Dragon Age Inquisition - Rogue, ranged, stealth, melee, skill builds

There are a couple of ways to play your Rogue characters in Dragon Age Inquisition, and your sneaky character will begin life as either a ranged or blade-wielding menace. The former start with Stealth and Long Shot skills, while the latter arrive with Stealth and Twin Fangs. Like the Warrior, you can use your weapons to switch a Rogue's playstyle around, although Archery skills won't work with dual blades equipped, and Double Daggers skills won't trigger if you equip a ranged weapon.

The Archery set of abilities is focused on dealing ranged damage, damage which is boosted further if you attack from height or other positions. The Double Daggers skills concentrate on stealthy attacks from the rear. Sabotage allows you to imbue your weapons with poisonous damage and also make use of traps, while Subterfuge is heavily stealth-orientated.

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Best Rogue skills and abilities

Here's a quick breakdown of some of the most potent Rogue skills to be found in the game.

• Name: Dance of Death
• Set: Double Daggers

If you want to take an enemy down, you're going to need stamina, so keep in mind that Dance of Death can restore 50 points of this stat for each kill you participate in. You'll find this works particularly well in boss fights where other enemies turn up to join in with the fun.

• Name: Deathblow
• Set: Double Daggers
• Damage: 200 per cent weapon damage
• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• Cost: 50 stamina

This skill is fantastic if you need to deliver a final burst of damage to a wounded enemy. The default damage will be twice as high as that of your weapon, but that increases by three per cent for each per cent of damage the creature's lost - up to a maximum 350 per cent weapon damage in total. You'll also attack a second time automatically, giving you the chance to deliver a whopping 700 per cent weapon damage against an injured foe.

• Name: Explosive Shot
• Set: Archery
• Damage: 100 per cent weapon damage
• Number of hits: 2
• Explosion radius: 4 metres
• Cooldown: 12 seconds
• Cost: 35 stamina

Enemies often come in twos or threes, so a skill like Explosive Shot can really help to make short work of things. The Rogue only has a couple of decent multi-target talents, and the weak stamina costs of Explosive Shot make this a compelling pick. Combine it with Chain Reaction to add a 25 per cent boost to damage.

• Name: Flank Attack
• Set: Double Daggers
• Damage: 200 per cent weapon damage
• Number of hits: 2
• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• Cost: 35 stamina

You have a few skills that inflict a greater amount of damager when used from the side or rear of an opponent. This particular skill automatically hits the enemy from behind, and works extremely well in conjunction with Twin Fangs or Sneak Attack.

• Name: Long Shot
• Set: Archery
• Damage: 200 per cent to 600 per cent at 5 metres
• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• Cost: 50 stamina

The further you are from your target, the more damage you'll do with Long Shot. Throw in the Archer's Lance boost and your attacks will also impact on any enemies standing between you and your main target. You should be staying as far away from the action as possible as a ranged Rogue, making this the perfect skill!

• Name: Pincushion
• Set: Archery

Apply Pincushion in combat, and every consecutive attack against your opponent gains a five per cent boost to damage for 10 seconds. This is especially useful in longer boss fights, but can also be used if you pause the action to help the Rogue target an enemy no-one else is concentrating on.

• Name: Poisoned Weapons
• Set: Sabotage
• Duration: 10 seconds
• Damage: 25 per cent of weapon damage per second (for 8 seconds)
• Cooldown: 24 seconds
• Cost: 20 stamina

This is one of the Rogue's most important skills, and as long as it's active your attacks will deliver poison damage to your target. That target will then take an additional 25 per cent damage every second for 8 seconds. Add the Infected Wounds ability, and that poison damage is increased by 25 per cent. If you choose to add Explosive Toxin too, every enemy that dies will explode in a shower of poisonous damage, affecting any other nearby enemies.

• Name: Shadow Strike
• Set: Subterfuge
• Damage: 400 per cent of weapon damage (200 per cent bonus for Stealth)
• Cooldown: 16 seconds
• Cost: 50 stamina

This is one of the Rogue's most devastating attacks, and should always be used with Stealth for maximum effect.

• Name: Stealth
• Set: Subterfuge
• Damage: 50 per cent bonus
• Duration: 30 seconds
• Cooldown: 24 seconds
• Cost: 20 stamina

A fantastic skill to use before using any big-damage ability such as Long Shot, and it's active for 30 seconds too. Use this at the start of the fight so you'll have the chance to use it a second time when the cooldown wears off.

• Name: Throwing Blades
• Set: Sabotage
• Damage: 100 per cent of weapon damage per hit
• Number of hits: 4
• Duration: 8 seconds
• Cooldown: 12 seconds
• Cost: 50 stamina

This useful multi-target attack will strike four times for 100 per cent weapon damage each time. We recommend using this skill in conjunction with Poisoned Weapons for maximum effect.

• Name: Unforgiving Chain
• Set: Double Daggers

Each successive application of Unforgiving Chains will increase your critical hit chance by one per cent. Use this in conjunction with Sneak Attack and lots of critical hit gear for some seriously impressive damage numbers.

Dragon Age Inquisition Rogue builds

Ranger Rogue

• Long Shot
• Stealth
• First Blood
• Explosive Shot
• Poisoned Weapons
• Archer's Lance
• Chain Reaction
• Pincushion
• Full Draw
• Fighting Dirty
• Stunning Shot
• Explosive Toxin
• Evasion
• Evade
• Shadow Strike
• Infected Wounds

If you choose to field this character, you're basically opting for an empowered archer. Keep this character at maximum range during encounters, and make sure you have a taunting Warrior to keep the enemy away. As you're trying to maintain range at all times, attacks that require flanking or rear-attacking should be avoided.

Get to Full Draw as fast as you can and make it your initial attack for the majority of encounters. After this, an excellent rotation is Poisoned Weapons / Stealth / Full Draw. Follow up with Long Shot for even more bonus damage.

Stealth Rogue

• Stealth
• Twin Fangs
• Flank Attack
• Poisoned Weapons
• Bloodied Prey
• Unforgiving Chain
• Infected Wounds
• Dance of Death
• Sneak Attack
• Throwing Blades
• Deathblow
• Fighting Dirty
• Explosive Toxin
• Evasion
• Evade
• Shadow Strike
• Quick Blade
• Thrill of Victory
• Ripping Fangs

This more melee-orientated Rogue attacks from the shadows whenever it can. The trick to mastering this archetype is to make sure the character is in the correct position to inflict maximum damage - typically to the rear or the sides of an enemy. This king of combos also gets exponentially more powerful as it levels up and unlocks new abilities.

A good Stealth Rogue needs an ever better Warrior to support them though, with this latter class drawing the attention of the enemies at hand. Don't worry about defensive skills until you've unlocked all the others, as foes really shouldn't be directing their attention at you.

Head back to the first page for the rest of our Dragon Age Inquisition guide.