Best Dragon Age: The Veilguard Rogue Build

Discover how to create the best Rogue 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 Rogue builds 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 Rogue Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In Dragon Age: the Veilguard, the Rogue class assumes the Rogue of high burst damage character that can play in melee or at ranged. The Rogue uses medium armor with daggers and a bow. Unlike other classes in the game, rogues do not use bar swaps and can activate their bow-ranged weapon upon activating a button. The Rogue’s combat resource is momentum, which increases when you land attacks and decreases when you are hit. Therefore, you must be careful when building resources to activate powerful skills in melee or at range.

The strength of the Rogue is that it plays at any range effectively, with high damage and no bar swapping. Secondly, you have a low cooldown (6-second) skill, Pifer, which grants you some healing. Therefore, this is an excellent class to pick as a primary damage dealer. However, the Rogue can be complex in combat, requiring combos to build resources. Furthermore, the bow requires aiming with headshots (weak points) for optimal damage. Additionally, generating resources can be difficult when learning the combat and combos.

However, the Rogue is one of the strongest classes in DA:V, and players who enjoy burst damage, high movement, and complex combat.

Rogue Build Pros	Rogue Build Cons
Any Range	Complex Combat
No Bar Swap	Requires Aiming
High Damage	Momentum Builds Slowly

Rogue Build Features and Mechanics in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The following list presents all the essential Rogue 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
• Race: Elf
• Active Skills
  • Ability 1: Reeling Bolt
  • Ability 2: Rain of Decay
  • Ability 3: Storm’s Path
• Ultimate: Twin Gifts of Arlathan
• Trait: Evasion Maneuvers
• Specialization: Veil Ranger
• Best Companions: Darvin, Emmrich
• Runes: Overflow, Regroup, Crystallize

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 a Rogue build is Veil Jumpers because of the Keen Eye bonus granting increased critical and weak point damage. This bonus is optimal for high burst damage and fits the Rogue narrative if you want to be an explorer of ancient elven ruins.

A secondary faction choice is Shadow Dragons because of the Resourceful bonus granting 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
Close to the Veil: gain reputation with the Veil Jumpers more quickly	Light in the Dark: gain reputation with the Shadow Dragons more quickly
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	Resourceful: your class-specific resource regenerates slightly faster

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 Rogue build is the Elf (Elves), traditionally known to have strong connections with the Fade. Elves are usually chosen for spellcasting Mages or physically adept Rogues. 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.

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. The Rogue class can pick any of the four, so make the selection based on your ideal character narrative.

Best Skills and Abilities

The best Rogue build skills are Reeling Bolt, Rain of Decay, and Storm’s Path.

Reeling Bolt is a ranged projectile that applies the weakened effect with a 60-second cooldown. This skill doesn’t require momentum resources but has a long 60-second cooldown. Reeling Bolt can be detonated by your companion Darvin with the skill Death From Above.

Rain of Decay is an area-of-effect ability that you can use against groups of enemies to his many of them with Necrotic damage over time.

Storm’s Path is a skill from the Veil Ranger specialization that detonates overwhelmed, costing one momentum with AOE and electrical damage. Darvin’s ability Heroic Strike applies overwhelmed, which can be combo with Storm’s Path. Use Pifer until you reach level 20 and can select a specialization.

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

• Abilities
  • Skill 1: Reeling Bolt
  • Skill 2: Rain of Decay
  • Skill 3: Storm’s Path
    • Flex: Pilfer
• Ultimate: Twin Gifts of Arlathan
  • Flex: Concussive Barrage
• Trait: Evasion Maneuvers

Best Specialization

The best specialization for Rogue build is Veil Ranger because of its range and area magic damage using the electric element. The Veil Ranger spec emphasizes range bow attacks and skills alongside snares and combos. This is a great choice for balancing damage, crowd control, and survivability. A secondary specialization choice is the Duelist, which is melee-focused and complex but has high damage.

The Veil Ranger’s 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: 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.

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 Rogue build is to give you a step-by-step leveling guide on 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.

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 Veil Ranger 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: Static Strikes (applies weakened), Rain of Decay, Pilfer (detonates overwhelmed), Ultimate

Levels 11 – 20

Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 11 to 20 with the Best Veil Ranger 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	Twin Gifts of Arlathan Storm’s Path	Veil Ranger	Ultimate Ability Ability

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

Levels 21 – 30

Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 21 to 30 with the Best Rogue 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	A Timely Defense	Control	Ability Upgrade
26	Collateral Damage	Control	Ability Upgrade
27	Heartseeker	Control	Ability Upgrade
28	Marked Target	Control	Ability Upgrade
29	Save
30	Archer’s Rhythm Sniper Triumph	Veil Ranger	Trait Trait

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

Best Companions

The best companions for a Rogue build are Darvin and Emmrich because of their ability to combo weakened, sundered, and overwhelm. Darvin fits the tank role by using the skill Battle Cry to taunt enemies and keep pressure off of you. Additionally, the skill In War, Victory can provide Rook a temporary invincibility buff to keep you alive. A more damage-focused tank would be Taash, though it would have lower survivability.

Emrrich companion has the most powerful heal Replenish, area damage, and slow time. He’s critical for combos, though he can be difficult to use if you want to avoid necromancy. A secondary choice is Neve, an Ice Mage who fits the AOE damage role.

Companion 1: Darvin

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

Companion 2: Emmrich

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

Best Rogue 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	Balanced Epee	25%	Damage vs. Mages for the entire party + applies Bleeding vs. Mages
Off-Hand	Treasure	25%	Taash gains Weapon damage
Alternate Weapon	Concentration	25%	Electric Vulnerability becomes more effective
Helmet	Carastes Double-Hat	15% + 25% + 25%	Momentum Generated + Ability cost refunded + Stagger during ability use
Belt	Warden’s Straps	12% + 15%	radius of Potion effect + Fire damage
Amulet	Warden’s Key	10% + 10%	Resistant duration + Resistant effectiveness
Ring 1	Amaranthine Loop	25% + 25% + 25%	Stagger + Staggered Duration + Takedown damage
Ring 2	Band of Smoke	15% + 25% + 20%	Cold damage + Cold Resistance + Cold Ability damage

Best Runes

The best Runes for the Rogue 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 Rogue 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 – Rogue

FAQs About the Rogue Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard

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

Answer: The two best choices for Rogue factions are the Veil Jumpers and Shadow Dragons. The Veil Jumpers provide a small bonus to critical and weak point damage, while the Shadow Dragons increase resources to sustain. Therefore, if you want the most burst damage possible, Veil Jumpers are the best choice, while using skills more frequently would require Shadow Dragons.

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

Answer: Your choice of race in Dragon Age: The Veilguard will matter for dialogue choices when you are interacting with companions, NPCs, and factions. There are no stat bonuses unique to any of the races in the game, however, so the choice is entirely based on looks and roleplay.

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

Answer: Yes, you can change your build and choice of abilities and passives at anytime for free in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. On the skill tree page, there will be a reset button down at the bottom left-hand side of the UI screen. Click this to refund your skill points, and you can reallocate them in any way you choose.

---

Looking For More?

Thank you for reading The Best Dragon Age: The Veilguard Rogue Build. We provide the latest news and create guides for Baldur’s Gate 3, Fallout 4, ARK Survival Ascended, and more. Also, watch me play games on Twitch or visit my YouTube channel!

• 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