Worst Mage Skills That Are Not Worth Using

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the first game in the Dragon Age franchise that truly gives players the freedom to experiment with their classes’ build. With the player being free to refund their points whenever they wish, a player can easily experiment with the various abilities, passives, and traits to create the perfect build for their playstyle.

As a Mage, this may include creating a Death Caller that keeps to a distance using their ranged attack while siphoning away health or a Spellblade that instead focuses on melee combat. However, even on this large web of skills, there are some that the player can avoid investing in to better use their fifty levels to purchase something else.

8 Ice Storm – Passive

Armor And Weapons Increase Damage Better Than These Passives

• The Player’s Cold damage increases by 10%.

Ice Storm isn’t the only elemental damage passive that is available for players to purchase on the skill page, though it is a great example of many of these passive skills that players shouldn’t bother wasting their skill points on.

While every little boost of damage can help, there is also an assortment of weapons and armor available in Dragon Age: The Veilguard that increases the elemental damage done by a Mage, which means players can instead focus on purchasing other far more useful skills and leaving passives like Ice Storm to either never be purchased or at least near the end of the player;’s build.

7 Wall Of Fire – Ability

Some Battle Areas Are Too Big For It

• Type: Duration, Control
• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Every ability in Dragon Age: The Veilguard has its use depending on the build that the player is working towards. However, an ability from past Dragon Age games that becomes somewhat useless in Dragon Age: The Veilguard for Mages is Wall of Fire. In previous titles, players would line up this ability to block themselves off from enemies or tactfully put the wall of fire into small spaces to hit multiple enemies.

However, in Veilguard, the majority of areas the player battles are much larger, where even the Burning affliction caused by the Wall of Fire doesn’t make the ability useful compared to the other fire abilities available to the player.

6 Resistant Blasts – Ability Upgrade

Resistance Isn’t As Useful As Being Invulnerable

• Killing an enemy with a Blast ability grants the player Resistant.

Resistance is another feature of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which reduces the amount of damage the player takes from the brutal enemies they face throughout the game. However, out of the advantages available in Veilguard, Resistance is arguably one of the weakest available, with many players not truly feeling the effect of being resistant.

With many Mages already being built like glass canons, any damage taken can be the difference between life and death. Therefore, Resistant Blasts and ability upgrades like it aren’t worthwhile when the player would have a much easier time if they were invulnerable to all the damage instead of a reduced amount.

5 Defy The Elements – Passive

Players Should Focus On Defending Instead Of Resisting

• Gives the players 10% Fire and Cold Resistance.

Alongside advantages that give players resistance to all damage, Mages also have an assortment of passive skills, like Defy The Elements, which gives the player constant resistance to certain elements of damage, such as fire, cold, necrotic, etc.

Once again, this is only a small percentage of resistance to the damage that can be taken, and therefore, depending on the difficulty a player has chosen, even having 10% less fire or cold damage may not see the player survive. Instead, a player should instead invest in the other skills available on the web unless they need it to get to a more important skill.

4 Spell Slinger – Ability Upgrade

Players Tend To Focus On What’s Close

• Projectile Abilities deal 28% more damage to enemies that are at least 20 meters away.

Although Projectile Abilities tend to be used by Mages that attack from afar, many players in this action RPG will still tend to focus on foes that are closer to them due to them usually being more of a danger.

Therefore, using projectile abilities on enemies that are at least 20 meters away becomes incredibly unlikely. Any use of Spell Slinger would most likely be due to using this buff by accident occasionally. Players should instead focus on other ability upgrades available on the skill page that better improve damage, no matter the distance.

3 Overdraw – Greater Passive

The Cost Isn’t Worth It

• Abilities cost 50 more Mana but also do 50% more Penetration.

While players may be tempted to purchase every skill within a specialization, there are some moments where a player may wish to instead avoid purchasing a skill such as the greater passive Overdraw due to the cost of using it not being worth the reward.

Overdraw increases the Penetration of all the player’s abilities by 50%, which sounds incredible in the beginning. However, it also increases the cost of every ability by 50 Mana. With each ability requiring more Mana to use them, a player may instead find themselves using them less often due to not having the time to make the Mana, with even abilities that once cost nothing to use, not requiring Mana too.

2 Catalyst – Ability Upgrade

Players Should Focus On Their Own Damage

• Defeating an enemy with a Projectile Ability grants the player Rally Party.

Rally Party is another advantage mechanic in Dragon Age: The Veilguard that players may not wish to use as much as they first thought. By having the advantage of Rally Party from the ability upgrade Catalyst, the player is able to temporally increase the damage caused by the companions in their party.

A player may notice that the regular damage done by their companions isn’t a lot, and this boost does increase it by a slight margin. However, a player may wish to instead focus on increasing their own skills and abilities while using the companion skills to better improve the companions’ damage.

1 Light Armor Mastery – Greater Passive

Mixing Armor Is Far More Beneficial

There is an assortment of armor mastery skills available for all three classes in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. By purchasing these greater passives, players receive additional buffs for wearing certain types of armor. Unlike previous Dragon Age titles like Dragon Age: Inquisition, which only allowed a class to wear specific armor, in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the player can wear light, medium, or heavy armor even if they are playing as a Mage.

Although a player may be tempted to purchase Light Armor Mastery, there are plenty of other ways to increase the staff energy charge rate through other more valuable skills, so that players are still able to experiment with their armor and even try some medium or even heavy options.