NOTE: When crafting there are multiple slots you have to fill. The middle slot of any item: Referred to as the 'armor' slot for armor or 'Damage' slot for weapons is the slot that determines the basis of the item being made. The rest of the slots are additional functionality slots allowing better stats or abilities on the item. Crafting in Dragon Age: Inquisition allows the player to create unique weapons, armors and upgrades; as well as runes and potions. Crafting stations are required to craft any of the aforementioned, they typically can be found in Inquisition strongholds, larger established camps and keeps that have been captured.

“Dragon Age: Inquisition is the biggest RPG of the year, and I don’t just mean that in terms of hype and expectations. I mean, it is literally the biggest RPG of the year in terms of size and options available to you in this fantasy world. BioWare has gone off the deep end in terms of how open-ended an RPG can truly be, and it has a new trailer to explain its weapon system to you.” –Ron Duwell

IMO: This is looking promising. In the first picture we see what weapon categories we are going to have available. From left to right: One handed weapons, two handed weapons, staves, dual wield, and finally ranged. But that’s not really the interesting part of this. On the right we see under the weapons damage, rating (common, rare, unique, etc), and item level, there are three stats the weapon provides. In the second picture, we see that there are three crafting components connecting to a “main” component. There are 2 utility slots and an “offense” slot connecting to one “main” (perhaps metal of the blade?) one, with a “special” star slot on the top. The third picture shows that weapons can have more than 3 stats, the difference between a rare (blue) and unique (purple) weapon.

IMO: In this picture we get to see a little of the armor selections. Along the top we see that there are light, medium, and heavy armor variants. Anyone familiar with RPGs will be familiar with this. More interesting is the fact that we see the armor having five stats, 2 up from weapons. Below the stats, we see a that the armor has Firewalker Freezing Prowler Arms and Icewalker Absorbing Prowler Legs. I want to dissect this just a bit. I have a hunch that each term will refer to something you may alter on it. Firewalker may mean +20% fire resistance, where Icewalker may be +20% ice resistance (notice the higher numbers for each in the stats above). Freezing may add even more ice resistance, and absorbing is perhaps what is adding the magic and melee defense, with the prowler suffix being visually what the model is for the armor. Does this mean armor is one cohesive unit, and not separated into the more traditional choices (chest, hands, legs, etc)?

Inquisition

IMO: Ahhh finally a decent, high quality image of a portion of the skill tree. It looks like the bonuses from DA2 are in, where when you spend a point to learn a skill, you may spend another on the skill (if it has the option, shown by the smaller icons around it) that change and enhance the specific skill in particular ways. This was easily my favorite part to class customization about DA2 and I am very glad it has returned. MAGE TREE PLEASE.

IMO: You know, I just wanted to show this beautiful interface. It’s clear, concise, simple, and modern. I really enjoy the color palette they went with, and I love the easy to distinguish color differences between your shitty and not-so-shitty items. I really do love it.

Crafting Masterwork gear in Dragon Age: Inquisition will provide you with some of the best weapons and armor in the game. Believe it or not, the best items in the game aren’t those acquired through fighting your enemies—instead, you’re going to have to craft them yourself. Even some of the best equipment you find through your adventures can be further upgraded and improved through the use of the game’s crafting mechanics.

That’s where Masterwork crafting enters the picture. Through Masterwork crafting, you’ll be able to create the weapons and armor in the style you want, with the stats you want, and upgrade it even further with a powerful Rune.

You might have noticed that almost all of the weapons and armor you find in the game are randomly generated. From corpses on the ground to treasure chests hidden in trapped chambers, much of the gear in the game is rolled through a random number generator. The good news is that even if you have bad luck in finding the gear you want, you’ll be able to craft exactly what you need by acquiring schematics.

Once you have the schematic you need, head on over to the Undercroft in Skyhold, or to the blacksmithing area in Haven (assuming you haven’t reached Skyhold yet) and you’ll find four benches for which to perform crafting and modifications: Craft Armor, Craft Weapons, Modify Armor, and Modify Weapons. At the crafting stations, you’ll be able to fill in the material slots with items you’ve scavenged from your adventures.

Each slot in the schematic represents an improvement that you can apply to the base weapon or armor, such as Offense or Defense stats. Through the use of metal, leather, and cloth, you can customize your gear with improvements such as increasing your maximum health or raising your critical hit chance.

For added effects, add a Masterwork material into the mix at the top of the schematic. This step is entirely optional, but allows you to greatly boost the potency of your gear.

Once you craft your armor or weapon, you can further upgrade them with pommels and blades for your sword, or leg and arm sets for your armor.

How powerful the weapons and armor you craft depend on how far you are willing to go with the game’s crafting system and how much time and resources you are willing to invest into creating particular pieces of kit.

Dragon Age Inquisition Craft Armor With Slots Free Play

The following video guide by KineticGTR will walk you through the steps of creating your own piece of armor or weapon.