A life of near slavery has been deeply ingrained into Luka’s mind. From one bad prison, to forced labor, to trapped and forgotten – Luka’s eyes have always fallen upon freedom. After Hawke destroyed the Carta prison Luka was captured in, she has been traveling and perfecting her alchemical art. The Inquisition interests her desires to stop prison life.
The alchemist is the first class I fell in love with. It’s just different enough, backs explosives, and with stealth elements to make is simply fun in Dragon Age Inquisition. If you want to build it similarly to the Assassin, you absolutely can do so. The core mechanics I like from the Assassin are present in Alchemist builds. Or, you can just blow everything up – both are solid options.
Let’s look at these explosive abilities:
Alchemy:
Tier 1:
Elemental Mines – 50% weapon damage per, chill 8 secs, fire 50% damage for 8 secs, shock 9 secs, 24 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Throw Everything – uses all stamina, each 5 sta adds one more bomb
Tier 2:
Flank of Frost – 85% damage resistance, 5 secs duration, freezes attackers 1 secs, 32 cooldown, 20 sta
- -Taunts foes on you in 5 meters
Sneak Attack – 15% crit chance on flanks, +3 Cun
Poisoned Weapons – apply poison for 10 secs, 25% weapon damage per sec, last 8 secs, 24 secs cooldown, 20 sta
- -Infected Wounds – -25% more poison damage
Tier 3:
Alchemy Mastery – Any alchemy status last 25% longer, +3 Cun
Dance of Death – kills grant 50 sta, +3 con
Unorthodox – +3 Dex, +6 Cun
Tier 4:
Mercy Killing – auto crit on sleeping and panicked foes
Knockout Bomb – puts target to slepe for 10 secs, 20 secs cooldown, 53 sta
- -Comatose – Harder to wake up enemies
Fighting Dirty – Sunder and poison effects last 25% longer, +3 Dex
Toxic Cloud – 8 secs, 3 meters, 15% weap damage per sec, 32 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Contact Poison – 5 secs cooldown reduction, 25% weap damage per sec, 8 secs duration
Explosive Toxin – 8 secs duration, 3 meters, 50% weap damage a sec, +3 Dex
Tier 5:
Killer’s Alchemy – do 15% bonus damage after using a potion or flask for 10 secs, +3 Con
Flask of Fire – foes bounce off you for 5 secs, abilities cost no sta, 32 secs cooldown, 20 sta
- -Unquenchable Flames – abilities don’t have cooldowns while active
Ride the Storm – all elixirs last 3 more second, +3 Dex
Cunning:
Tier 1:
Stealth – invisible, damage bonus 50%, last 30 secs, 24 cooldown, 20 sta
- -Lost in the Shadows – no activation time on stealth
Tier 2:
Parry – block damage and do 100% weap damage back if timed, 10 sta
- -Effortless Riposte – successful parries cost no sta
Ambush – attacks penetrate 50% armor for 6 seconds after stealth, +3 Dex
Evade – leap away, 2 secs cooldown, 20 sta
- -Hidden Step – leave damaging clone, 3 secs cooldown, 300% damage
Tier 3:
Disable – crits reduce enemy damage by 15% for 10 secs, effect stacks, +3 Dex
Unforgiving Chain – each hit increases crit rate by 1% until you crit, +3 Dex
Evasion – 5% dodge, +3 Dex
Tier 4:
Bloodied Prey – 10% more damage to foes with less HP than you, +3 Cun
Flank Attack – puts you behind target, 2 hits for 200% damage, 8 secs cooldown, 35 sta
- -Skirmisher – become stealth at end of attack
Knife in the Shadows – Always crti out of stealth, +3 Dex
Twin Fangs – 2 hits, 200% damage per hit, 200% bonus, 8 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Ripping Fangs – sunders and does 100% more damage if flanking
Gaps in the Armor – 25% armor pen, +3 Dex
Tier 5:
And Take Them Down – team gets 5% crit rate, +3 Dex
Shadow Strike – 400% damage after not being damaged for 5 secs, 200% stealth bonus, 16 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Quick Blade – -10 sta, -4 secs cooldown
Easy to Miss – 25% threat reduction, 100% when flanking, +3 Cun
Tier 6:
I was Never Here – refresh Stealth cooldown after any kill, +3 Dex
For Alchemist builds, I like to take from both the Alchemy and Cunning trees. Often I find myself going to the bottom of both. Hybrid builds are completely valid as well are specialized ones. To me, there are three real options. You can either go flank/bomb spec, pure melee/stealth, or poison/stealth. To get the full flavor of the Alchemist, I prefer the poison/stealth build. While melee/stealth works, I feel as if the Assassin does it better so go play an Assassin.
The premise of this build is getting in with burst damage, getting poisons damage over time in, and then leaving poison trails behind you. Taking out weaker targets to get the poison flowing for large scale AoE dots. For this build, you’ll need Stealth, Poison Weapons, Toxic Cloud, and then something of your choice – I like Shadow Strike for that upfront damage. Accompany these skills with passives like Alchemy Mastery, Explosive Toxin, Ambush, and I was Never Here. This allows for quick hits, Stealth, longer poison, random stealth opportunities from poison kills.
There are SO many options for builds with this class. For me, it took several promotions to find what I like more. I sometimes drop Toxic Cloud for Throw Anything because that is the real bread and butter of the class and I miss it when I don’t have it. Play around, blow some s@#$ up, have fun with it! Good luck.
