The Ultimate Ability Tier List For Dragon Age Inquisition

[@guardiantree8879]

A chart with all the abilities ranked at the end of each class would be a helpful review

[@robna1168]

yea i agree so you can weigh all the specs together, but i get it you want them to watch the full vid

[@lastructchure389]

SOMEONE DO IT WITH TIERMAKER

[@jakenorris8778]

You forgot to mention that dispell can also remove enemy spawn points on fade rifts. Just cast dispel on the circle and it acts like you killed that enemy

[@valkyrie_592]

Templars can too

[@Fig93Jam]

Dispel makes fade rifts on nightmare so much easier. Being able to remove 1 or multiple enemies from a rift battle is a game changer. Run 2 mages with dispel and it trivializes any rift

[@BigR62]

Been playing this game since release and am still learning new stuff wtf lol

[@roberthansson8222]

And dispell removes enemy spell mines on the ground.

[@gzapray7203]

Yeah. It can save you a lot of time, especially if you have prevented the appearance of a Pride/Despair/Fear Demon. And it has less than ten seconds cooldown than Templar's Spell Purge.

[@Aureilius2112]

Would have been nice to actually see the tier list in a video that is literally about a tier list but what can I expect.

[@celeste821]

It would have been nice to see the actual spell also

[@dillonahrens8112]

Just started another play through after years. I totally forgot how OP toxic cloud is. I love it so much and its cool animations.

[@Wolferys]

Leaping Shot is S tier, especially for artificer. it works really well with pincushion and the cooldown/stamina passives and also gives you perma stealth with the upgrade. Throwing Blades is also extremely powerful when spammed and also if you use another ability right after it it will deal X3 the damage. Pretty much a must for any Rogue who focus on DPS and it's good for any spec (can be spammed for massive damage with artificer/tempest and as an assassin you can use hidden blades right after it to 1 shot things)

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Yup, forgot to mention the op damage boost.

[@christinefarrell6438]

Leaping shot is awesome. The stealth upgrade also works great with an assassin archer because of the auto-crit from stealth ability they get, chaining that with long shot or full draw can be really mean. You do have to be careful where you use it though--I have accidentally leaping shotted myself off cliffs or into those toxic pools around the Exalted Plains dragon fight. Whoops!

[@archangel323118]

Love that there is content still being produced for Dragon Age Inquisition. Best game ever 😍

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Thanks, dude!

[@katalepsis74]

I enjoyed this and found it surprisingly informative despite nearly 7 years playing this game myself (on, off, on, off, on, and off again...currently back on lol, about 75% through the story finally). The only thing I'd add to this is more KZbin commercials. Seeing only 6,449 ads on a 29 minute 39 second video isn't nearly enough..........................................

[@Von2KC519]

As someone who has played (& is still playing) the game, I can pretty much agree with most of what was stated with a few exceptions: 1. The Knight Enchanter specialization is SOOOO OP!! Spirit Blade itself is S tier for me. The upgrades are great IMO. I’ve survived dragon battles with a Knight Enchanter mage wielding Spirit Blade alone. 2. Walking Bomb w/Virulent upgrade is SOOOO S tier!! When I use this skill, whomever it targets has the potential to spread it to anyone or anything in its vicinity. So when you kill someone or something under the Walking Bomb spell, they usually tend to wipe out all other enemies around them. 3. Immolate w/Flashfire upgrade is GREAT!! It’s a go-to for me when I build a fire-based mage. The ability to cast the spell repeatedly is a bonus for me. 4. I’m sorry but I LOVE the Give Them the Boot upgrade for the Grappling Chain skill. It’s a guaranteed stun that constitutes a knockdown. There are plenty of others that I like to use because I love changing up the play style in a playthrough.

[@aldendiaz1165]

Fire mines ability is devastating when used with knight enchanter specialization and blade of tidarion. It's very good with crowd control and it should be on S tier in my opinion...

[@teamohaere1764]

Yep

[@BigR62]

It's also op on rift mage with pull of the abyss and lightning cage

[@tlotpwist3417]

Imo spirit blade is still powerful enough to go to rank a or s, just because of the spirit damage type few foes resists and its frontal aoe damage (you can hit multiple ennemies in one strike, better if you paralyzed them in one way or another).

[@RPGBUILDER33]

You got a point!

[@spellandshield]

BTW. I started playing again after 7 years and I have to agree; damage combat roll is completely broken...but also so good you have to use it.

[@amauryribeiro1860]

"Dispel" deserves an A or even an S when it comes to rifts, it can kill up to 3 enemies in second wave demons, I've already killed 2 prime demons at once

[@RPGBUILDER33]

It's great against fade rift, but could be a bit situational

[@10Filip]

Wall of ice is a tactical spell, great for splitting mobs in smaller groups (so they rather come in waves, than all at once), great for reducing range units ability to target you (blocking line of sight), and also can give you time to recover, if you simply put a wall between you and enemy in a corridor setup. I really like how it changes the dynamics of game and appreciate having it.

[@WillGlacier]

ik this comment is one year old but I gotta' say, ice mine + fire mine deals with groups better, barrier is good for both melee and ranged, blocking line of site fucks both you and any other ranged character in your party, tho giving you time to recover IS something it is good at I guess but idk why you would need that long to recover when you can quickly drink a potion and keep weapon attacking until your Cooldowns are done or mana is regenerated.

[@mattrichard3383]

disruption Field is better than people think. fighting an enemy that keep knocking you down ( bear, shielded W, Envy, Terror, Revenant ) or keeps escaping your grasp ( Despair, Arcane Horror, archers, Tevinter mage )? it stops all melee damage. fun to set up a fire mind too. If you're playing a classic KE then I think DF is quite useful.

[@BlightedLight]

The trespasser barrier upgrade is so amazing and despite being s tier already its still underrated. The five second decay delay applies to all barriers who that character creates. Mind blast, fade shield, transmute, guardian spirit, and the barrier itself. Spirit is my primary school so I got pretty good with it's secret stuff. It's actually amazing. Mind blast is also amazing with mana surge because its essentially a self combo machine that spams freeze and detonate tho elegant defense is better for that. Upgrades affect abilities from other sources such as mind blast upgrades affecting the weapon procs. I wonder if the elegant defense upgrade applies to non barrier ability barriers. So the mind blast barrier runs out and the CD is still reduced by 4. Support mage inquisitor is actually the best lol. Fade step is amazing too.

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Yeah, the barrier is OP especially the Elegant Defense as it applies to everyone with barrier, say you shield your whole squat with the barrier, and you'll get a 16-second CD on the spell when they expire, pretty crazy, and sure it works on barrier generated by any source.

[@heaventohades]

this game was recently on sale so o got the game and all expansions for 8 bucks. your videos have been helpful for somwone new to the game

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Happy to help!

[@tokamnich4709]

I personally enjoy riftmage+icemage The amount of chill/freeze/sleep I'm pulling off with solas controls the whole field. I use blizzard along with the reduced mana and rift mana regen+amulet of regen from emprise map.

[@jordanwill7233]

Nice list! When I used to keep up with StarFlorge, he did a breakdown of specializations that wasn’t nearly as insightful. The one thing I did like from his, however, was he ranked them in two categories: vs mobs and vs bosses. I did like seeing your take on overall use of abilities, but with just a blanket rank, it did seem to rank certain abilities without context that can render some of them entirely useless, or completely game changing. Solo vs with a party also has a big impact on ability usefulness For mages Fire mine’s glitch of dealing 1 damage actually can be predicted. It only ever deals 1 damage when you’re flanking your enemy. As long as you’re in the 180 degrees in front of them, it deals full damage (assuming their not immune to fire). This is why I agree it’s only A tier in a party where enemies aren’t as reliably facing you, but would definitely rank it S tier Solo when enemies are only looking at you. I also felt that wall of fire in a solo context is stronger. It’s burn damage from just a single contact with the wall is equivalent to a fire mine without crit, and you can land it multiple times per cast if you keep enemies running into it via CC or just hiding behind it. I agree wall of ice is generally bad, but does offer ice armor while near like ice mine, and the ring upgrade can provide long term cc to shut down an enemy until just about everything else is dead, which can be helpful solo, but is still a B tier at best. Blizzard is maybe closer to C tier I feel since it’s main upgrade can deal a lot of DoT, and any build that can regenerate mana can be doing decent damage with it while keeping ice armor and enemies chilled if they or their party want to use Winter’s ruin. I think horror’s alt upgrade deserves some attention since it keeps enemies entirely still while panicked even when taking damage (which rogues can auto crit vs the whole time) it’s beneficial for solo and with party. For rogues I place spinning blades higher in my list. Even flurry is helpful as it spreads almost all status effects, which is good for amplifying party CC and AoE, and great for bleeding and sunder as a stack is applied to each enemy hit *for* each enemy that already has at least one stack that’s hit by SB. With an artificer or tempest, you can get stacks up to 18 often which strips nearly all armor in sunder and gets bleed up to 3-4k DoT. And the main upgrade is 9 hits which can also give very powerful pincushion damage stacks vs bosses. Full draw’s sleep effect is nice since it can then auto crit for rogues so it’s a solid opening damage and a combo set up. I’d bump it to B personally. Poison’s alt upgrade is literally heal on hit-something only reavers and masterworks can do. With any high hit count rogue, you can get near full hp in a single cast. Meanwhile it’s main boosts basics 25% which can be really powerful with Elgar’nan Enaste or daggers. Since lost in the mist applies to clouds spawned by killing poisoned enemies, it can also replace toxic cloud on the ability wheel with a shorter cooldown. Caltrops is also a decent cc ability when immobilizing or if combined with flurry, good for bleed stacking. Still not A tier, but good. Throwing blades main upgrade is definitely S tier vs bosses, maybe B tier vs mobs, but its alt is also maybe a B tier vs mobs as it can hit every enemy, drawing aggro and laying down sunder stacks and have a good chance of activating on hit abilities. Stealth deserves an S ranking IMO. The reason being that while the auto crit for assassin makes it critical there, it’s also a 50% damage bonus attacking out of stealth and it’s cooldown is reduced with damage dealt. I should also note that the auto crit out of stealth is a duration, not a single hit. It is short, but not limited to one hit. I can usually get a couple basics or abilities like throwing blades into leaping shot (which then gets you ready for another auto crit cycle)-speaking of, I tried stacking 3 revival w/ desperation spells on a single assassin, and was able to kill the highland ravager in 12 basic attacks, the damage was high enough to erase the stealth cooldown before the auto crit expired. Other classes benefit from the damage bonus and cleaning of status effects all in addition to its primary function of dropping aggro. Few abilities provide anything on par with a 50% damage buff and removal of all debilitating effects with an easily rinse-able cooldown. Also sleep is auto crit for any rogue, and the slow wake up is 3 seconds of this available to any spec (it also applies to knockout bomb and full draw sleep upgrade for whatever reason). Completely agree on MoD. It’s only good vs bosses. And not even necessary! For warriors Combat roll is just busted. It deserves its own damn tier lol Livid is one of the few abilities that rivals stealth’s damage bonus, but required 5 enemies nearby and can’t be cast it as often. I didn’t know ring of pain only boosted reaver abilities. That’s too bad. Lastly while I’ve grown to appreciate the Templar combo, I still see its ranking in S tier as very conditional. It’s beyond OP vs demons and enemies that can be stunned, but useless against stun immune non demons, which sadly includes all bosses and many promoted enemies. Doing quite literally zero damage in these situations, solo especially, it leaves a pretty critical caveat that ought to be included in its S ranking. Then again, any high damage elemental ability like fire mine or winter’s ruin are useless against enemies immune to the element, and I’m still ok ranking them in S tier. Anyhow, love seeing your breakdown of the active abilities! Looking forward to more gameplay and builds!

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Thanks for feedback, man, and yeah it's got personal preference in this list and could miss a lot of details in the process. I'm working on the revival with 3 mages plus a warrior, haven't tried rogues yet, it's absolutely insane, the games combat system's pretty deep though

[@jordanwill7233]

@@RPGBUILDER33 oh I’m a girl actually btw. But yeah that revival spell can really amp damage up! I tried a reaver that was laying down 10-15k dragon rage and 20k combat rolls. I had trouble getting a templar combo to land while making sure all 3 revives stacked. Still strong even when just one though! Another nice feature of the reaver is you can get your hp down/die intentionally a lot easier than other warrior specs. The downside glitch you mentioned of accidentally applying revive to any castor at 1hp but alive is actually helpful here. If you’re at 1hp (something dragon rage can leave you at and sometimes not allow you to keep using it, or a champion can leave you at with the auto walking fortress passive), you can apply revival to them. One thing I’ve noticed is that because the damage bonus is already so high, additional buffs like pincushion, stealth livid or even just percent attack do significantly less, but flank and crit damage still have a big effect on damage. So far for testing damage my approach has been turning on friendly fire, killing the dps character with immolate or something just after dropping behind the sleeping ravager and reviving them 3x. What I want to try is a super high flank build with the boson’s blade + deepstalker sigil and see just how much damage a shadowstrike or HB might do! If it doesn’t one shot, I’m sure a single throwing blades into anything would! Good hunting!

[@RPGBUILDER33]

WoW, never know girls can be so keen to combat and builds too.

[@BunnyHoper7]

​@@jordanwill7233Depending on the situation, the templar combo can still have an effect on stun-immune characters, if you proc'ed walking bomb on mobs near them, as walking bomb from the templar combo does a lot of damage. Besides, most of the game's enemies are not immune to stun, unless you were ludicrously unlucky. So, Templars seem to get through the overwhelming majority of the game's fights faster, and will only have to roll longer against solo bosses with no mobs around them.

[@andrasmiklostoth3197]

I don’t know it if makes much sense to rank individual spells. Often I felt you overvalued or undervalued spells because of the build I have. I basically play a knight enchanter that mixes in spells from each tree. For example I don’t need the Barrier spell anymore, because I just do damage and my passives create barrier for me. The point of the build is to fire off spells at range to charge spirit blade and barrier, then either the enemies reach you or you fade step close. Spirit blade and fadd cloak can be used up closed especially for enemies who are vulnerable against spirit damage. I have staves for each damage type, so I cna Barrage their vulneeabilty and add either Winters Grasp, immolate or lightning bolt. Rinse and repeat. All you have to do is calculate what type of damage you should prepare, instead of trying to use one big spell. Of course the greatest weapon of the build is Ring of Doubt that allows eternal stealth and crit as a mage. It basically feels like being a magical assasin.

[@patcaldwell5730]

Just picked up the game again after years of not playing, Great Game still

[@Miumiu0404]

Horror + Static Cage is actually quite fun. lol

[@theoroderick782]

wish I had more time to watch your videos cause you do good job

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Thanks! Glad you enjoy them

[@altdra7727]

I don’t know if this is a personal experience or a common bug but sometimes whenever I used Vortex of Steel on a bigger enemy (other then dragons), the enemy would launch into the air and immediately die from fall damage. This made killing a giant as easy as a button press as this had a 100% success rate on them while I might occasionally launch a wyvern when I am battling a group of them

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Yup, it happens to all of us!

[@paulobrificado7239]

Man i love your channel

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Glad you love it, Paulo!

[@fullmetalpoitato5190]

I don't know how I missed this combo setup but now I gotta go Grappling Chain / Chains for Days, taunt with War Cry / Call to Arms and then smear them with Wirlwind / Rising Winds. All while a Rift Mage drops Static Cage and Pull of the Abyss.

[@marcomongke3116]

I am quite surprised we still dont have extra ability slot mod for Inquisition. With just 2-3 extra ability slot i could finally finish the game.

[@RPGBUILDER33]

Yeah, could definitely use a mod like this.

[@spellandshield]

Thanks for the video!

[@RPGBUILDER33]

No worries!

[@huunhanle3809]

20:51 The guard just straight up went to Skyrim xD.

[@danielahlgren3957]

Video idea, Ranking all passives in DA:I.

[@RPGBUILDER33]

OK, thanks for the idea.

[@rubenfischer6968]

On pc u can easily mod that u have all skill trees. Its a lot of fun being an time controlling aoe mage with so many good passives. Its definitly op, yeah who would have guessed, but gives u cool ways to extend ur build and in the end, its up to you, how op u gonna make it. however note that weapon related skills arent usabale, without further mods.

[@Meinshake12]

Great vid in general but I would change some: Flashfire D tier no explanation needed Fade step - S tier literally every mage uses same with Walking bomb - the skill is so good every class wants it so S tier Concerning focus ability, well yeah you're right. The only exception may be thousand cuts but if you need it... git gud scrub Also I love how you used the old design for Livid (its old name is unbowed)

[@RPGBUILDER33]

I can't find the livid icon...

[@LatashaMoore-y7r]

I thank you for Teacher me how to play Dragon Age inquisition

[@Ninja_Reborn]

For those who wished the low tier spells were better, try out the Skills Enhanced mod. :P

[@RavinerPayne]

Dispell can also get rid of demons breaking through the rift.

[@4RedJohn]

Yet one more reason to never use Lightning Bolt: it's bugged and its damage doesn't scale with weapon. No mod that increases its damage fixes it.

[@MyNameisRevenant]

as a person who has returned to the game after 2 years of beating it this is paramount to know.

[@ded2thaworld963]

Damn it…every time i see another DA video pop up i end up reinstalling and playing again…

[@JockPuppet]

You mention cc attacks but don't consider this in ranking, or how, many passives can completely change the ability's rankings... Like Spirit blade, regenerating barrier for every strike, making your knight enchanter literally invincible. 1v1ing a high dragon with basically 3 abilities due to spirit blade is easily class S. Or mind blast detonation ability for frozen enemies.... Priceless... And generates barrier... At least an A.

[@chriskoloski32]

I've decided to play again recently on insanity to finally get the platinum trophy on ps5, and I wish I knew before how strong dodge roll was with the damage upgrade.

[@aspiringgirl4422]

Holy shit, did you seriously put Mark of Death in a low tier? Mark of Death is one of the best abilities in the game. It effectively doubles your damage output and DPS. Dual wielding rogues are at their best as a single target DPS role. Mark of Death + Throwing Daggers + Shadow Strike will delete practically any enemy. I defeated the Highland Ravager with this combo from full health, the entire fight was about 10 seconds. This was on Nightmare with Even Ground active at level 27.

[@aflyincoconut]

Love this!! Great content!! 🤩

[@paxtonmonroe4574]

You didn't mention the super skill of every specialization. What do you think of them?

[@RPGBUILDER33]

I dont use those skills most of the time

[@jdowns051]

Gotta disagree with your ranking of poison. It can be absolutely broken by specializing it to heal and combining it with healing bonus armors and aoe abilities.

[@brandonfogel-kk6mm]

I’ve gotta say your definition of how to use mark of death is wrong it’s very easy to activate and def doesn’t require a still opponent nor one that isn’t attacking you , I use it on all enemies wether it be tanky giants or faster enemies or red templars it activates easily every time on each enemy I’ve faced and hits hard like almost 1 taps em hard you literally just need a couple abilities that hit more than once and that’s it, it’s probably my strongest skill or in my top 2 for sure

[@vyn8594]

Add a summary at the end perharps?

[@mayankverma6627]

I am doing my first mage run on nightmare any specialization u recommended for fun?

[@RPGBUILDER33]

The rift mage and knight enchanter are pretty nice.

[@jcop41]

you have a thick accent, i'd suggest adding subtitles. also, since theres not much happening on screen i'd suggest leaving the ability info as well as the upgrades with it on screen while talking about them.

[@godofdeath9487]

A kis herceg is better

[@guillermogrosso3576]

ñ

[@Spindlegrind]

i lasted 35 seconds before i thought...nope thats enough of that voice. shame

[@Dreamer23245]

So confusing. From D to S? That makes NO SENSE. Shouldn't the video include the chart and shouldn't the letter at least represent spells in some logic scale? Wtf would S even mean? There's no logic to it lol. I watched the entire video still confused as fuck as to which spell you actually put up as good or bad lol.

[@Smelyansky]

En garde is s tier imo