In Dragon Age: Veilguard you take on the role of Rook, an elite warrior who’s destined to save the world, but how they do that is up to you.
At the beginning of Veilguard when you’re asked to choose both your appearance and Faction you’re also given the agonising task of choosing your starting class.
When you’ve just picked up a new RPG, it can be unbelievably difficult to know which of the different classes to choose: they all look cool, there are so many different stats and skill nodes to consider, and you have absolutely no idea how any of them behave during gameplay.
So, to offer a helping hand and start your adventure off on the right tack, here’s a rundown of what to expect from the different classes in Dragon Age Veilguard.
Which starting class should you pick in Dragon Age Veilguard?
While all of the starting classes are viable in Dragon Age Veilguard, we’d recommend choosing either the Warrior or Mage.
The Warrior is a fully melee class, with great basic weapon attacks and solid defence. If you like to hack and slash, then the Warrior is definitely the class for you.
However, as you progress through the game the Warrior’s greatest strength is crowd control and AoE damage which allows you to handle the big swarms of enemies that appear as you start to take on more difficult fights.
When building the Warrior, the Champion focuses on sword and shield combat teamed with AoE, the Slayer focuses on two-handed weapons, mobility and AoE, while the Reaper is more geared towards single-target Necrotic damage.
To get the best out of the Warrior, look for nodes on the skill tree which increase your maximum Rage. This will allow you to use more special abilities more often, which are much stronger than your regular attacks.
As for the Mage, you’d expect them to be a long-range class, right? However, the Mage in Dragon Age Veilguard is a powerful mixed class with great up-close melee combat and strong long-range potential.
While some mages can focus purely on their staff, they also have access to the “orb and dagger” style, which is a mid-range mix of melee and ranged that can get very good when formed into one of the best mage builds.
To do this, choose the Spellblade specialization and look for nodes on the skill tree which both increase maximum mana, but also reduce the mana cost of skills. This will allow you to spam powerful skills much more often and efficiently than before.
Like with the Warrior, your special skills are much stronger than regular attacks, so building out your character to use them liberally will make them a demon on the battlefield.
So to sum up, here are some things to consider when choosing your starting class in Dragon Age Veilguard:
- The Warrior is the best pure melee class, offering good defence, crowd-control skills and basic attacks
- The Mage is a great mixed class with good long-range spells and surprisingly explosive melee
- The Rogue is also a mixed class, but long-range is probably its best asset – if you want to sit back with a bow and control the battlefield, this is the class for you