The Dragon Age: The Veilguard will have a few changes to the three available classes and specializations: Mage, Warrior, and Rogue. Here is what we know so far.
The latest The Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay reveal trailer foreshadowed a few interesting mechanics and changes to classes and combat compared to previous games, especially the latest Inquisition. In the guide, we discuss what those changes are and what else we learned about classes in the highly anticipated Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
All Classes and Specializations in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
In Dragon Age, there are three classes: Mage, Warrior, and Rogue, each with distinct skills crucial for every team. In previous games, party composition in Dragon Age included four members. On the other hand, in The Veilguard, this was downsized to three. However, still the best results you can get if you have at least one of each class representation at your disposal during combat, exploration, and questing. In Dragon Age, classes have strictly defined abilities, pros, and cons. As a result, it’s not easy to replace the benefits of each one of those classes. And I don’t think that will change in the new game. Consequently, it’s best to have a party that includes one Mage, Warrior, and Rogue. But we’ll see how it plays in the game’s final version.
All Classes in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are:
- Rogue
- Mage
- Warrior
The Dragon Age: The Veilguard leans even more into action RPG rather than the strategy combat we saw in, for example, the first Dargon Age origins.
Additionally, in the previous Dragon Age game, the Inquisition, rogues, and warriors must also decide their starting weapon while choosing the class. The Sword and Shield, Two-Handed for Warriors, and Bow or Dual Wield Daggers for Rogues. Later in the game, players can respec their points and swap to the other weapon tyme, while in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it looks like rogues can use both simultaneously. More on that later in the detailed class description below.
The level cap is 50, and with specializations built with abilities like the gigantic spiderweb, you can focus on one side and get to the specialization skills early on. This is great news, as some games leave specializations or powerful skills for very late-game experience, meaning we often can’t play with them much. Developers promised it’s not a thing with Dragon Age Veilguard, and players will be able to really lean into class playstyle from the start and specialization from the mid-game.
Rogue
Class features – The Rogue:
- Available for Races: Elf, Dwarf, Qunari, and Human
- Armor Type: Medium
- Weapon Type: Bow or Dual Wield Daggers
- Specializations: Duelist, Saboteur, and Veil Ranger
Rogues are agile and stealthy, specializing in ranged attacks with bows or close-quarters combat with dual daggers. In “Dragon Age: Origins,” they excel at dealing high burst damage, lockpicking, and disarming traps. “Dragon Age II” enhanced their mobility and introduced new combat mechanics, making them more fluid in battle. “Dragon Age: Inquisition” further refined rogues with specializations like Assassin, Tempest, and Artificer, emphasizing their roles in stealth, traps, and high damage output.
Class Specializations
We know that now, you can pick specializations from the start. Those specializations are:
- Duelist
- Saboteur
- Veil Ranger
Duelist: This specialization focuses on movement and dodging. It’s a highly agile class with dual-wielding skills.
Saboteur: Similar to Inquisition, this specialization focuses on traps and using them to your advantage during combat.
Veil Ranger: It’s more of a range-focused class that prefers to stay in the backlines while primarily using a range of weapons.
Also, we have an interesting piece of information in the description of the well-known and liked scout, Harding. The official website says: “..as well as unexpected magical powers.” Whether her “magical powers are tied to the character story or her specialization remains unknown, but she possesses some flashy animations during combat in the short gameplay.
Rogue Combat
As mentioned before, in the Inquisition, rogues, like warriors, couldn’t use range and melee weapons simultaneously. You had to choose one and couldn’t swap between bow and daggers during combat. While you could swap them between encounters, that would require you to spend points on related skill trees so that most players would stick to one play style. In recent gameplay, the protagonist uses a bow while primarily fighting with the dual daggers.
Also, if you take a closer look, a small arrow icon on the bottom of the screen indicates eight available arrows. After the character used the bow attack and consumed one arrow, the icon had a cooldown, and the number of arrows dropped to 7. When the cooldown ended, it refilled back to 8. That means rogues will have unlimited arrows and won’t need to be bought or crafted. However, there will be a limit on how many arrows they can use in a row.
Additionally, we can expect new rogue class animations and never-seen-before skills. Such as a defensive ability that didn’t pop up anywhere, yet the protagonist was somehow able to block the incoming magical projectile despite being in the rogue class.
If you look closer, you will see a pink Momentum resource bar next to the arrow icon. Each class will have their own “resource bar” that will alow them to do special attacks. In the gameplay preview, we see the bar fill up, and the player uses “hip Fire,” letting them pop arrows from the west with a swift attack. Momentum is described as “It fills up more quickly than the other resource bars, but it also depletes more quickly when hit.”
Mage
Class features – The Mage:
- Available for Races: Elf, Qunari, and Human
- Armor Type: Light Armour
- Weapon Type: Staff (Wand and Bow?)
- Specializations: Necromancer, “Combat mage,” “elemental mage”
Mages wield powerful spells to attack enemies, support allies, and control the battlefield. In “Dragon Age: Origins,” mages can access various spells and specializations, such as Blood Mage and Spirit Healer. “Dragon Age II” streamlined spellcasting and introduced new animations, making magic more visually impactful. “Dragon Age: Inquisition” expanded the mage class with specializations like Knight-Enchanter, Rift Mage, and Necromancer, offering diverse magical playstyles and strategic options in combat.
Class Specializations
Necromancer is one of the specializations you can pick in character creation. Developers hinted that some elemental and combat mage specializations also exist. Also, there won’t be a blood mage specialization because “Rook has a good reason to avoid blood magic.”
Mage specializations are:
- Necromancer
- “Elemental Mage”
- “Combat mage”
Necromancer: Not much is known about this specialization; we can assume it will be similar to Necromancer from Inquisition with a new spin on undead summoning. However, developers decided to stay silent on those details for now.
Elemental Mage: Exact name unknown, developers mentioned it’s a specialization focusing on elemental magic: Fire, Ice, and Lighting
Combat mage: This is more of a melee-focused class. While we also don’t have a specific specialization name, we can speculate it will be similar to Knight Enchanter.
One of the introduced companions, Emmrich, is described as a Necromancer mage, while Neve, a Tevinter mage, is an Ice mage. While Necromancer sounds like a possible specialization that might be available for the protagonist, the Ice mage was, up until now, a spell choice rather than an additional set of skills that each specialization would provide in previous games. Ice Mage abilities will be exclusive to Neve. Regardless,
Mage Combat
Based on recently revealed gameplay, most players will first notice the much shorter staff wielded by Neve. It resembles more of a wand, but it looks like animations with this weapon while casting the spell are similar to those we already know. We must remember that it may be a unique weapon of this companion similar to Varrick’s Bianca crossbow.
Similarly, an interesting detail you can notice during combat is when we see her perform some kind of “melee attack,” where she closes the gap to the enemy, blasting them with the ice spell. Melee combat was previously a playstyle of Knight-Enchanter, who nicely cooperated with ice spells, and that’s where maybe Neve’s description of “ice Mage” comes from. We’ll see.
Another companion mage is Bellara. She uses a bow as her primary weapon, meaning that classes and weapons will be much more versatile than in previous Dragon Age games, where mages were forced to use staffs. Also, Bellara has the gravity well spell that pairs fantastically with the time stop (Neve companion skill), creating the crowd control combination. You can end it with AoE spells or rogue AoE abilities as finishers, meaning we can get pretty exciting combos even with three mages in the team.
Warrior
Class features – The Warrior:
- Available for Races: Elf, Dwarf, Qunari, and Human
- Armor Type: Heavy
- Weapon Type: Sword and Shield or Two-Handed
- Specializations: Unknown
Warriors in the Dragon Age series are the frontline fighters, excelling in melee combat with swords, axes, and shields. They are highly durable and can take a lot of damage. In “Dragon Age: Origins,” warriors focus on tanking and dealing physical damage, with various specializations such as Templar and Berserker. “Dragon Age II” streamlined abilities but added dynamic combat animations. “Dragon Age: Inquisition” expanded their role by introducing new specializations like the Champion, Reaver, and Templar. Which allowed for more varied playstyles.
Class Specializations
Sadly, we haven’t seen any warrior gameplay or information on what specializations may look like for warriors. We can assume that if the rogue class received some changes to weapons usage, the warrior class will also see some upgrades in the Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Warrior Combat
It’s confirmed that all classes will now have melee and range combat options. Also, as rogues have momentum, there will be a similar resource bar with special attacks for warriors, too. For example, it will allow the warrior class to “lob your shield at enemies.” Apparently, you will be able to create your entire playstyle around that special resource bar skills.
Other Combat Changes in the Dragon Age: The Veilguard
One of the biggest changes is shrinking the party size to 3, which feels more like a mass-effect approach. Michael Gamble, one of Bioware’s Executive Producers on x, shared a combat and ability wheel. It shows a combo potential, abilities, and how we’ll be able to control companions, among other exciting details, quickly.
The new ability wheel should also help players manage companions and use their skills, similar to combat mechanics in Mass Effect. The ability wheel is probably meant to be a “quick slot” option, and your protagonist will be able to use more skills. Nonetheless, shrinking it to such a small amount of options, compared to Inquisition, where we had a long ability bar with many skills to choose from and the ability to control companions, feels like a downgrade. However, with only three abilities per character, the team will require strategic and tactical decisions, making combat more interesting. Combat and time pause when the ability wheel is open.
Lastly, each class has a special bar at the center bottom of the screen. How to fill it and what it can provide differs per class. We can see it a little in action during the gameplay preview, where the rogue bar called momentum fills and is used for specific attacks and skills.
Combat features in Dragon Age: The Veilguard Classes and party composition
- Combo Opportunity: We can see that two skills can be combined to create a “combo.” Mixing specific skills to get more powerful effects and damage was always a mechanic present in Dragon Age. However, looks like Dragon Age: The Veilguard will take it to a different level, allowing classes to increase overall party damage with clear indicators of ability combinations.
- An unknown icon not seen in any other class gameplay. It may be a warrior’s inherent ability to defend or increase defenses.
- Tap Target: Tap target is a useful detail in combat that may help you focus on a single opponent. Especially if you’re playing on a controller.
- Enemies have weaknesses and strengths: Using the correct attacks can exploit those weaknesses.
- Damage numbers: There is a setting that turns on damage dealt with each attack.
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