Originally Posted by Laz (Post 7547578)

crap ... walked into that High Dragon fight ill-prepared

Originally Posted by KC Fish (Post 7547601)

Yeah... no shit there. I did the exact same. Thought I was on another minor mission, and BAM....

Andraste's tits.....

Originally Posted by Rob Bartel

The 1.02 Patch on PC/Mac (1.01 Title Update on X360/PS3) is still in the final certification process with EA, Microsoft, and Sony but is not expected to come out this weekend. Thank you for your continued patience and we look forward to getting this in your hands soon.

The patch includes fixes for over 100 issues. We’ll discuss some of the platform-specific issues in greater detail next week and we’ll release the formal patch notes once the updates are actually ready to download and install but here’s a high level view of some of the core gameplay fixes that everyone will see regardless of platform:

- The effects of various follower talents and item properties are now being properly removed and re-applied when loading and saving.
- Party members who are resurrected during a fight now rejoin combat properly.
- Hawke no longer gains random spells or talents after using the Maker's Sigh potion, then saving and reloading.
- The “Duty” plot will now appear on the Chanter’s Board even if the player accepted all of the board’s quests before installing the Exiled Prince premium content.
- In the “Finders Keepers” plot, if the player leaves Woodrow’s Warehouse before finding the crate, it is now possible to return to the warehouse to complete the quest.
- Merril no longer refers to the aftermath of “A New Path” before the plot has been completed.
- Aveline’s final armor upgrade is now available during the “Favor and Fault” plot.
- Varric is no longer confused about which character Hawke has been romancing.
- Various other gameplay and story-scripting issues no longer appear.

We’ll delve into some of the platform-specific details early next week. In the meantime, a special shout out and thanks to our mighty beta test group who’ve been a big help in confirming how these fixes will behave in the wild.

Originally Posted by keg in kc (Post 7548487)

Trying something different on my second go-through. Loading up on as many runes of fortune as possible to see how much coin I can collect (and spend) and have +xp items to see how high I can get. Didn't use any of either on my first run; one of the +xp items, The Lion of Orlais isn't useable on a mage, and I didn't have the coin for The Fallen Star the first time. So we'll see how it goes with +3% xp and how ever much percent 7 runes of fortune (so far) and the String of Pearls grants.

Originally Posted by Laz (Post 7549189)

have you played a no mage group?

seems to me it would be extremely difficult although i suppose range rogues would help.

Originally Posted by keg in kc (Post 7549362)

It would depend on the difficulty setting. Although I think a warrior/rogue party would be doable, even on Nightmare. Warriors can wipe out groups of mobs and rogues can do crazy single-target damage, with a bow or with daggers.

I've seen some wacky ideas lately. Yesterday or the day before I was reading a thread where a guy was going to build Fenris as a ranged warrior (some of the staves in the game aren't set as 'mage only', like Allure's Crook, so you can use them if you have a high enough magic score). Right now I'm setting up a sword and shield Warrior that focuses on critting with elemental weapons rather than playing as a tank or using sword and shield moves, so I'm trying to get all the plus fire/elec/cold/nature gear I can find, and using Desdemona's Blade (just chews up Qunari...) and later on Glandivalis and Sataareth.

In some future playthough, maybe the final one I do before DA3, assuming there's going to be one, I'm going to try to set up Aveline that way, focusing on Vanguard damage increases instead of shield defense and stonewall.

Originally Posted by Laz (Post 7549403)

i'm pretty sure there will an DA3 consider how much success they have had with 1 and 2. Money,Money,Money.

on a side note, Arcane shield/wall is effected by Shieldwall and is too nerfed to really be worth it. imo. It should give 20% to the entire party, not 5% imo. I wonder if you had 3 mages and put Arcane shield/wall active on all 3 whether or not it would stack.