Tactics

[Amoramor]

I got DA yesterday, and I think it's epic, but I have some problems with the tactics menu.

 

It's not very nice when a single party member goes running towards a pack of enemies alone, starts making my healers busy and eventually dies.

 

The game never explained the use of the tactics menu properly, so could someone give a simple and clear explanation of its use? It would be very helpful.

[jamess1389]

Here's a pretty good explanation:

 

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/66...231735/1#639111

[caaustin]

What a great game…great characters, awesome dungeon crawls etc etc. I wanted to post this in another thread which really helped me come to grips with the tactics situation and made the game playable and incredibly enjoyable but I can’t post there so….

 

First, if you are not using tactics, you are not getting anything like the gameplay you should be. Tactics are key to the whole deal; the only way to see the chars showing off all their fat ninja moves and making short work of their foes. Second, the game as it ships is broken period. Sorry bioware. Luckily there are two brilliant, brilliant mods which fix it. You should really look into both Advanced Tactics by anikin and Dragon Age Mutator. These two mods fix the busts and take the game to the level it should be, I.E. state of the art. Maybe that opinion is extreme but you really do need the mods to make tactics work properly.

 

As far as tactics setup, once you understand how to sequence you will open up a vast realm of possibility and it’s actually pretty simple-or as complex as you like. A very simple setup breaks down into three sections and looks like this looks like this:

 

Section one- conditions which must be checked, in order of importance. First and foremost should always be self: health< 50%.......use health poltice (least first or strongest first makes a difference, try both). Don’t go below 50% or it may not implement in time. Mages check their mana level in this section also. Then check combat status. All chars enter combat in ranged mode as you will see, so you need a way to shift them from ranged to aggressive and to melee weps. Its good to key off Morrigan for this since she is always targeted aggressively and once she comes under melee attack then all chars should be in melee/aggressive mode or at least all warrior types. So, Morrigan: under melee attack….switch to weapon set I/II (wherever you keep your melee weps). Implement a key here to switch to aggressive mode as well. Chars should have a self key here also but often mobs will run right by say Allistair to get at Morrigan so if he self keys he may stay ranged longer than he should. You get the idea.

 

Section two-deals with actions once a target has been acquired. Here is where you string all your chars sexy moves, this is the fun part. It looks like this. Self: using ranged attack….use ability(shattering shot for example). Set up all your ranged abilities then do a string of Self: using melee(or magic) attack….use ability. (Buffs can be turned on conditionally in this section if you haven’t turned then on in section one with Self:any.)

 

Section three is the “red section” and controls target acquisition. All red statements should be here, at the bottom of the list except the one which returns everyone to ranged mode at the close of battle. Statements like Enemy:highest health…attack or Enemy:target of Morrigan….attack or Enemy: attacking Morrigan… attack. Put them in order of importance and always end with the Enemy: any…attack, condition, that way if the char gets hung up for any reason it will always pick some target.

 

All three sections have their ins and outs and this is where the fun, and the art lays. Lastly end up all tactics with the statement Self: game mode exploration…behavior ranged. This means that after an encounter all chars switch back to their ranged set and behavior so the fun can begin again.

 

Try to save just before set piece battles so you can repeat them and observe behavior to make tweaks. Once your party can efficiently butcher a revenant in difficult mode without your having to step in then you are ready to unplug the phone and get ready for epic gaming, The Deep Roads is just an experience to be savored, I mean SHEESH.

 

Most encounters can be dealt with by having one good, carefully tweaked tactics set in place. Certain things (like dragon slaying....woop woop) require special tactics.

 

Note of interest, it is possible to select two or three party members at a time by using shift key.

 

Enter tactics menu in battle (pauses action) and disable tactics for a member if you want to direct them to do something ( like, Oh, repair ballistas maybe ;-p) without their being distracted.

 

Hope this will give some people a good start in tactics, here’s to ya.

 

P.S. Some people will reply that microing is the only way to go and I understand that sentiment . However a truly tight tactics team is a joy to behold and will result in some epic and often surprising battles- try it, you may find you like it and you can always micro at any time by just hitting the target button and over riding tactics for any party member.

[Amoramor]

Wow, thanks. I can see you've put some effort to this. :)

 

About the mods... do they change the game alot? I just started it a few days ago and I don't want to change stuff too much.

[caaustin]

Wow, thanks. I can see you've put some effort to this. :)

 

About the mods... do they change the game alot? I just started it a few days ago and I don't want to change stuff too much.

The tactics mod is pretty strictly tactics related tweaks. DA Mutator offers a bunch of game tweaks but includes a menu where you can tick only what you want to use. They are both well built, well implemented, well documented and not buggy. No huge game breaking changes.

[Amoramor]

I guess I'll look into those, thanks.