ALISTAIR TANK BUILD - THE JUGGERNAUT BUILD MECHANICS

How to use the Build

In this section, I would like to go through some general tips on how to correctly utilize the build.

Main Mechanics

In this part, I would like to go through the core mechanics of the build. Although this is a companion build it is still crucial to understand how to best utilize it in the party composition.

Sustained Abilities

For this tank build, various sustained abilities can be used. You should be balancing between them. If you use too many of them, actions will cost too much, and there won't be much free stamina for Taunt or other active options.

Here is what I recommend:

  1. Threaten - increases generated threat. With gradually increasing damage, this should easily keep the enemy's attention on Alistair.

  2. Shield Defense or Shield Wall - use the latter if you are not using any mods with skill fixes, as the vanilla game version is bugged and does not reduce weapon damage. Otherwise, go for Sheild Defense.

And here are some optional ones, that I might use depending on the situation:

  1. Rally - excellent talent to boost attack and defense values of yourself and allies. I would use this once you feel confident with Alistair's tanking capabilities. The upkeep cost is significant which could be used for another Taunt or other control ability.

Control & Damage

As a tank character, you will not be dealing huge amounts of damage or disabling multiple enemies with a single attack. Still, you have a few abilities that should make it easy to stun or knockback a foe to make the encounter easier:

  1. Shield Pummel

  2. Shield Bash

  3. Overpower

  4. War Cry - requires the Superiority upgrade. Without it, I would not even use the action.

  5. Holy Smite - very expensive ability to use, that should either be used at the start or not utilized at all. Sadly, its damage depends on Willpower so it's only good for stunning foes.

Draw the Enemy’s Attention

The most important part of the tank is to keep the enemy's attention - Threat generation. If you have the enemy's attention allies can freely inflict damage and use spells. Overall, the logic is that the more damage you deal (as a percentage of the target's total HP) the more threat you generate.

With Threaten active ability you should easily sustain threat levels at least on the single target. To help with other targets I recommend taking Taunt, which can further help with drawing aggro. In addition, staying close to the enemies will also generate threat.

Early Game Tactics

These are the tactics that I would use for the early game, up until levels 10-12. The game up to this point can be very hard, so you might need to do some cheesing. A few things of note:

  1. I would start with the Defender preset and work from there.

  2. Change Shield Cover to Shield Defense

  3. I would pick Threaten and use it at about level 8+. Before that, you will not have enough survivability to consistently maintain large numbers of enemies with Alistair

Late Game Tactics

These tactics are aimed towards the late game when you have most of the build talents covered:

  1. Due to limited stamina, you might not be able to utilize all of them

  2. Threaten could be disabled if Taunt is enough to maintain aggro, this will allow another use of something like Shield Bash

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Alistair Build, post for Dragon Age: Origins. I hope you enjoyed reading this build and it will help you to optimize one of the best tanks in the game. With the correct gear and tactics, your playthrough will become very easy.