14 DAY TRIAL // A BioWare developer decided to offer some insight into how the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition will play out, given that, for the first time in the series, there is no dedicated healing class.
While playing the previous two installments in the Dragon Age series, we all had a guy on healing duty, hanging back and not dealing nearly enough damage, but making sure that every other party member is topped up and able to maximize its damage output.
It looks like the Templars robbed the world of healers, as Dragon Age: Inquisition will have no class dedicated to filling red bars, which translated into a lot of worrisome subject for some members of the community.
No healers, but plenty of similar effects
BioWare developer Patrick Weekes decided to offer an in-depth overview of the options that players have when it comes to dealing with damage, by posting a rather large wall of text on the game's forums.
"I've completed two playthroughs of Dragon Age: Inquisition on Normal, and I'm now working through a playthrough on Hard. Here were my concerns, and here is what I've found and how I've handled things," Weekes said, trying to quell concerns.
He revealed that players would be able to make use of a lot of potions and abilities that will provide characters with shields that enemies will have to chew through before getting to the juicy bits.
However, you won't be constantly chugging potions while fighting the rabble, as your garden-variety encounters won't put your party at risk all that much.
The plot-related fights, however, will be more testing, and will require players to make good use of consumables and abilities in order to pull through.
You will be able to block and mitigate damage
Weekes also described how mages are able to cast a barrier spell at the beginning of a fight, essentially providing front-row characters with an additional health bar that enemies have to go through before doing any actual damage.
In addition to this, tanky characters will also have various damage mitigation skills, working in a manner similar to the Barrier spell (but less effective), but being only bestowed on that particular character, and gained by using key warrior abilities instead of spells.
This is essentially offering each class a spell/skill slot that works as a heal or damage shield, removing the need to bring someone along only for the healing, and enabling you to try a more diverse group mixture, just like ArenaNet did in Guild Wars 2.
We'll see how this will affect the gameplay dynamic pretty soon, in any case.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is coming out on November 18 in North America and November 21 in Europe, headed to the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms.
