r/DragonAgeVeilguard

What if Vorgoth is one of the very first liches, so old that even his bones have disintegrated and all that's left is his essence, which comes across as that black billowing smoke? Or maybe he was a lich who got cremated against his will and reformed using whatever magic they use to make liches to begin with?

Hello all!

When I first played Veilguard, something that stuck out to me as odd was that Elgarnan, the leader of the Evanuris, was linked to the archdemon Lusacan rather than Dumat, since Dumant was the leader of the Old God pantheon in the old Tevinter religion, and supposedly the strongest among them. I've spent (a small part of) the past two years trying to reconcile this.

Then it hit me: Maybe Dumat wasn't always considered the leader of the Old Gods.

Dragon Age has never shied away from how religion and politics can mix. The Book of Shartan was removed from the Chantry's canon for political reasons, to help justify the Exalted March on the Dales, for example. We also know from the codex entries that, despite the high priests being able to talk to their gods in their dreams, they still bickered amongst each other about how to build the Imperium and its symbols, such as the Archon's palace.

And then we can look at real world religions. In the Ancient Near East, most of the nations believed in the same pantheon of gods, but each of the small states asserted that their god was the one who was head of the pantheon and the one who killed Tiamat. What if the religion of the Old Gods was similar?

What if there were power struggles among the high priests of the Old Gods throughout the Imperium's hay-day? Maybe whichever god's cult had the most influence would change the officials stance of the religion to say that their god was the leader of the pantheon and the strongest among the gods.

When Corypheus lead the other Magisters Sindereal into the Black City, it just so happened that his cult (the cult of Dumat) was the one with the most influence (and probably had been for decades), and since that was the state the religion was left in when the First Blight devastated the Imperium and the high priests stopped being able to hear their gods, that was how history has remembered the Imperium's religion. So while Dumat was remembered as the strongest of the Old Gods, it was actually Lusacan, just as Elgarnan would have demanded when the Evanuris created their dragon thralls.

What do y'all think of this idea?

First and foremost, you're free to disagree and have your own opinion, just don't expect me to care, especially if you saw the title, clicked anyway and chose to get offended by what you're about to read. I just need to rant this off for a second cause oh my fucking GOD.

So, I'm almost done with my first and definitely without a shred of a doubt LAST "let's save Treviso and see what happens" playthrough. Usually, I save Minrathous cause Treviso is pretty much worthless to the gods and handing them Tevinter on a silver platter is about the dumbest move you can pull from a long term strategic perspective, but after reading that you miss a lot of Lucanis content, even if you don't romance him, if you abandon Treviso, I got curious and chose to save Treviso for this playthrough.

Holy.

Shit.

Never again. I'd guess I'm pretty much at the end of the road as far as the path differences go (Neve's and Lucanis's personal missions done, eclipse about to happen) and it's fucking horrible. Turns out, the Lucanis content I previously missed out on is completely trivial time wasting bullshit that adds NOTHING to him. Like wow, I get a new, bland walkthrough quest stating the painfully obvious (who could have EVER thought Lucanis suffers from having been imprisoned and tortured for a year? 😱) and giving Rook yet another chance to play therapist, cause we really needed that one. And it doesn't even lead anywhere. We basically get to tell Lucanis "hey buddy, you need to let go." That's it. This could have been a fucking conversation scene at the Lighthouse! I didn't need to waste 10 minutes walking through a Fade version of the Ossuary just to learn what I already knew and give Lucanis the most generic fucking advice a person could possibly come up with.

Oh but there's more! You wanna know what else I previously missed out on? A bland, nothingburger travel portion at the beginning of Lucanis's Veilguard hero quest. You know how you usually just get dropped off right at the secret entrance of Villa Dellamorte if you save Minrathous? Yeah, now you get a 10 minute "walk across some rooftops and fight some Venatori" wind up that adds literally nothing essential to that quest! 😃 Ain't that fun! But hey, at least you now finally get access to that damn chest in the spot where you fight the Darkspawn champion in Treviso that you can't get to otherwise. Wanna know what's inside? An upgrade to Lucanis's worst weapon. It's now slightly less useless. Hooray!

What else? Ooooh yeah, you now get the chance to spare Illario! You know, Illario? The absolute fucking pisswipe that got Lucanis imprisoned? Kidnapped Caterina? Allied with the Venatori? All just so he could satisfy his own greed? The fucking little traitorous shitstain of a bastard that would actually deserve the most painful death you could possibly imagine at Spite's hand, but you have to settle for throwing him in a cell cause Lucanis cares about the man that actively tried to kill him for some reason? Yeah. You get to let him get off the hook now! Ain't that somethin! 🥰

Man, Neve lost her home, her friends, her hope and her apartment for this bullshit. Not only that, but she completely gives in to her cynical side and just stops believing that good in the world is even real. Commander Lenos gets away with his bullshit and the people of Dock Town are freely used as cattle for blood rituals all so Lucanis can figure out how to be besties with the fucking literal DEMON in him. Now that's a whooole other rant right there, but this post is long enough already.

Treviso can burn in all my future playthroughs. I'm never subjecting myself to this asswipe story path again. 😖 Anyway, angry vent session over.

i know many cares more about aesthetics or lore but i think combat of this game is the real MVP. Thanks to passives from ability trees and items, there are so many cool synergies and build to do.

I lost interest in the standard combos after realizing they lack secondary effects and all deal the same type of damage. While you *can* customize them using companion armor—creating combos that freeze, heal, cover a wider area, and so on—I decided to focus on "critical" combos. They aren't officially named that, but that’s essentially what they are: setups where our abilities (or our companions') deal extra damage.

I then looked into cooldown reduction builds, given that cooldowns are quite long (unless the ability costs resources), and that’s where things get really fun. Aside from being able to chain combos constantly with Davrin (since *Death from Above* and *Helm of Light and Shadow* both cut cooldowns by 50%), I love the tactic of using two mages with Slow Time spell. If you use the upgrade that cuts companion cooldowns by 25% and combine it with the ability's innate 20% reduction, you hit a total reduction of 45%. Plus, using a Saboteur Rogue gives you a passive ability that reduces allies' cooldowns by 50% whenever you perform a takedown (while also triggering *Rally Party*). Basically, with a build focused on takedowns (making them easy to pull off) you can keep fighting while the fight is in slow motion. And if you use the sword that reduces allies' cooldowns during *Rally Party*, it becomes even easier.

What about you? Which mechanics or synergies did you find the most fun?

Warden: I killed a High Dragon in the mountains, an Archdemon dragon, a ghost dragon, and even fought Flemeth who turned into a dragon.

Hawke: Damn, that’s impressive! I only ever fought one High Dragon in a mine, but it was still probably the hardest fight of my career.

Rook: I think I got you beat, Warden. Let’s see, I fought the two blighted dragons, at least one Archdemon (I’ll be nice and credit Solas for the other Archdemon), a spirit dragon in the Fade, and Mythal’s dragon aspect.

Warden: Okay, I see you Rook. How about you, Inky? Think you can top that?

Inquisitor: (war-flashbacks of her 12 goddamn High Dragon fights, including an actual, literal dragon GOD)

Right at the start of the game, party members felt fairly impactful in combat. Not being able to control them does suck, and it's weird AF that enemies ignore them, but they did feel like they were doing damage at the very least least.

But, pretty quick, that absolutely vanished. Unless I'm calling in an air strike with the radial menu, my party members just feel like they are purely cosmetic. Like it's a solo action game pretending to be party-based.

Is there some core mechanic I'm probably messing up, that led to this result? Or is this just how it's going to be for the rest of the game?

For the last month or so, I've been trying to locate all the cosmetic appearance drops (found in small unmarked chests, enemy drops, quest rewards, etc.). I've started with universal armor/helm appearances & rogue weapon appearances. Out of the hundred+ in the game, I am down to two that I just cannot find anywhere, and they are haunting me.

Has anyone discovered the appearance locations for either the Corvid Calling Mask (Stormheart) or the Assassin's Shortbow (base, not the Antiva or Obsidian flavors)? The Corvid Calling Masks should be available to all classes, but the Assassin's Shortbow is a rogue-only shortbow skin.

Heck, I'd even settle for someone just naturally having them in their Wardrobe, as that would at least suggest it's something I'm overlooking vs. me looking through a haystack that forgot the needle.

Alternatively, has someone found a way with Frosty to backtrace where or how an appearance item might drop? Even a map region would be massive; as it is, I'm tediously crawling through every single quest & every single map looking in every single corner for these chests and drops, and while I've ruled out a lot of places, I'm not even sure at this point that they properly exist without mods.

Here are the places I'm 99.999% sure these two appearances aren't:

• >!on or after Tearstone Island!<
• >!in Treviso anywhere, including quest-specific areas like the Fallen Chantry or the Dellamorte Estates!<
• >!in Arlathan's quest-specific areas like the Fangscorcher region, Cyrian's quest, the Unwanted Guests region, & Arlathan Crater!<
• >!Blackthorne Manor a n y w h e r e!<
• >!anywhere in the Necropolis!<
• >!in Weisshaupt!<
• >!in any quest-specific region of Dock Town, including the Minrathous waterways for Dorian's quest!<
• >!in Dock Town anywhere!<
• >!in base Hossberg anywhere, including all enemy drops from quests!<
• >!in the Cauldron!<
• >!in the Blight eruption!<
• >!in base Rivain Coast, including the lava caves!<
• >!any official quest reward given for turning in a completed quest!<
• >!purchasable through any merchant!<

At this point, I suspect they are either enemy drops within a quest (such as the pirate weather mages from Dead Men Tell Some Tales dropping a Banded Mage Brim appearance) that I have just missed across four completionist playthroughs, or that they just didn't make it into a chest in the shipped game.

I would super, super appreciate any help if anyone happens to know even a rumor of these items being real & acquirable without mods! <3 Thanks!

So I recently downloaded the game and git the defiles edition upgrade and the weapon accessory set on my PS5. However, it just says that I purchased them, doesn’t show they are downloaded? When I go into “manage game content” it just says they are usable, not that they downloaded? Is there something else I need to do to download them?