Dragon Age: Two-Handed Melee Build

Dragon Age has, in my mind, one of the best leveling systems I've ever come across. Even though the stats are minimal in presentation, there's a great depth behind its simplicity. Fortunately, for the Two-Handed Melee user, stat allocation is very simple: Put everything in strength.

Stats:

It seems almost too good to be true. Everything in strength? What about dexterity or constitution or willpower? Why not get more stamina or more health? The answer is because in the long run, those stats have less of a benefit than putting points in strength.

What is almost alarmingly simple about Dragon Age is that it is one of the few games that counts strength as both a damage increaser and an accuracy (attack rating) increaser. On my first playthrough, I put points in dexterity early game, only to realize it was ultimately pointless since strength gives the same benefit. It makes sense though. Why would a warrior who carriers a huge sword/hammer/mace/ax take the time to work on the finess of swordplay. Hard to do when one can barely lift the weapon.

Some brief history: Two-handed swords have not really been about sword "fighting" but about essentially bludgoning someone to death with a giant blade. Plate Armor had gotten good enough in the middle ages that a sword and shield combination was unnecessary: The armor was strong enough to ward off blows, reducing the need for a shield, and a swordsman using only one hand had a tough time puncturing the armor of a well-equipped knight. The two-handed sword became the weapon of choice for plate armored knights.

Back to Dragon Age, you can see how it would make some realistic sense, you know, with all the Dragons and Magic and Morrigan (yea, no one was that hot in the middle ages) around to have warriors concentrate mainly on strength.

Now for RP purposes, you may want some points in other stats like cunning, but for the main focus of the game, strength is the way to go.

Note on Willpower: Some people like to put points in willpower. I'm undecided about this point, but for now I am taking strength and pretty much ignoring willpower. I may eventually use a respec and take some will power to experiment, but there are plenty of success stories, including my own, of people who focused on strength and got fantastic results.

Talents:


The Two-handed warrior is not a tank. Therefore, there is no reason to really proceed much into the Warrior tree. Both threaten and taunt are counter-productive to dealing lots of damage, because they require the warrior to focus on trying to heal her/his self instead of doing damage. My talents are as follows:

Powerful, Precise Striking, Everything in the two-handed tree.

What is nice about the two-handed tree is that there are no bad decisions. Some abilities aren't as useful as others, but as all of the Tier 4 abilities are good, its worth taking everything. This leaves room for focusing on your specialization trees.

Specialization: 

Berserker, personal choice. First, Berserker.

As a melee damage dealer, it's hard to go wrong with the berserker talent. Even though originally you will suffer from an attack rating and stamina decline, but as you put more talents in the tree that will have less of an effect. Take the damage boost.

I say the others are personal choice because they make less of a difference than Berserker does. If for some reason your tank does not have champion, you may want to consider that, especially if you want your Two-handed warrior to be a knockdown machine. Reaver can boost damage at tier 3 and 4, but at this point the 2h warrior is going to have quite a few sustained abilities active. It may not be wise to add more. Finally, templar can help you if you run ahead and smash the back rows of mages, but the instances of being able to do this are not many.

Armor:


Probably the most disagreement about the 2h warrior is what kind of armor to use. Warden Commander Armor is very good for its stamina boost, but massive armors in general really reduce the amount of abilities one can use. At this time, I lean towards the group that advocates for lighter armors, like heavy or even medium. The reason for this is: I get bored making an Auto-attack machine, and I want my 2h warrior to operate more as an ability damage dealer and a cc'er than just an auto-attack damage dealer.

However, this depends substantially on the kind of armor you have available and the situations you find yourself in. Do you find that your warrior is getting hit often? Take heavier armor. Do you find that you need to manually manage your party members more and need an auto attack machine? Take heavier armor. Does your heavier armor grant you bonuses better than the lighter armor you currently have? Take it. Be fluid.

I hope this was helpful for everyone, and I will be posting some new Dragon Age videos very soon.