DA:O Arcane Warrior as a fighter

Dragon Age: Origins
I had more runes than I knew what to do with. Ended up giving all novice runes but hale to the warchest.

Paralyze runes rarely seemed to trigger for me, so I stopped using them. Were those paralyze runes Grandmaster? Did you have multiple paralyze runes on the same weapon so they would stack somehow?
 
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I don't use novice runes nor companion runes except for paralyze. Yes I stack on main hand:
  • Zevran: Dead Thaig Shanker + Grand master and Expert Paralyze.
  • My Rogue : Bone Dragon Crow Dagger + Expert and 2 Companion Paralyze.
It certainly played a role and I saw more than once Gaxkang statued. But I bet some other elements have also been keys. My 2 cents of the other possible important keys:
  • One important point was most probably the aggro management, at beginning of the fight I even controlled Leliana and Morrigan to be sure they don't catch the aggro before my Rogue or Zevran get it. In previous attempt I didn't put enough care in this and certainly got some weird Ice Cone hitting multiple members.
  • I improved dps:
    • Momentum with Zevran, thanks for the focus on this.
    • The improved spider really does a lot of damages and help increase the dps.
    • On second hand daggers I had higher damages:
      • For Zevran: +14 from runes, when my standard setup was second hand with runes giving +45 to physical resistance and only +5 damages.
      • For my Rogue: +15 from runes when my standard setup on second hand was some paralyze, some damages, but I highly suspect that paralyze doesn't work on second hand weapon particularely with my rogue constantly backstabbing in this fight.
      • Quote that runes on second hand increase somehow the damages of main hand.
  • The improved cold protection certainly help me keep alive Zevran because he probably get the aggro during all the fight and the more dangerous parts was linked to cold attacks.
  • The tactics 1st slot on using healing potion at 50% health most probably help me a lot do less error even if only minor potions has been used and that the few manual potion use has been very important.
I stop using a sword or an axe because I wanted increase cold protection and could not use items with attribute increase allowing Zevran using top level sword. And for my rogue dagger was the only way to have 3 runes slots on main hand, 3 paralyze runes. As you persuade me that 2 daggers was an excellent alternative (even if perhaps not the best in all circumstances) I switch more easily to this alternate choice.
 
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Are companions runes journeyman runes?

So if you got paralyze rues proc'ing regularly then they must stack, most likely additively for maximum effect. I gave up using them when a single expert paralyze rune rarely did anything. To disable enemies I had much more reliable tools to use in the way of spells: CoC, CP, petrify, arctic blast, paralyze rune, blood wound, blizzard, and the paralyze/repulsion rune combo.

Yep, aggro management is key, with the reavers, definitely best for your tank to take the beating, using taunt when necessary to take aggro off someone else. I didn't need to use taunt very often, but when I did, it probably saved a life. :) The enemies usually prefer to attack the party member with the heaviest armor, unless a spellcaster damages them with large AoE spells. CoC didn't seem to remove aggro from my tank...
 
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Regarding paralyze runes:
Bibdy said:
They have a chance to proc (5% per 'rank' - novice = 1 , journeyman = 2 etc. I think), so they don't always activate every swing, and the target also gets a physical resistance check before getting paralyzed.

And yes, I believe stacking, say, 3 Runes of Paralysis will give you 3 separate attempts to get a Paralyze proc per attack.

The paralyze durations don't stack, however, nor do they override one another, so if 2 of the runes procced, the target failed the resistance check on both, they'd only get paralyzed by the strongest rune with the longest duration (1 extra second per 'rank'…I think), if the target is already paralyzed, the target cannot be paralyzed again until it wears off i.e. you can't keep reset the timer and keep the thing stunlocked.

So, there's a diminished bonus in stacking the things.
(Source)
 
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So let's say you have 3 grandmaster paralyze tunes on a single dagger. That's the best you can do for a 3 slot dagger. That's 25% chance to proc for each per hit. The chance for none of them to proc per hit is: 0.75*0.75*0.75 = 0.42

That means a chance of 58% for at least one to proc.

Since they don't add into a single check, it's actually less of a chance, thus the diminishing returns.

Whereas damage effects are additive, with no diminishing returns, and less left to chance...
 
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Yes that's probability, but you could consider the diminished bonus from the non stacking effect. In all case 58% is better than 25% and you can't compare paralyze and damages.

If the guy is right about the chance I had for this fight the chance for no rune hit of:
0.75*0.85*0.85*0.90*0.90 ie 56% chance to paralyze.

Not a surprise I see a huge difference in this fight. In a way I drop down by more than 2 the healing from draining and damages of this boss.

That's clearly the main change with my previous attempt. That's said I'm very suspicious about same runes put in second had weapon. I suspect it not working.
 
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Yes there certainly has been some controversy over off hand runes procing or not. That's why I just put damage and physical resistance runes there. Wasn't really sure if the PR runes helped or not though...
 
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In fact it seems that even damage runes won't work on second hand but perhaps only when you are backstabbing. Yes the safer is probably to use defensive runes on second hand. Perhaps 24% Spell protection or 60 Physical resistance. I'll try the PR, for my characters it makes a huge difference I can notice.

The drops of Gaxkang fight are quite good, at least it worth the sweat. :biggrin: The only drawback is that it pushes me get back to Alistair because of a great 1H axe only for fighters and a great shield. That's a little too soon because I didn't experiment much the 3 Rogue+Mage party.
 
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The drops of Gaxkang fight are quite good, at least it worth the sweat. :biggrin: The only drawback is that it pushes me get back to Alistair because of a great 1H axe only for fighters and a great shield. That's a little too soon because I didn't experiment much the 3 Rogue+Mage party.

I need to go back and try Gaxkang again. I got frustrated with him, and never finished that quest. I tried fighting him with Wynn, Leliana, and Alistair, along with my Human Warrior, and he beat my ass like a rented mule. :'(
 
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Same here JDR13. I finally got him using Wynne, Alister, my rogue and Shale. I forget what level exactly, but it was up there. Wynne had CoC and Arkane Warior skills. I had finished everything and was ready to start the Landsmeet if that tells you how long I waited. :lol: It was still a hard battle, but fun.
 
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My first attempt was certainly the most ugly I've seen with only one or two other. When you don't have the right approach it's weird how you feel too weak. Being higher level seems to help somehow even if the game is supposed to adapt to this. I made it at same time than described by Cm but didn't found him much before.

You get a shield which is most probably the best shield of the game alas I read it's random but perhaps this have changed with 1.02. You also get a very good sword (in my language its name is translated as an axe but it's a sword) but only a fighter can use it, and there's also a good glove.

So after this fight I took back Alistair and he replaced Leliana. Ouch despite the warrior had uber equipment it's weird how I feel him weaker than my 2 rogues. Ha well it's most probably a matter of tactics I need adapt to the new setup but I felt that sword plus shield is a bit on the bottom of the balance.

About 2 mages and 2 rogues, at higher level that's most probably the stronger party but at lower levels rogues aren't that good I think. The strongest party for most fights is perhaps 2 mages + Shale + Assassin Ranger Rogue. One trouble with such setup could be to manage the 2 mages or find the good tactics setup for the mages. At my first attempt my character was a mage and with Morrigan I was using two mages and I felt them uber in the first part of the game. Overall I didn't controlled Morrigan but only my Mage. But later in the game that would not be that simple.
 
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Yes there certainly has been some controversy over off hand runes procing or not. That's why I just put damage and physical resistance runes there. Wasn't really sure if the PR runes helped or not though…
I have reorganized a bit my party after this boss fight and my rogue use in second hand: Dead Thaig Shanker + Grand master and Expert Paralyze runes (the rogue Dex/Cun of my party is my rogue) and no paralyze in first hand. The paralyze effect is awful against standard opponents, they seem almost constantly paralyze.

There's absolutely no doubt the second hand runes are working (v 1.02). Now more difficult to test is the same setup with backstabbing only.
 
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I'm interested in hearing how often paralyze runes work against bosses and elites. I know that the paralyze glyph is fairly reliable.

BTW, I play with tactics almost completely off. I disabled all conditions, but use the behaviors. And still most of the time I have the party on hold since 90% of my kills were using ranged attacks and AoEs. I micromanage just about every battle.
 
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I just made the whole final fights with my rogue + Zevran + Alistair + Morrigan. Both rogues had one paralyze rune at second hand. I got some paralyze through all the fights including some against, yellows and few against orange/red. But nothing impressive at all.

It's not easy to know why the feeling has been very different than with previous attempt where I used two runes to only one rogue, but also with a rogue I controlled much more without using special attacks, or perhaps there was more backstabbing. Is it a feeling or is there a real difference, no idea. The only point would be to try a same series of fights multiple times with different runes setup and take care of tactics used. Or probably more easy would be to design a special fight to test it, but well repetitive events need be repeat a high number of time to be significant, more than my patience. Against the boss Gaxkang, it was quite more significant but also I used 5 runes spread on both rogues.

EDIT: One thing I quoted, first that Alistair wasn't that bad and if the feeling was not that good in comparison with both rogues it was a lot because he had a significant lower chance to hit than both rogues.

EDIT2: You can't really compare the use of those runes with some spells paralyzing, sure if you succeed to constantly paralyze through spells that low down the purpose of those runes but it's more about using other runes vs paralyze runes. Also I micromanage less than you, always let tactics on and only rarely used the hold command. I did use a more hold during few fights of this final. And well in end no paralyze spells during all the game but only a normal difficulty.
 
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