![Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build - Shadow Minstrel](https://cdn.gamestegy.com/posts-images/dual-wield-rogue-assassin-build-shadow-minstrel-uXrC2A0e_w.jpg)
Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build - Shadow Minstrel - Dragon Age: Origins (DAO)
Contents
Dual Wield Rogue Assassin Build - Shadow Minstrel
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.
Character Creation
If you are into optimizing there are a few things that you can do to optimize your build a bit.
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.
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.
- Return to Ostagar - here you can obtain a very good Duncan’s Dagger, that can last till the late game.
- Stone Prisoner - additional XP and one of the best helmets in the game - Helm of Honnleath.
- 1 Main story quest - any story so that you would progress the world. Circle Tower is great, to get extra Strength points.
- 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).
- Leliana can teach the Bard specialization, with good relations. Talk with her in camp often.
- 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.
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. |
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.
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 |
---|---|
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The best dagger in the game giving good bonuses and three rune slots. |
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One of the best daggers that you get very early. It gives a big direct damage boost and only needs 26 dexterity to wear. |
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Gives a significant boost to cunning - the main damage stat. |
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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. |
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This dagger depends on the tier at which you obtain it. At tier 6, it is one of the best picks. |
Helm
Item | Description |
---|---|
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One of the best helmets in the game, giving a +2 all-attribute boost. |
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Can be used together with other dodge items to greatly boost survivability. |
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+2 Cunning is a direct boost to damage for the Rogue Assassin build. |
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+2 Dexterity boost. This improves your dagger damage and increases defense. |
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A slight boost to stamina regeneration. |
Armor
Item | Description |
---|---|
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Boosts dexterity, increasing your damage. It will also increase stamina regeneration, allowing it to sustain Momentum for much longer. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
---|---|
Gives +15% to critical and backstab damage. | |
Similar to Red Jenny Seekers, however, gives only +10% to backstab and critical damage. | |
Give's +1 to Dexterity. Best to wear with Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set, but can be worn alone | |
Gives a 5% backstab bonus that is great in the early game, especially if you do not have the Dalish Leather armor set | |
Use these gloves together with Dalish Leather armor set |
Boots
Item | Description |
---|---|
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Overall, the best light boots for rogue builds with a +2 Dexterity bonus. |
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Gives a 10% chance to avoid enemy attacks. Use it together with other similar items. |
Equip these if your Warden will have 22 strength. The additional armor and critical chance are a great minor boost. | |
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Gives +1 Dexterity. They should also be worn with Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set for maximum effectiveness. |
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One of the best defensive boots in the game. Gives bonus defense and reduces hostility. |
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Cheap boots, that provide +3 defense. This allows you to evade more attacks. |
Accessories
Item | Description |
---|---|
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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. |
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Gives a significant boost of +3 Cunning for higher damage. |
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Gives +1 to all attributes and improves dodge chance. The only drawback is that this requires finishing the Witch Hunt DLC. |
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Both of these belts give a boost to stamina regeneration. This is a low priority but still somewhat relevant, especially in the early game. |
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Amulets
Item | Description |
---|---|
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. | |
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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. |
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The +1 to all attributes is a significant boost, especially at the start of the game. |
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Provides bonus defense and spell resistance. |
Gives bonus spell resistance and defense to avoid enemy attacks. |
Rings
Item | Description |
---|---|
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It's one of the best rings in the game. It gives +2 to all attributes. It can be obtained in Orzammar |
Gives a significant boost to backstab damage. | |
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+3 Cunning at the cost of -1 strength will boost the effectiveness of your auras. |
Improves strength, dexterity, and attack - these are all important stats to wear better gear and improve hit chance with defense. | |
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Gives +1 to all attributes, which in turn will improve dexterity, cunning and strength - everything that the build uses. |
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Improves Dexterity by 2 and gives bonus strength. |
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+1 Cunning, which is a decent boost when you might have other rogues in the group. |
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+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.
- Momentum - improves attack speed by 30%, mandatory talent from very early.
- Song of Courage - improves attack, damage, and critical chance, based on the cunning attribute.
Optional sustained ability:
- 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:
- First Enchanter's Cowl - +10% Dodge Chance
- Battledress of the Provocateur - +15% Dodge Chance
- The Lion's Paw - +10% Dodge Chance
- The Spellward - +10% Dodge Chance
- Dark Passage - unique talent from Soldier's Peak with +5% Dodge Chance.
- Cinch of Skillful Maneuvering - +10% 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.
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