Best Early Builds for All Classes in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Combat in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is easily the main focus of the gameplay, so having the best early builds is important for all classes in the game.

Whether you need an extra edge to take on Nightmare difficulty or simply want to make combat faster, picking the right skills for your class is always important. There are way too many choices to pick from and too few Skill Points to spend in the early game, though. As such, we understand that it can be hard to figure out what works best!

Fret not, though, in this guide we’ll give you some powerful early-game builds that you can use for every class.

Best Early Builds for All Classes | Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Before we begin, we recommend checking out our article on which class is the best for you if you still haven’t picked a class. It gives you a concise summary of what to expect from each class’ playstyle if you’re still undecided on which one to play.

As for our builds in this article, they provide you with a set of skills you want to pick and in what order to pick them as you level up. The aim here is to give you the skills we consider the strongest as you reach around Level 15 or so.

Another important thing to keep in mind with builds is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a very lenient respec feature. You can ask to refund all your skill points whenever you’re checking out the Skill Tree as long as you’re not engaged in combat. That makes it extremely easy for you to try out different builds if you don’t find ours particularly fun or if you simply wish to change your playstyle later on!

Now, with all that said, let’s dive into our recommended early-game builds for every class.

Mage

• Fade Strike – Allows you to do a strong quick attack after using your evasive Fade Step. Additionally grants you an extra follow-up attack while sprinting.
• Quick Recovery – Mana regeneration restarts 25% faster after using Mana or taking damage.
• Chained Lightning – Shoots Electric projectiles that bounce between enemies up to 4 times. Applies the Overwhelm status.
• Fade Conduit – Maximum Mana +50.
• Perfect Cast – Increases the damage of your charged attacks by 50% if you release them as soon as they finish charging.
• Wrath – Critical damage +10%.
• Reclamation – Mana restored after defeating enemy +8.
• Amperage – Electric damage +10%.
• Tempest – Summon a powerful thunderstorm around you. Hits a random enemy within 8 meters with devastating Electric damage every 2 seconds.

• Precision Strikes – Guarantees Critical hits when using Strike Abilities, such as Tempest, on knocked down enemies.
• Traumatize – Takedown damage +15%.
• Nexus Shock – Hitting enemies that have 3 stacks of Shocked will cause an electric burst from them, dealing damage to 2 other nearby enemies.
• Conductor – Strike Abilities deal 10% more damage to enemies per Shocked stack on them.
• Shock Mastery – Maximum Shock Stacks +1.
• Downfall – Guarantees a Critical hit when hitting knocked down enemies with jump attacks.
• Wall of Fire – Summons a flaming barrier that deals Fire damage and applies Burning to enemies. Most importantly, it’s a Cooldown Ability so it doesn’t cost Mana.

With this build, you want to ensure that you maintain Tempest going at all times. It has a high Mana cost, but keeping it active will drastically increase your DPS passively.

However, the main focus of this build is Chained Lightning. It’s one of the strongest early abilities across all classes and builds in Dragon Age: The Veilguard! It deals fantastic damage to multiple enemies, so it can make short work of most encounters. It’s simply too good!

Rogue

• Riposte – Allows you to do a powerful counterattack after a successful Defend.
• Powerful Rebuttal – Grants Precision after a successful Defend.
• Pilfer – Deal solid Physical damage to an enemy and steal a Potion from them, which you automatically consume to heal. Detonates the Overwhelmed status and applies Bleeding. Doesn’t consume Momentum on use but has a Cooldown.
• Spill Blood – Maximum Bleeding stacks +1.
• Blood Poisoning – Perfect Defense applies Bleeding to your attacker. If you have the Necrotic Weapons effect, it applies Necrosis instead.
• Desolate Malady – Affliction damage +10%.
• Poisoned Reply – Grants Necrotic Weapons after a Perfect Defense, imbuing weapons with Necrosis and increasing damage by 25%.
• Insidious Rot – Maximum Necrosis stacks +1.
• Toxic Dash – Quickly dash and strike an enemy, dealing Necrotic damage. Applies Necrosis and Sundered status.

• Noxious Presence – Control Abilities, such as Pilfer, will release fumes and apply Necrosis.
• Leaping Shot – Leap backward and fire an exploding arrow, dealing AoE damage.
• Providence – Advantage duration +20%.
• Swift Rebuke – Gain Momentum after a Perfect Dodge or Perfect Defense.
• Burst of Speed – Momentum generation +10%.
• Lightning Flask – Throw a flask of lightning that deals AoE Electricity damage to nearby enemies. Counts as a Control Ability. Also applies Shocked stacks to enemies. This is mostly good to add some AoE coverage to a class which generally focuses on single targets.

This build primarily focuses on applying Bleeding and Necrosis status effects for passive damage over time. Ideally, you’ll move from target to target to afflict all of your enemies at once. One of your main tools here is the Pilfer ability, as well. The healing Potion you get from it can be a game-changer. The extra survivability is fantastic, considering how squishy the Rogue class is!

Warrior

• Shield Volley – Allows you to bounce your Shield back after Shield Toss by striking it, up to 3 times.
• Focused Retaliation – Grants Precision after a Perfect Defense.
• Titan Stomp – Creates a shockwave around you, dealing damage in a wide area and applying Overwhelm. Doesn’t consume Rage, but it has a 60-second cooldown.
• Improved Throw – Shield Toss damage +10%.
• Staggering Toss – Shield Toss converts 25% of your current Rage into Stagger.
• Desolate Malady – Affliction damage +10%.
• Ignition – Finishing an enemy off with a Weakpoint hit will imbue your weapons with flames, increasing damage by 25%.
• Ricochet Shot – Shield Toss bounces +1.
• Bloody Advance – Throw a fan of blades that seeks and impales nearby enemies. Deals Necrotic damage and applies the Sundered effect.
• Lingering Decay – Duration Abilities, such as Bloody Advance, will apply Necrosis on impact.

• Mortal Wounds – Weakpoint damage +10%.
• Seething Pitch – Increases Shield Toss’ Rage generation by 2 per hit. This effect is doubled upon hitting a Weakpoint.
• Death’s Blessing – Necrotic damage +10%.
• Deadly Ground – Creates a Necrotic field around you that deals damage for a period of time. Also, enemies within the field will take extra damage. What’s more, you’ll have Enhanced Damage while you’re inside the field yourself. Counts as a Duration Ability, too.
• Insidious Rot – Maximum Necrosis stacks +1.
• Enduring Rage – Your Rage no longer decays below 50, even outside of combat.

This build primarily focuses on using Shield Toss as well as a combination of Deadly Ground and Bloody Advance to shred enemies. Your damage output becomes absolutely incredible within Deadly Ground’s field. You also rely less on dangerous melee-range combat thanks to Shield Toss, which is also fantastic for hitting Weakpoints. As such, it’s an easy to play and extremely powerful build!