Battle mage, also known as paladin, also known as tank!

Hello to all Dragon Age fans! I wanted to share some experience, so I decided to write this guide :) In this guide, I want to talk about the specialization of the mage "Battle Mage" or how to make a tank or a squad of tanks :). Why I chose this specialization will be explained. When I was leveling up my mage and the question of specialization came up, I started to try them out in order. Taking the specialization "Werewolf", I tested all the animals (the wolf, the bear, and the spider) which is of course a good idea, but none of the forms shine either in terms of damage or armor and other parameters, there are very few spells in the forms, and to be honest, the gameplay isn’t that interesting, the forms mostly save you when you've run out of mana, as many have already noted. The "Spiritual Healer" is undoubtedly a very useful specialization, but it is already taken by Wynne, and moreover, I don’t think it’s very interesting when your main character is just a healer :) As for "Blood Mage", that is also a pretty good specialization, but it is better to consider it in a separate guide.. So, having chosen the specialization in the ruins of the Brecilian Forest "Battle Mage", I was initially disappointed, well, I thought, magic becomes instead of strength, what kind of warrior can a mage be.. But after leveling the Battle Mage branch to the end, I realized that I was very mistaken :) Just the 3rd skill in this branch can tell what a battle mage is! Essentially, it's the same warrior, just without combat skills, but with hellish resilience, armor, and damage that any warrior would envy! A sort of paladin, capable of surviving in a horde of mobs, and not just surviving but dealing with armies of enemies, uniques, and bosses without any problems!

Having armor of around 60! And maximum resistance of 75% to all magic, as well as almost 100 physical and mental resistance (and this is regardless of gear) and damage with crits exceeding 100! What kind of warrior can boast such parameters?? ;)

Take note of the amount of "buffs" ;)

So having all this beauty on my character, I suddenly thought, there are still 2 other mages here!

There's Wynne "Spiritual Healer"

and Morrigan "Werewolf"

What if I take the second specialization for them as "Battle Mage", another two tanks with their buffs (buffs)! And so from theory to practice. If you've decided to make a squad of super-tanks,

then this guide is just for you!

Firstly, I must say that playing with 3 mages is very pleasant and interesting at all stages of the game. At first, before all the mages get the specialization "Battle Mage", and for Wynne and Morrigan it will already be second, i.e. up to level 14, you can fully enjoy the game purely with casters, taking only one tank, a warrior or rogue in the company. I took Leliana because of her special skills in picking locks and stealing cabbages and various useful things :)

Of course, you can keep mages in camp until level 14 and play only your character with Alistair, Sten, and someone else, it's not that important, but I found it very enjoyable to go through as casters, trying all kinds of spell effects and combos;)

But after level 14, the game will go much faster, you won’t even need to save often, or pause :)

So where does this miracle begin.. When choosing your race, we are offered two options (for a mage) elf or human. I chose the elf, because he is more suited for a mage (race bonus +2 magic +2 willpower) and magic will be our main parameter! After all, it directly affects spell damage, effect duration, and also the future physical damage of the battle mage. And also the number of health points restored by healing poultices, which is very important!

Now directly about leveling up

Attributes:

Strength – we won’t level this up because the strength ability of the battle mage is replaced by magic, and we will get good attack thanks to bonuses and skills later.

Dexterity – the same thing, not a single point because the only significant thing it provides for the battle mage is defense, which we will already have decent thanks to bonuses and skills later.

Willpower – definitely no points! This parameter is generally useless because mana will always be sufficient. At first, just wear gear for mages that does not add fatigue, and thus does not raise the cost of casting spells, and carry as many mana potions as possible.

Magic – our main and almost the only parameter! I recommend maxing it out completely, as it affects the most precious thing a mage has! Spells! And also when magic replaces strength for the "battle mage" it will determine his physical damage, and magic is also important for access to the highest level spells and as I've said, magic is very important for healing with poultices, the bonus is not weak!

Deftness – this parameter is only needed at the beginning to level up the skill "influence", the last level requires 16 deftness. More deftness is generally not needed if your character manages to swindle anyone for money or additional rewards or quests.

Constitution – here it all depends on your decisions. 1 point gives 5 health points. But honestly, I hardly invested in this, because health points increase with gear and with levels, and considering all the armor and resilience, your tanks will deal minimal damage to them, unless you’re playing on "nightmare". And leveled up magic will allow you to quickly restore health even with the weakest poultices. The only ones who sometimes deal significant damage are mages, so they should be prioritized for elimination in battles, ignoring tanks. Also, your health might not be enough against bosses that utilize special abilities, for example, the "High Dragon" at the top of the Frostback Mountains, sometimes he catches your character in his jaws and chews for a while, at this moment you cannot drink potions, the only option is to heal with a healing spell from a teammate or have enough health to survive this chewing attack, and also the "Spiritual Healer" can lay down a ward, and in case of death, you will revive immediately. So, aside from the high dragon, I faced no problems with health anywhere at all. And I practically invested all points in magic! In my opinion, this is the most important parameter and above all, that is well justified.

Skills

Now regarding the skills, i.e. professions so to speak. The main character is given "Herbalist" at the beginning

and "Combat Tactics" I didn’t level up Combat Tactics for the simple reason that I controlled the main character most of the time myself, and always in case of anything I could pause, so the tactic slots earned with levels were enough for me. And I developed Herbalist with Morrigan. For myself, I took the skill "Influence" right away

It can only be leveled up by the main character. And I consider it the most important, as the rest can be leveled up with allies, while there are no personally needed skills left. "Influence" provides very extensive opportunities in the game world! You will always be able to negotiate peace or beg for a larger reward or obtain an additional quest, and that’s a big bonus!! So without a doubt, it needs to be maxed out! After "Influence", I leveled "Survival" for myself

which gives a bonus to detecting mobs and a bonus to resistances, especially since it requires deftness, and since it's already leveled, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it :) Morrigan was my herbalist and "Combat Training"

though for mages it is not particularly important, especially for battle mages, Wynne takes traps, tactics (since Wynne is originally a healer, it’s very useful to set her tactics for healing allies until she stops casting and turns into a battle mage),

Leliana

is a rogue

(very useful for extracting additional money or items from all NPCs), poisons

(even arrows can be dipped in poison, very useful for rogues), and combat training

(necessary for rogues to unlock skills). But first and foremost, I leveled up stealing for Leliana so as not to miss any useful theft ;)

Abilities

So now we discuss abilities, the most interesting part  At the beginning, mages can pick anything as you see fit for effectively clearing mobs, BUT! It is crucial to level up each mage's skill tree for buffing the entire squad! For future paladins, this is invaluable! The main character will gain access to the specialization "battle mage" already after level 7, but he will only be able to take 1 skill because the others will be opened at levels 12, 14, and 16. After level 7, having gained specialization and 1 skill, your main character will not become a tank, so be patient and wait for level 14, trust me, it is worth it! At the same time, prepare 3 sets of armor with maximum armor.

Now about the skills themselves directly.

Here is a list of mandatory buffs (group buffs for the entire squad) that need to be leveled up before obtaining the battle mage specialization:

In the "Creation" section, in the 2nd branch, the last ability "Haste",

I leveled it up with Wynne, as she already had 2 skills taken in this branch.

In the "Spirit" section, the last branch, the 3rd skill "Telekinetic Weapon"

I leveled up with Morrigan, as the first skill was already acquired in this branch.

In the "Entropy" section, 1st branch, the 3rd skill "Toxic Vapors"

I leveled up with the main character.

Also, for Wynne, there is an aura in the "spiritual guardian" branch that heals the whole squad!

It should be leveled up too, but it can be a bit capricious and turns off . Well, after the cooldown we can turn it back on.

Basically, for ideal development, by level 14 each mage should have 1 group buff leveled, and they can further level up 2 personal buffs (magic shield and stone armor). It would also be ideal for Wynne and Morrigan to have 2 spells in reserve by level 14, to then immediately slot in 3 spells into the battle mage magic branch, at which point you will have killing machines 

At the same time, in the leveled branches, I also took the last skills: for Morrigan, "Crushing Prison"

and for myself, "Mass Paralysis"

Battle mages do not need these, but they are very useful for casters and have good combos with others, and we will be playing as casters until level 14.

"Telekinetic Weapon", "Toxic Vapors", "Haste" are three skills that complement each other, each belonging to one of the mages but affecting the entire squad!! They are activated and work like an aura! Therefore, it’s crucial not to level up all three with one mage, as they won't manage their mana and fatigue. Thanks to these three auras we gain significant bonuses that depend on the character's magical development, which is why it needs to be maxed out!

Battle mages immediately gain a huge advantage over all mobs thanks to the aura "Toxic Vapors", which slows down all mobs in a large radius, who failed the resistance check, and also reduces the defense and attack of mobs, thus providing us with bonuses to the entire squad's attack, meaning it increases the hit rate in proportion to the magic attribute of the character using the aura! "Telekinetic Weapon" gives a large bonus to breaking through armored mobs, again proportionate to the character's magic, so our paladins will now have no fear even against well-armored targets! "Haste" gives the entire squad increased run speed and increases damage per second, the damage per second significantly increases, which is a very useful aura, but it slightly penalizes attack, but it's worth it!

Now here is the list of my buffs, enhancing each of the battle mages individually, which are also mandatory: for each mage, we level in the "Mage" branch the first two spells, the first being the pass-through "Magic Missile"

is useful however at low levels, and the second spell "Magic Shield"

is an aura that increases defense, the magnitude of the bonus is proportional to magic. After the 2nd spell in this branch, there is no need to take the last two as they only affect damage from staves. Then we take in the elemental magic branch the spell "Stone Armor"

which is the same as "Magic Shield" but with a bonus to armor! That’s all about bonuses. I even developed the fire branch with the main character at earlier levels and activated the spell "Fiery Weapon" when I became a battle mage (not necessary)

it provides a decent bonus to fire damage at higher levels! You need to keep in mind that for some reason, some buffs didn’t want to work together. For example, with Morrigan, when activating the aura "Ice Weapon", it deactivates the aura "Telekinetic Weapon", which is a shame but we can do without the Ice bonus, "Telekinetic Weapon" is much more important!! Especially if your main character already has fiery weapon.

A bit about leveling up abilities in the battle magic.

The first skill "Battle Magic"

is available immediately upon unlocking specialization, it is the most fundamental, does not require mana, converts your magic into strength, thus allowing wearing all armor and weapon! Moreover, this spell (attention!) replaces increased fatigue with a bonus to attack!! And that’s just super for our heavyweights! The heavier the armor you put on, the greater the attack! What warrior can boast such a bonus?? ;) Moreover, when you activate the spell "Battle Magic", it immediately adds 50% to fatigue! That’s another bonus! And every activated aura does the same, which means we’ll get a significant bonus to attack, which is why there’s no need to level up strength or dexterity, the bonuses were sufficient for me. But increased fatigue imposes large penalties on our tanks' casting of spells, so when we are in heavy armor under auras, we can forget about casting attack and other spells except for auras (support spells). They are not needed at all! Paladins will clear everything faster than any fireballs or blizzards  Well, if someone is too impatient to cast, they can always deactivate auras, remove armor, and keep a staff hidden in the other hand and go ahead, we are back to being mages! :) Just remember to carry mage clothes in your backpack.. Or cast as they say in what mother gave you  Which, considering our magic power is quite impressive!! But in this case, a couple of hits from mobs could become deadly for our naked unbuffed casters :) The second spell

of the battle mage is passive, it is very useful, providing bonuses to attack, damage and defense while "Battle Magic" is active. The third spell is just insane cheating, the main spell in the branch aside from the first :) "Blinking Shield"

absorbs damage, gives bonuses to resistances +75% to all and about +80 to physical and mental resistance!!! But it quickly drains mana, well who cares, mana will be at zero with activated buffs  we are not casters.. well at least when in armor  It is only after receiving this spell that you can confidently wear heavy armor, a sword and a shield and head into battle!!! And the last ability, a passive, "Shadow Veil"

gives you dodging attacks, i.e. dodge and mana recovery. Plus, when you take it, you'll look pretty cool

, semi-transparent and leaving a trail of white fabric behind.

Now a bit about the redhead..

Specifically for what we need Leliana. Some might think, why bother with her; better to take another warrior, a tank, you can do that, but I wouldn’t advise it. Now I'll explain! First, she’s pretty ;) Secondly, her skills are invaluable: "stealing" and "lock-picking"! And thirdly, she's a bard! Yes! And that’s not a drawback; she probably won’t take out anyone seriously, but she has this ability in the bard branch, "Song of Valor"

which gives the entire squad a bonus to damage, attack and crits!! Moreover, the bonus depends on Leliana’s deftness  That’s just super! Our paladins will be even stronger! And since the skill "lock-picking" and the "stealing" skill require deftness, Leliana has a strong reason to level them without sparing points!! At early levels she will buff with "Song of Valor" (a pass-through and very useful at the beginning of the game for casters)

which grants a bonus to mana and stamina recovery, perfect for our early casters! Just like with notes ;) "Charming Song" (you can avoid leveling this)

I wouldn’t recommend taking as it has a very small radius of charm (immobilizes the target). It's a shame she can’t sing a large song simultaneously.. As for Leliana's other skills, leveling her up to melee (close combat) isn’t worth it, compared to paladins, she gets taken out quickly, the armor isn’t that strong  And if she goes down, the mages lose very useful bonuses from the song! So I recommend leveling her for bows, dexterity for skills, and the rest all in deftness!! You can wear excellent Weida armor after he makes it for you from dragon leather. I personally chose the specialization for Leliana as "Ranger"

as she is an archer for me, and melee combat is unnecessary (and that's "Assassin" and "Duelist") so let her summon animals, the same spider, bear and wolf, good little creatures, sometimes quite helpful! But they are far from our paladins :)

So that’s all the main points.. Now it’s your business to level up tanks or not, just decide, I enjoyed it very much!  On "Normal" difficulty we smashed everyone to dust.. I haven’t tried on "Nightmare", but I think they will survive.

Loot. Here it’s simple, since we will never have problems with resistances, just gear for armor! The more armor, the less damage taken! Ideally, stats would be nice too, but they aren’t necessary; armor is primary! I went in heavy armor from Weida, Juggernaut is also good but at medium levels, so look for something heavier, as weight = bonus to attack! By the way, attack isn't displayed anywhere, just the rating with battle mages  which is bad, but the bonuses were sufficient for me, we hit almost without misses! Rings to magic, to stats. Yes, gear preferably from the same set for the bonus ++.

Weapons. It’s pretty simple here as well. Don’t take two-handers! I tested it, the damage by a battle mage is the same as in one-handers, and sometimes even less, but the swing is long, and without a shield, we lose defense and reflection/stat bonuses. The best sword is the Spellweaver, with two slots, drops from the battle mage in the Frostback Mountains when you're going for the ashes of Andraste. Adds +5 magic! Therefore, to damage! Better insert runes of paralysis and slowing down or to elemental damage.

Gameplay. It’s better to start with the mage tower to immediately take Wynne, then head to the Brecilian Forest for the "battle mage" specialization, and then go to Redcliffe for the ashes of Andraste, where there will be a sword and dragon leather for the armor, made in Denerim. You can also find Juggernaut armor in the forest. Defeating ghosts and risen from the dead at the early levels isn’t easy, better to take tanks (warriors). In future, these mobs will pose no problems for the paladins at all.

Tactics. It’s best to fill up combat mages' slots like this: action of any kind = activation of mode = name of aura and list all auras. Some for some reason didn’t activate by tactics. I had to activate them manually, for example, "Haste" with Wynne often switched off during battle. I don’t know why. In one of the slots, set the condition = your health < 50% = use a healing poultice, you can use the weakest, due to leveled magic, it will heal a lot of health!!

And also, I wouldn’t recommend taking the second specialization "blood mage" for the main character; that’s a completely different area with different level-ups, better to take the "spiritual healer" due to the bonuses to health recovery and spells and healing auras.

Enjoy the game, gamers :)

P.S. Please don't criticize too hard :) I tried. I will be happy if this information helps someone, clarifies something :) Thank you!