Summary
Champions inDragon Age: The Veilguardare emulators of the strong military tradition put forth bythe Grey Wardens, who over the many years of theDragon Ageuniverse have reached peaks of being essential to the safety of Thedas or troughs of minor historical footnotes, depending on how long it has been since the last blight. Warriors are always going to excel in frontline combat in this game, but Champions feel like leaders or tacticians more than the other specializations.
So what are the major tenets of Champions inThe Veilguard? Champions have a focus on rallying allies, defensive tactics, and fire damage, a holy trinity that if properly mastered can spell the end of any enemy in the game, usually with ease. Davrin,an excellent companionin the game, reflects these tenets with his skills, but players can go the next step beyond skills and augment their Champion’s prowess with equipment. These weapons in particular are excellent complements to the cores of the Champion playstyle.
1Twin-Edged Pick
A Powerful Tool For Champions
The Twin-Edged Pick supplements Champion damage in two distinct ways: firstly, the increase in penetration is a universally appreciated feature for both Warriorsand melee Rogues. Secondly, the Champion’s constant damage output means that the Pick’s focus on critical hits will lead to a huge increase in damage very early on in its upgrade path.
The pick begins the upgrade tiers with its penetration boost, then makes Final attacks deal critical damage to enemies with final health before its final two tiers essentially change how critical hits are managed by the warrior, reapplying penetration damage and cascading damage to nearby enemies to make Champions a fearsome beacon of AoE damage and a force to be reckoned with by enemies of all stripes.
2The Spellbound Longsword
Augments The Champion’s Fire Damage
Fire damage is perhaps the Warrior’s main source of elemental damage,augmented by armorand supplemented with skills that increase burning’s effectiveness or grant burning weapons on perfect defense. A warrior that chooses to focus on the fire damage output of the Champion will need a weapon that follows suit, and the Spellbound Longsword is essential to this particular end.
The Spellbound Longsword adds a generous +40 fire damage at lower levels before giving players flaming weapons on kills - meaning they will functionally never be without fire damage between this and perfect defense skills. It even synergizes with armors that provide fire resistance, as tier 3 upgrades add half of a player’s fire resistance to the weapon as fire damage. This is one of the best fire weapons in the game and every Champion should give it a try.
3The Skullcrusher
A High Penetration Two-Handed Weapon
Penetration is one of the most useful stats in the game, bypassing armor on enemies to weaken them forpowerful companion combosand abilities while also building up the rage a Warrior needs for their abilities. If there’s one area the champion neglects, it’s this particular stat and its ability to shred through barriers and armor quickly when taking down high-level enemies.
This puts the Skullcrusher in a unique position of supplementing the Champion’s skills while also adding to the skills normally in their skillset. The Skullcrusher enhances a Champion’s damage when breaking enemy armor and also grants further damage against armor while augmenting the player’s attack in ways that boost their Rally Party abilities.
4The Winged Glaive
Rally Companions More Often
Companions are the lifeblood of the story and player experience inThe Veilguard, and it’s no surprise that one of the most useful abilities - both among Champion’s skills and in general across the game, is Rally Party.
At higher upgrade tiers the Winged Glaive reduces companion cooldowns by 15% while Rally Party is active, and to boot, activates Rally Party when the player hits three or more enemies in one hit with this weapon.
5Executioner’s Blade
Augments The Champion’s Hard Hitting Style
While theVeilguardSlayers are characterized by swift attacks and the Reapers withshield tossing skills, the Champion is defined by heavy, focused damage excellent for single-target burst attacks.
This is the playstyle the Executioner’s Blade encourages, complementing the boost Champions get in the skill tree to Charged Attacks by having charged attack bonuses of its own, dealing extra damage and stagger with attacks that have been built up before striking.
6The Elven Rockbreaker
An Asset To Rage Focused Warriors
The Champion’s skills are some of the hardest-hitting attacks in the game,across every class, but this often comes with the caveat of using up a fair amount of rage on each skill use. The Elven Rockbreaker should remedy this greatly.
Rage generation is increased by this weapon, and the amount of Rage gained on a kill also increases. The final upgrade that takes this weapon to Epic greatly increases maximum Rage so players can utilize Champion skills more frequently.
7Vigilant Greathammer
A Powerhouse Item For Champions
Rounding out this list is the iconic Vigilant Greathammer, a perfect item for Champions who want to keep up the defensive status of their specialization while wielding the raw power of a two-handed weapon.
This weapon is perfect for tanks, maybe even the definitive tank weapon of the game. A +30 bonus to defense, 10% of the Champion’s defense is added to damage, and then a further defense boost for each percent of missing health (which again feeds back into damage!) and +20 defense per active buff. Easily one of the best weapons in the game, but one that especially complements the Champion’s focus on heavy damage and defense.
