In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one of the key decisions you’ll face after completing the Lair of the Dragon King questline is whether to have Taash embrace their Rivaini culture or follow their Qunari heritage. This choice will influence not only Taash’s combat abilities and skills but also their personal growth and relationships throughout the game. In this guide, we’ll break down the benefits and consequences of both the Rivaini and Qunari paths, so you can make the best decision based on your preferred playstyle and whether you’re interested in pursuing a romance with Taash.
Lair of the Dragon King Quest
Lair of the Dragon King is a Companion and Side Quest in Dragon Age: Veilguard, set at the Lighthouse. In this quest, Taash must rescue Shathaan, who has been kidnapped by the Dragon King, and confront him in his fiery volcanic lair.
As players track Shathaan’s trail, they’ll battle Antaam enemies and face off against the Dragon King’s minions, including the fearsome ice dragon, Kaltencahm. After defeating the Dragon King, Taash must choose whether to embrace their Rivaini culture or Qunari heritage. The choice unlocks unique rewards, including powerful Veilguard Skills and Legendary Armor that enhance Taash’s combat abilities.
Should Taash Embrace Rivaini Culture or Qunari Heritage
After completing the Lair of the Dragon King questline, players will face a decision that will influence Taash’s development and role in the game. The choice is whether Taash will embrace their Rivaini culture, gaining powerful fire-based abilities, or follow their Qunari heritage, focusing on explosive detonation skills. Below we will break down the consequences and benefits of each path to help you decide which one is best for your playthrough.
Rivaini Culture for Taash
If you choose to encourage Taash to adopt Rivaini culture, they’ll gain a special Veilguard Skill and a set of Legendary Armor. By convincing Taash to embrace this path, they will unlock the Rivaini Flair skill, which increases their critical damage by 50%, boosts damage against high-health enemies by 25%, and adds 50% more burning damage on the first hit, with subsequent hits reducing the burn effect by 10%.
They’ll also receive the Rivain’s Legacy Legendary Armor, which provides a 137% bonus to ability damage, causes all detonations to inflict burning on affected enemies, and boosts fire damage by 150% against enemies already burning.
Qunari Heritage for Taash
If you choose to guide Taash toward Qunari culture, they’ll receive a different Veilguard Skill and Legendary Armor as a reward, along with a blessing from Taash’s mother, who always hoped Taash would follow the Qunari path rather than the Rivaini one.
By convincing Taash to embrace this, you’ll unlock the Qunari Focus skill, which provides a slightly lower bonus ability damage compared to the Rivaini route but shifts the focus from burning to detonation. This means that more weakened enemies on the battlefield will lead to more powerful subsequent detonations.
Taash’s weapon attack damage will increase by 50%, with a 20% reduction in cooldown time, and their burning duration will last an additional 2 seconds. The Qun’s Honor Legendary Armor grants 130% bonus ability damage and allows detonations on weakened enemies to spread the effect to others nearby. A second detonation will trigger additional effects across all other weakened enemies.
Rivaini Culture or Qunari Heritage: Which one Should you Choose
Your choice here depends on three factors; which skill and armor suit your playstyle, what type of character you’re role-playing, and whether you’re aiming to romance Taash. If you’re primarily focused on optimizing combat effectiveness, the Rivaini Culture is the better option. It offers high critical damage and increased damage against enemies in the early stages of combat, which can significantly boost your performance in battles.
If you’re role-playing and want to align more to Taash’s background, embracing the Qunari heritage could be the right choice. It also helps gain Taash’s mother’s approval, which leads to Taash receiving valuable knowledge and wisdom. However, if your goal is to romance Taash, you’ll need to steer clear of both the Rivaini and Qunari paths. To unlock the romance option, it’s best to support Taash in exploring their identity without pushing them toward either culture.
