Best Assassin Dual Wield Build - Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI)

Assassin Dual Wield build

This build mainly concentrates on using dual-wielded daggers to flank enemies. To do that you will constantly enter/exit stealth to escape enemy attention and deal the killing blow.

Abilities - before Specialization, Levels 1-10

Before reaching level 10 you will not have Assassin specialization. Due to this, there may be minimal constraints that you have.

Order	Skill	Description
1	Stealth + Lost in the Shadows	Enter stealth at will, even if you are staggered or under negative effects. Moreover, you will get a small boost of 50% damage with the first attack
2	Flank Attack + Skirmisher	Takes you to stealth after the second hit
3	Twin Fangs + Ripping Fangs	We take it to unlock other abilities, but it still gives a good option to deal damage
4	Dance of Death	Many of your hits will deal killing blows early in the game as you will deal large amounts of damage.
5	Sneak Attack	Because you will concentrate on attacking from flanks, this will double your critical rate
6	Easy to Miss	Reduces threat that you generate

Once you reach level 10~ you should be able to obtain Assassin specialization. You are then ready to move to the next builds

Abilities - Full Overview

In this section, you can check how the skills are allocated. For detailed progression and description check the next section:

Double Daggers tree

Archery Tree

Sabotage Tree

Subterfuge Tree

Assassin Tree

Abilities - progression till Endgame

Here I will cover detailed progression and explanations for the Dual Wield Assassin build.

Order	Skill	Description
1	Throatcutter	Gives a larger damage bonus the less HP the enemy has.
2	Hidden Blades + Overkill	One of the main Assassin abilities. It will hit the enemy with six hits each having 300% weapon damage.
3	I Was Never Here	After you deal the killing blow, Inquisitor will enter Stealth. it will allow you to move to the next enemy or slip away from being attacked
4	Knife in the Shadows	Attacking from stealth will make sure that you do a critical hit
5	Mark of Death + Mark of Doom	This is an extremely strong ability if used on bosses or other enemies with large pools of HP.
6	Stealth + Lost in the Shadows	Use this ability at the start of the combat to get behind enemy lines or escape if you get the status effect or are knocked down.
7	Caltrops	We take this mainly for progression
8	Looked Like It Hurt	Each critical hit will restore 10 stamina. An essential skill to have the stamina for all the skills
9	Flank Attack + Skirmisher	Will deal two hits with 200% weapon damage. The important part is that the Inquisitor will enter stealth after this.
10	Evasion	Not an especially strong ability but we take it for progression
11	Evade	We mainly take it for progression
12	Shadow Strike + Quick Blade	This ability will do two things: - With the upgrade, you will deal additional damage when attacking from stealth - You will restore 70 stamina when you use it to use other active abilities
13	Twin Fangs + Ripping Fangs	Good synergy with, Shadow Strike as you will much MP after it. Twin Fangs will work extremely well when attacking the enemy from the flank.
14	First Blood	This skill will increase the damage that you do to enemies with high HP.
15	Explosive Shot	We mainly take this for progression
16	Pincushion	This passive ability will boost your damage the more hits you do to the same enemy. This works extremely well with Mark of Death
17	Gaps in the Armor	Will boost your armor penetration for all the attacks that you do

Some additional skills that you can consider when you have more points:

• Poisoned Weapons + Upgrade
• Throwing Blades + Precision targeting - strong single target skill, get it if you feel that you still have free stamina and the cooldown of your skills takes too long
• Ambush
• Knockout Bomb + Upgrade

Stats

• Flank damage – contrary to what it sounds it provides a damage boost to ALL your damage, so it is even better than Critical damage. The downside is that you always need to attack from the flank.

• Attack – overall increase to your damage on par with Flank damage

• Faster movement speed when in stealth - as you do not have Hook and Tackle skill this stat will allow you to move around the battlefield faster

• Critical damage – as you will be constantly attacking from stealth, this will result in many critical hits. Due to this to maximize the damage Critical Damage stat is important.

• Critical chance 30%-40% – you need to have a decent critical chance to activate abilities like Looked Like it Hurt. However, you will mostly attack from stealth and this guarantees a critical hit

• Dexterity – it provides both base attack and also critical damage

• Cunning - only till a certain point: 30%-40% critical chance

Equipment

In this section, I will go through in great detail how to best pick equipment for the Assassin Dual wield build.

For craftable slots, you need offensive Leather (flank damage) -> Metal/cloth (attack)-> utility Leather (dexterity)

For Assassin weapons, you can choose either Dual daggers (AOE damage) or single daggers (single target damage).

Weapons - craftable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Stone Stalker Blade Schematic	Gives decent slots, large damage, but can be hard to obtain. It has the highest base damage out of all daggers.
2	Blade of Red Birth Schematic	Alternative to the first option, and can be acquired much easier. Gives 11 Leather offensive slots for bonus flanking damage
3	Coiled Strike Schematic	Single target dagger that has excellent leather slots. Can be bought in Black Emporium. Also comes with a grip slot
4	Barbarian Rock Crasher Schematic	Provides better slots than Coiled Strike Schematic even with a grip, but loses on DPS.

Weapons - obtainable

There are plentiful dagger options to choose from for the Assassin.

Priority	Item	Description
1	Bosun’s Blade	Deals huge damage when attacking from the back
2	Bloody Bargain	The dagger provides a unique ability that increases movement and attack speed after each kills. Only obtained in the Trespasser DLC.
3	Silencer	Obtained with The Descent DLC. Gives a large boost to dexterity resulting in higher critical damage
4	Cordova’s Smile	The dagger provides a large boost to Flanking damage and a 20% bonus Focus Gain.
5	Gift of the Talons	The dagger is extremely powerful and hard to obtain early in the game. However, if you manage it, your DPS will skyrocket due Hidden Blades effect

Armors - obtainable

Priority	Item	Description
1	The Skin That Stalks	Obtainable only in the Trespasser DLC. Boosts Critical Damage, Critical Chance, and Attack.
2	Stone Stalker Coat	Gives 45 points boost to Cunning and +5 to Dexterity. Moreover, increases movement speed during stealth
3	Masterwork Prowler Armor	This armor reduces ability stamina cost by 20% if not attacked for 5 seconds. Should be easy for Assassin as it will constantly stay in stealth

Armors - craftable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Superior Prowler Armor Schematic	This armor has 23 utility leather slots if you include upgrades. Feel free to increase either dexterity or cunning based on what the Assasin build needs more.
2	Sturdy Prowler Armor Schematic	This is a cheaper alternative to Superior Prowler Armor Schematic. It also gives less defense and 22 utility leather slots.
3	Stone Stalker Coat Schematic	Can be obtained from The Descent DLC. Has decent slots, but is worse compared to the options above.

Helmets - obtainable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Stone Stalker Mask	The best obtainable helmet for this Assassin build. It provides both dexterity and cunning.
2	Helm of the Drasca	This is a high-level helmet. Although it does not provide the best offensive stats it has fairly high armor.
3	Ambassador's Mask	Perfect helmet before you can get Stone Stalker Mask or better crafting materials

Helmets - craftable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Superior Skirmisher Hat Schematic	This helmet is perfect for Assassin as you can use it to increase offensive stats like flanking and critical damage
2	Skirmisher Hat Schematic	Mid-game crafting schematic that has good leather slots for Assassin

Amulets

Priority	Item	Description
1	The Eye That Weeps	Provides +10% Attack. This is the best compared to other amulets as none of them provide bonus flanking damage
2	Andraste’s Sacrifice	Due to constantly being in stealth, the Taunt ability should not affect you negatively too much. However, I would prioritize this amulet for a mage rather than a Rogue if you have one in the party
2	Superb Amulet of Dexterity	Boosts dexterity, which increases your critical damage
4	Master Cooldown Amulet to Superb Cooldown Amulet	The cooldown amulets will allow using of abilities like Hidden Blades more often. This will result in overall higher DPS

Belts:

Priority	Item	Description
1	The Bind That Guides	Available only in the Trespasser DLC. Gives bonus critical chance
2	Master Belt of Focus	More Focus results in more often Mark of the Rift if you are the Inquisitor
3	Superb Belt of Staggering	The belt will give a higher chance to temporarily stun enemies with normal attacks
4	Superior Belt of Focus	A weaker version of the above belt.

Rings

Priority	Item	Description
1	Superb Ring of Flanking	As the build mainly attacks with backstabs the flanking damage bonus will increase damage much more than other stat boosts.
2	Superb Ring of Attack	Raises your Assassin overall damage. I think this is on equal terms with the ring in the third priority.
3	Superb Ring of Critical Damage	Gives +20% Critical damage bonus
4	The Hand That Cuts	Only obtainable in Trespasser DLC. However, provides large offensive bonuses
5	Ring of Slicing	Expensive ring bought in Black Emporium. Boosts your critical damage and critical rate.

Tactics

Here I would like to share some tactical tips that you can use to fully utilize the build:

• Your main priority is to attack enemies from the flank/back. This way you can deal more damage to the enemies
• Shadow Strike can knock back enemies, but most importantly your restore stamina. I recommend using Flank Attack after it to enter stealth and decide your next course of action.
• Use Stealth to enter stealth whenever you need: escape from debilitating effect, enter combat, get behind enemy back, or deal more damage with the skill you are about to use

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post on the Dragon Age Inquisition Assasin Dual Wield build. This covered the main aspects of this stealthy specialization and how to make it work using Dual Wield weapons.

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