Dragon Age: The Veilguard Stats Reveal Most Players’ Choices Are Basic
Screenshot: BioWare / Kotaku
My favorite part about talking to other people who play choice-based RPGs is comparing choices. Whether itâs about the characters we make or the ways we nudge the story, I am always down to hear how people are playing games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Weâre just a week out from launch, so a lot of people havenât beaten the game yet so there arenât a ton of hard numbers for the story decisions, but developer BioWare has released some early stats about the kinds of characters people are making. This includes pie charts, so letâs break down the data.
Image: BioWare
First up is classes. There are only three base combat roles in The Veilguard, so the divide between them was never going to be huge, but I was surprised to see that players are pretty evenly split between Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. The first two are tied with 30 percent of players picking up a sword or dagger. Mage came out on top, however, with a 40 percent cut of the pie chart. I played a mage, too, and had a blast with it in a way that I havenât in previous games. Mages in the last three Dragon Age games were mostly stationary, fighting from a distance and running away if anyone got too close. The Veilguard retools the class to have both the traditional long-range spellcasting and a close-range tool kit with an orb-and-dagger build. Itâs the most versatile mages have felt in these games, so Iâm not surprised that folks are gravitating toward it.
Image: BioWare
Class was a pretty even distribution, but protagonist Rookâs race has some clear favorites. Humans win out with 43 percent of players choosing to be what they already are in the real world. Iâm not judging even a little bit because I picked a human and tried to make my Rook look like me. Elf Rook was in second place and was just on humanâs heels with a 40 percent cut. That leaves Qunari and Dwarves to take up a minuscule percentage of Rooks, with the former claiming 11 percent, and the latter squeaking in with six percent. Dwarves have always felt like one of the more underserved races in the Dragon Age universe, and Iâm left to wonder if thatâs because of stats like this.
Image: BioWare
This was an interesting statistic. Apparently Lucanisâ recruitment mission âSea of Bloodâ is giving Veilguard players trouble, as itâs the one most players have died on in the first week. I had a little bit of trouble with the final boss, but I would be interested to see if this statistic changes as more players progress and reach the Weisshaupt mission. The boss in that quest knocked me on my ass multiple times.
Image: BioWare
One of my favorite parts of customizing Rook in The Veilguard is picking your faction, as this determines parts of your characterâs backstory and informs relationships with your party. It seems like some Dragon Age fans like familiarity, as the Grey Wardens faction is tied for number one. You play as a Warden in Dragon Age: Origins, so I personally decided against retreading that this time around. I instead went with the Shadow Dragons, freedom fighters from Tevinter, which were tied with the Wardens at 24 percent each. Thatâs nearly half the split, so the other four factions include the Antivan Crows at 16 percent, Veil Jumpers at 15, Lords of Fortune with 11, and the Mournwatch coming in last place with 10 percent. Honestly, no hate to the Mournwatch, I expected that to be lower considering how detached they feel from the bulk fo the game. But if yâall wanna raise the dead, thatâs your business.
Image: BioWare
While folks may have died the most during Lucanisâ recruitment mission in the early hours, the enemy that has been giving Veilguard players the most trouble has been one of the dragon fights. High Dragon Corius The Icetalon is one of the possible dragon fights youâll face in the early game if you choose to save Treviso over Minrathous. Dragon fights can be tough in The Veilguard, especially if youâre not targeting its weak points and just swinging away at the giant lizard. But once again, Iâll be interested to see this stat updated in the coming weeks after more people play because something that gave me a lot more trouble is right around the corner.
