Way to build your Necromancer: Fill in the Spirit tree as fast as you possibly can, as they will form the center of your build. I'm usually capable of filling them by the time I get to Lothering. Focus on your Hex and Draining trees next, with the Debilitation tree being a bonus and as such you can leave it until the end of the game. An alternative build for Morrigan is one that allows her to take advantage of both the Shapeshifter and the Blood Mage specializations in a nearly seamless system. The idea requires a bit of explanation. Once Morrigan develops her Blood Mage abilities, she will always keep the Blood Magic sustained ability active.

This post is a part of an ongoing feature here at Nightmare Mode to provide you with an expert’s strategy guide on playing Dragon Age. This time, we’ll be going over the mage class.

In Dragon Age, you learn the value and awesome power the mage holds early in the game. Of course, let us not forget that Morrigan (voiced by Claudia Black of Farscape), is Dragon Age’s entertaining, mysterious, yet incredibly sexy mage. Venturing away from Ostagar, equipped with only the most basic of magic spells, you see that Morrigan is a force unto herself. She proves to be such a valuable asset, that no darkspawn-kicking party would be complete without her.

I haven't played Baldur's Gate, but I have played Dragon Age. You can play a mage as a shape shifter, blood mage, spirit healer, or armor them and and use them as an arcane warrior. You can play a warrior as a duelist, two-hander, or sword and shield. You can play a rogue and have them swap between long range bows and dual daggers. Race - elf (+2magic +2 willpower is the best for mage) Stat - all in magic No Hitpoints - mage can be never attacked at all, and it's easier to drink mana potions than have a lot of mp - with 80+ magic the smallest ones on every difficulty will regen over 1/2 of mana). Dragon Age Origins Blood Mage Spells and Benefits. A blood mage gets a permanent +2 to constitution and +2 to spellpower, as well as the following tree of new mage spells. Blood Magic: This is a mode that allows you to spend health points on spells instead of mana. This applies to ordinary spells, and is necessary for the next three blood mage spells.

Wynne is the other mage, and her great power comes in healing spells–quietly hiding in the background and preventing your demise on the front lines. We aren’t sure how she does it exactly, but she keeps everyone alive and well so nobody asks any questions. All you have to do in return is make sure nobody with a blade gets anywhere near her.

There are other benefits to being a mage. One being you get access to the blood mage specialization, and if you don’t have it, you have the chance to unlock it. Another benefit being the sheer joy of unleashing powerful spells on enemies and annihilating them.

I made what is perhaps an unorthodox choice. With my mage playthrough, I chose to build a healing mage–leaving Wynne behind at the Circle Tower, and taking Morrigan with me. This means that my character took the place of Wynne. It’s a bit of a challenge playing the healer. It isn’t exactly something that is common in RPGs, since you usually play a character that deals damage. If you’re reading this to find out how to build an awesome mage, don’t worry. I’ve played the game enough times to know how to do it anyway…especially given that each time I play, including this time around as a healing mage, I take Morrigan with me.

As always, raise your cunning to at least 20 so you can manipulate conversations in your favour. Otherwise, guiding the development of the mage is the easiest of all. You don’t need strength. You don’t need dexterity, because staff hits never miss. You don’t need cunning beyond 20, there is no point. You don’t need constitution either, since you are banking on never getting hacked down. All you need to worry about, are willpower, and magic.

A general rule of thumb I use for building Morrigan, is a 2:1 ratio of magic:willpower. This ensures she is very powerful by the end of the game, and also ensures that she won’t run out of mana for spells in your run of the mill battles. On occasion I’ll pump all 3 points into magic. Again, as a general rule, I also give the herbal skill set to Morrigan. One thing that is absolutely useless is the shapeshifter talent tree. Don’t waste your talent points on this, go for something a little more useful.

Read on to read the rest of the strategy guide!

The best spells for a power mage are cone of cold, crushing prison, stinging warm, and death hex. Cone of cold for a nightmare mode player is essential. I’m not sure you can play on nightmare mode without it. It is a strategic spell you can use to freeze an entire line of enemies. Even if you are playing as another class, micromanaging Morrigan to strategically freeze an enemy front is invaluable. You can combine cone of cold with a variety of spells, like crushing prison, to shatter enemies. Make sure to experiment with following cone of cold up with different spells and abilities, to see some unique effects. This is true of most spells: following them up with something else, can sometimes yield unique effects. For example, you can do improve drain by casting vulnerability hex, and then following it up drain to yield “improved drain.”

The fourth spells in each elemental tree (fire, ice, lightning) are in my opinion, completely useless. They cause friendly fire damage first of all, and second, they encompass the entire fighting area. When an enemy mage uses one of these attacks, it is possibly the most annoying spell anyone can cast. The lightning spell in particular, not only causes huge damage to your guys but also restricts movement. In most cases your healing mage can’t keep up and you run the risk of killing your entire party.

As a general rule of thumb for building Wynne, is 2:1 willpower:magic. For my own healing mage, It might be more like 1:1 as I’m a little better than the AI at looking after my mana levels. It is better to be safe than sorry as far as willpower goes, the last thing you want as a healer is to run out of juice to heal people with. Skill set is up to you, other than coercion anyhow.

Must-have spells for a healing mage are, not surprisingly, all of the spirit healer tree, and the first tree in the creation group from heal to mass rejuvenation. Group heal is a must-have talent, as is mind blast. I’ve also equipped my healing mage with cone of cold and crushing prison for some extra punch. The very first tree, the mage tree, is also worth filling out, as it gives you the arcane shield, and the last spell in the tree is a passive one that increases your spellpower. Don’t want to give that one up. Cleansing Aura in the spirit healer tree is also a must. Although it is a sustained spell, and uses up a lot of mana, not having to use injury kits is a huge bonus. Of course it doesn’t heal your own gaping wounds so you can save the kits for yourself. You don’t need to have it activated all the time either, just a short burst after battle if someone fell down, heal them of their wounds and de-activate it, you’re good to go.

Mages come in all colours of the rainbow. You can make yours a healer, a power mage like Morrigan, or even a bit of both. Maybe a wielder of all those weird ailment-type magics, which in any other RPG would be a waste of time, but hey, they actually work in Dragon Age. A blood mage, even. Keep in mind that if you intend on using blood mage spells, you’re going to have to increase your constitution in place of willpower.

Party member recommendations? Anything goes, as long as you have someone who can heal. Whether that’s you, or Wynne. You also need a power mage, which is either you, or Morrigan. You could, in theory, even have a 3-mage party. Be warned though, any battle with a large amount of enemies will prove problematic because of the absence of a front line. The mages tower in particular is difficult with a three-mage team. Your mages can’t take much. It’s good to have a big warrior with a lot of constitution and heavy armour to draw all the damage for you.

Recommended final stats (without stat bonuses):

Power Mage: Strength: 14

Dexterity: 16

Willpower: 35

Magic: 55

Cunning: 12

Constitution: 10

Healing Mage: Let me finish my game first! Sheesh.

Anything else: you’re on your own.

This Dragon Age Inquisition Companions Tier List will teach you which companions are the best and which ones you should leave on the bench.

If you’re playing Dragon Age Inquisition, you’re going to want to know which companions you should be taking into combat so that you can defeat all the dragons and every other high level encounter without breaking a sweat. This Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions Tier List will help you do just that.

You may think the best Dragon Age Inquisition companions are simply the ones with the most powerful class specializations, and to a degree that’s true, but a lot of powerful class specializations lose their edge when not being actively controlled by the player.

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  Best Dragon Age Inquisition Classes TIER LIST

I should also note that Dragon Age Inquisition is a fairly balanced game, and you can easily complete it with any balanced party. As long as you have a tanking warrior, a mage and a rogue (ideally an archer), you shouldn’t encounter too much difficulty.

So, without further ado, here is the best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions tier list.

S Tier – Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions

Blackwall

If you didn’t opt to play as a tank yourself, which you probably didn’t, you’re probably going to want Blackwall in your party. Blackwall never dies. In fact, Blackwall almost always has full health and full guard throughout every encounter.

He’s a specialized tank in a game where have a tank in your party is a great asset. The only other character who could conceivably replace him is Cassandra, and Cassandra’s Templar specialty does not compare to Blackwall’s Champion specialty in terms of tanking ability.

When it comes to Dragon Age Inquisition companions, Blackwall is almost a must-have for most parties, especially if you’re going through the game for the first time.

A Tier – Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions

Sera

Sera, despite being the most annoying character, is probably the best rogue available among the Dragon Age Inquisition companions. Archers, in general, are the best damage dealers in Dragon Age Inquisition and while Sera’s Tempest specialty doesn’t have quite as much damage potential as Varric’s Artificer specialty, the game’s AI handles it a lot better.

Tempests are able to ignore cooldowns for a period of time which allows them to use Leaping Shot, one of the most broken abilities in the game, multiple times in quick succession. The AI does a fairly decent job of spamming Sera’s skills.

Varric

When controlled by the player, Varric will be S-Tier. The Artificer specialty is mindblowingly powerful, almost entirely because of Opportunity Knocks, which reduces cooldown times whenever someone in the party score a critical hit. When combined with Looked Like It Hurt from the Sabotage tree, which regains stamina for every crit, Artificer essentially ignores cooldowns and stamina requirements if you can get high enough crit on them (about 60-70%).

The problem is that to take full advantage of the Artificer specialization, you want to mainly spam Leaping Shot and use Hook and Tackle to close the distance whenever Leaping Shot takes you too far away from the enemy to do its full damage. The companion AI does not do this.

Spamming Leaping Shot (and to a lesser extent Explosive Shot when enemies are clumped together in large groups) is not only important because it deals a lot of damage, but because nailing its multiple hits are required to keep Artificer stamina high and cooldowns low.

As a result, Varric mainly functions much like Sera, spamming skills regularly, but without the additional bonuses the Tempest tree provides (aside from Opportunity Knocks and Hail of Arrows, which are both OP, the Artificer skills are underwhelming verging on bad).

Solas

Solas is probably the mage-iest mage you have available out of all of the Dragon Age Inquisition companions. Ultimately, Knight Enchanter is probably the best mage specialty, but the companion AI does an abysmal job at handling its more complex mechanics. Rift Mages, like Solas, on the other hand, do just fine under AI control.

As a Rift Mage, Solas gets a bevy of additional useful spells and power-ups. All three of Solas’s unique spells provide excellent crowd control. They get enhanced mana reneration. They do additional damage against weakened enemies which, between Solas’s Rift Mage abilities and the warrior in your group, is going to be all enemies.

If you have Solas invested in the Winter tree as well, trash mobs will spend their entire lifespan frozen or knocked down. Rift Mage skills also remain decently useful against bosses due to their damage and weakening debuff, even if they don’t provide the crowd control they do against normal enemies.

The main problem with Solas is that, without spoiling him, you can’t use him in the Trespasser DLC, which is essentially the endgame of Dragon Age Inquisition. Shame.

B Tier – Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions

Cole

Rogues are great, especially when they’re equipped with bows, and Cole is no exception. His Assassin specialty is very powerful and the AI does a decent job at taking advantage of it. The only reason Cole is in B-Tier is because there has to be a way to differentiate him from Sera and Varric, because although Cole definitely slaughters enemies, he’s lags behind Sera and Varric in terms of his damage output.

Cole hits a lot harder than either Sera or Varric, but he’s a lot slower in terms of using his abilities. Cole relies on dealing big damage through guaranteed crits from from stealth, which means you’ll want a lot of crit damage on Cole’s equipment.

His abilities synergize better with daggers than they do with bows, but daggers tend to be inferior to bows in Dragon Age Inquisition for a variety of reasons. His main usefulness is Mark of Death, which doubles damage against a target for 8-12 seconds.

While Cole does decent damage because he’s a rogue, due to his specialization you either need to equip him with daggers to get the most out of his abilities, which will result in him dying regularly, or equip him with a bow and watch him do inferior damage to the other archers.

Dragon Age Origins Best Mage Damage Build

Still, Mark of Death is insane, especially if you’re an Archer yourself or you bring another Archer with you alongside Cole. Doubling Varric’s damage for 12 seconds on top of Cole’s own damage is pretty OP.

Best Mage Build Dragon Age Origins

When it comes to Dragon Age Inquisition companions, Cole is a solid B-Tier. Probably A- Tier vs A+ tier for the other archers if I set it up that way, but I didn’t, so B-Tier it is.

Dorian

Dorian deals comparable damage to Solas since he has access to a variety of DoTs that provide significant utility in trash encounters by summoning undead allies while also providing decent damage in long boss fights.

Where Dorian’s Necromancer specialty falters is that a lot of its utility is only available for trash encounters, which are trivial. The only time the game really challenges you is in its boss fights, where a lot of Dorian’s skills go to waste.

Still, he’s a strong mage and his DoTs do a fair amount of damage even though you have to spend 5 arguably wasted skill points in his tree to get them.

Among the best Dragon Age Inquisition companions, Dorian is a solid B-Tier.

C Tier – Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions

Cassandra

Cassandra is your other option among the Dragon Age Inquisition companions for a tank besides Blackwall, and she’s decent enough. If you really hate Blackwall for whatever reason, you can certainly get by with Cassandra. She sacrifices a bit of Blackwall’s survivability for slightly higher damage and team-wide buffs.

The problem is that almost all of her Templar specialty’s skills are effective only against demons. Which is not huge problem, since you are constantly facing off against demons in Dragon Age Inquisition. However, the biggest threats in DA:I are not demons, and when you’re not fighting demons, the entire Templar tree is just a 15% damage buff and 10% elemental resistance.

Dragon Age Origins Battlemage Build

Still, unlike Blackwall, who runs out of skill points after maxing out Champion, Vanguard and the left side of Battlemaster, Cassandra can pick up most of the abilities in the Weapon & Shield tree if you ignore Templar almost entirely aside from the damage buff, so in a way you can treat that like her specialty.

Vivienne

Vivienne’s specialty, Knight Enchanter, is a great specialty, probably the best specialty for mages, even after being nerfed in post-release patches. Unfortunately, the AI wasn’t particularly adept at handling the Knight Enchanter mechanics before the nerf, and even less so after.

Essentially, the way Knight Enchanter works is that as you cast spells, your Spirit Blade spell powers up. So you cast your spells, then run in using the Knight Enchanter’s Fade Cloak spell, emerge from Fade Cloak inside an enemy, dealing massive damage, and use your Spirit Blade until its charge depletes, then rinse and repeat.

If the AI does that successfully from time to time, it seems to be purely by chance. Which means under the control of the AI, you only really seem to get Knight Enchanter’s other advantage: massive survivability.

Dragon Age Origins Awakening Best Mage Build

Knight Enchanter’s barriers are supercharged. They last seemingly forever and refill constantly as long as you’re dealing damage. Vivienne is able to take advantage of this. She will very rarely die.

That makes her a fairly great support mage. Unfortunately, aside from Barriers and the occasional Revive, her damage lags behind both other mages by a huge margin.

Knight Enchanter already puts out less damage than the other specialties in exchange for its survivability, and the AI can’t even maximize the potential of that lower damage cap. It also lacks any passive skills that increase damage from the other mage skill trees.

Put all this together and ultimately when it comes to the best Dragon Age Inquisition companions, Vivienne is just C-Tier.

D Tier – Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions

Iron Bull

Iron Bull is capable of putting out a lot of damage. The issue with Iron Bull, like many of the Dragon Age Inquisition companions, is the AI. Under the control of the AI, he will die almost every fight.

Iron Bull’s Reaver specialty relies on health management through careful use of Dragon-Rage, which costs health, and Devour, which refills health. The goal is to stay around 30-40% health to maximize the damage bonus from Blood Frenzy. The AI is terrible at managing this mechanic.

Dragon Age Inquisition Best Build

In the early game, Iron Bull will tear through enemies at little risk to himself. Later, when enemies are more threatening and more numerous, he’ll pump out incredible damage right up until the point where he quickly dies as soon as he gets targeted. If you don’t adjust his AI, he’ll drink all your potions every fight.

A lot of people swear by Iron Bull, but I’ve used him in multiple playthroughs and his most notable contribution to the team is dying even more often than Dagger Cole.

Even though he’s a badass, I can’t in good conscience place him any higher than D-Tier in terms of the best Dragon Age Inquisition companions.

That about covers it when it comes to the Best Dragon Age Inquisition Companions Tier List. Be sure to check out the Games Section or the Main Page for more content like this, and click here for more Dragon Age Inquisition guides.