Rawr

[zillah975]

Help?



So, I'm in the keep facing down the Arishok. Isabella has screwed me over, I don't have Fenris with me, and the Arishok is totally not offering me a one-on-one duel, so me and my party of Aveline, Varric, and Anders (plus my not-as-awesome-as-in-DAO dog) have to defeat seven thousand Qunari and their never-ending supply of mages. (Okay, the seven thousand is an exaggeration, but I die just as efficiently as if it weren't.)

I've fought this battle five times now and can't win. Any tips? I've set the tactics up so that each party member should use a healing potion if they fall too low without getting a heal from Anders, but the cooldown time on both healing and stamina/mana potions is screwing me badly. I've been switching back and forth between my Rogue!Hawke and Anders to try to keep Anders alive when I need him to switch to full-on healing mode, I've set the difficulty level to "casual", I'm trying to kill all the Qunari mages as soon as I can find the fuckers, but they keep popping up all the way across the battlefield and smacking my party down with those fucking lightning things or whatever they are.

I completed all the quests I could find so I think I'm leveled as high as I can get for this fight, and I just have no idea how I'm supposed to win this.

Anyone?

For now, I think I'm going to clean the kitchen. It will be much more fun than this battle.

Comments

[twist_shimmy]

Sadly, my suggestion would be go back far enough to change your party and also bring some lifeward potions with. I sodding hated that battle.

I hated it so much I gave Isabela to the qunari when she came back with the book. My Hawke was, uh. More than a little upset with her. She happened to like the viscount's son.

[zillah975]

I'm so pissed at Isabella that I've gone back to an old save in hopes of getting her friendship up enough that she'll come back with the book and I can hand her over to the Qunari myself -- or at least level up more and get better equipment so I can win the battle before I throw up my hands in despair and uninstall the game.

[nagia]

Supposedly the group battle is easier, but I've never found that to be true.

I would suggest cheating like a cheating cheater, if you're on PC: enable the console and enter runscript zz_dae_debug, then clear your party and add anyone you want. (You can even fill your party and add Anders on top -- but you won't be able to control him.)

Failing that, my suggestion is micromanage, micromanage, micromanage. Have Aveline tank anything truly annoying. Or, you know, everything. Pause often to make sure she's using Taunt whenever possible. If you can, have Anders (and Varric, if he's got the Rain Of Arrows ability) lay down AoEs whenever possible.

[zillah975]

Oh, I've never seen that script thingy before. I'll have to investigate that.

Meantime, I've gone back to an old save and in hopes of being able to betray Isabella the way she betrayed me. \o/

[nagia]

While you're at it, if you can't use potions and you've got the Console enabled, try runscript healplayer. it will heal your entire party up to full health and can be run entirely while paused -- you can just pause the game, run the script, and unpause when your team is back up to full health.

[zillah975]

O________O

I could not love you more right now. THANK YOU.

[nagia]

I live to serve!

[sleepyowlet]

Set the dds to "hit enemy with lowest hp" - this way they will quickly kill singular opponents and not attack multiple ones. A dead enemy can't deal damage anymore.
I had no probs with the exact same setup you are using. Ignore the big guy and kill the others as quickly as possible. As soon as they stop coming (and eventually they will), concentrate on the Arishok.

If one of your characters is close to dying, take control of them and run around until the cooldown of the potion is over, take potion, continue as usual.

[zillah975]

*nodsnods* See, I had that set-up, and still no joy. And whenever I take control of one character, the cooldown period keeps me running around so long that one or more of the others get themselves killed. I must be screwing up the tactics somehow but I can't figure out how.

I'm so annoyed with Isabella, though, that I've abandoned this path and retreated to an old save in hopes of getting her friendship up enough that she'll come back with the book and I can hand her traitorous butt over to the Qunari. Grrrr.

Or at least level up more and get better equipment so I may have a better chance of winning the battle.

[sleepyowlet]

Forgot something - make sure you get Sarebaas first. And it doesn't really matter if you level more - your enemies level with you.

What class are you playing? My Hawke was a DD mage, and as I said, I didn't find that battle terribly hard.

[sephiaz]

The key for me to beating this on my first run was to put the entire party on HOLD, and the moment the battle began, run all of them into the corner up against the ledge. Except for a few spear-throwing Qunari, everything else (including the saarebas) will come down the stairs and into the corner with you, allowing Aveline to taunt more effectively, and everything to be within reach of any AoE the party uses. It makes all the difference in control - I wiped 3 times trying to figure out how to manage that fight, but the first time I LoS'd them into the corner, I had little trouble.

If your PC is a rogue, save all your big hits (Assassinate, Twin Fangs, that badass duelist backstab whose name I can't remember) for when you see a mage - your rogue should be able to take them out solo on casual before they can do much (if any) damage. Focus-firing the mages is key, because while rounding up all the Qunari in the corner helps with aggro management, it also makes the entire party sitting ducks for the really nasty Tempest the mages cast.

Just a note - the one-on-one duel can be just as troublesome for a dual-wield rogue. My first run, I couldn't beat him one-on-one at all - I was assassin-specced and got nearly one-shotted any time I got within melee range. My solution for this was to spec primarily into Duelist, making sure to get all the defense bonuses from the sustained spell and the passive bonuses. I also switched out a few tanking items with Fenris before going in to the throne room, so my health pool was pretty decent. I still needed to use potions whenever they were up (stamina is really tricky during this duel too), and do some kiting, but it was all but trivial on Casual - I'm pretty sure I could beat him on at least normal taking this route.

[zillah975]

That is terrific advice, thank you!! I never thought about getting my whole party into the corner. Once they're there, do you put them on Hold Position, or change their tactics to more defensive than aggressive? Mine keep charging headlong into the thick of things every time I let go of them.

[sephiaz]

I kept them on hold - that way no one could wander off. I moved Aveline a little closer to the edge of the stairs so she could catch everything with a taunt when it came close enough, and since I had Fenris along for the ride, I moved him up with her. I left his tactics as they were, but I turned Taunt off (I usually use him as a 2H tank) so that Aveline would draw all the aggro and soak up most of the damage.

Anders was tucked way back in the corner, and to be safe, I kept him in Panacea the entire time and turned off all his offensive tactics - took longer to kill everything, but he stayed out of trouble that way!

I paused a lot to watch for the mages, but it's a lot easier to keep track of them when you're looking out from the corner. Then I took control of the rogue and went after them.

[visser]

If you can get to a save where you can change your party, grab Fenris, then go to the Black Emporium (If you got the Signature Edition, if not, ignore this paragraph), get some Maker's Sigh and get points in "back to back" for your rogue- it saved Anders' butt quite a few times. I also made my rogue a Duelist/Assassin, because Back to Back, followed by Throw the Gauntlet? Instant mage ass saver.

That being said... you might stand a chance dueling the Arishok as a Rogue. I wouldn't know how that fight went, because my rogue didn't have Fenris- she hated him. Lacerate and Dueling modes should help a LOT. That extra defense plus a bleed? (And you can use your dog in the duel, too!) Does pretty nice damage and if you have enough points in it, your rogue doesn't take a lot of damage- my rogue solo'ed the Varterral and made it out with 50% health. (Blaming Anders for refusing to heal because he was all "RAWWRRRRR JUSTICEEEEEE RAWRRRRR")

Also, if you have Sebastian or Varric in your party, it REALLY helps to edit their tactics to target magic using enemies first- they both hit clothies like Mac Trucks. Be prepared to heal them a lot, though- Seb and Varric tend to pull aggro off Aveline like MAD with the damage they do. Seb is squishier than Varric- he also doesn't RUN AWAY if he's being targeted, unlike Varric..... /ramble

At least you're not playing a mage. Yes, a mage may be able to control the FUCK out of the crowd (Pyromancer Force mage? YES PLEASE INSTANT FLAMING FLOOR KISSING), but a mage cannot beat the Arishok. I tried- even on casual and FFFFF that sexy bastard hits like a TRUCK. By kiting him around the pillars, abusing the fuck out of my heal spells and pots (Force/Spirit Healer mage with a taste for fire) and freezing him with Winter's Grasp (I had improved WG, so he froze for a few seconds, and Cone of Cold slowed him) I got him to like...20%? and then he impaled me.


-_- and not in the way I'd like. Jerk didn't even buy me a cab ride home afterward.

[nagia]

I've beaten the Arishok with a mage Hawke at least four times, by this point. (Adder's had three runthroughs.) At least one of those was on Normal. And I didn't even have to runscript healplayer my ass out of the fire on the Casual runs.

I go Primalist, Elementalist, and Force Mage. Freeze him with Petrify and WG, then throw down Gravitic Ring and every AoE you have. Tempest, Chain Lightning and Stonefist are my gods.

[sinick]

Agreed that the solo battle is a LOT easier than the group. The manual writers must have a very different party setup from mine, or else they're on crack.

Because I sucked at saving at the right places, I took nagia's suggestion and used runscript zz_dae_debug to clear the party and add Fenris in.

It was weird that I couldn't get the solo battle option without Fenris, since I'd done other things to supposedly earn the Arishok's respect beforehand.

[inquartata]

If you're a rogue, spec the Shadow tree (I think that's the right tree) so that you get Decoy. It works brilliant wonders on the Arishok (or any big baddies). They'll totally concentrate on ONLY the decoy while you wail on them from behind. (That sounded WAY dirtier than I thought it would, but you know what I mean.) Then once the decoy runs out, kite the Arishok around the pillars while Decoy recharges. Once you have it back, activate it, rinse and repeat. It's super-easy with Decoy. Ridiculously so. I bet Varric left that part out of his retelling. "The Champion screamed like a little girl as he ran away from the Arishok, and then turned around and played dirty tricks on the honorable qunari. No shit, Seeker, the only other time I saw him run and scream like that had been that time when we'd run into the monstrous spider in the Deep Roads."

I ran into the exact same problem you did my first time through (actually, I think I had the exact same PARTY you did and the same collection of issues). If you have Anders specced on his specialty tree, make sure he's got panacea active and not vengeance (he can't heal in vengeance mode). Of course, that's if you're in the giant battle and not the duel (since he can't do shit if you're in the one-on-one). When I ran with my rogue, I usually rolled with a fully blood-mage specced Merrill with pumped up Con (since when is WIll useful for a Blood Mage, anyway?), a Panacea-only Anders (since he can both heal and resurrect people), and a tank of either Fenris or Aveline. Used the tank to distract/soak up damage, Anders to heal the tank, Merrill to just... kill... everything, and the Rogue!Hawke to clean up whatever was left.

[withoutportals]

I remember seeing this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9b6mprJ6hc - and thinking it seemed helpful.