Tactics

While you always manually control the currently selected character, the other party members behave according to the Tactics you define for them.

Tactics are built around a simple idea: you set a condition on the left side of the screen and if this condition is true in a battle, the corresponding action on the right side of the screen is executed; if not, the next condition is checked.

Of course, Tactics must be regularly adjusted as, for instance, the requirements of a party in Act 1 might be completely different for the same individuals at the start of Act 2. We can still offer a selection of useful tips that will enable you to fine-tune the default Tactics sets to get the most out of your party.

General Tips

• Don’t be intimidated! You can’t “break” your party by dabbling with Tactics, as you can easily return to the default set.

• If you modify a character’s Tactics, this custom set of parameters will be used until you specify otherwise. You will need to manually add new talents and spells to the list after each level-up.

• Don’t forget that Tactics sets are read from top to bottom. Every time a Tactic is implemented, the system begins again from the top of the list. For this reason, high-priority Tactics (such as healing or “staple” abilities for crowd control and cross-class combos) should always be placed at the top.

• If you experience issues with companions using abilities while you are carefully executing a manual strategy in a tough fight, note that you can easily disable or enable entire sets at the Tactics screen with a simple key or button press.

Automating certain processes cuts out a lot of needless micromanagement, so we’ll now look at two ways in which simple additions to the default Tactics sets can be of service.

Healing & Supporting Tips

• The classic setup for Anders’s Aid Allies ability is “Self: At least 3 party members below 50% health”, though you may find that picking the version that only specifies two party members makes him more inclined to use the spell in a timely manner.

• If you find the required crafting ingredients and don’t mind the expense, setting up your healer to automatically use Restoration Potions at low health instead of Heal will leave the spell available for other emergencies; as a secondary benefit, the tincture will also replenish your healer’s mana.

• A healer can also play a role in enemy management. If you have Glyph of Paralysis, you can use this to temporarily disable stronger enemies throughout the battle. “Enemy: Highest health” is a useful condition that will generally impede a high-rank opponent such as a commander; if you are having problems with enemy Assassins, the “Enemy: Nearest visible rogue” condition can be of service.

• If you create a “nuke” mage, high on Magic and Willpower, but prone to shattering quickly under enemy blows, you could set up a “[Mage Name]: Being attacked by a melee attack”, with “Glyph of Repulsion” as the following action.

Cross-Class Combo Tips

• To set up a Tactic that exploits the Brittle, Staggered or Disoriented status effects, select “Target: Condition”, then select “Enemy” ➝ “Status”, then pick the appropriate condition from the list.

• Let’s use the fully upgraded Winter’s Grasp as an example. This generally freezes a single target, so set up “Enemy: Highest health”  ➝ “Winter’s Grasp”. Reposition this at the top of your mage’s Tactics list. You can now set up the finishing move: we’ll use the ever-useful Varric in this instance. With its upgrade, his Archer’s Lance ability can inflict massive damage against a Brittle target (which is why we specify “Highest health” earlier). Create the “Enemy: BRITTLE” ➝ “Archer’s Lance” Tactic and move it to the top of the list, then go try it out in a live fire situation.

• For those who have the time and inclination, you can use the “Jump to tactic” action to create crude “subroutines” at the end of a Tactics list. This might help to encourage an AI-controlled character to differentiate between a single target ripe for a cross-class combo and groups more suited to an AoE finish. Here’s a very rough-‘n’-ready example, using Varric: