Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue Build

Introduction

Welcome to our Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue build guide! In this build, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to utilize the Hand Crossbow Rogue build in Dark and Darker. This includes Skills, Perks, Stat Priority and more!

This Rogue build focuses on a heavy poke playstyle through the use of the Hand Crossbow, Poisoned Weapon and Rupture. The build can be used in both solo and group play without changing the playstyle at all.

Skills

Rupture and Smoke Pot are the recommended skills required to run the Hand Crossbow Rogue Build. Rupture is our damage skill of choice, allowing heavy damage over time from a distance. Smoke Pot allows the Rogue to make quick getaways while slowing enemies down.

Recommended Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue Build Spells

While the Rogue has no spells currently available to it, there may be access in the future through cantrips! As a result, make sure to check back here for updates!

Perks

For this Rogue build, we recommend the following perks:

Hand Crossbow Mastery
Jokester
Poisoned Weapon
Double Jump

The main aim of this build is to be able to be a solid damage dealer from a long, safe distance. Hand Crossbow Mastery lets the Rogue equip the Hand Crossbow that is crucial to the build. Jokester is a general stat-stick perk while Poisoned Weapon adds to the DoT build-up. Finally, Double Jump allows us to reach sneaky places to poke with the Hand Crossbow.

Stat Priority

+All Attributes
Strength and Will
Any other Physical/Magical Damage modifier

Within the stat priority, it should be a no-brainer that +All Attributes is a great all-rounder stat to obtain. Strength and will are a must, increasing your survivability and damage output through raw physical damage and increasing DoT damage. As can be expected, any other Physical/Magical Damage modifier after the rest is useful too!

Weapons

Weapons for the Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue build is a fairly straightforward situation. We recommend running a Rapier dual-wielded with the Hand Crossbow in one slot. The Rogue can use the Rapier for space control with superior melee range alongside the Hand Crossbow for poke.

Armor

For the Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue build, we recommend using a decent combination of cloth and leather where appropriate to get the best protection-to-movement speed ratio. This can be the following:

Leather Cap or Shadow Mask
Marauder Armor or Regal Gambeson
Lightfoot Boots or Rugged Boots
Leather Gloves
Loose Trouser

The above loadout provides the best possible resistances without compromising your movement speed. Try to build your loadout with the above in mind to yield the most optimal results. Finally, do not forget to find the associated stat priorities required for the build!

How to Play the Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue Build

The Hand Crossbow DoT Rogue has one main goal in mind for his or her team. The goal is to find a good position in a situation that leads to a team fight but also allows you to easily access their best target to poke. When the opportunity presents itself, pop Rupture and use the Hand Crossbow to tag a target of choice. While the Hand Crossbow may not deal huge damage on its own, the Rupture plus Poisoned Weapon combination will tick for huge damage. Although the damage depends on the amount of Will you have and the rarity of your weapon. The main targets to look for with this poke damage are either the enemy support, forcing them to back off and heal, or the frontline Fighter, forcing them to pop Second Wind immediately.

The main pro of this build is the ability to dodge in and out of a skirmish while always out-trading from a range. The Rapier is no slouch, however, when it comes to fighting and outtrading. Make sure to always use the Rapier to clean up a melee player you cannot out-space or activate your Smoke Pot to disengage.

Multiclassing Options

Multiclassing is a very experimental feature in Dark and Darker. As a result, there is going to be a ton of possibilities and build tweaks. As we and the many players of the game push further into the wipe to test Multiclassing, we’ll update this build with our recommendations! To see more on Multiclassing and what it means for the future of Dark and Darker – check out the 2024 Roadmap.