Tag Archives: fantasy

My Dragon Age Dream Team

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It’s certainly a strange relationship I have with the Dragon Age franchise. I’ve had plenty of harsh words for it over the years, especially where the first game is concerned. But Inquisition’s DLCs seem to have converted me to a true fan, at least until the next disappointment, so I find myself eagerly anticipating Dragon Age IV.

My inquisitor and Sera in Dragon Age: InquisitonWe’re in an interesting spot because the next game hasn’t been announced yet, but Trespasser gave us a pretty good picture of what it will entail. The one big question mark is who we’ll be adventuring with in the next game.

I started to ponder who I would like to see, so I now present my Dragon Age dream team. This is very much a wishlist, but I tried to make some basic concessions to realism. Balanced classes, for instance — left to my own devices, it would basically be 80% mages.

Mages:

Morrigan:

I was pondering recently why I like Morrigan so much, despite the fact that she is, shall we say, not the most easily likable person around.

It occurred to me that Morrigan is sort of like the fantasy genre personified. Her family is full of mythic figures, and she’s all about history and uncovering ancient mysteries both wondrous and terrible.

Meeting Morrigan in Dragon Age: OriginsIt’s that sense of history and the wonder (and terror) of the unknown that really defines the fantasy genre, and it defines Morrigan, as well. So no wonder I like her so much.

It was nice to see Morrigan again in Inquisition, but I never stopped wishing that I could ask her to come adventuring with me.

Merrill:

Merrill is history’s most adorable necromancer and the centrepiece of my favourite in-game romance arc to date, so naturally I want to bring her along.

Of course, the odds of playing as Hawke in the next game are basically nil, so I wouldn’t be able to continue her romance arc, but that’s fine. It’d still be lovely to see her again. She’s a fiercely likable character, and considering the likely subject matter of Dragon Age IV, I think her expertise would be most welcome indeed.

Calpernia:

I really wanted to put Anders here, but then I remembered Calpernia and decided she was just too intriguing an option to pass up.

Calpernia, leader of the Venatori, and Corypheus in Dragon Age: InquisitionOtherwise known as “the only good reason to side with the Templars,” Calpernia is one of Inquisition’s many missed opportunities. Her role in the game is small, but in what little time she was on screen, she was established as, I think, one of the more complex and compelling characters in the franchise.

I tend to think of her as a dark mirror to Dorian, but even that might be overly harsh. Despite her role as a major antagonist — Hell, she’s the right hand of Corypheus — she comes across as a very admirable person.

Here’s someone who has lived through the absolute her country has to offer — which says a lot when your country is Tevinter — and yet she’s still a patriot. She still sees good in Tevinter wants to see it reach its full potential. It’s downright inspiring.

Considering Calpernia only appears to roughly half of Inquisition players and can potentially be killed, the odds of her appearing in later games at all, let alone as a party member, are incredibly slim. But I’d still love to see more of her.

Rogues:

Sera:

Yeah, you knew this was coming.

My inquisitor and Sera in Dragon Age: InquisitionSera may be crude, undisciplined, and kind or racist, but she’s also one of the most deep and layered characters Bioware has ever come up with, which says a lot, and for all her many flaws, I find it very hard not to like her.

I also have purely selfish and somewhat spoilery reasons for wanting Sera in the next game, which you will understand if you read my gushy post-Trespasser post.

…How long before I have to stop worrying about spoilers for Inquisition, anyway?

Also as I outlined in that post, Sera is one of the few characters on this list I believe to have a decent chance to show up in the next game.

Scout Lace Harding:

I personally think it’s all but guaranteed that Harding will be a party member in the next game. She seems to have been pretty popular, and I really don’t think that they snuck her into the final shot of Trespasser for nothing.

Scout Harding in Dragon Age: InquisitionNot much to say about Harding other than that I like her. She’s tough, but still warm and friendly. Seems like a good person to have around when things go to pieces, and I’d enjoy getting to know her better.

Bianca Davri:

Yes, I want two fem Dwarf rogues. Why not?

Bianca’s appearance in Inquisition was brief, but memorable, and since I don’t expect we’ll have Varric joining us this time, she can fill the sarcastic Dwarf-shaped hole in our hearts. Good opportunity for a Varric cameo, too — perhaps we can learn more of their complicated history.

Warriors:

Fenris:

And again, you probably knew this was coming. It was not my intention to have an Elf of every class, but I certainly don’t mind the idea. I would love to be able to have a party made up entirely of Elves. Came close in Inquisition, with the ability to have a 75% Elven and 100% non-human party thanks to Bull.

But I digress.

Fenris in Dragon Age IIFenris is interesting because he’s anti-mage, which normally I loathe, but in his case at least he has understandable reasons for his feelings. He’s not just blindly bigoted. Also he’s badass as Hell, and I have a man crush on Gideon Emery.

The Iron Bull:

Bull is another sad entry in the “probably won’t show up because he might be dead” file, but I’ll hold out a little hope anyway.

I’m not as big a fan of Bull as some people I know, but he’s a very hard character not to like, and since I imagine the Qunari will have a big role in the next game, his unique perspective on the Qun would be very welcome.

Plus, I did feel Bull was yet another aspect of Inquisition that didn’t get as much development as he deserved. His story always felt a bit unfinished to me. Bringing him back could help address that.

Cremisius Aclassi:

Those who know me might expect I’m including Krem to support the inclusion of a transgender character, but honestly? I just like Krem. He’s a good guy.

Epic side-eye

Skeptical Krem… is skeptical

The progressive angle doesn’t hurt any, but yeah, I just like Krem. Would like to see more of him.

Plus, the next game is likely to put a big spotlight on Tevinter, so another Tevinter character would be a good fit.

Honourable mentions:

For all their other flaws, Bioware games never lack for good characters, so there are lots more I could have included. As mentioned above, Anders is the best, and I’d love to see him again. Blackwall was a close second for the final warrior slot, narrowly beat by Krem.

Of course, I’d welcome Dorian back into the party. I mainly didn’t include him because of stiff competition in the mage category, and because of my belief his role in the next game will be comparable to, say, Leliana’s in Inquisition — important, but not a party member. Be nice to have Varric back, too, but I don’t see it happening.

I would be happy to see Bethany Hawke again, unlikely as that is. Shaper Valta would be a very interesting prospect — the first ever Dwarven mage, perhaps? And it’d be very hard to complain about venturing forth with Zevran once more.

Who you pick for the ultimate Dragon Age dream team?

TSW’s Dungeon Finder Is Transformative + Blade and Soul Thoughts

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The Secret World has at last launched its long-awaited group finder tool, and I’m finding it a study in how small changes can make a huge difference in how fun a game is.

Theodore Wicker at the end of Hell Eternal in The Secret WorldReally all the group finder does is make finding groups less time-consuming and encourage people to run a greater variety of dungeons — there’s now a daily challenge to complete a random dungeon via the group finder’s randomizer feature.

Yet this feels like one of the biggest updates TSW has ever had.

Consider that for much of my TSW career, running dungeons has been something done only very sporadically, and when I did, I basically only ever did Polaris on nightmare, plus the occasional Darkness War, Hell Raised, or Hell Eternal — and I do want to stress occasional.

Elites were worthless, with no relevant rewards at all. Non-18s nightmares were too stressful, and groups for those dungeons always mandated higher levels of gear than I own anyway.

It’s a whole other story now. I can easily find groups whenever I want — no need to muster the energy to spend an hour looking for a group — and now that elites, too, can be rewarding, the pool of potential dungeons has effectively expanded massively. I’m not stuck endlessly spamming Polaris.

I’ve done several runs with the group finder at this point, all positive, but there’s one story I’d like to particularly highlight.

My Templar tanking the Varangian in the Polaris dungeon in The Secret WorldI’m getting in the habit of doing a random elite regularly for the daily challenge. It’s low stress and rewarding, reminding of running heroics back in Wrath of the Lich King so much the nostalgia is palpable. In this case, I was playing my Templar, who needs better gear to tackle Tokyo.

First of all, I was queued as DPS only, and the group still popped instantly. That’s amazing. That doesn’t happen in WoW, and it has a much higher pool of players to draw from. I can’t imagine how this happened, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. It is worth noting, though, that while my other queues have not been instantaneous, they have all been very fast — five minutes at most.

We zoned into the Slaughterhouse, which is a dungeon I haven’t run in over a year, at least. It was a perfect sweet spot where I mostly remembered the mechanics, but it still felt almost new to me.

I had forgotten that TSW actually has great dungeon design. My complaint was always the difficulty of finding groups. But now I’m reminded that its dungeons boast fantastic art design, fun and interesting mechanics, and strong stories that don’t interrupt gameplay.

I think, also, that the stress of finding groups always robbed some of the fun from the experience. By the time I got into the dungeon, I was usually exhausted and frustrated from the time spent gathering a group, and the thought of how hard it would be to find another if this group broke up was a constant anxiety in the back of my mind. That’s no longer a factor.

My group approaches the final boss of the Slaughterhouse in The Secret WorldIt was a good run. The tank explained the more important mechanics for those of us with rusty memories, and since we overgeared the place a bit, it was all fairly relaxed. One person DCed at one point, but the group finder eventually replaced with them — with no input from us, even — and we did okay without them in the meanwhile.

At the final boss, things got interesting.

A mechanic bugged out and killed our tank early on. Automatic wipe, right?

Apparently not.

It turns out our healer was some kind of demigod. Picture three DPS running around like chickens with our heads cut off while the healer somehow kept us alive through it all. I had resolved to merely go out fighting, but the battle kept going, and somehow, we endured.

Phase two starts. One DPS falls. The remainder of us come within inches of death several times. But the healer keeps bringing us back from the brink, and the boss’s health keeps going down. The tank is joking and cheering us on from back at the anima well.

And we did it. Our four-man, no-tank group triumphed.

Healing is disgustingly overpowered in this game. And I’m okay with that.

A cutscene in The Secret World's Slaughterhouse dungeonAfterward, we were all laughing and cheering. It was the most fun I’ve had in The Secret World — or any game — in a long time.

And it never would have happened without the group finder.

I still need to try running low level dungeons and the new Tokyo dungeons. I’m a little concerned because there’s bound to be far fewer people running low level dungeons, and I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about the Tokyo instances.

But even so, the dungeon finder is still a huge boon for the game.

I’ve long said that TSW is a fantastic game when treated as a single-player RPG with optional co-op, but that it fails as a massively multiplayer game. The first half of that sentence is still true, but now, finally, it is also a strong contender as an MMO.

I am, simply put, very happy with where the game is at.

* * *

Since we’re on the subject, TSW is enacting major changes to its subscription rewards program. As part of this, they will no longer be selling the grandmaster pack lifetime subscription as of February 5th. Until then, it’s on sale for 25% off.

My Dragon alt poses with Ricky Pagan's jacket in The Secret WorldI know $150 is a lot to spend on a video game, but I will say that I have been a grandmaster for over a year now, and I’ve never once regretted it. With the new subscription rewards, it’s also now a better deal than ever. If you’re on the fence, I’d advise you to get it now while you can.

Blade and Soul impressions:

While I wasn’t as rabidly excited as some, I’ve been interested in Blade and Soul for several years now. Now that it’s finally arrived in North America, I made a point to check it out as soon as the launch rush died down a little.

My thoughts are up on MMOBro, but suffice it to say Blade and Soul is not what I was expecting.

While you’re there, why not check out my other recent articles on the site? Find out why MMO NPCs need more Witcher and less Skyrim, or learn which MOBA is right for you.