Warriors are your battle-hardened, front-line soldiers in Dragon Age: Inquisition, and swinging a sword is, of course, what they do best. The warriors (like party member Cassandra) are expected to tackle enemies head-on while your mages and rogues sit back and rain down spells and arrows.
When choosing a race there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Humans, Qunari and dwarves make your best warriors. Leave the elves for your rogue and mage classes. Humans start the game with a bonus ability point, dwarves get a 25 percent bonus to magic defense, and Qunari receive a 10 percent bonus to melee damage.
There are four different specialization paths for warriors to follow: Weapon and Shield, Two-handed Weapon, Battlemaster and Vanguard. It’s best to either go weapon and shield, or two-handed. A good rule of thumb is to go Two-handed with a Qunari and Weapon and Shield with a dwarf, while the human can go either way.
There are special abilities within each path you map to different buttons on your controller, and passive abilities that are always in effect once purchased. Change the button mapping for each ability in your “Tactics” menu.
Another key thing to look at before you begin is your character’s “Behaviors.” Here you can change when your characters use healing and stamina potions, the targeting behavior and whether you want them to defend or follow you.
Weapon and Shield
This is your typical tank build tree, and you can use your shield as a weapon as well as for defense. The Turn the Bolt and Turn the Blade passive abilities are a must-have for Weapon and Shield warriors, with each offering a buff against ranged and frontal attacks.
Abilities:
Shield Wall is for basic defense and the Chevalier’s Step upgrade. The upgrade allows your hero to move faster and protect nearby party members with improved armor.
Payback Strike allows you to recover from any disabling condition and swipe out. If you’ve just taken damage, your blow back is stronger and can stagger your enemies. The Sweet Revenge upgrade improves your damage output and stuns taunted enemies if you’ve recently taken damage.
Shield Bash is exactly what it sounds like, and its upgrade causes your warrior to lunge forward and do more damage.
The final attack ability is Lunge and Slash, and you spin with a slashing strike if your first hit lands. This also allows you to get closer to enemies just out of reach, and its Great Lunge upgrade allows for more damage the further away you lunge from.
The tree’s passive abilities include Warrior’s Resolve (10 percent stamina restored for every 10 percent health lost), Bear Mauls the Wolves (can’t be flanked and less likely to be staggered by frontal attack), Turn the Bolt (ranged damage reduction), and Turn the Blade (20 percent frontal attack damage reduction).