Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance Build Guide: Drizzt Do’Urden (Assassin)

In this Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance Build Guide, I’m going to talk about my Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build, which uses a lethal combination of rapid Critical Hits and powerful Elemental Damage to effectively slash through enemies. If you want to play a Melee Build that focuses on quick movements to get in and out of Combat while inflicting tremendous amounts of damage with Scimitars, then this guide is for you. Note that this is a beginner guide, and is meant to get you off to a good start as you learn the basics of Dark Alliance.

Dark Alliance Build Guide: Drizzt Do’Urden (Assassin)

Drizzt Do’Urden’s Assassin Build deals substantial Critical and Physical damage, allowing him to execute high-speed movements that shred enemies in a short amount of time. In combination with his Ultimate Attack, Astral Companion, Drizzt becomes momentarily semi-invincible by receiving very minimal damage while inflicting massive Critical Damage.

This Build is a high risk high reward playstyle at close range, and Drizzt is vulnerable to incoming attacks especially at higher difficulties since he’s forced to engage groups of enemies at once. However, combining Offensive Moves while swiftly dodging allows him to survive encounters against even the strongest of foes.

Character Sheet (Attribute) Selection – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

Every time you level up, you receive at least 1 base Attribute point and at Level 10, you’ll receive 2 points. I’ll discuss how best to allocate these until you reach Level 15. Since you can also acquire more points from shrine relics depending on the Act as well as stats from your Equipment, expect your Attributes to be higher and more powerful at this level, but this should give you some idea what to do.

Drizzt Do’Urden is a Ranger who specializes in wielding Scimitars. With this character, your highest Attribute is Dexterity, which boosts your chances to successfully inflict Critical Hits and thereby Critical Damage. Because of your rapid attacks and agile maneuvers, you’ll want to invest in this the most so you can quickly eliminate enemies with just a couple of Moves. This means you’ll want to reach 15 Dexterity first before raising your other Attributes.

The next important Attributes to focus on are Strength, Intelligence and Constitution. Note that you can allocate points to these in any order you deem necessary. Strength provides you with additional Physical Damage for your normal hits, as well as a boost to your Armor. Intelligence increases your Elemental Damage so you can deal more Cold or Acid Damage depending on the stats on your Scimitars. Moreover, a higher Intelligence lowers the recharge times of your Abilities so you can use them more often, especially when you’re surrounded by a lot of enemies. It also increases the chances of inflicting a debilitating Condition such as Freeze to keep them locked in place.

Lastly, Constitution raises your max HP as well as your Stamina and Stamina Regeneration, which are both important when you need to execute Moves, block, parry or dodge attacks. However with Drizzt, it’s quite rare to lose more than 50% of your Stamina in a single Act so you’d want to invest points into Constitution to boost your HP. You’ll want 11 Strength, since you’ll still prioritize Dexterity for Critical Attacks, and 10 Intelligence and 9 Constitution should be enough in making this Assassin Build dangerously effective. For extra Attribute points, consider investing in Dexterity, Strength and Intelligence.

Abilities Selection and Ultimate Attack – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

When it comes to Abilities for Drizzt’s Assassin Build, you should choose Battle Trance and Cloud of Daggers. First is Battle Trance which grants Vampiric and Battle Frenzy. Vampiric lets you steal your enemy’s HP every time the Scimitars’ hits connect so you can heal yourself. This is a huge advantage to Drizzt to keep him alive since he lacks the defenses to do so. Activating Battle Trance right before you strike multiple enemies can even restore your HP to full as long as you continue to strike them. Meanwhile, Battle Frenzy pushes your capacity to inflict greater Critical and Physical Damage by doubling the speed at which you strike. This lets you slash enemies with full ferocity to kill them faster.

Second is Cloud of Daggers to surround Drizzt with swarming daggers. This lets you deal damage right before you approach enemies up close so this supplements your Melee Build quite well. Occasionally, these daggers can even inflict Bleeding.

Next is Drizzt’s Ultimate Attack, which is Astral Companion. This lets you summon Guenhwyvar to attack all enemies within 20 meters from where you’re standing. Additionally, you’ll be granted Stalwart, Legendary Resistance, and Unstoppable, which all help in boosting your defenses and resistances against Physical and Elemental Damage and Conditions. As such, the damage you receive, if any, is very minimal. You’re also immune to staggering so you can continually attack enemies without interruption even after they hit you.

Moves Selection – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

When you reach Levels 7 and 15, you’ll unlock additional Moves or attack combos to inflict bonus damage or Conditions. Out of the 14 Moves, I highly recommend unlocking the following because they enhance the damage you deal up close and in some cases from a distance, with your Assassin Build. You can take these in any order you like.

• Hilt Punch – Deals Chip Damage from your Scimitar’s hilt. Note that this inflicts Stamina destruction on Drizzt, which slightly reduces your maximum Stamina.
• Gloom Splash – Deals high bursts of Necrotic Damage by flinging the target away from you. It has a 75% chance to inflict Weakened so their next attacks won’t be as effective.
• Near Conjuration – Summons Guenhwyvar to deal decent Necrotic Damage against multiple targets in front of you with a chance to inflict Cursed. You’ll have to lock onto them to increase your hit chances.
• Dark Portal – Rams into the target from a distance to deal a series of deadly attacks as well as extra Necrotic Damage. This can also inflict Cursed and it slightly fills up your Ultimate Attack meter.
• Dual Edge Strike – Surprises targets by running towards them and then flipping sideways to deal massive Melee Damage. It also has a chance to shorten your Abilities’ recharge times.
• Sphere of Darkness – Unleashes a ball of energy from afar against multiple targets to deal Necrotic Damage with a chance to inflict Frightened. This also causes Stamina destruction on Drizzt.
• Front Flip Slash – This is an enhanced version of Dual Edge Strike that utilizes double attacks. It also has a chance to inflict Bleeding.
• Battle Trance – Unlocks the Battle Trance Ability.
• Barrel Roll – Another enhanced version of Dual Edge Strike that also has a chance to inflict Bleeding. Additionally, this slightly fills up your Ultimate Attack meter.
• Well of Darkness – Damages multiple targets with a large vortex and it also inflicts Frightened. This also causes Stamina destruction on Drizzt.

The main idea behind these Moves is to deal as much Critical, Physical and Necrotic Damage as possible so you can get in and out of combat fast. At the same time, it’s essential to inflict Conditions such as Freeze and Poison when facing stronger enemies to weaken them or to deal damage over time, or else you may struggle.

You’ll also notice that some of these Moves push you to maximize your Ultimate Attack meter the fastest. This allows you to activate it more often in order to boost the Critical Damage you deal while protecting yourself from the majority of incoming attacks.

Feats Selection – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

In terms of Drizzt’s Feats, you can choose from 3 categories, namely Expertise, The Hunter, and The Ranger. Expertise focuses more on support by improving your Consumable or Useable capacity, HP, and Stamina. The Hunter provides bonuses to your Offensive Skills like Physical and Critical Damage while increasing the chances of successfully dealing Critical Hits. Lastly, The Ranger enhances your Defensive Skills by raising your Armor, max HP, and Elemental Resistance bonuses. Note that you gain at least 1 Feat Point every time you level up.

It’s best to allocate points to the majority of your Offensive Skills first before investing in Defensive and Support Skills. This allows you to significantly boost the Physical and Critical Damage you inflict so you can slash through enemies more effectively. In each category, it won’t matter which Feat you decide to take first.

The Hunter

• Dual Wielder and Opportunist – Deals a total of +10% Physical Damage.
• Lightning Reflexes – Deals extra Physical Damage after a Dash.
• Improved Critical Hit and Precision Attack – Boosts Critical Hit Damage by an additional 30% and increases the chances of successfully dealing Critical Hits, respectively.
• Drow Drop – Deals additional Physical Damage when executing Airborne Attacks.
• Riposte – Gradually drains the target’s Stamina upon performing a successful hit.

The Ranger

Expertise

• Keen Mind – To gain access to Keen Mind, you’ll need to unlock 3 Expertise Feats beforehand. Keen Mind notably reduces the cooldown time of your Abilities.
• Pack Rat – Similar to Keen Mind, you’ll need to unlock 3 Expertise Feats beforehand to get ahold of Pack Rat. This Feat increases your Useables’ capacity by 1.

Useable Upgrades – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

In your runs, you can opt to equip up to a maximum of 4 Useables that benefit Drizzt’s Assassin Build. To enhance effectiveness, you ought to purchase upgrades up to Level 5 via the Merchant. Depending on your needs, you can choose the Useable you want to upgrade first.

Out of the 8 Useables, I suggest you equip Health Potion, Potion of Heroism, Alchemist Fire, and Elixir of Concentration. Health Potion restores the bulk of your HP to help keep you alive. Potion of Heroism restores 75% of your Ultimate Attack’s meter so you can activate it more often. Alchemist Fire is a good addition to your attacks because it inflicts Burning dealing massive damage over time. Lastly, Elixir of Concentration reduces your Abilities’ cooldown time by 50%.

Weapons – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

Weapons play a huge role in Drizzt’s Assassin Build because you’ll need to seek out Scimitars that inflict additional Elemental Damage. Specifically, Acid Damage greatly reduces the HP of weak and strong enemies alike, over time. As such, you continue to inflict high damage even when you’re not attacking them. The more rare the Scimitar, meaning if you get a Legendary version, the better because this will provide you with bonus stats as well as Attack Damage.

The best Scimitar for this build is the Dragonsbane or Remorhaz Brotherhood because either of these Sets works well for this style of play.

Armor – Drizzt Do’Urden Assassin Build

As mentioned earlier, the Dragonsbane and Remorhaz Brotherhood Sets should be what you farm for because they provide set bonuses that enhance your damage even further. Between the two, obtaining 5 Weapon and Armor pieces of the Dragonsbane Set is sufficient so you can deal an additional 50% Critical Damage since set bonuses are cumulative, but you can get 8 pieces for increased Critical Chance while Cloud of Daggers is active.

Meanwhile, if you didn’t get the Dragonsbane Scimitar, you can get the Remorhaz Brotherhood version instead. The Remorhaz Brotherhood Set grants you extra Elemental Penetration, which makes your damage bypass some of the enemy’s Elemental Resistance.

Similar to Weapons, you should get Legendary versions of Armor so you can maximize Drizzt’s offensive and defensive capabilities.

Final Tips

Drizzt’s Scimitars are essential in dealing effective Elemental Damage, which greatly diminishes HP. This, in combination with his Assassin Build’s rapid movements and strikes, significantly fills up a meter to inflict the damage’s corresponding Condition. For example if your Weapon deals Acid Damage, successfully hitting the enemy with continuous Light and Heavy Attacks will inflict the Poison status effect in a few seconds. As a result, each succeeding attack becomes more dangerous and lethal.

Since this Build focuses so much on dealing a high amount of Damage, you lack the defenses to protect yourself from attacks. As such, you’ll need to practice dodging a lot after attacking enemies in short bursts, since you cannot withstand many direct hits.

Lastly, you should also consider equipping the Do’Urden Prince Set so you gain additional Damage when you attack enemies from behind if you intend to play multiplayer. I did find it more difficult to execute this in single player but the set may come in handy when playing with friends. They could easily distract targets as you move in behind for the kill.

Stay tuned for more Build Guides, and be sure to check out the Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance Wiki if you have questions about the game! What Guides would you like to see next? How can we improve this Guide? Let us know in the comments below!