Dragon Age: Thoughts On Building A Rogue
Nov. 7th, 2009 02:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteSo, having had Dragon Age for two-and-a-half days, I'm ready to start writing down a few impressions beyond OMG I LOVE THIS GAME. I was worried that it couldn't live up to my expectations, but in some areas it's actually surpassed them. There are plenty of minor things that annoy me - helmets look ridiculous, the inventory sucks and clicking on the small area map doesn't bring up the larger one. Yet for every one of those there's an another little thing I enjoy, like as the way the game properly acknowledges my character's gender or how the injury system works. On the big things - character, story, deep tactical combat - I think it's a triumph.
I've built a human noble rogue specced as an archer, and I'm delighted with her so far. I've changed my planned build slightly to give her a couple of points in Dual Weapons after it became apparent that avoiding melee completely at all times was not going to be an option, and I have cause to be glad I did. (Anyone planning a similar character should be forewarned: there is at least one extended section of the game when you have to go toe-to-toe with warriors and monsters. Learn to love those daggers.)
I chose a human noble to begin with for two reasons. Firstly, it's kind of a default view of Ferelden; nobody is oppressing my character because she's a mage/elf or commenting on how you don't see many dwarves around the place. I think it will make the differences in future games stand out more. Also, human nobles get something I wanted very much from their origin story: a big Mabari warhound that's 100% loyal to your character though thick and thin. (I love my dog. More about him in some other post.) I quickly found other reasons to love the human noble origin story, though ...
I knew I was going to like this game when the first thing I fought was giant rats. The game proceeds to make fun of itself for doing this, and I for one was amused to see them. You have to have the rodents of unusual size, they're a genre staple! (I also like the way Drakensang subverts this trope by making the giant rat the HARDEST BOSS IN THE GAME. But that's a CRPG discussion for some other day.) The best part of the origin story, though, is that one of the first temporary companions you pick up is ... your mother. Who is a warrior and refuses to be left behind while you go into danger. She's an archer, which was a handy roleplaying bonus for my character, but has also got a couple of points in sword-and-board. This is nice if you're a fragile rogue like me and need to give her a whopping great mace and set her on your enemies. I'm surprised they didn't all flee in the opposite direction the minute they saw her coming. I hope all the origin stories are as engaging as this one, because I knew the game really had me when I shed a tear at the end of it after just a couple of hours of play.
Archers are a very viable build in DOA as far as I can tell; they have lots of nice talents and tricks up their sleeves. It's easy to avoid melee in most battles, although as noted above I wouldn't want to ignore it completely, or you will get completely pwned on a few important occasions. I'm on level eight but haven't managed to unlock the Ranger specialisation I want to take yet, so I don't know what the summons will be like. I'm not overly concerned about not having this right now, but I hope I manage it soon or that the summons keep pace with the party's level. Stealth is a powerful ability if used intelligently, especially when combined with traps or poison grenades.
Speaking of which, I'm agonising over how to spend each and every skill point. Rogues only get one every two levels (more than the other classes, at least) which means that I have to pick and choose. Survival is an absolute godsend and I recommend it to anyone, and Coercion opens up extra options and helps your party avoid unnecessary trouble. Combat Training is vital to unlock the higher talents. This is going to leave me without much to spend on traps and poisons, both of which I enjoy using. Having other party members take those talents isn't really an option since my mage needs to cover Herbalism and the dog doesn't get skills, so I guess I'll have to wait for another time to get to the more powerful crafting skills. Still, I guess I'd rather be forced to think hard about where I put each point than be able to grab everything indiscriminately.
I'm delighted to find that the game is genuinely difficult when playing on Normal for the first time, because nothing bores me more in a CRPG than walking over everything. If I find that experience dulls the edges of combat, I can always turn it up to Hard for repeat play-throughs. I get a great sense of satisfaction whenever I finally win a battle that I've had to reload multiple times. What I love most about this is that every single time I've hit the wall, the answer has always been 'think harder and try something different.' In my opinion, that's how it should be.
I've built a human noble rogue specced as an archer, and I'm delighted with her so far. I've changed my planned build slightly to give her a couple of points in Dual Weapons after it became apparent that avoiding melee completely at all times was not going to be an option, and I have cause to be glad I did. (Anyone planning a similar character should be forewarned: there is at least one extended section of the game when you have to go toe-to-toe with warriors and monsters. Learn to love those daggers.)
I chose a human noble to begin with for two reasons. Firstly, it's kind of a default view of Ferelden; nobody is oppressing my character because she's a mage/elf or commenting on how you don't see many dwarves around the place. I think it will make the differences in future games stand out more. Also, human nobles get something I wanted very much from their origin story: a big Mabari warhound that's 100% loyal to your character though thick and thin. (I love my dog. More about him in some other post.) I quickly found other reasons to love the human noble origin story, though ...
I knew I was going to like this game when the first thing I fought was giant rats. The game proceeds to make fun of itself for doing this, and I for one was amused to see them. You have to have the rodents of unusual size, they're a genre staple! (I also like the way Drakensang subverts this trope by making the giant rat the HARDEST BOSS IN THE GAME. But that's a CRPG discussion for some other day.) The best part of the origin story, though, is that one of the first temporary companions you pick up is ... your mother. Who is a warrior and refuses to be left behind while you go into danger. She's an archer, which was a handy roleplaying bonus for my character, but has also got a couple of points in sword-and-board. This is nice if you're a fragile rogue like me and need to give her a whopping great mace and set her on your enemies. I'm surprised they didn't all flee in the opposite direction the minute they saw her coming. I hope all the origin stories are as engaging as this one, because I knew the game really had me when I shed a tear at the end of it after just a couple of hours of play.
Archers are a very viable build in DOA as far as I can tell; they have lots of nice talents and tricks up their sleeves. It's easy to avoid melee in most battles, although as noted above I wouldn't want to ignore it completely, or you will get completely pwned on a few important occasions. I'm on level eight but haven't managed to unlock the Ranger specialisation I want to take yet, so I don't know what the summons will be like. I'm not overly concerned about not having this right now, but I hope I manage it soon or that the summons keep pace with the party's level. Stealth is a powerful ability if used intelligently, especially when combined with traps or poison grenades.
Speaking of which, I'm agonising over how to spend each and every skill point. Rogues only get one every two levels (more than the other classes, at least) which means that I have to pick and choose. Survival is an absolute godsend and I recommend it to anyone, and Coercion opens up extra options and helps your party avoid unnecessary trouble. Combat Training is vital to unlock the higher talents. This is going to leave me without much to spend on traps and poisons, both of which I enjoy using. Having other party members take those talents isn't really an option since my mage needs to cover Herbalism and the dog doesn't get skills, so I guess I'll have to wait for another time to get to the more powerful crafting skills. Still, I guess I'd rather be forced to think hard about where I put each point than be able to grab everything indiscriminately.
I'm delighted to find that the game is genuinely difficult when playing on Normal for the first time, because nothing bores me more in a CRPG than walking over everything. If I find that experience dulls the edges of combat, I can always turn it up to Hard for repeat play-throughs. I get a great sense of satisfaction whenever I finally win a battle that I've had to reload multiple times. What I love most about this is that every single time I've hit the wall, the answer has always been 'think harder and try something different.' In my opinion, that's how it should be.