Best Dragon Age: The Veilguard Mage Build

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

The fourth installment of Bioware’s hit series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, features deep character customization and build options. Players can earn skill points from level 1 to 50, and select active, passive, traits, and ultimate abilities. Your 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 Mage build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and explain critical choices: factions, specialization, companies, skills, and more.

Note: This guide is a work in progress and will be updated frequently as we level it to 50.

Everything About the Mage Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In Dragon Age: the Veilguard, the Mage class is a versatile ranged caster who can not only inflict damage but uses support spells for buffs, debuffs, crowd control, and more. With the Mage class, when you start leveling you will likely equip traditional weapons such as staves and scepters. Moreover, in The Veilguard, the Mage class will now have the ability to swap weapons, opening up a whole range of combat opportunities and playstyles.

Additionally, as you advance your character and level up, you can specialize in unique subclasses such as the Spellblade. This class specialization uses an elemental orb for spellcasting and a dagger for melee, close-quarters combat. The strength of this combination is that it allows the Mage to adapt during combat in real-time. Switching weapons or spells as needed, depending on the number of enemies or the weakness of the boss.

However, this complexity of gameplay could be frustrating for some players. A Mage will have to be mobile, constantly on the move. Also, having a normally physically weaker class dart in for dagger strikes can be risky because your suriviability is lower. If you mistime your hit and get caught with a heavy blow, it could be a quick game over.

Mage Build Pros	Mage Build Cons
Range	Movement
Area Damage	Combo Dependent
Debuffs	Surviability

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

The following list presents all the essential Mage Build Features and Mechanics 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: Void Blade
• Ultimate: Thunderous End
• Specialization: Spellblade
• 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 a Mage build is Shadow Dragons because the Resourceful bonus grants you faster resource generation. This is a useful bonus for any class but is especially vital for high DPS Mages. The more Mana you can create, the more often you can use your strongest abilities.

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, as well as 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 after you have made your character. Additionally, 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, there are no stat bonuses connected to the individual races. Therefore, your race choice largely influences the story, dialogue choices, and how the world responds to you.

Finally, the one exception to the rule of ‘any race, any class’ in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the Dwarven race. 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 Mage skills in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are Dark Squall, Frost Nova, and Void Blade.

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 a 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.

Finally, Void Blade is one of the class specialization skills available to Spellblades. This ability will dart you into enemy melee ranged for an electricity-based strike that will cut through the void and blast your target and other nearby enemies. Be careful with the timing because the animation takes a second and your enemy can sometimes move out of range.

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: Void Blade
• Ultimate: Thunderous End
• Trait: Mortal Concentration

Best Specialization

The best specialization for the Mage build is Spellblade because of its versatility, with a powerful mix of ranged spellcasting and close-quarters melee. Consequently, you can switch between the two as needed, depending on the type or number of enemies you are facing. A Spellblade build works best when focused on lightning spells to create a powerful storm sorcerer. Moreover, you will dual-wield an orb weapon for ranged spellcasting and an off-hand dagger for critical strikes. A secondary specialization choice is the Evoker, which has less damage but offers great crowd control options that can stop enemies in their tracks.

The Spellblades’s Unique ability and ultimate:

• Void Blade: A strike blast ability that helps you to dash forward and slash enemies dealing electric damage and detonating Sundered.
• Thunderous End: You summon an avatar of the storm to fly out and explode in a large area dealing electric damage and applying two stacks of Shocked to enemies.

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 Mage 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 we advance more in the game.

In Dragon Age, the Veilguard, level progressions are gained through experience points (EXP) earned through different activities such as completing quests and defeating enemies. At certain levels of EXP, you reach a higher level, 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.

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.

Therefore, each build can equip three active skills, one trait skill, and one ultimate.

Below, we have outlined our selections of skills at various levels to ensure you select the proper build. Remember that skills can be respec at anytime, so experiment if our suggestion doesn’t make sense to you and refer back to this guide at any time.

Levels 1 – 10

Your main goal when starting out as a Mage in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is to quickly unlock your first two abilities after Arcane Shot in the Mage Core. Although this build will eventually aim for the Spellblade specialization, none of the class specializations can be unlocked until you reach level 20. Therefore, we’ll head up on our skill tree in order to reach a nice crowd-control ice spell Frost Nova. This skill has a 60 second cooldown, but doesn’t cost any mana like Arcane Shot does.

Next, head through the skill tree to the right towards the Shadow Dragon section. Here your goal will be to reach the Dark Squall ability. This ability detonates Sundered, so you want to pair it with a companion who applies this affliction. Two options are Harding’s Shred ability or Lucanis and his Debilitate ability.

Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 1 to 10 with the Best Mage 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	Downfall	Sustain	Greater Passive

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

Levels 11 – 20

With our foundational Mage abilities and traits set, we’ll now be working our way down to the Spellblade skill specialization. Ideally, you should travel the path and unlock traits, passives and upgrades in order to unlock the Spellblade right at level 20.

You’ll also unlock a couple of abilities along the way. However, there won’t necessarily be a reason just yet to switch out your active abilities. If you want to test out and try Wall of Fire or Storm Surge, then by all means feel free to do so. However, only switch out Storm Surge with Dark Squall and note that your status effect type is now Overwhelmed. Be sure to bring companions that have abilities which can detonate it.

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
11	Wall of Fire	Sustain	Ability
12	Velocity	Sustain	Passive
13	Essence Eater	Sustain	Greater Passive
14	Deterioration	Antivan Crow	Passive
15	Imbued Reaction	Antivan Crow	Greater Passive
16	Underestimated	Antivan Crow	Passive
17	Storm Surge	Antivan Crow	Ability
18	Shellbreaker		Passive
19	Spirit Blade	Antivan Crow	Trait
20	Thunderous End Void Blade	Spellblade	Ultimate Ability

At Level 20, your active Mage ability bar should contain: Dark Squall, Frost Nova, Void Blade, and Thunderous End (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

Next, after unlocking the Spellblade 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 Void Blade ability.

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
21	Finale	Spellblade	Passive
22	Blast Efficiency	Spellblade	Ability Upgrade
23	Deterioration	Spellblade	Passive
24	Arcane Strike	Spellblade	Ability Upgrade
25	Meditation	Shadow Dragon	Passive
26	Light Armor Mastery	Shadow Dragon	Greater Passive
27	Early Frost	Shadow Dragon	Passive
28	Mana Infusion	Control	Greater Passive
29	Meditation	Control	Passive
30	Veil Fury	Spellblade	Trait

Best Companions

The best companions for a Mage build are Harding and Davrin because of their ability to combo sundered and overwhelm. 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 ‘In War, Victory’ can provide Rook a temporary invincibility buff to keep you alive. A more damage-focused tank would be Taash, though they would have lower survivability.

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 can detonate your overwhelm infliction and apply sundered. A secondary choice is Lucanis, an Antivan Crow Rogue who can also detonate the Overwhelmed status effect.

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 Mage Equipment, Items, Weapons

As a Mage in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, nearly all of your abilities will deal Cold or Electric amage 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 or necrotic damage.

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

Gear Slot	Best Item	Best Upgrades
Main Hand	Chilled Grasp	Weapon Damage
Off-Hand	Enchanged Athame	Mana Boost
Alternate Weapon	Veilsong	Stagger
Helmet	Carastes Double Hat	Mana Regeneration
Armor	Dalish Wraps	Mana Regeneration
Belt	Tincture Kit	Healing
Amulet	Light of Starkhaven	Weapon Damage
Ring 1	Glacial Talus	Mana Regeneration
Ring 2	Band of Smoke	Cold Damage

Best Runes

The best Rune for the 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 a Mage build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are:

• Vivify
• Surge
• Overflow

Build Summary – Mage

FAQs About Mage Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard

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

Answer: You should choose the Shadow Dragons faction for a Mage 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 Mage in Dragon Age The Veilguard?

Answer: No, you cannot choose the Mage class 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 I change my class in Dragon Age the Veilguard?

Answer: No, once you have completed the character creation process you cannot change your Rook’s class. However, you can change their class specialization (subclass) at any time 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