Yikes, log in to Origin after finishing DA:I once, and almost on two other playthroughs while offline and spend fifteen minutes listening to the client having a fit over god knows how many achievements I couldn't give less of a shit about. Good gods. Seriously, I'm sitting here while typing and it's still going. Stuttering and dinging as it buckles under the weight of almost 100 hours of gameplay being updated to the online side of things.
Anyway, thoughts on classes, as I've now logged a decent game time on three out of five. (I count ranged and melee rogue as two, and tank and bruiser warrior as two).
Melee Rogue: Easily the most fun of the bunch I've played so far. It's more challenging, got more active skill usage and requires a bit of finesse while being incredibly rewarding when you do pull off your moves. It's also the one where combining skill trees and setting up different builds seem to be the most rewarding as well. It's also without a doubt the highest dps class in the game when you get the hang of efficient maneuvering and positioning. It's challenging in that it is incredibly squishy and a lot of the melee enemies in the game loves to flail about and do damage all over the place, and the ranged enemies can really hurt. Especially early on. It shines really well later in the game once you've started getting some cross-tree combinations going, like better/faster stealth, skills that lets you do damage and return to stealth, attacks out of stealth are automatic crits, flanking damage does not generate enmity etc etc. This will allow you to (especially as Assassin, which is the tree that compliments a dagger rogue the best) do some absolutely incredible damage to any one damage in bursts, pick and choose important targets and control the battlefield better than almost any other class. It's also the class that can crit for over 20k in one single hit, if you got the build and skills for it. It does get a bit OP later on, but I suspect that's the case with all classes. It's fun, it's got the damage, it's got the utility (stealth scouting, vital target elimination, good class combos, evasion etc), it requires a little skill or at least situational awareness from the player and a lot of maneuvering on the battlefield. My favorite class so far.
Mage: Any mage, really. None of the specializations really change all that much, compared to the rogue/warrior specializations. You still fill the same support/ranged dps role no matter which spec you choose. They're just way too easy to play, especially if you've got a decent hang of the crafting system. It is also a bit boring. Bioware removed healing "so you didn't have to bring a healer anymore" and instead made Barrier fairly required, since almost every fucking tree synergize with barrier and half the skillpoints become damn near pointless without it. The trees are far more boring, the spells far less spectacular, the AoE far more gimped and I'm honestly not enjoying the class very much. Charge in, click and hold preferred enemy, fire off spells to suit the situation. No maneuvering required unless the tank derps or you're fighting a dragon, and even then it's just... boring. If I'd started the game as a mage right off the bat, it'd probably be less so, but after a dagger rogue it really becomes dull. Good utility, decent enough dps if using good crafted weapons, should not be soaking much damage unless you really screw things up and I really do recommend bringing another mage doing the barrier/spirit tree thing to take that chore off your hands. This is really a big step down from the spellmasters of DA:O and DA2, no matter how fun Walking Bomb might be. Least fun class so far.
Sword and Board Warrior: Well shit, this is tanky as fuck. You only start off with one real taunt skill and it's really short range, but it is sufficient to start off with. After a bit of initial faffing about, relying a bit more on other party members than you'd expect to control the field, you'll start getting enough skillpoints to become a walking fucking god. Unbelievably hard to kill and a master of controlling the battlefield. The two taunt combinations will keep almost all enemies on the field focused on you unless it's a really complicated fight and they'll make you bloody invulnerable to boot with the Guard mechanic. You have the lowest dps of all classes out there, but frankly you don't need it. You just grab the attention of all the baddies and keep them turned from the rest of the party (normal basic mmo mechanics here) and let them hammer on you while you whittle away at their healthbars and remove their own guard with Shield Slam, while your party goes to town on them. With decent crafted gear, you are frankly never going to die. Add champion spec and battlemaster skillpoints and your guard + armor will be absolutely fucking insane. You know how Cass/Blackwall is damn near unkillable past 12-15 levels? They've got nothing on you, if you use your skills with care. Sod barrier, you don't need it. Ever. As for skill use, it's... a bit odd. This is the class where I use skills other than the taunts the least. They're very situation specific. One I save for when I get thrown on my ass, as it immediately gets me back up and swinging. One I save for guarded enemies. One I save for when I need to move fast on the field, etc etc. Extremely reactive class, rather than active one. You still need to do some clever maneuvering, ensure that your party is doing their thing right and you've got the dangerous baddies handled and so on but I finish most fights never using anything but the taunts. This is a class where you really need to make sure your party is composed right and doing their things right. Set their tactics up right and make sure they're using the right skills at the right times and such, because you're going to rely far more on them to do the actual killing. Your strengths are obviously soaking up the damage, but also in simply making sure they -can- do their jobs. Whittle away guard, taunt them to you, increase the party's damage projection etc. Somewhat rewarding to play, but your dps will suffer and since the AI partymembers never seem to be as efficient at doing dps as the pc no matter what class, this will ensure that you might be spending far more time on certain encounters than with other classes. This does really feel like the "proper" inquisitor class though. You are the leader. The one who charges in. The bulwark between Thedas and the Baddies. The giant Qunari woman, unbreakable and indefatigable. Still, it doesn't compare to dagger rogue in the "fun" department.
I suspect I'll never play ranged rogue since it's pretty much another mage without spells, but I might try a Reaver down the line.
Author
Topic: Dragon Age: Inquisition (Read 6903 times)