[NO SPOILERS] Champion, Templar or Reaver?

[frostyshad]

I am playing for warrior that uses only Greataxes.

— Champion has ressurect option, a very useful I think it will be.

— Templar has damage buff for group against demons. Good. But AoE stuns are useless when in group another meele-fighter presents. And I do not use most effective group every time (tank + 3x DD), I like to pick different companions for missions.

— Reaver... Well, I do not know what bonuses it has actully...

I do not think I will be able to use too much "Focus" skills, because in my difficulty the gain of Focus compared to DPS that enemies doing is rather neglatable... Anything that doing damage in close combat is nearly useless as damage-dealer, due to lethality of decent enemies in the close combat.

P. S. Difficulty: Nightamre + All Trials is always "ON".

[BCFreeman]

I thoroughly enjoyed playing my inquisitor as a Reaver hard hitting and life leeching warrior, playing on nightmare since the start (for achievement), and some trials enabled.

[frostyshad]

The AoE-thing will destroy allies, I mean 'Ring of Pain' or what it is called, it has 15m radius lol... I thought to play Reaver for the start, but then I realized that only good things is "Rampage", and probably only against crowds of weak enemies and for now I cannot understand if the Focus thing will work, because from my experience I cannot gather enough of focus, it is incomparable to enemeis DPS. My party fallen down much more faster...

But from the second angle, DPS in this games is above all other things, and Guard is useless on my difficulty settings, only Barrier is effective, and Barrier is limited time, so due that time Reaver can do some damage, but Champion and Templar — cannot.

[BCFreeman]

I don't use focus skill also on my inquisitor reaver. Get and equip the enhanced ring of barrier, it helps a lot, if you've chosen to ally with the Templars. In early levels, yeah you really need a tank in the party like Blackwall or Cas. Mid to to later stages of the game about lvl 18+, you can go solo as a reaver if you have the necessary gears,like the axe from Skyhold npc with a lot of crit chance for starters, or just buy the schematic for it from Black Emporium and craft it yourself for better stats with tier 3 mats.

[frostyshad]

1) Yep, Enhanced Barrier helps, have few already, but only against small enemies with low Alpha-damage. Such as common soldiers... Things like rouges and archers doing high damage, so against such type of small enemies the above mentioned rings not works. Archer can 'one-shot' almost any character (except those with shield skills) with some luck, rouge too...

2) I need tank, only because I not learned "Provoke" on my protagonist char (Warrior).

3) Beardy-guy I am using as a warrior with two-handed sword. Only short-haired and horned dudes is 'true-tanks', Seeker with mace, and horned dude with sword.

4) I have top-schematics from Antiquarian before Skyhold. But it still not enough. Good against weak enemies, but decent one is no joke, hard battles.
I will craft Masterworksbecause of arcanist from DA: Origin, that you helps in Orzammar to study magic.

5) Nah, I do not think it possible to play solo on my difficulty, well at least with experience of game like I have. The point common archer will one-shot warrir, potions do not regen HP (Healing Potion and Regeneration Potions is useless), in addition enemies scaling level with character (they cannot be lower level) and have far more enhanced stats comparing to vanila 'Nightmare'.
And solo play is boring, so many companions in the game.

[BCFreeman]

The devour skill instantly heals a huge chunk if I hit hard enough. Starting with charging bull (w/gore and trample upgrade), rampagex2 then devour. Combat roll with Coming Through upgrade helps with the OP damage, but I use it sparingly.

Yeah same, I still take my companions with me for their banter hah!

[frostyshad]

Rampage need focus. I just curious about what a difference in damage between Champion and Reaver if not count Ring of Pain?

[BCFreeman]

lol, I meant Dragon-Rage not Rampage.

[frostyshad]

Dragon-things without Ring of Pain can do some damage?

[BCFreeman]

Yep. I just use RIng of Pain only for more Devour life leech, not for its extra damage because of the big stamina drain per sec.

[frostyshad]

Interesting, I was thought to make the Champion, but now I do not know... DPS is very need. Of course Orge-alpha with 80k HP on 12th level, and level scaling will not care about any meele-damage, because meele damagers will fall almost instantly, but against small enemies, and not Elite meele DPS is good.

I have recently tried 'the Thing' companion (the one in the hat and two daggers) as a melee-demager with +200% backstab/flank damage Sigil, and top-Antiquarian daggers with elemental runes, actually good against common archers, just archers never going alone, and almost any meele fighter simply tearing apart that Thing.

Also I have realized how to use Focus — not a bad stuff, especially in a very intensive battles, but only with range-demagers, the melee one is useless in case of Focus because they cannot do enough of DPS to fill the bar.

Champion or Reaver for warrior, the wielder of two-handed Greataxe — this is the question...

[BCFreeman]

Well you can test the viablity of Reaver and Templar class by using your own companions, Iron Bull and Blackwall. Once they are lvl 12 they will automatically have Reaver and Champion skills respectively. Cassandra have Templar skills.

[frostyshad]

I am trying to test it. But the point the horned idiot is a user of sword and shield, me too lazy to rebunk skillpoints for him... That tainted with Initiation Champion is not impressive in term of DPS despite he is with two-handed sword.

[BCFreeman]

If you want brute force fun, go reaver. I'm glad I did not choose the champion or templar route.

[frostyshad]

Originally posted by BCFreeman:

If you want brute force fun, go reaver. I'm glad I did not choose the champion or templar route.

I need DPS of Reaver because I want to make game more easy but I think Reaver will be unable to do some damage, for an example the double-daggers Thing with dagger +500% flanking damage and sigil +200% flanking damage dealing with a standard hit more damage than my warrior with skills...

And if I have Chamption, I can pick another demage dealer in group... 3x DD + Champion, high group DPS. In addition my character is more like a noble Champion than blood-drinking something...

[MjKorz]

Playing a Templar with a 2h weapon right now.

Wrath of Heaven + Spell Purge is instant 6k damage vs humanoid-sized enemies that can be stunned. For most humanoid groups this is instant death.

For large enemies and bosses that cannot be stunned, Whirlwind + Rising Winds along with deployed Blessed Blades solves all of my damage problems. Each iterative rotation gets a stacking damage buff and with a Sigil of Great Bear as well as an Amulet of Renewal I can spin pretty much forever unless I get staggered or knocked down.

Moreover, since Whirlwind provides the 2h-wielder with a high attack rate, it has good synergy with the Fade-touched Dawnstone masterwork that has a 10% chance to proc 5 seconds of Walking Fortress. Coupled with a Fade-touched Silverite masterwork that generates 5 Guard on hit, you can stand and trade with anything with virtually zero risk as long as you're not getting knocked down.