Knight-Enchanter Build Guide

knightenchantedupdated

*Updated for Patch 10 and Trespasser DLC

With the recent changes to Spirit Blade, the Knight-Enchanter specialization has changed quite significantly, but it is still powerful. Now, instead of using Spirit Blade all the time, you want to use it only when you have high Spirit Blade charges (90+), as shown by the tooltip above your skills bar.

Using Spirit Blade will expend the charges, so you will need to build them back up every time. As a result of these changes, this updated build focuses on rapidly building Spirit Blade charges.

Points Spent: 16+

Spirit: Barrier

Inferno: Immolate / Flashpoint / Clean Burn / Pyromancer / Fire Mine / Flaming Array / Chaotic Focus

Storm: Energy Barrage / Chain Lightning

Knight-Enchanter: Spirit Blade / Amplified Blade /  Combat Clarity / Fade Cloak / Decloaking Blast / Fade Shield

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Dragon Age Inquisition - skill legend

To build charges with the new spirit blade, you simply need to deal damage with a spell, or a normal staff attack. Each instance of damage will give you 5 charges (10 with the Amplified Blade upgrade) , up to a total of 99 charges; this is why skills like Energy Barrage are absolutely required for this build, since it attacks multiple times.

Note: you can vary this build in 2 ways – by going for Chain Lightning for your 10th skill point, or by taking Fade Step for more mobility instead; this is up to  personal preference. I take Chain lightning because it attacks multiple times (up to 6 with the upgrade) and complements Energy Barrage for quickly generating Spirit blade charges.

The basic idea behind this build is to deal lots of magic damage with your spells, while also building up charges quickly to use Spirit Blade for massive damage.

Basic  Gameplay:

  • Activate Barrier either yourself, or from another mage.
  • Start off the fight with a cast of Energy Barrage to build up your Spirit Blade charges to 99 (or close to 99), and get into melee range
  • Cast Spirit Blade once to use up the charges and deal massive damage – try to aim it in a way that hits multiple enemies
  • Use Fire Mine (with Flaming Array upgrade)
  • After this, continue using damage spells (Fade Cloak, Immolate, etc) with priority given to Energy Barrage to continue dealing damage and building charges

For your 8th ability, you can either take Resurgence (Knight-Enchanter Focus skill) or use Mark of the Rift if you are playing this build on your Inquisitor. It is really up to you which skill you prefer – Resurgence is better for helping your party survive, while Mark of the Rift is better for pure damage.

To conclude, you will notice that the core build requires only 16 points; I decided to make it as accessible as possible since KE is such a popular spec. Because of this, you have lots of ways to spend your later points (marked by the yellow exclamation mark in the build screenshot above). If  you’re looking for more damage, I would take the optional Storm skills ; if you’re struggling with mana/survivability, I’d take the optional Spirit points instead.

As always, if you guys have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments!

10 thoughts on “Knight-Enchanter Build Guide”

  1. I just started playing the game and i was wondering where i could get a cool good armor for my knight enchanter i am a elf

    Reply
    • You can get Keeper armor from the dallish camp in the dales the schematic is really good looking. and nice when you sync to a new game (you need skyhold to do that tho) for a good role play of a dalish second being sent off to over look the conclave.

      Reply
  2. Just tried out this build..and its awesome)with some changes it can be devastating) for my skills i took upgraded chain lightning, energy barrage, upgraded fire mine, fade step (damaging upgrade), new chill touch upgrade, barrier, amplified blade and fade cloak.but most important its combination of ring of doubt and highest possible crit damage. With crafted tidarion blade, prowler armor (soufler skin), skirmisher hat I reached damage 10k with chill touch and 12+k with fire mine..All you need is good timing to crit from invisibility. And you CAN solo with this build))easily and interesting

    Reply
  3. Hey, I was wondering what you think about not using Fade Cloak and going just with Energizing or Frost Step? I’m trying to go for a full melee Knight Enchanter with Blade of Tildarion, so I find Fade Step quite good for a gap closer, a repositioning tool and an escape. Although Fade Cloak is amazing, I do like to keep chain lightning for quicker Spirit Blade charges. What do you think? Do you think its a good strategy on Hard difficulty? Also, Im wondering whether I should put guard on hit bonuses for a melee enchanter. For some reason I just dislike the idea of a ranged KE and I do like the blade quite a bit, but I’m not sure if the guard would be a nice addition for survivability or it simply wont be enough.

    Reply
  4. i read this and im not sure if you can play KE solo with this build but could you show a build that is for soloing
    not any specific difficulty

    Reply
  5. am i the only one who looted a magical sword with aoe electricity dps (mage only) out of crestwood astrariums? i ‘ve been searching the pages but found no answers: am i supposed to keep hoping in finding some brutal schematics like this weapon? or just a bit stronger ones?

    Reply
  6. Single player KE was unchanged/not nerfed, right?

    What is best build for single player? You deleted what you had the first time :(

    Reply
    • They did nerf it on single-player, that’s why I updated the build :)

      As for the best build…before the nerf it was definitely KE. Now it’s kind of hard to say, it depends more on what you want to do. In terms of highest damage, I actually think a no-specialization build that takes both upgraded fire mine and static cage is very good.

      Reply
  7. I actually feel like energy barrage is Really amazing in this build, especially since each hit can crit separately. This allows for flashpoint to be much more beneficial. On top of that, it allows you to diversify you damage based off of staff type for whatever enemies you encounter. This is especially nice because your best ranged damage with this build is normally fire based, and if you are fighting a fire resistant dragon, your cold damage is normally gonna be lacking. Energy barrage not only gives you decent single target damage of whatever type, it also shred’s resistances so that your fire damage spells are not totally useless. Odds are, you are grabbing this anyways to get to the passives below it. I generally take it in favor of dispel for my inquisitor. If i need to, I run Vivienne as a support with dispel and resurgence. I’d be interested to know what others think about this.

    Reply

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