Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Best Character Builds

Looking for the best character builds in Dragon Age: The Veilguard? BioWare's latest RPG gives you quite a lot of freedom in terms of building your ideal Rook, playing on the strengths of your playstyle with unique abilities, specialisations, and passive perks.

In this Dragon Age: The Veilguard guide, we've crafted character builds for all three classes — Warrior, Rogue, and Mage — which will hopefully help you decide on an effective fighting style.

What Are the Best Character Builds in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

So in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you're given access to a huge skill tree that's unique to your chosen class. However, these skill trees are not linear — they're designed like spider webs, and you'll need to work your way across them in order to reach the abilities, perks, and specialisations that you desire.

As such, you may need to plan ahead before diving straight in. You only get a limited number of skill points throughout the game, and so you're forced to think about how you're actually spending them.

Before we go in-depth on specific builds, let's go over all of the stuff that you need to know.

What's the Max Level in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

The max level is 50, meaning that you get a total of 52 skill points from levelling up (you get three skill points the first time you level up).

How Do You Get Extra Skill Points in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

There are actually additional skill points to collect throughout your adventure. As you journey across Thedas, you'll likely stumble upon Fen'Harel altars — statues dedicated to the Dread Wolf himself.

By interacting with these altars and completing a basic puzzle, you'll be awarded one skill point that can be spent immediately.

There are a total of 15 altars in the game, meaning that you can get an extra 15 skill points to spend if you manage to track down every altar.

We've got a guide on All Fen'Harel Wolf Altar Locations if you want to maximise your skill points for the sake of your character build:

All in all, you get a grand total of 67 skill points to spend, if you reach the max level and find all the Fen'Harel altars. With 67 skill points, you can unlock roughly 45% of the full skill tree.

Can You Reset Your Skill Points in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

The good news is that yes, you can reset and subsequently respec your skill points at any time. Simply head to the skill tree, and you'll be able to refund individual skill points by deselecting purchased skills, or you can refund all skill points at once.

There's no cost to resetting your skill points, and you can do it as many times as you like — so feel free to experiment!

Character Build Concepts

With the fundamentals out of the way, let's talk character build concepts. This section of the guide should give you an idea of what makes an effective character build.

In essence, character builds focus on bolstering a specific area, or areas, of a class, to make it as powerful as possible. Warriors, Rogues, and Mages play much differently from one another, and so defined characters builds tend to emphasise the inherent strengths of Rook's class.

For much more information on choosing the right class at the start of the game, check out our Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Best Character Class and Faction guide:

But even though the three classes offer different weapons, attack patterns, stats, abilities, and specialisations, there are key character build concepts that we can apply across the board.

These key concepts are:

• Ability Spammer - Basically being able to unleash your best abilities as often as possible, for maximum damage output
• Defensive Master - Enhancing Rook's defensive capabilities so that you're much harder to kill, especially in drawn-out combat scenarios
• Buffs and Stuff - Activating buffs as often as possible, greatly enhancing Rook's stats for the duration of a fight
  
• Affliction Addict - Inflicting Afflictions — or status effects — on enemies as often as possible, crippling their capabilities or dealing damage over time
  

Generally speaking, if your character build adheres to one (or more!) of these concepts, you're on the right track. Creating an effective build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is really just about identifying something that works and doing what you can to maximise its potential.

Because this is an action combat system, which rewards good timing, reactions, and overall skill, you can definitely get away with character builds that aren't 'perfect' — this isn't an RPG where you're going to need to rely purely on stats and damage calculations.

Ultimately, your character build should be about what you find fun, in terms of playstyle — and then you can build on that with some forward thinking.

Warrior Character Builds

These builds draw out the inherent strengths of the Warrior class and its three Specialisations: Champion, Slayer, and Reaper.

The Burning Heart

The Burning Heart character build is all about surviving even the toughest battles thanks to the Warrior's strong defensive options. The goal is to block or parry just about anything that enemies throw your way, which, in turn, allows you to deliver devastating counterattacks and ignite your weapons for more damage.

Specialisation: Champion

The Champion Specialisation is a perfect fit for this build, providing key enhancements to your parries and fire-based attacks.

Key Abilities:

For this build, you're looking for abilities that increase survivability, either through stopping enemies in their tracks, or bolstering your own defences. Fire-based skills are your damage dealers.

• Titan Stomp

Titan Stomp sees Rook smash the ground, knocking most enemies down around you. This is a great ability to use when you're surrounded, or when you need a breather. It also applies Overwhelm to all of the enemies it hits, increasing the stagger damage that they take.

• Spectral Bulwark

Spectral Bulwark is the Warriors' most defensive ability. It raises a magical barrier around Rook, deflecting damage back at your foes. It's obviously a great choice for more defensive builds.

• Groundbreaker

Groundbreaker costs two bars of Rage, but it deals huge fire damage. This is your go-to ability for dishing out pain, to be used when you've got enough Rage to burn.

Key Perks:

For this build, you want passive perks that enhance your parries and your overall survivability. Any fire-boosting perks are obviously worth picking up as well.

• Counterblow - Lets you counterattack after parrying an incoming attack
  
• Focused Retaliation - Grants the Precision buff when you parry, which makes your next charged or final combo attack an automatic critical hit
• Return to Sender - Lets you send parried projectiles back at enemies
• Masochism - You generate some Rage every time you take damage
  
• Ready Guard - You gain Deflect upon entering battle; on stack of Deflect completely negates one attack
• Fiery Resolve - Sets your weapons on fire whenever you parry, letting you deal increased damage with all of your attacks
  
• Reinforcement - Increases your damage for every active buff; synergises incredibly well with Focused Retaliation and Fiery Resolve
• Heavy Armour Mastery - Gives you a huge 20% defence bonus when you're wearing all heavy armour (head and torso)
  
• Explosive Anger - Spending any Rage unleashes a blast of fire damage around Rook
  
• Reverb (Champion Perk) - Unleashes a highly damaging shockwave of fire whenever you parry
• Enflamed (Champion Perk) - Increases Burning damage based on your current Rage
  
• Inspiring Guard (Champion Perk) - Lets you parry unblockable attacks (which completely changes the way you can deal with some enemies), and doing so grants Rally Party, which buffs the damage of your party members
  
• The Best Defence (Champion Perk) - 50% of your overall defence stat is now added to the damage of your shield attacks
  

Sword of the Dead

The Sword of the Dead character build is all about making the most of necrotic damage, which steadily drains enemies of their health. It also has a focus on generating as much Rage as possible, so that you can spam your abilities for maximum damage. This build is basically the closest you're going to get to playing as a magic-based Warrior.

Specialisation: Reaper

Reaper is the obvious choice for this character build, further bolstering your necrotic abilities.

Key Abilities:

For this build, damage-dealing necrotic abilities are the only focus.

• Deadly Ground

Summons a necrotic field at your location, which deals constant damage to any enemy who happens to enter it. It also enhances your own damage, so the idea is to put this down whenever you can, and then stay within it as you battle your foes.

• Bloody Advance

Carves out a necrotic projectile with your spectral scythe, which deals damage and applies Sundered, which drops the enemy's defence. What's more, it makes the enemy bleed, and you can throw your shield at the afflicted enemy for an extra burst of damage. A very versatile ability that's great for both dealing damage over time, and setting the enemy up for yet more punishment.

• Reaper

Reaper deals big damage with a powerful scythe strike, and applies Siphon to the enemy, letting your leech health from the enemy and add it to your own. It costs two bars of Rage, so it's not something you can spam — but time it correctly, and it can really increase your survivability.

Key Perks:

For this build, you want any perks that enhance your necrotic damage and help you generate Rage at a quicker pace.

• Rancor - Your Rage takes 50% longer to decay
• Incite Violence - This perk is a little out of the way on the skill tree, but it's hard to ignore a 15% increase to Rage generation from weapon attacks, and you get even more if you're hitting an enemy that's afflicted (with necrosis, in this instance)
  
• Enduring Rage - Rage no longer decays below one bar, even when you're out of combat
  
• Salt in the Wound - Hitting an afflicted enemy with a Duration ability (Deadly Ground and Bloody Advance) adds an extra stack of that affliction
  
• Seething Pitch - Throwing your shield now generates more Rage on hit
  
• Lingering Decay - Your Duration abilities (Deadly Ground and Bloody Advance) automatically apply Necrosis
  
• Death's Touch (Reaper Perk) - Whenever a Duration ability is active, your charged attacks inflict Necrosis
  
• Death's Throw (Reaper Perk) - Shield throws now deal Necrotic damage
  
• Living Decay (Reaper Perk) - Necrotic damage now penetrates enemy defences and restores your own HP

Berserker

The Berserker character build is exactly what it sounds like. You want damage and nothing but damage, preferably with two-handed weapons. This build is about dishing out extreme amounts of pain, while also devastating any defences that your opponents dare to put up.

Specialisation: Slayer

An easy choice for this build, Slayer is a damage-first specialisation.

Key Abilities:

For this build, you want abilities that take no prisoners. Out-and-out damage, pure and simple.

• Cleaving Strike

Cleaving Strike deals big damage over a wide area, and can hit multiple enemies with ease. It also applies Bleeding, letting you rack up yet more damage in time.

• Whirlwind

Whirlwind is one of the Warrior's most damaging abilities, assuming all of the swings land. It costs two bars of Rage which means it's difficult to spam, but as alluded, the damage output can be immense, and it deals huge amounts of stagger.

• Heroic Leap

Heroic Leap is a fast-acting smash that deals solid damage and heavy stagger damage. At the cost of just one bar of Rage, it's a go-to attack for this build.

Key Perks:

For this build, you're looking for any perks that increase the damage of your weapon attacks, or enhance your overall stagger damage.

• Downfall - Jumping attacks are always critical hits if they hit a downed enemy
• Determined Death - The final attack in your combo can now be charged, leading to a large damage increase, especially if you let loose as soon as the charge is complete
  
• Bloody Vengeance - This perk synergises well with your Cleaving Strike ability, letting you deal more damage to Bleeding foes
  
• Wear and Tear - Area abilities (Cleaving Strike and Whirlwind) gain additional penetration, ignoring your opponent's defence
  
• Dazzle - If you hit more than one enemy with an Area ability, you gain Quickened, which shortens your cooldowns
  
• Critical Leverage - This takes a little getting used to, but if you can hit enemies who are more than 10 metres away with your Area abilities, you get guaranteed critical hits
  
• Overhand Smash - Your Smash abilities (Whirlwind and Heroic Leap) deal yet more damage to armoured enemies, while also dealing much more stagger
• Quick Strikes - Defeating an enemy with your Strike abilities (Cleaving Strike or Heroic Leap) gives you half a bar of Rage
  
• Concussive Smash - Your Smash abilities (Whirlwind and Heroic Leap) now permanently lowers the enemy's defence on hit
  
• Rolling Thunder - After a charged attack, you can combo into another light or heavy attack to unleash another devastating blow
  
• Two-Handed Wind Up (Slayer Perk) - You can charge your charged attacks even further, for more damage and stagger
  
• Furor (Slayer Perk) - Charged attacks generate more Rage, especially if they're fully charged
  
• Blindside (Slayer Perk) - Charged attacks now inflict an additional chunk of damage after hitting a foe
  
• Striking Precision (Slayer Perk) - Strike abilities (Cleaving Strike and Heroic Leap) now grant Precision on hit, turning your charged and final combo attacks into guaranteed critical hits
  
• Art of Destruction (Slayer Perk) - Unlocks brutal follow-up attacks to your sprint attack
  
• Double-Edged (Slayer Perk) - Gives you a significant damage bonus to both abilities and weapon damage
  
• Violent Catharsis (Slayer Perk) - Spending Rage heals you for 100% of the Rage spent
  

Rogue Character Builds

These builds draw out the inherent strengths of the Rogue class and its three Specialisations: Duelist, Veil Ranger, and Saboteur.

The Eternal Edge

The Eternal Edge character build is all about delivering relentless necrotic damage with your trusty blades. You'll weave through your enemy's attacks, overwhelming them with constant slashes and powerful finishing strikes. A build for those who want to master the sword(s).

Specialisation: Duelist

The Duelist specialisation focuses almost entirely on making your swordplay even more dangerous, so it's the clear choice for this build.

Key Abilities:

For this build, we're looking for fast-acting abilities that deal necrotic damage, locking your opponents down in a barrage of attacks.

• Hurricane of Blades

Hurricane of Blades is a deadly ability that can rack up a lot of damage against multiple enemies, as long as you're able to catch them all in the area of effect. Also great for crowd control, which is important for such a close-range build.

• Toxic Dash

A straightforward slashing attack that deals necrotic damage, Toxic Dash also applies Sundered, reducing the target's defence. Use this to soften your enemy up before going in for the kill with combos or your other abilities.

• A Thousand Cuts

The flashiest of finishing moves, A Thousand Cuts is a highly damaging ability that inflicts necrotic damage. It only costs one bar of Momentum, and so this will be your go-to damage dealer against single targets.

Key Perks:

For this build, you'll need a mix of perks that enhance your damage potential and close-range survivability.

• Riposte - Lets you counterattack after parrying
• Powerful Rebuttal - Gain Precision after parrying, which gives you guaranteed critical hits on charged attacks or combo finishers
  
• Evasive Maneuvers - Lets you perform a counterattack after a long dodge
  
• Endure - Lose 35% less Momentum when you take damage
  
• Downfall - Jump attacks on downed enemies are automatic critical hits
  
• Decisive Finale - Adds a deadly heavy attack finisher to the end of your light combos
  
• Necrotic Fog - Unleashes a blast of necrotic damage to nearby enemies when you spend Momentum
  
• Piercing Strike - Strike abilities (all three of this build's abilities) partially ignore the enemy's defence
  
• Daring Counter - When you defeat an enemy with a Strike ability, you gain Deflect, letting you completely negate the next incoming attack
  
• Poisoned Reply - Parries imbue your weapons with necrotic damage
  
• Blood Poisoning - Parries apply Bleeding to your enemies (this becomes Necrosis if you have the above Poisoned Reply perk)
  
• Mighty Strike - Strike abilities deal 100% bonus stagger damage when used against enemies that have a status effect
  
• Assassination - Strike abilities are automatic critical hits if the enemy has less than 30% HP left
  
• Close Quarters Combat - This perk is on the other side of the tree, but it's worth getting it you can: it provides a pretty huge 15% damage increase to all close range combat
  
• Adrenaline - String together ten attacks without being hit, and you'll get a surprisingly big damage bonus until you get hit or combat ends
  
• Poisoned Blade (Duelist Perk) - Strike abilities apply Necrosis for each primer inflicted on a target (Toxic Dash applies Sundered, for example)
  
• Shall We Dance (Duelist Perk) - Lets you deal more damage by staggering your light attack combo, which also grants activation of the Adrenaline perk
  
• Balanced Flow (Duelist Perk) - Deal up to 30% more weapon damage and take up to 25% less incoming damage the higher your Momentum is
  
• Quick Control (Duelist Perk) - Hitting an enemy with A Thousand Cuts permanently reduces their defence
  
• Mounting Thrill (Duelist Perk) - The Adrenaline perk can now stack up to three times, greatly increasing your potential damage output
  
• Energy Burst (Duelist Perk) - Triggering the Adrenaline perk restores your HP and Momentum by 10%
  
• Deflection (Duelist Perk) - Getting hit no longer resets the Adrenaline perk entirely, removing just one stack of it instead, and you also take up to 40% less damage depending on how many Adrenaline stacks you have
  

Bow-lt Lightning

The Bow-lt Lightning character build is all about making the absolute most of the Rogue's bow. Devastating damage output from a relatively safe distance is the name of the game, whether it's through electric-based abilities or nailing enemy weakpoints with your normal shots. The definitive archer build.

Specialisation: Veil Ranger

A clear choice for this build, the Veil Ranger focuses on ranged bow attacks.

Key Abilities:

For this build, you're grabbing all three of the Rogue's electrical abilities, which also happen to be ranged techniques.

• Reeling Bolt

Reeling Bold is a cooldown-based ability that's actually great for crowd control, because its electric blast pulls nearby enemies towards the point of impact. Perfect for when you need to keep the battlefield under control.

• Lightning Quiver

Lightning Quiver is a powerful ability that can handle both groups of enemies and singular opponents. It can fire up to seven bolts at once, and although the damage isn't anything to shout about if you're up against a small army, it really starts to rack up if most of the bolts decide to hit just one or two foes.

• Storm's Path

Storm's Path is a straightforward, no-messing ability that'll smash through any enemy in its path. Great against groups, but also a fast and easy way to deal solid damage to a single, tougher opponent.

Key Perks:

Any perks that bolster your ranged damage or add additional effects to your electric abilities are up for grabs here. You also want to pick up perks that let you regenerate arrows faster.

• Evasive Maneuvers - Lets you attack after a long dodge (including a quick bow attack)
• Riposte - Lets you counterattack after parrying (including a bow counter)
  
• Exploding Arrow - Unlocks a unique attack where Rook will stick an explosive to a close-range enemy; good for staggering foes so that you can gain some distance
  
• Bated Breath - Lets you draw your bow even further, adding to its damage at full charge
  
• Unending Quiver - This perk is a little out of the way, but it gives you two more arrows every time you use an ability
  
• Keen Eye - You gain more Momentum from ranged attacks, especially if they hit a weakpoint
  
• Precise Power - Gain a damage increase after defeating an enemy with a shot to their weakpoint
  
• Knock Out - Your charged bow attacks now deal critical hits to enemies with under 30% HP
  
• Poisonous Precision - Defeating an enemy with a ranged attack to their weakpoint gives you necrotic weapons, increasing all of your damage
• Conductive Shot - This perk is out of the way on the skill tree, but it might be worth picking up if you'e got the skill points to get there: it makes all of your Projectile abilities deal a burst of electric damage to nearby enemies
• Precision Shot - Critical hits with your Projectile abilities grants Precision, making your next charged bow attack a guaranteed critical
• Hunter's Focus - Lets you slow time by spending momentum when you're aiming your bow, greatly increasing your accuracy (the time-slowing effect also happens if you aim while in the air)
• Compound Bow (Veil Ranger Perk) - Adds your bow's base damage to all Projectile abilities
  
• Archer's Rhythm (Veil Ranger Perk) - Increases your bow's charged shot damage by a huge 50% if you release just as it reaches its maximum draw
  
• Opportunity Shocks (Veil Ranger Perk) - When your Momentum is at 66% or more, all bow attacks deal up to 200% additional electric damage
  
• Hamstring (Veil Ranger Perk) - Charged bow shots knock enemies down if you hit them in the leg
  
• Sniper's Triumph (Veil Ranger Perk) - Your next bow attack unleashes multiple arrows at once after scoring a headshot with a charged draw
  
• Death Blow (Veil Ranger Perk) - If you hit a staggered enemy's weakpoint with your bow, you'll kill them instantly (doesn't work on most bosses)

Apex Artificer

The Apex Artificer character build is all about enhancing the Rogue's range of trap-based abilities, controlling the entire battlefield through careful positioning and deadly crossfires. This is a very versatile build that doesn't have any immediate, overpowering direction — but through clever strategies, it can be a dominant force. You'll be using your bow to pick up the slack between abilities.

Specialisation: Saboteur

Saboteur, with its emphasis on controlling the flow of combat, is the only real choice for this build.

Key Abilities:

This build focuses almost exclusively on efficient use of tools and traps, so any abilities that offer versatility are a must.

• Lightning Flask

Lightning Flask sees Rook smash a bottle of concentrated electricity. The initial blast deals high damage, and leaves an electric aura around Rook. It hurts nearby enemies and applies Shocked.

• Explosive Trap

As the name implies, Explosive Trap is a trap... that explodes. It's got a very short 20 second cooldown and no Momentum cost, so you should be throwing this out as often as you can. Whether you need a momentary retreat or a quick burst of damage, it's a great ability to have on hand. It blows enemies back and knocks them down, leading to more damage opportunities with your weapons.

• Fortune's Turret

Fortune's Turret is a shockingly effective ability that can take chunks of HP from even the toughest foes. Rook places a mechanic turret, which shoots at targets. It then explodes for huge damage when it's out of ammo, so clever positioning of this device is key.

Key Perks:

For the purposes of this build, we're looking for perks that empower trap abilities and shorten cooldowns, letting you get the most out of your tools as often as possible. It's also worth picking up perks that enhance your prowess with a bow.

• Exploding Arrow - Unlocks a unique move that lets you stick an explosive to an enemy, stunning them
• Leaping Shot - Unlocks a unique move where Rook jumps backwards and staggers a foe with an explosive; great for positioning
  
• Bag of Tricks - Increases Tool ability damage by 25% when you're on low (below 30%) HP
  
• Inspiring Control - Defeating an enemy with a Control ability (lightning Flask) grants a damage buff to your companions
  
• Some Motivation - Deal 4% more damage based on your maximum arrow count
  
• Unending Quiver - Using an ability restores two arrows
  
• Bated Breath - Lets you draw your bow even further, increasing its damage at maximum charge
  
• Rolling Momentum - Using a Tool ability restores half a Momentum bar
  
• Bloodsucker - Tool abilities leech 10% of the damage they deal, restoring your HP
  
• Improvised Ammunition - You regain three arrows whenever a Tool ability expires
  
• Siege Breaker - Tool abilities deal 25% more damage to Armour and Barriers
  
• Fan of Arrows - Unlocks a special attack where Rook fires arrows out in a horizontal arc
  
• Breathing Room - Greatly increases the area of effect for Area abilities (Explosive Trap)
  
• Precise Malady (Saboteur Perk) - For each Duration ability you have equipped (Lightning Flask and Fortune's Turret) your arrow regeneration increases by 35%
  
• Plague Arrow (Saboteur Perk) - Lets you charge your bow even further, releasing a necrotic arrow at full charge that deals area damage
  
• Calling the Shot (Saboteur Perk) - Landing eight bow shots gives you Precision, guaranteeing a critical hit on your next charged or final combo attack, while also restoring three arrows at the end of a combo
  
• Trick Shot (Saboteur Perk) - Every fifth successful bow shot results in a splintered blast that damages nearby enemies
  
• Quick Fix (Saboteur Perk) - Defeating an enemy with a Tool ability grants Quickened, reducing your cooldowns
  
• A Messy Death (Saboteur Perk) - Defeating an enemy with a charged attack makes them explode, damaging nearby enemies

Mage Character Builds

These builds draw out the inherent strengths of the Mage class and its three Specialisations: Death Caller, Spellblade, and Evoker.

Death's Cold Embrace

The Death's Cold Embrace character build is all about combining necrotic and ice abilities, resulting in an especially deadly mix of afflictions and HP regeneration. It requires a fairly technical style of play, as you'll have to correctly manage your Mana so that your abilities can overlap — but the payoff is that you'll often be able to cripple your opponents almost completely, freezing them in place while their HP ticks away, and your own vitality is restored.

Specialisation: Death Caller

This specialisation's health-sapping abilities and perks make it a great choice for the build.

Key Abilities:

• Frost Nova

Frost Nova is your main set-up move with this build. It operates on a cooldown, so you don't need to worry about overlapping Mana costs. It freezes enemies in place across a surprisingly wide area, leaving them vulnerable to your necrotic horrors.

• Corrupted Ground

With Corrupted Ground, a necrotic field is summoned around your target, dealing damage over time and inflicting Necrosis. The idea is that you'll hit a foe with Frost Nova, and then begin sapping their life away with Corrupted Ground. In turn, this sets you up for yet more punishment through various perks.

• Spirit Bomb

This is your big damage ability, for use when your enemies are already stacked with other afflictions. It also restores your health during the initial phase of the spell, which adds some decent survivability to the build. The longer you sap HP from an opponent, the stronger the magical blast is at the end of this attack; perfect for when foes are frozen in place via Frost Nova.

Key Perks:

For this build, we're primarily looking for perks that bolster your necrotic abilities — but additional perks that synergise well with afflictions are also worth taking.

• Deathfrost - Increases your necrotic damage by 15% after dealing cold damage
• Breathing Room - Increases the area of effect for Area abilities (Frost Nova and Corrupted Ground) by a whopping 50%
  
• Zone of Concentration - After using a Duration ability (Corrupted Ground and Spirit Bomb), you regain half a bar of Mana after five seconds
• Breathing Room (2) - Another 50% increase to your Area abilities' area of effect, doubling their range when both Breathing Room perks are acquired
  
• Time Management - Duration abilities (Corrupted Ground and Spirit Bomb) get a huge 50% increase to their effectiveness
  
• Channeled Thoughts - Lets you restore a bar of mana by blocking and then pressing the light attack button (the animation takes a couple of seconds to play out, though)
  
• Degrade - Deal 5% bonus damage to an enemy for every affliction they have
  
• Further Torment - Deal 20% more stagger damage to enemies who have an affliction
  
• Death and Decay (Death Caller Perk) - Adds necrotic damage to Frost Nova, and makes Corrupted Ground do more damage
  
• Invigorating Beam (Death Caller Perk) - Your ranged beam attack now deals necrotic damage, and leeches HP from your enemy
  
• Restless Spirits (Death Caller Perk) - Enemies who are defeated while under the effects of a Duration ability (Corrupted Ground or Spirit Bomb) spawn a surprisingly powerful necrotic bolt, which automatically seeks other enemies
  
• Desperation (Death Caller Perk) - Gives you a damage bonus based on the lack of HP you and your opponent have
  
• Mortalitasi (Death Caller Perk) - Lets you spend HP to cast abilities if you don't have any Mana; dangerous to use recklessly, but you can set up some serious damage if you keep your HP in check
  

Storm Killer

The Storm Killer build is all about absolutely frying your foes with electric-based abilities, while also overwhelming your enemies at close range. Ideally, you'll want to make use of the Mage's orb and dagger weapons to get the most out of this build, purely because they allow you to parry. You're going to be in the thick of the action, but your lightning magic should keep your enemies locked down and devastatingly defenceless.

Specialisation: Spellblade

An obvious choice for this build, Spellblade empowers your key abilities.

Key Abilities:

We're going all-in with electric-based abilities for this build.

• Chain Lightning

A fast and powerful ability, Chain Lightning is great for crowd control, as the bolts travel between targets for additional damage. Also applies Overwhelmed, which makes enemies take additional stagger damage — perfect for an aggressive build like this.

• Storm Surge

Storm Surge is an evasive but still powerful ability that has Rook leap backwards while letting off a blast of electric energy. Again, it's great for dealing with crowds — especially if you find yourself surrounded — and like Chain Lighting, it applies Overwhelmed.

• Void Blade

Your most damaging ability, dealing heavy electric damage across two points of impact. Also knocks foes backwards, giving you a bit of breathing room to set up your next electrical assault.

Key Perks:

This is a fairly straightforward build in terms of concept, so we're just looking for perks that bolster your electric abilities and stagger damage, synchronising well with your Overwhelm afflictions.

• Fade Strike - Lets you perform a quick attack after a long dodge
• Quick Recovery - Mana regeneration starts faster after using an ability or taking damage
  
• Elemental Catalyst - Get a healthy 15% damage bonus based on the element of your equipped orb
  
• Perfect Cast - Charged attacks deal a massive 50% more damage if you release them as soon as they're fully charged
  
• Return Fire - Lets you counterattack after parrying
• Shocking Strikes - Strike abilities (that's all of this build's abilities) apply Shock to nearby enemies, adding damage over time
  
• Reclamation - Restores a bit of Mana whenever you defeat an enemy
  
• Nexus Shock - This can be a little difficult to trigger since you need to stack 3 afflictions of Shock, but being able to then hit that opponent and cause yet more damage to erupt across multiple targets shouldn't be underestimated
  
• Conductor - Strike abilities (all three of this build's abilities) deal an additional 10% damage for every stack of Shock an enemy has
  
• Debilitating Shocks - You take 15% less damage from enemies that are shocked
  
• Imbued Reaction - Parries grand you electrified weapons, increasing your weapon damage
  
• Essence Eater - Takedowns restore 250 Health and 20 Ultimate (and you're going to get a lot of takedowns with how much stagger damage you're doing)
• Pressure Point - If one of your abilities scores a critical hit, you gain Quickened, shortening your ability cooldowns
  
• Staggering Strikes - Strike abilities deal a whopping 50% more stagger
  
• Spirit Blade - Lets you finish light attack combos with a deadly heavy attack
  
• Blast Efficiency (Spellblade Perk) - Makes Void Blade cost half as much Mana
  
• Spirit of Vengeance (Spellblade Perk) - Lets you use the Spirit Blade heavy attack a second time
  
• Orbital Burst (Spellblade Perk) - Your Arcane Bomb (the orb and dagger's marking system) now deals way more stagger damage
  
• Arcane Strike (Spellblade Perk) - Strike abilities now detonate an Arcane Bomb
  
• Veil Flurry (Spellblade Perk) - Hold the light attack button after a combo to summon your orb in a circle around you; great for crowd control
  
• Electrical Burns (Spellblade Perk) - Also applies Burning whenever you apply Shocked
  
• Shocking Tactician (Spellblade Perk) - Reaching the max number of Shocked stacks on an enemy unleashes a destructive burst of electricity
  

Void Walker

The Void Walker character build is all about rendering your opponents as helpless as possible. You'll use ice-infused abilities to control the battlefield, either dragging foes to points of impact, or crippling their movement and attack speed to such an extent that they're not longer a threat. A cruel tactician who wields a staff.

Specialisation: Evoker

An obviously choice given its preference for controlling abilities and perks that further enhance your damage over time.

Key Abilities:

With this build, we're looking for abilities that help you control the battlefield.

• Ice Blast

Ice Blast is your main damage dealer, but it also applies Chilled, crippling the movement and attack speed of any for it connects with. What's more, Weakened is its second affliction, lowering your enemy's damage should they somehow manage to hit you.

• Dark Squall

Like Ice Blast, Dark Squall inflicts Chilled, but it operates on a cooldown instead of costing two bars of Mana. You can rotate between the two abilities so that your opponent is always having to deal with being Chilled.

• Entropic Sphere

Entropic Sphere is great for crowd control, drawing all of your enemies to one location, before exploding for big damage. It can be used to set these foes up for Ice Blast and Dark Squall, ensuring that you inflict as many enemies as possible with Chilled.

Key Perks:

With this build, you'll want any perks that improve your ability to Chill enemies and deal damage over time.

• Quick Recovery - Increases Mana regeneration rate after using an ability or taking damage
• Fade Reflex - Temporarily slows time for your opponent upon a well-timed dodge, and dodging is easy when your enemies are always Chilled
  
• Frost Shield - Enemies who hit you are automatically Chilled
  
• Clarity in Suffering - Regain some Mana when you take damage
  
• Absorb - Staff energy is recharged by 25% when you defend against an attack with your magic shield (blocking with a staff equipped)
  
• Mana Infusion - Takedowns restore a bar of Mana and one third of your staff energy
• Salt in the Wound - Hitting an afflicted enemy with a Control ability (Ice Blast and Dark Squall) adds one more stack of that affliction
  
• Multiplicity - Projectile abilities (Entropic Sphere) now hit with one extra projectile
  
• Keen Insight - Control abilities (Ice Blast and Dark Squall) deal a massive 150% more damage across the area of effect
  
• Bolt Volley - Lets you fire more staff projectiles when using light attacks
  
• Two Fires (Evoker Perk) - After using Entropic Sphere, you fire more projectiles with your staff for the next six seconds
  
• Onslaught (Evoker Perk) - Fire yet more staff projectiles from your light attack combo finisher
  
• Quickened Strikes (Evoker Perk) - Final combo attacks with your staff reduce the cooldown of your abilities
  
• Withering Charges (Evoker Perk) - Light staff attacks lower the enemy's resistance to whatever damage type your staff is (ideally, you'll want to be using an ice-based staff for this build)
  
• Controlled Infusion (Evoker Perk) - Using a Control ability (Ice Blast of Dark Squall) regenerates 35% of your staff energy
  
• Bonechiller (Evoker Perk) - When your HP is low, you automatically freeze all nearby enemies (but this can only happen once every 120 seconds)

Did you find this Dragon Age: The Veilguard best character builds guide useful? Check back soon for more builds, be sure to give our Dragon Age: The Veilguard guide a look for more help with the game, and then show off your own build in the comments section below.