Dragon Age Inquisition: Status effects Dragon Age: Inquisition Guide

Activating individual status effects may be paramount to the course of the battle

Winning battles in Dragon Age: Inquisition is not only about keeping an eye on health stamina and mana bars, because how allies and opponents perform in the battlefield, also depends on various Status Effects that they may be introduced into. Activation of a Status Effect may occur as a result of using an ability or a spell and it may affect both an opponent and a party member (in both cases, the effect may be either positive or negative).

The list below presents the most important status effects that you will see in the game:

• Barrier and Guard - these states shroud a character with additional barriers that protect them against losing health points. If this is the way that the opponent uses to guard himself, use an ability or a spell with increased effectiveness against such effects - in this way, you will bring them down faster. At the same time, it should be pointed out that the Guard effect makes it impossible to stun or knock down the wearer.
• Chilled and Slowed - to a large extent, these effects are connected with ice spells that allow you to slow down the selected fighters. Try to stop the enemies from slowing down the members of your party. If you are going to slow down the enemy by yourself, always pick the strongest of the opponents, so you can lower their effectiveness on the battlefield.
• Confused- This status makes the character attack his allies. It is a good idea to use the abilities and spells connected with this effect, especially in the battles in which you need to deal with big groups of opponents. Introducing confusion in the ranks of the enemy will make it easier for you to plan on following attacks.
• Disabled - This is a group of effects that temporarily eliminate the characters from the battle. This may happen if, e.g. the character is frozen, asleep, stunned or paralyzed. If it is your ally, try using appropriate potions or spells to wake them up. If this state has been endowed on an opponent, you can do either of the following - attack him and exploit the fact that he is defenseless, or (if the attack may restore him to full health) exploit the advantage and attack the rest of the enemies.
• Immunity- This is a group of effects, whose functioning concerns providing a complete immunity to certain types of attacks. This may mean immunity to being knocked down, stunned, attempts to be put to sleep or to individual elements. While fighting against opponents, it is always a good idea to keep an eye on their descriptions in the tactical view mode and completely avoid using attacks that they are immune to.
• Knocked Down - this effect wrestles the fighter to the ground. Such a character is, then, defenseless and usually requires several seconds to get back up. If it is your ally that has been knocked down, keep protecting him until he is up again. If it has been the opponent, you should, of course, exploit his temporary weakness.
• Panicked - This effect causes a character to panic, stop attacking and start running around the battlefield. Try to lift this effect as quickly as possible. If, on the other hand, it is an opponent that has been attacked in this way, use to your advantage the fact that he poses no immediate threat to you, and attack the others.
• Resistance - the functioning of this group of effects appears as a raised resistance of a character to a given element (e.g. fire). If the opponent has increased resistance, use attacks that utilize the other elements. In the case of your allies, you can use the heightened resistance to your advantage and activate the abilities and spells connected with it if you encounter an enemy that wields the specific element (e.g a fire-spewing dragon).
• Shocked - This effect weakens the resistance of a given character to magic attacks. It is a good idea to exploit the situation in which an opponent is Shocked and attack him with all of the mages in your party.
• Sundered- this effect weakens, temporarily, the armor of the affected character. It is a good idea to wait for the opportunity and, whenever an opponent is introduced to this effect, attack him with melee attacks.
• Swarmed- this effect activates at the moment when a character is surrounded by, e.g. a swarm of wasps. There are several main properties to this effect because, it allows you to deal damage over time and, additionally, may result in the activation of different effects, e.g. Panicked.
• Taking Damage Over Time - this is a group of effects that become active the moment at which a character has been, e.g. poisoned, set on fire or started to bleed. If an effect like that has been endowed on one of your allies, you should keep an eye on their health bar. In case of your opponents, it is a good idea to try to activate this effect at the initial stage of a battle, thanks to which they will be systematically weakened throughout the battle and, as a result, they will be easier to defeat.
• Taunted- this effect encourages a character to attack the opponent responsible for introducing them into this state. Of course, warriors in your party can benefit the most from it, because they can force an opponent to attack them and, at the same time, lure them away from those of your party members that do not do well in melee combat.
• Vulnerability - this group of effects temporarily lowers the resistance of a unit to a given element (e.g. fire). If it is a party member that fell victim to this effect, try to restore his resistance with spells or potions. If, on the other hand, it is your opponent that has become vulnerable, launch massive elemental attacks, using the element that he is vulnerable to.