Dragon Age Inquisition Companions for Knight-Enchanter

I'm staring my 1st playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition as a Knight-Enchanter mage. I was hoping to get your thoughts on the best companions to work with the knight-enchanter.

All ideas welcome.

It doesn't really matter in my experience. Even on the hardest difficulty i don't recall the game being difficult. I always went with companions who fit the context of where the story was at for banter and exposition.

It matters pretty much bupkis. Because of the environment and encounter design, the companions are largely interchangeable from a gameplay standpoint. This isn't Dragon Age: Origins where characters are filling a very specific role within the party - in Inquisition pretty much every character can fill just about every role. Just about everyone has a single target damage ability, an AoE of some sort, an escape move, and some sort of added defense. It might have a different coat of paint, but they functionally do the same thing.

The equipment you give them and how fast you can mash the basic attack matter a lot more than party composition.

It helps to have a Fighter, either Blackwall or The Seeker on harder difficulties at lower levels. There are some higher level crafting options that give any class the ability to generate "Guard" which is good at absorbing damage and will make certain encounters more enjoyable.

That being said the Knight Enchanter has the best Barrier generation/uptime out of all the classes - I often ran Solas, Dorian and Varric and didnt run into any issues with three barriers to use on cooldown. I would sub out Solas for another companion for story reasons but usually always kept Dorian and Varric around because they're delightful.

I appreciate your ideas. This is the kind of information I need.

Any other ideas would be helpfull.

Varric is always great to have around because of his connection with DA2 and his general humor. Cassandra is a great foil for Varric. People love Iron Bull but I personally found him to be a bore. Cole is a lame imitation of Thane's speaking style. Solas is more interesting the more you play him (upward climb for sure). Blackguard, the Gray Warden, wasn't even interesting to bring on the mission set that involved the Gray Wardens...

I guess my advice ultimately is to get to know the characters, and fill your party based on the situation and your preference, less so because of Tank/DPS sort of considerations.

Edit: note that this is probably bad advice.

Are you planning on playing in a more tank roll, or DPS with Knight Enchanter? That will be a good jumping off point for other suggestions.

As others have said, it's not really that important for most fights, but some of the later DLC fights (like the Hakkon fight in the ice cave) may require more thought.

@anchorsahoy: I'm not sure at this point. I should mention that this is going to be my 1st RPG game. I'm really looking forward to playing just want to make sure I start out the right way. I'd hate to make the wrong decisions in the being and get discouraged. I understand I'll be learning as I go and I'm totally cool with that. Just want to have fun and not die every 5 min...lol

@aem2169: Gotcha. As a side note, there's an item in the game that allows you to respec your talents whenever you want, so don't be afraid to experiment!

Most mage abilities give you advantage at range to start off, then with KE it's all about getting in close. If you're looking to do damage (which is the more fun way to play in my opinion), I would recommend targeting these skills before unlocking the KE specialization:

-Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Energy Barrage, Immolate or Chain Lightning, Fire Mine or Static Cage, Fade Step (for mobility), and Barrier (it keeps you and your squad up longer)

Once you have KE unlocked, I'd recommend:

-Spirit Blade, Fade Cloak (specialize for Decloaking Blast), Veiled Reposte, and Combat Clarity

All of that will make more sense when you start playing and see the talent descriptions lol

@anchorsahoy: Thank you. Your opinion is very much appreciated. I hope your going to be around for awhile. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions...lol!

Unless you're playing on the hardest difficulty and/or have some of the extra challenges enabled, I would just bring along whoever you like the most. I will say, though, that having a "tank" (Warrior) can make the game more enjoyable by keeping enemies off of you. I also like the archer more than mages in the DA games, because they can move while attacking rather than being rooted in place. But just do whatever you enjoy~

(The real advice for this game is to not spend forever in the Hinterlands/starting area. It's a huge world with varied maps & places to explore that are way more interesting than Hinterlands)

Thank yu all for your advice. I truely appreciate it. I'm going to start off with:

(Me) KE Mage

Blackwell

Cassandra

Sera

Then I'll use Cole and Dorian as needed.