Best Dragon Age: The Veilguard Champion Build

Discover how to create the best Champion 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 Champion builds in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and explain critical choices: factions, specialization, companies, skills, and more.

Everything About Champion Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

A fitting name for a Grey Warden inspired build that focuses as much on protection as they do on attack. This Burning Heart character build has the strongest defensive options that allow the players to survive the toughest battles in the game. This one is for providing key enhancements to your parries and fire-based attacks in combat.

The Champion Build is probably closest to the Dualist or Spellblade builds from the other classes in terms of playstyle and comes with something of a higher risk. However, failing a Parry can result in taking a lot of damage but with immediate Traits like Counterblow, you should get well practiced in this very early. This build focuses on a one-handed weapon and shield with talents that increase their survivability and defend their team. The Champion helps to lean towards fire damage making the users good against darkspawn. For the players who are looking for better defensive options along with the fire AOE damage and more survivability on the battlefield then this build is for you.

Champion Build Pros	Champion Build Cons
High Survivability	Melee Dependent
Group Buffs	Companion Dependent
Fire AOE Damage	Slower Pace

Features and Mechanics for the Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

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

• Blocking: timing the yellow halo can reward players with a perfect defensive.
• Rage: a resource for Warrior gained by doing damage, lost when taking damage.
• Shield Throw: Range throw on a short cooldown.
• Faction: Grey Wardens
• Race: Human
• Active Skills
  • Ability 1: Driving Kick
  • Ability 2: Bloody Advance
  • Ability 3: Blight Bane
    • Flex: Ground Breaker
• Ultimate: Warden’s Fire
  • Flex: Flashing Fist
• Trait: Shield Volley
• Specialization: Champion
• Best Companions: Emmrich, Bellara
• Runes: work in progress

Blocking and Dodging

The Warrior class 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.  One skill gives flaming weapons after a perfect defense, thus making timing critical.   Moreover, the timing mechanic is dependent on your selected difficulty.

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. However, there is a slight delay in dodging where you are vulnerable.  

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.

Rage Resource Explained

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. Moreover, you can increase Rage with companion skills and passives throughout various trees. 

The best way to build Rage quickly with the Warrior is to have a companion like Neve with the “Time Stop” skill.  There’s a passive that gives 50 Rage after usage, giving you an opening combo with at least 50 for one skill.

Additionally, in later levels look to increase your maximum Rage so you can use higher Rage cost skills more frequently. 

Shield Throw

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. 

Your User Interface in the bottom middle shows a Shield Icon, which represents the ability’s cooldown.  After using Shield Throw, you won’t be able to reactivate it immediately.  However, it’s a good filler attack at range to keep Rage from diminishing and doing some damage, especially if you can aim for weak points like the head.

Stagger and Takedown

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 “take down” which is a small cut scene where you do a “kill shot” or increased damage.  Most weak enemies this will immediately destroy, and do significant damage on boss enemies.

Throughout the game, you can take skills, companion abilities, gear, and runes to increase Stagger.  This is helpful if you intend to exploit stagger and takedowns for your build.

Best Faction

The best faction for a Champion build is the Grey Wardens because of the Vigilant Training passive, increasing base defense and health. Additionally, the Grey Wardens gain increased damage vs. darkspawn and fit the narrative of a heroic warrior battling monsters. A secondary choice is the Lords of Fortune because their Relentless bonus increases takedowns (stuns). The Lords of Fortune factions are adventurous treasure hunters and fit a character’s background who loves exploration and loot.

Below are all the bonuses for the Grey Wardens and Lords of Fortune factions in Dragon Age the Veilguard:

Grey Wardens Bonuses	Lords of Fortune Bonuses
Bonded in Blood: Gain reputation with the Grey Wardens more quickly	Together in Glory: Gain reputation with the Lords of Fortune more quickly
Blight Killer: Deal increased damage vs. darkspawn	Healthy Competition: Deal increased damage vs. mercenaries
Vigilant Training: Base defense and health are slightly increased	Relentless: Perform takedowns on enemies with slightly less effort

Shadow Dragons Faction Store

In Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd, factions are organizations that give you three bonuses in character creation and reputation when you ally with them as part of the larger conflict. There are six factions to choose from, and this choice cannot be changed once made. Faction reputation is used in the faction-specific stores to buy weapons and armor. Ultimately, players should select the faction of their choice based on story narrative vs. a small bonus in combat.

Best Race

The best race for the Champion build is humans because of their widespread population, political dominance, and history in Thedas. Humans are traditionally Warriors and Mages in the series and fit nicely with the Grey Warden’s faction choice, providing a solid RPG character foundation. The second choice would be the Qunari, who look physically daunting and are skilled in martial arts. Qunari are a race governed by the Qun code, dedicating their lives to discipline.

Your race choice largely influences the story, dialogue choices, and how the world responds to you. 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. Your race selection is purely cosmetic and narrative, so feel free to deviate from our recommendation.

Best Skills and Abilities

The best skills for a Champion build are Driving Kick, Bloody Advance, and Blight Bane.

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.

Bloody Advance is a projectile that costs one Rage and deals Necrotic damage while applying the Sundered status effect. Bloody Advance pairs well with Emmrich’s Final Rites skill or Bellara’s Fade Bolts, which detonate Sundered status effects.

Blight Bane is a Champion Specialization-specific skill that Detonates Weakened. This ability lets the players throw a bomb that bursts into a cluster of explosives after a short amount of time and deals massive damage (1,098 Fire). Applies burning to enemies in a shorter radius by launching multiple explosives.

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

• Abilities
  • Skill 1: Driving Kick
  • Skill 2: Bloody Advance
  • Skill 3: Blight Bane
    • Flex: Titan Stomp
• Ultimate: Warden’s Fire
  • Flex: Flashing Fist
• Trait: Shield Volley

Best Specialization

The Champion’s unique ability and ultimate:

• Warden’s Fire: It unleashes a barrage of burning arrows and finishes it off with a rock from a trebuchet or a catapult. It deals high damage in an AOE and applies burning to enemies.
• Blight Bane: It throws a Warden Siege cluster bomb for fire damage in an AOE. Each Cluster can burn enemy hits and the ability also detonates the weakened effect.

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 anytime to redo your skills and specializations.

Level Progression

The premise of our leveling progression section for the Champion 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 as well as 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 gain 15 skill points by simply tracking down all 15 altars in the game. Unselect the purchased skills to refund individual skill points and it will not cost you anything. Once you reach a max level and get all the Fen’Harel altars then you will get a total of 67 skill points that help you to unlock 40-45% of the skill tree.

Each skill point can be spent on a variety of skills (abilities):

• Diamond Nodes: Active abilities, which you can slot three at a time
• Hexagonal: traits or passives. Traits require a button combination to execute an additional ability, while passives give you a passive bonus.
• Circular Nodes: these are minor passives like small stat points. 

Levels 1 – 10

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
1	Tumbling Blades	Core	Trait
2	Downfall	Core	Greater Passive
3	Fury of the Forge	Weapons	Ability
4	Concentration	Weapons	Passive
5	Flames of Victory	Lords of Fortune	Greater Passive
6	Staggering Charge	Lords of Fortune	Passive
7	Whirlwind	Lords of Fortune	Ability
8	Heavy Hitter	Grey Warden	Passive
9	Rolling Thunder	Lords of Fortune	Trait
10	Bulwark	Survival	Passive

Levels 11 – 20

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
11	Executioner’s Gaze	Weapons	Greater Passive
12	Concentration	Weapons	Passive
13	Cleaving Strike	Weapons	Ability
14	Desolate Malady	Weapons	Passive
15	Decisive Finish	Weapons	Passive
16	Wildfire	Grey Warden	Passive
17	Fiery Resolve	Grey Warden	Greater Passive
18	Heavy Hitter	Grey Warden	Passive
19	Grappling Spear	Grey Warden	Ability
20	Staggering Charge	Grey Warden	Passive

Best Companions

The best companions for a Champion build are Emmrich and Bellara because of their skill combos from Weakened and Sundered status effects. Emmrich fills the role of range DPS with a powerful healing ability called Replenish. Moreover, Emmrich can snare, stagger, slow time, and apply weakened while detonating sundered.

Bellara, too, fills the role of a range damage dealer with a unique suck-in skill called Galvanised Tear. She also can combo Weakened and Sundered. An alternative character would be Harding, a ranged bow using Dwarf that gives a damage buff to the player and a small heal.

Companion 1: Emmrich

• Active Skills and Abilities
  • Ability 1: Final Rites
  • Ability 2: Entangling Spirits
  • Ability 3: Replenish (heal)
• Weapon: Staff
• Primer Ability: Entangling Spirits (applies Weakened)
• Detonator Ability: Final Rites (Sundered)

Companion 2: Bellara

• Active Skills and Abilities
  • Ability 1: Enfeebling Shot
  • Ability 2: Fade Bolts
  • Ability 3: Galvanized Tear (AOE Pull)
• Weapon: Bow
• Primer Ability: Enfeebling Shot (applies Weakened)
• Detonator Ability: Fade Bolts (detonates Sundered)

Best Champion Warrior Equipment, Items, Weapons

The section is a work in progress during the release week of the game.

Gear Slot	Best Item	Best Stats	Best Properties
Main Hand	Barbed Longsword	25%	Stagger
Off-Hand	Enchanted Athame	50 + 2 + 10%	Maximum Mana + Gain Mana on hit + Deal additional damage
Alternate Weapon	Shockbranch	25% + 15% + (-20%)	Ranged attack damage + Weakpoint damage + ranged Mana cost
Helmet	Enlightened Helmet	25% + 25%	Burning damage + Burning duration
Belt	Warden’s Straps	12% + 15%	radius of Potion effect + Fire damage
Amulet	Halla’s Grace	20% + 10%	Quickened duration + Quickened effectiveness
Ring 1	Amaranthine Loop	25% + 25% + 25%	Stagger + Staggered Duration + Takedown damage
Ring 2	Andraste’s Will	+3	Maximum Burning stacks

Best Runes

The best Runes for the Reaper build in Dragon Age the Veilguard is Regroup because it refreshes your companion’s ability to cool down instantly. This allows you to either heal or produce multiple combos and detonations quickly. While there are other great Runes, having back-to-back healing, combos, or detonations with a short cooldown makes it the strongest.

Below are the recommended Runes for the Champion build in DA:V:

• Overflow: increases potions by +1.
• Regroup: all companion’s cooldowns are refreshed.
• Crystallized: all enemies in 10 meters are frozen.

Build Summary – Champion

FAQs About Champion Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard

Question 1: What faction should I pick for a Champion build?

Answer: Grey Wardens and Lords of Fortune are the best factions to choose for Champion build due to the Bounded in Blood bonus from Grey Wardens and the Relentless bonus from Lords of Fortune.

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: There are certain things like appearance that you can change. However, you are unable to change the faction after picking up one and you can change the specialization but not the class.

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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