Dragon Age: Inquisition – Best Unkillable Blackwall Build

Once the party reaches Skyhold in Dragon Age: Inquisition, a War Table operation opens that brings specialists to the fortress who can train the Inquisitor in one of three class-specific areas of combat. Each specialization area opens a new skill tree with more advanced active and passive abilities players can pick up each time their Inquisitor reaches a new level. Players can also spec and re-spec their companions, each of whom also specializes in one of these areas.

Companion Blackwall specializes as a Champion. Thanks to his checkered past, players may not choose to recruit him, or he may not remain a companion in the Inquisition for long, but if players can manage to hold onto him, he will make one of the best and most indestructible tanks in the game, even when playing on the hardest difficulty setting. Warriors, particularly Champions, can take some of the heaviest hits, making them excellent tanks to place in front of the biggest and most challenging enemies.

How To Build Blackwall Prior to Unlocking Specializations

Picking Skills

An unkillable Blackwall are the kind of characters players will want beside them during their Nightmare Mode runs or while fighting High Dragons. Blackwall’s fighting style matches his gruff exterior and can be an asset during the more challenging fights in the main game and the DLCs. Here’s how to build Blackwall to be virtually unkillable in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

While specializations don’t unlock until the party reaches Skyhold following the events of “In Your Heart Shall Burn,” players can recruit Blackwall from the Hinterlands long before this. While it is always possible to re-spec a character by purchasing The Tactician’s Renewal amulet from the Blacksmith, players can save coins by starting to build Blackwall into an unkillable heavy-hitter outside the Champion specialization.

The player will want to pay particular attention to the Weapon, Shield, and Vanguard trees. The Weapon and Shield tree has some impressive guard passives, and the Vanguard tree will help Blackwall close gaps between himself and the largest enemy and generate guard as he attacks.

From the Weapon and Shield Tree, players will want to pick up the following:

• Shield Wall
• Payback Strike
• Warrior’s Resolve (Passive)
• Turn the Bolt (Passive)
• Turn the Blade (Passive)
• Shield Bash

The active skills in this tree should help players use Blackwall in battle through the game’s midpoint, but they are most needed to unlock the more important guard passives. The four passives in this tree reduce damage taken by a hit with any weapon. Bear Mauls the Wolves, in particular, increases Blackwall’s Constitution (HP) and prevents him from being flanked by an enemy.

Players should grab upgrades Sweet Revenge (for Payback Strike) and Ring the Bell (for Shield Bash) when they have more points to spend, as these allow Blackwall to make heavier hits.

From the Vanguard Tree, players will want to pick up the following skills:

• War Cry and its upgrade Call to Arms
• Challenge
• Untouchable Defense (Passive)
• Charging Bull and its upgrade Gore and Trample
• Cutting Words (Passive)

Players will want to pick up War Cry and its upgrade as soon as possible, as each use of this generates a 200% bonus guard for Blackwall and makes it harder for enemies to kill him. Charging Bull is the same. The ability itself will allow Blackwall to close the distance between himself and an enemy, build guard for every enemy hit, and eliminate cooldown times once the upgrade has been added.

The other two passives in this tree are not listed here, Trust the Steel and It’ll Cost You, and are good to have for guard improvement but not necessities for Blackwall once his Champion skill tree unlocks.

Players can wait to pick these up until after they complete the main build if they want to spend a few more points. Livid is also an excellent skill to have, along with its upgrade. It still Stands for another 20% boost to guard, but if players want to conserve points, it can be picked up at later levels.

This part of the build requires a minimum of 13 points, which correspond to 13 levels. When the Champion tree unlocks, players can start picking up skills from it, even if they don’t have all the skills from these other trees yet.

How to Build Blackwall Using the Champion Specialization in Dragon Age: Inquisition

Top Picks For Special Abilities

As with many other specialization skill trees in Dragon Age: Inquisition, it’s a good idea for players to pick up everything on this tree except the Focus ability (which is always optional). For the Champion Tree, this includes several ability upgrades. The important skills from this tree are:

• Line in the Sand
• Bulwark (Passive)
• Adamant (Passive)
• To The Death and its upgrade En Garde
• Resilience (Passive)
• Unyielding (Passive)
• Walking Fortress and its upgrade Siege-Breaker

To The Death can be dangerous, as it increases the strength of an enemy’s hit but also increases the amount of damage hitscause them. With the upgrade, Blackwall will gain guard whenever the enemy takes damage.

The entire build hinges on Walking Fortress, making Blackwall vulnerable to attack and damage. With the upgrade, every hit an enemy lands adds to his guard and reduces his ability cooldown times. Added to all the guard passives in this build, Blackwall will not lose health and will not die.

Line in the Sand is required to access better abilities, though it is not particularly strong compared to many others available. Players are advised to remove it from the hot bar once they pick up the more potent skills like Walking Fortress and To The Death if they find they have run out of ability slots.

How to Enchant Equipment For Blackwall in Dragon Age: Inquisition

Adding Masterworks To Equipment

To further improve Blackwall’s survivability in battles against any enemy, players will not want to neglect his armor. Dragon Age: Inquisition allows players to craft high-level armor for their party, to which they can add Masterworks. Masterworks are Fade-touched crafting materials that give the wearer special abilities.

Players will want to craft one of the Heavy Armor Schematics for Blackwall. They can imbue it with one of two kinds of Masterwork material. The most beneficial is any Fade-touched material that grants a higher chance to drop Walking Fortress on a hit. Since this is the quintessential invincible Champion ability, the more frequently it can be used, the more invulnerable Blackwall will become.

The other possible Masterwork item is any Fade-touched material that grants 5 or more Guard per hit. With this equipped, the more hits Blackwall lands on an enemy, the more protected he becomes.

Players can also craft unique swords and shields, and they can include one of these Fade-touched materials in each. This doubles up on the Masterwork abilities, improving the chances of Blackwall staying alive and at full health through any fight. Many players choose to keep Blackwall as a one-handed weapon Warrior specifically to take advantage of the extra Masterwork.

Some other players switch Blackwall or their Champion Inquisitor to a two-handed weapon once they have most of these abilities, so the Warrior doesn’t just stay alive and prolong a fight but also hits harder. This is especially useful in Nightmare Mode, where enemies can pose a real challenge.

If they are useful, players can include two-handed weapon options in Blackwall’s specs, particularly Mighty Blow, Pommel Strike, and Whirlwind. The passives in this tree are also nice, especially Shield Breaker, to get through an enemy’s defenses.

Weapons & Armor For Blackwall

Useful Equipment To Finish The Build

You have many options for specific types of equipment to use. For some general ideas, you can look at JC Lee’s suggestions for Tank and Support weapons, which would go well with Blackwall’s abilities, but there are many more options to cover.

Best Weapons

If you just want a good weapon with a defensive boost, you should look for Edgewise. This is a unique Greatsword with a +50 Armor Rating and +14 Constitution. It also has a large amount of DPS and AOE damage. You can find this sword in Skyhold in Undercroft.

For a good craftable weapon, you will want to look for the Masterwork Brute Hammer Schematic. It is a Maul Schematic with Rune and Upgrade Slots. It can have one Masterwork equipped and a fair amount of damage available. You can do a lot with this hammer, especially if you have a helpful Masterwork like those described before equipped.

Best Armor

For Armor, while it is recommended that you craft your own to get the Masterwork bonus, the Revered Defender Armor is no joke. It is Heavy Armor with the following stats:

However, if you craft the same armor using the Schematic, you will get additional crafting slots that allow you to upgrade Armor, Defense, Utility, and a Masterwork slot.

Crafting Slots Bonus:

• Armor: 19 Metal
• Defense: 10 Cloth
• Defense: 10 Leather
• Utility: 14 Metal
• 1 Masterwork

Likewise, you can either obtain or craft the Revered Defender Helm for Helmets. Getting the schematic again means you can get larger bonuses for those items. The main difference is that two Crafting Slots on the Schematic can add an Armor and Utility bonus. Obviously, these are all just suggestions, and there are plenty of other great weapons and Armor to try.

Other Equipment

You can put a few other pieces of equipment on your Champion, including Amulets, Belts, and Rings. None of these are as important as your other equipment items, but they give you some perks and bonuses that can improve your build. These are much more flexible than other items, but some suggestions exist.

For Amulets, one consumable Amulet can give you a bonus before swapping it out. This is the Amulet of Power, which gives you an ability point. This is great for getting your skill tree going faster before you can find a new Amulet that can give you some extra bonuses. You will likely want to look for the Master Cooldown Amulet to reduce his cooldown even more, letting Blackwall get more use out of his skills.

There is no consumable belt or ring now; you will want to look for specific ones. You cannot craft these, so you don’t have to worry about that. Something like the Master Guard Belt can help you take more damage by increasing your Guard and tankiness.

For Rings, there are not as many clear options. For instance, some rings drain life, but Blackwall has plenty of HP and may not even lose it due to the high Guard. Pick something that gives you a bit of an edge in combat.

These are all only suggestions; the skills are what make this build what it is. However, they can help, and you should try them out, given the chance. With that, you should have plenty of ways to keep Blackwall fully unkillable and create the best version of Blackwall you can in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Video Credit: YouTube/JC Lee

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Systems

Released

November 18, 2014

Developer(s)

BioWare

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language

How Long To Beat

50 Hours

X|S Enhanced

No

File Size Xbox Series

45 GB (November 2023)

Metascore

89 (PS4); 85 (Xbox One & PC)

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