The Reaper specialization of the Warrior class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard excels at dealing necrotic damage through ranged and close-quarters attacks. This class tends to be very effective against large swathes of enemies, but building an effective class can be tricky.
This guide will review the best Warrior Reaper class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Below, we’ve covered everything from the best faction and active skills to the best ultimate companions.
Warrior Reaper Build Overview
We’ll draw on the Reaper’s inherent inclination towards Necrotic damage for this build. We’ll do this by picking weapons that deal Necrotic damage and companions that also excel with this status effect.
- Faction: Grey Wardens
- Race: Qunari
- Active Skills: Spectral Bulwark, Bloody Advance, Titan Stomp, Driving Kick, Deadly Advance, Deadly Ground and Reaper
- Ultimate: Flashing Fist and Spirit Storm
- Trait: Shield Volley, Explosive Toss, Death’s Throw
- Companions: Emmrich and Davrin
- Gear: Raider’s Cleaver, Necropolis Defender, Brute Hammer, Fell Plumage, Striking Misfortune, Watcher’s Hold, Heart of Andraste, Maw of the Black City, and Call of the Hall
- Runes: Scourge, Diminish, and Redouble
Best Faction and Race for Warrior Reaper Build
The best faction to choose for a Warrior Reaper build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the Grey Wardens. This faction grants you increased damage output and increased defense, going hand in hand with the class’ playstyle.
This faction also grants you increased damage against Darkspawn and increases your faction strength earn rate. While races don’t grant you any bonuses, we recommend using the Qunari for role-playing, but Humans are also a close second.
Best Abilities And Level Progression
You can branch into the Reaper specialization once you hit level 20 in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. This will open you up to new skills and a new ultimate attack. For this build, we recommend going with the following:
Level 1-10
At this stage, your focus should be on getting Spectral Bulwark, your main ability. It surrounds you with necrotic energy and damages enemies in the melee range for 377 damage. You will likely have Driving Kick at this point, which helps give you some breathing space and send enemies flying back. Use this when you get piled on.
Now shift your focus on getting Titan Stomp, which does area damage of 312 and applies Overwhelm. It also massively staggers enemies caught in its radius. And after that, get the Flashing Fist ultimate, which does 2,336 physical damage in 4 shockwaves.
Level 10-20
Keep Spectral Bulwark, but swap out Driving Kick for Deadly Ground. This creates a necrotic field around that damages enemies while they are in it and grants you enhanced damage against them. Change Titan Stomp with Deadly Advance which is a projectile ability and seeks out enemies and deals necrotic damage. It also applies Sundered.
At level 20, you will gain access to the Reaper skill tree so go ahead and swap out your ultimate for Spirit Storm. This deals far more damage at 2,422 Necrotic. This is a whirlwind moves toward your target, inflicting multiple hits and applying Siphon to enemies.
Level 20+
At this stage, the only ability we’ll swap is Spectral Bulwark for Reaper, which we unlock when we get our specialization. This deals more damage at 658 Necrotic and detonates Weakened enemies. Spectral Bulwark’s damage falls off beyond level 20 so there’s no need to keep it. You will keep Deadly Ground, Deadly Advance, and Spirit Storm till you hit the level cap at 50.
Best Traits
As you progress through the skill tree, you can pick traits that let you pull off a special maneuver. For the Warrior Reaper, we recommend going with Shield Volley at levels 1-10. Strike a shield toss with a shield attack and it will bounce up to 3 times between an enemy and deal damage with each bounce.
From levels 10-20, go with Explosive Toss, which makes your charged shield throw explode on impact. And at level 20+, go with Death’s Throw, unlocked from the Reaper specialization. This upgrades your standard shield throw to deal with necrotic damage, enhancing your damage output.
Recommended Companions
The best companions to pick for the Warrior Reaper build are Lucanis and Emmrich. They work well with this class mainly because Emmrich’s attacks are built around Necrotic damage, while Lucanis is a great support companion.
- Emmrich: Emmrich is a companion built around Necrotic damage, making him a perfect part of this build. His skill called Entangling Spirits lets him summon demons that disorient and stagger your enemies. Final Rites, on the other hand, summons a horde of undead who seek out your enemies and explode next to them to deal Necrotic damage.
- Lucanis: Lucanis works well to support Rook through his Eviscerate and Adrenaline Rush skills. The former targets an enemy’s weakest point, leaving them vulnerable to a follow-up attack, while the latter increases your total damage output.
Top Gear Choices
You have nine gear slots in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For the Warrior Reaper build, we recommend the following items:
| Main-Hand Weapon | Raider’s Cleaver |
| Off-Hand Weapon / Shield | Necropolis Defender |
| Two-Handed Weapon | Brute Hammer |
| Helm/Vitaar | Fell Plumage |
| Armor | Striking Misfortune |
| Belt | Watcher’s Hold |
| Amulet | Heart of Andraste |
| Ring Slot 1 | Maw of the Black City |
| Ring Slot 2 | Call of the Hall |
Raider’s Cleaver
While this weapon does not deal Necrotic damage, you can use the Scourge rune (detailed below) to work around this. The Raider’s Cleaver allows you to apply bleeding on your enemies with every final attack. It also increases your critical damage output by +10% for every target that’s bleeding near you.
Necropolis Defender
The Necropolis Defender is the main way to deal damage in this build. This shield not only gives you +40 Necrotic damage but also adds shield toss bounce to your Death’s Throw trait. When fully upgraded, a shield toss will damage a target with necrotic-affected enemies around it.
Brute Hammer
Like the Raider’s Cleaver, this weapon does not deal Necrotic damage but this can also be made to deal Necrotic damage through the Scourge Rune. The main intent of using this weapon is to draw on the inherent tanky nature of the warrior to deal massive amounts of physical and stagger damage.
Fell Plumage
The Fell Plumage essentially increases the effectiveness of your light attacks. This is done by granting you a +15% light attack damage bonus.
Striking Misfortune
The Striking Misfortune armor allows you to deal +15% Necrotic damage while increasing your Necrotic resistance by +25%. It also removes all status effects should you take any Necrotic damage.
Watcher’s Hold
The Watcher’s Hold belt deals 150 Necrotic damage to nearby enemies whenever you use a potion. Additionally, it increases your Necrotic damage by +15%.
Heart of Andraste
This Amulet essentially increases enhanced damage output, which stacks on top of every Necrotic increases item we’ve discussed thus far. The Heart of Andraste increases enhanced damage duration by +25% and increased enhanced damage effectiveness by +10%. Additionally, it gives you enhanced damage every time you initiate a takedown.
Maw of the Black City
Maw of the Black City is a ring that turns your ability damage into a critical hit. However, this comes at the cost of losing 20% of your maximum health.
Call of the Hall
Call of the Hall works increases your stagger damage by a staggering +50% and your takedown damage by the same amount.
The Runes You Should Choose
Runes accentuate your ability and build in different ways. You can select up to three runes at a time. For the Warrior Reaper Build, we recommend the following:
- Scourge: This rune allows all your weapons to deal necrotic damage for 20 seconds, and it also increases your base necrotic damage by +10%
- Diminish: Diminish weakens all enemies within a 6-meter radius of you.
- Redouble: Redouble increases your companions’ ability damage by +10% and refreshes their ability cooldown.
