As promised, here’s the Dragon Age: Origins Warrior Tank Guide that I’ve been working on for the past few days. I finished Dragon Age: Origins a second time using a Dual-wielding Warrior (Berserker/Champion). I actually finished the game much faster compared to my first run (33 hours vs 55 hours). During my third run, I finished it using a Dwarf Tank, Champion/Templar. For this guide, I’ll talk about the various specs, talents, and equipment for the Warrior Tank type. I had so much fun playing my warrior and I hope that you guys enjoy your characters as well.

DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS – WARRIOR TANK GUIDE

I. Warrior Talents & Builds (with specs)
a. Talents & Skills
b. Champion & Templar Specs
c. Attributes

II. Warrior Tank Basic Combat Strategies

Humans and dwarves make excellent warriors. The race bonuses for both can be beneficial for Warriors. Also, the origins story of both races are also superb and incredibly well written. I initially played a Human Noble warrior and then I played a Dwarf Noble warrior during my third run. In terms of build, there are two basic types – offensive and defensive. Warriors that focus on offense can deal insane melee damage, especially if they’re properly equipped and they have the right talents. Defensive Warriors, on the other hand, make really good tanks and they can also deal decent damage plus they have several skills that can immobilize and disable selected targets.

Here are the basic Warrior talent branches (1 & 2). After each skill there’s a bunch of notes that talk about the application of the skills in-game.

Powerful
Passive
Requires: 10 Strength
Through training and hard work, the warrior has gained greater health and reduced the fatigue penalty for wearing armor.
(A pre-requisite for two good talents)

Threaten
Sustained
Range: Personal
Upkeep: 35
Fatigue: 2%
Cooldown: 15s
Requires: Level 4
Requires: 14 Strength
The warrior adopts a challenging posture that increases enemy hostility with each melee attack, drawing them away from other allies while this mode is active.
(A must-have to make sure that you maintain the threat. Very useful for bosses)

Bravery
Passive
Requires: Level 8
Requires: 20 Strength
The warrior’s unwavering courage grants bonuses to damage, physical resistance, and mental resistance, as well as a bonus to critical chance that increases proportionally to the number of enemies above two that the warrior is engaging.
(A very interesting skill to get. The bonuses to physical and mental resistance are valuable especially if you’re playing on harder modes later on)

Death Blow
Passive
Requires: Level 12
Requires: 25 Strength
Each time the warrior fells an enemy, the end of the battle seems closer at hand, restoring a portion of the warrior’s stamina.
(In the three times that I played the game with a Warrior, I never bothered to get this talent since your normal melee attacks should be more than enough to take down normal mobs. For bigger mobs, your mages should be the one doing the clearing, not your warrior)

Precise Striking
Sustained
Range: Personal
Upkeep: 40
Fatigue: 5%
Cooldown: 15s
Requires: 10 Dexterity
The warrior tries to make each attack count, sacrificing attack speed for a bonus to attack as well as an increased chance to score critical hits for as long as the mode is active.
(Very useful and effective especially if you’re tanking)

Taunt
Activated
Range: Personal
Activation: 41
Cooldown: 20s
Requires: Level 4
Requires: 14 Strength
A mocking bellow catches the attention of nearby foes, increasing their hostility toward the warrior. Frightening Appearance increases the effect.
(Definitely a must have for defensive Warriors. Also useful for Offensive warriors that need to get the attention of mobs that are attacking softer characters in the party like mages and healers)

Disengage
Activated
Range: Personal
Activation: 10
Cooldown: 10s
Requires: Level 8
Requires: 18 Dexterity
A relaxed position makes the warrior seem less threatening, reducing the hostility of nearby enemies, who may seek other targets instead.
(I’ve never used this before but it’s a pre-requisite to a very powerful skill – Perfect Striking)

Perfect Striking
Activated
Range: Personal
Activation: 62
Cooldown: 30s
Requires: Level 12
Requires: 22 Strength
The warrior focuses on precision, gaining a massive attack bonus for a moderate time.
(A must have for offensive warriors, but also very effective for tanks)

DEFENSIVE WARRIOR BUILD

Defensive Warriors (Tanks) will rely on their Shield talent tree. This tree has a mix of solid offensive and defensive skills which will make your warrior an unstoppable juggernaut on the battlefield. Here’s a run down of the Shield talents for your perusal.

Shield Bash: Your basic shield attack skill. Very useful since it can knock down opponents. Also has increased damage compared to normal attacks.

Shield Pummel: Another awesome offensive skill. Has a chance to stun the opponent and damage is increased if you have Shield Mastery. By the way, this has a kick-ass animation sequence. Good combo is to knock opponent down with Shield Bash, hit it a few times, then stun with Shield Pummel after the opponent recovers from the knockdown. A good way to immobilize and destroy those pesky Emissaries.

Overpower: This costs a lot of stamina but it’s very powerful and like the other offensive shield skills it has a nice animation sequence. You blast the opponent with three successive shield strikes. The last hit does critical damage and can cause knockdown.

Assault: No knockdown or stun, just damage. Not too shabby but isn’t really that useful since you won’t be relying on your tank to deal bulk of the damage and he’ll run out of stamina quickly if you spam skills like this one.

Shield Defense: Basic defensive passive skill. Less attack but more damage and a chance to shrug off missile attacks. If you have Shield Balance, attack penalty is reduced, if you have Shield Expertise, the defense bonus increases and goes up even higher if you have Shield Mastery. Always keep this on. Very cool tank skill.

Shield Wall: Now this is the mother of all passive defensive skills. It gives a major increase to armor and chance to ignore missile attacks. However, you deal less damage. If you have Shield Expertise, you are immune to direct knockdown attacks (which means you can still get knocked down from a fireball). Shield Mastery gives bonus to defense.

Shield Tactics: Must have. Enemies won’t get flanking bonuses from any angle. This will make your warrior survive longer during mob fights. Great thing is that this is a passive skill which means it’s perpetually on.

DEFENSIVE WARRIOR SPECS: CHAMPION & TEMPLAR
The best spec for defensive warriors is definitely the Champion. The talents give boosts not just to the Champion, but also to the rest of the party. To unlock the Champion spec, all you have to do is to finish the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest line and Arl Eamon will give it to you as a reward. The only character that you can play as a Champion later on will be Loghain if you decide to make him go through the joining (which will piss off Alistair and make him leave the party).

Here are the Champion talents and some notes on them:

War Cry: Champion lets out a shout that gives enemies a -10 penalty to attack for 20 seconds.
Rally: Activated aura skill which will give +10 defense to everyone in the party.
Motivate: Rally now gets +10 attack bonus in addition to the +10 defense.
Superiority: War Cry can now knock down nearby opponents. Woot!

Templars also make for good tanks because of the good bonuses to mental and spell resistances. Holy Smite is also good for taking down pesky mages. Note that you’ll be exposed to Templars early on with Alistair so you’ll probably need to get a good grasp of how to play this if you’re using him. To unlock this spec, you can have Alistair teach you in camp or you can buy the manual from Bodahn. Since it’s fairly easy to pump up Alistair’s approval, just get it from him so you don’t waste gold.

Righteous Strike: Each melee attack drains mana from mages.
Cleanse Area: Dispels all effects nearby.
Mental Fortress: Major bonus to mental resistance.
Holy Smite: Spirit damage to all hostile targets in the area of effect and it also drains Mana and has the chance to Stun as well. Note that the main attribute which will determine the potency of all these effects is Willpower. If your character has low Willpower, this skill is kinda useless.

WARRIOR ATTRIBUTES
For tanks, just get Strength up to 42 so you can wear the best armor in the game available. After that, just put some points in Dexterity so that you don’t miss and throw everything else to Constitution. If you’re playing a Templar, then you need to put points in Willpower or else you’ll be a sucky Templar since Holy Smite will be useless without Willpower. At the start, I suggest you put everything in STR ’till you hit 38 so you can wear the bonus Blood Dragon armor ASAP.

WARRIOR TANK BASIC STRATEGIES
Playing a Warrior Tank is pretty straightforward. Grab the threat of opponents, hold the threat, and survive. If you want to take down high damage dealing opponents, use your wide array of immobilizing and stunning abilities to give your party time to pour on the offense without needing to take damage from the enemy. Here are some basic tips that you’ll need to keep in mind if you’re manually playing the tank.

1. Make sure that Shield Defense or Shield Wall is always activated. These two skills can and will save your life.
2. Never wait for 25% to drink potions. Some enemies, especially mages, rogues, and bosses, can deal massive damage in a short amount of time. Always top the health of the Tank. There are times as well when your tank will be at 40% then will get hit by web or get stunned which will prevent him from drinking potions. Make sure your healer has a ready spell available to boost HP.
3. Conserve Stamina. Don’t go all out with your offensive skills unless you really need to. Remember that your role is to live; not to deal damage.
4. If there are too many opponents mobbing you, have your mage cast Force Field on your Tank and he’ll be invincible, hahaha. Cheats.

For the best Warrior Gear, please head on over to my Dragon Age: Origins Best Equipment Guide.

And that’s a wrap. I’ll be working on a Warrior Offensive Guide in the coming days. Stay tuned for that one. Feel free to leave comments and share tips as well.

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