Encounter design is much more tuned in DA2 than 99% of crap Skyrim combats that are just a pack of enemies thrown in some non significant place, and if you don't have the analysis skills to realize that, Im' just sorry for you and you brought me the point.
Now that encounter design is a crap is your opinion and not mine. So what? You get hurt because of reinforcements? Your problem as I already explained:
- No way this destroy tactics it just involves managing an endurance aspect and tactics adaptation which is still tactics.
- Even two combats with reinforcement don't make them similar in DA2. On the whole game there's still a lot diversity coming from design of each combat. There's only one potential sequence, but depending of quests order, where the game fails by allowing a series of thieves combats that feel similar. In fact they are still different, and it involves not more than 3 or perhaps 4 combats. And you won't find anything like that anywhere in DA2.
- Reinforcement are too unrealistic, wrong, many cinematic of reinforcement are badly done, it's just visual details. It changes nothing to combat design. Enemies coming from elsewhere spawn not far enough, visual detail it changes nothing to combat design. Enemies jumping from roof and windows of a building in a street where they ambush you, pretty realistic, just bad visuals, visual detail it changes nothing to combat design. This point is just from superficial player giving too much credits to visuals, that's not core of combat design.
EDIT:
You should play Go, it's a game with only reinforcements, and it's "awful" they can spawn anywhere, and there's zero realism, and bad visuals. It doesn't make Go less tactical nor less strategical.
No…even the small bits of what can be translated here, make no sense.
DA II has the worst encounter design in any game, period. Enemies would literally drop down
from the sky on your party (hell, it even happened while inside buildings).
It demolishes the whole point of positioning in a tactical game.
Second problem was cheap/lazy enemy design. You either had "lieutenants" with absolutely ridiculous amount of HP next to hordes of trash enemies that would
explode after one or two hits ( I'm not even joking here, it was like hitting tomatos strapped with dynamite).
Others were difficult ( like blood mages with over the top overpowered spells forcing rush tactics) because of given cheap exploits, easily countered once you learn how they work.
Plus the visuals of combat, were kind of comical in this setting…closer to anime, to be honest. Giant swords wielded like toothpicks, things exploding every two seconds, vanguard teleport charge …visually, whole thing was a mess.
Next to DAO, there were positives though…different classes could inflict status effects which others could exploit ( so more group co-op and less: put fighters in the front, mages blast everything from the back).
Companions had unique skill trees and play styles fitting their personality ( what ME II should have been).
And some things, like healing or some spell schools, were more balanced/less exploitable.
It improved as much as it regressed, like combat in DAI to be honest.
