Dragon Age 2 Warrior Skill Trees Revealed

[Greg Tito]

Dragon Age 2 Warrior Skill Trees Revealed

In honor of Dragon Age 2 demo dropping today, we present screenshots of the warrior's skill trees for your viewing pleasure.

I just realized that DA2 is coming out a scant two weeks away (March 8th) and I got officially excited. While the first game didn't exactly bring a tear to my eye, I certainly enjoyed the tactical RPG group dynamic and the story and voice-acting were all top-notch. Everything that I've heard from [user]Susan Arendt[/user]'s trip to BioWare last month, aside from making me insanely jealous [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/8451-Preview-Whats-New-in-Dragon-Age-II], has increased my anticipation for the game. Now I have a set of images of the warrior class's skills to ponder over. Where will I invest in my version of Garrett Hawke?

[gallery=134]

Looking closely, the system is similar to Origins with some very big differences. According to [user]Susan Arendt[/user], you are not stuck to the linear skill progression and can instead pick and choose where you want to invest two different resources. The good part is that you are not locked into anything and can get to the the skills you want through different paths.

The big icons represent where you can spend Specialization Points, and they are indicative of broad weapon styles such sword and board or two-handed weapons. Once you buy those, you are free to choose where you want your Skill Points to go to unlock either passive or activated abilities.

The specializations listed here for the warrior are Two-handed, Weapon and Shield, Vanguard, Warmonger, with two others not shown in detail. The individual skills are tough to decipher, but I'm sure that you guys can hazard a few guesses based on the evocative icons.

I'm pretty sure that the icon with the guy holding his hands up to his ears in the Vanguard tree means that he is a tender and caring listener, for example.

Source: Gaming Shogun [http://www.gamingshogun.com/Article/8756/New_Dragon_Age_II_Screens_Reveal_Skill_Trees.html]

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[endnuen]

Isn't this the most pointless thing ever? Just pictures with no description?

Other than that I look very much forward to this game!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Need to see the Rogue and Mage skill trees.

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Warmonger is going to be the Tank tree, I see.

 

[Distorted Stu]

I just hope its better than the last upgrade system. There were things i really didnt use at all, like trap making or poisons.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Oh goody, now they just need to add a tough, slightly psychotic character that greets the main character with "hawke." and the transformation into Dragon Effect will be complete.

 

[DoW Lowen]

So annoyed that my computer won't be able to handle the new specs.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I just hope its better than the last upgrade system. There were things i really didnt use at all, like trap making or poisons.

I think those were there mostly for higher difficulties and role-playing...

So that you could role-play a rogue who uses poisons and traps.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Oh goody, now they just need to add a tough, slightly psychotic character that greets the main character with "hawke." and the transformation into Dragon Effect will be complete.

Hawke-ard?

Shep-Hawke?

 

[Fappy]

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Or people who like to tank big monster

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Need to see the Rogue and Mage skill trees.

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Warmonger is going to be the Tank tree, I see.

Warmonger and Vanguard, which I'm guessing is the two weapon "I'm going to rip you a new one AND give you you a new breathing apparatus at the SAME time!" list.

Personally, I love rogues...

Isn't this the most pointless thing ever? Just pictures with no description?

Other than that I look very much forward to this game!

I think this is more a look into HOW they work that what each skill is

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Or people who like to tank big monster

Okay. TANKS are cool.

But otherwise, it's just "hit thing with big weapons until it dies". Even in DA1, most of the talents were used as combo hits with minor side-effects, like Flurry & Assault. Compared to Rogues and Mages, straight warriors were BLAAAAAAAND.

Tanks are cool, though. Had to take the reigns of Shale/Alistair a lot when their tactics weren't applicable to the situation, and they started doing their own thing. DO NOT USE DISENGAGE, Alistair! Why did you disengage the Elite rank Hurlock?

 

[Fappy]

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Or people who like to tank big monster

Okay. TANKS are cool.

But otherwise, it's just "hit thing with big weapons until it dies". Even in DA1, most of the talents were used as combo hits with minor side-effects, like Flurry & Assault. Compared to Rogues and Mages, straight warriors were BLAAAAAAAND.

Tanks are cool, though. Had to take the reigns of Shale/Alistair a lot when their tactics weren't applicable to the situation, and they started doing their own thing. DO NOT USE DISENGAGE, Alistair! Why did you disengage the Elite rank Hurlock?

My favorite playthrough of Origins was a Warrior tank, although I wouldn't say it was the best way to play the game. I agree though, non-tank warriors were super boring. It looks like they are attempting to change that, but that won't stop me from rolling a rogue right out of the gate. They can teleport now! I can't wait!

 

[Serenegoose]

I can't shake it. The party tab on the left, woman on the bottom of that - with her hair and hairband the way it is, it looks more like a bro with a baseball cap on backwards. Beyond that, can't shake the feeling that those trees are a little sparse? Oh, there's 2 others. That's not so bad. So, they're ditching the class/specialisation thing this time round? You can't be a champion/berserker warrior who uses two handers, it's all equivalent? Good. Hated that 'unlock the specialisation' stuff. Added flavour is nice, flavour that stops you unlocking classes is bad.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Or people who like to tank big monster

Okay. TANKS are cool.

But otherwise, it's just "hit thing with big weapons until it dies". Even in DA1, most of the talents were used as combo hits with minor side-effects, like Flurry & Assault. Compared to Rogues and Mages, straight warriors were BLAAAAAAAND.

Tanks are cool, though. Had to take the reigns of Shale/Alistair a lot when their tactics weren't applicable to the situation, and they started doing their own thing. DO NOT USE DISENGAGE, Alistair! Why did you disengage the Elite rank Hurlock?

My favorite playthrough of Origins was a Warrior tank, although I wouldn't say it was the best way to play the game. I agree though, non-tank warriors were super boring. It looks like they are attempting to change that, but that won't stop me from rolling a rogue right out of the gate. They can teleport now! I can't wait!

I wonder if they'll have a tank as stupidly broken as Shale?

I'm doing a Hard run to carry over to DA2. Shale tanked without even needing a healer. Seriously. My team was PC (Mage, Lighting & Ice, Mana Clash, Crushing Prison, with NO specialization (Blood Mage & Spirit Healer, for the stat bonuses) related spells at all), Morrigan (maxed out Entropy tree), Shale, and Leliana (well, someone needs to pick locks, and Zevran is HORRIBLE in combat).

I chose Hard over Nightmare, because we'd just DIE if I even tried using Storm of the Century on Nightmare.

 

[Fappy]

Warriors are for people with no imagination.

Or people who like to tank big monster

Okay. TANKS are cool.

But otherwise, it's just "hit thing with big weapons until it dies". Even in DA1, most of the talents were used as combo hits with minor side-effects, like Flurry & Assault. Compared to Rogues and Mages, straight warriors were BLAAAAAAAND.

Tanks are cool, though. Had to take the reigns of Shale/Alistair a lot when their tactics weren't applicable to the situation, and they started doing their own thing. DO NOT USE DISENGAGE, Alistair! Why did you disengage the Elite rank Hurlock?

My favorite playthrough of Origins was a Warrior tank, although I wouldn't say it was the best way to play the game. I agree though, non-tank warriors were super boring. It looks like they are attempting to change that, but that won't stop me from rolling a rogue right out of the gate. They can teleport now! I can't wait!

I wonder if they'll have a tank as stupidly broken as Shale?

I'm doing a Hard run to carry over to DA2. Shale tanked without even needing a healer. Seriously. My team was PC (Mage, Lighting & Ice, Mana Clash, Crushing Prison, with NO specialization (Blood Mage & Spirit Healer, for the stat bonuses) related spells at all), Morrigan (maxed out Entropy tree), Shale, and Leliana (well, someone needs to pick locks, and Zevran is HORRIBLE in combat).

I chose Hard over Nightmare, because we'd just DIE if I even tried using Storm of the Century on Nightmare.

As far as I can tell they don't have any non-class characters in the game this time (like Dog and Shale), so its safe to assume they will probably avoid that problem. They can't stop min/maxing champions however, and I can make a pretty unkillable tank

Also, fuck Nightmare. I don't have the patience for that shit, lol.

 

[Jandau]

Seems to be roughly the same number of "skills" per tree as in the original. I'm guessing Vanguard and Warmonger are the new Specializations. Each "tree" seems to have 10-11 slots to spend points in, with some slots appearing to be "upgrades" to other skills, likely in the form of passives. Overall, I'd say that it's a good sign it isn't getting "dumbed down".

 

[ark123]

Here's for hoping this game doesn't have the ridiculously overpowered "hold" spells like forcefield and the three flavors of AoE that combine to decimate literally any quantity of enemies.
The first one was great, but if you used three mages you breezed through any difficulty.

 

[Taluien]

And, by the way, the demo is up for grabs.

http://dragonage.bioware.com/info/demo/

Have fun waiting thanks to the massive onslaught on the site right now...

 

[Falseprophet]

The gameplay videos I've seen suggest that warriors, at least two-hander specialists, get area-effect attacks now. They can cleave through a row of enemies. I suspect they're trying to make DA 2 the 4th edition D&D to DA:O's D&D 3.5. And as a warrior player, I approve.