Best Archer Build in Dragon Age: the Veilguard

Discover how to create the best Archer build for Dragon Age: the Veilguard, including faction, skills, companions, level progression, and more!

BioWare’s fourth installment of their hit series, Dragon Age the: Veilguard, features deep character customization and build options. Players can earn skill points from level 1 to 50, selecting active, passive, traits, and ultimate abilities. Each protagonist, “Rook,” can bring two party members (companions) in exploration and combat, each with their own skills and equipment.

This guide will walk you through the best Archer builds in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and explain critical choices: factions, specialization, companies, skills, and more.

Everything About Archer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Archer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard focuses on Ranged combat, electric damage, and getting huge weakpoint numbers. Get a huge combo explosion and spread shocking debilitations to your unfortunate Swiss cheese-looking enemies. Don’t need to pick any other archers for your party if you choose an archer. This build uses the abilities that deal with electric damage on a battlefield to drain the enemy’s health bar.

The Archer build uses Veil Ranger specialization that’s specially designed for bows. However, the drawback of this build is that it doesn’t deal the highest damage and also lacks crowd control capability. Players who wish for electric-based abilities and nailing enemy weakpoints with simple shots then this is the best build for you. 

Archer Build Pros	Archer Build Cons
Lighting Damage	Lacks Crowd Control
AOE	Elemental Dependent
Range

Archer build Features and Mechanics in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The following list presents all the essential Archer Build Features and Mechanics in Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

• Momentum: Rogue’s resource is generated when hitting targets but diminishes when you take damage.
• Bow: Secondary weapon that doesn’t require a bar swap but activation to use.
• Arrows: Limited resource used to fire your bow that regenerates love time.
• Weak Point: Increase damage hitting an enemy at their weakest point, like the head.
• Faction: Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragon
• Race: Elf
• Active Skills
  • Ability 1: Reeling Bolt
  • Ability 2: Lighting Flask
  • Ability 3: Storm’s Path
• Ultimate: Twin Gifts of Arlathan
  • Flex: Concussive Barrage
• Specialization: Veil Ranger
• Best Companions: : Taash, Harding
• Best Faction: Veil Jumpers
• Runes
  • Ravage
  • Electrify
  • Shatter

Bow

The Bow is your secondary weapon and, unlike other classes in Dragon Age, doesn’t require a bar swap to activate. Simply hold down your aim button and draw it back, and aim to hit a target. You can manually aim or press the button once to activate a quick shot. The benefit of aiming is that you can shoot the head, triggering weak point damage, which is sustainably more than a normal shot (roughly 4×0. However, that can be difficult than simply pressing the button once at range.

Weak Point

Hitting enemies in their weakest point (headshots) triggers weak point damage with double the size of text and purple. The easiest way to hit a weak point is using the bow via manually aiming at range, specifically for the head. Other enemies will have vulnerable points flashing like a dragon’s legs. Therefore, experiment with different enemy types and aim for weak point damage when you can.

Arrows

The Rogue’s secondary weapon bow uses arrows, which are an automatically replenishing consumable item found in the bottom middle section of your User Interface. By default, players have eight arrows to show, which regenerate quickly. Therefore, watch your arrows and take passives that help with regeneration or max capacity if you use the bow frequently.

Momentum

Momentum is the Rogue’s combat resource that increases when you hit an enemy and decreases when the enemy hits. You need momentum to use skills, and the User Interface pink resource builds over time. Once you reach a threshold of one momentum, a small circle will light up giving you an indication that your attack is able to be used. Additionally, some skills have a cooldown rather than a resource cost, so consider having a balance of momentum skills and cooldown.

Best Faction

The best faction for an Archer build is Veil Jumpers because the Keen Eye bonus provides increased critical and weak point damage. This bonus is optimal for high burst damage and fits the Rogue narrative if you prefer to be an explorer of ancient elven ruins.

Shadow Dragons is the secondary faction choice because the Resourceful bonus grants faster resource generation. The Shadow Dragons are also the healthy resistance and may fit an assassin-type character better than Veil Jumpers.

Below are all the bonuses for the Veil Jumpers and Shadow Dragons faction in Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

Veil Jumpers Bonuses	Shadow Dragon Bonuses
Attuned Strikes: Deal increased damage vs. Fade-Touched	Never to Rise: Deal increased damage vs. Venatori
Keen Eye: Deal slightly increased critical and weakpoint damage	Light in the Dark: Gain reputation with the Shadow Dragons more quickly
Close to the Veil: Gain reputation with the Veil Jumpers more quickly	Resourceful: Your class-specific resource regenerates slightly faster

There are four playable races in Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Elf, Qunari, Human, and Dwarf. Each of these races has a rich history and lore within Thedas. Your race choice largely influences the story, dialogue choices, and how the world responds to you. Furthermore, you will not receive a combat bonus or passive for a given race. Therefore, don’t let this selection be purely cosmetic and narrative, so feel free to deviate from our recommendation.

Best Race

Elf (Elves) is the best race for the Archer build, traditionally known to have strong connections with the Fade. Your race choice determines the story, dialogue choices, and how the world responds to you. Furthermore, you will not receive a combat bonus or be passive for a given race. Therefore, don’t let this selection be purely cosmetic and narrative, so feel free to deviate from our recommendation.

Four playable races are available in Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Elf, Qunari, Human, and Dwarf. Each of these races has a rich history and lore within Thedas. The Rogue class can choose any of the four, so make the selection depending on your ideal character narrative.

Best Skills and Abilities

Reeling Bolt, Lighting Flask, Storm’s Path, and Twin Gifts of Arlathan are the best skills for the Archer build.

Reeling Bolt is a projectile tool-type ability that has a 60-second cooldown instead of spending momentum. Putting a cooldown-based ability with a resource-spending one means you will have something to cast when you run out of momentum. It deals electric damage and applies the weakened effect by firing out a special arrow. Deal Stagger and apply a shock to the primary target. Taash’s Dragonfire Strike can detonate the Weakened status of effect on the enemy, which can combo with the Reeling Bolt. Moreover, Dragonfire Strike can also deal 399 fire damage by a fiery overhead strike.

Storm’s Path is a skill from the Veil Ranger specialization that detonates overwhelmed, costing one momentum with AOE and electrical damage. Taash’s ability Spitfire applies the Overwhelm status effect on the enemy, which can combo with the Storm’s Path. Moreover, the Spitfire can spit a searing burst of flame on an enemy and deals 266 fire damage.

Lightning Flask is a duration control ability that costs momentum pip. You start by throwing down a flask of bottled lightning dealing electric damage in an AOE around you and applying the shocked status to enemies.

The best trait for the Archer build is the Evasion Maneuver because it launches a strong attack from an Extended Dodge, or when recovering from being Knocked Down. Use this trait for a counterattack after a long dodge.

The best ultimate for the Archer build is Twin Gifts of Arlathan. It throws out two entangled relic fragments that bounce between targets dealing electric damage on hit. It does not seem to do as much damage as some ultimates but it is a ranged set, forget, and highly disruptive, especially against a single target.

Below are the recommended skills, abilities, ultimate, and traits for the Rogue DPS build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

• Abilities
  • Skill 1: Reeling Bolt
  • Skill 2: Lightning Flask
  • Skill 3: Storm’s Path
• Ultimate: Twin Gifts of Arlathan
  • Flex: Concussive Barrage
• Trait: Evasive Manuevers

Best Specialization

The best specialization for the Archer build is the Veil Ranger because it regenerates arrows with passives and controls enemies in order to let you keep a safe distance. They tend to lean towards electric damage.

The Archer’s Build Unique ability and ultimate:

• Storm’s Path: An area projectile type ability that fires a powerful blast from your bow dealing electric damage in a line and detonating Overwhelmed.
• Twin Gifts of Arlathan: Throw two entangled relic fragments that rapidly bounce between targets dealing 1,980 electric damage.

Starting at level 20, players can select one of three specializations from their class honeycomb skill tree. Specializations are similar to “subclasses,” adding one ability, one ultimate, and a variety of other passives to your build and character. Your specialization choice will be vital because it determines your character’s overall gameplay in combat. However, you can participate in the character screen at any time to redo your skills and specializations.

Level Progression

The premise of our leveling progression section for the Archer build is to give you a step-by-step leveling guide, which skills to take, and why. However, this section is complex and requires many hours of gameplay. Therefore, this section will be a work in progress and will be updated and advance more in the game.

In Dragon Age, the Veilguard, level progressions are gained through experience points (EXP) through different activities such as completing quests and defeating enemies. You reach a higher level at certain levels of EXP, rewarding you with a skill point. The max level is 50, with 50 skill points to spend. The skill tree (honeycomb) comes in two main sections: Core class tree and specialization.

Complete a basic puzzle or interact with the altars to gain one skill point as a reward. You will earn 15 skill points by tracking down all 15 altars in the game. Unselect the purchased skills to refund individual skill points, which will not cost you anything. Once you reach a max level and get all the Fen’Harel altars, you will get a total of 67 skill points that help you unlock 40-45% of the skill tree.

Levels 1 – 10

Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 1 to 10 with the Best Archer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
1	Exploding Arrow	Center	Trait
2	Endure	Center	Greater Passive
3	Rain of Decay	Control	Ability
4	Evasive Maneuvers	Center	Trait
5	Powerful Rebuttal	Center	Greater Passive
6	Pilfer	Sustain	Ability
7	Salvage Arrows	Control	Trait
8	Bated Breath	Control	Passive
9	Determine	Control	Passive
10	Keen Eye	Control	Greater Passive

Skills at level 10: Static Strikes (applies weakened), Rain of Decay, Pilfer (Detonate overwhelmed), Concussive Barrage

Levels 11 – 20

Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 11 to 20 with the Best Archer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
11	Burst of Speed	Control	Passive
12	Reeling Bolt	Control	Ability
13	Bulwark	Control	Passive
14	Amperage	Control	Passive
15	Precision Power	Control	Greater Passive
16	Pump the Primer	Control	Greater Passive
17	Salvage Arrows	Veil Jumper	Passive
18	Hunter’s Focus	Veil Jumper	Trait
19	Save
20	Veil Ranger Twin Gifts of Arlathan Storm’s Path	Veil Ranger

Skills at level 20: Reeling Bolt, (applies weakened), Rain of Decay, Storm’s Path (Detonate overwhelmed), Twin Gifts of Arlathan

Levels 21 – 30

Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 21 to 30 with the Best Archer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard:

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
21	Shock Malady	Veil Ranger	Passive
22	Lighting Splash	Veil Ranger	Ability Upgrade
23	Amperage	Veil Ranger	Passive
24	Compound Bow	Veil Ranger	Ability Upgrade
25	Spill Blood		Passive
26	Leaping Shoot	Control	Ability Upgrade
27	Providence	Control	Ability Upgrade
28	Swift Rebuke	Control	Ability Upgrade
29	Burst of Speed
30	Archer’s Rhythm Sniper Triumph Lighting Flask	Veil Ranger Veil Ranger Sustain	Trait Trait Ability

Skills at level 30: Reeling Bolt, (applies weakened), Lighting Flask, Storm’s Path (Detonate overwhelmed), Twin Gifts of Arlathan

For levels 30 to 50, you’re focused on boosting your regeneration and damage. Burst of Speed is a passive that is used for Momentum generation up to 10 and Traumatize for Takedown damage up to 15%. Ready Shots increase the Arrow regeneration +20% and Desolate Malady boosts Affliction damage +10%. Increase your Critical damage +10% by using Wrath.

Best Companions

The best companions for an Archer build are Taash and Harding because of their ability to combo Sundered and Weakened. Taash’s set of starting abilities hold skills that allow her to inflict various status effects on enemies, such as Overwhelm, Burning, Stagger, and Detonate the Weakened. Moreover, some of the abilities target multiple enemies and she also supports allies by applying invulnerability on them.

Harding is primarily a Rogue with a specialization in the Veil Ranger. Most of her attacks include the bow that deals a high amount of damage from a distance. In addition to her potential abilities, she also has the healing ability to heal Rook. Moreover, she can also apply buff to allies to deal enhanced damage for a short period. Harding can deal a lot of stagger with her abilities and also has a damage buff ability.

Companion 1: Taash

• Active Skills and Abilities
  • Ability 1: Fire Breath
  • Ability 2: Dragon’s roar
  • Ability 3: Fortune’s Favor
• Main Hand Weapon: Neckbreaker
• Armor: Plumed Platemail
• Trinket: Numbing Herbs
• Primer Ability: Dragonfire Strike (Detonates Weakened)
• Detonator Ability: Spitfire (Apply Overwhelm)

Companion 2: Harding

• Active Skills and Abilities
  • Ability 1: Adrenaline Rush
    • Flex: Seismic Shot
  • Ability 2: Heavy Draw
  • Ability 3: Shooting Potion
• Main Hand Weapon: My Regards
• Armor: Scout Comparison
• Trinket: Dwarven Key
• Primer Ability: Shred (Sundered)
• Detonator Ability: Heavy Draw (Overwhelmed)

Best Equipment, Items, Weapons

Here are all the best Equipment, Items, and Weapons for the Archer build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Gear Slot	Best Item	Best Stats	Best Properties
Main Hand	Cordova’s Toothpick	6 + 10%	Bleeding Stacks + Weapon Damage
Off-Hand	Focal Blade	40 + 100 + 15%	Electricity Damage + Final Attack deal Additional Electric Damage + Charged Attack Damage
Two-Handed Weapon	Dauntless Greatbow	40 + 15% + 10%	Electricity Damage + Electric Damage + Electric Damage for each remaining arrow
Helmet	Defiant Silence	20% + 25% + 10%	Critical Damage + Stagger with Critical hits + Critical Damage relative to Shadow Dragons
Belt	Jumper’s Binding	34% +15%	Radius of Potion Effect + Electric Damage
Amulet	Token of True Flight	20%+ 25% + 25	Projectile Ability Damage + Barrier Damage from Projectile Abilities + Gain Momentum
Ring 1	Focus of the Veil	15%+ 25% + 20%	Electric Damage + Electric Resistance + Electric Ability + damage vs. Barrier
Ring 2	Graven Opal	20% + 15% + 25%	Ranged Attack Damage + Weakpoint Damage + Ranged Attack vs. Barrier

Best Runes

The best Runes for the Archer build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is Ravage because it enhances the damage against enemy health, making it the best one to take down enemies in no time. The effective way to use the Ravage rune is to merge it with a detonation combo, specifically the weakened status effect which increases overall damage. The other two Runes that work well for Archer build are Electrify and Shatter.

Below are the recommended Runes for the Best Archer build in DA:V:

• Ravage: +10% damage vs health
• Electrify: +10% Electricity damage
• Shatter: +10% Ranged attack damage

Build Summary – Archer Build

FAQs About Archer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Question 1: What faction should I pick for an Archer build?

Answer: Veil Jumpers and Shadow Dragons are the best factions to choose for the Archer build due to the Ankle Strike bonus from Veil Jumper and the Never To Rise bonus from Shadow Dragons because they highly impact in combat.

Question 2: Does race matter in Dragon Age the Veilguard?

Answer: Race is a part of Rook’s identity as their Dragon Age class or faction, and their ancestry can affect dialogue choices in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The selection of race to play will also determine the story and how the world at large responds to you.

Question 3: Can builds be changed in Dragon Age the Veilguard?

Answer: Yes, you can change the whole playstyle of your build by simply refunding the Skill Points from the Skill Tree and spending them in a different branch.

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• Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Backgrounds (Factions) Explained
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard – All Companions and Everything We Know
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard Classes and Specializations
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard – All Playable Races