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Discover how to create the best Slayer 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 Slayer builds in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and explain critical choices: factions, specialization, companies, skills, and more.
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 that is 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.
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.
Note: This guide is a work in progress (updated November 1, 2024) and will be updated frequently as we level it to 50.
| Slayer Build Pros | Slayer Build Cons |
|---|---|
| AOE Damage | Sacrifices Survival |
| Best Damage Warrior | Companion Dependent |
| Stuns and Stagger | Heavy Attack Dependent |
Features and Mechanics for the Build in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The following list presents all the essential Slayer Build Features and Mechanics in Dragon Age The Veilguard:
- Faction: Grey Wardens
- Race: Human
- Active Skills
- Ability 1: Driving Kick
- Ability 2: Bloody Advance
- Ability 3: Heroic Leap
- Ground Breaker
- Ultimate: For Gold and Glory
- Trait: Shield Volley
- Specialization: Slayer
- Best Companions: Emmrich, Bellara
- Runes: work in progress
Best Faction
The best faction for a Slayer 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 |
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 Slayer 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 Slayer are Driving Kick, Bloody Advance, and Heroic Leap.
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.
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.
Below are the recommended skills, abilities, ultimate, and traits for Slayer build in Dragon Age the Veilguard:
- Abilities
- Skill 1: Driving Kick
- Skill 2: Bloody Advance
- Skill 3: Heroic Leap
- Flex: Groundbreaker
- Ultimate: For Gold and Glory
- Trait: Shield Volley
Best Specialization
The Slayer’s unique ability and ultimate:
- Heroic Leap (Ability)- It has you leaping forward and then slamming down to deal physical damage to enemies and detonating the weakened effect. It also is highly likely to disrupt enemies.
- For Gold and Glory (Ultimate)- This leaps you into the air and then you select an area to slam back down onto dealing high physical damage in a large AOE along with a very high stagger 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 anytime to redo your skills and specializations.
Level Progression
The premise of our leveling progression section for the Slayer 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.
Complete a basic puzzle or interact with the altars to gain one skill point as a reward. You will gain 15 skill points by 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, you will get a total of 67 skill points that help you 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.
Below, we have outlined our selections of skills at various levels to ensure you select the proper build.
Levels 1 – 10
Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 1 to 10 with the Best Slayer Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard:
- Level 1: Focused Retaliation (Greater Passive)
- Level 2: Titan Stomp (Ability)
- Level 3: Improved Throw (Passive)
- Level 4: Staggering Toss (Greater Passive)
- Level 5: Desolate Malady (Passive)
- Level 6: Ignition (Greater Passive)
- Level 7: Enervation (Passive)
- Level 8: Carom (Greater Passive)
- Level 9: Enraged (Passive)
- Level 10: Explosive Toss (Trait)
Levels 11 – 20
Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 11 to 20 with the Best Slayer Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard:
- Level 11: Enervation (Passive)
- Level 12: Enduring Rage (Greater Passive)
- Level 13: Depth of Fury (Passive)
- Level 14: Deadly Ground (Ability)
- Level 15: Death’s Blessing (Passive)
- Level 16: Critical Power (Greater Passive)
- Level 17: Shellbreaker (Passive)
- Level 18: Blunt Force (Great Passive)
- Level 19: Heavy Hitter (Passive)
- Level 20: Rolling Thunder (Trait)
Levels 21 – 30
work in progress
Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 21 to 30 with the Best Slayer Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard:
- Level 21:
- Level 22:
- Level 23:
- Level 24:
- Level 25:
- Level 26:
- Level 27:
- Level 28:
- Level 29:
- Level 30:
Levels 31 – 40
Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 31 to 40 with the Best Slayer Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard:
- Level 31:
- Level 32:
- Level 33:
- Level 34:
- Level 35:
- Level 36:
- Level 37:
- Level 38:
- Level 39:
- Level 40:
Levels 41 – 50
Here’s a list of skills to select from levels 41 to 50 with the Best Slayer Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard:
- Level 41:
- Level 42:
- Level 43:
- Level 44:
- Level 45:
- Level 46:
- Level 47:
- Level 48:
- Level 49:
- Level 50:
Best Companions
The best companions for a Slayer 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 Equipment, Items, Weapons
The section is a work in progress during the release week of the game.
Beginner: Starting the Game
| Gear Slot | Best Item | Best Stats | Best Properties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Hand | Blight Killer | 25% | Enhance the vulnerability to Fire Damage |
| Off-Hand | Captain’s Heater | 30 + 100 + 10% | Defense + Health + Resistances |
| Alternate Weapon | Shadowbreath | 25% + 15% + (-20%) | Ranged attack damage + Weakened damage + Ranged Mana cost |
| Helmet | Carastes Double-Hat | 15% + 25% + 25% | Momentum Generated + Stagger + Ability cost refunded |
| Belt | Dragon’s Brace | 10% + 25% + 50% | Duration of potion effect + Defense + Healing |
| Amulet | Halla’s Grace | 20% + 10% | Quickened duration + Quickened effectiveness |
| Ring 1 | Amaranthine Loop | 25% + 25% 25% | Stagger + Staggered Duration + Takedown damage |
| Ring 2 | Bleeding Shard | 25% + 15% | Necrotic Weapons duration + Necrotic Weapons damage |
Advanced: Endgame
| Gear Slot | Best Item | Best Stats | Best Properties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Hand | |||
| Off-Hand | |||
| Alternate Weapon | |||
| Helmet | |||
| Belt | |||
| Amulet | |||
| Ring 1 | |||
| Ring 2 |
The section is a work in progress during the release week of the game.
Best Runes
The section is a work in progress during the release week of the game.
Build Summary – Slayer
Faction: Grey Wardens
Race: Human
Skills and Abilities
- Ability 1: Driving Kick
- Ability 2: Bloody Advance
- Ability 3: Heroic Leap
Ultimate: For Gold and Glory
Runes:
Companions
- Companion 1: Emmrich
- Companion 2: Bellara
Beginner Equipment
- Weapon 1: Blight Killer
- Weapon 2: Captain’s Heater
- Alternate Weapon: Shadowbreath
- Helmet: Carastes Double-Hat
- Belt: Dragon’s Brace
- Amulet: Halla’s Grace
- Ring 1: Amaranthine Loop
- Ring 2: Bleeding Shard
End Game Equipment
- Weapon 1
- Weapon 2
- Helmet
- Belt
- Amulet
- Ring 1
- Ring 2
FAQs About Slayer Build in Dragon Age The Veilguard
Question 1: What faction should I pick for a Slayer build?
Answer: Grey Wardens and Lords of Fortune are the best factions to choose for Slayer build due to the Bounded in Blood bonus from Grey Wardens and 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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