Ultimate Dragon Age: The Veilguard Warrior Build Guide – Companions, Skills, Weapons, and More

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the Warrior class exemplifies pure strength in battle, making it the top-tier brawler at the game’s inception.

As expected, Warriors are the most resilient of the three available classes in The Veilguard. They excel at absorbing significant damage from foes while simultaneously proving to be formidable in one-on-one and group confrontations, easily transforming some of the toughest challenges into manageable events.

According to our tier list, the Warrior stands proudly in the S-Tier, symbolizing unrivaled power in Thedas. There are multiple build options depending on whether you prefer dealing devastating damage or focusing on tanking; however, all of these configurations perform well throughout the game’s numerous quests.

Given this context, here’s our comprehensive guide on the optimal way to construct a Warrior in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Optimal Warrior Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Key Features	Optimal Build
Specialization	Reaper
Skills	Spectral Bulwark, Bloody Advance, Reaper, Spirit Storm
Stat Priorities	Necrotic Damage, Stagger, Rage Generation
Companions	Neve Gallus, Taash

The Warrior class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard offers diverse gameplay options, with several effective strategies to explore. Players can effectively switch between sword and shield or opt for a two-handed weapon, with the latter offering higher damage output but at a slower pace. Some two-handed builds provide significant stagger damage, enabling quick takedowns of adversaries.

For our recommended strategy, we focus on the sword and shield setup to leverage powerful abilities within the Warrior arsenal. Thanks to the natural toughness of this class, you won’t have to overly prioritize damage mitigation, allowing you to concentrate on maximizing damage output instead.

The character creation screen for Warrior in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

While the Warrior class primarily focuses on melee combat, this build is centered around using shield throws to inflict significant damage in both solo and group challenges. By enhancing critical hit rates and decreasing enemy resistances, you’ll be able to maximize your damage potential.

In The Veilguard, Mages and Rogues can maintain their distance from enemy attacks thanks to their superior mobility. In contrast, the Warrior’s optimal strategy lies in mastering well-timed parries, which affords them advantageous opportunities for attacks against opponents of standard size.

Top Specialization

The Warrior Specs for Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Preferred Specialization: Reaper

Warriors can unlock three specializations once they reach Level 20, the same level available to Mages and Rogues. The Reaper specialization tree further emphasizes the shield throw mechanic, introducing a blend of leech effects and combat enhancements.

On the other hand, the Slayer specialization focuses on using two-handed weapons, prioritizing immense single-strike damage. The Champion specialization draws inspiration from the Grey Wardens, focusing on shield use as well as offering support to the team.

We recommend selecting the Reaper specialization, as it currently offers the highest damage potential. Its necrotic damage capabilities are also particularly powerful compared to burn or freeze effects, maximizing your overall effectiveness.

Top Skills and Abilities

Necrotic Skills: Reaper, Spectral Bulwark, Bloody Advance

Our gameplay strategy as a Reaper Warrior focuses on using shield throws to deliver substantial damage. The Shield Volley trait within the core Warrior skill tree enables this, allowing for damage outputs that can reach as high as 7000—dependent on enemy resistances and critical hits.

The power of Necrotic Damage becomes crucial for us as Warriors, with our three key rotation abilities centered around this damage type. The first of these attacks is Reaper, summoning a spectral scythe to sweep through enemies in front of the player.

Spectral Bulwark creates a protective barrier between the enemy and our Warrior, while Bloody Advance launches a flurry of blades that chase after foes—ideal for groups of opponents.

The Warrior skill tree in Dragon Age: The Veilguard — dexerto/Bioware

These powerful abilities not only excel individually but also work harmoniously together or with our Shield Throw. The Unyielding Focus trait provides an immovable state during the casting of Spectral Bulwark, preventing enemies from interrupting our Shield Throw charge and enhancing overall combat safety.

The Bloody Advance ability applies Sundered status and impales enemies with crystals that explode upon being hit with a Shield Toss. On the other hand, Reaper triggers explosions on weakened foes and grants Siphoned status, which acts similarly to life steal for the character.

Our chosen Ultimate ability, Spirit Storm, also serves as a form of life steal, growing stronger with the number of enemies affected by its area of effect.

Though these dynamic abilities are thrilling to utilize, the entire build revolves around the Shield Throw. Often, you’ll find that basic attacks yield higher damage-per-second (DPS) returns than channeling special abilities.

Optimal Stats and Gear

Necrotic Damage
Stagger
Rage Generation

Dragon Age offers a wide array of gear choices, with the selection greatly influenced by their rarity, which in turn affects their power. For our Warrior build, our primary focus should be on enhancing Necrotic Damage.

A prime example is the Dark Shard Legendary Longsword, which pairs excellently with the Necropolis Defender shield. Together, they enhance Necrotic Damage, with the sword also applying the Necrosis effect to enemies on critical hits.

The Warrior gear page in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

As a Warrior, maximizing Physical damage boosts will also yield significant improvements in your overall damage output. Lastly, Stagger provides a useful mechanism for dealing quick, high-damage strikes and executing foes effectively.

For armor, consider the Hall of Valor as an excellent source of gear once you reach Level 4 reputation with the merchant, allowing for acquisition of high-level items. The unique Extravagant Plate armor can be found there, offering substantial boosts to ability effectiveness and defensive capabilities, transforming your Warrior into a virtually invincible force.

The Diminish Rune also complements the build nicely by weakening nearby enemies, setting them up for additional detonations from Reaper, or for your companions to exploit similar effects, as detailed in the next section.

Top Companion Choices

Neve Gallus
Taash

The Warrior’s independence allows you to allocate companion resources toward maximizing damage output. Thus, it’s beneficial to choose companions that complement each other’s strengths for enhanced effectiveness.

Neve stands out as an ideal companion for our shield-throwing strategy. She has the capability to exploit the Sundered status from Bloody Advance and apply Weakened effects, which can be detonated with Reaper.

Taash serves as an excellent counterbalance to Neve, providing additional detonating options for Weakened enemies, which becomes especially useful when your Rage reserves are depleted.

This concludes our comprehensive guide to optimizing your Warrior in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Should you wish to explore other character types, we’ve also curated guides for the game’s remaining classes—Mage and Rogue.

Source

Images Credit: Dexerto.com