Neo's Dragon Age: Inquisition Playthrough(Blind)

That's why you use Barriers and Armor.

Chapter 1: It Begins

Last update of the night, folks. It's not gonna be a long one, as I have to get up early tomorrow. So, when we last left off, we had just woken up in Haven, that one village in the Frostback Mountains that was home to dragon cultists in Origins. We get decked out in some spiffy new DLC gear that looks pretty flipping badass, and go to meet Cassy in the Chantry. There we run into Chancellor Douchebag and Leiliana as well, who are all arguing what to do with us. The Chancellor wants to send us to the gallows(still), but he's shot down by Cassy, who has assumed military control during the crisis. He's also now a suspect himself, since the events at the Temple cleared our name. Cassy invokes the power of the Divine, and declares the Inquisition of old resurrected, with us(Not surprisingly) as the Inquisitor. We agree to help Cassy, and shake hands, while Leiliana sends off a couple messenger Hawks.

Cue cinematic cutscene and title. Once that's over, we find ourselves back in Haven, standing in the middle of a street, for some odd reason. Why couldn't we just, you know, start back in the Chantry? Wouldn't that make more sense, as opposed to some random back street? Ah, whatevs. Just nitpicks.

Anyway, apparently we have unlocked 'Influence' now. Which, if I'm to guess, is how much weight the Inquisition, and by extension the Inquisitor carries. Makes sense. We head back into the Chantry to talk with Cassy more, and we meet Commander Cullen! Hey! I remember this guy!

Also, we learn why we're being treated as a god now: everyone thinks we're the 'Herald of Andraste', and the next prophet. Huh. And now we unlock the Operations Table!

This is kinda cool. It's a war table, where we can choose missions and upgrade our stuff; forces, secrets, connections, even infrastructure. Neat. So, we have to scout areas out before we unlock them, and use resources to do so? Wow. Our current mission will take us into the Hinterlands of Ferelden, near the Kocarri Wilds, where we have to locate a Revered Mother who may be able to help us win over the Chantry.

But before we do that, we need to look around Haven a little more first. Never know what you might miss, after all.

We do some miscellaneous quests around town, gaining some lovely EXP, loot, and meeting new people. We talk with Solas about the Fade, and he approves quite a bit of our little chat. Potential Lady and Gents, we may have found the bro of this game. Or at least this run.

We talk with Varric next, who basically tells us to ditch the Inquisition at the first opportunity, and we learn about a small group of Grey Wardens travelling near the Stormy Coast. Hmm. Might be worth investigating.

Let's see... We purchase some better gear, outfit ourselves in a kickass helmet, our bro in some Battlemage armor, and our future waifu Cassy in a nice suit of tanky footsoldier armor. We finish a couple more quests, speak with Leiliana(Who is as adorable as ever), and talk with the Smith. Lastly, we speak with Commander Cullen, who is already busy training new recruits.

I know this update was kinda boring, but hey! Look on the bright side! Tomorrow we go into the Wilds, full of crazed Templars, evil Mages, and demons galore! So stay tuned, and don't forget to stay frisky!

PEACE!

Guess what?! Winterwatch Tower actually turned out to be the stronghold of a really nice cult, and not a bandit hive at all! We sealed another Rift that had been opened in the Keep, made the Cult our own(Literally. They worship the Herald now) and earned ourselves another 2 Power. We now have 4 whopping Power. That's pretty sweet. Also, I get the potion for that random guy's sick wife and realize I somehow missed the missing Scout on the way to Winterwatch. IKR? Big surprise there.

We retrace our steps and finally find her just east of Winterwatch, and holy cow! She's an Elite character with 3000+ HP?!

.... And she's somehow been reduced to 1 HP by a couple of scrub Templars. Right. Cause that so makes sense. Anywho, we save her, and notice another Rift in the distance, so we head toward it like a good little Herald.

Oh look, it's a Boss levelled Rage Demon-

Wait.... WHAT?!!!

Yes, it is their level.

Also, the Harding joke that Varric makes isn't an innuendo. He's referencing one of his books, which is called "Hard in Hightown" or something like that.

Chapter 4: Mithy

Alrighty then, welcome back all you wonderful catdragons. In this episode of let's beat up poor Neo, we head north and finish off another region of the Hinterlands. And maybe, just maybe, we'll finally level up.

This seems to be the area infested with Bandits and Outlaws, but they're much easier than those stupid Templars- he says as he runs into a Qunari warrior with a giant sledgehammer that two shots him. One of these days I'll learn to keep my mouth shut, I promise.

Aaaaaaaaanyway... Brolas™ mentions special artifacts that are used to measure the Veil, and may be used to power up our Mark. He says one might be nearby, so we head over to check it out and meet Mithras, a smoking hot Dalish babe- *Ahem*- I mean a very beautiful Elven lady. She agrees to help us look for the artifact in question, provided we keep the Demons off her shapely a- *Ahem*- off her hide. Also, we now have 9 Power, so we can do all 'em scouting missions, and our Inquisitor Rank reached level 2, which means we now have a special Inquisition Perk to spend. But we'll do all that later, once we get back to Haven(In like Chapter 20). For now though, we're going to spend some quality time with the lovely Mithy.

Hey! It's an actual, bona fide dungeon! This is the first one in the game! Well, not counting the Temple of Sacred Ashes, but who counts that? That was just one corridor and a room with a super OP boss.

.... Well that was... Underwhelming. That's another quest done. No, wait! Mithy, come back! NO, Mithy, please! We were just starting to know and understand each other! Why aren't you a permanent party member?! Mithy don't leave me! MITHY!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

*Sobs*
*Sobs x2*
*Sobs x3*

*Sniffle* A-At least we still have Brolas™. You'll never leave me... Right Brolas™? Seriously though. If the game pulls a martyr cliche with Solas, with some BS like him sacrificing himself to close the Breach, I'm going to boycott Bioware for an entire year. Just super sayian.

Oooh, I got an Amulet of Power, which gives an automatic ability point when used. Niiiice. I know a certain Bro who could use this! Hey Brolas™, here ya go!

Finally completed the Blood Brothers quest, and got a rare Mercenary Lord Blade and some more Influence for it. Awesome. Let's see if Cassy wants a new sword... She does. Here Cassy, have a present. I haven't doted on you in a while. Now, what else is there to do up here... Hmm, got a couple more exclamation points nearby... Let's see what's in this *obviously* abandoned house. A letter?

AND WE FINALLY LEVELLED UP!!!! PRAISE THE MAKER, WE'RE FINALLY LEVEL 5!!!!

.... It feels like I've been level 4 for the entire flipping game. Didn't I reach that way back in the Prologue? I don't even remember. Ah, now I get it! So, you automatically gain 1-2 attribute points for your major stat per level and the rest of your stats come from your skills and armor.

..... When I think about it, I really, really don't like that. I guess we've reached my first major complaint about the game then. The game essentially levels up your character's stats for you, with very little wriggle room. For example, in my most recent Origins file, the one I just completed, I made a Dual Wielding Warrior, but gave him massive strength, dexterity, and constitution, and good cunning and willpower, which allowed him to perform the role of a tank and a damage dealer. This basically made him two characters in one, and with the Berserker and Champion specialties(As well as Guardian in Awakening), he became even better at both jobs. Towards the end of the game(And throughout Awakening) he was actually serving as both my main tank and melee DPS, and he made both Alistair and Justice obsolete, which opened up more room for different party members. I usually like to do something similar with my Rogues; I don't want to just rely on evasion, but make sure they don't get one shot by every single enemy late game. And unless there's some seriously broken armor later on, I legitimately don't see how I can do that in Inquisition. And since they took Lockpicking out of the game, Rogues are practically useless now. And from what I've seen, they also reduced the number of scenarios where Stealth can be used outside of battle.

In short, they didn't just completely nerf Rogues, they took out all the customizable options for your character. I don't even think you can choose a Dual Wielding warrior in this game.

.... What the actual crap was Bioware thinking? Golurk, please tell me I'm wrong and just overreacting.

Otherwise I may start a new game and just play as a Mage. Anyway, until Golurk answers, I'm putting this on hold for a while. I don't know if I'm keeping this character or not.

And in doing so, they made one class worthless, and took away one of the best aspects of the original game. That was a really, really stupid decision on Bioware's part. I'm going to keep this character, because I've grown kinda attached to him, but my opinion of and hype for the game just took a big hit. And that's not a good thing, since I'm still at the beginning of the game.

I'm scared that I won't be able to wear the armor I want to now, because I'll be forced to prioritize gameplay later on. I guess I'll just lower the difficulty if that happens, but that really pisses me off. In a series that's all about customization, why the heck would you limit everything so drastically? It doesn't make any sense to me.

I've decided my next character will be a female Dalish Elf mage named Mithy.

Maybe 'worthless' isn't quite the right word. Try 'pointless'.

The whole point of Rogues before was to disarm traps in the middle of battle, get loot, and disorient/stun enemies so your mage can heal everyone else. That was the entire point of their evasion; that they have more current(Not max) HP than the warrior(s), which in turn, allows you to keep your tank alive. This made Rogues almost essential to the party. While the backstab damage is awesome, it takes a few seconds to set up and is often situational. The actual DPS a Rogue can perform is easily overshadowed by a traditional Warrior!Dealer and a Warrior!Tank party. If you're using your Rogue as a DPS, then you aren't using him/her as effectively as you could.

Now, you are right about one thing: I haven't played the game that much, and I should probably reserve judgement. But from what I've seen of the Rogue's possible skillset, and from what I know about how the gameplay works, the Rogue is relegated to a Dealer in Inquisition, which makes the class pointless, especially since they've buffed both Warriors and Mages in Inquisition.

But in the previous games, a Warrior could be a DPS as well, and a Rogue could be used for multiple purposes. That's my point. They restricted all the classed significantly, and I'm trying to understand why. The main reason I love playing as a Rogue is because of the non-gameplay elements, and all the tricks you can do in combat. None of which you can actually do in this game, save for a couple. And a Two Handed Warrior can still be a DPS, because they improved attack speed so much in this game. And again, that's my point. Rogues are no longer essential, or anywhere close to it.

Hence me complaining about them being nerfed so much. But I will give credit where credit is due. Combat Stealth is so much more fluid and just overall better than it was before. Still though, it's a convenience, and not a necessity.

Last update for the night, and a quick one. We continue past the abandoned house from before, and into the Witchwood, where we learn the Apostate stronghold is located. We find a small cabin in the woods, part of one of our many, many Sidequests, and end up having to fight a Terror Demon inside. The closed confines of the house actually worked against the very tall demon, and we easily dispatch it using the timeless Winters Grasp/Twin Fangs combo. Afterwards, we walk outside aaaand- wait for it- the entire area is now suddenly a battlefield! Templars and Mages everywhere!

We force our way through legions of baddies, and Cassy, Brolas™, and Varric level up. I give Brolas™ Ice Wall, cause YOLO. We finally make it past the battlefield, and set up another camp. Ooooh, and we find a treasure map just outside the camp. Nice and treasure map, nice and treasure map.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll finally continue the main story! So stay tuned, and remember, stay frisky!

PEACE!