Actually, introducing exceptions like that is worse design in the long run. In a big game with several different and reasonably complex systems interacting, you need things to be consistent. It might make for an easy quick fix now, but down the track it will cause a lot more problems.

There's no excuse for calling anyone a wuss, because they happen to have some common sense.

EDIT:

BTW, if anyone wants to see some factual numerical changes to the spells, you can see them here from the devs:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to…index/404019/1

Most notable is that Crushing Prison has been shortened so much that it really can't be used to immobilize bosses while mopping up minions.

Well, it usually doesn´t hurt to wait a while.

For example, with the newest patch, your champion may end up going through most of combat on a truckload of steroids without you knowing it, because
Rally now also adds +10 of stackable defense upon every area transition you do with it activated.

I also wonder about the extent of re-scaling. Besides Denerim alleys, I don´t think it´s really needed.

Generally, the patching´s going in the right direction though.

Errr, it never could. Oranges have always resisted that spell when I cast it on them. I think you mean force field. One guy says the duration is down to 5 seconds, another says it is 20 seconds (down from 30 in 1.01). Somebody is WAY WAY off.

Well, I should be coming up on a certain Earl here sometime soon. I'll test it out.

"boss" does not equal "orange"

Dunno what else you would call them as they seem to be the main bosses of any given area. Whatever the oranges are, they hold for around 15 or 20 seconds, definitely not 5.

Crushing Prison rarely worked for me on anything other than a normal "white" enemy, Force Field is a diffent story, it almost always works.

Well I've got pretty good spellpower. CP has worked on yellows. The few oragnes I have found did resist it though.

In general, by boss I mean the strongest enemy in a group. So more often than not it works. Losing the ability to take them out of the battle for a long period with CP would defintely be a loss. Especially for what is a 4th tier spell!

I think the point is to limit how well it works on Emessaries and similar (they're usually yellow, so Crushing Prison works). Such fights were trivialized by Crushing Prison.

MILD gameplay spoilers:



For me, the bottom line is that I still win fights on normal pretty easily. The big end-of-dungeon fights are still hairy, which I prefer. I had a very tough fight with Javria and her cronies. I was the only party member still standing (I'm a mage) when I finally killed her. She had taken my healer out in the first rounds of combat. I had group heal but not revitalize. I've since fixed this little hole in my strategy. SP is key to keeping your mage relevant, it seems. Willpower is of lesser importance, as long as you have a nice stock of lyrium potions. I'm level 18 and have my magic stat at 50and that seems to be doing nicely. I almost always have spell might going, which pushes my spellpower up about 15-20 points.

My current strategy for dungeons is this: I have level 4 survival so I'm aware of enemies before they're aware of me. If enemies are behind a door or wall, I'll cast tempest with one mage and then an augmented blizzard just in front of the door. This will create the huge storm of the century effect, which will go into the room with the monsters. I then quickly hightail out of the range of my own spell and rarely does anything survive to follow me out of the room. Note that this doesn't work on the boss fights, because the developers have made sure that we have to talk to each of them so that they can get a jump on the party. Still, it makes taking out all of the common battles a cakewalk. Common battles are dull anyway.

w/ all due respect, sounds like a boring way to play. AOE everythhing to death and essentially walk thru the game when you can

Reminds me of my early days of Diablo MP, when me and my friend both got chain lightning. Walk into a room, chain lightning, loot. ZZZzzzzzz

That's an exploit that I wish they would fix. We shouldn't be able to cast an aoe spell behind a solid wall and damage enemies on the other side.

Well, on my second playthrough I Storm-of-the-Centuried through certain areas
without mercy and it definitely improved the overall pacing and smoothness of the replay.

Yep, I never use SotC except in the boring dungeon areas. Once I've beaten a certain type of encounter a few times, I don't feel the need to waste a lot of time fighting the same battle X 100. I just SotC and move on to something more interesting. I'm in the Deep Roads and they love to fill every room up with easy darkspawn or deep stalkers. It's not a challenge. It's not interesting. The fun battles would be a waste if you could just win by default. I should also point out that though I'm only level 17 with this character, I have terrible start-over-itis so I've just fought too many battles to waste much time on fodder.

That storm of century combo needs two spellcasters to work well it seems. Who do you use?

My mage is sticking with Wynne rather than Morrigan at about level 11 at Redcliffe. I had given Morrigan tempest, but Wynne's healing stuff just seems more flexible and more fun to play. I do think I'll give her petrify to finish off the earth line.

I think the Deep Roads might be my least favorite part of the game. Especially since I expected it to be one of the most interesting parts.

I was quite the opposite, I had low hopes for it but was pleasantly surprised (especially by the crazy voice reciting that disturbing poem over and over again, a really creepy moment!)

That WAS one of the highlights :)

I was initially excited by the art style, but as it became nothing but endless samey and annoying encounters - I kinda lost taste for it. I think it was the only part of the game I actually actively disliked.

Although I know I'm in the minority on this, the Fade was my least favorite part of DA. Just an endless string of solo battles with no loot.

The Deep Roads were somewhat boring as well though, especially the multitude of Deepstalkers which were little more than a constant annoyance.

I played w/ the new patch for like 2 hours last night, and it didnt seem like anything was amiss. Force Field's duration was a little shorter, but it was still enough to take something out of the main fight. Cone of Cold seemed the same, tho I didnt have any circumstances where I'd need to cast it twice.

Enemy archers seem to be a bit weaker than they were, which is a good thing.