The Last Straw - p. 5 Dragon Age II Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

The Guardian is best fought from a distance #1. If you plan on direct combat, you must remember that his attacks will take lots of health from your warrior and rogues #2. In such situations you must quickly react, as you cannot allow anyone from your team to die.

Defeating the Gate Guardian will lead Meredith to return onto the courtyard #1. Start attacking her again. This time Meredith will run from the courtyard after losing around half of her total health. Be ready to fight another Gate Guardian #2. Just like before, be very cautious and try to attack him most of all from distance.

Defeating the Gate Guardian will let you advance to the hardest part of the battle, as apart from Meredith, lesser Stone Statues will also keep appearing #1. I'd definitely recommend focusing on them #2. Meredith in the meantime should be focused on fighting the NPCs and you can't allow too many Statues to appear.

The Statues will be coming from various sides, so it's worth to stay cautious and keep checking the map #1. Attack Meredith only during short breaks between fighting the Statues. Eventually there should be no Statues left. Only then should you focus fully on damaging Meredith #2.

After depriving Meredith of another part of her health bar, two new Gate Guardians will appear at the same time #1. This time the monster will be very good at attacking from a distance, so try to fight them directly #2. Of course attack one at a time, keeping an eye on your party's health.

Eliminating both Guardians will let you advance to the last part of the fight with Meredith #1, which shouldn't be interrupted by any cutscenes with new monsters. Keep attacking Meredith until her health bar is almost empty #2.

A cutscene showing Meredith's death should play #1. You can sit back and enjoy the game ending #2. Congratulations!

Step 3, Option B: Siding with the Templars

Right before choosing the side you will learn the opinion of some of your party members #1. It's worth to add that you will be able to hope for support from:

• Carver - Only if he accompanied you and didn't die in Deep Roads. If on the other hand Carver became a Grey Warden with Anders' help, she will join you once you move to Lowtown.
• Fenris
• Varric
• Isabela
• Merrill
• Aveline

Anders' attack will be brought to the topic later. First Enchanter Orsino will leave the location #2, ordering his mages to take care of the Templars.

Note that during this battle you will be only controlling the main hero #1, but you don't have any reasons to worry as the characters mentioned above will also join the fight and so will Meredith doing quite fine without your help. Proceed with eliminating the mages #2.

Defeating them shouldn't take you too long. Afterwards you will have to make a decision regarding Anders. You will be able to ask the other party members for their opinion, but the final decision is yours. You can #1:

• Ask Anders to rejoin your party (upper right dialogue option). The Grey Warden will agree to that and as a result will accompany you in the further events.
• Force Anders to leave the party (middle right dialogue option). The Grey Warden won't die, but you won't be able to add him to your party. He won't however disappear forever and will appear in the further part of the game.
• Execute Anders (lower right dialogue option). The main hero will kill him without a fight and your participation #2.

Irrespectively of your decision regarding Anders, you will be now asked to choose your party #1. Think twice before making a decision, as you will be able to make a change only after getting to The Gallows. Of course it's worth to choose one character from each class. Your new task is to get to the Docks. Start off by heading east, towards The Hanged Man #2. From here head south, towards the foundries.