THE FADE
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8:27:27 ENTERING THE FADE
We are back! Everyone loves this quest so much! Right? It's not like there is an entire mod created just to skip this, right? Well, we won't. So it's time to wake up.
I have a little strategy to get all the attribute points ASAP, so you might want to follow it if you want to get this done fast.
However, if you truly hate this part and you want nothing to do with it, you can skip the entire Fade part of this video here: 9:16:51.
First, we are going to get all the forms. Mouse first, then Burning Man, Golem and finally the Arcane Horror. We don't focus on the bosses yet, we need to get the forms. Once we have them, we can just teleport back to the beginning and sweep the entire Fade for the Fade Fonts while we are hunting down the bosses. We can save a lot of time this way.
8:31:19 MOUSE FORM
Just kill the Rage Demon. Nothing more. Same with the following demons. They are all weak, we don't even need Mana Clash against them.
The Mouse form is the most useless. It gives us Stealth, which we will not use. However, we can access mouse holes with it.
8:33:36 BURNING TOWER
We go after the Burning Man form. We need this to access places that are closed off by fire. The form is pretty cool. It moves faster and it has Fire Ball. We will stay in it as much as we can. Remember though: the form is completely immune to fire, but weak to cold.
We pick up the from here: 8:36:20. Just focus on the templar. Once his health is down, the fight ends.
8:37:14 MAGES ASSUNDER
We are here for the Golem form. My favorite! It can break doors. It can also throw rocks to knock enemies down, stun enemies by hitting the ground and it has a Slam that can't miss. We gain a lot of health, armor and physical resistance when we use it. The damage is lacking a bit, because we are mages. With warriors the golem levels everything. The form is immune to stun effects.
Mostly we are going to use the Burning Man form here, since mages have fire spells and this form is immune to fire. We also throw our Fire Ball around, which usually kills everything in one hit. The Lyrium Veins can give us both health and mana if we need either one.
We get the form here: 8:41:22.
8:42:28 DARKSPAWN INVASION
Let's get the last form, the Arcane Horror. It can see transparent doors and some Fade Fonts can only be touched with this form. It also has Crushing Prison, Regenerate and Winter's Grasp. All are very powerful if we play as a mage. This form is immune to fear effects.
There are a lot of darkspawn here, some of them are even elites. However, with our Golem form, this place is not difficult.
We pick up the form here: 8:45:55. Honestly, not much to say about this fight. Stay in golem form and crush them. It is best to take out the Emissary first.
8:46:53 BACK AT THE BEGINNING
Follow my path and my tactics, and you will get out of here in no time, with all the bonus attributes. You can slow down the footage if it is too fast.
9:01:00 LEVEL 13
Everything on Magic, we pick up Winter's Grasp to increase the number of our single target spells. It's a great spell with good damage and chance to freeze.
9:03:35 THE MOST DANGEROUS DOOR IN THE FADE
Probably. The Arcane Horror has Crushing Prison(and uses it instantly when you an in range), which is a death sentence at this level. Especially since it likes to follow it up with Fire Ball.
Stay far away, use the Golem to smash the door and switch back to your form and Mana Clash it. If it resist Mana Clash, try a Fire Ball to knock it down and Petrify to paralyze it. It CAN'T be allowed to use Crushing Prison on you.
I don't remember if zooming out and Mana Clash it through the door works here or not, but I believe it does. So there is another option for you.
9:05:39 WYNNE'S NIGHTMARE
Oh, boy! I forgot about this. This is by far the most dangerous place in the Fade, if you don't use dlc equipment and you are a mage. Let me explain.
See those "students" Wynne is whining about? Yup, they have a bunch of nasty spells. As soon as the fight starts, the one behind you will put a Paralyze spell on you(she can cast if faster then you can cast Mana Clash). Paralyze on Nightmare has a very long duration, so you are screwed if you don't resist it. The others will throw Fire Ball, Lightning etc. So you will die paralyzed. Not even Wynne's healing will save you.
Good thing I resisted the Paralyze spell here! But let's not leave it up to chance. Here is what you need to do: Unequip your staff before you enter. Yup, it's as simple as that. The mage who casts Paralyze will have her staff equipped when the combat starts, so she can cast it instantly. You, on the other hand, have to get your staff from your back first. So you die.
However, if you don't have a staff, you can pause the game and instantly cast Mana Clash, which will kill them before the Paralyze spell can hit you. You will still be Paralyzed, but there will be no enemies left.
With good magic resistance this can be much easier. With dlc equipment, we would have bought Spellward long ago, which would double the chance that their spells would fail on you.
9:08:08 ALISTAIR'S NIGHTMARE
Alistair dreams about his sister who he haven't met. Easy. Just convince him to snap out of it. With level 2 Coercion, it's guaranteed. The two of you can easily get rid of the skeletons and the laughable Goldana.
9:10:31 MORRIGAN'S NIGHTMARE
Just the old hag Flemeth. And she is not the real one anyway. Mana Clash.
Morrigan will activate Haste since she is set up to use it when she is in the party. Deactivate it, so when she joins again against Sloth, she can cast it for the group.
9:11:51 SLOTH BOSS FIGHT
Finally, we can get out of here! Not so fast though. Sloth can actually be more challenging than Uldred. He has many forms, and some of them are very dangerous. You have to beat five different forms, one after the other:
Ogre. Uses Ogre tactics. Also suffers additional damage from Bloody Grasp like all darkspawn. Be careful with his Ram, and Grab. Petrify is pretty good against him. You can also cheese him to follow you and let the team wear him down. Remember the Tower of Ishal?
Rage Demon. Uses Rage Demon tactics, meaning he will burn everything he touches. Cold is very useful here, because of its massive weakness to it.
Abomination. Uses Abomination tactics. Nasty close combat strikes, so keep him away from your mages. Easy to knock him down and he does not have much armor.
Shade. Uses Shade tactics. Aura of Weakness basically makes Alistair miss all the time. However he is not tough nor particularly dangerous. Use Winter's Grasp, and spirit damage spells.
Arcane Horror, or "true" form. Yikes! Now this one is bad. Crushing Prison, Fire Ball, Winter's Grasp, Cone of Cold, Blizzard. He uses all of them and often.
Luckily we have Mana Clash! So just blast him and be done with him. Oh, wait... he resisted it? Well, let's do this the hard way then.
He is immune to cold, so don't use Winter's Grasp for damage. Use it to freeze him. However, it will not hold him for long. Petrify is great, but it will also not last long. It is great to interrupt his spells though. Same with Stonefist, which will knock him on his butt. Alistair's Punisher will do the same.
No matter what you do, just make sure he does not cast spells. If he does, you can end up dead very fast.
9:16:51. DONE! WE ARE OUT!
Pick up the Litany from Nial's body. Little thing is more useful than it looks.
After this, I try to make some room in my inventory, which is completely full. I place some items on Wynne and Morrigan and even myself, that are not part of their build, just to be able to carry more stuff. I just love loot! And we need the money.
9:19:41 CULLEN
Shh, just let us get on our way Commander of the Inquisition. Sheesh. Who would have thought that this guy would turn into a level-headed military commander?
9:22:28 ULDRED
Okay Uldred, it's time to die.
I kind of wish we would know more about Uldred. What was his plan at the beginning when he said that the Tower of Ishal was "unnecessary"? Could Loghain's treachery been avoided? Well, he is an Abomination now so we will never know.
He is not just any Abomination though. He actually transforms into a Pride Demon. Basically the most powerful and most dangerous demon type. Remember "Mouse"? Yup, just like that one.
The Abominations are easy to kill, just blast them with Mana Clash. The Pride Demon however, is immune to Mana Clash so don't bother. On top of this, most of his special spells are completely ignore magic resistance.
Fire Bolt, Frost Bolt, Fire Blast and Frost Burst are not considered spells so even at 100% magic resistance, they will connect. Same with Mana Wave, which is a very annoying Dispel-like ability that removes all magical buffs from the party.
He also he has Crushing Prison, Mana Drain and Anti-Magic Ward. His melee attack is also pretty strong. His armor is also very powerful so even dual-weapon Alistair barely scratches him with physical attacks.
Petrify works wonders on him. Same with any type of paralyzing spell, because if he can't move, he can't cast spells. Cold spells also work well on him. Fire? Not so much. He has a pretty high fire resistance. If he uses Crushing Prison on us, don't panic. We have Wynne, so we should be fine as long as he does not hit us with anything else during its duration.
Adralla's Litany is actually the best weapon here: not only it disrupts his ability to turn mages into Abominations, but also interrupts whatever spell he is trying to cast! Use it whenever he is about to use one of his more dangerous spells.
Once he is dealt with, loot him. He has the Cinderfell Gloves on him, which is great for us. It gives bonus to fire damage, which makes our Fire Ball and Flame Blast more powerful.
9:28:18 WE HAVE THE MAGES & WYNNE JOINS THE PARTY
Now we can go to Redcliffe and get the best ending for Connor and Isolde! We also ask Irving if Dagna can join the Circle.
9:31:39 LELIANA TELLS HER STORY
We listen to her. Then we change our gloves to the one we picked up from Uldred. We cange our hat too to the Libertarian's Cowl. I know it's just as ugly as the one before but it is still better. And sell your junk! You are loaded!
We also change Morrigan's equipment. Purely because of the looks actually. The Archon Robes looks better on her than Avernus' rag, which I pass onto Wynne. They are equally good anyway.
9:36:38 ENCHANTMENT!
I put a few runes on Alistair's weapon, because why not? He has a chance now to paralyze enemies and he has additional magic resistance. Honestly we don't really need enchantment to make this build or team work, but I wanted to show the Enchanting process. We are gonna pretty much ignore it after this.
9:39:10 TENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
"Five Pages, Four Mages" quest. Mana Clash the mage on the hill then kill the forger and his men.
Honestly? What exactly is the point of the Cameo Cowl? A "mage only" hat that gives Cunning? Or are we supposed to wear it for the 0.5 health regen? Am I missing something here?
9:40:32 DAGNA GOES TO THE CIRCLE
She will either give a Greater Lyrium potion or a level dependent Dweomer rune. I always pick the rune. Also, don't tell her dad, the blacksmith right next to her, that you helped her. He will not trade with you anymore if you do.
9:42:43 ELEVENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Zevran and the Crows. This can be dangerous if they ambush you the first time. They have six archers, three dual dagger rogues, one mage and of course Zevran. Zevran has both dual dagger and a bow.
Obviously, we Mana Clash the mage first. She is very dangerous, and for some reason she is immune to knockdown and stun. Don't try to smack her with Stonefist first or stun her with Mind Blast. This would just give her time to cast her Fire Ball and Chain Lightning.
Sadly, I got Paralyzed, but my team is pretty competent at keeping me safe, now that the mage is gone. After Paralyze wears off, we heal and we smack the archers on the elevated position with a Fire Ball and a couple of basic attacks. Winter's Grasp and Bloody Grasp can also take them out.
The team will handle the rest. I am not sure what Sten is doing here: 9:44:36. Moonwalk? 100 centimeter dash? No idea. Wake Zevran up and let him join the team.
9:48:33 RARE IRONBARK QUEST COMPLETED
We have a lot of options. We can have both, one or the other or neither. I'm a good guy, so I won't make him do both. I do need the money though so I picked the armor.
9:49:33 IGNACIO
We are going after The Trial of Crows quest.
9:50:59 KYLON'S REWARD
Forgot about his reward after getting rid of the gangs in Denerim. We will pick it up now.
9:53:53 KADAN-FE
We already got rid of Paedan, so our first target will be the qunari mercenary band. Lots of big men with heavy armor. Magic is pretty good here. Fire Ball and Flame Blast whoever you can, then lock yourself into a Force Field and let your team do the rest. Remember this tactic?
Although I did manage to get most of the enemies attention, Morrigan was irresistible for that one qunari. My heal was just in time.
Loot the Whitewood bow from the chest. The best Shortbow in the game. In fact it is as good as any Longbow.
9:56:13 THE CARTA
Okay, time for some real action. Let's get rid of Jarvia and the Carta! Nadezda gets nothing, we need the money.
9:57:16 CARTA AMBUSH
Focus on the Elite Leader. If his health goes down, the fight ends. Once they surrender use intimidate or persuade to get the location from him. You can let them go or finish the job. I let them go. My mage is a nice guy.
9:59:12 INSIDE THE BASE
We got through the door and got rid of the guard. No matter what you pick as password they always attack you. Since there are a lot of traps all over the carta base, it is best to use team pause often. Go solo first and smack the dwarves around with some Fire Balls. Let them come to you, then let your team help.
This will be the primary strategy until we reach Jarvia. Also, I decided not to save Leske. Backstabbing little duster!
10:00:48 JAMMER'S STASH
Simple small side quest. When looting his boxes, always pick the most worthless item.
Silver
Iron
Garnet
Done. Your reward will be a key to his stash, just before the boss fight.
10:00:53 ALISTAIR LEVEL 13
Everything goes on Strength, and we pick Threaten.
10:05:51 ASSASSINS
Watch for Morrigan. Flush them out of Stealth with Mind Blast.
10:10:12 JARVIA
Very tough fight. Basically the mid level Cauthrien fight. The girl hits like a truck. She has a bow and she also dual wields two axes. She summons new guards whenever her health goes down a bit.
She is also behind a set of traps. Those traps are very damaging, even Sten would fall instantly at this point if he triggers them. DO NOT attack her directly and prevent your team to try to go after her.
If we want to keep our entire team alive during this boss fight, we need tu get enough aggro on use for Jarvia to leave the area with the traps. Then we use everything to keep her still and not retreat into Stealth.
Petrify, Stonefist, Mind Blast etc. Morrigan can draw aggro with her Horror, which can also disable Jarvia. However, when this happens and Jarvia targets Morrigan, put her into a Force Fiel immediately. She can't tank any of ther damage. Neither can we really... so the same goes for us.
Fire Ball works great on the low tier carta archers, and the Elite Assassins should be flush out of Stealth with Mind Blast.
See, this is why I love Petrify. It holds even bosses for a pretty long time.
Ugh, Alistair. You really should learn not to run into my fire spells. It's a bit boring at this point.
10:13:49 STEN LEVEL 13
Everything on Strength, we pick up Sunder Armor for him.
10:14:47 LOOT THE CARTA BASE WITH LELIANA
This is going to be a common thing. We go back to the places we cleared and loot it with Leliana. She can open almost all locks if we get Device Master for her.
You can skip the looting here: 10:17:20.
10:16:27 UGH. SPIDERS.
Not a problem as long as you send your team towards the box and you don't get Webbed. These are not as dangerous as the ones at Ostagar.
10:18:10 WE HAVE THE LIFEGIVER
Yay! Now our build will have the durability to be way more aggressive! We are one big step closer to become the War Mage we want to be!
10:19:53 OGHREN
Yeah, we get him. We won't go to the Deep Roads yet though.
10:22:57 MORRIGAN LEVEL 14
2 Magic, 1 Willpower. Spirit Healer specialization for her, and the Group Heal spell.
10:23:21 LEVEL 14
Everything goes on Magic. As always. We pick up Revival. We also proceed to throw it away, since we have no use for it. You should keep it though, and use it when a member has fallen in battle.
10:25:14 THE AMBASSADOR
Continuing "The Trial of Crows" quest for Ignacio.
10:26:53 THIRD DENERIM RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Black vial. Yup, it happened. So let's beat that Revenant.
Make sure you pull enough aggro so the thing won't go after Morrigan. You have enough health and armor now to tank quite a few hits. Morrigan doesn't. Petrify is great for this, even if it is resisted.
Heal often, use spirit and fire damage, it is immune to cold. The ambush after this is a joke. Burn them all!
10:28:37 KIDNAPPED SON
The Trial of Crows. Last favor. You have three Elite Crows helping you, so why not chuck a Fire Ball right into the crowd?
Honestly, with an initial Fire Ball, double Group Heal, Mind Blast and a dual weapon Alistair, this will not be difficult. It would be if you would not have these. But you do, right?
Also, when you get back, don't get tempted to kill Ignacio. Cesar's special stock is better than what he would have on his corpse. Especially if you are a rogue or like poisons.
10:32:36 MORRIGAN GETS HER BOOK
Finally we give her the tome from Irving's room. We also boost her approval with the gifts we have.
Same with Sten, Alistair, Wynne, Leliana(we give her Andraste's Grace too), Shale, Zevran(Dalish Gloves too, but we ask about the Dalish first, more approval this way) and Oghren.
After this, we are trying to trigger Old Tegrim's encounter to get the skill tome.
10:28:55 TWELFTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Not Tegrim... The mages vs darkspawn. We try to keep the mages alive. Why not?
Fire Ball the group and heal your allies. Pretty simple.
10:40:50 FINALLY TEGRIM!
Buy the skill book, put the skill on Expert Coercion.
REDCLIFFE
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10:41:19 ARRIVAL
Alistair wants to say something. Yeah, we know. He is the heir. We will save the village(and not losing anyone). I'm a good boy, remember? Plus this gets you the most amount of gold and xp.
I will also use Oghren and Leliana here before the battle, to get more approval on them. I don't need to boost Sten and Morrigan would just lose approval here.
10:45:41 BANN TEAGAN
We pick up every quest here. Jetta gets nothing, because we have nothing for her. Kaitlyn will get her brother back, but she won't get the sword. Owen will get her daughter back(so he does the repairs) and we will take the armor when he gives us later on. Dwynn will help, and he will give us Sten's sword.
The guys in the tavern will drink free because it MY tavern now(the stuff is now free in the shop so get everything, even if you don't need them). Loyd and Brewick will help us fight too. Loyd will give us a ring after the battle which will do fine on Sten. Ser Perth will get his amulets, but we won't tell him about the oil in the old store. The knights and Dwynn's men would just run into the fire like idiots during the battle, so shh.
We also talk to the second guy from the Irregular's quest "Scraping the Barrel".
Battle tactics: we will use Sten to Taunt non-stop. This will draw the attention of the enemies from the villagers and the knights. Easier to keep them safe this way. We will also heal them and Force Field them when they are low on health. It will be fun!
11:11:23 THE BATTLE STARTS
The first part is easier then the second. That is if you don't tell Ser Perth about the oil. The knights are well armored and they have a lot of damage. Only Dwynn's guards have lame armor, but they deal good damage. Usually they last without heal.
I don't wait for the undead to swarm use, I always Fire Ball them as they come. Honestly they are pretty weak at this point, so there really isn't much to say. Let your team and the knights slaughter them.
The second part is the harder one. The militia, even with the repaired armor, are not as well equipped. They have Scattershot and a few new skills thanks to the free drinks, so that is good.
But we will function mostly as healers here, so we can save the people who are about to die. Like the useless Loyd. After the initial charge, the corpses will be less dangerous.
11:20:35 ALISTAIR LEVEL 14
We turn him into a Berserker! Everything goes on Strength and we get Berserk for him.
11:26:48 MEETING AT THE MILL
Isolde will appear with some bad news. Let's just get into the castle and kick some demon butt!
11:31:34 JOWAN?
Yes, it's him. I released him. I'm a good guy. And he is just an idiot. Since his quest is bugged, this is the last time we see him. Good luck, buddy! And stay away from Blood Magic!
The fights after this are pretty ordinary. Use fire on the corpses, and Mana Clash on the Shades. We change Sten's tactic so he won't Taunt everything anymore.
11:40:15 VALENA
Don't forget about Owen's girl!
11:40:55 PUPPIES
Dogs are always dangerous. Watch for their Overwhelm and Shred. They can also knock you down with Charge. It is best to keep Morrigan away from them. We can tank their damage, but don't let your health fall under 50%. That is when they use Overwhelm!
11:41:47 LEVEL 15
Everything goes on Magic, pick Master Coercion and Lifeward.
11:42:48 STEN LEVEL 14
Everything goes on Strength. I picked Berserker for specialization, but now that I think about it, Champion could have been even better. It's up to you. War Cry is awesome for knocking everyone down. I picked the Destroyed passive.
11:43:16 COURTYARD FIGHT
One Elite Revenant, the rest is trash. You can use the knights to help you if you open the gate. Do so.
When the Revenant uses Pull or Mass Pull, it is a good tactic to stand behind something. Anything really. Even an enemy will do fine. That way it can't pull you close to him.
11:44:30 HELLO CONNOR!
The child is an Abomination, but he can be saved. First however, let's get knock some sense into Teagan. He is a Champion, he has War Cry and he loves to knock everyone down with it. He has a group of lame guards with him.
If you are like me, and you brought Pert with you, this is no challenge at all. If you are not like me and you did not bring Perth, this is also no challenge at all at this point.
11:51:19 TIME TO SAVE CONNOR
But before we do that, let's explore the castle a bit. First, let's deal with animated armors. Obviously, they have a lot of armor. Fire is our best option. They can use War Cry to knock you down. Perth and his men are in the other room, so they will come and help with them.
Alistair's Mother's Amulet is in the desk in the next room. We will give him later.
There is a door in the room where we fought the Suit of Armors. Open it, kill the Chamberlain Ghoul and get his key.
11:53:03 UPSTAIRS
Lots of corpses, who are easy to deal with. One room has a gift for Alistair in a fancy chest and another room has a gift for Wynne on the bookshelf(we will pick that up as we leave).
11:54:44 THE VAULT ON THE SECOND FLOOR
Remember the key we picked up from the ghoul? We will use it here. Get all that good stuff inside. There is a gift for Sten in the chest.
11:54:54 THERE'S CONNOR!
You can talk to him. However, whatever you do, don't approach the bedroom of Eamon! We are here to save Connor, not to kill him! If you go close to Eamon's room, the demon will attack and we have to kill Connor in a boss fight.
You can get the codex entry from the small bedroom right next to this one though, without trouble.
11:57:09 THIRTEENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Chanter's Board quest "Unintended Consequences". Remember the guy we summoned in the mage tower? Yup, he is here.
He is a boss and we need to kill him. Not much challenge, but once again, watch for Morrigan and draw the aggro on you. Focus on the boss. Once he is dead, the others will die as well.
The boots we loot from him will go on Morrigan.
11:58:15 NOW WE CAN SAVE CONNOR
We go into the Fade and we will intimidate the Desire Demon.
The fights here are easy and they don't require much thinking. Just get rid of them.
First fight: It's one Desire Demon. Very weak. She has no spells that you should be worry about.
Second fight: It's the Desire Demon with a Rage Demon. Petrify the Desire and Stonefist her, then use Winter's Grasp on the Rage demon. They are both almost dead now. Just mop them up.
Third fight: It's the Desire Demon with two Rage Demons. Retreat back, and throw a Fire Ball to knock everyone down. Use Winter's Grasp on one Rage Demon, Stonefist on the Desire Demon. They are both gone. The last Rage Demon gets an Arcane Bolt and Winter's Grasp.
Final fight: The Elite Desire Demon. Fight her or strike a deal. I made a deal. With level 4 Coercion, we can intimidate her to leave and give us some gifts.
This is where we could learn the Blood Mage specialization(6/12).
I have the specialization already, so I picked the tome that gives us an extra spell. Pretty good deal.
If you want to fight her, just use Mana Clash. She dies instantly.
12:06:40 MORRIGAN LEVEL 15
Everything on Willpower, pick Master Herbalism and Heal. She has a new tactics slot, so make sure she gets to use Heal on the team.
12:07:23 USING THE TOME
Time to use the tome we got form the demon! Let's pick up Frost Weapons.
12:08:12 LOOTING WITH LELIANA
Yes, we go through the castle again to get everything we can. It won't take long.
12:08:44 to skip it.
12:09:34 BOOSTING APPROVALS AGAIN
We have new gifts, so let's give them away. We also finish Sten's quest by giving back his sword. You can sell the sword after you gave it. No penalties at all. I did not do that though.
12:15:45 TIME TO GET RICH!
Yup, we have the gold, so let's do the Precious Metals quest! We also bring Leliana with us, so we can sweep the Circle Tower, and trigger her quest as well.
12:17:31 FOURTEENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Assassins are after Leliana. The fight can become dangerous if you charge in straight ahead. There is a trap around the bridge and the witch can throw Fire Balls. You also have wolves with Overwhelm and the Assassin Leader can use Scattershot.
So, pretty tough encounter. However, since we are mages, this can be survived pretty easily. Just stay still and concentrate on the leader. Petrify him and throw whatever else you can on him. Winter's Grasp, Stonefist, Bloody Grasp etc. Once his health goes down, the fight ends. If you kill him, you get the xp after his death.
12:19:52 LELIANA LOOTS THE CIRCLE TOWER
You can skip it here: 12:23:30.
12:20:15 GODWIN
To earn the maximum amount of gold, do it the way I did.
First, persuade him to give you the most amount of gold(Master Coercion needed), then ask him about why he needs this much lyrium. After that pick the fourth option. "You must make a lot of money off of this." This will let you persuade him to give you some more gold.
Now, back to Rogek(12:23:46). Pick the fourth option: "Are you kidding? You know it was thirty." He will give you 25 gold.
12:24:30 MORRIGAN'S NEW QUEST
Morrigan's mommy issues. We will do the quest after the Landsmeet.
12:27:52 WE HAVE THE SPELLWARD
Five out of the nine of our endgame equipment is already ours! Awesome! Now we have 30% dodge and 50% spell resistance. We also have 5 additional Willpower from this amulet. This is a true game changer.
12:28:49 WE BUY ANOTHER ARCANE TOME
Use it, and pick the Cone of Cold spell. Now, Alistar and Sten can shatter multiple enemies with their critical hits, and so can we with Stonefist!
12:29:14 ALISTAIR'S QUEST
Remember Goldana in the Fade? Where she was just a demon pretending to be Goldana? Well, the real one is worse! Seriously, what a rude hag. The persuasion only works if you are a male character.
Once you leave the house, tell Alistair that you are his friend to keep him the way he is, or tell him that he needs to be out for himself to "harden" him. I picked the former.
Just don't call him an idiot after you leave. He will get super mad at you.
12:35:20 ALISTAIR LEVEL 15
Put two on Strength, and one on Cunning. We will unlock Improved Combat tactics so we have more tactics slots. Pick Dual Weapon Sweep after that.
12:36:18 BATTLEFIELD
Chanter's Board quest "Brothers and Sons". Lots of wolves here, and a boss level bear at the end.
The mini map is helpful here because the wolves spawn all over the place. Look out for ambushes. They have Shred and Charge, along with Overwhelm, so this can get nasty if you are not careful! Especially for Morrigan.
12:39:01 CARAVAN
Caravan Down Chanter's Board quest. Emissaries can be killed with Mana Clash(not sure why it did not work on the second one for me), but it it fails just use Stonefist and set your team on them.
Not a difficult quest as long as you don't let them cast spells.
NATURE OF THE BEAST
-------------------
Let's finish this quest!
12:40:53 BACK IN THE FOREST
First, we interact with the Mystical Site of Power at 12:41:04 for the Mage's Guild quest. Then we kill some bears and ogres. Pretty easy at this point.
12:42:26 WE TOUCH THE FIRST TOMBSTONE
The first boss level Revenant with some skeletons. Watch for Morrigan! The boss, like all Revenants, is immune to cold. Still it can be frozen and petrified so let's do that.
The best way to beat it is to get its attention and let Alistair kill the skeletons. Then we can mob up on him. We are durable enough to tank him, especially since Morrigan also has Heal and Group Heal.
Loot its corpse for the Juggernaut Boots.
12:44:03 WE TOUCH THE SECOND TOMBSTONE
This fight is a bit different than the first one. The Revenant is not the most dangerous enemy here. It's that sneaky mage on top of the hill above the grave. Yup, Mana Clash it immediately.
The rest of the fight is similar to the one before. If Morrigan is targeted by the boss, Heal, Lifeward or Force Field her.
After the fight, loot the boss for the Juggernaut Helmet.
12:45:31 MALEFICARS
Another quest for the Guild. We had to leave the area for them to spawn. They don't spawn until you kill the Ogres.
Mana Clash them. Simple. Loot the leader for the Black Hand Gauntlets. We have our endgame gloves! Our Mana Clash, Arcane Bolt and Bloody Grasp will be more powerful.
12:46:18 MAD HERMIT
We get rid of him. It's a boss fight and normally, it would be pretty dangerous. However, we have Mana Clash and Cone of Cold, so it is not.
12:49:55 SWIFTRUNNER SECOND ENCOUNTER
Wear his health down to 0, and the fight ends.
12:51:07 LEVEL 16
Boost Magic and pick Glyph of Paralysis.
12:51:38 WE TOUCH THE LAST TOMBSTONE
Same as before. Watch for Morrigan, and kick its undead butt! Loot him to get the Juggernaut Gloves.
12:53:16 RUINS
Pretty short area. A few skeletons, two werewolves a couple of spiders and at the end, a male dragon with some traps.
The spiders and the dragon are the only ones worth mentioning. The hairy things are mostly just annoying, since their damage is not that big, and we are pretty tanky now, but their Web is still bothersome.
12:55:39 THE DRAGON
You have to lure the lizard out in the room you came from. That way you will have the advantage and you will avoid the traps as well.
He resisted both of my paralyzing spells... bad day at work. However, he could not Overwhelm Alistair, because he somehow ended up too close to the wall. Congratulation Dragon, you failed.
Freeze him, heal your team and just wear his health down. Loot his treasure, but you better sick to the right side of the room when you go in. Otherwise you are bound to set up the pressure plates. Make sure you pause your team while you do it.
12:58:29 STEN LEVEL 15
Put 1 on Strength and 2 on Cunning. Unlock the second tier of Survival and the Berserk ability.
12:58:51 THE GHOST CHILD AND THE SKELETON HORDE
As soon as the cutscene ends, a bunch of skeletons will charge at you. A bunch of them are coming from the room on the right, so welcome them with a Fire Ball!
Circle around and freeze them, then set them on fire. Then another Fire Ball, another freeze etc. Sorry, Alistair!
After the fight, we loot the Elven Tablet from the room on the right.
13:01:16 UNLOCKING THE ARCANE WARRIOR SPECIALIZATION(7/12)
Just release the spirit at the altar. But ask for the knowledge first, of course.
13:03:53 ANOTHER BLACK VIAL
Keep Morrigan away from it. Or Force Field her. That will do. Otherwise, we already dealt one before so you know the drill. Draw its attention and.. oh yeah! Heal Morrigan!
12:05:32 SKELETONS AND TRAPS
Don't rush in. Leave your team behind and slowly start taking down the skeletons with Fire Balls and other spells. The room is filled with traps.
On the left side, there is a corpse: 13:07:20. Loot it and get the journal. This is the second part of the Unbound quest.
13:07:27 MORRIGAN LEVEL 16
3 points on Magic. Pick Revival. We need it to get to Lifeward.
13:08:36 ARCANE HORROR IN THE RUINS
Boss fight. Pretty nasty. Especially since the blasted corpse resisted my Mana Clash! Twice! What the hell? Ugh! Good thing I picked a few healing spells for Morrigan.
Since the boss resisted my Mana Clash, this turned into a little "Who is the better mage?" duel.
First off, we pause our team, and don't let them run into those strange squares. The boss teleports away whenever that happens.
So let's whip out our best spells, and here we go!
I start with a Petrify, which connects! However, it hits me with Paralyze! Ugh. Since this is Nightmare, I will stay paralyzed a lot longer than he will.
Then he hits me with a Fire Ball, which burns my face nicely. He also starts chucking his Spirit Balls at me. Wonderful. Morrigan heals me back up. Thanks girl!
Okay, we got this! I heal up, and eat some spinach and paralyze him with the Glyph! Hah!
I throw an Arcane Bolt, he cast Winter's Grasp. I throw a Fire Ball, he resists it. He throws a Fire Ball, I resist it.
As I said, he resisted my second Mana Clash... so I throw an Arcane Bolt, then a Stonefist. Both connects, and he is knocked down! Yay!
Then we throw another Petrify, which he resists. He tries to do a hex on me which I resist. My Bloody Grasp and my next Fire Ball both connects and he is down to half health!
This automatically summons a large Tempest-like lightning storm that lasts a few seconds. I'm out of its range though.
I go for another Stonefist and another Fire Ball, and he goes for a paralyze spell again. Luckily I resist it and my final Bloody Graps finishes him off.
Then the team can just go after the skeletons who appear on the left, after I chuck a Fire Ball at them.
The boss has the Ashen Gloves, another elemental damage focused glove. We loot the rest of the room, there is a gift here for Oghren and the Ancient Elven armor. After that we proceed to the right side, get rid of the skeletons, and jump into the pool.
Note that you can avoid the entire boss fight if you just run for the pool and click on it. You will be teleported into the werewolf lair instantly.
13:12:28 THE LAIR
Dangerous place. There are a lot of werewolves, and even a new enemy type: Shadow Wolf. Shadow Wolves can use Stealth and they use Overwhelm from it, which is basically inescapable.
Pause your team. Place a paralysis rune at the door, so the wolf who runs into it can block the way when it gets paralyzed. Throw a Fire Ball in there so it can flush out some Shadow Wolves from Stealth.
Then use Cone of Cold, and Flame Blast and chuck another Fire Ball. Ideally, now you could use Mind Blast to give some time until Cone of Cold recharges, but sadly I got Overwhelmed.
So we need the team to help us up. Which they do so pretty competently. Morrigan even heals us back up. We proceed towards the other side of the room, but we avoid the trap in the middle. A few more Fire Ball and Cone of Cold and we are done here.
14:15:45 THE LADY OF THE FOREST
We accept her plea and make sure Zathrian comes here.
13:25:50 ZATHRIAN
With Mana Clash the fight is laughable. So let's have a laugh.
13:30:13 FIFTEENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Spider forest. Watch for the Webs. That's pretty much it.
13:32:45 WE GOT THE DALISH!
Time to get rid of the junk and return to camp.
13:35:01 TIME TO LOOT THE CAMP, THE FOREST AND THE RUINS WITH LELIANA
The looting ends at: 13:43:34.
We will engage in some fight with Leliana on board. She is pretty competent now with those dual daggers, because as you saw it, I kept boosting her Dexterity.
13:37:04 ALISTAIR LEVEL 16
Boost only Strength and pick Flurry.
13:39:18 THE ELVEN RITUAL
Examine the carvings.
Get the jug.
Fill it up.
Put it on the altar.
Pray.
Take a sip.
Dump the water back into the pool.
The door is open.
Kill the skeletons, the shades and the angry spirit. Get the Juggernaut Plate.
13:43:34 THIRD BLACK VIAL
Yeah, I did it with Leliana. I figured if she gets into trouble I will just Force Field her. She kind of got into trouble, so I did. She actually ended up finishing the thing.
But the Revenant was focusing on me the entire time so it was pretty easy.
13:46:01 ELORA'S HALLA
This quest needs level 2 Survival skill in order to properly complete it. So we get Sten back and we calm that Halla.
13:48:26 SIXTEENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Darkspawns vs Elves. We will save the elves. You can start with a Fire Ball on the big group of archers. The Shrieks are very dangerous to the elves, so take them down fast. Heal the elves if they need to or put them into a Force Field.
Or you can just focus on the darkspawn and let them die. It's not like there is any penalty for it. I just like to save them.
13:50:41 BOOSTING PARTY APPROVAL
Giving gifts and having conversations. Sten reaches Massive Strength bonus, Alistair reaches Massive Constitution bonus. We also equip and level up Oghren. Everything goes on Strength, and we pick up the Champion specialization. We also get the Survival skill and War Cry for him. This will be handy when we reach the Anvil of the Void and we have to use him.
THE URN OF SACRED ASHES
-----------------------------------------
Let's do this!
14:05:34 ARRIVING TO HAVEN
A nice quiet town, with nothing suspicious going on. Or is it like Hackdirt in Oblivion? Yes, it is! So let's look around and get into some trouble!
Sten picks a fight with me, but I already gave him his sword, so he backs off. If I would fight with him and put an OTD spell on him, he would die instantly after he joins the squad, and that would fail my little challenge of no one getting knocked out during the playthrough. This is why I did it this way. Can't take any chances.
Let's look inside the house on the left and notice the bloody altar. We can trade in the shop before we find the knight's corpse. After that, kill the villagers and let's head into the Chantry!
14:06:54 THE TOUGHEST KID IN THE WORLD
A creepy child. No matter what you do, you can't intimidate him. Even with gargantuan Strength and Master Coercion. It is impossible. This might be a glitch. You can persuade him to show you the finger-bone though.
14:12:22 EIRIK AND HIS FLOCK
He won't tell you anything no matter what you pick. When they attack, Mana Clash his butt. The rest of the group is just a bunch or normal enemies, so this is not gonna be a problem. Loot Eirik's body to get the amulet.
Pick up the gift for Zevran in the left side of the Chantry, and discover the hidden door in the right. Talk to Genetivi.
14:15:23 THE TEMPLE
We take a left as soon as the cutscene is over. There is a corpse laying on the floor as we enter the the doorway. Loot it. It is the last piece of the Unbound quest. We can challenge Gaxkang now in Denerim.
The little room has a three weak cultists. The bookcase has a gift for Wynne.
Up the stairs, archers get Fire Ball, melee Reavers will be dealt with by the team. We can use Cone of Cold to help them out, but the fight is not difficult.
14:18:07 LEVEL 17
As always, everything goes on Magic. We pick up the Glyph of Warding spell. Pretty good defensive spell, but we are after the Repulsion. I'm a bit tired of keep Force Fielding Morrigan. Repulsion can keep her safe from the melee guys.
14:18:26 LEFT SIDE
We open the door and a Bronto starts rushing at us. Cone of Cold or Petrify. Or Morrigan can just take over and cast Horror on it. That works too. The archers get Fire Ball.
After this, we go solo because we want to trigger the trap and then fire bomb people. I'm already a badass mage, I can handle them alone. Our team would just be in the way in these small spaces. Glyph of Warding is prefect here when they try to mob up on you.
We Mana Clash the two mages in the little room, and lure the rest of the cultists out. Cone of Cold, Flame Blast and Fire Ball. They freeze like water and melt like butter.
There is a gift for Oghren in the "sermon room" room. The key to the door on the right side of the main entrance, is in the chest inside a small room at 14:21:40. The Armor of Diligence(14:21:51) can be picked up from the Fallen Knight. I ended up having almost the entire set, except the boots. I did not buy it from Owen because I did not want to spend money on it.
14:21:53 BACK IN THE MAIN HALL
A new group of enemies will spawn in the main hall. Amongst them, there is a witch who can throw Fire Ball, so let's get rid of her with mana Clash. You can get rid of the rest after the mage is dead.
14:22:37 FORGOTTEN VERSES
We pick up the scroll, and we bring it to the girl next to the Chantry in Denerim, right away! Well, you don't actually have to bring it right away, but hey, I want the gold ASAP.
We also get rid of some of our junk, because the temple and the caves will have a lot of loot.
14:25:39 DOOR TO THE MAIN HALL
A cultist mage stands on top of the stairs, and as we go further two Ash Wraith will spawn behind us. Mana Clash the mage, and get rid of the wraiths. There are two archers on top of the stairs as well. You can light the Brazier if you have the two item required. We have them because we looted everything this far.
14:26:16 ARCHERS IN A ROOM FULL OF TRAPS
Fire Ball the archers and make sure you stick to the left side. We don't want to trigger the traps. Not that they are dangerous here at this point, but we want to come back with Leliana and get the xp for disarming them.
14:26:43 OPEN THE DOOR
Usually the Ash Wraith summons in the middle of that room and the guards further back as well. Not sure why they were in my face as soon as I opened the door. Anyway, Cone of Cold gets the job done. The Witch who comes from the right side also stays further back, but this time she ran straight at us. Interesting. She was targeting Alistair with a Fire Ball. Obviously we Mana Clash her and get rid of the rest of the guards.
This room has the Ancient Elven Gloves in the box.
14:27:33 LEFT SIDE
This side has a Witch and two Ash Wraiths. Mana Clash is on cooldown, so we smack her with a Fire Ball. The Ash Wraiths get cold and some shattering.
14:27:42 THE CHESTS
Every chest will summon Ash Wraiths. The first summons one, the second two, and the thrid summons three. As long as you don't open all once, you will be fine.
Still, when I don't mind my party falling or drinking healing potions, I sometimes open all and use Mana Clash. High risk, but high reward.
14:28:36 MORE GUARDS
Not a big deal, especially if Alistair does not run into my Cone of Cold. Sorry!
14:29:18 THE RIGHT SIDE
Four Reavers, one Mage. Mana Clash his butt, and get rid of the rest. There is another mage in the next room. Two Ash Wraiths will spawn here as well.
You can wait for Mana Clash to recharge or just Fire Ball the old warlock. Cone of Cold is also great. When they don't resist it.
14:30:21 MORRIGAN LEVEL 17
2 Magic, 1 Willpower. Oh wait! I changed my mind! 1 Willpower and 2 Cunning. Yup, we definitely want another tactic slot for her when she gets a skill. We pick up Lifeward.
14:31:25 THE CAVES
3 Ash Wraith is supposed to spawn here, but for some reason they always die and I get the xp for them. This must be some kind of glitch.
Anyway, get rid of the Reavers and proceed towards the doorway.
There will be two mages on both side of the small room. Mana Clash them.
14:32:15 HOT OR COLD?
Well, they get both. Cone of Cold and Flame Blast. Sten and Alistair also got a taste of my flames. Sorry, but you guys just never learn...
The dragonlings are easy to get rid of. They don't like cold, so time to cool things down.
14:33:18 BIG HALL WITH THE BUNKBEDS
A mage ahead. Mana Clash. There is another a bit further by the table, but that one has not aggroed us yet. Watch for the dragonling spawning behind you.
We move forward, Fire Ball the mage and we get rid of him in any way you can. Naturally Morrigan gets swarmed by dragonlings while we are busy fighting with eh guards.
We put a Force Field on her and just blast the lizards with Cone of Cold. Morrigan also gets a taste of that freeze, but she is in a Force Field, so no apologies.
14:45:29 ANOTER BIG HALL
Two mages, one Mana Clash. Guards are a joke.
From this hall, we can go either left or right. First we go right, so we can kill some Drakes for their scales, and get a gift for Alistair.
Drakes are mean. They first Roar(Stun), then Shred(knockdown), then immediately Overwhelm if you are on the floor. The best is to not let that happen and blast them with Cone of Cold and Petrify whoever is left out. If it does happen, Force Field the recipient immediately. Their Overwhelm deals a ton of damage and even the War Mage or Sten might not survive it.
14:36:16 STEN LEVEL 16
3 Strength, and we pick up Two-Handed Strength.
14:37:23 THE LEFT SIDE
Yet another Witch who begs for Mana Clash. Two Elite Assassin will also charge out of Stealth, so watch for Mark of Death and backstabs. Those girls can be nasty if you are not prepared.
14:37:58 BIG HALL, MORE DRAKES, AND A USELESS MAGE
I have no idea where that guy learned how to be an Arcane Warrior, but whatever he learned, it was not much. He must have found a picture about Arcane Warriors and thought it looked cool, so he started calling himself one. Honestly, he sucks!
All he does is Dispel your magic, and put on Anti-Magic Ward on himself. Once his mana is depleted, he finally start using his melee weapon. Poorly.
Anti-Magic Ward lets him resist my Mana Clash though, so we can't just blast this clown. Sometimes it works if you don't get too close, but this time it did not. Anyway, Alistar will later gets rid of him.
Watch for Morrigan here, because she tends to stay behind, and two Drakes will spawn after you got rid of the guards. Put her into a Force Field and get rid of the Drakes with cold. Once again, no apologies Morrigan, you are invulnerable anyway.
If the Force Field wears off before the Drakes die, make sure you heal her and Petrify the dragons. The lizards hit very hard and she is fragile.
Loot the cultist "Arcane Warrior"(pff), and get his pretty awesome weapon. We won't use it because we are not Arcane Warriors, but it is still awesome to have.
14:39:56 THE EGGS
One more Drake, one more Mage. You know what to do. Mana Clash, Cone of Cold. There is also an archer and an Assassin.
A dragon egg has the Life Drinker. A completely useless amulet at this point. We also have the six drake scale we need for Wade.
14:41:50 KOLGRIM
The mad leader of the Disciples of Andraste. He thinks that the Chantry's prophet, Andraste, has reborn and took the form of a dragon. Yeah, he is smart like that. His shouting also makes him very likable.
This is the part where you can give into your crazy, and destroy the Urn, thus unlocking the Reaver specialization(8/12).
Or just get rid of this crazy fool, which is what we are gonna do. Note that there is a hilarious banter between Oghren and Kolgrim if you bring the dwarf here.
So first off, Mana Clash the two mages at the back of the cave. The fight can get ugly if you don't take them out fast.
Kolgrim is a boss, and he hits hard. He ha a bunch of two-handed skills, but most often he sues Sunder Arms and Sunder Armor. He also has two melee guards next to him. When they attack you, quickly use Mind Blast. This gives enough time to cast Glyph of Warding, which will give a nice defense boost to your party.
Since he is a boss, Alistair will target him with Punisher, which will knock him on his butt. Even though he is a two-handed warrior, he does not use Indomitable.
Petrify, Cone of Cold and Glyph of Paralysis can do wonders here. During my fight he could barely move while Alistair was ripping him to shreds. Sten took care of the other guards.
Once Kolgrim is dead, get his axe, the random rune he drops, and his Horn that can summon the dragon.
14:43:36 ALISTAIR LEVEL 17
3 point of Strength, and we pick up Bravery.
14:43:49 TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN
Nothing to see here, move along. Don't even think about blowing the horn!
Nah, to be honest, we could take down the dragon at this point. There is no way one of our member would not get knocked out though. So we will not risk it, especially since I want to take her down with the full build, and without pause. If you don't care that they can fall, or that you pause during the fight, you can take down the lizard right here.
I will just loot the broken chest and proceed to the Gauntlet. I will come back for "Andraste" later.
14:45:15 THE GAUNTLET
A quick change in tactics for Sten and Alistair. They are using their Berserk ability a bit too late for my liking. This is because I have been destroying everyone so fast, by the time they get to that tactics option the fight is over.
So we move Berserk to the top. Usually it works fine, even if it is at the bottom, but we have a huge DPS with this amount of crowd control, so I want them to use it faster.
If you are playing through the game based on this guide, you should set them up like this as soon as they have the Berserk ability.
14:46:15 THE GUARDIAN
Talk to him. Whatever you do, don't refuse to answer. That way, you will get an amulet from the person from your origin story. Since we are mages, it's going to be "Jowan". Of course he is not really Jowan, just our perception of him.
14:49:29 THE SPIRITS
The riddles are simple. Each time you fail one, you have to fight an Ash Wraith. Here are the solutions:
Ealisay: Tune.
Lady Vasilia: Vengeance. "I don't know" also works.
Disciple Havard: Mountains.
Disciple Cathaire: Hunger. "I don't know" also works.
Archon Hessarian: Mercy.
General Maferath: Jealousy. "I don't know" also works.
Thane Shartan: Home.
Brona: Dreams.
You get the same xp for the good answers as you would get for the killing of the Ash Wraiths, so don't bother failing them.
14:54:32 "JOWAN"
He is clueless as always. Just get the amulet.
14:55:23 MIRROR MATCH
You have to fight yourself and your team. Luckily, they don't have the same skills and spells, so it is very easy.
Alistair got me with his Holy Smite, which took me out of the fight for a few seconds, but after it wore off, we quickly got rid of the impostors.
Our team has two mages, so Mana Clash the two clones. Fake Morrigan shifted into her useless spider form and she got killed in a second. Nice. Fake Sten and fake Alistair got absolutely demolished by the real ones. Not sure why, maybe they are simply "built" better. Wink-wink.
14:56:09 FLOOR PUZZLE
This one is easy. Just do it the same way you see it in the video. Here is the solution:
War Mage goes on the last step on the left side.
Morrigan goes on the third step on the left side.
Sten goes on the second step on the right side.
Alistair moves onto the second platform.
Morrigan goes on the fourth step on the right side.
Sten goes on the first step on the left side.
Alistair moves forward.
War Mage goes on the fifth step on the right.
Morrigan goes on the second step on the left.
Alistair moves forward, steps off the bridge, the bridge turns solid. We can pass.
14:57:19 THE URN
The "Pot of holy dirt", according to Sten. Don't just rush ahead though, if you don't want to anger the Guardian! We have to complete the final test first. This will be difficult!
First, you have to interact with the altar. Then pick the "remove equipment" option. And there you go! Yup, the only way to impress the guy, is to go nude. And he is right, actually. Nothing makes me feel more "worthy" than standing in my underwear, while an ancient "priest-like figure" is talking to me.
After he tells us that he likes what he sees, we can approach the Urn. Yay! Take a pinch and let's get out of here!
Genetivi will meet us at the exit and you can tell him the good news. You can also kill him, but we are not gonna do that. Especially because there is a Master Dweomer Rune waiting for us in Denerim, if we visit him again there.
15:01:07 WE HAVE THE STAFF OF THE MAGISTER LORD
We have our staff! Finally! This will make us many times more powerful! We have more Spellpower, Willpower, mana regeneration, our basic attack will deal cold damage, and we even have 10% additional spirit and fire damage for our spells. Truly, this is a staff worthy of a War Mage!
Only Anduril's Blessing and the First Enchanter's Cowl are missing from our endgame equipment.
After our purchase, we go back to camp, give away the gifts we collected, and clear the entire mountain with Leliana.
15:02:34 LOOTING WITH LELIANA
After we kill the lonely guard who was left in the village, we loot Haven, the Temple and the Caves.
You can skip it here: 15:08:10
15:03:45 CAMP AMBUSH
The team gets ambushed by Shrieks in the camp. No one can fall here, so we just have to get rid of them. An elf of Dalish origin would have a unique dialogue here.
15:08:04 LEVEL 18
Everything goes on Magic, we pick Master Combat Training and Glyph of Repulsion.
We also go back to camp, sell the junk and give the Locket gift we found to Morrigan and the Antivan Leather Boots to Zevran. Zevran also becomes loyal to us.
15:10:58 STEN LEVEL 17
3 Strength, and we pick up Resilience.
15:11:14 HEALING ARL EAMON
The Arl lives! Accepting his gift, will unlock the Champion specialization(9/12) and also gives us a bonus talent/spell.
Now, we just need to get the dwarves!
15:16:15 BONUS SPELL
Arcane Shield. Not bad(it turns awesome in Awakening), but we are after the Staff Focus passive.
After we pick up Arcane Shield, I demonstrate how much our defense will get boosted with the Arcane Shield and Glyph of Warding combination(+60 defense). In case you are wondering what exactly is am I doing at this point.
15:17:21 SEVENTEENTH RANDOM ENCOUNTER
Darkspawn vs human knights. We will throw a Fire Ball right into the middle of that mess. The knights are good enough to survive that. After this, we mostly let Alistir and Sten to clean up.
15:18:33 WADE AND HIS DRAKE SCALES
I don't know what is going on with Wade's brain, but even if I never set foot in this shop, he will say I'm back and I changed my mind about the Drake Scales. Okay...
Anyway, lets just give three scales, exit, come back, give the other three, exit, come back, and get the two set of armors. I did not want the better versions(you have to fast travel away from Denerim for that one, you can't just exit and come back), because I will not use them anyway. I just want to sell them.
After this, a quick trip into Orzammar to cure the poisoned girl and to get the fourth black vial. We are so powerful now, that things is no challenge at all.
We head back to Denerim to get the rune from Genetivi. I forgot to pick it up the last time I was here, so let's get it now.
15:25:35 WE BUY ANOTHER ARCANE TOME
The last one. It's all we need now. We pick Staff Focus.
NOW WE ARE READY FOR THE DEEP ROADS, AND TO NEVER PAUSE THE GAME AGAIN! THE BUILD IS BASCIALLY DONE!
Yeah, we need two more items, but we can manage without them until we get them. Let's go!
Sadly, Fire Ball will be mostly ignored after this point, since it is hard to aim with that thing without tactical pause. You served us well Fire Ball! And we will still use you when we need you...
Still, since we don't use tactical pause anymore, Friendly Fire will be more common from on. I apologize to my team in advance.
PART 3: https://www.strange-and-unusual-pukingking.com/post/dragon-age-origins-war-mage-combat-playthrough-time-stamps-tactics-part-3