Dragon Age 2

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Lautreamont

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Lautreamont

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About this mod

Changes on combat gameplay to give more synergy to classes, improved all talent\'s lines to be effective, gave more freedowm to users and improved itemization.

Permissions and credits
Some of you may remember Better Combat for DAO. I did that mod many years ago and for some unpleasant circumstances I had to cancel the project on mid course, however it still remained in my heart.

This mod is the reproposition of that overhaul for DA2. While the original Better Combat was more complex because I had a toolset to work with, luckily Bioware this time around made many internal settings of abilities to be changeable outside of scripts, via tables, so there are many things one can do within the rescritions imposed by a lack of internal modding tools.

At first I didn't want to start a project as this because it requires a lot of work and I had not a cohesive concept to work upon, but in these last days I had an idea: a complete overhaul of the combat gameplay for DA2, ranging from better party synergy to better itemization.


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PURPOUSE OF THE MOD:
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This project strives to create more synergy between classes. DA2 is, primarily, a party based cRPG and so this aspect of gameplay is fundamental. While I think Bioware (and especially Peter Thomas) have done a good work in this sector with cross-class-combos and general abilities concept, there's always room for improvement. So the primary intent of this mod is:

- Improve on the CCCs synergy so that classes are more adept both on setting and exploiting them.
- Improve specific class trees reworking those that are "weaker" or less used.
- Give more freedom to the user on the choices of talents.
- Give more freedom to the user on the choice of party composition in nightmare difficulty.
- Balance the classes one in respect to the other working on their ineherent strengths (for example a mage relies much more on abilities than other classes, so permit the class to cast more and more often, without naturally exceding, however).

With the intent, however, to never distort the original concept of ability trees and individual talents. The concept behind all the trees remains the same, I only altered them where necessary to achieve a specific purpouse or to give more freedom, still the majority of them are inaltered. Also the general concept of abilities has not been altered; this is still the *original* DA2, with improvements only when necessary and not because you have to change something. This mod strikes, first and foremost, for balance. While many talents are improved none of the changes will suddenly turn your class in an unstoppable machine.

Morover this mod will rework many of the items available for the classes to follow a more similar concept behind them. For example there are only 2 elemental bows and 3 elemental daggers (of which one, however, requires a DLC), while there are 4 elemental two-handed weapons, one of which can be obtained at beginning. Rogues, instead, have to wait for endgame if they want to go the elemental route.



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CHANGES IN VERSION 1.1a:
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- IMPORTANT: for a problem on the packing of version 1.1 the complete version of the mod didn't include some changes. I used subdirectories to pack but they cause problems and I didn't know it. So all users that downloaded the version 1.1 of the complete pack please download it again or it can be that some things will not work as they should. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience caused, I should have tested the pack version better before releasing.

- Created an optional file that tailors difficulty to the changes in this mod. There are two versions, one for normal users and one for expert users. The normal version increases difficulty range by 1 (meaning that, for example, normal becomes hard and hard nightmare, more or less), while the expert version increases the range by 2. For more informations refer to the appropriate section.

- Created a complete version of the mod, having all the changes included. This will be the primary version of the mod, coming in two "flavours", one for normal users and the other for expert ones (the only change is the aforementioned difficulty range increase).


NOTE: If you used a mod that altered difficulty along this project then remove it if you use the complete version or you will have compatibility issues. The complete (or primary) version already offers the best experience for what it concerns difficulty IMO, so you need nothing else. If you use some of Sunnie's items and want those to override some of the changes in itemization on the complete version of the mod then use subdirectories or a mod manager.


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TO APPRECIATE THE MOD (important):
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The better way to use this mod is to download the complete version that has all the changes, including itemization and tailored difficulty.

This mod is better appreciated at higher difficulties for this I appositedly created an optional file (present in the complete version) that adapt difficulty of the game to the mod with two separate versions, one for normal users and one for expert ones. For more explanations on the changes I made to difficulties please refer to the section about it in this description. I think this is the best way to appreciate the mod, without using third party downloads.

If however you prefer to use other difficulty changes or like original ones then keep in mind that the primary application of this mod is for users that play on nightmare difficulty (or at most hard). The game on lower difficulties have not much use of some of these changes (apart for more freedom and reworking of abilities, but also these are less important on normal/casual) since the synergy between party members is not fundamental, elemental weakenesses are not important etc. So, if you want to truly appreaciate this mod, play on nightmare difficulty.

I suggest users if they are not used to nightmare difficulty and don't want to download the optional difficulty changes or the complete version to use my mod "Less Friendly Fire on Nightmare". Many users are accustomed on friendly fire damage as done in DAO and they find nightmare in DA2 all another thing. So they try nightmare, and then think that DA2 works better without friendly fire. This has a reason that I explain in the mod. The project will overcome this problem lowering friendly fire done in nightmare so that it can be tailored to various tastes and especially it will make friendly fire have more proportional damage in confront to enemies. If you did like DAO nightmare I suggest you to use the mod with the 20-25 damage factor that's the more similar to the experience of DAO. You can find this mod here:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2777

If instead you don't absolutely like friendly fire and/or immunities I suggest you to download a mod removing FF from nightmare or using a mod that turns the hard difficulty to the level of nightmare. The differences between the two is that in the first case, Nightmare without FF, the immunities are still there and secondary effects of FF abilities, as frozing for cold etc., take effect also for party members, while on the second case nothing of this happens.

Another approach is lowering nightmare difficulty to the level of normal/hard while keeping the specifics of nightmare difficulty (friendly fire, immunities, lowered cooldowns for enemies etc.). This is better for those that prefer immunities/friendly fire but cannot cope well with the difficulty spike going from normal/hard to nightmare.

For nightmare difficulty without friendly fire:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2444

For hard turning in nightmare difficulty:
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2557

For nightmare difficulty tweaks (lowering it to hard/normal level):
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2194

For a revisited nightmare difficulty (more "action" packed, for those that like a challenge):
http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2519

(I take no credits whatsoever for the aforementioned mods. I just offer links to them as an option for the better appreciation of my work).



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GENERAL CHANGES:
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- Reworked CCC starting/finishing talents to enable any class to set and finalize CCCs more reliably, especially for those CCCs that are difficult to exploit, as Disoriented.
- Reworked some trees to give more freedom to the user on choosing a specific route instead of being forced (in some cases) on aquiring general abilities that have little to do with the build concept.
- Reworked costs to take abilities (especially upgrades) for the same motive. Tier 1 upgrades are now usually free to take immediately after the master, for example, and some end-of-the-line abilities requires now less points to take.
- Improved aggro talents so that all classes can perform their roles better with less kiting all around. While I find positioning, as a concept, perfectly fine and either needed, balance is the key, imo. Too much reliance on repositioning and the fight becomes boring because you have to take care of it constantly. Too little and the gameplay becomes boring because all you have to take care of is on keeping the first line intact.
- Warrior's attacks and abilities do no more friendly fire in nightmare. The only exceptions are Whirlwind and Scatter. It didn't make much sense that a warrior couldn't avoid hitting companions when fighting. I understand a gameplay mechanic but the only purpouse of this one was to give users much less freedom on companion's choices in nightmare.
- Improved all "charge" and "teleport" talents to have more range so you don't have to move as much as in the original before starting using the abiility. It didn't make much sense that to use one of those abilities you had to move versus the target for more ground than a close-in of an attack. It made those talents actually lose you time in comparision to a simple attack action, when actually it should be the contrary.
- Improved companions talents to be more congruent with general ones.
- (Optional) Changed difficulty parameters to have a better experience with the mod and either increase lower difficulties that were really easy.
- (Optional) Better itemization, enabling the user to choose if to go elemental or physical from beginning/middle game.
- (Optional) Reworking of some items to be more in-line with their general structure (for example a staff that has physical damage but increases nature, that's not used in mages' spells).
- (Optional) Reworking of some items to better setup specific builds (for example a blood mage staff that servers a blood mage better, or a spirit staff that has critical chance and damage to exploit Spirit Mastery as updated in this mod).



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CLASS SPECIFIC CHANGES:
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1. Mage:
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- Reworked spell trees to make all of them worthwhile. The concept of many spells, in fact, is very good in theory, but their execution is a bit lacking sometimes in the original game (an example was the entropy line).
- Improved on the ability of the class to create Brittle chances by reducing cooldowns and/or increasing AoE of Cold spells.
- Improved Disoriented spell finishers. Now you will be able to use them more often and with more power.
- Made the class to be able to cast more and more often, in general. Mages rely much more on abilities than other classes and do very minimal damage from auto-attacks. In this way mages are able to cast spells more often than before, making them more free to use spells without having to wait on the occasion, and they are either more fun to play given the chaining of abilities.

The mage changes are based on the default version of my other mod, "Better Mages". However the cooldown of spells has been tailored specifically for this mod; the better party synergy achieved by changing the other two classes, in fact, make the mage more powerful by itself. Reducing cooldowns to the level of the original default version of "Better Mages" would unbalance the class in confront to the others.


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2. Rogue:
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- Completely reworked the Sabotage tree: now the user can set Disoriented CCCs much easily with the tree and can choose if to go with the AoE effects or take only Rush to do damage/close in.
- Reworked DW talent tree: a branch has damaging talents, from the other combos/sustains.
- Reworked Archery talent tree so that users can choose to go with full single target damage or AoE damage, or mix and match.
- Reworked Shadow spec so that users can now choose if going with the damage route, defensive route, or a mix of the two.
- Improved the Obscuration effect*: now all talents that give obscuration last more and are easier to execute. For example the Shadow Spec gives 5% chance to stealth/obscure and the effect lasts for 10s.
- Improved Stealth: now users are able to create builds around this ability much more effectively. Talents as Shadow Veil, Lingering Shroud and Ambush becomes really strong on the right hands.
- Improved the Specialist tree, so that users can now choose more freely if to specialize in speed/accuracy/power or mix and match. Morover now the second upgrades on the specializations are much more worthwhile.
- Improved the aggro reducing abilities so that rogues that specialize on them can actually be much more adept on redirecting threat.
- Increased range of all AoE of rogues. Many of them required the rogue to move on sight (for example Miasmik Flask) and many times this caused either problems with the AI.

*As of patch 1.02 Shadow Veil is bugged. While this mod renders obscuration in general much more worthwhile this bug reduces the full theoric power a Shadow could reach. Peter has said they are addressing the issue for the 1.03 patch, so let's keep the fingers crossed ;-)


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2. Warrior:
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- Warrior's attacks and abilities do no more friendly fire in nightmare. The only exceptions are Whirlwind and Scatter. It didn't make much sense that a warrior couldn't avoid hitting companions when fighting. I understand a gameplay mechanic but the only purpouse of this one was to give users much less freedom on companion's choices in nightmare.
- Increased chance to start staggers on some abilities that were a little subpar for it in confront to others. Since you can rely on more abilities you should also be able to stagger more, with less randomness.
- Made Brittle finishers more potent in general, and made some abilities that exploit brittle have less cooldown (if they needed it) so that a warrior can exploit Brittle better.
- Improved threat abilities to have more range and be more effective. Now a warrior will be able to hold aggro more easily.
- Reworked the Templar spec to be more powerful and worthwhile.
- Improved the Vanguard tree to give users more freedom on the choice if to go with power or accuracy and to reach powerful abilities without being forced on a choice they don't care about.
- Improved the Weapon & Shield tree so that users have more freedom to choose if to go for damage, defense or mix the two concepts.
- Improved the Defender tree so that users can decide with more liberty if to go for elemental reduction, physical reduction or defense increase or to mix and match.



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INDIVIDUAL TALENTS CHANGES:
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1. MAGE:
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Winter Grasp: increased Area Of Effect of Winter Graps to 4 meters. Effects don't affect the party no more.
Winter Blast: Increased freeze probability to 100% and brittle chance to 80%, increases Elemental Force by 2.
Cone of Cold: increased damage by 25% and increased EF to 4.
Deep Freeze:increased freeze probability against normal enemies to 70%, brittle chance to 50% and increases CoC Elemental Force by 2.
Fireball: Increased damage by 100%*, increased the force to 5x
Searing Fireball: increased force to +10x
Apocalyptic Firestorm: AoE is not upgraded.
Golem's Fist: increased Disoriented damage to 300%.
Chain Lightning: increased AoE to 4m.
Chain Reaction: upgrade the AoE to 8m.
Tempest: reduced time for the effects to take place by 1s.
Spirit Strike: increased damage on Disoriented enemies to 400%.
Walking Bomb: decreased casting time, increased AoE to 8m.
Corrosive Walking Bomb: damage increased by 75% and on Disoriented targets by 400%.
Virulent Walking Bomb: adds +15% damage to Corrosive, infection chance to normal enemies is increased to 50%.
Death Syphon: upkeep decreased to 10% and AoE increased to 20m.
Dispel Magic: increased AoE to 10m.
Transmutation: increased damage to Crushing Prison level. Increased health regen for party members to 40%.
Spirit Mastery: changed to give a bonus of +25% critical chance.
Mind Blast: made spell not do friendly fire and increased AoE to 6m.
Stunning Blast: increased AoE to another 12m and increased duration to 5s.
Arcane Shield: increased the defense bonus to 40%.
Crushing Prison: increased damage by 50% and chance of reduced attack/movement to 75%.
Paralyzing Prions: increased percentual of damage on staggered enemies to 500% (for upgrade)
Barrier: increased duration to 10s.
Horror: cecreased cooldown to 20s.
Misdirection Hex: increased duration to 15 seconds.
Sleep: changed effects to not affect the party, increased chance of sleep to 100% and increased AoE to 15m.
Entropic Cloud: greatly reduced casting time, changed effects to not affect the party, increased sleep chance to 100% and stun chance to 50%. Duration is corrected (it was bugged and stopped at the first cycle, i.e. 4 seconds) and increased to 20s.
Death Cloud: reduced "strike" interval by 2s, increased damage by about 125%, stun chance to 150% (so to affect either elites) and removed sleep chance (that overwrote stun chance in the upgrade for the paralysis that, however, was bugged).
Heroic Aura: upkeep decreased to 15%.
Valiant Aura: upkeep increased to 20%.
Glyph of Repulsion: increased AoE to 8m, increased Physical Force to 15.
Glyph of Deviance: increased PF to 30.
Haste: increased duration to 15s.
Great Haste: increased duration to 30s.
Fist of the Maker: increased base damage by 100%*.
Maker's Fury: increases Elemental Force by 2 and stun chance by 20% for FotM.
Maker's Hammer: increases EF by 2 for FotM.
Telekinetic Burst: increased AoE to 8m, increased force to 30
Telekinetic Blast: increased force to 50
Pull of the Abyss: increased duration to 10s.
Edge of the Abyss: adds +10 force and reduce movement speed to -75%.
Healing Aura: decreased upkeep to 10%.
Hemorrage: increased AoE to 15m, increased duration to 10s and increased damage by 15% to counteract the deferred damage resulted by the longer duration.
Paralyzing Hemorrage: adds +5s to duration and increased paralysis chance to 100% against normal enemies.
Grave Robber: increased area of effect to 10 meters.
One Foot: adds +10% health regeneration on corpses.
Blood Slave: increased duration to 30s, changed cooldown to 60s.
Blood Control: reduces cooldown by 20s.


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2. ROGUE:
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Backstab: increased range of the effect, so you can now reposition without moving.
Maim: adds +5% chance to inflict bleeding on Lacerate.
Shattering Arrow: increases damage on Brittle target to 800%.
Hail of Arrows: increased damage by 30%.
Storm of Arrows: reduces cooldown by 5s, increases duration by 2s.
Archer's Lance: increased damage by 20%. Effects don't affect the party anymore.
Punishing Lance: reduces cooldown of Archer's Lance by 10s.
Rush: increased range of the effect.
Fatiguing Fog: increased AoE to 10m.
Overpowering Fog: reduces attack/movement speed to -75%.
Chaos: increases duration by +5s.
Energizing Speed: now it reduces cooldowns by 80%.
Precise Criticals: increase critical chance on Precision by +10%.
Power: increased stun chance to 4%, increased stun duration to 5s.
Harmony: increased stun chance to 2%.
Back-To-Back: increased range of the effect (to Vendetta level).
Armistice: increased AoE to 20m.
Goad: increased AoE to 15m.
Corral: increased AoE to 20m.
Evade: increased AoE to 8m.
Chameleon's Cloud: increased obscuration duration to +10s.
Stealth: decreased cooldown to 20s.
Camouflage: decreases cooldown of stealth to 10s. Removed increased duration.
Subtlety: now it adds also -25% threat generation.
Shadow: increased stealth chance when hitted to 5% and duration to 10s.


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3. WARRIOR:
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Shield Bash: increased damage by 15% and Physical Force to 16x.
Disperse: changed to increases Physical Force of Scatter and reduce its cooldown by 5s.
Assault: increased PF to +3. The original PF was almost irrelevant, now at last it has some uses.
Mighty Blow: increased PF.
Shattering Blow: increased damage on Brittle enemies to 400% and PF to 300%.
Scythe: increased range of effect, increased PF.
Reaper: increased damage on Brittle to 300%.
Whirlwind: increased PF to 4x. Now it knocks back almost every normal enemy.
Command: increased critical chance to 15%.
Assail: increased Elemental Force to 6x
Besiege: reduces cooldown by 5s.
Stonewall: increased PF to 4x.
Turn the Blade: reduced sustained cost to 10%.
Aftershock: changed the upgrade to give 60% Stagger chance vs. normal enemies in the area.
Taunt: increased AoE to 15m.
Bellow: increased AoE to 25m.
Bravery: increased AoE to 20m, reduced sustained cost to 20%, reduced +Attack to 5% for enemy and critical chance to 2%.
Bravado: increases sustained cost by 5%
Bravura: increases sustained cost by 5%, reduced +damage for enemy in the area to 3%.
Unite: increases duration of Rally by 5s.
Battle Synergy: increased AoE to 20m, reduced sustain cost to 20%, reduced defense per companions to 4%, reduced damage reduction for companions to 3%.
Fearless Synergy: increased sustain cost by 5%.
Hero's Synergy: increased sustain cost by 5%, reduced damage transfer from companion to warrior to 15%.
Templar: increased damage to Fade creatures and Mages to 15%.
Cleanse: increased AoE to 10m.
Cleansing Wave: increases AoE to 15m.
Holy Smite: increased AoE to 12m.
Staggering Smite: increased stun chance vs. normal enemies to 100% and increased duration of the stun to 5s.
Righteous Smite: decreases cooldown by 5s.
Righteous Strike: increases silence duration on targets affected to 5s.
Silence: reduced Cooldown to 40s.
Aura of Pain: increased AoE to 8m, increased damage by 25%.
Adrenaline: increased duration to 10s.

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4. COMPANIONS:
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(Anders) Panacea: decreased sustained cost to 20%.
(Anders) Aid Allies: increased health regen to 40%.
(Merrill) Wrath of the Elvehen: increased AoE to 8m, increased damage by 25%.
(Merrill) Loss of the Dales: increased AoE to 10m.
(Merrill) Ensnare: increased damage by 20%.
(Merrill) Deep Wounds: increased paralysis chance to 75%, increased duration to 10s, increased damage by 25% to counteract the deferred damage cause by a longer duration.
(Isabela) Savvy: decreased sustained cost to 15%.
(Isabela) All Hands on Deck: increased AoE to 10m.




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DIFFICULTY CHANGES (Optional):
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To better appreciate this project I offer as separate download some changes to difficulty range. There are two versions:

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1. NORMAL (for common users):
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Casual difficulty: similar to original normal difficulty.
Normal difficulty: similar to original hard difficulty.
Hard difficulty: similar to original nightmare difficulty but without friendly fire and immunities.
Nightmare difficulty: increased difficulty by about 25%, friendly fire damage factor changed to 20%.

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2. EXPERT (for expert users or users that like a challenge):
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Casual difficulty: about 5% less difficult than original hard.
Normal difficulty: about the same as original nightmare (but without FF and immunities).
Hard difficulty: about 30% more difficult than original nightmare (but without FF and immunities).
Nightmare difficulty: about 50% more difficult than original nightmare, friendly fire damage factor changed to 20%.

Take in consideration that difficulties ranges are also tied with specific difficulty parameters that are both hard coded or I didn't purposedly changed. This means that, for example, normal becoming nightmare will be not the same as hard becoming nightmare, the latter will still be more difficult while the "parameters" are the same. This is because resistances, specific AI behaviour etc. are still tailored specifically for certain difficulties. As I said I didn't change them because in this way the increase is more balanced. It would not make sense making an easy difficulty turning EXACTLY as hard in the original game because the gameplay mechanics must be a little different.


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ITEMS' CHANGES (Optional):
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I provide an optional download to improve itemization (still in the working). For example there are only 2 elemental bows and 3 elemental daggers (of which one, however, requires a DLC), while there are 4 elemental two-handed weapons, one of which can be obtained at beginning. Rogues, instead, have to wait for endgame if they want to go the elemental route. Also some items have inconsistencies on the bonuses given: you can have a staff that does physical damage, for example, giving +% nature that does nothing. I also tailored some mage's staffs to work with builds that work well with the changes in this mod and that were difficult to concept in the original game (as for example the crit chance/dmg mage).

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1. MAGE:
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Valdasine: 1 Rune Slot, Spirit, +Spirit Dmg, +Crit Chance, +Crit Dmg - (Improves with level).
Cold Blooded: 1 Rune Slot, Blood Magic: 1/2, Cold, +Constitution, +Health Reg - (Improves with level).
Eye of the Storm: 2 Rune Slots, Electricity, +Electricity Dmg, +Mana, +Mana Regen, Knockback on Hit - (Level 24).
Voracity: 2 Rune Slots, Blood Magic: 1/1, Fire, +Fire Damage, Life Leech, +Speed - (Level 24).
Falon' Din: 2 Rune Slots, Fire, +Fire Dmg, +Cold Dmg, +Attribs, Stun Chance - (Level 25).
Final Thought: 2 Rune Slots, Physical, Ignores Armor, +Spirit Dmg, +Physical Dmg, Mana Leech - (Level 26).
Violation: 1 Rune Slot, Blood Magic: 1/1, Spirit, +Attribs, +Speed, +Crit Chance, + Crit Dmg, WB chance - (Level 27).

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2. ROGUE:
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Shard of the Fallen: 1 Rune Slot, Cold, +Attack, +Life Leech - (Improves with level).
Sliver: 1 Rune Slot, Spirit, +Spirit Dmg, +Speed - (Improves with level).
The Makers' Kiss: 2 Rune Slots, Spirit, +Spirit Dmg, +Crit Dmg, Stuns on Hit - (Level 24).
Swarm: 1 Rune Slot, Fire, +Fire Dmg, +Attack - (Level 14).
Righteous Rain: 1 Rune Slot, Electricity, +Electricity Dmg, +Cold AoE, Mana Leech - (Level 25).
Finesse: 1 Rune Slot, Physical, Ignores Armor, +Crit Chance, +Crit Dmg, +Spirit on Hit - (Level 26).
Jackal's Bow: 1 Rune Slot, Fire, +Fire Damage, +Attack, Stun on Hit - (Level 27).
Absolution: 2 Rune Slots, Nature, +Nature dmg, +Crit Chance, +Crit Dmg - (Level 26).
The Low Blade: 2 Rune Slots, Nature, +Attribs, -Speed on Hit, Mana Leech - (Level 27).

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3. WARRIOR:
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Desdemona Blade: 1 Rune Slot, Nature, +Nature Dmg, +Strenght - (Improves with level).
Anderfell: 1 Rune Slot, Fire, +Fire Dmg, +Attribs - (Improves with level).
Fade's Fury: 1 Rune Slot, Spirit, +Damage on Humans, Life Leech - (Improves with level).
Celebrant: 1 Rune Slot, Spirit, +Spirit Dmg, +Speed, Chance to Stun - (Level 27).
Bloom: 2 Rune Slots, Cold, +Cold Dmg, +Health Regen, Life Leech - (Level 26).
Glandivalis: 1 Rune Slot, Electricity, +Electricity Damage, Chance to Charm, Chance to Dispel, Mana Leech - (Level 27).
Vigilance: 2 Rune Slots, Physical, Ignores Armor, +Crit Chance, +Crit Dmg, Chance to Knockback - (Level 25).
Saathareet: changed to give +fire damage.
Sundering: changed to give +electricity damage.

NOTE: If you already have one of those items the changes will not take effect because a copy is stored in the savefiles. If you already have one of those items the only solution is to use Vaddi.




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HOW TO INSTALL:
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Extract or copy the content of the archive (using 7-Zip, Winrar or similar) under ..\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age 2\packages\core\override.

If you are a "normal" user download the packed version of the project, since it has all files nicely bundled on an unique file for better management.

For power users, modders, or people that like to mix and match the mod with other changes refer to the "Compatibility with other mods" section and download the unpacked version.


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HOW TO UNINSTALL:
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Remove/Delete from ..\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age 2\packages\core\override the erf (for the packed version) or the "Better_Combat" dir.




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COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER MODS:
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This mod will not be compatible with others that changes abilities for party members. However there's a way around it. It naturally has some limitations but something is always better than nothing.

I created an optional version of the mod that has the files unpacked. Since I divided the changes for class you can mix and match them with other mods' changes if you prefer those.

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Example 1: mixing this mod with the Increased Dmg version of "Better Mages"
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If you like the changes in this mod for warriors and rogues but you prefer a specific version of my other mod, "Better Mages" to mix with them, the solution is easy.

1. Download the unpacked version of the mod and extract it somewhere (or either put it already in the override).
2. Go inside the "Better_Combat" dir extracted.
3. Delete all the .gda files that have the name "mage" inside this folder.
4. Now put the folder in the override (or if you already did it in step 1 do nothing) and simply install the version you prefer of "Better Mages". You are done.


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Example 2: mixing this mod with "Improved Rogues" or "Improved Warriors"
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If you like more the changes of Revan for one of the two classes follow these steps:

1. Download the unpacked version of the mod and extract it somewhere (or either put it already in the override).
2. Go inside the "Better_Combat" dir extracted.
3. Delete all the .gda files that have the name "rogue" or "warrior" inside this folder.
4. Now put the folder in the override (or if you already did it in step 1 do nothing) and simply install the "Improved Rogues" or "Improved Warriors" as usual. You are done.

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Example 3: mixing this mod some specific changes in other mods
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This is the most difficult and it really depends on what the changes in the other mod are and how the modder structured them. For example if you have a mod that changes companions abilities (that for now are not in this mod, so there's no problem, but they will be so the issue will be there) and you prefer those changes to the one I made there's a way outside of it, since the changes are specific (in the sense that they change only a part of the abilities). The solution is working with subfolders.

1. Download the unpacked version of the mod and extract it in the override dir.
2. Go in the override and rename the folder "Better Combat" to "1 - Better_Combat" (or similar, the important is the number, used to go in alphabetical order).
3. Download the other mod that have the specific changes you want to overwrite the ones in this mod and put it somewhere (not in the override for now).
4. Create a folder in the override dir with a number HIGHER than my mod + the name, for example "2 - Anders_Vengeance" and put the content of the other mod inside. It should work.

The engine load mods in alphabetical order if they are inserted inside subfolders. Mods that have folders that come alphabetically after will overwrite those that come first. This is an useful trick in general, both to give a loading order to your mods, both for general order of the override content and both for overwrite specific changes in two mods.



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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS:
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- Thanks to Bioware (and especially to Peter Thomas) for the gameplay concept of DA2 (that whatever many people say is much better done than DAO) and for the game.
- Thanks to all modders sharing their knowledge to others. A special thank to Sunnie because looking at his mods on items I discovered many things I didn't know and that helped immensely on the creation/future development of this project.
- Thanks to Revan1988 that has given me inspiration to some of the conceptual changes in warriors and rogues.
- Lastly (but not surely in order of importance) to all users of "Better Mages". Without you this mod would not have been possible.