Spellblade Mage Build and Best Skills

The Spellblade Mage Build is a build you can create for the Spellblade specialization in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Learn the best skills to get, the best weapon and armor to use, the best companions to bring, and more!

Spellblade Mage Best Skills Build

Early Game Skills (Level 1 to 20)

Skill enchantments are unlocked with Caretaker Workshop Rank 5. We do not consider Shop Rank 5 to be an early-game facility as the upgrade cost is too much.

The best early-game skill choices for the Spellblade Mage are Meteor, Wall of Fire, Storm Surge, and Destructive Light. This skillset works well with the companions of choice in the Early Game, with Meteor detonating Sundered applied by Harding & Lucanis while also being able to apply Overwhelm with Storm Surge when needed.

Destructive Light is still our Ultimate of choice because it brings in a huge one-directional damage when needed and you are invulnerable while casting it.

Spellblade Mage Skill Tree Progression

Skill Tree Progression

The skills above make sure you get to the Spellblade specialization the fastest way possible. We added a mix of Fire and Lightning damage with this skill progression, with more focus on Fire since that's where the Arcane Bomb buffs are found.

Spellblade Mage Best Weapon Builds

Early Game Weapons (Level 1 to 20)

The Spellblade gameplay focuses on using Mageknives as their weapon. The element of the mageknife depends on the orb that you have slotted - and we opted to use one with Fire attribute considering the skills we chose at this point focus on Fire DMG.

Urthemiel's Ash is the best Fire orb a this point of the game and the Split-Hilt Dirk is a great weapon that has Heavy Attack buffs when rarity is increased - perfect for this playstyle. If you need emergency ranged damage, we added Flamebranch but it will be rarely used.

Spellblade Mage Best Equipment Builds

Early Game Equipment (Level 1 to 20)

The early game is pretty straightforward for equipment as you will mostly just get them from random chests in the overworld. On that note, the general rule for the early game is to just bolster your defenses using equipment with the highest defense stat without thinking about stats too much.

In any case, for this build, we found several pieces that will improve on the general gameplay in the early game. Helm of Light and Shadow improves on detonation damage which will benefit you when detonating Sundered enemies with Meteor. The belt used here increases healing received from companions while Halla's Grace reduces skill cooldown after using a potion. The two rings improve on Stagger and Ranged attack damages respectively.

Spellblade Mage Best Rune Builds

Early Game Runes (Level 1 to 20)

Besiege, Ravage, and Upend are the three runes that will help you in the early game the most. It is just a matter of activating the runes based on the enemies you are fighting. For example, if the enemies have blue barriers, use Besiege to whittle it down faster.

Spellblade Mage Best Companion Builds

For this build, we suggest bringing Harding and Lucanis because of their ability to apply Sundered and detonate Overwhelm. Aside from that, Harding also builds up a lot of stagger while Lucanis' Necrotic damage shaves off Barrier quickly.

Harding Build

Early Game Equipment Builds

Skills
1	Heavy Draw
2	Soothing Potion (Harding)
3	Shred
Equipment
Main	My Regards
Off-Hand	Secrets and Memories
Armor	Spelunker's Gear
Trinket	Orlesian Sovereign

We opted to slot in Heavy Draw and Shred to detonate Overwhelm and apply Sundered on enemies. Depending on the situation, you can use Heavy Draw to detonate Overwhelm created by Storm Surge while Shred is there to apply Sundered that can be detonated by Meteor.

Lucanis Build

Early Game Equipment Builds

Skills
1	Debilitate
2	Abominate
3	Soothing Potion (Lucanis)
Equipment
Main	Crowkeeper
Off-Hand	Butcher's Screw
Armor	Wings of Antiva

For Lucanis, we opted for Debilitate to apply Sundered which can be triggered with Meteor then Abominate which can shred Barrier by a lot.

In addition, we suggest ordering Lucanis at the start of battle before using any skills on them so Butcher's Screw's Necrotic damage vulnerability passive will trigger. This will make sure all of Lucanis' skills deal a lot more damage, especially Abominate.

How to Play the Spellblade

The Spellblade is a specialization for the Mage that uses blades imbued by magic instead of the generic elemental staves. They also fight in melee range and therefore play like a Rogue more than the stereotypical Mage that casts spells from long range.

• Use The Mageknife or Spellblade
• Create and Trigger Arcane Bombs
• Parry Attacks for Extra Damage!
• Use Crowd Control At All Times!
• Switch to Staff When Attacking from Range

Use The Mageknife or Spellblade

The Spellblade uses the Mageknife or Spellblades as their primary weapon. It is a dagger-like weapon imbued by magic and is usually paired with an elemental orb. The orb slotted with the Mageknife dictates the element associated with it.

List of All Main-Hand Weapons

Create and Trigger Arcane Bombs

The main bread-and-butter combo for a Spellblade is their utilization of Arcane Bombs by accumulating Arcane Marks on enemies. Arcane Marks are accumulated using the dagger's Light attacks with three (3) Arcane Marks producing an Arcane Bomb.

Trigger Arcane Bombs with Heavy Attacks

When Arcane Bombs are primed on enemies, Spellblades must trigger them for big damage! Arcane Bombs are triggered using Heavy Attacks or the Spinning Blade move on the fourth attack of the Light Attack chain when the Spirit Blade skill has been unlocked.

Take note that normal Heavy Attacks have a winding animation that leaves you exposed to attacks, so be careful. Also, getting attacked mid-combo resets the Light attack chain count so the spinning blade move won't trigger if you get interrupted.

Parry Attacks for Extra Damage!

Because Mageknives and Spellblades are considered melee weapons, they have access to a parry. Spellblade users can parry attacks by tapping the block button as the attack is about to hit them. The game conveniently shows an indicator on top of the Rook's head when they are about to be hit, and the parry window is when the indicator is glowing Yellow.

Use Crowd Control At All Times!

Crowd Control is extremely important in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and thankfully the Spellblade have access to a bunch of Crowd Control skills. The most important one is Storm Surge which interrupts enemies from attacking while causing the Rook to leap backwards, creating a safe distance when in a pinch.

Storm Surge also applies Overwhelm, so you can order your capable companions to trigger that for bonus Stagger damage!

Switch to Staff When Attacking from Range

If you find yourself in a situation that prohibits you from getting close to an enemy, you can switch to your Staff to deal damage from long range. This won't be as effective as the Mageknives, but it is helpful in minimizing DPS loss.

List of All Off-Hand Weapons

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Related Guides

All Classes and Builds

List of Class and Specialization Builds