In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, understanding status effects is crucial, much like in many other role-playing games. These effects can be troublesome when they inflict negative conditions and debuffs on your character, but they can be equally useful when applied strategically against enemies, helping to overcome even the toughest adversaries.
This guide outlines all the various status effects and conditions, categorizing them into positive and negative effects. We will also explore the concepts of Primers and Detonators, which are unique combat mechanics that allow you to combine certain status effects for more significant damage outcomes.
What Are Status Effects?
Status effects in Dragon Age: The Veilguard can impact both Rook’s allies and their enemies. Broadly speaking, these effects can be divided into positive and negative categories.
- Positive Effects: Also referred to as advantages in the game, these provide beneficial boosts that can temporarily enhance the capabilities of you and your allies.
- Negative Effects: These include debuffs and ailments—often called afflictions—that deal damage over time.
While it’s wise to avoid negative effects when they’re aimed at you, they can also be leveraged to quickly take down enemies.
Note: You can activate status effects through specific abilities or the passive traits of various items. If you find yourself affected by one, you’ll need to be patient and wait for the effect to wear off.
Positive Status Effects in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Here’s a breakdown of positive status effects that can benefit you during combat:
| Status Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Deflect | Absorbs damage from the next incoming attack. |
| Enhanced Damage | Boosts your base damage. |
| Immovable | Grants immunity to physical interruptions like knockbacks. |
| Invulnerable | Provides complete immunity to all damage types. |
| Penetration | Bypasses a portion of the target’s defense. |
| Precision | Guarantees that the next charged or final attack will be a critical hit. |
| Quickened | Reduces the cooldown of abilities. |
| Rallied | Increases damage dealt by Rook or their allies in a Rallied state. |
| Rejuvenation | Slowly restores health over time to a target. |
| Resistant | Improves the target’s resistance to all damage types. |
| Revival Charge | Grants a second chance when health reaches zero by using a companion’s Revival Charge. |
| Taunt | Redirects enemy focus to the companion who uses this ability. |
Negative Status Effects in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Here are the negative status effects that can hinder your progress:
| Status Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Arcane Mark | Light attacks from Mages stack and convert to an Arcane Bomb on the third hit, triggered with a heavy attack. |
| Bees! | Causes the target to take physical damage over time due to certain item effects. |
| Bleeding | Inflicts physical damage over time, increasing damage to health while ignoring barriers. |
| Blighted | Affects you negatively when you’re in Blight pools, enhancing Darkspawn while weakening you. |
| Burning | Inflicts fire damage over time and increases damage taken to the target’s armor. |
| Chilled | Deals cold damage over time, slowing the target’s movements and attacks. |
| Frozen | Paralyzes the target, preventing movement or attacks. |
| Knocked Back | Refers to a target forcibly pushed away from an attack. |
| Knocked Down | Causes a target to fall, immobilizing them temporarily. |
| Necrosis | Inflicts necrotic damage over time and bypasses magic barriers. |
| Overwhelmed | Increases stagger damage to the affected targets. |
| Quietus | Exclusive to the Emmrich companion, dealing necrotic damage over time. |
| Shocked | Inflicts both electric and stagger damage over time. |
| Siphoned | Delivers necrotic damage over time, restoring health to the user. |
| Staggered | Applies when the purple Stagger bar fills, enabling takedowns. |
| Sundered | Causes targets to take heightened damage from all sources. |
| Vulnerable | Reduces the target’s resistance to specific damage types. |
| Weakened | Lowers the damage output of a target in this state. |
What Are Primers and Detonators?
Primers and Detonators are essential combat features introduced during the Singing Blade story quest. They allow players to create devastating attacks by combining certain abilities.
A Primer applies status effects such as Sundered, Overwhelmed, or Weakened on an enemy, and then a corresponding Detonator will trigger a powerful explosion, indicated by a glowing rune around the enemy. When done correctly, this can unleash a significant amount of damage in an area around the target.
Tip: You can find potential Primer and Detonator combinations in the ability wheel. Always initiate with a Primer before following up with a Detonator to ensure maximum impact. Make sure to review the abilities of your party members to maximize the efficiency of this combat mechanic before heading into battle.
Primer and Detonator Abilities in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Here is a list of each character’s abilities associated with Primers and Detonators:
| Character | Abilities |
|---|---|
| Mage Rook | – Storm Surge (Applies Overwhelmed) – Chain Lightning (Applies Overwhelmed) – Meteor (Detonates Sundered) – Spirit Bomb (Detonates Sundered) – Corrupted Ground (Applies Weakened) – Entropic Sphere (Applies Weakened) – Dark Squall (Detonates Sundered) – Ice Blast (Applies Weakened) – Void Blade (Detonates Sundered) |
| Rogue Rook | – Storm’s Path (Detonates Overwhelmed) – Pilfer (Detonates Overwhelmed) – Toxic Dash (Applies Sundered) – Explosive Daggers (Applies Sundered) – Explosive Trap (Detonates Overwhelmed) – Static Strikes (Applies Weakened) – Reeling Bolt (Applies Weakened) |
| Warrior Rook | – Driving Kick (Detonates Weakened) – Bloody Advance (Applies Sundered) – Grappling Spear (Applies Overwhelmed) – Groundbreaker (Detonates Weakened) – Heroic Leap (Detonates Weakened) – Reaper (Detonates Weakened) – Titan Stomp (Applies Overwhelmed) – Blight Bane (Detonates Weakened) |
| Bellara | – Fade Bolts (Detonates Sundered) – Enfeebling Shot (Applies Weakened) |
| Davrin | – Heroic Strike (Applies Overwhelmed) – Death from Above (Detonates Sundered) |
| Emmrich | – Entangling Spirits (Applies Weakened) – Final Rites (Detonates Sundered) |
| Harding | – Heavy Draw (Detonates Overwhelmed) – Shred (Applies Sundered) |
| Lucanis | – Eviscerate (Detonates Overwhelmed) – Debilitate (Applies Sundered) |
| Neve | – Ice Breaker (Detonates Sundered) – Glacial Pace (Applies Weakened) |
| Taash | – Spitfire (Applies Overwhelmed) – Dragonfire Strike (Detonates Weakened) |
Utilizing these status effects, Primers, and Detonators effectively will enhance your gameplay experience in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.