There are more than a few companions that you can recruit in Dragon Age: Inquisition, with each companion fitting into a role, while still maintaining some identity and skills that are uniquely theirs. There is a lot of build diversity with each character, and even more when you look at your group as a whole.
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Few characters fit as neatly into a role as Blackwall fits into being a tank. As a Warrior, it’s one of the roles that’s most readily available to him, and with his own unique skill tree, Champion, he’s capable of being quite possibly the best tank in the game.
Best Skill Choices For A Blackwall Tank
Looking at Blackwall’s possible skills, it’s almost difficult to keep him from being a tank. His unique Champion tree is full of skills that enable him to fight more enemies at the same time and survive the ordeal.
The other Warrior trees have skills for other styles in them, but there are plenty of tank skills to choose from, giving Blackwall a wealth of options.
There will be some skills needed for progression through the skill tree that aren’t integral to the build; we’ll gloss over mentioning these, but they’ll still be counted in the skill point totals.
The Best Skills In The Champion Tree
The Champion skill tree entirely includes skills suited for tanking, with more than one taunt, and a few different survivability bonuses.
|
Skill |
Upgrade |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Line In The Sand (Active) |
N/A |
Create a line of ethereal champions that stand beside Blackwall, blocking the way around him and forcing enemies to fight Blackwall instead of allies. |
|
Bulwark |
N/A |
Increase maximum guard by 25%. This also increases Blackwall’s Constitution by +3. (Constitution increases health and melee defense.) |
|
Resilience |
N/A |
Gain a 5% chance to stun enemies that attack you with melee. Blackwall also gains +3 Constitution. |
|
Counterstrike (Active) |
N/A |
Gain full guard and taunt all nearby enemies. For the next 6/12/20 seconds (depending on the focus used), all incoming melee attacks are automatically countered. |
|
Adamant |
N/A |
Gain a 20% armor bonus. +3 Constitution for Blackwall as well. |
|
Unyielding |
N/A |
When Blackwall suffers a killing blow, he instead remains at 5% health and is invulnerable for 5 seconds. This also grants Blackwall +3 Constitution. |
|
To The Death (Active) |
En Garde |
Taunt an enemy. Their damage increases by 5% per second, but so does their damage received. With the En Garde upgrade, Blackwall gains guard as the enemy takes damage. |
|
Walking Fortress |
Siege-Breaker |
Blackwall becomes immune to damage for 8 seconds; with the Siege-Breaker upgrade, he also gains 10% guard every time he’s attacked. |
- Total Skill Point Investment: 10
- Total Constitution Gain: 12
The Champion tree provides a nearly unbreakable backbone to the rest of Blackwall’s tank skills. While these skills alone aren’t quite enough to consistently draw enough aggro to tank effectively, it’s a fantastic start.
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The Best Skills In The Vanguard Tree
The Vanguard tree rounds out many of the holes in the tanking necessities left by the Champion tree. It’s full of more taunts, more defensive bonuses, and a couple of important offensive perks, too.
|
Skill |
Upgrade |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
War Cry (Active) |
Call To Arms |
Blackwall taunts all nearby enemies, gaining 20% more guard for every enemy taunted. With the Call To Arms upgrade, this also increases his armor by 200% for 10 seconds. |
|
Untouchable Defense |
N/A |
Gain a 25% bonus to Blackwall’s maximum guard. Blackwall also gained +3 Constitution. |
|
Trust The Steel |
N/A |
Blackwall gains a 20% increase to his armor while he has guard active. He also gains +3 Constitution. |
|
It’ll Cost You |
N/A |
Enemies take 50% of the melee damage that they deal Blackwall. This grants Blackwall +3 Strength, too. (Strength increases a Warrior’s attack and increases guard damage bonus.) |
|
Cutting Words |
N/A |
Blackwall’s party deals more damage to enemies that are currently taunted by him. Blackwall also gains +3 Strength. |
|
Livid (Active) |
Still Standing |
The more enemies Blackwall has near, the more damage reduction and bonus damage Blackwall has, up to a maximum of 50% each. With the Still Standing upgrade, Blackwall gains 20% for every enemy nearby, as well. |
|
Bodyguard (Active) |
Not Today |
Blackwall absorbs 20% of the damage taken by his allies for 15 seconds; with the Not Today bonus, Blackwall resists 50% of that damage transferred to him, meaning allies take 50% less damage, and Blackwall only absorbs 25% of it. |
- Total Skill Point Investment: 11
- Total Constitution Gain: 6
- Total Strength Gain: 6
This tree eats up most of the remaining skills post, but for good reason; these skills are equally as important to tanking as the skills in the Champion tree.
We do skip the Challenge skill here because Blackwall has plenty of other taunts with this build, and doesn’t necessarily need it here. Taunts, like War Cry, affect more enemies at a time and improve his guard a greater amount.
The Best Skills In The Battlemaster Tree
We have, at a maximum without exploits and item usage, around six skill points left. On the bright side, we only need exactly six skill points to grab what we want from the Battlemaster tree.
|
Skill |
Upgrade |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Grappling Chain (Active) |
Give Them The Boot |
Blackwall pulls a target to himself, and with the Give Them The Boot upgrade, he stuns the target, as well. |
|
Crippling Blows |
N/A |
Dealing a critical hit on an enemy reduces their damage by 15% for 10 seconds. Blackwall also gains +3 Strength. |
|
Coup de Grace |
N/A |
Blackwall deals 30% more damage on enemies that are stunned or knocked down. A bonus of +3 Strength is also for him. |
|
Horn Of Valor (Active) |
That’s The Spirit |
Blackwall gives allies a 15% armor and damage bonus for 10 seconds. With the That’s The Spirit upgrade, that bonus is doubled to 30% each. |
- Total Skill Point Investment: 6
- Total Strength Gain: 6
The Battlemaster tree is the least integral part of this build, but the pull and stun that Grappling Chain/Give Them The Boot provides can help Blackwall keep the fight more focused on him. The extra damage is going to increase his survivability, too, in a roundabout way. The quicker enemies drop, the less time he has to sustain their onslaught.
The Completed Blackwall Tank Build
With this build, Blackwall is going to have little problem focusing the attention of every enemy on himself, and even less problem staying alive during that onslaught. He is regularly going to have guard up near full and refreshed, alongside buffing his allies into wiping out the enemy force quicker than they otherwise would have.
Here are the finished Tactics slots:
- Line In The Sand
- Counterstrike
- To The Death
- War Cry
- Livid
- Bodyguard
- Grappling Chain
- Horn Of Valor
Alternative Blackwall Builds
Blackwall’s unique tree suits him towards being a tank before anything else. However, if you aren’t interested in Blackwall being a tank, you could forego some of the Champion tree, and invest more heavily in the Two-Handed and Battlemaster trees.
These trees are going to have more damage-focused skills, as well as a little bit of crowd-control. Blackwall isn’t likely to be a top-tier damage dealer, but in a hybrid damage/tank build, he can certainly find some use.
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