Archery: An Efficient Approach. Ah, a minor side note: in the DAA Gear section, there is a big ugly infobox of Howe Bow instead of iconmini. Refer to Talk:Howe Bow to find out why. Hopefully, User:Loleil will take care of it. That guy is way to stubborn to listen.
Also, some assorted findings FYI (relevant articles updated):
- DAA +X% elemental damage cap is 1.5 (+50%).
- DAA elemental resistance cap is 85%.
- The Queen of the Blackmarsh is immune to critical damage. Otherwise, she was very easy to defeat with an archer party + Velanna.
- The only instant-death scenario I have found in DAA are Lieutenant-rank Blight Werewolves of various types (Blackmarsh inhabitants) on Nightmare: Overwhelm (Monster) will kill an archer or a mage in less than 2s, even with Vitality IV and healing spells from Velanna with Spellpower 230. I suspect Overwhelm is buggy in this particular case: there is no way these guys could possibly deal that much damage over such a short duration. I was forced to go in with Strength of Stone.
- Elite Boss Dragon Thralls AI at Silverite Mine is behaving very, very strangely. They never attacked the party that was staying at its initial position after the cutscene. Of course, they ended up dead and looking like porcupines very soon, but that's not the point. The AI seems to be unable to reach the initial party position for some reason. They just fly around and use... Blood Magic (I have no idea, to what end: are those dragon thralls mages?). Nightmare difficulty, vanilla DAA, no mods. Any ideas/observations to the contrary?
- I never used a single health poultice during the entire playthrough on Nightmare (granted, I have Knotwood Hills and a ton of side quests before me, not to mention final phase). Not once. Velanna used her healing spells during several tougher fights, though. That's not to say: "Wow, I'm a great tactics master!", don't get me wrong. That's more to the effect of: "Wow, this game is waaaaay too easy!".
IN 13:50, March 21, 2010 (UTC)'
Just wanted to post a reply here as I really found your archer guide and the other info useful when building my own character. When I did fought the Dragon Thralls in the Silverite Mine I had kind of the same "problem" as you, the dragons would alternate between being on the ground fighting, and flying in the air using the Blood Magic that didn't seem to do anything. And I also agree with you on the last point, I just completed Knotwood hills and in the fight there against the Inferno Golem + the darkspawn boss I didn't even have to use a single potion and I don't think my mage used heal either, maybe once. (just fyi my party is : PC spirit healer/a bit CC, Nathaniel as archer, Justice as a shield and sword warrior and Sigrun as a dual-wielding rogue.)
Oh and when i don't remember the werewolves Overwhelm ability kill my characters that fast, though i usually use Force Field as soon as im overwhelmed, so I might just have used that before they did a lot of damage.
Kraki7 22:14, March 24, 2010 (UTC)
- and flying in the air using the Blood Magic that didn't seem to do anything
- Personally, I think the devs just used the wrong ability code. The dragon thralls probably were supposed to use Buffet, Roar or something like that. Well, let BioWare dev team enjoy the benefit of the doubt until I check creature properties thoroughly. Maybe those dragons are blood mages, after all :)
- Oh and when i don't remember the werewolves Overwhelm ability kill my characters that fast, though i usually use Force Field as soon as im overwhelmed, so I might just have used that before they did a lot of damage.
- My reference was to Lieutenant-rank Blighted Dread Wolf type enemies only. I have a full archer party with Velanna as a Keeper support: usually it's easier to kill the monster during Overwhelm than to stun/force-field him. All it takes is to unleash the first crit barrage in 1.6s for 1000+ damage. These werewolves, however, were having a bit more than 1000 health. Scattershot did not help, either: its conjuration time is only 2s, but the werewolves somehow managed to Overwhelm the grounded character to death meanwhile! IN 05:11, March 25, 2010 (UTC)