Quick Links
Death Caller is one of the threeMage specializationsavailable to players inDragon Age: The Veilguard. Just as its name implies, this specialization revolves around mastering necromantic energies and using them to manipulate the forces of life and death. This is the go-to specialization for anyone who wants to roleplay as a Necromancer or is looking for a straightforward spec that doesn’t rely on gimmicks.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Best Faction to Choose
Let’s be honest, some of these factions are way more appealing than others.
The Death Caller specialization isn’t very powerful when you unlock it at level 20, but can eventually become the strongest of the three specs provided you use the right build and equipment to unlock its full potential. With that in mind, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide that contains everything you need to know about playing as a Death Caller in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Check it out below.
How to Play a Death Caller
Channeled Attacks and Damage-Over-Time Are Your Best Friends
Similar to Evokers, Death Callers rely primarily on Staves as opposed to Daggers and Orbs. However, there are some important differences between the two specializations as far as their playstyles are concerned. While Evokers deal most of their damage using a combination of light and heavy projectile attacks, Death Callers focus more on channeled attacks. Channeled attacks melt the Barriers of most enemies almost instantly and, once you’ve acquired the right skills, can also deal heavy damage to health bars. The spec struggles a bit against Armor, but there are ways to fix that.
An important thing to keep in mind while playing a Death Caller is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard features two types of Staves. Namely, you have Elemental Staves that deal either Fire or Cold damage and Arcane Staves that deal either Necrotic or Electric damage. Generally speaking, you’ll want to use anElemental Staffwhen playing an Evokerand anArcane Staff when playing a Death Caller. While it may seem tempting to choose a weapon that deals a different type of damage than your spells (i.e. not Necrotic), it just so happens that a lot of Arcane Staves come with passive abilities that perfectly complement the Death Caller playstyle. For the most part, you won’t find those sorts of passives on Elemental Staves.
As far as spells are concerned, you’ll have fewer of them to work with compared to the other two specs. There are five Mage spells that deal Electricity damage and five spells that deal Cold damage, but only three that deal Necrotic damage, one of which is an Ultimate ability. In other words, it’s technically not possible to play a pure Death Caller build since that would require an additional core spell. But don’t worry because you can use an Elemental spell from a different part of the skill tree to fill that last slot. Since Death Callers struggle a bit against Armor, we’re going with a Fire spell for this build, but you can opt for a Cold one instead if you want more control on the battlefield. The choice is up to you.
Death Caller Skill Tree
Just like every other specialization in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the Death Caller spec can only be unlocked once Rook reaches level 20. To unlock Death Caller, you’ll first need to reach the Mourn Watch portion of the skill tree, however, it’s not possible to get there directly from the starting point. After you’ve grabbed a couple of Core perks, your first order of business will be to decide whether to take the Control or Sustain route as you progress toward Mourn Watch. The Control section contains Cold spells while the Sustain section is where you’ll find your Fire spells.
Given that a Frost Mage (Neve) joins your party early on, it makes more sense to take the Sustain route to avoid overlap. Even if you don’t plan on bringing Neve along on missions, the Sustain route is still preferable, since none of your early companions can deal Fire damage. You do start off withArcane ShotandDestructive Light, both of which are Fire-based, but you won’t have any AoE Fire damage unless you start speccing into Sustain. Don’t worry, though, because you’ll have plenty of points to spend on perks from the other sections of the tree as well. Players can earn up to 65 skill points in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is more than enough for any type of build.
Once you’ve grabbed the two Fire spells and some key Sustain perks, you’ll want to slowly make your way to the Mourn Watch section. Grab your first Necrotic spell from there as soon as you can and then spend your remaining skill points on passives and ability upgrades until you hit level 20. From there, your choices will be pretty straightforward until you hit max level. Remember that you can refund all your skill points for free at any time, so there’s no need to save them just so you can pour a bunch of them into the Death Caller spec as soon as you unlock it.Use every skill point as soon as you get it.
you may end up with more than 20 points by level 20 if you interactFen’harel Altarsduring your travels.
The Best Death Caller Build
Early Game Unlocks
With the basics out of the way, it’s time to take a look at the essential perks and abilities you’ll want for this build. The order in which you grab these may differ depending on your equipment and companions, but make sure you get everything from the table below by the time you hit level 20. We’ll cover the next milestone (level 30) and beyond in the next sections.
Core Abilities
Ability Upgrades
Greater Passives
We haven’t included the Core Ability and Ultimate Ability you get by default.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Best Slayer Build
A specialization that is geared towards taking down enemies in the most brutally efficient ways.
The Next Milestone
Once you hit level 20, start dumping points into the Death Caller section of the skill tree. Part of it is blocked until you reach level 30, so you won’t be able to grab everything right away even if you do have enough skill points. Grab what you can for now and spend your remaining points elsewhere until you get to 30. We recommend getting the perks below.
Core Ability
Ultimate Ability
Certain Passives appear multiple times on different parts of the skill tree. All of these stack with each other.
Rounding up the Build
Once you reach level 30, grab the remaining Death Caller perks and start delving into some of the other sections of the skill tree to round up the build. You won’t need any extra core abilities past this point, so just focus on Ability Upgrades, Passives, and Traits. The Death Caller is a mana-intensive spec, so any perk that gives you extra mana or mana regen is worth grabbing. Perks that buff Area, Duration, and Blast spells are highly recommended as well and, of course, anything that involves Necrotic damage or Necrosis (Necrotic damage over time) is a must-have.
We’ll dip a bit into the Control section to unlockBreathing Room (Mage - Control)even if that means having to waste a couple of points on perks we don’t necessarily need. Unfortunately, there’s no way around that due to how the skill tree is structured. If you haven’t managed to obtain any bonus skill points, you’ll have to give up onResistant Blastsso you can unlock all the perks below at max level. If you have at least one extra point to spend, you don’t need to worry about removing anything. Any other bonus skill points you get from Fen’harel Altars can be spent on perks from the Control and Burst sections of the skill tree.
Best Weapons, Armor, Accessories, and Runes for Death Caller
Spiritcaller-> Meredith’s Legacy (Arcane Staff)
Pursuant’s Implements
Accessories
A Pale Reflection
Deathworn WrapsorWatcher’s Hold
Necrotic Jade
Precious Decay
This build isn’t heavily reliant on equipment, however, the right weapons, armor, and accessories will definitely increase its effectiveness. Meredith’s Legacy is a perfect example of this. The weapon complements this build extremely well in spite of the fact that it comes with a slight downside. But since this is more of a late-game weapon, we recommend usingSpiritcalleruntil you’re able to get your hands on it. You generally want to avoid using Orb and Dagger with this build, but if you’re in a rough spot and low on health,FadelightandThe Pointcan help you get back on your feet when used at the right time.
As far as the rest of your equipment is concerned, we picked some of the best items in Veilguard that will help maximize Necrotic damage and Necrosis. Putting all your eggs into one basket like this can be a bit risky, however, keep in mind that you’ll still have a Fire spell and your companion’s abilities at your disposal to deal with Necrotic-resistant enemies.
Finally, our companion recommendations for this build are Emmrich and Davrin. Emmrich can make any enemy vulnerable to Necrotic damage thanks to hisChittering Signettrinket, while Davrin can detonate Weakened primers set up by you and Emmrich while Taunting your enemies and making you temporarily Invulnerable when needed. Lucanis is also a great pick and can replace Emmrich if you don’t feel like having two Necromancers in your party. As far as everyone else is concerned, they’re useful only if you need some other type of damage other than Necrotic and Fire for a specific fight. Otherwise, you’re better off sticking with Davrin and Emmrich or Lucanis.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Every Companion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Ranked
Seeking a reliable ally or someone to challenge your resolve? This ranking will help you find the perfect companion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
