Best Anders Build - Dragon Age 2 (DA2)

In this post, I will cover Best Anders build in Dragon Age 2. He is a Grey Warden mage that is back from the first game entry.

Anders is an apostate mage who can both be a healer to support the party and a mage to deal damage. This makes him extremely versatile throughout the whole game. No wonder many players pick him even though his character may be polarizing

Anders Balanced mage

This build is something that I really enjoy. It enables Anders to both support the party and deal great damage. Here is how we can achieve it

Attributes

In this section, I will go through how the attributes should be allocated.

The overall main attribute is Magic, this is where most of the damage and spell effectiveness comes from.

Here is how I allocate my points at every level:

• +2 Magic – as mentioned this is Anders's build main stat
• +1 Willpower or Constitution. Change between these attributes on every level. I would also stop investing in the Constitution at 20. If you feel comfortable you can even stop it at 15 points.

This will ensure that Anders has sufficient mana to sustain high DPS in long fights.

Abilities

This section is really important as it is the cornerstone on how you can maximize Anders's utility. I suggest starting following the point allocation from Level 10.

We try to maximize abilities that do not have Friendly Fire and also provide support for the party

And here is the order for the abilities in which I would take them. This should enable Anders to have crowd control abilities early in the game.

Order	Skill	Description
1	Heal	Very important ability to have. It is a good support spell that Anders can save Hawke's or companions lives
2	Glyph of Paralysis	Allows paralyzing two enemies that enter the field.
3	Heroic Aura	Boosts attack and defense for the whole party. Moreover, this ability becomes especially strong once we get the upgrade.
4	Spirit Bolt	Very important offensive ability. It costs a small amount of mana and has a short cooldown
7	Stonefist	This is a good ability from the Primal tree. It deals decent damage, but most importantly it can knock down enemies.
8	Petrify	Provides a 100% chance to paralyze almost any enemy.
9	Chain Lightning	This is an extremely strong ability. It hits multiple enemies and also staggers them for a little while interrupting their attacks. However, it generates a lot of threat. So be sure to have a good tank.
10	Dispel	We mainly take this for progression but it also provides a good way for Anders to weaken enemies.
11	Spirit Strike	This is an upgrade for Spirit Bolt. Allows doing combo strikes against DISORIENTED enemies.
12	Chain Reaction	This upgrade improves Chain Lightning by allowing it to deal bonus damage against STAGGERED enemies. So be sure to have a warrior who can apply this status. Moreover, it adds additional lightning arcs
13	Haste	Strong ability, that greatly increases the attack speed of the whole party for a period of time
14	Golem's Fist	Improves Stonefist damage and physical force. But more importantly, allows dealing bonus damage against DISORIENTED targets.
15	Dessicate	Upgrade to Petrify that weakens enemies and applies BRITTLE status, for other companions to utilize it.
16	Great Haste	Improves Haste duration by 10 seconds.
17	Valiant Aura	Provides bonus damage and a critical chance of 10%. Applies to the whole party
18	Vengeance + Wrath	This ability allows Anders to deal increased damage but is not able to restore health. Moreover, the upgrade increases the total damage bonus to 20%. Be sure to check the Tactics section on how this ability should be applied
19	Swift Justice	Greatly reduces the cooldown time of all the spells. So as long as Anders has mana his overall effectiveness will increase greatly.
20	Tempest	Although not extremely powerful it still hits enemies in a large area and does not deal any friendly fire.
21	Galvanism	A passive ability that makes the Anders build much more effective. It improves all the spells in the Primal tree
22	Glyph of Repulsion	We take this ability as a safeguard so that Anders would get attacked even less.
23	Strikes Twice	Upgrade to Tempest which decreases the duration between the lightning.

We achieved very important things for Nightmare difficulty. It does not have any Friendly fire spells, it deals decent damage, and can Crowd Control (CC) enemies. Moreover, Anders supports allies with healing.

This makes it an optimal build that is good at everything but master of none.

Tactics

This is a very important section to maximize how your Anders plays out and whether he will be useful to the party.

A few things in mind, the default tactics are not enough and you will need to do some tinkering

Moreover, it is extremely important that you have other characters who can apply status effects: DISORIENT or STAGGER. This will greatly improve Ander's damage and make playing on Nightmare difficulty much easier.

Feel free to optimize the tactics to your liking, this is what I have found to be the most effective. My main priority was that Anders would not deal with any Friendly Fire and I would not have to micromanage him

Gear

In this section, I will go through some gear recommendations

Staves

Priority	Item	Description
1	The Final Thought	I think this is the best staff for Anders, although it is quite pricey. It provides increased spirit damage for Spirit Bolt, and also gives chance to regenerate mana. Moreover, it comes with a rune slot.
2	Malcolm's Honor	This is also a good option that comes with a DLC. It provides a bonus to all attributes and increases the critical chance.
3	Cold-Blooded	Good staff but very costly. If you have plenty of gold definitely get it as it gives a large boost to magic.
4	Freedom's Promise	Great staff all around that provides bonuses to all elemental spells and damage.
5	Stone's Breath	The staff provides bonus spirit damage which is very good for Spirit Bolt combos.

Amulets

Priority	Item	Description
1	Smite	The amulet gives bonus magic. Moreover, it increases electricity and spirit damage. This complements well Ander's main offensive spells.
2	Ring of the Awakened	Unfortunately, the elemental bonuses are not very useful for this build. however, the amulet gives a high boost to magic and mana regeneration rate
3	Seal of Dumat	This amulet is similar to the fourth option. However, if you obtain it at a higher level it gives +2 magic and better healing.
4	Dull Brass Amulet	This amulet gives +1 to all attributes and provides additional defensive stats

Belts

Priority	Item	Description
1	Visionary's Girdle	The belt can only be worn by Anders. It provides bonus electricity and spirit damage in addition to boosting the mana pool.
2	Girdle of the Skies	The belt gives bonus mana points and a high regeneration rate.
3	Master Wyvern Hunter's Belt	Very powerful belt if you wish Anders to go on full offense. It increases the critical chance and attack speed.
4	Enchanted Silverite Chain Belt	The belt can be obtained in Act 1 and provides +1 to all attributes.
5	Belt of the Chastened	The belt gives +1 to magic and increases the mana regeneration rate by 2 points

Rings

Priority	Item	Description
1	Ring of the Ferryman	This is a very powerful ring that increases the magic attributes. In addition, it boosts electricity damage and makes Anders immune to stuns.
2	The Fallen Star	The ring provides +1 to all attributes. Due to this, it is perfect for Anders build
3	Orsino's Signet Ring	The ring provides a +5% spirit damage bonus. Unfortunately, you obtain it very late in the game.
4	Ring of Resilience	The ring can be obtained easily and provides +1 to all attributes.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this Best Anders build guide in Dragon Age 2. I hope it answers all your questions on how this companion should be built for maximum utility

Feel free to leave any comments below.