Most of the fun of playing RPG comes from trying out different builds. This can drastically change the gameplay and make the game already completed game feel as if we are playing a brand new game from scratch. Veilguard has an amazing level of detail that allows anyone to try out different builds suited to their playstyle. Here in this guide, we will be looking at the best warrior build for Dragon Age: Veilguard.
Slayer Warrior Build
Here we are juggling between physical damage dealing and physical damage absorption. When it comes to the weapon of choice, the game gives two build choices, either pick the trusty combo of Sword and Shield or Two-handed weapon. However having played the game with both builds, we had most fun with the two-handed weapon as with the right skills and weapon selection, you absolutely decimate foes with this setup.
Best Faction For Slayer Warrior Build
While you can pick any one that suits you from the story telling perspective, if you had to pick one, we would go for Grey Wardens. The boost in Health and Defense does come in handy; and the faction also goes with the heavy armor, 2-handed melee weapon build as well. The second alternative is Antivan Crows, purely for the extra heal that goes a long way especially in early game.
Best Skills For Slayer Warrior Build
Here is the list of Skills that would be perfect for the Slayer Warrior Build for Dragon Age Veilguard. We will also provide a handful of alternatives to make the gameplay a bit diverse if you want to choose different skills for the game.
- Bulwark: Physical Resistance by 10%
- Masochism: Every time you take damage, you gain 4 Rage.
- Depth of Fury: 50+ Rage
- Reinforcement: Active advantages raise damage dealing by 10%
- Enraged: Rage Generation +10%
- Staggering Charge: Charged staggers get a 20% boost.
- Quick Strikes: Defeat an enemy with a Strike ability to replenish 25 Rage.
- Heavy Hitter: Heavy Attack Damage gets a 10% damage boost.
- Sly Strike: Charged, Final, Agile attack will deal 15% bonus damage to enemies with Affliction status.
- Decisive Finish: Charged attack, Final attack, and Agile Attack get a 10% boost.
- Wrath: Critical damage gets a 10% boost.
- Incite Violence: 15% more rage on weapon attacks. The damage doubles against enemies with Affliction status.
- Desolate Malady: Affliction Damage gets a 10% boost.
- Explosive Anger: Deal 200% fire damage in a 6-meter radius when you spend rage.
- Bloody Vengeance: Charged attack deals bleeding damage.
- Fighting Dirty: Strike Ability applies Affliction.
- Rolling Thunder (Trait): We are going to be using this a lot in the game, A free secondary charged light attack after the first one. Charge your attack once, and you will land another one for free. This skill will come in handy after Heroic Leap. We will also be using our companion abilities to deal more damage with the combo.
- Two–Handed Wind–Up (Trait): It allows us to gain extra charge for our two-handed weapon. A must after we perform the Heroic Leap.
- Sharper Edge: 15% Penetration.
- Furor: A charged attack will gain more Rage directly related to the charge level. From the Two-Handed Wind we are getting 3 Charges + Rolling Thunder will add one to the mix.
- Striking Precision: Strike Ability now grants Precision.
- Harder Hits: Weapon and Ability get 10% Damage.
- Double–Edged – Ability damage applies to weapon damage and vice versa.
- Blunt Force: Breaking the armor will make the enemies knockdown. Which leaves us for another charge attack.
Ability List
Here we are focusing on the end-game abilities for the Slayer Warrior Build. Since most of our passive skills went for Precision and Charge abilities, we will need abilities that can elevate those abilities. The abilities should give us some time to activate the charge to the max. Here are the abilities we use for the Slayer Warrior Build.
- Ground Breaker: The initial attack does damage but the secondary creates an explosion that leaves enemies with burning status.
- 25% Ability Critical Damage for Enchantment.
- Cleaving Strike: Damage increases based distance they are located from the player.
- 75% Critical Damage as Enchantment.
- Heroic leap: It deals with high stagger with 948 DMG. The attack does massive damage and knocks back enemies into the ground giving you time to unleash your charged attack. The loop combo here is the bread and butter of the build.
- For enchant, you can add 75% Critical Damage to add more power to the crits.
All three skills will help us clear out many combat scenarios. One of the interesting facts about the build here is the cost. The rage cost of Heroic Leap is 50 compared to Cleaving Strike and Groundbreaker. We will be also adding proper gear and amulet to lower the cost of rage on all the skills. Which leaves us with constant Heroic Leap.
Groundbreaker and Cleaving strike are the abilities that you should activate once you build up rage. Since they cost a bit more, it is better to save up those abilities after executing Heroic Leap. The constant charged attacks will leave us with Rage build-up to execute the Groundbreaker move. We will treat the loop of Heroic Leap and charged attack as a primary combo we are going for in this build.
We will also choose proper gear and companions to give us an extra window for our charge and deal even more damage to the enemies.
- For Gold and Glory (Ultimate): The final attack that deals AOE stagger damage to anyone who was unfortunate to be in the range of the attack. It’s a great physical damage attack that affects a large radius. You can use it as a secondary attack on our Heroic Leap. You can use the ultimate to end the fight or when you are facing a tougher boss.
Best Weapon For Slayer Warrior Build
Focus on any weapon that deals physical damage and generates Rage on the side.
Since we are going for Slayer Warrior, here damage dealing and charged damage will be the best stats for our weapon.
Etched Raider’s Axe: 30% Charged attack Damage, 20% Agile attack Damage. One of the bonuses of the weapon makes the second hit from the Charged light attack count as an Agile attack. Which activates the second bonus trait of the weapon.
Captain Heater: +30 Defence, +100 Health, +10% Resistance. Once you upgrade to legendary it will have a 486 stagger rating. While we will not be using the Shield, the passives on health, defense and resistance all help increase our survivability on the field.
Executioner’s Blade: 30% Charged attack damage with 25% Stagger from the attacks. Against overwhelmed enemies, Charged attacks will now deal critical damage. For enchantment, you can add Weapon Damage to deal more damage.
Good Alternatives:
Later on, you can switch to Woodsong Cleaver, Anvil Breaker, or Elven Rockbreaker for the duo for the end-game slayer build. If you are having trouble finding any unique weapon for your build, we have an excellent guide on the topic.
Best Armor For Slayer Warrior Build
It is best to go with armor pieces that build rage, or increase our weapon damage or ability damage. We will recommend::
- Carastes Double–Hat: Generate 15% Rage and 30% Ability Damage if all abilities deal damage of a similar type. Since most of our abilities are of the Strike type, it will work wonderfully with the Carastes Double Hat Helm.
- Researcher’s Coat: Gain 20% damage while on low health, and leech 5% damage on enemies as health. The effectiveness of the Leech trait on the weapon gets tripled, against bleeding enemies. This will work well with the Bloody Vengeance passive skill that leaves every charged attack with a bleeding status on enemies.
Best Accessories For Slayer Warrior Build
Crow’s Perch Medallion: It grants us 20% Strike Ability, a 25% Health damage from Strike Abilities. And lastly, we will gain 25 Rage on Critical hits on Strike Abilities.
Maw of the Black City: Here it turns all of your ability damage into a Critical Hit. But on the con side, the ability will take in 20% of your max health as Physical Damage.
Biting Thumb: 10% weapon, final, agile, and charged damage. 15% weapon critical and weak point damage. And lastly 25% damage to Armor and Barrier.
Best Runes for Slayer Warrior Build
- Redouble: 10% ability damage, and you will have 100% of your rage instantly.
- Vivify: %10 Rage generation, cooldown on your abilities.
- Pierce: 10% penetration, your damage will gain 100% penetration for 10 seconds.
Good Alternatives:
Alternatives here include Escalate and Ravage. Both of them are great substitutes for the runes listed above. If you are worried about your defense, then Fortify will be another interesting addition.
Companions For Slayer Warrior Build
Bellara: Here focus on the Time Slow skill and any skill that empowers it. This will help us with our charged attack, after performing Heroic Leap, we can use Time Slow to give us an extra window to charge our two-handed weapons to the maximum to land devasting damage.
- Replenish and Contingency will cover your low health or any combat scenario where you take too much damage. A contingency allows Bellara to automatically recover your health without any input. Take any skill around Replenish, and make it more powerful.
Emmrich: Emmrich also has a Time Slow ability just like Bellara, which will amplify the build potential to the maximum. Having time-slow skills will bring chaos to the battlefield.
- Other high-use skills include: The Bell Tolls, which adds Necrotic Damage, and the skill tree will also help us with Rage regeneration (Essence Leech). Entangling Spritis will also help as it will leave Weakened status on enemies. This will help us with Groundbreaker ability, as it detonates the Weakened enemies.