Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build - Shadow Minstrel

Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build - Shadow Minstrel - Dragon Age: Origins (DAO)

By zanuffas
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A Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build for Dragon Age: Origins. This build utilizes Assassin specialization with very high Cunning for maximum damage. Together with Bard and Song of Courage, you get huge bonuses to damage and will be able to easily destroy enemies with very fast attacks.

Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build - Shadow Minstrel

The previous version of the build can be found - Rogue Assassin Build Archived

The build offers a very powerful Assassin playstyle that utilizes maximum Cunning. This attribute is important thanks to Lethality and Song of Courage's talents. It will act as a damage boost instead of Strength. Moreover, Cunning also gives bonus armor penetration against those strong late-game enemies.

As a Rogue, you will also want to dip heavily into Dual Wielding. The build will use daggers. These offer very fast attack speed and with various buffs and good gear, you can dish out very high damage. The only thing that matters - is whether the enemy is paralyzed or whether you are using backstab attacks.

Rogue also comes with plenty of utility - Lockpicking, trap disarming, and stealth. I would also argue Coercion is one of the best picks due to how many skills you can obtain compared to other classes.

So let's get into the details.

The build has been played and tested on Nightmare difficulty

Character Creation

If you are into optimizing there are a few things that you can do to optimize your build a bit.

character creation rogue dao

Race

So, all the races can have rogue classes and have very interesting backstories for that. However, I do think for optimal setup two of those are better:

Attribute Description
Human Gives +1 Dexterity and +1 Cunning, which directly improves survivability and damage. The initial strength bonus will help reach gear requirements earlier.
Dwarf Dwarves give a boost to strength and dexterity and also come with magic resistance. This is an important stat for survivability, as some enemy casters can be deadly.

Class

The choice here is obvious:

Class Description
Rogue The main class will give you access to all the relevant talents and specializations.

Background

To be fair there are quite a few background choices. Elves and Dwarves get two of each. Here are my recommendations

Class Description
Human Noble The default and the only choice for humans.
City Elf Gives Coercion skill which is the most relevant for the main character.
Dwarven Commoner Offers Stealing skill, that unlocks a unique mission sequence in Denerim Market.

Attributes

So for the game start it depends on what are you aiming for. There are different optimization paths here. What do I recommend? I would go with +5 Cunning. This is a bit counterintuitive at first, however, it will make sure you unlock all the chests in the starting areas, and you can do pickpocketing early on.

Moreover, there will be some traps in early areas, and they can be very irritating if not detected. This is not the optimal path in terms of "Damage" but it will not create that feeling of "FOMO" of missed chests and traps (which also give XP!). Cunning will also transform into damage later on in the game.

If you want a more damage-oriented pick, from the start, I would go with +5 Dexterity.

Need help with level-by-level attribute/talent progression? For my supporters on Ko-Fi or Patreon, I offer attribute picks on each level, for optimal progression.

Skills

I recommend one of the below:

Skill Description
Coercion 1 level will help unlock some additional dialogue options in the early game.
Combat Training If you already have Coercion, from the background, then I would pick this one to provide the main offensive stat boost. This will make it easier to land hits in early-game encounters.

Talents

There are 2 main talents that I would prioritize.

Talents Description
Deft Hands Makes sure you can disarm early-game traps, and unlock all the chests in the Ostagar and Lothering areas. However, you will need at least 2 levels or 20 Cunning in addition to this talent to make trap detection any good.
Dual-Weapon Training Improves the offhand weapon damage when dual-wielding.

Quest Priority and Locations

Once you have finished Ostagar and Lothering, the world will open up and you can visit multiple areas. Below I will cover some progression recommendations, to obtain a few core items needed.

This is an optional progression. If you want to experience the main quests in different sequences, feel free to do that!
  1. Return to Ostagar - here you can obtain a very good Duncan’s Dagger, that can last till the late game.
  2. Stone Prisoner - additional XP and one of the best helmets in the game - Helm of Honnleath.
  3. 1 Main story quest - any story so that you would progress the world. Circle Tower is great, to get extra Strength points.
  4. Explore the world and wait for a random world encounter where you can recruit Zevran. He is the one who can teach the Assassin specialization with good relations (approval of 27 or more).
  5. Leliana can teach the Bard specialization, with good relations. Talk with her in camp often.
  6. Your preferred quests

Full Build Setup

In this section, I will go with in-depth explanations of each important selection for attributes, talents, and skills. This will give you a better understanding of what role each decision will have on your overall build. The explanations can also be used to better decide your picks for optimizations.

Attributes

In this section, I would like to review the recommended attributes for Dual Wield Assassin Build. You will be required to pick them every level up, so optimizing and not wasting any of them will prove vital for the build.

dual wield assasin rogue build attributes dao

There are a few major goals that should be reached:

Attribute Description
Strength - 18. You will get +4 from the Fade Quest inside the Circle Tower. This will leave 4 points, that you can allocate as your progress every few levels. It will enable wearing the best armor in the game. This can also be somewhat delayed, if you do not have Battledress of the Provocateur from the DLC.
Dexterity - 30-36 The goal here is to reach at least 30. This will be enough for best daggers, good attack value to hit foes, and damage bonuses.
Cunning - MAX Cunning is the main talent that together with Lethality and Song of Courage will give a direct boost to damage. It will also help with unlocking chests and disarming traps. I would invest +3 every level once you have Dexterity covered.
Need help with level-by-level attribute/talent progression? For my supporters on Ko-Fi or Patreon, I offer attribute picks on each level, for optimal progression.

Skills

The goal in my opinion is to get Combat Training and Coercion to a maximum. This will cover all the aspects that the main character would need in my opinion.

Skill Level Description
Coercion 4 Better persuasion to solve various quests and get better rewards in some situations.
Pickpocket 1 Access to one of the most lucrative quests in the game in terms of gold rewards.
Poison-Making 4 Allows creating coatings that improve damage.
Combat Training 4 Provides bonus stats to improve hit chance.
Tactics 1 Additional slot, for those situations when you are not controlling the character.

Specializations

The build uses two specializations which both improve the build:

Specialization Description
Assassin Provides a bonus of +2 to dexterity and unlocks a few powerful talents to improve damage. I would prioritize this tree, as the Mark of Death can be obtained at level 7.
Bard Provides +1 Cunning which gives a slight damage boost. However, the main highlight are party song - Song of Courage, giving a huge boost to damage.

Talents

There are many talents that you will want in the early game, so it might be hard to prioritize, but overall, you don't need many active ones.

One thing to note. Rogue will have a very fast attack speed late in the game, and with the amount of damage you deal most of the active talents will become useless.

Need help with level-by-level attribute/talent progression? For my supporters on Ko-Fi or Patreon, I offer attribute picks on each level, for optimal progression.

Assassin

Talent Description
Mark of Death This can be used on stronger enemies
Exploit Weakness Gives a direct damage boost based on your Cunning value.
Lacerate
(Optional)
Both of these talents are optional. Lacerate does not work correctly without recommended mods and Feast of the Fallen stamina regeneration is not as relevant as you will not use many active talents late in the game.
Feast of the Fallen
(Optional)

Bard Tree

Talent Description
Song of Valor The stamina regeneration is very low, so only taking this for progression.
Distraction Only taken for progression.
Song of Courage Gives a direct boost to attack, damage, and critical chance. All of these stats improve the rogue build damage directly.

Power of Blood

These talents are obtained automatically if you drink a blood vial in Soldier's Peak.

Talent Description
Dark Passage Improves dodge chance.
The Tainted Blade Improves damage at the sacrifice of your HP. It does come with a bug while using Dual-Weapon Expert talent.

Rouge

Dirty Fighting tree

Talent Description
Dirty Fighting Allows you to momentarily stun the target, especially if they are about to run away. Works perfectly against mages. It also has a strong synergy with Coup de Grace as you can inflict backstabs while standing in front.
Combat Movement Improves the flanking angle, making it easier to land backstabs.
Coup de Grace Very powerful talent, that allows to inflict backstabs on stunned or paralyzed enemies. This drastically improves damage per second as no movement will be required.

Below the Belt tree

Talent Description
Below the Belt A decent early-game attack that can weaken foes. However, later on, it will be much weaker than auto-attacks.
Deadly Strike An okay ability that you can use in early game for some guaranteed damage.
Lethality One of the core talents of the build. It enables you to rely on Cunning instead of Strength for damage calculations. This allows one to rely on one attribute for damage - Cunning, which by itself also improves armor penetration.
Evasion
(Optional)
This is optional talent, that can be good or bad depending on the situation. Overall, against a single target, it is great as you can avoid attacks. However, each "evade" has a special animation that interrupts your attacks and decreases damage per second. For this reason, it is bad when being attacked by multiple targets. In my playthroughs, I do not take it.

Deft Hands tree

This tree is very important for exploration. You may wonder why. The obvious reason is chest unlocks. The more subtle reason is trap-disarming which will also provide some additional XP throughout the game. I also do not recommend picking all of the talents - only 2 or 3.

Talent Description
Deft Hands Allows unlocking and disarming very simple contraptions.
Improved Tools Improves trap detection and lockpicking
Mechanical Expertise Further improves lockpicking and trap disarming.

The last skill in the tree will be counteracted with a high Cunning of 40, so the talent point can be saved and put elsewhere.

Stealth tree (optional)

Talent Description
Stealth To be fair, this tree is optional. I never use it on my main character, but I understand the appeal and it could be used in some situations - for example reaching an enemy mage before engaging in combat.
Stealthy Item use
Combat Stealth
Master Stealth

Dual Weapon

The main tree for maximum dual-wielding effectiveness.

Dual-Weapon Training tree

Talents Description
Dual-Weapon Training Improves the off-hand weapon damage.
Dual-Weapon Finesse Gives bonuses to attack and defense when dual-wielding to improve combat performance.
Dual-Weapon Expert Kind of a bugged ability, but it does provide bonuses to critical hit chance.

Dual Striking Tree

Due to the limited amount of talent points, I do not go deeper here.

Talents Description
Dual Striking Only taken for progression.
Riposte One of a few talents that can stun enemies and apply control. If the enemy is stunned you can then use Backstabs on them with Coup de Grace.

Dual-Weapon Sweep Tree

Talents Description
Dual-Weapon Sweep Mainly for progression, but can be useful in the early game for dealing damage.
Flurry Only for progression.
Momentum Drastically improves attack speed. However, if you have a mage with Haste, check the recommended mods that address high attack speed bugs.
Whirlwind Late game pick, which allows you to instantly take out or damage multiple enemies surrounding rogue.

Equipment

The gear you use with Dual Wield Assassin Build will play a crucial role in combat. There are various combos that you can go with.

Below, you will find the gear that should be used with the build. Generally, the lower the item is in the table the lower its priority and the earlier you can get it. So the top ones are the best picks.

Weapons

I do recommend only using Daggers. The build does not utilize Dual Striking, so a heavier weapon will not bring much benefit. Of course, you might be able to increase DPS like that, but to be fair, it is already overkill as enemies will melt.

Item Description
The Rose's Thorn iconThe Rose’s Thorn The best dagger in the game giving good bonuses and three rune slots.
The Edge One of the best daggers that you get very early. It gives a big direct damage boost and only needs 26 dexterity to wear.
Duncan's Dagger iconDead Thaig Shanker Gives a significant boost to cunning - the main damage stat.
Duncan's Dagger iconDuncan’s Dagger Very good dagger, especially if you can obtain or upgrade it to a higher tier for 3 rune slots. The +10 damage to dragons is amazing against dragon bosses.
thorn of the dead gods iconThorn of the Dead Gods This dagger depends on the tier at which you obtain it. At tier 6, it is one of the best picks.

Helm

Item Description
Helm of Honnleath iconHelm of Honnleath One of the best helmets in the game, giving a +2 all-attribute boost.
first enchanters cowl daoFirst Enchanter's Cowl Can be used together with other dodge items to greatly boost survivability.
Free scout arming cap iconQuicksilver Arming Cap +2 Cunning is a direct boost to damage for the Rogue Assassin build.
Free scout arming cap iconFree Scout Arming Cap +2 Dexterity boost. This improves your dagger damage and increases defense.
Free scout arming cap iconLongrunner’s Cap A slight boost to stamina regeneration.

Armor

Item Description
The Felon's Coat iconThe Felon’s Coat Boosts dexterity, increasing your damage. It will also increase stamina regeneration, allowing it to sustain Momentum for much longer.
The Felon's Coat iconBattledress of the Provocateur A safer option, that also gives a +15% chance to dodge, giving a significant boost to survivability. In addition, you get bonus dexterity and armor.
The Felon's Coat iconWade’s Superior Drakeskin Leather Armor I only recommend equipping this together with Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set. Just armor bonuses are quite disappointing and you need the whole set.
The Felon's Coat iconShadow of the Empire Not as good as the others, because provides only +2 dexterity. Moreover, it gives additional strength that is not as useful once you reach the required threshold.
Dalish armor iconDalish Armor Great armor early in the game. Can be bought in Dalish Camp. Moreover, you can equip it with other items for the Dalish Leather armor set bonus.

Gloves

Item Description
light gloves iconRed Jenny Seekers Gives +15% to critical and backstab damage.
light gloves iconBackhands Similar to Red Jenny Seekers, however, gives only +10% to backstab and critical damage.
light gloves iconWade’s Superior Drakeskin Gloves Give's +1 to Dexterity. Best to wear with Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set, but can be worn alone
Wade's Superior Drakeskin GlovesAngled Strikers Gives a 5% backstab bonus that is great in the early game, especially if you do not have the Dalish Leather armor set
dalish gloves iconDalish Gloves Use these gloves together with Dalish Leather armor set

Boots

Item Description
Silverhammer's Tackmasters iconSilverhammer’s Tackmasters Overall, the best light boots for rogue builds with a +2 Dexterity bonus.
The lion's Paw iconThe Lion's Paw Gives a 10% chance to avoid enemy attacks. Use it together with other similar items.
cadash stompers iconCadash Stompers Equip these if your Warden will have 22 strength. The additional armor and critical chance are a great minor boost.
Silverhammer's Tackmasters iconWade’s Superior Drakeskin Boots Gives +1 Dexterity. They should also be worn with Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set for maximum effectiveness.
Bard's dancing shoes iconBard’s Dancing Shoes One of the best defensive boots in the game. Gives bonus defense and reduces hostility.
Dalish Boots iconDalish Boots Cheap boots, that provide +3 defense. This allows you to evade more attacks.

Accessories

Item Description
Andruil's blessing iconAndruil’s Blessing One of the best belts in the game, giving significant attribute boosts of +2. It also improves stamina regeneration, which is not as important but still somewhat relevant.
destructionist's belt icon Guildmaster's Belt Gives a significant boost of +3 Cunning for higher damage.
Cinch of skillful maneuvering iconCinch of Skillful Maneuvering Gives +1 to all attributes and improves dodge chance. The only drawback is that this requires finishing the Witch Hunt DLC.
Dalish Hunter's Belt iconDalish Hunter's Belt Both of these belts give a boost to stamina regeneration. This is a low priority but still somewhat relevant, especially in the early game.
dalish leather belt icon daoDalish Leather Belt

Amulets

Item Description
The high Regard of House dace amulet iconThe High Regard of House Dace The best amulet for rogues giving a big boost of +6 to cunning and +50 stamina. If you have a strong party with good control options like Sleep, War Cry, etc. I would pick this for maximum damage.
The spellward iconThe Spellward The amulet can be used to stack chances to dodge and improve survivability greatly. It also has a significant boost to spell resistance, making it easy to avoid some nasty surprises. I would say this is the best amulet if you do not have access to The High Regard of House Dace.
Pearl of Anointed iconPearl of the Anointed The +1 to all attributes is a significant boost, especially at the start of the game.
Magister's Shield iconMagister's Shield Provides bonus defense and spell resistance.
Mark of vigilance iconMark of Vigilance Gives bonus spell resistance and defense to avoid enemy attacks.

Rings

Item Description
Key to the city iconKey to the City It's one of the best rings in the game. It gives +2 to all attributes. It can be obtained in Orzammar
wicked oath iconThe Wicked Oath
Gives a significant boost to backstab damage.
blood ring iconDusk Ring +3 Cunning at the cost of -1 strength will boost the effectiveness of your auras.
harvest festival ringHarvest Festival Ring Improves strength, dexterity, and attack - these are all important stats to wear better gear and improve hit chance with defense.
the lucky stone iconThe Lucky Stone Gives +1 to all attributes, which in turn will improve dexterity, cunning and strength - everything that the build uses.
ring of the warrior iconRing of the Warrior Improves Dexterity by 2 and gives bonus strength.
silverleaf icon daoSilverleaf +1 Cunning, which is a decent boost when you might have other rogues in the group.
keeper's Ring iconKeeper’s Ring +1 Dexterity for minor damage and defense boost.

How to use the Build

In this section, I would like to go through some general tips on how to correctly utilize the build.

Main mechanics

In this part, I would like to go through the core mechanics of the build. Using them you can construct your preferred playstyle and utilize everything that the various talent and equipment picks have to offer.

Sustained Talents

The build needs a few sustained abilities as they will give a huge improvement in terms of damage.

  1. Momentum - improves attack speed by 30%, mandatory talent from very early.
  2. Song of Courage - improves attack, damage, and critical chance, based on the cunning attribute.

Optional sustained ability:

  1. The Tainted Blade - excellent talent to further boost damage based on cunning. It does drain health and inflicts more damage than intended with Dual-Weapon Expert. This is a bug, but one you should be aware of.

Cunning - Damage, Lockpicking and Traps

The main stat of this build is Cunning. Thanks to Lethality it is used for damage calculation instead of strength. Why is this important?

  • It improves armor penetration which results in more damage against heavily armored enemies.
  • Improves the Song of Courage effect giving even more boost to damage.
  • Improves Exploit Weakness from Assassin tree, giving even more damage.
  • Increases the lockpicking and trap disarm capabilities.

So as you can see, with a single talent the build receives a significant boost to damage and utility during world exploration.

Backstabs

The main idea with Rogue is that you can get guaranteed backstabs which inflict a similar amount of damage as critical hits. They are technically different so some effects will not apply. But overall, the damage amount will be similar.

This encourages you to go behind enemies and use every chance you get to exploit this weakness. This creates an interesting and engaging playstyle, where you think of ways how to safely reach targets and exploit this.

However, for the late game, when you will be very powerful with plenty of runes, high damage, and fast attack speed I would use a different approach. For normal enemies use auto attacks without backstab, as they only need a few hits to be killed. This does not waste any time with movement. And for stronger foes exploit the backstabs.

Coup de Grace and stunned targets

One of the talents that you will obtain is Coup de Grace. It will allow you to inflict backstabs on stunned targets. This is important as you can use Dirty Fighting or mage Paralysis, Glyph of Paralysis, etc. to not waste time with movement and instantly attack for maximum damage.

Maintaining high attack speed

So I already mentioned this a few times, but there are various bugs with dual wielding and in general attack speed. The main one is that if your attack speed reaches above 50% percent you start hitting slowly. This can happen easily:

  • Momentum - 30% attack speed
  • Haste - 25% attack speed

For rogues, there is no in-game fix for this besides disabling one of them. However, if you are on PC you can install recommended mods that address this issue.

High Dodge chance

One of the aspects of the build is the need to survive. You will probably run many times as the first one into combat. Before your tanks can build Threat and mages apply control you will be hit a lot. Generally, Dexterity can help with this. However, the build puts all points into Cunning to get the maximum damage value.

To overcome this there are a few items that you might be interested in using to stack Dodge chance:

So in total, you can reach 70% Dodge chance, without accounting for the defense values of your rogue. So you will avoid 7/10 hits, making you a very sturdy and robust frontline combatant. Of course, this is not mandatory, and just an option if you find a need for this and your healer might not be doing a good job of keeping you alive.

Early Game Combat

The start of the game might be a bit difficult as you will be limited by equipment and survivability. However, with each level, it will be easier and easier. Here are some recommendations for the early game:

  • Make sure to use Dual-Weapon Sweep, as it hits multiple enemies and is effective early on.
  • Activate Momentum for improved attack speed.
  • Dirty Fighting is excellent for stunning Lieutenants or casters, which you can then attack from the back.
  • Go for the enemy's back to inflict backstabs with maximum damage.

Late Game Combat

  • Always have active - Momentum and Song of Courage for maximum damage.
  • Riposte can be used to stun stronger targets like lieutenants or bosses.
  • Whirlwind and Dual-Weapon Sweep can be used to hit multiple enemies surrounding you.
  • Use Mark of Death on bosses to drastically improve damage.
  • Tainted Blade can be activated for extra damage if you do not forget.
  • Auto-Attacks are your bread and butter and I would mostly rely on them.
  • Don't waste time on moving behind the backs of weak enemies just attack them directly.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Dual WIeld Rogue Assassin Build, post for Dragon Age: Origins. This build offers a mix of Assassin and Bard with maximum Cunning investment. This is one of the highest damage builds in the game offering true destruction of enemies in the direct meaning of the word.

Feel free to leave feedback below.

Discussion

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Post author zanuffas avatar zanuffas
Gamestegy Founder. I have been writing game guides and builds for 4 years. I like to push myself to create something wonderful for the readers!