It’s no news to the Dragon Age fan-community and alike that Bioware has made quite a few changes to the sequel to Origins. The more noticeable differences between Origins and Dragon Age 2 are of combat style and the character development systems. You can only play as a human, but you still get to select one of the 3 conventional classes i.e. Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. Here’s a breakdown of each class to see what they have to offer and what changes have been introduced in the character development system.
Dragon Age 2 Class Guide
Everything you need to know about each class featured in Dragon Age 2.
Warrior
There are some attributes that warriors and other classes start with. Keep in mind that if you choose Warrior, Carver dies in the prologue. Starting Attributes for Warrior area:
- Starting attributes: +3 Strength, +2 Constitution and +1 Willpower
- Starting talent: Pommel Strike
- Starting health: 160
- Starting stamina: 105
Warriors lead the frontlines in the heat of battle, relying on sheer physical strength to extirpate enemies. For the sake of maximum damage, warriors solely use melee attacks to get done with their enemies.
The prowess of the warrior’s fighting style is directly determined by his or her choice of weapon. Though they do not use ranged weapons like crossbows or javelins, warriors have a good variety of weapons at their disposal to master their art on. Be it shields combined with one-handed weapons such as axes, swords, and maces, or large two-handed weapons such as greatswords and mauls, warriors will always play the tank role in a party.
Specializations
Reaver: Blood Magic isn’t the only art taught by demons. Reavers are warriors who have tapped into an ancient and feared art of commanding and using the energy that flows through blood and bone to cause sheer damage to foes. However, this immense power does come with a painful price; the reaver is to give up an enormous amount of his own life force to get a substantially large increase in physical strength.
They can replenish their health back by stealing it from their foes while they do damage, but it is an absolute gamble. Reavers are at their optimum strength when closer to death and can turn the tables in a battle just when things seem to be getting out of hand.
Templar: A Templar has only one main goal to achieve: withstand and suppress magic. Templars are skilled warriors who have sworn the duty of restricting and containing magic. This is not a divine talent but achieved through immense training and dedication. All officially trained Templars belong to The Templar Order, which serves the Chantry.
Templars are able to drain mana and disrupt spells cast by mages. The most able hunt malificars and bring them to justice, while others are to do the same with apostates. “Magic is to serve man, not to rule over him” were the words spoken by the prophet Andraste, as she threw down the Tevinter Imperium. Templars are there to make sure that these words are obeyed by anyone withholding the power of magic.
Berserker: The name of this specialization itself tells what warriors who practice it would be like and what they would be capable of doing. Berserkers are risk-takers who go all out to do one thing: hit, hit and hit as much as they can, regardless of the circumstances and surroundings. Taught originally by dwarves, this specialization sacrifices finesse for an increase in brutality and strength.
This makes an absolutely terrifying scene for adversaries, and even the mindless darkspawn appear to cower in front of the berserker’s rage. A berserker has three objectives on the battlefield: to lose control, to allow his/her rage to empower him/ her, and to kill without fear.
Mage
Starting Attributes for Mage are:
- Starting attributes: +3 Magic, +2 Willpower, +1 Cunning
- Starting spell: Mind Blast
- Starting health: 100
- Starting mana: 160
Once the rulers of the world, the mages destroyed themselves by attempting to usurp heaven, or so the Chantry says. Gifted by the divine with immense super-natural powers, mages interact with the forces of magic to decimate foes. Due to the suppression by the Chantry and Templars, mages are restricted to accessing only a pinch of their true potential.
Unlike normal people, mages are fully lucid while in the fade, and because of demons and spirits alike are attracted to them. Moreover, they are gifted in counter-acting and exorcising demons and can alternatively make pacts with them.
Warriors and rogues may have a greater edge in one-on-one combat, but it is the mages that can truly create a massive crater on the battlefield.
Note: Bethany dies in the prologue if you decide to become a Mage
Specializations
Force Mage: Only the most adept and disciplined mages can truly learn Force magic. Like the name suggests, mages that practice this kind of magic control vary force fields that exist all around us. Whether it is currents of energy that draw enemies closer to their doom or crushing weight-force that will also slow them down, Force magic is a ‘force’ to be reckoned with.
The magic is raw and pure, with little elemental content. For a force mage, the mind is the ultimate weapon, and how they choose to use it determines the outcomes in a battlefield. The biggest challenge, however, is not how to use it, but to keep such enormous power under control.
Spirit Healer: The Spirit Healer is the shaman, the curer and ‘paramedic’ of the party. Mastered in the magic to heal the fibers of flesh and blood, the spirit healer’s way is that of restoration, not destruction. These mages are the most well-accepted and tolerated of the lot, as they use magic to give benefit to mankind and true protect and truly serve man.
But that does not mean that they are not a force to be reckoned with; Templars themselves fear the Healers most, because they are the most capable of mages in drawing power from the Fade.
Blood Mage: A forbidden art originally taught to mortals by demons, Blood Magic is the most feared and hated magic. Mages who practice this magic are known as blood mages and are according to the Chantry punishable by death. Such heavy punishments are not aimless; they are because Blood Mages use the life force of others (blood) to perform magic.
Moreover, blood mages can learn to control the minds of others, twisting their life force for their own purposes. Though extremely corruptible, blood mages may not always be evil. In fact, there have even been Grey Wardens who have specialized in this dark art, using it to fight against the darkspawn and end blights. But it is true that an extraordinary amount of will-power is required to keep this immense power under control because the temptation for a little more of it is always there.
Rogue
Here are the special attributes for Rogue:
- Starting attributes: +3 Dexterity, +2 Cunning, +1 Willpower
- Starting talent: Miasmic Flask
- Starting health: 125
- Starting stamina: 130
The Rogue class doesn’t have the brute strength of a warrior, doesn’t have the rigorous powers of a mage. So what does a rogue have? The answer is agility, speed, and wits.
When it comes to one on one combat, rogues are simply unmatched; their speed and wits outclass the strength and power of warriors and mages alike. Be it an archer or a deadly assassin, all rogues have one similarity: cunningness.
The use of the environment is their skill, and taking advantage of the enemy’s mistake is their hobby. Whether they are raining arrows from a distant or slashing at enemies with their nifty daggers at immense speed, rogues will always make it look classy and professional.
Specializations
Assassin: The Assassins work clean, and do the job in the most precise and accurate manner possible. Lock on a target, find its weakness, and exterminate; that is how they do things. Each and every enemy is a prey, a job at hand, and finishing him, finishing him clean and with precision, is what the Assassins are experts at.
While working in groups, they rely on communication, not through the tongue, but through simple understanding, and hint the enemies’ weaknesses to one another, allowing a precision-styled execution to take place.
Shadow: As the name suggests, Shadow Rogues do the job in the shadows, and their primary weapon is stealth. Poisoning, back-stabbing and stealing are their expertise. Their main focus is catching their opponents while they are unaware, and to not let their cover be blown. These rogues look to work solo and always try to find ways to finish their enemies while making sure they weren’t seen or heard.
Duelist: Duelists sacrifice strength and accuracy to make way for agility and speed. They might miss a few times, and may not be as sneaky as Shadows, but they will be twice as hard to hit, and immeasurably hard to calculate. They are specialists in wielding daggers and using them to cripple enemies by exploiting their weaker body parts.
Best Builds for each Class
Warrior
Weapon and Shield Warrior (Tank)
In this build, warrior uses a single-handed weapon (mace, blade or axe) along with a huge shield. This shield acts as a n extra protective layer to absorb and take whole loads of damage. With this build, the warrior takes or to be fair eats damage. As the shield is good for taking lots of damage it can also be used to knockback or stun enemies during a fight. With this build, you should focus more on Constitution.
Two-handed Weapon Warrior
As the name implies, the warrior will wield a two-handed weapon (sword, hammer, maul) and with no shield. This build is more on the offensive side. Due to a huge weapon, this build warrior will have a long-range and will be able to hit multiple enemies at once. So it is a very useful build for crowd control or killing a large group of enemies. With this build, you need to focus on strength.
Mage
Primal Mage
As a Mage, the most focus of the character should be on magic and you should see the build for the maximum magic points. Primal Mage has the maximum magic points from all the attributes. The second strongest attribute for a primal mage is willpower. This shows that with this build, your character is basically focused more and more on the survivability as the willpower is basic survival function in a battle.
Rogue
You Dead or Overkill
This build is very much focused on a single target to deal the highest amount of damage. It is a real overkill and should have maximum points in attributes like dexterity, strength and cunning. It is an all-out fairly straight forward kind of build. And it has the attributes for defensive and offensive all kind of abilities and can provide you the support in all matters during a fight
Whatever class of character you play, you will need to equip your character with unique weapons and unique armor pieces if you want to survive any chance against your foes in Dragon Age 2.
