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1. INTRODUCTION

Alright, welcome to the guide! I'm John, and welcome to my guide on Dual- Wielding Warriors for Dragon Age: Orgins. This is my first guide for DA:O. I am writing the guide purely from a casual player's perspective, because, let's face it, there isn't really any point to min-maxing in a single player game.

Having said that, however, it doesn't mean that we won't be optimizing our character. Of course, all I will be giving are recommendations, so you're free to disagree with anything written here. In fact, if you have your own opinions, I'd appreciate the feedback.

One last thing, I tried my best to avoid having spoilers whenever I can. For those bits of info that I find relevant to the DW Warrior, but could possibly be a spoiler to some people are compiled into their own section, so people can avoid them if they want to.

Anywho, let's get on with it, shall we?

1.1 What is the Dual-Wielding Warrior?

Anyone who has played a Warrior in DA:O knows that Warriors have all the talent trees for any weapon combination: 2-Handers, Dual Wielding, Archery and Shield talents to be exact. The name speaks for itself: A Dual-Wielding Warrior (or DW Warrior) uses 2 one-hand weapons and invests in talents around their use. It is a very easy build to play, and perfect for those new to the game.

DW Warriors are primarily damage dealers. They are terrible at tanking compared to Weapon+Shield Warriors, and the jury is still out on what Character class actually deals the most damage, but as I've said before, this guide is not about min-maxing and more about having fun with the game, so it doesn't really matter. That being said, there is something worth mentioning before we move on with the guide.

1.2 DW Warriors vs. DW Rogues

A lot of people might say "If you wanna DW, go with a Rogue." There are a lot of tempting reasons to go with a rogue over a DW Warrior. I will go over the various pros and cons between the 2 playstyles:

DW Rogue
+ Can open locked doors and chests and, detect and disarm traps
+ More criticals due to backstabbing
+ Stealth
- Damage is reliant on backstabbing which requires careful positioning, hence, idle moments while moving into position
- Typically low Armor, which pretty much means you're dead when you grab aggro
- Pretty much stuck with Dual Daggers when optimizing for damage

DW Warrior
+ No positioning required, which means you can go crazy right off the bat
+ Typically higher armor, which equates to better survivability
+ More weapon options, since they can afford to invest in Strength
- No backstabbing = Less criticals
- No Stealth
- No opening locks and disarming traps

Clearly, both playstyles have their merits. Utility-wise, a DW Rogue is better but has more complexity during play, so if you're anything like me and can't really be bothered with all that, go with a DW Warrior.