Dragon Age: The Veilguard Best Skills for Slayer

Discover the Best Skills for the Slayer in Dragon Age: The Veilguard including the best Weapons and Abilities skills.

The Slayer build and specialization unlock the Warrior’s physical power, focusing on staggering and death blows. The gameplay style resembles Black Myth Wukong in that you can charge up heavy attacks while moving. Driving Kick, Bloody Advance, and Heroic Leap are the best abilities to dominate any enemy coming in the path. The most important skill for the Slayer is Violent Catharsis, which heals you for Rage spent. Therefore, look for any passive that gives Rage generation or maximum Rage increase. Emmrich and Bellara are the only two Companions that work well with the Slayer.

Everything About Slayer Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Slayer Build in the Dragon Age: The Veilguard is described as utterly reckless due to its ability to be lowest on defense and highest on offense. With a two-handed weapon, you are able to deal with AOE attacks and concentrated ground slams. This one is arguably the most straightforward of all the builds but also a fan-favorite build. What makes the Slayer build special is its ability to bypass elemental damage and increase stagger, crowd control, and grant precision, guaranteeing critical attack-on-strike abilities.

This Berserker character build dishes out a lot of damage to the enemy in combat; the players who prefer to dish out extreme amounts of pain, then this build is for you. Increase your overall stagger damage and the damage of your weapon attacks with the Slayer Build. With a Slayer build, you can charge your heavy attack while moving, which is a similar combat style to Black Myth Wukong.

Best Slayer Skills and Abilities in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Driving Kick is the best skill to use because it deals physical damage and detonate the Weakened effect on the target. Bloody Advance is the second-best skill because it deals necrotic damage and applies the Sundered effect. Heroic Leap deals solid damage and detonates the Weakened effect. 

Here are the best Slayer Skills and Abilities in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

• Weapons: Velocity: Enhance stagger from weapon attacks by 20%.
• Abilities: Triple Threat: Increase Ability damage by 50% when you equip an ability of each damage type.
• Passive: Violent Catharsis: Heals the player for 100% of the Rage spent.
• Greater Passive: Double-Edged: Makes bonus Ability and Weapon damage apply added damage at 20% of its value
• Trait: Rolling Thunder: Allows you to perform a powerful Charged attack after reaching maximum charge.
• Ability Upgrade: Charged Smash: Upgrades Smash Abilities to be charged and for Whirlwind it applies only to the final hit
• Ability: Driving Kick: Deals 519 physical damage and detonate Weakened effect.

Driving Kick

Driving Kick skill deals physical damage, costs one Rage, and detonates weakened status effect. This skill pairs well with your companion Emmrich’s skill, Entangling Spirits, or Bellara’s skill, Enfebbling Shot, which both apply on weekends. Another strength of Driving Kick is that it doesn’t have a cool down and stuns enemies. With both companions constantly debuffing enemies, you can frequently trigger a detonation and stun.

Pair the Driving Kick with Emmrich’s Entangling Spirits to apply and detonate the Weakened effect on the enemy. Emmrich summons spirits to entangle and hinder the enemies dealing 243 necrotic damage with high Stagger. It also applies a Weakened status effect on the enemy and has a base cooldown of 36 seconds. Once this combo is finished, activate the Ravage Rune to enhance the damage against enemy health, making it the best one to take down enemies in no time.

Bloody Advance

Bloody Advance (Warrior Skill) is a class that can apply the Sundered effect and deal necrotic damage. Bloody Advance pairs well with Emmrich’s Final Rites skill or Bellara’s Fade Bolts, which detonate Sundered status effects. You should pair it with Emmrich’s Final Rites to enhance the effectiveness of Bloody Advance’s ability and detonate the sundered effect. This combo can apply and detonate the Sundered effect to allow the target to take more damage in general.

The Final Rites ability summons an envoy of the dead who explodes in a blast of necrotic energy dealing 507 necrotic damage. Use the Bloody Advance ability to apply the sundered effect and then the Final Rites ability will detonate the Sundered status effect on an enemy and have a base cooldown of 38 seconds. This combo can destroy any enemy in their path. You can also add Scourge Rune that boosts Necrotic damage by 10% and all of your weapon attacks deal Necrotic damage for 20 seconds.

Heroic Leap

Heroic Leap is a slayer specialization-specific skill that Detonates Weakened. This one is a strike and smash ability that deals solid damage along with the stagger damage. It’s a go-to attack for this build at the cost of just 50 Rage (1 Dot). You simply jump forward and deal massive damage to any enemy nearby. Pair the Heroic Leap with Bellara’s Enfeebling Shot to create an explosion and to deal additional damage. However, you can also pair the Heroic Leap with Emmrich’s Entangling Spirits.

Bellara fires a magic-infused shot from her bow and deals 222 electricity damage to the target. It applies a weakened status effect to an enemy and has a base cooldown of 36 seconds. Issue the command to Bellara to apply the Weakened effect and use the Heroic leap to detonate the Weakened effect. Once this combo is finished, activate the Ravage Rune to enhance the damage against enemy health. It deals 50% more damage vs health for 20 seconds allowing you to dominate your enemy.

Best Specialization

Slayer focuses on using your two-handed weapons and dealing high damage and stagger. You can focus on physical damage here too. Using this one can dish out high AOE damage and build up that stagger meter quickly. Think of ripping up the ground with slams and earthquakes. You will be wielding a massive punishing weapon while rushing enemies to deal devastating blows. It’s all about breaking enemy defenses, doing quick Maneuvers, and sort of gap closers in the game.

Your ability Heroic Leap acts as a gap closer that deals physical damage and triggers weakened detonations. The Slayer’s ultimate For Gold and Glory is also a leap that deals physical damage, and triggers stagger to enemies within range. The Stagger mechanic can be helpful because enemies become vulnerable to auto-killing animation attacks once the bar is filled. If you want super simple meathead warrior gameplay, then this one is for you.

Therefore, you will mainly use the charge feature and timing the release when an enemy is vulnerable. However, the downside is the lack of group utility or survivability compared to the other two Warrior specializations.

• Faction: Grey Wardens
• Race: Human
• Active Skills
  • Ability 1: Driving Kick
  • Ability 2: Bloody Advance
  • Ability 3: Heroic Leap
• Ultimate: For Gold and Glory
• Trait: Shield Volley
• Specialization: Slayer
• Best Companions: Emmrich, Bellara

Best Weapons Skills for Slayer in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Velocity (Passive), Incite Violence (Greater Passive), Determined Death (Trait), Fighting Dirty (Ability Upgrade), and Cleaving Strike (Ability) are the best Weapons Skills for Slayer.

Below are all the best Weapon skills for Slayer specialization in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

• Velocity (Passive)- increases stagger from weapon attacks by 20%.
• Wrath (Passive)- increases Critical Damage by 10%.
• Incite Violence (Greater Passive)- increases Rage from Weapon Attacks by 15% and another 15% if the weapon attacks are targeted to Afflicted enemies.
• Executioner’s Gaze (Greater Passive)- allows you to count final attacks as Critical Hits vs enemies with Low Health.
• Determined Death (Trait)- allows the player to charge their final attacks, strengthening the attack. Releasing the Final attack at the perfect timing will give the attack an effect based on the weapon type.
• Fighting Dirty (Ability Upgrade)- Applies Affliction by hitting enemies with a Strike the Ability, the Afflition will be aligned with the Ability’s damage type.
• Dazzle (Ability Upgrade)- Grants Quickened by hitting multiple enemies with a single Area Ability.
• Cleaving Strike (Ability)- It sweeps in a large cone in front of you dealing physical damage based on how far the targets are. The further out they are the more damage it does and also applies bleeding on hit.
• Fury of the Forge (Ability)- You summon burning steel blades to strike at enemies at range dealing fire damage and applying the burning effect.

Best Abilities Skills for Slayer

Enraged (Passive), Triple Threat (Greater Passive), Explosive Toss (Trait), Shieldbreaker (Ability Upgrade), and Deadly Ground (Ability) are the best Abilities skills for Slayer.

Below are all the best Abilities skills for Slayer specialization in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

• Enraged (Passive)- Increase Rage generation by 10%.
• Enervation (Passive)- Helps you get rid of enemy Barriers quickly by increasing Damage against them by 20%.
• Triple Threat (Greater Passive)- Increases Ability damage by 50% when you equip an ability of each damage type.
• Carom (Greater Passive)- Enemies take 100% more damage and Stagger from environmental impacts.
• Explosive Toss (Trait)- Allows you to toss an explosive version of the shield that deals area damage around the target and disrupts enemies.
• Shieldbreaker (Ability Upgrade)- Grants Enhanced Damage every time you break an enemy’s Armor or Barrier.
• Inspiring Strength (Ability Upgrade)- Grants Rally Party by defeating an enemy with a smash ability.
• Deadly Ground (Ability)- Create a Necrotic field at your current location. Enemies caught within take constant Necrotic damage. You also gain the enhanced damage effect while you are inside the field.
• Spectral Bulwark (Ability)- It places a rotating guard effect on you that increases your defense by 50% while it is active. If an enemy hits you then they take Necrotic damage and very high amounts of Stagger.

Best Slayer Passives

Sharper Edge (Slayer) is the best Passive because it increases Penetration by 15%. The second-best Passive is Staggering Charge (Lords of Fortune) because it enhances the Stagger from Charged attacks by 20%. Decisive Finish (Slayer) is third in line because it increases Agile, Charged, and Final attack damage by 10%.

Best Slayer Greater Passives

Double-Edged (Slayer) is the best Greater Passive because it makes bonus Ability and Weapon damage apply added damage at 20% of its value. Furor (Greater Passive) is the second-best Greater Passive because the Charged attacks now generate more Rage relative to Charge level. Sly Strike (Weapons) is third in line because it grants 250 health and 10% Ultimate when successfully performing a Takedown.

Best Slayer Traits

Rolling Thunder (Lords of Fortune) is the best Trait because it allows you to perform a powerful Charged attack after reaching maximum charge. Arc of Destruction (Slayer) is the second-best Trait because it allows the player to do an extra Light or Heavy attack after a Sprint Attack. Two-Handed Wind-Up (Slayer) is third in line because it allows the player to charge up Two-Handed Charged attacks more. It deals additional damage and enhances its effectiveness.

Best Slayer Ability Upgrade

Charged Smash (Slayer) is the best Ability Upgrade because it upgrades Smash Abilities to be charged and for Whirlwind it applies only to the final hit. Precision Strikes (Lords of Fortune) is the second in line because it grants 50% base Weakpoint damage as increased damage when hitting with a Strike Ability. Striking Precision (Slayer) is the third-best Ability Upgrade because it makes Strike Abilities grant Precision if an enemy is hit.

Best Slayer Abilities

Driving Kick (Core) is the best ability to use because it deals 519 physical damage and detonate Weakened effect. Bloody Advance (Mourn Watch) is the second-best Ability because it deals 364 necrotic damage and applies the Sundered effect. Heroic Leap (Slayer) is third in line because it deals 519 physical damage, applies a Weakened effect on the target, and disrupts enemy hits.

How to Play Slayer

The Slayer excels at blocking incoming attacks, rewarding you with a “perfect block.”  Players will see a yellow halo above your character, press the block button the moment the yellow becomes brightest. This will knock back the enemy and give you passive bonuses. Dodging is another way to create space and avoid incoming damage.  Unlike other RPGs and action games, Dragon Age the Veilguard doesn’t have a stamina meter. Thus, you can infinitely spam dodge.

Overall, if your timing is good, perfect blocking should be your primary defensive mechanism as a Warrior due to the passive bonuses with the perfect defense. The resource used to cast abilities and skills for the Warrior is Rage, which is gained when doing or taking damage. Rage decreases after a few seconds of not doing or taking damage, so stay aggressive. The range attack option for the Warrior is Shield Throw, which is activated by pressing the Q button on the PC.  The Shield Toss can be aimed and charged depending on your specialization and skill, and even hit weak points.

The Stagger mechanic rewards players for filling up the purple bar under enemies’ health by attacking them with light and heavy attacks. Once filled, players can execute a “takedown” which is a small cut scene where you do a “kill shot” or increased damage.

Pair your abilities with the Emmrich and Bellara for some additional damage and for the explosion that causes a specific effect, it can either be Sundered, Overwhelmed, or Weakened based on your selection of the abilities. Once the combo is finished, you can either activate a Rune for additional buffs or use other abilities to drain out the health bar of the enemies.

Conclusion

Velocity, Triple Threat, Violent Catharsis, Double-Edged, Rolling Thunder, Charged Smash, and Driving Kick are the skills that work well for Slayer. Pair your Driving Kick Ability with Emmrich’s Entangling Spirits for the Weakened status of effect on the enemy. Equip the best Rune to use it after the combo for additional damage. Pair Heroic Leap with Bellara’s Enfeebling Shot to create an explosion and to deal additional damage. Enraged, Triple Threat, Explosive Toss, and Shieldbreaker are the best Abilities skills to use in combat.

FAQs About the best Slayer Skills in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Q1: Which are the best abilities for the Slayer in Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd?

Driving Kick, Bloody Advance, and Heroic Leap are the best skills to use while playing as a Slayer in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Q2: What do you get when you pick a specialization?

You will get access to multiple unique abilities, Passes, and traits when you pick a Specialization by consuming a skill point.

Q3: Which Companions work with the Slayer in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

Emmrich and Bellara are the two best Companions that work well with the Slayer due to their unique abilities to apply or detonate the special effect on the target.

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