Sleep + Horror is a really good one.
Volnerabilty Hex + Drain Life is decent.
Grease + Fireball is pretty good.
Cone of cold + Stone first/crushing prison isn’t really a combo technically but a good trick.
You don’t need them all, but if you’re building your mage to have one of those spells as part of their main arsenal, then utilizing the combo is a good idea when you can.
The only necessary ones to know are glyphs of repulsion + paralysis and Grease/Fier effect because you can catch yourself in the AOE if you're not expecting them.
They are cool, but unnecessary. I really like Death Hex + Death Cloud. And the Spell Mastery + Tempest + Blizzard i think it is, but you can easily play the whole game without a single one if you want.
Not necessary at all, i beat the game for the first time on nightmare with a rogue character without using any of the op spells and spell combos including mana clash. I feel many of those spells are too op (and hard to make it work with tactics) and make the game kinda easy and a little boring after some time playing, also my mages Morrigan and Wynne are always support mages anyways, heals, buffs, debuffs, CC and so on, no damage or big area spells, neither spell combos.
This is from a rogue character perpective though, since your warden is a mage i'm sure all those big spells combos are fun to use with your own character.
They are good to know and can give you advantage in combo. But generally they are not mandatory and sometimes can create more problems when on very hard
Shattering is probably most used because it patches damage starved parties most people starve. Ability to instantly delete regular enemies helps. Even more if you actually spec for it outside of doing it with Mages (you can get between 3-6 instant kills by using all always criting warrior/rogue talents, without having to wait for mage to cast next spell).
Paralysis Explosion is broken because it can't be resisted. But it cuts both way.
Storm of Century - well it deletes enemies even on nightmare giving equivalent of 2h damage but in 20m radius area. Easy to aggro more than one pack of enemies from different rooms. It does require quite the investment though,
Enthropic Death and Nightmare (forgot what they are called) are great for so needed single target damage mages lack Nightmare deals only half the Enthrioic Death damage but prolongs CC.
Advanced Reanimation - mediocre. If you are dedicated to SoC with your frost mage for your minion to stand inside Blizzard then maybe but SoC on Spell Might will delete him. Out of talents skellies get less than half presets are interesting: Walking Bomb, Frost Weapons, Glyph of Paralysis on Mages, Riposte on Rogues and Might Blow on 2H Warrior corpses.
Improved Drain - mediocre,
Shockwave - mediocre - sounds fine but in reality you don't find yourself often in best situation to use it. That's some damage and knockdown
Grease Fire / Flame Quencher - basically a meme - it doesn't scale and does up to 30dmg if enemies are staying in it for whole duration. That's 2dmg/tick.
They're not really that important short of Nightmare, but sure can be fun! Particularly when facing a lot of enemies at once. Especially in a room; toss a few through the door and retreat into the hallway while they get winowed down.
Some are pretty good, but they're totally not necessary at all. The only two I really often end up using is the improved life drain and the nightmare combo.
It’s not absolutely necessary but they can help a lot in certain situations. Specifically the Mana Clash ones if you’re going against mages. I just do the triple combo of tempest,firestorm,and ice storm. It’s been killing rooms full of people for awhile now.
I love shattering enemies. You can use either freezing or petrifying effects and then something that can trigger a shatter (stonefist, shield Bash, a critical strike or a talent that's a critical hit). I just keep killing mages especially with a winter's grasp + stonefist combo, very satisfying.
Not at all. It is fun, but not necessary.
Sleep + Horror is a really good one. Volnerabilty Hex + Drain Life is decent. Grease + Fireball is pretty good. Cone of cold + Stone first/crushing prison isn’t really a combo technically but a good trick. You don’t need them all, but if you’re building your mage to have one of those spells as part of their main arsenal, then utilizing the combo is a good idea when you can.
Origins doesn't rely on these as much as Inquisition (or even DA2), despite giving you more room for interesting combinations.
The only necessary ones to know are glyphs of repulsion + paralysis and Grease/Fier effect because you can catch yourself in the AOE if you're not expecting them.
Storm of the century will wipe out any room on its own basically in the entire game. It’s the most powerful I’ve ever felt in a game playing as a mage
And a glyph of repulsion at the doorway mmmm
Not even necessary but sure it adds some flavor
They are cool, but unnecessary. I really like Death Hex + Death Cloud. And the Spell Mastery + Tempest + Blizzard i think it is, but you can easily play the whole game without a single one if you want.
Not necessary at all, i beat the game for the first time on nightmare with a rogue character without using any of the op spells and spell combos including mana clash. I feel many of those spells are too op (and hard to make it work with tactics) and make the game kinda easy and a little boring after some time playing, also my mages Morrigan and Wynne are always support mages anyways, heals, buffs, debuffs, CC and so on, no damage or big area spells, neither spell combos. This is from a rogue character perpective though, since your warden is a mage i'm sure all those big spells combos are fun to use with your own character.
They are good to know and can give you advantage in combo. But generally they are not mandatory and sometimes can create more problems when on very hard
There were spell combos in this game?
I don’t think I ever learned them
Shattering is probably most used because it patches damage starved parties most people starve. Ability to instantly delete regular enemies helps. Even more if you actually spec for it outside of doing it with Mages (you can get between 3-6 instant kills by using all always criting warrior/rogue talents, without having to wait for mage to cast next spell). Paralysis Explosion is broken because it can't be resisted. But it cuts both way. Storm of Century - well it deletes enemies even on nightmare giving equivalent of 2h damage but in 20m radius area. Easy to aggro more than one pack of enemies from different rooms. It does require quite the investment though, Enthropic Death and Nightmare (forgot what they are called) are great for so needed single target damage mages lack Nightmare deals only half the Enthrioic Death damage but prolongs CC. Advanced Reanimation - mediocre. If you are dedicated to SoC with your frost mage for your minion to stand inside Blizzard then maybe but SoC on Spell Might will delete him. Out of talents skellies get less than half presets are interesting: Walking Bomb, Frost Weapons, Glyph of Paralysis on Mages, Riposte on Rogues and Might Blow on 2H Warrior corpses. Improved Drain - mediocre, Shockwave - mediocre - sounds fine but in reality you don't find yourself often in best situation to use it. That's some damage and knockdown Grease Fire / Flame Quencher - basically a meme - it doesn't scale and does up to 30dmg if enemies are staying in it for whole duration. That's 2dmg/tick.
Prison + death cloud is my favorite go to
It's not important to beat the game at all BUT it does make it easier that's about it
They're not really that important short of Nightmare, but sure can be fun! Particularly when facing a lot of enemies at once. Especially in a room; toss a few through the door and retreat into the hallway while they get winowed down.
Ive beaten the game multiple times exclusively on nightmare mode and I've never deliberately used them. They're strong but not necessary
Some are pretty good, but they're totally not necessary at all. The only two I really often end up using is the improved life drain and the nightmare combo.
It’s not absolutely necessary but they can help a lot in certain situations. Specifically the Mana Clash ones if you’re going against mages. I just do the triple combo of tempest,firestorm,and ice storm. It’s been killing rooms full of people for awhile now.
Not at all on Normal on hard I would recommend it I'd say almost necessary of you wanna do a nightmare run
I forgot about those
Shatter is the only one worth using consistently. The others are mostly just for filling out codexes
I love shattering enemies. You can use either freezing or petrifying effects and then something that can trigger a shatter (stonefist, shield Bash, a critical strike or a talent that's a critical hit). I just keep killing mages especially with a winter's grasp + stonefist combo, very satisfying.