Dragon Age Inquisition aimed to break the cycle of infinite healing and reset the fight by replacing healing spells with shields. Players still receive potions that can heal the player, but only a limited amount of potions are available. The absence of healing spells in the game is not a significant issue, as it does not require a healer and is only available at higher levels. However, there are ways to heal and absorb damage, such as building up Guard, which acts as bonus hit points against enemies.
Healing spells are not bad, but they add the need for a healer and are only available at higher levels. The game’s combat design should balance healing spells for encounters, as it is harder to balance them. Bioware argued that it was easier to balance healing spells for encounters, so changes were made for mana, health, and potions. In previous games, players had the following health available: sum of health of all party+ healing spells + healing potions.
Bioware removed healing spells to streamline the game and target a more casual audience. The lore suggests that Bioware wanted players to use healing potions in multiplayer to get more lootboxes. Healing can only be done by using potions or resting at, fast traveling to, or setting up an Inquisition camp.
The choice to remove healing spells was purely gameplay, as the series had two games worth of precedence with healing spells. As players progress, they unlock more ways to heal, and regeneration benefits most from an increase in spellpower by +10 health/10 spellpower.
In conclusion, Dragon Age Inquisition aims to break the cycle of infinite healing and reset the fight by replacing healing spells with shields. While there are ways to heal and absorb damage, the lack of healing spells in the game may hinder survival chances.
📹 HEALING in Dragon Age: Inquisition (or lack thereof)
Do you need healing in Dragon Age? Is it better with or without? (No story spoilers) Also, sorrynotsorry. RIP Nug, all hail Fennec …
How to get healing potions in Dragon Age: Inquisition?
Upon returning to a player base or Inquisition camp, the player’s supply of healing potions is automatically replenished. Additionally, these potions can be replenished at any of the numerous supply caches located across the globe. These potions are permanently affixed to the character’s potion belt and can be obtained from Cassandra during the Wrath of Heaven quest.
Why is there no blood magic in Dragon Age Inquisition?
Blood Magic, a powerful magic that can be used to enhance melee attacks, is unlikely to be used in future games for player characters. BioWare has revealed that the player character, ‘Rook’, will not have Blood Magic specialization when choosing a Mage class. Instead, players will have to choose from Death Callers, Spellblades, or Evokers, masters of elemental fire, ice, and lightning magic. Blood Magic has been a staple of the franchise, but it was initially only available when playing as a Mage in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. Patrick Weekes, Lead Writer at BioWare on the Dragon Age franchise since David Gaider’s departure, has provided a more detailed explanation of this choice.
Is there a healing class in Dragon Age Inquisition?
The game employs the use of barriers and guards as a means of providing temporary health in combat scenarios. However, the creation of a mage specializing in the manipulation of strong barriers is also a viable option. Knight Enchanters are able to utilize their Focus ability, Resurgence, for the purpose of healing.
Can you heal in Dragon Age: Inquisition?
The game’s fast-travel feature automatically heals and restocks potions and tents at each designated campsite. It should be noted that the regeneration of potions is possible via the utilisation of supply caches; however, this process requires a certain degree of attention. The regeneration of potions is not possible without the utilisation of a supply cache, which allows the developer to gauge the difficulty level and exert control over the gameplay. The design is not inherently flawed; however, it does permit for more precise control in each encounter.
Why did Dragon Age: Inquisition remove healing spells?
Bioware has implemented alterations to the mechanics of healing spells in order to achieve a more balanced approach to encounters, affecting the parameters of mana, health, and potions. In earlier iterations of the Dragon Age series, the health of each encounter was calculated based on the collective health of all parties involved, the efficacy of healing spells, and the potency of healing potions. The objective of this alteration is to enhance the equilibrium of healing spells and to augment the overall experience for players.
Can you get pregnant in Dragon Age: Inquisition?
A warden can have children with a non-warden, but the child won’t be born with the taint. Two wardens can’t have children with one another, but it might be possible with the aid of magic. The question is whether a child of a Grey Warden and a non-Warden or a mating of two Grey Wardens would have the Taint in their blood and be immune to its effects, especially living only 30 years and dying in battle in the Deep Roads. Additionally, the child or children would not have the same benefits of sensing the Darkspawn as their Warden Parent or Parents.
There isn’t a definitive example of a warden having children after a Joining in the canon. The only examples are Fiona and Morrigan, who do the ritual with Morrigan, who uses the taint to draw the Old God’s soul as part of the magic. Neither situation is typical, so it doesn’t make good examples for Wardens having children after Joining.
Why is Dragon Age: Inquisition banned?
The sender reveals that Inquisition was banned in India by EA due to homosexuality issues, which has been legal for years. The ban seems unjust, especially considering the upcoming release of a new game. The sender has checked Steam and Epic Store, finding the game unavailable for wishlisting. They urge the sender to investigate this issue, as the game is now available on Steam and can be added to the wish list.
How do you convince the healer in Dragon Age Inquisition?
In order to initiate the “Healing Hand” process, it is necessary to engage in conversation with the designated authority figure at the designated crossroads, following the completion of the requisite clearance procedures. The individual designated as the target healer is known to reside in a modest, circular structure situated in close proximity to Redcliffe Village. In order to successfully conclude the quest, it is necessary to engage in conversation with the healer, defer to Cassandra, and allow her to persuade the healer to comply with the request. This is the same healer who is involved in the “A Common Treatment” quest.
When was the heal spell removed?
The Heal, a scarce spell card from the Royal Arena, was removed from the game on April 2, 2020, and was substituted with the Heal Spirit. The card’s efficacy was diminished by two-thirds due to its fixed pulse frequency.
How do you farm healing potions?
Healing potions can be discovered in naturally occurring containers situated in locations where the Hardmode activation has been initiated. Additionally, these potions can be obtained from the Underworld and through the demise of specific entities, including the Wall of Flesh, Deerclops, and Skeletron.
Why is there no healing magic in Dragon Age: Inquisition?
The issue is due to the use of a different game engine than previous games, which was not used for RPGs. The game engine was unable to create reliable and balanced healing spells within the given time frame. Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests. Common causes include the latest version of the Opera browser sending multiple invalid requests to the server for every page visited, using the Brave browser or Ghostery add-on, which send extra traffic to the server for every page visited, and using unofficial phone apps that use GameFAQs as a back-end but do not behave like a real web browser.
These apps may cause IP blocks indefinitely. There is no official GameFAQs app, and the company does not support or have contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Other potential causes include using scripts or add-ons that scan GameFAQs for box and screen images, running a “scraper” or “downloader” program, using poorly configured browser add-ons for blocking content, and overusing the search engine with large searches in a short amount of time. If you promise to stop, the connection will be unblocked temporarily, but re-blocked if further bad behavior is detected.
📹 Dragon Age Inquisition – How to heal without potions
By repeatedly equipping and unequipping a Belt of Health you can heal in the field without wasting potions that are better saved …
The problem I’m having with the removal of healing spells is the fact that at the end of combat you still aren’t at full health and when you’ve run out of potions there’s no way to regain that health other than using quick travel which is an awful substitute for healing spells in my opinion and very immersion breaking.
Gotta disagree. Getting rid of healing(aside form two revive spells) just to replace it with a bunch of damage mitigation spells is not better. Hell, it pretty much forces you to take those skills or die and we only have 20 levels in Inquisition. So pretty much, no matter what mage you play, you will have to take Barrier and possibly the associated skills to make it stronger.
No, not having healing is not okay. Not only does it break the lore that they’ve worked so hard on keeping, even making it so that your choices from previous games follows over, but it also screw over those players who like to play as healing mages. Stupid decision. Whoever supports this, is also inevitably supporting that they’re ruining the experience for a portion of players who play, and always have played, as healing mages.
No healing feels very wrong to me. Healing magic is as quentessential to RPGs as are elves, warriors, ranged, and rouges. It’s silly to remove it after several previous games in which you could heal, why would it suddenly not be possible? I’d be okay with it if they could find a way to explain it within the game world, otherwise I’m disappointed. It feels like a lazy way to increase the difficulty. I remember playing the previous games on the hardest modes, it was frustrasting, it was tough, and I couldn’t have done it without healing. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in a familiar world without the familiarty of healing magic.
So get good is what you’re trying to say, I like not having to stick a healer in my party, but no healing spells feels wrong. It’s like taking a away a basic class or role from an RPG, having no healer would feel as wrong as having no rouge or archer, it’s like something’s missing. Also is going to be weird story-wise when an injured NPC asks for a healer and no one in the party has healing spells or your party watches another NPC using a healing spell that they can’t use.
I understand what you’re saying about challenge and difficulty (not so much about dragging certain party members along, don’t you kind of have to drag a rogue around or you won’t be able to open a lot of certain chests or detect traps? Certain classes have always been necessary if you want those aspects, it’s not just mages…), but I have always played a healing mage. I liked buffing and reviving party members from a distance. It was my favourite play style. Now I feel like I’m kind of settling for spirit magic and it’s not nearly as fun.
I think that each class should’ve had 1 ability that allows them to heal (not counting mages ability to revive the party) like give mages the heal spell back and have group heal and regeneration as the upgrades and put it in the spirit tree. And they could come up with something for rogues and warriors to heal.
I agree that healing has become a bit of a wheelchair, I like how the game has a lack of healing opportunities, and I really enjoy the fact that there doesn’t have to be a mage in the party. BUT I do have a problem with there being no healing spell or healing magic. Healing is a part of magic in general RPG magic types and, more specifically, in Dragon Age lore. The spirit healers and such. Seeing that it was a part of dragon age magic lore, I believe there should be some in-game reason behind the sudden incapability to properly use healing magic. Maybe the breach affects it somehow.
I actually thought healing was done really well in DA2 though due to their really long cooldowns. They were there for the clutch saves not for sustain. Even if they didn’t want to design it into the gameplay…I would’ve liked to see some mentions of it. Spirit healing is kind of quintessential to the lore.
I like your reason that you’ve state and I agree that healing shouldn’t be a crutch but healing spells and the Spirit Healer class in the Dragon Age world exist. To not have the option to have learn healing spells seems like BioWare is removing a feature similar to not having warriors use range weapons in DA2. If BioWare wants to have players rely less on healing in combat, then they could have made healing spells have a long cast time and/or heal over time so that healing spells are only useful for outside of combat in preparation for combat.
I play a healer in every game I play. I was a spirit healer in the previous dragon ages. I’m about 10 hours into inquisition and I’ve never been so bored in playing a game. The only thing that makes the game semi enjoyable for me is multiplayer where only being able to shield others is getting old real fast.
It’s a shame that i can’t “dislike” a youtube article more then once. Diversity is a good thing, and having less options is plain stupid. Absence of a healing skill tree forces a player to spec at least one party mage to a “barrier maker” instead of a “healer”, and that’s it. Simply put, it’s an inconvenience, not a “challenging feature”. If one has options, he can go full-party of hardcore glasscannon damage-dealers with but a small (but unlimited) health regaining source, or play safe with tanks and dedicated healers, or even mix those variants up and such. The more experienced player is, the less “safety measures” he may have to require to feel comfortable. But enter DAI, with no health regaining whatsoever except highly limited potions, and we suddenly MUST do it this one specific way, with barriers and guards. It’s not challenging, it’s ANNOYING.
I’m shocked that something so important to the lore would be removed from the game. Not to mention this also removes a specialization that has been available in the past two games: Spirit Healer. Didn’t Duncan say in origins that mages were essential to the fight against the dark-spawn because of their ability to cast devastating magic but also the ability to Mend wounds? Also Anders has a clinic in dragon age 2 where he heals the denizens of dark town. So these things are going to be ignored because it;s convenient?
My ONLY problem with the removal of heals is that also entirely removes 2 very large characteristics of the mage. From a lore standpoint, it’s extremely frustrating to know the entire Creation tree and Spirit Healer tree which ARE a thing in the world, suddenly and inexplicably isn’t available. I love the extra thought and challenge the changes bring, I love the party flexibility they’ve added but, to remove ALL the major support spells is a bit upsetting to me.
Healing potions are the equal of limiting the number of healing spells and force people to back track to camps. It is not done for lore, it is not done for challenge, it is done to make the game play longer and seem more epic. If you are playing on the harder difficulties and didn’t have to do this the game would be to easy. They didn’t take out the healing spell for the Rpg gamers who could easily beat this cake walk of a game but to make the game take longer. Count how many times you had to run back to camp to restock and how long it takes. Cheap way to make your game longer Bioware.
See, the whole idea isn’t if we NEED a healer or not but that we WANT one… The idea of no healer is just a petty attempt at making the game more difficult. They take out an entire class. In DA 2 I usually ran with 2 mages, a dedicated healer/buffer and then a straight make it rain death mage.. And that’s what was fun for me.
It’s an option, a choice, a class and a way to play an rpg… getting rid of healing and giving a very short shielding mechanic with a long cooldown does not suffice. Sure the main healing potions refill at camp…but it adds this unneeded backtracking and punishes explorers, add to the respawning enemies and you often tussle with multiple battles. I had a fight where 3 bears were attacking my party and a newly spawned group of mercs appeared right behind me and attacked. I barely made it out and it was because of chugging potions…. think that’s better than slinging healing spells? Wrong….the issue is that the main healing potion is shared with the party, unless there’s an option I’m missing. So sustain is mostly exempt from battles, which punishes melee groups ( I noticed more aoe and swinging movies which somehow still strike my Rogue behind them). The lack of a healing option is an idiotic choice when you 1. add in a measly barrier that so far seems to absorb a few hits and is largely unusable 2. force arbitrary backtracking to replenish health and potions just to be able to explore the rest of that corner of the map or level in a dungeon. 3. lack of other defensive or support abilities to add sustain for your party. You can argue all the points that your hearts desire but if there was an option to heal… i doubt any of you would be making a ton of topics, articles or arguments on it being taken out….as opposed to not using any heals or running a healer. Options, options, options.
Forgot about the part where it makes scaling fights a lot easier for the developers. Account for healing spells made it incredibly difficult, and they either had to make extremely difficult fights or they made fights that were simply too easy. Accounting for healing spells and their cooldown rates, the party could have potentially unlimited health during the course of a fight. Without that, the devs have a much better understanding for what a player will be going into battle with, and combat encounters are better for it.
I think they should’ve made it possible for mages to heal, but in a limited capacity like potions. That would let us have the roleplaying aspect without murdering gameplay. Explain it as the mage using their life force or something, that’s fine, but don’t remove healing magic altogether–that’s just weird. It’s in the lore, we should get to have it.
Can’t say I mind all that much. I didn’t really use healers in either of the games to begin with, if I remember correctly, my Origins lineup existed out of Morrigan, Sten and Alistair, all largely focused on damage and Sten I used as a tank, I simply used more potions. In DA:2 I don’t remember the exact line up of my party, but I doubt anyone can blame me for not really remembering all to much of that game. However for the people that do use healers I can understand not having the choice to play as one or have one isn’t a happy moment.
I’ll say this because some have different opinions. It’s totally fine if you are in support of healing. I strongly believe the challenge in not having the dependency of healing is worthwhile in the gameplay. Additionally, after actually engaging in the combat, it wasn’t bad at all. Health potions felt like all you actually needed. Some have brought up that being a healer is more of a role-playing attribute, which totally makes sense and I actually like that sort of canon if you’re making a character. But I speak on a purely gameplay-centric view. You don’t have to agree with me. These are just my thoughts after playing the game.
The lack of something does not add anything to any game. Ever. If you truly believe it does, then just play the same game and ignore whatever it is that you have an issue with. Run through DA1 and 2 without a character with healing in your group, or disable them in the tactics. That’s the beauty of choice, if they leave it upto the player they can decide what they use and do. When they take choice away from the player, it streamlines everything into a “You MUST do A, B AND C to complete this game” which personally bores the hell out of me. It also seems dumb to remove something that’s pretty much a core part of european fantasy rpgs, ESPECIALLY when it’s already been established within the franchise. -1 DA:I.
I prefer to play it first and then judge whether the decision is wise or not. It brings something new to partially break the almost mandatory golden triangle— tank, healer, damage dealer— in any group based RPG. I give BioWare credit for that. But how much does the system matter is the thing I worry about. You said there are camps scattering everywhere on the map and you can fast travel to them at any time when not in combat. The lack of healing and persistent damage will not matter that much if reaching another camp site while exploring is easy enough. It kinda reminds me of Dark Souls in which you have very limited healing and have to reach another bonefire to save your progress. What makes Dark Souls fun to play is the risk and reward system: you know you will probably die if proceed into the mist, but you also know there will be a bonefire somewhere to reward your hard work. I don’t know if DAI was designed with a similar mind set.
Some of us really enjoy playing as a healer mage, why deny us that aspect. They could have implemented the proactive and the reactive play style, not to mention the removal of so many fun spells, specially the control, debilitating ones and so on. That is what I consider a tactical game (see Dragon Age: Origin). Going from a very complex and rewarding talent and tactics system to this “garbage” system is like Dragon Age 2 all over again.
It’s one thing to take away healing for combat balance, but it contradicts the narrative. Its strongly implied in the cutscenes that mages are used as healers, Solas is said to be a healer. But then you look ingame and all Solas is capable of doing is supply barriers. Which makes sense, cuz Veil but its still contradictory. Its like Hawke constantly sneering at blood magic while simultaneously wielding it with abandon in combat. Both examples are an eample of poor consistency, and I wish Bioware had paid better attention to it.
Personally think it’s better without, especially because of reason#2. I felt I HAD to be that healer so I wouldn’t constantly have Wynn or Anders as a healing crutch. But then that’s still forcing me to be something I might not want to be. This is also a big issue with rouges. Dragon age origins was more subtle with,’oh hey unlocking chests is a big thing’, but in the first 30 minutes of 2 there is literally a chest you could not open because you decide you didn’t want to start a rouge. So I also hope that is removed as well. :/
My Warden was a healer, my Hawke was a healer. I rp in my head that they did even more healing than they actually did in the games. I’m still gonna rp in my head that my Inquisitor is a healer, even if it’s not actually happening in the game. I’m not too bothered, though how it affects the gameplay I guess I’ll see for myself.
Healing was the only reason I kept a mage in my party =/ I feel like with no regen (unless it comes in with armor enchants/whatever) and no healing, potions become a trivial upkeep. I realize they can be restocked for free at caches, but seems like it could be come a bit of a hassle, and make later game battles annoying if you slack here or there. Also for those other people who will avoid tactical cam (not me at all) will end up wiping often and likely frustrated, hopefully not giving DA:I a bad name. Either way I’m still stoked for the game…but lack of healing DOES make the Multiplayer less interesting to me a little.
I’ve been running through DA2 without a healer (normal difficulty), and tbh, I’m actually glad they dropped it in DAI. While I’m enjoying the game very much, I’m noticing a lot of fights are sort of geared to support the idea of near infinite party health. I’ve got a good combination though, working my mage voodoo in other areas, like the Arcane and Spirit trees. Using Varric to pin/disorientate an enemy, then dump Walking Bomb on his head to vaporize a crowd is so much more rewarding than ignoring tactics and spamming heal. From what I’ve been seeing, DAI’s combat is much more strategic, like, waves of enemies don’t spawn in to simulate challenge. You fight what you can see, therefore failure is all on you. But being a bit of a Chess player, I love the idea that you can plan a battle from first step till last. Super excited.
Respectfully disagree here as others have Ashe. I’ve found the lack of healing frustrating, even while having a mage fully spec’d in the spirit tree. Breaking from the core rpg foundation classes (tank/dps/heals) to do away with heals denies the great many rpg players who identify with the healing class an outlet for their participation. If I happen to be in a battle where 3 of the 4 players in my group need heals, I have to click on each one individually and drink a potion. The break from immersion at that point is like, well, let me tactical pause the game, switch between each player, and click a potion. I might as well take a bathroom break too. Lame! What happened to AOE heals from a core rpg class who was their to protect and nurture? That’s always been a great part of the healing class, it gives those who don’t care to kill/kill/kill/kill a way to participate in their own constructive way. As stereotypical as this may sound, the healing class has always been a great way to introduce women to the rpg world. Just to be clear, I’m not saying that some women don’t like playing tank or dps. It’s just been my anecdotal experience that the kill/kill/kill component of the dps/tank classes has not been as appealing to women as the healing class has been. At the very least, DA:I should have a fully functional healing tree for the mage, complete with self, individual, and aoe healing spells, just as the Druid did in WoW for example, or the Lore Master in LOTRO.
I’m perfectly fine with no healing magic…but can we please get auto-heal after combat? My health bar not being full annoys me in ways you cannot begin to fathom. It is the worst. It’s like playing a shooter and not being able to reload without going back to the beginning of the level and activating a reload station or using a limited supply of “reload tokens.”
Well, if I remember from previous demos I’ve seen, there are abilities that build up “guard” which act as a barrier for warriors. It stays there permanently until you get attacked enough and it depletes. Also, another thing that’s acquired over time is “focus” which is separate from mana/stamina and is shared with the entire party. There are abilities in the spirit skill tree for mages which heals the entire party. Not to mention that in weapon and armor customization, it was said there was materials which bestowed health regeneration. I like the mage class, but I also like the fact that if you take steps for preparation, you’re rewarded with the fact that a mage is no longer required in the party.
“You don’t need a mage”? – Funny, but: Who will put up the barrier-spell, if you do not have any mage along?…so yeah, you still need them (and it’s good – having a useless class is bad)…and yes: we need healing – the new system is fucking tedious (yes – multiple engagements will whittle you down eventually (yes: unless you play on casual – maybe!)…attrition is a factor and backtracking to a camp is never cool (unless say the camps have the war-table, where you can send your spies out, engage in repeatable missions, while you explore…but even then, they should be an extra (meaning: you can backtrack – but you don’t need to…but this only works with healing and/or regenerating health)…and that’s why modern games mostly have regenerating health (no more searching an empty level for a medi-pack for example, because you will die instantly if you proceed to the next level with low health for example – which was pretty tedious in many older games (I should know, I play games since the mid-90s…around 1995)… I admit one thing – that’s my opinion (yes: It might not be so bad – but not so bad is still bad…also I liked playing as a jack-of-all-traits mage…well, I also liked bloodmagic and having more than 8 ability slots…oh and I also like people not defending bad decisions, just because they are not “help I am on fire” like bad (only “ouch I hit my hand with a hammer” like bad)…maybe I am just narrow minded…even though, modern games left those non-healing mechanics behind exactly because they were tedious and only artificially stretching out content.
I usually agree with your articles, but I have to disagree on you not needing mages as much in this game as the previous ones. Now that you have limited potions (which could easily have been used instead of magic in the other games) you are forced to have that barrier spell for every team. Warriors won’t need it as much since they have their own little crutch, but rogues will desperately rely on it at any point that stealth fails them. Mages are going to be an even bigger crutch this game then ever before. Still will be a great game, but yeah!
I agree with you. At first I was confused, mainly because I am a friend of the healer role. But after a few articles and some insight on the Guard ability, I started to like the Idea. The tank not only takes care of aggro now, but also of shielding himself (another form of healing, basically). There are in fact a lot of abilities to increase Guard and armor, and it surely makes tanking a lot more interesting. And what this also does is that mages have a lot more time to actually do damage and control the battlefield. As a mage -apart from one spell (Barrier) that can be altered in numerous ways – you can focus now completely on the enemy, dealing damage, freezing, electrifying, knocking down, panicking or burning them as much as you want, which feels a lot more like being a mage than saving mana for your next heal on the tank does. I also think that tactical mode will play a key role on higher difficulties, which I am a big fan of. That Baldurs Gate kind of elemenet has always been one of my favorite features in the franchise. All in all I can’t wait to dive into this world myself and get lost in it :>
To be honest, this is only an issue that concerns people who look for challenge. I can see how it might be a problem on higher difficulties but I rarely play any game (and especially story-driven ones) on anything but the lowest difficulty (and why should I? I have nothing to prove). One exception to that would be Wolfenstein The New Order where the game pretty much shames the player into selecting medium difficulty at least. But most of the gameplay for DA:I I’ve seen seems to be on hard and nightmare so I imagine that I’ll breeze through casual difficulty with a maximum of 3 game-over screens.
One of my later playthroughs will be as a Qunari Warrior who thinks the Qun was right about magic. He will not recruit any mages and will consider all mages as enemies. I imagine this will be difficult and not supported by many companions but it should be interesting. The world state will be a dwarven warden who destroyed the circle and a male hawke who supports the templars because Bethany died in the dead roads.
According to the wikia, the Knight Enchanter specialization’s focus spell Resurgence heals the party fully and leaves a glyph that continually heals whoever’s inside it. I’m pretty sure there’s a long cooldown and won’t smart to rely on it solely but at least that’s something for people who like healing, like me. (I like playing as a mage who uses his/her magic to heal and help people instead of destroying it.)
Although I am not an experienced gamer who are into the WOW, dedicated healer in a party and what not (I pick characters that looks good or has a good story or background instead), I think a RPG without the need of a “balanced” party is a good thing, because I realise sometimes I ended getting someone in my party for his or her ability rather than the moral choices.
I miss the old healing only because I enjoyed making my character a support/healer mage who’s goal was to help the party instead of fighting enemies. It offered a fun and interesting way (at least in my opinion) of playing the game. I suppose I could still do that now with barriers and such but I am gonna miss the Spirit Healer specialization hopefully it sees a comeback in some expansion pack or Dragon Age 4.
Honestly, I really enjoy the fact there their is no healing. It’ll add more to a strategic edge to the game that I want to explore more. I do hope that this element will be added to more and future games. If you had an unlimited access to healing then anyone could tank. Am happy for this change. That being said however, I’ll always have one warrior, rouge, and mage in my party regardless. Depending on the class I play as, I might switch out that person for another one. Still, am happy for the healing factor (or lack of one), but that is my opinion.
This is good. Lack of healing makes you use your brain and play tactically. I played DA2 in Nightmare on PC with no healing poultice (except those 20minute + fights), I ended up with 200 health poultice just from the ones i looted. lol. When healing is an option people go for tank-n-spank and when it fails, they accuse the game of being bad/broken. So by removing heal, maybe they avoid that altogether. I’m sure ppl who choose easiest difficulty will still have no problem breezing through combat if they don’t enjoy it.
Four years into the future in the game and playing over so many times in retrospect I hated not having a healer class. But a few years ago my roommate told me, “use a heal bonus belt or accessory for your mage. It will heal 50-65 percent of the characters heath.” I tried it. It is a wonderful mech. I never worried about healing potions after. On nightmare mode and trials barrier, ice trap, revive… you can keep everyone alive.
It kind of makes sense, if you think about it. A lot of healers were of the “Spirit Healer” variety, had a strong connection to the Fade. When mages started getting hunted down, I’m pretty sure that Templars that knew they had a SH on their hands would target them first. Any surviving would go into hiding for their own survival, plus with the Fade ripped open, I have a feeling it would be absurdly easy for them to get possessed, so if that was me, I’d stay on the other side of the continent But that’s just my idea, Bioware can explain it however they want, I don’t mind that there’s no healing
I will be a two-handed warrior with my companions consisting of a rouge (though they will be more focused on opening chests and bypassing traps) a mage with the tree that focuses on protection (forgot what it is called) and either a DPS mage or another warrior depending on which fits my battle style better.
The Knight Enchanter’s focus ability seemingly makes them a healing mage in addition to being the closest thing to an arcane warrior: Revive and heal all party members too full health. Of course, I don’t see focus abilities being able to use in consecutive boss fights or it being possible to equip items to make it easy to get to the point of using Focus abilities more frequently (maybe epic items will)…
I can deal with no healing spells and limited health potions for the most of the game. when things get more difficult i hope they allow you to expand your potion limit via an upgrade like you upgrade your backpack carrying limit and i hope the game offers armours with rune slots that regenarate health somehow
My biggest gripe is that this was SOOOOO clearly an “afterthought”. I was just starting to get over the fricking annoying barrier system when I stumbled into a village and found A HEALER MAGE. Does one person talk about “barrier magic”? Nope. So CLEARLY all the dialog was written and the lines fully voice acted before they decided to do this. This annoys me WAY more than the new system – it doesn’t; just take me out of the experience, it picks me up, puts me on a dragon’s back, and flies me into the sun while going “lalalalalalala”! Additionally, the game continues to make CONSTANT references to “healing magic”, and has ZERO explanations of WHY there are no more healers. For a game series whose first installment could fill 10 novelas with dialog and lore, this is a MASSIVE oversight. Why is healing gone? Cuz we said so – you don’t get an explanation as to why one of the fundamental powers of the universe suddenly up and vanished…
I suppose if I have to choose between having a mandatory healer and no healer at all the second option is preferable and opens up more party combinations. Tho I wonder if I still won’t be forced to pick some kind of meta lineup when playing on Nightmare, which was my default difficulty for all my playthroughs of the previous 2 games.
I was amazed there was no healing in Inquisition, then again, I believe having a diverse group was always a big part of Dragon Age, walking around with mage/rogue/double warroir team was my strategy from DA2, because it felt idk, real, I would want a person I trust standing there perusal my back while I carve away. Actually my mages in DA2 always had a rule to keep 60% mana as a reserve to heal and resurrect any fallen comrade, allowing me as a rogue or warrior to slash away happily, or as a mage, to watch over my companions wich I like as in MMOs I always like playing as a mage/priest or whatever, to keep my partners healthy and deathly with healing and buffing alike while dealing a bit of dps myself
I am a loreholic. There, now that that’s out of the way I would like to say that having healing only accessable to tot tier mages and also being taxing on the party member not only being healed but the healer themselves is quite realistic when talking the Dragon Age Universe. I think that this type of thinking where game designers are splitting off from the Trinity and making their lore mix with the gameplay is another step towards more realistic gaming diimensions. I’d love to see in Mass Effect that your squad still limp slightly from essentially just getting blown up and thrown across the courtyard. Even with medigel, lore dictates its not a permenant solution. Same here in DAI, I’m going to love the fact that you have to ration your health potions or cover certain party members to revive a squadmate. Even something as simple as checking a pulse takes more then five seconds. Its realistic, its understandable, its beautifully new to game design. I’m going to love it. 🙂
Here is why you are so wrong. The healing system currently would not be so bad if the game was modified so that there where more staches. For example some of you might remeber clearing out the templars castle of red lyrium templars. well as a refresher there is only one stache. yep. one for that amount of enemies. One. Now while personally I managed to survive the waves with little to no health on any member of my party I would like to remind you that there is a boss fight at the end of the level and if you already used that stache, tough no more health for you or your party.
I don’t particularly care from a gameplay perspective- if the game is balanced around having healing, it’ll be fine with healing, if the game is balanced around not having healing, it’ll be fine without healing. But from a lore perspective, the removal of healing is ridiculous. I suppose every single mage in the world just spontaneously forgot how to cast healing spells?! We’ve seen people with healing powers in the past two games. Both previous games have featured important characters have been healing specialists, for crying out loud! I guess Anders was just a really good doctor whose hands glowed sometimes?! Now is not the time for bioware to call backsies on the existence of healing magic.
I think the fact that it’s no longer mandatory to have a mage in the party is awesome! This means I can think more in terms of politics as well as my own personal preferences when picking out my following companions instead of always being forced to take the most combat-strategic options in order to succeed. For example, if while leading the inquisition we have a chance to try and negotiate with some volatile templars, I could now choose to not bring a mage along for political purposes or even for the mage’s own safety, instead of being forced to bring a mage like Anders into a delicate situation just so we have healing power and buffs in the case of conflict. The fact that we can have any combination of teammates in our parties opens the door for a lot more freedom in strategy as well. I love it! Best of all, it adds so much more potential for your choices having consequences in Inquistion. Be careful who you bring with you!
I respectively disagree. using your own reasons: 1- Damage-reduction spells and abilities are effective Unless you’re playing in every difficulty except Nightmare. Where enemies chew these abilities like breakfast. Healing, is ONE tool of the many arsenals a mage has. I find it funny when mages in the game can use healing in cutscenes but not on gameplay. 2- No Longer have to depend on a mage in the party You still could do that in older DA games. If you want to play on Nightmare, and you want to have the OPTIMAL party for it, you still need to have a mage in the party, that fact still doesn’t change even in DAI. What i find funny is that now you actually need to have a warrior in your party, as they even removed the ability for mages to tank a la origins. 3- Camps are everywhere and allow easy access to heals & equipment This only makes your game artificially longer, needing to go back track multiple times to replenish potions. The game is only challenging until you have access to Guard on hit gear (and after you stop fighting with it’s controls, which suck on PC), also, this game got to have the worst AI ever in all DA games, rogues just want to get themselves killed for no reason.
I hate healing. I am glad they took it out. Without a healer i could not play on harder difficulty’s. This led to me having to bring characters i did not like so that i could actually survive higher difficulty’s. I am glad that healing is non essential. I do however wish they would have put a minor healing spells in for mages that could only be used once a battle. That would stop all these issues people have.
I’ll most likely stick to my previous layout and still have a mage in party, even if they don’t heal. Because they are a fun class to play and healing will always be a chore after deciding to have a go at make a White Mage Hawke (well as best as I could). Thank god for Isabella… Though, it was a fun challenge duelling the Arishok in single combat as that character.
Same make up as always, 1 warrior, 1 mage, 1 rogue, and my inquisitor. I didn’t need healing in Dragon Age 2 and played on Nightmare. I had Marril following me around so no healing from her. Just have to micro the heal out the party. Managing potions and talents was very important, origins however I needed to spam healing, which bugged me. I like the new system.
Probably will go with a mage tank warrior DPS warrior rogue build or a mage mage tank rogue build depending on how Inquisition plays. As for healing going it seems like a weird choice but I get it in DA O I turned Wynn into a blood mage spirit healer and her and Alister became just stuck in my party forever because they were just to good together. Seriously Alister was able to tank damage from a high Dragon almost indefinitely so long as Wynn was alive. The down side to that build was Wynn was squishy as hell especially when she went into blood magic mode most of the time it didn’t matter because everyone was wailing on Alister trying crack him.
Yeah it just so happens I want to keep Vivienne in my party anyway for her banter but it’s nice for folks who want to switch it up to not be beholden to a mage. I’m very open to this new system. I usually play on casual cause I’ma story chick but I might play on normal just to test myself w this new system.
Healing should have been an option turn off turn on simple. Chose is good. I see no problem with orbit hour healing. Don’t tell players what or what we don’t need. We get chose in difficulty why not not chose in healing? Just saying. In origins I opted out on healing and went with poisons. It’s going to be my game that I play alone not multiplayer and who gives a darn if I whimp out or not. Just my opinion.
In regards the comment about not needing to have a Mage in the party, that surely isn’t exactly true due to them having ‘Barrier’ which can buff the party members from taking physical damage and of course some objects in the world requiring a Mage to utilize/remove them. In another gameplay article this week I saw a magical barrier blocking access to an area and it required a mage to blast it with the opposing element. It’s pretty much the same thing in regards to always needing to have a Rogue with you to pick locks. So I would say the requirement to have a Mage in the party is still kind of there. Though of course if you can manage without the barrier buff and aren’t bothered about all the magic required stuff I guess you could do it.
My main concern/curiosity is how they’re going to explain the sudden inability of mages to heal in a lore sense. It’s been well established through characters like Wynne and Anders that magical healing is a thing in the world of Thedas. Perhaps they’re going to say that it takes time and merely accelerates natural processes – which is what some other fantasy worlds do – but that seems contrary to the things we have seen them do in-game outside of combat healing. For example, Wynne’s Vessel of the Spirit ability usage during the encounter in Origins when she gains it, bringing the party back into the fight after a fireball knocks them all for six. Or our first meeting with Anders in DA2 where we see him tending to Fereldan injured in Dark town with magic.
In DA2 my party usually consisted of a warrior and 3 mages… The mages would nuke everyone and stun lock while the warrior mopped up. People are going to complain that mages were needed in DAI but they needed to be. Also yeah I couldn’t stand having “osama bin anders” in my party the guy really is an extremist freak…
Speaking as someone who played countless hours as a healing priest in WoW and loved it…yay! I fully support this, when healing magic is in a game you grow to rely on it. Bioware knows what they are doing they have balanced the fights for a world without heals. And multiplayer would have sucked if you always needed a healer.
The healing in Origins made playing on nightmare a joke. If you only invested enough time and gold you could easily get a couple of houndred potent healing potions and at the same time have Wynne at your side. The only challenge in origins was in the beginning of the game when you were limited to a few healing potions. I’m glad they are taking this route instead.
I’m still on the fence with this. As long as i can have a set and forget rule for the other members of my party to heal when needed. One game where i thought the healer sucked was Final Fantasy 9 that was a game where i wanted the healer to be the healer but still could deal damage. it was always annoying that the healers would be the first to fall.
I really wish I would have known this before I bought it…because I wouldn’t have. I like a challenge as much as the next person but this….this is just a pain in the ass. I find myself not exploring anything and just going from point A to B and completing the quest because every time I stray away to explore or check something out I run out of potions and have to go and restock again.. like I’m being punished or something .I’m sorry but when I have to sit and think for a few minutes whether or not I feel up to playing the game because I quit in frustration the last time and time before that..that’s a deal breaker. I paid 60$ to play and have fun. And I have yet to experience any with this game.
No longer have to have a mage in a group? Cmon. You can’t survive without a barrier. I played on hard and unless you want to run to camp after every other fight you SHOULD have two mages in your group with barrier tree fully maxed. That’s before Viv gets her spec tree of course. After that you can pretty much solo everything with just her. I killed +4 lvl dragons solo and soloed entire areas without a single potion. Spirit blades or whatever it’s called are so op it simply breaks the game. I don’t think removing healing brought anything into the game. Granted DAI has guard, stealth and barrier but in my experience (on hard) it is proper positioning that wins or looses fights. Considering how dumb AI is (standing in the aoe, mages and archers rushing into melee range) DAI made me use strategic mode way more often than I would like. I feel that healing would have remedied that but alas.
My inquistior is a two handed warrior and I run with Solas, Varric and Cole I absorb the damage. Solas does crowd control varric does high dps from rang and Cole gets the killing blows. I for one like that I don’t need to put any points into healing. Allows me to make a mage that is straight up damage and not have to run two of them.
I feel that you should’ve showed the Spirit tree in this article, showed people that you can still use Revive, and that there are no Injuries anymore upon revival. Barrier is essentially for all intents and purposes a healing spell in this game, and it’s still as essential as Spirit Healers were because of its benefits to Stamina and even damage output. What I’m really having trouble wrapping my head around is Warriors and Guard because “sustained” spells no longer exist in Inquisition. Oh and you’re dead wrong about not needing a mage LOL you clearly don’t play Nightmare difficulty, Ashe.
What about rogues the warrior have guard which can be easily accessible on the one handed and two handed tree so the only way not to get guard is by not unlocking an important ability. Then the mages have barriers and even if you don’t get a barrier you still have cc on every tree as a paralyze panic or freeze. Then the rogues have nothing so what do they do if they can’t heal?
I’m kind of sad that there isn’t any healing magic in the game only because it’s a fun tool. It’s not sacrilegious to not have healing magic, but having a party member focused on not doing damage but on buffing and healing is one tool in the kit. Even a nerfed version of healing would at least keep the option and allow strategic diversity. That said, I played entire runs in da:o and da2 with no healers. People who say you needed a wyn or an anders were just un-creative. Just need lots of buffs, cc, and potions. It worked just fine then and I imagine it will have to in inquisition. Not going to deter me from playing the game though. 😃
I agree. I just think they should’ve gone the whole nine yards with this concept and made an emphasis on survival. No fast travel to camps, having to rest and risk an ambush, maybe leave critically injured mates behind, make potions cost resources and be difficult to find etc. The fact your health doesn’t regenerate seems like a time waster, because you can (and should) just travel to camp and then run back. And then there’s Barrier, which seems to be the core of combat. You still need a mage, you still need him specced a certain way. As I see it, the only thing that changed is that healing has now become proactive rather than reactive. That’s not that big a change.
It’s all about the experience. It makes you use you’re brain a Lil more than just jumping into every fray knowing that you can run and heal. It is a crutch I believe, but we all have our opinions. I feel it’s a good look for DA, it’s going to make you weigh those consequences of battling a dragon, instead of spamming your healing mage.
Eh. I was kinda worried about the lack of healing spells, but then I realized that since I never really liked Anders (as I had been spoiled on the ending) and was romancing Merril, I ran with my tank Hawke, Aveline, Merril and either Varric or Isabella for the entirety of acts 2 and 3… What I’m worried about is the lack of after combat health regen…
I honest don’t mind not having a healer, it was a bit surprising I’ll give you that, but the game play makes it easier to live without it then in past games. And hey, at least we still have Revival. The only thing i have to say that would have made it better was that while the warriors have guard and the mages have over shield, rouges who use knives (my favorite class), get nothing close to that. Its nice that your mage can cast temporary shield on you, but I found myself having to rely on cloak to escape from battle in the beginning. We have to reply on speed and stealth, which is still pretty good and one I got use to it, wasn’t too bad, it was just something I realized. Also, I thought they made it more constricted in some ways to picking your team as you often needed at least one of each class. Mage for fade fire and barrier, rouges for locks and warriors for breaking down walls. while I didn’t mind doing that and it didn’t really matter if you had all three for main missions, when you were exploring and doing sides quest it often hindered you not to have one of each.
To start at least I will be rolling 3 warriors deep with a rogue on the side. verric was with me all the time in DA 2. And blackwall, iron bull and Cassandra are just too awesome to just take one. To be honest at some point I might end up falling back on a balanced party. But the prospect of running a viable group with that much ass behind it…well, it makes me smile at all the mayham that I will be able to cause.
Oh, the irony of seeing a cut scene where someone doesn’t want to be healed by a mage early in the game. So they talk about mage healing. It’s a thing. They just chose to add magical barrier and warrior “guard” instead. WTF is guard? That makes no sense at all. Also, warriors don’t know how to use ranged weapons? Really? So many things wrong with DA compared to the original.
Ashe | Lady Insanity I’m not sure if you mentioned this or not but I don’t have a next Gen system yet. I’ll be playing all three Dragon Ages on 360. Will my save transfer on because they’re all on the same system or has that feature been completely removed in favor of using the keep to transfer world states?
that was my main problem with DAO and DA2 every time I played as a mage I would get the healer tree and just act as the person that kept everyone alive, never saw much action for myself and always had to run away if things got to hairy but I didn’t have to bring Ander’s whine ass. as long as I can restock on healing flasks without having to buy them I won’t complain. now iIm just going to run a full dps group bull as the bodygaurd for range and mage, varic as range dps, one of the mages for minor defense buffs with a lot of destruction spells and my male Qunari warrior(Sten) as the main damager first playthrough of course.
Calling a healer class as a crutch is wrong, you could go without them if you want and just rely on potions. However, you can’t go without a rogue if you want to unlock anything, can you? So rogue is worse on dependency for your party than healer. But they didn’t remove rogue necessity, now did they? Instead they increased it, having doors that need to be opened by rogue and also warrior. So the dependency on healers, for the reason for removal, is really just a flimsy excuse. Healers are not the only class we need in a party to play (rogue, and now with inquisition, warrior to unlock anything). They just wanted to make this game more about pot chugging for some asinine reason.
mages are getting more boring with every new DA (used to be my favorite class), first DA2 ruins blood magic and entropy(the msot intersting skill trees in DAO) and now DAI removes them completely along with creation school, really -_- now all we have are clowny monks who shot boring fireball/ice shards/lightning whatever, getting less hyped about DAI with every article i see -_-
While I don’t think a healing magic is necessary in the game, as I never ran with a healer (even playing on harder difficulties) in the previous titles, removing the wolverine factor as well seems like it is forcing you to backtrack to camps after every few engagements, rather than truly letting you explore the world and play it as an open world like it has been presented.
I never felt the need to take Wynn or Anders everywhere in the other Dragon Age games. The Ander’s cat, however, was pretty neat as was Sten’s DLC pray book. And the Wynn’s DLC cat in Origins was a hoot. I think most people are complaining about the lack of healing potions in this game, especially if you are playing it on hard and nightmare. Also I might add that in the other games your lost health restored after the battles ended. That is no longer the case in this game. Going back to a camp after a battle becomes almost mandatory. Some people find that boring and tedious. Yes there are lots of camps around but that doesn’t mean you want to go running back to them in the middle of a Dragon fight or a hellacious battle closing a fade rift. Healing, however, I found to be most important in the earlier parts of the game. After you level up into double digits and mod your armors and weapons in the right ways, it becomes less important in the game. This is also the case on hard and nightmare. As an aside two of most enjoyable play-throughs in Origins and DA2 were as spirit mages. Mages also are less powerful in this game than the others. Morrigan could do a hell of lot of damage if built right, and so could the mages in DA2. So far I have not found that to be the case in this game. Origins is still my favorite Dragon Age game and always will be. The more I played DA2 the more I liked it. The DLC for it was pretty good and in many ways better than some of the DLC for Origins. I did not like DA2 at first.
I am not worried about it because I am aware that there were skills to mitigate damage. Instead of reacting to damage done by the enemy you must act to prevent damage. So doing actions to stop damage vs responding to damage already done isn’t that huge of a leap conceptually for me. I do plan to have an Warrior, Rogue and mage in my party because some content is gated based on class in the party. rogues get past things that are locked Warriors get past things that need to be bashed open like a weak wall or door that is jammed shut Mages get past things that require you to magically repair something like a rope bridge to gain access. This will require me to bring all three classes BUT I am no longer forced that the mage I bring is a healer. So that is a win.
Is there a story explanation for why healing magic is missing? Are the “good” spirits of the fade missing or subsumed somehow (I’m of the Merrill school of thought in that it’s ridiculous to call any spirit “good”)? Frankly I can take or leave healing magic. Rarely needed it playing on “Normal.” I did enjoy making a pure healer, diplomatic-type in DA2 as a story decision but that style of play was a bit dull on any but the hardest difficulty levels. If healing spell trees are simply missing with no explanation however, that’s jarring to the lore. It’s one (arguably two or more if you’re counting the lesser-known Spirit Healer tree that the Chantry and Templars would’ve loved for mages to forget about, and all the secretive Elf magic related to healing) of the major schools of magic in the books I’ve read and codex(s) in the games. It’s not making Greedo shoot first, but just excising these things without an explanation would be a bit odd. I don’t play Dragon Age games for the gameplay, I play mostly for the stories.
So basically the game goes against everything that Dragon Age has done till this point and the only reason your ok with it cause they added buffs, first off that is bull but at least it’s a better answer then a dumb response I heard once that in the books healing magic is hard to prepare, and do starts to play a tiny violin no fuck that noise if you want to make the game harder by maybe making healing or lets be real group heal and revive, the only spells and there really high up there in the tree I’d be ok with it, I really never liked the one heal spell that the game had outside of spirit healer so it would be fine by me. (hits myself I can’t believe I spelled tiny wrong) But maybe if the camps are close so potions are easy to abuse and if resting doesn’t mess with quests it would make the game to dame easy in the grand skim of things if you think about it?
I liked the option of healing spells in the past games. With the lack of potions that can be held in this game it takes part away from the game of what got people loveing the battle style in the series. It doesn’t ruin the game for me but for my brother and I we thoroughly enjoyed dragon age and this is one change we do not like. The tactical mode is pretty sweet but they should bring back healing in the next game in my option.
I thought I was going crazy or blind! I really can’t believe there is no healing OR blood magic. What the hell happened?? The Circles and the Templars broke up and everyone forgot how to heal? Challenge is fine but Lore>Challenge for these kind of games. The women are ugly and we have no heals!! D:< The Hero of Ferelden and the Champion were so damn lucky >_>
I don’t understand why everyone is so pissed about healing being taken out they basically replaced it with something better that is technically healing…. The buff mage is very nice… What is it ? The Keeper ? or some shit it’s just as good… It’s like a disc priest in WoW pretty much just straight up absorbing dmg I prefer that over spam healing that’s fucking boring and makes life easy in these games.. and yes b/f anyone flames I have played these games on nightmare and yes I have beaten them. Healing is old and crusty get over it, I’m glad a game company has finally stood up and said fuck healing!….. and that’s my mini rant thanks for listening <3 Grab some cookies on the way out 😀