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twitch.tv/letterswords
Just tested it quickly by going back to an old save. I had 720/12000 influence during the Winter Palace mission and 4300/12000 in the save I made right after (this is in my testing playthrough so I didn't really do any of the random sidequests there either). Unfortunately my video is cut off right at the end from when I did it on-stream so I can't see how much exactly we are guaranteed to get though, but it looks like somewhere in the 3000-3600 range. So since it takes 5000 influence to go from 5-6 we'd need to be somewhere around 1400-2000/5000 before doing the mission. The fade one isn't really an option since we have to go through 2 sets of power requirements to get there (Western Approach and then Adamant Fortress), but my stream showed that one as giving 3200 influence when completed, which is approximately in line with the Winter Palace one anyways.
I ran through the Winter Palace thrice to look through some things, and this is what I came up with: influence seems to fluctuate in regards to how much approval one has gathered; one can skip most enemy groups; the groups that we have to kill are easily killed with Sera.

I, doing as little as possible, managed to get 3480 influence by answering correctly to Grand Duchess Florianne de Chalons during our dance; I used the conversation options 2->4->2->2->2->2->1 which gains us 35 approval during the dance. Sometimes, the option "I trust the inquisition (5 approval)" is on option 2, and sometimes option 5. If it is on 5 then option 2 should be blank. I believe it is due to the small sidequest (find the key at the beginning of Winter Plaace) might have triggered it. Doing that sidequest grants us 3560 influence instead of 3480.
twitch.tv/letterswords
Yeah, definitely a bit of variation seems correct. If it only varies by less than 100, that means most of the time we won't have variation in the amount of requistions we have to make (since they give 200 influence each). Either way, its about 17 or 18 less requistions we have to do in exchange for maybe 1 or 2 noticably longer fights (The rift and grand duchess as the end), which seems definitely faster.
Edit history:
DashingSplash: 2014-12-17 03:41:52 pm
And, in the end, we will have to do the Winter Palace sooner or later. I've actually looked at some other routes up till Crestwood, and I must say that I've so far had no luck with finding a consistent route that seems faster than my current route. Then again, I haven't tested them yet.But, the problem is, that with going templar, we would have to grab the Fade-Touched Obsidian behind the dragon. Getting there takes longer than running up to Redcliffe; there's also the problem that the dragon might one-shot you if you are unlucky. Then we also have the requisitions; which, is RNG dependant, and we will have to go out of our way to grab the Drakestone. These routes also requires more duping than otherwise.

However, I/we will have to try these other routes out before I/we dismiss them. I'm not saying my route is not improvable, it canprobably improve quite a bit, but I don't think it is with requisitions in the Hinterlands, and perhaps not siding with the templars either. I'll try the route (not sure if Crossroads give power or not):

Prologue -> Hinterlands -> (Iron) -> Rift -> Camp -> Templars in the West -> (Onyx) -> Mount -> Rift -> Camp -> Crossroads -> (Druffalo) -> Duping -> Camp -> Fade-Touched Obsidian -> Val Royeaux -> T2 Schematics -> Sera -> Vivienne -> Crafting - Chantry -> Blackwall -> (Drakestone) -> Duping -> Requisitions to 18 power (4 or 5 turn-ins).

or

Prologue -> Hinterlands -> (Iron) -> Crossroads -> (Druffalo) -> Templars in the West -> (Onyx) -> Mount -> Rift -> Camp -> Val Royeaux -> T2 Schematics -> Sera -> Vivienne -> Crafting -> Chantry -> Blackwall -> (Drakestone) -> Duping -> Camp -> Fade-Touched Obsidian -> Requisitions to 18 power (7 or 8 turn-ins).

or

Prologue -> Hinterlands -> (Iron) -> Crossroads -> (Druffalo) -> Templars in the West -> (Onyx) -> Mount -> Val Royeaux -> T2 Schematics -> Sera -> Vivienne -> Crafting -> Chantry -> Blackwall -> (Drakestone) -> Duping -> Camp -> Fade-Touched Obsidian ->  Requisitions to 18 power (9 turn-ins).

Any suggestions?
Edit history:
letterswords: 2014-12-17 03:54:55 pm
twitch.tv/letterswords
I wonder if going all the way into redcliffe just for the fade touched obsidian might still be a good idea? We do need regular obsidian too for the requsitions later (Crestwood ones) right (I totally forget)? We can also do the rift on the way in (and the one in the chantry I guess if that gives power too). As far as which route is best, I guess we just need to test them all, but I wouldn't doubt that doing Hinterlands requisitions might be slower. We can do all the stuff in Redcliffe with the mages without locking us down that path, so if that seems best we can do that and then switch to templars if the templar mission is strictly speaking faster than the Redcliffe castle part of the mages quest.

EDIT: Also, as far as requistions go, I was suggesting just slotting in like 1 or 2 of them. That way we could just throw maybe some of the extra iron we duped for crafting the T2 weapons at a requistion or two.
Edit history:
DashingSplash: 2014-12-18 08:44:02 am
DashingSplash: 2014-12-18 08:34:12 am
DashingSplash: 2014-12-18 08:30:40 am
Did my first full attempt today (Took a little more than 5 hours, but without many errors in a run we should be able to get it down to sub 4 hours). Well, I had to go at Corypheus, but managed to kill him after having done Cole's quest in which he becomes more human. Also had problems with Cole overall, since I choose options in which he disapproved resulting in him leaving...We have to take that in consideration. I died plenty (due to slight errors done by me), and made certain errors like too much power entering Skyhold. Almost everythin can be seen here: http://www.twitch.tv/dashingsplash/c/5706993

Should we stop the time at killing Corypheus, or at credits?
Edit history:
letterswords: 2014-12-18 10:49:08 am
twitch.tv/letterswords
Killing Corypheus seems like a better point to end, I don't really see a reason to include the stuff when you get back to Skyhold in the timing. I guess I'll try to do a run soon too, but I've been kind of slacking and need to make sure I study your route before I do an actual run. Also yeah, the Templars mission does seem to give more power, so you can subtract some of the stuff off (I previously thought this might be the case when I noticed I had less power after doing the Mages mission than Templars during testing but I thought I probably just had more power left over after the Hinterlands stuff).
twitch.tv/letterswords
So i tested out a route through the hinterlands plus made sure that we do indeed get more power from the templars (which we do). That means we need to enter the Templars mission with 18 power to have enough to unlock Crestwood  (8) + be able to trigger In Your Heart Will Burn (1) after finishing the Templars quest. My route also involved duping so that I could get 2 tier 2 staves (I still want to test out the Palace before Emprise Du Lion route, plus wanted to see if it would make combat noticably faster). The route I have ended up 1 power "short" in that I didn't really have a good way to get the last power i needed. I ended up picking up Blackwall, but that seems like a big diversion and the same seemed to be the case for the camp near the dragon area. I think maybe trying 1 requistition or grabbing the last dwarfson's pass rift (my route only got 2 of the 3) seem better.

Here's a map of the route I used as well (without the changes I mentioned factored in):

I'll take a look at your route tomorrow. I did manage to get another run done with the time 4:23:29 with loads. Had to restart the game thrice due to some stupid things, and plaidweave RNG was awful. My Corypheus fight was terrible aswell, so a sub 4 hour (with loads) is possible. Here it is: http://www.twitch.tv/dashingsplash/c/5709451
Edit history:
letterswords: 2014-12-19 10:10:18 am
letterswords: 2014-12-19 10:05:13 am
letterswords: 2014-12-19 09:52:46 am
letterswords: 2014-12-18 08:33:53 pm
twitch.tv/letterswords
Sounds good. Very nice time for so early on. I have no idea if my route is actually faster, but I did make a few mistakes definitely and my gameplay especially on the Templar mission was bad (because I forgot what to do on certain parts). I finished the Templar mission about 1h28min after the start of the game, which was around 7 minutes slower than you got in your run. Some of the additional time was lost messing around with what to do for the last power point I needed, some was lost duping to make tier 2 staves (no idea if this is worth it).

Also, it looks like it takes you around 4 minutes longer to get the necessary influence to hit level 6 compared to the around 1500 or so you'd want if you do winter palace to hit rank 6. So if we can finish Winter Palace no more than 4 minutes slower than with tier 3 weapons it might be worth it. We'd also have to take into account how long it takes to get tier 2 weapons earlier on (i timed it at around 3 minutes) and how much time tier 2 weapons save between when we get them and when the route diverges (hard to figure out). We could also consider testing not crafting tier 2 weapons and still going for the winter palace mission with even worse weapons but at that point I think we'd definitely be slower than the method you were using.

EDIT: Tested it out and the combat makes the winter palace too difficult to do without tier 3 weapons. So grinding to level 6 influence on requisitions seems to be the plan. However, I guess we could stop a little short to take into account the 3000 influence we get from capture Suledin Keep (tested it and this seems to be how much we get).
Edit history:
DashingSplash: 2014-12-20 06:49:35 am
I also had some trouble with the game before Templar Mission etc. So, your attempt would have been about 14 minutes slower overall I think if the game didn't get stuck in a infinite loading screen...Twice. xD So, I'm not sure if that last power and skipping duping would make up for it? Maybe it would. My run has a lot of bad parts, and we should probably be able to get my route down to sub 4 hour. And, with some of your ideas implemented we might eventually get sub 3:30? : D We will have to try your route a bit more aswell, and see what it can improve etc. Did you get the Val Royeaux agent that I got? That would be a quick power gain.

Yea, I was dubious as to if the Winter Palace would be possible with tier 2 weapons at all, as I barely managed to kill the Grand Duchess with tier 3 weapons.

One thing that was on my mind though, was that instead of Crestwood duping we would grab the Caer Bronach Keep in Crestwood, along with opening the dam, as that would give us 2200 influence and 7 power. Capturing Suledin Keep provides 3000 influence. But, the problem would be the remaining 3800  influence for level 6, and we still need 13 power to unlock Emprise du Lion to be able to capture Suledin Keep since Emprise du Lion requires 20 power.

Here is some testing in Arbor Wilds and Temple of Mythal: http://www.twitch.tv/dashingsplash/c/5718675
We can save about 1 minute and 30 seconds in Arbor Wilds with this skip: http://www.twitch.tv/dashingsplash/c/5718526
Edit history:
letterswords: 2014-12-20 09:04:04 am
twitch.tv/letterswords
I was actually thinking about the same thing--could we get the influence faster if we do stuff other than duping instead. I guess we would mostly have to test out quests and stuff in crestwood since that's an area we will have easy access to (maybe do some stuff in hinterlands too if necessary). I guess maybe check out the quest that sends us into old crestwood by shutting off the dam since we'll pretty much already be at the dam by doing crestwood's keep. Other than that, I'm not sure what other stuff to do (i kinda forget most of crestwood).Even if we can cut it down to like 1000-2000 influence by requisitions that could be faster too i guess since we'd massively decrease the amount of duping we have to do.

Also yeah i was already getting that one power in Val Royeaux. I think the best plan for me is either the wolves quest, another rift in dwarfson's pass, or a single requisition.

EDIT: Also, that skip looks pretty cool. And if you want to stop that mouse cursor flickering from happening you need to turn off capturing the mouse cursor on the windows you set up in OBS.
If we have to do requisitions at all I don't think it is worth it though, since duping is such a quick process compared to other stuff. But, I'm going to try another run in a few minutes, and see if I can get sub 4 hours. I was also thinking of posting it on the dragonage reddit to see if we can get a bit more people to join our effort to game fast! öAö If you've got time feel free to peek in on my twitch channel!

The rift in Dwarfson's pass will probably be the quickest in the end. Or, you could pick up the Onyx at Templars in the West and save-scum for that quest.

Ah yea, that's neat. Though, that one was only temporary. But, good to keep in mind nonetheless. Well, it is too bad that it doesn't save more time. Then again, it only took me about 30 minutes to find that one anyway...A bit more to learn how to properly do it though.
Here is todays run: http://www.twitch.tv/dashingsplash/c/5721460

Terrible Winter Palace! Totally worthless. /: But, we should look into if we can skip the Grand Duchess fight.
twitch.tv/letterswords
Maybe, I wasn't really around for that part so I'm not sure how hard it is to do. Sorry for not coming in for the end, I was having stream issues (dropping frames/stream going offline) like I have been a decent amount recently and spent most of the time I meant to be streaming trying to fix them.
Hmm, perhaps we will have to do a bit of research in regards to the Winter Palace? Try some stuff out, and see if we can "shank" the Grand Duchess and skip the fight? Evil That fight is rather unpredictable tbh. ö-ö And, don't worry about it! You'd stuff to do/fix. You can always see the video if you want to try out the current route.

Btw, made a post on reddit to see if I can attract more people interested in finding skips etc. http://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2pxebs/spoilers_dragon_age_inquisition_any_speedrun/
Edit history:
letterswords: 2014-12-20 06:18:45 pm
twitch.tv/letterswords
Yeah, I really don't know much about the Winter Palace mission so definitely worth some testing. I still really need to get a first run done sometime soon, I wanted to today but that's not happening anymore. And with the holidays coming up here it'll be tough to fit it in. Also, why did you not go to Emprise du Lion as soon as you hit 2000/5000 influence and instead continue duping to level 6 influence? You definitely have 20 power by the time you get to that much influence, and you get 3000 influence when you take the keep.
That's a really good question. ö-ö Got no idea why I didn't, but something I should do next time definitely. xD Good thing you told me about that. Now, I'm off to bed!
So, found the route necessary to skip the Winter Palace boss: http://www.twitch.tv/dashingsplash/c/5727489
Edit history:
letterswords: 2014-12-21 07:06:55 pm
twitch.tv/letterswords
I do agree that it seems like it should be possible to do the other route now, but I doubt its faster. The influence gain that would've been beneficial by doing the Winter Palace can almost completely be replaced by going to Suledin Keep for the last 3000 influence we need (which was something I had not thought of at all when I thought of Winter Palace first route).

I'm pretty sure the biggest potential time save left from a route change would be the Western Approach RNG schematics instead of Suledin Keep. However, it may turn out that the 3000 influence bonus from Suledin Keep combined with Tier 3 schematics still turns out to be way better even with insanely good RNG. Depends how much power/influence we get from doing the Warden mission in Western Approach I guess. Either way, losing a run to RNG 2+ hours in sounds like the opposite of fun, plus it would require picking up the lockpicking inquistion perk. That route might look something like this though:
    Crestwood->Warden + Requistions to some amount of influence and power (but less than level 6 influence)
    Western Approach-> head west from camp to still ruins, farm chests behind 2 locked doors for schematics (there's tier 3 guaranteed material drops in one room  as well). Then once you have a dagger and staff schematic, do Warden quest in Western Approach. Go to Skyhold to get a bunch of power from Farris.  Then do whichever of the Adamant Fortress/Winter Palace missions you want.
To be honest, I don't think that the Still Ruins would do it though, but we have to test it first. As we still have to do duping, we would probably have to get reaaaaally good RNG for it to benefit us. We would still need 20 Power to unlock Emprise du Lion, and 30 power for the Winter Palace. Hmm, I don't think I thought through it all when I made that video. Oh well.

Btw, I timed the loading screens, and my run has 50 minutes and 54 seconds of loading screens. So, the run is down to 3:26:07 without loading screens! (:
twitch.tv/letterswords
We'd actually only need the 30 power for winter palace since we probably wouldnt even go to emprise du lion. And yeah it probably isnt faster but its an alternative that might be with really good luck. Either way im not going to do runs that go there so its probably not worth testing.

50+ minutes of loads is insane; i wonder if mine are that bad since i dont have an SSD either. I'm gonna try to do a run either today or tomorrow so i guess we'll hopefully see (depends if my stream is working).
Oh yea, that's true. Though, Emprise du Lion is like only 5 minutes. And, getting to Still Ruins, save-scum and then dupe and craft weapons is most likely longer right? Then again, we wouldn't have to dupe money to buy schematics. But, as you said...Leaving the run (at +2 hours) to RNG is rather tricky. xD

Yea, it is really long. /: Hopefully, I'll be able to buy an SSD, so I don't have to spend all that extra time watching loading screens. But, exams coming up, so won't do many runs up until those are done.
twitch.tv/letterswords
Yeah, I've been meaning to get an SSD for a while (mostly for speedrunning lol) so i guess this gives me a good reason to get one. Probably better to do it sooner rather than later too i guess since we'd probably have to reinstall it and that would autopatch it to current version i think
Btw, have you tried: http://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2pqnrq/psa_how_to_gather_all_the_things/ it should work on PC aswell, but I'm not sure if the new patch has caused it or not. Then playing as a Rogue Archer would be faster, but not sure if it is faster than mount unless one gets the masterwork for faster stealth speed.