So what's your preference?

I tend to want my character's class to mesh with their backstory, so I try my best to do that even if the result is less fun for me to play. In Origins I mostly play casteless dwarves and city elves and I generally make them rogues.

And I'm too attached to mage Hawke to play as anything else.

That said, Inquisition made me appreciate warriors in a way I never had before. Being an unkillable death-dispensing walking fortress was great!

I often wind up being shuffled into Rogue because I like playing an Archer, so I appreciate that DAO lets me be a Warrior Archer.

Warrior. I like swords. That's pretty much it.

To be more serious, in DAO, mage used to be my canon. I really enjoy having an elemental build and a ranged attacker. However, after playing DAI, I've discovered that I actually prefer warrior as my canon class. I do like swords; that part is accurate. I also like controlling the battlefield with knock-downs, taunts, threat-generating abilities, and being a tank.

The only game where warrior will not be my main class is DA2 because dagger rogue is so damn FUN in that game.

Dual wielding warriors are seriously powerful. Sure, you get knocked over sometimes but normally you kill stuff so fast it doesn't even matter.

I've heard people say things like "If you want to dual wield you should play a rogue" but in my experience the warrior is more effective.

There's no constant repositioning, no worrying about getting killed by a stray arrow, you just wade into the fray and destroy everything. Doesn't matter that you can't backstab - warriors gain twice as much damage per level as rogues. I found revenants a nightmare playing a dual wielding rogue (can't hit them and Maker help you if they hit you), but with a warrior they just melt away under your onslaught.

Dual-wielding rogues are just the best and only way to play, IMO.

Warrior.

There's a reason the legends are about Arthur, and not Merlin, about Robin Hood, and not Will Scarlett.

Warrior-Rogue dual class. Yes, I cheat to give my Wardens two classes but it is so worth it.

I prefer close-combat Rogue-type characters, not just in DA, but in all games where possible. Where possible, I preference speech checks over other abilities, as I like to have all possible dialogue options.

Even without Arcane Warrior you can get them with mage: A few points in dexterity in order to use daggers (which you'll need either way in order to dodge), bring down their health with a few spells, then come into close quarters to finish the job. My mage was like that. Close and personal. Blood mage who preferred finishing people with his dagger. Plus dagger fits more with the unwashed-apostate-hobo blood-mage vibe I was going with. Skip the robes and put some leather armor.

Warrior-Mage, or rather, Mage-Warrior.
Arcane Warrior and Spirit Healer basically outline my archetype.
In Awakening I also pick up Battlemage.

Healing, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Spirit.

If I play as a Warrior, it's Shield abilities, Templar, and Champion, I pick up Spirit Warrior in Awakening.

But Arcane Warrior with Spirit Healer is where I'm at.

 

All true, except for there being a difference between stereotypes and archetypes. The tendency is for warriors to be more disciplined and honorable and practical and willing to work with and put themselves on the line for others, for rogues to have criminal and anti-social motives, and for mages to be scholarly and dissociated from the destruction they can cause from afar.

I've played mercenary -or worse- warriors and humanitarian rogues. But realistically, few people who can pick locks and pockets and specialize in stabbing people in the back have any honorable place normal society. And few who spend all their time reading books and/or conducting experiments to increase their power or standing know what it means to put your back into something, or how to live a fulfilling life working with people who depend on you.

I'm not saying that exceptions don't exist, just that each set of skills and lifestyles and experience obviously complement a different set of philosophies and ways of approaching the world, and I like the warrior's one best.

Your dismissal of training as something people "just get" seems to be the root of your misunderstanding. Training is one of the things people most identify themselves by, and the lessons and experiences one picks up during training are some of the most central you ever have, especially if you go into it young.

Warriors of all kinds train by learning to work with each other and push their bodies and follow and give clear directives intelligently, and to look danger in the face and try to end it while also protecting oneself and the people standing on each side of one. That's pretty damn admirable.