I did it...I finally finished Dragon Age: Inquisition
 

Playing through it again on normal to get the rest of the trophies but finished the entire game + DLC on nightmare difficulty without dying a single time.

Dang. That's a pretty impressive feat. Congrats!

https://media.giphy.com/media/3scDh2...2mm2/giphy.gif


Are your nerves completely fried now?

Actually no.

Actually playing through it wasn't that big of a deal once I settled on my build and such.

I probably started over 50+ times because of various issues with OCD.

Reaver + Rift Mage = :eek:

How long has it been? Jesus.

I started the end of February 2019. :huh:

The developers would absolutely love to know people like you exist. That's why they make these games so intricate and full of different, meaningful choices (build, party, and story).

Do you have your next adventure lined up?

Holy shit! How many hours is that?

Right now, I'm playing a Templar build on normal difficulty with no crafting as a house rule. So basically only using any gear I find randomly. It's fun and challenging. Once I finish this play through, I will have 100% on trophies and then it's on to AC3 and Far Cry 5. Hopefully I can get a PS5 this summer for my birthday.

Well, I don't know for sure because Sony hasn't done a 2020 wrap up but I'm guessing it would be more in 2020 than I had in 2019 and 2019 was pretty bad. ROFL

BTW, beginning to end, my Reaver play through on Nightmare took 191 hours.

Man, you're definitely going to have the feels when you're finally done with DA:I. That's quite the investment there, brother.

Even without my OCD, I'd still have a few hundred hours into it - by far the most time I've ever spent on one game. Probably ranks up there with my favorites of all-time.

That game was super fun. I had a good run there with that game, Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War all in a row.

Trying out Greedfall right now, not sure what I think of it. Seems a bit tedious and clunky so far. Might switch to Shadow of Tomb Raider.

Nice!

I finished my first play-through right before we had the kids. I haven't gone back to it since.

It's pretty fantastic. I think I put about 250 hours into it when I first got it.

God of War is in my queue, too. I just think AC3 and Far Cry will take less time so I'm going to knock them out first. Plus I'm kind of RPG'd out after DA.

Man. You're going to go crazy when you get to Assassin's Creedy Odyssey and Valhalla.

Phenomenal RPG entries.

Haven't done Odyssey yet. I got 100% on Origins, put quite a bit of time into it.

I am sure on your deathbed you won't regret those hours spent at all LOL. Nice work though.

I'm finally getting around to beating spiderman.

Oh man.

Odyssey is SO good. I mean, so good.

My advice would be to play it as Alexios. The voice actor is way better than the woman who did Cassandra, and it’s a lot more fun.

The DLC stuff is even good on that one.

I never play as a chick, I'm sexist. ROFL

Video games keep me off my deathbed. :D

I will finish it some day. Probably. When the next one comes out. Maybe.

I will say this:

It's a different game, a different kind of fun, on Normal vs. Nightmare.

On nightmare, the fun was leveling and carefully exploring every nook and cranny, trying to make sure you didn't run into a pack of spiders and die. Poison was especially lethal and you had to prioritize archers over everything else because they could 2 to 3-shot you easy, even with full guard or barrier.

On normal, there's not that level of tension and excitement but more a sense of wonder, wandering around the landscape, doing quests in logical order (instead of a necessary order to avoid dying) and playing without crafting make opening every chest a little more fun because it could actually be useful (crafting is pretty overpowered if you ask me).

It took me almost 40 hours to get to Skyhold on nightmare. I'm ready to start In Your Hearts Shall Burn already on my new play through and I've put in roughly 15.

The ending is...worth it?

Hmm. I had 101 hours in the original Dragon Age. I recall playing DA2 but can't remember if I ever beat it or not. I really enjoyed the original though. May have give DAI a spin.

I've been hooked on re-playing the Dark Souls trilogy lately.

Yeah, I just couldn't get into the Souls games. I don't have the reflexes or attention span for it anymore.

Just started Odyssey a couple weeks or so ago. Great game so far.

It’s really fantastic. The mercenary component is so fun (fun tactic: if you’re being overwhelmed by one way above your power level, try to lure them to a cliff edge and then Spartan kick them to their demise)

Lol. Never considered that. Now I will have to do it just because I can.

It's super cool.

Also, in terms of leveling up the gear you loot from the mercenaries, don't waste your resources on it. That gear will level to your current level when you obtain the LAST item in the set.

Question, do you ever buy any weapons or armor from the blacksmith? To me it seems like a waste of money as I can get just as good from general game play and looting people I kill.

Very rarely. Occasionally there was something for my build that just worked great or looked cool.

You can change the appearance of items to look like others you’ve recovered.

So if you really like the visual of a helmet or weapon, you can make it always look that way.

That makes sense. I am still relatively early in the game so I haven't seen too much cool looking gear yet. Probably going to take forever to beat this game as I am easily distracted by side quests. That's the biggest reason why I never beat Skyrim.

I can't believe how much faster DA:I plays in normal.

I'm really glad I committed to the nightmare trophy because it was worth it. Not that the game isn't fun on normal but it's just a lot different. Not only are the enemies less deadly, there's less of them.

I mean, on nightmare, the Fallow Mire area was a multi-hour trek. I had to be careful everywhere I went - stepping in the wrong pond resulted in dozens of undead archers that also had poison, arrows and poison being two of the most deadly things in the game on nightmare. And if I engaged them in the wrong place, I risked a stray shot angering the bog fishers. They would be charging me down and dragging me around the map, not allowing me to recover AND producing more undead archers.

FWIW it's currently $9.99 on Steam.

It's funny. On nightmare, resistances have virtually no effect. It makes picking anything other than human (+1 skill point to start) useless because everything is just plain deadly - ice mines, fire spells, poison, you're dead in seconds if you aren't very careful. Resistance belts are useless, and resistance tonics only help in really long battles like dragons.

On normal, resistances are ridiculous. I fought a couple of dragons last night and the battles take FOREVER. They have tons of hit points and resistances but so do I, so we just sit there and bash on each other until the dragon dies. Elemental and damage resistances, barrier, and guard as so good on normal that I'm sitting at the Winter Palace quest without having taken the 4 extra potions perk (the first perk I took on nightmare) or the extra tonics slot. I simply don't need potions at all.

I guess maybe I should have tried hard mode but I'm almost finished with my last 2 trophies so I'm gonna slog through.

Went on a buying spree around New Year's when games were cheap (Xbox One).

Got through Far Cry 5 and New Dawn, then played through Dead Island 1 and 2 Remastered, and now starting up Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Not sure if starting as a human dual-wield rogue was the way to go, and I'm trying not to consult the Internet for the first playthrough, which I know will be chock full of mistakes.

Still haven't figured out how tactical mode works yet, and have probably spent too much time in the first big map area (Hinterlands?).

What's everyone's favorite playstyle and team setups?

Tactical mode really isn't all that useful other than to keep your ranged characters out of harm's way. The AI kind of sucks and your mages and archers will walk right into melee range if you aren't careful.

For team setup, I use the same setup regardless of my character - one tank, one mage, one archer. If I play a warrior or a mage, I use those three. Having the AI run the tank is easy because it's pretty mindless and soaks up damage and aggro. Having the AI run an archer gives you a rogue in the party to unlock doors but the AI absolutely sucks at dual wield, all they do is die.

If you're running dual wield rogue, that gives you very high DPS in close range combat so I would go with the other 3 just like I said. That gives you two range and a tank. You could also go with two mages and a tank, since you are the rogue.

As for the Hinterlands, that's one of the big pitfalls of the open world. Advance the story when you can, otherwise you'll end up in areas that are way too much for you to handle.

Did you have the Golden Nug statue?

Apparently, it allows you to keep all schematics and recipes from previous playthroughs. Should make nightmare easier since crafting seems necessary to survive.

Just got through the game on normal, and will attempt nightmare using a rogue archer artificer or knight tempest.

Yeah, I will warn you though, if you have the collection I did (nearly every schematic in the game, I went to great length to get them all) it can cause weird inventory issues when you use it.

It also only transfers tier 2 schematics and above, so you won't have any cheap, entry level schematics at the start of your next game. The first 10 levels on nightmare are by far the hardest.

Just completed game on nightmare, using rogue archer artificer, Blackwall, Iron Bull, and Vivienne. Couple notes...

Blackwall is unkillable, and the "guard on hit" ability breaks the game. Iron Bull works better as a "sword and shield" on nightmare difficulty. Artificer is also OP. Critical hits, throwing knives, and mines pretty much end battles within seconds.

Playing the original Origins game made me realize how much easier games have become.

Yeah, Blackwall is untouchable, barely takes any damage and any S&S character with high guard once you build their skills is going to be the same, even on nightmare. Only the worst enemies will make a dent, like high level spells. Even demons are no match.

Artificer is nice for your PC but sucks on Varric. Mines don't hit a lot because of poor AI placement and to get into range, he has to get close enough that he takes loads of damage. He died a lot in my play through - all of my range attackers did - because they're dumb.