Dragon Age: The Veilguard Demonstrates Warrior Combat

EA and BioWare released new details and footage for the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard. A new blog post, titled “Lethality and Levelling” comes with a couple of combat videos showing protagonist Rook in action as a Warrior.

Like previous titles, players are able to select from three main classes for Rook. Each of the three classes — Warrior, Rogue, and Mage — allows players to select the Skills, Traits, Runes, and Abilities in their character’s loadout. Players will also gain access to Specializations that grant further powerful abilities.

All classes chain together jump, dodge, light, and heavy attack moves, with the light and heavy attacks able to be charged up for more powerful versions. There are also ranged attacks and blocks/parries. Each class can equip and seamlessly swap between two weapon sets. Enemies can have an Armor Barrier or Shield Batter (which are more quickly removed with heavy attacks and ranged attacks respectively), as well as a Stagger meter.

During combat, players can use the Ability Wheel for strategic decisions. Opening the Ability Wheels pauses combat, letting players give orders to their companions, such as attack a specific enemy, as well as seeing known vulnerabilities and resistances of foes. Players can also use buffs and debuffs to their advantage, as well as coordinating abilities that act as Primers or Detonators into powerful combos.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard will take players across numerous regions of the world of Thedas, including Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, and the Deep Roads. Players control a new protagonist named Rook, who must fight back after corrupt Elven gods break free and wreak havoc upon the world. They will be joined by seven companions: Harding the Scout, Neve the Detective, Lucanis the Mage Killer, Bellara the Veil Jumper, Emmrich the Necromancer, Davrin the Warden, and Taash the Dragon Hunter. Dragon Age: The Veilguard will release for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on October 31, 2024.