DA: Nightmare level experience
 

Started my second play-through, and for fun i tried at nightmare difficulty level to find out how hard it would be. My party compose of all female and all mage (almost), with the Arcane Warrior (my primary character), plus Wynne, Morrigan and Leliana. Currently i'm at level 9 after finished mage origin's quest, Ostagar (including Korcari Wilds), Lothering and Circle of Magi quest. The game is patched to 1.02.

So far nothing excessively difficult, the most challenging fight was of course the Uldred guy in the Circle of magi's quest. It was quite the pain it the ass, as he and his minions seem to selectively attacking my party members:

1) First, in the 7-8 reloads before i beat him, Uldred almost always going straight for Wynne, which coincidently i put her as main rescuer when someone low on health or killed (revival). In all the fights, Wynne became the first party's member to fell by Uldred if not by his minions.

2) second, after killing Wynne, they go after my main character - a AW, which again coincidently at that time i customized her with some nasty spells (paralysis, Virulent Walking Bomb, miasa). Unfortunately Uldred tend to freeze her, and if not his minions will quickly dropped her before having more chance to cast spell.

3) Morrigan at that point only developed one dangerous spell - cone of cold. Again Uldred tends to freeze her first or with some kind of paralyzing spells. Also, Morrigan's spells seem ineffective as at that difficulty level, as the enemy or boss apparently much more resistant to magic attacks.

4) Leliana was the one that draw less attention and thus she usually the last one to go down. She also didn't have many killer moves - only had the Deadly strike, shattering shot, and backstabbing with a crappy dagger.

The last battle that killed Uldred was mostly due to my party quickly dispatched his minions, which again trying to kill my important party members. After my AW and Wynne gone down, Uldred almost killed Morrigan but because of my good timing in squashing health, mana potions and as well as casting of Cone of cold, Morrigan finally avoided the same fate. Also, the use of Litany of Adralla (passed on after my primary died) at proper moment. And with Leliana keep backstabbing at Uldred while he keep focused on Morrigan, the two weakest party members won the fight.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3…lnor_group.jpg

Currently playing on Nightmare as well, with Shale + a trio of mages. Certain ambushes are fairly hard, and things generally have a lot of hitpoints, but in most cases it's a walk in the park.

I had very few problems with Uldred (Shale tanked him, the mages annihilated the Abominations, then started auto-attacking Uldred while healing Shale. Three mages, all with healing spells, are capable of keeping Shale up for a very, very long time).

Generally, archers are the biggest problem, as they tend to kill my mages with Scatter shot alone (2-3 Scatter shots on Shale that spread to my mages will wipe out my party). It hits so hard on Nightmare.

More often than not, I think I'll be playing on Hard more than Nightmare, as I like experimenting with parties and talent builds. I will complete my current game on Nightmare though, just for the sake of it.

I've found glyph of repulsion VERY handy for protecting mages from melee attack ambushes; Blizzard+Earthquake to disable groups of archers at long ranges.

My group (3 mages 1 AW) are on level 12 and found that most annoying fight in the game is still with the revenant. It usually drained tons of our resources (potions and mana). Currently i have not defeated the one just outside old ruin's gate in Brecillian Forest. It especially difficult due to the four minions that need to dispatched away ASAP, and the glyph of repulsion seems often to be resisted by the revenant at nightmare difficulty. Also he very often to use pull or mass pull the interrupted our spells casting.

Any more tips? If not i have to haul truckload of healing / motion potions from somewhere to fight it.

I think crushing prison and cone of cold works on revenants.

Use Misdirection Hex. It'll make all their normal attacks miss, which reduces their damage to.. 0.

It's somewhat overpowered in such settings. Whenever the Hex is not ready, pop Force Field on them and wait untill it's ready again. You can actually go through entire fights with Revenants without taking any damage at all.

It's cheesy, but it works.

Just kicked those revenant's asses; thanks.

Ah, and there's is the power of the hex line.

Maybe I'll bring Morrigan back into my party and try that out. )