Post Description

GAMEPLAY

- The Epic achievement was not unlocking properly for some users. This no longer occurs.
- The Supplier achievement now always unlocks after finding at least 66 resource varieties, including resources purchased from the Black Emporium.
- A codex entry that helps unlock the Archaeologist achievement is now easier to acquire in the Viscount's Keep during the first year in Kirkwall.
- In many fights, enemies now move less quickly at the start of combat. This slower initial pace makes tactical positioning more useful and important.
- If the force of an enemy attack interrupts a party member's current action, the party member now resumes the action once he or she has recovered. This means, for example, that party members who have been instructed to consume a health potion will now do so as soon as they are able, and do not need to be told to consume a health potion again if they are interrupted.
- Enemies are now much less likely to explode into body parts upon death.
- Attacks that hit a stealthed assassin are now more likely to disrupt stealth.
- Abilities that apply a silence effect now also cancel the target's current action in addition to preventing the target from using further abilities.
- When an enemy wakes from a sleep effect due to suffering damage, other status effects that were applied by the same ability that caused the sleep effect are no longer removed at the same time.
- Items that bear the property "100% of basic attack damage vs. enemies that attack in melee" no longer harm the user when equipped in conjunction with abilities like Blood Magic or Sacrificial Frenzy that reduce the user's health.
- The items known as Final Thought, Sataareth, Sundering, and Trepanner's Gift now have damage types that match their elemental damage bonuses.
- The items known as Allure's Crook, Corrupted Acolyte's Staff, Defender of the Wall, Void's Hammer, and Volcanic Shield can now only be equipped by the appropriate classes.
- The high dragon's fireballs no longer track moving targets.
- Pride demons can no longer be affected by their own Crushing Prison spells.
- The size of the area affected by an ability is now explicitly described as diameter or radius (usually diameter).
- When a party member's armor changes after consummating a romance, runes inscribed on his or her old armor now carry over to the new armor.
- Using the Maker's Sigh potion on an archer no longer alters inventory capacity.
- It is no longer possible to create more than one Elixir of Heroism.
- It is no longer possible to simultaneously enable sustained modes that are supposed to be mutually exclusive.
- In some cases, enemies would freeze while entering combat. This no longer occurs.
- In some cases, saw traps or spike traps would throw party members back even when the trap was not visible. This no longer occurs.
- The Special Deliveries chest can no longer get into a state where it contains items but cannot be opened.
- The storage chest is now present in the Hawke estate after completing the main campaign.
- If the Black Emporium premium content is installed, the mabari hound now follows his master more reliably.
- Various character-corruption issues now correct themselves automatically when you load your game.
- Various minor gameplay issues no longer occur.


QUESTS (SPOILER WARNING)

- "Who Needs Rescuing" cannow be completed.
- "Friendly Concern" is now available after consummating a romance.
- In "Act of Mercy," Thrask can no longer die, which could block completion.
- In "A Murder of Crows," it is now always possible to fight the varterral.
- In "A New Path," Merrill no longer remains locked in the party after the quest.
- In "Bait and Switch," the chest in the abandoned house can now always be opened.
- In "Demands of the Qun," Aveline's guards no longer turn hostile if the player declines to enter the Qunari compound during the day and then returns at night.
- In "Dissent," it is no longer possible to loot Ser Alrik's body before the appropriate time. This ensures that the quest can always be completed.
- In "No Rest for the Wicked," Isabela now always begins the opening conversation at the appropriate time.
- In "The Captain's Condolences," it is now possible to ask Aveline about her father even if she is not currently in the party.
- In "The Last Straw," Anders now responds much differently if he is a rival.
- In "The Last Straw," Aveline no longer attacks Meredith when the party is supposed to be stunned. This prevents a subsequent issue where the game could freeze after loading the post-campaign save.
- In "Wayward Son," it is no longer possible to speak to Thrask after speaking to Samson. This ensures that the quest progresses correctly.
- If Merrill's clan members die, she no longer speaks as if they were alive.
- If Anders is a rival, giving him the Tevinter Chantry Amulet now results In rivalry points instead of friendship points.
- If the Black Emporium premium content is installed, a new conversation between Fenris and Hawke's dog is available during the fourth year in Kirkwall.
- Alternate Merrill/Aveline banter is now available if Merrill's clan is killed.
- Various references to the events of Dragon Age: Origins are now more accurate.
- Various minor story-scripting issues no longer occur.

FUNCTIONALITY

- Users with a large number of promotional items were timing out when attempting to log in. This no longer occurs.
- Combat audio has been rebalanced so that it is no longer louder than exploration and dialogue audio.
- The Epic achievement or trophy can now always be unlocked.
- The Supplier achievement or trophy now always unlocks after finding at least 66 resource varieties, including resources purchased from the Black Emporium.
- A codex entry that helps unlock the Archaeologist achievement or trophy is now easier to acquire in the Viscount's Keep during the first year in Kirkwall.
- In the tactics menu, actions that use Items no longer become blank.
- Various minor art issues no longer occur.
- Various technical changes should improve performance and limit crashes.


PC/MAC-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONALITY

- The game now runs correctly for Windows administrator accounts that were receiving errors about insufficient privileges.
- An error about AWC.dll that prevents the game from launching no longer occurs.
- A rare issue that caused the configuration utility to crash no longer occurs.
- In the gameplay options menu, It is now possible to enable persistent highlighting on usable objects, similar to holding down the tab key. To reduce clutter, however, this setting does not highlight characters.
- In the gameplay options menu, it is now possible to disable enhanced targeting. Disabling this setting improves framerate but makes it more difficult to highlight characters or objects in some situations.
- The DirectX 11 renderer is now disabled if your video-card drivers are older than version 11.4 (for AMD cards) or 267.14 (for NVIDIA cards).
- The game no longer erroneously uses the DirectX 11 renderer if the DirectX 9 renderer was selected in conjunction with a full-screen gamma value other than the default. This change should improve performance for players who were using those settings. As well, the full-screen gamma value is now saved correctly.
- If the game is set to use a language other than English, it no longer reverts to English upon installing a patch.
- Various issues specific to DirectX 11 no longer occur.
- Various issues preventing the game from launching no longer occur.

BALANCE

NOTE: Patch 1.03 introduces significant changes to the overall balance of the game, improving the strategic elements and making combat and class progression more engaging and enjoyable for players. Here is a detailed summary of the balance-related improvements:

- Enemies' basic attacks now apply much less force, which means that party members' actions are not interrupted as frequently.
- The secondary attribute requirement for equipping armor or shields (constitution for warriors, willpower for mages, and cunning for rogues) is now significantly smaller.
- The rate at which rogues regenerate stamina while performing basic attacks has been significantly increased. Rogues now regain 1% of their stamina per hit with dual weapons or 2% per hit with a bow.
- Traps no longer inflict injuries.
- Enemies now gain more health as the game progresses.
- Enemy assassins now have less health.
- Lieutenant-rank and boss-rank enemies now have less health.
- Lieutenant-rank enemies can no longer lose more than 40% of their health from a single hit, and boss-rank enemies cannot lose more than 20%.
- Enemy commanders now occasionally throw stun grenades while encouraging their troops to concentrate attacks against a single party member. Previously, this behavior was limited to nightmare difficulty.
- Values for armor and elemental resistances now cannot exceed 95%. The gam