# The Dragon Age thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 3, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156 "2009-11-03T12:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/461 "2009-12-23T21:23:56Z")
Virulent Walking Bomb. Is it worth it? I started another save file (this being the third file I’ve started without finishing the game once) and started up a mage, because I wanted to try out some new spells I didn’t have the last time through. Virulent Walking Bomb sounds good and so far can be good, but when you infect someone with it and they ostensibly run up to you to start hacking away at your peeps, exploding when they die, and doing damage to you and your allies. I think I just have to be more selective of whom I inflict it upon, lest they become a suicide bomber. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/462 "2009-12-23T21:45:02Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > Virulent Walking Bomb. Is it worth it? Well, from a _casual_ power-gaming standpoint probably not, for just the reason you just stated. It’s really difficult to control and on higher difficulties can really hurt your own party. From a more _hardcore_ power-gaming standpoint, maybe. It is pretty effective if you put the effort into micromanaging it well enough. From a role-playing perspective of course everything is game :D. It is at least fun to play with a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/463 "2009-12-23T21:49:02Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Well, from a _casual_ power-gaming standpoint probably not, for just the reason you just stated. It’s really difficult to control and on higher difficulties can really hurt your own party. From a more _hardcore_ power-gaming standpoint, maybe. It is pretty effective if you put the effort into micromanaging it well enough. > > From a role-playing perspective of course everything is game :D. It is at least fun to play with a bit. It’s funny, right after I posted that, I got into it with a cluster of Darkspawn and found a patch of them coming after me. They exploded in a mass of goo and sinew. Now my tertiary objection of not being able to maximize the usage of trinkets to amp up cold, fire, or lightning damage comes into play, but there’s still time in the game. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/464 "2009-12-23T22:02:02Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > Now my tertiary objection of not being able to maximize the usage of trinkets to amp up cold, fire, or lightning damage comes into play, but there’s still time in the game. Eh? What’s this objection? Far as I know such can be accomplished. Or is there some bug I don’t know about ( like that stupid ancient elven armor bug for the PC I just found out about )? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/465 "2009-12-23T22:28:17Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Eh? What’s this objection? Far as I know such can be accomplished. Or is there some bug I don’t know about ( like that stupid ancient elven armor bug for the PC I just found out about )? Well, Walking Virulent Bomb isn’t fire, lightning or ice damage, so the rings and necklaces and such won’t give it any extra spell power. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/466 "2009-12-23T22:58:37Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > Well, Walking Virulent Bomb isn’t fire, lightning or ice damage, so the rings and necklaces and such won’t give it any extra spell power. Ah, but rings, necklaces and staffs that give extra **spirit** ( nature? ) damage should :). There are boosters for cold, electricity, fire, nature and spirit damage in the game. WVB does spirit ( nature? ) damage. ETA: Maybe it’s spirit damage, descriptions are a bit contradictory. ETA 2: Yep, appears to be spirit damage. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/467 "2009-12-23T23:04:08Z")
I think it’s spirit damage. The game could definitely stand to be clearer with the exact boosts in damage the items give you. I have the Blood Ring for my mage, which “Improves Blood Magic.” That’s the only description provided. I had to look it up to find out that it reduces the HP costs of spells by 25%. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/468 "2009-12-23T23:37:18Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Well, from a _casual_ power-gaming standpoint probably not, for just the reason you just stated. It’s really difficult to control and on higher difficulties can really hurt your own party. From a more _hardcore_ power-gaming standpoint, maybe. It is pretty effective if you put the effort into micromanaging it well enough. > > From a role-playing perspective of course everything is game :D. It is at least fun to play with a bit. It doesn’t take too much effort to micro it, though I rarely use it personally. The best way to use it is probably to infect the unit and then use a mass paralysis (or glyph explosion), force field on any unfortunate friendly that may be stuck there, and then range-kill the first infected one and watch the dominoes (works best if you chain an AOE in there too, but meh). ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/469 "2009-12-29T16:05:40Z")
I just got the it for Christmas on my X-box. I’m enjoying it so far. Any advice for a Dalish rogue? I’m thinking of going the dual weapon/assassan route. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/470 "2009-12-29T16:16:49Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I just got the it for Christmas on my X-box. I’m enjoying it so far. > > Any advice for a Dalish rogue? I’m thinking of going the dual weapon/assassan route. That’s a very good road to go down. Make sure you pimp out the lockpicking/pickpocketing. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/471 "2009-12-29T17:14:50Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > That’s a very good road to go down. Make sure you pimp out the lockpicking/pickpocketing. Does pickpocketing grant you anything other than picking pockets? Like Trap Making increases your ability to detect/disarm traps. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/472 "2009-12-29T17:23:17Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > Virulent Walking Bomb. Is it worth it?. It works extremely well when used with some sort of crowd control, like the glyphs of paralysis or repulsion, or when used with the snow storm spell (which freezes the enemy target into place and does damage to them). I find it’s very effective to cast snow storm from around a corner, then to hit someone in the enemy group with Walking Bomb… by the time the storm fades, the bomb has gone off and done a lot of damage to the bad guys. ---
**Author:** ![DarkPrince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@DarkPrince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkPrince)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/473 "2009-12-29T18:56:22Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > I think it’s spirit damage. > > The game could definitely stand to be clearer with the exact boosts in damage the items give you. I have the Blood Ring for my mage, which “Improves Blood Magic.” That’s the only description provided. I had to look it up to find out that it reduces the HP costs of spells by 25%. [Detailed Tooltips](http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=248) mod from the nexus. The guy went through and fixed/rewrote the tooltips for every spell and ability in the game(except for Shale’s due to some weird issues) to be concise and clear on what they do. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/474 "2009-12-29T19:59:14Z")
> [@DarkPrince](#): > > [Detailed Tooltips](http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=248) mod from the nexus. The guy went through and fixed/rewrote the tooltips for every spell and ability in the game(except for Shale’s due to some weird issues) to be concise and clear on what they do. That looks like a helpful little mod, and is exactly the type of information Bioware should have included in the first place. Maybe they’ll incorporate something like that in the next patch. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/475 "2010-01-08T07:35:41Z")
For those still interested in Dragon Age news there’s an expansion pack announced titled Dragon Age: Awakenings. It’s due out in March (yes you read that right). It sounds about like you’d expect level cap increase, new party members etc etc. You can start a new character or import a savegame. Importing can be done to any savegame but the closer to the end the character is the more of your choices will carry over. Considering Bioware still hasn’t patched all the epilogue bugs I bet this feature will cause some heartache. Starting a new character will level you to around level 20 and you can play a new mini origin that is shorter then the original’s origins but is still unique to the expansion pack. They’ve also pushed back their DLC Return to Ostagar due to some bug that made it through their QA but was caught by Microsoft. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/476 "2010-01-11T23:58:58Z")
I beat it once with a duel-wield beserker. I’m used to the party I need for support with that class fom my WOW days. Now I’m restarting with a Mage. What the hell do I do with Morrigan? I plan on taking Wynne and I enjoy Morrigans character. Do scrap her, go with three mages? Be a shame to loose her banter. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/477 "2010-01-12T01:18:45Z")
I don’t know if it’s been mentioned in this thread, but Mana Clash is a phenomenal spell against enemy spellcasters. I was able to get the 250 damage achievement with it. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/478 "2010-01-12T02:27:37Z")
\>Do scrap her, go with three mages? I did three mages and loved it. Morrigan had all the cool debuffs and I had all the hitter spells along with some heals. On top of it I usually carried Wynne, who autofired her offensive spells when she wasnt healing. I also would put in Shale when I needed her. She would take Wynnes place and I would just keep an eye on the healing. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/479 "2010-01-12T02:39:54Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > \>Do scrap her, go with three mages? > > I did three mages and loved it. Morrigan had all the cool debuffs and I had all the hitter spells along with some heals. On top of it I usually carried Wynne, who autofired her offensive spells when she wasnt healing. I also would put in Shale when I needed her. She would take Wynnes place and I would just keep an eye on the healing. I meant do I scrap her OR go with three mages. So, if I go with Wynne and Morrigan, what Mage build should I be looking at? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156/480 "2010-01-13T16:04:54Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Two new video reviews are up: > > [http://www.giantbomb.com/dragon-age-origins/61-20738/reviews/](http://www.giantbomb.com/dragon-age-origins/61-20738/reviews/) > > [Dragon Age: Origins Review - GameSpot](http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/video/6238644/dragon-age-origins-video-review?hd=1) > > Looking good! Yahtzee’s review: [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1096-Dragon-Age-Origins](http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1096-Dragon-Age-Origins) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dragon-age-thread/516156.md?page=25)