#anders was killed so they didnt have a healer. the party was doing their best to get the red lyrium out and save them but the shards were so

[artoutforblood]

hawke is one of the most tragic characters in da in my opinion

#hawke #dragon age 2 #this is post game. when meredith exploded hawke was too close/trying to shield the others and their face was. yeah. #anders was killed so they didnt have a healer. the party was doing their best to get the red lyrium out and save them but the shards were so #small there was no way without magic. so merrill (romanced) used blood magic to get the lyrium out and save her life #their eye is gone and she all but blind in the other. tho after some time she does get a little sight back but its only things that are far #away. she uses force magic to help her see like toph #in act 3 her hair was mostly in a tight bun but now she lets some of it cover her face and ruined ear because she knows its kinda scary #to look at #anyway yeah. even if you save bethany or carver hawke is just. such a tragic character #camilla was a (purple)/blue because she let herself be comic relief to give her friends and family a little laughter. but after her mom died #she went full somber blue with a little frustrated :why are you guys such assholes red. #also def killed anders because he couldve killed carver #/did/ kill a lot of people including innocent townspeople clergy and the orphanage that chantries have #and realized he made her an accomplice to it p quick and she stabbed him many times #bonesart

[danielnelsen]

ok, informal review of the blood mage specialisation after my first time playing it (on normal difficulty, if that’s at all relevant):

it is RIDICULOUSLY powerful when fighting groups, especially with a ton of low-level enemies. haemorrhage, for a start, has such a huge aoe (10m), that this fight, for example, took less than 20s. im not sure anyone else in my party even got a hit:

gang quests were easy, as were all those street fights you have to do at the end of acts.

even with major fights, you can knock off a bunch of lower-level enemies with haemorrhage and easily heal back to full health with grave robber because it’s 10% health per nearby corpse. if it’s upgraded it’s also 10% per live enemy and deals a huge amount of damage to each of them, so it’s just as good as haemorrhage, assuming your health is low (and it’s an even bigger aoe than haemorrhage at 12m, but im not sure if that’s only for the enemies you drain health from or anyone in the aoe).

i was very hesitant to use sacrifice, but all you really need is a reasonably tanky warrior in your party. it’s not particularly useful on weak companions anyway, because it’s based on their health. and then you can just heal them yourself anyway! with everything upgraded, if you use both sacrifice and heal on them, you gain 30% of their health (minus the cost of heal, which is 30) and they gain 60% of theirs. or just literally have another healer in your party. i usually play as a healer, but since you cant have blood magic and healing aura active at the same time, i left it all to anders (which has its own benefits because of that tactics exploit).

blood slave is obviously very powerful, and there’s never a reason not to use it. when it’s upgraded, it can wipe out whole groups of low-level enemies, or at least deal a huge amount of damage. the biggest issue i had was that i was killing groups of enemies so quickly that the 15 seconds was too long and i have to wait a while at the end of the fight for the target to die. not a bad issue to have!

and then, the blood magic ability itself. when it’s upgraded, each health is worth 3 mana, and with the items you can get in-game, you can get that up to 5 mana per health (+0.25 for 2 rings, an amulet, a staff, and full armour). the boots and gloves require dlc and you need to get lucky with loot for a lot of the other stuff, but you can get a ratio that really minimises health loss. you’ll also be putting more into constitution than you would for most mages, so seeing your health bar at 50% isn’t even particularly stressful.

downsides:

obviously you cant heal. technically two of the spells are healing spells, but the cooldowns can be a bit long for the more difficult fights. that said, you can just deactivate blood magic, heal, and it’s only 20s before you can turn it back on. if a fight is long enough to need extra healing, that 20s isn’t much of an issue. you can also get items that boost health regen, but unfortunately there’s only one in the entire game that gives health regen and blood magic bonus (the talisman of saarberas, from freeing ketojan).

if you stack all your attribute points into constitution, a lot of mage weapons and armour will be unavailable because they needed high magic and willpower. increasing magic is fine because it’s important for damage and magic resistance, but willpower is completely useless. luckily the most you’ll need is 18 and you start with 12, so it’s only two levels worth of investment for the best endgame gear.

it doesnt work against ‘creatures without blood’. i cant access the game scripts for da2, but im gonna assume it’s scripted the same as origins, where blood magic can affect creatures marked as ‘can bleed’ in the ‘2da’ files (which i do have for da2). if so, then it’s only the gate guardians and the profane (including the rock wraith boss) that are immune to blood magic. that means it also apparently works against the ethereal golem... i turned it off for that fight, but maybe i didnt even have to!

the biggest downside is that there is no in-game acknowledgement that you are a blood mage. considering how much of the plot (especially act 3) is focused on mages and how dangerous blood magic supposedly is, it’s frustrating that nobody even mentions it, let alone treats you differently. imagine the consequences if they actually implemented them! if i knew how to mod da2 i might do it myself, but i only know how to mod origins (although, to be fair, they dont address it in origins either; it’s just less central to the plot).

second specialisation: force mage, obviously. im sure someone with more patience could micro-manage blood mage and spirit healer effectively, but certainly not me. besides, blood mage and force mage work well together with aoe spells. drag them in with pull of the abyss, then just keep hitting them with haemorrhage and fist of the maker, and easily run in for grave robber if you need to heal. good synergy!

conclusion: i had a lot of fun, and i will definitely be doing it again! i enjoy spirit healer, but it’s frustrating turning it off and on so i can still use offensive spells, so maybe blood mage will be my go-to now.

#long post #didnt mean to write an essay oops but it was interesting to play #dragon age #dragon age 2 #blood mage #blood magic #ash plays da #ash plays da2 #da #da2