Drizzt Do’Urden is the rogue and thief-type character you can choose to play in Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, the Forgotten Realms-based Action RPG. Along with Wulfgar, Drizzt is meant to be in the front lines of battle, but he's meant to attack from behind rather than right in their face. He attacks a lot, is very dependant on his dodges, and is all around just about what you’d expect from a rogue, outside of the spectral panther familiar he summons named Guenhywvar.
Like Breunor Battlehammer, Drizzt does also inflict quite a few different debuffs/conditions to enemies, but rather than inflicting a bunch of different ones, he’s really just focused around the Frightened, Cursed, and Bleeding status effects.
Drizzt's Attribute Rankings
Now, out of all the playable characters in Dark Alliance, Drizzt Do’Urden’s Attribute rankings are the most up in the air, thanks to certain Feats he gets later, the ways damage bonuses are applied, and so on. Here's what we suggest:
|
Rank |
Attribute |
Reason For Ranking |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Dexterity |
The most obvious main stat for a rogue character. Increases his critical hit chance and crit damage. |
|
2 |
Intelligence |
INT gives Condition Penetration, which is huge for inflicting Bleed, Cursed, and so on. |
|
3 |
Strength |
Adds more damage overall, which in turn of course increases critical damage too. |
|
4 |
Constitution |
Around Act 3 Drizzt starts getting downed in a single hit or two, so CONT becomes very important around then. |
|
5 |
Charisma |
Lets Drizzt use his Astral Companion Ultimate more often, and increases the AoE of it as well. |
|
6 |
Wisdom |
Elemental and Condition Resistance is helpful but by far the least useful Attribute for Drizzt out of the bunch. |
How To Build And Play Drizzt Do'Urden
All that said, while this Drow enigma might seem like a very basic sort of character, he’s actually one of the most fun to play thanks to his high-risk high-reward mechanics.
Almost all of Drizzt's moves have him dashing around or can only be used after an evade/dash, so you really feel like you’re darting around the battlefield like a ninja. That said, he only has a couple of play styles that people seem to always gravitate toward:
- Full Crit: His most common playstyle, you’ll build him like a Glass Cannon and only use the moves that either inflict Chip Damage or Cursed, so that your crits will feel even more powerful. This build almost never attacks the enemies from the front.
- Bleeding Edge: This is a playstyle that’s pretty similar to his Full Crit one, but this is more focused on his moves that inflict Bleed, Frightened, Cursed, and so on. You’ll play the same, but you’ll focus on Intelligence earlier and keep an eye out for Elemental Weapons whenever possible.
- Dependable Damage: This is the playstyle for people who don’t really like Dark Alliance's evade and parry system, so they build for survivability and turn Drizzt into a Bruiser of sorts. You’ll be using Battle Trance a lot to get health back, build into Consitution early, and worry less about Conditions.
Obviously, you can also play Drizzt around his Unblockable Attacks, specific moves like his Sphere of Darkness, or even just as an Elemental Rogue with full Intelligence, but the three above are the play styles we see people most commonly falling back on.
The Best Feats For Drizzt
The “Skill Trees” in Dark Alliance, otherwise known as the character’s “Feats”, are pretty basic, and there aren’t a ton of them (about 20 per character), especially compared to other similar ARPGs. But, that said, your choice of which to unlock and when actually does make a pretty big impact on your enjoyment of the game, so let’s go over the best ones to get for Drizzt whenever you can.
- Expertise: Scavenger, Pack Rat, Athletic
- The Hunter: Lightning Reflexes, Riposte, Second Wind
- The Ranger: Defensive Duelist, Uncanny Dodge, Tough
Drizzt's Best Moves
Quite frankly, even if Drizzt didn’t have any "Moves" and could only use basic attacks and abilities, he’d still be pretty good thanks to the way critical strikes work. But, thankfully, he also has a pretty good amount of amazing Moves as well, such as:
- Front Flip Slash
- Gloom Splash
- Near Conjuration
- Dark Portal
- Sphere of Darkness
- Aether
As far as we’ve seen, Front Flip Slash and Near Conjuration are the moves Drizzt players seem to gravitate towards. But, since Drizzt is kind of awful at breaking the guard of armored opponents, Unblockable Moves like Dark Portal and Sphere of Darkness shouldn’t be slept on either.
The Best Drizzt Active Abilities
Throughout the course of your time with Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, you’ll unlock two additional active abilities you can swap out with the two that you start with. These unlock for purchase at level seven, but a lot of people tend to hold on to at least one of their starting abilities. That said, all of Drizzt’s active abilities are useful in different ways, but here they are ranked from best to worst.
- Faerie Fire: Just an all-around incredible ability. Cursed makes enemies take 50 percent more damage in general, which is great for multiplayer, while Frightened locks the enemy in place, making it safe to hit them without fearing a counterattack.
- Blink: This is quite honestly the best ability Drizzt has for multiplayer since it can function as a free revive on a downed teammate. You can save it for that situation, or you can use it to get behind an enemy for free and unload with the Precision Strikes buff that it gives you as well.
- Battle Trance: A bit boring since it just applies two buffs on Drizzt and not his allies, but Vampiric and Frenzy are some of the best buffs, and they synergize well with all of Drizzt’s builds.
- Cloud of Daggers: Not at all a bad ability, and is actually fantastic for a Bleed-focused build, but is pretty basic compared to the others and doesn’t quite stack up in terms of versatility.
Full Build Recommendations For Drizzt
Out of the four playable characters in Dark Alliance, one or two of them aren’t impacted much in their builds by their Armor Set choice, such as Wulfgar who has relatively lackluster Armor Set bonuses overall (though his weapon choices are pretty outstanding).
Comparatively, Drizzt has some of the better Armor Set Bonuses on average, leading to a lot of his builds feeling very powerful and diverse. Now, let's go over four of his best potential builds, once again ranked from best to worst:
- Do’Urden Prince Build: This build requires running Blink if you plan on equipping all eight pieces, but even if it's only five this set is worth it thanks to the 25 percent Damage bonus from behind.
- Dragonsbane Build: Shockingly, the eight-piece bonus for this Set buffs the “weakest” active ability, Cloud of Daggers, but it has by far the best passive set Bonuses. It’s a fantastic build for both Cloud of Daggers lovers and standard Drizzt players alike.
- Wearer of the Mask Build: The alternative option for those of you who don’t want to run Blink, as the eight-piece bonus for this set gives invisibility for every enemy Execution. And, the Stamina Fragments gained from Executions are great for keeping players using their best Moves throughout the course of a level without their Stamina Bar suffering.
- Warden of Mielikki Build: This is the build for those who are struggling to keep their Drizzt alive in multiplayer, whether it's due to poorly timed Evades or just due to the laggy servers of the game overall. It's a safety net build more than one that synergizes with a certain playstyle, but it's still pretty good in general.