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Most people may prefer to be warriors or rogues. However, mages aren’t a class you should look down on either. If you know how to build the mage class correctly, you can still dish out powerful damage in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Like the other classes, the mage class has three specializations. For this build, I prefer to pick the Spellblade specialization since you won’t need to depend as much on mana.
How To Build Mage Class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a role-playing game so picking based on your preferences is best. However, if you don’t have any interest in any of the factions. Choosing certain groups may help you more when you’re playing as a mage.
- Shadow Dragons – Your class-specific resource generates slightly faster.
- The Mourn Watch – You can apply an additional Affliction stack on targets.
The Shadow Dragons are generally the best faction to pick for any class since they give you a buff that allows you to generate class-specific resources faster. For mages, this will be the mana you need to perform your powerful spells. While the Spellblade specialization relies less on mana than Evoker, having more of them never hurt. This group will also boost your damage against the Venatori.
The Mourn Watch is another solid choice for mages. Stacking Afflictions is a great way to deal damage, especially for mages who can perform various spells. This buff will allow you to inflict more damage on top of the Arcane Bombs that you can use with the Spellblade specialization. This faction will also increase your damage against undead and demon enemies.
Best Skills
Since this mage build is going to specialize in the Spellblade sub-class, you just need to unlock abilities that are on the lower side of the skill tree. Arcane Shot is the basic powerful spell that you will unlock automatically. However, you will want to unlock Chain Lightning quickly, which can hit multiple enemies.
Wall of Fire is another important spell since it will be your primary crowd-control skill. While it deals less damage than Chain Lightning, this ability doesn’t cost mana. That means you can spam this ability once the cooldown is over. Once you reach the mid-game, you can unlock Storm Surge. This spell is an area and strike ability and doesn’t cost mana like Wall of Fire.
When you have upgraded to Level 20, you can then unlock Void Blade. At this point, you can exchange Chain Lightning with Void Blade if you want. Note that this skill applies Sundered instead of Overwhelm.
Best mage spells:
- Chain Lightning – 321 Electricity – Applies Overwhelm
- Wall of Fire – 102 Fire – Applies Burn
- Storm Surge – 514 Electricity – Applies Overwhelm
- Void Blade – 771 Electricity – Applies Sundered
Other useful mage abilities you can unlock in the skill tree include:
- Quick Recovery – Mana regenerates 25 percent faster when you spend it or take damage
- Velocity – Stagger from weapon attacks is increased by 20 percent
- Energy Burst – Abilities that deal Fire or Electric damage increase the other type’s damage by 15 percent for 10 seconds
- Demolisher – Maximum Arcane Bomb stacks are increased by one
Best Mage Gear
Now that you know the best mage skills in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you can move on to the equipment you can use. Note that the gear you obtain will likely start at a common rarity, but you can upgrade it by discovering copies of the same item. Here are the gear that you can use:
- Sword – Spellcaster’s Stiletto – Each Arcane Bomb on an enemy reduces their outgoing damage by 10 percent
- Orb – Mage’s Gambit – Critical hits apply Burning or Shocked
- Staff – Veil Seeker – Final attacks with this weapon create four projectiles, each dealing a different damage type
- Armor – Garb of Kinship – Medium Armor – Heal for five percent health when gaining an Advantage
- Helm – Death Mask – Medium Helm – Applying three Afflictions triggers an explosion
For accessories, you can use these gear to complete this mage build:
- Belt – Twin Buckle Binding – Grants Quickened on Potion use
- Amulet – Light of Starkhaven – Increase weapon damage by 25 percent
- Ring – Warden Signet – Increase your Fire damage, resistance, and fire ability damage against armor.
- Ring – Brass Root – Increase Shocked damage
Runes are also important since you can activate one to buff yourself during a fight. Here is my recommendation for this mage build:
- Ravage – Deal 50 percent more damage vs health for 20 seconds
- Besieged – Light and Heavy attacks are no longer penalized vs barrier for 20 seconds
- Surge – Mana regeneration is tripled by 10 seconds
