Just getting DA and looking for pointers

[toot033]

Hi all,
Its been a while ( real life came in wearing steel toes 'nuff said) and was wondering about some pointers for this game.
Should I get the 1.03 patch? It looks from posts to be buggy.
Any pointers on 1st build? I'll need to look at the build structure once I install it.
I see that you can add mods. Are there any that are must have and if so where so they go and what is the best sit to down load them from?
Thanks again and hopefully won't be a stranger ( back RL.. sit...stay.... good RL here's a cookie!).

[Gabrielles blades]

hrm, tips of ease of killing:
Force field is probably the most powerful spell in the game. use it on enemy spell casters, or on whomever is just about to die.
healing spells are also very potent, if you have both magic users in your party healing a tank it is very unlikely for you to die.

tactics: if you are facing too many foes at once, try to use the narrowness of doors to limit the number of attackers or to force their ranged attackers to move back into line of sight where you might have planted traps.

as far as powerful builds go, i find that a magic user gets the most dps at lower levels from chain casting the elemental single target spells, so dip into each of the elements to get atleast 3 spells to chain. This you can do effectively until you reach higher levels where you might want to instead chain cast area effect spells while leaving either a repulsion ward or a force field protected character to keep them inside the area of effect.

hmm, tactics for the non magic wielding party though....
thats really difficult i would say since it seems as though mages are the only class with any real versatility to them tactically. Sure warriors and rogues do have some small variance, but no where near the range of a mage.
So, i would say a 2 handed warrior is better than a duel wielding warrior in any situation where you might be getting stunned or bull rushed a lot; ie against a lot of archers or an ogre. A shield warrior is only good if you have someone else doing the dps because they basically have no dps.
a Rogue is very potent if always used from behind but quite pathetic in any other manner (which is of course to be expected) Aside from that - dexterity enough to duel wield with momentum + all the rest into cunning + the stunning moves + assassin stuff equals dead stuff really fast.

[Greything]

I tend to play solo or with one companion at most so my comments are in that context.

Dual-wielding cunning based Rogue using daggers and with with momentum and duelling as sustained abilities probably deals out the best dps in the game as well as being hard to hit.

The dual-wielding warrior hits almost as hard but has the advantage of heavy/massive armour and so is generally better at riding out stuns and knockdowns.

Both are weak in the initial stages but come into their own at higher levels.

Arcane warrior is a good build at mid-levels but runs out of power later and, for me at least, has proved a disaster in DA Awakenings.

PS. I stopped playing two-handed weapon users. They are slow and I got wiped out too often by mobs before I could even make a swing.

[Cloudbringer]

Forcefield and paralyze were my best weapons-magically. My dual-wielders also kicked some serious badguy butt.

I agree with you on the PS. Greything! Seems like a great idea, big ol' twohanded sword or axe... but those were the characters I had go down the most easily/frequently.

Very much enjoyed my arcane warrior character but I found I still leaned toward the magic end and less toward the in the thick of things battling.

[toot033]

OK I guess I'll modify the one build I've started to use 2 handers. Sigh now if there was a way to get those points back ( granted he's on lvl 2).
Can anyone tell me how to have some hold hold their postion and not go charging into battle? I'm trying to escape the dwarven crime lord ( barak?) and would really like to have his friend hold his postion and strafe with arrows, but he keeps running into combat. Any hints on how to do this?
Over all I like it - the only complatin I have is the zoom funciton does not work on the mouse but I have seen posts on the EA site regarding this. not a deal breaker.