Dragon Age 2

About this mod

This Mod has expanded, not only blood magic is enhanced but almost all talents and spells now have unique sounds, animations and visual effects to make the gameplay more interesting, immersive, engaging and fun! All specialization trees also have been tweaked to give players the complete freedom in building their unique Hawke!

Permissions and credits
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IMPORTANT: NEW VERSION UPLOADED DETAILS BELOW PLS READ IT!!! TY!!! LATEST VER 1.3 FREEDOM !!! OUT NOW !!!
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Latest Version IS NOW 1.3 Freedom CE, changes overview: Rogues now have vfx, sfx, and animation enhancements. Scaled some sfx for Warriors, reduced redundancy in between different skills and animations to give uniqueness, switched vfx for some skills to give more realism. I have established a new goal that is to give the most realistic enhancements without overriding the default feel of the game, and in a way separates the 3 classes from the vfx and animations so that each class can be discerned by distinct effects. Warriors have larger and more stronger vfx, while Rogues have smaller vfx trails and smaller activation crusts, while Mages retains most of their animations, because they are by far the most well done class in vanilla compared to the other 2 by a long shot. Also I tried my very best to add vfx in a "logical" manner so as to suit the nature of the talents they respectively represent, in that way the talents themselves makes more sense. If anyone has more suggestions and sees poorly animated or poor vfx for certain talents PLEASE suggest them, I alone cannot be the only judge in this as I barely have time to play and I only do modding out adoration for the DA series.

Specific Changes Include:

<>Damage tweaks to give Rogues a slight buff in Archery because I know they are underpowered, tweaked most skills for extremely underpowered companion specializations, namely Isabela, Varric, Aveline, eventually I will tweak all the companions but so far only the most underpowered are on my priority.

<>Dual wield and Lacerate are now buffed from that tree, players can feel a little God of War inspiration when playing XD.

<>Slightly lowered Reaver Ring of Pain damage to 66.66% per tick total damage buff compared to Vanilla is still at least a 1200-1230% boost. After initial calculations and comparison, Reavers are now just slightly below in overall dps compared to Berserkers, and this is a very slight difference, and at 50% health Reavers deal more damage compared to Berserkers with all buffs applied, and Reavers also have a free heal every 40 seconds, which makes them on par in terms of balancing.

<> Duelist talents have been modified to give them more edge even at higher levels, due to attack being less useful later on, I've increased the damage reduction on Challenge to 40% to balance this underpowered specialization. Increased range on all Backstabs [Teleports] to max, buffed Damage for this specialization now Duelists are more mobile compared to Assassins but loose out on damage just slightly.

<> Tweaked a lot of animations and vfx too many for me to count or remember, but I do have a simple checklist and for Rogues it is as follows:
Assassin - RED REV EXPLOSIVE MEREDITH <- just my own modder jargon to remind me of things 
Duelist varied - PURP VIOLET SWIRL CHALLENGE
Swashbuckler - BLACK SWIRL OR BLUE AURA
Dual Wield - FIRE AND RED
MARKSMAN BIANCA SONG ENRAGED
SPECIALIST COMPLETED
^ Yea as you can see, its too weird to explain, only thing I can say is it looks good. I also am planning to release a more polished update sometime this week to wrap things up, but more balancing is required so if anyone can suggest a few things please do so, it would help me tremendously. Another thing to keep in mind is I also want to lower the combo damage slightly I find the original game has too much combo damage, I want to raise individual damage, and lower combo damage so that gameplay is more skill dependent, because AI in this game is not that great... to say the least.


Old 1.2 Changes Include:

-Abilities have been slightly adjusted for Reavers, Berserkers, now Reavers deal more damage and Berserkers deal roughly the same as before so the 2 classes are on par. Ring of Pain now deals damage every 0.5 seconds and each tick deals roughly 100% more damage than before per tick. Total damage boost for Ring of Pain sums up to roughly 1500%, but because it also depletes the user's health rapidly, it is not safe to use it during long engagements. [Dropping the boost to 66.66% in the next update due to it being slightly overpowered if combined with Cleave and Berserk Mode]

-Abilities have been adjusted for most of the Warrior class sustained modes to allow slight cost reductions via upgrades.

-Some Warrior abilities have been tweaked to balance the stamina consumption, mostly Berserker's, their costs were way too much, and in longer engagements they are at a disavantage. Increased cost of Cleave from Vanguard to better justify the 15s of 75% damage bonus.

-Changed Warrior ability "Battle Synergy" to increase damage resistence per party member within range to 5% increments instead of the meager 3% that is not even noticeable. Will boost the increments to 7% on the next release, tested this again and its still very underpowered.

-Changed Blood Magic abilities "Hemorrhage" and "Wounds of the Past" to affect all creature types, now nothing is immune to its devastating effects.

-Changed Blood Magic ability "Grave Robber" diameter to 20m, which only have a radius of 10m from the center, and justifiable/comparable to Death Siphon from the Spirit tree.

-Changed "Elemental Aegis" to have 5% more elemental resistance.

<Current Version 1.3>
<Regular mod introduction below, lastly, a reminder if you want the whole package, with every improvements so far included, then please download the [Complete] version, standard does not include anything other than Magic-related contents>

This mod also adds 2 new blood magic abilities, it combines the mod [NPC Bloodmage Spells] by Veridical. Other abilities changed or swapped include: Sacrifice - changed to an AOE instead, deals spirit damage, Bloodslave - changed to a 6 seconds long interrupt spell that deals little damage but can stagger any boss, tested on: High Dragon, Corypheus, Arishok.

Blood Magic for both Merrill and Player are reworked.

IMPROVEMENTS AT A GLANCE:

Grave Robber - no damage increase, still deals 100% of user's health in spirit damage but diameter increased to 20m [Since v1.2], it was meant to be a healing spell. No buffs to the healing added, since the increased range means trash mobs can heal the caster nearly full.

Hemorrhage - damage increased by 200%, its damage is now on par with powerful spells such as Crushing Prison, however it lasts longer via upgrade, duration increased to 15s total [7 ticks], lowered to 500% stagger damage bonus, tested on Legendary Difficulty: monster 4xhp 2.5xdamage [Corypheus, High Dragon, Arishok]
Paralyze chance increased to 200% on normal enemies making it one of the most effective/powerful control spells, and one of the strongest.

Wounds of the Past - damage increased by 170%, duration increased to 15s total [7 ticks], its damage is similar to hemorrhage but, at higher levels if an elemental attuned [non-physical damage] staff is wielded, then most of the time this spell will hit even harder [slightly] compared to hemorrhage, due to monsters having lower resistence to spirit, tested on Legendary Difficulty: monster 4xhp 2.8xdamage [Corypheus, High Dragon, Arishok]
Paralyze chance increased to 200% on normal enemies
[Note, this spell is currently bugged and doesn't deal damage according to its description, I've yet found a way to fix it however players can use this to their advantage, this spell currently attunes to the whichever element the player is currently wielding, spirit being the most effective in dps]

Sacrifice - changed to a monster AOE spell that attunes to Spirit damage and hits 4 times the last hit deals the sum damage of all 4 hits as a bonus, the damage is quite moderate but is decent, cast cost is free and does not require blood magic active due to being a monster spell [otherwise the monster npc won't be able to cast it]Visual wise it looks decent, I've tweaked it to look better and it also gurantees a stagger on almost all creatures [humanoid] including elite bosses [Arishok], however High Dragon appears to be immune. [Tested on Legendary Difficulty]

Blood Slave - changed to a monster single target spell that binds a monster of ANY rank, including High Dragon, Corypheus, Arishok, Meredith, no creature in this game can resist it. It however binds both the caster and the target and both are unable to move or use abilities, for 6 seconds. Its damage is very low however, and its meant to be a buffer to paralyze bosses and allow your teammates to deal damage while you bind the opponent for a short duration, its visual effects are amazing. For soloing this spell has helped me tremendously, and it is a must for it allows the player's abilities to finish cooldown while binding a boss completely still.

NEW SPELL : Bloodlust : is a monster AOE from arcane horror that deals in spirit damage, however no stagger comes of it. Its damage is mediocre but cast cost is free and has a 20 second cooldown.
NEW SPELL : Blood Spatter : is a monster single target spell from blood mages that deals in spirit damage, however it cannot stagger most bosses, but any monster that is humanoid can be knocked back with great force. Avoid using this in boss encounters as it isn't too powerful nor a good CC for very sturdy opponents.

Lastly, all of the above spells have had their visual effects tweaked.

Blood Magic & Blood of the First have had their visuals tweaked to reflect more bloody & badass playstyle. 

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ABILITY BREAKDOWN

[All Spells Upgraded Version]
[Please ignore the in-game descriptions as they are not accurate for some of the modded spells]

[Grave Robber] - Heal Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Heals user while dealing 100% of his maximum HP in spirit damage
Health Regeneration: 10% per nearby enemy
Health Regeneration: 20% per nearby corpse
Diameter: 15m
Cooldown: 30s

[Hemorrhage] - Control Type AoE Damage Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Deals in physical damage while staggering enemies for 6 seconds, armor ignored for spell damage
Physical Damage: 500% vs STAGGERED enemies
Enemy Armor: Momentarily 0%
Enemy Damage Resistance: Momentarily 0%
Paralyze Chance: 200% vs normal enemies
Diameter: 15m
Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 20s

[Bloodslave] - Control Type Single-Target Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Deals 13~17 physical damage every 0.5 second for 6 seconds, while paralyzing both the controller and the slave, no creature is immune to this ability
Cooldown: 25s

[Sacrifice] - Control Type Medium AoE Damage Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Deals in spirit damage 4 times with the last tick hitting harder and staggers most humanoid creatures, Arishok included
Diameter: 6m
Cooldown: 20s

[NEW SPELL: Blood Spatter] - Single-Target Knockback Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Deals in spirit damage aproximately the amount of first 3 ticks of sacrifice while causing knockback or knockdowns on humanoid enemies. Most bosses are immune however
Cooldown: 7s

[NEW SPELL: Bloodlust] - Medium AoE Damage Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Deals in spirit damage aproximately the same amount of sacrifice, however no knockbacks or staggers are performed
Diameter: 6m
Cooldown: 20s

[Wounds of the Past] - Control Type AoE Damage Spell
Type: Activated Ability
Description: Deals damage in whichever element the user's staff is currently attuned with, while leaving enemies staggered for 6 seconds, armor ignored for spell damage
Damage: Dependant on weapon element
Enemy Armor: Momentarily 0%
Enemy Damage Resistance: Momentarily 0%
Paralyze Chance: 200% vs normal enemies
Diameter: 15m
Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 20s

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COMPATIBILITY

Compatibility: This file is not compatible with any mods that modifies spells of blood magic tree or magic trees in general. This mod incorporates Better Mages by Lautreamont, and all restrictions in points and levels are removed for talents featured in this mod, if you would like to get the mod with all talent restriction removed for all abilities, that is also available in the optional files section. This mod also incorporates NPC Blood Magic by Veridical.

Installation: Drop file into override folder

Uninstallation: Delete file from directory

Changes:

3/31/2016 - Uploaded Pictures, ALL pictures have +50 brightness added in photoshop due to original shots being too dark, the contrast is only to enhance the finished picture, blood looks much darker in game.

4/1/2016 - Changed multiple selected audio IDs to better suit the vfx and various animations, swapped a few vfx and crust files to make Merrill and Hawke's blood magic appear distinct and unique, Hawke's blood magic has red glow [Meredith] eyes while Merrill has a very nicely looking blood shroud vfx surrounding her body. This was done deliberately to better match the trailers. Blood of the First has its activation crust changed to something more... dramatic, if anyone feels this is too much, let me know and I'll revert it back to deathmagic activation crust again, but so far I personally love the amount of blood and gore vfx crusts. It adds to the feel that blood magic is something very powerful. Blood Magic audio switched to force mage's Pull of the Abyss audio. Blood of the First audio switched to Horror audio from Entropy.

4/1/2016 - Changed impact vfx and crusts for Hemorrhage and Wounds of the Past to better give individuality and backstory to both of the characters Merrill and Hawke. Since Merrill prefers demons it is fitting to add the Ancient Rock Wraith's sprite vfx to the impact vfx crust for Wounds of the Past. Think of it like evil demonic spirits that sucks the living life out of victims rending pain from inside. Then there's Hawke, he is just... too badass, so I added super saiyan Meredith's Energy Burst vfx crust to his impact vfx crust for Hemorrhage. Both files had their audio and other aspects improved, to better match each of the spell, respectively. Both spells are Control-Type AoE dealing Burst DoT every 2 seconds with 7 ticks total. These 2 spells now look absolutely gorgeous and stunning, and epic in Andraste proportions just don't ask Varric why he's afraid of red lyrium afterwards. Will upload pictures today.

4/2/2016 - Freedom Edition released, v1.2 Update details are on the top of this document.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

IF you've already obtained some of these blood magic abilities before you get this mod, you must remove them via "runscript removetalent" commands in-game, then either get tome of arcane technique or acquire them via normal means. This is because the old abilities are no longer functional after installing this mod, they are defunct/useless to begin with. If you hover your mouse over your old abilities and it says "null" it means its defunct and no longer properly working, Bloodslave and Sacrifice are the 2 that are swapped.

Also PLS DO NOT USE BOTH OPTIONAL and MAIN files, only use one of them.

I wish everyone who tries this mod and loves blood magic to have a great time and share your experiences in the comments tab. Enjoy the wonders of blood magic!