Catti-Brie, the adopted daughter of Breunor Battlehammer, the love interest of Drizzt Do’Urden, the archer of the Companions of the Hall, and many other things, is the ranged option for players in Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, a polarizing game that is now on Xbox Game Pass.
Because of her range, Catti is actually one of the most overpowered characters in the game, even without an overpowered weapon, thanks to her ability to fight from afar being the perfect counter to the less-than-stellar enemy AI.
But, Catti doesn’t only have one playstyle as an archer. Thanks to having an ability that heals both herself and her teammates, Catti makes a fantastic support, like Bruenor. Or, alternatively, she can be built into crit chance and crit damage like Drizzt. She even works as a raw damage dealer like Wulfgar! Catti really is the most versatile playable character in the game, so let's go over some of her most popular builds.
How Catti-Brie's Attributes Are Most Commonly Distributed
Because of her versatility, ranking Brie’s Attribute distribution is difficult. But, more often than not, the distribution below is what works best, with some slight variations depending on playstyle:
|
Rank |
Attribute |
Reason For Ranking |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Intelligence |
Catti's Abilities are tantamount to her character and so are the Conditions she applies and her Elemental Damage. |
|
2 |
Dexterity |
Brie usually focuses on firing many different arrows rather than one strong one, which is why she benefits more from DEX's crit chance/crit damage buffs than the STR buffs. |
|
3 |
Strength |
Interchangeable with DEX, this just increases her overall damage output. |
|
4 |
Constitution |
Catti-Brie is about as squishy as Drizzt, so she needs a bit of survivability earlier rather than later. |
|
5 |
Charisma |
Buffs her Arcane Arrows to charge faster and hit in a wider range. |
|
6 |
Wisdom |
She's not a tanky character, so she doesn't put a big focus on Elemental or Condition Resistance. |
The Different Ways She Can Be Played
If you’re just looking to blitz through the game as fast as possible, the basic “fire from afar” build for Catti-Brie will work wonders. Because her Charged Shots are, quite frankly, broken, you can melt entire groups of enemies without them even noticing you from a safe vantage point. That said, if you want to feel like you’re actually playing the game and character a bit more, she does have some different playstyles that all work pretty well:
- Full Crit: This is a playstyle centered around hitting enemies from behind for crits, using Piercing Shot to inflict Cursed, and using Ensnaring Strike to really stack up the damage.
- Elemental and Condition Diehard: A playstyle centered around using as many of Catti’s different moves as possible, since each one seems to apply some unique Condition from Corrupted to Bleeding to Poisoned and more. This really relies on a high Intelligence stat.
- Support Ranger: Similar to the Full Crit playstyle, but with a bit more focus around locking down enemies and healing allies in multiplayer to make the overall experience more fun. Is also a playstyle that works with any of Catti-Brie’s four active abilities and feels to most “rewarding” to play.
The Best Feats To Grab
There are only about 20+ Feats for each of the four characters in Dark Alliance, which might seem small for an RPG Skill Tree, but each one does make a noticeable difference as soon as they’re unlocked. But, some are obviously better than others, especially if they’re grabbed early, so here are the best ones to get for each of Catti’s three Feat Trees:
- Cunning: Scavenger, Pack Rat, Keen Mind
- The Archer: Quick Draw, Precision Shot, Sharpshooter
- Longstrider: Mobile, Tough, Steel Will
Overview Of Catti's Best Moves
Let’s be blunt, Catti has an absurd number of Moves that she can use, yet if you’re playing her the most “optimal” way, you’ll only be using about 20 percent of them. Plus, like Bruenor Battlehammer, all of her Moves seem to have some completely unique Condition, Buff, or Debuff they inflict.
And, because of that, Catti is arguably more of a "technical" character than even Bruenor (though less Stamina Destructive) if you want to play her based around inflicting these Conditions. That said, here are the moves that are most commonly used by everyone that tries her out:
- Rising Kick (into Vertical Sting Down)
- Bouncing Arrow
- Charged Shot
- Lobbed Countdown
- Lobbed Arrow
- Cartwheel Bomber
Basically, anything that inflicts a DoT like Burning or Poisoned, reduces Brie’s cooldowns, or hits an area multiple times is something worth using constantly.
What Is Her Best Active Ability?
Catti-Brie really is a sort of amalgamation of all the other characters, and this is clearly seen in her active abilities. She has four, just like the rest of Champions of the Hall, and here they all are ranked from best to worst:
- Resurrection: An awful solo ability, but the best ability in the game in multiplayer. It doesn’t do any damage, but the fact that it auto revives downed teammates is so absurdly useful.
- Ensnaring Strike: Locking down monsters with Grapple is useful in both Solo and Multiplayer, and it synergizes well with a lot of her builds and playstyles.
- Heartseeker Volley: Basically a better version of her Lobbed Countdown/Lobbed Arrow Moves, and it also grants Precision Strikes and Improved Critical to any allies standing in it.
- Healing Spirit: The only healing Ability in the game, making it fantastic for Multiplayer. But, Breunor’s Warsong ability is equally as good and doesn’t require an Ability Slot, so it trumps this most of the time.
Potential Armor Set Builds
Lastly, let’s take a look at Catti’s actual builds that include her Armor Sets. Collecting, upgrading, and synergizing Armor Sets with your Abilities and Attribute Distribution is half the fun of Dark Alliance, and Catti has some pretty interesting options.
Like all the other characters, she has eight different named sets to work with, so we’ll rank the most useful four from best to worst:
- Goblin Reaper Build: The +20 percent Critical Hit Chance total at five pieces is already incredibly useful, but the +35 percent damage bonus against Goblins is much better than you might think, since Goblins are always around as enemies throughout the game.
- Tundra Explorer Build: Not the best Armor Set choice for a full-range Catti-Brie build, but if you’re going to be in the thick of it parrying enemies, this Armor basically ensures that the Precision Strikes Buff will always be active.
- Barbarian Diplomat Build: As we mentioned before, Catti’s Charged Arrows are incredibly good, and this eight-piece bonus gives them an additional chance of inflicting Grappled as well. This is the obvious Set Bonus choice for those who like Ensnaring Strike.
- Sea Sprite’s Watch Build: The only farm-focused build in the entire game, out of all the playable characters. That said, you do end up with a pretty big surplus of both without even trying, so it’s only for those who are really trying to buy all the moves early or max out all their gear.