Forum:Revising "Companion Strategies": Please Contribute!

Forums: Index > Game DiscussionRevising "Companion Strategies": Please Contribute!

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Hello Everyone! I am aiming to improve the Companion Strategies page (which is in a very un-polished state), and add strategies for Awakening Companions as well. Please contribute your most common builds for your favorite party member(s)- what talents, specializations, skills and gear you set them up with.

I'll provide my most common builds for Origins companions, to start:

Alistair: He is usually my main tank (unless I am a tank myself). I prioritize his defensive talents (the second and third branches of the Weapon and Shield Talents tree), focusing on ranged attack, knockdown and flanking resistances. His first specialization is already Templar, so I give him those talents as soon as they become available, but hold back on Holy Smite unless I don't have another party member capable of taking down mage enemies faster. I usually give him the Champion secondary specialization, since War Cry is useful in building threat, and he has few sustained talents using up stamina, so Rally is a useful and inexpensive buff (and stealthed characters will usually be far away from him in combat anyway). Gear-wise, he gets as much resistance-buffing gear (physical, mental, spell and elemental) as possible, with some +X% healing items thrown in. I give him the best longsword and shield available to the party.

Morrigan: She is my cold-damage and debilitator mage (since her unique outfits are cold-damage based and she has more cold-damage talents than anything else when you get her). I end up giving her the entire Entropy talent school and assign my melee-DPS/off-tank to defend her. I also give her the fourth branch of the Spirit school, as Mind Blast, Force Field and Crushing Prison are effective crowd-control and single target handlers in a pinch. I have her wear the Robes of Possession, Wintersbreath and +cold damage gear. Her secondary specialization is usually Blood Mage, complementing her Shapeshifter talents as some durability in the form of additional Constitution points assigned on level-up. Blood Mage-only gear is also thus given to her. Blood mage talents also take priority over Shapeshifting talents.

Dog: The easiest to build. Simply take talents in any order as you please, choosing either to build him as an off-tank or damage dealer. Level-up points are allocated to Strength and Constitution to help him live longer and hit harder. His Overwhelm talent is an effective mage-killer. Any equipment that improve his attack and defense and resistances is good (endgame is usually Pure Bitch Braid and Kaddis of the Lady of the Skies).

Leliana: The one character I nearly ALWAYS have in my party. Pure Archery Talents tree, with prioritizing on getting the Aim and Master Archer talents. The activated talents actually take a backseat to completing her Bard skill tree and getting to the Lethality talent. 2-3 ranks in Deft Hands and 2 ranks in Stealth for stealthily deactivating traps are also always taken. A good secondary specialization is Ranger, with the animal assigned to her for protection. Level-up points are assigned to Cunning, Dexterity and Strength, in that order. Strength is usually capped at 20 and Dexterity at 40, with some points invested in Willpower (20 max) and Constitution (20 max). Rapid aim, +X% ranged critical chance, and +stat/+cunning items take priority.

Sten: Two-Handed Talents all the way, with priority on getting Indomitable and Two-Handed Sweep as early as possible. Reaver is usually his specialization, but with only the first two talents taken (he has low enough health as it is). Points are put into Strength, Constitution and Dexterity, in that order. If enough talents are left over, he gets ranks in the first branch of the Dual Weapon Talents tree, taken to Dual-Weapon Mastery. Usually wears the heaviest armor available, with +attack, +damage, +defense and +armor items preferred.

Zevran: Dual Weapon Talents all the way, with priority given to getting Momentum as early as possible, and leaving Dual-Weapon Mastery for last. Absolute highest priority given to Assassin talents, with next priority to getting Lethality and the Stealth tree. The Deft Hands tree is not very useful, as his focus is on killing, not lock-picking. A useful secondary specialization is Duelist, with Dueling being on all the time. Points allocated to Cunning, Dexterity and Strength (max 20), in that order. Wears +cunning (after Leliana), +dexterity, +X% critical/backstab damage and %melee critical chance items. I give him the best daggers I have (excepting +cunning ones, which are given to Leliana to buff her Song of Courage). Crow Dagger is my usual choice. He also uses poisons whenever available.

Oghren: Virtually identical to Sten, except that his primary specialization , Beserker, is fully developed with his secondary specialization being Reaver. Same item setup as well. For the A Paragon of Her Kind questline, I equip him with a good maul to combat the golems encountered. Otherwise, he generally uses the best battlaxe/sword available.

Shale Similar to Dog. She will eventually be able to learn all the available talents, so which tree is maxed out is a matter of personal choice. Rock Mastery for buffing archers, Stoneheart for tanking, Pulverizing Blows for damage dealing and Stone Aura as a totem (which is nearly invaluable for the second battle in The Attack at Nightfall when maxed out). The choice of large crystals depends on which role she is placed in, but small fire crystals are the most commonly useful choice (due to so few creatures having fire resistance and so many having a weakness to fire). She is invaluable while confronting dragons and bosses that tend to Overwhelm or pick up characters, as she cannot be either.

Wynne: She is the HARDEST party member to satisfactorily develop, in my case. She is a powerful healer and so necessarily must have all the healing spells. Arcane Warrior is an excellent second specialization as her magic and spellpower numbers can go through the roof, thus maximizing damage. Rock Armor, Spell Wisp, Spell Might and the Glyph spells are must-haves (A Paralysis Explosion is irresistable). Add Mana Clash to make her a anti-mage nuke. Stinging Swarm and the Walking Bomb spells are good options, and the Fire tree of the Primal Spells School is a viable damage spell tree. Heroic Offense and Heroic Aura are good buffs, but I generally don't bother with Heroic Defense or Haste. The Arcane Spells branch can also be developed if there are talents left over. When leveling up, her Magic and Willpower attributes should be given highest priority (2:1 point allocation respectively), and some points can be put in Dexterity in Lieu of Willpower if she is going the Arcane Warrior route. She should ALWAYS have Aneirin's Token equipped, to take fullest advantage of her Vessel of the Spirit plot talent. Equip her with +spellpower, +magic and +defense items.

That's my two cents. Please add your own opinions, and I really need help on Awakening companions, especially the mages Anders and Velanna. --John117XL (talk) 18:25, September 12, 2010 (UTC)

Shale: Shale has one absolutely devastating power... Earthen Grasp. Get it as soon as you can. Set Shale's tactics to scrapper but disable it. Put her in Rock Mastery mode as you wander around. When an enemy shows up throw a rock (this can ruin mages really fast), then do Earthen Grasp around your tank when enemy shows up (paralyzing *anything* for 10 seconds! in 5m radius!) then when they come out of it undisable the tactics and let her kill things. Sure he isn't as good at that, but he has given you plenty of time to ruin the enemy's day. By far my favorite companion. Folnar (talk) 23:34, September 12, 2010 (UTC)

I make alistair a reaver for the first two talents (mostly the second). sten goes berserker, and shale is always a back up tank with nature equipment and such. I boost up morrigans entropy especially the hexes, and she can heal just fine with only basic "heal" and drain life. resurrection is a problem but not worth the specialization. with wynne i always have to choose between gameplay and story, bloodmage gives huge mana reserves for healing as long as your tank can keep threat, but obviously wynne would never be a bloodmage, same problem with anders. Paralysis/mass paralysis is fantastic if you have rogues with coup de grace in your party. otherwise, basically the same as John117XL. --CarloGrimaldi (talk) 02:19, September 13, 2010 (UTC)

I'm putting a spot in so I can contribute at some point, but I currently don't have time since I am in class. Neo Nsran (talk) 11:53, September 13, 2010 (UTC)

I just set the Alister, Oghren, Zevran, Sten, Shale and Leliana to Scrapper, I set Wynn and Morrigan to Witch or Mage and I set them all to Aggressive, do some minor changes to what they do and turn them loose. This leaves me to fight as I want. Anya (talk)12:12, September 13, 2010 (UTC)

Re: Folnar: Thanks for the input! I'll try this as soon as I obtain Shale on my next playthrough.

Re: Anya: I don't recognize the 'Witch' and 'Mage' behaviour profiles - are you on a console, or possess a tactics mod?

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. Keep up the good work! --John117XL (talk) 17:49, September 15, 2010 (UTC)