Dragon Age II 'The Last Straw' Help?

I'm a mage who needs help in one of the earlier battles in 'The Last Straw.' I'm on the part of the docks where you face tons of Horrors, a Blood Mage, and...I forgot the name of it, but it's a huge monster. You know what I mean. I would like to know what party members I should choose (all lvl. 13) , and what tactics I should use for this level only. No spoilers, please.

Things you should know:

Party members-Isabela, Varric, Avalene, Anders, and Merril

I don't have that many AOF (Area of Effect) spells and it's killing me. Help, please! Lots of points to the best answer. Thanks!Dragon Age II 'The Last Straw' Help?
You can always change the difficulty if needed.....to be fair the entire game on normal isn't to bad except for a few fights that just piss you off to no end.



Take out the mage first, they do the most damage to your party. I would use Isabella if it was me, backstab usually messes mages up pretty fast. Or a stun move can atleast make it easier since it stops there castly.



I would use Mage hawk, Isabella, Varric ( Arrows hit hard ) and then Avalene just because you need a tank. If your mage can not heal I would use Anders instead of Avalene, and manually heal if needed. Also don't be afraid to use mana and health potions. You get tons of them so its not a big deal to lose them in one of maybe 4 hard battles.



Drop the mage, then take out some of the smaller mobs so you don't take so much damage. Make sure you watch everybodies health and use potions around 50% or so. Have anders heal while you and varric drop serious damage from afar and watch isabellas HP closely as she will be pretty much tanking the fight.