Dragon Age Character Tier list.

Add to that that Solas' expertise is much more plot-relevant, and Dorian is much more likable and admirable and has a way cooler adventure with you to start the relationship off with, both of whom are romanceable while she isn't, and she's up against some pretty steep competition to fill out the mage slot in the party for any given mission. Not to mention that it's really common to play mage characters ourselves in Inquisition.

I think I took her out for some charity excursions just to stretch her legs a little in my last playthrough. Beyond that though, I've never voluntarily added her to the party.

Seriously though, Carver and Velanna over DAII Varric? DA:A and DAII Anders on the same grade? 

What do you like about Carver, Cole and Vivienne in particular? Not to tear it down or anything, just curious about your tastes. 


Huh. I didn't really think about which companions are actually most useful in combat. Solas is usually my rock throughout most of Inquisition, healing and keeping the rest of us alive. I'll never forget the moments I realized how useful his Dispel Magic thingy was for Rifts and for the Crestwood dragon's lightning DOTs. Definitely the most underrated spell in the game.

An ALL mage party taking on a dragon? It must have been quite the challenge you've heroically needed to surpass! You deserve a medal for that fight.

Dragon fighting and Viv's knight-enchanter skill is one reason I hadn't dumped her into the lowest level tier. The enchanter blade she can summon will inflict a high amount of damage against a dragon. It's a much better weapon to use than a staff. However, strutting around in paper armour near a stomping dragon won't make you live long and Viv will be too dense to do it anyway. You'll probably get one good stab out of it by manually guiding her to do it and then she'll keel over. In theory, due to this skill, she has a slight edge over the other mages against a dragon. However, I don't bring mages to dragon fights. Overall, Viv's base stats don't seem to be worse than other mages, but the AI on her behalf just makes the worst decisions. It's like her brain gets removed with her hat. If it weren't for base stats and enchanter blade being useful in special circumstances, I'd have ranked her even worse.

All dragons I've encountered were ridiculously immune to any form of magic and mage weaponry was doing next to no damage. I always use Cass to tank and then bring Varric and Sera (the best Inq dragon slayer imho). I enjoy playing mage class the best, so, I have to bring Inky, otherwise, I'd kick myself out too and bring Blackwall to serve as a second tank in case Cass decides to take a napsy.

Dorian is a ridiculously handsome genius. He deserves all the credit in the world.

I've seen Dorian attacked by an archer that was positioned on a hill above Dorian.

a) Dorian ressed a pile of bones that were closest to the archer
b ) those bones attacked the archer and distracted him from Dorian
c) Dorian blasted that archer silly with his pointy stick while the bones were being used as a distraction

I didn't make him do it. He figured it out on his own. The way Dorian behaves, very closely imitates my own battle decisions, thus, I ranked him in the top tier. Not only is he smoking hot, but he smokes his enemies.

Knowing Viv, she probably would have summoned her enchanter blade and ran uphill while swallowing arrows only to flop dead at that archer's feet.

I've been thinking about that too and my reaction is very much the same. Due to her base stats being no worse, it is possible to tweak/gear her into behaving in a decent manner in combat, providing you're willing to invest twenty times greater amount of time and effort than on your other characters. The thing is, her cold attitude doesn't really inspire me to make such investment when Solas and Dorian are much more relevant and friendlier to use. After all, this game is about spending most of your time blasting Cory silly and exploring huge maps, not managing Madam La Fer's personal statistics screen, though, she probably thinks she deserves all that attention.



I guess it is underrated by me too in terms of dragons, although, I use them on rifts plenty. I'll have to consider it a bit more. I love mages and use them just about everywhere, but Inquisition Dragon slaying is the only place where I bench them. Sera is just TOO good with her insane DPS. What can I say, a dragon that won't use me as a snack is a quickly dead one.

You've lost me a bit here by mashing all three games into one pile. You need to break it down and elaborate each part.

Leli isn't a party member in DAI, she can't be chosen at all.

You dislike Leli? Why so? In DAO or in DAI or both?

For power rating, I found her to be one of the weakest in DAO party, but she is the best at lockpicking. That skill, plus the bard buff was the sole reason to drag her around. If Zev was better at chests, I'd never use her. In terms of personality, I do like her in DAO. It was harder to place her in Inq because she isn't a party member, so, she went into 'special skills' slot.



I also appreciate how she's written. She does have certain qualities I can respect her for, but respect is not the same as liking someone.

I can't say there is any Dragon Age party member whom I'd fully despise. Some like Sebastien sure annoy me though. That's the only humourless party member and preachy to boot. I have no idea how he survives in Kirkwall without humour as a coping mechanism.

For me too I do tend to segregate my opinion on how much I like a character (as a person) versus how well written or voice acted they are. They all sort of belong in seperate segregated spheres for me because how good or bad or likable someone is has little to do with the competency as a writer. On the other end of this spectrum, for instance, is Morrigan. I rather like her personally as a person...I just don't think she's that well written (owing to her friendship/rivalry issues)

Its just more the friendship and rivalry system with her I find to be really inconsistent. It makes it really hard to get to know her and get into some of her really good character stuff when so much is dependant on you getting that friendship stuff up which always is so hard since its hard to find out what will set her off.

I like Carver the most because I resonate a lot with his character. He perceives himself to be the underdog amongst the group and wants to carve (pun not intended) out a space for himself, and I just really like that trait. He's also pretty impudent and brash, but also has his moments of showing brotherly affection to Hawke, which I just adore.

Cole is, simply put, adorable. I like his naivety, I enjoy his antics around Skyhold, and I especially like how he's able to unsettle so many other normally unshakeable characters like Vivienne and Dorian with his banter.

In Vivienne's case, I mainly like her because I agree with her politics. She's also surprisingly kind to the Inquisitor in some ways - whether she's being calculating or not is irrelevant to me, I just appreciate that trait. On a more superficial level, I also like the style of her outfits, I love her voice actor, and I enjoy the fact that she's the first black party member in the series (though I really do wish they made her less divisive).

As for the other characters you mentioned: I like Velanna because she's a breath of fresh air compared to most other characters you get. She's surly, messy, and chaotic, and I love that for her. DAII Varric is a toady. The way he ingratiates himself unto Hawke so quickly always annoyed me, and also gives me Garrus from ME2 and ME3 vibes, who I also dislike a lot. DA:A and DAII Anders are both similarly annoying characters to me just in different ways. I would've put DAII Anders in F tier but, as much as I hate to admit it, his romance was my most favorite out of all the ones I've played (even though all the mlm romances are pretty weak/banal for me personally) so I bumped him higher.

Far not thousands... That was the war, but that was started by the Seekers and the Templars for their wounded pride.
And gaslight? Oh yes, Hawke gaslights Anders in rivalry for years... He never gaslights Hawke. He lies. Once.

Also:

Here's mine

Too many discreet categories afflicts me with analysis paralysis, so I kept it simple.