Dragon Age Inquisition: Elementalist Multiplayer Guide

For Rion, the Inquisition is the last hope for mages. The Mage-Templar war has taken the lives of so many and the Elementalist can’t take any more of this bloodshed. After seeing the abuses that occurred in Kirkwall, Rion was quick to join the rebellion. Through working with the Inquisition, he believes he can both help save the world and better relations with mage and the rest of the world.

The Elementalist is an arcane powerhouse of Dragon Age Inquisition. Sure he has Barrier far down the Control tree, but other than that Rion exist to elementally annihilate those foolish enough to stand in his way. As the name suggests, the Elementalist has power over fire, lightning, and cold. Do you build him to specialize or a little bit of everything?

Here are his abilities:

Destruction:

Tier 1:

Immolate – 400% damage, 150% burning per sec for 8 secs, 3 meters, 16 sec cooldown, 35 mana

• -Wildfire – 100% bonus damage, 75% more burning damage, -4 cooldown

Teri 2:

Flashfire – 300% damage, 8 sec fear, 20 sec cooldown, cost 65 mana

• -Blistering Pain – 8 secs more fear

Conductive Current – 5% more damage per 10% missing mana

Stonefist – summon boulder that does 500% damage, 8 sec cooldown, cost 50 mana

• -Shatterstone – 4 meter AoE, weakens for 10 secs

Tier 3:

Control of the Elements – status effects last 15% longer, +3 Magic

Flashpoint – Crits reduce cooldowns by 10 secs, +3 Magic

Defiant – +5 Magic, +4 Cun

Tier 4:

Wall of Fire – 6 meters, last 20 secs, 200% damage as burning for 8 secs, 4 sec fear, 32 sec cooldown, cost 35 mana

• -Lasting Flames – 3 more meters for 4 more seconds

Clean Burn – each spell reduces cooldown by 1 sec, +3 Willpower

Fire Mine – 1,600% damage, 3 sec delay, 24 sec cooldown, cost 35 mana

• -Searing Glyph – 200% damage per sec, burn for 8 secs

Tier 5:

Death Siphon – foe deaths around you give 20 mana and 10% HP back, +3 Con

Pyromancer – burning and fear durations increased by 25% longer, +3 Willpower

Stormbringer – random lighting bolts, 300% damage, radius 24 meters, 15 sec cooldown, +3 Magic

Tier 6:

Energy Barrage – 12 projectiles, 66% damage, 16 sec cooldown, cost 50 mana

• -Energy Bombardment – -2% magic resistance per hit based on staff element

Firestorm – 12 hits, 100% damage, 60 secs cooldown, cost 65 mana

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Control:

Tier 1:

Winter’s Grasp – 200% damage, 4 sec freeze, 8 sec chill, 16 sec cooldown, cost 65 mana

• -Winter’s Chill – 3 meter AoE

Tier 2:

Peaceful Aura – 50% threat reduction, +3 Willpower

Fade Step – teleport forward, 2 secs, 12 sec cooldown

• -Frost Step – 300% ice damage, 8 sec chill

Fade Cloak – become untargetable and pass through foes for 2 secs, 12 secs cooldown, 20 mana

• -Decloaking Blast – rematerialize inside enemy for 1000% weapon damage as spirit damage

Tier 3:

Gathering Storm – basic attacks reduced cooldowns by 0.5 secs, +3 Willpower

Winter Stillness – standing skill for 3 secs grants 50% mana regen rate, +3 Willpower

Frost Mastery – 25% freeze and chill duration bonus, +3 Magic

Tier 4:

Static Charge – 100% damage, shocked for 6 secs, +3 Con

Lightning Bolt – 200% damage, 2 sec paralyze per enemy around, 24 sec cooldown, 65 mana cost

• -Exploding Bolt – 200% damage oer creature in range of 4 meters

Guardian Spirit – 100% barrier when near death, 60 sec cooldown, +3 Con

Ice Mine – 6 sec freeze, 3 sec delay, 18 sec cooldown, cost 35 mana

• -Brittle Glyph – reduced armor by 100%

Ice Armor – 50% damage reduction, +3 Willpower

Tier 5:

Chaotic Focus – 50% barrier focus, +3 Magic

Barrier – 1,956 barrier HP, 4 meters, 24 sec cooldown, cost 50 mana

• -Elegant Defense – -4 cooldown

Veiled Riposte – while barrier is up foes take 20% dealt damage to selves, +3 Magic

Tier 6:

Strength of Spirits – 50% barrier bonus

No matter how you build the Elementalist, your goal should be ranged DPS. In any difficulty above Routine, I’m going to go ahead and say you better take Barrier. This ability saves parties and allows them to hold out just –that– much more. Trust me, I get it. If you’re going all fire and brimstone, literally raining down hell on your foes, the LAST thing you want to be thinking about is putting a Barrier down to help your teammates. Teamwork though bro, if that big dude in plate is taking all the hits so you don’t have to, do him a solid.

Think of the Destruction tree as the fire tree and the Control tree as your ‘everything else’ tree. To specialize in fire is not the worst idea so nearly you have a whole tree dedicated to the cause. There are two sub paths here. Do you go for raw damage or crowd control? Spells like Wall of Fire and Fire Mine can set up traps for enemies while spells like Flash Fire can cause fear. Fire Storm is a nasty AoE at your disposal. To maximize damage, equip a fire staff and cast Energy Barrage at high risk targets. This will drop their fire resistance down so much that everything you do will be far more devastating.

The Control tree does just that, controls. Barriers will keep your party alive, ice spells will slow and freeze, and electricity spells will shock and paralyze. All of these status effects will help your party survive. It’s not the sort of raw damage Destruction brings, but it is still solid DPS. Definitely take a trip to Control of the Elements in the Destruction tree to make all of these key elemental effects last longer – especially if that is ‘your thing’ desired with the build.

Hybrid builds are suggested for survivability. Having that one hard CC move or escape plan on top of the fiery carnage won’t be frowned upon.  As per any ‘glass cannon’ build, the DPS stops the moment you die. Also, just because something works stupid well on Routine doesn’t mean it will hold up on harder difficulty. The Elementalist is fun for creating those huge numbers but don’t target poorly and pull aggro. Bessssst of luck, burn everything!