Although I picked up Dragon Age Origins on release day, I have yet to try the game out. I didn't want to abandon any of the games that I was playing at the time, and by all accounts DAO is a life destroying quest of epic magnitude. That said, I'm now in a position to start the game and was hoping for some advice from readers who are already into it:
What difficulty level do you recommend playing Dragon Age Origins on? Normal or Hard?
I consider myself a skilled RPG player and a fairly good tactician, however I have no patience for micromanaging details past a certain point. I'm looking for a challenge, but not a graveyard parade.
Any and all opinions appreciated.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Posted by
Andrew
at
8:08 AM
Dragon Age Difficulty?
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15 comments:
I'd suggest trying it on normal, it doesn't really ease you into the combat or tactics and that'll be a more forgiving way to learn. I know I'll intend to try my second playthrough on a harder difficulty but that's because I now know the game and can pick more effective builds. The beauty of playing on normal or easy is you can play through and have fun without worrying about that.
But you can switch the difficulty any time you like.
1st of all: the game lets you change the difficulty setting ANY time. You are not bound to the setting you chose when you begin your game.
That being said, my opinion is the following. I'm quite an experienced player and I started on normal. The fights are hard, and you really need to pay attention to everything, pause the fights often.
After playing for about 25 hours (yeah I made slow progress, did side quests, long talks) I ran into a boss fight I could not beat on normal difficulty. Since then I've been playing on easy setting and I find my stress levels decreasing.
I sincerely wonder about the 2 higher difficulty settings after normal. This game is hard on normal :)
Heh, I played all the Origins through on EASY, because I'm usually crap at this kind of tactical stuff. As it happens that might have been a little *too* easy, and I have yet to make a definitive decision for the rest of the game. As Chris says, you can change that at any time.
Right now I'm tempted to stay in Easy because for me the fights are incidental to the story (which is rather my attitude in MMOs too, so at least I'm consistent ;)).
From what I've read Normal mode is fairly challenging on the PC, but not very difficult on the Xbox. I've also read that mages are overpowered, particularly crowd control. So I'm playing a mage on Normal :-)
I believe the PC version has been patched to relieve some of the insane difficulty spikes. After downloading it Easy and Normal modes became for me rather more like their name suggests.
http://social.bioware.com/language.php?return_url=%2Fgame_patches.php
I haven't played yet - poverty is making me wait till the end of the week - but I've heard the unpatched game has parts that are extremely difficult, but that's been fixed. Still, all accounts seem to have normal as a decent challenge, unless you read up on ideal builds and such beforehand.
Hearing that you can change the difficulty on the fly though, I'll just start on hard and dial it back of I find it frustrating. That'll probably happen, because I dislike balanced parties and instead bring whoever I enjoy having around instead of who's abilities work best together.
... Much like how I insisted on playing a feral Druid in vanilla wow. 'I'll make it work!!!'
Honestly I would say it depends on your class.
If you go as a Warrior or a Rogue, sneak over to Normal first. You don't get a real healer until a decent way in (depending on which way you go), thus meaning you rely on potions heavily. This isn't a bad thing, but you're going to feel some hurt :>
If you go as a mage I would say consider Hard. Mages simply allow you far more control over a battlefield (and more options) than any other class so you'll often be able to dictate more.
Some of the fights though on Normal are horrendous hard (in a good way), meaning if you don't approach them with your parties strength in mind, you're going to get dicked either way.
And as a final note, I greatly encourage you to make Morgaine (I'm awful at names, the NPC mage who's name begins with an M) friendly towards you, even if that means pouring gifts onto her.
Currently she has THE best side quest storyline going and the end finale of it is... well... just gobsmackingly good. I ended up cheering (on an RPG? oO) after it's completion, being shocked by how it felt and then having to walk around my house for 5minutes to calm myself down.
Maybe I got a lil over excited by it but frankly I hadn't had that much of a challenge or fun in a fucking long time.
Thanks all!
Given your input, I think what I'll do is start on Hard and adjust to Normal if required.
I was planning on starting a mage anyways, and from what you've said here that appears to be an "easier" choice, which should give me a good degree of control from the start.
Appreciate all the input!
*spoilers*
I started on Normal, but since the patch I had to up it to hard.
Just beat the Brood Mother - of course, I TPKd two or three times before I perfected the strategy.
If you have a lot of experience with RPGs, i would definitely recommend Hard with the proviso that you really make use of the following:
- ensure your parties gear are as up-to-date as your own
- spec morrigan for healing potions asap. alternatively, do the mage tower quests as soon as you can because that's where the healing NPC is.
- use poisons and grenades
If anything, your RPG micromanagement abilities will improve severely.
I'd suggest hard for the first time.
I've just finished the game on hard and it seemed pretty easy to me on that difficulty. I played an elf blood mage and even never had a healer in my party, almost never had to use poisons, traps, or grenades - everything was pretty simple even without it. Got a serious shot for herbalism however - balms and potions are very helpful.
My standard setup was Nelia(me), Leliana, Alaister, and Morrigan.
Finished the game at levels 16/17.
The game is NOT hard at all, just decently challenging and requires to analyse the upcoming battles.
The only bosses that were REALLY hard are Revenants (ones from the Brecilian forest and phylacteries). I think you should go Redcliffe first of all, as this battle makes you understand the game tactics and lets you adapt to it.
Going to try hardcore difficulty now.
this game was so easy, i finished the game at level 6 with my main character wearing no armor. I sometimes had all my party just beat up bosses with thier hands cuz weapons made it to simple for my uber skills.
This game was not challenging in the slightest, i never died like ever other enemy encounter cuz i picked a weak ass archer rouge, tankers that can't tank & didnt have healer til 8 hours into the game or anything like that.
Nope, super wicked easy... Oh! i accidentally beat the game while i was typing this...ooopsy
@Anon:
So helpful.... thanks for the honest response.
Seems to be just sarcastic to the post above.
The game as a mage on normal is exciting as long as you use crowdcontroll at its best, as a dual rogue horrible and frustrating. Even two healers (Wynne n Morrigan) plus potions can´t keep the rugue alive, although Allister is tank and taunts in a row.
Ok, first time I played this through I was a Dwarf Warrior (Reaver/Champion). Dual Specializations don't work out so well.
I ran with 3 Warriors. (2 Tanks, and Sten as a 2hd DPS) Then Morrigane as the Big CC And DPS, along with heals. (Yeah a lot of stuff going for her, but imo, this game is going to be nearly impossible or hugely frustrating without a mage in your grp. There are...2 in the game excluding yourself...try to take advantage of them).
2 Tanks/Melee Dps/ and a Healer & DPS, worked amazingly for me. I didn't get morrigaine healer abilities till later in the game where it got a lot harder (on normal difficulty), So I just focused off her making tons of potions. (Which works very nicely since you only need to be able to cast 2-5 spells per battle as a mage, then for boss fights have atleast 10 pots of each type stacked up, seeing as how in normal, not sure in harder difs, that your hp/mana regenerate decently after battle sequences).
- So...I would say ...depending on your group make-up, if it's well supported of eachother (like my 2 Tanks/Wars, one would typically get annoyingly Knocked Down or CCed so my other one could pick it up, while the Sten guy would easily be the Enemy mage killer, while Morrigaine just sat back, and cced them, and would Cast & Stack big time aoes up for 'traps' that i'd set for enemies. (Cast, right when opening a door, blizzard, thunderstorm, Blizzard knock down/freeze, then just use the other 'Freezebreath' Ability, if they got to close, and that'd easily finish a room off, but taking a bit of time, which personally i'd rather lose the time then take the chance of having to repeat the mistake.) Then I'd just heal when needed, or use pots as necessary if she ran out've mana or was cced herself (which if positioned correctly, should rarely happen).
So yeah, As long as you have a Pre-build in mind (looking over stats/skills/etc. while leveling up rather then just saying 'ooh this is cool, and this' , when you should be saying what'd make the best Combinations for spells and abilities). So...yeah you need to 'micro-manage' every once in a while, then once you have your set-up going (later in the game it actually becomes more smooth and fast paced, but longer fights since harder/stronger, but you'll get the hang of pausing between ppl to cast spells in synchronization for the best combinations)
....also the harder the difficulty, you'll notice the AI (Artificial Intelligence) getting a hell of a lot smarter, ...if you watch the enemies, you can actually learn from their own 'pre-determined' strategies, and use it against them. Works quite effectively if you implement the 'Spider-Pull Strategy' you see in the Deep Roads later on ^^.
Oh...also like said, Mages are OP in this game if managed correctly...but that ALSO means the enemies ones are OP as well, don't expect to win a fight without taking them down/ccing them first ^^.
I played this game on Difficult. Keep in mind I have a lot of experience with RPGs so I know each class' role.
I think i played the quests in the wrong order. I did urn-redcliffe-mage tower-orzamar-and now I am in the forest.
THe one tip I can give you is take advantage of the mass enemy pacification skills (cone of cold,walking nightmare, mind blast) if you have a mage. I havent played on easy or normal so I cannot comment if it is possible without a mage but on Difficult, I cant IMAGINE playing the game without one.
Another Tip I can give you is IF you find a hard boss or enemy, use EVERYTHING you got. I noticed the sould bomb does SOO much damage, even on the biggest bosses. Just make sure you dont hit your allies.
Use the salve on the respective creatures. If you see something HUGE (i.e. dragon, shooting fireballs like a maniac) use the balms for fire resistance. I always keep at least one cold, one lightling, one warm and one nature balm (just in case)
Quick salve + dual wielding Warden + mommentum + dual striking is SICK
ANOTHER TIP is if you have only ONE enemy, and you see he is concentrating on your tank, flank the foo. Station your heavy hitter behind the enemy and you do soo much more damage (provided the target doesnt have the expert skill that negates flanking damage. You will notice when you start dealing 50% or sometimes even 75% more damage from behind..
Also, before you go on the BIG quests, do as many side quests as you can. Pump up the constitution on your tank, the magics and spells of your wizards. That is how I play my RPGs. I dont take side quests as I progress, I do them FIRST if I can help it, so I explore a lot before I even start main quests, unless they have a time limit.
I only recently started using poisons on those with the poison skill. I havent calculated the poisons damages, and I have yet to use ONE trap. I concentrated more on micromanagement during a battle and crowd control.
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