Dragon Age 2 - The Last Straw is the final main plot quest in Dragon Age 2. For this walkthrough, players will make a lot of important decisions, siding with either the Templars or the Mages, and then proceed to fight through waves of either Templars or Mages, depending on your side. The quest has 2 boss encounters, first with Orsino, the leader of the mages, who decides to turn to blood magic, and then with Meredith herself.

1. Return home and read the letters you got.
   
2. Accept the Last Straw letter, and go see Orsino in the Gallows.
3. Note: If you start the quest by visiting the Gallows, you will no longer be able to do anything else (ie complete any other quests, buy items, etc), so make sure that you have everything you need and want.
4. Choose which side you want to support, the mages, or the Templars. Although this choice is crucial it will lead to the same ending.
5. Note: the rest of this walkthrough assumes that you sided with the mages. If you sided with the templars, there isn't really much of a difference; you will mostly just face different enemies on your way to the 2 final boss fights.
6. Decide whether you want to kill Anders or let him stay.
   
7. Head to the Gallows by following the quest arrow. Much like the Qunari takeover of the city, you will have to walk all the way through a zone and fight enemies.
   
8. For the Pride Demon fight in the Docks, you will need to quickly AOE down the Shades and focus down the Blood Mages.
   
9. Make sure to also stay out of the light-blue and red spell areas, casted by the Demon. Kill the Demon after you’re done with the Shades and Mages.
   
10. Walk down to the boats.
    
11. After the cutscene, talk to Orsino when you’re ready for the final battle.
    
12. Kill the first wave of Templars.
    
13. Finish off any Templars running in, and then focus all your attention on killing Orsino. This fight is quite easy although lengthy; try to focus on using your most efficient single-target damage spells here. The only other thing to keep in mind is to focus down any extra enemies that spawn quickly before switching back to the boss.
    
14. Take time to distribute level points, loot items, and then head out of the room.
    
15. Here, you will fight a bunch of Shades and a total of 3 Rage Demons. Make sure to have your warrior/tank attack the demons to keep them off the mages, and quickly focus them down one by one.
    
16. Continue fighting your way through the building, until you make it through to the exit.
    
17. It’s time for the final boss fight. Start out by having everyone damage Meredith, until she summons the Gate Guardian. Kill the first, and then the second Guadian, and then continue killing Meredith when she comes back.
18. At this point she will start bringing more statues to life. Just continue killing them, and making sure that your healer and DPS mage do not have anything attacking them. If they do, quickly switch to it with your Tank/warrior character(s). Once you’re done clearing out all the adds (extra enemies) switch back to killing Meredith to finish the fight.