Best Sera Build - Complete guide (2024)

By zanuffas
Last updated: 9 November 2022

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In this post, I will go through the complete Sera build in Dragon Age: Inquisition. It will cover all you need to know about the best skills, tactics, and equipment.

Sera is an elven archer. She has an interesting personality that makes some players confused. The reason is her "Friends of the Red Jenny". She is exceptionally skilled in combat and provides great support to Inquisitor

Important! The companion build is compatible with Nightmare difficulty, however, to pull it off correctly, be sure to have a good Inquisitor build

Sera level 1-10

Early in the game, our main priority is to have Sera act as an effective archer. This is fairly difficult to achieve due to the limited number of skills points you have. However, here is what I would prioritize:

Order	Skill	Description
1	Stealth + Clinging Shadows	Allows Sera to escape from enemies easily
2	Poisoned Weapons + Infected Wound	Early ability to increase overall damage you do with skills and auto-attack
3	Long Shot	Does 600% weapon damage if shot from more than 15 meters
4	First Blood	Passive skill that will increase damage if enemy health is full
5	Death From Above	We take it mainly for progression
6	Leaping Shot + Shot from the Shadows	Fire spell is cheap and deals decent damage
7	Explosive Shot + Shockwave	Effective knockback skill to take out a specific target.

Unfortunately, there are not many skills that will support AI. Due to this, the build may feel lackluster, but we will greatly improve in the mid-game

Sera Archer Build

With this build, we will concentrate on making Sera as effective as she can be. She will shoot as fast as a machine gun, tearing through enemies. Not only this but due to constant critical hits she will be able to spam skills to her heart's content:

Remember that you will need to respecialize skills before making this build

Abilities - detailed progression

With the Tempest specialization, we unlock great possibilities. Here is how you should start:

IMPORTANT: Get relevant Amulet of Power for Sera to maximize the number of ability points

Order	Skill	Description
1	Flask of Fire + Unquenchable Flames	Will allow Sera to use Long Shot and Explosive Shot without cooldowns
2	Fury of the Storm	Gives a boost to damage when stamina is below 50%
3	Killer's Alchemy	Gain bonus damage after using a Flask or potions
4	Flask of Lightning + Stormrage	Slows time allowing to shoot Sera as fast as a machine gun. The upgrade gives a bonus duration allowing to deal more damage.
5	Stealth + Clinging Shadows	It will be good to have bonus survival skills so that Sera could escape any difficult encounter
6	Long Shot + Archer's Lance	Main active ability that AI Sera will use to deal damage. Will work great with Flask of Fire.
7	First Blood	Increases damage that Sera deals to enemies when they have 80% or more HP.
8	Explosive Shot + upgrade	An additional active skill that can deal AOE damage. I prefer Shockwave upgrade for better Crowd control capabilities on higher difficulties and if you have friendly fire on.
9	Pincushion	Each hit from your bow to the same target will give an additional boost to damage
10	Caltrops	We take this ability only for progression
11	Looked Like It Hurt	Each critical hit will restore 10 stamina. Mandatory skill to have.
12	Cheap Shot	As you will do many critical hits use this passive ability to lower enemy armors
13	Thousand Cuts	This Focus ability will allow you to take dragons with a single-use. So save it for difficult encounters
14	Flask of Frost	We mainly take this skill to unlock other abilities
15	Flaskmaster	We mainly take this skill to unlock other abilities
16	Ride of the Storm	It will make Sera elixirs last longer by 3 seconds. However, this activates only if they are used one after another, for this reason, we set them to preferred
17	Easy to Miss	With this passive ability, Sera's threat generation will be greatly reduced.

Abilities overview

This section shows a high-level overview of what skills to pick

Subterfuge Tree

Tempest Tree

Archery Tree

Sabotage Tree

Tactics and Behaviours

This section will cover how you should set up Sera's tactics and behaviors to maximize her efficiency as a companion.

This Sera build relies on auto attacks mostly. However, once Flask of Fire is activated she should use Explosive Shot and Long Shot constantly.

For tactics:

Set Flask of Fire and Flask of Lightning as preferred
Disable Caltrops
To maximize DPS disable Flask of Frost. Leave it active if you want Sera to easier survive enemy encounters
I preferred a Thousand Cuts disabled
All other talents can be enabled.

In the behaviors window here are my suggestions:

Mana/Stamina reserve 0%
Targeting Behaviour: tank character.

Stats and attributes

Here is how I recommend prioritizing stats when deciding what equipment to wear:

Critical Chance - I recommend having at least 50%
Critical damage - once you have sufficient critical chance invest here
Cunning - boosts critical chance (until 50% critical chance)
Dexterity - boosts critical damage
Attack - overall boost to damage

Best items and equipment

In this section, I will go through some decent equipment that you can equip or craft.

Weapons - obtainable

Unfortunately, there are no exceptional options for the bows. If you want to maximize Sera DPS, you should invest in getting a crafted version.

Priority	Item	Description
1	Tezpadam's Bane	Extraordinary bow, that provides 41 dexterity resulting in 41% critical damage increase. Moreover, gives an effect that makes enemy bodies explode on kill
2	Arrowwood	This bow is available during the Trespasser DLC. Gives 95% armor penetration. I think it is an interesting bow to try but you get it quite late in the game.
3	Heartstring Bow	Obtained in Frostback Basin and provides adequate stats.

Weapons - craftable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Elgar'nan Enaste Schematic	Obtained with Trespasser DLC. Has adequate slots and most importantly explosive arrow effect.
2	Grunsmann's Bow Schematic	Provides 3 offensive leather slots excellent to maximize either critical chance or critical damage
3	Bow of the Beresaad Schematic	Provides leather slots for maximizing critical chance and critical damage.

Armors - obtainable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Stone Stalker Coat	This armor is a perfect match for this build as it provides a large boost to of 45 Cunning resulting in a much higher critical chance
2	The Skin That Stalks	Obtainable only in the Trespasser DLC. Boosts Critical Damage, Critical Chance, and Attack.
3	Masterwork Prowler Armor	This armor reduces ability stamina cost by 20% if not attacked for 5 seconds. This should be easy for Sera as she will be avoiding enemies most of the time.

Armors - craftable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Superior Prowler Armor Schematic	This armor has 23 utility leather slots if you include upgrades. Feel free to increase either dexterity or cunning based on what Sera needs more.
2	Sturdy Prowler Armor Schematic	This is a cheaper alternative to Superior Prowler Armor Schematic. It also gives less defense and 22 utility leather slots.
3	Stone Stalker Coat Schematic	Can be obtained from The Descent DLC. Has decent slots, but is worse compared to the options above.

Helmets - obtainable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Stone Stalker Mask	Has both good bonus stats and armor rating. Can be obtained in The Descent DLC
2	Helm of the Drasca	A decent mid-game option that gives a good boost to critical damage by increasing Dexterity.
3	Ambassador's Mask	Alternative to Mask of the Grand duch*ess if you have a high critical chance (50%+)
4	Mask of the Grand duch*ess	Alternative to Ambassador's Mask if you have a low critical chance

Helmets - craftable

Priority	Item	Description
1	Superior Skirmisher Hat Schematic	The best craftable helmet that gives 10 leather utility slots and is easy to obtain
2	Skirmisher Hat Schematic	A cheaper alternative of the Superior Skirmisher Hat Schematic. Has only 8 leather utility slots
3	Superior Adventurer Hat Schematic	Costs only 182 Sovereigns and gives 7 leather utility slots. Get it if you are short on money.

Amulets

Priority	Item	Description
-	Amulet of Power	Gives Sera a single ability point. It is consumed once you use it.
1	Malika's Guard	As Sera will not concentrate on flanking damage this amulet will greatly increase the overall attack power.
2	Superb Amulet of Dexterity	This amulet will increase dexterity resulting in higher critical damage.
3	Amulet of the Rogue	This amulet will increase both critical chance and critical damage
4	Superb Amulet of Cunning	The amulet will increase the critical chance, allowing to reduce ability cooldowns.

Belts

Priority	Item	Description
1	The Bind That Guides	This belt boosts the critical chance. Only obtainable in the Trespasser DLC.
2	Superb Belt of Staggering	This belt will allow Sera to stagger enemies
3	Superb Belt of Sunder	Gives a chance to decrease the enemy's armor.

Rings

Priority	Item	Description
1	Superb Ring of Critical Damage	Provides a large boost to critical damage, especially powerful once you have 50%+ critical chance
2	The Hand That Cuts	Only obtainable in Trespasser DLC. However, provides large offensive bonuses
3	Superb Ring of Critical Chance	Increases Critical chance allowing Opportunity knocks ability to activate more often
4	Ring of Slicing	Expensive ring bought in Black Emporium. Boosts your critical damage and critical rate.
5	Superb Ring of Attack	Increases overall Sera damage

Conclusion

I hope it was interesting for you to read about this Sera build in the Dragon Age Inquisition. It should cover all your needs to fully prepare her as a strong companion.

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