Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor for EVERY Class

This Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor Guide will teach you what the best armor options are for every class in the game so you can get the ultimate equipment.

If you’re playing Dragon Age Inquisition, you’re going to want to get all the best armor for every character in your party. This Dragon Age Inquisition best armor guide will help you do exactly that.

While acquiring the best weapons may be more of a priority, acquiring the Dragon Age Inquisition best armor is an important step in maximizing your characters’ potential because every piece of armor not only provides more defenses bonuses, but gives you the opportunity to equip higher offensive stats for your characters.

• Related Content:
  Dragon Age Inquisition Best Weapons for EVERY Class
  Dragon Age Inquisition Best Accessories for EVERY Class

Just like with the best weapons available in Dragon Age Inquisition, the best armor in the game is, for the most part, crafted. As a result, you’re really going to be looking for two things: powerful armor schematics and high-end crafting materials. I’ll talk about both.

Now, with the introduction out of the way, let’s get into the Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor Guide.

Rogues – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

Helmet – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

When it comes to the best helmet for your Rogue, the Superior Skirmisher Hat is your best bet. This helmet can be bought early on in the Black Emporium for a measly 1663 gold, and it’s the best helmet for Rogues right to the end of the game.

The only helmet that competes with it is the found (not crafted) Stone Stalker Mask in the Trespasser DLC, but it’s not as good. It gets 9% magic resistance, but it’s not itemized well, splitting 18 stat points into 9 Cunning and 9 Dexterity.

As a core attribute, Dexterity (+0.5 attack power / +1% crit damage per point) is vastly more useful than Cunning (+0.5% crit chance per point). If you want crit chance, stacking crit chance directly on your weapon is a much better way to go about it.

Meanwhile the Skirmisher Hat gets 10 utility slots, which translates to 17-20 stat points depending on what material you use. Here’s what a completed Skirmisher Hat will look like, keeping in mind you’ll want to save your Ice Dragon Hides for your armor:

Superior Skirmisher Hat

• Armor: 37
• 17 Dexterity (Snoufleur Skins)
• 64 Health (Veil Quartz)

Armor – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

The Superior Prowler Armor (not to be confused with the Superior Prowler Coat or the Superior Prowler Mail) is indisputably the best armor in the game for Rogues of all stripes. Even though it doesn’t have the highest defense, it has upgrade slots for both arms and legs and two utility slots.

Having all those slots available means the Superior Prowler Armor (also not to be confused with the Refined Prowler Armor or the Sturdy Prowler Armor) has the most available slots for DPS stats.

Actually getting the Superior Prowler Armor schematic can be a real pain. First, you need the “The Short List” Inquisition Perk, which is a Connections Perk that requires 5 points (or 5 recruited agents) in Connections.

Then, you need to visit the Hissing Wastes Merchant, which can be found by warping to the camp in the center of the map, riding directly West, and falling in the hole in the canyon.

The Hissing Wastes Merchant has a chance of selling the Superior Prowler Armor Schematic, but to reset its wares you have to warp to another zone, fully close and restart the game, then travel all the way back to the Merchant. This could take hours. Be prepared. You’ll also want to be on the lookout for Superior Battlemaster Armor and Superior Battlemage Armor.

To finish off your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Rogues, you’ll want the Prowler Armor Arms schematic and the Hunter Coat Legs schematic, both of which provides additional utility slots.

Prowler Armor Arms are easy to get. You just buy them from the Hissing Wastes Merchant. No Short List or game resets required.

The Hunter Coat Legs, on the other hand, are a real pain to get. They only drop extremely rarely from tier 2 chests. So, what you’re going to want to do is go to a place with a fair amount of tier 2 chests and reload your save if they don’t have Hunter Coat Legs. This could take minutes or it could take an entire day. The Still Ruins in the Western Approach are probably the best place to do this.

Since you’ve most likely gotten all the crit you’d ever want for your Rogue via your Weapon stats if you followed my weapons guide, you’re mostly going to be wanting to stack Dexterity on your armor.

Your finished, end-game Superior Prowler Armor with both upgrades should look something like this:

Superior Prowler Armor

• Armor: 288
• 43 Dexterity (14x Ice Dragon Hides, 9x Snoufleur Skins)
• 18% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hides)
• 48 Health (Veil Quartz)

Rogue Itemization & Materials

Since Offense slots don’t appear on armor, your next best option is Utility slots, which provide core attributes (Dexterity, Cunning, Strength, etc). For the most part, attributes are vastly inferior to direct bonuses (Attack%, Crit Chance, etc).

However, Rogues are a special case because Dexterity gives both Attack% and Crit Damage, which are both useful stats. For that reason, you’re mostly going to want Dexterity on your armor. Cunning gives Crit Chance, but only 0.5% Crit Chance per point. It’s much better to get all the Crit Chance you want on your weapon and use your armor purely for Dexterity.

Aside from that, just slot the best things you have available for the unavoidable defense slots on armor. For metal slots, that’s health and for leather that’s ranged defense or an elemental resistance.

Here are the materials you’re going to want to keep an eye out for when it comes to the Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Rogues:

• Ice Dragon Hide
• Snoufleur Skin
• Veil Quartz
• Imbued Tusket Hide

You get exactly 14 Ice Dragon Hides from killing Hakkon, and that’s all you’ll ever get unless you cheat. You should use all of them in your Rogue’s armor upgrades to maximize your Dexterity bonus.

Snoufleur skins are the second best Dexterity crafting material and you get those from Snoufleurs in Emprise du Lion and The Exalted Plains.

Veil Quartz drops from Frostback Basin Fade Rifts and a few nodes can be found throughout the zone.

Imbued Tusket Hide drops from the Imbued Tuskets in Kuldsdotten Swamp in Frostback Basin.

Best Rogue Masterworks – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

You have the option of adding a Masterwork material to the main chest armor you create while crafting your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Rogues. You’ll definitely want to do this.

For Rogues, you want a combination of On-Hit Guard and 5x Hidden Blades.

If you’re using an Archer, you only get two slots, one for your weapon and one for your armor. In that case, you’ll want +5 Guard On-Hit (Fade-Touched Silverite) and 5x Hidden Blades (Fade-Touched Plush Fustian Velvet).

If you’re using Dual Wield Daggers, you get an extra Masterwork slot for your second weapon. In that case you’ll also want a +3 Guard On-Hit (Fade-Touched Obsidian).

Fade-Touched Silverite can be found randomly in Silverite deposits around Frostback Basin and Emprise du Lion. More reliably it can be found in the Rift loot pile slightly southwest of the Kuldsdotten Swamp camp in Frostback Basin. Never fully loot this pile so you can continually farm it for Fade-Touched Silverite.

Fade-Touched Plush Fustian Velvet is randomly dropped by Red Templar in Emprise du Lion. More reliably, it’s available in the eastern chest in the temple in northwest Frostback Basin, locked behind a floor tile puzzle. Again, don’t fully loot this chest.

Fade-Touched Obsidian can be found in a chest behind a locked door in Redcliffe in the Hinterlands. You need the Deft Hands Inquisition perk from Leliana. Again, don’t fully loot this chest. It can also be found randomly in Obsidian deposits, the best place being the Crow Fens in the Exalted Plains.

Your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor won’t be complete without a Masterwork, so be sure to keep that in mind when you’re building them.

Warriors – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

Helmet – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

DPS Warriors

DPS Warriors, like Rogues and Mages, are going to be looking to use their Dragon Age Inquisition best armor as another way to maximize their offensive stats. Like most of the best equipment for Warriors, their best helmet is found in the Descent DLC.

The best helmet for Warriors is the Revered Defender Helm, which is acquired by beating the final boss of the Deep Roads. This helmet has 12 utility slots, which is the most of any helmet.

If you don’t have the Descent DLC, your next best option is the Superior Venatori Helmet purchased from the Hissing Wastes Merchant for 1279 gold. The Superior Venatori Helmet schematic requires The Short List, which also means a boatload of tedious resets. I described the process above in the Rogue armor section.

End-game versions of these helmets, crafted with high-end materials, will look like this:

Revered Defender Helm

• Armor: 46
• 24 Strength (Ice Dragon Bone)

Superior Venatori Helmet

• Armor: 37
• 20 Strength (Ice Dragon Bone)

Tanks

The helmet options when it comes to Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for tanks are mostly the same as the helmet options for DPS Warriors, although you’ll obviously want to itemize them differently. If you have the Descent DLC, the found version of the Revered Defender Helm is going to be the way to go. It’s itemized better than what you can create and it also has higher armor, which matters for tanks.

Here are the stats for endgame Tank helmet options for comparison:

Revered Defender Helm (Found)

• Armor: 56
• 9 Constitution
• 9% Magic Defense
• 9% Melee Defense

Revered Defender Helm

• Armor: 46
• 24 Constitution (Veil Quartz)

Duke’s Mane

• Armor: 46
• 22 Constitution (Veil Quartz)

Superior Venatori Helmet

• Armor: 37
• 20 Constitution (Veil Quartz)

Armor – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

DPS Warriors

As with the best helmet for DPS warriors, the Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for DPS warriors is going to be the armor that provides the most bonus Strength, and that’s the Superior Battlemaster Armor by far.

To acquire the Superior Battlemaster Armor, you need to unlock the Inquisition perk “The Short List” in Connections and then visit the Hissing Wastes Merchant, who can be found by riding due west from the center camp in the Hissing Wastes and then jumping into the canyon.

To reset the Short List item available at the merchant you have to zone into a different area and fully close and reopen the game. It’s a tedious process and might take several hours. Still, no other armor comes close.

The Superior Battlemaster Armor has two open upgrade slots, which you’ll want to fill with Battlemaster Armor Arms and Battlemaster Armor Legs, which are both available at the Hissing Wastes Merchant (no Short List required).

An end-game crafted Superior Battlemaster Armor will look like this (note that this will use all the Ice Dragon Bone available in the game, so if you have a DPS warrior you might want to save all your Ice Dragon Bones for this):

Superior Battlemaster Armor

• Armor: 309
• 44 Strength (Ice Dragon Bone)
• 24% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hide)
• 64 Health (Veil Quartz)

Tanks

Since tanks are more concerned with armor and defense slots on crafted armor rather than the Strength provided by utility slots, their Dragon Age Inquisition best armor options are very different.

For tanks, the Dragon Age Inquisition best armor is available via the Jaws of Hakkon DLC. It’s the Refined Battlemaster Mail (not to be confused with the Superior Battlemaster Armor listed above), which is looted from one of the Fade Rifts in Frostback Basin. There are stronger armors than this, but this is the best armor that also has open upgrade slots, which make a huge difference.

If you don’t have the Jaws of Hakkon DLC, your next best option when it comes to Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Tanking Warriors is the Superior Battlemaster Mail or the Superior Battlemaster Coat, both of which can be bought at the Black Emporium for 20794. The difference between these is the Mail will have magic defense and the coat will have ranged defense.

For upgrades, in my opinion the best two options are Battlemaster Coat Arms and Battlemaster Coat Legs. The Battlemaster Mail upgrades provide more health, but at a certain point I think damage mitigation becomes more valuable than health.

Either way, the Battlemaster Coat/Mail upgrade options are random drops from Tier 3 chests, so you’ll have to save scum for them. This can take a long time, so you may just want to use whichever ones you find first.

Here is what the endgame Dragon Inquisition best armor options for a tanking warrior will look like with the Battlemaster Coat upgrades and high end crafting materials:

Refined Battlemaster Mail

• Armor: 309
• 224 Health (Veil Quartz)
• 26% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hide)
• 26% Magic Defense (Silken Nether Cloth)

Superior Battlemaster Mail

• Armor: 309
• 288 Health (Veil Quartz)
• 16% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hide)
• 24% Magic Defense (Silken Nether Cloth)

Superior Battlemaster Coat

• Armor: 309
• 256 Health (Veil Quartz)
• 28% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hide)
• 16% Magic Defense (Silken Nether Cloth)

Shields – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

When it comes to shields, the Revered Defender Bulwark is the best of the best. It’s acquired after defeating the Ogre you fight when you first step foot in the Deep Roads.

If you don’t have the Descent DLC, the next best thing is The Knight’s Second, which requires the Trespasser’s DLC Trials to be active. If you don’t have the Trespasser DLC, the next best thing is the Masterwork Grey Warden Shield, which is found on a corpse in the southwest part of the Kuldsdotten Swamp and requires the Jaws of Hakkon DLC.

If you don’t have any DLC, your best option is the Shield of the Emperor, which is bought from the Black Emporium for 3273 gold.

Unlike other equipment, this is not a tie of any kind. The Revered Defender Bulwark is the best. Just get the best shield for whichever DLC you have. If you have the Descent, it’s the Revered Defender Bulwark.

Here are the shield comparisons:

Revered Defender Bulwark

• Armor: 64
• 192 Health (Veil Quartz)
• 10% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hide)

The Knight’s Second

• Armor: 56
• 176 Health (Veil Quartz)
• 8% Ranged Defense (Imbued Tusket Hide)
• Guardian Spirit: Blocks one melee attack every 30 seconds

Masterwork Grey Warden Shield

• Armor: 56
• 240 Health (Veil Quartz)

Shield of the Emperor

• Armor: 48
• 224 Health (Veil Quartz)

Warrior Itemization & Materials

When you’re crafting your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Warriors, you’ll need to have the necessary materials to make it better than the premade gear you can find or purchase from vendors.

The materials you’re going to want to be on the lookout for when building your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Warriors are these:

• Ice Dragon Bone
• Stormheart
• Veil Quartz
• Imbued Tusket Hide
• Silken Nether Cloth

Ice Dragon Bone and Stormheart both add Strength. Ice Dragon Bone is better, but you get exactly 22 of those from killing Hakkon and no more are available without cheats. You should use all 22 for your DPS Warrior’s armor/weapons, and use Stormheart as a backup for your remaining Utility/Offense slots.

Stormheart can be found early on in the Flooded Caves in Crestwood or later in The Emerald Graves.

Veil Quartz adds health and you’ll want a lot of it for your Warrior equipment. It drops from Fade Rifts in Frostback Basin. Never fully loot the Fade Rift loot piles because they act like chests and refresh whenever you leave and return to the zone. You can easily get infinite Veil Quartz that way.

Imbued Tusket Hides drop from Imbued Tuskets in Frostback Basin around the Kuldsdotten Swamp area.

Silken Nether Cloth is found in various loot piles around Frostback Basin. If you run into one, don’t fully loot the pile so you can come back for more later.

Best Warrior Masterworks – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

Since DPS Warriors are most likely using a two-handed weapon, they’ll only have 2 Masterwork slots available, while Tanking Warriors will get an extra slot on their shield.

DPS Warriors will typically double down on Guard On-Hit, stacking a Fade-Touched Silverite (+5 Guard On-Hit) with a Fade-Touched Obsidian (+3 Guard On-Hit). This is especially good for Reavers because it gives them an additional health bar unaffected by their health mechanics.

Tank Warriors will also typically stack Guard On-Hit, but will also want to use their extra Masterwork slot for Fade-Touched Everite (randomly casts Walking Fortress, which provides invincibility).

Fade-Touched Silverite can be found randomly in Silverite deposits around Frostback Basin and Emprise du Lion. More reliably it can be found in the Rift loot pile slightly southwest of the Kuldsdotten Swamp camp in Frostback Basin. Never fully loot this pile so you can continually farm it for Fade-Touched Silverite.

Fade-Touched Obsidian can be found in a chest behind a locked door in Redcliffe in the Hinterlands. You need the Deft Hands Inquisition perk from Leliana. Again, don’t fully loot this chest. It can also be found randomly in Obsidian deposits, the best place being the Crow Fens in the Exalted Plains.

Fade-Touched Everite can be found randomly in Everite deposits throughout Emprise du Lion, The Emerald Graves and Frostback Basin.

Your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor won’t be complete without a Masterwork, so be sure to keep that in mind when you’re building them.

Mages – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

Helmets – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

Which helmet is best in terms of Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages depends on what DLC you have available.

The best helmet for Mages is the Cowl of the Pure (the found one, not the crafted one), which is found in the Descent DLC in a chest near an Arcane Horror mini-boss. It has 2 less stat points than the second best helmet (equal to 1% less attack power), but gets 9% magic defense and has higher armor.

The second best helmet for Mages is the Battlemage Cowl, which is bought from the vendor at Stone-Bear Hold in the Jaws of Hakkon DLC.

If you don’t have either DLC, your best option for filling out the helmet slot for your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages is the Superior Seer Cowl, which can be bought from the Black Emporium for 1663 gold.

The Superior Seer Cowl is almost identical to the Battlemage Cowl except for slightly lower armor.

Here is what the Mage helmet options would look like when crafted with high-end crafting materials, as well as the found Cowl of the Pure for comparison:

Cowl of the Pure (Found)

• Armor: 48
• 9 Magic
• 9% Magic Defense
• 9 Willpower

Battlemage Cowl

• Armor: 36
• 20 Magic (Silken Nether Cloth)

Superior Seer Cowl

• Armor: 29
• 20 Magic (Silken Nether Cloth)

Armor – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

The Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages is yet another Short List Hissing Wastes Merchant armor. This time it’s the Superior Battlemage Armor. Once again, in order to buy this armor you need The Short List, an Inquisition Perk in the Connections tab.

To actually find the armor, visit the Hissing Wastes Merchant by heading due east from the central camp in the Hissing Wastes, then dropping down into the canyon. Superior Battlemage Armor will be randomly available as long as you have the perk. If it’s not, you have to travel to a different zone, completely exist and restart the game, then go back to the merchant.

Luckily this armor doesn’t require any DLCs, so it has no competition. It gets the most utility slots of any armor that also has open upgrade slots.

For your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages upgrades, you’ll want to use Battlemage Armor Arms and Battlemage Armor Legs, both of which can be bought at the same Hissing Wastes Merchant for 934 gold. No Short List required.

Here’s what the Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages looks like when crafted with high-end materials:

Superior Battlemage Armor

• Armor: 269
• 44 Magic (Silken Nether Cloth)
• 8 Cunning (Imbued Tusket Hide)
• 64 Health (Veil Quartz)
• 16% Magic Defense (Silken Nether Cloth)

Mage Itemization & Materials

The best stat for Mages is Willpower (0.5 Attack, 0.5 Magic Defense), but Magic is roughly the same (0.5 Attack, bonus damage to barriers). Since ideally you don’t want your Mages getting hit, the defensive stats don’t matter as much, but health is always nice and mage armor has lots of cloth slots which are best filled with magic defense materials.

Leather barely does anything for Mages, but the best armor does have a leather utility slot in which case I suppose Cunning (+0.5% crit chance) is the best option.

When crafting your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages, these are the materials you’ll want to be on the lookout for:

• Dragon Webbing
• Silken Nether Cloth
• Avvar Twill
• Veil Quartz

Dragon Webbing (1 Magic/1Willpower), Silken Nether Cloth (2 Magic) and Avvar Twill (2 Willpower) all provide exactly the same amount of attack power, so they’re pretty much interchangeable. Avvar Twill is slightly better than the other materials since Willpower provides a magic defense bonus which is more useful than Magic’s bonus damage vs Barriers.

Dragon Webbing is the easiest to acquire since it can be bought at the Black Emporium and from the Deep Roads materials shop. It also drops off of High Dragons.

Silken Nether Cloth and Avvar Twill both drop from various chests and encounters in Frostback Basin. If you find one in a chest, don’t fully loot the chest so you can come back for more later.

Veil Quartz is found in Rift loot piles in Frostback Basin, as well as in a few deposits scattered throughout the zone. Avoid fully looting Rift loot piles so you can come back and collect more Veil Quartz from them later.

Best Mage Masterworks – Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor

The best Masterwork options for Dragon Age Inquisition best armor for Mages is going to be either spell procs from various materials or 10% reduced mana usage from Fade-Touched Plush Fustian Velvet. I tend to think the spell procs are better.

The best spell proc is, hands down, the 5x Hidden Blades proc found on Fade-Touched Plush Fustian Velvet. Other good options are 100% damage Chain Lightning (Fade-Touched Silverite) and Walking Bomb (Fade-Touched Dawnstone).

Fade-Touched Plush Fustian Velvet can be farmed from a chest in the northwest part of Frostback Basin that becomes available during the course of the main Jaws of Hakkon quest. It’s in a temple on the righthand side of a floor tile puzzle.

Fade-Touched Dawnstone can be found in some of the Rift loot piles in Frostback Basin or found throughout Emprise du Lion.

Fade-Touched Silverite (the spell proc version) needs to be farmed from Silverite deposits found throughout Emprise du Lion and Frostback Basin.

The mana reduction Fade-Touched Plush Fustian Velvet drops off of Red Templars in Emprise du Lion. Its in-game description is bugged. While it says it increases focus generation it, in fact, actually reduces mana costs.

Your Dragon Age Inquisition best armor won’t be complete without a Masterwork, so be sure to keep that in mind when you’re building them.

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Whew, that about covers it when it comes to the Dragon Age Inquisition Best Armor for Every Class. Be sure to check out the Games Section or the Main Page for more game guides, and click here for more content related to Dragon Age Inquisition.