If the ending involves Flemeth in some ass-kicking way, they get a pass from me, whatever it is.

Also, limited weapon options for rogues/warriors anger me. DAO was better in that regard, offered way more variety. If this game is supposed to be so fucking big, where's the Arcane Warrior? Where's the dagger&shield rogue? And finally, where's the dual axe warrior?

 

Fixed that for you.

 

They have something of an Arcane Warrior Class. Just called Knight Enchanter. THe reasoning for fewer specializations is that your specializations apparently make an impact on the plot now.

The main campaign should take players around 40 hours if you just speed through it, but if you explore every nook and cranny...do every sidequest...around 200 hours.

 

For the Arcane Warrior, it's explained. The only way to become an Arcane Enchanter is to take the knowledge from the soul-stone dude in the Brecilian Ruins. They were Elven mages turned warrior, just another thing lost when the Elves lost nearly everything. Plus, even if some of the elves knew about it do you think they would share that information, especially with non-elves?

Knight Enchanter seems like something similar, wait and see if it's like Arcane Warrior.

 

I'll believe it when I see it. Or rather play it. Because we all know that shit tends to be just marketing talk.

 

That specific method of fusing magic and martial skills in Origins was unique to the Brecilian elves, yes, but that doesn't mean no one else has ever tried to do it and made their own method. Actually I'd think it pretty stupid if the idea of a magic warrior was never attempted by anyone else.

 

Not to mention that you could kind of AW in DAII. It was all in stat distribution.

 

I'm pretty sure they explained why you didn't see more AW experimentation happening through the mage circles. The Templars were there to keep mages in check and only explore "safe" branches of magic. It actually makes a good amount of sense from the templars stand point, god forbid a mage turns into a shapeshifter and finds more ways to escape or an arcane warrior going around in armor. The only people you would find messing around with these various kinds of magic were the apostates who had fled the circle and were being hunted by the chantry, most of which were generally blood mages because at least people know that exists.

 

I'm also sure that the Chantry encourages the pursuit of magical combat research however, in order to fight the Qunari and such. I'm not saying it would be common or available to any mage, but I'd be surprised if it weren't attempted. Since your potential spellsword/Arcane whatever Mage character in Inquisition is an agent of the Chantry, I think they could feasibly receive the required permission to access that sort of magical research.

 

It has been stated that the Inquisition (and the Inquisitor) are separate from the Chantry entirely. You are commissioned by the Divine, but the goals of the Inquisition are entirely separate from the Chantry.

Wiki on Inquisition

Also on the Knight Enchanter...the method is entirely different from Arcane Warrior I believe. Whereas the Arcane Warrior is an augmentation of physical skills, it appears that the Knight Enchanter is more of a...shielding type. Like I would imagine the arcane warrior as the skillful warrior, while the Knight Enchanter is a hulk dps/Buffing type.

Knight Enchanter Summary Among the Circle, only a few mages have the strength of will necessary to focus their energy inward. Wrapped in protective magics and wielding blades of arcane force, the Knight Enchanters are rare, but inspiring sights as they lead the charge into enemy ranks.

Arcane Warrior Summary:
Among the ancient elves, there were mages who trained their magical arts to augment their martial prowess. They channeled magical power through their weapons and bodies, becoming terrors on the battlefield. Most consider these skills lost forever, but they may still linger in forgotten corners of the world. Arcane warriors may learn to use their magic score to satisfy the strength requirement to equip higher-level weapons and armor.

Edit: More info on Knight Enchanter

 

Nah. AWs in DAO weren't really skilled with weapons, gameplay-wise. They could only swing dat sword. Indeed, they were the hulking buffer. Near impossible to kill, pulled aggro, did decent damage with the wielded weapon and threw a fireball from time to time. The real strength of the AW was their ability to stack a ridiculous number of sustained spells, something that would cripple a conventional mage because it would reduce their mana pool for casting to basically nothing.

It actually sounds to me like this Knight Enchanter will be more of a kung-fu wizard guy.

"Different from AW" - I imagine that he meant different from the mainstream AW, which is what I described above. Even one of the trailers for DAO showed the Warden light up his sword and eyes with some magic-looking blue flame before hack'n'slashing some darkspawn. There was a big debate at one time if the trailer Warden was a Reaver or an AW. I don't even know what it settled on at last. Trailer Hawke was an obvious BM and the trailer Inquisitor is a 2H warrior.

Actually, now that I think about it - if you'll recall the Destiny Extended Trailer for DAII and Hawke's duel with Arishok. That's the best representation of what I want from a CQ warrior-mage. Not a mountain of plate armor, but more nimble, still spitting fire and ice, but also in-your-face.

edit: fuck, I haven't been to BSN in ages

 

So...this link indicates that he Knight Enchanter is going to be a like a Jedi Gandalf.

Blade of energy in left hand, staff in right.

 

Do want.

/10 char

 

The Warden from the trailer was confirmed as an Arcane Warrior, I believe.

 

With that chiseled jawline, he must have been slaying pussy back in the Tower of Magi, and that's before he ever got his tattoo.

I always thought personally he was looked more like the human noble avatar picture got a buzz cut and a tattoo and became a Spirit Warrior, with an initial Champion or Berserker/Reaver double class. Arcane Warrior never made any sense to me since you never see the trailerWarden flinging spells, and also just as a class, since having the strength to don armor and wield weapons doesn't necessarily transmit the skill to do it well.

Also, because Spellweaver looks like fucking garbage compared to Starfang or Vigilance.

 

That's not saying much - everything is garbage compared to those two (although imo they look rather goofy).

How many people do you think used a shield in Awakening just to use the Legion of the Dead heraldy? Letting the available gear decide your class for you is a mistake.

On that note, I'll reiterate that I'm really happy about what BioWare did with the armor system in DAI. Too many games suffer from Mismatched Armor Syndrome.

 

Almost all the DA weapons look like garbage. This series would benefit greatly from better art direction in general.

 

Been looking up the specializations... I honestly don't know what my MC should be...

I never play warriors, but Necromancer, Rift Mage, Assassin and Tempest all sound awesome...

 

So... specializations.

Knight Enchanter sounds all kinds of awesome. Dorian is a Necromancer and it deals with spirits, so it looks like the game's version of BM, though the lack of an official BM is sort of dissapointing. Rift Mage sounds similar to FM from DAII which is great because FM was the best mage spec, hands down.

Rogue has the standard Assassin, so it looks like glorious glass cannons are back. Now, Aritificer and Tempest sound very interesting. Remember how many times you used traps or poisons in either of the previous games? Exactly. If they're giving us two specs that focus directly on those, it could make for some interesting gameplay. Assuming Assassin doesn't just blow everything else out of the water, like it did in DAII.

For warriors, Templar was inevitable. Reaver appears to be the damage dealer spec and Champion the tank spec. Good diversity, but lack of something Berserker-like makes me a sad snowman. There was nothing quite like flying across the battlefield, disintegrating everything in sight at 1% of the speed of light.

In general, I'm feeling rather ambivalent about the whole focus thing instead of flat speed bonuses, like Momentum/Haste/Barrage/Fervor.

And let's not even go into limiting a character to only one spec...

 

The MC is pretty high up in the chantry, lol. Would be all kinds of awk to be a BM.

Leaning towards Assassin or Necromancer. Maybe I'll finally get bone spear back, but in a different game? Lol

#wishfulthinking