We've all been there: right at the end of character creation in the latest big RPG, staring at our choice of character class and wondering which is best. The good news is that there is no best class for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And I don't mean that in the wishy washy "pick which class suits your playstyle way," it's more genuinely true than most other RPGs.
The Veilguard has done a lot to really cut down on the fundamental differences between warriors, rogues, and mages in The Veilguard. All three, even the mages, have survivability at close range, plenty of AOE, and status effect application. On top of that, your party members are all just AI helpers, and you're almost always going to be the center of attention in a fight, meaning there's way less emphasis on party composition and more on making sure your crew brings skills that can apply or detonate the status effects in your own kit.
I got together two other PC Gamer writers with a lot of hours stacked in Veilguard already to compare and contrast our experiences with each class. Turns out that spellblade mages kind of feel like warriors, and both rogues and warriors are great at applying necrotic damage.
Warrior
Best class for: Survival, staggering, fire and necrotic damage
Play if you like: Smashing things and staying tanky
Harvey Randall, Staff Writer: The warrior does what it says on the tin, but it does so with style—all three of your specialisation options (Champion, Reaper, and Slayer) are flavourful and manage to pack considerable oomph into basically every ability.
What the warrior really excels at is tankiness, something you'll feel if you go towards the aptly-named "Survival" bit of your skill tree. Being able to snag multiple stacks of Deflect, which just eats the next source of damage you take, is great—especially when a lot of other warrior skills grant you that same buff, too. I get stacks of Deflect on killing enemies with control abilities, whenever I use a takedown, and I also get a free stack at the start of each encounter—and that's not even taking my items into account. You cannot harm me in any way that matters.
I'm playing a Slayer myself, and my entire build revolves around applying bonkers amounts of stagger (helped by the Overwhelmed status, which a lot of warrior abilities trigger) and then, with the Call of the Hall ring (which you can get pretty early on from the Lords of Fortune arena quest) stacking random advantages on takedowns—which also happen to heal me, generate rage, and set my weapon on fire. It's not uncommon for me to end up with around eight buffs, carrying my momentum into complete and utter carnage.
Meanwhile, Champion gives a ton of fire damage and a lot of interplay with your shield bashes—while Reaper is focused on Necrotic damage and using your shield toss ranged attack. Overall, the Warrior is a ton of fun, and 90% of the reason I've been having a blast.
Mage
Best class for: Ranged damage, elemental effects, area-of-effect abilities, pretty fireworks
Play if you like: Unleashing cosmic power, spreading status effects around
Robin Valentine, Senior Editor: My current mage build is actually not that far from Harvey's Slayer build. I've been focusing on Spellblade, and that means getting up close and personal, throwing out electricity spells, and setting off chains of Arcane Bombs—a status effect you can inflict with your short-range orb attacks and then detonate with a flash from your dagger. That throws out tons of Stagger, and yes, I too am in a committed relationship with the Call of the Hall ring.
I really feel like the heart of the storm. Teleporting into the action with Void Blade, then casting Tempest for periodic lightning strikes on everyone around me, and stacking up afflictions and debuffs and triggering explosive effects until every foe is on their knees waiting for their turn for a takedown animation. I'm a complete force of nature, spreading chaos wherever I go. Much as I liked the slower, more tactical style of earlier Dragon Age games, even I have to admit it's a fun contrast going from the more timid glass cannon mages of those to being an electrified bruiser here.
You can still go for a more backline approach, however. Focus more on staff attacks and projectile spells, and you can be a real human turret, laying down more and more damage the longer you barrage a target—and freezing anyone who gets too close. Or you can be a midrange horror, plastering the battlefield with AoE spells and sucking the life out of everyone around you.
Certain items and skills even make it easy to create weird hybrid builds—like an orb that switches itself between fire and electricity as you fight, synergising perfectly with a skill that makes damage with one element instantly buff the other. Perfect for making Darkspawn two different kinds of burnt.
The versatility of the system really lets you run with your own idea of what a wizard should feel like. There aren't even any restrictions on what armour you can use—if you want to be a platemail-clad wizard tank, you can do it.
Oh, and their ranged attack is great. It's a beam that makes you feel like a Ghostbuster, and if there's a faster way of breaking crates, I'm yet to find it.
Rogue
Best class for: Parrying, takedowns, and also necrotic damage
Play if you like: Chaining strikes that pay off with takedowns
Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: I always play a rogue first, and The Veilguard is no different. I was shocked though at how well a rogue can immediately hold their own at the center of a fight. Sure, I'm not as tanky as a warrior but dodging, parrying, and staggering enemies means that when I'm playing well, I'm not actually overwhelmed with mooks.
Veilguard doesn't have the satisfaction of backstabbing as a rogue, but it does let you do a lot of parrying and takedowns which are almost as cool. I went with the Duelist specilization (over Veil Ranger and Saboteur) with a lot of passives from the burst damage section. So I spent my time comboing strikes to build an enemy's stagger meter, applying a lot of necrotic damage through my gear and passives, and then polishing them off with takedown attacks that you're prompted to execute when an enemy has been effectively staggered.
Like Robin's experience with the mage, you can use the Veil Ranger specialization to spec into a more ranged build that prioritizes turning your projectiles into multi-target shredders on the battlefield. Personally, I was just really revelling in my ability to burst necrotic damage with a combination of passive skill upgrades and necro-boosting gear.
If you are digging the necrotic damage and its ability to tick enemy health down into the ground, you'll want to focus on the Duelist specialty like I did. The Murder of Crows ultimate ability has a similar AOE effect as your starting ultimate, Concussive Barrage, but with necrotic instead of physical damage. It's got a much more immediate damage spike when compared to the other two specialities' ultimates, too.
