BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition has not only been critically acclaimed by its critics and fans, but was also judged the Game of the Year and Best Role-Playing Game in the recently concluded The Game Awards 2014.
Below players of Inquisition will find some guides like the location of all the 10 dragons that are roaming in Thedas, minimum level for zones, how to kill a dragon, list of crafting schematics and rune locations.
The article will also include update 2 patch notes, graphics work-around for patch 2 on PC and glitches following the new patch.
Dragon Age: Inquisition was released on 18 November 2014 for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Locations of all 10 Dragons in Thedas
One of the stunning features of Dragon Age: Inquisition is the battle with the 10 dragons that roam different part of Thedas.
Below players will be finding information regarding the 10 dragons and their locations and what type of magic will work against a particular dragon. The guide also puts out the other tasks that need to be completed before players are able to get access to these dragons.
iDigitalTimes mentions that the battle with Vinsomer, was one of the "least-enjoyable" battles in the game.
Here is a spoiler, if players take Iron Bull into battle with one or more dragons, then they will gain from the friendship (and/or romance) with the Qunari warrior. Players will see an approval bonus soon after they drop each creature. Also, if players visit Iron Bull in the tavern at Skyhold, he will give an account of the adventures you have over some drinks.
It is to be noted that these battles with the dragons will not be as exciting as the first one with Fereldan Frostback.
Once a player has tracked down a dragon, he will be making some adjustments to his positions. The dragons will at times take flight for some seconds and attack players with fire/ice/etc, but it will return to the area where it started after it landed initially.
1. The Hinterlands - Fereldan Frostback (Level 12)
HP: ~105,000
Resistance: Fire
Weakness: Cold
2. Crestwood – Northern Hunter (Level 13)
HP: ~118,000
Resistance: Electricity
Weakness: Spirit
Players need to complete "Still Waters" quest chain before they embark this Dragon.
3. Western Approach – Abyssal High Dragon (Level 14)
HP: ~135,000
Resistance: Fire
Weakness: Cold
Players need to complete "Draconology" quest chain before they battle this Dragon.
4. Exalted Plains – Gamordan Stormrider (Level 15)
HP: ~150,000
Resistance: Electricity
Weakness: Spirit
It has been billed as a less exciting dragon battle and players will be able to line-up some of the most powerful attacks.
However, players must tell their a archers/mages to keep running outside the melee range and they should also make sure that no one stands in water when it is electrified.
5. Emerald Graves – Greater Mistral (Level 17)
HP: ~188,000
Resistance: Cold
Weakness: Fire
6. Storm Coast – Vinsomer (Level 19)
HP: ~226,000
Resistance: Electricity
Weakness: Spirit
With this dragon, players must prepare for the longer haul
7. Hissing Wastes – Sandy Howler (Level 20)
HP: ~246,000
Resistance: Cold
Weakness: Fire
8. Emprise du Lion – Hivernal (Level 19)
HP: ~226,000
Resistance: Cold
Weakness: Fire
Players need to complete "Restore Judicael's Crossing" operation before they battle this Dragon.
9. Emprise du Lion – The Kaltenzahn (Level 21)
HP: ~267,000
Resistance: Cold
Weakness: Fire
Players need to complete "Restore Judicael's Crossing" operation before they battle this Dragon.
10. Emprise du Lion – The Highland Ravager (Level 23)
HP: ~311,000
Resistance: Fire
Weakness: Cold
Players need to complete "Restore Judicael's Crossing" operation before they battle this Dragon.
[Source: iDigitalTimes]
Update 2 Patch Notes
According to BioWare, Patch 2 for Dragon Age: Inquisition consists of the following updates (BioWare blog)
Stability – Various crashes, freezes, audio/voice glitches, and many stability improvements.
- Gameplay – Conversations, quests, plot states, combat, UI, camera, controls, follower/enemy AI and path finding, exploits, radar, and search.
- Multiplayer – In addition to some of the gameplay improvements listed above, multiplayer fixes also cover areas such as animations, game mode bugs, stat reporting, and stability/crash fixes.
- PC – Numerous control and UI fixes, fixes to some hitching, improved Mantle performance, graphical glitches.
Below are the complete patch notes for Update 2 for Inquisition (BioWare Forum):
Singleplayer
- Fixed case where game would incorrectly think the player has more than one race/class/gender
- Fixed case where users who changed their voice off of default, would have their voice set back to default when interacting with Hawke's chargen settings.
- Increased duration that search highlights things, and added highlighted items to radar while they are highlighted.
- Fixed several conversation lines which would take a very long time to advance to the next line unless they were manually skipped.
- Fixed case where followers could float above the ground after extended periods of play
- [PC] Fixed some hitching in conversations.
- [PC] Pressing the interact key (default "F") will take everything from containers.
- [PC] Hair should be less shiny on lower quality settings.
- [PC] Improved push-to-talk functionality when using keyboard and mouse
- [PC] Added ability to rotate character models with the mouse in UI's that show character models
- [PC] Added an option to enable / disable tactical camera on mouse wheel scroll out.
- [PC] Hiding the HUD on the PC will now hide all UI elements
- [PC] Fixed being able to drag abilities from a tree that was not selected onto the quickbar
- [PC] Fixed being able to toggle UI state for the tactical camera on the quickbar when the tactical camera is unusable
- [PC] Fixed case where clicking quickbar elements in Eyefinity would trigger attacks
- [PC] fixed case where extra mouse-up events were triggering in UIs
- [PC] Fixed issue where mouse-up events were missed when dragging off of UI elements and then releasing the mouse button
- [PC] Fixed loading Icon not animating while Mantle creates shaders during load screens.
- [PC] Fixed mouse cursor flashing while targeting AOEs
- [PC] Fixed situation that could result in a hang on the start menu.
- [PC] Fixed situation where war table could become non-interactive until users right clicked on it.
- [PC] Fixed situation which could cause mouse-look to snap to a facing rather than turning smoothly
- [PC] Holding right click and pressing the camera turn buttons in tactical camera will cause the cursor to strafe in the same manner the camera behaves outside tactical camera
- [PC] Made some changes that should improve Mantle performance
- [PC] quickbar indicator for pause state should no longer remain highlighted when game is not paused
- [PS3] Increased number of save slots to 30
- [PS4] Improved conversation performance during fast install
- [PS4] Increased number of save slots to 50
- [360] Fixed case where movies sometimes decoded incorrectly
- [360] Fixed Crash when selecting storage device when select storage device warning is present
- [360] Fixed the online connection error being displayed twice when attempting to login to Origin with no Xbox live connection.
- Assorted stability improvements
- Fixed crash that could occur after some conversations
- Certain boss creatures are now immune to Disruption Field
- Creatures in rag doll will now pause when the game is paused
- Fix to Spirit Blade so it longer triggers combos
- Fixed a couple focus abilities to be weapon agnostic
- Fixed a few DA Keep world state import reactivity checks.
- Fixed a few situations that could result in there being no conversation selection indicator during conversations
- Fixed an issue caused by changing characters at the same as targeting an AOE ability
- Fixed Audio cutting out when using AOE abilities while radial menu is open.
- Fixed being unable to finish quest "Safe Keeping" if the user places key fragments in the forger, then leaves the zone without getting the finished key.
- Fixed camera shaking when making small camera adjustments during character creation
- Fixed case where blizzard would pause the game when it turns off
- Fixed case where controller rumble would get permanently disabled
- Fixed case where Imshael could end up in a location where players could not fight him.
- Fixed case where interaction text would not update in tactical camera
- Fixed case where mana or stamina was incorrectly displayed on mounted character's portraits
- Fixed case where users could get stuck loading a save in a certain dragon combat area
- Fixed case where users could get stuck on an infinite "Connecting to Dragon Age Servers"
- Fixed Crippling Blows to have a 15% damage bonus instead of .15%
- Fixed Cullen's hair having some strange shadows during cinematics
- Fixed exploit that would allow bypassing ability cool-downs in certain circumstances
- Fixed exploit that would allow users to take no damage.
- Fixed issue where orders to interact with trebuchets made in tactical mode were un-interruptable.
- Fixed issue where user loses control of the party if he enters tactical camera at the same time as a cinematic triggers
- Fixed issue which could cause potion counts to be reset due to party member changes.
- Fixed issue which could result in an infinite "Connecting to Dragon Age Servers" on the main menu.
- Fixed issue which could result in the Radial menu not staying open
- Fixed issue which could result in the screen re-sizing UI to stop working until exiting and re-entering the screen re-sizing UI.
- Fixed scripted autosave in the western approach which was made which if loaded could result in certain NPCs to not show up until after leaving the area and coming back.
- Fixed situation where followers could get stuck while pathfinding to the player.
- Fixed some of the collectible books being non-interactive in Skyhold
- Fixed slot types on several crafted items
- Fixed some item names getting cut off in stores
- Fixed weapon type on several crafted weapon parts.
- Ground rings scale on Dragons in Tactical Camera
- Radar will be shown during radar tutorial, even if the UI is set to be hidden
- Radar will show way points immediately after coming out of UIs, no longer requires player to move first.
- Target lock is cleared when entering tactical mode.
- Unified sort order for stat listings during item modification
Multiplayer
- Fixed issue which could result in negative XP being granted in some multiplayer matches
- Fixed crash that could occur while switching characters in some multiplayer menus
- Cursed chests in multiplayer no longer look different from un-cursed ones
- Fixed some missing information on end of match screens when servers are slow in Multiplayer.
- Fixed Players losing their ability to target when dying while recovering object in multiplayer
- Fixed situation where host migration after end of match would fail to show end of match details for the remaining players
- Fixed issue with players being interrupted while interacting with objects in Multiplayer
- Fixed issue where host can be returned to an empty lobby after quitting out of a match while in the operation failed state
- Improved appearance of ledge drop-downs in multiplayer.
- Fixed case which could cause keys to not drop in Multiplayer
- Fixed case in Multiplayer where players could attempt to use abilities while dead.
Patch 2 PC Workaround
BioWare's Mark Darrah said in a Forum post that, "If you are having DirectX issues and you have an AMD Radeon graphics card, please update to the AMD Catalyst 14.11.2 beta driver." He also added, "We are aware of issues with certain NVidia graphic cards and we are working with NVIDIA for a solution."
It also noted that it had released a hotfix for Patch 2 on PC in order to address graphical issues experienced by players. It further said that the hotfix will, "correctly bind the mesh and shader settings and eliminate this issue." Players using lower settings need to change their mesh settings to to High or Ultra.
The Patch 2 had introduced some bugs in the game. One of the complaints was that the faces of the characters had scars, or they look aged.
Guide to Minimum Level for Zones
Below are compilations of minimum level range guide in order to help players in the game (Reddit):
- Haven: 1+ (1-4)
- Hinterlands: 2+ (4-7, 8-12)
- Val Royeaux: 4+ (4-6)
- Storm Coast: 5+ (7-11, 13-15)
- Fallow Mire: 8+ (8-10, 12-15)
- Forbidden Oasis: 8+ (8-12, 5-15, 18-20)
- Skyhold: 10+
- Crestwood: 10+ (10-13)
- Western Approach: 10+ (10-14)
- Exalted Plains: 10+ (10-16)
- Emerald Graves: 12+ (14-20)
- Emprise du Lion: 16+ (16-22)
- Hissing Wastes: 16+ (19-23)
Tips on How to Kill a Dragon
A Redditor has given out tips on killing a dragon. These guide players to correct the computer-controlled teammates. This will help player give a better fight against enemies and dragons.
Below are the tips on how to kill a dragon (Reddit):
Dragon Tips
- Bring at least one mage and set their "Barrier" ability to "off", and manually use it. Give your mages staves that the dragon is weak against. I.E. the Ferelden Frostback would be weak to ice staves. Same goes for which mage trees to use, but atleast have the "barrier ability." It's also recommended they have the "Peacefull Aura" and "Guardian Spirit" abilities, since they are both really useful for ranged mages.
- All ranged characters have to stand close enough so that the dragon doesn't use the "pull" ability. It is likely to give 2-3 shots to your ranged characters. If possible, put one ranged character far enough for the drag to initiate the pull move, and then manually move them closer. It forces the dragon through the full animation giving you free time to do damage, and do other things.
- The "fire breath" (continuous stream) is slow to dodge, try to time the animation and run horizontally away from its mouth.
- When the dragon flies around shooting elemental balls, either manually set everyone to run in opposite directions, or clump and use the barrier ability.
- Try to attack one of the legs with all members other than the tank. For example, set everyone to attack the back right leg, while Cassandra/Blackwall attacks the face. It will stop the drag from moving around so much.
- Bring Resistant pots for the specific drag that you fight, i.e. "Fire Resistant Tonic" for the Fereldan Frostback. Try to upgrade them as well. Solas and other mages can use the dispel ability in the spirit tree to remove debuffs, i.e. the fire effect from the Frostback drag or other lingering effects from other dragons. (Works on mob abilities as well)
- When the frostback is summoning mobs and is on a ledge where you can't reach her, stand below the ledge and use the "stand ground" command. Manually use characters to kill the mobs. This will keep it from lobbing fireballs at you.
- (Optionally bring Iron Bull to dragon fights. His dialogues are funny.)
A.I Tips
- Set ranged characters to "defend / self." That way they don't run up to enemies.
- Set Melee characters (not tanks) to "follow / self". That way they attack anybody and don't follow the Inquisitors target.
- Set Melee characters (not tanks) to "follow / tank/inquisitor". That way they will target the tank/Inquisitors target, making it easier to kill specific enemies.
- Set Melee characters (tanks) to "follow / self". That way they will attack and taunt anyone, not just the Inquisitors target.
- It's good practice to set abilities to "preferred," such as barrier on mages, "taunt/challenge" on tanks, "jumping shot" on rogues. It makes the game A.I.'s way easier to control when they constantly use important abilities.
- Keeping characters mana/stamina pools at 50% especially that of the mages, allows for the usage of important abilities.
- For "Reaver" characters i.e. Iron Bull, set their flask limit to a certain amount so they don't use all your pots. I suggest using rejuvenation pots on them, since they are easy to make. (Buy elfroot for 20g at the crossroads in the Hinterlands trader.)
- For "Knight Enchanter" characters i.e. Vivviene, set their preferred abilities to "Barrier," "Spirit Blade," "Fade Cloak," "Disruption Field," "Fade Step," and set all their other abilities that you don't want them to use to 'off'. That way they act as mage tanks (and do a lot of damage in the process.)
Guide to List of Crafting Schematics
It is a difficult thing for players to find the schematic and the crafting items in the game. Since many of these items can be clubbed and there is an endless possibility of its use.
Below is the guide for crafting schematics in Inquisition (Gameranx):
One-Handed Weapons
Serpent Rage (rare T3 Axe) found in one of the Tombs in Hissing Wastes
- Damage 17 Metal max. 261 DPS
- Offense 6 Metal
- Utility 4 Metal
- Offense 4 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Engraved Beard-Axe (T3 Axe)
- Damage 17 Metal max. 261 DPS
- Offense 4 Metal
- Offense 4 Cloth
- Offense 4 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Legion Mace (T3 Mace)
- Damage 15 Metal max. 231 DPS
- Offense 4 Leather
- Offense 4 Leather
- Offense 4 Cloth
- Masterwork Slot
Templar Mace (T3 Mace)
- Damage 15 Metal max. 231 DPS
- Offense 4 Metal
- Offense 4 Metal
- Offense 4 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Dwarfen Longsword (T3 Longsword)
- Damage 15 Metal max. 175 DPS
- Utility 4 Metal
- Offense 4 Cloth
- Utility 4 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Two-Handed Weapons
Anderfels Cleaver (rare T3 Greataxe) found in a Wartable Mission
- Damage 22 Metal max. 273 DPS
- Offense 8 Metal
- Utility 6 Cloth
- Offense 6 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Masterwork Serrated Greatsword (rare T3 Greatsword) found in one of the Tombs inHissing Wastes
- Damage 22 Metal max. 273 DPS
- Utility 8 Metal
- Utility 6 Metal
- Offense 6 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Balanced Greatsword ( T3 Greatsword)
- Damage 22 Metal max. 273 DPS
- Utility 6 Metal
- Offense 6 Cloth
- Offense 6 Cloth
- Masterwork Slot
Staves
First Enchanter Staff (T3 Staff)
- Damage 22 Metal max. 112 dps
- Offense 6 Leather
- Offense 6 Cloth
- Utility 6 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Seer Staff (T3 Staff)
- Damage 22 Metal max. 112 dps
- Offense 6 Leather
- Offense 6 Leather
- Offense 6 Cloth
- Masterwork Slot
Archmage Staff (T3 Staff)
- Damage 20 Metal max. 100 dps
- Offense 6 Metal
- Offense 6 Metal
- Offense 6 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Daggers
Masterwork Dual Curved Blade (rare T3 Dual-Blade Dagger) found in one of the Tombsin Hissing Wastes
- Damage 11 Metal max. 321 DPS
- Utility 5 Leather
- Utility 3 Leather
- Utility 3 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Dual-Curved Blade (T3 Dual-Blade Dagger)
- Damage 11 Metal max. 321 DPS
- Offense 3 Leather
- Offense 3 Cloth
- Utility 3 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Bows
Masterwork Spiked Longbow (rare T3 Bow) found in one of the Tombs in Hissing Wastes
- Damage 22 Metal max. 165 DPS
- Utility 8 Leather
- Offense 6 Leather
- Offense 6 Cloth
- Masterwork Slot
Knight Commander Longbow (T3 Bow)
- Damage 22 Metal max. 165 DPS
- Utility 6 Leather
- Offense 6 Metal
- Offense 6 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Swan Longbow (T3 Bow)
- Damage 22 Metal max. 165 DPS
- Offense 6 Leather
- Offense 6 Leather
- Utility 6 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Shields
Dwarven Proving Shield (T3 Shield)
- Armor 6 Metal max. 44 Armor
- Defense 8 Metal
- Defense 4 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Formation Shield (T3 Shield)
- Armor 6 Metal max. 44 Armor
- Defense 8 Cloth
- Defense 4 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Noble Shield (T3 Shield) * Armor 6 Metal max. 44 Armor * Defense 8 Cloth * Defense 4 Metal * Masterwork Slot
Polished Shield (T3 Shield)
- Armor 6 Metal max. 44 Armor
- Defense 8 Metal
- Defense 4 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Armor
Heavy Armor
Legion of the Dead Armor (rare T3 Heavy Armor) found in the last Tombs in Hissing Wastes (Dwarven only) and (No Upgrades)
- Armor 21 Metal max. 280 Armor
- Defense 12 Metal
- Defense 8 Metal
- Defense 8 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Superior Battlemaster Mail (rare T3 Heavy Armor) random T3 eligible Chest
- Armor 21 Metal max. 280 Armor
- Defense 6 Metal
- Defense 4 Metal
- Defense 4 Cloth
- Masterwork Slot
Superior Battlemaster Armor (rare T3 Heavy Armor) Hissing Wastes Merchantonly with rare stock merchant perk
- Armor 21 Metal max. 280 Armor
- Utility 6 Metal
- Defense 4 Leather
- Defense 4 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Medium Armor
Superior Prowler Mail (rare T3 Medium Armor)
- Armor 21 Leather max. 234 Armor
- Utility 5 Leather
- Defense 5 Leather
- Defense 4 Cloth
- Masterwork Slot
Light Armor
Sturdy Battlemage Coat (T3 Light Armor)
- Armor 19 Cloth max. 221 Armor
- Defense 4 Metal
- Defense 4 Cloth
- Defense 4 Leather
- Masterwork Slot
Sturdy Battlemage Mail (T3 Light Armor)
- Armor 19 Cloth max. 221 Armor
- Defense 4 Cloth
- Defense 4 Leather
- Defense 4 Metal
- Masterwork Slot
Helms
Superior Venatori Helmet (rare T3 Warrior Head)
- Armor 4 Metal max. 29 Armor
- Utility 10 Metal
Guide to Rune Locations
The collectible system in Inquisition is varied, out of these, what we can seek and find is in runes. Runes allow for upgrades to some of the powerful equipment. Gameranx points that rune acquisition must be one of the priorities, but it is difficult to find them. This guide that was put out by Gameranx minimises the time taken by players to find the locations.
Elemental Rune Schematics
Fire Rune Schematics
Frost Rune Schematics
Lightning Rune Schematics
Spirit Rune Schematics
Other Runes
- Demon-Slaying Schematics - Hissing Wastes in Tomb of Fairel & Crestwood in Caer Bronach
- Cleansing Schematics- Emprise du Lion in Suledin Keep
- Corrupting Schematics- Emprise du Lion in Suledin Keep
- Dragon-Slaying Schematics- Skyhold at Bonny Vendor & Shrine of Dumat
Non-Vendor:
- Dragon-Slaying Schematics- Storm Coast on Dragon Boss' corpse.
(Video Courtesy: Mr.Codeslinger)
