Dragon Age: Origins


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So this is just for posting tips... NOT meant for spoilers- Don't ruin the game for others.

1. Runes. They can be changed! I spent quite some time not putting any runes in one of my weapons because I was saving the slots for a more powerful version of the rune. DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. Use what you've got now... you can switch them later.

2. Pause is your friend. Combat is extremely tactical, treat it as such. Playing on Easy gives your team huge bonuses, but once you upgrade to higher difficulties you'll really start to see the necessity for tactical gameplay. Nightmare, for example, is not for those that hate micro-management. Pause, attack, pause again immediately, issue new orders, attack, pause again, etc.

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Haha I didn't know about the runes, that's awesome, time to soup up my weapons!!!

Pause is the only way to go and the only way to play the game it's funny when people complain about having to pause when the game is designed to be played like that. I'm playing on normal difficulty and finding it pretty easy, i'm 60 hours in and at the point where my party's tough enough to get through every fight apart from the "boss" type fights with just one person selected and never pausing (playing it like an action game lol) definitely gonna play through on the hardest setting next I love this game SO MUCH!

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Sometimes it is better to use a lower tier matched set of armour than a higher tier mismatched set due to the Item Match bonus.

Holy crow, I didn't know that one... Good thing I've been starting to use those custom made sets. Is it simply a bonus to armour, or do stats see a change in general?

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It's generally a benefit to your fatigue by reducing the impact your armour has on it.

I'm not too sure but I think you need 3 items of a matched set to get it - you'll see a little green square on your character record which indicates there's a matched set bonus. You can't tell what the bonus is easily though.

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Understanding threat is also important - enemy gauge threat through level, size of armour, DPS output and any skill modifications.

To utilize threat, you should create a Tank character. A warrior with high strength/willpower is ideal. Put your best armour on him (massive armour = massive threat), give him a shield and one-handed sword and associated skills in the Shield School. Set up a tactic which activates taunt/threat when attacked and ALWAYS make sure your tank engages the enemy a couple of seconds before your rogue/warrior engages. This makes the Tank the focal point for all enemy while you position your rogue for ranged DPS or melee DPS (via back-stabs etc), your other warrior (preferably set for pure DPs - make him use 2-handed swords) should then start hacking in.

Your mage can be vital here too - set her to heal at various percentages via tactics but also give your tank/dps warrior some defensive boosts like Rock Armour etc. Watch out for rogue/shade enemy who have a tendency to make a bee-line for mages though. In certain parts of the game you're better off making your ranged rogue stay close to the mage to defend her in case of enemy rogues.

Oh and on the subject of mages....try having them use the Blizzard then Electrical Storm spells :ninja:

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I have to say i've never used any of the tactics, when it comes to a hard fight, i just set everyone to not do anything I don't tell them and then do everything manually.

The item set bonuses are different for every set of armor and you can find out what the bonuses are by examining the armor (usually the chest/torso plate section)

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On my first playthrough i did this.

I set all my party members tactics to aggressive. Also set them to use health potion themselves.

I bought about thousand of flasks(available everywhere) and elfroots (available in Brecilian Forest) for making health potions. :p

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I have to say i've never used any of the tactics, when it comes to a hard fight, i just set everyone to not do anything I don't tell them and then do everything manually.

I use the tactics as a fallback, because depending on who/what I am fighting, I change my strategy. I usually have to melee people (2 fighters or 1 fighter + 1 rogue) and two ranged people (1 mage + 1 ranged rogue, the latter being able to switch to melee if the mage gets in trouble). From here, if it's a standard battle, I let the ranged characters do as they please, and control the movement of the two melee combatants. If I am fighting a harder individual character (eg, the High Dragon), I control my mage to cast the damaging spells, and switch over to heal my melee combatants as I see fit (depending if the enemy has some sort of grapple technique, it is important to maintain high health, whereas usually allowing them to get to 25% is fine). This method seems to work for me. I usually just use the tactic slots as a fallback for when I am jumping around from character to character, and it does a pretty good job.

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