10. Elementalist

Elementalist Mage Build Guide

This is the most versatile mage build in the game, and can be achieved without the use of specialty classes. This is excellent if you prefer to take the story slower and focus on side questing, as it will take you longer to unlock specialty class options.

Many enemies in the game have resistances to certain elements that mages use. The elementalist gets around this by having access to every element. If they are resistant to one, then just use something else. You have options!

This build can also be used as an excellent base for later additions. It is balanced and works well on its own, but there is no reason to to get creative and add more with specialty classes later on.

What Elementalist Excels In

• Balance of single target and AOE attacks
• Access to all elemental types to surpass resistances
• Easiest mage to build and run, even for new players

Build details

• Skill Trees
  • Winter
    • Winter’s Grasp
    • Winter Stillness
    • Spirit Barrier
    • Peaceful Aura
  • Storm
    • Chain Lightning
    • Energy Barrage
    • Conductive Current
    • Lightning Bolt
  • Inferno
    • Flashfire
    • Immolate
    • Flashpoint
    • Clean Burn
• Gear
  • Ring of Doubt
  • Ring of Assault
  • Amulet of Renewal
  • Superb Belt of Focus
• Crafting
  • Refined Battlemage Coat, ranged defense, health bonus, willpower bonus
  • Superior Seer Cowl, reduce cooldowns, increase magic
  • Best Staff Schematic/lvl, damage bonus, critical bonus, elemental bonus

9. Two-handed Templar

Two-hand Templar Build Guide

The Templar is the warrior’s answer against magic and demons. Having a Templar in your party is noticeably helpful during fights to close fade rifts, and when fighting rogue apostates or blood mages.

Many Templar builds focus on sword and shield combat, balancing damage and armor. Cassandra is an excellent example of that in most people’s parties. This build is different in that it throws out the idea of tanking to focus on a DPS approach to Templar.

Don't worry though, the usual Templar buffs will still apply as well as some guard for survivability. It just won’t be quite as guard focussed as a traditional Templar. Quality armor and gear will be important for this Templar.

Not only do you have a variety of damaging attacks to pull from, you can also weaken your opponents and break through their armor, causing them to take more damage from all attacks as battle progresses.

What Two-handed Templar Excels In

• High DPS with some guard
• Adding buffs to self and party members
• Weakening opponents, leaving them vulnerable to all attacks

Build details

• Skill Trees
  • Two-handed
    • Block and Slash with Flawless Defense
    • Mighty Blow with Easy Target
    • Flow of Battle
    • Shield Breaker
    • Pommel Strike
  • Battlemaster
    • Grappling Chain with Give Them the Boot
    • Crippling Blows
    • Coup De Grace
    • Horn Of Valor with That’s the Spirit
  • Templar
    • Blessed Blades with Lights in the Shadow
    • Maker’s Will
    • There is no Darkness
    • Wrath of Heaven with Embrace the Light
    • Rally
• Gear
  • Master (or Superior) Belt of Focus
  • Superb Ring of Attack
  • Superb Ring of Staggering
  • Amulet of Death Siphon
  • Stone Breaker (High Level)
  • Boon of the Spoon (Mid levels)
• Crafting
  • Battlemaster Armor, max health bonus, guard bonus, mele defense bonus
  • Revered defender helm with same/similar bonuses

8. Knight Enchanter

Knite-Enchanter Build Guide

A poorly built Knight Enchanter makes for a lackluster game experience. While the class itself has some great abilities, it tends to be trickier to balance as you level and build the character. Here is the build that I recommend for a quality and enjoyable Knight Enchanter experience.

The goal of this Knight Enchanter build is stacking passives that allow the caster virtually unlimited casting in combat. We are reducing, sometimes eliminating cooldowns and restoring magic. This allows those heavy hitting spells to hit more often, and for you to deal far greater damage.

What Knight Enchanter Excels In

• Casting spells more often by removing cooldowns
• Improved barrier to prevent taking damage
• Spirit damage options surpass most resistances

Build details

• Skill Trees
  • Spirit
    • Barrier
    • Energetic Defense
  • Storm
    • Energy Bombardment
    • Conductive Current
    • Static Charge
    • Static Cage with Lightning Cage
  • Inferno
    • Immolate (won’t use later level)
    • Flashpoint
    • Clean Burn
    • Pyromancy
    • Chaotic Focus
    • Flaming Array
  • Winter
    • Fade Step with Energizing Step
    • Winter Stillness
    • Ice Mine Ice Armor
    • Blizzard with Winter Winds
  • Knight Enchanter
    • Spirit Blade with Amplified Blade
    • Fade Cloak with Decloaking Blast
    • Veiled Riposte
    • Combat Clarity
    • Fade Shield
• Gear
  • Andraste’s Sacrifice
  • The Bind that Guides
  • Superb Ring of Critical Chance
  • Superb Ring of Doubt
• Crafting
  • Staff Schematic, spirit bonus, magic bonus, attack bonus
  • Armor schematic light, cunning bonus, magic bonus, max health bonus

7. Pyro-Necromancer

Pyro-Necromancer Build Guide

A powerful and surprisingly versatile class, considering how few skill trees are being used. Obviously Immolation and Necromancy are the main focus, but you will also be taking two skills from the winter tree, and three from spirit.

The Pyro-Necromancer is primarily focused on damage over time, with Fire Mine being one of your most used attacks. But we are not sacrificing support to get that damage, plenty of abilities increase your survivability. You can create panic in enemies, and Fade Step will give you the ability to evade incoming attacks. A simple way to achieve powerful yet survivable build.

If you should die, utilize Simulacrum to return to life for a brief time. You will be able to cast spells at no cost, so take full advantage and sling magic like mad. Your allies will thank you and be more likely to win the fight even with your absence. If you have a Spirit mage in your party, they will only be able to revive you once Simulacrum ends.

What Pyro-Necromancer Excels In

• High damage without sacrificing support
• Evasion and resistance to damage
• Easy strategy to understand and play

Build details

• Skills
  • Spirit  
    • Barrier
    • Peaceful Aura
    • Guardian Spirit
  • Winter
    • Fade Step
    • Winter Stillness 
  • Inferno
    • Immolate
    • Wildfire
    • Flashpoint
    • Clean Burn
    • Wall of Fire
    • Chaotic Focus
    • Pyromancer
    • Fire Mine with Searing Glyph
  • Necromancy
    • Horror (Replace later with Haste)
    • Blinding Terror
    • Death Siphon
    • Simulacrum
    • Walking Bomb
    • Power of the Dead
    • Spirit Mark with Lingering Mark
• Gear
  • Pyre of the Forgotten Staff (or craft one below)
  • Superior Ring of Doubt
  • Superb Ring of Attack
  • Andraste's Sacrifice
  • Superb Belt of Health
• Crafting
  • Superior Battlemage Armor: health bonus, mele defense, ranged defense
  • Battlemade Cowl: willpower bonus
  • Staff: attack bonus, guard damage bonus, armor penetration

6. Champion Tank

Champion Warrior Build Guide

This build is here to say that you can never have too much guard. The majority of the abilities used create or increase your guard, even some of the attacks like Charging Bull. This Champion is the Ultimate Tank.

As a front line fighter, you are likely to meet other tanks on the field of battle. You both have guard, but upgraded War Horn will give you the advantage. You will receive a massive bonus damage against guard. This is also effective against dragons and demons.

There are also a few helpful features for when enemies try to strike you, and since you’re the tank they certainly will. Through the passive effect Resilience you have a chance to stun attacking enemies. And if an enemy does somehow manage to break through your guard and bring down your health, Unyielding will be there to grant 5 seconds of invulnerability and leave you with some health. Hey, it’s much better than dead.

If invulnerability piqued your interest then give Walking Fortress a try. 8 seconds of complete invulnerability. Upgrade it to reduce cooldown time and increase guard each time you are hit.

What Champion Tank Excels In

• The ultimate tank build
• Taunt enemies, bringing your targets within reach

Build details

• Skills
  • Vanguard
    • War Cry
    • Charging Bull with Gore and Trample
    • Untouchable defense
    • It’ll Cost you Unbowed
  • Battlemaster
    • Grappling Chain
    • Hamstring
    • Deep Reserves
    • Warhorn with Break Their Spirit
  • Champion
    • Line in the Sand
    • Bulwark
    • Resilience
    • Adamant
    • Unyielding
    • To the Death with En Garde
    • Walking Fortress with Siege-Breaker
    • Counterstrike
• Gear
  • Master Guard Belt
  • Superb Ring of Life Drain
  • Superb Ring of Staggering
  • Master (or Superb) Cooldown Amulet
  • Greatest Hits (or craft sword below)
• Crafting
  • Battlemaster Mail: increase constitution, increase max health
  • Revered Defender Helm: increase guard, increase armor
  • Best one-handed schematic: increase attack, guard breaking, damage bonuses

5. Dagger Artificer

Dagger Artificer build guide

I personally think this class should be called the Class of Chaos, because the whole point is to run around the battlefield causing mayhem and misery for your opponents. You wield an arsenal of tricks and traps, coupled with seemingly unending attacks to devastate opponents.

Like most dual dagger rogues, critical hits are your bread and butter. What Artificer adds is the ability to do AOE damage. This gives you far more battlefield control, without needing to be the center of attention (and attacks) like a warrior.

What Dagger Artificer Excels In

• Consistent critical attacks and damage
• Combines melee rogue abilities with AOE effects
• Using trickery to their advantage, such as knocking opponents out and setting traps

Build details

• Skill Trees
  • Double Dagger
    • Flank Attack
    • Bloodied Prey
    • Unforgiving Chain
    • Spinning Blades with Never Ending Spin
  • Sabotage
    • Caltrops
    • Poisoned Weapons with Leeching Poison
    • Looked Like it Hurt
    • Fighting Dirty
    • Cheap Shot
    • Explosive Toxin
    • Throwing Blades with Precision Targeting
    • Toxic Cloud with Lost in the Mist
  • Subterfuge
    • Stealth with Lost in the Shadows
    • Easy to Miss
    • Knockout Powder with Deep Sleep
  • Artificer
    • Spike Trap
    • Opportunity Knocks
    • Set them Up
    • Elemental Mines with Throw Everything
    • And Take Them Down
• Gear
  • Master Belt of Focus
  • Superb Ring of Flanking
  • Superb Ring of Critical Damage
  • Superb Amulet of Dexterity
• Crafting
  • Superior Prowler Armor, ranged defense, melee defense 
  • Superior Skirmisher Hat, critical chance binus, critical damage bonus
  • Best Dagger Schematic, attack bonus, critical damage bonus, heal on kill, elemental damage

4. Armored Reaver

Armored Reaver Build Guide

While the vanilla Warrior focuses on armor and soaking damage without health loss, the Reaver is designed to deal incredible damage at the cost of your own HP. These seem like polar opposites and shouldn’t work together right? Nope! A reaver focussed in armor can be incredibly effective on the battlefield, it’s just a matter of strategy.

The reaver needs to take damage in order to use their abilities, while armor prevents health loss. However, once Reaver health is low, all your abilities are active, and now you need to stay alive to keep fighting. So start battling with reaver abilities, let that health drop. Once you’re ready, pop those armor abilities and become a tank while still inflicting massive damage.

Of course, any reaver build has the possibility of accidentally letting your health get too low and killing your character. Embarrassing, but it can happen especially if you're new. Don’t worry, it’s a single player game so no one saw it or needs to know.

Start your build with the Sword and Shield skill tree, these will be helpful early level, then begin to acquire Vanguard skills from the list below. Reaver will be unlocked through story progression, so each person may reach it at a different time based on play speed and style. There are a few skills from Battlemaster that are helpful, but not required for the build.

The best option for gear is generally making your own to your needs. If you have played through before, use the golden nug statue to import schematics from previous playthroughs. This will make the best schematics available to you at earlier levels and with less work. I have listed crafting suggestions below.

What Armored Reaver Excels In

• Dealing massive damage
• Tanking damage from opponents
• Improved survivability from other Reaver builds
• Critical attacks and critical damage

Build details

• Skills
  • Sword and Shield
    • Shield Wall
    • Payback Strike with Sweet Revenge
    • Bear Mauls the Wolves
    • Turn the Bolt
    • Shield Bash with Ring the Bell 
  • Vanguard
    • War Cry with upgrade
    • Untouchable Defense
    • It’ll Cost You
    • Livid with upgrade
  • Reaver 
    • Ring of Pain with upgrade
    • Bloody Frenzy
    • Fervor
    • Rampage
    • Scenting Blood
    • Devour
    • Dragon Rage
  • Battlemaster (helpful, but not required)
    • Grappling Chain with upgrade
    • Crippling Blows
    • Coup De Grace
• Crafting (use highest schematics)
  • One-Handed Weapon: increased crit chance and crit bonus
  • Shield: increase defense and abilities cost less stamina
  • Battlemaster Armor with best bonuses to defense and any attack bonuses
• Gear
  • Enhanced Belt of Urgency
  • Superb Ring of Attack
  • Superb Ring of Critical Damage
  • Superb Amulet of Dexterity

3. Tempest Archer

Tempest Archer Build Guide

This ranged powerhouse may surprise you by how little it pulls from the base archery tree. Only a few skills are utilized from base skill trees, while the majority of the power comes from the Tempest tree itself. This creates a perfect stacking of stats and combo abilities.

Following this build will help you to get the most from your abilities, as it has been designed to work together. Plenty of beneficial attack combos are available. One of these uses Poisoned Weapons and Explosive Shot. Poison your arrow first, then explode your target causing the poison to spread to other nearby enemies.

Flask of Fire removes ability cost for a time, and the upgrade Unyielding Fire removes ability cooldowns. While this ability is in effect you have no costs or cooldowns for all abilities, allowing you to reign terror as fast as you can activate those abilities. And yes this includes your Tempest Focus ability, Thousand Cuts, which allows you to deal 400% damage per hit.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, slow time around you while still attacking at full speed by using Flask of Lightning. Then increase the duration with Quicksilver. This gives you all the time you need to attack, set up combos, or find a better vantage point on the battlefield.

What Tempest Archer Excels In

• High potential for combo attacks
• Stacking abilities create high damage potential
• Significantly slow time, or stealth to avoid damage or flank your opponent

Build details

• Skills
  • Archery
    • First Blood
    • Explosive Shot with Chain Reaction
    • Pincushion
    • Full Draw
  • Sabotage
    • Poisoned Weapons with Infected Wounds
  • Subterfuge
    • Stealth with Lost in the Shadows
    • Evasion
    • Evade
    • Ambush
    • Shadow Strike with Quick Blade
  • Tempest
    • Flask of Fire with Unquenchable Fire
    • Fury of the Storm
    • Thousand Cuts
    • Killer’s Alchemy
    • Flask of Lightning with Quicksilver
• Gear
  • Punched by the Maker Bow (or craft bow below)
  • Malika’s Guard
  • Superb Ring of Attack
  • Superb Ring of Critical Damage
  • Master (or Superior) Belt of Focus
• Crafting
  • Bow: armor penetration, guard penetration, any critical or attack bonus
  • Armor: Superior Prowler Armor, ranged defense, dexterity bonus, any defense

2. Dual Dagger Assassin

Dual Dagger Assassin 

I’ll be honest with you, this is my personal favorite build of the game. It does require a bit of skill planning to ensure you get the most out of this build, but is completely worth it. A well built Dual Dagger Assassin inflicts high damage through abilities and critical hits, while using a combination of stealth and evasion to avoid enemy damage.

Start off your build with the Dual Daggers tree, Flank Attack and Twin Fangs are going to be your best friends. As you level continue through the dagger list, while adding in aspects from Subterfuge. These abilities will reduce enemy agro, removing you as a target and allowing you to deal higher damage to unsuspecting foes. There is an option from the Subterfuge tree, it is there to help regain stamina for your attacks.

Be sure to read the ability descriptions in order to use them to their best advantage. For example Marked For Death (Assassin Tree) is best for using on enemies with high health, while Knife from the Shadows allows you to auto-crit when attacking from stealth. Understanding when these abilities are best will help you to get the most out of your Dual Dagger Assassin.

What Dual Dagger Assassin Excels In

• High damage output and critical chance
• Stealth and evasion lessen damage taken
• Designed for strategic combat utilizing ability pairings
• Incredibly fast attacks and high DPS

Build details

• Skill Trees
  • Double Daggers
    • Flank Attack with Skirmisher
    • Twin Fangs with Ripping Fangs
    • Dance of Death
    • Sneak Attack
    • Deathblow with upgrade
  • Subterfuge
    • Stealth
    • Evasion
    • Evade
    • Ambush
    • Shadow Strike with Quickblade
  • Subterfuge
    • Caltrops (won’t use later game, just trying to get next one)
    • Looked like it hurt
  • Assassin
    • Hidden Blades with Overkill (this upgrade is necessary)
    • I Was Never Here
    • Throatcutter
    • Knife in the Shadows (auto crit from stealth)
    • Gaps in the Armor
    • Mark of Death
• Craft
  • Superior Prowler Armor, heal on kill, stamina gain, reduce cooldowns, increase defense
  • Daggers: use best schematics, favor critical chance and critical bonus 
• Gear
  • Bloody Bargain (Trespasser) and/or Bleeder of Souls dagger 
  • Amulet of Death Siphon
  • Master Belt of Focus
  • Superb Ring of Flanking
  • Superb Ring of Critical Damage

1. Rift Mage

Rift Mage Build Guide

At base, the Rift Mage is a powerful AOE specialty class. However, each of the make skill trees have stackins skills and stat boosts. By optimizing your chosen skills as shown, you can turn your Rift Mage into an absolute magic powerhouse.

Along with AOE damage, another major focus of the Rift mage isadding enemy effects.Most Rift Mage skills have the addition of leaving foes weakened after they have been hit. This makes opening with Rift skills to weaken them, and then finishing them off with the others a highly effective tactic.

What Rift Mage Excels In

• AOE damage and effects
• Weakening enemies to increase damage done to them
• Consistent damage output, not giving foes a moment of respite

Build details

• Skill Trees
• Inferno Immolate (won’t use later levels) Flashpoint Pyromancer Fire Mine with Searing Glyph
• Winter
  • Winter’s Grasp
  • Winter Stillness
• Storn
  • Chain Lightning
  • Storm Bringer
  • Gathering Storm Static
  • Cage with Lightning Cage
• Rift Mage (take all upgrades)
  • Veil Strike
  • Stone Fist
  • Restorative Veil
  • Encircling Veil
  • Firestorm
  • Smothering Veil
  • Twisting Veil
  • Pull of the Abyss
• Gear
  • Heart of Pride
  • Cowl of the Pure
  • Vestments of the Pure
  • Ring of Doubt
  • Ring of Critical Damage
  • Superb Amulet of Magic
  • Superb Belt of Ranged Defense

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