Prima Games eGuides Dragon Age II eGuide

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Dragon Age II eGuide Essentials Abilities

Warrior Abilities

Weapon and Shield

Used By: Hawke, Aveline, Carver

  • This is essentially a dedicated “tank tree”. Shield Defense cuts damage output by 25% but offers a commensurate boost to a warrior’s capacity to withstand blows. Perception and Safeguard are passive abilities that offer immunity to flanking and critical hits respectively. Acquire them as soon as you can.
  • Though the direct harm it inflicts is pitiful, Shield Bash is invaluable: with Pummel, it’s an easy way to Stagger multiple enemies for mages and rogues to knock down in cross-class combos for massive damage.
  • Scatter and Assault are the primary means by which a tank can inflict noteworthy damage. Upgraded, they’re both highly effective against groups of Disoriented foes within range of the sword swing.

Two-Handed

Used By: Hawke, Fenris, Carver

  • Every ability in this tree is of service to a two-handed warrior. Pick up Giant’s Reach, Mighty Blow and Scythe early in the game: they’re really that essential. The latter two work well against tightly packed groups of Brittle opponents.
  • There is a special relationship between the Sunder passive ability and the upgraded Whirlwind talent: Sunder contributes a 50% chance of Staggering enemies with a critical hit, while Whirlwind plus Tornado has a critical chance of 100%.

Vanguard

Used By: Hawke, Aveline, Fenris, Carver

  • Might and Control are mutually exclusive sustained abilities that enable a warrior to boost either attack or damage by 10%. For a standard warrior build, Might is probably the better choice. In both instances, think carefully before purchasing the upgrades for these: they’re specific to very particular attack strategies and warrior roles.
  • Cleave and Massacre are very useful for a warrior wielding a two-handed weapon.
  • Having a mage cast the upgraded Hex of Torment on a target will enable a warrior armed with Might (plus the Muscle upgrade for improved critical hits), Destroyer and Cleave to cut them to pieces. This could be effective against the more sturdy mages you might encounter on higher difficulty levels.

Battlemaster

Used By: Hawke, Aveline, Fenris, Carver

  • The bottom portion of this tree offers talents that can help you to maintain or replenish stamina and access abilities in Cooldown more rapidly. These are worth the investment if you are playing as a warrior: if not, Bolster alone may probably suffice for an AI‑controlled companion.
  • Rally is an interesting ability that enables a warrior to share temporarily the effects of sustained talents with other party members (in addition to a sudden surge in mana and stamina regeneration). The Unite upgrade extends the potential effects dramatically.
  • Battle Synergy and its upgrades offer an alternative to Bravery as a means of drawing enemy attention towards a tank. Instead of increasing a warrior’s threat within a set radius, the Fearless Synergy enhancement transfers 50% of all threat generated by companions to the user. While Bravery offers the better overall deal, the upgraded Battle Synergy could enable a tank to exert greater control of battles fought in wide-open spaces where Taunt’s limited area of effect becomes problematic.

Defender

Used By: Hawke, Aveline, Fenris, Carver

  • This tree offers warriors a variety of abilities that increase their capacity to withstand enemy aggression. The focal points (and gateways to two very interesting passive abilities) are Turn the Blade, which offers bonuses to Defense and Fortitude with upgrades, and Elemental Aegis, which offers elemental resistances. For a tank, a very strong case could be made for acquiring both, switching between the two sustained abilities as the situation demands. Note that Elemental Aegis is less important until at least late in Act 1.
  • The 100% knockback resistance provided by Resilience is a fine skill for any warrior. The remaining talents are perhaps less essential, or a question of personal strategy.

Warmonger

Used By: Hawke, Aveline, Fenris, Carver

  • Pommel Strike is a must for any warrior: it has a negligible stamina cost and, with Pommel Blow, has a high chance of leaving all but the most elite opponents Staggered. If you need to prevent an opponent from firing off an attack, this is one of the most convenient and reliable ways to interrupt them.
  • For a tank, Taunt, Bravery and their respective upgrades are mandatory acquisitions. Acquire Bellow and Bravado as soon as you can.
  • Tremor might be a good bet for a two-handed damage-dealer who regularly invites that little bit more threat than he or she can reasonably cope with.

Guardian

Specialization: Aveline only

  • Immovable is actually rather counterproductive in many light, or only moderately challenging, battles. We would suggest that you remove this from Aveline’s Tactics setup and activate it manually when a situation genuinely requires it. On higher difficulty levels, acquiring the Retaliation talent could enable you to address the overall damage deficit (and therefore threat decrease) that this sustained mode leads to.
  • Bodyguard is of most use on Hard or Nightmare, when a frail mage critical to your party’s strategy might fall to a single backstab from an Assassin.
  • Indomitable and Thick Skin are essential, so invest in both once other core tanking abilities have been acquired. Indomitable stacks with Resilience in the Defender school to make Aveline peerlessly resolute.

Tevinter Fugitive

Specialization: Fenris only

  • The top section of Fenris’s unique tree features three passive abilities that you really need to acquire. Players seeking to maximize his DPS could consider creating specific healing conditions for all party members at the Tactics screen in order to get the most out of Veneer of Calm’s increase to damage whenever he is wounded.
  • Lyrium Ghost is excellent, so have it active at all times. Another compulsory purchase is Deflect, offering a 25% increase in magic resistance.
  • Spirit Pulse is an excellent alternative to Tremor in the Warmonger school: it’s a get-out-of-jail card to play when Fenris gathers a little more threat than he can cope with. Though Tremor offers twice as much physical force and the possibility of Staggering opponents, Spirit Pulse causes a moderate amount of spirit damage.

Templar

Specialization: Hawke only

  • This specialization is of specific interest if you are casting Hawke as a damage-dealer.
  • Cleanse, Silence and, to a lesser extent, the Righteous Strike passive ability are designed to seriously impair the offensive capability of all enemies that use noteworthy abilities or spells. Annulment is a passive ability useful for a warrior of any type, though you’ll need to go through the aforementioned talents to reach it.
  • Holy Smite may not look like a particularly efficient talent, but its spirit damage can be devastating against Fade creatures (especially the undead) and mages.

Reaver

Specialization: Hawke only

  • Blood Frenzy and Sacrificial Frenzy are closely bonded: the passive ability provides a rising bonus to damage as Hawke’s health meter depletes, while the activated ability temporarily doubles that increase for the relatively small price of -20 health.
  • Devour is one of the most fascinating abilities. With its two upgrades, it enables Hawke to inflict damage and heal by an equivalent amount, with its effects increased by 300% against Disoriented targets. It also leaves enemies Staggered, essentially converting one cross-class combo opportunity into another. Use it in conjunction with Sacrificial Frenzy when Hawke is near death to maximize its effects.
  • Aura of Pain inflicts spirit damage over a 6m radius every 4 seconds, but with an attendant 5% reduction in health with every “pulse”. At the heart of a vicious melee, an artfully timed Aura of Pain ➝ Sacrificial Frenzy ➝ Devour sequence can greatly enhance Hawke’s damage output.
  • Fervor’s bonus of +30% attack speed for 10 seconds after each kill is a hugely beneficial passive ability, but its position on the talent tree means that it requires 5 ability points to unlock.

Berserker

Specialization: Hawke only

  • This talent tree is built around the core Berserk sustained ability, which offers a damage bonus in proportion to Hawke’s remaining stamina (more = better), but drains the meter with each blow. Berserk must be active to employ the a and Barrage activated abilities.
  • Barrage offers a 50% boost to attack speed, but with a penalty to damage resistance (reduced from -20% to -10% with the Resilient upgrade).
  • As is perhaps fitting for a school of combat that makes such perilously large demands on stamina, the Death Blow passive ability offers a minimum 5% increase to the meter with every enemy death.
  • Adrenaline only lasts for 8 seconds, but it can be activated multiple times to “stack” a huge bonus to damage before the effect expires.
  • While it takes a great deal of precision management, a combination of the Reaver and Berserker abilities can offer astonishingly high bursts of damage output.