My DW Rogue Shadow/Assassin Build in Dragon Age 2

My boyfriend's dude friends have been asking me for Dragon Age 2 advice. I have little love for DA2 as compared to its giant predecessor Dragon Age Origins but I have finished the game a couple of times to be of help to them. Maybe I can be of help to you too.

Rogues twirl like ballerinas in this game. Not sexy.

Granted that DA2 isn't really much of a challenge, whether or not you screw up your skills, I really believe you wouldn't have a hard time in the game.

Let it be known first that I'm very aggro when playing a game regardless of job class. Yep I know, it's not really rogue style to be aggro but this is how I am, okay? I'd rather mislead others than conceal myself, I'd rather move fast and stab my opponent 10 times in 5 seconds than sneak to a crawl, stab them once and then run. I'm a restless rogue.

Here's my SA Rogue Build. SA stands for Shadow Assassin.

Dex = 2 / Cun = 1 until I got around to 26 Dex and then I pumped it all to Cun.

I got back to pumping Dex a little when I got the Champion Armor.

Let me separate my must-haves between Talents and Specializations. By the time I got all these skills, I was already around LEVEL 23 so if you're planning to reach the hard cap of the game (level 30 I think), you will be able to get a lot more skills.

Talents

Dual Weapon
Backstab (Activated)
Perforate (Upgrade)
Murder (Upgrade)
Unforgiving Chain (Passive)
Explosive Strike (Activated)
Twin Fangs (Activated) *early game killer skill

Sabotage
Miasmic Flask (Activated)
Improved Formula (Upgrade)

Specializations

Shadow - (you can get this by level 7)
Pinpoint Precision (Passive)
Inconspicuous (Activated)
Decoy (Activated) - *very, VERY useful. Saved my ass lots of times!
Sturdy Decoy (Upgrade)
Disorienting Criticals (Passive)
Rigged Decoy (Upgrade)
Predator (Passive)

Assassin - (you can get this by level 14)
Mark of Death (Activated)
Bloodlust (Passive) *helps with your meager stamina
Pinpoint Strikes (Activated)
Assassinate (Activated) - *deadly shit, this.
Devious Harm (Passive)
Overkill (Upgrade)

My SA build rogue isn't the most powerful in the bunch, I know that there are a lot of stronger builds out there but this has served its purpose with me.

Here's what I usually do when faced with a mob:
1. Throw Miasmic Flask.
2. Rush to the stunned crowd and take down as many idiots as I could. Gotta love DPS.
3. Once they all get back to their senses (and start attacking me) I use Decoy.
4. They turn towards the Decoy and I Backstab, Assassinate and Twin Fang the shit out of them til they all die.

Notice that I did not bother anymore with the Specialist Talents. You might argue that I'm missing out on the Speed skill branch but in my own experience, and with my Dex-Cun build, I can't afford to allot even a small part of my stamina to sustained skills. I need a lot to pull off my skills (and I tend to abuse Decoy a lot)

So yeah, with a Shadow Assassin Rogue, I think it's much wiser to spam your skills than to get a bunch of sustained ones that eat up your stamina. Sustained Skills are more helpful for the Warrior class I believe.

Note my play style and what may be applicable (and fun) for me may not be the same for you. But if you're the type of player who wants to get into a battle guns fucking blazing, this one's for you. If you'd rather STUN and DISTRACT as opposed to sneak around and hide in the shadows, your play style may be similar to mine. :)

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What a Truly Awesome Date is Made Of

Laughter. Lots and lots of it. For myself and the man of my life, it really doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing. We have fun anyway. We decided against watching a movie for our date-date, because there's really nothing good to see. So we decided to just wing it and dick around Greenbelt. (We never go to Makati so everything is so novel to us haha.)

I was wearing what I call my Dead Island Trinkets.
The stuff I bought out of frustration because stores don't have Dead Island in stock. 

We had lunch at People's Palace. I'm a HUGE fan of Thai food. Incredibly huge fan. He wasn't. And if only it wasn't for the fact that there was a lot of coconut milk in the dishes that I ordered, he wouldn't like it there. We talked about ASOIAF and I struggled against giving him spoilers. I was successful.

On our way to Classic Confections we passed by this little pond. There was a duck on said pond. It was standing on a rock but the water was so murky, it could very well look like it's standing on water. Boyfriend exclaimed, "Hey hun! It's a JESUS DUCK!" he laughed. We were in front of a church. I laughed so hard. Then the other ducks came out. "LOOK! It really is Jesus Duck and that's his followers!" he said with glee.

Then a man from behind us muttered, "Let's go, Matthew."
Turns out there's a kid beside us named Matthew. Oh shit. hahaha

We then moved to Classic Confections to gorge on cake and coffee. He's learning how to take coffee my way: black as night, sweet as sin. Ah this is where the crazy just went full throttle.

We spent a decent amount of time shouting battle cries. Uhm. Too complicated to explain.

After causing such a ruckus and ruining everyone else's night in Classic Confections, we decided to leave. We browsed around, mused at television sets, laughed at book titles, fiddled with weird puzzles, and all the while shouting battle cries.

It was an amazing date, really. :) Every single time we go out, I am reminded of why we are together and why this is going to work.

Lastly, I shall post a photo of my Dead Island Frustration Outfit. Also my shoes. I'm doing this because these beautiful Ferretti shoes get about 6 stares on average whenever I wear them. I would really catch ladies look at my face and then travel down to my shoes and their eyes would stay there. Haha. I want to buy another pair because I might wear this one to death.

Forever21 beige jumpsuit, rings and bird necklace. Ferretti tan wedges hee hee <3
Boyfriend calls it my greek goddess outfit. LOL?

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A Wedding and Maybe a Haircut. (also Sims 3)

The past few weeks have been brutal at work but I'm not going to talk about that. I attended a wedding a couple of weeks back. It was pretty damn awesome. Well mainly because the bride and the groom rocked the night at the reception. Like, really.

My coworker Steph and myself, following the black theme of the wedding :)

I have been playing The Sims 3 because I couldn't bear to continue Baldur's Gate 2 after my brain has been fried from work. I just... I just can't. BG2 needs patience and dedication, after a whole day's work plus overtime, I had neither. So yep. TS3 it is.

The amusing thing about TS3 now is the celebrity system. Since my sim is in the Journalism track, she eventually ends up a celebrity. So there's always paparazzi when my sim and my boyfriend's sim are on vacation. Come to think of it, that's weird. I'm supposed to be the one hounding celebrities and shit.

I don't know what disturbs me more, the fact that she's taking a photo of us making out on the bed or the fact that we didn't seem to care.

Last order of business, my grandmother recently called my attention and told me that my hair is too long. She said something that long hair doesn't suit me because I'm short. Well. I can't contest that. I am pretty short. Okay, I'm REALLY short. But I like my long hair! As messy and poofy as it may be!

This is my face. Ignoring public opinion. Well at least my grandmother's.

So that's it. I'll be back updating this blog once I talk to my pervert of a coworker about migrating my stuff and getting my own domain etc. Also when I finally get my own copy of Dead Island. I know, I know. I suck. I'll be raping that game soon enough. Soon my sweet zombies, soon.

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