I said in another topic that my rule for video games is 50/50: if half of your main cast is worth my interest, then you did an all right job. Low standards, maybe, but they've been set over years of experience.

So Inquisition passes my personal benchmark, but I was wondering where everyone else is with the main cast. By which I mean your nine followers and three advisors. My highlights are...

Varric: Fantasy Garrus, basically. Your cool dwarven bro who openly acknowledges how crazy everything happening is. I thought he was underwritten in DA2, but the voice actor is charming enough to make up the difference. With Inquisition's Varric, I've come to realize that Bioware relies on certain archetypes because they're low-hanging fruit. It doesn't take much effort to like Varric, frankly. But I still like him. He's my bro.

Dorian: Here's another character carried largely by the strength of his voice acting. It was cool to get a Tevinter's perspective on stuff, but I didn't think that perspective was fresh or nuanced enough to stand out much. Still, like the great Haytham Kenway, it doesn't really matter what you're saying if you say it with wit and charisma. I like the audacity of his mustache, too.

Leliana: I was iffy on her at the start, to be honest. I liked that she was kind of a ditz in Origins, but with enough of an edge to make her interesting. In Inquisition she seemed to be all-edge, but her arc acknowledges and addresses this later on. Leliana dealing with grief, questioning her faith and reevaluating her ethics made her one of the more relatable characters by the end.

Cassandra: Her tough lady act is convincing if not super compelling, but I like that she's passionate, a dreamer at heart. When you get to talking about her thoughts on the Chantry, I really started coming around on Cass. Plus her interactions with Varric are pretty good. There's a late-game one involving a book that is literally the high point of the entire game for me.

The lowlight, sadly, is Sera. I think her character, in the hands of another developer, could be pretty decent. But the way Bioware stages dialogue scenes makes for really poor comic timing. As far as they've come, there's still a sense of clumsy puppeteering in their dialogue scenes. Her "no breeches!" shit feel completely flat with me, and I knew then that things with Sera were going to be rough.

Chalk it up to the sheer quantity of these scenes: Naughty Dog can go in and direct every scene like a movie, but that's because it's about as long as a movie. A Bioware game requires a huge amount of canned, procedural animations, and it makes for a presentational style that doesn't always gel. Sera is an unfortunate casualty of this, I think.

So, that's who I came away liking the most. Which characters were your guys' favorites, or your least favorites? Am I totally off-base with Sera?

I actually feel the exact same way about the characters as you did. My main party was Varric, Cassandra and Dorian. I didn't use Iron Bull very much but his interaction with Varric about Bianca is so amazing that it puts him on my highlights as well. I found Sera and Cole to both be too aloof and wacky.

I like all the characters. Sera is hilarious and an excellent contrast to some others. The banter when you have her on quests can be classic. The only one I don't speak w/much is Vivienne. Her arrogance causes me to never use her, but I hear she's uber powerful, so maybe someday. I think she has a rift tree you can fill out? Thought I read her and Dorian have the specializations to preview for your Quisitor's choice. I run Cass, Blackwall, and Solace 90% of the time btw, and put in Sera if I need some locks picked...or a chuckle. I need to use Cole at some point too and find out his trip.

Varric (which is weird since I didn't care for him in II), Cassandra and Dorian were my main party and the only party members I thought were any good. It was like a game full of Stens. I thought Cole was cool at first, but he quickly just becomes repetitive and boring. I don't really like what they did with Leliana in this game, but when I think about it, I didn't really care for her in Origins either sooo. Sera is just annoying and not funny. Hawke continues to be one of the best characters in the DA universe, but they're, sadly, not a party member.

Sera tickles my funny bone but I also liked Tiny Tina, so, no accounting for taste?

I really like Iron Bull because of how different he is. He's essentially a communist yet he makes every else come off as preachy and closed-minded. Also he has a bit with Cassandra where he calls out unrealistic fantasy armor for women. Made me chuckle.

And I was already a big Leliana fan but man, the mage storyline blew my mind. She's easily my favorite character in the DA universe.

Also I have a huge crush on Josephine. Her super-power is being capable and reasonable and I am way into that.

Some more thoughts on the cast:

Cole: he's pretty interesting in concept but they overplayed their hand with his supernatural empathy bit and it got annoying. In Mass Effect, Thane had something similar; he would go into a trance and relive some moment through his species' eidetic memory. But they had the good sense to do it like twice.

Iron Bull: Like Varrick, he came off to me as another stock Bioware archetype, but the voicework isn't as good. Freddie's voice fits well enough but the slight accent he used grated on me. They could've pitched him down an octave or two also. He's still decently entertaining though.

Blackwell: There's a late game revelation about him that's really interesting on paper, but I didn't feel the writers got enough mileage out of it. Without that bit, he's pretty staid and boring, like Sten without the neat Qun stuff.

My main man Dorian. I like how he acts like he's out of the 17th century while everyone else is still in the 15th century. His dialogue regarding how slavery seemed completely normal and logical and how the poor living in squalor and chaos seems backwards is something I'm used to reading from Enlightenment thinkers dealing with the vestiges of the bad old world, trying to dowse a better way.

I like that the party is large enough that a diverse set of viewpoints are expressed. Last game you mostly just had the Fenris-Anders axis; whatever you do either pleases the renegade apostate abomination or the ex-Tevinter slave who suffered under magisters. In this game you have everything from a Circle enchanter with a knack for the Grand Game, elven apostates who come off like Kane from Kung Fu, and a Tevinter Mage doing some conflict tourism. They have different opinions on different things, it creates those complex interpersonal webs that I really dig.

Maybe it's because I'm a dwarf, but I like Scout Harding a lot. Everyone likes the super-competent side character who supports the heroes and just does her job. She's like the Wedge Antilles of the Inquisition. I like her working-class attitude, and I like her freckles.

Actually, I like everyone's freckles. The 'complexion' masks you can slide over the faces really go the distance to humanize them. Solas' skin blemishes make him come off like a person I know rather than a weird magical beatnik. Maybe it's because how skinny and passive he is, but he reminds me for all the world of a Portland cruelty-free hipster.

I'm kinda super into everyone except for Cole and that's just because it feels like I'm missing something with him. His book probably isn't that important but it still leaves that impression.

Still, I think I like Sera the most. Her banters with everyone else are great and the little prank event in Skyhold was really endearing.

I like all the characters so far. Some like Vivienne I dislike due to her opinions but as a character, she's great.

I get what you mean about Sera though, that breeches thing didn't work but I think a lot of her other stuff is pretty good. Bioware has always had problems with comic timing though.

I have a hard time deciding on whether Cassandra or Dorian is my favourite. Cassandra has a lot more to her than she appears to have at the beginning and Dorian's light hearted attitude is always entertaining. It sucks as a lady Inquisitor though, I can't romance either of them. They even went as far as including a little scene where Cassandra takes me aside and tells me nothing will happen between us. I get enough rejection is real life Bioware, I don't need it in my game.

@brodehouse: I did think it was neat, regardless of how well I think the cast turned out, that there was a lot of diversity of background there. There was only so much they could do with that axis in DA2.

Something else I realized playing Inquisition is that while in some stories, character development occurs in the moment, Bioware games do it largely after the fact, upon reflection. Your buddies might make an offhand comment during the big story beats, but the real shit is back at home base, when it's all over. It also means your followers rarely confer with each other about recent events - most party banters are amusing but a bit frivolous. It can make each character feel a bit like an island, which is why I'm happy whenever one follower crosses over into another's "scene".

I'm not sure anymore if this is the most effective way to flesh out a cast of characters or develop interpersonal dynamics, but it's the most workable given Bioware's current model for making games. If anything, with the last few years making me more skeptical and critical of Bioware games, Inquisition helped me solidify my opinions on what works and what doesn't.

I look at them with their powers and personalities in mind. My character is a mage and my usual party is a warrior, rogue, and two mages.

Warrior: Iron Bull, I like that they didn't make him a dumb brute and he feels the best suited for two handed melee weapons, the other two warriors seem more like the shield type. His banter with Vivienne is pretty good.

Rogue: Sera, I like her personality well enough. At the very least, Bioware tried to do something different and she might be annoying to some, but I've yet to hear her called boring. That's more than what I can say for Blackwall, Solas, Cole, and others. She also has good banter with Vivienne. Varric does nothing for me and his powers aren't that great.

Mage: Swapping between Dorian and Vivienne. I like Dorian's personality more, but it seems like his necromancy specialty sucks while her knight enchanter is GREAT. Being a rift mage seems best for controlling the battlefield, but Solas is so boring to me. I'll probably take that specialty myself.

I actually don't care for the cast all that much.

I am a mage so I never use Solas, Dorian or Vivienne. I don't like running with two mages. I am sure I will use one of them a bunch when I do another play through.

I used Varric a bunch in the last game so I am not using him in this one. I was using Sera until I got Cole. I was a big fan of Cole in the books. Sera was geared for bows, and I had some crazy powerful daggers, and Cole is pretty OP with those daggers and his skills. I might re skill Sera for daggers though. As the party chatter with Cole is grating on me.

I've been using Cassandra since the begging. I feel compelled to use her. As if this is really her game. She started the Inquisition. She needs to see it through. And I use Blackwall as my other party member. I've yet to use Iron Bull because there is just something about his voice acting that ruins the character for me. I think hes a terrible character. Too light hearted for a Quanari. And too light on the voice for one too. I wanted a mean bad ass one like in the past games.

I love Iron Bull. He's easily my favorite new character in the game. I also like that he's not just another stoic badass like Sten and practically every Qunari you meet. They're an interesting race from a distance, but that type of character is boring as hell as a companion.

I'm playing a female Inquisitor and I usually go for the lesbian romances when given the option, but I couldn't pass up the chance to see what would happen if I "rode the bull". Worth it. (He's basically the Garrus romance of Dragon Age.)

Though it's clearly not Bioware's intention with Dragon Age, part of me is sad that it isn't more like Mass Effect where the cast of characters is carried forward from one game to the next. Not just as cameos, but substantial supporting roles, and often as permanent squaddies. It allowed the writers to build on previous characterization - or, put less kindly, it let them clean up their messes. Garrus and Tali, I thought, were largely squandered potential in ME1, but during ME2 both really came into their own.

Mass Effect wasn't just a place you could visit periodically, but a group of pals who were waiting for you. That constancy anchored the fans' investment in the universe which... I guess blew up in some of their faces, but I think that's a testament to how much people love ME characters. I don't think Dragon Age will ever replicate that phenomenon to nearly that degree.

I haven't played it yet, but it seems to me that people who enjoy dumb humor like Sera, and people who want something more substantive find her really annoying and juvenile. Anyone think this is accurate?

Iron Bull - He's basically a fantasy-libertine version of Wrex from Mass Effect. Which is awesome.

Vivienne - I don't really like her as a character, but once she got her "Knight-Enchanter" specialization, she became a must in my party. That specialization is ridiculously, stupidly overpowered.

Cole - Seems like he could be cool, but since I'm already a dual-wield rogue I never have him in my party. He also never has anything to say at base, so he just sort of . . . is.

@belegorm said:

Maybe. I ditched her at the first opportunity I had. I guess I don't find any "dumb humor" in her character to enjoy, as dumb humor implies a certain amount of coherence. All she does is put a series of barely intelligible cockney swearwords together while taking totally random actions. It's all "Hit the arse git bollocks shyte. Haha no pants."

That's not humor, it's just stupid.

@lawgamer: Wait, your party members get specials also, not just you? I've made a terrible choice in my special then.

I loved how everyone basically loses respect for you if you do Sera's romance quest. They're all "what really". Viviene and Dorian had amazing answers. I dig how snobby and biting they are, where every other poilitical character in the game is just obnoxious to me. They're aware enough of the bullshit that it works. Sera's legitimately crazy and it works for me, but basically every one of your companions (other than Varric and Iron Bull who are like "hah yer nutty") feel the same way about her that the OP does so I think Bioware is aware of her niche appeal.

Deeper into the game, Cassandra lowers her guard a bit and gains some interest. I like Cole as a character idea, wish they'd done more with it. Blackwall just stays kind of boring to me. Blackwall never had that moment when he became more than an average Grey Warden. By contrast, Iron Bull (who isnt that different, just a gruff everyman with giant horns) by merit of having his own crew, had one of the hardest choices I had to make in the game so far. Giving him that attachment added a lot, and that's what Blackwall lacked even as I brought him along for all the Grey Warden stuff midgame. And Solas never had that moment either but then I haven't done his personal quest yet, we'll see.

I don't know, overall I like all characters, even though I could maybe do without Vivienne, who I think is a bit boring most of the time.

I'm mostly running with Cassandra (who gets pretty cool and funny, even if unintentional, later on), Varric (who I've already always used in DA2, and who still has some very nice party banter) and Dorian (who I think is so well done, except for his cliche "Oh no my snobby family hates that I'm gay." background, that I almost went and romanced him).

Sera is okay. Cole is too, but hasn't enough going on for him, except for his great origin story and pretty cool conversation/mind reading abilities (I still wonder about a few of the comments he made about the rest of the core crew.).

Iron Bull, while fun, also just isn't fleshed out enough (Freddie Prinze Jr. is actually doing a great job voicing him, though.)

Blackwall is a bit stoic, but I kinda like him. I just hope there's more to him than just being a Grey Warden in the end.

Solas has some interesting opinions, but overall can be a bit dry.

Ability wise I guess I'd go with Blackwall, for great taunts/defense, Vivienne, because Knight Enchanter is definitely the best mage class and Sera/Varric, who are both doing a good job in ranged combat. (Note: I'm a duel wielding Rogue on Nightmare difficulty.)

@sessh: I think Iron Bull is easily the most fleshed out Qunari in the entire franchise. He's not just a straightforward embodiment of the Qun like every other Qunari you meet. He's got a flawed past. He's got personal connections. He's got a sense of humor. He believes in the Qun without being blindly devoted to it. (Which results in some decent character growth.) Maybe they could have done more, but I feel like he's the first time you get to see any real depth in the Qunari people as a race. That's what I like about Iron Bull. He feels like a "person", not just an embodiment of an idea.

@sterling: Yeah, each party member has one of the three for each class. So for the rogues, Varric is the Artificer, Cole is the Assassin, and Sera is the Tempest. It's strange, they don't all get them at the same time, and since I never used her in my party it took me awhile to realize that Vivienne had unlocked hers.

I enjoyed Sera quite a bit and she ended up as my female Qunari's love interest and a frequent party member along with Iron Bull and Solas. I found that combination worked out very well for me, and each of them had a pretty neat story to go along with it.

I just got to Skyhold(didn't even go talk to Hawke yet), but here's my thoughts on the characters so far.

Cassandra - She seems ok. At first she seems like the tough angry lady character, but talking to her even a couple of times shows there's definitely more there. Also, her animations/stance when you talk to her looks very much like that of someone who is struggling to talk to you, whether or not she has that bit of awkwardness intentionally or not, it endeared me to her a little. She might make it into my final party.

Varric - Still my main man. Carried over from two for sure, but I don't see him getting worse in this game. The voice acting certainly helps.

Solas - zzzzzzzzzzzz

Sera - Her stuff so far has fallen pretty flat with me and I've found her more annoying than fun. She didn't make it into my party after her recruitment mission and I doubt she ever will. Also, her model looks weird to me.

Vivienne - Something about her just rubs me the wrong way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I don't like her.

Blackwall - I think he's potentially interesting, but a little dry. I do like that there seems to be a directness between the Inquisitor and him though.

Dorian - Thank god for this guy. I thought I was gonna end up with a mageless party, but so far this guy seems great. Also, he has a Dudley mustache.

Iron Bull - Shame to see the reception on him being pretty middling, I thought he was pretty good so far. It might just be refreshing to have Bioware characters with a sense of humor though. I might roll with him a bit more, not sure. It's between him and Cassandra.

Leliana - I really wish I could have her in my party. I liked her in Origins and is the romance partner of my Warden, and I'm liking her more in this game. I see the criticism of her being a bit too rough in this game, but the old Leliana is definitely still there.

Cullen - This dude's ok. Kinda generic, but I'm hoping he'll grow into something more.

Josephine - I like her quite a bit so far. She's nothing incredible, but I look forward to talking to her.

Right now my party is Varric, Dorian, and Iron Bull. I might swap Cassandra in for Bull, not sure. For romance, I'm considering Dorian, Iron Bull, and Josephine. But I'm not that deep in, anything could happen.

@zeik: Okay, you are certainly right about that. He is the best Qunari yet in any DA game. Maybe I just haven't progressed far enough with him friendship wise for him to open up more.

I guess I'll include him in my party more often from now on, to see where his story is actually going.

Blackwall became super interesting to me later on in the game...the dog story and what happens after. He has some good banter with Cassandra.

Cassandra was my romance choice, she got better the more we talked but I still found her kind of plain. Was surprised they show her nipples O_O

Dorian is interesting if you're into the lore enough to care about his Tevinter perspective on things. The voice acting helps elevate him too but otherwise he was my least favorite of these three.

Doing another playthrough with Sera/Iron Bull/? now...

I'm not surprised that some people are annoyed by Viv, since she's somewhat of a snob and a-hole, but overall she doesn't seem to be mean harm. Hearing her say stuff like she's going to buy Iron Bull a designer eye patch made out of gold was funny. Combat wise, she's a beast if you fully upgrade her knight and ice skill-trees. It seems like her barrier never goes away (so she's tough) and she does more damage than a warrior. Hopefully they don't patch her. I'm probably going Josephine as my love interest. I would go Leianna if it was an option.

I feel like I'm the only one that likes Vivienne. She's kind of a snob, yes, but so is everyone from Orlais not named Leliana. She's like fantasy Tyra Banks but reserved. It also helps that I agree with her that the Circle of Mages is a good thing and should be brought back because if Dragon Age has taught me anything it's that mages are fucking idiots unless they are in your party.

I had Solas, Blackwall and Cole for the majority of the game.

Solas: I really enjoyed him. His contextual commentary is especially great from a lore perspective. Also, his rift mage focus attack is prettttyyyy coooool. Give him a chance, his plot twists are intriguing for the (inevitable) sequal.

Cole: he dished out so much DPS as a dagger rogue, that I didn't mind how repetitive his conversations were. His banter with other party members is usually hilarious due to his naivety.

Blackwall: His personal twist you can see from a mile away, but his banter with Cole specifically makes up for how vanilla they both are. And his beard is the only good beard in the game.

I was into everyone except Sera, Cole and Blackwall. I was kind of indifferent about Solas until after the credits. The revelation about him is so bananas I couldn't help but appreciate it.

I'm liking almost everyone the more I open up their stories, but I just cannot get Vivienne, Cole, or Blackwell's specializations to unlock. Vivienne has only ever even given me a single mission (recovering books). Do you have to go really deep into the main quest line before befriending them?

My party is Iron Bull, Varric, and Dorian, though Iron Bull is a standout, I feel like they set a very specific tone with the Qunari in the last 2 games, and he does a great job of bringing personality to what felt like a fantasy version of the Geth. and while I'm not quite done with the game yet, I really, really like the little interactions with some of the secondary characters like Harding and Cullen, they make the Inquisition feel like an actual organization rather than just a small band of heroes.

That's exactly my crew too.

Not really ... that seems a little unfair towards Sera. Sure, she is on the goofy side of things and at times a little juvenile, but if you talk to her enough and understand the reasoning for what she is doing and why she is doing the way she does it puts (imho) her sense of humor into perspective. I think especially the prank-"quest" you get from her is a really good example of why there is more to her than butt-jokes.

Also ... who doesn't enjoy a good butt-joke every once in a while.

@encephalon said:

I feel like they carried forward kind of a lot. Varric, Leliana, Cullen, Cassandra, Hawke, Morrigan, and potentially Alistair all have big roles in this game. Two of those are party members, and 2 of them might as well be. I don't think that's anything to scoff at considering almost every party member in Origins could die. It's not like Mass Effect 3 where every previous character showed up again, but it's pretty close to Mass Effect 2 in terms of returning cast.

@hunter5024: That's true. Characters like Morrigan, Alistair, Cass, Varric and Leliana are returning, and they manage to get some good mileage out of prior characterization. But compared to the growing back catalog of characters, I believe they are anomalies that have been singled out due to fan response. Most of your followers in Inquisition, I feel confident in saying they won't feature prominently again.

The developers have explained that they aren't following one protagonist or group of people, but exploring a period of history in this world. That is a huge philosophical difference from Mass Effect, where the cast grows, true, but you're still following Team Shepard throughout all three games.

Of course, whether that's good or bad is up to interpretation. Sometimes it's good to shake things up. I'd have put a bullet in Ashley no questions asked if I knew a cool alien would take her place...

@encephalon: I don't know that we can chalk it up to fan response. Varric and Cass were implied to have a larger role in the story when they were introduced because of DA2's framing device. Morrigan and Alistair were certainly popular characters, but they were also the most important party members in Origins, Morrigan specifically was the biggest loose end from the first game, so it just makes sense for both of them to show up again. Given that, I wouldn't consider them anomalies, I expect the series will continue to revisit characters from previous games.

However you're right, it is a fundamental philosophical difference and it's a fair criticism. Though personally I like that Dragon Age does things a little differently from Mass Effect.

I don't know I like all of them on some level with a few exceptions. Yeah... Sera. She is okay on her own but her reasons for joining are... weak at best and it just doesn't seem like something a character of that nature would be involved in. At least not as a direct member of the inquisition. She does get some funny party banter with a few people though, surprisingly she and Blackwell get along really well even though she hates just about everyone else. Then there is Cole. I don't dislike him he just doesn't seem to have a personality of his own and he never really comes into anything for me. It also doesn't help that his special tree is all about melee and playing on nightmare well... you can't have melee in your party unless they are a tank or you are going to directly control them for a large portion of combat. Since I play a two hand warrior.... yeah not going to invest effort in using him much.

My personal go to party is well... the default one. Cassandra, Varric, and Solas. I do mix it up a lot though especially as you get later in the game since I specced each mage to be a different element user. If you play on higher difficulty (especially when fighting things higher level than you) then you have to consider their weakness cause if you don't exploit them it goes rather poorly in general.

I've always considered Dragon Age to be one of the weaker (weakest?) Bioware games in terms of characters. None of them really do much for me and you're definitely right about Bioware relying on archetypes a lot of the time or being extremely ham-handed about it.

Cassandra is the only one which has caught my interest a little bit, mostly because she seems to have another, not so obvious layer to her character. Although I might be wrong about that and she won't turn out to be that interesting or layered after all. We'll see.

Blackwall, Sera, and Dorian have been my main dudes. It's been really fun too, because they all seem to really like to fight with each other, especially Dorian and Blackwall. I even had to intervene and tell them to shut the hell up once while exploring a dungeon, as the argument had escalated to a screaming match between the two. Blackwall apologized, but then a half hour later, they started bickering again.

Sera and Dorian seem to get along, but she doesn't take any shit from him which has created some interesting conversations between the two. One of my favorites was when he asked her where all her arrows come from. She replied that it doesn't really matter, and she doesn't wonder where his fireballs come from when he's shooting them out of his ass. He shut up after that.

Always have Cole in your party!

The incidental conversations that arise from having him around reveals so much about the other characters. While he's obviously just a story-telling mechanism, he's a great way to contribute to the game's narrative without getting underfoot of the gameplay.

My main team is really Cassandra, Dorian and Sera. But I try to use most of the characters (really don't like Iron Bull and is my least used character) but more importantly I try to bring characters to events that are important or close to them to see what they say. I really wish I tried to bring Vivenne (even though I hate her) to the Orlais Court chapter (favorite part of the game so far) but didn't expect that.

@alkusanagi: You mean their own specialisations and not the stuff you might need for the Inquisitor, right? I honestly don't think they have to like you, since all I ever did was piss Vivienne off and her class still showed up immediately. You just have to include them in your active party once, when they reach level 10.

I really like Bull, he's got some of the best ambient dialogue with the other characters. Like when he and Blackwall are comparing how many limbs they've severed.

"Wait, do heads count?"

"Heads ABSOLUTELY count."

I will say this as I approach the endgame, the seemingly dullest characters end up having some of the bigger revelations. So that's an interesting way to write. You've got your outwardly eccentric characters who don't grow much then your seemingly boring characters that end up growing a lot

I really love Sera. Her dialogue when you first meet her is pretty terrible admittedly, but I felt as you got closer to her in game (I'm pursuing her for the romantic interest in my first playthrough) she became far more enjoyable. I really like the conversations she has between Iron Bull, too.

@sessh: Ah, thanks! I haven't used them at all since I first got them.

Personally I don't mind Sera. I actually thought the birches bit was funny though because the Inquisitor just screams "WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE THEIR WEAPONS!" I also feel like people are overplaying her craziness. She's crazy but it's not like totally random.

Personally my party is Dorian, Bull, and Varric. Though I want to add Viv since she's a knight enchanter which seems crazy overpowered but when I had her she didn't do much with the abilities even. But like Sera says "She's a bitch and she knows it." Which is kind of hard to get past.

I personally didn't enjoy Sera either. I felt like it was an office in joke that made it into the game.

Once I got past Iron Bull's initial voice acting, (I felt like I could hear the the struggle to keep the "voice" going)

I really enjoyed him. Cassandra and Varric have the best moments for me, but that may play into my enjoyment of DA2.

Solas was initially very interesting because of his interest into the fade, but I ended up having a party that mostly consisted of Vivianne, Cassandra, and Iron bull.

I'm lvl. 23 right now and I might swap Varic for Iron bull.

Anyway, game is fucking great. It has obvious flaws but it's so damn good that it's easy to just blow them off.

I haven't played Inquisition, but your descriptions of those characters sound exactly like Mass Effect characters (I'm just guessing here):

Varric: you acknowledged he's basically Garrus.

Dorian: He's Javik. Novel character you probably didn't expect to get in your party but are thrilled to have... but are very disappointed by (sounds like Mass Effect's is better, but I hate what they tried to say with his character, i.e. "he's a brute soldier guy... so, like... that means every single Prothean was a brutish soldier? That is totally ridiculous, but sure we're done writing.")

Leliana: Liara. Her name even looks similar. She starts off ditzy and then miraculously becomes a stern and influential political player... or something.

Cassandra: Miranda. Rough on the outside, but has a sob story that makes you think she earned that hard exterior.

Cassandra: When I first heard that she was going to be a party member I rolled my eyes so hard that it was practically audible. But she really grew on me after a while, to the point that I never took her out of my party.

Varric: I liked him in 2 but because he was a returning character I never felt the need to bring him anywhere. Kinda wish he was an adviser instead.

Solas: He was fine but kinda boring. To be fair, I didn't spend much time talking to him so he might have gotten way more interesting if I had. Also his reveal at the end of the game is making me heavily consider rolling with him more on my second play through.

Vivienne: I have now spent a solid three games talking shit about the Circle of Magi, so I'm not compelled to get to keep her around much.

Cole: I regret spending as little time with him as I did in my first play through, I couldn't figure out where he was in the base because I'm an idiot. Now that I'm seeing more of him on my second play through I'm really digging all of his dialogue in the world but I feel like they could be using him for more then they are.

Blackwall: They don't do enough with his mid game twist, he could have been really interesting but he isn't.

Dorian: I really like Dorian, on paper he seems really stock and still kinda is in game but everything about him just works really well. Talking to him about his homeland was some of my favorite dialogue in the game.

Iron Bull: He is really fun, not super deep, but fun. Wish they had done more with the Ben-Hassrath stuff but either way I enjoyed him.

Sera: I totally get why some people don't like her. She was really annoying to me when you first meet her but after that first scene I started to enjoy her quite a bit and the conversations she has with the other party members are great.

On my first play through I was a mage and my normal party was, Cassandra, Iron Bull and Sera. For the second play through I'm a two handed warrior and my party is, Cassandra, Cole and Dorian.