Best Dragon Age: The Veilguard Slayer Build

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 5, 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

Slayer Build Features and Mechanics in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The following list presents all the essential Slayer 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: Heroic Leap
    • Ground Breaker
• Ultimate: For Gold and Glory
• Trait: Shield Volley
• Specialization: Slayer
• 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 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	Skill	Tree	Type
1	Shield Volley	Core	Trait
2	Rancor	Core	Greater Passive
3	Spectral Bulwark	Abilities	Ability
4	Enraged	Abilities	Passive
5	Focused Retaliation	Core	Greater Passive
6	Titan Stomp	Survival	Ability
7	Improved Throw	Survival	Passive
8	Return to Sender	Survival	Trait
9	Necessary Steps	Survival	Passive
10	Macochism	Survival	Greater Passive

Slayer Skills at Level 10: Spectral Bulwark, Driving Kick, Titan Stomp, Flashing Fist (Ultimate)

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	Skill	Tree	Type
11	Explosive Toss	Abilities	Trait
12	Killer Instinct	Abilities	Passive
13	Triple Threat	Abilities	Greater Passive
14	Shellbreaker	Lords of Fortune	Passive
15	Flames of Victory	Lords of Fortune	Greater Passive
16	Staggering Charge	Lords of Fortune	Passive
17	Whirlwind	Lords of Fortune	Ability
18	Bulwark	Lords of Fortune	Passive
19	Rolling Thunder	Lords of Fortune	Trait
20	For Gold and Glory Heroic Leap	Slayer Specialization	Ultimate Ability Ability

Slayer Skills at Level 20: Heroic Leap, Whirldwind, Spectral Bulwark, For Gold and Glory (Ultimate)

Levels 21 – 30

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

Level	Skill	Tree	Type
21	Sharper Edge	Slayer	Passive
22	Charged Smash	Slayer	Ability Upgrade
23	Determination	Slayer	Passive
24	Striking Precision	Slayer	Ability Upgrade
25	Overhand Smash	Lords of Fortune	Ability Upgrade
26	Bulwark	Survival	Passive
27	Quick Strikes	Lords of Fortune	Ability Upgrade
28	Concussive Smash	Lords of Fortune	Ability Upgrade
29	Heavy Hitter	Lord of Fortune	Passive
30	Blunt Force	Lord of Fortune	Passive

Slayer Skills at Level 30: Heroic Leap, Whirldwind, Spectral Bulwark, For Gold and Glory (Ultimate)

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.

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

Best Runes

The best Runes for the Slayer 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 Slayer build in DA:V:

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

Build Summary – Slayer

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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• 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