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Origins | Ostagar | Lothering | Circle Tower | Warden's Keep (DLC) | Return to Ostagar (DLC) | Stone Prisoner (DLC) | Brecilian Forest | Redcliffe | The Urn of Sacred Ashes | Orzammar | Deep Roads | Denerim | Final Onslaught |
Character Development | Equipping Characters | Combat Guidelines |
EQUIPPING YOUR CHARACTERS – SOME GUIDELINES
Here is where I offer some guidelines on equipping your party. How I apply these guidelines to my own characters will become manifest during my individual profiles of them.
Save the very best for your Core Group, but don't neglect the other Characters either
In DA:O, you tend to have a core group of three NPCs who stick with you most of the way through. By all means have them in line for the very best. But there will be points where your other characters will have to participate, and their effectiveness will depend on the scripts you've set for them and the items you've equipped them with. Give some thought to their equipment as well.
Equip the Items that will count the most for your Character
It sounds simple enough. But anyway ...
1. Attribute Bonuses
Sometimes there are a few items that provide bonuses to all your stats, and these are certainly welcome. How about beyond that?
Items with dexterity bonuses are welcome for Warriors and Rogues alike. Strength bonuses are welcome for Warriors. Magic and Willpower bonuses are welcome for Mages.
By extension, Mages should also be on the lookout for items that provide Spellpower bonuses. Dexterity and Cunning bonuses are crucial for many Rogue builds.
2. Defense, then Armor
Generally, it is better to minimize the number of times you'll get hit then to maximize your damage reduction. This is especially the case with many Rogue builds. Certainly it is a good idea to accommodate both if you can. Minimize the number of times you get hit, and reduce the damage for the odd time you do get hit.
3. Weapon Damage
The weapons available to your Warriors and Rogues confer a wide variety of possible bonuses. Always give preference to the ones that maximize your damage output. Priority bonuses include damage, armor penetration, elemental damage, critical/backstab damage, and chances of critical/backstab damage. My observation is that increasing chances of critical/backstab damage will increase damage output over time relative to increasing the critical/backstab damage itself, so I would prioritize increasing the chance of a critical/backstab over increasing the amount of critical/backstab damage. On the other hand, if you can get bonuses to both, great.
By this yardstick the creme de la creme among weapons are the Keening Blade, the Chasind Great Maul, either version of the Starfang Sword, The Veshialle, The Rose's Thorn, and the Spellweaver. After that there's a quite a drop off in items from the same weapon types (e.g. the next best Battle Axe is clearly inferior to The Veshialle).
Also, whenever you can, try to equip your character with Dragonbone weapons. Dragonbone is the only weapon tier that allows your character to equip three runes. There are a couple of Silverite weapons that I am convinced offer enough benefits to justify that missing third rune slot, but such instances are rare.
As for the runes themselves you can't go wrong with Grandmaster runes that inflict elemental damage. I also include Grandmaster Silverite runes, given that Darkspawn are such ubiquitous foes, especially towards the end. I also like having my dual-wielding rogues equip Grandmaster or Master Paralysis runes. A successful paralyzation also allows the Rogue to follow up with a backstab or critical hit just afterwards.
4. Magical Damage
In my view the optimal setup for a Mage is to emphasize spells that provide one, or at most two or three, types of elemental damage. The Mage can then equip items that will increase that type of elemental damage. For Wynne, my choice was fire damage. For Morrigan, my choices were cold, nature, and spirit damage. Keep in mind that the cap on bonus elemental damage is 30%.
5. Stamina
If your character design is effective with sustained and passive talents and not so dependent on activated talents, this isn't much of a concern. If your character is reliant on activated talents, then keep an eye out for items that provide bonuses to willpower, stamina, and stamina regeneration.
There is another possibility to keep your eye out for. Heavier armors usually demand greater fatigue in exchange for more armor. Keep an eye out for armor sets that confer a fatigue reduction, sometimes to the point of erasing the dilemma altogether.
6. Item Sets
Keep an eye out for item sets that, when equipped together, provide bonuses to the character. Don't treat this as a hard and fast rule though. Sometimes individual items, even if they don't provide a set bonus when equipped together, can provide greater aggregate benefits to the character.
7. Paying for what you want
There is a perfectly legal within the rules way to get limitless gold in order to pay for whatever you want. Go to this page for the video 'Limitless Gold' and my commentary on how the method works.
8. Raising the Tier of DLC Items, or Adding Rune Slots to a Weapon that's missing them
Some items from the Downloadable Content modules, like Warden's Keep or Stone Prisoner, are scaled. What I mean by this is that armor and weapons from the DLCs may be lower-tier if you arrive in places like Honnleath, or the Warden's Keep, or Return to Ostagar, while your party is lower-level. The weapons and armor will be higher-tier if your party is higher-level. These items, even if initially found as Red Steel ones for example, can be turned into Dragonbone weapons and armor through a certain method. Simply find a merchant whose inventory includes higher-tier weapons and armor like Dragonbone. Sell your DLC items to the merchant. Leave the area and come back. Check to see if your DLC items have become Dragonbone. Even if they haven't yet, just leave again and come back. It's only a matter of time before the law of averages will raise the tier of your DLC item. Mikhail Dryden, who will be at Warden's Keep after you complete Levi Dryden's quest, is probably the best merchant for this.
Another well known problem is when certain weapons may be Silverite or Dragonbone, but don't have any rune slots when you first find them. The solution is the same, but as far as I can tell it will only work with Mikhail Dryden. Sell him the weapon, leave and come back, and then buy it back. It will have 2 rune slots if Silverite, and 3 rune slots if Dragonbone.
*Note* If you want specific examples of how I employ these guidelines, including which items I chose for my characters, check out my character profile pages, starting with my Grey Warden character named Aldarion.
