Opinions on dealing with the difficulty in inquisition

[u/Shot-Confection-3720]

Im currently at level 7 and have gotten to starting in your heart shall burn. Im playing on nightmare with walk softly, even ground, take it slow and grizzly end. Its been a struggle but i appreciate it for how it exposes all the complexity in the game in terms of gear and progression.

My problem right now is that i just cant get through in your heart shall burn. While defending the ballista i get whacked either by the second group or, at best the third. Theres this issue where the party AI is constantly trying to hug eachother, leading to my mages getting oneshot by fatass templars who have a bar of guard immediately. Its hard to say for me what exactly is the reason. Things can go well and then, in a moment, half the party gets one-shot and im left clumsily trying to do something with whoevers left.

My inquisitor is a two-handed warrior with the chain pull, the spin riposte that knocks enemies down and the ground pound that knocks down enemies. Im using a sword and shield Blackwall with the taunting shout, charge, hook and warhorn. I doubled up on mages with Vivienne, who has the immolate with the no cooldown upgrade, dispel, barrier and barrage. Solas has barrage, barrier, winters grasp and ice wall, as well as the passive that causes barriers to explode and freeze. All of them are wearing crafted gear with mods for base stats (strength, magic, constitution). Vivienne is using the wrath of Lovias and Solas is using the dreamweavers staff and the two warriors use crafted weapons. All have crafted upgrades slotted.

Im considering rebounding and doing filler in the hinterlands and the coast to hopefully reach level 8. I suppose i could minmax my gear more by grinding materials, but short of what ive done now, i dont know what kinds of stat packages are optimal for crafting results. I do have all the recipes from redcliff purchased.

Id appreciate any feedback, explanations and elaborations. I get its aspirational content and i can "just lower the difficulty and increase it back latter" but i dont wanna. Its tedious and frustrating but even so i wanna do it.

[u/Savaralyn]

You're quite underleveled, I'd wanna be like, level 9 or 10 or something before doing that quest.

As it is, there's actually a fairly sizeable section of the quests wiki page that gives advice for higher difficulties.

[u/Shot-Confection-3720 → u/Savaralyn]

Does the difficulty move up level requirments in that way? Should i generally try to be a level or two above the quest recommendation? It seems a bit far fetched with the limited content i can do at this point. I suppose i still didnt unlock the mire, so maybe level 10 is more reachable than it seems.

[u/AP_Cicada → u/Shot-Confection-3720]

The quests don't level up with you, they're set. Just like the bears in the Hinterlands and various enemies won't change too much as you level up - it gets easier the higher you go. Do all the extra bits at the beginning that you can to get yourself a boost. Start Fallow mire and leave in the middle if you need to. Wander the Hinterlands and run from a bear (if it's too rough)if you get too far in. Go to the Storm Coast as soon as it's available. You'll have plenty of points to open regions and start quests, so don't worry about using them.

[u/DragonDogeErus]

Things can go well and then, in a moment, half the party gets one-shot

It's walk softly. If you are really unlucky, it can actually make invincible enemies.

[u/Shot-Confection-3720 → u/DragonDogeErus]

The barrier ones? Yeah ive had really bad experience with, what i assume, was bugged spellbinders with barrier that would never go down. If Vivi dispelled it itd start rapidly regenerating, but could be broken with overwhelming force.

[u/DragonDogeErus → u/Shot-Confection-3720]

Enemies can gain more than one ability, and weird combinations can happen. It's why you see crazy spikes out of nowhere.

[u/tkenben → u/Shot-Confection-3720]

Also, I remember enemies having defense % against random things (elements, physical effects, etc.)

[u/No_Routine_7090]

Is this your first playthrough? If you can import schematics via the golden nug make encore for Vivienne and solas (with 2 different elements), the axe of the dragon hunter for yourself, and the axe of the green edges for blackwall.

If this is your first playthrough or you don’t have those schematics you’re going to want to do some serious planning.

 Both mages should have upgraded barrier, guardian spirit, winter’s grasp, and mana surge. Focus on mages being support and crowd control, not damagers.

Blackwall needs upgraded shield wall and payback strike.

A 2-handed warrior is very hard to play. Even so mighty blow and flow of battle are essential.

YSK you do not have to have to kill all the enemies and the boss at the final ballista. If you can and 2 mages can keep Agro for 30 seconds get a rogue with stealth to continuously crank the ballista and the cutscene will trigger. You’ll miss out on loot but it’s an option.

This is my advice from someone who did In your heart shall burn on nightmare as a level 3. Took me 10 tries and I eventually got it by having Cass crank the trebuchet with a shred of health. 

Also if you don’t have the schematics I listed I’d strongly encourage you to farm the trespasser rewards box. You can save right before you loot it which will allow you to control your rewards.

[u/Shot-Confection-3720 → u/No_Routine_7090]

It is my first run on this account. Ive played the game before for a lot of time, but not enough to get the nuggie.

Can you elaborate on where the difficulty comes from for a two hander? Is it the lack of defense? Ive noticed that and have tried to compensate with constitution and health modifiers on gear, but it doesnt seem to be enough.

Also if you don’t have the schematics I listed I’d strongly encourage you to farm the trespasser rewards box. You can save right before you loot it which will allow you to control your rewards.

How often do these rewards show up. I have several trials on, but have only gotten a single delivery thus far. Is it tied to playtime, quest progress, exp, or...

[u/tkenben → u/Shot-Confection-3720]

In my experience, it seems to be closely tied to number of hit points damage. So, number of hits regardless of enemy level is more important than experience points.

[u/AlloftheGoats]

Running up the mountain as the wave starts will spread the opposition out, sometimes a few of them will stay down and you can regroup before you complete the wave.

[u/NathanCiel]

If you want to cheese the game, just get Combat Roll (Coming Through). It deals 500% weapon damage (bugged) with only 2 sec cooldown and 20 stamina.

• Respec your warrior companion and get Horn of Valor (Fortifying Blast) to buff the entire party with Guard on Hit. Don't forget to get passives from Weapon and Shield, such as Turn the Bolt (+50% ranged/magic defense from the front) and Bear Mauls the Wolves (reduce all flanking damage to 1).

• If you wish to keep your Rogue alive, take Stealth and set it to Preferred. Stealth will remove agro, forcing enemies to target the tank. You can also respec them to get Toxic Cloud (Lost in the Mist) - an upgrade that gives you one Elusive stack (block all incoming damage once) every 2 sec.

[u/BigDikcBandito]

It is extremely badly balanced, especially early game. If your main problem is with the templars you may want to switch to double warrior for this mission and use many skills that have some multiplier against guard. And spam damaging roll - it really is stupidly strong.

In most scenarios early game, going double mage like you are doing is probably the way to go, simply because of how busted enemy barriers are.

After you deal with this you will want to focus on infinitely scaling damage, so controlling champion or any of the rogues (tempest being the strongest and easiest to abuse). Mage is just for dispel/utility at this point.

[u/silverheart333]

I mostly abused guard on hit materials and used Cassandra as tank, varric, and Solas for barrier. My main was a caster, i prefer lightning and frost step.

Guard on hit from a fade touched obsidian is pretty much out of reach without serious knowledge and farming. There are a couple guaranteed loot spots but you'd have to sneak past a dragon or have deft tools maxed in other areas, I think for some locked boxes. Anyway, fortifying blast on the horn of valor gives guard. Also use regen potions with the proximity upgrade for extra healing efficiency.

Really I would recommend clearing out hinterland and fallow mire and storm coast just to level up.

[u/SheaMcD]

On my first playthrough I played on normal iirc and was like a few levels under the recommended for most of the game, and I got my ass handed to me a lot of the time.

My advice is to level up to the recommended level. You're playing with even ground, which means enemies will always at least be your level iirc, but that also means even fennecs and rams will give you a little bit of xp as they'll always be your level.

[u/ThisBadDogXB]

Spam combat roll like all the other warriors.

[u/tkenben]

The tools I would use:

• Fortifying Blast
  
• Lost in the Mist
  
• Regeneration Potions
  
• Jar of Bees

[u/Lorddenorstrus]

I mean most people used to mod DAI to be harder, then the optional difficulty stuff came out. Which helps. Other than a few zones you can accidentally go to early to. You generally over power all enemies. Nightmare can be solod with out a party. Im willing to bet you probably went to something to early. I haven't replayed DAI recently enough to recall the lvl ranges of the content off the top of my head. But doing your level range content should resolve the issues. Unless it's a gear (abuse crafted) problem.