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See the title. The page is unavailable and I would really like to do a playthrough of DAI.

I don't THINK this is a spoiler, but I want to be conscientious, so I put it in the title just in case. Anyway.

There is a laser/crystal puzzle in the Dock Town catacombs where there is a crystal on a wall, and one of the laser beam pedestals that you can usually move to aim the beam and shoot the crystal and something will happen. There are 4 rocks you need to move around that are preventing the beam from hitting the crystal. But when you do that, the beam hits the wall right next to the crystal. (Literally, right next to it.) The problem is that the pedestal is in some scaffolding that is unbreakable, so you can't get to it in order to move the beam 2 inches to the left to hit its target. So, how do?

(I know the solution is probably super easy and I am just not seeing, but I have looked everywhere and haven't even seen a mention of this particular one.)

Hi everyone!

I am currently thinking about buying this game. I’ve read plenty of mixed reviews: some criticize certain aspects, but I’d love to hear about what makes it stand out in a positive way.

If you’re a fan, what do you think Veilguard does really well compared to the other games in the series? What moments, mechanics, or characters made it worth your time?

So after spending about 200 hours and three playthroughs with DaVe I’m having difficulty saying goodbye, and I wanted to share some tips I’ve learned on how to effectively play at the highest difficulty settings for all three classes.

Disclaimer: play however you want, everything is viable; but I get enjoyment out of finding a top-tier build that synergizes well. Also, there’s TLDR build pics at the end.

Enemy priorities: Unless you can tank hits and have immovable, taking out ranged enemies should almost always be your top priority. Literally run or dodge past every enemy running towards you and get to the ranged attackers first because otherwise these will constantly interrupt you and drain your life quickly. DPS these enemies down ASAP and then focus on laying down AOE’s (if you haven’t already) to obliterate low-level enemies coming for you to generate ability resources, which you will then use to finally take on the highest HP enemies. One exception to this rule is: if your damage output is so high that you can obliterate a boss quickly enough for his spawned add-ons not to be able to get to you, ignore the add-ons and focus on downing the boss, since if he dies, his adds will as well.

Survival: If I have one criticism about the combat system it’s that the parry system is terrible because the indicator appears way too soon before you actually have to press the button, even if you set it to ‘reactive’ (like I always do). So instead, I recommend to focus on dodging, unless you want to activate flaming / shocking / toxic weapons via parry. However, you’ll only truly feel like a Veilguard combat Chad if you realize that abilities give you a generous amount of i-frames and that you can continuously be invincible if you are able to generate so much class resources that you can chain abilities together indefinitely (or whenever you’re about to get hit from an attack or aoe).

Resource generation: Classes generate resources differently, but the main method of resource generation is not the class’s method, but your amulet choice. Epic-level amulets generate resources in different ways, e.g. strike abilities give 25 resource on a critical ability hit, control abilities give 1 resource for every 50 stagger, area abilities generate 25 resource whenever 2 or more enemies are hit by an area ability, and duration abilities generate 25 resource on kills. Something to note is that these different methods of generation are not equal in the manner of how much resource they can generate off one ability, and some are dependent on one-off events (e.g. a ‘kill’), while others can generate resource multiple times off one ability (e.g. strike critical hits or control stagger amount). The ultimate goal here is to pair amulets with abilities in such a way that you get more resource output from your amulet for the resource amount you put in to activate the ability. Due to the mechanics of different abilities for different classes, this can only really be achieved in a few select class / ability / amulet combinations…

Abilities (Rogue): For the rogue, I recommend using the control amulet and at least the lightning flask  ability (control / duration). Lightning flask costs only one momentum and hits so many times and hits multiple enemies that the stagger built up by the ability (together with the momentum built up naturally from hitting enemies) generates more momentum than required to activate. Another good ability (regardless of amulet) is the explosive trap ability (area, tool) which is a 20 second cooldown (no resource required) ability that can be improved to generate 25 momentum (rolling momentum passive) and can be enchanted to generate even more or cool down faster. Lastly, the reason rogue is the most broken class is the combination of the thousand cuts ability (strike / control, duelist specialization) and the mighty strike passive (+100% stagger for strike abilities on afflication) and the noxious presence passive (strike abilities apply necrosis) and the control amulet. This combination makes it so your thousand cuts ability (which gives a i-frames throughout execution) generates more momentum than required for activation, and the ability can simply just be spammed against any boss for infinite invulnerability. While this makes any boss fight trivial, I found it also makes the game very boring to play… so I didn’t use it in my end build. Note that the control amulet (sightless skull) can be upgrade to epic quality by finding it during Emmerich’s recruitment mission and buying the upgrade from the mournwatch shop. That means this build can be up and running in act 1 relatively early.

Abilities (mage): For the mage, I recommend the strike amulet and at least the tempest ability (strike / duration) in combination with the precision strikes passive (strikes critical hit on knocked down enemies). Tempest knocks enemies down, so the each follow-up lightning strike will generate a critical hit (and 25 mana). Since lightning strike activates 6 times, there’s more than enough potential to generate for mana than required to activate (100). Additionally, there’s ways to improve this setup: 1) by equipping the maw of the black city ring (all abilities are critical hits) (more on this ring later), 2) by having a good sundering method (e.g. by bringing Lucanis / Harding and not detonating sundering), and 3) by getting the time management passive (+50% duration ability) and zone of concentration passive (regain 25 mana from duration abilities). Note that the strike amulet (crow’s perch medallion can be upgraded to epic quality by exploring Treviso fully as soon as it is explorable and by purchasing it in the antivan crows shop. That means this build can be up and running in act 1 very early game.

Abilities (mage, alternative): Mages get access to using health as mana. Either by getting the mortalitasi passive (use health when mana is depleted, death caller specialization lv 30+) or by equipping the ‘the bargain’ staff (mournwatch shop rank 4). If this is used, all mana generation tips go out the window and instead you should focus on leeching health from damage (see further down).

Abilities (warrior): Warriors get ripped off early game. They do not get a rage-building combination setup which is one-off event (enemy kill) or single enemy independent (multiple enemy hit required). And the control amulet + groundbreaker ability combination does not seem to generate enough rage from stagger to offset its use cost. Furthermore, the next-best-thing setup is not available in act 1. However, warrior can end up being the most disgustingly overpowered by the end though, so you’ll just have to bite the bullet for the first 30-40 levels or so... In any case, what is possible then? Well, as soon as available, you can use the Miner’s talisman (forgot where to find for epic quality, but I think you don’t get it to epic possible until the end of Act 1; that I know: one is in arlathan forest, another Act 2 Harding quest, and another Act 2 shop) in combination with the deadly ground ability (area, duration). Deadly ground ticks multiple time, and every tick it touches 2 enemies will generate 25 rage. This is good for most situations, but you will lose your resource generation method when fighting bosses 1 – 1 (e.g. dragons). Another possibility is for generating rage early game is to bring 2 mages which both have specced in the time slow ability to generate 50 rage after use and give you a free of cost ability during the time slow. Activate one time slow after the other as needed. My late game recommendation (though this can be done early game as well) is to use the magister’s bargain amulet (Shadows of minrathous act 1 quest, explore arlathan act 1, and shadow dragons shop), which grants 25 rage on kill with duration abilities at epic quality and also health and ultimate per duration ability activation on legendary quality (the ‘the soul of a city’ quest which requires a specific act 1 choice (spoilers if you want to look it up…). Combine the magister’s bargain amulet with the bloody advance and deadly ground abilities to generate 25 rage per ability kill (again, doesn’t work during 1-1 fights). Additionally, there’s ways to improve this setup: 1) equip the elven rockbreaker 2-handed weapon at rare quality (8 rage on kill), 2) equip as much rage generation equipment and passives as possible, 3) get the time management passive (+50% duration abilities) and the enduring rage passive (rage doesn’t decay below 50) and as much +50 max rage passives as possible , 4) if you’re using a strike ability, you could use the quick strikes passive (+25 rage on kill with strike ability); this means +50 on a kill with the reaper ability (strike, duration, reaper specialization). 5) Lastly, but actually the most important: the redouble rune (instantly get full rage) (rivain coast, only accessible during & after taash’s last quest). This rune completely changes removes the warrior’s constant fear of running out of rage and I used only this rune anymore after I found it. It completely changes the way you play as a warrior, so I recommend this one wholeheartedly. 6) Honorable mentions: the legendary quality of pennant of resistance vitaar (or helm equivalent) helps a lot as well (returns 25% of the rage cost back on impact) (legendary quality found during late game Davrin quest).

Equipment (items): ok, so knowing all of this, how to put a build together together? Well, the great thing about Veilguard is that while you can have a basic working ability – resource plan, there are tons and tons of to complement your basic build by equipping certain items and choosing synergetic specializations / passives / abilities. Again, while all options are viable, I’ll list the equipment items most important to be aware of.

Item: Maw of the black city (Found exploring the crossroads during mid-act 1). This ring will ensure all your abilities do critical damage. While this in and of itself is great (more damage, yay!), a lot of companion item traits and enchantments and passives (e.g. applying afflictions) are dependent on critting with your abilities. So this ring will ensure activating those every time you use an ability. The cost of the ring is heavy though: you will take 20% health damage every time you use an ability… so this means that the rest of your item build needs to be focus on ensuring that you regain more than 20% of your health by using the ability. This can be done in multiple ways…

Item: Researcher’s robe (play Emmerich missions Act 1, rivain coast side missions Act 1, and rank 4 mournwatch shop). This robe leeches 5% of your damage at rare quality and 15% from bleeding enemies at legendary quality. It is preferred to have a consistent method of applying the bleed status to enemies for maximum leech, e.g.: 1) by doing critical ability hits (maw of the black city ring) and either having Lucanis in your party with his crowkeeper weapon which applies bleed and necrosis on crit ability or (mage only) by enchanting a ring to apply bleed on crit abilities, 2) by applying bleed with rogue or warrior abilities and passives (notably: bloody advance for warrior and  overwhelming tactics passive for rogue). It is heavily recommended that if you’re going to use the maw of the black city ring, that for rogue and mage you use this armor, since these classes do not really have any other decent way of regaining health. Mage can use spirit bomb ability’s siphon but it’s not super practical nor sufficient to offset the maw ring’s health drain. The warrior’s reaper subclass can leech necrotic damage starting from lv 30 with the Living decay passive (leech health from necrotic damage) (supplemented by the other necrotic damage boosting passives in the reaper tree) and it is my experimental finding that it leeches enough not to need the researcher’s robe, if you also use the reaper ability’s syphon sufficiently as well as some other supplementary healing items.

Item: Twin buckle binding (epic can be found exploring act 1 and legendary is in Lucanis’ first act 2 mission). The legendary trait heals 100 health when using an ability while quickened. While the belt itself provides quickened upon potion use (or through the overflow rune), there are also passives for each class which provide this: mage’s pressure point passive (quickened upon strike ability critical), rogue’s swift death passive (quickened upon critical hit kill), warrior’s dazzle passive (quickened upon hitting multiple enemies with area ability) .

Item: Deathworn wraps (bought in shops in Treviso market and grey warden village, mournwatch faction rank 3, and found somewhere else…). This belt gives a boost to siphon and leech, and heals extra upon killing syphoned enemies. I only really recommend this for warrior reaper specializations, but for them it’s really good.

Item: Garb of kinship (missable during end of act 1 mission! Sold by grey wardens and act 2 shop): The legendary trait heals 5% of your health whenever gaining an advantage. This might not seem much, but endgame build synergy is all about stacking different types of advantages, and capitalizing on that with passives which get extra damage per advantage. And this armor boosts that capitalization even further with it’s rare trait as well. This is my preferred armor if I’m not utilizing researcher’s robes.

Item: The last resort (obtained from the highest level enemy in the game, but can be done during act 1). This ring increases your damage by 20% each time you use an ability. This stacks up to 10 times (for a total boost of +200%!!!), but resets if you defend or dodge. And if you remember the basic lesson: abilities have i-frames, then you now understand why parrying or dodging isn’t really advised during endgame combat and why we rely mainly on ability i-frames. Note though that every time you gain 20% damage, you will also decrease your resistances by 20%. And these go in the negative. So at 10 stacks you are a glass canon… but in my opinion, this adds a nice high risk high reward flavor to the combat. This ring is so good in terms of damage output, that there’s little point in listing other noticeable rings for endgame, since you will probably be equipping the maw ring anyway as well.

Item: Deathblow vitaar (or helm alternative: defiant silence) (epic obtained from sea of blood quest, arlathan exploration act 1, a faction shop (antivan crows or shadow dragons?)). Adds a bunch of critical damage. Which is nice if you’re equipping the maw ring. Also adds extra stagger on crits for the rogue control build.

Item: Pennant of resistance (see option 6) of abilities (warrior)). Situationally good for damage depending on the abilities you choose for your build. E.g. for a warrior reaper which equips all duration abilities, this is exceptionally good.

Item: Asaaranda (or helm alternative): Boosts your ultimate generation, damage, gives rally party and full resources on ultimate. If you’re going for an ultimate generation build, this helm will help a lot.

Equipment (weapons): So we have our support items, how about weapons? Well, there are a LOT of weapon options. Since this is way too long to discuss and a lot of choices are personal flavor, I’ll discuss those which are absolute must-have per class.

Weapon (warrior - sword): No real must-haves. I used Darkshard for my reaper since I found it hilarious that darkshard’s legendary trait kept generating necrotic explosions everywhere. Also boosts necrotic damage and is necrotic type which is great for a reaper with it’s 50% necrotic penetration and heal from necrotic.

Weapon (warrior – shield): No real must-haves, though I recommend Rivaini thornback at legendary. +100% damage against bleeding enemies is nothing to sneeze at…

Weapon (warrior – two handed): I mainly used two-handed as a stat stick so I used elven rockbreaker at rare quality for that 8 rage generation on kill. Crystalline greataxe is nice for applying chilled to charged attacks but this was available way too late game for my taste. There are multiple great options, choose what matches your playstyle.

Weapon (rogue – main hand): There are multiple great options, choose what matches your playstyle. Honorable mention goes to Cordova’s toothpick (explore act 1 treviso) which can bleed enemies like crazy early game. Late game, it’s damage tapers off too much compared to other swords.

Weapon (rogue - off-hand): There’s only one weapon that you should equip here, and that’s cold steel. At legendary, charged attacks apply chilled and applying necrosis to chilled attacks freezes enemies. Combine this with the overwhelming tactics passive’s heavy charged attack and you can keep enemies frozen indefinitely. Honestly, this in combination with the rogue’s thousand cuts infinite use abuse just completely breaks that class.

Weapon (rogue - two-handed): There’s only one weapon that you should equip here, and that’s dauntless greatbow. At epic, it gives you +10% lightning damage per remaining arrow. This, in combination with thee some motivation passive (+4% damage per max arrow) and stacking as much ‘+ x max arrows’ passives as you can makes your lightning flask ability (or other lightning abilities) do insane damage.

Weapon (mage – main hand): Equip the orb which matches your enemy’s weakness. Equip whichever you prefer, nothing game breaking here.

Weapon (mage – offhand): Thorn of misfortune is recommended as this provides many bonuses to crit damage (good with the maw ring) throughout it’s quality upgrades, and it’s legendary reduces the required light attacks for arcane bomb application by 1, which changes your combo moves hugely. Early game, timeworn mageknife at epic helped a lot with healing from arcane bombs (especially if you use the maw ring and don’t have researcher’s robe at legendary).

Weapon (mage – two-handed): Well, this depends on your playstyle. The bargain (mournwatch shop rank 4) will let you use health for mana so… there’s that. If you’re not into that (or are already a death caller), use the rod that matches your enemy’s weakness. There’s no real great stat sticks either here… flame branch is best I guess for +50 max mana.

Equipment (companions): Yes, companions are basically reduces to equipment. Or rather, an extension of your own class build’s shortcomings. Companions can be used to set up or detonate combo’s, generate class resource, apply critical ability effects, apply damage type vulnerabilities, and provide you with advantages. Heal as well, I guess but I never use it after early game. I’ll detail my each companion’s best items.

Companion (Bellara): Concentration for electric vulnerability on attack, and sunspoked spectrometer for crit damage. Make sure to equip her with her healing ability since she auto-uses it, the time slow ability, and the weakness ability (since that synergizes with her Hero of the Veilguard skill).

Companion (Davrin): Assan’s fury for flaming / shocking / necrotic weapons whenever you gain rally party, which is easy to do with passives (e.g. Mage’s flames of inspiration passive: rally party on defeating burned enemy) except for warriors, winged cape for burning on detonations (if you don’t have access to burning yourself), sharpened hook knife for +25 damage against taunted enemies. Make sure to equip him with taunt, since he auto-taunts. The rest matters less and is as preferred.

Companion (Emmerich <3): Hermetic pendulum for necrotic vulnerability, crested focus for leech on crit ability, funeral finery for leech on detonations, and chittering signet for even more necrotic vulnerability. God I love emmerich. Also, make sure to equip his weakness ability since he auto-uses that.

Companion (Harding): Old reliable for free extra ranged damage, secrets and memories for more crit damage. The rest matters little. Equip shred for free sundered since she auto-uses that.

Companion (Lucanis): Ironically, Lucanis is a spellblade mage’s best friend. Crowkeeper applies bleeding and necrosis on crit ability, which spellblades don’t get easy access to. Trevisan poignard is a very good alternative for building ultimate. Butcher’s screw applies necrotic vulnerability. Antivan blade kit set can reduce defense immensely if you build for being able to apply a spectrum of afflications (easy to do for spellblade + lucanis). Armor is meh. Lucanis can apply sunder and detonate overwhelmed, which is perfectly yin and yang to the spellblade’s abilities. Also, equip adrenaline rush since he auto-uses that.

Companion (Neve): Winged locus for cold vulnerability, ornate lockpicks for chilled application on crit ability. Tevinter longcloack for frozen on detonations and exhaustive notes for extending frozen duration and increasing damage against frozen. Neve is a great pick for any class or build. Equip the weakness skill since she auto-uses that. Time slow grants quickened, so that’s a good choice always.

Companion (Taash): I honestly used Taash very little since she has little synergy with anything. Equip dragon damage boosting items / abilities and continuously taunt, I guess.

Synergies: Now that we have all equipment information, there is one last thing which merits explanation and that is the skill tree. Below I will give an example of my favorite build for each class, and I will highlight the most interesting skills for each class which either boost damage hugely or severely impact the gameplay. Note that these are my preferences, and you can adapt these as freely as you wish.

Mage spellblade build: Abilities: Tempest, void blade, and a third skill of your choosing (early game typically storm surge or burning wall, and late game meteor, ice blast, or corrupted ground depending on the enemy weakness). Preferred passives: Shocking strikes (Strike abilities apply shocked), reclamation (+8 mana on kill), Pressure point (gain quickened on crit strike ability), resistant blasts (gain resistant on blast ability kill), flames of inspiration (gain rally party on burning enemy kill), deadly providence (precision on duration ability kill), time management (duration ability +50%), breathing room (area ability size increased), imbued duration (shocking weapons on detonating), zone of concentration (regain 25 mana after 5 seconds for a duration ability), even the odds (+10% for each active advantage), arcane strike (strike abilities hit with an arcane bomb), blast efficiency (blast abilities cost 50 less mana), electrical burns (burn causes shock and vice versa), spirit of vengeance (double void blade throw)

Rogue: Abilities: Lightning flask and explosive trap. The rest of the build is extremely flexible (you can even choose other specializations!). Early game pilfer is a good 3^(rd) ability choice. Mid game thousand cuts helps out a lot, but endgame I preferred toxic dash since this can provide precision, and when followed up with a heavy charged attack this drops enemy health bars like a sack of potatoes, and freezes them with cold steel to boot! Preferred passives: breathing room (area ability size increased), time management (duration ability +50%), enduring reach (increases area of duration abilities), salt in the wound (duration ability hits increase affliction stacks), some motivation (+4% damage per max arrow), controlled providence (+10% damage for control abilities per advantage), bloodsucker (10% leach off tool abilities), rolling momentum (25 momentum on tool ability hit), inspiring control (rally party on control ability kill), overwhelming tactics (bleed on charged light and necrosis on charged heavy attacks), noxious presence (control abilities apply necrosis), adrenaline (grants adrenaline on uninterrupted hits), mounting thrill (adrenaline up to 3 stacks), energy burst (momentum + heal 10% on adrenaline gain), precision shot (crit projectile ability grants precision), underdog’s bite (area ability grants enhanced damage on hitting 3 enemies), swift death (quickened on crit kill), mighty strike (+100% stagger from strike abilities on afflication; ONLY use this if using thousand cuts), Physical strikes (convert strike ability damage to physical; ONLY use this when going up against necrotic resistant enemies.

Warrior: Abilities: Bloody advance (<3) and deadly ground. The third skill and even specialization is up to personal preference, but I recommend reaper and reaper (for survivability). Preferred passives: enduring rage (rage doesn’t decay past 50), time management (duration ability +50%), unyielding focus (immovable on duration ability activation), salt in the wound (duration ability hits increase affliction stacks), seething pitch (more rage generation from shield throws), lingering decay (duration abilities apply necrosis), shot chaser (projectile abilities get more damage based on max shield toss bounces), living decay (50% penetration for necrotic + leech on necrotic damage), desperation (damage increase based on your and enemy’s health), fortifying shots (defeating an enemy with a projectile ability grants resistant), masochism (getting hit generates 4 rage), good arm (projectile abilities ignore resistances; SUPER important when fighting darkspawn), pump the primer (increased sundered effectiveness, breathing room (area ability size increased), dazzle (area abilities grant quickened when hitting 2+ enemies).

Conclusion: I loved Veilguard for the action game it is. There’s so much possibilities to build your Rook.

My first run was a Spellblade. The build as shown above received a huge power spike very early (even before level 20) when I got the strike amulet and tempest ability, and then steadily kept being improved by way of equipment and skills. With the orb and dagger – arcane bomb gimmick, it makes for engaging and alternating gameplay. Tempest into Lucanis sundering into void blade stacked a billion afflictions onto every enemy around, then I just watched them slowly decay and try to get up from tempest before dropping a satisfyingly chunky meteor on their heads. I enjoyed it a lot and thought there was no way any other build could top this destruction output.

I was wrong. My second run was a rogue. The build as shown above made the game completely trivial once I reached level 20 and got access to the thousand cuts ability and mighty strike passive and control amulet. It stopped being fun. I replaced thousand cuts with toxic dash and precision shot passive, and the game became a lot more fun to play. Also, I noticed I was doing even MORE dps than I was doing as a spellblade, though this was more single-target oriented. Lightning flask into toxic dash into charged heavy attack into explosive trap was my go-to combo and looked extremely ninja-like.

My last run was a warrior. I was kind of dreading this since I knew there was no way to create an equally consistent resource-generating build as mage and rogue. So I dragged through the first 29 levels where I experimented a LOT with the skill tree and item combinations. Then came level 30 and the living decay passive. This started a few key mechanics: 1) I could use the maw ring without researchers robes, letting me stack more damage from the garb of kinship instead, 2) it gave necrotic damage 50% (huge!) penetration, which let me stack more damage! I started to be able to do damage more akin to my mage and rogue, but I still struggled with resources. Then I found the redouble run (level 40-ish?), and that completely changed everything. Now I had my full rage bar at the press of a button, allowing me to use all my skills at my leisure. And the thing is that this was also a tipping point for my other rage generation mechanics. The problem is that going from 50 rage to 100 or 150 is a lot more difficult than going from 150 to 300, because you lack damage output at low rage! Additionally, somewhere going from level 40 to 50 I was starting to stack all sorts of damage bonuses, and more importantly: penetration. And because I generated so much damage, I also generated much more rage, ultimate, health, … I had finally become the juggernaut of death I had hoped to become. Just to give an example: You know that very high health mechanical boss you fight right before you free your companion who is captured? For my mage and rogue this was always quite an arduous battle. My warrior? Friggin’ deleted him in 5 seconds. Put up a deadly ground while emmerich and neve attack to increase ice and necrotic vulnerability, redouble rune to top up rage, bloody advance to sunder, charged heavy shield attack to detonate bloody advanced while neve detonates bloody advance’s sundering (but keeps sundered on because of her armor), perform ultimate which is in the meantime fueled by bleeding +100% damage and many advantages stacking bonuses (including enhanced damage), and perform the ever fulfilling reaper ability, and finish him off once more with another bloody advance. It. Was. Glorious. I’ll concede that warrior starts off very slow, but honestly a fully powered up reaper warrior is the most fearsome thing ever to walk the face of thedas. When I look back on my playtime with Veilguard, my time as a face melting high level reaper is what I will remember most fondly.

I recently made a comment on the "drop your dragon age hot takes" post (https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/s/qBtBgc23ag), which got a bit of attention. So, I thought I'd make a proper post because I'm interested in other opinions on this topic.

Before I start, I want to make this clear that I adore Iron Bull, he's a great character. The points I will bring up about him are not an attack to his character, and by no means necessarily bad traits.

Now to the actual discussion:

I don't like the relationship between Dorian and Bull that much. I think it's fun to have characters get together with each other if not romanced (like in DAV), and the idea of their relationship does make for an interesting dynamic. But unlike a lot of others I don't really like it that much and choose to ignore it as a cannon possibility.

The only chemistry they have is sexual one, all their relationship related dialog is mostly about sex. And while I did find their flirting interesting, there were also lines between them I found off. For example the line where Dorian comments on Bull acting like someone "only interested in conquest" and by that referring to battle, and Bull immediately goes to talking about all the ways he wants to "conquer" Dorian. The dialog ends with Dorian sounding taken aback and in my opinion slightly uncomfortable as he says that is not what he was talking about. Bull doesn't even acknowledge this.

Now this might just be their different flirting styles, since Bull is someone making overly sexual remarks if he's interested in someone, whereas Dorian provides either snarky quips or flattery. But Dorian's tone when Bull makes those comments about him before they get together sounds uncomfortable.

And Dorian isn't the type to shy away from talking about sex. If he gets together with the inquisitor there's a line where he offers to draw Blackwall a picture on how sex works between men, since Blackwall was asking around about the logistics of their relationship. And once he and Bull get together he doesn't seem uncomfortable anymore when Bull openly discusses Dorian leaving his underwear in Bull's chamber.

Yet, their individual romance with the inquisitor tells me a lot about why I don't think the relationship makes sense or would work out long term.

Bull's story, in my opinion, is about him learning to love romantically. His relationship have always been sexual because that's how he wanted it, it was his choice not to form overly meaningful romantic attachment before the inquisitor. As he literally says that Qunari don't really do exclusive. He's comfortable having many sexual partners at once, and doesn't seem overly eager to enter a romantic relationship with the inquisitor.

But Dorian's story is about not backing down about who he is and learning to be loved. He's had plenty of past relationships as well, none romantic. But that wasn't by choice. He has loved plenty but never got that love reciprocated, which wounded him so bad he avoid confessing his feelings in fear of getting rejected (this was mentioned twice in dialog between Dorian and Cole). So Dorian being with Bull, someone who most likely only is with Dorian for the physical aspects of the relationship, feels like Dorian is just accepting that he isn't getting the love he wants. Sticking to the treatment he's used to from past partners.

Bull's romance also literally includes Bull still being physically intimate with other people other than the inquisitor, until the inquisitor takes the time to make a special "we're exclusive now" necklace. Which again doesn't make me confident he'd be a good match for Dorian.

They both have their charming sides, but I can't help but think that it doesn't really work in the end.

But admittedly their relationship isn't very in depth in the game, since there's only a few throwaway lines about it, so I can't be 100% certain about how it could possibly be behind closed doors.

Does anyone else think this way? Or have I overlooked some detail of the relationship that might make the pairing more logical?

So after spending about 200 hours and three playthroughs with DaVe I’m having difficulty saying goodbye, and I wanted to share some tips I’ve learned on how to effectively play at the highest difficulty settings for all three classes.

Disclaimer: play however you want, everything is viable; but I get enjoyment out of finding a top-tier build that synergizes well. Also, there’s TLDR build pics at the end.

Enemy priorities: Unless you can tank hits and have immovable, taking out ranged enemies should almost always be your top priority. Literally run or dodge past every enemy running towards you and get to the ranged attackers first because otherwise these will constantly interrupt you and drain your life quickly. DPS these enemies down ASAP and then focus on laying down AOE’s (if you haven’t already) to obliterate low-level enemies coming for you to generate ability resources, which you will then use to finally take on the highest HP enemies. One exception to this rule is: if your damage output is so high that you can obliterate a boss quickly enough for his spawned add-ons not to be able to get to you, ignore the add-ons and focus on downing the boss, since if he dies, his adds will as well.

Survival: If I have one criticism about the combat system it’s that the parry system is terrible because the indicator appears way too soon before you actually have to press the button, even if you set it to ‘reactive’ (like I always do). So instead, I recommend to focus on dodging, unless you want to activate flaming / shocking / toxic weapons via parry. However, you’ll only truly feel like a Veilguard combat Chad if you realize that abilities give you a generous amount of i-frames and that you can continuously be invincible if you are able to generate so much class resources that you can chain abilities together indefinitely (or whenever you’re about to get hit from an attack or aoe).

Resource generation: Classes generate resources differently, but the main method of resource generation is not the class’s method, but your amulet choice. Epic-level amulets generate resources in different ways, e.g. strike abilities give 25 resource on a critical ability hit, control abilities give 1 resource for every 50 stagger, area abilities generate 25 resource whenever 2 or more enemies are hit by an area ability, and duration abilities generate 25 resource on kills. Something to note is that these different methods of generation are not equal in the manner of how much resource they can generate off one ability, and some are dependent on one-off events (e.g. a ‘kill’), while others can generate resource multiple times off one ability (e.g. strike critical hits or control stagger amount). The ultimate goal here is to pair amulets with abilities in such a way that you get more resource output from your amulet for the resource amount you put in to activate the ability. Due to the mechanics of different abilities for different classes, this can only really be achieved in a few select class / ability / amulet combinations…

Abilities (Rogue): For the rogue, I recommend using the control amulet and at least the lightning flask ability (control / duration). Lightning flask costs only one momentum and hits so many times and hits multiple enemies that the stagger built up by the ability (together with the momentum built up naturally from hitting enemies) generates more momentum than required to activate. Another good ability (regardless of amulet) is the explosive trap ability (area, tool) which is a 20 second cooldown (no resource required) ability that can be improved to generate 25 momentum (rolling momentum passive) and can be enchanted to generate even more or cool down faster. Lastly, the reason rogue is the most broken class is the combination of the thousand cuts ability (strike / control, duelist specialization) and the mighty strike passive (+100% stagger for strike abilities on afflication) and the noxious presence passive (strike abilities apply necrosis) and the control amulet. This combination makes it so your thousand cuts ability (which gives a i-frames throughout execution) generates more momentum than required for activation, and the ability can simply just be spammed against any boss for infinite invulnerability. While this makes any boss fight trivial, I found it also makes the game very boring to play… so I didn’t use it in my end build. Note that the control amulet (sightless skull) can be upgrade to epic quality by finding it during Emmerich’s recruitment mission and buying the upgrade from the mournwatch shop. That means this build can be up and running in act 1 relatively early.

Abilities (mage): For the mage, I recommend the strike amulet and at least the tempest ability (strike / duration) in combination with the precision strikes passive (strikes critical hit on knocked down enemies). Tempest knocks enemies down, so the each follow-up lightning strike will generate a critical hit (and 25 mana). Since lightning strike activates 6 times, there’s more than enough potential to generate for mana than required to activate (100). Additionally, there’s ways to improve this setup: 1) by equipping the maw of the black city ring (all abilities are critical hits) (more on this ring later), 2) by having a good sundering method (e.g. by bringing Lucanis / Harding and not detonating sundering), and 3) by getting the time management passive (+50% duration ability) and zone of concentration passive (regain 25 mana from duration abilities). Note that the strike amulet (crow’s perch medallion can be upgraded to epic quality by exploring Treviso fully as soon as it is explorable and by purchasing it in the antivan crows shop. That means this build can be up and running in act 1 very early game.

Abilities (mage, alternative): Mages get access to using health as mana. Either by getting the mortalitasi passive (use health when mana is depleted, death caller specialization lv 30+) or by equipping the ‘the bargain’ staff (mournwatch shop rank 4). If this is used, all mana generation tips go out the window and instead you should focus on leeching health from damage (see further down).

Abilities (warrior): Warriors get ripped off early game. They do not get a rage-building combination setup which is one-off event (enemy kill) or single enemy independent (multiple enemy hit required). And the control amulet + groundbreaker ability combination does not seem to generate enough rage from stagger to offset its use cost. Furthermore, the next-best-thing setup is not available in act 1. However, warrior can end up being the most disgustingly overpowered by the end though, so you’ll just have to bite the bullet for the first 30-40 levels or so... In any case, what is possible then? Well, as soon as available, you can use the Miner’s talisman (forgot where to find for epic quality, but I think you don’t get it to epic possible until the end of Act 1; that I know: one is in arlathan forest, another Act 2 Harding quest, and another Act 2 shop) in combination with the deadly ground ability (area, duration). Deadly ground ticks multiple time, and every tick it touches 2 enemies will generate 25 rage. This is good for most situations, but you will lose your resource generation method when fighting bosses 1 – 1 (e.g. dragons). Another possibility is for generating rage early game is to bring 2 mages which both have specced in the time slow ability to generate 50 rage after use and give you a free of cost ability during the time slow. Activate one time slow after the other as needed. My late game recommendation (though this can be done early game as well) is to use the magister’s bargain amulet (Shadows of minrathous act 1 quest, explore arlathan act 1, and shadow dragons shop), which grants 25 rage on kill with duration abilities at epic quality and also health and ultimate per duration ability activation on legendary quality (the ‘the soul of a city’ quest which requires a specific act 1 choice (spoilers if you want to look it up…). Combine the magister’s bargain amulet with the bloody advance and deadly ground abilities to generate 25 rage per ability kill (again, doesn’t work during 1-1 fights). Additionally, there’s ways to improve this setup: 1) equip the elven rockbreaker 2-handed weapon at rare quality (8 rage on kill), 2) equip as much rage generation equipment and passives as possible, 3) get the time management passive (+50% duration abilities) and the enduring rage passive (rage doesn’t decay below 50) and as much +50 max rage passives as possible , 4) if you’re using a strike ability, you could use the quick strikes passive (+25 rage on kill with strike ability); this means +50 on a kill with the reaper ability (strike, duration, reaper specialization). 5) Lastly, but actually the most important: the redouble rune (instantly get full rage) (rivain coast, only accessible during & after taash’s last quest). This rune completely changes removes the warrior’s constant fear of running out of rage and I used only this rune anymore after I found it. It completely changes the way you play as a warrior, so I recommend this one wholeheartedly. 6) Honorable mentions: the legendary quality of pennant of resistance vitaar (or helm equivalent) helps a lot as well (returns 25% of the rage cost back on impact) (legendary quality found during late game Davrin quest).

Equipment (items): ok, so knowing all of this, how to put a build together together? Well, the great thing about Veilguard is that while you can have a basic working ability – resource plan, there are tons and tons of to complement your basic build by equipping certain items and choosing synergetic specializations / passives / abilities. Again, while all options are viable, I’ll list the equipment items most important to be aware of.

Item: Maw of the black city (Found exploring the crossroads during mid-act 1). This ring will ensure all your abilities do critical damage. While this in and of itself is great (more damage, yay!), a lot of companion item traits and enchantments and passives (e.g. applying afflictions) are dependent on critting with your abilities. So this ring will ensure activating those every time you use an ability. The cost of the ring is heavy though: you will take 20% health damage every time you use an ability… so this means that the rest of your item build needs to be focus on ensuring that you regain more than 20% of your health by using the ability. This can be done in multiple ways…

Item: Researcher’s robe (play Emmerich missions Act 1, rivain coast side missions Act 1, and rank 4 mournwatch shop). This robe leeches 5% of your damage at rare quality and 15% from bleeding enemies at legendary quality. It is preferred to have a consistent method of applying the bleed status to enemies for maximum leech, e.g.: 1) by doing critical ability hits (maw of the black city ring) and either having Lucanis in your party with his crowkeeper weapon which applies bleed and necrosis on crit ability or (mage only) by enchanting a ring to apply bleed on crit abilities, 2) by applying bleed with rogue or warrior abilities and passives (notably: bloody advance for warrior and overwhelming tactics passive for rogue). It is heavily recommended that if you’re going to use the maw of the black city ring, that for rogue and mage you use this armor, since these classes do not really have any other decent way of regaining health. Mage can use spirit bomb ability’s siphon but it’s not super practical nor sufficient to offset the maw ring’s health drain. The warrior’s reaper subclass can leech necrotic damage starting from lv 30 with the Living decay passive (leech health from necrotic damage) (supplemented by the other necrotic damage boosting passives in the reaper tree) and it is my experimental finding that it leeches enough not to need the researcher’s robe, if you also use the reaper ability’s syphon sufficiently as well as some other supplementary healing items.

Item: Twin buckle binding (epic can be found exploring act 1 and legendary is in Lucanis’ first act 2 mission). The legendary trait heals 100 health when using an ability while quickened. While the belt itself provides quickened upon potion use (or through the overflow rune), there are also passives for each class which provide this: mage’s pressure point passive (quickened upon strike ability critical), rogue’s swift death passive (quickened upon critical hit kill), warrior’s dazzle passive (quickened upon hitting multiple enemies with area ability) .

Item: Deathworn wraps (bought in shops in Treviso market and grey warden village, mournwatch faction rank 3, and found somewhere else…). This belt gives a boost to siphon and leech, and heals extra upon killing syphoned enemies. I only really recommend this for warrior reaper specializations, but for them it’s really good.

Item: Garb of kinship (missable during end of act 1 mission! Sold by grey wardens and act 2 shop): The legendary trait heals 5% of your health whenever gaining an advantage. This might not seem much, but endgame build synergy is all about stacking different types of advantages, and capitalizing on that with passives which get extra damage per advantage. And this armor boosts that capitalization even further with it’s rare trait as well. This is my preferred armor if I’m not utilizing researcher’s robes.

Item: The last resort (obtained from the highest level enemy in the game, but can be done during act 1). This ring increases your damage by 20% each time you use an ability. This stacks up to 10 times (for a total boost of +200%!!!), but resets if you defend or dodge. And if you remember the basic lesson: abilities have i-frames, then you now understand why parrying or dodging isn’t really advised during endgame combat and why we rely mainly on ability i-frames. Note though that every time you gain 20% damage, you will also decrease your resistances by 20%. And these go in the negative. So at 10 stacks you are a glass canon… but in my opinion, this adds a nice high risk high reward flavor to the combat. This ring is so good in terms of damage output, that there’s little point in listing other noticeable rings for endgame, since you will probably be equipping the maw ring anyway as well.

Item: Deathblow vitaar (or helm alternative: defiant silence) (epic obtained from sea of blood quest, arlathan exploration act 1, a faction shop (antivan crows or shadow dragons?)). Adds a bunch of critical damage. Which is nice if you’re equipping the maw ring. Also adds extra stagger on crits for the rogue control build.

Item: Pennant of resistance (see option 6) of abilities (warrior)). Situationally good for damage depending on the abilities you choose for your build. E.g. for a warrior reaper which equips all duration abilities, this is exceptionally good.

Item: Asaaranda (or helm alternative): Boosts your ultimate generation, damage, gives rally party and full resources on ultimate. If you’re going for an ultimate generation build, this helm will help a lot.

Equipment (weapons): So we have our support items, how about weapons? Well, there are a LOT of weapon options. Since this is way too long to discuss and a lot of choices are personal flavor, I’ll discuss those which are absolute must-have per class.

Weapon (warrior - sword): No real must-haves. I used Darkshard for my reaper since I found it hilarious that darkshard’s legendary trait kept generating necrotic explosions everywhere. Also boosts necrotic damage and is necrotic type which is great for a reaper with it’s 50% necrotic penetration and heal from necrotic.

Weapon (warrior – shield): No real must-haves, though I recommend Rivaini thornback at legendary. +100% damage against bleeding enemies is nothing to sneeze at…

Weapon (warrior – two handed): I mainly used two-handed as a stat stick so I used elven rockbreaker at rare quality for that 8 rage generation on kill. Crystalline greataxe is nice for applying chilled to charged attacks but this was available way too late game for my taste. There are multiple great options, choose what matches your playstyle.

Weapon (rogue – main hand): There are multiple great options, choose what matches your playstyle. Honorable mention goes to Cordova’s toothpick (explore act 1 treviso) which can bleed enemies like crazy early game. Late game, it’s damage tapers off too much compared to other swords.

Weapon (rogue - off-hand): There’s only one weapon that you should equip here, and that’s cold steel. At legendary, charged attacks apply chilled and applying necrosis to chilled attacks freezes enemies. Combine this with the overwhelming tactics passive’s heavy charged attack and you can keep enemies frozen indefinitely. Honestly, this in combination with the rogue’s thousand cuts infinite use abuse just completely breaks that class.

Weapon (rogue - two-handed): There’s only one weapon that you should equip here, and that’s dauntless greatbow. At epic, it gives you +10% lightning damage per remaining arrow. This, in combination with thee some motivation passive (+4% damage per max arrow) and stacking as much ‘+ x max arrows’ passives as you can makes your lightning flask ability (or other lightning abilities) do insane damage.

Weapon (mage – main hand): Equip the orb which matches your enemy’s weakness. Equip whichever you prefer, nothing game breaking here.

Weapon (mage – offhand): Thorn of misfortune is recommended as this provides many bonuses to crit damage (good with the maw ring) throughout it’s quality upgrades, and it’s legendary reduces the required light attacks for arcane bomb application by 1, which changes your combo moves hugely. Early game, timeworn mageknife at epic helped a lot with healing from arcane bombs (especially if you use the maw ring and don’t have researcher’s robe at legendary).

Weapon (mage – two-handed): Well, this depends on your playstyle. The bargain (mournwatch shop rank 4) will let you use health for mana so… there’s that. If you’re not into that (or are already a death caller), use the rod that matches your enemy’s weakness. There’s no real great stat sticks either here… flame branch is best I guess for +50 max mana.

Equipment (companions): Yes, companions are basically reduces to equipment. Or rather, an extension of your own class build’s shortcomings. Companions can be used to set up or detonate combo’s, generate class resource, apply critical ability effects, apply damage type vulnerabilities, and provide you with advantages. Heal as well, I guess but I never use it after early game. I’ll detail my each companion’s best items.

Companion (Bellara): Concentration for electric vulnerability on attack, and sunspoked spectrometer for crit damage. Make sure to equip her with her healing ability since she auto-uses it, the time slow ability, and the weakness ability (since that synergizes with her Hero of the Veilguard skill).

Companion (Davrin): Assan’s fury for flaming / shocking / necrotic weapons whenever you gain rally party, which is easy to do with passives (e.g. Mage’s flames of inspiration passive: rally party on defeating burned enemy) except for warriors, winged cape for burning on detonations (if you don’t have access to burning yourself), sharpened hook knife for +25 damage against taunted enemies. Make sure to equip him with taunt, since he auto-taunts. The rest matters less and is as preferred.

Companion (Emmerich <3): Hermetic pendulum for necrotic vulnerability, crested focus for leech on crit ability, funeral finery for leech on detonations, and chittering signet for even more necrotic vulnerability. God I love emmerich. Also, make sure to equip his weakness ability since he auto-uses that.

Companion (Harding): Old reliable for free extra ranged damage, secrets and memories for more crit damage. The rest matters little. Equip shred for free sundered since she auto-uses that.

Companion (Lucanis): Ironically, Lucanis is a spellblade mage’s best friend. Crowkeeper applies bleeding and necrosis on crit ability, which spellblades don’t get easy access to. Trevisan poignard is a very good alternative for building ultimate. Butcher’s screw applies necrotic vulnerability. Antivan blade kit set can reduce defense immensely if you build for being able to apply a spectrum of afflications (easy to do for spellblade + lucanis). Armor is meh. Lucanis can apply sunder and detonate overwhelmed, which is perfectly yin and yang to the spellblade’s abilities. Also, equip adrenaline rush since he auto-uses that.

Companion (Neve): Winged locus for cold vulnerability, ornate lockpicks for chilled application on crit ability. Tevinter longcloack for frozen on detonations and exhaustive notes for extending frozen duration and increasing damage against frozen. Neve is a great pick for any class or build. Equip the weakness skill since she auto-uses that. Time slow grants quickened, so that’s a good choice always.

Companion (Taash): I honestly used Taash very little since she has little synergy with anything. Equip dragon damage boosting items / abilities and continuously taunt, I guess.

Synergies: Now that we have all equipment information, there is one last thing which merits explanation and that is the skill tree. Below I will give an example of my favorite build for each class, and I will highlight the most interesting skills for each class which either boost damage hugely or severely impact the gameplay. Note that these are my preferences, and you can adapt these as freely as you wish.

Mage spellblade build: Abilities: Tempest, void blade, and a third skill of your choosing (early game typically storm surge or burning wall, and late game meteor, ice blast, or corrupted ground depending on the enemy weakness). Preferred passives: Shocking strikes (Strike abilities apply shocked), reclamation (+8 mana on kill), Pressure point (gain quickened on crit strike ability), resistant blasts (gain resistant on blast ability kill), flames of inspiration (gain rally party on burning enemy kill), deadly providence (precision on duration ability kill), time management (duration ability +50%), breathing room (area ability size increased), imbued duration (shocking weapons on detonating), zone of concentration (regain 25 mana after 5 seconds for a duration ability), even the odds (+10% for each active advantage), arcane strike (strike abilities hit with an arcane bomb), blast efficiency (blast abilities cost 50 less mana), electrical burns (burn causes shock and vice versa), spirit of vengeance (double void blade throw)

Rogue: Abilities: Lightning flask and explosive trap. The rest of the build is extremely flexible (you can even choose other specializations!). Early game pilfer is a good 3rd ability choice. Mid game thousand cuts helps out a lot, but endgame I preferred toxic dash since this can provide precision, and when followed up with a heavy charged attack this drops enemy health bars like a sack of potatoes, and freezes them with cold steel to boot! Preferred passives: breathing room (area ability size increased), time management (duration ability +50%), enduring reach (increases area of duration abilities), salt in the wound (duration ability hits increase affliction stacks), some motivation (+4% damage per max arrow), controlled providence (+10% damage for control abilities per advantage), bloodsucker (10% leach off tool abilities), rolling momentum (25 momentum on tool ability hit), inspiring control (rally party on control ability kill), overwhelming tactics (bleed on charged light and necrosis on charged heavy attacks), noxious presence (control abilities apply necrosis), adrenaline (grants adrenaline on uninterrupted hits), mounting thrill (adrenaline up to 3 stacks), energy burst (momentum + heal 10% on adrenaline gain), precision shot (crit projectile ability grants precision), underdog’s bite (area ability grants enhanced damage on hitting 3 enemies), swift death (quickened on crit kill), mighty strike (+100% stagger from strike abilities on afflication; ONLY use this if using thousand cuts), Physical strikes (convert strike ability damage to physical; ONLY use this when going up against necrotic resistant enemies.

Warrior: Abilities: Bloody advance (<3) and deadly ground. The third skill and even specialization is up to personal preference, but I recommend reaper and reaper (for survivability). Preferred passives: enduring rage (rage doesn’t decay past 50), time management (duration ability +50%), unyielding focus (immovable on duration ability activation), salt in the wound (duration ability hits increase affliction stacks), seething pitch (more rage generation from shield throws), lingering decay (duration abilities apply necrosis), shot chaser (projectile abilities get more damage based on max shield toss bounces), living decay (50% penetration for necrotic + leech on necrotic damage), desperation (damage increase based on your and enemy’s health), fortifying shots (defeating an enemy with a projectile ability grants resistant), masochism (getting hit generates 4 rage), good arm (projectile abilities ignore resistances; SUPER important when fighting darkspawn), pump the primer (increased sundered effectiveness, breathing room (area ability size increased), dazzle (area abilities grant quickened when hitting 2+ enemies).

Conclusion: I loved Veilguard for the action game it is. There’s so much possibilities to build your Rook.

My first run was a Spellblade. The build as shown above received a huge power spike very early (even before level 20) when I got the strike amulet and tempest ability, and then steadily kept being improved by way of equipment and skills. With the orb and dagger – arcane bomb gimmick, it makes for engaging and alternating gameplay. Tempest into Lucanis sundering into void blade stacked a billion afflictions onto every enemy around, then I just watched them slowly decay and try to get up from tempest before dropping a satisfyingly chunky meteor on their heads. I enjoyed it a lot and thought there was no way any other build could top this destruction output.

I was wrong. My second run was a rogue. The build as shown above made the game completely trivial once I reached level 20 and got access to the thousand cuts ability and mighty strike passive and control amulet. It stopped being fun. I replaced thousand cuts with toxic dash and precision shot passive, and the game became a lot more fun to play. Also, I noticed I was doing even MORE dps than I was doing as a spellblade, though this was more single-target oriented. Lightning flask into toxic dash into charged heavy attack into explosive trap was my go-to combo and looked extremely ninja-like.

My last run was a warrior. I was kind of dreading this since I knew there was no way to create an equally consistent resource-generating build as mage and rogue. So I dragged through the first 29 levels where I experimented a LOT with the skill tree and item combinations. Then came level 30 and the living decay passive. This started a few key mechanics: 1) I could use the maw ring without researchers robes, letting me stack more damage from the garb of kinship instead, 2) it gave necrotic damage 50% (huge!) penetration, which let me stack more damage! I started to be able to do damage more akin to my mage and rogue, but I still struggled with resources. Then I found the redouble run (level 40-ish?), and that completely changed everything. Now I had my full rage bar at the press of a button, allowing me to use all my skills at my leisure. And the thing is that this was also a tipping point for my other rage generation mechanics. The problem is that going from 50 rage to 100 or 150 is a lot more difficult than going from 150 to 300, because you lack damage output at low rage! Additionally, somewhere going from level 40 to 50 I was starting to stack all sorts of damage bonuses, and more importantly: penetration. And because I generated so much damage, I also generated much more rage, ultimate, health, … I had finally become the juggernaut of death I had hoped to become. Just to give an example: You know that very high health mechanical boss you fight right before you free your companion who is captured? For my mage and rogue this was always quite an arduous battle. My warrior? Friggin’ deleted him in 5 seconds. Put up a deadly ground while emmerich and neve attack to increase ice and necrotic vulnerability, redouble rune to top up rage, bloody advance to sunder, charged heavy shield attack to detonate bloody advanced while neve detonates bloody advance’s sundering (but keeps sundered on because of her armor), perform ultimate which is in the meantime fueled by bleeding +100% damage and many advantages stacking bonuses (including enhanced damage), and perform the ever fulfilling reaper ability, and finish him off once more with another bloody advance. It. Was. Glorious. I’ll concede that warrior starts off very slow, but honestly a fully powered up reaper warrior is the most fearsome thing ever to walk the face of thedas. When I look back on my playtime with Veilguard, my time as a face melting high level reaper is what I will remember most fondly.

My first run I try to finish the game on nightmare difficulty as a champion. And I couldn’t, beat the archdemon in weishaupt.

Is extremely difficult, right?

I got the game yesterday and it ran fine, but now every time I start it it glitches out of full screen. When I click anything it goes back into full screen but then immediately goes back to window mode. It also does that when I change the settings to window mode, making the game effectively unplayable. If anyone has encountered this, I'd appreciate help.

Hello all, this might be a weird request but I’m getting a group consensus for this. I am planning to do a rerun of my canon world state soon and am unable to remember who my Hawke romanced, this may seem strange but I’ve only done my canon run once back in about 2018/2019. I believe the reason for this may be because I didn’t actually finish a romance, I may have been going for Isabela but she didn’t come back with the tome.

I am now open to deciding a different romance that is fitting for my Hawke, hence coming here. To begin, she is a mage focused almost entirely on being a healer/support, she is blue/green for personality and to elaborate further, she is caring and compassionate to a fault, willing to help any who ask and can be a touch too trusting at times. She also sides fully with mages throughout the game.

Feel free to ask any questions on her to help you figure any suggestions you’d like to give, and please specify if you think I should do friend or rival romance for whoever you suggest.

The final Elgar’nan conversation? When she takes control of the Blight from his throne?

“We are the Dalish, keepers of the lost lore, walkers of the lonely path. We are the last of the Elvhen. Never again shall we submit.”

I’ve always loved the Oath of the Dales and with the Dalish kinda being swept under the rug a bit in this game, I feel like it would’ve been a great call-back. I don’t dislike her actual line necessarily, but for a split second I really hoped for that call-back.

It's still healing up but it's the first of two solas tattoos planned. My next one is going to be a bit more of a subtle homage

Artist: Mikayla Benson over at n9n lives collective

So I’m playing origins on Xbox for the second time now, and I guess I forgot to get zevrans approval rating high enough for him not to turn on me, which blows. What blows even harder is the fact that I don’t have an save prior to entering the back alley that won’t set me back 3 hours. Is there any way I can access an previous auto save?

I just have the character creator for now, I made and saved a character, but I can't seem to view her now or edit her? I want to look at her.

How do I do that?

I have been trying to figure out why the Antaam NPC are all so overly buff vs the ones you can make.

Qunari are supposed to be super tall, metallic skinned, and buff. But the "Rook" Qunari, is more like a human in fitness.

So does anyone know why?

I'm somewhat on the fence about buying DA:V, I'm a big DA fan with story and lore, but having watched some of the gameplay I'm worried it's not really for me (I'd just watch a play through for the lore).

Specifically the combat of what I've watched so far looks very timing oriented with blocks and parries and such, and that's not really my jam. It was on nightmare and of a mage using the little orb which I gather is closer range so may add to that.

I typically like warriors, or archers (but probably warrior if the companions aren't as customizable), so I'm wondering how the combat is with that. I don't mind having to dodge a huge attack once in a while, but I don't want to be having to dodge like every attack or anything.

DA:I had a really good feeling combat to me where my warrior (and even others via barrier and guard) could take a few hits and surviving a tough battle was a bit more about strategy than timing.

Either way, given all the above, would y'all suggest I;

• buy and play warrior (or archer)
• buy later on a sale to minimize waste if it's not for me
• don't buy and just watch a playthrough for the lore/story

Assan and the mabari hounds are the greatest companions…. Let’s bring back shapeshifting…

Can you actually get this outfit

From Storvacker's codex entry 😂

hey all!

i'm currently modding Inquisition using Blender and the Frosty editor, and my mesh (made up of pieces from two in-game assets) has a stretched out shadow. the model itself is fine, rigged correctly, and the textures look good. i fixed this on an old computer, but can't for the life of me, after countless attempts at troubleshooting, figure out why this is happening this time around. any help or insight given would be incredibly appreciated. <3

Have her dragon form? Even if she didn't drink from the well of sorrows ,she still should've inherited flemythals save data since she got her memories ,I mean morrigan clearly states in origins that her transformation magic only requires her to get close to ,study and know the creature, nothing else,so she should still have it, hell would've been nice for her and solas to fight that archdemon together, cause her fight against the antaam was really meh compared to how she fought in the sacred ashes trailer,yes it was just a trailer, but still ,you'd think someone as experienced as her should be able to put up more of a fight

So i have mods and it wasnt a problem before but now my game keeps crashing? Like i went to do a quest and as soon as i chose my two companions the game crashed? Small things im doing and it crashes. I did the shader cache method, and it doesnt work. I would greatly appreciate if anyone can help me. I just wanna finish my 2nd playthrough :c

EDIT: i play dragon age veilguard, when i get home i will upload what mods i have, most of which is just recolors of the armors, and some for the merchants. On top of that i have a morrigan outfit for rook

https://preview.redd.it/2xoui66imi6e1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=43a9cbb069be5ee5c9b8e5c389d22baed56fd3be

In DAO we see a series of floating islands with a central tower EAST of the Black City.

In Veilguard the Black City is shown to be WEST of the Crossroads, and the Lighthouse is shown atop the central island of the Crossroads.

It was always THERE. From DAY ONE! We just didn't know what it was!