The mage has always been the most powerful class in the dragon age
games----dealing devastating area of effect (AOE) spells & single
target damages enough to obliterate anyone dare to cross his
path...until they start paying attention to him. As soon as his enemies
get to him, he's dead meat. The mage is as powerful as he/she is
squishy. But all that changes with the Bloodlusted Forcemage (BF
mage). Remember the mage from the opening sequence after choosing the
class in DA2? The BFmage is similar to that in terms of both raw power
& defense. The BFmage do not hide & do not run away at the first
sign of threat and can easily go toe-toe toe with his foes alongside the warrior or tanks. It
was my second playthrough as a mage when I found this build after much
experimenting with the class. And yes, the Bloodlusted Forcemage completely obliterates The Arishok in Nightmare
with ease & that's when I know this build really works.
Vulgar display of Power: The idea is to cast spells as long & frequent as needed without eating up all Health. That's why This build is a combination of Mana to Health & Health regeneration items in a specific way. I will cover all the attributes, Talent tree points & party members that you need to build this unstoppable force of nature.
Your first specialization should be Forcemage in level 7. In this tree, get both fist of the maker & telekinetic burst. Get Gravitic ring (sphere) as soon as you can. It's the best single target spell in the game. Use it on a boss or any enemy you like & they are immobilized for a good while, then just keep hitting with all you got. Pull of the Abyss is pretty good, too. Pulls out assassins from stealth & slows down mobs, now that's sweet.
Primal: Take Chain lightning (upgrade) & Rock armor (a must). That'll be all.
Elemental: Winters' Grasp (upgrade) & Cone of cold would be enough. Don't bother about Firestorm, there are better alternatives.
Arcane: Take Mind Blast (upgrade), Crushing Prison (upgrade) & move on.
After you reach level 14, get the Bloodmage specialization & the fun starts from here. Get Blood Magic all the way to Hammorage. You need to upgrade only Grave Robber, Bloodlust & Hammorage. You don't need Blood Slave. Grave Robber (upgraded) is pretty useful to restore your health. Just use it in close proximity to several corpses. Use Sacrifice on Aveline only when in dire need. Hammorage is a bloody good (pun intended) spell that can be used as a massive single-target or AOE damage. Getting Bloodlust means you have a total of 3 to 1 mana to health ratio. So make sure you get it.
After getting Blood Magic, you need to equip items that grants an increase in the mana to health ratio. Look for items with a modifier of +0.25 bonus in this area. Getting 4 of them along with Bloodlust will give you a whooping 4 to 1 ratio. Also, look for items that increases overall health. Remember, one point in constitution only increases health by 5 points. So getting as much health as you can is pretty necessary.
Blood mages cannot be healed by potions or spells and that's where items that provide health regen bonuses come in. Try to get those as much as you can. The health regen may be small & hard to notice but will help your blood mage keep casting for that much longer. Keep in mind you also need to equip +blood magic items. Your goal is to balance all those so you get ample health along with the lowest possible health consumption for casting.
Vulgar display of Power: The idea is to cast spells as long & frequent as needed without eating up all Health. That's why This build is a combination of Mana to Health & Health regeneration items in a specific way. I will cover all the attributes, Talent tree points & party members that you need to build this unstoppable force of nature.
Your first specialization should be Forcemage in level 7. In this tree, get both fist of the maker & telekinetic burst. Get Gravitic ring (sphere) as soon as you can. It's the best single target spell in the game. Use it on a boss or any enemy you like & they are immobilized for a good while, then just keep hitting with all you got. Pull of the Abyss is pretty good, too. Pulls out assassins from stealth & slows down mobs, now that's sweet.
Primal: Take Chain lightning (upgrade) & Rock armor (a must). That'll be all.
Elemental: Winters' Grasp (upgrade) & Cone of cold would be enough. Don't bother about Firestorm, there are better alternatives.
Arcane: Take Mind Blast (upgrade), Crushing Prison (upgrade) & move on.
After you reach level 14, get the Bloodmage specialization & the fun starts from here. Get Blood Magic all the way to Hammorage. You need to upgrade only Grave Robber, Bloodlust & Hammorage. You don't need Blood Slave. Grave Robber (upgraded) is pretty useful to restore your health. Just use it in close proximity to several corpses. Use Sacrifice on Aveline only when in dire need. Hammorage is a bloody good (pun intended) spell that can be used as a massive single-target or AOE damage. Getting Bloodlust means you have a total of 3 to 1 mana to health ratio. So make sure you get it.
After getting Blood Magic, you need to equip items that grants an increase in the mana to health ratio. Look for items with a modifier of +0.25 bonus in this area. Getting 4 of them along with Bloodlust will give you a whooping 4 to 1 ratio. Also, look for items that increases overall health. Remember, one point in constitution only increases health by 5 points. So getting as much health as you can is pretty necessary.
Blood mages cannot be healed by potions or spells and that's where items that provide health regen bonuses come in. Try to get those as much as you can. The health regen may be small & hard to notice but will help your blood mage keep casting for that much longer. Keep in mind you also need to equip +blood magic items. Your goal is to balance all those so you get ample health along with the lowest possible health consumption for casting.
Attribute allocation: Your first specialization should be Forcemage. So maintain a 2 to 1 ratio between magic and willpower till your willpower reaches 16. You don't need higher will than that. Pour all the points into magic until you get Bloodmage in level 14. Then increase your constitution score by 1 or sometimes by 2 every level. Along with all the health increase items, you will have plenty of juice to keep casting all day long. Make sure you get all the available tomes in each act. Take your time to solve all the little puzzles in the Night Terrors quest to get all the bonus attributes.
Here's my stats in level 19--
Magic-58
Will-16
Con-32
Armor & Equipments:
Hands of fate--+0.25 bm
Adept mage boots--+0.25 bm
Ring of Ruin--+0.25 bm
Belt of Vigor--+22 health, +2 health regen rate
Brass nug charm--+10 health, +2 health regen
Ornate ring--+12 health
Staff: Voracity (41 fire dmg, +0.25 bm)
In Act 3 get the Rune of Valiance design from Sundermount near the Zevran hiding place as soon as you can. These will further boost your attributes by 2 points.
Party Members: Aveline is a must for this build. You really need someone to draw the fire of your enemies. Take Varric for disarming traps & lockpicking. As for the remaining member, it's your call.
Well, that pretty much sums it all up. I hope you enjoy playing as a BFmage as much as I did building it. If there's anything I missed or you have any further questions regarding this build, let me know in the comments section.
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