Best Dragon Age: The Veilguard Evoker Build

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

Everything About the Evoker Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Evoker build merge necrotic and ice abilities that result in HP regeneration along with the deadly mix of afflictions. Manage your Mana for the Evoker build playstyle to overlap the abilities and freeze the foes or cripple them with the deadliest skills. A very tactical build, similar to Saboteur from Rogue only of course entirely Magic-based. It mostly involves the staff stance and the abilities are chill based with a focus being on slowing down the battlefield for additional time to lay in base attacks and apply further tactical moves.

Create the Evoker Mage build for the Evoker specialization in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. However, Evokers can clash with your companion Neve as most of the players use the ice abilities and you’re required to keep the Mana bar balanced in order to use the abilities. For players who are looking to use ice abilities, vacuum enemies, freeze them, and shatter them into pieces then this build is for them.

Evoker Build Pros	Evoker Build Cons
Debuffs	Combo Dependent
AOE Damage	Long Cooldowns
Range	Mana Starved

Evoker Build Mechanics and Features in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

• Arcane Bomb: Arcane Mark builds up over time when you perform Light Attacks with your Orb. It turns into Arcane Bomb, which can be triggered by Heavy Attacks.
• Mana: Mana is the Mage class specific resource that generates automatically overtime.
• Block: Successful blocks will cost the Mage some of their Mana resource, which can get eaten up quickly.
• Heavy Attack: Shot a bolt of energy at your enemy, also used to trigger Arcane Bombs.
• Faction: Shadow Dragons
• Race: Elf
• Active Skills
  • Ability 1: Dark Squall
  • Ability 2: Frost Nova
  • Ability 3: Entropic Sphere
• Ultimate: Vortex of Shadow
• Specialization: Evoker
• Best Companions: Harding, Davrin
• Runes
  • Regroup
  • Crystallized
  • Overflow

Arcane Bomb

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the Mage class can use their Orb weapon to inflict a target with Arcane Marks by hitting it with light attacks. After enough damage has been dealt, generally after about three hits, the Arcane Mark turns into an Arcane Bomb.

Then, you can use your heavy attack to trigger the bomb into an explosion of damage. This is something you should take advantage of in a close melee fight while you are waiting for you abilities to come back from cooldown.

Mana

Mana is the class resource that Mages generate and use in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and you can see the bar directly below your slotted abilities in the HUD. Some Mage abilities will have an associated cost of Mana, generally two ‘pips’ or more. Furthermore, using a skill will eat up your full bar early on in the game.

Therefore, you will not want to have more than two Mana cost abilities on your bar for the first half of the game. Your Mana bar will grown in size, but this will take time leveling. Additionally, as you level you want to look for passives and traits on the Mage skill tree which will help boost the generation of Mana.

Block

As a Mage you can block in two ways. First, if you are wielding your staff, a block will generate a magical orb of defense that surrounds you. Secondly, if you are using your orb and dagger, you will block with your physical weapon. These can both be triggered by the same block keybind, so don’t worry about swapping between weapons just for a block.

However, successfully blocking an attack will cost some of your Mana resource. Moreover, if you have to block successive attacks, this can entirely use up this precious resource. It’s best to only use a block if you have to. Retreat to range away from enemy mobs and let your mana regenerate.

Heavy Attack

The heavy attack action for Mage’s in Dragon Age: The Veilguard requires a longer animation and cast time, but generates a stronger hit. With your staff, you will cast a powerful charge of elemental magic depending on the damage type of your weapon. On the other hand, with your dual-wield weapons you will make a large slash with your dagger. Additionally, the heavy attack is what triggers the explosion of an Arcane Bomb. Therefore, be strategic about your use of the Heavy Attack and only fire it when you are trying to execute a specific effect like this.

Best Faction

The best faction for the Evoker build is Shadow Dragons because the Resourceful bonus grants you faster resource generation. This is a use bonus for any class but is highly recommended for mages with high-damage abilities. You will need a lot of Mana to cast your strongest abilitites.

A A secondary choice is The Mourn Watch, because of the Acute Afflictions bonus that allows you to apply an additional affliction stack on targets. A mage build can especially benefit from this by using various elemental spells that can inflict Burning or Chilled. Additionally, various abilities can also inflict Overwhelmed and Weakened, which can then be detonated by companions.

Below are all the bonuses for the Shadow Dragons and Mourn Watch factions in Dragon Age the Veilguard:

Shadow Dragon Bonuses	The Mourn Watch Bonuses
Light in the Dark: gain reputation with the Shadow Dragons more quickly	Recognized Name: Gain reputation with the Mourn Watchers more quickly
Never to Rise: deal increased damage vs. Venatori	Return to the Grave: Deal increased damage vs. Undead and Demons
Resourceful: your class-specific resource regenerates slightly faster	Acute Afflictions: You can apply an additional affliction stack on targets

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 Mage build is Elf (Elves) because of their naturally strong connection to the Fade. The Elven people in the current Dragon Age games are descended from a formally powerful civilization that had once contained magical wonders beyond imaging. Even so many years since it’s destruction, the lineage of the Elves still makes them formidable Mages.

Your best secondary choice for race is Humans. Humans are the most versatile race in Thedas, capable of being powerful warriors, cunning rogues, or adept mages.

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, your choice of race will be mostly based on your roleplay choices, as well as what you like the look of best. In The Veilguard, no stat bonuses are connected to the individual races. Therefore, your race choice largely influences the story, dialogue choices, and how the world responds to you.

Finally, the Dwarven race is the one exception to the rule of ‘any race, any class’ in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. If you wish to play as a Dwarf, you cannot choose the Mage class. This is due to the lore and history of the Dwarven race, where they cannot dream and lack any magical ability.

Best Skills and Abilities

The best Evoker skills in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are Dark Squall, Frost Nova, and Entropic Sphere.

Entropic Sphere is one of the class specialization skills available to Evokers. This is an area projectile type ability that launches a sphere of energy that damages all enemies for cold damage in a path and then explodes at its end. It weakens targets hit and seems to pull enemies towards it.

Dark Squall is another projectile spell that you can use as a crowd control skill. When it hits, it will knock back your enemy, and it is a great way to get an attacking enemy away from you. It does not have a Mana cost but has a long cooldown of 60 seconds. Therefore, you’ll need to make strategic choices about when to use it.

Frost Nova is another fantastic crowd control skill that bursts and area of frozen ground around you. This will inflict any enemy standing inside of it with Frozen, and will freeze them in place so you can your companions can get in some easy DPS. However, when you have the extra skill points you should grab with Wall of Fire ability. Swap this out for Frost Nova whenever you are facing enemies resistant to cold damage.

Mortal Concentration is the best trait for the Evoker build because it enhances the player’s Ranged attack if sustained, for a maximum of 3 seconds.

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

• Abilities
  • Skill 1: Dark Squall
  • Skill 2: Frost Nova
  • Skill 3: Entropic Sphere
• Ultimate: Vortex of Shadow
• Trait: Mortal Concentration

Best Specialization

The Evoker is a powerful Mage specialization that is all about controlling the battlefield at range. The Evoker’s build unique ability and ultimate:

• Vortex of Shadow: It summons a black hole and deals less damage than other ultimates over time but it also pulls enemies into it setting them up for any AOE combos.
• Entropic Sphere: Launches a sphere of entropic energy toward enemies dealing damage in its path and explodes at the end.

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

Our leveling progression section for the Evoker build is to provide you with 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 advanced 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, which 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

Your immediate goal when you start leveling in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is to get your first three abilities for your skill bar. You will automatically start with the Arcane Shot ability and the Destructive Light ultimate. You’ll change those out as you advance in the game, but for now both are fine to use.

Additionally, you can earn ‘extra’ skill points in Dragon Age: The Veilguard by completing the Fen’Harel alters you find scattered out in the world. Feel free to use these to advance farther down the progression path, or take passives/traits you like. Our level progression guide assumes that you only get skill points by leveling, so that we never get ahead of where the player may be.

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
1	Mortal Concentration	Core	Trait
2	Charging Spirit	Core	Trait
3	Frost Nova	Control	Ability
4	Frostbite	Control	Passive
5	Frost Shield	Control	Greater Passive
6	Shellbreaker	Shadow Dragons	Passive
7	Imbued Takedown	Shadow Dragons	Greater Passive
8	Underestimated	Shadow Dragons	Passive
9	Dark Squall	Shadow Dragons	Ability
10	Meditation	Shadow Dragons	Passive

By Level 10, your active Evoker Mage ability bar should contain Arcane Shot, Frost Nova, Dark Squall, and Destructive Light (Ultimate).

Levels 11 – 20

Although you are very close to the Evoker class specialization on the skill tree, Dragon Age: The Veilguard class specializations cannot be unlocked until you reach Level 20. Additionally, all of your abilities so far deal the Cold damage type. This means that you will have very weak DPS against enemies who have Cold resistance.

Therefore, we’ll move around on the skill tree just a bit to grab the Fire damage ability Wall of Fire down in the Sustain portion of the skill tree. This will give you a flex ability to swap out with Frost Nova when you need it.

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
11	Light Armor Mastery	Shadow Dragons	Greater Passive
12	Defy the Elements	Shadow Dragons	Passive
13	Bolt Volley	Shadow Dragons	Trait
14	Keen Insight	Shadow Dragons	Ability Upgrade
15	Super Charged	Shadow Dragons	Ability Upgrade
16	Elemental Catalyst	Burst	Greater Passive
17	Fade Conduit	Burst	Passive
18	Downfall	Sustain	Greater Passive
19	Wall of Fire	Sustain	Ability
20	Vortex of Shadow Entropic Sphere	Evoker	Ultimate Ability

At Level 20, your active Evoker Mage ability bar should contain: Entropic Sphere, Frost Nova, Dark Squall, and Vortex of Shadow (ultimate). Wall of Fire is an available flex ability you can swap in for Frost Nova when you are facing Cold resistant enemies.

Levels 21 – 30

After unlocking the Evoker specialization, from Level 20 on you will want to focus on unlocking the other passives and traits in the class specialization tree. However, only some will be available until you reach Level 30.

Therefore, we will also want to start to branch out into other areas of the skill tree. You should prioritize unlocking passives that will increase your mana regeneration rate. Or unlocking traits that will give you mana back under certain circumstances. The more mana you can generate, the more often you’ll be able to fire off your Entropic Sphere ability.

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
21	Ice Storm	Evoker	Passive
22	Two Fires	Evoker	Ability Upgrade
23	Heavy Weaponry	Evoker	Passive
24	Controlled Infusion	Evoker	Ability Upgrade
25	Early Frost	hadow Dragon	Passive
26	Mana Infusion	Control	Greater Passive
27	Meditation	Control	Passive
28	Absorb	Control	Greater Passive
29	Improved Health	Control	Passive
30	Onslaught	Evoker	Trait

At Level 30, your active Evoker Mage ability bar will stay the same: Entropic Sphere, Frost Nova, Dark Squall, and Vortex of Shadow (ultimate). Wall of Fire remains available as a flex.

Best Companions

The best companions for a Mage build are Harding and Davrin because of their ability to combo Sundered and Weakened. Davrin can play defense for your whole party by using the skill Battle Cry to taunt enemies and keep pressure off of you. Additionally, his skill ‘Death From Above’ can combo with your application of Weakend (Entropic Sphere) for a powerful hit. A secondary choice is the Qunari Taash, who can also detonate Weakened with her Dragonfire Strike ability.

On the other hand, Harding companion can deal a lot of stagger with her abilities and also has a damage buff ability. She’s critical for your combos, and applies Sundered with her Shred ability. A secondary choice is Lucanis, an Antivan Crow Rogue who can also apply the Sundered status effect with his Debilitate ability.

Companion 1: Harding

• Active Skills and Abilities
  • Ability 1: Adrenaline Rush
    • Flex: Seismic Shot
  • Ability 2: Heavy Draw
  • Ability 3: Shred
• Primer Ability: Shred (Sundered)
• Detonator Ability: Heavy Draw (Overwhelmed)

Companion 2: Davrin

• Active Skills and Abilities
  • Ability 1: Battle Cry (Taunt)
  • Ability 2: Death From Above
  • Ability 3: Heroic Strike
    • Flex: In War, Victory
• Primer Ability: Heroic Strike (Overwhelm)
• Detonator Ability: Death From Above (Weakened)

Best Equipment, Items, Weapons

As an Evoker Mage in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, nearly all of your abilities will deal Cold Damage to enemies. However, you will sometimes face targets who have resistance to Cold damage, and consequently your DPS against them will be weak. However, you can offset this effect somewhat by using weapons that deal with fire, electricity, or Necrotic damage.

Overall, look for items that boost your mana regeneration, elemental damage, and resistance.

Gear Slot	Best Item	Best Upgrades
Main Hand	Glacial Rod	Weapon Damage
Off-Hand	Spellcaster’s Stiletto	Barrier Damage
Alternate Weapon	Veilsong	Stagger
Helmet	Carastes Double Hat	Mana Regeneration
Armor	Dalish Wraps	Mana Regeneration
Belt	Golden Halla Sash	Healing
Amulet	Sightless Skull	Boosts Control Abilties
Ring 1	Glacial Talus	Mana Regeneration
Ring 2	Graven Opal	Mana Regeneration

Best Runes

The best Rune for the Evoker Mage build in Dragon Age the Veilguard is Surge because it has both an active and passive trait that greatly boost your mana regen. Secondly, Vivify not only passively boosts your mana regeneration but triggers the active effect that will instantly restore all of your ability cooldowns. Additionally, using your next ability is free.

Finally, the Overflow rune is a great choice for survivability, with a great passive that increases the amount of potions you can carry by one. Crystallize is also a good rune for mages that helps with crowd control, acting as a free cast of Frost Nova. Another flex option is Regroup, which refreshes your companion’s cooldowns instantly.

The best runes for an Evoker Mage build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are:

• Vivify
• Surge
• Overflow

Build Summary – Evoker

FAQs About Evoker Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard

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

Answer: You should choose the Shadow Dragons faction for an Evoker build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard because of the Resourceful bonus trait. Resourceful will boost your Mana generation, which will enable you to cast your most powerful spells more often.

Question 2: Can I play a Dwarven Evoker in Dragon Age The Veilguard?

Answer: No, you cannot choose the Mage class or its Evoker specialization for a Dwarven character in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. This is based on Dragon Age lore, where in the world of Thedas dwarves have no magical abilities whatsoever.

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

Answer: Yes, you can change your build at any point in Dragon Age the Veilguard, but you cannot change your class. Your skills and specialization can be changed by resetting your skill points.

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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