Warg Powers

Mors is a rare breed: a Warg. He has a special telepathic link with his dog, which means he can see and act through his dog while his human body remains stationary. Once you unlock the Warg ability at Level 2, you can give the dog commands and access the Skinchanger abilities.

Mors’s Dog

The dog is more than a “best friend”; he’s a great ally. During combat, Mors always has his dog at his side, so it’s like having an extra ally in every fight. Early on, the dog hassles enemies for minor damage, but once Mors gains his Skinchanger abilities and can command the dog, the canine becomes a valuable team member. You can use the dog’s initial Attack ability at any time in combat; all the other dog abilities share a common cooldown, so use them sparingly and efficiently.

Perhaps the dog’s most valuable asset is his stealth. As long as Mors stops moving, you can switch point of view to the dog and see things through his eyes. Scouting an area becomes much easier with the dog, who is difficult to detect, prowling the perimeter and noting enemy positions.

Even better, in Stealth mode, the dog can assassinate enemies without raising the alarm. If you can sneak up on a single enemy, you can pounce on him and rapidly hit the Damage button to deliver a deadly blow. Be careful, though: If an enemy sees you, the attack fails and the alarm goes up, putting defenders on high alert.

Many times during your quests, you’ll need to track down an enemy or an NPC. The dog can smell the various scents in the area and follow their trails. Each scent has a different color: yellow for the main scent you’ve targeted, green for secondary scents, and blue for scents that lead to hidden treasures. While tracking, move slowly and scan for watchful enemies.

If the scent seems to disappear and you get lost, simply backtrack till you last found the scent and look carefully for the trail. Sometimes the trail continues through doors or into areas that the dog can’t reach without help from Mors. In those cases, switch back to Mors; a Warg hint will be marked on the map to follow and the dog will immediately return to Mors without incident (even if he passes through enemy territory, he won’t trigger an alarm while returning to Mors). Think about tracking on a quest objective if you’re unsure of your targeted NPC’s location; the dog can pick up scents almost anywhere and follow them to their source.

Skinchanger

Mors’s bond with his dog gives him Skinchanger powers. Everyone begins with the dog’s general Attack ability. After that, you can choose the tree’s left or right side. The left side offers more canine attacks; the right side gives you more passive abilities that strengthen the dog.

The first ability on the left side, Immobilize, is one of your best. You command your dog to bite a foe’s leg and distract him for a short duration. It serves as an interrupt to break an opponent’s upcoming action, and it allows Mors to fight bigger groups since the enemies can’t all gang up on him with the dog immobilizing one of them. Under Immobilize, you must take Remove Shield, which disarms a shield from a foe.

Now you have three choices that branch out from Remove Shield. If you continue down the Remove Shield chain, you get Disarm (remove an enemy’s weapon) and Sharp Fangs (adds Bleeding to Throat Lunge, Remove Shield, and Disarm). If you branch left from Remove Shield, you can gain Cave Canem (increased kill speed during stealth assassinations) and Fighting Dog (a massive bonus to the dog’s damage). If you branch right from Remove Shield, you can give the dog the Takedown ability (knock down a foe) and Throat Lunge (major damage attack if the enemy doesn’t have a shield).

The first ability on the right side, Energy, complements all abilities: your abilities recharge faster. If you continue down the chain from Energy, you gain Wild (whole party recovers Energy faster), Intimidation (scares a foe in place for a short duration), and Barking (increased durations for Wild and Intimidation).

If you branch to the right of Energy, you can pick up Harassment (recharge all abilities if the dog kills an opponent), Toughness (a big bonus to the dog’s health), and Reflexes (increased Deflection).

In general, you’ll want to load up on the tree’s left side first to give your dog many combat options. As you earn more points and have plenty of attacks, shift over to the right side and begin to build the dog into a formidable killer.

Sensing Mood

A Warg can sense the mood of people around him. Hostile enemies can be identified by a ring around them and can’t be taken by surprise. Calm enemies have an arc of detection and can be killed if you sneak up on them.