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DA 2 Event Build: The Blood Templar

Tags: #Dragonborn1721 
  • November 5, 2015

    My name is Darrion Hawke, and while I still possess some of my sanity, I am planning to pass on both a lesson, and a warning to all those who know of me. I am not the man you think I am anymore, do not attempt to find me, for I fear that I have only a short time left before my madness and bloodlust overtake me completely.

    Class: Warrior

    Gender: Male

    Roleplay:

    “My Time in Kirkwall started out as one would expect for a Fereldan Refugee, living in the slums, and resorting to crime, simply to stay alive. A year in, and while I had respect from some, I was still dirt-poor, and constantly fearing for the life of my dear sister. Every week was a challenge, every day held it’s own risks, and in the end, our only way out of this danger may have been even more dangerous. Bethany and I, along with anyone we managed to scrounge up along the way would be going on an expedition tot he Deep Roads. To achieve this goal we did many things, fought Mages, Templars, Thieves and everything else you can imagine, I won’t go into too much detail, but know this. Whatever it was we did, I tried to do the right thing by Bethany, helping Mages whenever possible, not Blood Mages of course but any other Mage is one I would help, as long as it would prevent deaths...Everything was done for my dear, dear sister. And then she dies, tainted by the Darkspawn, left for either me to kill, or to die a slow, painful death before turning. I had to kill my own sister don’t you see, the bloody Darkspawn caused this. Beasts, created by Mages as the Maker tells us, damned Mages killed my sisters, and now they shall die in return. These Mages are a menace, and need to burn for their sins.”

    Talent Trees and Combat: Weapon and Shield, Defender and Warmonger (1)

    The awesome thing about a Weapon and Shield + Defender Warrior is that they can switch between freaking awesome melee defense and unstoppable elemental defense at a really low level. Weapon and Shield gives you awesome crowd control, stunning and knock-back attacks, that also allow you to attack a little better. And Defender is just a blessing, every single talent there is just ridiculously awesome.

    Let me put it this way

    At level 3 you can resist a pretty massive 40% of all elemental damage, by level 7 that can be boosted to 60%. Since DA 2 is so massively based off of Mages, and there are a lot of them to battle it becomes almost crucial that you pick up Elemental Aegis at a low level.

    At the same time (roughly) you can pick up Turn the Blade, which gives a pretty decent 10% bonus to defense. Add in Shield Wall from Weapon and Shield (which can be activated while either Turn the Blade or Elemental Aegis is active) and Armour and you have a character resisting just about anything thrown his way.

    Weapons: Best Weapon and Shield you can find

    Armour: Armour of the Fallen Set

    Attributes: 2 Strength, 1 Constitution per level

    Class: Templar

    Roleplay:

    “Since I last wrote so many things have changed. I have become, something more than I once was, I took the oath, and trials to become a Templar, and succeeded with flying colours, for whatever reason, most likely my wealth I don’t have any responsibility to the order, as long as I follow the wishes of my superiors they allow me to continue my missions. Now, this damned Maker-deprived Arishok is under suspicion, and due to a few past dealings with the Qunari, I am expected to solve all these problems. I will of course, for whatever the Qunari believe about the Maker they have at least gotten one thing right. Their dealings with Mages is barbaric, but I'm afraid they have the right idea, if we bind all mages they cannot do us, or themselves harm, they are much safer for everyone that way. However simply killing them does the same thing, and if I have to I will kill every Mage in Kirkwall if it means protecting my mother, myself, and the city. "

    Talent Trees and Combat: Templar, Weapon and Shield and Defender

    This is where we start to see a little more of that epic final form, by the end of Act 2 you’ll be basically untouchable by any Magical Attacks, resisting, silencing and dispelling anything a Mage tries to do. The Templar Specialization really brings this forward, by giving you unique Talents like Annulment which gives a boost to Magic Resistance, Silence and Cleanse which can stop enemy mages from harassing your companions and Holy Smite, which does AoE Spirit Damage on all enemies, especially Mages and Demons.

    Weapon and Shield becomes more prominent here, picking up Scatter and Battery gives us a few more offensive options, increasing damage output on boss type enemies.

    As it is Combat generally works in a very similar way to Act 1, but with more of a focus on offensive Talents. Fire up Turn the Blade or Elemental Aegis depending on the scenario, chuck up a Shield Wall and then charge into combat, targeting enemy Mages and using Holy Smite as often as possible against them (or just in general against groups). Scatter is useful against melee enemies crowding you and can hit multiple enemies at once.

    Weapons: Best found Weapon and Shield

    Armour: I honestly just went with Armour of the Fallen Set here, but whatever the best you can find.

    Attributes: 1 Strength, 1 Constitution and 1 Willpower (Tomes go into Constitution) 

    Class: Blood Templar

    Roleplay:

    "My Mother, Bethany, Carver, Mother, Behtany, Carver...All dead, Mages, Darkspawn...Mages killed them, evil, blood mages. Killing Bethany and Carver the same way, ripping Mother apart...Mages killed them all. I must kill the Mages. Blood, the Blood Mage who killed my mother used Blood Magic, he was powerful. If these mages want blood then I'll give them blood, their blood, lots and lots of their blood. All Mages who come across me shall die, whether they're Blood Mages or normal Mages they have the potential for too much evil. For my Family, I will kill them all.

    Talent Trees and Combat: Templar, Reaver Weapon and Shield and Defender

    Act 3. The finale of the game, where everything pulls together. This is where Hawke truly becomes a fighting menace. The Reaver Specialization unlocks a lot of physical power that wasn't present for the earlier playthrough, increasing damage by a hell of a lot (it's an imprecise measurement okay).

    The build essentially has 3 fighting styles now. Anti-Mage, Regular Defence and the Blood Templar form, which trades some of that coveted defence we've been operating for, well offensive power. 

    Anti-Mage and Regular Defence both work in pretty much the same ways as they did in previous acts. Fire up Elemental Aegis or Turn the Blade and Shield Wall, attack enemies based on your mode (Mages for Anti-Mage mode, other enemies for Regular Defence), occasionally firing off a Scatter, Pummel or Templar Talent. 

    Blood Templar works a little differently, becoming a force purely meant for destroying Mages. Start all combat off with Blood Frenzy and Elemental Aegis, this provides both a massive damage leap and a large amount of Magical Resistance. After that, use Aura of Pain for slightly more damage (be careful with this, don't be afraid to turn it off if your health gets below about 25%) and use Devour and Holy Smite to inflict damage on enemy Mages. It becomes an efficient form, having high defence and offence at the expense of a shit tonne of Stamina. 

    Weapon: Best Weapon (The Sword you receive for stating Act 3 is a good one)

    Armour: Mantle  of the Champion

    Attributes: 3 Strength (Tomes go into Constitution) 

    (Note: 1 of the Aura of Pain's should be Fervour...I shall replace it later on)

    Closing Notes:

    And there we have it. This build was a blast to play and I'm glad I got it out in time for the Event. My multitude of banners and Spreads makes me a little hesitant to add in pictures (plus I couldn't find many good ones )  but if anyone thinks it needs them then I'll add them in. Thanks to everyone for such a good Event, especially DB for posting it (oh wait). 

  • Member
    November 5, 2015

    Nice one Spooky! Can't comment much more than that as I haven't played DA2 but it's well written and concise. Maybe could do with a bit of art?

  • November 5, 2015

    Thanks Phil (Even though I haven't been Spooky for 6 days now ), I had a lot of fun writing the build. I've been trying to find art but just can't find anything that catches my eye, I'll take another quick look and try to add some in

  • November 6, 2015

    This looks great, DB. Very similar to the warrior I was playing in DA2. I especially like how you´ve broken the character into 3 acts, little bit different roleplay for each act. That is cool.

    I miss some talk about companions though. I mean, they are pretty much the most important thing in DA, right? I´m not saying that you should do it the same way as I did on my Reaver, but at least some suggestions would be good. Which companions worked the best with this character?

  • November 6, 2015

    Companions...Right, I did miss something (wouldn't be a classic DB if I just included all the information in the first time).

    I'll add it in when I can (As a surprise...One of them is Fenris) 

  • Member
    November 6, 2015

    Time has no meaning to me  I've been calling you DB for the two years, it's nice to call you something else for a change!

  • June 11, 2016
    Very nice! Any chance we'll see more DA builds from you in the future?
  • June 11, 2016

    Umm, it is possible, I did have a couple others planned namely a Melee Archer and an anti-mage Mage but I haven't really being playing a wide variety of games lately so I probably haven't played any DA, well probably since my last build.