reading dragon age wiki and accidentally found a new strat lul: if you are under effects of anti-magic ward while you cast flying swarm, you get some of the benefits including speed but stay in human form, and can cast all your spells/use potions. definitely useful for max quests and all treaties, could theoretically be useful for any% but would require changing route quite a bit (and allowing us to use some things like dlc items and previously unlocked specializations that might be sorta questionable?).

I did some tests in Any% and it could be that this new glitch will win us a few tens of seconds. I still have to plow the routing but I think we can do something with it. On the assumption that we are allowed to use DLC items and specializations of course but I am completely for. This is already the case for Dragon Age 2 and 3 for items. Why not for Origins? And the metamorphic specialization is very easy to have, especially following the romance% routing.

yeah i'm definitely for it, just wasn't a thing before so i thought i'd mention it

also a really nice benefit i didn't mention: you don't get pushed out of the glitched flying swarm when you enter conversations

EDIT:

did some testing, it looks like it should be faster for any%. It seems like the best way to do it is still only exp glitch to 10 and hold off on getting haste and two other spells and grab both swarm and anti-magic ward there.

Then glitch to get enough money for tome after lothering, travel to denerim, go back to camp, buy another tome and dupe some. you'd potentially want at least 6 to get haste and to same offensive spells we'd normally have by denerim, and maybe more to gain access to even better combat abilities than we normally have (doesn't take long to add a single extra dupe once we are already there duping).

Only times you'd want to use morrigan with swarm are for denerim gate skip (still need to transform to get OOB in river and don't want to switch out of the glitched state with warden) and for arl howe's estate (the exterior) since if you do that run with the warden you can't easily get him inbounds to kill the two guards by the door.

Ok, let's recap the advantages and disadvantages of this new glitch.

Advantages :

• Allows to be very fast with the Warden and to replace Morrigan by him during OOB.
• Allows to use spells with the Flying Warm state.
• The state of Flying Warm is not removed during conversations.
• Mana takes damage in place of life.
• The enemies close to the Warden take damage.

Disadvantages:

• We must climb more levels during the xp glitch. (Or use the dupeglitch)
• Some OOBs have to be reviewed (we can not change shape with the Warden.)
• If we take more level, the enemies too. We need to increase our magic a little more to OS mobs.

According to this, here is the new routing that I tested and of course I run with the Warden as much as possible :

Harrowing : unchanged

Mage origin: I take 600 points distributed like this : 30 in constitution, 25 in cunning, 120 in will, the rest in magic.

So little in constitution because we need life only for the lands of Korcari. After that, we have the state of Flying Warm so life is useless. In contrast, a lot of will for a lot of mana. It loses about 5 seconds to take 100 more points

Korcari: XP glitch up to level 14 (12 points)

I take the following spells: Flying Warm (3), Haste (4), Anti-Magic Ward (3), Walking Bomb (1), Vulnerability Hex (1). We lose about 30 seconds to take 4 more levels.

The spells I leave for the entire run: Inferno: Since Flying Warm does damage to nearby enemies, Inferno becomes a little useless. Simply slightly adjust the combat strategies and be more in touch with the enemy. Drain Life: Since we no longer need life, we no longer need to take care of ourselves. In addition to the damage of Flying Warm, another offensive spell is not compulsory. Virulent Walking Bomb: With this new routing, we use this spell just for the archidemon. It's not worth it.

Tower: Unchanged

After the tower, we recovered the lost time and we start to save time.

Lothering: We no longer use Morrigan.

Arl Howe: OOB with the Warden. There is a way to get back into the game without the help of Morrigan. For the outside but also for the interior. I show this in a video:

Alienage: Unchanged

Landsmeet : No inferno, I launch Vulnerability Hex and Fireball then I go in contact so that Flying Warm will do damage. For the duel: Flame Blast and Arcane Bolt while remaining in contact. After the Landsmeet, I take the spells Winter's Grasp and Death Syphon (which I activate).

Redcliffe: A Fireball to kill a lot of mobs. I kill both wizards to the right and left. Then I kill the rest in the stairs then turn and I run near the enemies to kill them with Flying Warm. For the ogre, Vulnerability Hex then offensive spells while staying close.

Denerim Gate Skip: Unchanged. Morrigan transformation is needed for OOB

Drakan: Outside fight: (perhaps the most controversial point of this routing). We send the army of Redcliffe. Focus on the Dragon with Vulnerability Hex, Winter's Grasp and Arcane Bolt. Then we go forward and launch a Fireball to touch the two wizards (left and middle). Then we go on to the right one. Once near, Winter's Grasp on him then Arcane Bolt on the middle mage (the Fireball is not enough for him). Once all the mages have died, we go to the door to intercept and kill all mobs with Flying Warm. Those left behind will be killed by our allies. For the strongest mobs, we throw Arcane Bolt or Winter's Grasp.

Inside: Leave Sten at the door and send the others away. Put Sten in front of the door then turn it so that it is back to the door. Then remind the others. The Warden should be on the other side of the door. I take Sten, because he's the opposite of the Warden when they're in formation. This is the same principle as with Jory for the third floor of the tower.

Archdemon: Unchanged except that you have fewer spells than usual but this is not very serious.

Voilà !

All sounds good, I like your idea for the character build. I also realized that we wanted less constitution and more willpower and probably didn't need certain spells but didn't go into depth with testing that. I already figured out the teleporting thing with the interior of arl howe. Also, I accidentally realized yesterday that it doesn't really matter who teleports to the other side of the door for the fort drakon skip, as if you just walk a little with hold position off everyone will just follow you OOB past the door (see clip below)

Oh, I didn't know the others follow and past the door. It's not the case everywhere. Actually, I take Sten because he doesn't have the haste state so it's better for him to stay at the door.

Just thought of another potential way to save time:change korcari route. Since we run much faster with swarm, get treaties (since that is a much longer distance) on second trip and get 3 vials of blood first trip (to do exp glitch). Just leave everyone other than warden right near exit. Not sure what the best 3 vials to get would be, but old segmented run did it in this order, so maybe find that on youtube and check.

Okay, I did tests. It's faster by at least 30 seconds. 45 with luck and good performance.

That said, there is faster than what the segmented% does. Taking only the Warden, kill the wolves and then go West. There's an enemy camp to clean up. Generally the three that come in melee are those who have the vials.

For the second part, to retrieve the treaties, just rush and kill the group of five just before the chest. Go into contact with the first one on the left and the time Flying Warm makes the kill, kill the others with a Fireball.

Cool. That camp was my guess from knowing the area from all quests routing, but i wasn't positive and wasn't home to test.