Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a game that has received mixed reception from players since its release, but few can deny that the way players can build their version of Rook is fun and a puzzle all on its own. There are now plenty of how-to guides on the internet to instruct players on how to build absolutely broken versions of each class and specialization. This guide will focus on improving the power of arguably the most powerful specialization of all: the Reaper.

A subsect of the warrior class, reapers are tied thematically to the mourn watch, and though they do not function as one would expect most of the time when a reaper build comes online properly, it can make even a game set to the nightmare difficulty feel easy. By choosing the correct items, skills, and runes, here is how a player may build a reaper that will cut through Rook’s enemies like they were made of wet tissue paper.

The Reaper’s Weapons are the Foundation of a Great Build

The Early Game Weapons

As with any game where one has to improve their character over time, Rook will not start out with all the weapons and armor they need to become the damage monster that is the reaper. In fact, it will take a bit of time to acquire the necessary components. Fortunately, it isn’t hard to find some early-game gear that will complement the reaper’s skill set.

The first thing to understand then is that the reaper’s best friend is not the light or heavy weapons Rook will wield, but the shield they carry. That’s right, players will basically become a sort of undead Captain America as they fight their way through the returned Evanuris’ followers.

Starting out with the weaponry, in the early chapters of the game, a good light weapon for Rook to wield is the Dark Shard sword. This weapon can be found in the upper levels of the Ossuary and grants Rook. At its lower rarities, it increases Rook’s heavy attack damage from the onset but is mostly useful for its rare ability to increase damage against armor.

• The Reaper’s primary weapon is the shield.
• This makes the Reaper and excellent ranged attacker.

Next up is Rook’s heavy weapon. The Anvil Breaker can be purchased from the Black Emporium and increases the stagger of each of Rook’s attacks, allowing them to perform takedowns more easily. Last up is the most important of Rook’s beginner weapons: the Flying Kite, which can also be bought from the Black Emporium. This shield will increase the damage from Rook’s shield tosses, which is basically their main way of doing damage.

As it is also Rook’s ranged form of combat, it can increase damage done to barriers, which essentially makes an enemy’s barrier nonexistent when a reaper Rook is around. With these three weapons, Rook stands a better chance of utilizing the skills they will need to make it to the reaper specialization.

The Late Game Weapons

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This is where the real fun begins. Three weapons can transform the reaper from a fun subclass into the damage monstrosity that it was always meant to be: the Woodsong Cleaver, the Necropolis Defender, and the Imperial Knot. The Woodsong Cleaver can be found in numerous locations, but the best way to start would be to locate it in a chest during the Unwanted Guests mission. The key feature this item grants Rook is increased rage generation, making it much easier for Rook to use their various abilities in combat, which will only increase the damage output.

Next up is the Imperial Knot. This one is a little tricky to find and involves hunting for the little Candlehops scattered around Dock Town. After finding all seven of them, Rook will be guided back to an unlocked section of the Shadow Dragons’ hideout where they uncover a chest containing this unique maul.

Rook will never use it in combat, because they will only need its ability: Granting an additional six stacks of necrosis on top of Rook’s normal maximum. This takes a maximum stack of five to an eye-watering eleven. It cuts the damage in half, but Rook can compensate for this by selecting abilities that increase affliction damage, essentially doubling their normal necrosis damage over time.

Last but not least is the Necropolis Defender shield. This shield can be acquired from the Mourn Watch shop and grants Rook an additional shield bounce. Where it truly shines, though, is dealing more damage to enemies suffering from the necrosis affliction. Considering that placing that affliction on enemies is the entire point of the reaper specialization, that means Rook will be dealing increased damage to a target already suffering from an effect that is rapidly draining their health.

The Reaper’s Armor Amplifies Their Abilities

Early-Game Armor

As with the weaponry, early-stage armor will be vital to help empower Rook’s abilities as they begin to acquire the skills needed to unlock the reaper specialization. Fortunately, there are plenty of items within the first few levels that can bolster Rook’s abilities. For example, the Carastes Double-Hat, which can be acquired in the Shadow Dragons’ shop, will increase Rook’s rage generation.

This is vital at lower levels because rage is what Rook needs to trigger their abilities. It is a finite resource though and quickly diminishes if not used. Being able to build it up more quickly will allow prospective reaper players to get a feel of how Rook’s abilities work in conjunction with their weapon attacks.

Next is the physical armor Rook would wear: the Brawler’s Decorated Leathers. This armor, which can be found in various locations across Dock Town, also helps with Rook’s rage generation. Perhaps most importantly though, at higher rarities, it can also decrease the rate at which Rook loses rage, meaning they could use their abilities more frequently in combat.

• Technically speaking, a better background for Reaper would be having Rook as a Grey Warden due to the boost to health.
• It takes some time to acquire the late-game armor pieces for Rook.

As a side note, wearing this armor with the Carastes Double-Hat will also activate the important ability Rook can acquire early on known as Eclectic Armor, which will boost their ranged attack and weak point damage output if they wear a head and armor piece of different categories, with the double-hat being light while the leathers are medium.

The next item that can be acquired is a belt named Reinforced Binding. Its primary use is to grant Rook increased resistances, with additional bonuses being activated upon potion use. At higher levels, it can also grant the immovable status, which prevents Rook’s sequence of attacks from being broken even if they take damage.

At its highest level, it can even increase the length of advantages like immovable. Lastly are the ornamental items that provide passive bonuses throughout the game. The Biting Thumb ring can increase weapon damage by ten percent while Precious Decay will increase necrotic damage. Finally, the Grey Emblem can grant Rook the Precision advantage, increasing their ranged damage.

Late-Game Armor

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This is where the abilities of the reaper are truly boosted to an almost unfair height. By now, players should have unlocked the specialization and thus possess the ability to afflict necrosis upon their enemy with every hit. The first item players should go after is the Death Mask. This Mourn Watch-specific item can not only increase affliction damage and duration at its lowest rarities, but at its highest can increase the damage dependent upon how strong Rook’s standing is with the Mourn Watch. If this reaper Rook is a member, then by now it should be maxed out.

Striking Misfortune is the armor that will synergize best with the helmet, once again triggering Eclectic Armor. This light armor increases Rook’s necrotic damage. By this point, reaper has converted the shield tosses’ physical damage to necrotic, so anything that boosts the impact of the shield upon the target is bonus, especially since one of the game’s most frequent enemy types, the Darkspawn, are resistant to necrotic damage. At higher rarities it also grants the user Immovable, replacing what was lost by no longer using Reinforced Binding.

This neatly segues into the belt that will be used primarily by reapers: the Watcher’s Hold. It increases Rook’s necrotic damage and even does additional necrotic damage on potion use, but the real trick is that it can provide an extra stack of necrosis onto the target, further increasing the draining effect reapers have.

Lastly are the ornamental items: First up is the Graven Opal, which will increase Rook’s damage with ranged attacks. Considering that hurling the shield is a reaper’s primary means of attacking that will count for quite a lot. The true powerup is the Necrotic Jade though. This ring increases Rook’s necrosis damage and the amount of physical damage Rook can do to an enemy suffering from necrosis.

That’s not all though, it provides one more additional stack of necrosis, bringing the total amount to thirteen. Finally, the Magister’s Bargain amulet will increase the length of Rook’s duration abilities, which, considering that most of the abilities tied to reaper are duration, will come in handy.

The Reaper’s Skill Tree and Runes Finish Off the Perfect Build

Finding the Right Runes

Dragon Age: The Veilguard only lets Rook equip three runes at any given time, and each one comes with a unique ability that can be triggered in combat to assist in the battle. The trick for the reaper though, is to rely more on the passive abilities of the runes than their triggered ones. The best rune for a reaper by far is the Toss rune. While its triggered ability reduces the shield toss cool down to nothing, its passive ability gives Rook an additional shield bounce, meaning Rook can apply more stacks of necrosis on an enemy before they know what hit them.

Next is the vivify rune. This rune is geared towards assisting with Rook’s ability usage. When triggered, it can restore all of Rook’s used abilities and the next one they use does not expend any rage. As with Toss, Vivify’s true value lies in its passive, which increases Rook’s rage generation, allowing Rook to use their abilities more often in combat.

• An alternative rune to use is Overflow, which grants Rook an additional potion, taking advantage of Watcher’s Hold.
• Reaper’s ultimate is known as Spirit Storm.

The last rune Rook should take is known as Scourge. It is by far the easiest of the group to acquire and has a pretty simple effect: it causes all of Rook’s weapons to deal necrotic damage for the next twenty seconds following activation. Not very useful on its own, but as before, it is the passive benefit that Rook will be taking advantage of. Scourge increases necrotic damage. With the shield toss being made entirely necrotic and with so many tosses available to them, anything that boosts this damage output is a plus.

The Skills That Make the Reaper

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Rounding out the build are the abilities that make up the reaper’s various effects. Shield Volley is the earliest one players can acquire, granting the warrior the ability to bounce their shield back at a foe a number of times to increase damage output. Then comes a combat ability that will be used throughout the game: Deadly Ground. This duration ability does passive necrotic damage and even applies stacks of necrosis to enemies inside it.

Accompanying it is Bloody Advance, a combat ability that, while it does minimal damage in comparison to Rook’s shield, can apply the sundered condition to a target, making them vulnerable to all types of damage. The next ability to grab is Ricochet Shot, which will grant an extra shield bounce to Rook, followed by Improved Throw, which increases the damage of shield-based attacks. Once this is done, and if players have yet to unlock the reaper specialization, they can focus on grabbing any ability that passively increases affliction damage or rage generation.

Once the specialization is unlocked though, every skill point should be spent acquiring every ability. While some will be more useful than others, the three following abilities make the build complete. Shattering Throw increases shield toss damage and gives Rook another bounce to use in their attack. When combined with Let It Linger, it applies an affliction stack for every shield bounce.

As the shield toss’ damage has now become necrotic thanks to the ability Death’s Throw, that means Rook applies necrosis with every hit. Finally, Devastation increases the damage of afflictions as well as their duration. Overall, the reaper’s true strength is in slowly whittling its enemy’s health down to nothing, but with this build that process is sped up, turning it into one of the most powerful builds seen in Thedas’ history.

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Dragon Age

Platform(s)

Xbox 360
, PS3
, PC
, macOS

Released

November 3, 2009

Developer(s)

BioWare

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Engine

Eclipse Engine

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content

X|S Optimized

no

Steam Deck Compatibility

no

Cross Save

n/a

Cross-Platform Play

n/a

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