The Mage class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard reimagines the classic combat style, providing you not only with more opportunities to use vibrant elemental attacks but also more ways to control and weaken enemies. This guide lists the best skills and much more for a comfortable gameplay experience.
The mage has two combat styles, but both have access to the same skills. The first style uses a staff with a light attack that directs magical energy at a single opponent, and a heavy attack that sends a wave of energy from you. The range of this wave is small, so keep that in mind when deciding to use the staff's heavy attack. When defending, the staff also creates a magical shield around you.
The second style is the orb and dagger. The mage's light attack sends an elemental orb that deals damage and applies stacks to the target. The heavy attack slashes with the dagger, and if the enemy has three bomb stacks, it triggers a detonation that deals increased damage. The orb and dagger style is faster, dealing more damage to a larger number of targets, but its defense is much less effective at repelling attacks.
All mage abilities have an elemental focus, and some skills apply elemental debuffs such as «Weakened» or «Stunned». This class pairs well with other companions, and since a good mage build gives you access to multiple elements, you can bypass most resistances.
Mages have a ranged attack that can be activated by holding R2/RT or the corresponding key on the keyboard, and these ranged attacks drain the health of enemy barriers. The Barrier is the blue health bar you often see on enemies with ranged attacks, and if you hit barriers with your non-ranged attacks, they deal significantly less damage. Ranged attacks consume mana, so plan them carefully.
We have settled on a mage build that prioritizes fire and lightning skills, giving you access to damage over time through burning and increased stunning potential from the shock effect. It also includes two effects — «Weaken», obtained from an additional necromancy spell, and «Stun», obtained from both lightning spells. This is a flexible build where companions almost do not overlap, so you can take anyone with you without worrying about skill distribution among them.
The maximum level in the game is 50, so no matter what specialization you choose, you will have enough points to spend on the main magic trees and the ability to focus on specific elements or curses. Thanks to the wide selection of accompanying abilities, you can create a viable build from any skills you like, although some skills have a broader application than others.
One of the most important things to remember when working on your build is that you never want to specialize in just one element. If you go into battle with three fire skills and face enemies with fire resistance, you are in for a tedious and long fight, especially if you take allies like Davrin and Taash with you. Have at least one alternative element on hand and try not to duplicate elements with your companions.
Of the three starting branches you can work on, we recommend you first choose «Chain Lightning» and «Fire Wall». «Chain Lightning» is a powerful shock attack that automatically targets several nearby enemies, applies «Shock», dealing an equal amount of stagger damage, and causes «Stun». It deals additional damage to enemies, so it's a simple and great way to prepare stronger enemies for a finishing attack.
«Fire Wall» can be useful in certain situations. It creates a horizontal wall of flames that lasts for a few seconds. Enemies that come into contact with it take damage and start burning, which deals additional damage over time.
However, there's a catch: most enemies tend to follow you, so they may only take damage from the wall once or avoid it altogether while you cast the spell. Nevertheless, «Fire Wall» is especially effective against ranged enemies who rarely move, as well as against large enemies and bosses who cannot quickly leave the spell's area of effect.
The most important reason to unlock «Fire Wall» is to start progressing down the «Sustain» branch towards the «Mourn Watch» section. Even if you don't fancy the «Death Caller» specialization, unlocking the «Channeled Thoughts» skill is essential for any mage build. «Channeled Thoughts» allows you to hold the shield button while using the staff and press the light attack button to quickly replenish your mana reserves. The frequency of using this skill is not limited, so if enemies are not attacking you at that time, you can continuously cast, recharge, and repeat.
Take the passive «Insidious Rot» if you plan to use necrotic spells, or «Arcane Defiance» if you need extra resistance, and then unlock «Channeled Thoughts».
From here, you can descend to «Meteor» in the «Resilience» group — a useful area spell, but one that enemies can easily dodge from the moment the spell is cast until the meteor appears. If you need a powerful fire skill that is easier to use, stick with the initial ability «Arcane Shot». Obtain the passive «Inner Focus» from «Meteor» to gain 25% more mana after dealing light attacks. At level 20, you can already unlock your specialization, but the main mage clusters still have a lot to offer.
Once you unlock your chosen specialization, such as «Death Caller», you will still have many skill points left to spend by the time you reach the maximum level. We have gathered some suggestions for additional skills that will help complement your build and suit any specialization.
Start with the «Burst» group next to «Chain Lightning» and unlock some passives like «Precision Strikes» and «Shocking Strikes», which improve all strike-related abilities, including «Chain Lightning». Then head towards the Raven cluster via «Tempest», but unlock the passive «Energy Burst» at the earliest opportunity. It increases fire damage when using electricity skills and electricity damage when using fire skills.
You can leave «Tempest» open if you want, as its utility is limited compared to our next main skill. However, unlock the passives associated with it to restore mana when hitting an enemy, increase shock stacks, and boost strike damage. Take «Shocking Nexus», then go left to the Raven cluster. «Storm Surge» is your next main skill, a powerful electric attack that suppresses and damages enemies in front of you, which is most of them, most of the time.
By this point, if you've unlocked all the skills in your specialization, you should have between 5 and 10 points left. Use them to unlock passives in the Raven, Sustain, and Burst sections to further enhance your core skills.
Runes in the game are very flexible, but the «Overflow» rune pairs well with the «Hardbitten Belt», increasing the number of potions you have and automatically triggering an active potion effect.
For the other two slots, we recommend: