Endgame / Postgame

[Vudak]

I think i'm close to the end, but having never played a Dragon Age game prior (and not wanting to google too much to avoid spoiling things) I was curious if there's anything to know about the final hours of the game (if i am indeed there).

The next quest I have is 'What pride had wrought', I looked at the main quest chain to get a gauge of how far in I was, and i'm guessing i'm nearing some point of no return or basically heading into the final dungeon style part.

I read when I started the game that all the DLC is intended for high/max level characters so i've not done any of it (I don't think). From what I could tell, the war table icons indicated which were DLC, as well as me recognising some of the names - specifically the jaws of hakkon and the one which was something about a dwarven mine or somesuch.

Basically - is now the time to bite the bullet and do the dlc stuff or am I able to do it after the main campaign, I assume the game is going to leave me in a bit of an open ended situation post credits of the main story - as the signaling thus far hasn't been too clear and I can see many players not realising they're at the end.

Any advice would be most welcome :)

[Ogami]

You can do them now or after the main story has ended, you can continue playing after that and do missed quests on all the maps and such if you want.
Only exception is the "Trespasser" DLC which becomes available after the main story.
If you start that one all other content becomes unavailable including the world map because that DLC is set 2 years after the end of the main story and a continuation.

But as long as you dont start Trespasser after the main story is over you can do whatever you want regarding the other DLC.

Personally i like to do both Jaws of Hakon and The Descent before ending the main story, they are both balanced around a level 20 party.
After the main game they are usually too easy and you most likely already hit max level (27) which makes the DLC feel a bit pointless. also the bonuses to your inquisition and such you get from the DLC is not really a factor anymore in Trespasser.

[barzai]

The Deep Roads DLC is actually designed to scale to your level, though I believe the minimum enemy level is around level 14. So that one can be done before the main game final boss fight, and you get some pretty nice loot and--perhaps more to the point--Tier 4 weapon and armor schematics.

The actual weapons and armor you find are for levels 19 and up, but there's tons of rings and belts and amulets which have no level restrictions.

Jaws of Hakkon, OTOH, is a rough ride.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by barzai:

Jaws of Hakkon, OTOH, is a rough ride.

Is that code for " boring beyond all belief" ?
I am usually skipping Hakon during replays because it adds absolutely nothing to the game but being another tedious region with too much busywork.
At least "The Descent" has some really cool lore implications for the entire Dragon Age world.

[barzai]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by barzai:

Jaws of Hakkon, OTOH, is a rough ride.

Is that code for " boring beyond all belief" ?
I am usually skipping Hakon during replays because it adds absolutely nothing to the game but being another tedious region with too much busywork.
At least "The Descent" has some really cool lore implications for the entire Dragon Age world.

Your sarcasm ill becomes you. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean you're right and I'm wrong. I so wish that disagreement could be expressed in a less disagreeable way, and that it didn't seem to require people to piss over other peoples' parade.

I very much enjoy JoH. It's practically a world of its own, and in the old days it wouldn't be out of place as a standalone game. I'd go in earlier in the game but for the fact that it is, in fact, a rough ride: by which I mean the common understanding of that term, which is "quite difficult."

But I am sure you knew that.

And if you like rock-your-world lore, I can't understand why you wouldn't be all over JoH.

But, hey...diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by barzai:

Your sarcasm ill becomes you. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean you're right and I'm wrong.

But nobody said anything of the sort? I just made a joke and commented that i dont enjoy Jaws of Hakon.
Thats all. That has nothing to do with you or your perception of the DLC.
I dont even get why you feel attacked?

[barzai]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by barzai:

Your sarcasm ill becomes you. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean you're right and I'm wrong.

But nobody said anything of the sort? I just made a joke and commented that i dont enjoy Jaws of Hakon.
Thats all. That has nothing to do with you or your perception of the DLC.
I dont even get why you feel attacked?
:lunar2019deadpanpig:

Apology accepted. Even after your response, I do not see the "joke" in your original response. Perhaps that is my own failing. Then again, maybe not.

Try to remember in future that the written word is a much lower-bandwidth medium than ordinary conversation. That is why nowadays it is so heavily laden with emoticons and similar attempts at reproducing the nuances of actual conversation.

And--to be clear--*I* don't feel "attacked:" unlike many these days, I am perfectly capable of separating myself from my opinions.

I merely wondered why it was so important to you to attack my opinion.

[Vudak]

I'm level 23 currently iirc, if there's no real ties or links to the story events etc then I might just do the DLC zones after the main campaign then, unless anyone can advise me otherwise. It already is starting to feel like a comical amount of time i've been just doing random stuff and leaving corypheus for a rainy day lol. Killed all the dragons, crafted great gear, did all astrariums, found all shards - the only obvious thing is I haven't found/finished all mosaic pieces - but I don't really feel like wandering endlessly for them or just looking them up on a guide etc.

Also regarding tresspasser, sounds like it basically locks your game at that point? So i'm guessing if I do that, it should be absolutely last - and probably using a save all of its own, so if i decide to do anything else - I can still go back to my open ended world state save, postgame. If i decide to mosaics, try other characters / builds etc.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Vudak:

Also regarding tresspasser, sounds like it basically locks your game at that point? So i'm guessing if I do that, it should be absolutely last - and probably using a save all of its own, so if i decide to do anything else - I can still go back to my open ended world state save, postgame. If i decide to mosaics, try other characters / builds etc.

Pretty much yes.

[Vudak]

Alright, cheers for the help - much appreciated!

[barzai]

Originally posted by Vudak:

I'm level 23 currently iirc, if there's no real ties or links to the story events etc then I might just do the DLC zones after the main campaign then, unless anyone can advise me otherwise. It already is starting to feel like a comical amount of time i've been just doing random stuff and leaving corypheus for a rainy day lol. Killed all the dragons, crafted great gear, did all astrariums, found all shards - the only obvious thing is I haven't found/finished all mosaic pieces - but I don't really feel like wandering endlessly for them or just looking them up on a guide etc.

Also regarding tresspasser, sounds like it basically locks your game at that point? So i'm guessing if I do that, it should be absolutely last - and probably using a save all of its own, so if i decide to do anything else - I can still go back to my open ended world state save, postgame. If i decide to mosaics, try other characters / builds etc.

Trespasser doesn't even become available until after you've taken care of Cory. And I'm fairly sure the game does a permasave--what they call a Milestone Save--when you crack it open. So you can't really screw that up too badly.

I've done all of the above except the mosaic pieces--I think I managed to get all twelve pieces of one of them, once--and once you've done them, it's mostly a judgment call as to whether to do them again.

Since the shards are the most annoying, I suggest you consider a mod that eliminates most of them: there's one skull-on-a-stick per region and either two or three shards, and the temple entry requirements are reduced accordingly. But even so I rarely do them anymore.

The only one of the astrarium quests I do anymore is the one in the Western Approach. That has the boon of being right on the way of a larger quest, and without it you miss out on a very useful rune schematic. But the other four...meh. They give you pretty nice gear, but by the time you've leveled up enough to access those items, you can generally craft stuff that's as good or better.

And I don't do any dragons except for the one in the <spoiler> which is required to close out the entire quest line. And of course the one you encounter in the <spoiler> which really is required to advance the game, being part of a larger battle.

Dragon fights seem fundamentally uninteresting to me anyhow. As one reviewer put it, they're your basic "tank-and-spank." No real tactics involved...unless you want to use some of the exploits that are available. But I consider that cheating: before the emergence of the current term "exploit," they used to call that "cheesing your way through:" a far less attractive nomenclature, I daresay.

Personally I called it "sleazing your way through." But that's just me.