• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen |OT| deep down darkness

The copy/paste thing is overblown. There are multiple sanctums and some assets are reused. I'd rather have a longer dungeon with some room layouts copied a few times than a shorter one with all original architecture

The complains about it too challenging/unfair are funny in that a lot of the enemies people get stuck on are strategy based, not stat or equipment based. Having good equipment helps, but how many posts in here have been about Gazer? He's not difficult once you figure out his weakness. He's actually really easy. Same thing for Daimon, we all thought he was impossible and now were farming him in minutes for loot. There are a lot of layers and subtleties to this new content. It keeps with the spirit of DD vanilla in terms of progression, you just need to stick with it. Getting frustrated and writing it off as unbalanced or broken after a few hours isnt giving this new content its due.
 
the recycling of rooms in BBI is the biggest negative for me as well. first time i thought i've lost my way, before i realized...

the other would be the huge HP pool of some bosses. it's bad when they just have a very small vulnerability box and you're the main damage dealer. FU drakes. no fun.

not a real negative here, but i do hope all this gloom and despair isn't the main direction for their next game. we have souls for that. i want more variety in my RPGs with blue skies and fairies. you can have both.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
At least early on. I'm hardly doing any damage and activating spells is just so clunky. I'd imagine once I'm more powerful it's better, but for me, this game shines with melee combat.

The damage drop when I switched to Magick Archer was also something that deterred me from playing it, MA has really inconsistent damage early on I think. You either obliterate enemies or slowly chip away at their health, I think the problem there is due to how all their abilities at tied to elements and only having threefold which is ice open at the beginning feels pretty slow.

On a more subjective note, I think classes that have a ranged component and a strong melee component are the most fun to play, my favorite class at the moment is assassin because of dire gouge / hundred kisses and the strong bow abilities.

I really want to like Mystic Knight but not having great magick cannon is really holding it back for me, I am also gonna try out ranger as soon as I get a great long bow. I might just power through MA and then try out Magick Archer again, because I was really underwhelmed by its damage output, especially when you consider how pathetically weak all Magick Bows are. Seriously if you don't dragon forge them they all look so pathetic...even DF'ed they look pretty lame.
 
Yeah, in these games with inventory burden management, skills like sinew really lighten the headache. Like I told someone earlier, it took me an hour or two of just doing my side quests from before Soren to get fighter to rank 5 and sinew. Then I just switched back to ranger. I don't really have any plans to min/max either. Apparently if you did you'd just level Assassin to 200 and then, finally, play the class you want. LOL NO. Strider->ranger seemed absolutely fine to me. Ranger is insanely fun.

So If I decide to switch up vocations I'm assuming I have to go and re-gear each time I do that, and then put what I have into storage?
 

Skilletor

Member
At least early on. I'm hardly doing any damage and activating spells is just so clunky. I'd imagine once I'm more powerful it's better, but for me, this game shines with melee combat.

I felt the opposite. Mages in this have a beautiful time of casting vs. damage done ratio.

I play only mages in these types of games and feel that DD does them the best.

I switched to Magic Archer for awhile, but I will probably switch back to Sorcerer soon.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
So If I decide to switch up vocations I'm assuming I have to go and re-gear each time I do that, and then put what I have into storage?

That's currently what I do. Not much different than an mmo so it doesn't bug me.

Spellcasters are the only thing I haven't tried in the game yet..maybe I should...oh boy..
 

Kyoufu

Member
the recycling of rooms in BBI is the biggest negative for me as well. first time i thought i've lost my way, before i realized...

the other would be the huge HP pool of some bosses. it's bad when they just have a very small vulnerability box and you're the main damage dealer. FU drakes. no fun.

not a real negative here, but i do hope all this gloom and despair isn't the main direction for their next game. we have souls for that. i want more variety in my RPGs with blue skies and fairies. you can have both.

I don't think the HP pool is a concern unless you're hitting stuff with weak weapons/wrong elements or failing to take advantage of weak points.

I mean, stuff dies so fast with my BBI gear on both my Assassin and Magick Archer. My Ranger who had a terrible bow couldn't do much.
 
Damn , leveling fighter for sinew and it's SO much easier than playing assassin.

My fighter main pawn is apparently an incompetent twat who fails to keep aggro or pin the right mobs down or break guard.
Fought an ogre and he went down in about 35seconds because me keeping aggro allowed the sorcerer and mage pawns in my party to shit on him in under a minute.. Whereas when my main pawn is fighter instead of warrior the ogre was running around interupting the casters...

I wish I knew how to make the fighter pawn be useful :\

And as always in every rpg ever all my consumables, special arrows, poisons etc go completely unused as I hoard them and never feel the need to use them...
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Damn , leveling fighter for sinew and it's SO much easier than playing assassin.

Wait how are you finding fighter easier than assassin?! If anything the assassin is just a fighter with more options available, less defense sure but he makes up for that with the short bow and being able to just 5fold arrow into weakspots. Seriously, downing a liquid vim and spamming 5 fold arrow at anythings weak spot will drop it in a matter of seconds.

The fighter has what? Dragon's Maw, which amazing damage but really risky as well as the positioning of the attack being a bit important.

The fighter is awesome definitely, but how is it easier?
 
I don't think the HP pool is a concern unless you're hitting stuff with weak weapons/wrong elements or failing to take advantage of weak points.

I mean, stuff dies so fast with my BBI gear on both my Assassin and Magick Archer. My Ranger who had a terrible bow couldn't do much.

maybe it's different on hard? i can't cling to drakes for long. he either grabs me or swats me. that's 3/4 HP gone.
 

branny

Member
I feel so stupid for not realizing how strong Fulmination was until I randomly tested its advanced/"Grand" version yesterday.

You can't drop Elder Ogres/Gazers/Garms/Cursed Dragons/etc. in three seconds with Levin.

How's everyone enjoying the expansion? I haven't had much time to play it.
As someone who really loved vanilla's postgame, I find Dark Arisen's BBI stuff to be right up my alley.
 
At least early on. I'm hardly doing any damage and activating spells is just so clunky. I'd imagine once I'm more powerful it's better, but for me, this game shines with melee combat.

Melee combat is a big draw, I agree. I've played all the melee classes and enjoyed them, but thought I'd try something new for this playthrough. Being a magic-user forces you to be very mindful of elemental properties and your placement on the battlefield. I've enjoyed sorcerer so far because they don't have a single fallback ability like the other classes. I constantly have to mix up my strategies and think on my toes if I want to survive (at least on hard).

This is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway. You learned how to disengage lock-on and aim your spells manually, right? I remember hating magic the first time I tried it because I didn't realize you could manually aim your spells or cast a boon on yourself. The game never really explains how to do so.
 
The damage drop when I switched to Magick Archer was also something that deterred me from playing it, MA has really inconsistent damage early on I think. You either obliterate enemies or slowly chip away at their health, I think the problem there is due to how all their abilities at tied to elements and only having threefold which is ice open at the beginning feels pretty slow.

On a more subjective note, I think classes that have a ranged component and a strong melee component are the most fun to play, my favorite class at the moment is assassin because of dire gouge / hundred kisses and the strong bow abilities.

I really want to like Mystic Knight but not having great magick cannon is really holding it back for me, I am also gonna try out ranger as soon as I get a great long bow. I might just power through MA and then try out Magick Archer again, because I was really underwhelmed by its damage output, especially when you consider how pathetically weak all Magick Bows are. Seriously if you don't dragon forge them they all look so pathetic...even DF'ed they look pretty lame.

Yea I've been mainly Strider/Assassin and the augments and skills are so fun. Damage output is great even with Scalding Razors still. That is probably where my frustration is. It just seems clunky to me at this point because if having all the effective attacks tied to the skills system. I'm doing a bit better now, being a few levels higher, but it's very tough trying to convince myself to stick with it a bit longer for the augments.

I felt the opposite. Mages in this have a beautiful time of casting vs. damage done ratio.

I play only mages in these types of games and feel that DD does them the best.

I switched to Magic Archer for awhile, but I will probably switch back to Sorcerer soon.


Not sure if Mage/Sorc are much different, but perhaps they are. Using the skills as a Mage is just really clunky when in a heated battle, where-as the faster melee classes are so much more efficient to me. It may just be a matter of me knowing the controls and all that. Like having to let go of the primary skills trigger button to initiate said skill. Caused me some frustration and I still find myself forgetting to do that.
Melee combat is a big draw, I agree. I've played all the melee classes and enjoyed them, but thought I'd try something new for this playthrough. Being a magic-user forces you to be very mindful of elemental properties and your placement on the battlefield. I've enjoyed sorcerer so far because they don't have a single fallback ability like the other classes. I constantly have to mix up my strategies and think on my toes if I want to survive (at least on hard).

This is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway. You learned how to disengage lock-on and aim your spells manually, right? I remember hating magic the first time I tried it because I didn't realize you could manually aim your spells or cast a boon on yourself. The game never really explains how to do so.

I'm not quite sure if I know how to do that, it may be what I mentioned above. I think that may be the main issue I'm having with the magic classes. Controls seem to work much better as a melee, whereas with magic there seems to be a bunch of subtle things you have to do.
 

KorrZ

Member
Mage comes into it's own as soon as you get Comestian. I'm currently running as a Sorcerer with High Comestian, High Bolide, Maelstron, High Brontide, High Frigor and I'm absolutely loving it.

Best feeling magic user in an RPG in quite some time.
 

Skilletor

Member
Not sure if Mage/Sorc are much different, but perhaps they are. Using the skills as a Mage is just really clunky when in a heated battle, where-as the faster melee classes are so much more efficient to me. It may just be a matter of me knowing the controls and all that. Like having to let go of the primary skills trigger button to initiate said skill. Caused me some frustration and I still find myself forgetting to do that.

Maybe just a different mentality then. My MO as a mage is to try and stay out of a heated battle so I can nuke from afar. That's part of the fun of playing the class for me. Managing spell casting and area control is great fun. :)
 
so far, my favorite piece of equipment from BBI is a ring that prevents "drenched" status. no more fiddling with the lantern after a dodge in water. one area in particular was hell before i got the ring.

I'm not sure. I'm a normal mode peasant. :(

Hard mode must be insane!

it's doable. this is the only hiccup i have with bosses right now. i'm sure it's solvable.
 

twelver

Member
I remember hating magic the first time I tried it because I didn't realize you could manually aim your spells or cast a boon on yourself. The game never really explains how to do so.

How do you cast boons like fire affinity on yourself?? And how do the core skills work?? Like focused bolt and all that.. thanks.

(Also nice avatar, going to see them live May 11!!)
 
Maybe just a different mentality then. My MO as a mage is to try and stay out of a heated battle so I can nuke from afar. That's part of the fun of playing the class for me. Managing spell casting and area control is great fun. :)

Yea, makes sense, and I can see the appeal. It's great to not have a clunky lock-on and guided basic attacks. I can see the potential but I'm more of a guy that likes a fast, nimble melee character.
 
How do you cast boons like fire affinity on yourself?? And how do the core skills work?? Like focused bolt and all that.. thanks.

(Also nice avatar, going to see them live May 11!!)

The key to doing both of those things in pushing in on the analog sticks (I forget which one). This allows you to manually aim spells like Ingle or Comestion and cast the boon reticule on yourself. Core skills work by holding down either the light or heavy attack button, and then releasing it to activate the core skill. Totally invaluable for this type of playthrough.

And have fun! I saw them in Indie earlier this month and it was probably the best concert I've ever seen.

I'm not quite sure if I know how to do that, it may be what I mentioned above. I think that may be the main issue I'm having with the magic classes. Controls seem to work much better as a melee, whereas with magic there seems to be a bunch of subtle things you have to do.

It's tricky, I agree, but once you learn how to aim spells manually at a specific enemy or body part it feels a lot more natural.
 

Kyoufu

Member
so far, my favorite piece of equipment from BBI is a ring that prevents "drenched" status. no more fiddling with the lantern after a dodge in water. one area in particular was hell before i got the ring.

Definitely my favourite too. Makes the sewer area much better to maneuver around in when facing Death and Living Armors.
 

branny

Member
Maybe just a different mentality then. My MO as a mage is to try and stay out of a heated battle so I can nuke from afar. That's part of the fun of playing the class for me. Managing spell casting and area control is great fun. :)
Yeah, I love playing spellcasters in Dragon's Dogma because the tension of being helpless while casting is offset perfectly by the satisfaction you feel when your spell finally comes out.

It's a risk/reward thing done incredibly well and a great realization of the class archetype, imo.

Yea, makes sense, and I can see the appeal. It's great to not have a clunky lock-on and guided basic attacks. I can see the potential but I'm more of a guy that likes a fast, nimble melee character.
Fast and nimble melee characters are super fun in this game, too. Honestly, every class is satisfying. The devs did a good job making them all appealing in their own ways.

For example, I don't even care for Warriors all that much, but I adore the crazy impact stutter that happens when you connect with Arc of Deliverance.
 

Mugaaz

Member
I play a sorc and like it, but disagree with you guys. The charge times on the normal spells, like ingle/levin/etc is fine and a good risk/reward ratio for using in melee. The big spells like Maelstrom/Bolide are just stupid though. Theyre designed only to be used to open with from afar before getting agro, or to be used by people exploiting AI/pathing/terrain. I find it to be total BS and completely breaks immersion. The game doesn't support the use of spells with cast times that long. Some would argue that youre not supposed to use them in combat, theyre just supposed to be used to open with. That would be fine with me, but then the super long charge time is still a horrible gameplay system. Either it should be fast, but require no agro, or it should be fast and have a high CD. Charging Maelstrom behind a pillar for 20 seconds while the dragon repeatedly tries to move through the pillar, but can't, is stupid.

Another thing I really don't like is how charged bolts are better than almost everything. Their needs to be more spells like Ingle/Levin that are useful and quick for each element. Spells like comestation are cool too, its actually useable in combat, just risky.

I know I'm coming off as whiny. Magic in this is the best it's ever been done in an open world arpg. It could still be much, much better though.
 

Dawg

Member
Just got the expansion, is Magic Knight still awesome?

I've heard good things about Rangers, but I remember doing little damage with them back when I played the original game.
 
Just got the expansion, is Magic Knight still awesome?

I've heard good things about Rangers, but I remember doing little damage with them back when I played the original game.

I too would like to know if they added anything new to Mystic Knight. It was my class the majority of my first playthrough.
 

Audioboxer

Member
FUUUU I prevented myself from being able to do the Lost and Found quest because I done the quest where you go underground for the pawn first.
 

Sanctuary

Member
The damage drop when I switched to Magick Archer was also something that deterred me from playing it, MA has really inconsistent damage early on I think. You either obliterate enemies or slowly chip away at their health, I think the problem there is due to how all their abilities at tied to elements and only having threefold which is ice open at the beginning feels pretty slow.

On a more subjective note, I think classes that have a ranged component and a strong melee component are the most fun to play, my favorite class at the moment is assassin because of dire gouge / hundred kisses and the strong bow abilities.

I really want to like Mystic Knight but not having great magick cannon is really holding it back for me, I am also gonna try out ranger as soon as I get a great long bow. I might just power through MA and then try out Magick Archer again, because I was really underwhelmed by its damage output, especially when you consider how pathetically weak all Magick Bows are. Seriously if you don't dragon forge them they all look so pathetic...even DF'ed they look pretty lame.

Too many of the ranged classes feel "samey" while playing them. There's honestly not a lot of a difference between the Ranger, Strider and Assaasin. Sure, they do have minor things that seperate them, but the general playstyle is the same between all three. The Magick Archer on the other hand feels like the only one of the four that has it's own identity, but barely; because I end up just turning on Immolate and using Cutting Wind/Hundred Kisses on most things that aren't weak against frost. The thing about the MA though is that it can handle four different elemental weaknesses at one time and it absolutely destroys most things post-game as well as Drakes. I don't know how the output of the other classes is against the mimic chests, but I can kill them every time by just spamming Explosive Rivet while the tank keeps blowing them up.

Too bad you still can't level up as one (switch a few thousand or even hundred before leveling up) though. Their stat gains are just awful, and toggling back and forth between Strider and Sorcerer gives you the most gains.

Damn , leveling fighter for sinew and it's SO much easier than playing assassin.

My fighter main pawn is apparently an incompetent twat who fails to keep aggro or pin the right mobs down or break guard.
Fought an ogre and he went down in about 35seconds because me keeping aggro allowed the sorcerer and mage pawns in my party to shit on him in under a minute.. Whereas when my main pawn is fighter instead of warrior the ogre was running around interupting the casters...

I wish I knew how to make the fighter pawn be useful :\

And as always in every rpg ever all my consumables, special arrows, poisons etc go completely unused as I hoard them and never feel the need to use them...

It sounds like your Fighter's inclination is set to Challenger. You really don't want that on a Fighter. Make sure it's Scather first (or even Mitigator if you prefer killing all the weak stuff earlier since the shield Cymbal should keep the big enemies on it anyway) and it's secondary is either Utilitarian or even Medicant (this is good on a tank, because it will use healing items more often to keep itself alive). Also, remove all of it's shield abilities aside from Cymbal/Drum. Blink Strike, Heavenward Lash and Dragon's Maw (Legion's Bite upgrade) as it's offensive skills.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Too many of the ranged classes feel "samey" while playing them. There's honestly not a lot of a difference between the Ranger, Strider and Assaasin. Sure, they do have minor things that seperate them, but the general playstyle is the same between all three. The Magick Archer on the other hand feels like the only one of the four that has it's own identity, but barely; because I end up just turning on Immolate and using Cutting Wind/Hundred Kisses on most things that aren't weak against frost. The thing about the MA though is that it can handle four different elemental weaknesses at one time and it absolutely destroys most things post-game as well as Drakes.

Too bad you still can't level up as one (switch a few thousand or even hundred before leveling up) though. Their stat gains are just awful, and toggling back and forth between Strider and Sorcerer gives you the most gains.

I agree with that samey notion, Assassin is really a strider than can use a sword and shield, while a ranger is just a strider with a bigger bow and suped up attacks.

I think one of the biggest downsides to MA is that in order for it to feel up to snuff you really have to level up mage and sorcerer for the Magick damage augs because Magick bows are so inherently weak. MA really shines once you get a handle on the balance of what elements you bring along so you always have some way to kill everything.

So really the issue with MA is you need a high amount of investment for you to feel the power of an MA, just switching vocations is going to make you feel pretty weak. Especially for some one who went Fighter -> Warrior -> Strider -> Assassin >- Mystic Knight (didn't finish leveling) -> Magick Archer (didn't finish leveling). As an MA is feel a lot weaker than I did as an assassin or even a MK.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Same happened to me. Really dumb that they don't give you any indication that such a thing is even possible until it's too late.

Aye..blame it on classic Japanese design. Without a quest guide telling you what's available and when it becomes unavailable, you're just gonna have to get used to missing some quests.
 

Sanctuary

Member
I agree with that samey notion, Assassin is really a strider than can use a sword and shield, while a ranger is just a strider with a bigger bow and suped up attacks.

I think one of the biggest downsides to MA is that in order for it to feel up to snuff you really have to level up mage and sorcerer for the Magick damage augs because Magick bows are so inherently weak. MA really shines once you get a handle on the balance of what elements you bring along so you always have some way to kill everything.

So really the issue with MA is you need a high amount of investment for you to feel the power of an MA, just switching vocations is going to make you feel pretty weak. Especially for some one who went Fighter -> Warrior -> Strider -> Assassin >- Mystic Knight (didn't finish leveling) -> Magick Archer (didn't finish leveling). As an MA is feel a lot weaker than I did as an assassin or even a MK.

I'd say it's probably the least fun class to level. Most of the non hybrids can simply be leveled from levels 10 to whatever, only swapping for augments you might want. The Assassin doesn't need to switch at all either. Looking at the above progression, it's pretty obvious why your damage dropped so much. It's not a physical based class. But no one would know how each class actually progressed stat wise unless they wrote them down themselves, or looked them up online since the game doesn't do anything to let you know what you're in for.

IMO it's stat gains should have been something like:

20 HP, 26 STA, 1 ATTK, 3 DEF, 4 MA, 3 MD
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Is there an option to sleep/rest/fast forward the time?

I'm in Windbluff Tower and the darkness kind of took me by surprise. It's pitch black here, can't see anything and I'm the only one in my party with a lantern.

I don't really feel like waiting around for sunrise. How long is the day/night cycle anyway, in realtime minutes?
 

eXistor

Member
The copy/paste thing is overblown. There are multiple sanctums and some assets are reused. I'd rather have a longer dungeon with some room layouts copied a few times than a shorter one with all original architecture

I'd rather have half the dungeon if it meant it being all original locations myself. It's rare to come across a new location anymore, every little alcove or hallway is re-used several times. This is lazy and takes me out of the game completely. It defeats any sense of adventure and exploration for me when the deepest layers of the dungeons are the same as the very first, loot locations and all.
 
Finished up my two finals this morning, get home and what do I finally get? Revenant Wail

blair-happy.gif


And then I gold dragon forged it and smoked Daimon's ass faster than ever before...

7a62a.gif
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I'd say it's probably the least fun class to level. Most of the non hybrids can simply be leveled from levels 10 to whatever, only swapping for augments you might want. The Assassin doesn't need to switch at all either. Looking at the above progression, it's pretty obvious why your damage dropped so much. It's not a physical based class. But no one would know how each class actually progressed stat wise unless they wrote them down themselves, or looked them up online since the game doesn't do anything to let you know what you're in for.

IMO it's stat gains should have been something like:

20 HP, 26 STA, 1 ATTK, 3 DEF, 4 MA, 3 MD

Exactly, I realized this when I equipped my first Magick Bow and realized it was actually pure magick damage, I had assumed that it was just going to be something slightly more hybrid like perma enchanted arrows or something more like the dagger attacks the MA has, but no the Magick Bow is an absolute disaster to use unless you've already leveled sorc and mage to max level for their +6 MgAtk on level as well as their MgAtk augments. Which is knd of frustrating considering how I don't really want to play those classes for a few hours to then finally be able to play my MA.

Also the stat spread for the Magick Archer should really be a lot more like what you mentioned, perhaps even shaving off 1 more off regular def and giving it a solid 5 mgatk. Because the class is basically a spell caster as it is, with the ability to use daggers.
 
I'd rather have half the dungeon if it meant it being all original locations myself. It's rare to come across a new location anymore, every little alcove or hallway is re-used several times. This is lazy and takes me out of the game completely. It defeats any sense of adventure and exploration for me when the deepest layers of the dungeons are the same as the very first, loot locations and all.
I find this a pretty bizarre sentiment. I understand the complaint, just not in this instance. Mass Effect one repeating the same 2 space outpost interiors on every planet was beyond terrible, especially for a story based game. Coming across the same room in BBI 2 or 3 times in such a combat focused game where the enemy encounters are the draw, its such a minor thing in my eyes. To each their own
 

edgefusion

Member
Normally I find re-used locations a bother (see: Dragon Age 2), but personally I find it adds to the sense of twisted weirdness I get from BBI. Coming across a creepy, dark hallway that's the same but slightly different to an earlier one is disorienting in a good way.
 

xCobalt

Member
Exactly, I realized this when I equipped my first Magick Bow and realized it was actually pure magick damage, I had assumed that it was just going to be something slightly more hybrid like perma enchanted arrows or something more like the dagger attacks the MA has, but no the Magick Bow is an absolute disaster to use unless you've already leveled sorc and mage to max level for their +6 MgAtk on level as well as their MgAtk augments. Which is knd of frustrating considering how I don't really want to play those classes for a few hours to then finally be able to play my MA.

Also the stat spread for the Magick Archer should really be a lot more like what you mentioned, perhaps even shaving off 1 more off regular def and giving it a solid 5 mgatk. Because the class is basically a spell caster as it is, with the ability to use daggers.

Min/maxing is not necessary for this game. You'll be able to beat this game going pure Magick Archer. Weapons and Armor and have a much larger impact than stat growths when you level.
 
Top Bottom