dragon-age-guide

Act 3

In Act 3 we wanna slay the High Dragon as soon as possible to
make use of the Rune of Devestation and the Rune of Valiance, which both require Dragon Blood.
To make the Dragon an easy prey, every party member needs fire resistance and thus at least one rune slot in the armor for a Rune of Fire Warding.
The only one missing a rune slot is Anders.
He'll receive it in the quest "Best Served cold" which is a follow up from "On the Loose".

You start accepting the "Lost Swords" quest.
Don't demand any reward from the Qunari if you turn your first sword in, you'll get a 1000 EXP per sword but only 30 silver and no EXP if you want a reward.

Almost every quest in Act 3 has an epic reward. I suggest getting a
nice Dagger first is a good way to start off.
One of the best daggers can be obtained by clearing the streets of Lowtown at night, leading to the quest "Kind of Want".
If you run out of Followers of the She, visit Gamlen or the Hanged Man and return to Lowtown for more respawn.
Finally kill Hanka for the epic dagger Carta's Left-Hand.

On the Loose

If you Kill Huon in Lowtown make sure he dies in your first stun combo.

You'll find a Rune of Devastation Recipe after killing Evelina.
Every weapon with a slot should have that rune.

The De Launcet Estate in High Town at Night has some sort of treasure room with a master trap and a Quanri Sword in it.

No Rest for the Wicked

For a quick Level Up fill in Isabella's Quest.
Get the Ambrosia from Castillons Landing for your Elexir
of Heroism and use this potion. One Level up for the whole party.

Best Served Cold

At the end of that quest you will find Anders' armor upgrade in a crate in
that warehouse.
Return to Hawke's estate an socket one Rune of Fire Warding in everyone's
Chest Piece. Hawke will need 3 Runes (chest, gloves, boots) because of the
low item level of the Ensalin armor.

High Dragon in The Bone Pit (Mine Massacre)

Slay the High Dragon. It's ridiculously easy, you don't even have to move. Equip a bow on Hawke, activate Haste and just stand there and nuke until the first add phase starts.

Once the add phase starts, move everyone to the entrance, let the Dragonlings gather around Merrill and give them 1-2 Chain Lightnings and a Wounds of the Past. That should do it.

Now walk around and "collect" every Dragonling spawning.
Be careful though. If they gather around Anders or Varric, they can hurt.

Phase 2 is like Phase 1. Just nuke the Dragon from range.
The second add phase has again Dragonlings and a bigger dragon now.
Not big enough for a petrify+assassinate combo though. It's a one hit.
You should equip your daggers for this stunt. You can actually take them
for the entire add phase.

In Phase 3 the High Dragon changes her position. Just be careful and move away when she lands near you.
Otherwise same procedure as always.

Add phase 3 has two bigger Dragons now. One is assassinated
with the cross class combo. The other one is easily focused or you wait
until your Petrify is ready again.

In the last phase the Dragon will mainly sit on her rock and spit fire balls.
Don't stand clustered, disperse a bit to not overstrain Anders' healings.
Kill her and get your Chest Piece, Dragon Blood, a nice fire bow and more.

Go to Sundermount and get the Recipe for Rune of Valiance.
It's right infront of the Cave for the "Murder of Crows" quest, hidden in a
pile of bones.

Hawke's Estate

Go back to Hawke's Estate and resocket.
Everyone gets one Rune of Valiance, for Hawke you have to place it in the arms because runes give less stats in the gloves slot however Rune of Valiance is equal for all body parts.

For any unsocketed armor slots go for armor or defense runes, whatever you like. No defense for Hawke of course for it's already maxed out at 80%.

Now that your party is nearly invincible decide what quest reward
you wanna get next:

Haunted for a Rune that increases attack speed by 22% or an insane Bianca upgrade.

Murder of Crows for the best dagger in game: Finesse

The Wounded Coast for the Helm of the Champion

A New Path for for an epic fire staff with 2 rune slots, Torch of Falon'Din

Very important!
Once you have accepted Orsino's Letter "The Last Straw" on your desk, you can't visit the Gallows anymore without triggering the Finale and thus ending the game.
So just don't mark the message read until you've wrapped everything up.

Haunted

The Golem is not too hard. Dance around him with Hawke, let the
others deal range damage and focus down the adds.

Afterwards you can let Varric keep the Lyrium Shard for a nice Bianca upgrade: plus 3 additional rune slots.

Or you get rid of the shard by letting Enchantment Boy make a Lyrium Rune of it. It increases attack speed and would be nice for Finesse or Bianca (I tend to Bianca because overall my Varric does more auto attacks than Hawke).

Most people go for the rune, I guess.

Justice

You'll encounter another monstrous spider when visiting the Bone Pit.
If you have trouble with it and the 3 poisonous adds, do this short fight in
"slow motion" and pause a lot.

First make sure you disarm all three complex traps. Focus down the three Poison Spiders while controlling the Monster Spider with Merrills Horror and then Petrify.

Once the little guys are down, use Anders' upgraded Petrify on Monster Mama and put a Mark of Death on her. Assassinate and give her everything you got.
She will most likely target Hawke and Varric. Use your abilities then like
Evade, Vendetta or Stealth to get out of her sight. This will buy you some valuable time.
Horror should also be ready again by now.
You can just finish her off now.

Don't panic: After finishing the entire quest, Anders wears a new black robe and his rune slot is gone.
It's just a bug, it will reappear a bit later. You just have to socket another
Rune of Valiance for 75 Silver.

Sundermount revisited

A New Path

While climbing up the Sundermount you have to pick up an Awiergan scroll, it's a bit hidden:

Taking it will result in an unpleasant encounter with some unfriendly Revenenants at the Sundermount Graveyard.
If you fight all three of them at once it's probably the hardest fight in act 3.

The easier way is to pull them with a bow or staff. You can fight one after the other, making this fight quite easy. Especially if you keep them at distance.

The Pride Demon is a typical DA2 Boss. Standing in the middle, not doing much. Use 4x range, escape its attacks and focus down the adds.
It drops an amazing staff that is predestinated for a Rune of Devestation
and a Rune of Fire.

If you leave the cave you can either choose a peaceful solution ("I take responsibility") or you you erase the entire Elf Clan ("Marethari was possessed") for a fun fight and a formidable 1200 EXP. Sounds good to me!

Hybris

Don't forget you Awiergan Scrolls quest. It's not marked on the map but should still be in your journal if you found all the scrolls.
The Pride Demon Hybris lives in Darktown, right infront of Anders' clinic.

He's very easy, his attacks are slow and predictable. He's also sensible
to all kinds of crowd control. He can get brittle when petrified, so hitting
him for 50,000 assassinate damage is possible and worth trying.
Not much EXP, no great loot, just a fun weapon for Aveline.

The Last Straw

Make sure you have purchased everything you need and made every quest.
Enter the Gallows and fight your way through.
You will encounter Orsino at the end. This fight is a joke, really.
You can make some coffee, while several NPC's are tanking him.
It's long and boring and grants nearly an extra level, 22,000 EXP.

Afterwards I bought a Libertaria Fraternity Staff from Sandal.
Nice spirit damage vs. Templars.
But it doesn't really matter. This whole scenario is pure hack'n'slash,
no tacitics or anything else is required.

Even the final fight versus Meredith is not very hard.
I equipped a bow on Hawke and kept everyone on distance, Aveline and
friends tanked like champions.

That was it, you beat the game on Nightmare.
I hope I could help a little. Have fun and see you at Dragon Age 3 =)