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Dragon Age: Awakening 
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Minor Diety
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
Damn man, where do you even find the time?! I spend almost every non-weekend day running left and right. :( Between my commuting (around 1.15h back and 1.15h forth) and my nightly activities (girl on wed, football yesterday, squash today, quiz tomorrow) I barely have any time left on normal weekdays. :(

I haven't forged one of the special weapons yet. Are they cool? I think I might have to actually create a run for use in one of them. Luckily Anders is good at that stuff. :)

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Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:34 am
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
yea, at least 2 of the special weapons requite a run be crafted. The weapons/armor are pretty good, though... tier 9 with great stats, plus sockets. I never actually put any runes in anything, though. The rune-crafting is stupid. I like the idea, but the fact you have to start out at novice, use 2 to make journeyman, then 2 journeyman to make expert, then 2 expert to make master, then 2 master to make grandmaster... then masterwork, then paragon... it's ridiculously complicated, time consuming, and expensive. Plus you can only buy the crafting utilities in the keep, but anders is my rune smith... so I have to remember the components I need, go into the keep, buy them, go back outside the keep and grab anders, have him craft and, if I forgot something, go back inside again and repeat. It's stupid.

It would be less of a problem if you could find high-level runes pre-made around the world. If regular adventuring were to net you 5 grandmaster fire runes, turning those into masterwork and then a paragon rune wouldn't be such a big deal. But you don't really. Plus there's some confusion as to where to get all the tracings and whatnot. *shrug*

Time... I don't have much time. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I have work, then a bit of time, then school, and usually that 'bit of time' is spent eating and doing homework. Weekends are spent being social, cooking, going grocery shopping, etc. I also squeeze exercise into my free time, plus more homework and studying. Taking a programming and math class together sucks... I'm so burned out on studying. Without school, it's not so bad.

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Fri Apr 09, 2010 6:56 am
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
I have the same problem with Anders being Rune Dude and me having to run in and out the castle to get him to do it. Annoying and a stupid design flaw, one that they could easily fix too. But minor problem really.

Finished the game on Sunday (see below) and didn't even craft one of the special weapons btw. :( Not because I didn't want to take the time/bothered too, but because I'd lost some seemingly unimportant items that were needed to craft them. Things like catgut, wool padding, etc. I must have destroyed or lost them somewhere along the way, thinking they were 'stock' items for crafting that could be bought again...guess not. I mean when it's shit like a dragon egg I know that it's worth something, but catgut? Sheesh. :)

I really liked Kal-Hirol...the dungeon/quest was just right in length and had a great deal of atmosphere to it with the ghostly scenes and Dwarven memories. I lol'ed at the whole "omg don't rush the front door it'll be the death of us" btw - I rushed in, whacked the darkspawn, all 6 golems and the Golem Master. I won't say it was easy, but nothing insurmountable either. Then I whacked the big huge golem at the end you mentioned. Basically I let Rinox go toe to toe with the bastard while Sigrun (god I love her), Oghren and Anders pwnt the Disciple. Anders paralyzed him and I unleashed Sigrun's "endless flurry' or something on the git - down to 20% of max health in 5 seconds. :D It's an amazing skill. I think it's the 4th tier of the new 'tree' under two weapon fighting - not sure. Oh and I get what you meant now about constantly seeing insane damage numbers. The highest I've seen was Sigrun with a Final Strike: 1024 or something! Pretty crazy.

Anyway, after clearing that the nobles came to my fortress and it was clear the endgame was about to start. I tied up a few loose ends, spent 30 minutes getting my favorite 4-man party all kitted out with the 1337est stuff I had and got going. I went to Amaranthine and when I got there the head of the guard told me all was lost and that the city was pretty much beyond saving. So I took the (hard) decision to burn it down...I felt and feel really bad about that, but if I was going to stop the darkspawn and simultaneously save Vigil's Keep it was the only choice. And I figured I could trust the local commander's judgement on the direness of the situation.

So I hightailed back to the keep and defended it without too many problems. The Seneschal died (in a bit of a forced dramatic fashion) but the walls weren't breached and we sucessfully fended off the attack. Then it was time to go on the attack! I pwnt the dragon (almost easy by now) and met the Architect and his sidekick, listened him out and was tempted to go with his plans, but in the end decided that I didn't trust him enough/thought the whole "drinking Grey Warden blood" thing was a bit much to swallow. So I killed him...he was surprisingly tough. Then it was on to Mother, who was a bit weird: as long as you focus on the body and ignore the tentacles, it's easy, but for every tentacle you whack you get swamped by a wave of Children. So I just kept the heat on Rinox and whittled away the Mother's health. One of the harder fights but no reloads needed.

Then it was over rather abruptly. It's a bit of a shame that there was no true epilogue à la Origins, but at least the whole "what happened afterwards" thing was pretty cool. Overall, great expansion to a great game. One minor gripe is that everything was a LOT easier. I remember playing on Hard in Origins and really struggling. In Awakening it was almost always a joke - but the fact that I had a healer this time may be related to that.

So what'd you do? Save Amaranthine? Vigil's Keep? Made a deal with the Architect? I think I know the answers already. ;)

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Mon Apr 12, 2010 2:41 am
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
you probably didn't lose the items... they're not in your normal inventory, they're in your quest items inventory. :roll: So you probably had them and didn't realize it.

Glad you finished, and I'm not too surprised on your choices for the endgame. On Satiseus (my dwarf noble) I chose the same as you... I brunt down Ameranthine, defended Vigil's keep, and kacked the architect. Who is indeed quite difficult. I had issues with the mother as well. *shrug*

With Satisia, I chose differently... I saved Ameranthine and helped the Architect, which makes for an interesting ending. The end stories for the various companions differed between one ending and the other as well, though most likely that has more to do with how far I brought their companion quests then my endgame choices.

Whose quests did you complete? I failed to complete the dead guy's because I couldn't find his stupid woman in Ameranthine. Also failed to complete Ohgren.. I was basically waiting for him to confide in me about his brat or something, but it never happened. *shrug*


At any rate, I'm through playing for awhile. I may run my final person through in a month or three, I don't know. I wonder if the next DA will be a continuation of the story, or a new story with new people.

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Mon Apr 12, 2010 6:51 am
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
I think you'll play as a new character but will be able to import a save with all the major choices you made to affect the world of DA2. The main 'thing' at the end of DA:O is Morrigan leaving the protagonist and vanishing into the woods, and every version (you slept with her, Allistair slept with her, no one slept with her) gives the same text ("it appeared as if she was with child") so they can build on that storyline.
And at the end of Awakening I felt they were being pretty 'final' about the destiny of the Hero of Ferelden (ie you).


It might be interesting to play Awakening with a new character, because you play an Orlesian grey warden instead of the Hero of Ferelden if you do. The same if your character from DA:O is dead.

lol @ the items being quest items. Yes, that's likely what happened. :roll: You won't believe how many merchants I checked, I even re-did the Wending Wood to look for anything I accidentally dropped. Dammit! Meh, at least i know it now for next time - thanks. I knew I didn't put that dragon egg anywhere but my inventory or personal stash at the keep, but couldn't find it...this makes sense.

I completed Justice - he has a rather poetic ending, too. I think the woman is in the Temple of Andraste after she runs away at the Keep. Completed Anders and Nathaniel too, but not Oghren (I think). Sigrun was a weird case...when i first met her I gave her the 'blank journal' gift and she shot from 50 to 100 approval in one go. But it didn't prompt a "cut scene" nor did the blank journal disappear from my inventory. If I wanted to give it again she refused it, as with any gift that's "personal". I never made her a grey warden either - I was supposed to talk to the Senschal about it after Kal-Hirol but when I came back all he wanted to talk about was the final battle(s). :( You know what happened to the Druid elf. :roll: Did you give Anders Ser Pounce-a-Lot in yiour second run? :bow: *MEOW*

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Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:12 am
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
I don't necessarily agree that Awakening finishes the hero of Ferelden. It mentions that you soon left Vigil's keep, but doesn't really say much beyond that. On Satisia I went off to have adventures with Liliana... I forget specifically what it said about my dward. Regardless, I could see that continuing... though I doubt it will. You're just too damned powerful at that point.

Yes, I gave anders ser pounce-a-lot. I also used it once or twice. :roll: Kinda a lame power, to be honest, but it was better than having to reload a particularly difficult fight. When I finally replay my third time, I'll probably hit sigrun and then justice so I have max time to complete their quests. But that won't be for quite some time.

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Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:47 pm
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Post Re: Dragon Age: Awakening
Hehe, kk. And you're probably right about the Hero's story not necessarily being over. :)

I just checked my final save for quest items in the inventory...and lo and behold, there were the catgut, oil, wool padding etc. :roll: Of course I never carried the other 'common' parts around so I never got the option to craft them with Master Wade.

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Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:25 am
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