This is a crafting guide for Dragon Age: Inquisition.
There are two things you can equip and craft; weapons and armor. Most armor you get from loot, but there are some crafted armor with two upgrade slots; arms and legs. Both slots add stats directly to base armor. On the other hand, weapons can be upgraded via the grip/haft, pommel/blade, and runes. Weapon upgrade slots add stats directly to your base weapon except for runes.
Runes provide enemy specific attack bonuses. Strike the wrong enemy and you won’t get much benefit from them. Elemental runes have the broadest scope of enemy types, and are generally the best type of runes to get. Dragon slaying runes, on the other hand, are the worst because they target the most uncommon enemy. Spirit runes can only be used on staffs. If you use daggers, esp if you are a dagger rogue, you should use demon slaying and corrupting runes to optimize your attacks.
To craft an armor or weapon, you will need schematics. Each schematic has two to four mat slots, each unique. There are four types of mat slots, and some are more useful than others. Here they are, in order of importance:
· Damage / Armor
This slot is unavoidable and should always be your priority. Adds directly to base weapon or armor.
· Offense
This slot affects critical damage, armor penetration, etc. Certain cloth and metals increase attack percentage directly. You need to always be mindful of when you get those crafting materials, and where to craft them on.
· Utility
These can increase primary attributes, but you need to be mindful that certain crafting materials are best for certain classes. Utility: X cloth is for mages, leather is for rogues, and metal is for warriors.
· Defense
Self explanatory.
In general, the priority in crafting items is increasing attack ability. How to increase this differs with each class, but to put it simply, the increase in defense isn’t as useful in this game.
This is how you maximize attack ability in a crafted item specific to each class:
Mage: Focus on magic and willpower, and prioritize willpower. These are only found in Utility X Cloth slots, and when possible, its best to stack them in one slot.
Rogue: Priority is Dexterity, followed by Willpower. Use Utility X Leather slots where Dexterity is available, followed by Utility X Cloth. Stay away from Utility X Metal.
Warrior: Priority is strength and willpower, which are equally effective. Use Utility X Metal for strength or Utility X Cloth for willpower. Avoid Utility X Leather.
Go through the list below every time you have a new item to craft, to figure out what attributes to prioritize.
· Offense: X Metal/Cloth – +attack % Only found on weapons and weapon upgrades.
· Class Specific Utility slot – see above
· Utility: X Cloth – +Willpower
· Offense: X Leather – +flanking damage %
· Defense: X Metal – if unavoidable, go for +max health or +melee defense %. Only found on armor and armor upgrades
· Defense: X Cloth/Leather – if unavoidable, go for +magic defense % or +ranged defense %.
