Each of Hawke’s companions in the game has his/her own unique abilities and personality, lending well to both the game’s story and gameplay dynamics. If you’re someone who actually cares about maximizing your gameplay experience by making the most powerful characters that you can in DA2, then you shouldn’t just focus on your own character. The companions are quite powerful in themselves, so leveling them up properly and giving them the best equipment possible should let you have an edge as you complete the game.

Generally, you’ll want a combination between Tank, Mage, DPS, Rogue, and Healer. The key to playing DA2 well is team composition, with each member of the party fulfilling a specific role and helping with the whole team synergy. The rule of thumb is to not bring in an NPC with the same configuration as you do. For example, if you’re a dual weapon rogue, you may not want to bring Isabela with you. The reason for this is that you’d want someone else in that place to make up for your weaknesses and create a better team synergy. For example, if you lack AoE and good HP, you may want Varric, Merrill, and Aveline in your party.

Tank

Aveline is the ultimate choice for this role. Have her take all One-handed, most Warmonger talents, and her specialization. She should have massive HP and armor, as well as skills that draw fire away from the rest of your party. She’ll have most of her sustainable skills activated for maximum effect, making her nigh invulnerable. The only problem with her is that she lacks significant AoE capabilities and overall offensive power.

Fenris is another choice for tanking. He has the Lyrium Ghost ability, which makes him harder to hit. With enough constitution and armor, he can be almost as good as Aveline. The only difference is that he has two-handed weapon capabilities, which gives him tons of AoE damage and creates a significant level of threat enough to draw fire towards himself. If you’re using a character who has below average DPS and low HP, you may want to use him instead.

Mage

In the end, Merrill is the one relegated fully to this task. If you’re looking for AoE, have her take the Elemental talents. If you want her to focus more on spells that both do good damage individual enemies and provide solid defense, as well as a spell that renders a target immobile and useless, take the Primal talents. Her Elven Pariah talents unlock her full capabilities as a Blood Mage, letting her cast with HP instead of Mana. This means that she can be pretty weak at the start, but she becomes a very powerful mage by Act 3. You can adjust if you have the Black Emporium DLC, letting you gain access to Maker’s Sigh and reset stats and skills whenever you want.

Anders is also a powerful mage. If you want to focus more on his offensive capabilities, skip his Panacea talents altogether and focus on getting Swift Justice. This dramatically decreases his spells’ cooldown times, making him a rapid-fire caster. Along with Martyr and Blood of my Enemy, he can have an almost unlimited supply of Mana while doing so.

DPS

Fenris deals a great amount of damage, especially with all Two-handed, Vanguard, and Tevinter Fugitive talents. The Vanguard talents are very powerful, letting you dramatically increase Fenris’ damage for a short time. Since Two-handed talents let you take out multiple enemies at once, Vanguard becomes a force multiplier throughout the game. Then, his specialization turns him into a complete monster, letting him increase his attack speed, critical damage, and defenses, as well as other things like stamina regeneration and stun chance. He is definitely your ultimate crowd control solution in the game.

Rogue

Here is where you have more options. The point here is to have a character that not only picks locks, but also take out targets that are busy fighting the other members of your party. In this case, you have Isabela, Varric, and Sebastian to choose from. Varric and Sebastian are archers with AoE and crowd control capabilities, while Isabela is very good at taking out individual targets like mages, lieutenants, and even bosses. The key point here is the talents that make the said companion inconspicuous, letting him/her not draw fire and free to backstab enemies. This is a very good ability to have as while the tank in your party deals with the enemies’ offense, you can take out whoever is the greatest threat to you.

Healer

The only real healer in the game is Anders. After the events of Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, he has become possessed by the spirit known as Justice. This gives him abilities that are very much worth considering. His Vengeance specialization is divided into two — Vengeance and Panacea. You may take the Vengeance talents if you don’t really need a healer, but it is best to take the Panacea talents first to bolster his Creation talents and keep everyone in the party alive. You may then take the Vengeance talents and turn Anders into a spellcasting powerhouse, capable of casting in a blistering pace.

Combination’s

Having a tank is almost always necessary, especially in parts where there are really powerful enemies like dragons or main plot bosses. In most cases, having two mages makes things very easy for you. They can cast AoE spells that thin out the herd and one of them would have Heal and Barrier to increase survivability. Using Elemental Weapons doesn’t hurt your chances either. You can also have a DPS character to fill in that spot as well, especially in parts where there is a lot of cannon fodder. For really big fights, bring in the rogue to deal with the bosses and lieutenants.