Dragon Age Inquisition Builds

Champion (Sword and Shield)

Vanguard

Warcry /
Charging Bull /
Gore and Trample (Skill upgrade) /
Untouchable Defense /
It'll Cost You /
Unbowed /
Still Standing (Skill upgrade)

Battlemaster

Grappling Chain /
Hamstring /
Deep Reserves /
War Horn /
Break Their Spirit (Skill upgrade)

Champion (Specialization)

Line in the Sand (not equipped) /

Bulwark /
Resilience /
Adamant /
Unyielding /
To the Death /
En Garde (Skill upgrade) /
Walking Fortress /
Siege-Breaker (Skill upgrade) /
Counterstrike

Other Skills worthy of the Champ

Weapon and Shield

Payback Strike - This ability is a great "get your ass up!" skill when getting knocked around by enemies.
Unbowed also seems to help recover from knockdowns as well, but Payback Strike adds some pain to
that.

Shield Wall - Each block adds to your guard at the cost of stamina while holding this skill.

Shield Bash and its upgrade, Ring the Bell - A fantastic skill for breaking enemies with too much guard.
Not many enemies require this much guard breaking, but it just might be worth respecing JUST to bring
this to certain fights.

Vanguard

Warcry upgrade, Call to Arms adds 200% armor bonus for 10 seconds.
Cutting Words - Taunted enemies receive an additional 20% damage from party members attacks.

Bodyguard and it's upgrade Not Today - you take 50% of the damage of the damage meant for your
allies, and then resist half that damage to you!

Gameplay is fairly simple. Charging Bull your enemy(s) and Warcry. Alternatively, Grappling Chain,
Charging bull, then Warcry. Do you need more Guard? Unbowed. Interrupt/Destroy enemy's guard?
War Horn. Someone needs to die quick? To the Death. Getting pounded? Walking Fortress. See a
straggler or someone harassing your Mage? Grappling Chain. Out of options and shit is getting out of
control? Counterstrike!

With only an 8 second cooldown, Charging Bull as much as possible! Rush your enemies, knocking down
and interrupt them, escape damage, generate guard - your next skill will cost no stamina!

Your main goal as a Champion is to maintain aggro, first and foremost. Second is to make sure you can
take that aggro without dying. All of these skills can help you in one way or another to do exactly that.
Even against the toughest opponents, nothing should kill you! Even if you're the last one standing! Sure
it'll take awhile for you to kill your enemy, especially if you're like me, and still using some crappy Tier 2
weapon....but it'll happen! Nothing is tougher than a Champion in Dragon Age Inquisition! NOTHING!

Champion (Two-Handed)

Shields are for sissies! With this badass two-hand weapon, they'll be wanting shields! Time to show the
baddies in Dragon Age Inquisition how a 2-hand Champion pwns!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Vanguard,
Two Handed Weapon, Battlemaster skill trees, and new active and passives from the Champion
specialization.

With about 15-20 points to place, you can put together a very powerful 2-Hand Tank Champion that has
everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Two Hand Weapon

Block and Slash /

Flow of Battle /
Mighty Blow /
Easy Target (Skill upgrade)

Battlemaster

Grappling Chain and the upgrade, Give Them the Boot

Vanguard

Warcry /
Charging Bull /
Gore and Trample (Skill upgrade) /
It'll Cost You /
Unbowed /
Still Standing (optional upgrade)
Cutting Words (unlocked later when we get To the Death)
Champion

Line in the Sand (unused) /

Bulwark /
Adamant /
Resilience /
Unyielding /
Walking Fortress /
Siege Breaker (Skill upgrade)
Note: Once you have Walking Fortress, you no longer need Unbowed)
Counterstrike (replaces Unbowed) /
To the Death /
En Garde (Skill upgrade)

Until you get to the Champion Specialization, Unbowed is a great skill to ensure you always have Guard.
Once we get skills like Walking Fortress, Unbowed is no longer needed and is replaced on your skill bar
by the focus ability, Counterstrike.

After you get To the Death and it's upgrade, then get Cutting Words to deal 20% more damage to
taunted targets. This should help to burn down single targets even faster!

My basic opening is Grappling Chain, followed by Mighty Blow. Regardless if the enemy is far away, or
right in our face, this combo interrupts, stuns and deals a ton of damage. Do this often, as both skills
have short cooldowns.

Our guard generators are Warcry, Charging Bull, Unbowed, Walking Fortress, To the Death, and
Counterstrike. Your champion should almost always have guard up this way unless facing some serious
damage in Nightmare. Still, my 2Hand Champion does well enough, as long as I'm not attempting
anything way over my level in Nightmare. (Like Rifts)

Use To the Death to burn down dangerous enemies. / Block and Slash as often as you can to avoid
damage and knock your enemies down. / Use Mighty Blow as often as you see enemies knocked down
for big damage. / Charging Bull to interrupt enemies and get out of harms way.

Templar (Sword and Shield)

Easily one of the most powerful classes in Dragon Age Inquisition, the Templar can both tank, and deal
large amounts of damage to enemies, especially demons! No other class overpowers the demonic waves
of Rifts like a Templar. Even as a Sword and Shield tank, the Templar still draws from it's specialization
skills that really know how to bring the pain!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Vanguard,
Battlemaster, Weapon and Shield skill trees, and new active and passives from the Templar
specialization.

With about 15-20 points to place, you can put together a very powerful Templar that has everything it
needs to dominate on the battlefield.

In Weapon and Shield, take Shield Wall / Payback Strike (unused) / Turn the Bolt / Warrior's Resolve /
Shield Bash / Turn the Blade

In Battlemaster, take Grappling Chain

In Vanguard, take Warcry

In Templar, take everything including upgrades. Be warned, you will be overpowered. For a little more
challenge and less faceroll, consider not upgrading the abilities here.

Basic opener - Warcry, Wrath of Heaven, followed by Spell Purge. This will stun the enemies, and then
combo, dealing massive amounts of damage to ANY TYPE OF ENEMIES! If anything is still alive, use
Blessed Blades, throw in a Shield Bash and some basic attacks, and thanks to the rapid cooldown with
Blessed Blades, you're probably ready to combo Wrath of Heaven with Spell Purge.

When faced against large enemies like Sledge Hammer guys, Pride Demons or Dragons, that Shield Wall
is definitely going to come in handy. Shield Wall is also good for deflecting projectiles. Each block also
adds to generate Guard.

If using for AI, remember to set the Behavior settings to Follow Cassandra

Set Warcry, Wrath of Heaven, Blessed Blades, and Spell Purge to Preferred. Disable Grappling Hook for
enemies such as dragon fights, since it won't work on them.

Reaver (Two-handed)

Destroy your enemies with the power of the Reaver! Drink the blood of your foes and tear through their
flesh with devastating attacks! The Reaver specialization for this 2-Hand Warrior is unlike anything else
out there!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Two-Hand
and Vanguard tree, and new active and passives from the Reaver specialization tree for 2-hand Warrior.
These builds can be used of course for your main character, but have also been designed to be just as
viable for use with your AI teammates.

This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 17-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Reaver that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Two-Handed Weapon

Block and Slash /

Mighty Blow /
Easy Target (Skill Upgrade) /
Flow of Battle /
Shield Breaker

Vanguard

Challenge /
Charging Bull /
Gore and Trample (Skill Upgrade) /
Trust the Steel /
It'll Cost You /
Unbowed /
Still Standing (Skill Upgrade)

Reaver (Specialization)

Ring of Pain /
Torrent of Pain (Skill Upgrade) /
Blood Frenzy /
Fervor /
Scenting Blood /
Devour /
Dragon-Rage /
Ravage (Skill Upgrade)

From here, I recommend focusing on Skill Upgrades like Consume for Devour and other passives like
Terrifying Fury. You can unlock more active skills if you like, but keep in mind you only have 8 skills you
can equip at one time.

Rift Mage

Weakening attacks, pulling and pushing, knocking down and stunning, buffing party's attacks, and laying
waste to groups of enemies. That's what the Rift Mage brings to a fight!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Inferno,
Storm and Winter skill trees, and new active and passives from the Rift Mage specialization.

This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 15-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Rift Mage that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Storm

Chain Lightning /
Stormbringer /
Gathering Storm /
Static Cage /
Lightning Cage (Skill upgrade)

Inferno

Immolate or Flashfire (unused either way) /

Flashpoint /
Pyromancer /
Clean Burn (optional) /
Chaotic Focus (optional) /
Fire Mine /
Searing Glyph (Skill upgrade)

Winter

Winter's Grasp /
Winter Stillness

Rift Mage (Specialization)

Take everything! All the active skills, their upgrades, passives, and of course, Firestorm!
Gameplay Tips

As mentioned in the video, the core feature of playing a Rift Mage is weakening your enemies. All three
skills, when upgraded, weaken enemies for 10 seconds. All four passive abilities in the Rift Mage
specialization benefit you and your party from this debuff, so keep this active as often as possible!

This build has a lot of fun combos you can pull. Including the barrier bonus damage with Chaotic focus.
Either by getting the Barrier skill ourselves, or better yet, have another mage in the party that casts
Barrier for us. Then nuke 'em with a Fire Mine!

Pull of the Abyss and...just about anything is great! I like to combo Static Cage with it while me and the
other party members are in a frenzy of attacks!

Winter's Grasp combined with Stonefist for a shatter combo!

Static Cage and Chain Lightning. Even more damage if you upgraded Chain Lightning!

Combine this and Firestorm, and even the biggest group fights will end in a very short time!

You should be constantly casting, even basic spells. Thanks to our passives like Gathering Storm, we
have increased cooldown reduction. But try not to move around too much though, otherwise you
negate the bonus effect of Winter Stillness, that reduces skill cooldown and mana generation bonus.

Keep an eye on your screen for when you critical hit an enemy. Your next skill will have no cooldown!
This is especially great if you can make back-to-back Fire Mines!

This is just an example, and by no means an "Optimal build". Far from it probably. But thanks to the skill
choice freedom, and fantastic balance in all of the basic skill trees, just about any combination of skills
with Rift Mage abilities is going to make a fun build to play. I highly recommend taking the Rift Mage
abilities, and then create your own combination of active and passive skills. :)

Necromancer (Inferno)

Necromancer is lacking the usual excitement a Necro offers usually in RPGs, but that doesn't mean it
can't still be fun. With the right skill combos, Necro can still satisfy with damage of time spells, risen
enemies fighting as your ally, and exploding corpses!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Inferno,
Winter and Spirit skill trees, and new active and passives from the Necromancer specialization.

This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 15-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Necromancer that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Inferno

Immolate /
Wildfire (Skill Upgrade) /
Flashpoint /
Pyromancer /
Clean Burn /
Chaotic Focus /
Wall of Fire /
Fire Mine /
Searing Glyph (Skill upgrade)

Winter

Fade Step /
Winter Stillness

Spirit

Barrier /
Peaceful Aura /
Guardian Spirit

Necromancer

Horror (Unused) /
Blinding Terror /
Simulacrum /
Walking Bomb /
Death Siphon /
Power of the Dead /
Spirit Mark /
Lingering Mark (Skill upgrade) /
Haste

Gameplay Tips

As mentioned in the video, I'm using the Chaotic Focus, Barrier, and Fire Mine trick to make some
powerful aoe explosions. Immolate can also be useful when it's better to have an instant blast rather
than a delayed. And Wall of Fire for when you want a combination of burning and panic for a single or
multiple enemies.

Flashpoint is one of the most important things to keep in mind. Whenever you score a critical hit, your
next spell cast has no cooldown. This comes in handy both offensively and defensively, allowing you to
for example cast back to back Fire Mines or Barrier to divided party members.

The Necromancer specialization also adds damage over time effects from Spirit Mark and Walking
Bomb. Combined with the burning from the Inferno skills, a single enemies health can drain very fast!
Ideally, you want to have enemies draining from these effects as much as possible. And just as
important, is to time the spells that they are still active as an enemy dies, giving you a minion and/or
exploding corpse to damage nearby enemies!

Some people I've noticed disregard the benefits of Winter Stillness. I however have noticed a
considerable drop in my casting speed without it. The Mana regen is very noticeable and even if
interrupted, only takes a couple of seconds to reactivate.
One last word of advice, try not to go full force at the beginning in fights. Cast a little and then let the
tank take aggro or you'll likely find yourself quickly playing defensively rather than dpsing.

Knight Enchanter

In-depth look at what makes the Knight Enchanter, one of the most powerful specialization classes in
Dragon Age Inquisition. With this guide you'll get a clear look at the active and passive skills that
combine to make a near unkillable mage that delivers pain by the truck load from melee range.

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Spirit,
Lightning, and Fire skill trees, and new active and passives from the Knight Enchanter specialization tree
for Mage. These builds can be used of course for your main character, but have also been designed to be
just as viable for use with your AI teammates.

This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 15-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Knight Enchanter that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Spirit
Barrier / Elegant Defense (Skill upgrade) / Guardian Spirit / Peaceful Aura / Dispel / Revival / Life Ward
(Skill upgrade)

Knight Enchanter

Spirit Blade / Combat Clarity / Fade Shield / Knight-Protector Fade Cloak / Decloaking Blast (Skill
upgrade) / Veiled Riposte / Resurgence

Please note: To make this build work, you will "need" everything shown from the Knight Enchanter and
Spirit trees. However, I encourage you to use the rest of your points to unlock other helpful and fun
active and passive skills from other trees.

Inferno
Immolate / Flashpoint / Clean Burn

Storm
Energy Barrage / Conductive Current

Once you've unlocked the Knight Enchanter class and have roughly 15 points to place, focus on
unlocking skills from both Spirit and Knight Enchanter. Barrier, Guardian Spirit, Peaceful Aura, Dispel,
and Rejuvenating Barrier come first in Spirit. In Knight Enchanter, quickly go for Spirit Blade, Combat
Clarity, Fade Shield, Knight-Protector, Fade Cloak, Veiled Riposte, and then Resurgence. That's 12 points.

Several skill upgrades are also key to unlocking more potential from skills such as Decloaking Blast for
Fade Cloak, Elegant Defense for Barrier, Life Ward for Revival, Transmute Magic for Dispel, and
Defending Blade for Spirit Blade. Those are listed from what I consider most important, to moderately
important. Including the previous skills, that's now 17 points spent.

From here, it's all up to you. I like adding some ranged so I'm not dependent only on fighting from close
up. Plus it never hurts to have some elemental attacks that some enemies are weak to like Fire,
Lightning and Ice.
Energy Barrage is one of the flashiest and effective spells with a decent cost and farily short cooldown,
and also leads to a great passive, Conductive Current which increases your damage based on how much
mana you're missing. Since we're fighting up close, Static Charge isn't a bad passive to take either.

From Inferno, Immolate works well to attack from afar and while you're knocking your enemies around
with Decloaking Blast. This opens up more cooldown reduction possibilities to Flashpoint and Clean
Burn.

The Winter tree also offers some more fun options. Winter's Grasp is always a great skill to take and
locks down Rage Demons very well.

More class builds on the way! Check out the previous guides below!

Assassin (Dual Daggers)

One of the most complicated and rewarding classes to play in Dragon Age Inquisition, a dual dagger
Assassin Rogue! Timing, position, and resource management make playing this class a test of focus more
than any other I've played.

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Subterfuge,
Sabotage, and Double Dagger skill trees, and new active and passives from the Assassin specialization
tree for Rogue.

This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 15-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Assassin that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Double Dagger

Twin Fangs /
Ripping Fangs (Skill upgrade) /
Flank Attack /
Skirmisher (Skill upgrade) /
Dance of Death /
Sneak Attack /
Deathblow

Sabotage

Caltrops (unused, but necessary) to get to the passive Looked Like It Hurt

Subterfuge

Stealth
Lost in the Shadows (Optional skill upgrade) /
Evasion /
Evade /
Ambush /
Shadow Strike /
Quick Blade (Skill upgrade)

Assassin (Specialization)
Hidden Blades /
Overkill (Skill upgrade) /
I Was Never Here /
Knife in the Shadows /
Mark of Death /
Throatcutter

Here are some other skills worth investing in and replacing Evade with.

Hook and Tackle - A great skill that can help you reach archers and mages on the outer edges of battle.
And with it's upgrade It Beats Walking, it costs no stamina and has no cooldown.

Knockout Powder/Knockout Bomb, and the passive Mercy Killing could also be worth taking and applied
in certain situations. You will automatically critical hit a target this way.

Poisoned Weapons and it's upgrade Infected Wounds. A decent damage builder, but with you other
skills, your target is most likely dead way before the poison even works its duration.

Gameplay: There are basically two plans of attack that I use and I'm almost always positioned if possible
behind my target(s)

Method 1 for normal encounters, single or multiple targets - Stealth, move behind target, Hidden
Blades, Flank attack for Stealth, Shadow Strike, Stealth, Twin Fangs. At this point, something is probably
dead. If not, Deathblow. Now it's definitely dead. ;)

Method 2, recommended for targets with high HP - Mark of Death, Flank Attack for Stealth, Hidden
Blades, Stealth, Shadow Strike, if enemy is 25% health or less, trigger Mark of Death. If not, consider
Twin Fangs and/or Deathblow, then Mark of Death. Probably dead. ;)

For extremely high HP enemies (ex: dragons) your priority skills are Mark of Death, Hidden Blades, Flank
Attack, Twin Fangs, Shadow Strike (to reduce cooldowns of previous skills) When enemy drops below
50% health, start using Deathblow.

As many chances as you get, attack from Stealth. HOWEVER! Do not stand around doing nothing,
waiting for Stealth to attack. If you're waiting for Stealth, and/or low on stamina, use basic attacks. You
should always be attacking or moving into position to attack from behind!

Also, unless you have aggro, don't go into Stealth and then wait more than 2-3 seconds to use a skill.
Instead, use basic attacks, and when you're skills are off cooldown, then go into Stealth and attack with
Skills.

Artificer Archer Rogue

Artificer in Dragon Age Inquisition brings some interesting tricks to the rogue table. It's not a big game
changer, but there are some very helpful and powerful combos that can be a lot of fun to execute!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Sabotage,
Archery skill trees, and new active and passives from the Artificer specialization.
This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 15-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Artificer that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Sabotage

Caltrops... unused but leads to Looked Like It Hurt, a great passive that regens stamina with every critical
hit. Artificer/Varric seems to crit very often, making this a no brainer to go for. In fact, I'd say it good for
any rogue build to invest in sooner or later.

Poisoned Weapons /
Infected Wounds (Skill upgrade) /

Archery

Death from Above /

Leaping Shot /
Long Shot /
First Blood /
Explosive Shot /
Chain Reaction (Skill upgrade) /
Pincushion /
Full Draw

Aritificer

Spike Trap (Unused) /

Set Them Up /
Elemental Mines /
And Take Them Down /
Hail of Arrows /
Opportunity Knocks /
Fallback Plan /
Tricks of the Trade

Gameplay Tips

Poisoned Weapons should be a high priority to activate every chance you get. This plus every Archery
shot we perform either basic or skilled attacks, poisons and deals extra damage. Combine this especially
for grouped enemies and Explosive Shot to spread poison to all enemies caught in the blast!

Leaping Shot is our bread n' butter here. If you can, craft a piece of armor with a nice Masterwork perk
like Hidden Blades, and Leaping Shot will do the rest. Each of the 12 projectiles from Leaping Shot gives
a chance to activate a "X on hit" skill like Hidden Blades.

Leaping Shot also goes great with our Focus ability, Hail of Arrows, which duplicates all your Archery
Shots for a given time.

Elemental Mines are fun for group fights. Throw a handful of these around and watch the sparks fly!
Setting enemies on fire, chilled, shocked and more! The damage isn't half bad either.
A more situational skill, best equipped for boss or dragon fights, is Fallback Plan. This gives you a 15
second window to basically turn back time for your Artificer, resetting his/her position and health to the
point it was first activated. Keep in mind, you have to manually trigger the skill again, or you get nothing
at the end of the 15 seconds.

Fallback Plan is a great escape tool and at times, a big life saver. If you see someone charging you, or you
know something is about to hit you hard, set this down, take the hit, and then activate the skill. It's like
nothing ever happened!

Tempest Archer
Tempest flasks combined with Archer skills, Stealth Skills, and a few drops of poison. This build satisfies
the desire to pew-pew and shoryuken your way through mobs. And who could pass up that insane Fire
Flask + Thousand Cuts combo huh? It's like bar-b-queing cheese. Shit melts real quick!

This guide focuses on how to build your class using a combination of standard skills from the Archery,
Subterfuge, and Sabotage skill trees, and new active and passives from the Tempest specialization.

This build has been put together from a fresh respec. With about 15-20 points to place, you can put
together a very powerful Tempest Archer that has everything it needs to dominate on the battlefield.

Archery

First Blood /
Explosive Shot /
Chain Reaction /
Pincushion /
Full Draw

Sabotage

Poisoned Weapons /
Infected Wounds

Subterfuge

Stealth /
Lost in the Shadows /
Evasion /
Evade /
Ambush /
Shadow Strike /
Quick Blade

Tempest

Flask of Fire /
Unquenchable Flames /
Fury of the Storm /
Thousand Cuts /
Killer's Alchemy /
Flask of Lightning /
Quicksilver
Gameplay Tips
Stealth (30 seconds) Poisoned Weapons (10 seconds) Full Draw for the start of a battle, particularly
against squishys and they're likely dead. When the backup comes charging, try to take advantage of the
remaining time on Poisoned Weapons, and blast them with Explosive Shot to damage and poison the
group!

From here, you can either down a Flask of Lightning and continue to pew pew from range, or start
moving toward the group, Stealth and Shadow Strike to deal damage and lower cooldowns.

For big groups that just need to die real quick, like 2nd waves of Rift spawns, down the Flask of Fire and
immediately activate your focus ability, Thousand Cuts. Thank the maker, you just destroyed your
enemies, and it didn't cost you a single tick of your focus power! Beware: activating anything between
Flask of Fire and Thousand Cuts may result in you spending your focus!

Another fun combo with Flask of Fire, more for the lulz than anything, Flask of Fire, and then beat the
crap out of your target(s) with Shadow Strike repeatedly for the duration of the flask (avg 5 seconds)

Flask of Lightning enables you to basically speed up your attacks by nearly 100% for the next 7 seconds!
Fill em full of arrows with basic attacks, or perform combos while your enemies are frozen in time!

Poisoned Weapons + just about any skill is the preferred way to make use of this skill. Poisoned
Weapons and just basic attacks? A waste most of the time. Combine it with Full Draw, Explosive Shot,
Shadow Strike, or cast it just before the Flask of Fire+Thousand Cuts combo to deal even greater
damage!

Keep firing! Pincushion is steady increasing your dps!

Feel free to unlock other active and passives from the Archery and Tempest trees. Keep in mind
however, that you can only have 8 skills equipped!