Dragon Age - Experimental Dexterity Hotfix

skavenhorde · November 18, 2009

Georg Zoeller has released a hotfix that deals with Dexterity, bows and daggers. This is a much needed fix in the game if you would like your characters to use ranged weapons:

Experimental hot fix for the following issues:
*Daggers now get the shared damage bonus from Dexterity and Strength as intended, not just Strength alone.
*Ranged Weapon hit rate increased.
*Bow range has been increased by 10m on all ranged weapons (not staff), reducing the penalties for ranged shots in most most combat scenarios.
*All bows and crossbows now grant a +5 inherit Attack bonus. Note that this bonus is shown on the weapon, it does not factor into the characters Attack displayed score on the character sheet.
*Short bow being useless.
*Short bows now get full attribute bonus from Dexterity instead of shared from Strength. This makes them a natural choice for Dexterity focused character builds.
*Base Armor Penetration for Shortbows has been increased by 1.
*Ranged weapon damage has been increased:
*Damage range on all ranged weapons has been increase from 150% to 160%.
*Critical chance bonus on all ranged weapons has been increased by 4%.
*Damage bonus from attributes has been increased from 100% to 100/105% for bows and 110% for crossbows.

You can read more details about these issues in this Forum Post 1) on the BioWare forums.

More information.

xSamhainx · November 18, 2009

this is essential if youre playing a dagger rogue, I saw a pretty significant leap in damage once I started using it. Ive been badmouthing the bow rogue, and part of the reason why is that the damage that I was doing with a bow on a previous character really didnt seem up to snuff for dealing w/ the enemies that I was facing. Now, the bow even on my dagger rogue is pretty formidable.

The downside of this fix, as stated on the page, is that enemy archers share in the increased damage as well. So, a fight with multiple archers in the back ranks of the enemy's lines that was tricky before, can be quite challenging and deadly now. More of a challenge, more fun right? I guess.. if you dont mind fights with mere bandits (such as the large groups in Lothering w/ multiple archers) being ratcheted up significantly.

skavenhorde · November 18, 2009

Sammy, you stated on what page? If you talked about this in the forums then I missed it. I would of mentioned you as well if I read it.

In any event, thanks for your insight on this. I have avoided all bows because they are just useless. Hopefully some version of this hotfix will be included in the next patch. If not, then I'll just keep avoiding bows and maybe load this up on my second playthrough.

xSamhainx · November 18, 2009

on the hotfix page you linked to that gives details of the fix, under "known issues"

Known Issues
This hotfix applies to all creatures in the game, not just the party members. Due to enemies outnumbering the party in most situations, the benefits of better ranged weapons act asymmetric in favor of enemy groups. \\Installing this hotfix will cause a steep increase in difficulty by almost a full level for any encounters that include multiple archers. If you are having trouble with easy or normal difficulty, stay away from this hotfix until we have updated it to offset these effects.

The plan for the final patch is to not address this issue for Hard and Nightmare difficulty, causing an increase in game difficulty on both settings.

skavenhorde · November 18, 2009

Ah yes, the known issues. I thought you meant you talked about it here

My comprehension skills get a bit low on Wednesdays (full day of teaching, hardly any breaks and then grading)

Anyways, let me know if you come across any bugs with this or anything else that might be an annoyance. I really would like the theif character to only use daggers and bows. Without this hotfix, I have her sword weilding and acting just like another fighter with the exception of being able to backstab her enemies.

zakhal · November 18, 2009

Ive used it since last weekend. Works just fine.

BlackHarmo · November 18, 2009

Same for me. Running it without any problems here. It's also pretty easy to uninstall (just one "override" folder to remove, and that's it) without having to re-install the full game, for when future official patches might eventually take care of the dexterity bugs.

elikal · November 18, 2009

Hm, never occured to me to roll anything but tank in a party single player RPG. I want my character to lead ahead not stay behind everyone. But each to his, I guess.

Alrik Fassbauer · November 18, 2009

Seems to me as if characters with ranged weapons hadn't been tested thoroughly ... I mean, this might indicate that most testers played *other* kinds of characters ...

JDR13 · November 18, 2009

This has been out since last week?

Thrasher · November 18, 2009

Alrik Fassbauer said:
Seems to me as if characters with ranged weapons hadn't been tested thoroughly … I mean, this might indicate that most testers played *other* kinds of characters …

Thus the problem with relying too much on scattershot beta testing...

wolfing · November 18, 2009

elikal said:
Hm, never occured to me to roll anything but tank in a party single player RPG. I want my character to lead ahead not stay behind everyone. But each to his, I guess.

To me it's different, I see the leader as the one that stays behind, can see the battlefield in front of him and better direct each member to what they should do, so to me it's natural to *not* play a tank

Thrasher · November 18, 2009

I'm in that boat, too.

xSamhainx · November 18, 2009

Not to mention (but I'll mention it anyway) the rogue is actually the first one on the scene scouting around and disarming traps and such anyway. At least thats the way Ive always played.

Even tho on the open battlefield at times Ive found it fun to have the Mabari War Hound leading the charge once and awhile!

JDR- yeah, youre late to the party. I thought everyone knew about the Rogue dex bug and fix lol. It does make those enemy archers a lot more painful tho

Badesumofu · November 19, 2009

Well, in WoW, the Tank most often leads the group (in terms of issuing instructions, I mean).

In a game like this, the PC is clearly the leader, whether he's physically ahead of the group or not. I see my Mage as directing battles in the background, keeping control of the encounter with judicious use of CC, dropping grease under groups (and then setting it on fire, usually

) and I do sometimes lead from the front, I'll sometimes Fireball a room to begin a battle. Alistair has no trouble taking aggro after that with the OP Taunt.

A Rogue could feel like a leader too, by scouting ahead, then coming back to the group, devising a battle plan, and then carefully executing it. Rogues have a very tactical feel to them, and they do need some micro-management on the battlefield to ensure they get backstab damage.

I love how being a Mage makes you remarkable in DA, too.

Zloth · November 19, 2009

I would rather not have a tank at all - that tactic is horribly over used, IMHO. Al has been staying at the camp most of the time while Sten takes the fighter duties.

The hotfix sounds OK but I would really rather have a real patch that's been balanced and tested. I hope Bioware releases one soon.

BlackHarmo · November 19, 2009

Zloth said:
The hotfix sounds OK but I would really rather have a real patch that's been balanced and tested. I hope Bioware releases one soon.

I share the same hope, and while there's alway a subjective feelabout the balance of such fixes I guess, this one has been around for some time now. And working fine methinks.

It's actually in its third version (for, indeed, slight balancing adjustments mainly), and is done by one of D.A. developpers. So, I think it's safe to say that it's more reliable than barely tested user-made mods, in this case. Just my opinion.

Thrasher · November 19, 2009

I don't see the balancing changes you're talking about.

Any increases to the player go to the enemies. So without changing the campaign or the enemies, it will become unbalanced.

ToddMcF2002 · November 19, 2009

I don't find the bow entirely useless. The criticals talent works on ice statues to satisfying effect. It won't make or break a battle or anything though. Its also good for softening up targets as they race toward you in situations where you don't want to break out the heavy artillery (say if you want to avoid activating a substantial crowd).

mbuddha · November 19, 2009

Hmmm I don't want to make enemy archers more deadly. I'm actually at the point where my dual wielding rogue is able to deal significant damage with backstabs etc. and I find the current battles with multiple archers to be the most difficult. I guess I'll hold off on this hotfix and see what the patch(es) bring.

Dragon Age - Experimental Dexterity Hotfix

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