Best Tank Companion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard: The Ultimate Guide

Key Takeaways:

1. Davrin excels as the top tank with balanced defense and taunt capabilities, ideal for protecting your party.
2. Taash offers a more offensive tanking option for players needing extra damage output in addition to taunt control.
3. Tactical HUD usage is crucial for activating tank abilities, ensuring your tank draws enemy focus.

As BioWare’s highly anticipated fourth installment in the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard brings players back to Thedas for an adventure brimming with new companions, strategic combat, and challenging enemy encounters. Set ten years after Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Veilguard introduces a fresh cast of companions to recruit, each with unique abilities and backstories. In this guide, we’ll focus on the best tank companion for managing the battlefield, keeping enemies focused away from your protagonist, Rook, and ensuring the survival of your party.

Understanding Tanks in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, tanks are the backbone of your party’s survival, specializing in drawing enemy “aggro” to protect Rook and other teammates. Since companions lack health bars and can’t be permanently killed in combat, your tank’s role centers on diverting enemy attacks away from Rook, who will be targeted by default.

Of the seven companions you’ll meet in The Veilguard, two, Davrin and Taash, are warriors capable of filling the tank role. Both possess unique abilities that allow them to taunt enemies into attacking them instead. The key difference? Davrin is tailored more for defense, while Taash leans toward a hybrid role with higher offensive output.

Top Tank Companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

When choosing a tank, your best options are Davrin, a steadfast Grey Warden, and Taash, a formidable Qunari dragon hunter. Each offers unique strengths based on their skill sets, making them suited to different player styles.

1. Davrin: The Defensive Tank

Davrin’s sword-and-shield setup makes him the quintessential tank, designed to absorb damage while maintaining enemy focus. His taunt ability, Battle Cry, attracts nearby enemies and holds their attention long enough to protect your party. Davrin’s abilities and gear upgrades reinforce his defensive stance, ensuring he can withstand prolonged assaults from waves of enemies.

• Battle Cry Ability: The Battle Cry ability is essential for Davrin’s tank role, drawing enemy attention and reducing threats to your Rook. Activating this ability through the tactical HUD during intense moments in battle keeps him in control of the battlefield.
• Skill Upgrades:
  • Breathing Room: Restores 50 health per second during taunt.
  • Overprotective: Automatically triggers Battle Cry at low health, offering a vital safety net.
  • Quick to Anger: Reduces cooldown by 20%, keeping Battle Cry readily available.
  • Echo: Doubles Battle Cry’s radius, extending its reach to more enemies.
  • Brawler: Increases damage for every taunted enemy, adding offense to his defensive skill set.
• Best Equipment for Davrin:
  • Reforged Bulwark: Boosts Davrin’s taunt effectiveness and stagger effect against enemies.
  • Sharpened Hook Knife: Increases taunt duration and damage to taunted enemies, making Davrin even more reliable in his tank role.

With his robust defensive focus, Davrin is ideal for players using a Mage or Rogue class for Rook, as he can take the brunt of physical attacks and keep the team safe.

2. Taash: The Offensive Off-Tank

If your tanking preference leans toward damage output with a dose of crowd control, Taash makes a solid choice. Wielding dual axes, Taash is designed for high damage, and her Dragon’s Roar taunt ability lets her pull enemies into range and dish out punishment at close quarters. Though not as defensive as Davrin, she’s a great option if you want a tank who can double as a damage dealer.

• Dragon’s Roar Ability: Similar to Davrin’s Battle Cry, this taunt ability directs enemies to focus on Taash, giving your team the breathing room needed to stay safe.
• Skill Upgrades:
  • Quick to Anger: Reduces cooldown, increasing Dragon’s Roar availability.
  • Goad: Boosts damage dealt to taunted enemies by 10%.
  • Enraged: Extends the taunt duration, holding enemy focus longer.
  • Shouting Taunt: Widens the taunt’s effective radius.
  • Flaming Roar: Adds 300 fire damage to each taunted enemy, maximizing offensive impact.
• Best Equipment for Taash:
  • Tusk of Glory: This weapon lets Taash apply taunt through normal attacks, even if Dragon’s Roar is on cooldown, enhancing her control over enemy movement.
  • Viridian Tusk: Adds extra damage specifically against dragons, capitalizing on her Qunari heritage as a dragon hunter.

For players running a Warrior Rook or those who prefer an aggressive playstyle, Taash’s offensive skills make her an excellent choice, particularly in fights where crowd control and high damage are key.

Using Davrin and Taash Effectively

Both Davrin and Taash benefit significantly from skill upgrades and careful tactical HUD use during fights. Here’s how to maximize each character’s potential as a tank.

Davrin’s Tanking Tactics

To optimize Davrin’s taunt effectiveness, place his Battle Cry ability on your HUD. This allows you to monitor its cooldown and activate it when enemies begin to threaten Rook. Pairing Battle Cry with gear like the Sharpened Hook Knife or Reforged Bulwark lets him sustain the taunt longer and handle more enemies without downtime.

Additionally, equipping the Regroup rune on Rook’s lyrium dagger enables you to reset companion abilities, allowing Davrin to reuse Battle Cry and keep control during long fights.

Taash’s Off-Tank Strategy

Taash’s Dragon’s Roar benefits from similar tactics, but you’ll want to prioritize her offensive abilities to unleash extra damage against taunted foes. Use the tactical HUD to activate Dragon’s Roar at the start of each enemy wave, keeping Rook and any ranged fighters out of harm’s way.

Using Quick to Anger and Enraged passives reduces downtime and boosts Dragon’s Roar duration, ensuring Taash can handle large groups without leaving Rook exposed. The Tusk of Glory weapon is another crucial piece of gear, allowing her to taunt specific enemies between Dragon’s Roar activations.

FAQ: Tank Companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Q1: Can Mage or Rogue classes act as tanks in The Veilguard?
A: Mage and Rogue classes aren’t ideal for tanking in The Veilguard. Their skills focus on damage or crowd control rather than defense, and they lack taunt abilities, making it difficult to hold enemy attention. While crowd control can work as a pseudo-tank tactic, it won’t provide the same stability as a Warrior with taunt abilities.

Q2: Is a tank companion necessary in every fight?
A: Yes, if you’re not playing as a Warrior, a tank companion is crucial for handling tougher battles, especially on higher difficulty settings. Having a tank keeps the enemies off your Rook and ensures better control over the battlefield. Lower difficulty settings may be more forgiving, but having a reliable tank will still make combat smoother.

Q3: Are Davrin and Taash’s taunts effective against all enemy types?
A: Both Battle Cry and Dragon’s Roar work on most enemies, but some powerful bosses may resist these taunts. For these battles, it’s essential to have alternative defensive strategies, such as equipping the Overprotective passive to trigger auto-defenses or using crowd control abilities on Rook.