Valmy's ADHD Dragon Age playthrough

[viper37]

Wait I thought this thing was a sitting duck to our mighty siege gear why are we scaling the walls anyway?

It's a sitting duck in the sense that you can create a breach, but it's very long and you concentrate your overwhelming force into one tiny breach where numbers don't count.  Best strategy is to scale the wall and invade through the breaches at the same time.  Just like in Empire Total War

And damn there are a shitload of Grey Wardens. Pity they could only muster three guys the last Blight.

They did muster more than three guys, there was a whole company of Orlesian Grey Wardens waiting at the border, only Loghain's man stopped them from crossing.  He failed to mention it, did he?

till it seems weird to have the commanding general and the Inquisitor in the first wave.

He leads from the front.  Haven't you learned that already?

Of course Hawke can actually be a blood mage in DAII so I wonder if his acute blood mage phobia plays out differently in that case.

doubtful.

Now I had noticed Lothar was getting killed super easy for a while now. I knew he was squishy but for most of the Approach he had become really squishy and during this fight if the Pride Demon even sneezed he was going down. So Lothar had to run around avoiding Archdemon fire and occasionally using his long range assassin ability to attack from a distance. This really hurt our DPS and made this a crazy long and challenging fight.

I don't play nightmare, but I didn't have any particular problem has an assassin
Cloak, Assassinate, strike from the back, re-cloak at the earliest opportunity, take potion, assassinate, and so on

Looking at your hud, the problem seems to me you are using way too many 1st rate power.  Try removing the basic ones and replace them with the assassin's tree.

Bad guys amiright? Not only does she pummel Erimond after that she zaps the Archdemon, collapsing the wall and sending it falling to its...well...nothing since it can fly as it turns out. But Lothar, Urien, Varric, Loghain, Blackwall, and Solas all go falling after it. Lothar opens a fade rift and they all fall through. Physically in the fade. Hey maybe they should all just march on the Black City and become gods? What could go wrong?

See, this is an epic moment, because it draws back to your encounter with Flemeth, on the mountain, where she reveals Hawke's future

So did the spirit form Divine actually save Lothar or was it the mortal one? Eh who knows.

I don't think the spirit knows herself.

The last part of this is a gauntlet of demons and fear spiders following the now glowy spirit Divine. Including a whopping three pride demons! It was fun.

You forgot a path, down the stairs, leads to a cemetary of your companions.

Wait what happened? How was the demon defeated? Because it looked fine just a few seconds ago. Did Loghain kill it? Did sealing the rift close it off from its feeding source? Somebody like Solas want to explain what just happened?

He's locked in the Fade, his rift is closed, he's busy fighting Loghain (who may not be dead after all, but it's stuff for the future DLC, maybe).

[Queequeg]

Just in case anyone was curious, yes, I loved Dorian Parvus, he was by a wide margin my favorite character and I loved multiple characters. 

[Valmy]

Just in case anyone was curious, yes, I loved Dorian Parvus, he was by a wide margin my favorite character and I loved multiple characters. 

Me to. Great character so far. Really love all the NPCs except for Sera who is just nutty and a bit shallow but I don't dislike her. But then the only character I have ever disliked in the series is Anders.

I wish Vints were a bit more foreign, they are not that much different than Marchers and Fereldans. I know we have already had guys like Danzig and that guy from the Elf Alienage in DAO but that could have been justified by having them work abroad.

[Queequeg]

I actually hate what they've done with the Tevinters in this aesthetically.  Their architecture looks like a 90s Goth take on Souetheast Asia.  It just doesn't make sense.  All of the human Kingdoms should be working off a Tevinter artistic inheritance, and in the first game Tevinter ruins just looked boringly Roman.  I really hope they cover Tevinter in a DA game and it doesn't look like a Cambodian version of The Crow. Something like Venice + Constantinople as much as Orlais is a fantasy version of France.  Dorian is great because you start to see real qualities in Tevinter/Magic Byzantium; learning, passion, pragmatism, pride in and respect for history and accomplishments. 

[viper37]

Just in case anyone was curious, yes, I loved Dorian Parvus, he was by a wide margin my favorite character and I loved multiple characters. 

I liked him a lot better when I played a female elf.
But my weak spot goes to Cassandra.

[Queequeg]

Cassandra is great. I didn't like Iron Bull or Sera.

[Queequeg]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/559185-could-tevinter-be-fantasy-byzantium-plz/

[viper37]

Cassandra is great. I didn't like Iron Bull or Sera.

I quite like Sera's neurotic ways.  She's a formidable fighter.  And a bitch.  But she's a formidable fighter.
Iron Bull, well, it takes some getting used to.  He appears like this rock solid Quanari, yet, he's totally unsure of himself.  And he's got some great lines while fighting dragons

[Valmy]

The reason Sera is not my favorite so far is that there is absolutely nothing new or interesting I have learned about her since we found her. The closest might be her reaction to the realness of the chair of the Maker. I don't dislike her at all though. Just in such a great cast she is the weak link..so far. She is just the next crazy elf I have to group with Still plenty of trips to the Hinterlands...er...game left to go. Iron Bull reminds me of Varric a bit. Dude who is too cool for his own race.

But my weak spot goes to Cassandra.

You mean the soft spot in your heart right? 

She and Aveline are dreamy.

[viper37]

You mean the soft spot in your heart right? 

She and Aveline are dreamy.

The reason Sera is not my favorite so far is that there is absolutely nothing new or interesting I have learned about her since we found her. The closest might be her reaction to the realness of the chair of the Maker. I don't dislike her at all though. Just in such a great cast she is the weak link..so far. She is just the next crazy elf I have to group with Still plenty of trips to the Hinterlands...er...game left to go.

There's not much to learn from her.  She never really talks about her past.

[Valmy]

Leliana is always right. You will listen to Leliana. You will not ignore Leliana's recommendations. Leliana God. And if this ever happens again
[shouts]
Leliana will personally rip your lungs out!

I have already failed her again

She sure gets exasperated with Lothar not being as ruthless as she is.

huge disapointment this whole story line and the fight.  The 1st time, I thought I over-leveled to do it, but the 2nd time was just as easy

I don't know what the hell they were thinking. In DA2 not only would he have been super hard he would have had 50 dudes with him.

The 1st time, I did it Josi's style. Long and hard way to do a quest.
The 2nd time, I chose Leliana's option.  I was expecting some mission, some fights, some twits, some setbacks... but no.  Leliana is a very efficient girl.  One blade in the right shoulders and all problems are solved.
Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.

Heh. Josi's way was not that hard it just takes up a few table missions and involves you making some trips to Val Royeaux. I guess it could be more interesting.

This one is hard to achieve to get the right result...

I don't even know what this means. I just want Celene to not die right? I guess I will find out soon.

lol

novel stuff, not game related. Dragon Age: Asunder.

Did you read it? Does it not suck too badly?

Since it's used as a punishment... yes.

That is against Chantry law!

Sometimes I think the Circle in Lake Calenhad was the only one to ever follow the rules. Speaking of Lake Calenhad I can now never unsee it being a bunny. Thanks Cullen.

Hey, funny.  I used the back entrance and surprised them

Hey thanks I went back and found this and also found one of the missing Mosaic pieces through the well right?

all upgrades are cosmetic.  But if you chose to build a Chantry at some point, instead of a garden, I think, it gives you some gold every now and then.

Yeah I built the Chantry garden. It gives me money and table missions.

It's like those cop shows "Police!  Freeze!" and invariably, the bad guy twitches and he's shot 100 times by 4 different cops surrounding him.  I always wonder why they bother

Yeah but in this case there was just me and my small group of dudes while he had a fade rift and a small horde of demons and controlled Wardens with him. I thought it was funny. Like when Wesley acted like Humperdinck was going to surrender to him in Princess Bride even though he was surrounded by crossbowmen and heavily outnumbered.

Actually...
They are usually, outside of blight times, kept underground by the Dwarves. They sealed the deep roads to protect themselves, so the Darkspawn have to dig through rocks to get to us from wherever they are.  Outside of a blight, it takes time, because they have no aim.  They just wanter around searching for the old gods, occasionnaly coming accross a dwarf regular patrol or dead legion guys or dying Grey Wardens.

When the Blight is over they all scurry back underground and nobody on the surface sees them for centuries. Which is why them not doing so in Awakenings was so disturbing. They are not kept underground by the dwarves, why would the dwarves want to keep them underground even if they had the capability of doing so?

[Valmy]

Yeah, basically, there's 4 possible endings.
No names or plot device given:
[spoiler]
1 ruler, 1 exiled, 1 dead.
1 ruler, 2 dead.
2 rulers, 1 dead.
1 ruler, 1 puppet master, 1 dead.[/spoiler]

If you want what's best for Orlais, only 2 of them count.

If you chose the best option for Orlais, you miss out some great loot (worth a lot of money), but you get, imho, the best dialogue options.

The thing is, you get these little statuettes to open doors, and you never have enough of them to open all possible doors.

There is a detailed guide, filled with spoilers I could give you, but basically, you need to talk to everyone and "play the game" to get the best possible ending.

The rest is spoilerish but I don't give too many details, just a straight guideline:
[spoiler]
do not open the first door you can with the statues.  Then open all the remaining ones until the very last ones, wich you will likely not have enough pieces to open[/spoiler]
the rest you can figure it out

It does not change much in the game, it mostly changes the epilogue (unfortunately).

Ok all that sounds hard. Really hard. This will be my one chance to do it without any spoilers or anything. I am giddy with anticipation.

Pity I am going on vacation soon. Probably will not get to it until August 8th or 9th. Trying to kill the dragons and raid Dumat Shrines right now.

[Valmy]

It's a sitting duck in the sense that you can create a breach, but it's very long and you concentrate your overwhelming force into one tiny breach where numbers don't count.  Best strategy is to scale the wall and invade through the breaches at the same time.  Just like in Empire Total War

Excellent point sir . Your knowledge of assaulting castles clearly exceeds my own.

They did muster more than three guys, there was a whole company of Orlesian Grey Wardens waiting at the border, only Loghain's man stopped them from crossing.  He failed to mention it, did he?

Yes I knew that I just thought it was sad that when there are hundreds of them just sitting around waiting for the next Blight when it shows up only a small handful actually got to participate.

He leads from the front.  Haven't you learned that already?

Cullen should get a helmet then. That great hair must be protected.

Of course Hawke can actually be a blood mage in DAII so I wonder if his acute blood mage phobia plays out differently in that case.

doubtful.

Yeah sucks. I guess it is unfair to ask them to make more than three Hawkes for this game. S/he is really only along for this one quest...so far anyway.

I don't play nightmare, but I didn't have any particular problem has an assassin
Cloak, Assassinate, strike from the back, re-cloak at the earliest opportunity, take potion, assassinate, and so on

Looking at your hud, the problem seems to me you are using way too many 1st rate power.  Try removing the basic ones and replace them with the assassin's tree.

That was the only assassin tree skill I had so far. Now I have the mark ability which I am having a hard time using so far. Does it just explode on its own? Because it seems to vanish so far before I can activate it. But then I have only tried to use it on dragons so far and boss mobs are not good guinea pigs for this sort of thing.

But the problem was that stupid fucking berserk 'power' that is the worst curse ever. I mean regular mobs were one shotting him to the point I just stopped healing him because it made no sense to do so. Now that I figured that out this issue went away.

See, this is an epic moment, because it draws back to your encounter with Flemeth, on the mountain, where she reveals Hawke's future

Huh. Let me go back and check those screenshots *checks*

Flemeth: We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Wait for that moment... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall when you can learn if you can fly.

Urien: What should I do?

Flemeth: Do as I do. Become a dragon! You could never be a dragon.

Kind of funny since there is literally a dragon and he flies off. I guess I didn't expect the leap into an abyss to be quite so literal and I thought she was referring to triggering the mage-templar war. Did Hawke jump off the ledge?

I don't think the spirit knows herself.

Yep. That was intriguing. It made me wonder for a moment if the fade is the afterlife and all the demons and spirits were once non-dwarf beings. Which might mean surface dwarves are the only ones who really die.

You forgot a path, down the stairs, leads to a cemetary of your companions.

No I found it. Varric: "became his parents" NOOOOOOO

I was sad none of them commented on it though. Probably why I didn't mention it.

He's locked in the Fade, his rift is closed, he's busy fighting Loghain (who may not be dead after all, but it's stuff for the future DLC, maybe).

Oooooh now that is intriguing. The 'Warden/Hawke Hunt' expansion

[Valmy]

I actually hate what they've done with the Tevinters in this aesthetically.  Their architecture looks like a 90s Goth take on Souetheast Asia.  It just doesn't make sense.  All of the human Kingdoms should be working off a Tevinter artistic inheritance, and in the first game Tevinter ruins just looked boringly Roman.  I really hope they cover Tevinter in a DA game and it doesn't look like a Cambodian version of The Crow. Something like Venice + Constantinople as much as Orlais is a fantasy version of France.  Dorian is great because you start to see real qualities in Tevinter/Magic Byzantium; learning, passion, pragmatism, pride in and respect for history and accomplishments. 

You mean the funky stuff in Kirkwall and this game? Their statuary has a very abstract aesthetic to it with all those sharp angles and no faces. But come to think of it in DAO the Tevinter statues were also kind of faceless with just hints of a brow and a nose.

[viper37]

Heh. Josi's way was not that hard it just takes up a few table missions and involves you making some trips to Val Royeaux. I guess it could be more interesting.

yeah, just long and boring.

I don't even know what this means. I just want Celene to not die right? I guess I will find out soon.

Well, if you read the novel, The masked Empire, you learn that Empress Celine is in fact a lesbian with a female elf lover.  Young and naive girl raised as a spy master and assassin, ultimately betrayed by her best friend through the game. Does it remind you of anyone?
Anyhow.  By the end of the book, they have a fallout, and they go each their seperate way, Duke Gaspard had made his move and caught Celene offguard.  She is without a friend (more of a lover actually)&spymaster, her Cousin has most of the army backing him, and her champion has been banished (you'll find him in Emprise du Lion).

So, your situation is simple when you arrive in Halamshiral, support Celene or support Gaspard.  Then something else comes up.  Loyalties shifts.  You get to crown the winner.
You have court approval, wich you must try to keep high, by listening to secrets, prying people for information and being seen in the ballroom.  You can't get away for too long at any one time.
The final results, depending on your dialogue choices, if you must know:
[spoiler]
- Celine dead, Gaspard rule alone.
- Celine dead, Briala rule as puppetmaster over Gaspard.
- Celine lives, Briala is exiled, Gaspard is dead.
- Celine lives, Briala is her co-ruler, Gaspard is dead.
- Celine lives, Briala and Gaspard are her co-ruler
[/spoiler]

Then by the end, if you want Celene to live, you can have her live or not, she can rule alone or not, depending on your dialogue choices and the secrets you gather, wich is where the hallah statues comes to play, as you have only a limited number of them and your require more than the available number to open all doors.  Some doors give you secrets, some give you loot.

There is a detailes walkthrough on Bioware's forum, I'm giving you the link, but I don't suggest clicking on it.  This is your first time.  Play the way you want it best.  The second time, if you replay the game, do it with the guide if you wish so.
simplified walkthrough

Did you read it? Does it not suck too badly?

I've read only one, it convinced me Bioware strenght was not in making novels.

That is against Chantry law!

Sometimes I think the Circle in Lake Calenhad was the only one to ever follow the rules.

Yeah, I think most of the others had their own interpretation. They still manage to turn Anders into a psychopath though

Hey thanks I went back and found this and also found one of the missing Mosaic pieces through the well right?

yes

Yeah but in this case there was just me and my small group of dudes while he had a fade rift and a small horde of demons and controlled Wardens with him. I thought it was funny. Like when Wesley acted like Humperdinck was going to surrender to him in Princess Bride even though he was surrounded by crossbowmen and heavily outnumbered.

Now, I have to rewatch this movie

They are not kept underground by the dwarves, why would the dwarves want to keep them underground even if they had the capability of doing so?

I did not mean "voluntarily keep them underground".  I mean, they go back underground, but the "surge" in maintained by constant fighting of the dwarves.  Remember a codex entry when they say what the surfacers call a blight is actually their daily lives?
I figured that the Darkspawn lose their "aim" without an Archdemon, so they don't know what to do else than look underground for another, digging everywhere, occasionnaly coming to the surface and attacking all dwarven thaigs in their path when they search for the Old Gods.
If the Dwarves can mount sufficient resistance, they don't go further than there, meaning, they never reach the surface in greater number.  It is something else the dwarves alludes too, once they are gone, the Darkspwan will emerge on the surface eventually, even outside of blights.