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The Best Warrior Build In Dragon Age: Inquisition
The Best Warrior Skills In Dragon Age: Inquisition
The Best Armor For Warriors In Dragon Age: Inquisition
Best Two-Handed Reaver Build In Dragon Age: Inquisition
When taking on dragons, demons, and darkspawn in Dragon Age: Inquisition, it's important to have a warrior character who can easily deal massive damage and move around the battlefield. The warrior class in Dragon Age: Inquisition allows players to withstand heavy blows from enemies and deal massive damage that mages and rogues can't always achieve. Characters of any race can be warriors, and players can choose whether their warrior primarily uses a two-handed weapon or a weapon and shield. At the start of the game, they will have access to four skill trees they can use to build their warrior. About halfway through the game, they can choose Templar, Champion, or Reaver specialization.
Most warrior builds focus on dealing heavy damage, taking as minor damage as possible, or tanking. However, the Reaver specialization follows a different strategy. Reavers need to take damage and lose health to use their abilities, making them effective and mighty warriors, if not a somewhat risky choice. Most players would follow the default build for companion The Iron Bull when building a Reaver and use a two-handed weapon, but an armored weapon and shield Reaver is often more effective. Players can use the Armored Sword & Shield Reaver build for their warrior in Dragon Age: Inquisition to get the most out of their class, serving as a massive damage dealer and tank all at once.
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The Best Warrior Build In Dragon Age: Inquisition
This High-risk, High-reward Playstyle Is The Best Option
The Reaver is the best subclass for Warriors in Dragon Age: Inquisition. An Armored Sword & Shield Reaver warrior must start using Reaver abilities and letting their health drop somewhat. Then, when their health is low, they can use their armor abilities, especially from the Vanguard and Sword and Shield trees, to stay alive. This will allow them to tank before dealing more massive blows.
You won't have access to the Reaver specialization and skill tree until about halfway through the game.
Until you get access to the Reaver specialization, it is a good idea to build the character using the required skills from the other trees and then pick up the Reaver skills later. Players can respec the warrior later using a Tactician's Renewal amulet.
As with any Reaver build, there is always the chance players will accidentally kill their character a few times until they get the hang of this strategy. That is normal, and players can practice this build on Iron Bull before using it for their Inquisitor if they prefer.
The Best Warrior Skills In Dragon Age: Inquisition
All Skill To Unlock
Skills and abilities in Dragon Age: Inquisition are split between your chosen subclass and your weapon preference. For Warriors, the Vanguard, Sword, and Shield are the two best weapon specializations to invest points into, alongside the Reaver subclass. Given that Reavers only use abilities by losing health, these two talent trees help Reaver players tank and absorb damage far better. Players can also pick up optional skills from the Battlemaster tree, which can be helpful once they have extra skill points to spend:
Sword and Shield
- Shield Wall
- Payback Strike & Sweet Revenge (upgrade)
- Bear Mauls the Wolves
- Warrior's Resolve
- Turn the Bolt
- Turn the Blade
- Shield Bash & Ring the Bell (upgrade)
Vanguard
- War Cry & Call to Arms (upgrade)
- Untouchable Defense
- It'll Cost You
- Livid & Still Standing (upgrade)
Reaver
- Ring of Pain & Torrent of Pain
- Blood Frenzy
- Fervor
- Rampage
- Scenting Blood
- Devour & Consume (upgrade)
- Dragon Rage & Ravage (upgrade)
War Cry is a great way to start encounters with this build. It only helps get your guard up but also taunts all enemies. For the Reaver subclass, the more health you lose at the start of the encounter, the faster you can use some of your best abilities.
There is also the option of picking up Charging Bull and its upgrade, Gore and Trample. This can be useful to close the distance between the warrior and the enemy, knock down the enemy, and allow the warrior to use another ability without stamina. It's an excellent skill to have but not essential.
Players should set up their skill bar with Ring of Pain, Devour, Dragon Rage, Payback Strike, Shield Bash, War Cry, and Rampage. The last slot can be used for Charging Bull, Grappling Chain, Livid, or, if the Inquisitor is the Reaver, Mark of the Rift.
The Best Armor For Warriors In Dragon Age: Inquisition
Best Armor Pieces
To maximize damage, players should craft their armor and weapons accordingly. You should use materials and Masterworks that increase the critical chance when crafting. For the shield, use materials that increase defense and lower the stamina cost for abilities.
The Battlemaster Armor schematic will be especially useful, and players should build with materials that include bonuses to defense and attacks. It can also help to use certain accessories to make the build work even better. The following items can be used to stack stat bonuses that will make the Armored Reaver even more powerful:
Type | Name | Source |
|---|---|---|
Rare Belt | Enhanced Belt of Urgency | Reward for completing the Upon the Waking Sea War Table Operation. |
Unique Ring | Superb Ring of Attack | Found inside a chest within the Dwarven Tomb near the Sand Crags Camp. Also found in chests along the Deep Roads. |
Unique Ring | Superb Ring of Critical Damage | Found in the chest behind a locked door in Coracavus' Record Room. Also found in the Burial Ground Tomb during the Tomb of Fairel quest. |
Unique Amulet | Kitty's Collar | Looted from Marcinus in the Assault on Griffon Wing Keep quest. |
Unique Amulet | Superb Amulet of Dexterity | Found in the Exalted Plains from the Gamordan Stormrider High Dragon. |
Players using this build should not be afraid to watch some of their health decrease, as that will only make them more powerful as a Reaver and allow them to take down even the toughest enemies with relative ease. This build can maximize damage output, tank potential, and survivability.
Do not get too discouraged if your health regularly drops low. The Reaver subclass is built entirely around balancing damage, with Sword and Shield and Vanguard mitigating some of this risk. If all else fails, be sure to have Devour on your hot bar to regain health quickly.
Best Two-Handed Reaver Build In Dragon Age: Inquisition
An Alternate Warrior Build
The Armored Reaver build is the safest choice for the Warrior class, as it synergizes safer, tanky weapon skills with the high-risk, high-reward Reaver subclass. However, if you are looking for pure damage, you might be more interested in the Two-Handed Reaver.
This subclass combination has the highest potential damage available to Warriors in Dragon Age: Inquisition, although it lacks the safeguards that Sword, Shield, and Vanguard playstyles provide. For this alternative build, your Reaver skills will remain the same, but it is best to pick up the skills listed below.
If you are dying too much with the Two-Handed Reaver build, you might want to select the Leashed Fury Dragon Rage Skill. This means the skill will no longer damage you but is available less often.
Two-Handed
- Mighty Blow
- Shield-Breaker
- Block and slash
- Flow of Battle
- Pommel trike
- Guard Smasher
Battlemaster
- Grappling Chain
- Hamstring
- Combat Roll
- Coming Through
- Deep Reserves
Your basic combat encounters should start by using Grappling Chain on ranged opponents or Combat Roll, with the Coming Through upgrade, to charge into grouped enemies. Ring of Pain and Dragon Rage will start dealing massive damage, although you will need to keep a keen eye on your health bar and immediately begin using Devour whenever it gets too low. As you reach higher levels, you will start replacing your two-handed skills with reaver abilities. However, it is still best to keep block, slash, and other situational battlemaster abilities in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
- Franchise
- Dragon Age
- Platform(s)
- PS4 , PS3 , Xbox One , Xbox 360 , PC
- Released
- November 18, 2014
- Developer(s)
- BioWare
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language
- How Long To Beat
- 50 Hours
- X|S Enhanced
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 45 GB (November 2023)
- Metascore
- 89 (PS4); 85 (Xbox One & PC)
