Best Rogue Skills To Unlock First In Dragon Age The Veilguard

Key Takeaways

• Rogues in The Veilguard have distinct gameplay from warriors, focusing on speed and versatility in combat.
• Skills like Hurricane of Blades, Pilfer, and Close Quarters Combat enhance rogue effectiveness and survivability.
• Abilities like Unending Quiver, Reeling Bolt, and Poisoned Reply provide essential buffs for rogue DPS and defense.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an impressive and incredibly popular return to form for BioWare, bringing about a fantastic game that lets players return to the world of Thedas for a thrilling conclusion to the events first established in Inquisition and hinted at from the very start of the series in Origins. While incredibly distant from the games’ roots as a more strategic RPG, the action RPG combat in this title is thrilling and engaging.

One of Veilguard‘s greatest strengths over its predecessors in the combat department is just how distinct the three RPG archetypes feel. Typically, rogues and warriors felt the same while mages, especially blood mages, were distinct enough to functionally be an entirely new take on gameplay altogether. This game takes a different tack with rogues feeling incredibly distinct from warriors, fusing ranged and melee attacks with a speed no other class can achieve. To get the most out of the rogue as soon as possible, Veilguard players should focus on getting these skills right away.

1 Hurricane Of BladesA Lethal AoE Attack

• Type: Area, Strike
• Damage: 385 necrotic
• Effect: An AOE attack that strikes four times.

Often a hallmark of elven fighters or assassins, poisoned damage in this game takes the form of necrotic damage and is a foundational element of what the rogue is capable of dishing out. A rogue relies on its speed, and Hurricane of Blades is an excellent way to gain ground on a group of enemies and deal decisive damage.

Players can direct the hurricane of blades to an extent during the animation, so it’s possible to catch even more enemies in the AOE after beginning the attack – an especially useful thing to note considering the final attack in this skill is the strongest.

2 Pilfer

A Great Way To Increase Rogue Survivability

• Type: Control, Tool
• Damage: 264 physical
• Effect: Deal damage and recover a potion from the enemy.

Pilfer allows players to continue the great tradition of many thief classes in RPGs – that is, thievery. The Pilfer ability mechanically doesn’t so much “steal” a potion as it does spawn one on the attack, but hey, flavor is free.

Rogues are the most fragile class in the game. Mages have the benefit of being backline attackers, while rogues can’t reliably stick to ranged attacks (in the early game!) and will need to get up close and personal with less health than the warrior – this makes a skill that deals damage, detonates a common debuff, and restores a potion slot invaluable in the early game.

3 Close Quarters Combat

Simply Makes The Rogue More Effective

• Effect: Deal 15% more damage to all enemies within 10 meters.

As mentioned above, rogues will frequently be right in the thick of combat – and without the benefit of heavy warrior armor. Close-quarters combat functionally provides a constant damage buff as the rogue – who attacks with quick, light strikes, will usually be in the range of enemies to get the damage boost when attacking.

This is the main way to improve the effectiveness of rogues in the early game. Stack up on buffs to make those quick, decisive attacks with swords and daggers hit that much harder, and then double down with skills.

4 Unending Quiver

Arrows Are Essential To Rogue DPS

• Effect: Activating an ability grants two more arrows.

This skill might be worth ditching in the long run, but during the early game when arrow recovery options are limited, this is a great, reliable way to restock the quiver until more efficient solutions come along.

The great thing about Veilguard is how easy it is to reshuffle builds on the fly – and so players can take this for only as long as they need it before swapping it out for something else.

5 Reeling Bolt

A Skill Worth Beelining Toward

• Type: Projectile, tool
• Damage: 88
• Effect: Deal high stagger and the shocked debuff to enemies. Also applies weakened.

A little further along the skill tree than most of the skills on this list, Reeling Bolt is an excellent early-game skill that will help players coast through those first forays into Northern Thedas.

The high stagger damage is especially useful in the early game when enemies have a low threshold for stagger, and the shocked debuff is a great combo with one of the first companions players will unlock – Bellara.

6 Poisoned Reply

A Valuable Rogue Defensive Skill

• Effect: Perfect defense grants necrotic weapons.

Perfect defense in this game is an essential part of frontline combat. Dodging is good but inefficient if not absolutely necessary (which it sometimes is, as certain attacks can’t be blocked). Players who have come to master perfect defense need to get this skill.

Applying necrotic damage to weapons is an incredible boon and makes the fights that much faster, and the buff resets on every perfect defense, making an excellent, consistent enhancement to damage that rogues will come to rely on.

7 Decisive Finale

An Excellent Melee Staple

• Effect: One heavy attack after four light attacks unlocks a special move.

Part of what makes the best rivalries and plot beats to Dragon Age worthwhile is the culmination of these things in epic battles. Rook is said to be a seasoned fighter in Veilguard, but they only really feel that way with combo enhancements like Decisive Finale.

Decisive Finale is practically mandatory for rogues, which is why it’s a boon that it’s so close to the starting point on the skill tree. This ability lets rogues string together light attacks and finish on a powerful heavy strike.

8 Necrotic Fog

A Great Complement To Rogue Skills

• Effect: Spending momentum deals 150 necrotic damage to all enemies within 6 meters.

In the early game of Veilguard, there isn’t much in the way of utility for rogues through equipment or accessories – as those come into play a bit later. As such, rogues should be relying on their skills as much as possible.

This ability greatly augments the rogue’s ability to deal damage by essentially compounding any damage further. Hurricane of Blades, for instance, now has enhanced damage as the AOE is compounded by the necrotic damage from this ability.