Act 2


Visit your home. Talk to Sandal for the special rune.
Look around, gather quests and codex entries, read the chanter's board.
Talk to each companion, check out the shops, buy armor upgrades.

Dougal will attack you soon. Make sure to take him down first.
Horror, Chain Lightning, Assassinate, etc. should do it.

I start with the Blackpowder Courtesy.
Lots of Carta Assassins there so watch out.
Cold is your friend against Carta.


Tomes of Evil

I destroy each of them to get the Xebenkeck quest.
If Merrill is already at 100% friendship you won't get rivalry points for destroying them.
Don't worry about the 2 attribute points you miss when you don't read the book. You'll get them with the last tome and they are only given once anyway.



Night Terrors

If you decide to deal with the demon, Power (+6 Attributes) and
Knowledge (+1 Ability) are both excellent choices.
I like to go with Ability because skilling is more fun than statting and there
are still so many Abilities to get for Hawke.

You might wanna leave Anders at home because he will earn massive rivalry points (+25) when siding with the demon. I took Isabella instead.
You don't need healing in this quests, it's really easy.

To get your reward from the demon, you have to convince Feynriel that he is save. Always choose the top answer when talking to him to gain his trust ("Say no!","He abondoned you", etc.) In the last cut scene you tell him "You're safe."

For the barrel puzzles watch my Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk-t-Zlo4Ho


Prime Suspect + All that Remains

Another very easy quest line. I suggest doing these as soon as possible because you get a nice dagger as reward and the recipe for Rune of Striking. I'd put one in Bianca, your new dagger Tine and the dagger Stitch-Maker, which can be found in the next quest. With the stamina boost from Tine, I now buff Parry.


Offered and Lost (Ser Varnell)

In this fight you'll encounter a lot of Critters, very annoying.
Start with two Chain Lightnings on Ser Varnell. They should kill every critter.



Don't change your position.
Kill the new wave spawning in your back using Tempest
and all your cooldowns.
Usually you should have some time now to regenerate before the 3rd wave spawns. By the time they appear, your Chain Lightnings are ready again.
Sir Varnell is now alone, kill him. He has approximately one million hit points but doesn't move a lot.
If you move to the end of the room where the stairs are, some more adds will spawn. But only very few, very little people.



Bartrand

I suggest doing this quest not before level 15 because Merrill needs a fully upgraded Barrier to guarantee that Bartrand won't hit a single backstab. Otherwise it can be a pure matter of luck whether you survive with all members.
Bartrand's guards are mercenaries, meaning they are immune to cold and sensitive to nature. Bartrand on the other hand is more the Coterie/Carta kinda guy, so his only weakness is cold.

There's a Master Trap in this estate, so if Varric has 40 cunning by now,
he can disarm it for 200 exp.

There is also an armor upgrade for Varric in a chest and of course our set boots.

Now that's interesting concerning the fight versus Bartrand:
Once all his guards are down, he doesn't vanish anymore and becomes a
rather easy target.
After you opened the door, go down the stairs and kill all incoming guards as fast as possible. Bartrand will vanish once, shield the person standing next to him, retreat or stealth with everyone else. 
Once his guards are down you have to kite him, for he hits fast and hard and can knock you back.


Fool's Gold

Not too much to say for this quest.
In the little lair with the spiders are 4 Master traps. Make sure
to disarm all 4 of them for 800 EXP.
Kill Poisonous Spiders first, Petrify and Horror the Corrupted Spiders until
all other spiders are down.

In the fight to save Merin from Darkspawn two Emissaries will appear.
Try to kill them as soon as possible with Assassinate and Vendetta.

The Golems at the end respond well to Electricty, Cold, Crushing Prison and Petrify.


Inside Job (Brekker)

This is considered one of the hardest fights in game.
Fortunately not for us. This fight is all about burst damage
and that's what our set up has mastered.

You're fighting Coterie here, so Spirit is their weakness, no immunities.
If done correctly you won't get more than one backstab from those 5 Elite Rogues.


First Wave:

All target Brekker: Haste, Chain Lightning, Pinning Shot, Assassinate.
If he's still alive, kill him with auto attacks.

Ignore the smaller rogue to Brekker's left, he can't harm you.

The Elite Rogue from the right:
Crushing Prison, Stone Fist, Rhyming Triplets, Vendetta.
If he survives: Backstab + auto attacks.

Get rid of the critters.

If you are fast enough you can even safe now before the 2nd wave starts.

Second Wave:

Elite Rogue on the right accompanied by 2 Thugs:
Horror, Chain Lightning, Twin Fangs, Kickback.
Stonefist, Backstab, and auto attacks, you're out of special moves right now.

Another Elite Rogue has vanished. Try to uncover him with Mind Blast or just Stealth with Varric, Barrier on Anders and Merrill eats the Backstab.
Now finish him with everything you got.
Piece of cake!

You can also check out my YouTube video for this fight:




Dissent

Again, one of those feared rogue fights.
Really easy for us, though.

Get your Cold and Spirit Staves ready.

After the cut scene, everbody target the Templar Hunter.
Pinning Shot, Chain Lightning, Crushing Prison, Assassinate+Backstab should do the job.

Activate Haste. Focus the Templars down. Ignore Sir Alric.
Second Hunter will appear. All target:
Horror, Rhyming Triplets, Twin Fangs, Stone Fist.
Tempest, Stone Fist, Vendetta, Kick Back = dead

Use Chain Lightnings on the little archers standing on the stairs.
Kill the surviving archers, now the regular Templars and finally Sir Alrik.
Get the treasures, Anders' armor upgrade and off you go.


The Bone Pit

There are quests even though not shown on the map.
Visit the Bone Pit and talk to Jansen for the quest "Cave Crawling".
The Queen Spider shouldn't be a problem, she responds well to Horror
and Petrify. The Poisonous Spiders are much more annoying but overall
not a very hard quest.

Get your reward from Jansen and go to the other cavern to get the Tome
of Evil. Return to Jansen to get one more quest. After completing the Undead quest you can leave the area and return once more for a third quest.


A Bitter Pill

To trigger this companion quest, you have to take Fenris out of Kirkwall,
e.g. the Wounded Coast to meet a bunch of slavers who can tell you something about Danarius.



Sundermount

Some intersting fights here.


Sundermount Graveyard

The Crazed Looner at the Altar:
You can pull him as a single target or just rush in, assassinate him
and deal with the adds. I prefer the latter because it's a fun fight.

Take out the Assassin with everything you got and focus on the archers afterwards.
By the time the second assassin shows up, some of your skills are available again.
By the time the Arcane Horror appears, Vendetta should be ready again to finish him quickly.

Mature Dragon

Business as usual. Cold Staves, Haste and using all spells
should work very well. You also have an upgraded Barrier, just in case.
Even mature dargons can get brittle.
The Dragon has an armor upgrade for Merrill. Nice!


Varterral Hunting Ground

You'll encounter Wasp Spiders here.
They are the super elite version of Poisonous Spiders.
Very annoying, very dangerous.
First get rid of the cavern spiders.
If the Wasp Spiders appear, Petrify two and hope that at least one is BRITTLE. Assassinate it. Focus the third with everything you got.
If the petrified spider wakes up, Horror it. It's doable but a very ugly fight.


Varterral

I hated this fight when I was playing with a 2H Warrior Tank.
But with this party set up, the Varterral falls quite quickly
and Rogue Hawk is an excellent tank. Maybe because of the 80% Defense.
She can get brittle! Try both Petrify, if the BRITTLE symbol apperas, show her some loving. You can hit her for like 17,000 damage (even way more with Stealth Boots), shortening this fight significantly.






Recently Opened Passage

The first Golem shouldn't be a problem.
Just throw everything at him you got and let Hawke tank.

The second Golem is a bit harder because he is in a room with a Rage Demon and a Revenant. You have to save your good abilites for them, so try
to avoid the Golem, focus down the smaller enemies and kill the Rage Demon and Revenant as soon as they appear.
All three elite monsters can get brittle and be one-hitted.

The room with the Nexus Golem is a lot of fun with our set up.
It starts with a Rage Demon. You can one-hit him again.
Kill the Shades and the Desire Demon and more Abominations.
Another Rage Demon will appear and your cross class combo is ready again.
He goes down quickly and some more Shades appear.
An Arcane Horror and a Revenant appear. And guess what: Your cross class combo is ready!



It almost feels like cheating, doesn't it?
Strangely, this fight didn't give me any EXP ?!
Anyway, destroy your last Tome of Evil and prepare for the hardest quest in the entire game.


Forbidden Knowledge feat. Xebenkeck

This is the only battle where I needed Aveline and Dog. You'll have to take her anyway now for the final quest, so take her one quest earlier.

If you enter the last room with the final Evil Tome, make sure to read it
and accept the book's deal for two attribute points.

I like to equip Cold staves to kill Rage Demons faster. I still used my Staff of the Primal Order from act 1

Two Rage Demons will spawn, 4 Shades and Xebenkeck.
If one Rage Demon or Xebenkeck dies, 2 more Rage Demons, a Revenant and 4 Abominations will appear.

Aveline can tank Rage Demons quite well, even Hawke isn't too bad. Maybe due to the high Defense value.

All four characters have to stay together so that Aveline's Battle Synergy affects all members. The Rage Demons will mainly attack her.

Once the fight starts, I focus down the Abominations because they die fast and can stun you. Ignore Xebenkeck the whole fight.

Now I try to kill both Rage Demons at the same time. just focus them alternately.



You can make that fast with using the STAGGER effect. But be careful, stagger + upgraded Vendetta will take 3/4 health of a Rage Demon. If you kill one too early, you'll have to fight 3 at the same time.
And keep in mind you should save your Assassinate for the Revenant.

If the second round starts, you must get the Revenant BRITTLE.
You've got two shots, this is all we need:





If the Revenenat is down, you must kill all Abominations.
As I said, Rage Demons can be tanked for some time however Abominations will stun you forever.
Once the Abominations are gone, you "only" have to survive until Vendetta or Assassinate are ready again to one hit a Rage Demon.

It's a super hard fight but possible, even without potions.
If you want you can check out my youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_kxMXma2Q4


Btw, the easy work around would be: Pull the Rage Demons out of the room. The new spawned Demons won't follow so you can kill them all seperatley, making the hardest battle in game to an actually rather easy fight.

Loot is a fire staff. Not worth a dime against Qunarie but if you haven't cleared the streets of Kirkwall at night, well then Voracity is your friend against any Undercut Thrifter and Sinister Sister you will encounter.


Demands of the Qun

Before you start Demands of the Qun, make sure you've finished every quest.
You have to take Aveline now, I trade her for Varric.
Get your Cold and Nature Staves, you'll be fighting almost only Qunari.
Always get rid of the Qunari Mages first.
You can one hit Stens.
Make sure to pick up the Recipe for Elixir of Heroism. It's hidden in a corpse, located in a corner just past the area where Carta and Qunari are fighting. It grants a level up for the entire party, once you've found the ingrediant Ambrosia later in Act 3.


The Arishok

You can duel him. Theoretically.
Everytime the Arishok makes an attack you can rush in for two fast auto attacks. If he makes a special move, you reply with Vendetta or Assassinate.
After 10 minutes or so he will drink his first of 3 potions and you have to start all over. You can also use a bow and run around.
It's not really worth it duelling him, especially since the fight versus his entire bunch gives 700 EXP more + a little loot.

If you go for the big fight, step back with the entire group, focus 2-3 Qunaris down and wait for the Saarebas to come down the stairs. Vendetta+Twin Fangs one, Assassinate the other. The fight is almost done now.
Kill everyone else before finishing the Arishok for maximum EXP and loot. He has less HP than a regular Sten.