Rogue Guide(2010)

A Nightmare Solo Guide for Dual-Weapon Assassin/Duelist (No Pets Allowed!)

Fights of Interest

The following strategies will work consistently. There is need to reload until you succeed -- you'll be able to win these battles every time.

Screenshots.

(pict.com is a little buggy: the arrow buttons won't advance you to page 2 -- you have to click on "2" or "Next" to see the second page.)

- Gazarath and tower ogre

These are handled by running + Dual-Weapon Sweep.

For the ogre, run around in circles (I follow the circular pattern of tiles on the floor). Every 15s or so the ogre will fall behind, which is enough time needed to recharge Sweep. When there is a nice gap (not too large, not too small) between you and him, turn around, hit Sweep, then run away the instant damage is made (see pictures). The ogre only swipes at you -- he won't do a special move like Grab or Ram.

If the ogre does a Ram or Grab, it means you've gotten too close or stayed too long within melee range. Unlike Grab, the effects of Ram can be mitigated if it happens. Run behind him the moment you see Ram activated. You'll be thrown in the opposite direction he's ramming, which buys you enough time to get up and chug a potion.

For Gazarath it's basically the same thing except you're running all over instead of in a circle. Gazarath can be slowed by trees, rocks, etc., allowing you to create the necessary gap for the Sweep trick.

- Sloth demon

Engage immediately and just hack away at him; don't shapeshift; don't disengage from combat. If you do Circle Tower first then he doesn't appear to have Crushing Prison. For his first form (ogre), if you stay engaged with him then he won't use any special ogre talents like Ram or Grab.

- Uldred and the Fade Beast

Engage immediately. Never leave melee range, otherwise he'll start casting (Crushing Prison = the end). Run to his backside, do one backstab, and run again. He won't push you away with Massive Attack, or if it's activated then it won't hit. Just run circles around him: stab and run, stab and run.

Another strategy is to get him near a wall so that Massive Attack will not launch you out of melee range. Although that works, I couldn't make it 100% reliable like above. If you inch away from him, he'll sometimes follow but sometimes cast. The best you could hope for is to run the same times he does, pushing him towards the wall (he does the Moonwalk), but I couldn't get that reliably either.

- High Dragon, Flemeth, Archdemon

Run to his (or her) backside, at approximately the 4 o'clock or 8 o'clock position. It will look like you're stabbing him in the leg (see pictures). Keep stabbing until you either get swept away or he turns. Unlike Uldred, there's no danger for being out of melee range as long as you have fire resist gear (Wade's Superior). When he begins to turn, just turn with him and start again. Never enter melee range on his frontside.

- Gaxkang

With gear and runes you can reach 100% spell resist. Trivial fight.

- Werewolf Lair

While stealthed, walk to the end of first hallway on the left or right. Plant yourself in a corner then unstealth. You should attract at most two Shadow Werewolves. With Felon's Coat and Lifegiver you should be able to survive two consecutive Overwhelms. If you can't then Rock Salve should put you over the top. Since you're in a corner, you won't get hit by other werewolves while down. Do the same for the other dead-end hallway.

Don't forget to buy the Rock Salve recipe at Ostegar since it's your last chance until Landsmeet.

- Corrupted Spider Queen

Lifegiver and Rock Salve for Overwhelm, Deadhead Charge for Web. You should be fine. If you save Deep Roads as the very last task before Landsmeet, then nothing is much of a danger here.

- Broodmother

Shoot her with a bow to avoid Grab. Wear the Heart of Witherfang for the belches. That's pretty much it.

- Revanants, Orzammar Proving, Jarvia

They can't hit you.

Other Screenshots

Final counts.
Final attributes.
My favorite screenshot.

General Strategy Notes

Take out the mages first, of course. For multiple mages or for an uber mage that can't be killed with one stun, put on spell resist gear (outlined later). Once the mages are gone, change back to normal gear.

Fight with your back against a corner. If you suspect the target could be a rogue then be sure to stun him first, as getting stunned yourself is bad news. Otherwise you can usually get in a couple stabs first, then stun, then back to stabbing.

Before Coup De Grace it is sometimes worthwhile to move to the backstab area after stunning.

Origin: Dwarf Noble

10% spell resist is a win, and the 25 gold for taking the bribe (grr, wish it was the promised 100 gold) lands you two early Grandmaster runes (the first things I recommend spending money on).

Sequence of Quests

It seems obvious that Circle Tower should be first for the ability increases. Other than that, I generally did quests in the order of what gear I most wanted and was easiest to obtain.

Circle Tower -- ability bonuses
start Orzammar -- Key to the City
Stone Prisoner -- Helm of Honnleath, Harvest Festival Ring
Denerim stealing errands -- money
Denerim blood mages -- Magister's Shield
Warden's Keep -- storage chest
Haven, Ruined Temple (not yet Caverns) -- Ancient Elven Gloves (spell resist)
Redcliffe -- money for Lifegiver (for Drake's Overwhelm), Shielded Dwarven Armor (spell resist)
Caverns, the Gauntlet -- Master Dweomer Rune, unlock Felon's Coat
Brecilian Forest -- Dusk Ring (used just for opening chests; go back to Haven and get Antivan Leather Boots)
Elven Ruins -- money for Felon's Coat (for Shadow Werewolves)
Werewolf Lair -- money
Orzammar Proving, Carta -- money
High Dragon -- Grandmaster Fire Rune, Deadhead Charge
Flemeth -- since my daggers were already configured for High Dragon (no fire runes)
Deep Roads -- Master Dweomer Rune (from Branka)
finish Crows -- Grandmaster Dweomer Rune, Red Jenny Seekers, another Crow Dagger
Gaxkang -- since I reached 100% spell resist

Abilities

5 points into Cunning gives you 30 Cunning (with gear) which opens any chest and disables any (or most any?) trap. Everything else goes into Dexterity.

First pants, then shoes. You need to hit first, then you can do damage. I need to power through Weakness, Growl, and other attack penalties. I can still miss with debuffs like those, and I don't like missing.

I'll take the defense bonus, attack bonus, physical resistance bonus, and 1/2 damage bonus with Dexterity over a mere damage bonus with Cunning. A party-based rogue (where high Cunning is reasonable) is a totally different concept.

With such high defense you are mostly not hittable (special attacks aside: Rake, Sweep, etc). The exception is, oddly enough, the archers in the arl's estate. Friggin Jedi Masters, those archers are. And they aren't even using talents like Aim. Also there is Ser Cauthrien, who hit me once. Out of curiosity I re-fought the battle but couldn't reproduce her hit. Maybe it was a fluke.

Talents

Roughly in order:

Dual-Weapon Training
Dual-Weapon Sweep, Flurry, Momentum
Deft Hands
Stealth
Dual-Weapon Finesse
Dueling
Stealthy Item Use
Combat Stealth
Improved Tools, Mechanical Expertise
Master Stealth
Device Mastery
Upset Balance, Keen Defense
Combat Movement, Coup De Grace
Dual Striking, Riposte
Mark of Death, Exploit Weakness
Below the Belt, Deadly Strike, Lethality

A more powerful build could be made by ignoring the Deft Hands tree, but I prefer to disable traps and unlock chests. I didn't need more power; utility is nicer. Avoiding traps with foreknowledge of their location is cheesy, as is reloading when you hit one. Also, Antivan Leather Boots are in a strongly locked chest.

You might be surprised that I took Coup De Grace so late. Here my philosophy is, again, "first pants, then shoes." The first order of business is attack and defense. I can live without Coup De Grace, but I can't live with missing or getting hit. +10 attack and +10 defense from dueling mode is a big win.

Riposte comes later because it requires more stamina, because it's not as reliable at stunning as Dirty Fighting (perhaps because Riposte is a physical resistance check), and because Combat Stealth makes it slightly redundant.

I've never seen Dirty Fighting and Riposte work consecutively on the same target. After a Dirty Fighting stun, a successful stun with Riposte is ignored, and vice-versa. For a given target it's as if there is a cool-down interval for stunning as a whole. Though a nice talent, Riposte isn't quite as nice as it looks.

Lethality is last because the bonus is small.

With a 5-minute recharge time, Feign Death can't be incorporated into a combat strategy. It might be useful as a fallback, but if that is the case then your strategy failed. Find a different strategy, one that works every time.

Though it looks promising, Evasion is disastrous for a solo rogue. There is an animation tied to Evasion: daggers are held up in a defensive posture with a distinctive "chinggg" sound effect. Say you've sneaked into the middle of a hoard of archers to assassinate a caster. You begin wailing on him, but every other second you stop, hold up your daggers, and wait for the "chinggg". Meanwhile the stun wears off and you haven't killed the caster. The problem appears to be that Evasion is applied before the normal attack/defense check. But whatever the reason it's better to get hit than to interrupt backstabbing a stunned target.

Skills

The only points I really cared about were:
1 point stealing (for Denerim quests)
2 points Coercion
2 points Herbalism

After that, in order:
max Coercion
max Herbalism
max Poison

I didn't use traps or bombs.

I didn't use poison until after Landsmeet. Having no other use for my money, right before Landsmeet I bought ingredients for loads of health potions, Swift Salves, and Quiet Deaths. The buffs aren't strictly necessary, just convenient.

I didn't make any salves besides Swift Salves, but I hoarded whatever I came across.

Gear

I carried around three sets of gear.

default gear:
- The Rose's Thorn, Crow Dagger
- Helm of Honnleath
- Red Jenny Seekers (Backhands until Crows is finished)
- Felon's Coat (if unavailable: Senior Enchanter's Robes by default, Duster Armor for Overwhelm)
- Bard's Dancing Shoes
- Magister's Shield; Deadhead Charge for Web and knockdown attempts
- Harvest Festival Ring; Lifegiver for Overwhelm; Ring of Ages for Archdemon
- Key to the City (always on)

fire resist gear:
- Wade's Superior Drakeskin Armor, Gloves, Boots.

spell resist gear:
- Crow Daggers: 10% 8% 8% | 8% 6% 6% (or the best Dweomer runes you have)
- Spellward: 30%
- Ancient Elven Gloves: 4%
- Shielded Dwarven Armor: 4%
- Antivan Leather Boots: 4%
- Key to the City: 4%

Adding 10% for Dwarven spell resist makes 102%.

If your Crow Daggers are not Dragonbone with 3 rune slots, give them to a merchant to upgrade (I use Levi).

During Dead Trenches and the final battle sequence, swap in the two Grandmaster Silverites for the default gear set.

Ground Rules

- Don't use party members. If they are forced into your party, set their tactics to Self:Any -> Wait to avoid auto-attack.

- Don't use party members during peacetime for skills or talents.

- Don't split up enemy groups by luring.

- Don't call in armies during the final battle, except for the encounter where your character is not in the party. In this case all my party members were naked so I summoned Dwarves, which is why my screenshots say 44 Dwarves. I could have equipped them, but I didn't bother.

I violated the luring rule in two places: the fields of Lothering, and the three-Drake ambush at the goat cages. Otherwise I was not at all tempted to lure. With pumped Dex I didn't get hit much, and it's more fun to do it right. Much of the time I didn't even use stealth -- I just planted my butt in a corner and hacked away. Sometimes I didn't even bother using corners. I stood in the middle of the room and pounded on Witherfang, with hordes of werewolves jumping this way and that; not one hit me, nor did Witherfang.

I use the term "luring" as distinct from "pulling" because pulling refers to groups. You can't pull groups in Dragon Age. Luring (as I use the term) refers to drawing out individuals from a group, which is in my opinion an exploit. (Please, no arguments about luring here; take it up in the other thread.)

Regrets

- I wanted to do Deep Roads last, however I supported Harrowmont, causing the palace rooms to be locked, causing the Crows quests to blocked, causing Red Jenny Seekers to be unavailable. When I realized this I was too far along to redo it, but Backhands (10% crit damage instead of 15%) was good enough anyway.

- I forgot to buy Ring of Ages for the Archdemon. I don't enjoy chugging more potions than necessary.

- I thought the Sloth Demon might be impossible at 8th level, so I went paranoid and brewed 50 regular (not lesser) health potions. It turns out Slothy was quick and easy. Wasting money early in the game hurts. Plus, those 50 potions went unused throughout the game.

- Helm of Honnleath and Harvest Festival Ring are too uber. I got them at the beginning and rarely took them off. It's as if I payed money to rig the game in my favor. A play-through without any DLC items would feel more legitimate.

- I regret the two cases of luring. I probably could have hatched a plan with traps or something. I didn't use traps, and I didn't use salves or poisons until the end battle, so those options were unexplored. (I was obsessed with saving money.) The problem with Lothering is that in the open fields there are no walls (preferably corners) to cover your back, and enemies don't follow you into town. And the problem with Drakes is consecutive Overwhelms. Without Felon's Coat I can survive one Overwhelm, but not two or three. Yet traps + Rock Salve + Swift Salve + Quiet Death may have solved the problem.

Background

I've always done post-BG2 Bioware games solo. It's a way to make them more challenging since (after BG2) they are not really made for RPG strategists. (Please don't flame here; that's not the point.)

On my first play-through of Dragon Age I tried a solo assassin/duelist on Nightmare. I failed in most of the fights mentioned at the beginning of this post.

I also did quests in the exact wrong order. I looked on the DA wiki to see which daggers were nice, and I chose Dead Thaig Shanker from the Shale quest. Thus I did Orzammar first. Little did I know what was in store for me. Doing all of Deep Roads as a low-level solo rogue was absolutely exhausting. Each encounter had to be planned specially. I kept thinking the Shale quest (and my dagger) was just around the corner. Holy crap. I eventually resorted to luring, and I hated it. So that is the story behind the (now cringeworthy) post I made on luring.

And I did Circle Tower last, not knowing about the ability bonuses. Phooey.

On my second run I did Deep Roads last, which didn't require any luring. Pumping Dexterity yields disproportionately favorable results at higher levels. And doing Circle Tower first means you get Combat Stealth for free, and right when you need it.

I was glad to find reliable strategies which solve the problems I encountered, and I write this post to share them. I hope you found something useful.



I tend to play rogues in every game that lets me, and DA is no exception. But like many others I was disappointed at the lack of documentation about stealing, lockpicking, and other gameplay mechanics. So I looked through the code and game files using the toolset to figure them out. Here are the results.

I posted most of this stuff at one point or another in the old forums, but since that forum is gone and not archived despite official statements to the contrary, I figured it'd be nice to have it all in one place here. All the info here is for the PC version; I can't promise it's the same on consoles.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

I: Stealth
II: Stealing
III: Lockpicking
IV: Traps
V: Coercion




I: STEALTH
This information comes from skill_stealth.nss, sys_stealth_h.nss, and rules_core.nss.

Your success at entering stealth seems to be deterministic (i.e. not random) and obeys a simple algorithm. Consult the following table to see whether fortune smiles upon you today:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

For clarity's sake, I'll also write out the algorithm below. Go through the steps below in order to figure out whether you can stealth or not:

Step 1: Am I in combat? If not, SUCCESS.
Step 2: Are there no enemies within 20m? If not, SUCCESS.
Step 3: Do I have Combat Stealth? If not, FAIL.
Step 4: Is my stealth rank greater than the rank of the highest ranked creature within perception range? If not, FAIL.
Step 5: SUCCESS

"Stealth rank" is the number of points you have in the stealth tree. Combat Stealth is rank 3 and Master Stealth is rank 4. For stealth purposes, "Creature rank" is 1 for whites, 2 for yellows, 3 for bosses, and 4 for 1337 bosses.

Notice that cunning appears to play no part in determining whether you can enter stealth or not.

What happens if you get damaged while stealthed (e.g. by a trap)? If you only have stealth rank 1 or 2, you automatically break stealth. If you have stealth rank 3, you have a 0.01 * [player level] chance of staying stealthed (e.g. a level 18 rogue has an 18% chance). If you have stealth rank 4, you have a 0.02 * [player level] chance of staying stealthed (e.g. a level 18 rogue has a 36% chance).

I haven't been able to figure out what is your chance of staying cloaked while laying traps. This seems to be nondeterministic; sometimes it fails, but when I reload and try again it works. It's possible that this chance is affected by cunning, but I can't find the code anywhere.



II: STEALING
This information comes from skill_stealing.nss.

When attempting to steal, the game calculates a thief score (T) and a victim score (V) and compares the two. If T > V, the attempt is a success; otherwise it's a failure. The thief score depends on the player's cunning, ranks in Stealing, and his ranks in Stealth (if he is stealthed). The victim score depends on the victim's mental resistance, rank, whether or not either actor is in combat, and the difference between the thief's level and the victim's level.

The formula for thief score is:
T = (cunning - 10) + 5 * [ranks in stealing] + 5 * [points in stealth if stealthed]

As you can see, each point in Stealing or Stealth is worth 5 points in cunning. One point in Stealth is worth a rank in Stealing if (but only if) you attempt to steal while stealthed. If you're not stealthed, obviously, your points in Stealth don't contribute to your thief score. Be warned that attempting to steal will break your stealth, even if you're succcesful. Further, you need Stealing IV to attempt to steal in combat.

Oh, one more thing: T is randomized to within 80-120% of the value above before being compared to V. That's why stealing is non-deterministic.

The formula for victim score is:
V = [mental resistance] + [creature rank bonus] + 2 * [victim's level - thief level (this can be negative)] + 10 (if thief or victim are in combat)

The rank bonus is 0-5 for white creatures, 10 for yellows, 20 for bosses, and 40 for elite bosses.

AN EXAMPLE
Let's go through an example to see how this works in practice. Suppose we are a level 12 model citizen trying to steal from a level 10 yellow NPC with 20 mental resistance outside combat. The victim's score is:

V = 20 + 10 + 2 * (10-12) = 26

In order to guarantee success, we would need a thief score of 27 / 0.8 = 34 (rounded up to the nearest integer). How can we obtain a T of 34? There are many ways:
* Stealing I, cunning 39
* Stealing I, Stealth I, cunning 34
* Stealing I, Stealth III, cunning 24
* Stealing IV, cunning 24

Etc. You can run through some hypotheticals yourself to see how this works. I don't know the stats of every NPC, so please don't ask me how much mental resistance the Reverend Mother has (you monster).



III: LOCKPICKING
This information comes from placeable_h.nss and GetDisableDeviceLevel() in core_h.nss.

Whenever you attempt to unlock a chest or door, the game calculates a lockpicking score (L) and compares it to the lock difficulty (D). If L >= D, the attempt is a success; otherwise it fails. Unlike stealing, there is no random element in lockpicking.

The lockpicking score is simple to compute:

L = (cunning - 10) + 10 * [lockpicking rank]

Your lockpicking rank is the number of points you have in the Deft Hands tree. If you have Deft Hands alone, your rank is 1; if you have Device Mastery, your rank is 4. As you can see, each point in the Deft Hands/lockpicking tree is worth 10 points of cunning. Notice that you can actually open locks without any points in the lockpicking tree if your cunning is high enough (I confirmed this in-game).

If you successfully pick a lock, you'll gain XP equal to D (with a minimum of 5). Thanks Sheffsteel for the observation.

Great! But how high does your lockpicking score have to be to pick every pickable lock in the game? Unfortunately I don't have the time or know-how to inspect every lock in the toolset to find a maximum value for D. However, there is a big hint in traps.xls, which contains a sheet called lock_difficulty with the following table:

1 Auto Success
10 Simple
20 Very Easy
30 Easy
40 Medium
50 Hard
60 Very Hard
10000 Impossible

So I would tentatively suggest that you need a lockpicking score of 60 to pick every lock that can be picked. You can achieve a lockpicking score of 60 by getting Device Mastery + 30 cunning, or Mech. Expertise + 40 cunning, etc. Of course, some locks will still require keys or event triggers to open.

Some people have finished the game with a lockpicking score of 60 and said this was enough to open everything. One person on the old forums said he was unable to open a chest with a lockpicking score of 64, but I don't know the circumstances. I would appreciate feedback from more people about whether 60 is enough for everything.



IV: TRAPS
This information comes from sys_traps_h.nss, placeable_h.nss, and GetDisableDeviceLevel() in core_h.nss.

Trap disarming is just like lockpicking; the game calculates a disarm score using the exact same formula it uses to calculate your lockpicking score. It then compares this to the trap's disarm difficulty. If your disarm score >= the disarm difficulty, the trap is succesfully disarmed; otherwise it is not. There's one exception: you can always succesfully disarm your own traps.

As with lockpicking, if you succesfully disarm a trap you'll gain XP equal to the trap's disarm difficulty (down to a minimum of 5).

Trap detection works like this: the game periodically checks for hidden enemy traps within a spherical volume with radius 10m + 1m per lockpicking rank (at Device Mastery this is a 14m radius). Note that the trap-making skill apparently does NOT increase your detection radius, despite what the tooltip says. For each hidden enemy trap within that volume, the game checks the player's disarm score (see paragraph above for how to calculate it) against the trap's detection difficulty. If this score >= the trap's detection difficulty, the player detects it; otherwise the player does not.

Minor note: for detection purposes only, the player gets a +10 bonus to his disarm score if he is under the effect EFFECT_TYPE_TRAP_DETECTION_BONUS. I have no idea what, if anything, grants this effect. It doesn't seem like the trap-making skills or lockpicking talents grant this effect, nor do any other spells or talents. Maybe it's just unused.

Notice that a trap's detection difficulty and disarm difficulty are different variables. This explains why you can sometimes detect a trap but fail to disarm it.

How difficult are traps to disarm or detect? Again, traps.xls gives us a hint. It has a sheet called trap_difficulty that contains a table identical to the one copied above for locks. So I would tentatively say that a disarm/lockpicking score of 60 will enable you to detect and disarm every trap that can be detected and disarmed. Again, player feedback would be appreciated.



V: COERCION
The information here comes from UT_SkillCheck() in utility_h.nss. Credit goes to Codrus0 for finding it!

The coercion formula is simple to state. Every rank in Coercion gives you 25 "coercion points." Every point in cunning above 10 (for Persuade checks) or in strength above 10 (for intimidate checks) gives you 1 coercion point. The most difficult coercion checks require 100 coercion points to pass. Coercion checks are deterministic.

This means that Coercion 4 should be sufficient by itself to pass every Persuade or Intimidate check without any investment in cunning or strength. Coercion 3 is sufficient if you have at least 35 cunning or strength, as appropriate. And so on.


[Third Guide]

This is a basic character builds faq, and should show you how to make basic builds, with stat allocation. For Mages, this is quite hard, so I've just listed some good groups of spells. Basically, with mages, you don't have to have an overall goal with your character. Generally, just picking whatever spells you feel like works fine. There is nothing stopping your healer from getting some DPS or crowd control, for example.

WARRIOR BUILDS:

1) Weapon and Shield Tank

Weapon and Shield, generally known as SnS or Sword and Shield, is the best class for a tank. Basically, the goal of this character is to a) get aggro and b) stay alive for as long as possible.

Talents

Talents wise, like most warriors, you'll end up with pretty much every skill in the warrior/SnS trees. At low levels though, you need to chose. You have two real options at low levels. You can go straight for Taunt and Threaten, so your character keeps the aggro. However, you'll die fast. OR you can go straight for Shield Wall, to have higher armor and stay alive. Eventually, you'll want both.

You have two sustainables to chose between. Shield Wall and Shield Defense. Shield Wall gives you a big armor boost, so enemies do less damage. Shield Defense increases Defense, so you get hit less. It is really up to you. However, Shield Wall gives you immunity to knock down, with Shield Expertise. In my opinion, for a dex tank, Shield Wall is better at low levels, because your defense won't yet be high enough to dodge a lot of attacks. At higher levels, Shield Defense is better. But, against anything that does knockdowns, like Ogres, Dragons, etc, you want Shield Wall. Also, you should always have Threaten activated when you have it. Keep Shield Bash and Pummel off cooldown, to use as interupts for casters or grab/overwhelmers.

Specialisations

You want Templar/Champion, no doubt about it. Templar lets you wear Knight Commander Armor, for 40% spell resist, making Spell immunity possible with runes/spellward/ket to the city. The tier 2 Templar ability is also great for Curse of Mortality/Misdirection Hex. If your Mage has Glyph of Neutralization, though, it isn't necessary.

You want Champion for Rally+Motivate, which gives you a big defense and attack boost. It affects your whole party, too, which is awesome. Warcry+Superiority is also great, giving you an AoE knockdown, which can be used as an interupt.

Gear

Gearwise, it's simple. You want the biggest, strongest armor you can find. The best Armors are Juggernaught, for all-around usefulness, Evon the Greats is also very good (probably with Diligence gloves + boots) Knight Commanders, for casters, and Wade's Superior Dragonbone, for dragons. The Helm Corruption is brilliant for the final fight, with 75% spirit resistance.

Also, to meet 42 strength, you need the Ornate Leather Belt, Key to the City, Harvest Festival Ring, Helm of Honleath.

Weapons wise, use a dagger. That way you get increased damage from dexterity, which you'll be pumping anyways. For your shield, the best shield in the game is Howe's Shield, which you get during the Landsmeet part of the main quest. However this is very late in the game. Other good shields, which you can get earlier are Eamon's Shield, the Champions Shield*, and the Aeducan Shield*.

The best rings are the Key to the City, and Lifegiver. Ring of the Ages is also good, when you need fire resist. Spellward is imo the best Amulet, and the best belt is Andruils Blessing.

*Credit to Soteria, I had no idea of these. The Aeducan Shield requires you to be a Dwarven Noble. You can Pickpocket Vartag for the Champions Shield, which I'd say is the best pre-landsmeet shield in the game.

Stats

Stats wise, you want the minimum possible strength to wear the best armor, and everything else goes into dex. Lifegiver ring gives you plenty of constituition to survive grabs etc. I say 35 strength, because the gear I mentioned is easy to get (Key to the city, Helm of Honleath and Harvest Festival Ring) or cheap (Ornate leather belt). You could shave another 4 points off it with Vanguard and Andruils Blessing instead of the Ornate leather belt, but to get the Vanguard, you have to side with Caradin, making it not usable for everyone, and taking a long time to get, considering most people go to Orzammar last, that's a long way into the game. Andruils Blessing is really expensive, so I go with Ornate leather belt, which can be brought from Old Tegrin for less than a sovereign.

35 strength (including fade bonus)
Max dex
Base will
Base con
Base mag
Base cun

2) Two-handed Warrior

Thanks TheRage, and others, who've given information for this build.

2handed Warriors aren't the highest DPS class in the game, and they aren't the most defensive class. However, they have a lot of utility. For this reason, many have soloed nightmare with this class. Just a note for solos, utility is often more important than stats. For example, many who have completed solo nightmare with a 2h warrior have said they found Reaver better than Berserker. Because Reaver has utility instead of direct damage. In a normal class playthough, you don't need as much utility with other classes pitching in. As a result, many dislike 2h warriors, when they aren't actually that bad.

Also, consider using Heroic Offense on your 2h warrior early game, when you have a low hit rate. Late game, using Haste is a good idea, to speed up the 2hers slow attack speed. If you have a dual wielder in your party, though, maybe not.

Talents

Talents are the crux of the 2h build. Almost all of your damage comes from talents. Again, you'll eventually max all of your talents. Early game, though, you can't. Getting Precise Striking early on is recommended, because even pure strength, you'll miss a lot. Although at high levels, Precise Striking is often critisised, considering you hit most of the time anyway, it's actually very useful. Because it doesn't affect the speed of your active abilities. This makes is very nice, because of the increase in crit% and attack isn't really affected by the speed. The best Sustainable for a 2h warrior, and without it they'd be really bad, is Indomitable. This gives you immunity to Stuns and Knockdowns, which is awesome, especially against Dragons. As for active abilities, you want to get the Sunders asap. They might not seem awesome, but they actually attack twice. Other mentionable abilities are Critical Strike, which is great for shattering frozen/petrified opponents, and 2h sweep, a 360 degree attack, great for crowd control. Finally, Pommel strike. Don't use this against normal mobs, save it, so when your allies get grabbed/overwhelmed, you can save them. Also, powerful swings is good endgame, but don't bother getting it early, as your already low attack rating will become abysmal.

Specializations

Any specializations can work on a 2h warrior. It, again, depends on it's role. For pure DPS, Berserker is the best choice. Reaver is nice, for some utility, through Frightening apperance, and a little more damage. Champion is a very good choice, as Rally/motivate helps increase your low attack rating, and Warcry gives you another AoE move. Finally, Templar is good, for mages. Champion/Berserker is probably the best for team play, (assuming a team of a tank/mage/rogue/2h warrior), while either Reaver/Champion or Reaver/Templar is the best for soloing.

Gear

Gear wise, the best of the best is Warden Commander Armor. However, if you don't have the DLC, like me, you should go with Wade's Superior Dragonbone (thanks The Rage), because it gives bonuses to stamina regen and fatigue. In fact, if you're in a team where you're not the tank, Wade's Dragonskin could work, giving you a negative fatigue penalty. Other gear worth mention is the Harvest Festival ring, for +attack.

Weaponwise, the best are the Starfang, from the Wardens Keep DLC, and the Chasind Great Maul, for those without it. Keep in mind, the Chasind Great Maul is slower, but stronger. When you consider you'll be using active abilities most of the time, this speed doesn't matter.

Early game, you can get the Yusaris, from collecting the apprentices notes in the mages tower and killing the resulting demon. It has +10 damage vs dragons, making it a good choice for the High Dragon and Flemeth. There is also the Ageless, from defeating the dragon in the Orzammar Royal Palace.

Stats

For Stats, the 2h Warrior is the easiest. Simply, all points in strength. With the fade bonuses and armor, you should have plenty of stamina for your abilites. But if you really want more, you might want to put some points in willpower.

max str
base dex
base (or ~20) wil
base con
base mag
base cun

3) Dual Wield Warrior

The Dual Wield Warrior is the highest DPS Warrior class. Many believe it's better than a DW Rogue, but Rogues get a lot of utility. There are two main builds for Dual Wield Warriors. You can get minimum Strength for Massive Armor, and max dex, using dual wield daggers. This is the highest DPS on a warrior. Or you can go minimum dex for Talents, and max strength, using two full size weapons, to maximise your AoE damage.

Talents

Again, you'll max your Talents eventually. For a Dagger using Dual Wielder, you want to get Momentum Asap. You'll run Momentum, Berserk, Dual Striking all the time. For the Fullsized Dual Wielder, get Dual Weapon Sweep and Whirlwind as early as possible. You'll also want to use Punisher eventually. Focus of active abilities, rather than sustainables. You'll want to run into the battle, taunt, Whirlwind, Dual Weapon Sweep, Disengage, THEN activate your sustainables.

Specialisations

You want to spec Berserker, definitely. The last spec is up to the player. You can go Champion, for the AoE knockdown, Reaver, for a little more DPS, or Templar, to deal with mages. I'd recommend Champion, but it depends on the rest of your party.

Gear

Your Gear very much depends on what you're doing with your build. If you're tanking, with daggers, you should just use your Juggernaught/Imperial Legion/Knight Commander armor. If you're using two fullsize weapons, I'd recommend using Wade's Superior Dragonbone armor, because it has massive bonuses to Fatigue. I don't have Wardens Keep, so I can't vouch for that.

Stats

Again, like the SnS warrior, I'm assuming you'll use the gear I mentioned for the dex build. For the strength build, you have to have 36 base dex, so no items are necessary.

Fullsize

Max str
36 dex
Base will
Base con
Base mag
Base cun

Daggers

35 str +7 from items
max dex
base wil
base con
base mag
base cun

4) Warrior Archer

Many people overlook the Warrior Archer. I personally think it's better than a Rogue Archer combat wise in many respects, and is the best Mage-killer class in the game. You want Min Strength for armor, and Max Dex for Longbows*. I say this, because Strength and Dex both contribute 50% damage on Longbows. They both increase your attack. So once you have the strength for your armor, you should always max dex to get higher defense. Also, just fyi, I'm playing on console, so I don't have the Dex fix. For anyone else playing on the console, pump strength instead of dex, because the bonus from dex doesn't work. Imo, Strength/Longbow warrior is the strongest archer pre-dex fix.

*thanks BlackVader for testing Shortbows v Longbows!

Talents

For your Archery Talents, you want to get Arrow of Slaying ASAP. Imo the best way to build a Warrior Archer is to kill mages, and this is how you will do this. It does great damage on anything, and can easily hit over 600 damage. The next skill you want to get is Scattershot, your only real AoE skill. It is awesome on groups of enemies, particularly if you have a backstabber rogue. Especially because it doesn't have friendly fire. Also, you want to get Disengage, as you'll be wearing heavy armor and need a way to drop threat.

Specialisations

You want Templar/Champion for your Archer. Templar means you can get 100% magic resist, which is awesome, and further cemments this build as the best mage-killer in the game. You want Champion for Warcry, as the AoE knockdown is great when surrounded, and for Rally. Rally gives you a good attack bonus, which is important as bows miss a lot.

Gear

For Gear, I recommend going the 100% magic resist route, using Knight Commander's plate, 1 GM and 2 M Dweomer runes, and Key to the City. Harvest Festival ring is also good, for the +attack. For general play, use Evon The Greats' Mail and Wades Superior Dragonscale.

Attributes

Attribute wise, like most builds, it's really simple. Again, use the setup I described for the tank build to get +7 strength to wear heavy armor. You want to wear Evon the Great's Mail with Wades Superior Dragonscale for most of the game, but have the Knight Commanders Armor as well, for mages. Even with the penalty from Massive armor, it's worth it.

32 str
Max dex
base wil
base con
base mag
base cun

5) War Dog

I figure I might do a little section on Dog, since many people don't know how to build (it?). Dog can be a very valuable character. He hits high, and his Overwhelm ability is awesome. He is an awesome mage killer, as they almost never resist his overwhelm. Overwhelm should work on any human-sized character. Just don't try it on Uldred and expect it to work.

Talents

Talents wise, go straight to Overwhelm (top level of the War Dog tree). Then go for Nemesis. Any spare points should go into the top level of the warrior tree if you have it (it only seems to exist on a Human Noble for me (PS3) can anyone confirm when you get the warrior tree? I recall not having it at first, until Ostagar).

Gear

Gearwise, the best you can get is the Pure B*tch Braid, which you get from killing the High Dragon. As for the best warpaint, the best ones are the Kaddis of the Trickster (+3 damage) or the Warpaint of the West Hills, depending on if you want your dog to do damage or off-tank.

Stats

Easy, Pure Strength.

max str
base dex
base wil
base con
base mag
base cun

ROGUE BUILDS

1) Backstabber Rogue

The Backstabber Rogue is the most stereotypical Rogue Build. Imo it is one of the best builds in the game. Take a Dual Wield Warrior, take away massive armor, and replace it with utility through Stealth, Lockpicking, Traps (other classes can, but it's pretty useless on a warrior. You want to be able to use stealth and set them up.)

Backstabbers do some nasty DPS. Wether they do more than a Warrior is contriversial, but either way, it's very high.

Talents

Rogues are starved for talents. You can't max out all of your skills. I recommend you put only dex until you have 24 dex, and go straight for Momentum. Momentum is basically a flat 40% DPS increase, which is awesome. First level, though pick up Deft Hands as well as dual weapon sweep, as there are a lot of locks that you can pick in the origins. After Momentum, get Combat Movement, making Backstabbing much easier. Then I'd get Riposte, then get Deadly Strike before level 8. Then at level 8, you can take Lethality and Coup De Grace, which are cornerstones to this build. Then put your points into stealth. At level 13 you should have Master Stealth, Coup De Grace, Lethality, Momentum and Riposte. Then you can focus on specializations, after that, start putting points in the Dual Weapons line till expertise. If you're playing a Dex build, put the points from the Lethality line into lockpicking instead.

Specializations

For Specializations, the best one is the Assassin spec, for Mark of Death and Exploit weakness, although the others are worth getting. Then, you want to chose between Duelist and Bard. If you have another rogue who is a bard, take Duelist. If you're a Dex Rogue, take duelist for Pinpoint Striking. Otherwise, Bard is the best choice for a cunning rogue, as the songs are based off your cunning score.

Gear

Gearwise, you will be using light armor. You want gear to give you increase backstab damage.

Helm of Honnleath
Felons Coat
Red Jenny's Seekers
Silverhammer Tackmasters
Dusk Ring
Harvest Festival Ring
Andruils Blessing

The best Weapons are the Roses Thorn (main hand) and either the Crows Dagger (the t7 version with 3 rune slots) or the Thorn of the Dead Gods (t6 version)

Stats

We get 15 strength so you can equip light armor with easy to get/cheap items. Enough cun to open every lock on a dex rogue, or enough dex to equip the best daggers on a cun rogue.

15 Strength (including fade bonus, don't need any points if you're a human or a dwarf)
max dex (on a dex build) or 30 for a cunning rogue (for tier 7 daggers)
base wil
base con
base mag
30 cun (dex build) or max cun (cunning build)

2) Archery Rogue

Many consider the Archery Rogue to be one of the best damage classes in the game. They are also great for solo's. Most people don't understand that Solo playthroughs are all about utility, rather than damage, or stats. Backstabber Rogues/Dual Wield Warriors may be great at doing damage, but an Archer has the utility to shine in solo play. The Archery Rogue has two great skills, Shattering Shot, which stuns the target and all nearby enemies. And Arrow Of Slaying, which does extremely high damage, OHKOing most weak targets, especially useful for killing enemy mages. My personal suggestion with the Archery Rogue is to focus solely on combat until you have maxed most of the archery line and got Lethality. Otherwise, you may become one of many complaining about how Archers are underpowered.

There are two main types, once again. Dex or Cunning. Dex is better, damage wise, attack wise, and defense wise. But Cunning is the only choice on consoles. Cunning also has better Bard Songs, which will help your entire party.

Talents

Basically, either go for Shattering Shot, or Arrow of Slaying, straight off the bat. To do this, you will need to pump dex for your early levels. Basically, I'd go for Arrow of Slaying early, if you're playing in a party, or Shattering Shot for a solo game. You will want both of them in time. If you're going Cunning, you should also get Lethality ASAP, or you will suck.

Specializations

Archers will have a poor hit-rate, particularly if you're playing a cunning build. You will want to rectify this. You can either go with Duelist or Bard. Bard is nice, for Song of Courage, increasing your damage as well as your attack. Duelist gives you the Dueling Stance which boosts your attack, and Pinpoint Striking, which AFAIK can only be activated with a melee weapon. So you can switch to your dagger, activate it, then back to your bow. I recommend Bard, for Cun rogues, but it's your choice. You should definitely go Ranger for your second spec. No spec will give you more DPS than a pet, and your hit rate will already be taken care of.

Gear

Gear-wise, archer's are not dissimilar to backstabbers. You will get plenty of crits, through Critical shot, which has a low stamina cost, and a fast cooldown.

Helm of Honleath
Felons Coat
Red Jenny's Seekers
Silverhammer tackmasters/Bards Dancing Shoes/Cadash Stompers
Harvest Festival Ring
Dusk Ring
Far Song (if Cunning) Whitewood Bow (if Dex)
Adruils Blessing
Spellward (for the Willpower boost)

Stats

15 strength (for top tier light armor)
30 dex (if cunning) max dex (if dex)
base wil
base con
mase mag
max cun (if Cunning) 30 cun (if Dex)

Mage Builds:

You can’t really write out a “perfect” build, for a Mage. The thing with Mages, is that they’re all about Utility, rather than raw power (although they can certainly do that). You can’t min/max them like other characters. You can’t
do tests with a mage to compare builds, like you can with a dex v con based tank. Mass Paralysis might be a better spell than sleep, but it doesn’t have the Nightmare combo, it has a longer cast time. It’s all up to the player.

And then it matters on the player’s party. If they have Zevran, Oghren and Leliana, with a PC Mage, perhaps it’s best to go with an Arcane Warrior to add some kind of tank. But if your party is Alistar, Shale and a Dex-based
Zevran, perhaps it’s best to go with a crowd control caster.

So I’ve put down my thoughts on each specialization, on stats, on gear, and on the best spells for each job.

Stats

There is only one real way to build a caster mage, which is very simple; every point into magic. The only character who may not want this is an Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage, who may want about base 20-25 con, so they can cast spells using their health without as much risk (caster Blood Mages should only use health for casting Blood Wound, then they should switch back, as they are too frail to risk being low on health: a stray arrow could kill them, whereas an Arcane Warrior has the highest defense and armor in the game).

str - base
dex - base
wil - base
con – base OR 20-25 on a Blood Mage/Arcane Warrior
mag - max
cun – base



Gear

Mages don’t rely on gear nearly as much as other classes. Mages get a far bigger boost from a new spell, like Blood Wound, than they do from another 5 points in spellpower from a staff. Gear does help though. The best robes for a spell caster would probably be the First Enchanter’s Robes, although the Reapers Vestments are good for an Arcane Warrior character that doesn’t want to wear armor. Wear the Blood Ring + Lifegiver + Blood Gorged Amulet for an Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage, otherwise just wear the Key to the City + Ring of the Ages
+ Spellward.

Arcane Warriors should wear Evon the Great’s Mail + Wades Superior Dragonscale gloves and boots, as the stamina and fatigue bonuses transfer to mana bonuses. The Warden Commanders Armor is a solid choice too, but I can’t really comment as I do not have the DLC. The best weapon/shield for an Arcane
Warrior is the Spellweaver and the Fade Wall.

Staff - Staff of the Magister Lord
Robes - First Enchanters Robes/ Reapers Vestments/Robes of the Magister Lords
Amulet - Spellward/Blood Gorged Amulet
Rings - Ring of the Ages, Key to the City/Blood Ring + Lifegiver
Belt - Andruils Blessing

[Fourth Guide]

RECENT UPDATES:

* Second specialization is now left open to the player. I had previously assumed it would be Duelist, but this was unreasonable since Ranger and Bard are both strong.

* These calculations are accurate for the 1.02 patch (which is the same as 1.01 with the dex hotfix as far as the DPS calcs are concerned).

Warning, wall of text incoming. Skip down to sections III and IV for the tl;dr version, but I recommend checking out the gameplay mechanics stuff if you're interested. I'll keep this guide updated as we discover mistakes and gear improvements.

This is a continuation of a thread over at the now-baleeted daforums.bioware.com (used to be at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] We were discussing various DW rogue builds and discovered some interesting things about gameplay mechanics along the way. I made a spreadsheet and did some DPS calculations for four different DW builds, with the results summarized below. For those who didn't follow the original thread, I'll repeat the pertinent gameplay mechanic information below in section I.

DISCLAIMERS: this is pure theorycrafting. We were just trying to come up with the highest-DPS endgame DW builds we could think of, so we assume optimal stat allocation and access to the best gear. This may not be realistic for everyone. I may run some figures with less expensive gear in the future (equipment suggestions welcome!) This is not a guide for how to build the "best" rogue. DPS is not everything to everyone. The calculations don't quantify utility or fun factor or anything like that. I just hope this is a helpful starting point for people planning their own rogues.

PLATFORM: all of my analysis assumes PC version 1.02 (or 1.01 with the dex hotfix).

NOTE FOR READERS OF THE OLD THREAD: The numbers here are slightly different from the last ones I posted in the old thread. That's because I lowered the level from 22 to 18 (at level 22 the game is almost over) and remembered to account for the bonus damage rogues get per level up. I've made too many fixes and improvements to list

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I: Gameplay mechanics
II: Stats and gear
III: DPS chart
IV: Conclusions

I. GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

A. DAMAGE FORMULA

I pieced together the damage formula as best I could using the toolset to view the source code. Those of you following along at home can look at core_h.nss and combat_damage_h.nss to see whether I got things right.

At an abstract level, the formula for expected damage on a backstab looks like this:

C * (AVERAGE(W, W * R) + 0.375 * X * Y ) + O - A

C is the critical hit/backstab modifier,
W is the weapon's base damage,
R is the weapon's damage range multiplier. The game randomizes your weapon's damage between W and W * R. For daggers and longswords, R is 1.5; for axes it's 1.4. For example, a dagger with a listed base damage of 6.4 will actually do between 6.4 and 1.5 * 6.4 = 9.6 damage. Thus the expected weapon damage will be AVERAGE(W, W * R).
X is the attribute modifier (e.g. 1.10 for axes, 0.425 for daggers),
Y is the number of relevant attribute points above 10 in each relevant attribute.
O is all other sources of bonus damage, and
A is the target's armor minus the attacker's armor penetration, floored at 0. Note that the game randomizes armor to between 70-100% of its "list value" in the damage calculation, but I don't account for this for technical reasons (calculating the expected armor value in Excel is beyond my puny spreadsheet skillz). This error is not large.

C defaults to 1.5 but can be raised up to 3.5 by gear. (Thanks gorboth for pointing out that the cap is 3.5, not 2!)

Why is the bonus damage from attributes multiplied by 0.375? Because, when dual-wielding, the game randomizes your attribute damage bonus to between 25-50% of its list value before throwing it in the damage calcs. This is one source of random variation in damage output. Thus your expected attribute damage bonus will be only 37.5% of its list value. (For every other weapon style besides dual-wielding, the random factor is between 50-75% of list value.)

Here is a list of all the sources of bonus damage that I accounted for (everything that goes into O):
* Exploit Weakness, which adds an expected (0.52/3) * (cunning-10) bonus damage to each backstab. Thanks Twenynge for correcting me on this (I'd prevoiusly thought it was 0.2 * (cunning-10)).
* Tainted Blood, which adds 5 + 0.2 * (cunning-10) bonus damage
* Bonus damage from gear, including runes and bonus damage on offhand weapons (offhand bonuses seem to contribute to mainhand attacks)
* Bonus damage from levelling (for rogues this is 0.2 damage per level)

Party buffs are NOT accounted for because the variations are endless.

Here is a list of everything that goes into the target's armor, A:
* Target's nominal armor value
* Armor penetration from the weapon
* Bonus AP from gear, including bonus AP from offhand weapons (offhand bonuses seem to contribute to mainhand attacks)
* Cunning's AP bonus of (cunning-10)/7

B: DUAL WIELD ATTACK TIMING

I did a bunch of video capture experiments to determine that attack timing for dual wield weapons works as follows:

Step 1: for each weapon you're wielding, start with 1.5s and substract that weapon's speed modifier (see [[http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/items/weapons for the modifiers). Thus for daggers this value will be 1.0s and for axes it will be 1.4s. The 1.5s starting point comes from the base attack interval for the dual-wield style, as defined in core_h.nss, and verified by my in-game testing.

Step 2: Average the two numbers above and call the result T. This is your attack interval.

Whether backstabbing or attacking from the front, you will alternate hands every T seconds. Don't believe the backstab animation, which looks like it's attacking with the mainhand only. Also, when backstabbing, it appears that the mainhand runes trigger (or have a chance to trigger) on every attack, even when the offhand should be attacking. Offhand runes never trigger. I can only assume this is a bug.

Because your attack speed is the average of your two hands, the DPS-conscious rogue with a fullsize weapon in her mainhand will usually want to use a dagger in her offhand, to speed up her attacks. This also saves her attribute points that would have gone to dex for DW Mastery.

Haste and Momentum reduce T by 25% and 30%, respectively, at the END of the attack timing calculation. Thus I ignore them for purposes of the DPS calculations, since they'll affect all builds by the same proportion.