked out an awful lot last night, the first time I used him.

I might use Isabela on an easier difficulty setting. I just don't like having more than 1 melee character on Nightmare. It's so easy for them to injure each other inadvertently.

I think I might do a play later with myself as a 2h Templar, with Merrill doing dps, Anders healing and Sebastian.

Yeah, Merrill can't heal at all. Anders is great at it when you get him. Bethany I haven't played with, being a mage.

Anders is actually really cool, you can switch him between uber-dps mode and uber-heal mode. Merrill can supposedly be really, really powerful as a damager with her advanced skills.

Holy crap .... Demon Stone Wraith FTMFL!!!



I teh ded :D

He's immune to electricity, which made it a very long fight for me as a primal mage. Make sure you have cold and spirit weapons and spells.

Somehow I've become a pyromaniac..... Damn near everything I'm carrying at the moment gives me fire damage...

Also... Everyone in my group tends to hate me except Merrill. Decisions to get shit done is bound to piss off half the group..

"Kanky" Hammertoe is a bitch.

most important part of that fight is knowing when to hide behind the 4 pillars. :)

I'm nearly through it a second time, but I'm starting to burn out a bit. I think I need to take a few days off.

Perhaps next time I'll play a female mage and have steamy lesbo sex with Isabella. :drool:

Perfect timing for Arrival I think (that's the ME2 to ME3 bridge DLC coming out tomorrow).

Any of you guys kill Xebenkeck?

I just somehow got through maybe the worst encounter so far. Side quest. Rogue boss. Two rogues in the first wave. Two more rogues in the second wave. Various trash.

It was brutal...

Be prepared to die. Repeatedly.

It's the hardest fight in the game.

I had already finished it when I posted that. I didn't find it all that difficult, because they don't lock you in the room. So I activated it, ran everybody back, killed the first wave. Saved (there was time). Went back to the room, grabbed her (she hadn't come for some reason - but she hadn't even appeared when I left the room initially) and the revenant that were in there, ran them back in case there was another wave, killed them, and then went back and cleared the room.

That's one of the earliest lessons I learned on Nightmare: don't ever engage enemies where the fight spawns, if you have any choice.

The dying repeatedly came later, on the quest "Inside Job". That was the one I was referring to in my last post.

I'm finally seeing the awesome benefits of cross-class ability combos... Stagger + Chain Lightning really does make for some bloody messes... like eggs popping in a microwave.

I have it set up so that Aveline can Shield Bash, Hawke can Chain Lightning, Varric can Knockback and Anders can Crushing Prison. All of those skills upgraded to benefit from stagger.

It's pretty crazy...