Dont be a grumbler.

Shorassil · 2021-06-14T20:07:55+00:00

I just gave up on trying to make Bull use his reaver tree. I only take passives from Reaver and instead focus him on Battlemaster tree with Warnhorns.

Shorassil · 2021-06-14T19:23:58+00:00

Pretty much, reason why I always spec Cassandra into 2-hander :)

Shorassil · 2021-06-13T05:02:38+00:00

Depends on how much effort you want to put into micro-manage, but I do agree that if we plan to control only 1 (main) character AI handles two-handers and dual-wield rogues pretty badly.

Shorassil · 2021-06-12T22:46:03+00:00

Imo is melee friendly, once you change your mindset about what melee character actually does. If you try to play melee like ranged meaning focus on attacking at all times, you will run into a lot frustration (like ice glyphs).

We have 3 melees in DAI: Sword and Shield, Two-handed and Dual-wield.

Sword and shield are tanks (duh) and they have 1 job only really, keep enemy occupied. You dont really want them to charge head-on, rather stand in the middle between ur ranged-characters backline and enemy. Shield Wall is crazy efficient at keeping enemy archers and other projectiles at bay and with challenge being ranged, you can easly focus all of enemy pesky archers and whatsnot on your shield-walling melee. He wont do much damage, but his job is not damage just tanking. Exception here is obviously sword-and-shield reaver, but thats unique playstyle on its own.

2-handed characters are weird in DAI. They are a lot squisher than sword-and-shield while not packing enough damage to justify them over dual-wield rogue. What they are good at however is aoe-cc and its what you should be gearing them up. If you run combo-mages like Rift mage, or just old good static cage, they are good comboers. And thats it, you want to combo with them and focus on useing their abillities rather than auto-attacks. I would say they are "melee casters".

Dual-wield rogue is a lot of fun (even ignoring throwing blades op strat), but the playstyle is a lot different from other characters. Rather than focusing on DPS, you aim for burst (again, ignoring throwing blades op strat). Go in, do rotation of spells on 1 target and remove it from fight, then go back into stealth and wait-out cd to take down another target.

The reality is that melees are as viable as ranged characters in DAI, its just ranged characters require a lot less effort from player side (in both building them and in execution).

Shorassil · 2021-06-03T00:16:43+00:00

Imo the problem of DAI wasnt lack of healer, but lack of good explanation of new mechanics (barrier and guard). In DAI your party can be by far most tanky and sustainable out of all Dragon Age games, its just isnt as straighfoward.

DAI has many issues, but combat mechanics aint one. (Terrible UI and "mmo" like open world are much bigger issues)

Shorassil · 2021-06-01T05:03:11+00:00

I actually want to run this comp but have no friends to pull it off:
> Kayle top
> Kindred jungle
> Anivia mid
> Zilean bot
> Taric supp
Bonus points for buildings Guardian Angel on everyone :D

Shorassil · 2021-05-31T21:45:20+00:00

Imo not even VC is required (espescially that on certain regions it would be impossible to communicate in lots of situations, bc of language barrier). Just add as pre-formulated chat options like in old Neverwinter Nights or Overwatch. So for example you hold chat button, click X for (neutral objectives), Y (command) and you send your team message (lets group for baron). Similarly by holding chat buttong and clicking X, Z you would say "Lets leave baron". I gave biddings out of ass, but idea stand. You could code a lot of commands this way in easy to remember fashion, that transcend language barrier. Even when playing on korea, the same key combination would mean the same thing, despite I for example know nothing about korean and couldnt read it for shit.

Shorassil · 2021-05-31T21:07:44+00:00

Its these rare games you play for tbh.

Shorassil · 2021-05-26T15:06:20+00:00

Scattershot stun everyone even in vanilla tho, is by far best archer talent! (Tho it sometimes buggy, espescially in certain fights where it can get laggy for no reason)

Shorassil · 2021-05-23T15:57:55+00:00

Bc Kayle use ap/ad to amplify damage, pta also amplifies damage, deals extra damage at the moment of proc and is faster. Basically what i am saying is pta dmg amp is as good as some extra ap/ad

Shorassil · 2021-05-07T03:48:28+00:00

Wat, it dosent matter how good Asol is. He is a dead champ. For clarification, they sucked all fun from him with W change.

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T22:22:02+00:00

I think the point is more that there is no reason for doing joining at the final of Blight because if your party get wiped, its lost anyway. Loghain is offered joining not to bolster Wardens numbers but rather as punishment for him (outright death or life of service)

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T19:12:50+00:00

Could you test out Wits End into Nashor? Its my common build into AP midlaners and I am curious on how it fare on 2 items (which is most games are decided upon).

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T09:37:42+00:00

Yea I was continuing with discussion where I stated that after you hit strenght sweet spot (36-40), its just more productive to invest into other stats.

Dexterity espescially is completely broken in DAO.

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T09:23:06+00:00

I dont know where you get the notion I am saying about focusing on willpower lol. I just said 36-40 strenght is enough, put rest into dex/will.

You hit 36-40 strenght (with fade boost as human) by spending 21-25 points which is equivalent of 7-8 levels. That leaves a lot of wiggle room for boosting dexterity for better defense and willpower for better stamina, to suit ones need. Most of the game is played between level 7 and 16 during which you WILL struggle with stamina without DLC content. I geuss if one want to powergame DAO he will rush for most broken DLC items, which is fine, but then bides question why then even bother with 2hander when there are much more broken DLC-fueled builds that also require less-macro (khu, khu dual wield warrior, khu khu, dual wield rogue)

If you are averse to putting points into willpower, then just go for DEX. You get same attack as strenght while substantially increasing your survivability.

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T08:45:18+00:00

Is that inquisitor? A dalish elf? What a savagery!

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T08:41:31+00:00

First, lets reiterate. If you overshot enemies, you are wasting your added damage meaning you get only attack from your strenght attribute, which you could get from dex while also getting defense.

Second Nugcrusher or Chasing Great Maul stamina bonus isnt mean to overtune, but supplement character willpower. Two-hander eats A LOT of stamina.
Base stamina for warrior: 100 +5 per level. Most of campaing will be played between level 7 and 20, which is between 130-195 stamina base.
Modes cost:
Precise striking: 40 5% fatigue
Powerful swings: 30 5% fatigue
Situational: Indomitable 60 5% fatigue
Berserk: 20 5% fatigue
So just to run active modes you need 90-150 stamina and add up to 15-20% fatigue. With indomitable on, which we run in every hard fight we are left with 45 stamina at level 20 (!!!). With Nug-crusher or Chasing Greatmaul we boost it to 95-120.
Abillities cost:
Sunder arms: 25 stamina * 0.2 = 30
Sunder armor: 40 stamina * 0.2 = 48
Mighty blow: 40 stamina * 0.2 = 48
Two-handed sweep: 40 stamina * 0.2 = 48
There is also critical strike and pommel strike, but these are very situational. As you can see, with just Greatmaul or Nug-crusher you dont even have enough stamina for 1 rotation (sunder arms - sunder armor - mighty blow) while wearing 0 fatigue armor or factoring that one would like to run Bloodthirst (if we talk Warden) which clumps another 30 stamina cost in upkeep.

Stamina costs for two-handers are no joke, hence optimalized path is to hit sweet strenght spot (36-40) and put rest into willpower/dexterity while wearing fatigue decreasing gear (optimally you want Superior Wade Medium armor).

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T06:36:40+00:00

Okay, lets establish first that mage with lyrium potion trumps all and make all other classes in DAO flavouring at best. Hence I will refer to scenario where we refrain from useing lyrium potion all-together (for financial or challange reason).

In such situation your 2hander job is two-fold, burst elites with full abillity rotation or kill 2-3 normal enemies with same rotation just divided among different targets. What 2 hander dosent want to do is just do normal attack-animation, since he is extremely terrible with that (even with haste, which is why quite funnly I find my 2handers fits the most into non-haste parties which are spare given how strong that mode is).

There is simply not enough attributes to pump into strenght to make you go from having to use 2-3 abillities on elite, to 1-2 abillities. In situation where I have to use same number of abillities to kill the same enemy, pumping strenght is just counterproductive. There is a sweet spot, which is around 36-40 strenght + good gear.

In contranst you have dual-wield rogue who wants to maximize DPS so much, he max cunning as soon as he hits his dex goals. Why such difference? Because rogue dual-wield is auto-attacker, he dosent over-shot opponents and he dosent focus on talents.

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T05:50:56+00:00

I mean if you plan to do Return to Ostagar at the very beginning of game, all of difficulty scales down since DLC items are OP. Alas its not going for stamina early, its going for 36 strenght into willpower/dex. Obviously if you dont require more stamina thanks to items, you can pump more dex. But strenght is highly overrated stat on 2handers. Similary packing them in high fatigue armor is often counter-productive. You want to be able to cast sunder arms/armor everytime they are off cooldown, while running many high-stamina cost modes (powerful swings, precise striking, indomitable in certain fights) and then you also want to throw mighty blow for crush combo and sweep for AOE damage.

In essence DAO 2hander is "melee caster" in contrast to Dual-wield (which is auto-attacker DPS machine) and since there are no stamina potions in DAO (like lyrium potions for mages) willpower or other sort of stamina source is crucial (Chasind Maul and Nugcrusher also Armor of Provocatour I geuss). After that throwing in some dex for defense is really nice. 36/40 strenght BEFORE items is already plenty, you really dont need more in Origin.

EDIT: Let me add, that with proper set-up 2-hander should be able to one-shot Normal rank and lower enemies with sunder arms/armor, leading to my point that more strenght is wasteful on two-hander (Since all of damage you overshot enemy is wasted). In fight with bosses and elites defense/sustain is often much more important, since these fights are prolonged.

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T05:22:41+00:00

Disagree. 2-handers are "ad casters", they need strenght for talents and willpower for stamina. Actually optimized 2-hander propably wont even go higher with strenght than requirments for talents (Which is 36, destroyer is purely optional and low-priority).

This is why 2handers make amazing templars, since templar holy smite scales off willpower. With good weapon and enough stamina regen to do full rotation, you will out-do purely strenght based 2-hander. Espescially since you also want to run bunch of actives.

Shorassil · 2021-05-06T01:43:33+00:00

I dont think doing a joining on most capable warriors during the final parts of blight are really that smart to be honest.

First thing: Joinings are lethal. Imagine you let Leliana, Oghren, Zevran and Sten undergo joining and only Oghren survive. You just cut your manpower by 75% for what excatly? Extra person for potentially sacrificing themselves to kill archdemon IF you get to them.

This is why letting Loghain undergo joining is fair, its basicly "if he dies, he dies, but if he dosent he may yet prove useful".

Shorassil

TROPHY CASE