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There are more than a few companions that you can recruit inDragon Age: Inquisition, with each companion fitting into a role, while still maintaining some identity and skills that are uniquely theirs. There is a lot of build diversity with each character, and even more when you look at your group as a whole.
Few characters fit as neatly into a role as Blackwall fits into being a tank.As a Warrior, it’s one of the roles that’s most readily available to him, and with his own unique skill tree, Champion, he’s capable of being quite possibly the best tank in the game.
Best Skill Choices For A Blackwall Tank
Looking at Blackwall’spossible skills, it’salmost difficult to keep him from being a tank. His unique Champion tree is full of skills that enable him to fight more enemies at the same time and survive the ordeal.
The other Warrior trees have skills for other styles in them, but there are plenty of tank skills to choose from, giving Blackwall a wealth of options.
There will be some skills needed for progression through the skill tree that aren’t integral to the build; we’ll gloss over mentioning these, but they’ll still be counted in the skill point totals.
The Best Skills In The Champion Tree
TheChampion skill treeentirely includes skills suited for tanking, with more than one taunt, and a few different survivability bonuses.
Line In The Sand (Active)
N/A
Create a line of ethereal champions that stand beside Blackwall,blocking the way around him and forcing enemies to fight Blackwall instead of allies.
Bulwark
Increase maximum guard by 25%. This also increases Blackwall’s Constitution by +3. (Constitution increases health and melee defense.)
Resilience
Gain a 5% chance to stun enemies that attack you with melee. Blackwall also gains +3 Constitution.
Counterstrike (Active)
Gain full guard and taunt all nearby enemies. For the next 6/12/20 seconds (depending on the focus used), all incoming melee attacks are automatically countered.
Adamant
Gain a 20% armor bonus. +3 Constitution for Blackwall as well.
Unyielding
When Blackwall suffers a killing blow, he instead remains at 5% health and is invulnerable for 5 seconds. This also grants Blackwall +3 Constitution.
To The Death (Active)
En Garde
Taunt an enemy.Their damage increases by 5% per second,but so does their damage received. With the En Garde upgrade, Blackwall gains guard as the enemy takes damage.
Walking Fortress
Siege-Breaker
Blackwall becomes immune to damage for 8 seconds; with the Siege-Breaker upgrade, he also gains 10% guard every time he’s attacked.
The Champion tree provides anearly unbreakable backbone to the rest of Blackwall’s tank skills. While these skills alone aren’t quite enough to consistently draw enough aggro to tank effectively, it’s a fantastic start.
The Best Skills In The Vanguard Tree
The Vanguard tree rounds out many of the holes in the tanking necessities left by the Champion tree.It’s full of more taunts, more defensive bonuses, and a couple of important offensive perks, too.
War Cry (Active)
Call To Arms
Blackwalltaunts all nearby enemies, gaining 20% more guard for every enemy taunted. With the Call To Arms upgrade, this also increases his armor by 200% for 10 seconds.
Untouchable Defense
Gain a 25% bonus to Blackwall’s maximum guard. Blackwall also gained +3 Constitution.
Trust The Steel
Blackwallgains a 20% increase to his armor while he has guard active. He also gains +3 Constitution.
It’ll Cost You
Enemies take 50% of the melee damage that they deal Blackwall. This grants Blackwall +3 Strength, too. (Strength increases a Warrior’s attack and increases guard damage bonus.)
Cutting Words
Blackwall’s party deals more damage to enemies that are currently taunted by him. Blackwall also gains +3 Strength.
Livid (Active)
Still Standing
Themore enemies Blackwall has near, the more damage reduction and bonus damage Blackwall has, up to a maximum of 50% each. With the Still Standing upgrade, Blackwall gains 20% for every enemy nearby, as well.
Bodyguard (Active)
Not Today
Blackwall absorbs 20% of the damage taken by his allies for 15 seconds; with the Not Today bonus, Blackwall resists 50% of that damage transferred to him, meaning allies take 50% less damage, and Blackwall only absorbs 25% of it.
This tree eats up most of the remaining skills post, but for good reason;these skills are equally as important to tanking as the skills in the Champion tree.
Wedo skip the Challenge skill herebecause Blackwall has plenty of other taunts with this build, and doesn’t necessarily need it here.Taunts, like War Cry, affect more enemies at a timeand improve his guard a greater amount.
The Best Skills In The Battlemaster Tree
We have, at a maximum without exploits and item usage,around six skill points left. On the bright side, we only need exactly six skill points to grab what we want from the Battlemaster tree.
Grappling Chain (Active)
Give Them The Boot
Blackwall pulls a target to himself, and with the Give Them The Boot upgrade, he stuns the target, as well.
Crippling Blows
Dealing a critical hit on an enemy reduces their damage by 15%for 10 seconds. Blackwall also gains +3 Strength.
Coup de Grace
Blackwall deals 30% more damage on enemies that are stunned or knocked down. A bonus of +3 Strength is also for him.
Horn Of Valor (Active)
That’s The Spirit
Blackwall gives allies a 15% armor and damage bonus for 10 seconds. With the That’s The Spirit upgrade, that bonus is doubled to 30% each.
The Battlemaster tree is the least integral part of this build, but thepull and stun that Grappling Chain/Give Them The Bootprovides canhelp Blackwall keep the fight more focused on him. The extra damage is going to increase his survivability, too, in a roundabout way. The quicker enemies drop, the less time he has to sustain their onslaught.
The Completed Blackwall Tank Build
With this build, Blackwall is going to havelittle problem focusing the attention of every enemy on himself, and even less problemstaying alive during that onslaught. He is regularly going to have guard up near full and refreshed,alongside buffing his alliesinto wiping out the enemy force quicker than they otherwise would have.
Here are the finished Tactics slots:
Alternative Blackwall Builds
Blackwall’s unique treesuits him towards being a tank before anything else. However, if you aren’t interested in Blackwall being a tank,you could forego some of the Champion tree, and invest more heavily in theTwo-Handed and Battlemaster trees.
These trees are going to havemore damage-focused skills, as well as alittle bit of crowd-control. Blackwall isn’t likely to be a top-tier damage dealer, but in ahybrid damage/tank build, he can certainly find some use.
