Fort Conner

I'm new to the Dragon Age games and I'm playing DA:I without having played the first two games. I've made it to the Hinterlands and I've just 'captured' Fort Conner. I was expecting the crazy enemy spawning in that area to stop after having 'captured' the fort, but it's just the same. My latest save game is in this area and every time I load my game I'm getting killed before I can really do anything. It pretty much took all my resources (Healing & Regen Potions) just to make inside the Fort… so now getting out seems impossible.

I'm wondering if I'm screwed and have to start a new game? Or load my last save game which is from about an hour earlier. Does the nutty spawning at Fort Conner ever stop? Dang…

Tips: Always save near a camps or at home (Haven/Skyhold). Saving near a respawn point is annoying.

To stop the re-spawning Templars and Apostates in that area you need to kill their leaders in their respective camps. If you aren't already playing on easy, I suggest dropping down the difficulty to do that. They shouldn't be destroying you, that's the job of the dragon, large bears and that level 12 Rift…

Also what is you party composition? Cassandra can solo anything in the game (just make sure her guard generating abilities are on preferred in the behavior tab).

Originally Posted by azarhal
Tips: Always save near a camps or at home (Haven/Skyhold). Saving near a respawn point is annoying.

To stop the re-spawning Templars and Apostates in that area you need to kill their leaders in their respective camps. If you aren't already playing on easy, I suggest dropping down the difficulty to do that. They shouldn't be destroying you, that's the job of the dragon, large bears and that level 12 Rift…

Also what is you party composition? Cassandra can solo anything in the game (just make sure her guard generating abilities are on preferred in the behavior tab).

I learned the hard way that I need to take care where I save. I never was able to escape the area where I saved - my party was just too low on health and no matter which way I tried to run I kept getting wiped.

I started over, my character is a tank type and my party is Cassandra, Cedric, and Solas…. They seem to be the only ones available at this point.

Thanks for the tip about killing the leaders…. I didn't know this and now that I'm once again back in the hinterlands I will seek them out.

Surprisingly I'm enjoying the game I didn't think I would.

Re spawns are this game's arrows to the knee. Otherwise it's mostly enjoyable.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
I learned the hard way that I need to take care where I save. I never was able to escape the area where I saved - my party was just too low on health and no matter which way I tried to run I kept getting wiped.

I started over, my character is a tank type and my party is Cassandra, Cedric, and Solas…. They seem to be the only ones available at this point.

Thanks for the tip about killing the leaders…. I didn't know this and now that I'm once again back in the hinterlands I will seek them out.

Surprisingly I'm enjoying the game I didn't think I would.

It's Varric, not Cedric. Set Solas behavior for Barrier to Preferred too (and buy the upgrade as soon as you can). Also watch the level of what you are attacking, some stuff in the Hinterland are level 12+.

Once you are done with the Val-Royaux main quest (which you get once you make the Crossroad safe in the Hinterland), the rest of the companions will be easy to find. Another tip: keep a medium armor and bow or a dagger set in your inventory for Sera, she doesn't come with basic equipment for some reasons (well didn't in my last playthrough).

Originally Posted by azarhal
It's Varric, not Cedric. Set Solas behavior for Barrier to Preferred too (and buy the upgrade as soon as you can). Also watch the level of what you are attacking, some stuff in the Hinterland are level 12+.

Once you are done with the Val-Royaux main quest (which you get once you make the Crossroad safe in the Hinterland), the rest of the companions will be easy to find. Another tip: keep a medium armor and bow or a dagger set in your inventory for Sera, she doesn't come with basic equipment for some reasons (well didn't in my last playthrough).

Thanks for all these tips I can use all of them as I'm new to the series. Thanks for the correction on Varric… I actually know his name is Varric I think my iPhone auto-corrected the name as I typed it… damn iPhone auto-correct…

One curiosity I have that perhaps you or others can clear up. Quite a big deal is made about Varric's weapon named 'Bianca.' Yet, fairly quickly after Varric joins the party, I'm finding much better weapons for him in terms of DPS. Also, when you look at Varrics abilities, he is described as a 'Double Daggers' Rogue. So I currently have him equipped with two of the same kinds of daggers that I found which are EACH more than TWICE the DPS output of the Bianca. Yet it haunts me that perhaps I'm doing the wrong thing since the game has made a mysterious story about Bianca, highlighting and underscoring the weapon as something seemingly more special than it is?

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
One curiosity I have that perhaps you or others can clear up. Quite a big deal is made about Varric's weapon named 'Bianca.' Yet, fairly quickly after Varric joins the party, I'm finding much better weapons for him in terms of DPS. Also, when you look at Varrics abilities, he is described as a 'Double Daggers' Rogue. So I currently have him equipped with two of the same kinds of daggers that I found which are EACH more than TWICE the DPS output of the Bianca. Yet it haunts me that perhaps I'm doing the wrong thing since the game has made a mysterious story about Bianca, highlighting and underscoring the weapon as something seemingly more special than it is?

Varric starting abilities include one from the bow tree which can't be used with daggers. Melee rogue can deal more damage, but it's much harder to stick to a target than with a bow (especially for the AI, lol). You can respec him to dual daggers (respec amulets are bought at the store near the blacksmith in Haven) if you want. None of the companions are into any preference gameplay-wise though, it's all story background stuff and outside of Cass, Solas and Varric, the others have no point allocated when you recruit them.

Bianca damage is upgradable. You can upgrade Bianca before going to the Hinterlands. Go to the merchant in Haven, buy either the upgrades or the crafting recipes for the 3 Bianca upgrades. Run at the blacksmith in Haven and craft and/or upgrade Bianca (if Bianca is equipped you'll have to select Varric to upgrade it). If Varric is in the party and you pick-up a Bianca upgrade as loot it will be automatically upgraded as well.

Speaking of crafting, it will generally produce the best stuff, but the UI is a bit annoying to use once you want to compare. You have to remember what you have already.

edit:
Forgot about crafting, better tier material makes better stuff. So the crafting recipes can be used more than once to make better stuff. There is also tiers in crafting recipes. You will either find them (some are static loot in quests others random) or can buy them at certain merchants.

When I'm looking through a list of schematics sold by a vendor, is there a way to know if the schematic I'm looking at (i.e. weapon/armor) will be better than what I currently have equipped?

Or do I have to buy the schematic, make the item, and only find out then if it's better or worse?

Schematic have tiers: 1 to 3 (base game), 4 with DLCs. Higher is better and find in higher level areas. Some have a special color/border to indicate they are masterwork for that tier (aka even better).

You could also use this website before buying anything. Might have some spoilers about where to find them.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Schematic have tiers: 1 to 3 (base game), 4 with DLCs. Higher is better and find in higher level areas. Some have a special color/border to indicate they are masterwork for that tier (aka even better).

You could also use this website before buying anything. Might have some spoilers about where to find them.

Thank you for that link and explaining the tier levels. I guess my next question is this: Looking at a weapon I have currently equipped it, the pop-up text reads:

Raider Hatchet

85 DPS
Item Level 6
Common Axe

58 Damage
+3% Sunder On Hit

Empty Haft
Empty Rune

Restriction: Warrior Only
Requirement: Level 2

Nowhere in that description does it reference a Tier Level. Does that imply the item is Tier 0 or just so plain ordinary and common it is not considered a tier weapon? A little confused here sorry.

There is no direct correspondence between crafting schematic tier and a found weapon/armor. A crafting schematic will output different quality of items based on the material used to make it (that probably change the item level, I never paid attention, higher item level = better).

That is the part of the crafting UI that sucks. You have to remember what you are using before going into the crafting window.

Thanks Azarhal for the back and forth… like the game but it was a little rough kind of understanding some of the mechanics. When I started I resisted doing much reading about the game but now that I think I'll play it to the end I will do a bit of reading on the parts of the game that are confusing to me.