Rogues in Dragon Age Inquisition are the fastest characters, using the shadows around them to move in and out of stealth, all the while searching for their foes’ weakest points.
The Rogue class comes with two options at the start: be an Archer, or wield two Daggers to strike at foes from melee range. Whichever one you choose, the 5 potential ability trees are sufficient enough to make your character into a deadly killing machine.
For more help on Dragon Age Inquisition, read our Mage Class Builds Guide, Power Farming Guide, Merchants Guide and Warrior Class Builds Guide.
Dragon Age Inquisition Rogue Class Builds
This guide focuses on various Rogue builds for DA Inquisition – one for each specialization and a single build that utilizes the conventional 4 ability trees. We’ll be using level 18 as standard for all the builds.
Note: Skills with the “+” sign indicate that their upgrades have also been acquired.
Rogue Class Build #1 – Shadow Master
Equipment: Dual Daggers
Double Daggers
- Flank Attack+
- Twin Fangs
- Bloodied Prey
- Dance of Death
- Sneak Attack
- Deathblow
- Unforgiving Chain
- Spinning Blades
Subterfuge
- Stealth
- Evasion
- Evade
Sabotage
- Poisoned Weapons+
- Fighting Dirty
Assassin
- Hidden Blades
- I Was Never Here
- Cloak of Shadows
- Knife in Shadows
- Mark of Death
The Assassin specialization is one of the most lethal when it comes to pure offense in Dragon Age: Inquisition. While Rogues in generally are squishy characters, they have a high-risk, high rewards style of play that encourages them to move in and out of battle through the likes of Stealth and other powerful abilities.
The key is not in just the cloaking, but the critical damage done through backstabbing and utilizing the brilliant skills of the Assassin tree.
This does, however, require you to position yourself cleverly wherever needed, with a mixture burst damage through abilities and a handful of basic attacks with your dual daggers till your cooldown is reset and you can jump into the shadows again.
In addition to your other offensive abilities, you should also look to utilize poison damage through the Sabotage tree. The investment in both Poisoned Weapons and Fighting Dirty should give you enough sustained DoT against weaker opposition and heavier enemies.
Rogue Class Build #2 – Elixir of Insanity
Equipment: Any
Double Daggers
- Flank Attack+
- Twin Fangs
- Dance of Death
- Sneak Attack
- Deathblow
OR
Archery
- Long Shot+
- First Blood
- Explosive Shot
- Death from Above
- Leaping Shot
Subterfuge
- Stealth
- Easy to Miss
- Knockout Powder
- Shadow Strike
Sabotage
- Poisoned Weapons
- Fighting Dirty
- Hook and Tackle
Tempest
- Flask of Frost
- Flaskmaster
- Thousand Cuts
- Ride the Storm
- Flask of Lightning+
- Flask of Fire
This build focuses on the Tempest specialization. While the specialization can also work with archery, I like using it with two daggers as it allows me to use the subtle abilities of the Tempest specialization more efficiently.
You won’t have the cutting edge out-and-out damage of the Assassin, but you’ll be elementally more capable, and through the help of your elixirs be able to take on foes with added advantage.
For the remaining bits and pieces, the Subterfuge tree will provide you with the required stealth to time your movements in and out of combat, along with any escape means. Sabotage can add further add insult to injury with poisoned weapons.
Perhaps one of the best offensive Focus based abilities in the game is Thousand Cuts.
The Berserker’s brilliant Rampage skills come fairly close, but Thousand Cuts has the advantage of tackling multiple foes, and then dealing a devastating final blow to the primary target.
You should use this when farming tough Rifts with multiple Pride and Despair Demons to make them easier. Another extremely potent ability (that could’ve well been a Focus-based one on its own) is Flask of Lightning. When upgraded, this stunning skill puts you well ahead of just about everyone else, and can be used both for defensive recuperation (reviving allies) and for offense.
Build 3 – Dream Catcher
Equipment: Bows
Archery
- Long Shot+
- First Blood
- Explosive Shot+
- Death from Above
- Leaping Shot
- Pinchushion
- Full Draw
Sabotage
- Caltrops
- Looked Like It Hurt
- Cheap Shot
- Throwing Blades
Artificer
- Spike Trap
- Opportunity Knocks
- Hail of Arrows
- Fallback Plan
- Set Them Up
- Elemental Mines
- And Take Them Down
This build is based around the Artificer Specialization.
It’s one of the more difficult specializations to play with in the game, but due to its potential, it is better off that you create and control a character in the specialization instead of leaving it to the AI.
The AI in Dragon Age: Inquisition generally has placement issues, especially when you aren’t accustomed to using the Tactical Camera. The Artificer is one specialization that heavily emphasizes on positioning and placement of the character, which is why it works better in the hands of the player than how the AI would use it.
This will allow you to set up traps effectively, use Elemental Mines in the best possible way, and benefit from the passives of the Artificer specialization tree.
The Artificer tree combines very well with Sabotage, but if you feel that you need some stealth, perhaps sacrificing a few Sabotage or even advanced Artificer skills for Subterfuge would be a better idea to facilitate your needs.
Build #4 – Dance of Daggers
Double Daggers
- Flank Attack+
- Bloodied Prey
- Unforgiving Chai
- Spinning Blade
- Twin Fangs
- Dance of Death
- Sneak Attack
- Deathblow+
Subterfuge
- Stealth+
- Evasion
- Evade
- Shadow Strike
- Knockout Powder
- Mercy Killing
Sabotage
- Poisoned Weapons
- Fighting Dirty
- Explosive Toxin
Remaining
- Specialization of Choice
If you’re playing with a dual-wielding Rogue, there is every likelihood that you won’t even need any kind of specialization. The Rogue has two trees that are highly independent and get the job done in a more than reasonable way: Subterfuge and Double Daggers.
With a mixture of multiple active abilities and passive buffs, your Rogue will be landing critical hits regularly, and adding to the enemy’s misery through Poisoned Weapons and the associated passives.
You can also try playing an Archer with such a system if you like; the Rogue’s Sabotage and Subterfuge trees are extremely flexible, and can be combined together with either Archery or Double Daggers to serve the required purpose.
However, do note that with the Archer, you’ll need to use Stealth cleverly to position yourself in a proper manner before you can execute abilities like Shadow Strike and Knockout Powder.
I generally like to play with build with two daggers, moving into battle and attempting to put the most intimidating foe to sleep, then going into stealth mode and executing a few devastating backstabs. This triggers the Mercy Killing effect and allows for additional damage, which stack together to give intense burst damage.
