BEST Affliction Build Guide for Dragon Age Veilguard - Nightmare Mage Affliction SpellBlade

We apply EVERY affliction in the game with this nightmare mage build guide while still having big crits and invulnerable tanking at full build!
This guide has full descriptions and breakdowns for both new players to nightmare difficulty or veterans looking for something spicy. Chapters included for easy navigation.
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00:00 - Gameplay Showcase
02:45 - Build Summary
08:35 - Skill Tree and Leveling Tips
18:53 - Final Equipment Setup with Leveling Substitutes
31:45 - Companions Breakdown and Possible Alternatives
37:57 - Rogue Build?

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Even though this guide is very long with extensive detail, I still forgot to mention something important. The primary target NEEDS to have bleeding stacks late game so your Glacier Spike crit condition is met. Our blast abilities need to be crits as often as possible for mana sustain. This build was SO much fun to play and level up. I'm happy I picked spellblade as my specialization because the high mobility close range combat was amazing and they designed the spellblade beautifully.

[@pepepepoe8882]

Dude you are killing it

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Thank you friend! New warrior build incoming soon.

[@dezath]

That's awesome dude, I love it! Great video! 🎉

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

More dots! All the dots! Thanks for watching! Appreciate the support.

[@ticky7817]

Thanks for this. Made a build similar to this with the crit ring and auto heal gear and was hitting for 9,999 every meteor/ice spell so needed something less op but still powerful

[@CouchGuy19]

This looks really good. I original wanted to do an affliction build, but when i saw some of the damage numbers from other videos, i changed my mind. They did decent damage, but when you can do ability spam builds and hit for damage cap, i didnt see the point. BUT, those videos only focused on like 1, maybe 2, afflictions, not all of them. Thats probably why they weren't doing a ton of damage. This looks way better and ill probably do this build now on my nightmare playthrough. 2 things also. 1) Me and someone else on discord did some testing to figure out how exactly the helmets work that give you bonus damage based off of faction strength. It turns out it isnt based off of the strength number or rank number, but rather the number of stars you have, and the max you can get is 3 stars. So for the death mask at max mourn watch strength, you get 25% from the first line, and 15%x3, so a total of 70%. We tested this out with all the helmets that do this, and it was the same with every one. 2) If you get bored and want to test out another build, you should try an ability spam build. There are 2 versions that work as far as i know. Going spellblade, use the garb of kinship, twin buckle binding belt, All mothers copse, and maw of the black city. Then make sure you have the passive that gives quickening when a strike ability crits so the belt always heals you. Now use void blade, ice blast, and meteor because they are all blast abilities that crit 100% of the time and give mana back. The other version is a death caller version that relies on the same belt and at least 1 strike skill to give full uptime of quickening on crit. This build can use any skill because death caller lets you use health instead of mana, and the belt heals you for the same amount that the skills cost, so it's like having free casts. Its a bit squishy compared to the spellblade version though.

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Ability spam was definitely something I noticed others were achieving with success so I tried really hard to show that full affliction could also be amazing with still ability spam mayhem. THANK YOU for testing the helmets. That type of information is HUGE to know and for speculation on other stuff and how it works ( Looking at you - Companion relationship damage?).

[@CouchGuy19]

@ImJustAnthonyTube Yeah, I had to test those helmets out because it was so unclear as to what exactly the bonus was. What really made me think about it is when another video stated that the defiant silence helmet gave 320% crit damage. Then i looked at another helmet that gives 15% light attack damage based on faction strength, and I thought " there is no way a single item gives 480%".

[@Necr0e1]

just the build i was looking for, as soon as i saw the spellblade focuse son burn/shock i knew i had to go affliciton

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Same! I wanted to just make a burn and shock build because it was obvious but then being able to put every affliction in the game on the target and make them permanent really elevated the build. Glad you enjoy!

[@DeVitar]

thoughtful guide, thanks mate!

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Glad you liked it! It's long but I wanted the guide to be very detailed so new players could also fully understand each important part.

[@valravn6777]

Love your builds

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Thank you! More coming.

[@ticky7817]

Just to add to this, swapping out The cooldown Lightning ability for meteor gives you so many more casts per fight, more shock/burn stack opportunities, and pairs really well with the bottom left (7-8 o'clock skill points)

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Meteor is a fun ability but we already can spam our other 2 abilities in tandem while maintaining full stacks. I support the use of Meteor though because it's just fun! Always feel free to augment the builds to your playstyle. Thank you for the suggestion for those people wanting spicy meatballs in the sky!

[@ticky7817]

I tried so hard to do an affliction/advantage build with the Garb of Kinship... ran out of skill points though. Not able to get the 2 +50% radius for my meteor or a ton of advantage perks. Still... hitting like a freight train on this, and under 30% hp the ice skill hitting for 9,999dmg. The fact that you made this hit so hard without the Black Maw ring is awesome

[@calledThird]

Excellent guide! This lines up pretty well with what I've been working towards. I'm going to refine my build when I get back on the game. I think I have most of your ingredients in place. My Harding went the other direction, because I couldn't ask that marshmallow of a dwarf to go the other way. A few of your enchants are missing from the build. it feels safe to guess, but what'd you go with for companion enchants?

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Companion enchants most likely whatever flavor you want. As long as you can apply bleed late game for your glacier spike to crit for mana return. Can use "Attack my Target apply bleed" to easily fulfil that if you don't want to use lucanis or harding. Build can be flexible and I'm sure others are going to make it even stronger than I have with some tweaks.

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Also, marshmallow of a dwarf had me! Thank you for watching and giving me a good laugh.

[@Terverion]

Heya! Im curious about something.. if you would use purple gear which one would you recommend with this build? And im gonna try my first nightmare run with this build! Itll be interesting to see how it goes

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

I talk about leveling items in the equipment section and generally you can use whatever you find while leveling that works for you until you are fully ready at the end. The correct elemental orb vs each different enemy type is very helpful as well as anything with affliction duration early on because it's hard sometimes to maintain without duration increase. Work on your weaving with your orb and light/heavy attack combos for over half the game before your gear becomes more settled. Orb and blade combat combos are king!

[@Terverion]

@@ImJustAnthonyTube my bad! I ment the unique gear .. pink? Purple? The weird coloured ones.. thanks for commenting tho.

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Oh the unique items! One of them is popular for ability spam builds and it's the ring that makes all your abilities always crit but that really changes the build a lot. I made this build with the intention to absolutely not need unique and I actually think it is better because it doesn't use unique items. I encourage anyone to put unique items in the build and make it even better! A great build guide can sometimes be improved by someone else with a great vision.

[@warlock3691]

I’m at end game and seeing other peoples builds. This build looks great. I went in all shock and fire and always low on mana even though I’m using mana regen gear. I’d try this build but the equipment you have fully upgraded are still blue for me. :( It seems like gear is randomly upgraded or maybe cause I didn’t have them equipped?

[@calledThird]

I've had to be really tenacious in opening chests to get my gear to legendary. I had a (wrong) legendary for every gear slot before any of my equipped fear got there.

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Most of your gear will not be legendary unless you complete all the content and find every piece of hidden loot in the game. This game has a lot of priority on exploration and side quests. Finish all zones and finish all companions. People watch me on stream and tell me they didn't know how many items they were skipping until they see me getting upgrades every few rooms with all the hidden chests. My new rogue playthrough has some items already purple before I was even level 15. Embrace your exploration inner demon!

[@JosABDale]

Hey man, do you think you could make a nightmare viable evoker staff build ?

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

I like to make guides for builds that I play from start to end so I would need to make another mage. Currently thinking about moving over to rogue next. If the rogue goes well then maybe another mage. A staff lazer beam build does sound fun.

[@FatalSoul]

Would you suggest using meteor to add burning before you get to level 30 and are able to apply burning through shocking?

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

Honestly I wouldn't worry too much on multiple afflictions pre 30 but you can always use the meteor ability on multiple target groups early because it is fun! Most of the game pre 30 can be completed with the correct orb and using your arcane bomb triggers properly. After 30 you definitely want to be using the void blade primarily, so have fun with the other abilities before you can't anymore!

[@Necr0e1]

you mention taking skills for "spell power" but i have yet to see any spell power stat or any indication that taking skills you dont use gives any sort of buff

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

If you click the extended information for any ability to see their critical strike condition it will also tell you that you get +15% ability power when the skill is acquired. This is great because even though we only use 3 abilities the game still let's us have a bonus for pathing through skills. You can test this by checking your ability power number with and without a new skill allocated. This was actually told to me by another commentor when I was build crafting the warrior guide and it is amazing to know because getting all the skills on the tree is a big ability power increase.

[@Necr0e1]

@@ImJustAnthonyTube huh, the more you know!

[@CBonduMiel]

tbh i would rather have meteors instead of the ice ability since it deals more damage to armor, since its fire damage and is an aoe. i don't think this is the best build. also focusing on affliction just mean you lack raw damage last i checked no ? i'd rather have raw damage tbh instead of just inflicting affliction tbh.

[@iceiceice914]

All op builds are about dots😂

[@ImJustAnthonyTube]

DOTs make us feel a certain type of happy so we need them to be very OP when the build is finished! haha