DO NOT PLAY A MAGE FIRST. When you do, you will never be able to play another class. It's unfortunate.

QFT. Dual weapon rogue is apparently OP in DA2, but I would never, ever, ever be able to give up my sexy mage powers. Especially spirit healer spec. That mass-revive has saved my ass more times than I can count. And the passive +100 fortitude skill in force mage specialization is rad too, no more not being able to cast because shades are batting me around like a cat toy problems.

Mind Blast -> Tempest -> Chain Lightning = u ded. Also, if Stonefist crits, it just, ruins whoever you hit with it. Blam! I couldn't tell you about the elemental tree, I gave that one to Anders. I felt like I'd be cheating on my lightning if I took any fire/ice spells.

(I am, of course, talking about DA2. But sexy magic powers are a constant "I'll never leave you, ever!" hook across any game for me.)

I find it rather funny that no one says anything if you pick and use bloodmagic, but they notice everyone else that uses it.

Okay, here's how it rolls in DA1. You, as a mage, are capable of summoning a giant whirling storm of death and destruction by combining Arcane Potency(Third tier talent in the Absorb Mana tree) with Tempest and Blizzard. This storm of destruction will then deal 100+ damage per tick to everything in range for a significant amount of time. You will be standing on the edge of said storm with Glyph of Repulsion up(And maybe Heroic Aura/Glyph of Warding if there are archers), hurling fireballs, chain lightning, and other similarly hilarious spells around.

Thanks to your oh-so-op Arcane Warrior spec, you will do so in some of the best armour in the game. If you are a spirit healer, you will combine your spellcasting abilities and ability to use armour and weapons with the same potency as a warrior with hilariously strong healing to become essentially unkillable. If you die, one of your other party members will rezz you. Including that one that has the giant sword made from metal from a meteor, is a warrior, and is capable of rezzing the -entire party- at -any time- to 50%+ health and mana. For free. On no cooldown.

(This is not unintended. The developers were warned that mages were too strong during testing and declared "Working as intended".)

I wondered if there were any repercussions for picking the blood magic spec, but not enough to give up the passive +100 fort in force mage and the OP heals of spirit healer. Funny that apparently no one cares.

It might have to do with what Duncan says during the Mage origin about how Wardens have turned to it in the past. I think there was a scene cut where Wynne would call you out on it at the end of the Circle of Magi quest, but I can't remember where I saw that so don't hold me to it until I find proof to back my claims.

Edit:


Dragon Age Wiki, near the bottom of the page.

Personally for me I couldn't get into the mages...too many choices just...mindboggled me. So I went dual wield warrior. Only character that I've actually finished the game with. :\\

I think it's time for a Dragon Age topic, guys.

I love my Emolga, but christ do I hate fighting against the computer-controlled ones. All they do is spam Double Team so I cannot land a hit on them. The fourth gym battle was an exercise in frustration against the duo of super-evasive-volt-switching Emolgas that JUST WOULDN'T DIE.

Emolga is a pain in the ass to fight against... but doesn't their evasion reset when they switch using Volt Tackle? I like my emolga, but I don't use it any more, it dies to easily to rock type moves, and a lot of the endgame bosses have rock type moves on like very pokemon. Right now, my party is an egg, Zekrom, Serperior, Krookodile, Darminatan, and Semipour... but I want to put Semipour in the box, he isn't a very good pokemon,and I know there are better water types. Depending on what hatches from the egg, I will probably switch it out for something, but no clue what yet.

I have a Palpitoad right now as my water type. And yeah, it resets, but I generally spent the turn they switched healing my poor guys who got wrecked by volt switch (which is not volt tackle! Emolga doesn't have volt tackle). Water/Ground is a really solid type combination, as long as you stay away from grass type moves.

I just finished the fourth gym, so I have Pignite (fire/fighting), Munna (psychic), Tranquill (normal/flying), Palpitoad (water/ground), Emolga (electric/flying), and Herdier (normal). Fighting Emolgas trips me up a little, but at this point in the game besides that I don't really encounter any type that I don't have at least one reliable way to take down. Herdier is pretty solid for a pure normal type; I generally don't stick with pure normals any longer than I need to, but he's pretty damn strong to be honest. He's my psychic-type counter with Crunch.

I want to learn Nightmare already so I can evolve my Munna. Stupid stone evolutions not learning moves after they evolve.

GENTLEMEN. BEHOLD! CORN WORKING POWER CABLES FOR MY LAPTOP. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Rave for my puppy being so adorable and sweet...she looks at me as a sleeping companion, a listener for all her complaints (house/cage, water, food, ventilation, toy, etc), a chew toy, a lollipop, a conversation partner, etc. It's my first time seeing a puppy that's as big as she is at 1 month and 14 days old..I'm too used to street mongrels with small puppies that can't even run as fast as Chione can, or bark and howl as loud and as active as she. I hope the 25th comes so that she can have her vaccine and then she can be allowed to roam around the house for brief periods as opposed to none right now.

You make me so tempted to snatch the next dog I see on the street to take home with me.

No stealing! I told you no stealing! D:

get a doggie! they are so adorable.

That's not what "rescue dog" means, Shou!

I don't know about Munna... they always seem to die so easily! I need a good psychic type though, so maybe if I am wrong...

I like Sigilyph, pretty good all around and with that delicious Magic Guard. Only problem is that it's Flying but special-based, so teaching it Fly is kinda meh.

Trying to decide whether to replace my Zebstrika with an adorable Joltik now.. It's so hard.

I finally got everything sorted out with my university back home, the extra courses I'm taking next year should count against the fourth year, which means I'd just need to take Thesis/regular Geog courses to be finished.