Beginner's Guide to Dragon Age: Origins - B-Tier Guides

This end of year, my holiday gift to myself was making this video. I've wanted to make Dragon Age content for years, and now I finally took the first step! Hope you enjoy my guide; a lot more DA content is coming!

[@leespiderpod]

I played this for the 1st time last year and it’s one of my favourite games now. I even read the DA books by the games writer which moved me onto the wheel of time books that definitely inspired this game. Good luck with your new channel, this video is great for new players

[@btiermutineer]

Oh man, I'm so glad to hear it when people discover DAO after so many years! I love the DA books. Had no idea Wheel of Time is a possible inspiration, I'll definitely check the books out! And thanks :)

[@e.l.i8993]

Know this is half a year later. Do you know what order things go. Found myself going down a Dragon Age rabbit hole with YT shorts right before the reveal of Veilguard, and just now got the free time to actually play it. I just got into BioWare games when the Mass Effect trilogy came out and absolutely loved it. Heard of their IP's growing just never played any of them but had some online friends constantly talk about them in my xbox live parties back in the day. If I like the game especially the narrative of origins, 2, and Inquisition I would like to dive into whatever books, comics, ect. that furthers the lore and characters.

[@BelieveIt1051]

Drop hard saves often. There is no limit to the number of saves you can have. Also, F5 for quick-save is useful as well. This is to mitigate crashes as well as save progress in case you run into difficulty spikes.

[@jamesworkshop9181]

I think all the crafting skills have usages just not for every character, you have plenty of companions who can cover herbaliism or poison making for you, your main hero can stick to combat training and coercion as the highest priority picks. You only need 1 of each crafter, I make Sten build traps so he has some use for me than standing in the party camp all game.

[@sharkdentures3247]

I'll admit, I generally only take trapmaking when I have a specific build in mind. But otherwise, 1 rank of Poison making is VERY common for me to take! Both for my Warden, and often for a number of party members as well. (if only to have the option of poisoning a weapon or throwing a grenade!) Otherwise, I leave crafting for the companions. (Usually Morrigan for herbalism, Zevran for poison) Simple.

[@christinefarrell6438]

@@sharkdentures3247 I rarely craft at all, other than for quests. What are the most useful things to craft, in your opinion?

[@sharkdentures3247]

@@christinefarrell6438 If I were to give it some thought, I'd say Deathroot Extract (and all its derivations, including Crow Poison I think?). Having a chance (even a small one) to disrupt an enemy with a Stun effect, can be VERY valuable. (Sort of like why Paralyze Runes for weapons are so often highly recommended by people.)

[@christinefarrell6438]

@@sharkdentures3247Makes sense, thank you. My first wardens were an archer and a mage, and neither of them could use poisons effectively so I just never got in the habit. I sell most of the poisons and grenades I pick up.

[@sharkdentures3247]

@@christinefarrell6438 That's fair. Those ARE the two main types that I usually DON'T do poisonmaking. (But even then, If the archer is a Rogue, he might lob a few bombs & I MIGHT poison weapons if I turn the mage into an Arcane Warrior.) It is all a matter of personal preference & playstyle. Me? I tend to be a BIT of a "hoarder". (IRL & in games) But selling off everything (except the bare necessities) is a smart way to play too.

[@CyleJackson-ny9tp]

Hi I really like your video I never played any game like this before I’m kind scared to play it because it seems overwhelming

[@btiermutineer]

Hi there! It's okay if you feel a little overwhelmed. Just know that if you play the game on easy you don't have to worry about most of this stuff. As I mentioned in the video, when I played the game as a teenager, I had no idea what I was doing and I still managed to do just fine. I recommend picking up Dragon Age: Origins if you see it on sale, but it's pretty cheap because it's old anyway. Try it out on easy and see what you think! Personally, the story is worth it for me, even if the game is a little more complicated than modern RPGs.

[@stephenwhite1539]

if you have survivalist, traps work really well when playing solo/nightmare

[@btiermutineer]

What's something you struggle with in Dragon Age: Origins that you'd like me to talk about in a future video?

[@justrobin8155]

Honestly my biggest problem is deciding what character I want to play. All of the origins are incredible, and the build options are endless. Maybe you could make a video with a handful of character ideas?

[@btiermutineer]

@@justrobin8155 Will definitely put a character idea video on my list!

[@FaerieDust]

Combat in general tbh 😅 and how to decide which companions to take where - the ones left at camp don't get any XP, so is it better to pick a few and just stick to them so they get max XP, or to rotate them so everyone gets a bit? In terms of story, there are some times I'll obviously want to bring certain companions (e.g. bringing Alistair to Soldier's Peak bc Wardens), but other than that I'm so lost.

[@btiermutineer]

@@FaerieDust quick answer about the companion XP: even though the companions you leave at camp don't get XP, if you level up and then take them from camp to travel somewhere with them, you'll see that they will also level up to match. Sometimes I think they might be one level lower than you, but it's still fine since you can use any companions you want because they'll all get level-ups even if they sat in camp and didn't get the official XP from the adventures.

[@FaerieDust]

@@btiermutineer oh, that's so good to know!! I'm very new and still quite confused lol 😅

[@nezkeys79]

I agree that Combat Training and Coercion are the best skills, and the rest are situational, but I disagree about how you tiered them after that. Plus mage only needs 2 points in combat training really (for the mana regeneration). The protection from interruption can be ignored if you ignore spells with long cast times I think more tactics slots are very important because it makes your companions better on AI, especially those who have and use a lot of activated spells/abilities. The only time anyone would say tactics are useless, are when they choose to micromanage each companion in battle by pausing the game constantly. I prefer to set strong tactics and let them do their thing, pausing only on casted spells Poisonmaking is probably next best because of it's extra damage and even chances to debuff like slow, stun, and even instant death. The only issue with this is the way the game has coded using them. If using them from the wheel you need to keep exiting the wheel to use another (they all stack if you have the patience to use them all). You can place them on the combat shortcuts though, but since you only get 6 slots, and you want to save them for activated skills, yeah. Even if you just have one character use only Quiet Death or Concentrated Deathroot at the start of every battle thats way more useful than other skills (a small amount of nature resistance from survival for example) Stealing probably comes next because all that extra junk you get from stealing everything in sight adds up when selling it (even if its tedious waiting for its cooldown when stealing from npcs) Survival next because of nature resistance but this is nowhere as useful as tactics, poisonmaking, and extra gold overall Trapmaking worst (for me). However, I know players who do use stealth and place traps but I didn't bother. These players would surely place it higher than last place, but I cant see a world where even they would place it as a top tier skill

[@btiermutineer]

What I had in mind when I made this guide was to help someone who was just starting out with DAO and might find it easier to use less advanced skills. But for more experienced players, I agree with your points!

[@nezkeys79]

​@btiermutineer I played DAO for the first time a few months ago. I did a run with each origin. I then did DA2 a few times, and currently playing Inquisition. I would say I'm still new to the franchise

[@justrobin8155]

Do you think you could do a few ideas for a main character build? Its so hard to decide

[@blackgrimv9443]

Hi, I'm currently on my first playthrough of the game. I'm playing as an elven mage lvl 11 currently. I'm wondering if there's any tips you could give me. Any magic types that work well or the likes. Character brake down: [lvl 11 mage, no specialization (I don't know where most are, except spirit healer), full ice build, with all hex spells, and arcane spells. And one in healer and life drain.]

[@btiermutineer]

Hi! Some tips for you: - I recommend getting some spells of other elements, too, not just ice. Certain enemies like undead are resistant to cold damage. And other enemies, like darkspawn and sylvans (trees) are weak to fire. So I recommend flame blast and fireball, and flaming weapons only if you have a lot of melee characters in your party since it enchants their melee weapons to do fire damage. I also recommend the spell Lightning because it does a good amount of damage and drains stamina from warrior and rogue enemies. - also from the Primal tree, Rock Armor is a good sustained spell that gives you extra armor that I personally use instead of Arcane Shield. Stonefist is very powerful because you can combo it with a freezing spell to try to shatter an enemy. You can also have your party members attack frozen enemies with abilities that crit, because crits also shatter enemies. - the hex spells, heal, and life drain are great! From the entropy tree, paralyze and mass paralyze are amazing because they CC enemies (especially mass paralyze affects all enemies in a huge area). I also recommend Curse of Mortality because it curses an enemy making it unable to heal or regenerate any health, and also deals spirit damage to it. Very powerful. - from the Spirit tree I mainly recommend the spells in the last row: Mind Blast for a quick stun around you if you're surrounded by enemies so you can run away, Telekinetic Weapons is a good melee weapon enchantment against enemies with lots of armor (like elite-level ones that show up with a yellow name or bosses with orange names), and Crushing Prison is a super powerful spell that traps an enemy and deals lots of damage to it. The spirit healer specialization is actually my favorite! It gives you access to the best healing spell - Group Heal - that heals your entire party at the same time. Revival is also great in case someone falls in battle because you can resurrect them. The final two spirit healer spells are good but you need to know when to use them: Death Ward I usually use on my tank at the start of a fight because it restores a lot of health when they reach 33% hp. Cleansing Aura is good to use after combat if any of your allies fell unconscious - gather them next to you and turn on the spell in order to cure their injuries. This means you won't have to use injury kits or travel to camp to cure injuries. I also have a Morrigan build guide where I mention some of these tips, so you can watch it if you'd like a bit more of an explanation (and talking about gear, too)

[@sylnz97]

so can I just set tactics for all the party memember and do my own thing on my character during battles?

[@btiermutineer]

Yep! During earlier levels you won't have a lot of tactics slots so your companions' behavior in combat won't be as good, but later on you'll be able to set their tactics quite well and you can just control your own character!

[@sylnz97]

​@@btiermutineer that's good, it kinda breaks my immersion when I have to control the entire party at once you know