Dragon Age: The Veilguard is filled with choices to make, but before you get to the difficult choices, you’ll need to select some basic ones when creating your character, such as, what class you want to play, and later on, what specialization. Be careful though, as you won’t be able to change your class later on, although you can change your specialization whenever. In general, your choices for Rogue are either a melee-orientated Duelist, a Trap-oriented Saboteur, or a ranged-specialist, Veil Jumper. Although these specializations favor different skills, the Rogue in general will use a mix of both melee and ranged. Read on to learn more about the Rogue in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
The Rogue is the master of lethal attacks, whether that’s with dual blades or a bow.
Table of Contents¶
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The Rogue’s Weapons¶
It wouldn’t be a Rogue if you weren’t Dual-Wielding, and fortunately, in The Veilguard, you are. In your main hand, your choices are either a Saber or Broadsword, while your off-hand is either a Rapier or Longsword. The differences between these weapons don’t matter outside the look and style of the weapon, so you don’t need to worry whether you’re using a Saber or Broadsword. For your secondary weapon, you’ll have a bow. Like the melee weapons, you have the choice between a Longbow or a Shortbow. Once again, this won’t change anything regarding combat, but the style of it is different.
Dual Wield¶
The majority of your combat will come from your melee. You have the regular Light Attack combo: Light Attack, Light Attack, Light Attack, Light Attack, Light Attack combo, which is your primary combo that primarily deals stagger damage. Then you have the Heavy Attack Combo: Heavy Attack, Heavy Attack, Heavy Attack, which should be used against enemies with armor (yellow bar).
Next up are your charged attacks, which can be done with either Light or Heavy attacks. Simply hold in one of the buttons to perform this. If the enemy has armor, you’ll want to charge the heavy attack, if not, charge the Light Attack. This can be chained with a second attack, which can be either Light or Heavy, with the former being better for stagger damage and the latter for armor damage.
Dual Wield can perform quick, lethal attacks to dispatch enemies at ease.
Bow¶
Your Bow plays a big part in combat, especially if the enemies you’re facing have a barrier (blue bar). The best way to deplete the barrier is to use your bow attacks, and if you hit the enemy’s weakpoint with that (usually the head), you’ll deal more barrier damage. The bow isn’t only good for barrier damage, though, and you’ll want to use it in combination with your melee attacks to get the most out of the class, regardless of your specialization.
Bows are great for dealing Barrier damage or hitting an enemies weak point.
Abilities¶
The Rogue does four types of damage, Necrotic, Bleed, Electricity, and Physical. If you lean towards the Duelist specialization, you’ll primarily be dealing Necrotic and Bleed, with a bit of Physical. Veil Ranger primarily deals Electricity damage, and the Saboteur is primarily Physical. Although each specialization deals with those damage types, each of them only has one new ability (and one Ultimate), so you’re not locked into those damage types for those specializations. Let’s take a look at the abilities below.
| Ability | Description | Damage Type | Combo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static Strikes | Unleash twin bolts of lightning from your blades, shocking all enemies they strike. Each bolt deals damage independently but travels along the same path. | Electricity | Applies Weakened |
| Pilfer | Add insult to injury by swiping a Potion when you slice up an enemy. Applies Bleeding on hit. The Potion is automatically consumed after being stolen. | Physical/Bleed | Detonates Overwhelmed |
| Toxic Dash | Dash toward your target to land a deadly blow. Applies Necrosis to the enemy. | Necrotic | Applies Sundered |
| Hurricane of Blades | Spin around in a ring of rapid strikes. Nearby enemies are hit up to 4 times. The final strike deals more damage. | Necrotic | No |
| Lightning Flask | Throw down a flask of bottled lightning that explodes, unleashing a storm of pain on nearby enemies. Deals damage in a large area upon impact, while creating an aura that deals 4 Electric damage and applies Shocked to nearby enemies. | Electricity | No |
| Explosive Trap | Repurpose Antaam explosives for your own use. Throw down an explosive trap that detonates when enemies get too close. Highly likely to disrupt enemies. | Physical | Detonates Overwhelmed |
| Explosive Daggers | Unleash a barrage of sticky, explosive daggers. Fires 3 daggers that stick to their targets, then explode after a short time. | Physical | Applies Sundered |
| Rain of Decay | Rain death from above. Damage is inflicted each second to all enemies caught in the area of this attack. | Necrotic | No |
| Reeling Bolt | Nock your bow with a special arrow that shocks and disorients enemies. Deals very high Stagger and applies Shocked to the primary target. Nearby enemies are pulled toward the target. | Electricity | Applies Weakened |
| Lighting Quiver | Unleash a storm of electric bolts that spread across the battlefield, peppering random enemies. Fires up to 7 bolts that randomly hit enemies across a large area. | Electricity | No |
| A Thousand Cuts (Duelist Only) | Assume a duelist’s pose, then rapidly slice and dice your opponent. Deals damage up to 16 times with an especially devastating final blow. | Necrotic | No |
| Fortune’s Blast (Saboteur Only) | Throw down a mechanized turret that targets the closest enemy and peppers them with projectiles. When spent, the device explodes, dealing heavy damage likely to disrupt any enemies within range of the blast. | Physical | No |
| Storm’s Path (Veil Ranger Only) | A Veil Jumper makes its own path. It just requires some creativity… or a lot of violence. Fire a massive blast from your Bow, damaging all enemies in the way. | Electricity | Detonates Overwhelmed |
| [Ultimate] Concussive Barrage | Remind your enemies that a rogue’s pockets are often filled with danger… and explosives. Fire a barrage of concussive bombs that deal increased Stagger. The duration of any Staggered condition from this Ability is increased by 200%. | Physical | No |
| [Ultimate] Murder of Crows (Duelist Only) | Use your advanced agility to cut down enemies foolish enough to challenge an Antivan Crow. Your enemies will think you have wings as you leap rapidly between nearby targets, dealing damage with each strike. The final leap deals significant damage to any enemies near the strike zone. | Necrotic | No |
| [Ultimate] Fortune’s Fury (Saboteur Only) | Embrace your fury, equipping a powerful, expendable weapon to bombard enemies. Fire a rapid stream of projectiles and then toss the weapon to deal additional damage. End the attack early by tapping the Ultimate button again. | Physical | No |
| [Ultimate] Twin Gifts of Arlathan (Veil Ranger Only) | Discovering bizarre relics means Veil Jumpers toy with more experimental approaches to combat. Throw two entangled relic fragments that rapidly bounce between targets. | Electricity | No |
These are all the abilities you can acquire for Rogue, but there are still passives, traits, and greater passives to unlock, which all add to your class build.
(1 of 2) Toxic Dash is a gap-closer that inflicts Necrotic damage. This can be used in a combo with your companions to create detonation.
Toxic Dash is a gap-closer that inflicts Necrotic damage. This can be used in a combo with your companions to create detonation. (left), Murder of Crows is the Duelist Ultimate that deals Necrotic damage by rapidly attacking multiple enemies before finishing with a deadly strike. (right)
Generating and Using Momentum¶
Each class has its own resource to manage, with the Rogue’s being Momentum. Momentum is needed to use your abilities, and it is gained by attacking enemies. However, if you take damage, or you’re not in combat any longer, you’ll lose Momentum. You can upgrade how much Momentum you have by unlocking the various passives in the Skill Tree, as well as equipping gear, enchantments, or runes to increase how much you generate.
Ideally, you’ll want to unlock the Swift Rebuke (Greater Passive), Burst of Speed (Passive), and Determination (Passive) skills as soon as possible, which can be found in the upper part of the Skill Tree, under Sustain. In general, you’ll want to use normal attack combos to generate Momentum while avoiding being hit, and then use that Momentum on your powerful abilities.
(1 of 4) There are numerous passives scattered around the skill tree that bolster your Momentum.
Specializations¶
Each class comes with three Specializations and the Rogue’s are Duelist, Saboteur, and Veil Ranger. The Duelist is the class where you primarily focus on devastating melee attacks that inflict Bleed, Necrotic, or both damage types. The Saboteur is more suited for a trap playstyle using long-ranged bow attacks. Their damage is predominantly Physical.
Then you have the Veil Ranger, which focuses on using long-range bow attacks that primarily deal Electricity damage. You can unlock a Specialization when you reach Level 25 and have the previous skill near the Specialization.
Duelist¶
Swift as the wind, the Antivan Crow Duelist specializes in dancing between blades and punishing enemies with devastating melee blows.
The Duelist specialization is located at the top-left of the Skill Tree.
The Duelist is your traditional Rogue that inflicts Bleed and Poison (Necrotic) status with fast, hard-hitting melee attacks, only using the Bow for enemies with Barriers. The first Skill you’ll unlock in this tree is the Ultimate, Murder of Crows. This will deal Necrotic damage in a large area of effect, hitting the enemies multiple times.
Immediately after this, you’ll unlock the Ability, A Thousand Cuts, which is one of the strongest Rogue attacks. This will hit the enemy for numerous slashes in a cone in front of you, dealing Necrotic damage. Finally, you’ll get a new combo that grants you Adrenaline. Adrenaline will reward you for consecutively hitting the enemy without getting hit yourself. This will increase all the damage you deal per stack of Adrenaline.
Saboteur¶
A true swashbuckler, the Lords of Fortune Saboteur specializes in using explosives and other contraptions to weaken enemies, control the battlefield, and handle even the most dangerous situations.
The Saboteur specialization is located at the top-right of the Skill Tree.
The Saboteur is the king (or queen) of traps. Most of the damage you deal with Saboteur abilities is pure Physical damage, and you’ll primarily play mid-range, using your bow, although you’ll still use melee too. The first ability you unlock in this tree is the Ultimate, Fortune’s Fury, which gives you a literal Gatling Gun for a short time. During the Ultimate, you can pepper enemies with a barrage of bullets dealing physical damage before throwing the gun at the enemy for increased damage.
Next up is Fortune’s Turret, which does what it says on the tin. Using this ability allows you to throw a turret onto the floor that deals physical damage to the closest enemy. When the timer is up, it’ll explode, dealing physical damage around the turret. A bit later, you’ll unlock Plague Arrow, which gives you the option to increase the charge level of the bow while dealing Necrotic damage. Finally, you’ll get various passives that enhance your party, increase the duration of your buffs (advantages), and improve your tool and area of effect damage.
Veil Ranger¶
Using tactics learned in Arlathan, the Veil Ranger specializes in bringing down targets with charged, long-range shots and pinpoint accuracy.
The Veil Ranger specialization is located at the bottom of the Skill Tree.
The Veil Ranger is more your traditional archer archetype but with a shocking twist. Okay, excuse the pun, but the Veil Ranger focuses long-range and area-of-effect attacks with the bow, dealing predominantly Electricity damage.
Like the other specializations, the first ability you’ll unlock is the Ultimate, Twin Gifts of Arlathan. Using the Veil Jumpers relics, you’ll throw two at enemies that bounce around each enemy, dealing electricity damage. Next up is the powerful Storm’s Path. This will fire an arrow in a straight line that penetrates and deals damage to anything in its path.
Later on, you’ll unlock a couple of traits that increase your damage by 50% upon a perfect charge, or set your next shot up to fire multiple arrows at once, provided you hit the enemy’s weak point. Finally, you’ll unlock passives that increase how many shock stacks you can do, as well as increase damage across the board with your weakpoint and charged shots. The more interesting passive is Hamstring which allows you to knock enemies over if you charge a shot at their legs.
That’s it for the basics of the Rogue Class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which should help you prepare your build in advance. It’s worth noting that you can respec at any time for free, so make sure you play around with each specialization to see which sticks.
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