Double-daggers useless!? Hell no! I had Sera and Cole both doing the double-dagger thing. Both were dishing out massive damage. Of course they take damage more that way, too. I would typically play with my mage plus one other, though, so shields were plentiful. I made sure I researched all the healing potions/grenades ASAP, too.

The mages are all the same until you open up the advanced classes. Dorian gets the one that has the walking bomb spell in it. That matched what I picked so Dorian didn't get used much except when I was clearing out lower level stuff. (Plus I doubt the AI will be smart enough to pick out targets that are just about to die as well as I can with my "everybody shoot at my target" command.) Viv gets the one with the sword and Solas gets the one with the… ummm… other stuff what's I've forgotten now.

Not doubledaggers per option - rogues are IMO useless in DA:I.
Sorry.

They're probably planned to be glass cannons but there's no nuking or high DPS and they're still dying supereasy. Sure, with micromanagement in tactic mode… Wait. Who plays every fight in tactic mode on PC?

Not me! I still kept them alive enough. Actually, the most likely character to die for me was Bull. Then the three rogues. Varric and Cole were often the ones to raise him up in the late game, too, using a healing grenade. (Sera always brought bees, naturally.)

Rogues can be fantastic with DW, but only after you get them daggers with +heal or +guard, so they stay alive for more than a few seconds. There's an incredible dagger in the Black Emporium that'll really make Cole a killing machine (costs a lot though). Until then, I tend to stick with Sera or Varric. And yes, Bull dies a lot on higher difficulties. It's a shame, as it's a pretty fun character.

Also, it's worth pointing out that NPCs only get their class specializations once you reach Skyhold, so that might be why it's a bit confusing that certain characters are supposedly a lot more powerful than others. Initially, they're all the same. I actually think this is something they changed in later patches, because I really seem to remember having Vivienne as a KE early on, and Cassandra as a Templar etc. Anyway, they'll get their specializations at Skyhold, like I said. Might want to re-roll a few of them then using the resetting amulets.

Since you get to build the NPC's as you see fit, I just kitted Iron Bull out as a sword and board guy with lots of guard. He seems to fill the role well as he must have some naturally high constitution/strength. I'm still fairly early, as far as levels go though. I've done most of the hinterlands and quite a bit of the Forbidden Oasis and I've just conscripted the mages. I'm almost level 8. I'm going to finish any quests up that deal with Haven and then go tackle the Breach.

His specialization is Reaver though. Blackwall has the tanking spec technically (totally overkill). I used Cassandra has tank for the whole game personally. That dispel is very useful to deal with rifts too.

Ah Specializations. I forgot about that. Since I keep restarting so many times, I still haven't passed level 8 or so. I just did a dungeon tonight that was hella fun. It was called Valammar and I had a blast down there. I think I've done most of the Hinterlands now except for the big beastie.

Yes, and you can't choose who gets what specialization. Like I said: It's all unlocked once you reach Skyhold, and it makes a rather big difference in how they're played. At any rate, you can buy amulets that reset talents, so it's not a big deal. You can always sort it out later on.

Yeah, I bought several of those amulets. It seems you end up with a lot of money if you explore everywhere. I have about 20,000 gold.

You end up with a lot of money because outside of some crafting schematics, a few mounts and a crafting materials that are vendor only there is nothing to spend money on.

I've also noticed that the game seems set up to not give you treasure of your class. I have about 40000 swords and about 5 staves. I've bought all the best staves that are purchasable; at least in the areas I've been to. I'm curious to see how many areas open up past Skyhold. I've already unlocked the Hinterlands, Fallow Mire, Forbidden Oasis, Storm Coast, Val Royeaux and the Black Emporium. Are the areas after Skyhold as large? It seems like half of the game map is the Hinterlands…

One of the best staff in the game is a reward for completing a war table mission you unlock once you find all the Tyrdda (sp?) stanza in the Hinterlands…and it's not level locked.

There is six areas that you can unlock after you get Skyhold, four of them are 100% optional. Two of them are really close to the Hinterlands in size. All those maps are larger and have more content than the Storm Coast though. So while the Hinterland feels like half the game, it really depends if you do the optional areas or not…

Goody. I'm not much into the main quest. It seems like the same exact story as Origins except we call them demons instead of dark spawn. I would have liked a conflict that wasn't Chantry, Templar, Mage based. It is okay, but nothing special.

However, I really enjoy the loot collecting. I have the staff you mentioned Azarhal; it isn't as good as my crafted staff, but I haven't added any pieces to it yet. My big quest is collecting the shards as that is a lot of fun and allows you to uncover most of the maps while looking for the pieces. I just hit level 9 on the Skyhold quest, so I may go try to kill the Hinterlands dragon. I haven't killed a dragon yet and I have good fire resist gear; at least for my mage. Maybe I should wait till level 10 though. I think you guys said that I get a specialization then. If so, I could respec and put a bunch of points into that.

The best equipment comes from looting dragons. While you can always do them later when a bit more skilled, just don't skip 'em. Yes, they're sidecontent and optional, but since when we're a bunch of casuals carin only for the main sotry here?

Fire resist against hinterlands dragon is great, but you also want Ice mage (didn't I mention Vivianne?), Ice staff and anything with ice effect on your pardie.

And I have no idea how you can have a better crafted staff than Tyrdda's staff at the point you are in the game. You need to unlocked certain schematics, tier 3 materials and masterwork slot which are unreachable until you get Skyhold and open new maps to make something better…unless the dev nerfed it. :/

The Hinterland Dragon is considered one of the hardest dragon fight in the game despite its low level.

Archers dish out ridiculous damage once levelled up and properly equipped, and you dont need to walk up to the target. Tier 1 bows are useless, but tier 2 (can be bought in Val Royeaux) and up (even if made from tier one materials) are fine. The high level abilities essentially allow you to open fights by taking out one enemy. It's a while since I played, but IIRC my PC managed over 6000 damage with that opening shot.

It was kinda boring, handling trash mobs just by holding down the F key.