So is it true, that aveline is much better at pure tanking, than hawke because of her specialization (if you compare both as sword and bord warriosr, with sword/shield and defender talents).
Especially avelines passive abilities Indomitable (Knockdown resistance: 100% and Stun resistance: 100%) and thick skin (15% damage resistence) seem pretty "must have" to me.
I am also unsure, what exaclty is the difference between Knockdown and knockback resistance? Some large bosses, like dragons or monstrous spider have attacks that knock characters down, does knockback resistance also help against that?
Does Knockdown/knockback resistance 100% mean that you are completely immune to such attacks? Zarathustra01 (talk) 10:21, March 21, 2011 (UTC)
I used Fenris as a tank myself. Then had Varric, Merrill, and I pick everything off with arrows and magic.Robbloodwarden (talk) 10:29, March 21, 2011 (UTC)
I'm playing 2h Warrior Hawke, so fenris is not necessary for me on this playthrough. I've just completed act 1 on hard. I met 2 Dragons and one monstrous spider up to now, where 50% of their attacks knock their target down. This cripples a 2h warrior, because he keeps up aggro through damage, but cannot deal any while on the floor. So i'm considering either wasting 3 talent points in "Defender" to get "Resilience" (100% knockback resistance) or include Aveline in my party, when such bosses are coming. Any recommendations? Zarathustra01 (talk) 10:48, March 21, 2011 (UTC)
There is a lot of confusion between knockback and knockdown. When you are hit by an attack that deals physical or magical force (all melee and arrow/ranged attacks deal physical force, some mage spells deal magic force, i.e. fireball), you make a fortitude check (based on your strength) to determine if you are knocked back/down. If the damage dealt is only a certain percentage of your overall health, you are knocked back, instead of knocked down, which is also why you see mages being knocked back/down a lot easier than warriors, they simply have less health and fortitude. Immunity to knockback only prevents you from being knocked back, not knocked down, just as immunity to knockdown doesn't prevent you from being knocked back. A warrior is more prone to knockback, since he has high health, it takes a lot more to fully knock him down, so immunity to knockback gives you a lot more bang for your buck. The good thing about Hawk vs Aveline is that there are 2 rings in Act 2 and 3 in the Nexus Golem's shop (in the middle of the cave if you take the northwest path in the Dalish village) that give immunity to Knockback on the Act 2 ring, and immunity to Stun and Knockdown I believe on the Act 3 ring... or was it stun and flanking... or stun and critical hits... Well, either way, with those 2 rings (that cost about 90g each), you can have pretty much all of the same passive immunities that Aveline gets from her specialization, except that extra 15% damage reduction. But, since Hawke gets so many more ability points to distribute, he can easily make up the difference with more health. In the long run, a tank Hawke is going to be able to deal out a lot more damage than Aveline (thanks to his specializations) and tank _almost_ as good. T0rin (talk) 13:33, March 21, 2011 (UTC)
Thank you for the infos! Now i understand, why everyone considers 2handed tanks better than sword and bord tanks. Though 90 gold sounds like a lot, do you find significantilly more on act 2, than on act 1? It took me about 90% of act 1 to gather around 50 gold... Zarathustra01 (talk) 13:59, March 21, 2011 (UTC)
I'm not sure why people have such varied results with gold. After Act 1 was over (regardless of whether you paid to fund the trip to the Deep Roads or not, which btw if you do, you get your 50g back at the start of Act 2), I generally have around 145g, 21 or so of that I usually spend on the Act 1 tome of technique. You get 20g at the very end of Act 1, and if you fully explore every area, loot every chest (need a rogue with adequate cunning), and turn in every single side quest, you can get that much gold. There is (and I'm making a rough guess here), a little more than 100g to be found in Act 2, and another 80-90g in Act 3. All in all, there is about 340g or so available in the game, assuming you fully explore every area, open every check, sell all the stuff you find and do all the side quests. 180g of that going to 2 rings that make you an uber tank is a good idea, since unlike Mage with their 100g+ staves and 140g robes and whatnot, you don't really have a lot of need for gold, and can afford to buy the rings and still have 160g left over. Also, I think the idea that 2h tanks are better will be contested in the near future, as I'm personally experimenting with a high willpower 1h/shield warrior with Berserk, and it is absolutely insane. (even compared with the 2h variety) Although, both of them are overkill, even on Nightmare, but the 1h/shield warrior can benefit more from Berserk because of their higher attack speed, which makes them better vs bosses, the key weakness of warriors in DA2. (due to their lack of single target damage) T0rin (talk) 14:10, March 21, 2011 (UTC)