Holy hell... "We've got a live one boys!" I have to know, did you stop watching at the first spoiler warning? Did you finish the video? Have you finished the game yet? And if not, can you please come back and tell me how it went when you do? I have so many questions.
@@vhoul I stopped at about the point I’m at in the game. I’m bad at spoiling games for myself but I resisted the urge this time LMAO, your warnings helped 😩😂 I’m playing on nightmare so it’s been a steep learning curve but I’m getting it down, beat the mage tower, red cliff, and about to finish the brecilian forest now. Trying to binge all the games before Veilguard comes out 🫣 I’ll come back n lyk when I finish
@ericwisniewski2636 Hopefully DA2 and its 3 unique maps doesn't filter you. It can feel like a slog, but the story is solid and it introduces a character that's important in Inquisition.
You know, there is something magical about opening your video and seeing 27 views. When your channel grows, I will know that I was one of the first here.
I got to say, I love the retelling of the story, made the video entertaining coming from someone who has beaten Origins more times on Nightmare than I care to remember.
@@peternewman9606 The only PC copy of the game that I own is a disc copy. Since it's a disc copy, it hasn't been updated. And since BioWare has basically shut down all servers related to DAO, I don't know how to update it to the modern version. Now, I could have bought the Ultimate Edition on Steam, but I didn't want to buy another copy of the game just to play the game I already own. And on top of this, Versions 1.00 and 1.01 are the only versions (I think) where the attribute glitch hasn't been patched. I like glitches, and don't want them patched.
@@vhoul fair enough but i don't think you need the attribute glitch with the infinite gold exploit. You can have 5 versions of poultices to swap through and cheese through all encounters. Only way to die in that situation is being grabbed by an ogre or dragon. If you want to absolutely breeze through encounters with attributes i'm sure there's mods for that as well, just options not hating. Edit: oh wait you were playing on nightmare difficulty, scratch all of that then.
This is a typical "can I beat game_name with challenge_name" video and, surprisingly, the most interesting dragon age video I've ever watched, since it actually has something to say about GAMEPLAY
Regarding siding with the Templars: you must let Irving die by letting uldred turn all the mages into abominations (run away from him for a while essentially). Gregoir will be upset that his situationship is dead and decree that every surviving mage must die. It’s way more difficult than getting the mages support because Uldred takes foreeeeeeever to corrupt Irving
iirc you can also save Irving and get the templars by taking the dialogue that "Some of the mages might still be possessed" afterward - Irving and Co go to wizard jail to be examined for secret abomination-ness, so Greagoir and the templars agree to honor the treaty in their place.
1. By dragging on the right side of your quick bar, you can extend it and get more slots for skills, traps, poultices, etc. 2. You mention how the song of courage gives you critical chance, but you end up using dual striking the entire time, which nullifies your crit chance (and is the reason dual striking sucks in the first place) 3. You can remove oghren from being a party member, simply from memory im not sure if you can tell him to just go, but you can definitely bring him to -100 approval and then fight and "kill" him, resulting in him leaving your party otherwise, great humor, great vid! this is also the first "challenge video" of da:o ive seen and would love to watch more!
1. Oh damn, that would have been very useful. 2. Yea, information on combat in this game is very hard to parse. The wiki doesn't organize it very well as it's kind of scattered throughout the many many entries on the various classes and their specializations. Ultimately I went with the build that, in my testing, had the best DPS:Survivability ratio (and to my surprise that included dual-striking, although that may not be the case in every scenario). Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned the crit chance, but I had completely forgotten this interaction by the time I was writing the script. 3. I was very surprised to hear this when someone else mentioned it. I found no mention of it on the wiki, and when I tried to remove him from my party anyway I wasn't able to find a way. I would be interested in investigating the matter further because I'm doubtful that you could remove Oghren before you finish the Anvil of the Void. I like my solution, but if I had known, I would have done it. but yeah, thanks for the feedback. I do appreciate it. I'm not opposed to doing another DA:O challenge run, but I have a number of other projects ideas which I would like to work on first, and if I'm honest I have no idea what another good challenge for this game would even be.
Now that veilguard is out and far, far worse than anyone could have ever even feared, DAO videos are simultaneously a nice reminder of how good the franchise used to be, and feel like someone's twisting the knife in the wound by showing you just how unbelievably low its fallen. I was 14 when I played Origins for the first time, and even back when I was 14, I would have been insulted by how childish the dialogue is in veilguard.
I am getting kind of suck of my inbox being flooded with “YOU CAN’T DO _THIS_ IN VEILGUARD!!!!” Like shut up dude, I don’t wanna hear about that game anymore
Hello! I play a lot of Dragon Age and have an unhealthy amount of knowledge with the game because of my own mid-maxxing and me also doing similar challenges! I recently did a run where my character hated magic and would refuse to use it in the party while also being a templar built to counter all mages. I played on the nightmare difficulty and had to come up with some interesting strategies to get past some of the earlier parts of the game. It's impressive you did what you did solo! A little I have learned. Having a high cunning with Lethality passive makes of of the strongest Rogues because it gives you all the benefits of Strength while you have Cunning as your highest attribute, and cunning makes you and your party stronger. Dexterity increases your chances to hit and avoid attacks so it's my recommended second highest, around 32-36 is a good area. Though it is safe to interchangeably use Dex as your main instead of cunning if you plan on going the assassin route. I would never recommend Ranger unless you are doing it for RP purposes. I also would almost always recommend Rogue over Warrior because better abilities and you get more skill points (1:2 instead 1:3 for levels) and because of the backstab/critical damage bonuses. In the most up to date version of the game, Strength is mostly useless to rogues unless you plan on using swords and axes which I would not recommend as a rogue. Though auto attack Dual Wield Warriors with swords and/or axes are surprising powerful and don't require a lot of thinking. You need at least a little bit of Strength to get the strongest armor in the game for the rogue, which is the Battledress from Leliana's story. So at least 18. 18 is fine because you'll have the Fade and armor which boosts your stats 22, like the Helmet of Honnleath and the Key to the City probably to buff your stats without having to allocate anymore score. You won't need too much mana since rogue doesn't utilize a whole lot of abilities (and if you're a bard you will have either Courage or Valor buff for regen and damage), and Constitution is also not too necessary as well because of your high dex stat helps you avoid many attacks. However, playing solo, it doesn't hurt to add a few additional points into it to survive the earlier stages of the game easier though, but you'll have plenty of chance to buy poultices or craft them. Rock Armor is one of the best resistance balms in the game but you won't get the crafting for it until the Alienage so use sparingly, and the Crow poison in my opinion is the best poison, giving you 6 extra damage per hit. I can't remember when you get it, but I believe it's during the Crow's storyline. Also, DA:OU has a notorious memory link that causes the game to crash often. The game is ran on a 2gig ram launcher and you need to find an update online to allocate 4gig, which stabilizes the game greatly! It won't be a part of the actual game and will require online research to find. Lastly, it is possible to get max level (level 25) in the game without cheating which a whole lot of people don't know about. Donating supplies to your army grants you experience based on the quantity of your donations. You can go positive financially by making potions (Potent Lyrium and Poultices) and selling them for coin. There is at least one vendor who will sell infinite of what you need to craft. Thank you for the video! it was a lot of fun to watch, and I subbed! Please keep giving us more. Maybe DA2, Awakening, or Inquisition next?
These are all great points that I didn't end up finding time to talk about. I had actually considered doing this same challenge without any glitches. I believe it's doable, but ultimately I felt that the strategies involved, although more difficult, would have been much less entertaining. Basically you do all the same stuff, but you aren't able to duplicate traps and you are mostly limited to acid grenades. This would have meant a more difficult early game where I have to work my way towards master herbalism in order to make money (as you mentioned), and use that money to buy infinite lifestones from Ruck for acid flask crafting. And as for traps, it turns out you can do all the same out-of-bounds tricks without an infinite supply. You just have to leap frog them one at a time. Theoretically you can go anywhere with just 2 bear traps. I suppose Ser Cauthrien might have been trickier, since I would either have to spend my limited traps, or find some other method. I don't actually know how many trap triggers you can get in the game, but I didn't want to find out.
@vhoul oh shii, whaddup Fred. The life rock trick is actually pretty smart actually. I forget you can use crafting mats for small effects like that. I don't know about you but I feel like I'm cheating whenever I use any dlc or cheat items, so on nightmare I avoided them, though destroying them at the start always hurts the soul. The House Dace amulet is super op, broken even. You're actually the first person I saw who used the traps effectively. I usually avoid that skill altogether aside from completing that one quest in Lothering lmao.
Fun Fact about those ash wraiths in the temple. They're an obvious fail safe for if you killed or ejected too many party members in order to prevent a soft lock. Now naturally the trigger is such a niche situation darn near nobody has ever seen it, and it appropriately got a relevant amount of testing. Such testing did not concern itself with silly questions like "What if the player just turns around and leaves?" Well, I'll tell you the answer. Absolutely nothing. The ash wraiths stay as party members and get a well earned vacation traveling all over Ferelden.
You can skip having Oghren in the final battle segment of the game by continuously insulting him when he is drunk. It leads to a segment where he fights the player and you can murder him in the party camp.
Damn, I really tried to find a way to get rid of him. Wiki mentioned none of this (that I could find). And I know you've had a lot to say about this video, and it's kind of difficult to address all the points you've raised, but I just want to be clear that I hold no animosity towards you. I appreciate the two pieces of info regarding Oghren and Cullen, but I vehemently disagree with you on basically all of your other points. As you should have expected considering I spent months thinking about all of these things, and you've had an hour and 45 minutes.
Demon Age, Morrigan and Me, Allistair and Archie, Zevran and Friends, Duncan and the Not So Good Really Bad Day... Any of these would have been better choices.
Like even Skyrim has more right to be called dragon age. At least it kinda revolves around dragons. In dragon age dragons have 0 plot or lore relevance. Even archdemon from dao decided to manifest as dragon just for fun xd
Tbf its called Dragon Age because its name of a current era in the game, which was called like this due to dragon sightings(who were known to be extinct) and some clergy propheting it would be an era of violence and war, and dragon is like a allegory for it together with awe of their return. It doesn't mean dragons would be everywhere and all. And by having not many of big dragons game actually made them feel rewarding. Also there is 3, not 2 iirc. Yes im lore nerd.
That a valid argument. By 3rd dragon do you mean Morringan's mom boss fight? If so I just don't feel like it really counts. And about lore it's cool that it's so detailed and I respect that you know it so well but I played through dao about 4 times and da2 once but I didn't know any of it. Usually rpgs try to give you some cool lore stuff even if you don't read all the books. I still think its strange to name a franchise after obscure lore detail which most of the players probably won't see considering how man lore books and stuff there is in the game. And about the lack of dragons its really personal thing but I didn't think much of them, like it just big monster that hits hard and can easily cheesed. I have stronger memories about one dragon in second pathfinder because it's a huge threat and there is a small questlind about weakining and ambushing it because in a fair fightvit just demolished you party. I dunno in da they just feel underwhelming.
@@kotriften Well its technically a dragon boss fight even if she was a shapeshifter :> iirc it was somewhere in in-game codex or smth aboute timeline and ages, i dont really remember where. And II semi-agree, even DAI made better job with dragon fights and their quantity and quality balance, but Pathfinder games are both my "comfort" RPG choice atm which i replay with pleasure every time. Still need to replay Rogue Trader with new DLC too...
I think its criminal they never did anything with Duncans' character. That dude would have been perfect for a stand-alone origin game. Or hell, even a stand-alone origin DLC
I think they gave Duncan the best anyone could have ever hoped for: a tragic death. You and I might feel robbed for not getting more from his character, but it's this very same feeling that I love Origins for. A dark, unsatisfactory conclusion that keeps you up nights knowing you won, but at what cost? This is also one of the many themes and feelings that I felt were sorely lacking from the sequels. But I would still play the hell out of a Duncan themed game. Although I doubt he would make a great protagonist; he's more of a Gandalf.
"Hi! I do stupid shit for seemingly no reason." Well howdy! Just the kind of guy I like to watch after a hard day at work! DAO was a game I played around ... 10 Years (?) ago. Man I am old... Never mind. I remember feeling a little bit discouraged by it, something about it's way of controlling the party was not on my side of the court and I felt that the ENTIRE time. I never finished the game because of it (always ended my runs halfway to the Golem-Forge), but I watched a lot of videos and know I would have loved to do a full playthrough if it weren't for this one factor. I think it had something to do with the fact that you essentially have to think for 4 People instead of just your character if you want to really walz through the encounters... I lack that mental flexibility. Give me a solid and competent team of support and one main character to use as glue and I will make them dance! But as soon as one of the other team members is brain dead without my guidance? Oh god no!
I can sympathize with that. Your companions are a huge pain to control. My best advice would be to just play the game on easy and ignore your companions. The most you need to worry about then is keeping them alive, which you can do by keeping an eye on their health bars and using potions/healing spells when they get low. Or you could always try using tactics and set your companions to heal on their own. I should also point out that you have the option to toggle companion movement from follow to hold position if you ever feel like they keep running into combat without you, or just doing stupid things you don't want them to. I mean hell, now you know you don't even need them at all...
@@vhoul Playing on easy is never an option for me. I love being challenged by a game and I want to experience all of its features. Sadly DAO left a sour taste in my mouth, but I still have the disc somewhere... Maybe one day. 😀 And NOT using companions? Hello? You of all people should know that Morrigan at least is a must-have!
This video was a breath of nostalgy to me, thanks! Reminds me how i was breaking the game like 10+ years ago in my multiple Nightmare runs, it was peak. Shame this game never got a sequel...
Interesting, what do you typically use, a sword, axe, or maul? I would guess a sword since you don't really need the armour penetration. I really wanted to do a shatter mage for this challenge, but it turns out shatter in really, really bad.
@vhoul you are actually restricted to a 2h sword available at Ostagar haha. I think it's near the broken statues in the Wilds. Rogues don't have much str and that's the lowest str 2h with the highest damage in the game. Super restricted build!
Oh, how I'm glad to see this game once more... I played it dozens of times, so I can't play it anymore... But challenge run? That sounds intresting. 1:01:20. - How many traps have you duped? - Yes.
I am so glad I watched some Dragon Age: Origins content this week so I could get this gem recommended to me. Your humor is outstanding! SUBSCRIBED! Good luck ahead, looking forward to future videos. Thank you for an entertaining experience!
50:50 The scroll stops a spell that turns the mages on the floor into abominations. If the old mage dies then you can't recruit the mages for the last battle. Also you can always recruit the templars. If the old mage survives you can request the mage circle be dissolved and you'll get the templars without any non hostile mages dying.
Just started but yea, wow that intro speech felt way more poignant after playing Veilguard, this aged like fine wine :D (not that its old) Anyway, onto the challenge, been consuming a lot of BG3 challenges lately, they are great fun, its awesome to see that there is something similar for DA. Lol I vibe so much with the Morrigan take... There hasnt been anyone like Morrigan since, I love Liara and closest we got was Shadowheart, but Morrigan is the best girl, her VA also absolutely kills it. I love how you roleplay to justify yourself killing Wynne and the mages, I was that evil only once and it still hurts me to this day :D Wynne is such a nice grandma, who could be mean to her :(
Not going backstab build is criminal. Paralyze runes on your weapons and dirty fighting makes the Rogue ridiculously strong, since you can backstab from an enemy's front side when they're stunned. Otherwise great video, love the humor. DA:O is my favorite game of all time.
It probably makes sense with a whole party, but it really feels like you have more important things to do when your solo. Lot of angles to that problem though. Glad you enjoyed.
i once was trying to get all the leliana dialogue so i only took her and the dog. it was CHALLENGING, but very rewarding. i got through a lot of the game like that until i had to add wynne just so i didn't get clobbered.
I tried doing this a couple years ago, was do the dalish quest and the mods I had installed fucked my game. All my saves were fucked. Haven't touched the game since.
To side with the Templars during the Circle of Magi questline you need to agree with Cullen on the second to last floor and he suggests culling the Circle. If you talk to Irving it always leads to not culling the circle.
Huh, but would you not agree that murdering Wynne and every other Mage you find in the Tower is a much more important prerequisite to siding with the Templars?
@@vhoul That's not how the game was designed. It was designed so that the player had to speak to Cullen and be convinced that the Mages were beyond saving. This is also a payoff to a setup that occurs during the Mage origin where Cullen appears sympathetic towards the Mages but believes they are duplicitous when you find him in the tower during the main game. It's somewhat logical for the developers to wait until after you completed the entire dungeon before making the final decision at the end. As the player could've been put off by how aggressive Wynne was and assumed they had become an Abomination. It would also be poor game design to lock the player into a choice like murdering the entire circle before the choice is ever properly presented to the player. The developers later follow the same pattern with the Brecilian forest where the player is given a lot of opportunities to help both sides (The werewolves and elves) but the final choice to either restore the elves or help the werewolves occurs at the very end.
@@DeadYorick Right, I'm agreeing with you. I'm just saying that killing all the Mages in the Tower is a really bad way of going about recruiting Mages. Particularly when at this point, you've already had a conversation with Greagoir about how he'll pledge his Templars to your cause. I'm not saying this isn't how the game was designed, I'm saying from a logical perspective, it doesn't make any sense to design the game this way. I literally cleared every floor of the tower of mages at this point. I slaughtered them like animals, but because I didn't talk to the knight in the glowy circle a have no choice to let Irving live? That is patently ridiculous. I feel like all of your criticisms can be succinctly answered with, "Yes, that was the entire joke." Can you please just agree with me that these are all jokes? Like you already admitted to it in a previous comment that you think my jokes are unnecessary, but can you admit for me one more time that you understand they are jokes? You don't have to agree with them, but they are jokes.
I can see this not being all that difficult at all... other than being softlocked.... maybe depending on what difficulty level you play on when, I've soloed many of the hardest boss fights before with just the warden, but that's with him at level 16+. I think the most annoying part would be not having someone to open chests for me... I usually play as a mage.
This was less about difficulty and more about technicality. As in, 'can it physically be done?' I knew many people have done this challenge before me as long ago as when this game was still new. But what I didn't know, is how far they pushed the idea. Whether or not they avoided seemingly non-optional allies, and how many allies you can actually avoid. It was actually once I discovered how to get out of bounds without using Sten that I knew I wanted to do the challenge, as that was the biggest roadblock I assumed my predecessors would have skipped. At the start the challenge was tricky, but it quickly became very easy. I considered doing the challenge without major glitches/exploits to make it harder, but that tended towards a very tedious strategy and I was more interested in variety. I did choose to go with a rogue because I thought it might be harder and more interesting than a mage, which I had assumed some people would have already been familiar with.
NGL its funny having been told to play the game, I play the game, come back and he's still telling me to go play the game. It is a good game though, and not one I would've been able to do by myself.
Heh, back in the day, I did solo run with my "immortal" Shapeshifter/Blood Mage, basically try to turn into Flying Swarm, while under the effect of Anti-Magic Ward and see what happens - your character will stay human/elf and would only take mana damage, even if their mana is fully depleted. The constant lack of mana that comes with this setup, can be circumvented with Blood Magic, so spells can be used (though they would still deplete your character's health, so care is advised). The only dangers to look out for, are Dispel Magic, Anti-Magic Burst, and Cleanse Area, as these can nullify your invincibility. Sure, this is cheating of a highest caliber, but it's just so much fun to troll the game's nightmare difficulty for a change.
The problem with that, is I don't own the awakening dlc and I've never actually played it. I own a copy of DAO for Xbox 360 and a PC disc copy. And for reasons that are entirely BioWare/EA's fault it's not possible to upgrade these copies of the game anymore. I could however buy the Steam version of the game, but it's all like.. patched and stuff. And on general principal I don't like to buy 3 copies of a game. How are the DLCs? From what I've read about them, they've always seemed irrelevant. If you promise they're good or really really bad, I'll think about it.
@@vhoul Personally I really enjoyed the Awakening dlc, from what I remember the story is decent. But just like Origins the companions are a huge part in making the story more engaging so if you play it make sure to do a regular playthrough before any challenge to enjoy the full experience. I wouldnt recommend the other Origins DLC since theyre are all very short like less than 1 hour of playtime while Awakening can be around 10 hours if you do most of the content.
Guess who is grossly underappreciated by the algorithm... its you! Damn son, some lovely high quality content for me to gobble up, with a backlog to enjoy! Allow me to say that it's definitely not you that's the reason for the (as of yet) low view count! Damn you algorithm, DAMN YOU I TELL YOU!
It's a really bad algorithm. I think it took two weeks for it to realize that maybe it should advertise to people who are watching Dragon Age videos. Like idk, maybe that's.. the first thing you should try? *eye roll*
Morrigan was the best looking thing in the game, you can tell they put extra effort into her model 😂 started my first playthrough this week
Holy hell...
"We've got a live one boys!"
I have to know, did you stop watching at the first spoiler warning? Did you finish the video? Have you finished the game yet? And if not, can you please come back and tell me how it went when you do?
I have so many questions.
@@vhoul I stopped at about the point I’m at in the game. I’m bad at spoiling games for myself but I resisted the urge this time LMAO, your warnings helped 😩😂 I’m playing on nightmare so it’s been a steep learning curve but I’m getting it down, beat the mage tower, red cliff, and about to finish the brecilian forest now. Trying to binge all the games before Veilguard comes out 🫣 I’ll come back n lyk when I finish
@@ericwisniewski2636 Well I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it. You've earned yourself the pin.
@ericwisniewski2636 Hopefully DA2 and its 3 unique maps doesn't filter you. It can feel like a slog, but the story is solid and it introduces a character that's important in Inquisition.
Hope ya enjoy it, i replay it every so often cause it has a good story, and plenty of builds to try out.
“And I am softlocked” will now and forever be how I describe dealing with problems I can’t solve 😂😂
You know, there is something magical about opening your video and seeing 27 views. When your channel grows, I will know that I was one of the first here.
Well thanks for doing your part to get us there.
2.6k yeehaw
27K views now.
Thats kinda funny ngl
1 month later: 50k views
I got to say, I love the retelling of the story, made the video entertaining coming from someone who has beaten Origins more times on Nightmare than I care to remember.
Oh good, I was worried nobody would be able to tell the difference.
Morrigan: well, well, what do we have here?
1 doofus dwarf, 1 grey warden and 2 greased up naked dudes: nothing...
I love how you can take everyone's gear before the joining and still jory pulls a sword out of his ass.
whaaaat? I don't know what you're talking about. That's the outfit Jory chose to wear, honest.
@@vhoul why do u play on an old patch?
@@peternewman9606 The only PC copy of the game that I own is a disc copy. Since it's a disc copy, it hasn't been updated. And since BioWare has basically shut down all servers related to DAO, I don't know how to update it to the modern version.
Now, I could have bought the Ultimate Edition on Steam, but I didn't want to buy another copy of the game just to play the game I already own. And on top of this, Versions 1.00 and 1.01 are the only versions (I think) where the attribute glitch hasn't been patched. I like glitches, and don't want them patched.
@@vhoul fair enough but i don't think you need the attribute glitch with the infinite gold exploit. You can have 5 versions of poultices to swap through and cheese through all encounters. Only way to die in that situation is being grabbed by an ogre or dragon. If you want to absolutely breeze through encounters with attributes i'm sure there's mods for that as well, just options not hating.
Edit: oh wait you were playing on nightmare difficulty, scratch all of that then.
that intro absolutely slapped - glad to be part of this journey
Thanks, I had to stop myself from watching it over and over in order to get the video out in time for it to be relevant.
Got a good laugh out of me
@@vhoul Maker help us all indeed.
Well we found him boys. The next big UA-cam champion.
Just give me 5 more years, an algorithm that can do basic word association, and we're there.
Just dont develop a drinking problem and punch your ac unit. We cant take another mitten squad
Definitely not a Champion, he's a Rogue instead of Warrior.
@@SaganTheKhajiit hmmm good point
@karlkoskie2891 reading Mitten Squad unlocked some deep memories man
This is a typical "can I beat game_name with challenge_name" video and, surprisingly, the most interesting dragon age video I've ever watched, since it actually has something to say about GAMEPLAY
Then my work here is complete.
Dude starts the game pointing out the main problem, and then proceeds to show the right way to do it.
This must have been the most unique and cozy video about DAO that I've watched.
Keep it up man, can't wait to see more of your content!
i feel you brother, i think Morrigan stole my soul as well
Regarding siding with the Templars: you must let Irving die by letting uldred turn all the mages into abominations (run away from him for a while essentially). Gregoir will be upset that his situationship is dead and decree that every surviving mage must die. It’s way more difficult than getting the mages support because Uldred takes foreeeeeeever to corrupt Irving
iirc you can also save Irving and get the templars by taking the dialogue that "Some of the mages might still be possessed" afterward - Irving and Co go to wizard jail to be examined for secret abomination-ness, so Greagoir and the templars agree to honor the treaty in their place.
@ just looked it up and you’re right, that probably would have been easier on my last playthrough lol
1. By dragging on the right side of your quick bar, you can extend it and get more slots for skills, traps, poultices, etc.
2. You mention how the song of courage gives you critical chance, but you end up using dual striking the entire time, which nullifies your crit chance (and is the reason dual striking sucks in the first place)
3. You can remove oghren from being a party member, simply from memory im not sure if you can tell him to just go, but you can definitely bring him to -100 approval and then fight and "kill" him, resulting in him leaving your party
otherwise, great humor, great vid! this is also the first "challenge video" of da:o ive seen and would love to watch more!
1. Oh damn, that would have been very useful.
2. Yea, information on combat in this game is very hard to parse. The wiki doesn't organize it very well as it's kind of scattered throughout the many many entries on the various classes and their specializations. Ultimately I went with the build that, in my testing, had the best DPS:Survivability ratio (and to my surprise that included dual-striking, although that may not be the case in every scenario). Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned the crit chance, but I had completely forgotten this interaction by the time I was writing the script.
3. I was very surprised to hear this when someone else mentioned it. I found no mention of it on the wiki, and when I tried to remove him from my party anyway I wasn't able to find a way. I would be interested in investigating the matter further because I'm doubtful that you could remove Oghren before you finish the Anvil of the Void. I like my solution, but if I had known, I would have done it.
but yeah, thanks for the feedback. I do appreciate it. I'm not opposed to doing another DA:O challenge run, but I have a number of other projects ideas which I would like to work on first, and if I'm honest I have no idea what another good challenge for this game would even be.
You can just tell Oghren to leave after Orzammar
Thank you for keeping this gem of a game alive. Loved the video!
I did some heinous shit in this game, but telling morrigan to fuck off and go is truly something evil
Now that veilguard is out and far, far worse than anyone could have ever even feared, DAO videos are simultaneously a nice reminder of how good the franchise used to be, and feel like someone's twisting the knife in the wound by showing you just how unbelievably low its fallen.
I was 14 when I played Origins for the first time, and even back when I was 14, I would have been insulted by how childish the dialogue is in veilguard.
I am getting kind of suck of my inbox being flooded with “YOU CAN’T DO _THIS_ IN VEILGUARD!!!!” Like shut up dude, I don’t wanna hear about that game anymore
Feels so cozy finding a cool small channel like this
When Fred tells the party to split up, you split up!
lmao, yeah, the gang really took those words literally this time.
New subscriber from your KOTOR vids. Your style has evolved a long way from the first vids and your content is getting real good!
Thanks, I just wish that evolution didn't involve me putting in more and more work each time.
Fred looks a lot like Sandal's long lost cousin.
The effort and editing quality of the video is through the roof. You need more subscribers
Nice video man, I cant imagine playing origins without Ali or Morrigan their banter makes the game much more than a game
Hello! I play a lot of Dragon Age and have an unhealthy amount of knowledge with the game because of my own mid-maxxing and me also doing similar challenges! I recently did a run where my character hated magic and would refuse to use it in the party while also being a templar built to counter all mages. I played on the nightmare difficulty and had to come up with some interesting strategies to get past some of the earlier parts of the game. It's impressive you did what you did solo!
A little I have learned. Having a high cunning with Lethality passive makes of of the strongest Rogues because it gives you all the benefits of Strength while you have Cunning as your highest attribute, and cunning makes you and your party stronger. Dexterity increases your chances to hit and avoid attacks so it's my recommended second highest, around 32-36 is a good area. Though it is safe to interchangeably use Dex as your main instead of cunning if you plan on going the assassin route. I would never recommend Ranger unless you are doing it for RP purposes. I also would almost always recommend Rogue over Warrior because better abilities and you get more skill points (1:2 instead 1:3 for levels) and because of the backstab/critical damage bonuses. In the most up to date version of the game, Strength is mostly useless to rogues unless you plan on using swords and axes which I would not recommend as a rogue. Though auto attack Dual Wield Warriors with swords and/or axes are surprising powerful and don't require a lot of thinking. You need at least a little bit of Strength to get the strongest armor in the game for the rogue, which is the Battledress from Leliana's story. So at least 18. 18 is fine because you'll have the Fade and armor which boosts your stats 22, like the Helmet of Honnleath and the Key to the City probably to buff your stats without having to allocate anymore score. You won't need too much mana since rogue doesn't utilize a whole lot of abilities (and if you're a bard you will have either Courage or Valor buff for regen and damage), and Constitution is also not too necessary as well because of your high dex stat helps you avoid many attacks. However, playing solo, it doesn't hurt to add a few additional points into it to survive the earlier stages of the game easier though, but you'll have plenty of chance to buy poultices or craft them. Rock Armor is one of the best resistance balms in the game but you won't get the crafting for it until the Alienage so use sparingly, and the Crow poison in my opinion is the best poison, giving you 6 extra damage per hit. I can't remember when you get it, but I believe it's during the Crow's storyline. Also, DA:OU has a notorious memory link that causes the game to crash often. The game is ran on a 2gig ram launcher and you need to find an update online to allocate 4gig, which stabilizes the game greatly! It won't be a part of the actual game and will require online research to find.
Lastly, it is possible to get max level (level 25) in the game without cheating which a whole lot of people don't know about. Donating supplies to your army grants you experience based on the quantity of your donations. You can go positive financially by making potions (Potent Lyrium and Poultices) and selling them for coin. There is at least one vendor who will sell infinite of what you need to craft.
Thank you for the video! it was a lot of fun to watch, and I subbed! Please keep giving us more. Maybe DA2, Awakening, or Inquisition next?
These are all great points that I didn't end up finding time to talk about.
I had actually considered doing this same challenge without any glitches. I believe it's doable, but ultimately I felt that the strategies involved, although more difficult, would have been much less entertaining. Basically you do all the same stuff, but you aren't able to duplicate traps and you are mostly limited to acid grenades. This would have meant a more difficult early game where I have to work my way towards master herbalism in order to make money (as you mentioned), and use that money to buy infinite lifestones from Ruck for acid flask crafting.
And as for traps, it turns out you can do all the same out-of-bounds tricks without an infinite supply. You just have to leap frog them one at a time. Theoretically you can go anywhere with just 2 bear traps. I suppose Ser Cauthrien might have been trickier, since I would either have to spend my limited traps, or find some other method. I don't actually know how many trap triggers you can get in the game, but I didn't want to find out.
@vhoul oh shii, whaddup Fred. The life rock trick is actually pretty smart actually. I forget you can use crafting mats for small effects like that. I don't know about you but I feel like I'm cheating whenever I use any dlc or cheat items, so on nightmare I avoided them, though destroying them at the start always hurts the soul. The House Dace amulet is super op, broken even. You're actually the first person I saw who used the traps effectively. I usually avoid that skill altogether aside from completing that one quest in Lothering lmao.
@@mattpresley9809 You can only cheat the rules you set out for yourself.
i have watched this 3 times now idk why its just easy to watch. good video
Wow, that's a lot of times.
Fun Fact about those ash wraiths in the temple. They're an obvious fail safe for if you killed or ejected too many party members in order to prevent a soft lock. Now naturally the trigger is such a niche situation darn near nobody has ever seen it, and it appropriately got a relevant amount of testing. Such testing did not concern itself with silly questions like "What if the player just turns around and leaves?" Well, I'll tell you the answer. Absolutely nothing. The ash wraiths stay as party members and get a well earned vacation traveling all over Ferelden.
I briefly considered making the challenge 'Can you beat DAO with Ash Wraiths', but much like the ash wraiths, it was too niche.
If there's one thing this video accomplished, it's making me feel stupid for never touching the traps in this game in any of my many playthroughs.
5:29 >superior tactics
>uses flame magic against flame demon
Going to binge this and your KOTOR videos tomorrow while at work, love these long vids!!
Here's hoping you're not an air traffic controller... Cheers!
You can skip having Oghren in the final battle segment of the game by continuously insulting him when he is drunk. It leads to a segment where he fights the player and you can murder him in the party camp.
Damn, I really tried to find a way to get rid of him. Wiki mentioned none of this (that I could find).
And I know you've had a lot to say about this video, and it's kind of difficult to address all the points you've raised, but I just want to be clear that I hold no animosity towards you. I appreciate the two pieces of info regarding Oghren and Cullen, but I vehemently disagree with you on basically all of your other points. As you should have expected considering I spent months thinking about all of these things, and you've had an hour and 45 minutes.
Loved this video! Origins is nostalgic for me so I always love seeing other people play it!
You have a great taste in games! First KotOR 1 & 2, Age of Mythology, now DA:O... really nice to see :D
Now time for the dlcs solo. including armgorrok
I love that people are making Origins videos still and love the into (Duncan is still one of the coolest characters in the series)
I don't think you have to qualify your statement with 'one of'.
Well that intro was Maker-blessed
You have nice acting chops
Also watching this after Veilguard Release makes it even better😂😂😂
So far my character on origins is a arcane warrior blood mage and I am having so much fun
Shrek, traps and carpal tunnel - just the way I like it
Paused the video to sub during the intro. Never seen your videos before.
You have a great voice for narration/commentary.
The immediate narrative over the actual speaker was the funniest thing this year.
Dude you deserve 100x the subs and views, watched a couple vids. All excellent, keep it up man, good luck :D
Eh.. were working on it.
But hey, don't go too far back into my catalogue. Some of them I can't even watch.
I am so glad this got recommended to me, I've had so much fun watching this :], keep it up!
Great video honestly. You have some serious potential dude, keep it up!
I really love that there are like 2 adult Dragons in 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 age and one of them is optional
Demon Age, Morrigan and Me, Allistair and Archie, Zevran and Friends, Duncan and the Not So Good Really Bad Day...
Any of these would have been better choices.
Like even Skyrim has more right to be called dragon age. At least it kinda revolves around dragons.
In dragon age dragons have 0 plot or lore relevance. Even archdemon from dao decided to manifest as dragon just for fun xd
Tbf its called Dragon Age because its name of a current era in the game, which was called like this due to dragon sightings(who were known to be extinct) and some clergy propheting it would be an era of violence and war, and dragon is like a allegory for it together with awe of their return. It doesn't mean dragons would be everywhere and all. And by having not many of big dragons game actually made them feel rewarding. Also there is 3, not 2 iirc. Yes im lore nerd.
That a valid argument. By 3rd dragon do you mean Morringan's mom boss fight? If so I just don't feel like it really counts.
And about lore it's cool that it's so detailed and I respect that you know it so well but I played through dao about 4 times and da2 once but I didn't know any of it. Usually rpgs try to give you some cool lore stuff even if you don't read all the books.
I still think its strange to name a franchise after obscure lore detail which most of the players probably won't see considering how man lore books and stuff there is in the game.
And about the lack of dragons its really personal thing but I didn't think much of them, like it just big monster that hits hard and can easily cheesed.
I have stronger memories about one dragon in second pathfinder because it's a huge threat and there is a small questlind about weakining and ambushing it because in a fair fightvit just demolished you party. I dunno in da they just feel underwhelming.
@@kotriften Well its technically a dragon boss fight even if she was a shapeshifter :> iirc it was somewhere in in-game codex or smth aboute timeline and ages, i dont really remember where.
And II semi-agree, even DAI made better job with dragon fights and their quantity and quality balance, but Pathfinder games are both my "comfort" RPG choice atm which i replay with pleasure every time. Still need to replay Rogue Trader with new DLC too...
I think its criminal they never did anything with Duncans' character. That dude would have been perfect for a stand-alone origin game. Or hell, even a stand-alone origin DLC
I think they gave Duncan the best anyone could have ever hoped for: a tragic death.
You and I might feel robbed for not getting more from his character, but it's this very same feeling that I love Origins for. A dark, unsatisfactory conclusion that keeps you up nights knowing you won, but at what cost? This is also one of the many themes and feelings that I felt were sorely lacking from the sequels.
But I would still play the hell out of a Duncan themed game. Although I doubt he would make a great protagonist; he's more of a Gandalf.
Duncan is bro in most origins. However I play as a Human warrior, therefore f Duncan and his whole organization
Quality content my dude
The real reward was the friends you made along the way.
"Hi! I do stupid shit for seemingly no reason."
Well howdy! Just the kind of guy I like to watch after a hard day at work!
DAO was a game I played around ... 10 Years (?) ago. Man I am old... Never mind. I remember feeling a little bit discouraged by it, something about it's way of controlling the party was not on my side of the court and I felt that the ENTIRE time. I never finished the game because of it (always ended my runs halfway to the Golem-Forge), but I watched a lot of videos and know I would have loved to do a full playthrough if it weren't for this one factor.
I think it had something to do with the fact that you essentially have to think for 4 People instead of just your character if you want to really walz through the encounters... I lack that mental flexibility.
Give me a solid and competent team of support and one main character to use as glue and I will make them dance! But as soon as one of the other team members is brain dead without my guidance? Oh god no!
I can sympathize with that. Your companions are a huge pain to control. My best advice would be to just play the game on easy and ignore your companions. The most you need to worry about then is keeping them alive, which you can do by keeping an eye on their health bars and using potions/healing spells when they get low.
Or you could always try using tactics and set your companions to heal on their own. I should also point out that you have the option to toggle companion movement from follow to hold position if you ever feel like they keep running into combat without you, or just doing stupid things you don't want them to.
I mean hell, now you know you don't even need them at all...
@@vhoul Playing on easy is never an option for me. I love being challenged by a game and I want to experience all of its features. Sadly DAO left a sour taste in my mouth, but I still have the disc somewhere... Maybe one day. 😀
And NOT using companions? Hello? You of all people should know that Morrigan at least is a must-have!
This video was a breath of nostalgy to me, thanks! Reminds me how i was breaking the game like 10+ years ago in my multiple Nightmare runs, it was peak.
Shame this game never got a sequel...
I wish I could play Origins for the first time again, truly a masterpiece.
Dismissing Morrigan must have been painful, stay strong brother
My fav DAO build, bar none, is the 2h backstab rogue. You dont use skills only buffs it's great. It can do like 10k damage in like 15 seconds
Interesting, what do you typically use, a sword, axe, or maul? I would guess a sword since you don't really need the armour penetration.
I really wanted to do a shatter mage for this challenge, but it turns out shatter in really, really bad.
@vhoul you are actually restricted to a 2h sword available at Ostagar haha. I think it's near the broken statues in the Wilds. Rogues don't have much str and that's the lowest str 2h with the highest damage in the game. Super restricted build!
Oh, how I'm glad to see this game once more... I played it dozens of times, so I can't play it anymore... But challenge run? That sounds intresting.
1:01:20. - How many traps have you duped?
- Yes.
Poor Fred looks like hes gonna puke when Morrigan shows up.
Must be something to do with his aversion to people.
Subbed and dubbed
Your narration is amazing bro! You’re definitely gonna be big in the future💯
idk I only found out about you today with you klotor videos when I haven't even touched a kotor vid in over a year happy I found this channel thou
Im a simple man, i see an hour long dragon age or oblivion video, i click.
Which obscure movie reference was your favourite?
'Cause mine was all of them.
traps are the true beasts of the game, but magic is so fuckin cool lookin
Banger intro
I know, right?
I really appreciate the way you tell jokes with editing.
I am so glad I watched some Dragon Age: Origins content this week so I could get this gem recommended to me.
Your humor is outstanding!
SUBSCRIBED!
Good luck ahead, looking forward to future videos.
Thank you for an entertaining experience!
Omg, UA-cam is actually recommending this video to people who are interested in Dragon Age?
That's the best news I've heard all week.
Morrigan changed me as an 11 year old boy
Clicked on the vid originally cus' the thumbnail was a Quest for Camelot reference, stayed for the grade A content 👍
Awesome video, awesome editing, awesome idea. Honestly surprised this doesn't have more views
Thanks.
50:50 The scroll stops a spell that turns the mages on the floor into abominations. If the old mage dies then you can't recruit the mages for the last battle.
Also you can always recruit the templars. If the old mage survives you can request the mage circle be dissolved and you'll get the templars without any non hostile mages dying.
Great video on a great game! Need to see how Hawke and the Inquisitor handle a no party run.
I agree, but all in good time.
Can you beat DAO solo? Yes, it's called "Arcane Warrior" when I'm doing it.
Just started but yea, wow that intro speech felt way more poignant after playing Veilguard, this aged like fine wine :D (not that its old)
Anyway, onto the challenge, been consuming a lot of BG3 challenges lately, they are great fun, its awesome to see that there is something similar for DA.
Lol I vibe so much with the Morrigan take... There hasnt been anyone like Morrigan since, I love Liara and closest we got was Shadowheart, but Morrigan is the best girl, her VA also absolutely kills it.
I love how you roleplay to justify yourself killing Wynne and the mages, I was that evil only once and it still hurts me to this day :D Wynne is such a nice grandma, who could be mean to her :(
✋🤚I don't know what you're talking about Officer, that Demon attacked me. ;)
Great video. Your gonna have 10k subs soon because your video quality is very good. Gonna stick around for future videos! Have a nice day sir
I love that you based your character on Fred! He's my favorite! 😊
bercilian forest is the only correct first location option
Not going backstab build is criminal. Paralyze runes on your weapons and dirty fighting makes the Rogue ridiculously strong, since you can backstab from an enemy's front side when they're stunned. Otherwise great video, love the humor. DA:O is my favorite game of all time.
It probably makes sense with a whole party, but it really feels like you have more important things to do when your solo. Lot of angles to that problem though. Glad you enjoyed.
My friend, you earned this sub.
Flawless Intro
i once was trying to get all the leliana dialogue so i only took her and the dog. it was CHALLENGING, but very rewarding. i got through a lot of the game like that until i had to add wynne just so i didn't get clobbered.
A lot harder than what I was doing I imagine. I remember just playing the game on Nightmare for the first time, and that was harder than this.
Love it, subbed
I remember getting confused on the dwarven noble and looking up a guide to be mad confused why weddings mattered
I tried doing this a couple years ago, was do the dalish quest and the mods I had installed fucked my game. All my saves were fucked. Haven't touched the game since.
To side with the Templars during the Circle of Magi questline you need to agree with Cullen on the second to last floor and he suggests culling the Circle. If you talk to Irving it always leads to not culling the circle.
Huh, but would you not agree that murdering Wynne and every other Mage you find in the Tower is a much more important prerequisite to siding with the Templars?
@@vhoul That's not how the game was designed. It was designed so that the player had to speak to Cullen and be convinced that the Mages were beyond saving. This is also a payoff to a setup that occurs during the Mage origin where Cullen appears sympathetic towards the Mages but believes they are duplicitous when you find him in the tower during the main game.
It's somewhat logical for the developers to wait until after you completed the entire dungeon before making the final decision at the end. As the player could've been put off by how aggressive Wynne was and assumed they had become an Abomination. It would also be poor game design to lock the player into a choice like murdering the entire circle before the choice is ever properly presented to the player.
The developers later follow the same pattern with the Brecilian forest where the player is given a lot of opportunities to help both sides (The werewolves and elves) but the final choice to either restore the elves or help the werewolves occurs at the very end.
@@DeadYorick Right, I'm agreeing with you. I'm just saying that killing all the Mages in the Tower is a really bad way of going about recruiting Mages. Particularly when at this point, you've already had a conversation with Greagoir about how he'll pledge his Templars to your cause. I'm not saying this isn't how the game was designed, I'm saying from a logical perspective, it doesn't make any sense to design the game this way. I literally cleared every floor of the tower of mages at this point. I slaughtered them like animals, but because I didn't talk to the knight in the glowy circle a have no choice to let Irving live? That is patently ridiculous. I feel like all of your criticisms can be succinctly answered with, "Yes, that was the entire joke." Can you please just agree with me that these are all jokes? Like you already admitted to it in a previous comment that you think my jokes are unnecessary, but can you admit for me one more time that you understand they are jokes? You don't have to agree with them, but they are jokes.
Fade is basically sanitized Warp from Warhammer
Should be possible. With a mage once you get a few levels you can pretty much solo content easily.
"Hi, I do stupid shit for seemingly no reason" Alright, subscribed.
Batman: Then you're going to LOVE me.
Enchantment..?
Enchantment!
dope video im watch8ing it after work eating snacks
Sick intro, man I wish we got more games like DA:O and KOTOR
I can see this not being all that difficult at all... other than being softlocked.... maybe depending on what difficulty level you play on when, I've soloed many of the hardest boss fights before with just the warden, but that's with him at level 16+.
I think the most annoying part would be not having someone to open chests for me... I usually play as a mage.
This was less about difficulty and more about technicality. As in, 'can it physically be done?' I knew many people have done this challenge before me as long ago as when this game was still new. But what I didn't know, is how far they pushed the idea. Whether or not they avoided seemingly non-optional allies, and how many allies you can actually avoid. It was actually once I discovered how to get out of bounds without using Sten that I knew I wanted to do the challenge, as that was the biggest roadblock I assumed my predecessors would have skipped.
At the start the challenge was tricky, but it quickly became very easy. I considered doing the challenge without major glitches/exploits to make it harder, but that tended towards a very tedious strategy and I was more interested in variety. I did choose to go with a rogue because I thought it might be harder and more interesting than a mage, which I had assumed some people would have already been familiar with.
NGL its funny having been told to play the game, I play the game, come back and he's still telling me to go play the game. It is a good game though, and not one I would've been able to do by myself.
its funny, even 15 years ago, I always went into the bracilian forest first. Always saved the Fade bs for last.
playing it through for the first time on hard and i can't wait to see how tf you do this 😅
Heh, back in the day, I did solo run with my "immortal" Shapeshifter/Blood Mage, basically try to turn into Flying Swarm, while under the effect of Anti-Magic Ward and see what happens - your character will stay human/elf and would only take mana damage, even if their mana is fully depleted. The constant lack of mana that comes with this setup, can be circumvented with Blood Magic, so spells can be used (though they would still deplete your character's health, so care is advised). The only dangers to look out for, are Dispel Magic, Anti-Magic Burst, and Cleanse Area, as these can nullify your invincibility.
Sure, this is cheating of a highest caliber, but it's just so much fun to troll the game's nightmare difficulty for a change.
Cheating? The only rules are the rules you set for yourself.
Loved it! 💖
Very enjoyable video man. Id love to see if you could complete the Awakening dlc alone, it also tries to get the player to team up all the time.
The problem with that, is I don't own the awakening dlc and I've never actually played it. I own a copy of DAO for Xbox 360 and a PC disc copy. And for reasons that are entirely BioWare/EA's fault it's not possible to upgrade these copies of the game anymore.
I could however buy the Steam version of the game, but it's all like.. patched and stuff. And on general principal I don't like to buy 3 copies of a game.
How are the DLCs? From what I've read about them, they've always seemed irrelevant. If you promise they're good or really really bad, I'll think about it.
@@vhoul Personally I really enjoyed the Awakening dlc, from what I remember the story is decent. But just like Origins the companions are a huge part in making the story more engaging so if you play it make sure to do a regular playthrough before any challenge to enjoy the full experience. I wouldnt recommend the other Origins DLC since theyre are all very short like less than 1 hour of playtime while Awakening can be around 10 hours if you do most of the content.
Ok, that veilguard insert in the intro turned even a cynic like me. Kudos.
You know, one good thing about the Veilguard is how it brings people together.
I thought you were turning him into Mads Mickelson. You basically nailed it before giving him a sick joker smile. 🤮👌
Guess who is grossly underappreciated by the algorithm... its you! Damn son, some lovely high quality content for me to gobble up, with a backlog to enjoy! Allow me to say that it's definitely not you that's the reason for the (as of yet) low view count! Damn you algorithm, DAMN YOU I TELL YOU!
It's a really bad algorithm. I think it took two weeks for it to realize that maybe it should advertise to people who are watching Dragon Age videos.
Like idk, maybe that's.. the first thing you should try? *eye roll*
U probably said himself because women aren't great at war. But if u think you're a misogynist who am I to argue?
I think the Templar ending, you just talk to the Templar guy again, and tell him to purge the tower?
Idk, people keep saying slightly different things, but all variations of the same thing. Point is, it's really confusing and not at all intuitive.
Instant sub!
New sub, this is hilarious and I'm glad youtube recommended me this. I can't wait to see you play veilguard if it's anything like this
Do I have to...?
;)
I love the intro! 🤣
This video pleases me.