Spellblade is one of the fast-playing and strong Mage specializations in Dragon Age: The Veilguard that combines pure magic with some physical attacking capability. For the best Mage Spellblade Build, we have focused on melee attacks inflicting Fire, Burning, and Electric effects to take down enemies.
The playing strategy is simple: start the battle by commanding your companions to attack the targets, set off two meteors to drain enemy health, and then use your companion’s abilities to deal with extra affliction. While using combos, remember that light attacks will help you get back Mana fast, so make sure to use a full set of these to get enough Mana to trigger another Meteor.
Let’s go over the best faction, race, gear, companions, and rune choices for this melee-Spellblade build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Mage Spellblade Build Overview
The Mage Spellblade build focuses on inflicting shock-burn effect to melt enemies. The weapons, shield, and gear perfectly complement their integral traits, allowing you to maximize your damage output and utility.
- Faction: Shadow Dragons
- Race: Elf
- Active Skills: Arcane Shot, Frost Nova, Dark Squall, Void Blade, Meteor
- Ultimate: Destructive Light, Thunderous End
- Trait: Mind Blast, Spirit Blade, Veil Flurry
- Companions: Ballara and Davrin
- Gear: Mage’s Gambit, Thorn of Misfortune, Scorch Staff +10, Death Mask +10, Jumper’s Deft Leathers +10, Warden’s Straps +10, All-Mother’s Copse, Unburnable Band, Warden’s Signet
- Runes: Scorch, Electrify, Escalate
Best Faction and Race
The best faction for Mage Spellblade in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is Shadow Dragons. This faction is useful for gaining faster mana regeneration. This faction is highly effective for mages since it lets you regain mana faster, so you can do more spells more frequently.
Plus, you get increased damage against Venatori. As for the race, we have chosen Elf because of its strong connection with the Fade.
Best Abilities And Level Progression
The Spellblade specialization unlocks at level 20 and you will equip the following active skills and ultimate abilities. We recommend going with the following:
Level 1-10:
The first ability you will unlock is the Arcane Shot. This is your main peashooter ability and you will use this often at this stage. This does 453 fire damage and inflicts Burning upon your enemies on a hit. Next, you will go for Frost Nova. This doesn’t do much damage at 48 Cold damage but freezes the ground around you in an area. Your third ability will be Dark Squall which deals 164 Cold damage upon impact, detonates Sundered, and applies Chilled on targets.
For your Ultimate, you will choose Destructive Light that does massive 2,416 Fire Damage. It also inflicts burning upon enemies caught in its stream of fire.
Level 10-20:
At this stage, swap out Arcane Shot with Void Blade. This melee-focused ability does 490 Electricity damage with its strikes and detonates Sundered enemies. You can get this ability by unlocking the Spellblade specialization at level 20.
Additionally, swap out your Ultimate from your specialization tree to Thunderous End. This deals 1,632 Electricity Damage and applies 2 stacks of Shocked to enemies within a large radius. Compared to Destructive Light, you have more AOE with this one and can affect more enemies.
Level 20+:
There aren’t many things to swap out at this stage and you can carry on your merry way. But, if you feel compelled to make a switch, take out Frost Nova with Meteor. Here, you will do 378 Fire damage and damages in a radius close to its impact area. It detonates Sundered enemies and applies Burning to affected enemies.
Best Traits for Spellblade Build
Between levels 1-10, your chosen Trait should be Mind Blast. While Defending, consume 50 Mana to unleash a shockwave 6 meters in all directions. Deals damage based on your equipped Staff and is exceptional in granting some breathing room. From levels 10-20, Spirit Blade will be your chosen trait. With this, use your Heavy attack at the end of a Light Attack Chain to conjure a blade and project it a short distance. The blade consumes an Arcane Bomb and requires Orb and Dagger.
From Level 20 and above, switch to Veil Flurry. Hold down your Light Attack button at the end of a light attack chain to release your orb in a circle around you. You can access this trait from the Spellblade specialization tree.
Best Companions
While all companions work best with this class, we recommend choosing Bellara and Davrin.
- Bellara: Bellara’s Replenish makes her a reliable healer and will sustain you while you take damage. Galvanized Tear causes an AOE that clumps enemies together and drops a giant flaming rock on them. It can be upgraded to apply Shock and Electric Damage.
- Davrin: Davrin’s Battle Cry taunts enemies, keeping the damage off you. The Assan Strike attacks 3 different targets for high stagger and knocks them down while applying a burning effect. In essence, he will take aggro and keep the heat off you.
Gear Choices for Mage Spellblade Build
You have a total of nine gear slots in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For the Mage Spellblade build, we recommend the following items:
| Main Hand Weapon | Mage’s Gambit |
| Off-Hand Weapon | Thorn of Misfortune |
| Stave | Scorch Staff +10 |
| Helm | Death Mask +10 |
| Armor | Jumper’s Deft Leathers +10 |
| Belt | Warden’s Straps +10 |
| Amulet | All-Mother’s Copse |
| Ring Slot 1 | Unburnable Band |
| Ring Slot 2 | Warden’s Signet |
Mage’s Gambit
This legendary arcane orb gives electric and fire damage which is perfect for this build. The final attack launched by this orb applies a burning/shock effect; this effect is based on the current attack by the orb.
Thorn of Misfortune
Thorn of Misfortune epic mage-knife gives more affliction stacks on critical hits and increases weapon damage by 10%.
Scorch Staff +10
This legendary elemental stave gives 40% more fire damage and 25% fire resistance. When you kill an enemy with this staff, it heals your health.
Death Mask +10
The Death Mask is a rare, medium helm that bonuses affliction damage and duration.
Jumper’s Deft Leathers +10
This epic light armor gives extra Mana and Mana regeneration, so we can set off multiple Meteors in each fight.
Warden’s Straps +10
The Warden’s Straps adds to fire damage and applies burning to enemies near you.
All-Mother’s Copse
This legendary amulet boosts blast ability damage, and the blast abilities get added damage from shocking weapons. You can also earn Mana on critical hits.
Unburnable Band
The Unburnable Band increases the damage of burning stacks.
Warden’s Signet
The Warden’s Signet increases fire damage and adds 50% of other bonuses to your fire damage bonus.
Best Runes for the Build
You can only have 3 Runes equipped, and only one can be activated simultaneously. For the Mage Spellblade build, we recommend using the following Runes:
- Scorch: Scorch makes all your weapon attacks deal with fire damage for 20 seconds straight.
- Electrify: Electrify makes your weapon attacks deal with electric damage for 20 seconds.
- Escalate: Escalate enhances your next ability, causing it to inflict more damage.
