Games

Dragon Age The Veilguard: Best Mage Skills To Unlock Early

Published

2 months ago

November 7, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Bulwark gives resistance to physical damage, important for mages with low armor defense.
Tempest ability staggers multiple enemies, useful for mages dealing with large groups.
Fade Conduit increases maximum mana by 50, allowing quicker ability usage in combat.

Like all previous titles, Dragon Age: The Veilguard players can choose between three classes to define their character’s fighting style, as well as specializations for each class to allow players to personalize their builds further.

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Unlike previous Dragon Age games, this is the first to combine all the skills into one interesting web that players can experiment with by deciding their own path toward the abilities, passives, and other skills they wish to use, instead of having separate skill trees. Players will gradually earn skill points through leveling and exploring in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but those who have decided to play as a Mage may first wish to work towards these skills to give themselves a better chance at survival.

8 Bulwark

Passive

It’s Important To Be Resistant To Physical Damage

Many players that select the class of Mage in Dragon Age: The Veilguard may find themselves using mostly light armor that has the lowest defense out of the options available. Thankfully, there is an assortment of passive skills to be found in the skill tree that give players all sorts of resistance, with one of the most useful being resistant to physical damage that players will want to grab early.

Players that favor the staff will likely be keeping a distance, which means Bulwark may not be as useful. However, those that have instead been using the mage-knife and orb will enjoy passives like Bulwark due to it allowing them to take more hits during combat while up close.

7 Tempest

Ability

An Ability That Can Stagger Multiple Enemies

There is an assortment of abilities for players to purchase depending on the sort of build they are planning to create for their Mage in Veilguard. While this article may not include any other abilities to allow players to experiment with their build how they see fit, especially when looking for abilities that apply status effects like Weakened, Tempest is a great option for any Mage.

This spell is perfect when dealing with a large group of enemies, as casting down the Tempest will electrocute everyone around the player for a small amount of time. This strike ability that lasts for a duration also has the chance to stagger enemies, which allows players to perform their epic takedown, which is fun to see even for a Mage.

6 Fade Conduit

Passive

Increase The Maximum Mana

One of the most important things a player should unlock first on the skill page for the Mage is a way to increase their total mana. This is what is used by the player to use their various abilities and, by having more available, a player is likely to be able to use more of their abilities during a battle and a lot quicker too.

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Fade Conduit is one of many passive skills that increases the player’s total mana by 50. Players may wish to look for other passives in the skill web to increase this maximum further, or possibly use different armors to boost it too.

5 Pressure Point

Ability Upgrade

Gain Quickened When Using Strike Abilities

As seen, the abilities in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are categorized by different types, such as some abilities being considered blast while others are strike. There is an assortment of ability upgrades to be found within the skill page’s web that increase certain types of abilities, with Pressure Point being great for those that favor strike spells.

Pressure Point goes a step further than increasing damage, as using a strike ability that achieves a critical hit will give the player the effect of Quickened. This decreases the cooldown of abilities to let the player use them more often.

4 Fade Strike

Trait

While some traits on the skill page of Dragon Age: The Veilguard are specific to a certain weapon being used, traits like Fade Strike are not only something players will likely unlock instantly during their playthrough, but are also incredibly useful.

When dodging around the map using their Fade Step dodge ability, a player with the Fade Strike trait can deal a large amount of damage when they dash toward an enemy and then use a light or heavy attack. Since this can be purchased so early, it is a must for any player, no matter the build they are planning to work towards, and opens up combat to plenty more combos than just using status effects.

3 Downfall

Greater Passive

Jump Attacks Critical Hit Knocked Down Foes

Alongside mashing the light and heavy attacks against foes, players can spice up their combat by using jump attacks. While these are available from the start of the game anyway, players can also improve them with greater passives, like Downfall, which is another skill players can unlock early into their playthrough.

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When using a jump attack on a foe that has been knocked down by a different attack, the player will always strike with a critical hit that is sure to do far more damage. This can make dealing with foes a lot easier, especially in the early game of Veilguard.

2 Fade Reflex

Trait

Perfect Dodges Slow Down Time

Returning to the usefulness of dodging in Veilguard, a Mage is far more likely to be avoiding the hits of foes by Fade stepping away instead of parrying their attacks. Fade Reflex is a perfect trait for any player that favors dodging most of all, as performing a perfect dodge will slow time while keeping the player at normal speed to allow them to fluster an enemy with a flurry of attacks.

Players who are struggling to hit enemies will want to work towards this trait as soon as possible to give themselves a better fighting chance in the combat of Veilguard. This trait also works well with many of the abilities, with it giving the player an opening.

1 Essence Eater

Greater Passive

Takedowns Give Back Health And Ultimate

Alongside having the weakest defense out of all the classes in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, players may find themselves being hit rather excessively due to struggles to move out of the way of abilities, especially when they have only just started the game.

There is hope, with the Essence Eater greater passive, when a player performs a Takedown on an enemy, their Rook will receive 250 health back and 20 towards their ultimate. Players who have created a stagger build will likely make the most of this passive, though it is just as useful for a regular mage too.