Best Fenris Builds - Dragon Age 2 (DA2)

In this post, I will cover Best Fenris Builds for Dragon Age 2. He is an elven warrior who is a slave to a Tevinter Magister.

What makes him exceptional is his Lyrium tattoos, making him extremely strong. Sadly, he is quite a negative personality, so he is not a companion that all players will like.

So let’s go through the builds

Fenris Nightmare Tank build

The only build that I recommend with Fenris on Nightmare is to have him as a tank. Of course, you can also specialize him as DPS, but you should avoid any AOE abilities (due to friendly fire)

This build makes him a decent tank, although not too strong. You will still need to rely on your allies to crowd control a group of enemies.

Attributes

To maximize the effectiveness of this build we will have to ensure that Fenris has enough stamina, deals damage, and has high HP.

Every level invests attribute points like this:

• Strength +2. This will give bonus Fortitude, increases Attack, and gives bonus damage
• Constitution/Willpower +1. Change between these every level. I suggest stopping putting points into WIllpower at 18 or 20. All other points should go to Constitution

With high Constitution Fenris should have no problems sustaining enemy damage for few seconds before allies can apply CC

Abilities

Here is my recommended progression for the Nightmare Fenris build

Order	Skill	Description
1	Control	This will increase the Attack of Fenris, ensuring that none of his attacks deflect.
2	Mighty Blow	We mainly take this for progression, but it can still be used manually in some encounters
3	Sunder	Gives Fenris a bonus critical chance and an additional chance to Sunder enemies
4	Giant's Reach	Increases Radsiu of Two-handed weapon attacks
5	Pommel Strike	This is a great and cheap ability that Fenris will stun enemies with.
6	Taunt + Bellow	This ability will make Fenris grab the attention of enemies within a 16-meter radius.
7	Pommel Blow	Pommel Strike can now STAGGER enemies for combo openings, decreases cooldown, and increases the duration
8	Stonewall	This is a great ability at the beginning of the battle when Fenris will get surrounded. It will greatly increase his damage resistance
9	Turn the Blade	We mainly take this for progression
10	Adamant	Provides +5% damage resistance. A very good passive ability that gives Fenris a bit higher chance of surviving
11	Bulwark	Decreases Stonewall cooldown and also makes it absorb 100% of damage.
12	Lyrium Ghost	A sustained ability that will increase Fenris's offensive capabilities.
13	Bolster	Allows Fenris to restore 5% of stamina, this ability does not have a cooldown.
14	Rally	This is a very important skill for Fenris build. It will greatly increase ally mana/stamina regeneration. Because you do not have many crowd control abilities, you want Fenris to always use it so that allies could help him
15	Spirit Pulse	An AOE ability that deals Spirit Damage
16	Lyrium Specter	Lyrium Ghost will now provide bonus resistances for Fenris. Very important and good upgrade
17	Spirit Flux	Spirit Pulse will now stun enemies. This is the only ability that works in AOE and does not have friendly fire.
18	Might	We mainly take this for progression
19	Command	Upgrade Control to also provide a +10% critical chance
20	Unite	Further increases mana/stamina regeneration with Rally and also passes Control + Command buff to allies
21	Deflect	Fenris gets +25% magic resistance
22	Deep Reserves	Provides bonus mana/stamina regeneration
23	Second Wind + Last Push	I would say this is optional. If you see that Fenris is not fast enough with Bolster, then please do take this ability + upgrade.

If you play on Hard or lower difficulties I suggest adding Scythe ability and enabling it together with Mighty Blow. Fenris will now have two additional CC abilities. I suggest doing this early in the game.

Tactics

This section is really important as it puts logic for how the companion should use all of those abilities that we have selected.

Here are my suggestions:

Overall as you can see we are quite conservative with offensive capabilities. However, Fenris will support the group members with unite, he can stun a single or group of enemies. Moreover, he has some defensive capabilities making him quite strong.

Unfortunately, for all of this to work make sure that you have allies who can apply CC and debilitating effects:

• Varric/Sebastian, Isabela - with Fatiguing Fog, Chameleon's Breath, Pinning Shot
• Merril, Anders - Petrify, Stonefist, etc.

These are just a few mentions

Fenris Shredder build

With this build, I want to go all-in on offensive capabilities making Fenris tear enemies apart on the battlefield. Sadly, it will probably not perform as good on Nightmare but on lower difficulties, it will be a sight to behold

Attributes

The main attribute of this build as you can guess is Strength. You will also need some health and WIllpower to be able to use active abilities

So here are my suggestions:

• Early level put 1/2 points to Willpower and Constitution until you reach 20 and 22 respectively
• All other points go to Strength for maximum damage

Abilities

In this section, I will explain what abilities to get for This Fenris build. Generally, there is nothing special and you want to maximize your offensive capabilities

Here is the detailed progression that I suggest using:

Order	Skill	Description
1	Mighty Blow	One of the main abilities that this Fenris build will utilize
2	Control	A sustained ability that will greatly boost Fenris Attack allowing him to have less deflected attacks against Elite and stronger enemies
3	Giant's Reach	Increases the reach of Two-Handed weapons basic attacks and skills
4	Sunder	A passive ability that gives bonus critical and STAGGER chance
5	Scythe	A very useful ability allows Fenris to lash into a group of enemies. Can also knockback enemies
6	Bolster	This ability will allow Fenris to instantly restore 5% stamina. This has no cooldown.
7	Lyrium Ghost	One of the main sustained abilities that give bonus Defense and Critical chance
8	Might	We mainly take this for progression
9	Cleave	An activated ability that will double Fenris damage output for a short period of time
10	Veneer of Calm	A reaver-like ability that gives bonus damage in proportion to lost health.
11	Whirlwind	A very powerful AOE ability that hits all enemies surrounding Fenris.
12	Killer Blow	This upgrade increases Mighty Blow's physical damage.
13	Shattering Blow	Reduces Mighty Blow cooldown and can crush enemies under the effect of BRITTLE
14	Reaper	Scythe gets bonus damage and physical force. Moreover, it now can do a combo on enemies that have BRITTLE effect.
15	Spirit Pulse + Spirit Flux	This is a very powerful ability as it deals spirit damage in AOE damage in 8-meter diameter. Moreover, it will also stun enemies.
16	Battle Tempo	Fenris will get a bonus of 30% of attack speed for 10 seconds after killing an enemy.
17	Second Wind	Restores stamina fully, so you can use all of the abilities again
18	Command	Upgrades Control by giving a bonus to Critical Chance.
19	Destroyer	Reduces enemy overall damage resistance against warrior's attacks
20	Tornado	Whirlwind now has a 100% critical chance
21	Cyclone	Whirlwind will have its damage increased and cooldown decreased, making it an even more powerful ability
22	Massacre	Provides insta kill if normal or lieutenant enemies have low HP.
23	Last Push	When using Second Wind, Fenris's abilities will have their cooldown time decreased.

As you can see we mostly take offensive abilities allowing Fenris to shred a group of enemies in a matter of seconds. If you use this on Nightmare, be careful of Friendly Fire.

Tactics

You can start the tactics from the Scrapper preset and then update accordingly:

My only recommendation is to avoid this build on Nightmare. It will kill your allies in seconds unless you plan to micromanage Fenris.

The main idea for this build to work is to have companions who can apply BRITTLE, these are Merril or Anders, or Mage Hawke. These spells can apply the status effect:

• Petrify
• Winter's Grasp
• Cone of Cold

Another thing to concern regarding combos is whether Scythe and Mighty Blow will be available. So if you see that Fenris has its abilities under cooldown when enemies are BRITTLE, remove 11 and 12 tactics.

Equipment

This section will cover recommended equipment for Fenris builds.

Weapons

Priority	Item	Description
1	Bloom	This battleaxe comes with two runes slots and deals cold damage. Very powerful for the third act.
2	The Celebrant	This is a very powerful greatsword that will allow Fenris to generate more threat. Moreover, it deals spirit damage. However, this can be a drawback against enemies that are immune to this element. Use it as an alternative if enemies are resistant to Cold and Bloom is not effective
3	The Barbarian's Blade	This greatsword increases attack speed and provides a 5% chance to stun enemies
4	Binky's Comfort	Use this greatsword as a defensive option. It provides bonus health and health regeneration. perfect for Fenris tank build.
5	The Dogs of War	This maul levels together with Fenris, ensuring that it always deals decent damage.

Amulets

Priority	Item	Description
1	The Lost Memory	This amulet provides a bonus critical chance and attack speed. Wear it on Fenris for maximum DPS.
2	The Fog Warrior's Gift	This is a great amulet for Fenris if you are making the tank build. It provides bonus damage resistance.
3	Dull Brass Amulet	This is another good defensive amulet that will make Fenris immune to flanking attacks
4	Chain of the Penitent	This amulet allows generating bonus threat.
5	Meraas	Increases fortitude and armor. Very good amulet at the beginning of the game.

Belts

Priority	Item	Description
1	Master Wyvern Hunter's Belt	This belt is perfect to maximise Fenris damage. it provides critical chance and attack speed.
2	The Belt of Promise	This belt gives many good stats, however, the most important is damage resistance of 10%. This makes it a very good option to increase the survivability of Fenris.
3	Karasten's Belt	A decent option for defensive improvements, but weaker compared to the above ones.
4	Enchanted Silverite Chain Belt	Provides defensive stats and gives +1 to all attributes
5	The Irons	This belt gives bonus health and elemental resistance.

Rings

Priority	Item	Description
1	Etched Ring of the Twins	With this ring, Fenris will be immune to knockback making him effective against any enemy in the game. Moreover, the ring gives very good offensive attributes
2	Bardin's Folly	The ring gives bonus strength, attack speed, attack, defense, etc. One of the best rings that Fenris can wear.
3	Band of Emancipation	Ring specifically for Fenris. Provides +1 to all attributes and other bonuses needed for Warrior.
4	Hawke Family Crest	Provides immunity to knockbacks
5	Gentleman's Puzzle Ring	Provides bonus defense and fortitude. This will make both Fenris builds more effective against knockbacks.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post on the best Fenris build in Dragon Age 2. I tried to cover two aspects of this elven warrior. Unfortunately, due to game mechanics such as Friendly Fire, some of the things will be tricky to implement

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