How to build a self-sufficient AI team? - Dragon Age Inquisition 

That is awesome to hear, thanks! I'm glad you managed to finish the game. Yup, the dlcs are significantly harder than the base game(this is actually true for every single Dragon Age game and even Mass Effect one - I guess this is a Bioware thing). I actually going to make a whole video about the Jaws of Hakkon and how to deal with them with a solo mage, right after I finish my Trilogy Build video. :)

Thanks! :) Yes, of course! My favorite class is the Warrior and my top 3 Specializations are the Champion, the Artificer and the Knight Enchanter.

There is not much to do with a 2h Iron Bull(in my AI build video, I actually made him blow the horn all the time lol - at least that is some help for the team). He will be difficult to keep alive no matter what. It is who he is. You can favorite Devour, give him Regen Potion and he can still end up dead. Kitty's Colar is great to resurrect him, but it takes away so much resistance, he basically turns into a deadweight. The problem with him is that he is supposed to be a damage warrior, but his AI is not aggressive enough to fill that role - so he can't even keep himself alive with the Amulet of Barrier. With a shield he is workable. Still, I will keep testing him, who knows one day he can end up being something great... Cole is totally workable. You can actually switch him in this team - favorite Hidden Blades and let him use it on Cassandra's stun... Massive Rupture combo on the entire mob! Not to mention Hidden Blades can proc all kinds of masterworks, including Hidden Blades. His Mark of Death is also very helpful with bosses, so yeah, he can work like a charm in this team. :)

a key to "survivable" bull is actually max health. Nevermind any kind of stats or defenses, MAX HEALTH is the way to go. Stack it up as much as you can *with equipment (defens slots), constitution, and belts. With it you get more guard and more dragon rage pool. Also, bonus damage from his passive too! as Herceg mentioned, you should equip Kitty's Collar to get his health yo-yo going. My most succesful AI Bull build is dragon rage, devour, mighty blow, and combat roll on favourite. War cry, livid, pommel strike, and charge on active. Maybe War Horn too to if you have leftover skill points. The rest is disabled. Craft Dragon Hunter axe with high enough crit chance and flow of battle+dragon rage upgrade will make Devour basically up 100%.

Recommend masterwork for Bull would be: T3 walking fortress(everrite), T3 unbowed(volcanic aurum), T3 fear(wyvern skin), and T3 shield bash(stormheart)

Ah yes, Bull. I remember him. The potion chugger. Dude might as well fight with an IV bag...

What I did for Bull during my Reaver run was gave him a shield. Disabled damn near everything but devour, and the horn. Had ring of (pain?) active and he lived even through the Sarebas fight in Trespasser. Guard on hit also helps.

Hah! Thanks! :)

Yup, it was requested a lot, so here he is! :)

The Golden Knight and the Reckless Reaver are both great for this team. Same with the Frost-Fire Crusader and the Elementalist. :)

@@AKisHerceg Thanks alot for your quick responce 😊👍. I've seen your GK video and I quite liked it yeah. I'll also check out the other 3.

I get that request often. I would like to talk too, since it is easier and faster, but sadly, it is impossible to record clean audio where I am. Once I figure out how to get rid of the non-stop background noise, I can switch to audio commentary. :)

@@AKisHerceg I kinda like these, old school 2009 youtube video style:)

This is actually a guide on how to create your own team(so by following the steps, you can create an independent AI team regardless of their weapon type): so I cover the basics - let them work together and utilize masterworks to let them handle multiple tasks without ordering them to do it. This is the key for a good AI team. Of course they are high level... but the Trespasser is no joke. Even on high level. Neither the Jaws of Hakkon for that matter. Letting the AI kill Saarath? He is one of the hardest boss in the entire series... Low level team does not really have much to work with, since you have no masterworks either. So usually it is more then enough to set your mages up to freeze everything(favorite Winter's Grasp, Ice Mine and Barrier - upgrade Barrier with Mana Surge) and your warriors and rogues will shatter it. Done. Test it. It will work. For archers, favorite Poisoned Weapon with Leeching Poison and Exploding Arrow. It will cut through enemy armor like butter - it will also poison them and knock them down. Leveling with them and mages is actually pretty easy. Warrior are much harder since they have to soak up all the damage. This team is all melee, yes. But have you ever seen my other builds? Sera can actually destroy Saarath within a minute or less - as an archer... Favorite Lightning Flask with a tier 3-4 bow and good night. She is a monster. I also mainly use Varric as an archer, but so many people flooded me with requests to show builds where he uses daggers after my Best AI builds video. So here he is. If you are interested in seeing him as an archer, check out my videos: "Complete AI guide", "The top 9 best AI builds for Dragon Age Inquisition", "The Most Balanced AI party", and the "Safest AI party". All of these have Varric using Bianca. Creating a team of archers is actually not a problem at all. Give them Toxic Cloud and that will cover their defense. Three different TC will make sure none of them will take damage. Ever. Set up Exploding Arrow with Poisoned Weapons(Leeching Poison upgrade) for all of them for knockdown and fire/poison explosion. Sera does not need more than Lightning Flask after that. She will turn into a machine. Cole can use Mark of Death for bosses, Hidden Blades for mobs with Knockout Bomb. Varric can use anything but Toxic Cloud, Longshot, Full Draw should be prioritized. As I said, pretty simple.

I have a video about the weapon schematics, armor is not necessary, because the best schematics are all the Superior Battlemage/Battlemaster/Prowler armors with their upgrades. :)

Thanks! :) Depends on what you are: Double dagger or archer. For double dagger just check out my Vampiric Backup AI team with 3 rogues. You can be a fourth rogue in the party and just do what they do and massacre everyone. I also have videos about the "Safest party AI", the "Most balanced party AI" and the "Most destructive party AI". With some of them I use my archer Inquisitor, so they definitely works well with an archer rogue. I also have many more AI videos(Complete AI Guide, Top 9 best AI builds etc.), where you can learn everything you need to know to build a team around your rogue, warrior or mage. :)

This depends on what I'm going with. If I use a Varric who spams Toxic Cloud, I always set my team up to stay close to me and Varric(if Varric is double dagger, he will be next to me fighting all the time). This is because even archers and mages will have immense survivability by gaining the Elusives from Toxic Cloud. Plus most of the time when I set them up to follow themselves they tend to freeze out more often. Ideally, archers and mages should follow themselves(unless we are talking about Vivienne), and melee focused characters should follow you if you are melee focused too.

@@AKisHerceg got it. In my case im doing mid ranged knight enchanter, varric archer, solas/dorian cc, cass/blackwall tank, what should my ai settings be? Should varric still use toxic cloud in this situation?

I think I showed all the upgrades that are mandatory for the team to work. If I don't show the upgrade, that means that it is either not necessary to get or its up to you to pick which one you want. For example with Deathblow. I prefer Thrill of Victory, but the build can work well with the other upgrade as well. :)

@@AKisHerceg Maybe I missed it. I’ll watch again. I kept pausing to see which skills were left active or starred. Maybe it was earlier? Watching this on my phone so I can have it play while I play so the screen isn’t too big. I came over from your Varric/Cassandra/Vivienne video that didn’t show the skills but how they worked. Never considered making Varric dagger wield. Cole keeps dying all the time so and at first I thought it was an indication that daggers are bad, lol. It was several play throughs before I tried it and realized my Cole just sucked.

@@OracleThunder Yeah, daggers are awesome. :) I have a self sustaining AI team build video about a full team of double-dagger rogues using Toxic Cloud for defense. They absolutely destroy everything in their path in the Trespasser. :)

I am not sure. I will check it when I’m in front of my pc. :)

"How to perform combos? - Dragon Age Inquisition: Ability Combos Explained!" You can find everything you need to know about combos in this video I made a while ago. :)

@@AKisHerceg oh, ok. Thank you

Check my “9 best ai build” videos, my “vampiric rogues” and my “golden army” videos. :)

Check my ai build videos and my 5 assassins video. :)

Thanks! Playing with a team and dishing out those combos. By far the easiest way to finish it. It doesn’t even feel Nightmare that way. :)

@@AKisHerceg Any party setup that recommend to make it the smoothest? Been putting off the 100% achievement chase since 2016 lol. 2022 might be the year to get it

@@MrDoggson That really depends on what class you are playing with. I recommend you watch my “party ai” videos where I demonstrate how an endgame team works. For low level you can use my “first 10 skills you should pick up” video. :)

@@AKisHerceg I was thinking archer just so i can stay outta harms way, i was looking at that 10 skills and will most def follow that! Will take a look at the A.I setup thingy too! Like the games just not the greatest at setting up ai behaviour lol

@@AKisHerceg Just wanted to come back and say thanks! Im 30+ hours into the game now and steamrolling nightmare thanks to your builds/A.I settings! Really enjoying the game once my A.I stopped being brainless lol.

The Chromatic Greatsword is the best 2h weapon, but you can only get that in the Trespasser. You can use the golden nug to synchronize your characters so the Chromatic Greatsword can be used this way in the main game too if you create a new character(the schematics will be there automatically as soon as you start). I, however, never use the Golden Nug, so for me the best 2h weapon remains the Axe of the Dragon Hunter. :)

@@AKisHerceg thanks a lot. Trying to build Cass as an Avenger, needed to know what to spend my precious resources on.

Yup, that is Varric for ‘ya! :)

Yeah, I did a Actificer build on my inquisitor. First I went with bow. Though I'd use them as traps for enemies wondering too close to me. Then I tried a dagger build with invis and traps then finished them off with fang or the last ability. I forgot the name. So much more fun. I also use the chains for days upgrade for my tank, now. Used to be Charging Bull, but they suck at using it effectively, anyways. Chains for days and bomb traps is a nasty combo.

Annulment. Extending your Templar skills effectiveness to other magic users is far better than simply upping your SP damage.

@@AKisHerceg Good to know. Thanks for the replies!

Koszi! Solas egy Rift Mage, ami sajnos azzal jar hogy jo a CC-je de ratyi a sebzese. Foleg ugy hogy az AI nem igazan tudja mikor kell elsutni a nagyagyu kepssegeket. Ugyhogy a legjobb ha CC-nek hasznalod. Egy jo build amit Solas tud az a Villam/Rift mage build, ami gyakorlatilag teljes mobokat tart komaban. Chain Lightning vagy Static Cage azt johetnek a Rift kombok(Veilstrike vagy Stonefist vagy Pull of the Abyss) - mivel ha a Shocked statuszra Weakened huzol azzal altatsz. Ha alszanak akkor nyomhatsz alajuk egy Fire Mine-t hogy valami sebzes is legyen. De ha jo az Inquisitorod akkor egy komaban tartott mob kb 5 masodpercig tart. Foleg Rogue-okkal jo ez mert ok detonaljak az alvast Rupture kombora(Deathblow, Twin Fangs, Hidden Blades, Longshot mind tudja robbantani). Ugyhogy ha ezt a Solas-t hasznalod akkor Cole-nak csak egy Hidden Blades-t(fejleszd a No Witnesses-re) kell dobnia es az egesz mob halott. A masik ami jo a Solassal az a Fagy/Rift combo. Ez is nagyon kiraly arra hogy a mob meg se tudjon mozdulni. Ha az AI kicsit okosabb lenne es be lehtne allitani hogy mikor susse el a kepessget, akkor baromi jo damager kombot tudna osszehozni. Pull of the Abyss hogy osszehuzd az ellent, Ice Mine hogy mind lefaggyon, es alajuk raksz egy Fire Mine-t. Bumm. Sajnos neha Solas a Fire Mine-t rakja elosszor, es ugy mar nem olyan hatekony de igy sem rossz. Warriorok meg Rogue-ok mind tudjak detonalni a freeze-t Shatter kombora, ugyhogy a mobok itt is masodpercekig tartanak. Van egy videom a Magical Commando, ahol 3 AI magussal szanaszet bombazzuk a Darvaraadot. Ott(mivel Solas nincs a Trespasser-ben mint csapattag), az Inquisitoromat hasznalom mint AI Rift Mage(es Varric-el csak allok mozdulatlanul es nezem a kaoszt). Az o beallitasai mukodnek Solas-on is ugyhogy azt is kiprobalhatod. :)

@@AKisHerceg Szuper! Már kinéztem a buildet közben, várom hogy fejlődjek olyan szintre ahol már értelmes kombokat lehet tolni;) Köszönöm a gyors és részletes válaszodat, és csak így tovább! Te várod már a DA: TV-t?:) Várható lesz majd abból is buildelős kombós videók amikor megjelenik?^^

@@KinutaMaito Varom, igen. Kicsit mas mint amire szamitottam de igy is jo bulinak tunik. Tobb mint valoszinu hogy ossze fogok dobni egy par videot rola ha elvezni fogom. :)

@@AKisHerceg Remélem, megtalálod az örömöt ebben is, én is nagyon hype vagyok már! 😁

@@KinutaMaito A sztori jonak tunik, a csapattagok nem igazan az en stilusom, de ez az Inquisitionnal is igy volt aztan megszoktam/megkedveltem oket ugyhogy lehet hogy itt is ez lesz(foleg Sera keszitett ki, mert egy kukkot nem erettem abbol amit mondott - be kellett kapcsolnom a feliratot mert a regionalis(Derbyshire) angol akcentusa erthetetlen volt szamomra XD). Maga a gameplay jonak tunik - mas mint a tobbi DA de latok benne fantaziat. :)

Sounds good! :)

Combat Roll is disabled because she doesn’t use it well, I placed that point there for a different purpose- you can completely ignore Combat Roll for Cass. Viv does not use WG because she has better spells to use, the reason we pick it up is because we need Mana Surge. :)

I don't know if it is the same, but I have a similar bug that occurs regularly. I know one time this can happen is when your team was re-specced recently. The only fix I know is to exit the game and enter again.

@@AKisHerceg I usually have a bug where one of the AI just stops moving. Just stands in place. Not reacting to anything. I switch to them to control them. And jump and it's fixed. Happens every 30-40min randomly. It sucks when the tank's AI freezes. I never noticed until my ranged teammates are close to death. Now I just play as an off tank Templar. And focus the ones who attack my ranged. Either Bull Charge to them or chain pull them back to the crowd. Tank keeps their attention (if the AI isn't bugged) and the ranged focuses the group my tank is in. While I focus stragglers, if needed. If not its purge the group time.

I'm glad to hear that! :) As far as I know, they don't stack.

Human and a Champion. :)

Solas as Rift mage can perform better combos i think but i'm newbie so...

@@massterrorgw255 I prefer Vivienne because she is great at staying alive, thanks to her Fade Shield ability(she basically gains Barrier whenever she deals damage).

The Blade of Tidarion an the Spirit Sword are usually enough for me to keep her in the thick of it. :)

Friendly Fire can’t be turned off in DAO and DA2 on Nightmare so Inquisition is the first where you can do it. And thank God for that! A team can only work with FF in Inquisition if you only set up single target skills for them(this was less of a problem in Origins and DA2 because you had better tactic options and more skills). Otherwise forget it. With FF in my opinion the game turns into a boring chore since you have to target every enemy individually. So is it possible? Yes. Is it fun? No.

@@AKisHerceg I thought as much; I usually like friendly fire for immersion, but when it makes the game unenjoyable or limits an already limited system even more, I think I’ll pass. Thank you!

@@Hawaiian_Pizza_Enjoyer Yeah, FF is good as long as your team does not destroy itself with it thanks to its poorly programmed AI... that kinda breaks immersion lol.

Nope, I just don’t like it. Too op for me. Plus I don’t use the Golden Nug so I can’t have it in the main game, and at the end I don’t like to change my equipment. :)

@@AKisHerceg Thanks for the quick reply! I presume thats the same reason why the weapons don't have elemental runes ? :) And this is a really good follower build, been trying it for a bit and it works really well.

Not really. Using double daggers gives an incredible edge over Bianca. You have excellent crowd control with Deathblow, higher damage and you always stay close to the team, protecting them with Toxic Cloud.

Well, I would not say that. Blackwall with his Champion spec is extremely durable. Same with you if you are a Champion. You also have great defensive skills like Livid, Shield Wall(both are handled well by the AI). And let's not even talk about the passives like reducing missile dmg by 50% or melee by 20%, being immune to flanking and only receiving 1 dmg from the back. So, in my opinion, tanks can have pretty good survivability. The best rogue in my opinion is Varric with his Artificer spec. :)

@@AKisHerceg Yeah he is, but not against Hakkonite Bowmen, they 1 or 2 shot him. He's like ok against physical DMG. With Varric I can relate.

Of course, many times. :)

@@AKisHerceg what build did you use for her?

@@ivanhunter6492 I have a few builds for her. They are in my AI builds videos. Just type in AI build in the search bar on my channel and you are bound to bump into them. :)

agree

Avoiding spoilers is always nice, but on the other hand: should newbies even try to check videos on intricate combat builds against strong (and thus likely endgame) bosses on the highest difficulty? Just play the first time on Normal/Hard and chill, find your own strategy organically and only then go look for optimized runs like this. Just my two cents.

I do have a Twitter, but I never really use it. But you can ask your questions here, I will help if I can. :)

@@AKisHerceg would really love to build a unbeatable team like I have seen in your videos using Varric, Cassandra and Dorian… is it possible if so can you give me guidance on abilities and what to enable and fav for the AIs

​@@deltaflyguy3921 I heve quite a few videos on the topic. You could check out a few of them! :) Complete AI Guide Top 9 best AI build The most balanced AI party The safest AI party The most destructive AI party The Golden Army The Vampiric Backup

@@AKisHerceg honestly which would you recommend… and again is it possible for the 3 characters I chosen… I also wanted to know the abilities and traits you chose for each if possible… I just want to make sure I’m selecting the right one for each

@@AKisHerceg sorry hope you can help… hope I wasn’t asking for to much