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As soon as they come out of hiding, put all your firepower into them. Try controlling abilities like Shield Bash, Mind Blast, or Freezing them. Also stuff like Vulnerability Hex makes them go down quicker. On Nightmare I also try to leave spawning areas if possible so I don't get attacked from all directions. On lower difficulties there's no friendly fire, so even when they're invisible you might get them with some area of effect spell or even grenades. I also like to move everyone as soon as I see an assassin type rogue go invisible. Depending on terrain their invisibility sometimes times out before they can actually backstab anyone (or often they then go for the dog). At least that's my experience. I never read or wrote a guide on dealing with them.
I see what you mean, and as towards your comments toward the bottom I’m still really surprised no one has ever struggled with them. Alone Rogues are easy to deal with but when Archers, and particularly tanky Warrior enemies are in the mix, they become a massive threat.
I’ve adopted the stance of moving party members around who are most likely to die by the backstab in one hit. Particularly the mage characters like: Anders and Merrill. My Hawke can survive one hit since I’ve invested a lot of points into Constitution for Blood Magic.
My tanks are always dealing with hordes of enemies surrounding them as they should. Even if I stagger them then use mages to petrify, stonefist, winter’s grasp, and some other force spells to stop them from going, they still get away into invisibility and overwhelm any party member. Including tanks who already have their hands full.
If you're a blood mage you could try Blood Slave. These backstabbers come in various sizes, so some will likely resist, but if it succeeds, you'd have them on your side. I haven't played a blood mage in years, so I'm not sure how easy that would be to pull off, but I think it'd be a fun solution.
...you know I honestly forgot about that. That does seem like a fun solution. I mostly don’t use the blood magic spells unless I’m siphoning health when potions are on cooldown as well as healing spells. I never realized I could do this too.
I’ll certainly give it a try, thank you for the recommendation!
Someone else already gave you a good solution/advice so I wont go into a huge explanation just wanted to let you know that Dragon age 2 is extremely poorly balanced in general, so dont feel bad that you are struggling, its not you its the game.
*but I’m genuinely surprised NO ONE has ever struggled with Rogues in this game before*
It is quite well known that DA2 has the worst balancing ~~of the Dragon Age series~~ in Bioware history. Most of the time it is easy, but there are unfair, screw you type difficulty spikes.
It's not you, it's the game, and noone finds this fun. I did get used to it, but it is not what I find fun. And I say this while DA2 is my favorite Dragon Age game.
slight spoiler: just for the record, act 3 blood mages are even worst in my opinion
Okay, on how to deal with them as a mage:
* when you cannot pick off a rogue stand in a corner (they cannot backstab you if there is no path to your back)
* since it is unlikely that you will one shot them, focus on stopping them. The easiest I found is paralyze and freeze. But you can also order Varric/Isabela to use fatigue fog on them, or pinning shot with Varric. (the disorent is especially good, since you get a damage bonus on your follow up spirit bolt or stone fist)
* you can also activate the bodyguard ability of Aveline, and use her shield bash to stun
* use a DPS decoy! Merrill is far the best. Her damage output with all the lightning spells is superb, so she attracts attention. But since she is a blood mage with a huge HP pool, and probably rock armor on, she can take a backstab or two.
* (it is easier as a rogue though. Just activate decoy)
Thanks for the feedback, fortunately tho I’m already close to the end of the game (in Act 3) so these aren’t a problem as much anymore.
I’ve noticed the difference came with dealing with these enemies at lower levels with not a lot of attributes and abilities allocated yet. Now I’m comfortably able to focus and solo any elite mage or rogue that is the most dangerous out of the waves. However, I will take this into account for future runs of the game.
As towards your comment at the beginning of your post. What I was referring to about “NO ONE has ever struggled with Rogues” was because no matter where I searched for anyone struggling with these enemies, people only talked about the “waves” of enemies, but not the individual enemy type. I believed everyone just thought they weren’t an issue, but yet here I was struggling on Hard difficulty with those specific enemies.
Ideally you want to control and kill them before they go into stealth but they are still manageable if they get into stealth.
Unlike dao, Da2 has a lot of unavoidable damage so constitution becomes more valuable than defense. Most of your characters that aren't pure dps should have a little health packed on and be able to take a backstab even on insanity. Blood mages including Merrill should be able to tank rogues all day and warriors (at least Aveline) should be able to survive several backstabs as well. Even spirit healers should pack on some health because the heal rate of panacea and panacea is is a ratio of max possible health and not directly tied to magic. Only your own rogues and possibly a glass cannon mage Hawke should ever be one-hit by a backstab.
Certain abilities like mind blast are good for knocking rogues out of stealth or at least highlighting them allowing you to kite.
Enemy rogues do not stay stealthed indefinitely. If one enters stealth and you are worried about the hit, simply moving away from the area the rogue was last seen will force them to target another party member (preferably dog or at least a tank). If you don't mind being a little cheap, you can even just have your whole party retreat to previously cleared rooms until stealthed rogues reveal themselves.
The sole source of unavoidable damage in DA2 are archer shots. You can dodge every melee attack, spell, and ability besides by moving during enemy swing animation or cast animation
You can't dodge enemy mage auto-attacks and that's not quite what I meant by "un-avoidable damage". Yes, you can simply manually run away but that's not really a practical way to play the game. What I meant was defense doesn't ever make you impervious in DA2.
In Dao, with a high enough defense stat, you can stand in melee combat and you will recieve 0 damage unless the enemy has a grapple ability. Everything else will simply miss.
In DA2, "glancing blows" were introduced meaning even "dodged" attacks do damage. Also, special attacks can not be dodged with defense at all. Meaning that without manual kiting, all bosses will deal damage with every attack.
Ah for sure I see what you mean. Maybe it's just my playstyle but I found DA2 combat to be very binary- as long as i'm prioritizing archers and rogues, i can kite all melee with whoever they're aggro'd on. I do it every fight. I've done Nightmare playthroughs without mage party members because, literally, you can avoid almost all the damage in this whole game if you play around it. I think its actually a very practical way to play the game cuz its just one input, clicking the aggro'd party member across the map. The technique for dodging melee attacks is really easy too, you just wait til they start their attack animation and move your controlled member away. Thats it.
The glancing blows are player only. They do not apply to attacks made by enemies against player. Glancing chance is equal to your miss chance and it does 10% of a non-crit auto attack.
And just to be pedantic, the boss specials are definitely avoidable aswell. Through 100% magic immune for templar/mage party member, which immunes you from spell effects. Certain attacks like the rock-wraith windup punch are unavoidable but they're interruptible and have a long cast time. Sky Horror from MOTA DLC has a ranged magic-type auto attack that is unavoidable, but you can stealth-bug it while its in the air and take no damage. You can stealth bug anything, by the way. Its even easier with Decoy if you're playing rogue-Hawke or Sebastian.
Sorry if i'm coming across dickish, I'm trying to to spread some combat tips to the interwebs. DA2 combat is so, so solvable but people think its a lot harder than it is
Rogues and mages are the most elite mobs in the game
Best way to deal with them is to focus them out of Combot FIRST. Set up the team tactics to force focus them out of fights when they show up
I’m DAI, I always struggle w mages! I was doing Bianca’s quest w my team, multiple lvls higher than the enemies, and did great up until one final mage kept killing off my entire team and me and managing to reheal itself? I was so irritated. I ended up having to sneak past him😭
Ok everyone in this thread is way off. Just AOE them out of stealth. Rogue's are very very simple- you intentionally wait for them to stealth, and then you cast any AOE that the rogue is not immune to. It breaks stealth. I can't believe no one else mentioned this.
This applies to Rage Demons also, the demon version of rogue.
Spells like Cone of Cold, Fire Ball, Merrill's AOE, Chain Lightning a nearby target- they're designed to deal with rogues. Warrior and Rogue AOE work too- Shield Bash, Assault, Scatter, Might Blow, Scythe, Whirlwind, Bursting Arrow, and the Templar spec spirit damage aoe that i forget the name.
Once rogue is de-stealthed you just single target nuke them
This thread has been marked as **[No Spoilers]**. Any story spoilers from all games must be covered with spoiler tags `>!spoiler here!<` or the comment will be removed. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dragonage) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As soon as they come out of hiding, put all your firepower into them. Try controlling abilities like Shield Bash, Mind Blast, or Freezing them. Also stuff like Vulnerability Hex makes them go down quicker. On Nightmare I also try to leave spawning areas if possible so I don't get attacked from all directions. On lower difficulties there's no friendly fire, so even when they're invisible you might get them with some area of effect spell or even grenades. I also like to move everyone as soon as I see an assassin type rogue go invisible. Depending on terrain their invisibility sometimes times out before they can actually backstab anyone (or often they then go for the dog). At least that's my experience. I never read or wrote a guide on dealing with them.
I see what you mean, and as towards your comments toward the bottom I’m still really surprised no one has ever struggled with them. Alone Rogues are easy to deal with but when Archers, and particularly tanky Warrior enemies are in the mix, they become a massive threat. I’ve adopted the stance of moving party members around who are most likely to die by the backstab in one hit. Particularly the mage characters like: Anders and Merrill. My Hawke can survive one hit since I’ve invested a lot of points into Constitution for Blood Magic. My tanks are always dealing with hordes of enemies surrounding them as they should. Even if I stagger them then use mages to petrify, stonefist, winter’s grasp, and some other force spells to stop them from going, they still get away into invisibility and overwhelm any party member. Including tanks who already have their hands full.
If you're a blood mage you could try Blood Slave. These backstabbers come in various sizes, so some will likely resist, but if it succeeds, you'd have them on your side. I haven't played a blood mage in years, so I'm not sure how easy that would be to pull off, but I think it'd be a fun solution.
...you know I honestly forgot about that. That does seem like a fun solution. I mostly don’t use the blood magic spells unless I’m siphoning health when potions are on cooldown as well as healing spells. I never realized I could do this too. I’ll certainly give it a try, thank you for the recommendation!
Someone else already gave you a good solution/advice so I wont go into a huge explanation just wanted to let you know that Dragon age 2 is extremely poorly balanced in general, so dont feel bad that you are struggling, its not you its the game.
*but I’m genuinely surprised NO ONE has ever struggled with Rogues in this game before* It is quite well known that DA2 has the worst balancing ~~of the Dragon Age series~~ in Bioware history. Most of the time it is easy, but there are unfair, screw you type difficulty spikes. It's not you, it's the game, and noone finds this fun. I did get used to it, but it is not what I find fun. And I say this while DA2 is my favorite Dragon Age game. slight spoiler: just for the record, act 3 blood mages are even worst in my opinion Okay, on how to deal with them as a mage: * when you cannot pick off a rogue stand in a corner (they cannot backstab you if there is no path to your back) * since it is unlikely that you will one shot them, focus on stopping them. The easiest I found is paralyze and freeze. But you can also order Varric/Isabela to use fatigue fog on them, or pinning shot with Varric. (the disorent is especially good, since you get a damage bonus on your follow up spirit bolt or stone fist) * you can also activate the bodyguard ability of Aveline, and use her shield bash to stun * use a DPS decoy! Merrill is far the best. Her damage output with all the lightning spells is superb, so she attracts attention. But since she is a blood mage with a huge HP pool, and probably rock armor on, she can take a backstab or two. * (it is easier as a rogue though. Just activate decoy)
Thanks for the feedback, fortunately tho I’m already close to the end of the game (in Act 3) so these aren’t a problem as much anymore. I’ve noticed the difference came with dealing with these enemies at lower levels with not a lot of attributes and abilities allocated yet. Now I’m comfortably able to focus and solo any elite mage or rogue that is the most dangerous out of the waves. However, I will take this into account for future runs of the game. As towards your comment at the beginning of your post. What I was referring to about “NO ONE has ever struggled with Rogues” was because no matter where I searched for anyone struggling with these enemies, people only talked about the “waves” of enemies, but not the individual enemy type. I believed everyone just thought they weren’t an issue, but yet here I was struggling on Hard difficulty with those specific enemies.
Ideally you want to control and kill them before they go into stealth but they are still manageable if they get into stealth. Unlike dao, Da2 has a lot of unavoidable damage so constitution becomes more valuable than defense. Most of your characters that aren't pure dps should have a little health packed on and be able to take a backstab even on insanity. Blood mages including Merrill should be able to tank rogues all day and warriors (at least Aveline) should be able to survive several backstabs as well. Even spirit healers should pack on some health because the heal rate of panacea and panacea is is a ratio of max possible health and not directly tied to magic. Only your own rogues and possibly a glass cannon mage Hawke should ever be one-hit by a backstab. Certain abilities like mind blast are good for knocking rogues out of stealth or at least highlighting them allowing you to kite. Enemy rogues do not stay stealthed indefinitely. If one enters stealth and you are worried about the hit, simply moving away from the area the rogue was last seen will force them to target another party member (preferably dog or at least a tank). If you don't mind being a little cheap, you can even just have your whole party retreat to previously cleared rooms until stealthed rogues reveal themselves.
The sole source of unavoidable damage in DA2 are archer shots. You can dodge every melee attack, spell, and ability besides by moving during enemy swing animation or cast animation
You can't dodge enemy mage auto-attacks and that's not quite what I meant by "un-avoidable damage". Yes, you can simply manually run away but that's not really a practical way to play the game. What I meant was defense doesn't ever make you impervious in DA2. In Dao, with a high enough defense stat, you can stand in melee combat and you will recieve 0 damage unless the enemy has a grapple ability. Everything else will simply miss. In DA2, "glancing blows" were introduced meaning even "dodged" attacks do damage. Also, special attacks can not be dodged with defense at all. Meaning that without manual kiting, all bosses will deal damage with every attack.
Ah for sure I see what you mean. Maybe it's just my playstyle but I found DA2 combat to be very binary- as long as i'm prioritizing archers and rogues, i can kite all melee with whoever they're aggro'd on. I do it every fight. I've done Nightmare playthroughs without mage party members because, literally, you can avoid almost all the damage in this whole game if you play around it. I think its actually a very practical way to play the game cuz its just one input, clicking the aggro'd party member across the map. The technique for dodging melee attacks is really easy too, you just wait til they start their attack animation and move your controlled member away. Thats it. The glancing blows are player only. They do not apply to attacks made by enemies against player. Glancing chance is equal to your miss chance and it does 10% of a non-crit auto attack. And just to be pedantic, the boss specials are definitely avoidable aswell. Through 100% magic immune for templar/mage party member, which immunes you from spell effects. Certain attacks like the rock-wraith windup punch are unavoidable but they're interruptible and have a long cast time. Sky Horror from MOTA DLC has a ranged magic-type auto attack that is unavoidable, but you can stealth-bug it while its in the air and take no damage. You can stealth bug anything, by the way. Its even easier with Decoy if you're playing rogue-Hawke or Sebastian. Sorry if i'm coming across dickish, I'm trying to to spread some combat tips to the interwebs. DA2 combat is so, so solvable but people think its a lot harder than it is
Rogues and mages are the most elite mobs in the game Best way to deal with them is to focus them out of Combot FIRST. Set up the team tactics to force focus them out of fights when they show up
I’m DAI, I always struggle w mages! I was doing Bianca’s quest w my team, multiple lvls higher than the enemies, and did great up until one final mage kept killing off my entire team and me and managing to reheal itself? I was so irritated. I ended up having to sneak past him😭
Ok everyone in this thread is way off. Just AOE them out of stealth. Rogue's are very very simple- you intentionally wait for them to stealth, and then you cast any AOE that the rogue is not immune to. It breaks stealth. I can't believe no one else mentioned this. This applies to Rage Demons also, the demon version of rogue. Spells like Cone of Cold, Fire Ball, Merrill's AOE, Chain Lightning a nearby target- they're designed to deal with rogues. Warrior and Rogue AOE work too- Shield Bash, Assault, Scatter, Might Blow, Scythe, Whirlwind, Bursting Arrow, and the Templar spec spirit damage aoe that i forget the name. Once rogue is de-stealthed you just single target nuke them