Nightmare - Builds for the Companions (AI)

Its common knowledge that AI in the game is garbage. And obviously it is incapable of proper usage of more interesting builds. In order to make companions more or less effective pretty specific builds Required. (Works On Nightmare Difficulty) + Trials.

End-Game Nightmare Companions

Best class and party setup for Nightmare mainly due to How the Ai Interacts and uses abilities.

In my opinion This is the best 3 companion to use however you can switch out Cassandra for another Companion if you like I suggest a Rouge.

Blackwall, The Duplicitous Grey Warden



Class: Warrior
Specialization: Champion
Romance Option: Female Inquisitors only

Blackwall can destroy breakable walls found in the environment as he is a warrior, and as a Champion, he makes a great choice for a tank as he is capable of taking a lot of damage.

Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast



Class: Warrior
Specialization: Templar
Romance Option: Any male Inquisitor

Cassandra is a warrior, so she'll be useful for destroying breakable walls in the environment. As a Templar, she also makes a great choice for your tank, especially as she has a resistance to magic.

Solas The Dread Wolf Fen'Harel



Class: Mage
Specialization: Rift Mage
Romance Option: Female elven Inquisitors only

As a mage, Solas is well-equipped to fulfill the role of the healer within your party and will be useful for dispelling magical barriers and using Veilfire torches. As a Rift Mage, Solas can use the Fade to attack enemies to surprising efficacy.

Solas

Class: Mage
Specialization: Rift Mage
Romance Option: Female elven Inquisitors only

I will be covering how you should build your Solas for best damage and AI support.
Important! The companion build is compatible with Nightmare difficulty, however, to pull it off correctly, be sure to have a good Inquisitor build.

Solas level 1 - 10

Until level 10 we want Solas to be a good mage all around for a few reasons:

• Enemies are fairly strong when you play on harder difficulties
  
• In case you do not have another mage, Solas should be able to cast all element magic
  
• Solas also needs to support your party with Barrier spell

Once you reach level 11, specializations will unlock and you can start working on the full Solas build

Solas Winter Rift Mage build
With this Build, Solas will take a role of a support mage crowd controlling the battlefield. To best utilize it I recommend having another mage in the party (either Inquisitor or Vivienne/Dorian) who could concentrate on dealing large amounts of damage.

Thanks to the skills acquired Solas will have no problems by constantly freezing, weakening, and knocking down enemies.

Remember that you will need to respecialize skills before making this build, IMPORTANT: Get relevant Amulet of Power for Solas to maximize the number of ability points.

Spirit Tree
Sola's main objective is to get Barrier to support party members



Storm tree
Storm tree will provide Energy Barrage. With this ability, you can expand Solas elemental damage by using different staves



Inferno tree
Fire tree unlocks good passive talents that decrease spell cooldowns



Winter tree
Winter tree will provide spells to crowd control enemies: freeze and chill them



Rift Mage
Solas main specialization tree gives mana regeneration passive and spells to weaken enemies



Late game skill investments
These abilities are the ones which I think are useful to have to further improve your build:

• Dispel - to remove summoning of the enemies when Veil Tear appears
  
• Pull of The Abyss + Devouring Veil - I think this ability is good, but it requires additional micromanaging to be cast correctly
  
• Conductive Current - increase your damage the less mana Solas has

Solas Stats
Critical chance - I suggest having 50% - 75%. This way you will ensure that most of your attacks are critical

Critical Damage – After you have a high critical rate of at least 50%. Concentrate on critical damage.

Dexterity - will boost critical damage. Prioritize this once Solas has a high critical rate of 50%+

Willpower - increases attack and gives bonus magic defense

Magic - Increases your overall attack

Attack - overall increase to attack

Armor – a priority for low levels, up to level 10. Mage's are quite squishy and you want Solas to survive

Equipment
In this section, I will go through recommended equipment for Solas

Weapons - obtainable
Generally, the ones with a boost to critical damage should be equipped when Solas has a 50%+ critical chance.


Weapons - craftable
Generally, I prefer craftable staves if you have good masterwork and other materials


Armors - obtainable
Here is a recommended list of obtainable armors that you can wear.



Armors - craftable
I think all of the armors listed below are extremely good, choose the one to your liking


Helmets - obtainable



Helmets - Craftable



Amulets



Belts



Rings



Solas Tactics
Solas will have to use almost all 8 of his skill slots. I think this is possible due to the way Rift mages regenerate mana: dealing constant damage. Here is my tactics setup:



All skills should be set to "Active", except these: Winter's Grasp and Firestorm. Here is my reasoning:

• Firestorm should be used during difficult encounters, however, if you forget to use it then set "Active"
  
• Winter's Grasp is quite costly and does not deal a lot of damage. For this reason, I would rather have Solas spending the mana on other spells.

I hope you enjoyed reading this guide. I tried to go into great detail about how you should be building Solas. This includes spells, stats, and tactics.

Blackwall, The Duplicitous Grey Warden

Class: Warrior
Specialization: Champion
Romance Option: Female Inquisitors only

Blackwall is a Grey Warden who will join the Inquisitor. You will meet him in the Hinterlands training the recruits. From the first meeting, you will see that he is an expert in close combat.

Moreover, once you unlock its specialization he is the best tank you can have. With this post, I will try to cover how to best build Blackwall.

Important! The companion build is compatible with Nightmare difficulty, however, to pull it off correctly, be sure to have a good Inquisitor build

Blackwall level 1 - 10
At the start of the game, it does not really matter which weapon you choose. Both shield & sword work.



If you will have any points left invest them in the weapon tree that you use. Otherwise, this will be enough before you unlock Champion specialization for Blackwall at level 11.

Blackwall Two-handed Tank build
Remember that you will need to respecialize skills before making this build

This build will be using a two-handed weapon. Even though you lose some defense you will gain the ability to knockout enemies more often.

IMPORTANT: Get relevant Amulet of Power for Blackwall to maximize the number of ability points

Weapon and Shield tree
We only need to get the passive ability to reduce flanking damage



Two-Handed Weapon tree
By getting these abilities we will ensure that Blackwall will have sufficient stamina regeneration and Knockout skill



Vanguard tree
With this tree, you will get skills that ensure Blackwall ability to Taunt enemies.



Champion tree
The Champion tree provides the overpowered tanking abilities. Ensuring that Blackwall can become Invulnerable multiple times during a single encounter



Attributes and Stats
These are the stats that I suggest to prioritize when choosing equipment:

• Constitution – provides health and increases melee defense
  
• Willpower – increases the damage and provides magic defense
  
• On hit gain * guard – you will get more Guard on each hit. You can obtain this stat from Masterwork materials when they are used in crafting.
  
• Ranged defense – bigger defense from ranged attacks
  
• Magic defense – overall more magic defense, better than specific element defense
  
• Attack – overall increase to damage
  
• Strength – provides damage boost and some Guard damage boost

Best Equipment
In this section, I will go through some decent equipment that you can equip or craft.

Weapons - obtainable



Weapons - craftable
Schematics are usually better than obtainable counterparts. However, you need good materials for that.



Armors - obtainable



Armors - craftable



Helmets - obtainable



Helmets - craftable



Amulets
The amulets are listed by Tier. Usually, the Best tier can be obtained late in the game, but it provides maximum bonuses.



Belts



Rings



Blackwall Tactics
In this section, I will go through what Tactics you should use for Blackwall.

• War Cry - set to Preferred. Blackwall has to use it at the beginning of the combat
  
• Shield Wall - disable. Not relevant
  
• Line in the Sand - disable. Not relevant
  
• Whirlwind - disabled.

All other skills need to be set to active. This way Blackwall can correctly tank group enemies, deal damage with Mighty Blow and survive difficult encounters by using Walking Fortress

Blackwall will be the only Grey Warden to join Inquisitor. Due to this, it is interesting to hear about him and his background. I hope this post will help you understand how to build him.

Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast

Class: Warrior
Specialization: Templar
Romance Option: Any male Inquisitor

I will go through in great detail how you should best build Cassandra I will cover: which skills to pick, tactics and gear options.

Cassandra is the first companion in Dragon Age Inquisition. I think she is quite rejective of the Inquisitor at first. However, during the game, Cassandra opens up and it is interesting to hear her background.

Important! The companion builds are compatible with Nightmare difficulty, however, to pull it off correctly, be sure to have a good Inquisitor build.

Cassandra level 1 - 10
I will assume that Cassandra will be your main tank at the beginning of the game. Even though Blackwall may be better, for some players it may take a while to get him. So we will first build Cassandra as a tank.



Once you reach level 11, specializations will unlock and you can start working on the full Cassandra build

Cassandra Two-Handed templar build
This build mainly concentrates on supporting your party members and dealing damage. Unfortunately, it is mediocre for using Cassandra as a tank.

Remember that you will need to respecialize skills before making this build
IMPORTANT: Get relevant Amulet of Power for Cassandra to maximise the number of ability points

Two-Handed Weapon skill tree
We want to get Pommel Strike and if possible Clear a Path once we are 20+ level



Battlemaster ability tree
We want to have Horn of Valor, Deep Reserves, and Combat Roll from this tree.



Templar Skill tree
The main aim is to get Wrath of Heaven ability. This is the build's signature ability.



Cassandra Stats
In this section, I will cover the best stats that should be prioritized when choosing what equipment to equip. This will ensure that you build the best two-handed Cassandra

• Raw damage - for this take the best weapon that you can find. Most of your offensive abilities scale of your weapon damage. Due to this, it is important to get the one with the highest raw stats
  
• Critical chance – this should be a priority after you get Flow of Battle. Get it to at least 50%
  
• Critical Damage – once you have a 50% critical chance this stat is the main one that you should concentrate on
  
• Attack – this stat increases all damage that you do
  
• Cunning - gives a critical chance boost
  
• Dexterity - gives a critical damage bonus
  
• Strength - boosts attack indirectly

Best Equipment
In this section, I will go through some decent equipment that you can equip or craft.

It is important to note, generally crafted equipment is better. However, for this you need good Tier 4 or Tier 3 materials.

Weapons - obtainable
Here is a list of great weapons that you can obtain at different levels for Cassandra. Check what you prefer the most, I have listed weapons that have both a high bonus to attack and also a bonus to critical chance or damage.

So for example in the late game if Cassandra has a high critical chance, give her two-handed weapons with a big boost to critical damage. If low, then give items with a large attack boost.



Weapons - craftable
Schematics are usually better than obtainable counterparts. However, you need good materials for that.



Armors - obtainable
Unfortunately, there are not many options for obtainable armors that provide offensive bonuses



Armors - craftable
Sadly there are not too many armors that you can craft to give a lot of offensive options. Your main priority is to either get Leather or Metal utility slots



Helmets - obtainable



Helmets - craftable



Amulets
The amulets are listed by Tier. Usually, the Best tier can be obtained late in the game, but it provides maximum bonuses.



Belts



Rings



Tactics
In this section, I will go what strategy and tactics you should use to fully utilize Cassandra

• Combat Roll - set to preferred. We want that Cassandra to use this ability as often as possible as it is extremely cheap and powerful
  
• Wrath of Heaven - you can set it to Preferred. I suggest first try it out.
  
• Pommel Strike - stuns and deals a lot of damage.
  
• Horn of Valor - set Preferred. We want the Cassandra AI to buff the party constantly
  
• Spell Purge - set to Active. We do not want AI to constantly use it.

Overall this build should be self-sufficient and you should not micromanage Cassandra too often. however, if you see that she uses some abilities too often, when it is not necessary, feel free to either lower them to Active or Disable

Thank you for reading this guide. I hope it will help you to fully understand how to best build Cassandra The post goes into great detail on her skills and tactics that should be used.

Iron Bull

My Other Guides

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2832137703
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2831652608
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2830658441
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2830637146
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2830747016
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2830697465
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2833185332
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835664996
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835671157
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835654894

ChangeLog

28/11/2024 - sera, varric, cole, vivienne and dorian Builds being added WIP
28/11/2024 - text fixes - updated Images
28/11/2024 - added Changelog

[Desert Orchid 1]

Alexthejudge -

Rogues can open most standard locks, but certain locks, including Masterwork Locks, require the Deft Hands, Fine Tools perk. This perk is unlocked at the War Table under Leliana's Secrets category and is crucial for accessing some of the game's best loot.

How to Unlock Deft Hands, Fine Tools
Category: Secrets
Requirement: 4 points in the category

You must first unlock three other perks in the Secrets category before gaining access to Deft Hands, Fine Tools. This ensures Masterwork Locks aren't accessible too early in the game.
Once this perk is unlocked, your Rogue companions in your party can open all locks, including Masterwork ones!

Rogue Companions:

Varric
Cole
Sera

Take your pick :)

[alexthejudge]

Who should be the lock picker of all the companions?

[Desert Orchid 1]

@MYNK.GOZO Sorry for the late late reply not been on Steam since Aug 2022!

Was my last Guide I made was Gonna finish never got round to it however In my opinion This is the best 3 companion to use for Nightmare Difficulty.

[[IDN/IDR] Átlās]

Where are iron bull, sera, varric, cole, vivienne, dorian ??

[Ameresta]

Cassandra's templar purge can do that too

[Legendorius]

@Salmonn_GameZone

Just before they are about to spawn (When Rays of green light hits the ground from the rift) cast dispel on the spawning points. Sometimes it can even cover 2 spawn areas. This way you'll have less demons to deal with.

[[IDN/IDR] Átlās]

dispel can prevent enemies spawning from the rift ??? how??