Dragon Age as a series has had many changes to the combat system with each new installment. The first game, Dragon Age: Origins, was more of a classic RPG in the same vein as Bioware’s earlier games. The second game saw a massive shift to a more action-oriented gameplay. Then the most recent game, Dragon Age: Inquisition, took a step back to a more strategic gameplay style, that might be described as a combination of the first two.
Once again, Bioware is changing things up. Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be a much more action-based game, and while tactics and strategy will still play a critical role, players can expect a more hack-and-slash experience with a smothering of flashy skills.
The Veilguard will change the focus of combat and gameplay in these ways:
The gameplay loop is centered around using skills to “prime” enemies, then using other skills to “detonate” them — preferably with their elemental weakness. Mass Effect 3 players will feel right at home.
Each class can now quickly swap between weapons for more fluidity.
Mage class will now have a second weapon configuration, the dagger and orb. This will be the class’s close quarters combat option.
Stamina or magic will come back in different ways for each class.
Magic comes back over time for mages.
Stamina regenerates with dodges and parries for rogues.
Warriors’ stamina comes back from doing damage.
We will take a quick look at these in the article below.
Action Gameplay
The main difference that returning will players will immediately notice in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is that it’s much more fast-paced and action-oriented. All classes move much more quickly than in previous titles, and skills can be used quickly and more often, but each character in the party can only have three equipped skills (those being chosen before the mission).
Bioware fans who have played the developer’s other popular series, Mass Effect, will note several resemblances to those games when they play The Veilguard. The obvious one will be the gameplay loop of using certain skills to “prime” enemies, then using other skills to “detonate” them. This was present in Dragon Age: Inquisition as well, but the mechanic plays a much larger role in the upcoming game.
The user interface tells you what skills can be comboed together
Another part of combat that was in Inquisition but looks more like Mass Effect are the barriers and armor that enemies will use to protect themselves. In Mass Effect, these defenses were vulnerable to certain attacks, and the same is true here. In Veilguard, barriers are prone to ranged attacks, while armor is appropriately susceptible to heavy attacks.
The last, and perhaps most obvious similarity to Mass Effect is the inability to directly take control of party members. This upcoming Dragon Age allows the player to freeze the game and select the team’s skills they want to use. In this fashion, players control what skills the companions use, but they never actually play as those characters.
Class Warfare
Classes have always been a main feature in the Dragon Age series; each one allows players to take on specific roles that help the party in various ways. In The Veilguard, classes are getting some updates to enhance the fast-paced gameplay. A basic change is how each class will recover their stamina or magic, which they need to use skills or cast spells. Another alteration is each class’s ability to quickly switch or use their other weapon; the two weapons for each class are tailored for either ranged or up-close combat.
The Mage
The mage retains the previous games’ magic recuperation mechanic, which means magic will simply replenish over time. Of course, there will be skills and passive abilities that will ameliorate the rate of magic return. This means that mages that are more focused on ranged combat can gain magic from safety — away from the heated battle.
Mages also have a weapon that we haven’t seen before in the series, the orb and dagger. The orb will float and collide with enemies to do damage, and build up “arcane mark”. When “arcane mark” is full, then the dagger does critical damage. They can still use their magic staff for ranged combat, but now they can switch to the dagger and orb for when enemies close the gap. Most of the subclasses typically cater more towards one of the class’s weapons.
The Warrior
Warriors in this game lean more into the berserker image, because they now recover stamina by doing damage and felling enemies. That means that players who choose the warrior class will want to be as aggressive as possible, like they were in previous titles. However, they won’t be nearly as slow-moving as before.
Interestingly, the ranged weapon for the warriors is actually their shield, while they’re using the one-handed weapon. They can hurl it at enemies and even aim it. The other weapon they can swap to is their two-handed weapon, whose powerful attacks can be charged up for a more devastating effect.
The shield is the warrior’s ranged weapon now
The Rogue
The rogue is unlike the other two classes for a couple of reasons. One of those being that they gain back stamina by dodging and parrying enemy attacks. This results in rogue players wanting to stay mobile, constantly moving about the battle, avoiding attacks, and outflanking enemies.
Another way they differ from the mage or warrior is they won’t switch from their blades to their bow, technically speaking. Instead, the bow is always mapped to the rogue’s ranged attack, and when they’re not using that attack, they will always be using their dual-wielded blades.
Below is an excellent video from Boomstick Gaming that goes over the three classes in detail, if you want more information:
What do you think of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s new combat gameplay? Are you happy they changed the combat again, or do you wish they stuck with Inquisition’s slower and more strategic style? Let us know in the comments!
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Kelson H.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.
