Dragon Age 2 Game Overview. In Dragon Age 2, you take the role of Hawke, a survivor of the blight. Through the game, Hawke will gain in power and influence, rising from a refugee to the legendary Champion of the lands. Through the story, the player will encounter several familiar faces from Dragon Age: Origins such as Flemeth and Merrill.
Creating the ultimate dream-team party in Dragon Age: Inquisition is something that all players want to experience, and in BioWare games, mixing and matching party members is half of the fun. Finding that perfect balance between Rogues, Mages and Warriors can be a long-winded process full of experimentation and testing. Sometimes you won’t know if a particular skill is worth getting, or if a passive is too good to be true. In a sprawling RPG game like Dragon Age: Inquisition, it helps to know what you’re doing and be on the top of your game as soon as possible–otherwise you’ll feel the need to re-spec or even restart the game and lose your progress.
- Page 1 of 2 - Class builder Calculator - posted in Multiplayer: I played an excessive amount of Mass Effect 3s multiplayer. I would visit the forums and see a lot of discussions on how people were skilling their character.
- The skill calculator allows you to choose the skills in advance of your characters.
If you want to go toe-to-toe with towering dragons and take on the fiercest demons of the Fade, you’ll need to arm yourself with knowledge. Luckily we’ve come across an immensely handy guide courtesy of Reddit user Legacy_Raider, which reveals the dynamics of spell combos. We’ve broken down the basics and fundamentals of combos, and tell you everything you need to know about status effects, detonators and the resulting bonus chaos so you can take on the biggest and baddest in Thedas.
Anatomy Of A Spell Combo
Certain skills in Inquisition are must-haves that can set up devastatingly powerful combos that wreak havoc on foes. Experimenting with class abilities can lead to some pretty surprising results (like Whirlwind with Static Cage) and decimate baddies with substantial damage bonuses. But first we have to understand what status effects are, and how they work in tandem with “detonation” skills to pull off high damage. Every class–Rogue, Mage and Warrior–has its own set of skills that inflict varying status effects as well as specific detonation skills. Combos essentially begin with incapacitating an enemy with a status effect followed up with a “detonator ability”.
Essentially combos are just a specific rotation of skills that deliver bonus damage and affects when properly executed, and keeping things simple is the key to understanding how they work.
Status Effects: Combo Starters
There are four basic status effects–Stun, Sleep, Freeze and Paralyze–and below we have a breakdown of the classes and skills that inflict them. Note that these abilities are also synonymous with “incapacitating” effects and the “disabled” status.
Incapacitating Effect –> Class –> Skill (Skill Tree)
- Stun –> Warrior –> Pommel Strike (Two-Handed Tree)
- Sleep –> Rogue –> Knockout Powder (Subterfuge Tree)
- Freeze –> Mage –> Winter’s Grasp // Flask of Frost (Tempest Rogue)
- Paralyze –> Mage –> Lightning Bolt (Storm Tree)
The above skills are essential abilities to pick up for all classes in some mixture or another. It’s advised that you spread out and vary your party members, but they’ll all need some form of combo starter skill. You can’t go wrong with any of the above, but the passives can get a bit tricky. Let’s just stick with combos for right now.
Detonators: Combo Finishers
Now that we know how to start a combo, let’s explore some basic finishers. Just like the status effects, detonators are typified by the class they belong to and are made up of three basic types: Impact, Precision and Eldritch. All of these lead to different combo outcomes and can afford tremendous strategic advantage.
Detonator –> Class –> Skill
- Impact –> Warrior –>
- Lunge and Slash
- Shield Bash (Weapon & Shield Tree)
- Mighty Blow, Whirlwind (Two-Handed Tree)
- Spell Purge (Templar)
- Precision –> Rogue –>
- Longshot (Archery),
- Twin Fangs, Death Blow (Double Daggers Tree)
- Shadow Strike (Subterfuge)
- Eldritch –> Mage –>
- Mind Blast, Dispel (Spirit)
- Energy Barrage (Storm)
- Immolate (Inferno)
- Spirit Blade (Knight-Enchanter)
- Stonefist (doubles as Impact, Rift Mage)
Combos are all about strategy, and to effectively use them, you’ll need to hop into the freeze-frame tactical menu to plot your party’s actions. Having full step-by-step control over your party is essential to pulling off the combos, and the RTS-style tactical view is a fantastic way to learn the basics of this craft. Learning the flow of battle is paramount to successful execution of spell synergies, but with time you’ll get the hang of it. Now let’s move on to the advanced course in spell combos 101.
Combo Effects
Incapacitating skills set the bomb in place, detonators light the fuse and combo effects are the resulting explosion. The most amazing thing about combos in Dragon Age: Inquisition is that status and detonator spells can be mixed and matched to deliver different explosive results. This is the advanced course, and we’ll be taking a look at the true dynamics of spell combos as tactical tools of destruction. After successful detonation, certain combo sets will hit enemies with powerful afflictions that can weaken baddies, dish out huge elemental damage, or even send them in a crazed panic of fear. These debilitating statuses are the key to tackling strong bosses or playing on higher difficulties. Essentially the formula is like this, along with a breakdown of each of the combo effects and what they do.
Incapacitating Spell + Detonator = Combo Effect
- Basic Combo –> Moderate bonus damage, no bonus status effect.
- Rupture –> High damage over time (DoT) that ignores armor, similar to a bleed effect.
- Shatter–> High cold elemental damage.
- Nightmare –> High damage, inflicts Panic effect (enemy stops attacking and moves randomly around the battlefield).
- Discharge –> High AoE lightning damage to enemies within range.
- Weakness –> High damage bonus and inflicts Weakness effect (target’s attacks do less damage)
Now that we know all the basics of the incapacitating spells, detonators and the combo effects, let’s go over some sample combos and their respective results in battle. Every detonator will trigger different outcomes, all of which can be the difference between life and death in those tough situations.
It’s best to start out with the simple combos like Pommel Strike + Lunge and Slash, then work your way to using Mage skills like Winter’s Grasp and Lightning Bolt to start off your combos. One of the more effective starter synergies is just Winter’s Grasp + Shield Bash, which works incredibly well if the opponent is shielded or heavily armored. Varric or Cole’s Knockout Powder is an excellent combo starter as well, as it puts baddies to sleep and allows you to kick off the bleeding effects of Rupture or terrorizing them with Nightmare.
If you happen to unlock the Templar specialization, he can actually combo off of his own skills: the Wrath of Heaven ability–which delivers a Stun AoE attack–can be detonated by the Spell Purge attack, dealing huge damage. If we consult the table above, a Stun starter combined with an Eldritch detonator kicks off Weakness, and for an added bonus, Spell Purge also dispels and de-buffs baddies of all their bonuses. Another amazing combo is using Knockout Powder on group of clustered enemies then rampaging in with a two-handed Warrior’s Whirlwind ability. This will combo off of the entire group, dealing impressive damage across the board.
Static Cage also works exceptionally well with Whirlwind. The former is a spell from the Mage’s Storm tree, and essentially traps enemies and paralyzes them in a given space. Once paralyzed, two-handed Warriors can jump in and stir up a frenzy with Whirlwind, rending the poor hapless souls to bits. To take full advantage of these synergies you’ll want to pay attention to enemy strengths and weaknesses. These can be seen at any time when you use the tactical menu, where you can hover over a demon or Red Templar and see their stats. Should an enemy not have any weaknesses, well you can just fire up a recipe like Pommel Strike (Stun) + Mind Blast (Eldritch Detonator) and Weaken them yourself.
At their core combos are strategic advantages that can sway any battle in your favor. Using the right conjunction of spells at the right time can lead to an ultimate victory against the strongest foes of Thedas. With the power of combos every party member has the capacity to be a huge asset for the entire team. Be sure to pick up all of the combo starters and check through the detonators to find which you like the most. But be careful as you’ll want to invest in passives to round out your characters. Now that you know the basics of combos be sure to give them a try! At first it’ll be slow-going, but once you get all the rotations and Tactics down pat, battle will flow like a finely tuned machine.
We hope you’ve learned a thing or two with this guide, and be sure to let us know in the comments section below if you’ve found any other interesting character class skill combos!
Original Author: Derek Strickland
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The following is a list of measurable statistics for playable characters which may be found throughout the Dragon Quest series. Other than normal level progression, there are seeds that can enhance a character's capabilities.
- 4Resilience
- 5Agility
- 6Wisdom
- 7Luck
- 8Style
- 9Deftness
- 10Charm
- 13Derived stats
- 13.3Evasion
Hit Points[edit]
Hit Points (HP) determine how much health a character has remaining. All damage subtracts from this score, and if it reaches 0, the character can no longer participate in battle, and must be revived. HP can be restored via medicinal herbs, healing spells, resting at an inn, etc.
In Dragon Quest III and IV, Resilience directly determines your character's maximum Hit Points. The more a character's Resilience score increases upon leveling, the more Hit Points a character will receive upon the next level increase. In all other titles the maximum HP a character has is generally determined by their level and, if applicable, vocation. Martial artists, warriors, and paladins have the highest HP on average.
Any character can consume a seed of life to increase their maximum HP.
Magic Points[edit]
Magic Points (MP) determine how much mana a character can expend to cast spells. Each spell deducts from this pool at a set rate, and cannot be cast if MP is too low. Some very special spells like Magic Burst will consume all remaining MP when cast. Starting with Dragon Quest VI, skills were introduced that also consumed MP.
In all versions of III, and IV, Wisdom directly determines your character's maximum Magic Points, paralleling the Resilience stat. In all other titles the maximum MP a character has is determined by their level and, if applicable, vocation. Prior to Dragon Quest VI, non-magical characters had no MP pools as they had no use for them, but with the addition of skills, most characters began accumulating an MP pool even if they never learned actual spells.
Any character can consume a seed of magic to increase their maximum MP.
Dragon Age 2 Skill Calculator Key
Strength[edit]
Strength measures how physically strong a character is, and is added to a character's weapon bonus in determining damage inflicted upon an enemy. In later installments, some skills depend on Strength for determining damage output, ignoring if a weapon is equipped.
Any character can consume a seed of strength to increase this attribute.
Resilience[edit]
Resilience (formerly localized as Vitality) measures how durable a character is. Resilience is added to a character's equipment defense in determining how much physical damage they endure when struck. Any character can consume a seed of resilience to increase this attribute
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation[edit]
In all versions of III, Resilience determines a character's potential Hit Points. The maximum Hit Points at any time is between 195~205% of the character's Resilience score.
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen[edit]
In the NES and PSX versions of the game, Resilience acts as it does in III. As of the DS port, the stat has been modified to influence defence directly.
Agility[edit]
Agility determines a character's priority in turns, utilizing a Gaussian Curve with simple calculations. In the NES versions of the first four games, as well as all versions of Dragon Quest III, agility also contributes to the character's innate defence. If a character has no armour or other defensive gear equipped in these titles, then their defence will be half (50%) of their agility. Any character can consume a seed of agility to increase this attribute.
Dragon Quest[edit]
Turn order is strictly dependent on the enemy in the NES version, with a 100%, 50%, 37.5%, and 25% chance for them to strike first.
Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line[edit]
(Agility/2) + N, with N being 0~255. NES version only.
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation[edit]
(Agility + 20) * (N/256), with N being a random number between 0~255.
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen[edit]
Currently unknown.
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride[edit]
SNES version is calculated as Agility * (75 + N * 26/256)/100, with N being 0~255.
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation[edit]
All versions are calculated as (Agility + 20) * (N/100), with N being 50~100.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past[edit]
The original and remake use the same algorithm as found in VI.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King[edit]
Turn order calculation is slightly tweaked, with enemy agility directly involved in the algorithm instead of just being measured against. The chance for a character to act is (ally Agility)/(enemy Agility) * 50, with the result being converted to a percentage.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies[edit]
Turn order is calculated the same way as in VIII.
Dragon Quest X[edit]
The tenth game operates in real time, so players can act as quickly as they can input commands. Agility reduces the interval between actions, which is the period of time between when an action is executed and when the command window appears again to input another command.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age[edit]
Currently unknown.
Wisdom[edit]
Wisdom (formerly localized as Intelligence) measures a character's natural cognitive ability. Any character can consume a seed of wisdom to increase this attribute.
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation[edit]
In III Wisdom determines a character's potential Magic Points, with the maximum at any time being 195~205% of the Wisdom stat. Additionally, the stat determined how quickly a character could learn a new spell: learning a spell could be delayed or expedited by up to five levels. This aspect was reduced in subsequent versions of the two games, with the influence being three levels at most.
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen[edit]
Wisdom functions as it did in the previous game.
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride[edit]
A Wisdom stat of twenty is required for tamable monsters to listen to the orders of the player, disregarding instructions until the mark has been reached. It is speculated among fans that the stat also influences the A.I. efficiency of human and monster characters, but this is currently unconfirmed.
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation[edit]
Wisdom decides how intelligently an A.I. controlled character will act in battle and how they react to player actions. This lucidity stacks on top of the behavioral patters set by the various battle commands such as Watch My Back and Show No Mercy, and as such even melee characters benefit from being bright.
| Wisdom | Behavior |
|---|---|
| 1~10 | Attacks are unfocused and random. |
| 21~30 | Effects of weapons are taken into consideration. Focus is on weaker enemies, starting from left to right. |
| 31~40 | Focus is on the weakest enemy period, ignoring previous left to right sorting method. |
| 41~60 | Damaged enemies within a group will generally be ignored if an enemy outside the group can be defeated in a single move. |
| 61~70 | Characters will always focus on the healthiest enemy in a group. |
| 71~100 | Characters begin to target the most dangerous enemy in an encounter, rather than the weakest. |
| 101~200 | Characters begin to take player action into account, altering their strategy 1/8th of the time. This acknowledgement overrides normal A.I. decision making, even if the player's action is the least intelligent choice for that turn (I.E. if the player casts oomph on the weakling magus, the magus will attack instead of casting a powerful spell). |
| 201~300 | Player recognition raised to 1/4th. |
| 301~500 | Player recognition risen to 1/3rd. |
In games where Wisdom is not present, the character's level controls their A.I. efficiency.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King[edit]
Starting with VIII, Wisdom has also begun to effect the potency and power of spells, such as raising Frizz's power from 10~13 to 21~24 at higher values. Each spell has it's own growth rate, with some taking up to five points of wisdom to increase in damage, and others as few as two.
Luck[edit]
Luck dictates the frequency that a character can avoid debuffs and status ailments cast by monsters. Any character can consume a seed of luck to increase this attribute.
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation}[edit]
In all versions of III, Luck affects your character's chances of being affected by status ailments such as Snooze, Fizzle, and Dazzle. Each enemy spell has a different base accuracy that is lowered as the stat rises, being calculated as Probability(P) = (384 - LUCK) * MOD / 65536.
| MOD | Staus ailments |
|---|---|
| 160 | Dazzle, Deceleratle |
| 128 | Sap, Kasap, Kamikazee (locked) |
| 96 | Snooze, Fizzle |
| 64 | Fuddle |
| 32 | Whack, Thwack |
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen[edit]
Luck functions as it had in III
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride[edit]
In V, Luck determines the accuracy of an enemy curse rather than status ailment spells, with fixed accuracy rates assigned to enemy spells.
Style[edit]
Style is the predecessor of the Charm attribute to be found in later games, and as such it describes a character's innate charisma and attractiveness. Any character can increase their style by consuming a pretty betsy.
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation[edit]
Style determines a character's placement in the contests such as the World Style Ranking in Chateau de Sass.
A common misconception is that style influences the Luminary vocation's ability to stun monsters. This is false, as the stun chance is based on the character's ranking in the vocation rather than any stat.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past[edit]
Style operates as it had in VI, and is required to one a section of the the Excellence Grading Organisation competition.
Deftness[edit]
Deftness measures the ability of a character to steal an item from an enemy, as well as controlling how frequently a character may perform a critical hit, performing preemptive strikes on enemies, and the ability to escape from battle.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies[edit]
Steal rate is calculated as:
Critical Hit rate is calculated as Deftness/100 + 3% (with weapon skill trait boost). Wearing the Critical Acclaim will add another 4%, and thus the maximum rate is 16.99% at 999 deftness.
Dragon Quest X[edit]
Currently unknown.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age[edit]
Erik's steal rate is calculated as Deftness/20, meaning that every 20 points will increase his chance for success by 1%. With his guile bonuses this brings the maximum rate to 75%.
Similarly, the critical hit rate is calculated as Deftness/200, which limits the natural cap to 5%.
Any character can consume a seed of deftness to increase this attribute.
Charm[edit]
Dragon Age 2 Skill Calculator Map
Charm is a measurement of a character's attractiveness. Introduced in Dragon Quest IX, it is added to a character's equipment style rating in determining how often they may enthrall a monster. Enraptured foes have a 90% chance to be stunned for 1~2 turns, a 5% chance to become paralyzed for 1~4 turns, and a 5% chance to become confused for 6~9 turns.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies[edit]
The chance to stun a monster is calculated as (Current charm - innate charm + equipment bonus - 100) * 0.02, which is then multiplied against a monster's charm resistance. Current charm is the programming check to see if Extreme Makeover has been applied or not, and the equipment bonus is the sum of the style of a character's gear plus their innate charm and this total is added again to the innate charm during the calculation check.
Dragon Quest X[edit]
Currently unknown.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age[edit]
Currently unknown.
Magical Mending[edit]
Magical Mending determines how powerful a character's healing spells will be. Introduced in Dragon Quest IX, it is calculated in all healing spells, as well as certain offensive skills and spells such as Solar Flair and the Whack line.
Any character can consume a seed of therapeusis to increase this attribute.
Magical Might[edit]
Magical Might determines how powerful a character's attack spells will be. Introduced in Dragon Quest IX, it is calculated in all offensive magical spells, as well as select skills such as Gigaslash, and as part of the accuracy of status spells such as fizzle.
Any character can consume a seed of sorcery to increase this attribute.
Derived stats[edit]
Attack[edit]
Attack is used to determine how hard a character can hit with melee attacks. It is checked against the enemy's Defense in calculation of damage inflicted.
Attack is derived from a character's strength stat added to their weapon's attack bonus, which is then divided by two, plus further bonuses from certain accessories or vocation traits.
Defense[edit]
Defense (spelled alternatively through the Square Enix localization as Defence) is the sum of a character's Resilience and Armour equipped, if any, checked against the enemy's Attack in calculations for damage. Every four points of defence reduces enemy damage by one point. It has no effect on magical or breath damage, which are dependent on spells/skills and equipment traits.
In the NES titles, as well as all versions of Dragon Quest III, Defense is the sum of half a character's Agility and the sum of their armor's durability.
Evasion[edit]
The base chance to dodge an enemy blow in any game is always 1.5625% (1⁄64). This can be further raised through equipment and vocation bonuses if available, such as the Dark robe and Dancer.
In VI, VII, and VIII a character's agility will also determine their probability to dodge physical strikes. The game's programming checks the agility stat of the target before an attack is made, and if the stat surpasses a certain value then the programming checks to see if the blow lands:
Dragon Quest VI[edit]
Dragon Age 2 Skill Calculator
If a character's agility is below 400, evasion is calculated as (Agility/80)+3/192 for a cap of 1/24 at 400. Once a character's agility surpasses 400, evasion is calculated as ([{(Agility-400)*6}/25]+8)/192 for a maximum dodge rate of 1/6 at 500. In other words, the evade chances are:
| Agility | Chance to evade |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.56% |
| 50 | 1.89% |
| 100 | 2.21% |
| 200 | 2.86% |
| 300 | 3.52% |
| 400 | 4.17% |
| 401 | 4.29% |
| 425 | 7.29% |
| 450 | 10.42% |
| 475 | 13.54% |
| 500 | 16.67% |
- Factors such as vocation bonuses and the effects of spells and skill also influence dodge rates.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past[edit]
Dodge rates are calculated the same way as they were in VI.
Dragon Quest VIII[edit]
| Agility | Chance to evade |
|---|---|
| 1~249 | 1.56% |
| 250~499 | 3.12% |
| 500~749 | 6.25% |
| 750~998 | 12.5% |
| 999 | 25% |
- Note: if a character has raised his or her Fisticuffs level to receive an increase in evasion, the default is raised to 50% before stacking with all other bonuses. The character's level must be higher than the attacking enemy's for the boost to take effect.
As can be inferred, the spell Acceleratle is vitally important when battling strong foes, even slower ones.
Trivia[edit]
- Wisdom's relation to A.I. was not revealed through an official square-enix channel, but the November 10th, 2000 issue of Dengeki! Playstation magazine (電撃PlayStation). The issue featured an article that was a response to reader mail asking what the purpose of the stat was, and described an experiment with Ruff and healing wounded allies--the wild child would only use Kerplunk Dance when his wisdom was at 63, even if other characters were only at half health. The article went on to state that once his wisdom broke the 100 threshold and the test began again, Ruff would use Hustle Dance instead, recognizing that the greater healing power in the former skill was too costly for a non-emergency situation.
Gallery[edit]
Ragnar (Strength)
Kiryl (Resilience)
Torneko (Luck)
Maya (Magic Points)
Ashlynn
Carver
DQVI Hero
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