Mage staves have the least weapon damage so it makes sense to have high % increments of damage for the mage. The power of the mage is in his magic, not his staff or his weapons. That's why in the start when you pick up that staff and cassandra asks you to drop it, you have the option to tell her "You think I need my staff to be dangerous?"
Wrong. A mage with a staff that has cunning/critical chance/critical bonus will do twice as much damage as a mage with a magic/willpower staff. Weapons are just as important for mages as any other class.
Brandon Westbrook There's a hat you can get early on that gives 12% crit chance + 6 cunning (basically 15% crit chance). Then, you can either farm tier 3 chests to get the seer staff or hope you get lucky... that's the best staff for knight enchanter. If you can get crit chance over cunning that's what I'd do. Then there are also crit bonus rings, and if you have Varric in your party he will grant you some extra crit chance. I had my KE at about 40% crit chance and was doing around 1.5k per hit at around level 19. Hits on guard or barriers are somewhere around 5-9k per hit, sometimes higher.
Lj House cunning affects crit %. I believe 1 cunning= .5% crit. Go look at your stats and hover over 'cunning' and it provides a more wholesome explanation :P
I'm pretty sure someone has already suggested it, but don't go for spirit blade upgrade. Instead I recommend going for fire mine and the last passives in both inferno and spirit. To get there faster, don't pick resurrection. In DAI it's all about preventing health damage, not healing it after all. Fire mine is great for KE because: 1) the damage is bloody insane 2) you decrease it's cooldown with every swing of spirit blade. 3) when it goes off u get instant full barrier 4) with last passive from inferno tree 50% of your current barriers strength goes into fire mines damage (also remember 3) 5) if u get the last passive from spirit tree the bonus goes from 50% to 75% (since your barriers get +50% bonus) 6) with flashpoint u can place 2 mines at the same time, doubling the overall insane dps. Even the ravager will feel it. The downside is - you have to keep an eye out so you don't waste flashpoint by just making another swing with the blade. Try it, it'll prove worth your time.
I like your build with the fire. For nightmare though I took a slightly different approach. The idea of a Knight-Enchanter is to lead so I treated it like a tank instead of just a damage dealer. I didn't want the threat reduction for 3 reasons (besides the barrier of course). 1. My mana regen works in close proximity to baddies, which means I need them to come after me (Combat Clarity). Plus with Spirit Blade as my main attack, having agro means they're always in melee range. Combined it makes rejuvenating barrier almost pointless to me. 2. Instead of turning Cassandra into a defensive build, I made her into an attack build for damage output (Templar/Battlemaster). I followed suit with Blackwall and Iron Bull, each with their own specialty. 3. Mind Blast has an upgrade passive that benefits your barrier - Fortifying Blast give +10% Barrier, and it gives you an extra health bar that enemies have to destroy. Your build in the KE tree is the same as mine. 9 points (I got the upgrade for spirit blade - no disruption field). In the Spirit Tree I went down the right side for Guardian Spirit and Strength of Spirits (+50% Barrier Bonus) as I explained, plus the mind blast. 6 points. This is where it gets interesting because you still have 7 points available and already you're pretty much un-killable. In the fire tree I took 3 points. Immolate and Flashpoint and Clean Burn. Now you have 4 points. Let's say hello to frost. I took 3 points here. Fade step and the Frost Step upgrade, plus Winter Stillness (increases your mana regen by 50% if you stand still for just 3 seconds. After that it will reach a threshold. Since you're tanking, standing still is not a problem at all (no more mana problems). That leaves you with 1 point (if you have an amulet of power from earlier). My choice was to put that 1 point into Focused Teamwork in the Inquisitor tree. What that does is grant a focus bonus to the entire party every time you drop a successful ability combo - and I use Immolate every time I see that an enemy is weakened to fire. My accessories are a big part of my build. 1. Superb Cooldown Amulet - +15% Cooldown Modifier 2. Suberb Ring of Attack - +10% Attack 3. Superb Ring of Staggering - +10% Stagger on Hit 4. Superior Belt of Focus - +30% Focus Gain Bonus Because on Nightmare I can basically solo the rest of the game once I hit about level 15, I drop Focused Teamwork in the Inquisitor tree and put that point into Frost Mastery. Frost mastery adds +25% freeze duration and +25% chill duration. The reason I do that is because of the upgrade to Fade Step. Frost Step does ice damage 300% weapon damage and leave enemies chilled for 8 seconds. With the Bonus 25%, they're chilled for 10 seconds, which makes swinging on baddies hurt like a motha. A lot of people leave out the 3 points in fire and add Winter's Grasp, the upgrade to it, and snatch mana surge, but that only works when your barrier is destroyed, which almost never happens - so I don't do that. Optionally, you can leave out clean burn arguably isn't a necessity with your regen rate. It's a nice perk to have but not a necessity. You can take that point and put it into the Immolate Upgrade and get Wildfire, which makes immolate burn hotter and reduces the cooldown by 4 seconds. The bonus is 100% weapon damage, and Damage of Time (DoT) of 75% weapon damage per second. The current build I have, I swapped out the upgrade to Mind Blast (I don't even use it) and put it back into Clean Burn. It's kick-assery at it's finest. For my gear I focus on utility and defense. For example, I use Masterwork Battlemage Armor which has a bonus of Abilities Cost 7.5% less mana/stamina. I also have barrier and critical damage bonuses, attack and armor penetration on my weapon (Spirit rune), and on my armor there is +Magic, +magic defense, and elemental resistance. I avoided melee defense because barrier is just OP. They don't even hit me. EDIT: In your rotation, don't forget to use your Mark of the Rift - it's MASSIVE damage to everything, and it does kill enemies instantly especially when you're dealing with a lot of demons around a rift.
The Veal holds no uncertainty for her, and she will know no fear of death, for the Maker shall be her bacon and her shield, her foundation and her sword
Quick point about Defending Blade (yeah I know this is really late but in case anyone is looking at this for build advice). It's a really great skill and will save your ass if you're good with it...but only if you're controlling the KE. If you want Viv to handle this solo don't bother getting her Defending Blade. The computer has NO idea how to use it and will often step in the way of an attack because they think they can block it.
too any one bitching that ke is op For all the talk of how broken KE is, the truth is that every specialization is broken in terms of power assuming one actually puts half a thought into it. Let's briefly review, shall we? *Reaver: excellent focus and damage output. Heals itself. With battlemaster feats, has the best mobility and melee damage output in the game, and insane critical rate. Best aoe burn spec outside of Rift Mage (specced Whirwind + Stamina regeneration feats + Ring of Pain), add in that purple level 20 sword with Pull of the Abyss to become the best aoe burner in the game. *Templar: completely trivializes about 30% of encounters and most of the boss fights as well as every rift, offering the best DPS in game and crowd control against demons. Buffs the entire party in major ways. *Champion: actually literally unkillable and cannot be bypassed. Best boss-killer in the game. *Artificer: best DPS Focus ability in the game for any ranged build. Find a ring that boosts the Focus ability and enjoy 52 seconds of insanity. Best battlefield control. *Tempest: best burst damage in the game, insane utility. Can tank as a melee rogue. Ring of Improved Thousand Cuts and dual daggers terminate any encounter that gives you issues. *Assassin: solid DPS, though lacking in utility. Has a crappy Focus, but can effectively stealth almost permanently with correct skill rotations. Mark of Assassin + anything is insanity. *Rift Mage: best all-around ranged DPS in the game, only surpassed by Focused Artificer. Best aoe unless you spec out your Reaver. Can self-detonate any combo. Has access to a ranged spirit spell that is also a warrior detonator. Has insane battlefield control. *Necromancer: excellent field control, massive party utility. Best sustain in the game. Of these, the Assassin, Necromancer and Templar are probably the "weakest" of the specs, but each properly played spec is insanely broken in its own fashion. If you think that KE is broken and your spec isn't, then by all means, I can offer you advice on how to break it. I tested all of them at this point. I think KE just gets a lot of hate because it is slightly more obvious in terms of basic tactics. I feel that it offers a unique approach and is no more broken than anything else.
Hmmm, something you didn't consider, just to make yourself even better, would be wearing an armor or weapon with Fade-touched Obsidian, or Fade Touched Silverite build onto it- You then gain guard with each damaging spell you do, meaning you have a infinite barrier, with a full guard to prevent you from getting knocked-back, as well as additional cushion encase you get lazy as you said. I use a fade touched- silverite armor and because of it I'm able to solo high dragons with impunity, not even fearing their stun due to having back up protection in the chance of stun locked.
Why anyone would go with Knight Enchanter? Power, of course. Being a badass swordman is always cool, being badass MAGE swordsman is too cool. I played DA:O as an Arcane Warrior, I love mages that can go in the front lines and shit on their enemies.
@Christoper Putt I mean, at least in Inquisition it is not that boring. In origins playing an arcane warrior is horrible, having to watch your character put away his weapons to cast a spell again, and again, and again
Christoper Putt With the new items and upgrades to skills from Trespasser, there’s no reason for Spirit Blade spam anymore. I found that boring, as well, before I settled on a more active build. Fade Step through enemies to regain mana, lay down Ice and Fire Mine arrays around you, use Static Cage to keep enemies locked into place, then hit them with Energy Barrage for extra damage. Yeah, I still use Spirit Blade (and Fade Cloak), but there’s no reason to just stand there using it over and over. If your party is built correctly, there’s no need for any revival abilities, so you can safely skip those. It’s a much more fun style of play, you do more damage, and you’re still unkillable. KE has jumped in front of Rift Mage as my favorite mage specialization.
Really wish we had an ability wheel. The other classes are hurt by not having one, but mages, even the "OP" Knight Enchanter feels CRIPPLED from not having all their spells
-Spirit Blade does not ignore Barrier and Guard, it simply does bonus damage to it. -Resurgence isn't that great, it's better to use the basic one for intense DPS. -Rejuvenating Barrier is a must of the KE, more so than the party. -Where's Fire Mine??
Knight Enchanter and Fade Step go hand-in-hand. My first character was a Knight Enchanter. Survivability+the constant damage(might not be big #s, but if done correctly the damage never stops) makes the Knight Enchanter amazing.
i have beaten the game as a archer than changed to 2 weapons assassin and tbh all the stuff you find for those classes are garbage you'll find 1/100 items that you'll use over crafted weapons. crafted items are ALWAYS the best in rare cases if you find a unique item that has a lot of stats and a rune they could be better however if you can find the best materials and you make a master grab or handle or whatever it's called than craft a staff with the best materials you have than modify it add a rune, handle and it'll be the single handedly best item you can find a small tip, Dragon materials are the best, in my run at least.
Lapul Alb Late reply I know but as taifhamid1 mention above, the best in class weapons are always crafted weapons due to the enchants and bonuses such as adding armor every hit, etc. As a player still playing this game from time to time, trust me, crafted are best hands down. That's the point in the craft system. More noticeable on the top difficulties however
For my Knight Enchanter build, I always grab immolate in the Fire skill tree and then just the passive perks, with the Storm & Frost skill trees; I grab the first two active abilities (& their upgrades) from the Storm & Frost tree and then the passive perks, I don't aquire anything else... From the Spirit tree I basically do the same thing you have done in the video along with the Knight Enchanter tree... The passive perk abilities really help out especially on nightmare difficulty.
I haven't tried this yet, but I'm considering doing the following on my future KE; Same points in KE as the build in this video (At least the must haves) + 4 points in Spirit (Barrier + Guardian Spirit + Mind Blast + Strength of Spirits) + 1 point in Winter (Fade Step) + 5 points in Inferno (Immolate/Upgrade + Flashpoint + Clean Burn + Chaotic Focus) > From there I would most likely spend the remaining points to get a solid Mana Regen Rate. Now, all of that plus the Guard on Hit Masterwork. The idea is that the with the Barrier Capacity upgrade from Strength of Spirits, I will generate a bigger amount of Barrier from the Spirit Blade, which is then used up by Chaotic Focus, while this is going on, Guard is being built in the background. I'm not sure how the formula works for the interaction between Spirit Blade/Strenght of Spirits and Chaotic Focus, but if they scale off of eachother so well that I can maintain a 50% Barrier while feeding Chaotic Focus all it can handle for a steroid boost, then the damage of Spirit Blade should be increased significantly, which in turn increases the Barrier generation. Just a theory though, haven't had the chance to test it just yet. Fade Step will offer the mobility that Fade Cloak can't match, while providing the same invulnerability and same CD (Fade Cloak won't let you close the gap between yourself and a dragon that jumps backwards before it gets a breath off). Immolate is there for a ranged DPS upkeep while closing said gap, can get one off right before a Fade Step. And thanks to Clean Burn and Flashpoint, Fade Step should hardly ever be on cooldown, thus allowing you to maneuver around the battlefield with ease. If the idea of Spirit Blade, Chaotic Focus and Strength of Spirits works out as I hope it might, then this will be the build I use to solo NM with. The hardest part will be the first 12 levels >_> Let
Another thing with inferno and the Knight Enchaqnter trees is the passive that powers your fire spells with barrier, sometimes you'll do huge amounts of damage with immolate which will take half your barrier but that barrier will instantly be restored because of the KE passive that gives you barrier based on damage.
I picked up this game late. This class is favorite class followed very close by rogue assassin. If you haven't noticed already, not only are you invisible/invincible when you use fade cloak, but you can also attack/cast spells. You do not have to wait so you get an extra attack or spell in while invisible
I do love play support, don't know why I started two hand warrior, switching to mage with your build right this instant, and I do enjoy your videos and the way you describe things, keep at it :), hello from Egypt btw xD
KineticGTR Wow ... ty dude. I mean a lot !!! I am usually playing with Solas in my team and 2 Shield and Sword tankers (me Archer). I attacked The Ferelden Frostback a couple of times but i always died, mainly cause solas was always sticking his as* into the dragons face. Not flaking it but taking the fire damage. When i saw that build(i was level 12 then), i switched to Vivian on the second. And with the staff from the "Bright axe" quest, where you had to search for an axe but it turned out to be an epic staff i just wrecked it. My character died 2 times but she always revived him. And with that barrier she was tankier than my warriors :d. I can't imagine what she will become when i add to her attacks bonus guard. Thanks again bro. Been playing her for a while and with a tempest archer and champion warrior she suits really good.
Something tells me throwing on that fire tree perk that consumes barrier to increase damage would work obscenely well for a Knight-Enchanter. It does make you a little more squishy, but 50% increased damage on a spell like Fade Cloak or Veilblade might just be worth it (if the damage from Fade Cloak can consume the effect).
if you get anything from the winter tree, get fade step and winter stillness! fade step isn't a *neccesity* but it's great for getting out of enemy's way. winter stillness is just great caues it gives you improved mana generation whenever you stand still and, well, mages are literally always doing that when they use magic.
I have a bit more balanced out build because indeed that is a very ridiculous build in that it is so effective. What I did in my turn was to have a more battlemage/elemntalist hybrid whereby I coat myself with electricity passive so that if I get hit, they get hit with electricity as well and several additional mana regeneration bonuses from passives of elemental damage trees. Add to the mix with fire elemental damage passives that empower your ability damage based on your immense barrier amount, you do a ton of additional damage and you still have immense barrier up at almost all the time. Add in mix with cooldown unique amulet of 15% ability cooldown reduction and those mana regeneration passives, you can keep on spamming your abilities almost all the time and keeping your barrier up and alive indefinitely trough out the battle. You could argue that this build sounds even more ridiculously overpowered but I do not think it is because while it is a build that deals tons of damage and whatnot, its one weakness is the lack of team support and so if your buddies happen to die, then you are pretty much screwed as well. Now unfortunately with the content in the game I was only able to get to 23rd level by nearly 100% completion of the game disregarding some store purchases, I will later on be adding those passives and useful abilities from the spirit tree and then the build I use will really become ridiculously powerful.
if you play on PC, and hopefully have a decent mouse (Logitech here), make a Profile for Inquisition, and add at least the SpiritBlade to a thumb button. (assign Keypress "1" and put SpiritBlade on Hotbar place 1). You can't assign all your mouse buttons in the game, but you can assign them in your favorite mouse config tool like Logitech Setpoint. This way the flawed PC gamplay becomes a bit more easy like on Consoles.
Thank you for sharing your secrets KineticGTR.. I'm at 10th right now and I have barrier plus the upgrade as far as Spirit spells. I've gone with all Fire as my primary destruction. I use Fire Mine and immolate for the heavy hits but I see how the Knight Enchanter would compliment the Fire spells that much more. The build I'm running can do an easy 2800+ to a single target, 3200+ on a critical hit. hee hee!
Im going to repec vivianne as soon as i turn the consol back on. Just unlocked this at level 10. Cant wait to get rid of the crap I had on her before. Thanks a lot!! She has a f-in light saber.
If you have two mages in your party, its good to take rejuvenating barrier on the second mage, and on knight enchanter invest into the passive that adds 50% of your barrier to your fire spells, works great in my case and im also playin nightmare
Knight Enchanter + Winter + Spirit(only Barrier and Guardian Spirit) = FUCKING GOD of gods!!! It is so fucking powerful that I can solo a dragon on Hard without using a potion. I can use 'Fade step' and 'Fade clock' to escape. 'Ice Armor' makes you very tanky. Finally, 'Spirit Blade' cuts through armor like butter. You don't need Spirit (except barrier&guardian spirit). Both NE and Winter already gives you enough mobility and armor. If Dragon Age had PvP then KEW would fuck every other class, except Rogue-Assassin (maybe).
Bruce Marlon I'm still low level, kinda, so I've only put skill points on KE and spirit and honestly...I need nothing else. Sure I could pick some winter skills for even more fucking defense or fire for even more fucking damage, but I have more or less already broken the game as it is lol .I actually feel kind of bad, though maybe for no reason.
Bruce Marlon So I'm still a newbie and this will sound dumb (also you'll think me lazy for not googling this, but I actually prefer learning through conversation rather than searching) but is it possible to re-train my specialization somehow?
Winter line sucks for KE. you're hardly standing still for 3+ seconds to get the regen benefit, Ice wall is crap: does no damage and often blocks your party's ranged attacks. only nice thing in there is fade-step. Blizzard sucks too. If there was PVP, you're be crying and ragequitting all day long.
I suggest taking Fire Mine over Immolate. It does way more damage, both initial and DoT. And Chaotic Focus and Mana Surge are must-haves for a Barrier build KE. I'd say Fade Step is a must-have as well. This coming from a level 24 KE playing on Nightmare with Friendly Fire and having killed all dragons.
All My builds is from your videos. I play on nightmare and with sera as tempest archer and viviennes knight enchanter I own the battlefield :-) it is fun. I have 4 characters and your build in all those characters. I intend to Finnish the game with all four. My favourite is sword and shield reaver. You can tank with him and kick som serious ass with him. :-) thanks for your videos. You made my game more fun than it was in the beginning.
You forgot to use mind blast and the secondary skill that makes mind blast restore 10% barrier per enemy that is hit. With that and the barrier rebuilding every time that you do damage you don't need to slot barrier on your active skill bar. I personally let Vivian take all of the healing skills you mentioned to better focus my KE on more over all damage output.
Not only is the KE perhaps the most overpowered class, it's arguably the most versatile; you can fight from any range with zero problems, provided you have picked up the teleport from the frost tree (a must vs dragons). You don't need to touch the spirit tree at all, provided you have picked up Fade Shield and you're an aggressive figher (I am). Hit first, hit HARD, and pull up that barrier. If you pick up Fade Shield and the teleport with its subsequent upgrade (deals frost damage), you can turn yourself into a torpedo if you time it correctly.
The reason this build is broken is that with spirit blade proc on clean burn fade cloak effectively has like a 2-3 second cool down, and the fact that you can attack and use skills while fade cloak is active means you can generate barrier while being immune to damage, not to mention fade cloak removes any status ailments(burn, poison,fear,and so on) it can also be activated when you are stunned, frozen or knocked down and you just get back in the fight. i played through nightmare with my main character being a KE and as long as you stick to enemies around your level or you have good gear you can effectively solo nightmare. though to people saying all you do is swing spirit blade if you find that boring pick a few skills as all damage keeps up your barrier and just use those.
I would say the templar's rally is the best focus ability. You don't want your characters reaching a low hp threshold so 10 - 30 % hp regeneration and guard generation makes all your party members difficult to harm for 10 seconds. You can pop it before a battle starts or during a bad situation making it more proactive. The 10 - 30 % stamina/mana regeneration makes everyone more effective at using all their abilities, which would increase damage per second. Vivenne's resurgence is just a nice complementary ability if things really go bad during a boss fight.
If you add the 4 passive abilities of the storm tree, along with using chain lightning and energy barrage, you can almost ignore the melee attack entirely and keep your barrier strong
It's nice that you go into the abilities of the class but a big part of making an effective build is giving it the proper weapons and armour and you're missing out on that especially on the knight enchanter crafting the proper armour makes a world of difference...because if an enemy manages to get through my barriers it will have to go through the layer of guard that my armour has built up. One of the fade touched materials you can use adds "a chance to add guard on hit". that's not the exact description and I can't quite recall which material it was but imagine the amount of health bar an enemy needs to break through to hit you. Also...when you're explaining the Fade cloak ability...it's the Veil, not the Veal. :P have a good one
and if it wasn't enough you can craft a masterwork staff with a +3 guard on hit and be full guard almost forever. And going even further a restrictions removed heavy armor is an option as well.
You should really think about getting the skill below 'conductive current', its great for knight enchanters, triggers like 80% of time when fighting mele with 2h sword, adds like 150% lighting damage per hit, supersweet.
Farm yourself some Fade touched Silverite and slap that on your staff or armor, or both if you can wrangle up two pieces. Then you'll build Guard behind your barrier and make you even harder to kill.
Nice build! I may just use this myself but with some ice spells thrown in to reference Vivienne's previous spells. What I really want to see is a two-handed weapon Templar build.
Something i do suggest, as far as having Viv in the Frey, is having some guard on hit some where with her. It helps immensely for when you get that one hit right after a barrier goes down and even more ensures that you are the last one alive in the fight.
You forgot whats, in my opinion, the main combo: Chaotic Focus.When you cast a fire spell you lose 50% of your barrier and the spell gets extra power. With KE you can turn that bonus damage into a new barrier, so the downside that was using your "life" to power the magic isnt even there. This is specially true with aoe spells, and makes having 2 or 3 fire spells very much worth it, not to mention that you can nuke things from afar.
The Knight-enchanter build is the most overpowered character you can make in the game. My mage used nothing but Spirit Blade after i got it, throughout the entire rest of the game. It deals insane amounts of damage on any type of enemy, and every hit gives you a bit of barrier when combined with Fade Shield, and since the attacks are so quick and powerful, it pretty much meant i had an infinite barrier on my mage, making her completely invulnerable after the first hit! :D
Totally skipped over barrier then first time I set up my class... only level ten but now its much stronger. Can't wait to get higher and grab some extra skills.
My Knight Enchanter build is finally finished, different from this video its uses all of the KE tree but the last perk then I have both perks in Inquisitor, just Barrier and its upgrade and Guardian Spirit then I take all of the right side and two middle perks of the winter tree, what im left with the the ultimate defence and power combo, I can easily solo the game on hard now and as long as im dealing damage, taking hits and maintaining my spells I can't die. I have a bigger chance of killing myself on the long walks to the next mission...
You can break the game even more by adding a masterwork staff/armor that adds guard with every hit. Then you have the best of both worlds. Even though guard on a mage isn't too good, its a nice bonus if you want to stack as much protection as you can. Its also nice to have it if your barrier runs out.
Also wouldnt go into the spirit tree, just bring solas along with you as the rejuvinating barriers passive will still work for barriers you put on yourself as long as solas has the passive.
The class is a most even better without Fade step.. because with just basic attack + Chain Lightning your barrier is always up. When a stalker/shadow get close you use the spirit blade. Still a fun class.
I was using kinda different KE build. I took Fire Mine and passive effect which increase damage of spells by taking half of our barrier. And everytime my mine blowed up on enemies they took something around.... 10k damage or more? It was overkill many times. And it was AoE and was dealing DoT so simply any non boss enemy was dead. Dragons died very,very fast. Every 10 seconds you deal 10k+ damage? No one can handle this. And with damage dealt your barrier restores :3
Just got the Knight Enchanter specialization today, yeah, it's way too OP. This class can tank, DPS, range, AoE depending on ability selections, and heal/raise. It's a one person wrecking crew. Challenge level dropped like a stone after getting this specialization; fights that used to be challenging became cake walks. You literally can pop up barrier, wade into a group of enemies, and swing away without taking any damage.
I would get winter stillness (I think that's what it's called it's the passive inbetween fade step and winters grasp so with that passive and the other mana regeneration passive you could technically have 100% mana regeneration(I'm not saying you would always have 100% mana regeneration but it could be useful if you built you tank right so the tank always has the enemy's attention.
Vivienne never comes with me. That's whu Im always tje knight enchanter. And I love it. Also you should try the build with the blade of Tidarion. With an elemental rune, electric barrage fires 14 volleys instead of 7. Amazing for your barrier and a must opener for a double sword wielder Knight Enchanter.
how can you play without fade step? it's so essential when I play I just line up the dudes go through em and with the upgrade to fade step it freezes them and then I go to town on em
Yeah pretty awesome spirit blade I playing around with the ravanger dragon and you can knock back fire balls that when I said to myself mages are always op
Apparently, if you have Mana Surge and your Barrier expires after a fight, you get the free spell. IIRC that wasn't the case with a Barrier from the Spirit Tree. I only seem to get the Mana Surge buff whenever my Barrier from the Fade Shield expires. May be an unwanted glitch (as it clearly states that the enemy has to break the Barrier).
Knight Enchanter is fun but only if you include spells from the other skill trees, like fire rune that does 1600% damage!! I like my reaver because of the high risk high reward gameplay.
Alternatively, if you really want to make this specialization sick, leave out the fire magic and the revive ability at the bottom of spirit tree, and instead go into the ice magic. fade step is the way to go when dealing with dragons and teleporting enemies, and it also makes you immune to harm while your zooming up into melee range. take winters grasp only to get to Mana surge cause that's where the real magic happens. If an enemy actually defeats your barrier, the barrier instantly explodes, damaging and freezing the enemy and because of knight enchanter, it restores your barrier all over again. build your way down to ice armor and you'll get 50% damage reduction whenever an enemy drops/restores your barrier and freezes. I've soloed dragons on nightmare this way and even while dozing off and not paying attention or hitting any buttons cause i'm half asleep, I still kill the dragons because the barrier just puts itself back on thanks to mana surge, whenever the dragon brakes it, and the dragon takes damage and I get 50% dr. The only down side to using Knight enchanter, is a glitch with Cassandra/Templar class running about. Somehow it messes up the knight enchanter and you lose all your hitpoints even with the barrier still at full. Consequently i can't use Cassandra in a party while she has her Templar skills. Also for added gimpyness, the spirit blade can brake through all elemental barrier gates so that you don't have to use opposing elemental magic to get through such barriers, just hit them with spirit blade and they brake after a hit or two.
you need to consider that 10 times the miniscule damage per projectile the staff has is probably less than twice the damage of a huge two handed weapon so the 1000% doesn't mean it deals all that much damage in practice. KE is tanky alright but reavers and assassins deal far far more damage.
The winter tree is great if you want to become even more stupidly hard to kill. Ice armor gives you a flat out 50% reduction to all incoming damage and with winter's grasp enemies will have a hard time even attacking in the first place.
A simple Knight enchanter build that can solo dragons in the highest dificulty is: Go full on knight enchanter (except the upgrade on the sword), Full on Spirit (except for mind blast And the passive attached to it) And winter grasp, with the upgrade And the thing that makes your barrier explode when It breaks from the winter tree. Of course, If you are solo, revive And the Knight enchanter Focus are useless, as well as the -50% threat. But this class is so broken It doesn't even matter lol also, get yourself a staff that builds guard on hit. You'll be unkillable.
Nope. Almost nothing to do with it besides melee weapon use. Spirit walk -check, unlimited shield - check along with other magic use it's definitely vanguard clone))
Vladimir V. It was definitely inspired by DAO's Arcane Warrior. People were asking for it. They literally have an Arcane Warrior in DAMP with KE spells; they're the same thing.
See when I go Knight enchanter I tend to go an elemental path My Knight Enchanter Build Inferno tree: Immolate Flashpoint Clean burn Winter tree: Winters grasp Mama surge Winter stillness Storm tree: Chain lightning Energy barrage Spirit tree: Barrier Guardian spirit Peaceful aura I’ll also try to rack up points to get the upgrades of course.
Don't forget that life ward actually doesn't need targeting, in fact it instantly effects your entire party, meaning that not only is it another shield of 25% damage reduction for everyone, it's also an instant revive if anyone falls unconscious.
As far as I'm concerned Fire Mine+Chaotic Focus is just too good not to take. Especially with Flashpoint. Had it crit for like 11k on a Great Bear, plus 400+ per tick burning.
Hey man, seriously, thanks a lot for your videos. Helps a lot! I do have a question, would this build be fun for an AI Companion? It would seem that it would mean my mage would have to be in the midst of battle. and as you know, AI can be a little janky with what they should and shouldn't be doing - ergo, perhaps a little useless for AI Companion? Or are they totally capable of handling themselves with this build? Thanks in advance for answering, and keep up the good work :)
I'm a knight enchanter and I don't use that build. the only skill I have in the green tree is the barrier. I have the full ke tree but the last one, full frost tree but the last one and one from the fire tree just to have two elements at 20.. I have one huge blast with that character. it would just be way too boring to go with that standard build but the descriptions are awesome you gave. Nothing more fun than to zip around control the crowd and still have the ability to go in and fight up close. I finally learned to hit the share button today on my PS4 and caught the last half of a dragon fight. ruclips.net/video/hyJtxqj4mCE/видео.html when i found the thing I had two potions left. we ended the fight with just myself and my tank.. was one dang fun fight.
Mage staves have the least weapon damage so it makes sense to have high % increments of damage for the mage. The power of the mage is in his magic, not his staff or his weapons. That's why in the start when you pick up that staff and cassandra asks you to drop it, you have the option to tell her "You think I need my staff to be dangerous?"
Wrong. A mage with a staff that has cunning/critical chance/critical bonus will do twice as much damage as a mage with a magic/willpower staff. Weapons are just as important for mages as any other class.
jose rodriguez im making a KE that uses cunning/critical type stuff what cunning armor should I use or is the cunning put on a staff enough?
Brandon Westbrook There's a hat you can get early on that gives 12% crit chance + 6 cunning (basically 15% crit chance). Then, you can either farm tier 3 chests to get the seer staff or hope you get lucky... that's the best staff for knight enchanter. If you can get crit chance over cunning that's what I'd do. Then there are also crit bonus rings, and if you have Varric in your party he will grant you some extra crit chance.
I had my KE at about 40% crit chance and was doing around 1.5k per hit at around level 19. Hits on guard or barriers are somewhere around 5-9k per hit, sometimes higher.
Ok thx ill definitly need to farm for the seer staff
Lj House
cunning affects crit %. I believe 1 cunning= .5% crit. Go look at your stats and hover over 'cunning' and it provides a more wholesome explanation :P
I'm pretty sure someone has already suggested it, but don't go for spirit blade upgrade. Instead I recommend going for fire mine and the last passives in both inferno and spirit. To get there faster, don't pick resurrection. In DAI it's all about preventing health damage, not healing it after all. Fire mine is great for KE because:
1) the damage is bloody insane
2) you decrease it's cooldown with every swing of spirit blade.
3) when it goes off u get instant full barrier
4) with last passive from inferno tree 50% of your current barriers strength goes into fire mines damage (also remember 3)
5) if u get the last passive from spirit tree the bonus goes from 50% to 75% (since your barriers get +50% bonus)
6) with flashpoint u can place 2 mines at the same time, doubling the overall insane dps. Even the ravager will feel it.
The downside is - you have to keep an eye out so you don't waste flashpoint by just making another swing with the blade. Try it, it'll prove worth your time.
I like your build with the fire. For nightmare though I took a slightly different approach.
The idea of a Knight-Enchanter is to lead so I treated it like a tank instead of just a damage dealer. I didn't want the threat reduction for 3 reasons (besides the barrier of course).
1. My mana regen works in close proximity to baddies, which means I need them to come after me (Combat Clarity). Plus with Spirit Blade as my main attack, having agro means they're always in melee range. Combined it makes rejuvenating barrier almost pointless to me.
2. Instead of turning Cassandra into a defensive build, I made her into an attack build for damage output (Templar/Battlemaster). I followed suit with Blackwall and Iron Bull, each with their own specialty.
3. Mind Blast has an upgrade passive that benefits your barrier - Fortifying Blast give +10% Barrier, and it gives you an extra health bar that enemies have to destroy.
Your build in the KE tree is the same as mine. 9 points (I got the upgrade for spirit blade - no disruption field).
In the Spirit Tree I went down the right side for Guardian Spirit and Strength of Spirits (+50% Barrier Bonus) as I explained, plus the mind blast. 6 points.
This is where it gets interesting because you still have 7 points available and already you're pretty much un-killable.
In the fire tree I took 3 points. Immolate and Flashpoint and Clean Burn.
Now you have 4 points.
Let's say hello to frost. I took 3 points here. Fade step and the Frost Step upgrade, plus Winter Stillness (increases your mana regen by 50% if you stand still for just 3 seconds. After that it will reach a threshold.
Since you're tanking, standing still is not a problem at all (no more mana problems).
That leaves you with 1 point (if you have an amulet of power from earlier).
My choice was to put that 1 point into Focused Teamwork in the Inquisitor tree. What that does is grant a focus bonus to the entire party every time you drop a successful ability combo - and I use Immolate every time I see that an enemy is weakened to fire.
My accessories are a big part of my build.
1. Superb Cooldown Amulet - +15% Cooldown Modifier
2. Suberb Ring of Attack - +10% Attack
3. Superb Ring of Staggering - +10% Stagger on Hit
4. Superior Belt of Focus - +30% Focus Gain Bonus
Because on Nightmare I can basically solo the rest of the game once I hit about level 15, I drop Focused Teamwork in the Inquisitor tree and put that point into Frost Mastery.
Frost mastery adds +25% freeze duration and +25% chill duration.
The reason I do that is because of the upgrade to Fade Step. Frost Step does ice damage 300% weapon damage and leave enemies chilled for 8 seconds. With the Bonus 25%, they're chilled for 10 seconds, which makes swinging on baddies hurt like a motha.
A lot of people leave out the 3 points in fire and add Winter's Grasp, the upgrade to it, and snatch mana surge, but that only works when your barrier is destroyed, which almost never happens - so I don't do that.
Optionally, you can leave out clean burn arguably isn't a necessity with your regen rate. It's a nice perk to have but not a necessity. You can take that point and put it into the Immolate Upgrade and get Wildfire, which makes immolate burn hotter and reduces the cooldown by 4 seconds. The bonus is 100% weapon damage, and Damage of Time (DoT) of 75% weapon damage per second.
The current build I have, I swapped out the upgrade to Mind Blast (I don't even use it) and put it back into Clean Burn.
It's kick-assery at it's finest.
For my gear I focus on utility and defense. For example, I use Masterwork Battlemage Armor which has a bonus of Abilities Cost 7.5% less mana/stamina.
I also have barrier and critical damage bonuses, attack and armor penetration on my weapon (Spirit rune), and on my armor there is +Magic, +magic defense, and elemental resistance.
I avoided melee defense because barrier is just OP. They don't even hit me.
EDIT: In your rotation, don't forget to use your Mark of the Rift - it's MASSIVE damage to everything, and it does kill enemies instantly especially when you're dealing with a lot of demons around a rift.
So the spirit blade is basically a lightsaber with the upgrade :)
The Veal holds no uncertainty for her, and she will know no fear of death, for the Maker shall be her bacon and her shield, her foundation and her sword
364Leinad lol her bacon
Bacon is the way and the truth
ha ha love bacon
Veal and bacon, mmmm
lol I like how they add up in time!! Bless the Maker for making 🥓!
Quick point about Defending Blade (yeah I know this is really late but in case anyone is looking at this for build advice). It's a really great skill and will save your ass if you're good with it...but only if you're controlling the KE. If you want Viv to handle this solo don't bother getting her Defending Blade. The computer has NO idea how to use it and will often step in the way of an attack because they think they can block it.
A great thing to add to the knight enchanter is fade step, closing the distance and moving you in the correct areas
too any one bitching that ke is op
For all the talk of how broken KE is, the truth is that every specialization is broken in terms of power assuming one actually puts half a thought into it. Let's briefly review, shall we?
*Reaver: excellent focus and damage output. Heals itself. With battlemaster feats, has the best mobility and melee damage output in the game, and insane critical rate. Best aoe burn spec outside of Rift Mage (specced Whirwind + Stamina regeneration feats + Ring of Pain), add in that purple level 20 sword with Pull of the Abyss to become the best aoe burner in the game.
*Templar: completely trivializes about 30% of encounters and most of the boss fights as well as every rift, offering the best DPS in game and crowd control against demons. Buffs the entire party in major ways.
*Champion: actually literally unkillable and cannot be bypassed. Best boss-killer in the game.
*Artificer: best DPS Focus ability in the game for any ranged build. Find a ring that boosts the Focus ability and enjoy 52 seconds of insanity. Best battlefield control.
*Tempest: best burst damage in the game, insane utility. Can tank as a melee rogue. Ring of Improved Thousand Cuts and dual daggers terminate any encounter that gives you issues.
*Assassin: solid DPS, though lacking in utility. Has a crappy Focus, but can effectively stealth almost permanently with correct skill rotations. Mark of Assassin + anything is insanity.
*Rift Mage: best all-around ranged DPS in the game, only surpassed by Focused Artificer. Best aoe unless you spec out your Reaver. Can self-detonate any combo. Has access to a ranged spirit spell that is also a warrior detonator. Has insane battlefield control.
*Necromancer: excellent field control, massive party utility. Best sustain in the game.
Of these, the Assassin, Necromancer and Templar are probably the "weakest" of the specs, but each properly played spec is insanely broken in its own fashion.
If you think that KE is broken and your spec isn't, then by all means, I can offer you advice on how to break it. I tested all of them at this point.
I think KE just gets a lot of hate because it is slightly more obvious in terms of basic tactics. I feel that it offers a unique approach and is no more broken than anything else.
kokichi ouma period!!! Well said
Very true!
Hmmm, something you didn't consider, just to make yourself even better, would be wearing an armor or weapon with Fade-touched Obsidian, or Fade Touched Silverite build onto it- You then gain guard with each damaging spell you do, meaning you have a infinite barrier, with a full guard to prevent you from getting knocked-back, as well as additional cushion encase you get lazy as you said.
I use a fade touched- silverite armor and because of it I'm able to solo high dragons with impunity, not even fearing their stun due to having back up protection in the chance of stun locked.
I love that you show just good old fashioned game play after so we really can see it in action! Thanks for the great look at Knight Enchanter!
Why anyone would go with Knight Enchanter? Power, of course. Being a badass swordman is always cool, being badass MAGE swordsman is too cool. I played DA:O as an Arcane Warrior, I love mages that can go in the front lines and shit on their enemies.
Ummm... Yes to all those things. Now what was your question again?
My entire post was acually an answer to the commentator.
Oh, sorry, maybe I wasn't paying attention at that part.The statement part of my reply still stands though.
@Christoper Putt I mean, at least in Inquisition it is not that boring. In origins playing an arcane warrior is horrible, having to watch your character put away his weapons to cast a spell again, and again, and again
Christoper Putt With the new items and upgrades to skills from Trespasser, there’s no reason for Spirit Blade spam anymore. I found that boring, as well, before I settled on a more active build. Fade Step through enemies to regain mana, lay down Ice and Fire Mine arrays around you, use Static Cage to keep enemies locked into place, then hit them with Energy Barrage for extra damage. Yeah, I still use Spirit Blade (and Fade Cloak), but there’s no reason to just stand there using it over and over. If your party is built correctly, there’s no need for any revival abilities, so you can safely skip those. It’s a much more fun style of play, you do more damage, and you’re still unkillable. KE has jumped in front of Rift Mage as my favorite mage specialization.
I love watching my 2Hand Warrior wrecking dudes with Block and Slash :3
It really op and good video bro
Love your builds man. Can you do champion next?
buzzkill314 -_- I will soon. The next build starts with a T. ;)
Lalo Juarez not OP like KE at all really lol. Reaver can deal up to 8K which i did once vs a Dragon fight :D
Also awesome :D
Really wish we had an ability wheel. The other classes are hurt by not having one, but mages, even the "OP" Knight Enchanter feels CRIPPLED from not having all their spells
True enough.
Very very true
Just gotta take less spells and more passives
It doesn't feel crippled because the game is precisely designed with that in mind.
Thanks for the videos mate. Watching through a LOT of these in 2022 still 👍
Every time you say, “veel,” I want to break my own fingers.
-Spirit Blade does not ignore Barrier and Guard, it simply does bonus damage to it.
-Resurgence isn't that great, it's better to use the basic one for intense DPS.
-Rejuvenating Barrier is a must of the KE, more so than the party.
-Where's Fire Mine??
Great video guide and write ups, thank you. Loving your KE and companion builds.
Knight Enchanter and Fade Step go hand-in-hand. My first character was a Knight Enchanter. Survivability+the constant damage(might not be big #s, but if done correctly the damage never stops) makes the Knight Enchanter amazing.
I-m level 18 and havent found a decent staff except at that guy that sells in skyhold but i found a milion bows and more daggers than i can hold ...
You need to find runes to put in your staff. I think
i have beaten the game as a archer than changed to 2 weapons assassin and tbh all the stuff you find for those classes are garbage you'll find 1/100 items that you'll use over crafted weapons.
crafted items are ALWAYS the best in rare cases if you find a unique item that has a lot of stats and a rune they could be better however if you can find the best materials and you make a master grab or handle or whatever it's called than craft a staff with the best materials you have than modify it add a rune, handle and it'll be the single handedly best item you can find a small tip, Dragon materials are the best, in my run at least.
***** You have to craft to get the best staves.
Franklin Woolford Indeed i found some staff crafts but still weaker than other weapons ...
Lapul Alb Late reply I know but as taifhamid1 mention above, the best in class weapons are always crafted weapons due to the enchants and bonuses such as adding armor every hit, etc. As a player still playing this game from time to time, trust me, crafted are best hands down. That's the point in the craft system. More noticeable on the top difficulties however
For my Knight Enchanter build, I always grab immolate in the Fire skill tree and then just the passive perks, with the Storm & Frost skill trees; I grab the first two active abilities (& their upgrades) from the Storm & Frost tree and then the passive perks, I don't aquire anything else... From the Spirit tree I basically do the same thing you have done in the video along with the Knight Enchanter tree... The passive perk abilities really help out especially on nightmare difficulty.
I haven't tried this yet, but I'm considering doing the following on my future KE; Same points in KE as the build in this video (At least the must haves) + 4 points in Spirit (Barrier + Guardian Spirit + Mind Blast + Strength of Spirits) + 1 point in Winter (Fade Step) + 5 points in Inferno (Immolate/Upgrade + Flashpoint + Clean Burn + Chaotic Focus) > From there I would most likely spend the remaining points to get a solid Mana Regen Rate. Now, all of that plus the Guard on Hit Masterwork.
The idea is that the with the Barrier Capacity upgrade from Strength of Spirits, I will generate a bigger amount of Barrier from the Spirit Blade, which is then used up by Chaotic Focus, while this is going on, Guard is being built in the background. I'm not sure how the formula works for the interaction between Spirit Blade/Strenght of Spirits and Chaotic Focus, but if they scale off of eachother so well that I can maintain a 50% Barrier while feeding Chaotic Focus all it can handle for a steroid boost, then the damage of Spirit Blade should be increased significantly, which in turn increases the Barrier generation. Just a theory though, haven't had the chance to test it just yet.
Fade Step will offer the mobility that Fade Cloak can't match, while providing the same invulnerability and same CD (Fade Cloak won't let you close the gap between yourself and a dragon that jumps backwards before it gets a breath off). Immolate is there for a ranged DPS upkeep while closing said gap, can get one off right before a Fade Step. And thanks to Clean Burn and Flashpoint, Fade Step should hardly ever be on cooldown, thus allowing you to maneuver around the battlefield with ease.
If the idea of Spirit Blade, Chaotic Focus and Strength of Spirits works out as I hope it might, then this will be the build I use to solo NM with. The hardest part will be the first 12 levels >_>
Let
Another thing with inferno and the Knight Enchaqnter trees is the passive that powers your fire spells with barrier, sometimes you'll do huge amounts of damage with immolate which will take half your barrier but that barrier will instantly be restored because of the KE passive that gives you barrier based on damage.
Thanks for great guides! Started using your specs yesterday on my gameplay and got great results!
I picked up this game late. This class is favorite class followed very close by rogue assassin. If you haven't noticed already, not only are you invisible/invincible when you use fade cloak, but you can also attack/cast spells. You do not have to wait so you get an extra attack or spell in while invisible
I do love play support, don't know why I started two hand warrior, switching to mage with your build right this instant, and I do enjoy your videos and the way you describe things, keep at it :), hello from Egypt btw xD
KineticGTR Wow ... ty dude. I mean a lot !!! I am usually playing with Solas in my team and 2 Shield and Sword tankers (me Archer). I attacked The Ferelden Frostback a couple of times but i always died, mainly cause solas was always sticking his as* into the dragons face. Not flaking it but taking the fire damage. When i saw that build(i was level 12 then), i switched to Vivian on the second. And with the staff from the "Bright axe" quest, where you had to search for an axe but it turned out to be an epic staff i just wrecked it. My character died 2 times but she always revived him. And with that barrier she was tankier than my warriors :d. I can't imagine what she will become when i add to her attacks bonus guard. Thanks again bro. Been playing her for a while and with a tempest archer and champion warrior she suits really good.
One other thing, love your videos, always come here for useful advice.
Something tells me throwing on that fire tree perk that consumes barrier to increase damage would work obscenely well for a Knight-Enchanter. It does make you a little more squishy, but 50% increased damage on a spell like Fade Cloak or Veilblade might just be worth it (if the damage from Fade Cloak can consume the effect).
if you get anything from the winter tree, get fade step and winter stillness! fade step isn't a *neccesity* but it's great for getting out of enemy's way. winter stillness is just great caues it gives you improved mana generation whenever you stand still and, well, mages are literally always doing that when they use magic.
I have a bit more balanced out build because indeed that is a very ridiculous build in that it is so effective. What I did in my turn was to have a more battlemage/elemntalist hybrid whereby I coat myself with electricity passive so that if I get hit, they get hit with electricity as well and several additional mana regeneration bonuses from passives of elemental damage trees.
Add to the mix with fire elemental damage passives that empower your ability damage based on your immense barrier amount, you do a ton of additional damage and you still have immense barrier up at almost all the time. Add in mix with cooldown unique amulet of 15% ability cooldown reduction and those mana regeneration passives, you can keep on spamming your abilities almost all the time and keeping your barrier up and alive indefinitely trough out the battle.
You could argue that this build sounds even more ridiculously overpowered but I do not think it is because while it is a build that deals tons of damage and whatnot, its one weakness is the lack of team support and so if your buddies happen to die, then you are pretty much screwed as well. Now unfortunately with the content in the game I was only able to get to 23rd level by nearly 100% completion of the game disregarding some store purchases, I will later on be adding those passives and useful abilities from the spirit tree and then the build I use will really become ridiculously powerful.
Great video. This helped me get the last achievement I needed for Dragon Age Inquisition.
I appreciate these guides man, really helpful.
if you play on PC, and hopefully have a decent mouse (Logitech here), make a Profile for Inquisition, and add at least the SpiritBlade to a thumb button. (assign Keypress "1" and put SpiritBlade on Hotbar place 1). You can't assign all your mouse buttons in the game, but you can assign them in your favorite mouse config tool like Logitech Setpoint. This way the flawed PC gamplay becomes a bit more easy like on Consoles.
Thank you for sharing your secrets KineticGTR.. I'm at 10th right now and I have barrier plus the upgrade as far as Spirit spells. I've gone with all Fire as my primary destruction. I use Fire Mine and immolate for the heavy hits but I see how the Knight Enchanter would compliment the Fire spells that much more. The build I'm running can do an easy 2800+ to a single target, 3200+ on a critical hit. hee hee!
Im going to repec vivianne as soon as i turn the consol back on. Just unlocked this at level 10. Cant wait to get rid of the crap I had on her before. Thanks a lot!! She has a f-in light saber.
If you have two mages in your party, its good to take rejuvenating barrier on the second mage, and on knight enchanter invest into the passive that adds 50% of your barrier to your fire spells, works great in my case and im also playin nightmare
Knight Enchanter + Winter + Spirit(only Barrier and Guardian Spirit) = FUCKING GOD of gods!!!
It is so fucking powerful that I can solo a dragon on Hard without using a potion.
I can use 'Fade step' and 'Fade clock' to escape. 'Ice Armor' makes you very tanky. Finally, 'Spirit Blade' cuts through armor like butter. You don't need Spirit (except barrier&guardian spirit). Both NE and Winter already gives you enough mobility and armor.
If Dragon Age had PvP then KEW would fuck every other class, except Rogue-Assassin (maybe).
Akkun E What?? Hard?? pff I soloed Abyssal High Dragon on friggin NIGHTMARE!! dem knight enchanters man, OP as fuck
Bruce Marlon I'm still low level, kinda, so I've only put skill points on KE and spirit and honestly...I need nothing else. Sure I could pick some winter skills for even more fucking defense or fire for even more fucking damage, but I have more or less already broken the game as it is lol .I actually feel kind of bad, though maybe for no reason.
Bruce Marlon So I'm still a newbie and this will sound dumb (also you'll think me lazy for not googling this, but I actually prefer learning through conversation rather than searching) but is it possible to re-train my specialization somehow?
Winter line sucks for KE. you're hardly standing still for 3+ seconds to get the regen benefit, Ice wall is crap: does no damage and often blocks your party's ranged attacks. only nice thing in there is fade-step. Blizzard sucks too. If there was PVP, you're be crying and ragequitting all day long.
Lady Stoneheart no
I suggest taking Fire Mine over Immolate. It does way more damage, both initial and DoT. And Chaotic Focus and Mana Surge are must-haves for a Barrier build KE. I'd say Fade Step is a must-have as well. This coming from a level 24 KE playing on Nightmare with Friendly Fire and having killed all dragons.
All My builds is from your videos. I play on nightmare and with sera as tempest archer and viviennes knight enchanter I own the battlefield :-) it is fun. I have 4 characters and your build in all those characters. I intend to Finnish the game with all four. My favourite is sword and shield reaver. You can tank with him and kick som serious ass with him. :-) thanks for your videos. You made my game more fun than it was in the beginning.
19:32 "Hey guys i'm here too! Nvm, I gotta go."
You forgot to use mind blast and the secondary skill that makes mind blast restore 10% barrier per enemy that is hit. With that and the barrier rebuilding every time that you do damage you don't need to slot barrier on your active skill bar. I personally let Vivian take all of the healing skills you mentioned to better focus my KE on more over all damage output.
Not only is the KE perhaps the most overpowered class, it's arguably the most versatile; you can fight from any range with zero problems, provided you have picked up the teleport from the frost tree (a must vs dragons). You don't need to touch the spirit tree at all, provided you have picked up Fade Shield and you're an aggressive figher (I am). Hit first, hit HARD, and pull up that barrier. If you pick up Fade Shield and the teleport with its subsequent upgrade (deals frost damage), you can turn yourself into a torpedo if you time it correctly.
Nice to see that my favorite specialization's concept (Arcane Warrior) is ridiculous in any iteration XD
The reason this build is broken is that with spirit blade proc on clean burn fade cloak effectively has like a 2-3 second cool down, and the fact that you can attack and use skills while fade cloak is active means you can generate barrier while being immune to damage, not to mention fade cloak removes any status ailments(burn, poison,fear,and so on) it can also be activated when you are stunned, frozen or knocked down and you just get back in the fight. i played through nightmare with my main character being a KE and as long as you stick to enemies around your level or you have good gear you can effectively solo nightmare. though to people saying all you do is swing spirit blade if you find that boring pick a few skills as all damage keeps up your barrier and just use those.
When I played as a mage I enjoyed Rift Mage way more than Knight Enchanter but they are both great.
+ The passive in the ice tree which freezes enemys around you when they break your barriers. You really missed a lot out.
I would say the templar's rally is the best focus ability. You don't want your characters reaching a low hp threshold so 10 - 30 % hp regeneration and guard generation makes all your party members difficult to harm for 10 seconds. You can pop it before a battle starts or during a bad situation making it more proactive. The 10 - 30 % stamina/mana regeneration makes everyone more effective at using all their abilities, which would increase damage per second. Vivenne's resurgence is just a nice complementary ability if things really go bad during a boss fight.
If you add the 4 passive abilities of the storm tree, along with using chain lightning and energy barrage, you can almost ignore the melee attack entirely and keep your barrier strong
Thank you so much this helped me heaps!
later on you should also take, fade step, and mana surge from the frost tree. you get in close with your sword and just regen mana...
It's nice that you go into the abilities of the class but a big part of making an effective build is giving it the proper weapons and armour and you're missing out on that especially on the knight enchanter crafting the proper armour makes a world of difference...because if an enemy manages to get through my barriers it will have to go through the layer of guard that my armour has built up. One of the fade touched materials you can use adds "a chance to add guard on hit". that's not the exact description and I can't quite recall which material it was but imagine the amount of health bar an enemy needs to break through to hit you.
Also...when you're explaining the Fade cloak ability...it's the Veil, not the Veal. :P
have a good one
and if it wasn't enough you can craft a masterwork staff with a +3 guard on hit and be full guard almost forever. And going even further a restrictions removed heavy armor is an option as well.
You should really think about getting the skill below 'conductive current', its great for knight enchanters, triggers like 80% of time when fighting mele with 2h sword, adds like 150% lighting damage per hit, supersweet.
Farm yourself some Fade touched Silverite and slap that on your staff or armor, or both if you can wrangle up two pieces. Then you'll build Guard behind your barrier and make you even harder to kill.
The disruption barrier is amazing. It stops projectiles in midair.
Nice build! I may just use this myself but with some ice spells thrown in to reference Vivienne's previous spells. What I really want to see is a two-handed weapon Templar build.
Something i do suggest, as far as having Viv in the Frey, is having some guard on hit some where with her. It helps immensely for when you get that one hit right after a barrier goes down and even more ensures that you are the last one alive in the fight.
I've tried all 3 specials for a mage but knight enchanter is by far, for my play style, the best
You forgot whats, in my opinion, the main combo: Chaotic Focus.When you cast a fire spell you lose 50% of your barrier and the spell gets extra power.
With KE you can turn that bonus damage into a new barrier, so the downside that was using your "life" to power the magic isnt even there. This is specially true with aoe spells, and makes having 2 or 3 fire spells very much worth it, not to mention that you can nuke things from afar.
The Knight-enchanter build is the most overpowered character you can make in the game. My mage used nothing but Spirit Blade after i got it, throughout the entire rest of the game. It deals insane amounts of damage on any type of enemy, and every hit gives you a bit of barrier when combined with Fade Shield, and since the attacks are so quick and powerful, it pretty much meant i had an infinite barrier on my mage, making her completely invulnerable after the first hit! :D
Thanks! I finally get the KE build now haha
Totally skipped over barrier then first time I set up my class... only level ten but now its much stronger. Can't wait to get higher and grab some extra skills.
My Knight Enchanter build is finally finished, different from this video its uses all of the KE tree but the last perk then I have both perks in Inquisitor, just Barrier and its upgrade and Guardian Spirit then I take all of the right side and two middle perks of the winter tree, what im left with the the ultimate defence and power combo, I can easily solo the game on hard now and as long as im dealing damage, taking hits and maintaining my spells I can't die. I have a bigger chance of killing myself on the long walks to the next mission...
Thank you man great video, i hope you do the tempest archer next time.
Thanks for the overview!
I am probably the only one who can't wait for the Templar, I really love the class in this game and feel it will be amazing :)
You can break the game even more by adding a masterwork staff/armor that adds guard with every hit. Then you have the best of both worlds. Even though guard on a mage isn't too good, its a nice bonus if you want to stack as much protection as you can. Its also nice to have it if your barrier runs out.
Also wouldnt go into the spirit tree, just bring solas along with you as the rejuvinating barriers passive will still work for barriers you put on yourself as long as solas has the passive.
The class is a most even better without Fade step.. because with just basic attack + Chain Lightning your barrier is always up. When a stalker/shadow get close you use the spirit blade.
Still a fun class.
I was using kinda different KE build. I took Fire Mine and passive effect which increase damage of spells by taking half of our barrier. And everytime my mine blowed up on enemies they took something around.... 10k damage or more? It was overkill many times. And it was AoE and was dealing DoT so simply any non boss enemy was dead. Dragons died very,very fast. Every 10 seconds you deal 10k+ damage? No one can handle this. And with damage dealt your barrier restores :3
Just got the Knight Enchanter specialization today, yeah, it's way too OP. This class can tank, DPS, range, AoE depending on ability selections, and heal/raise. It's a one person wrecking crew. Challenge level dropped like a stone after getting this specialization; fights that used to be challenging became cake walks. You literally can pop up barrier, wade into a group of enemies, and swing away without taking any damage.
I like putting that ventori helmet on varric because then he looks like a little rhinoceros.
In the fire tree there's 1600% weapon damage, looks like you forgot about it xD
Fade step is pretty fun to use with the knight enchanter.
Got this and far cry 4 last week, love them both but am completely addicted to DA
Fade step is the way to go, love that skill
I would get winter stillness (I think that's what it's called it's the passive inbetween fade step and winters grasp so with that passive and the other mana regeneration passive you could technically have 100% mana regeneration(I'm not saying you would always have 100% mana regeneration but it could be useful if you built you tank right so the tank always has the enemy's attention.
Vivienne never comes with me. That's whu Im always tje knight enchanter. And I love it. Also you should try the build with the blade of Tidarion. With an elemental rune, electric barrage fires 14 volleys instead of 7. Amazing for your barrier and a must opener for a double sword wielder Knight Enchanter.
how can you play without fade step? it's so essential when I play I just line up the dudes go through em and with the upgrade to fade step it freezes them and then I go to town on em
Yeah pretty awesome spirit blade I playing around with the ravanger dragon and you can knock back fire balls that when I said to myself mages are always op
Apparently, if you have Mana Surge and your Barrier expires after a fight, you get the free spell. IIRC that wasn't the case with a Barrier from the Spirit Tree. I only seem to get the Mana Surge buff whenever my Barrier from the Fade Shield expires. May be an unwanted glitch (as it clearly states that the enemy has to break the Barrier).
so knight enchanter has the highest surviveablity
I would like to see a champion build next, cause that's what my main characters class is.
Knight Enchanter is fun but only if you include spells from the other skill trees, like fire rune that does 1600% damage!!
I like my reaver because of the high risk high reward gameplay.
Alternatively, if you really want to make this specialization sick, leave out the fire magic and the revive ability at the bottom of spirit tree, and instead go into the ice magic. fade step is the way to go when dealing with dragons and teleporting enemies, and it also makes you immune to harm while your zooming up into melee range. take winters grasp only to get to Mana surge cause that's where the real magic happens. If an enemy actually defeats your barrier, the barrier instantly explodes, damaging and freezing the enemy and because of knight enchanter, it restores your barrier all over again. build your way down to ice armor and you'll get 50% damage reduction whenever an enemy drops/restores your barrier and freezes. I've soloed dragons on nightmare this way and even while dozing off and not paying attention or hitting any buttons cause i'm half asleep, I still kill the dragons because the barrier just puts itself back on thanks to mana surge, whenever the dragon brakes it, and the dragon takes damage and I get 50% dr. The only down side to using Knight enchanter, is a glitch with Cassandra/Templar class running about. Somehow it messes up the knight enchanter and you lose all your hitpoints even with the barrier still at full. Consequently i can't use Cassandra in a party while she has her Templar skills. Also for added gimpyness, the spirit blade can brake through all elemental barrier gates so that you don't have to use opposing elemental magic to get through such barriers, just hit them with spirit blade and they brake after a hit or two.
you need to consider that 10 times the miniscule damage per projectile the staff has is probably less than twice the damage of a huge two handed weapon so the 1000% doesn't mean it deals all that much damage in practice. KE is tanky alright but reavers and assassins deal far far more damage.
Nice video!
Oh holy shit... melee mages are back? Okay I'm buying this.
Pretty much any spirit magic is OP. Effective on demons add that with a superb spirit rune it'll deal massive damage
The winter tree is great if you want to become even more stupidly hard to kill. Ice armor gives you a flat out 50% reduction to all incoming damage and with winter's grasp enemies will have a hard time even attacking in the first place.
A simple Knight enchanter build that can solo dragons in the highest dificulty is: Go full on knight enchanter (except the upgrade on the sword), Full on Spirit (except for mind blast And the passive attached to it) And winter grasp, with the upgrade And the thing that makes your barrier explode when It breaks from the winter tree. Of course, If you are solo, revive And the Knight enchanter Focus are useless, as well as the -50% threat. But this class is so broken It doesn't even matter lol also, get yourself a staff that builds guard on hit. You'll be unkillable.
ME 2-3 vanguard was definitely their inspiration for this class)))
Wouldn't you rather say: the arcane warrior from Dragon Age Origins?
Nope. Almost nothing to do with it besides melee weapon use. Spirit walk -check, unlimited shield - check along with other magic use it's definitely vanguard clone))
Vladimir V. It was definitely inspired by DAO's Arcane Warrior. People were asking for it. They literally have an Arcane Warrior in DAMP with KE spells; they're the same thing.
See when I go Knight enchanter I tend to go an elemental path
My Knight Enchanter Build
Inferno tree:
Immolate
Flashpoint
Clean burn
Winter tree:
Winters grasp
Mama surge
Winter stillness
Storm tree:
Chain lightning
Energy barrage
Spirit tree:
Barrier
Guardian spirit
Peaceful aura
I’ll also try to rack up points to get the upgrades of course.
Your video sold me on knight enchanter in 2024 so i dont need to have vivienne in the party 😅
Don't forget that life ward actually doesn't need targeting, in fact it instantly effects your entire party, meaning that not only is it another shield of 25% damage reduction for everyone, it's also an instant revive if anyone falls unconscious.
As far as I'm concerned Fire Mine+Chaotic Focus is just too good not to take. Especially with Flashpoint. Had it crit for like 11k on a Great Bear, plus 400+ per tick burning.
Hey man, seriously, thanks a lot for your videos. Helps a lot!
I do have a question, would this build be fun for an AI Companion? It would seem that it would mean my mage would have to be in the midst of battle.
and as you know, AI can be a little janky with what they should and shouldn't be doing - ergo, perhaps a little useless for AI Companion?
Or are they totally capable of handling themselves with this build?
Thanks in advance for answering, and keep up the good work :)
bruh....love knight-enchanter. my favorite type of play style is all in this alone ha
I'm a knight enchanter and I don't use that build. the only skill I have in the green tree is the barrier. I have the full ke tree but the last one, full frost tree but the last one and one from the fire tree just to have two elements at 20.. I have one huge blast with that character. it would just be way too boring to go with that standard build but the descriptions are awesome you gave. Nothing more fun than to zip around control the crowd and still have the ability to go in and fight up close. I finally learned to hit the share button today on my PS4 and caught the last half of a dragon fight. ruclips.net/video/hyJtxqj4mCE/видео.html when i found the thing I had two potions left. we ended the fight with just myself and my tank.. was one dang fun fight.
you should see how fucking op this build is with kitty's collar and the ring of doubt