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URN OF SACRED ASHES vs ORZAMMAR
While the Urn of Sacred of Ashes should be next (story-wise), it can be extremely difficult, depending on your class, skills/powers, weapons/armor, party makeup and tactics. I realize you could apply that criteria to any battle, but Andrea, Tawmis and I recently had a very long conversation about that quest. We all differed in our approaches and Tawmis felt the quest was difficult (and one part necessitated multiple attempts) whereas I found it fairly easy and did it in one shot.

We know you're level 14 right now (which sounds extremely low to me right now, but I've finished Origins, Awakening and Witch Hunt, so my level is 34), but what class are you -- Warrior or Rogue? Which companions do you usually bring with you on quests? Which specializations (at this point you should have two) do you and your companions have?

In Orzammar, the Deep Roads are very, very long and to be honest, somewhat draining and depressing. It's not a bad area, but it's underground and the fighting seems to go on forever. The good part is that there is some political unrest (that you help to sort out) and some really neat stuff to do inside the city itself. Plus, if you're romancing Leliana, I believe you can buy her a Nug there, which is a special character-only gift. Her reaction and the name she gives it is quite amusing.

Last but not least, you'll gain Oghren, a crude (but very funny) Dwarf who's a two-handed fighter. His specialization is Berserker, which can be useful for some characters, like Sten.

Here's what I think: Go to Orzammar, grab Oghren and do the quests there. It'll be a long journey, but you'll have gained a new party member, possibly a new specialization to take yourself or give to someone else and have accumulated a lot of experience. Being at a higher level can come in handy during the Urn of Sacred Ashes.

One note: be very careful with your decisions during the UoSA quest. You can make a decision that causes both Leliana and Wynn (if they're with at the time) to attack you. The choice you'd have to make to do that will be obvious, if you've paid attention to their personalities.

EXTRA STUFF
Oh and if you like Sten, download this mod. Unlike everyone else in the game (including you) who gets two specializations, Sten only gets one for some unknown reason. This mod will fix that.

I'd also recommend this mod, as it gives you a recipe to make stamina potions. For some reason BioWare didn't put in stamina potions in Origins (they added them in Awakening), which can get very frustrating if you and your party use a lot of stamina-draining abilities. It's not overpowered either, since Mages get mana potions.

Since we're talking about opinions, DPX, care to share your final thoughts on Awakening and Witch Hunt?

AndreaDraco wrote:Since we're talking about opinions, DPX, care to share your final thoughts on Awakening and Witch Hunt?

I don't feel like making a long, in-depth post, so here are my thoughts in list format:

AWAKENING
+ Characters weren't too bad; I liked Justice, Nathaniel and Sigrun the best.
+ Tons of options during the story, including the ability to make official decisions.
+ Lots of new items, many of which were really good.
+ I liked the Architect a lot.
+ New powers and specializations!

- Buggy as all hell. It froze and crashed on me multiple times. Plus, there's that bug that strips you of all of items in the Silverite Mines. The only way around it is to remove your items and put them in your inventory.
- Velanna. She's a bitch, plain and simple.
- No Mabari Warhound.
- Oghren's approval was reset, but the game acted as his approval rating was the same as in Origins when giving him gifts.

This isn't a plus or a minus, but I wish there had been an option to remove some weapons and armor off my companions after completing the game. I could do this in Origins, so I hadn't considered the option wouldn't be there in Awakening.

WITCH HUNT
+ My Mabari Warhound is back!
+ Ariane. I really liked her.
+ I got to kill elves!
+ The new Templar commander in the Mage Tower. He was pretty cool and laid back. He actually looked like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, Where Are You?.
+ Seeing Morrigan again.
+ Learning that Morrigan's child was a boy. I'm not sure if that'll be important later on, but it's interesting to note.

- Finn.
- Extremely short.
- Very costly for the amount of game time available.
- No Rogue party member (which sucks if you're not a Rogue yourself).
- Seeing Morrigan again for ONLY a few minutes! Even worse, whatever you say doesn't make a difference; the game gives options to say things that could apply to ALL endings in Origins, with the exception of turning down her offer at the end.

Again, not a plus or a minus, but WH allowed me to take a FOURTH specialization. I'm not sure if that was intentional or a bug. After having previously chosen Arcane Warrior, Spirit Healer and Battlemage, I didn't have anything I really wanted to take. For the hell of it, I grabbed Blood Mage for the stat bonuses, but that's all.

DeadPoolX wrote:Plus, there's that bug that strips you of all of items in the Silverite Mines. The only way around it is to remove your items and put them in your inventory.

Maybe I understand this the wrong way...

I mean: when the Architect captures you, you are supposed to loose all your equipment and find it only later on

What did you do about the final choice with the Architect?

AndreaDraco wrote:

DeadPoolX wrote:Plus, there's that bug that strips you of all of items in the Silverite Mines. The only way around it is to remove your items and put them in your inventory.

Maybe I understand this the wrong way...

I mean: when the Architect captures you, you are supposed to loose all your equipment and find it only later on

What did you do about the final choice with the Architect?

There's a bug in the Silverite Mines that occurs to some people when the Architect captures you. If the bug happens, you'll permanently lose ALL of your equipped items. The only way to prevent this is to take off ALL of your equipment and place them in your inventory. You'll lose them too when captured, but you can easily regain them later on inside a chest.

Some people say this bug occurs to some classes and/or some equipment, but not others. It's all based on which class the experimental subjects are.

I know it happened to me (apparently Arcane Warriors have this problem a lot since we wear armor, but are still identified as a Mage), but this also happened to Maia. That's weird since she was a Rogue and that's one of the three basic classes available.

As for the Architect himself... I sided with him. My party, particularly Sigrun, didn't like that I did that, but I was able to persuade them. I think the Architect's ideas made a lot of sense. He was smart, appeared honest (we'll see later on if he affects DA2 somehow) and kept his word. Anything that'd delay or eradicate another Blight seemed good in my book.

OK, I understand. I wasn't aware of that bug, since it didn't happen to me (luckily).

Perhaps it's best if you move Awakening-related discussions to the appropriate thread.

Rath Darkblade wrote:

Andrea Draco wrote:Oh, and I killed Flemeth. (But next time I probably won't try).

Why?

Because (to me, at least) the battle with the Dragon she becomes was extremely tough. (I had with me Alistair, Wynne & Leliana). Leliana died first, followed by my character. I had a REALLY tough time keeping Alistair alive. And, it wouldn't matter that much (quest-wise) if I kill Flemeth or let her go, because she gives me her grimoire anyway.

DeadPoolX wrote:URN OF SACRED ASHES vs ORZAMMAR

I've already done the Urn of Sacred ashes quest.

DeadPoolX wrote:We know you're level 14 right now (which sounds extremely low to me right now, but I've finished Origins, Awakening and Witch Hunt, so my level is 34), but what class are you -- Warrior or Rogue? Which companions do you usually bring with you on quests? Which specializations (at this point you should have two) do you and your companions have?

My character is Warrior, with two specialisations - Templar and (thanks to awakening the arl of Redcliffe) Champion.

I usually bring Alistair, Leliana and Wynne along with me. Alistair is Warrior, with two Templar specialisations. Leliana is Rogue, with one Bard specialisation and one Duelist specialisation. Wynne is a Mage, with a Spirit Healer specialisation and... I guess the second one is also Spirit Healer. *shrug* That gives me two good tanks, a good healer and a rogue who can also cast buffer spells. Oh, and both Alistair and I took weapon-and-shield skills.

DeadPoolX wrote:One note: be very careful with your decisions during the UoSA quest. You can make a decision that causes both Leliana and Wynn (if they're with at the time) to attack you. The choice you'd have to make to do that will be obvious, if you've paid attention to their personalities.

Yes. Obviously I wouldn't defile Andraste's ashes, since I have both Leliana AND Wynne with me.

Rath Darkblade wrote:Alistair is Warrior, with two Templar specialisations.

[snip]

Wynne is a Mage, with a Spirit Healer specialisation and... I guess the second one is also Spirit Healer. *shrug*

Okay, this doesn't make sense.

You can't take the SAME specialization twice. Even if you could (which you can't), it'd make no sense at all. Once a specialization is taken, you gain access to all of that specialization's abilities.

Do you mean two powers?

Rath Darkblade wrote:Leliana is Rogue, with one Bard specialisation and one Duelist specialisation.

Question: is Leliana focusing in dual-wielding or archery? If it's the latter, duelist is useless.

Also, since Leliana comes with some archery skills already active, most people have her concentrate on long-range combat. She can do melee, but in general people leave that to Zevran. I know I did and from what I've read other places online, so do most people.

I suppose you could have her do both, but then it's highly unlikely she'll max out either skill line. It's better to gain all of the skills in one area when it comes to Warriors and Rogues.

Rath Darkblade wrote:That gives me two good tanks, a good healer and a rogue who can also cast buffer spells. Oh, and both Alistair and I took weapon-and-shield skills.

If I may make a suggestion, you might to try the following:

1 two-handed Warrior, 1 long-range Rogue and 1 Mage OR 1 long-range Rogue and 2 Mages OR 1 melee Rogue, 1 long-range Rogue and 1 Mage. I'm not counting you in the group because you obviously have to be there.

The reason I say that is because you're already a sword-and-shield Warrior. While there's nothing wrong with having two classes that are the same (I had both Leliana and Zevran with me), a different setup might be more beneficial.

Two-handed Warriors have some very different abilities and often hit much harder. Having two Mages mean one can concentrate on healing/buffs/debuffs and the other can deal damage.

No matter what you have, ALWAYS have a Rogue with you. They're invaluable. In fact, in some cases they're better than Warriors since they're versatile and can deal an incredible amount of damage very quickly if they're dexterity is pumped up.

DeadPoolX wrote:The reason I say that is because you're already a sword-and-shield Warrior. While there's nothing wrong with having two classes that are the same (I had both Leliana and Zevran with me), a different setup might be more beneficial.

I agree.

Rath, two warriors focused on Sword and Shield are redundant... And who deals the damage if you have two tanks and a healer (Wynne)? Poor Leliana can't do much on her own, especially if you have her as an archer.

I'd suggest adding Zevran (dual-wielding rogue), Sten (two-handed warrior) or Oghren (same as Sten) and removing Alistair.

Beside, if you already completed the Arl of Redcliffe line of quests you know everything you have to about Alistair

One thing I've gotta say is that I had Leliana as an archer and she did a ton of damage. She doesn't start out strong, but later on in the game she hits really hard. Even if you feel archers don't contribute much in the damage department, they're good for distracting and stunning the enemy, especially if they use scattershot.

In my opinion, archers aren't really useful until you get to Awakening and to the Accuracy talent (example: a single shot by Nathaniel does 145-150 if his Dexterity is maxed out). However, you're absolutely right about Scattershot. It's a pain

AndreaDraco wrote: Rath, two warriors focused on Sword and Shield are redundant... And who deals the damage if you have two tanks and a healer (Wynne)? Poor Leliana can't do much on her own, especially if you have her as an archer.

See, this is where it comes to playing style again. I had both my warrior (first play through) and "A" focus on Sword and Shield. Why? Because you could keep using the Shield Bash (or whatever the skill's called) to keep stunning opponents. So if they both do it - they can both continue to stun. And one can stun in the event one gets knocked down (or "dies"). And if you keep taunt turned on (either of them, or both of them), it's not going to make the aggro slip from them (and if it does, shield bash and stun them again).

Fair enough. With two tanks with Threaten and Taunt you're sure that monsters will almost never target your weakest party members, like rogues or mages. But unless you bring with you a mage geared toward damage-dealing (with just a splash of healing), your rogue can't possibly do enough damage to bring down the most resilient enemies, like a Revenant or the like.

AndreaDraco wrote:Fair enough. With two tanks with Threaten and Taunt you're sure that monsters will almost never target your weakest party members, like rogues or mages. But unless you bring with you a mage geared toward damage-dealing (with just a splash of healing), your rogue can't possibly do enough damage to bring down the most resilient enemies, like a Revenant or the like.

That's why I was a bit redundant as you might say. My typical party was Me, "A", "M" and Wynne.

Me and A do the damage and taunt, M splashes down whatever damaging spells she has, Wynne keeps us healed.

When the house is all cleaned up. Go get "Z" or "L" - and pick whatever locks we couldn't get opened originally.

Such was the way with my warrior as my character.

As my Mage, it was very different...

I think Taunt and Threaten are very useful when it comes to long-range Rogues. It's been my experience that a Rogue with all archery talents and high dexterity will do MORE damage than ANY other class, including Mages. Obviously, the Mage will do more damage if you cast huge area effect spells, like Blizzard. But for the most part, I've found Rogues do more damage per attack than anyone else.

Leliana actually drew so much attention from enemies that I gave her the Ranger talent. I know some people think that specialization is worthless, but summoning a wolf, bear or spider kept her covered. That allowed the rest of us to concentrate on the enemy instead of babysit her.