This is a guide on the classes and skill trees in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
There are three main classes; the rogue, the warrior, and the mage. There are two sub classes in turn; dual wield and archer under rogue, and weapon and shield or two handed for the warrior. Dual wield does not disqualify you from using a bow and arrow, and weapon and shield does not disqualify you from two handed weapons. You can think of these like specializations.
Irregardless of your class choices, you will always have easy access to every class type when you play. This is because you can freely switch between Inquisition companions in combat, and they each typify one of those classes. Varric is the archer rogue, Cassandra is a weapon and shield warrior, and Solas is a mage. Each companion also has skill trees unique to them, and different from what the Inquisitor can access. Varric’s Artificer skill tree gives him skill handling traps. Cassandra has a Templar skill tree. Solas has a Rift Mage tree.
The dual wield rogue is for hit and run players. The rogue archer specializes in keepaway. Both rogue sub-classes can balance out their abilities, but have few abilities that assist others.
The warrior is the prototypical tank, with skills allowing her or him to deal with tougher, armored bosses, keeping other characters, such as the rogues, safe. Warriors are most powerful using vanilla melee attacks.
Mages function as support and medic. The game has no healing spells, so instead, the mage manages a limited supply of health potions. Mages do have barrier and revive spells they can use as well. Mages also have manual aim area effect spells, perfect for striking multiple enemies tactically. You can and should take advantage of pausing the game to move around the camera and checking which enemies have high and low health to plan out attacks. With the mage, it’s recommended you balance out your skill tree to get access to the full range of abilities.
Dragon Age: Inquisition will be released November 18 to Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.