I tried just sprinting across an area that had a dragon to see if I could make it to the other side and didn't even need to get hit by fireballs to die. The little guys on the ground took me out. One bite and I'd have to use a health potion...but using the health potion makes you stop running, so it was basically useless. They would just bite you again immediately after you restored your health. That's the dragon area near the Smuggler Queen's hideout.
I have almost 700 HP, 30% spirit damage reduction, and even with my barrier those arcane horrors will occasionally one shot kill me in the first few seconds of battle. They must unload their most powerful attack on the first party member they encounter which would be my mage. I'll have to lead with my tank when I know those guys are coming up. Even the dragons I've attempted to play with haven't killed me in one shot. Do you have the Iron Bull yet? You'll want him around at least once when you fight a dragon.
No, I think you're quite a bit further along than I am at this point. Sera in Val Royeaux is the first 'extra' party member that I've come across so far in the game. Cassandra has been the one taking a beating most of the time as a tank for my group. Done pretty well at it too….that @*$! rift near the farm is the only place she's been taken out. I didn't exactly rush to go to Val Royeaux though. Recommended level was 4-7 and I hit 7 right after I got there.
I've come across Iron Bull now, as well as Blackwall. Iron Bull seems to work better in the Berzerker role than Blackwall. I also came across a rather nice shield that was tucked away in the Storm Coast. Gave it to Cassandra and now she rarely loses much health in combat, unless the odds are really, really bad.
I was using Blackwall as my tank for a long time but when he wasn't fighting with Dorian he was boring me to death. I never used Cassandra because she didn't seem to like me very much but I'm giving her another shot. Iron Bull can also be a tank but his advanced skills seem to be tailored for the berserker role. He's an effective un-managed melee damage dealer so he's got a permanent spot on my team. I've added Varrik back into my team and he's a lot better now that the banter bug was fixed. The problem is that his advanced skills look management intensive and weak. It's so much easier to have a second mage auto-casting barriers and AOE spells.
Varric sucks down the health potions in my group. The weird thing is that although he usually takes the most damage in fights that aren't that difficult, he's usually the last one alive in dire situations. I crafted a couple of modifications for Bianca after finding the plans in the same place as Cassandra's shield, so I'm hoping Varric gets a bit more deadly going forward.
To me it seems like archers get a lot more aggro than Mages. I'm not sure why that is but it's easier to keep mages alive. I think one good move for Varric is to get him the poisoned weapons skills. I make that skill a high priority in his tactics. Basically when he turns it on all his shots do more damage. That's about it for his DPS increase. Later in the game he can give everyone a passive 10% damage and duration bonus which can be nice. I suppose you could look at that like a constant 40% damage increase which is impressive.
Yeah, I've been using the 'Toxic Archer' build recommendation that's in the guide for Varric so far. I may try something else with Sera and see how it compares.
Sera gets bomb skills later on. They seem promising but I wonder how well the AI does with it. I don't like micromanaging the team.
The only time I've done much micromanaging is one of the boss fights (the head of the Thieves Fortress in the Hinterlands…his level was way above my party at the time) and some of the more difficult rifts. AI seems pretty good most of the time, but it does seem like some party members are slow to fall back and take a potion if their health is low. The characters set up as berserkers are particularly bad at that, but at least that kind of makes sense.
You can set the health threshold for taking potion for each character. It might be useful in really hard fights to up the threshold to 30%.
Killed my first dragon the other night. I thought I was bad ass until I tried it on another dragon. It turns out that not all dragons are created equal.
I bought this (and The Evil Within on Steam) today. I try to avoid Origin as much as possible, but I heard enough good things about Inquisition that I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I haven't bought many games this year, so I thought I'd grab a couple that I have read were good while they were on sale.
So I finally got down to choosing between the Mages and Templars, and once the choice was made...wow, the resulting mission was kind of freaky. Plus, my decision at the end of the mission has half of the Inquisition leaders pissed off at me. So now I'm blowing off the main story again and exploring the Forbidden Oasis.
I never really figured out the whole approve/disprove thing. If there is benefits and consequences they weren't apparent. However they did do a good job with the unique personalities and kept me guessing about how to keep everyone happy. I thought Sara and Cole were particularly difficult.
The last stand at Haven was fairly intense. I had to resurrect Iron Bull during the final demon Boss battle that happens while you're trying to aim the catapult, and I had no health potions left. Somehow he managed to stay alive during the final couple of minutes with the protection spells only, despite having the minimum health level. That's a first!
Bull does seem to die a lot. I guess he's the only melee member without guard or stealth. I always put him in the best armor I could find. It seems like high power daggers were the most plentiful weapons in the game. Because of that I believe Cole is the highest damage dealing member there is but I never liked his banter so I didn't use him.