Dragon Age Inquisition Alchemist Guide

Dragon Age Inquisition Alchemist Guide by Salsadips

Video link here. (Threatening difficulty)

Abilities

• Stealth (50% damage bonus when attacking from stealth. 29s duration. 24s cooldown. 20 stamina cost. Upgrade enters stealth instantly, removes all debilitating effects and lets you pass through enemies.)
• Flank Attack (2 hits at 200% weapon damage each. 8s cooldown. 35 stamina cost. Upgrade enters you in stealth after attacking.)
• Flask of Fire (Abilities cost no stamina for 5s. 20 stamina cost. 32s cooldown. Upgrade removes any cooldown on abilities too.)
• Poison Blades (Coat weapons in poison for 10s, poisons enemies hit for 8s at 25% weapon damage per second. 24s cooldown. 20s stamina cost. Upgrade grants 25% damage bonus while active.)

Mandatory Passives

• Explosive Toxin (Enemies that die while poisoned explode into a toxic mist across 3m for 8s dealing 50% weapon damage per second)
• I Was Never Here (Kills remove stealth cooldown)
• Killers Alchemy (15% damage bonus for 10s when Flasks are activated)

Unlock Order

Go straight for the upgraded Flank Attack first (level 5), then go for upgraded Flask of Fire (level 10). Then get upgraded Poison Blades (level 12), Explosive Toxin (level 14) and I Was Never Here (level 16). Get Killers Alchemy, then fill in the rest of your passives as you desire.

Strategy

Firstly, this class is severely lacking in syngery. I have spent the most time on this one, promoting her 3 times in total in order to find a build that flows well and is also viable on the higher difficulties. In a way, I failed, because this is just not viable for Perilous without high level daggers. Hell, even threatening is a challenge if you don’t have daggers with over 100 base damage. This class is also noticeably underpowered until you hit around level 15, where you get all your mandatory passives and abilities. I wanted to do a build which is unique to the Alchemist aswell, and not one that is too similar to the Assassin. Here is what I came up with.

I first tried out Elemental Mines. Good in theory, but in the end, I found that while they were on cooldown with Flask of Fire, I didn’t really have anything else to do. They also missed a lot, and you cant really control where they land. Enemies also don’t walk over them reliably. They worked great at the boss wave, because of the chokepoint, but not very good for anything else.

I then tried out Flask of Frost and Shadow Strike/Twin Fangs build. Twin fangs hit registration is horrible so I dropped that almost immediately as the recovery from a missed attack = instadeath (because the alchemist is made of paper apparently). Shadow Strike is bugged and does not trigger ‘I Was Never Here’, so again, that was pretty non functional. Flask of Frost and Fire can’t be active at the same time either, so in my opinion, its not worth the large cooldowns for this build.

Lastly, I tried Flank Attack. It doesn’t deal the damage that Twin Fangs or Shadow Strike does, but it does reliably hit targets and the upgraded version of it puts you in stealth after each attack. It also has a very fast cooldown, so you aren’t waiting around for too long. After using Flask of Fire, you can attack 4, sometimes even 5 times, all of which will be a critical hit (due to Knife in the Shadows) and also receive the Stealth damage bonus. Poison Blades and Explosive Toxin deals a good amount of damage over time which more often than not, will finish off any enemies already wounded by you and also soften up any that are still around you.

So your general strategy is to stay almost permanently in stealth. You are far too weak to be out of it and its really your only form of survivability. Flank Attack and I Was Never Here should enable you to be more or less in stealth close to 100% of the time. Now, get behind an enemy group. When the enemies are aggroed, activate Poison Blades (this does not break stealth). Then position yourself in such a way that you will hit multiple enemies if you can when dashing forwards through your target. Pop Flask of Fire (this WILL break stealth) and spam flank attack on as many different enemies as you can. You shouldn’t get anyone targeting you as you cloaking right after decloaking, and you are moving far too quickly for anyone to hit you anyway.

When facing the boss, ignore him. You can and will be OHKed from the Templar and Demon commander (Venatori is still a walkover though). Your job is to thin out the mooks coming to attack the rest of your team. This is where Explosive Toxin comes in handy, because if anyone does get through you, they will be at reduced health, thus much easier to take down. Please note that only 1 Explosive Toxin cloud can be active at any given time, so make sure you choose your target carefully.

Lastly, try and have fun. I find that the Alchemist is argubly the weakest class in the game, (tied with the Katari). This is the most optimal build I could come up with, and I find it is the best Alchemist build for me to use. If you want a more single target damaging build, just use the Assassin. She is much better at this role. The alchemist is better suited to crowd control, one of the only things it actually does better than the Assassin.