Difficulty imbalance and healing potions

[LastDanceSaloon]

For the first time ever in an RPG I changed the difficulty setting for a single fight.

In order to defeat the Ancient Rock Wraith I changed the difficulty from Normal to Casual (easy).

Why?

Throughout this entire game I have had zero problems with battles (except one mage that used chain electricity - there was no chance I could have had any electricity resistance by this point in my game, so I just had to reload a couple of times to make sure the mage died upon appearance).

So I've pretty much got used to the idea that healing potions and healing spells are a low priority.

I walked into the cave and faced the Ancient Rock Wraith armed with 12 healing potions and no mages with healing spells.

Admittedly, this is the 'end of act' boss and, rightfully, should be quite tough.

However, after two or three reloads, it soon became evident what my problem was... I simply didn't have enough healing potions

I was able to establish the boss's routines, select weak spots for maximum damage and hide spots to minimise damage, but, try as I might, my healing potions only lasted until the boss was 66% dead... repeatedly.

With enough healing potions I could have stood in that cave all day slowly taking out 1,000,000,000 hit points, but, alas, I only had 12 which seemed to permit just 66% of it's 10,000 or 100,000 or however many hit points it had.

With other games one might try different tactics, different spells, different weapons, but here it was all quite routine and just required a specific number of heals.

As it's a total lock-in by this point in the game there is, for the first time I actually needed them, no potion sellers... at all.

So I went down to Casual thinking I might just get the same battle but less boss hit points... Nooooo, totally different fight, the boss didn't use 'any' of it's key special moves and spent the majority of the battle in a prone position and died as easily as any other bad guy in the normal game.

I really couldn't imagine a whole game on Casual difficulty, that would be just... silly?

LastDanceSaloon rivalry +25

Then it kills Carver...

After I just spent 30 hours of gameplay fine-tuning his character and spending much gold on his bits and pieces...

LastDanceSaloon rivalry +25

[roller1234]

I dont have Awakenings so cant give any tips, but the problem here is that you tried to use generic tactics and apply them to a boss, which didnt work. Try something different than a bash heads and heal damage, maybe use some pause to evaluate the situation. Although i admit i never played normal, only nightmare.

[GoldDragon]

For the Ancient Rock Wraith, the pillars provide an excellent shield when it does it's room blast (or whatever it's biggest attack is). Run behind ine, and you won't get hit.

[LastDanceSaloon]

roller1234, there aren't any Ancient Rock Wraiths in Awakenings. I would have thought nightmare mode would be more memorable than that? How did you assume I used generic tactics from my post, I thought I said quite clearly that I used the correct tactics? Why did you assume I didn't use pause tactics? Why are you offering 'advice' (?) on a game you have no experience with?

GoldDragon, yes, the pillars are a great defence from the Rock Wraith's electric (?) storm prior to the spawning of little Rock Wraiths, also the suction cloud attack and it's rolling attacks but they offer no defence to its vanishing and reappearing attack, general attacks and the missile attacks from the spawned smaller Rock Wraiths. And, at some point, one still has to engage it in combat and lose little chunks of hit points. Because the Rock Wraith has sooooo many hit points this process takes a lot of hit points from the team's pool, regardless of how much running around one does.

Also, as the game is 3d, pausing and moving 4 character behind pillars every few seconds is a mechanics nightmare, particularly as the AI keeps making characters atuo-attack even when one puts them on Hold mode. I quite literally had to have a break when the Rock Wraith got to 50% hit points simply because this process was taking tens of minutes rather than seconds (like it would on an isometric game).

[Stworca]

roller1234, there aren't any Ancient Rock Wraiths in Awakenings. I would have thought nightmare mode would be more memorable than that?

It isn't. Fighting Cauthrien (vanilla) for the first time, and last boss in Golems of Arghhhh are about the only two memorable fights on nightmare.

And absolute zero in the second game.

[LastDanceSaloon]

I'm not so sure about that. Dragon Age Origins had plenty of memorable battles. Awakenings had it's fun battles, though I admit I remember a lot of the secondary stuff like the ghosts and the crafting more than the majority of the battles.

I agree that in Dragon Age II the battles are not very varied but the format of the battles and individual bad guy types still lodge in the memory.

Did you just want to take the opportunity to advertise your prowess at Nightmare level gameplay or can you genuinely not remember the Ancient Rock Wraith enough to illustrate in more detail how you overcame the obstacle?

Were healing potions the big decider on Nightmare mode or was it your party formation which got you past this spot?

I can't imagine any means to pass this battle without memory of multiple reloads without being on the easiest mode. This end of level boss has waaaay to many attributes, skills, special moves and hp to be considered even remotely similar to any other creature in the game so far.

[Scottg]

Most battle sequences in DAII are battles of attrition - lacking any real finesse or "puzzle solving" on the part of the player.

It's just poor design.

The Rock Wraith was interesting, in that it did have elements of puzzle solving (..i.e. scattered party, pillars, alternating sequences with different forms of attack and defense by the Rock Wraith). Still the dominate theme to the battle was once again attrition.

It was memorable.. barely. (..mostly because it was a different monster, very different venue, and a chapter "end-boss". The reason it was *barely* memorable was because the game, by the time you have finished it, basically pushes the same fight over and over again, with absurd characteristics to enhance difficulty - like poor access to healing potions, insane hit-points and damage resistance on bosses, absurd repopulating of "henchmen", and spells and other abilities that you don't have access to.)

Basically the "bad guys" are playing by a completely different set of rules than your party is. That's *very* poor design.

[LastDanceSaloon]

Yes, I agree, the battles do all seem very formulaic. Even by the end of the next chapter there hasn't really been anything that has altered from the norm of the game. A couple of times I've had to reload, but that's just because every now and then a boss battle needs minor tweaking - and it really is only every now and then.

Taking on the Arishok in a one-on-one battle was quite fun though, not sure if everyone got to do that and if it depends on dialogue options, but it was certainly a fun way to have an end of chapter boss fight. Again, just a matter of having a good stack of healing potions and lyrium potions, 4 or 5 of each I think.

Yes, I find it a bit awkward that the bad guys play by different rules. It seems odd to me that everyone in the city seems to have more hit points than it's champion!

I am currently just starting on the next chapter but am now entering the bone pit and, judging by the thread on that subject that is currently adjacent to this thread, I suspect I might have a few more things to say in this thread yet. If I do, I'll post to both threads, if I find it just another routine battle I shall stay silent on both

The Varterral battle looked like it might turn into another Rock Wraith, but in the end it was more like a big spider. The Dragons... so far... have all been quite manageable.

As usual, as with most RPGs, the biggest irritants have been mages who get to fire of instant kill spells. Bad guy mages, assassins and rage demons all do this thing which makes them vanish and reappear somewhere else (something the Rock Wraith also did) - I find this to be the most annoying and difficult to manage aspect of battles in this game.

[Thing]

Have to agree; some bosses/adversaries are unbalanced with respect to your party. The only solution I've found (boring) is
- pause
- analyse
- position
- act
- start loop again
Not very immersive and not particularly creative