Dragon Age: The Veilguard - The Best Build For Warrior

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The Warrior class returns in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Unlike, previous Dragon Age games, it's much easier to switch weapons on the fly. These result in any Warrior being both a sturdy tank and a power damage dealer, depending on the weapon wielded. However, most of their damage output is focused on hitting large crowds. To defeat tougher bosses, you may still need to rely on Rogues to produce more single-target hits.

This Warrior build is designed with Rook in mind, who has the most customization. There are two Warrior companions, Taash and Davrin, but their skill trees are much smaller is scope. This makes it overall harder to achieve the same potential that Rook has. While all three have low-leveling starting builds, you can also respec any character for free. With that in mind, you can play around with the build and make adjustments for certain fights.

The Best Faction, Race & Party For A Warrior Build

There Is Even More Freedom Of Choice

Warrior Rook stands with Lace and Varric in Dragon Age The Veilguard

Thankfully, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has removed racial bonuses and features from past Dragon Age titles. This makes it fully up to you to pick the race that best fits your Rook. As far as faction, this is also not a huge factor. Ultimately, you will want to take the Reaper Specialization, which is associated with the Mourn Watch faction. Being part of the Mourn Watch gives a slight bonus, but not a big enough factor to be a full requirement.

The Mechanics Of All Warriors

The Warrior class uses Rage as their resource. This can be spent on powerful active skills. When out of battle, Rage decreases over time, making it unavailable at the start of battle. However, you gain Rage when both hitting an enemy and being attacked. This makes it important to always stay on the frontlines.

Right from the start, Warriors have the option to Shield Toss as an active attack. This is your main ranged option and a good means of starting any fight in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. YouTuber PazarGamingGuides shows off some early shield use, granting you the ability to quickly defeat some spell casters. Outside of this attack, you will also want to use mainly Duration skills like Spectral Bulwark.

Best Party Setup

To make a well-rounded party, you'll want to take on one Rogue and one Mage as your allies. When you're using Rook as a Warrior, stick to Lucanis Dellamorte and Neve Gallus in their starting builds. Lucanis can deliver a huge amount of damage, while Neve is a great support. It is also good to have either around if you are pursuing a romance with them.

The Best Skills & Abilities For A Warrior Build

Warriors Can Both Dish Out And Take Extreme Damage

The skill trees are a hexagon shape in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. You begin in the center, which are the “Core” skills of the Warrior. You then work your way outward, going in any direction or splitting between several paths. Starting from the north and moving clockwise, the sections of the skill tree include the following: Survival, Mourn Watch, Abilities, Lords of Fortune, Weapons, and Grey Warden.

There are also a few dual-section or duplicate passives. These are typically when crossing over a junction. For example, a skill could be right on the Survival-Grey Warden border . If you are approaching that skill from multiple directions, you can decide when to move in.

Later on, Rook can also gain one specialization, essentially a highly focused version of the faction nodes. You may select Champion (Grey Warden), Reaper (Mourn Watch), or Slayer (Lords of Fortune).

Character with Factions in Dragon Age The Veilguard

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Which Faction To Pick First

Dragon Age: The Veilguard features six possible factions. They give bonuses to combat, favor a class, and are aligned with a specific party member.

By the end of Dragon Age: The Veilguard you should have around 50 skill points to spend. The vast majority of points are from simply leveling, but others are locked behind quests and use of special items. This can include further exploring the semi-open world. If you are only grinding EXP, expect more in the range of 40-45 points gained.

Best Core And Unaligned Skills

Some skills you will often use, while others simply serve as prerequisites to obtain the next node and won’t be activated. You will likely want to take every Core skill, as they are both useful and can be assigned during the beginning of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For the most part, you will heavily invest in Abilities, as most can be used with either weapon.

Skill

Section

Type

Effect

Driving Kick	Core	Smash, Control	Kick that has a high chance to Stagger
Downfall	Core	Passive	Using a Jump Attack on downed foe always deals critical damage
Shield Volley	Core	Passive	Using Shield Toss bounces between enemies up to three times
Rancor	Core	Passive	Rage is 50% slower to decay
Spectral Bulwark	Abilities	Smash, Duration, Necrotic	Increased defense and enemies that hit you take damage and may Stagger
Killer Instinct	Abilities	Passive	Stagger is raised by 20%
Enraged	Abilities	Passive	Rage generates 10% faster
Unyielding Focus	Abilities	Passive	Duration skills are stronger, and gain the Immovable status when using a Duration skill
Enduring Rage	Abilities	Passive	Your minimum Rage is now 50 instead of 0
Blunt Force	Abilities	Passive	Enemies that lose all armor are knocked down
Seething Pitch	Abilities	Passive	Shield Toss grants 2 bonus Rage points on a hit, and 4 points when hitting a Weak Point
Velocity	Weapons	Passive	Stagger via weapons increases by 20%
Depths of Fury	Weapons	Passive	Your Maximum Rage increases by 50
Incite Violence	Weapons	Passive	Gain 15% more Rage from weapon attacks
Titan Stomp	Survival	Area, Control	Unleash a shockwave that Staggers and causes Overwhelm
Improved Throw	Survival	Passive	Shield Toss deal 10% more damage
Reinforced	Survival	Passive	Improves Control skills, and gain Deflect when defeating a target with Control
Masochism	Survival	Passive	Gain 4 Rage when you take health damage

Best Faction Skills And Specialization

As you move through the more universal skills, you can enter the regions that correspond to one of the three factions. You are not restricted from taking skills from all of these. However, since many of the best skills were from the Ability branches, it is easier to move right into Mourn Watch or Lords of Fortune; gaining Grey Warden skills is more when getting close to the end of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. While you can choose any of the three specializations, Reaper has extremely high damage output and is easiest to build up from Mourn Watch.

Skill

Section

Type

Effect

Eclectic Armor	Mourn Watch	Passive	When using a different armor and helmet type: increases amount of Shield Toss bounces, 15% increased Weak Point damage, and 15% increased Ranged Damage. This makes it important to have upgraded equipment.
Staggering Toss	Mourn Watch	Passive	Shield Toss converts Rage into Stagger
Ricochet Shot	Mourn Watch	Passive	Shield Toss converts Rage into Stagger
Lingering Decay	Mourn Watch	Passive	+1 Shield Toss bounce
Slam	Mourn Watch	Passive	Duration skills now apply Necrosis damage
Shattering Throw	Reaper	Ultimate, Necrotic	Shield Toss deals 10% more damage and gains another bounce
Let It Linger	Reaper	Passive	Shield Toss adds an Affliction on hit
Living Decay	Reaper	Passive	Necrotic damage steal 2% life from a target and has 50% Damage Penetration
Devastation	Reaper	Passive	Afflictions deal 10% more damage and have 20% longer duration
Shattering Throw	Reaper	Passive	Shield Toss deals 10% more damage and gains another bounce
Concussive Smash	Lords of Fortune	Passive	Using a Smash skill lowers the target’s defense by 20
Overhead Smash	Lords of Fortune	Passive	Smash skills deal 50% more damage against armor and have 50% more Stagger
Enraged	Grey Warden	Projectile, Control	Gain Rage 10% faster
Collateral Damage	Grey Warden	Passive	Area of effect skills deal 10% more damage when multiple enemies are hit
Battlefield Awareness	Grey Warden	Passive	When you interrupt an enemy with a Control skill, deal 15% bonus damage
Grappling Spear	Grey Warden	Passive	Drag a target close to you and applies Overwhelm