139 Votes in Poll
I like mages most of all in all cases.
In Origins, warriors and rogues are kind of boring to me. Hit them in a special way, kick them in a special way... no fun. However, mages can use a lot of tricks and combinations, which makes combat interesting. In addition, mages are much more powerful than any other classes. You can give your mage a Fireball at level 2, a Heal at level 3, and fear almost nothing even at Nightmare. Especially if you give them more elemental damage spells after that.
And the Storm of the Century can wipe out armies. Also, fun combining it (or other continuous AoE spells) with some repulsion glyphs and watch your enemies run to you just to be ragdolled back into the storm.
In DA2, I actually liked all the classes. However, I prefer a rogue (perhaps dual) over a warrior because the warrior can't open locks. But I just like mages most of all. A spirit healer is especially useful because he can save your whole party with that revival spell + mass heal, which helps a lot on Nightmare difficulty at high levels. It's like, your whole party is dead, your Hawke is seriously wounded, and then bam, two spells, and it's like the fight has just started. You can also make your mage a tank by using Rock Armor upgraded with Galvanism. If your armor is kept up with your level, your physical resistance percentage will be comparable to that of a warrior. And mages have very high magic resistance as well thanks to their attributes.
In DA3, I also like mages, because they use various spell combinations for lots of damage and for fun. In general, I liked the rogue, but in contrast to mages, he was kind of boring. I played the Knight Enchanter because I could play him as a front-line soldier and was able not to have to worry about him getting killed, thanks to his barriers. It also lets me use a lot of mines (e.g. fire mines with a Flaming Array upgrade; or ice mines with a Chilling Array upgrade + then a Winter's Grasp with a Winter's Ruin upgrade\lots of Immolate with that upgrade which lets you cast it many times in succession; all for tons of damage).
I should try a Rift Mage, however.
So, in short, mages are much more fun. In Origins and Inquisition, they are also more powerful than other classes. Which helps at Nightmare difficulty level that I usually choose.
Mage.
Fighter/destroyer: blood magic, with primal (earth), fire, force
Healer/protector/supporter (don't let you be fooled, he's strong as fuck...): creation, spirit healer, force, primal (earth) storm.
Or a druid kind mage – shapeshifter, keeper, creation, earth, storm, spirit, spirit healer. He's able to fight as an arcane warrior as well.
And I love my reaver/berserker Hawke and champion/reaver/templar Cousland.
My rogues mostly archers. A qunari Archer should be very effective.
In the first two games, I really liked playing as a mage (however I've only played as a mage once in Origins cause I want to try out different origins in the game). In Inquisition I looooooved being an Archer. I had so much fun with it.
It's different for each game. I prefer being a warrior in Origins and a mage in DA 2. In Inquisition it's a dead tie between warrior and mage. But I have no love lost for rogues. Being a glass cannon is not my thing.
For both Origins and DAOII, I much prefer the Rogue. The lock-picking skill is nearly essential, and I prefer my character to have them rather than relying on having another character rogue in my party. This time playing through Inquisition, I’m playing as a rift mage. First time as anything other than a ranged rogue in this game.
I deeply enjoy the Templar-Champion combination for my Warden warriors (and Alistair), then adding the Spirit Warrior in the adventures after the Battle of Denerim. I just finished a rogue archer not too long ago who was a Ranger and a Bard (like how I build Liliana), and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be, though I think I build my hopes too high for it as my first deviation. Right now, I'm playing as a mage who is about to go to Lothering, and I am deeply enjoying casting spells on my enemies while Alistair keeps them distracted (though I do tend to accidentally set him on fire a lot).
DW Assassins for me. This is not to say I won't use a bow whenever it might be more effective, but that's harder to do in DAI since there's no mid-combat weapon-swapping. Also, I have to know what's behind all the locks and I enjoy the myriad benefits of stealth.
DAO - Assassin/Ranger (or Duelist)
DA2 - Assassin/Duelist (Teleporting backstabbing ftw!)
DAI - Assassin (Hidden Blades!)
The rogue class simply fits my personality, but I don't like much playing a ranged rogue because it's too passive for my liking. It's also the most complex class to build, because some combinations of rogue skills are simply awful. Both on DAO and DA2 I'd choose the duelist spec over others because it covers the rogue's greatest weakness: multiple opponents. The boost in defense is almost mandatory for me against multiple weak opponents, because a rogue can only target one opponent at a time and doesn't have the constitution and armor of a warrior, so you can easily get overwhelmed in harder difficulties. Also, Vendetta is the best talent/spell in DA2, allowing a long range teleport that let you handle higher rank enemies (and mages) fast before they get the chance to do their thing. Artificer is my go to spec in DAI, it's ok.
I primarily chose rogue in DAO for roleplaying purposes; I enjoyed Ranger and called on wild animals to aid you, and Duelist based on the perks. It's an incredible powerful class for me, and I even prefer it to playing as a mage in DAO. Also lockpicking because I hate not opening everything! It's also worthy of note that I refused to play as archers in the first two.
It's not a class for newcomers to DAO as it really shines when you think tactically and read into the talents. (I've been playing it since 2010 and just 2 years ago, I found out about flanking, and setting up your tactics)
I'm not really fond of the warrior class, but I've seen it really shine with a Temp-Champ and Berserker-Reaper. Although in DAII, it seemed incredibly lacking as warriors and warrior party members barely did any damage from my experience.
Duel-wielding rogues in Inquisition, didn't seem as powerful as the other games, but archers? Archers? Archer + Tempest made me reconsider playing as a mage. Yeah I could play as Sera but I feel better doing it myself.
I always play mages. If they weren't seriously nerfing them to make all classes balanced in their own, they'd be the strongest class that no other class can stand up against.
The only problem is in DAO, because the casting speed is too slow and the staff's base damage is useless but I enjoy combinations of spells. In DA2 and DAI is more fun to play mage because they are more action-oriented and staves deal more damage.
DAO — Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage combo. My favourite starting trees are Primal (Lightning and Fire tiers) and Arcane (Awakening tiers) but I don't Entropy once in a while (Mass Paralysis, Waking Nightmare) .
DA2 — Force/Blood Mage combo. My favourite starting trees are Primal and Elemental.
DAI — I played all specialisations. I enjoy Rift Mage more, Knight Enchanter comes second. My favourite starting tree are Storm and Inferno.
What do you think?