Fight Fearlessly With This Berserker-Reaver Warrior (Dragon Age: Origins) - B-Tier Guides

[@damianwarneke305]

I have never used the reaver, but I really should. My only Warrior run was with a Templar, and later Spirit Warrior. Both classes had anti-mage abilities, and the extra attack speed was quite welcome on my two-handed build. Fade Burst and Holy Smite give you some mage-like bursts of power to knock enemies around with. It felt unique for a warrior, which was the best thing. A warrior who toys with the fade and learns the Chantry ways of suppressing magic.

[@btiermutineer]

I didn't really use Reaver before crafting this build either, but it's really fun!

[@Linkforlife199]

Another good way of knowing when the game registers the enemy as "dead" is that blood will pour out from underneath them, which can be a good indicator as to when you can use Devour (especially since the loot sparkles have a tendency to bug out sometimes). Shout out to the Havard's Aegis shield you loot from the Ogre on top of the Tower of Ishal during Ostagar, it is a really nice early game shield since it gives a nice boost to spell resistance, something not a lot of early game shields have. Evon the Great's armor actually provides a set bonus with Wade's Dragonscale gloves and boots so there is that for those that still want that set bonus and have a better chestpiece than the Dragonscale one. If I remember right, before Witch Hunt, Anduril's Blessing was the BiS belt, but, as mentioned in the video, it is costly. When starting out, the Buckle of the Winds can be a decent alternative for your tanks since they defense will be low so the +3 defense can be helpful.

[@Duckylai]

reaver builds are definitely my favourite one out of every specializations in the entire series, and i think DAO and inquisition did them the best with really fluid combat integration with the reaver skills. i just wish i could've unlocked reaver instead of berserker and templar in my first playthrough of DAO, but i wasn't able to get respec mods working unfortunately. great video as always :D

[@CadeAid1]

My favorite content creator strikes again 🫡

[@btiermutineer]

❤

[@ProphetTruth95]

You know what is crazy? I just started a new playthrough for DA:O yesterday & just for fun I’m doing a Axe+Shield Dwarf Commoner. Going full Legion of the Dead vibe. This is PERFECT timing.

[@btiermutineer]

Ooh, nice! I love axes, they're my favorite weapon type in DAO even though everyone tends to favor swords. My top 3 axes are the Veshialle, Aodh, and Axameter!

[@ProphetTruth95]

@ 100% aesthetically the Dwarven Waraxe is my favorite. Swords are the traditional S+B but they look kinda odd on the dwarves plus I like the Tolkien “The Axes of the Dwarves are upon you.” And Axes make more sense for Dwarves. Or Maces/Mauls. Great swords & Longswords just seem kinda outta place for them culturally.

[@jakobrenner2230]

Perfect timing! Thnx!

[@Kaibaboya]

Hey, when you unlock the shop at the warden DLC, if you sell Cailen Armour to him it will upgrade it randomly. Just go inn and out of the shop and it will become lvl 7 (dragonbone) at random :D Good luck everyone :D You can also upgrade the Weapons and shield the same way.

[@ywarh]

Hehe I never play warriors but this does seem fun!

[@anti-lifeequation1683]

Just started a two handed Dwarf 2 days ago because I never completed the game as a dwarf or warrior.

[@rose.i]

Hey B-Tier I love all your builds. One of the things I really like about watching them is getting to read all of the numerical values attached to the talents. How do you get those to appear in your game. Is it a mod?

[@btiermutineer]

@@rose.i yes, it's a mod! If you're playing the vanilla game it's the "detailed tooltips" mod, but I myself am using Dain's Fixes (which I highly recommend) and so I'm also using the mod made by him for accurate tooltips with his fixes included called "More Detailed Tooltips".

[@rose.i]

@@btiermutineer Thx brother!

[@salamantics]

Blood thirst is an unmatched mobility talent. Only shapeshift swarm is faster.

[@salamantics]

If I ever make another warrior I will have to become a reaver for blood thirst alone

[@Vasiliy9hells]

Okay, so I do believe that combining a Reaver spec and Shield based warrior is a good choice since Reaver talents allow for increased Threat generation and you really want that on a tanks. But, IMO, not taking a second row talents in a shield tree is a mistake. Mainly for the Shield Wall and following Shield Expertise which allows a character to be immune to knockdowns. I play on a Nightmare and having your front-liner warrior disabled by a knockdown sets you party in a very dangerous position, especially during the boss fights. From the top of my head, being immune to knockdowns a lifesaver vs Ogres and their throwing attack, any humanoid NPC that can Shield Bash, Pommel strike or War Cry (which knocks you down in a radius too), Dragon boss fight, Revenants that spam that pulling move that pull a character to them and knocks them on their ass. Oh and it really helps vs Fireballs, your warrior ignores knockdown and shuts down the mage. In short, you cant underestimate immunity to disable effects on a warrior that are in a first line of your party's defense.

[@btiermutineer]

Oh I know for sure that Shield Wall is amazing for the immunity to knockdown. I have that as a recommended ability in my Alistair guide (though I have to remake the guide since it was the first one I made on the channel). However, with this build I wanted to make a tank damager hybrid, and Shield Wall reduces the damage you do by 20% which is quite significant for a character who is literally focused on doing just that. I believe in the vanilla game the damage reduction may not be implemented, but I play the game with Dain's Fixes and so all of the bugged abilities are working as intended, including this reduction of your damage by Shield Wall. Plus, I think that if you increase your Strength a lot as well as have various bonuses to physical resistance you'll quite often resist being knocked down due to having a higher phys res score than other weapon&shield warriors who invest more in Dexterity. All the bonuses to Constitution from gear also add to phys res, too. Obviously, this build is not really meant for nightmare in a min-max-y way, though I *can* beat the game on Nightmare with it. But yeah, I don't create my builds in that way - I just don't find it fun to optimize!

[@ProphetTruth95]

Speaking of the Dwarf Noble Origin. I wish they’d REALLY hammer home just how much you lost through meta gameplay. It’s your grandfather (Also King)’s armor. So make it Veridium, give an “Aeducan Signet Ring” & Aeducan Necklace both with mild +2 X enchantment. So you steamroll even on Hard/Nightmare so when you have nothing but a dagger & a buckler shield you FEEL how “naked” you are without your families name/power behind you.

[@btiermutineer]

Oh yeah, that would be so much cooler. Have the dwarf noble be super powerful during the Provings and expedition, and then take it ALL away.

[@ProphetTruth95]

@btiermutineer Yup. I would OP them so that couldn’t find anything better until LVL 8+. Tier 4 Armor, Weapon & Shield. All 4 accessories slots filled with small +2-4 enchanted gear. Gorim even says “I scrounged up a fancy looking longsword. & It could be called “Fancy Longsword” & it could also have +2 against Darkspawn & +2 attack. It would also give the narrative theme of: “Was it YOU that was impressive or your gear/family/status that caught Duncan’s attention, etc etc.

[@omgwtfbbqness]

I see a slight mistake in your build... it doesnt include champion lol. I am kidding ofc champion is more defensive than attack based which is what I assume the build is going for.

[@btiermutineer]

Lol exactly, Champion is great for a regular tank, but this is a more aggressive/attack focused build