Accessories (Dragon Age II)

Accessories are items in Dragon Age II that enhance various aspects of your character. Using the right combination of accessories can make or break your character. For example,

Using the Amulet Talisman of Saarebas has a bonus of +2 health regeneration rate and "Blood Magic: Each point of health provides 1 additional mana". This allows Blood Mages to consume less health while spell casting. Combining this amulet with other items that have the Blood Magic enhancement can ultimately mean that 1 point of health is actually 7 points of mana to a fully upgraded blood mage. With a base of 100 health you can easily cast the most expensive spells 10 times from the beginning of the game. A well upgraded Blood Mage can consistantly cast spells and NEVER depletes their mana/health.

It is important to understand exactly what each accessory is granting you as regeneration rates(one of the most common traits of accessories) is not listed anywhere in the game. Additionally the game does not include damage modifications from accessories into your stats. Instead they are applied when the damage is dealt. Meaning a ring with +3% Physical Damage will not be taken into account when damage/DPS is displayed on your character sheet. Since enemies have resistances the damage bonuses are applied AFTER resistance is determined. This, unfortunately, makes determining the best accessories a daunting task.

Basically if you deal 10 base damage and they resist 5 of it, with a 10% damage bonus you actually deal 5.5 damage not the 6 you would expect. Lastly you MUST match damage types when applying accessories. A warrior wielding The Celebrant deals 38 spirit damage, Equipping an accessory with +X% physical damage means that when you deal 0 physical damage you still deal 0+(0*0.X) or ZERO additional damage for non math people. This is different from the Rune of Devastation's +10% damage attribute because it adds 10% of the total damage after resistances. With few exceptions skills deal in damage multipliers however for mages it is equally important to note what kinds of damage you will be dealing. +X% fire damage will do nothing to aid spirit damage (which is roughly half the damaging skill sets). However Nature bonuses affect Fire, Ice, and Electricity as these are all elements of nature.

Types of Accessories
There are 3 kinds of accessories: Amulets, Belts, and Rings. These items follow the same color scheme as every other item in the game.