@@kingofthejungle5338 I've had turns start with me saying _outloud_ so as not to forget "dogbiscuitdogbiscuit" and *still* forgotten. cheers King Tiger.
@@DPowered2 it's a meme to send him in on his own, however, with the right stuff and proper knowledge he is like one of the best characters to solo some stuff.
@@reesewhittington6778 This is a masochistic game. If you aren't naming your hero's to get attached to them before their eventual death, why even play?
@@TheValiantBob Good stun, good damage all around, can hit anything and can stress heal/chunk heal in every position. All of these are problem in Cove and Weald because of burst damage and stress that piles up.
Focus ring +Dismas head if you have a jester is actually a sick combo %. Leper makes the best use of %DMG in the game... Just a shame you usually can't because his accuracy is so low. Ave LESTER
"Don't get greedy, heal sooner" is a godly advice for anyone. While yes, the only hit point that matters is the last one, DD is a game where you can go from full HP to deaths door before you even get a turn yourself in. It's better to heal as soon as you can, because if you think "Oh my crusader still has 25 HP, I'm gonna use my vestal to attack" then he'll get crited, drop to Deaths Door, and might even get bleed or blight and you're out here hoping you can heal him before an enemy attacks him. It's almost always better to heal when you can unless youre 100% certain you can end the fight that turn
The inverse is also true though. Obsessively healing instead of just killing the enemy. You heal for 4 hp and then take a 12 damage crit from an enemy you could've killed instead.
@@GeraltofRivia22 yeah that true though if you can get your vestal to a point of doing a consist 14 healing then its a net positive healing to just heal however yes its beneficial to at least try to kill one thing per round so if you can and an enemy is like close to death like 5-7 hp its a good idea to zap with your vestal instead of healing
a mistake I've done and seen a lot with abomination is running him in slot 1. especially if there isn't anyone else in the party who would work well in that slot. it basically limits you to transforming him. whereas in slots 2 and 3 he has his stun and blight moves, less temptation to transform.
Oooh I feel like placing him in slot 1 is what initially led to people overusing transform. In position 1 literally all he can do is transform or cry. Personally, the first 20-ish hours of the game I basically forgot abomination could transform because all I wanted to do was chain-slap and throw up on people. If anything I was under-using transform.
There is one thing you should fear, and that is 4 enemies in one turn, all targeting the same hero. Focus Fire. This is what you need to prevent. Not winning, not killing, only focus fire. Killing foes is a way of doing that. Blinding Gas is a very cheap way of getting this done, it borders on cheating.
@@devindameron funny thing for me is: in all of my playtroughs - my Lepers hit most of the time. Way more than every other hero. Thats because I like to send the enemies flying to another continent or snipe the back row on low hp. Play him with Chop, Purge, Intimidate and the stress heal for stalling and you are good to go. Don't focus on chop and hew. Push the front row back and snipe the low hp targets with intimidate (still does like 3 to 6 dmg) The Leper can stand on his own and has the highest base damage. You don't need him as the main dmg dealer. Even without dmg trinkets he deals insane dmg with his support skills. Build your team around him and don't rely on him. Ince I experienced the potential behind his knockback skill (he basically deactivates the front row enemies and brings the back row into dangerous positions) he became my favourite class and since then, never failed me. In all of my ~300 hours on DD the Leper was never the reason for my overconfidence.
@@MightyAlien1221 I've never complained about his obviously high damage, his accuracy is literally the worst base accuracy in the game. So much so that even with double accuracy trinkets in full torchlight he still has a large chance of missing in Champion dungeons.
Bounty hunter mistake. Never using caltrops. The speed debuff is actually really good on certain enemies. Caltrops allow for DoT parties to trivialize the thing from the stars.
For Darkest Dungeon 2 I really dont think why redhook felt the need to add other "heroes" aside from maybe being there to worship Leper for the God that he is. We are grateful to be in the presence of such majestic being, Leper is the way.
I always save The Abomination Transformation for boss battles, his stun is really good with trinkets. I mostly focus on keeping an enemy from attacking with his chain whip attack.
Great list! The only point I disagree with is the blinding gas opening. There's usually two scenarios: 1. Your other heroes have enough dps to bring down at least one backliner on t1. 2. Your plague doc plays a major role in bringing down the backline. In scenario 1, your blinding gas often times stuns enemies who could've been dealt with. That saod, blinding gas is usually good here since your other heroes like flag or hellion can finish off the back row on t2-ish. In scenario 2 though you just prolongues the inevitable for one turn, only the enemy is now very resistant to stun. By using plague grenade on r3+4 first, you allow the enemy one turn, yes. But when you stun them the next turn they take 2 blight rounds compared to the 1 when starting with blinding gas.
The reason I advocate for it so heavily is because turn 1 is the most important turn in the fight. I'm personally not letting the enemy hit me 4 consecutive times if I can help it, and I'm not letting cultist witch do 20 stress while marking someone for cultist brawler to punch for synergy right after. I'm not letting the spitting pig get extra chances of disease, or cove lepers the chance to pull my backline. Even if the lifespan of the enemies is potentially extended by another turn, you're getting an extra stun out of it because most cohesive teams have the backline down by turn 3, which they will be stunned on and dying on 4 with plague grenade if they do survive. Opening plague is also much worse against stronger backline enemies like skiver because it's harder to do 50 damage by turn 2 than it is to do 30. Spiders are another example. I really value the safety and control of opening stun to protect my teams and set up any other buffs or disruptions I have, but you can probably tell that at this point :P Thanks for the response
This is especially true if you use another hero who can stun in the back line, like Vestal. When I run the 4 OG heroes, I usually open with plague grenade.
Vestal: I thought the stun was common because of how op it is? Plague Doctor: Her stuns so op, just spam as much as possible. Hellion: Didn't really know how good bleed out was, just took it as if it bleeds but with a debuff. Grave Robber: Her pick is so op man. Crusader: Personally treat him more as a destresser then a bruiser or if someones on death door, just heal them. Thanks for the tips.
My girlfriend recently got the game, and got her ass handed to her so hard. Coached her with the help from these videos and she's already on her way to the first boss :')
@@americantoastman7296 i just got the game and on my 3rd dungeon, my Plague suffered a heart attack, and my Shieldbreaker, one after another. And then only my abomination and Crusader were left and my abomination suffered a heart attack and somehow survived until we retreated and then died, finally my crusader was the only one left and gained the Nervous attribute. :')
One mistake I used to make was bringing Bleeding damage characters in area with enemy resistant to it and Blight damage characters in area with blight resistant enemies.
People don't use "Pick to the Face"? That's like, my favorite all-time move, I use it every opportunity I can. Granted, it's not really out of any strategizing or optimization play; I just really like the idea of going up against unspeakable cosmic terrors from beyond the void, with a PICK to the FACE! Also, it seems silly for her to carry that pick around all the time, and not use it.
Pick to the face is good for those high Prot, front row enemies, but Grave Robber has a good crit chance which makes her throwing knives good for KO back row squishes before they get a chance.
Counterpoint for highwayman : Getting a numerical advantage by straightup deleting an enemy on turn one (except for the tankier enemies) prevents you from taking a lot of damage and it can renders half (or even all) of the enemy backline useless in some cases. So point blank is still a great move for most encounters.
IMO it's a versatility problem. Opening with HWM in R1 for PBS is an example of: you commited to it and you eat it whether it fits or not. What if a hard tank is at R1 on enemy formation? your HWM R1 is less than stelar and you can't do anything about it. From R2 or even in the backline you have most of the HWM arsenal to use and he can attack any rank allowing to actually prioritize based on what enemy team you got.
I run HWM with Bounty Hunter, and I use HWM in R1 with max damage. If you can one shot an enemy frontline, enemy R4 slot is locked off and Bounty Hunter can pull a backline towards you. If your other 2 manages to kill that backline enemy, the second backline is now in R2 and can't do shit. It's a really solid strat, and it's why I don't just rely on pistol shot to kill anything really, it just doesn't have the consistent damage that PBS has to me. Consequently I also run Duelist's Advance to keep this strat going in longer fights, incase he needs to or incase I need to use his health as a resource to the max. HWM isn't squishy, but he's not tanky, and both these things don't matter because Duelist's advance does a ton of damage and sets up another PBS.
I used transform on abomination every single combat, but i always use the low stress items and jester in the team, i know is not optimal, but hey, is much more fun to me in that way
I have done these mistakes(Crusader only bruiser) and actually played completely opposite to the mistake(Jester ballad usage). The only thing I would say is with Abomination you get the right trinkets and you can transform for days(I try to aim for this set up when possible), but that could be said of any hero if you have the right trinkets.
I love running Vestal in position 2 with her special trinket, and Flagellant is an amazing hybrid tank/healer/bleeder who can sit in the front 2 spots all year long
Shuffle, I've been reading though the comments on this video, and your dedication to this community is unreal. Thank you for engaging so much with every person on your channel. It helps me understand your reasoning better, and it really makes this community feel responsive. Keep up the great work, king. 👑
One alternative to leading with Blinding Gas (albeit a situational one) is leading with Disorienting Blast because if used on an enemy in Pos 4, they can only end up being brought forward assuming it procs. Other common mistake with Occultist: Massively undervaluing Daemon's Pull and Hands from the Abyss. The high chance preventative healing of his stun and moving enemies out of position is so much better than relying on an inconsistent heal. One other common thing people try to do with Leper is go for a low probability hit on turn one, when a Purge would be both more disruptive to frontliners AND backliners, and it further buffs his ACC. Another common Flage mistake is being afraid of Reclaim because of the self-bleed.
1) Crusader is fine with Leper as long as you're using a self-shuffling team, which is by far the strongest way to use one (Crusader, not Leper). Crusader actually has solid backline access when paired with Shieldbreaker, Highwayman, Man-at-arms, or Grave Robber. And while Leper doesn't really like shuffle-heavy comps, it's better than position-inflexible ones where no one has ways to get behind their Leper without having people pass turns or do multiple move commands (which is almost as bad as passing). 2) I'd argue Crusader is best as a generalist that leans bruiser; even with designated trinkets for healing/stress, they're too weak compared to his damage/stun ability. The ability to swap skills mid-dungeon gives you the freedom to not have to run multiple support skills at once and choosing one that best suits the team's needs. Putting him in the back is a waste of his humungous health pool and above-average move resist. He hits this really unique niche of being a position-flexible character that's literally slower than Leper, which pretty much guarantees that your other shuffler will go first and give you full control over whether you want to double-lunge (Rampart/Lunge/Whatever + Holy Lance) to snipe both backline units or do something else (idk, maybe Vestal outsped Highwayman and stunned the rank 4, so now Highwayman can just knife the rank 3 and Crusader is free to stun a frontliner or something)
It's less about forgetting and more about wondering when and why to use them. You can only bring two so tend to save them for "that one moment when you really need them"... Using them to secure just one kill always feels like it would be a waste though that is probably what they are there for.
Are you able to include the ability icons when you do videos like this, I think most new people like myself remember the ability icons not the ability name :)
Tbh I think that HWM is at his most fun when in 1&2. Counterattacking and blasting around the field and slaughtering every thing with crits is so much fun
I agree. Using Duelist's Advance with him and Riposte with a Man at Arms helped me clear "We Are The Flame," since with those active, a Priest using Death Lash would get counterattacks from both of them.
I've been having great results with Crusader, Highwaymen, Vestal and Plague Doctor, Ill open with Stunning blow, Pistol Shot 2, Judgement, and Disorienting Blast. Stunning the enemy Backline, possibly critting the other to death, Judgment has been treating me as a backline attack and Disorienting Blast stuns. Like your one video said "Battle should be over by turn 4" now my battles rarely go past Turn 5
The four starter classes combo well with each other, to the point of having three different party names, one of which being "the usual suspects" and another literally the devs. Who would have guessed? Not trying to be a dick btw, just wanted to make that joke. And yeah i agree, perfectly solid comp.
I tend to have a vestel act as a stunbot instead of my plague doctor because I like the Frontline stun option, even if I can only stun one at a time. The stun resist on fungal scratchers and artillery in the weald is super low which can save a lot of damage if someone gets marked. (You can replace vestel with abomination if you would prefer as well they hit the same 3 ranks) Don't forget that noxious blast debuffs ACC as well, which if you're not running bloody herb or something you should use instead of incision if you're going for blight.
The number ONE mistake with Hellion is a bad teamcomp with allies that like to dash into first position pushing her back. Jester and his stab, Grave Robber and her lunge attack, Shieldbreaker and her pierce. These guys mostly.
Her breakthrough is good for getting back to 1 though. I just started but my hellion probably has as many kills as my roster combined. Hits like a truck.
Opening with ballad for jester has helped me a lot with him. I used to open with dirk stab so I could rush finale but I’ve been using finale as a panic button more lately. Opening with ballad works really well since I like pairing leper with jester (Lester?) and ballad fixes the accuracy and speed problems on leper. Thanks! :)
I haven't played DD since February, and I keep telling myself I'll get back to completing my Stygian playthrough - but I still watch these from time to time. I'm definitely guilty of the Arbalest mistake, I mark everything for her because I'm a sucker for those big damage numbers.
First time DD Player here: I made a lot of these mistakes when I started playing. Especially with the Abomination and the Grave Robber. I kept using transformation with Abom and it absolutely destroyed my team’s stress level, also I never ran pick you the face with GB because I always just overlooked it in terms of her other abilities. And of course, she would be taken into Rank One or Two and barely be able to do anything. Either way, this video helped quite a lot, much appreciated!
GR jumps herself to R1/R2 when using Lunge: an option for front positions is a must and "Pick to the Face" it's actually really good skill and Shadow Fade is really overkill for minor fights: GR doesn't need to hit ensuring >30 DMG hit at 2 rd cost when at bare minimum she'll CRIT 1/3 doing that in one round and that can be boosted to even greater odds. Keyword: "Ignore PROT". How many guards getttign up to 75% PROT? How many frontline enemies have >40% PROT: Pick melts those enemies For me newbie GR mistake was actually making Shadow Fade an integral part of her gameplay instead of just setting things dead hitting them upfront. As for ABM it really depends on the setup: using his trinket for transform can be done often without stress melting the party. But then you trade it off for his excellent stun in human form and if you set him up for being in human form then transform need to be an emergency skill otherwise stress destroys the party.
5:00 I like how the worst thibg you can do on Lever is put him in a wrong team... He is my favorite hero - self heal is so good Bounty hunter is cool with Leaper, i think. You can, like, stun enemy or pull him into claws of Leaper.
If I run Vestal or Occultist with Plague Doctor, the enemies are surprised, & I’m confident I can kill the 3rd or 4th enemy on the 1st turn, then I use plague grenade. If the enemies are not surprised then I use blinding gas. In my experience this is the proper way to use plague grenade over blinding gas.
MAA: Definitely agree. I can't speak for others, but I overvalued His buffs for the longest time. Now when I take him out, pretty much every build has Crush Retri and Rampart. 4th is up in the air depending on what I think I'll need.
@@PrivateDaisy in longer fights I can see that. But generally, since MAA is a slower character, I usually want him to either finish off a target that just needs a bit more damage put in to them, usually spot 3, or failing that, stun. Command is lacking the speed bonus that makes battle ballad so good. Usually I've already accounted for accuracy with trinkets as well.Don't get me wrong, command is still good and has its place. But I don't use it as often as I used to for the reasons above
I agree so much with Crusader. Some people underestimate Crusader as frontliner just because they didn't deal as much damage as Hellion or not as tanky as Man At Arms. Crusader has so much utility on one character. - damage dealer - tank - stress healer - secondary healer - stun - buff - great camping skill - doesn't worry too much even if he's out of position
U should add the skill icon and their effects when comparing them… by the time someone memorize the skill by name. They'd already be good enough to even go without the guide.
I don't think there's even a mathematical argument for opening with plague grenade, unless your math is specifically regarding your plague doctor's theoretical dps. When you're trying to min/max the action economy, the "math" pulls blinding gas wayyyy ahead. But I'm glad you mentioned that because I remember telling a friend to open with blinding gas before and they were like "naw gotta start with the blight"
I agree, I’m a relatively new player and I thought stacking blight early was nice but I started opening with the blinding gas. Especially when a lot of the times the back two are people who have straight stress attacks I feel like I have (like he said) more control over the whole encounter when I open with stuns. Just one less round of stress or whatever the back ones have
It depends on team composition, if you pair PD with high speed characters, especially GR, I can see no use for blinding gas since most of the time the enemy backline will be dead by round 2 having used Max 1 attack. With blinding gas to achieve better results you'd have to have the rest of the team hit the backline on turn 1, actions better reserved for controlling the frontline imo.
The abom tip is so spot on - in fact he's AMAZING in the front row since he can heal and destress himself simultaneously making him a great damage sponge. I disagree with the MaA tip though - especially if you're going for the Dodge buff, at least in the right comp; Getting that evasion up can potentially save you from a lot of grief, again provided your team is built to take advantage of that.
Okay but turn 1 bolster is a good always. the -stress is amazing for long dungeons where stress is an issue, and the dodge buff is very nice too. This move gains value the longer the battle goes for, unless you're versing spiders or something bolster is the way to go.
I bought the complete edition of darkest dungeon a few months ago and have tried to get into it only to fail. Thank you for this advice! I really want to be better and I just struggle with strategy at times.
I'm something of a newer player, but it seems I just naturally started using Bounty Hunter, Vestal, and Plague Doctor pretty well. Cool. I did kinda goof up with the other mistakes, though.
Another comment made a joke about it, but Leper is nearly always the one that makes it out in a lone-survivor situation for me. Had a run turn south instantly when my Level 0 Occultist died to 4 spiders before he even got a turn, in the first fight. Whoever else it was I’d brought also died until it was just Antiquarian and Leper. Leper ended up never going below half health that run but the Antiquarian, on Death’s Door, survived 5 hits across two combats to earn herself a permanent spot on the team and a well earned visit to the brothel
Who needs to reach rank4 as Leper when you can just 1 hit crit enemies and force backliners to the front B-) Leper supremacy Also purge is a fantastic move skill especially in pvp too
i remember once having graverobber be my lone survivor in the final bossfight in DD2 but i wasnt running pick to the face so i was just drinking absinth over and over (it still had infinite charges back then) because i refused to give up even though it was already over.
The most common mistake with the hellion for me personally is taking her along at all, every time I do she afflicts in the first battle against some measly maggot and it's just disaster dominoes from there. I was hoping to find an explanation in one of these videos, bu honestly my RNG just seem to hate hate hate her.
I had that exact same issue with Grave robber in both DD1 and DD2! I dont remember the team layout, but we were going against the act 1 final boss, and about two of the easiest chains were remaining, and I had a grave robber and an occultist alive, the occultist was designed around weaking enemies and healing allies, whilst the grave robber was focused on taking huge chunks out with her advancing moove and blighing- so when my 2 upfront tank and dps died, i couldnt do anything. Almost happened exactly the same in DD1, during the shuffling horror fight, but this time, instead of the occultist, i had this GIGA CHAD FLAGELLANT who just REFUSED to die, and his crit after crit whilst the Grave robber just kinda... watched
5:15 Jestal Crus Lep isn’t actually that bad of a team composition, all things considered. You have Dirk Stab, which can reach 3rd, and sets up Crusader for Holy Lance, which can hit 4th, and as you mentioned yourself, there’s also Judgement which can project damage into 4th/3rd, if need be. As for Shieldbreaker, I think she doesn’t quite mesh as well with Leper, at least in 2nd, because she can disrupt Leper’s positioning for Purge or Intimidate, and makes dancing with anyone else in 3rd much harder. 10:54 I’d actually argue that the issue is not marking TOO much, but rather not knowing HOW to Mark. Just as an example, say that the starting turn order has Occultist going before Arbalest, and there’s a stress dealer in the backline. Occultist marks the target, and both it and the debuff land. Then, the Arbalest, with boosted accuracy, damage, and crit from the skill, on top of the Dodge debuff from Occultist, will most likely kill the stress dealer turn one. If the order was reversed, I’d likely go with Suppressive Fire and use Hands instead.
I really like Pick to the Face unironically. It is so nice against heavily armoured enemies that are resistant to debuffs like the Thing From the Stars, and when I don’t need it, I just use another move
Love this list and video! Highwayman: Duelist's Advance hits up to rank 3 from any position it's used in, so imo your strategy works even better starting in rank 2. Open with an Advance on rank 3 (riposte activates), then Point Blank (likely killing the front enemy and pushing you back into rank 2), rinse and repeat. The amount of dmg he puts out with just this combo is terrifying. Flagellant: I totally agree. It's worth noting that Exsanguinate and Redeem have evolved to now have limited uses (3 and 2), so they're more like panic buttons (similar perhaps to the Abomination's Transform)
@O K An exaggeration perhaps, but since that big patch that introduced usage limits, the flagellant has become less useful imo. Used to be fun to try to ride the brink of death with him all the time. Also not really useful in wave-based maps anymore
Learnt some cool tricks and thoughts here, definitely guilty of first turn plague doctor blighting and only going for Bounter Hunter roflstomping... but also kinda proud of myself that I've figured out a good number of these myself... I absolutely love human abomination coupled with any other blight class :D
Maa Bolster opening is sick when used in synergy with Antiquarian dodge buff on any level. With Graverobber shadowfade opener you are invincible on novice and late veteran missions
Exception to 6:36 never starting with point blank is when you either 1 shot frontline with a proper build. Or have 2 highway mans with staggered speeds endlessly chain pointblank shots.
Jester: i literally always start with ballad and either keep spamming it or use inspiring tune when someone is on high stress (i only use dirk stab to set up finale and that's my build)
Happy to know the only mistakes here I really make are with Crusader and Highwayman, although I almost have the opposite problem with Abomination, where I don't use transform ENOUGH (usually only for bossfights)
Yeah that grave robber mistake happened to me early on when I foolishly touched a shambler altar without knowing what it was. Everyone else died and my girl was left up front all alone against one of the shambler minions and the worst thing about it is I could have won the fight if I had pick to the face but cuz everyone else died and she only had ranged skills I lost out entirely
I played against the Swine King (or prince, I forgot), lost two teammates to Wilbur, barely finished off the boss and lost my last teammate to Wilbur. My last remaining character was Grave Robber, no Pick. It was humiliating, having to retreat from the battle.
In regards to bounty hunter its always fun in Butchers Circus to watch them fumble after he ropes the occultist or jester to the front turn 1 and their leper is now in row 3.
the flipping image for your piece on Leper was perfect XD just super sad leper while you basically say "Everybody ask what is Leper doing but never HOW is Leper doing." xD
With Vestal I always run: both heals, stun, and Illumination. Illumination can hit the very back if you need 1-2 damage, with the bonus of keeping the torch high. And I'll always try to hit that stun if I can
+1 for GR tip. In my Bloodmoon run the HoD had me down to just Vestal and GR and my Vestal had to face tank like 4 attacks so GR could stack enough Blight to DoT the win. If it had run out or Vestal had Deathblow'd like...a turn earlier I would have had no option but to sit there and pass turns until I died.
New Player: these videos have helped me SO much! I learned that Crusader mistake early enough, and took two Crusaders in against the mid-tier Necromancer, and just ran a rotating Holy Lance between the two every turn. It felt borderline broken. Not sure if it will work later, but as I said, these videos helped me teach myself little things like that. So thank you!
8:59 this is a weird one because yeah the low health skills are usually saved for last but in longer fights its different. the healing debuff only lasts two rounds so opening with one of them and on round four doing it again. so either open with it or save it for last
I had no idea before watching these videos that people didn't use Ballad on Jester. I personally thought Jester's purpose was Ballad, even undervalued his stress heal.
My issue with flashpowder at champion (and even veteran) is there is there is 2 checks you have to make when using it. 1. actually landing it 2. debuff chance While enemies typically don't have good chance to resist and anti has a trinket that raises it, I have missed enough and gotten enough of my flashpowders resisted, to pretty much never run it outside of apprentice missions. While it is rare, it happens and honestly do not prefer taking the chance, especially when running anti at higher dungeons is already a risk for most scenarios
10:43 do people really ignore his control abilities? I've always loved bounty hunter because of that aspect, his hook and punch making it really easy to mess up the enemy positions, and kill important targets with mark synergies, maybe its just because I havent watched too much Darkest Dungeon live play but that's how I've always played him, never lost a run with my favorite boy on the team.
I often times feel using serpent sway is less useful than just using pierce on something or impale. Against the giant it would be pretty good I guess, but there isn't any way you can guarantee that the enemies will even attack your shield breaker out side of antiquarian's force guard.
Your SBR got a CRIT and is poisoned/bleeding at 50% HP(for SBR that's 18): you better use Sway in that situation instead of waiting for a Murphy's CRIT sending her to Death Door rather than impaling something. Safe play goes a mile away from killing stuff sooner.
Vestal: Wholeheartedly Agree with this one, although with a slight caveat that I've had runs where I've kept parties at nearly full health, but remembering Judgement and her Stun even exist is a massive thing. Plague Doctor: I think this is more build dependent than just "Always use Blinding Gas Every Time". Like a lot of my own PD builds carry both Plague Grenade and Noxious Burst because of seeing them as a Blight focused class and might not even HAVE blinding gas. Granted, I keep getting doctors with Incision and I really should drop that out, though it has been a nice Screw You to shuffle enemies. Houndmaster: Need to check if this still is a thing, hope it isn't. Grave Robber: if the game could GIVE me pick I'd consider it Highwayman: I've just always kept HWM in rank 2 just by default. Though I don't mess around with PBS or Advance enough to really make the use of that. Also 90% of my HWM play is with Dismas who was basically made to be in rank 2 with Open Vein, Pistol, Tracking Shot, and Grapeshot. Crusader: Luckily I think I do better with this mistake than I do Highwayman, but my time using Reynauld has gotten me very used to the classic crusader bruiser quartet of Smite, Accusation, Stun, and Bulwark of Faith. Occasionally I'll swap out Accusation for one of the more supportive abilities on Rey, and other crusaders I'll often carry whatever they have
I can count on one finger, the amount of times I have remembered to give the Houndmaster a dog biscuit.
same
@@kingofthejungle5338 I've had turns start with me saying _outloud_ so as not to forget "dogbiscuitdogbiscuit" and *still* forgotten.
cheers King Tiger.
@@wreckcelsior DUUUUDE. same..
*Violent identification*
But what if you need it later!?
most common mistake with leper is bringing 3 other people with him, they'll just drag him down
Unless those are leplers
My man
Wise words indeed
lmao is that true? You can just send him in or is that a meme?
@@DPowered2 it's a meme to send him in on his own, however, with the right stuff and proper knowledge he is like one of the best characters to solo some stuff.
The moss common mistake with Leper is not miss on first turn. Giving enemies the time to fear his majestic oozing body.
How about actually using intimidate?
@@Nubbletechunneeded, he's already terrifying
@@uwuowo214 fair enough. Though intimate is still More frightening realistically.
Another mistake: renaming Dismas and Reynauld
Wait people rename the heroes?
@@reesewhittington6778 This is a masochistic game. If you aren't naming your hero's to get attached to them before their eventual death, why even play?
you got it all wrong- name 'Reynauld' to 'Reynauld (Alpha)' and 'Dismas (Sigma),' they both work
I just add a "O" to the end of Reynauld and you get Reynauldo
@@empirecrumbles615 Based and grind-pilled
Houndmaster: forgetting to give your doggo a Scooby snack.
Sweet.
1. Kill Boss
2. See 2 biscuits in inventory
3. Feel like a dumbass
4. Repeat
Why argue plague grenade vs blinding gas, just take 2 doctors and use both.
Galactic brain
take 2 doctos and stun twice!
@@feferson492 YOOOOOOOOOOOO
My PD always runs both skills lol
Two plague drs is a dynamite strat, you can have basically the entire enemy team dying in agony by turn like 3
Crusader:Using him only in ruins because he does extra damage against Unholy. Meanwhile he wrecks everything in Cove and Weald.
Wait he does? How?
@@TheValiantBob Good stun, good damage all around, can hit anything and can stress heal/chunk heal in every position. All of these are problem in Cove and Weald because of burst damage and stress that piles up.
But the uca and maggots just wall him
@@reesewhittington6778 urca beats up every hero apart from flagellant. And maggots cant really kill him due to his health
My crusaders never can hit anything
Leper: giving him accuracy trinkets instead of damage trinkets
If you want to gamble with massive hits or plain misses sure
@@ungabungus01 :^)
Focus ring destroys with leper
MANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN it was a joke holy heck
Focus ring +Dismas head if you have a jester is actually a sick combo %. Leper makes the best use of %DMG in the game... Just a shame you usually can't because his accuracy is so low. Ave LESTER
"Don't get greedy, heal sooner" is a godly advice for anyone. While yes, the only hit point that matters is the last one, DD is a game where you can go from full HP to deaths door before you even get a turn yourself in. It's better to heal as soon as you can, because if you think "Oh my crusader still has 25 HP, I'm gonna use my vestal to attack" then he'll get crited, drop to Deaths Door, and might even get bleed or blight and you're out here hoping you can heal him before an enemy attacks him. It's almost always better to heal when you can unless youre 100% certain you can end the fight that turn
Well said
even if you can end the fight that turn, it's still a good idea to heal so that he has more health going into the next fight.
@@olivinator I think he means if it’s the final fight in the dungeon
The inverse is also true though. Obsessively healing instead of just killing the enemy. You heal for 4 hp and then take a 12 damage crit from an enemy you could've killed instead.
@@GeraltofRivia22 yeah that true though if you can get your vestal to a point of doing a consist 14 healing then its a net positive healing to just heal however yes its beneficial to at least try to kill one thing per round so if you can and an enemy is like
close to death like 5-7 hp its a good idea to zap with your vestal instead of healing
a mistake I've done and seen a lot with abomination is running him in slot 1. especially if there isn't anyone else in the party who would work well in that slot. it basically limits you to transforming him. whereas in slots 2 and 3 he has his stun and blight moves, less temptation to transform.
I place him in slot 1 only bcoz slot 2 has a faster Hellion.
Oooh I feel like placing him in slot 1 is what initially led to people overusing transform. In position 1 literally all he can do is transform or cry.
Personally, the first 20-ish hours of the game I basically forgot abomination could transform because all I wanted to do was chain-slap and throw up on people.
If anything I was under-using transform.
There is one thing you should fear, and that is 4 enemies in one turn, all targeting the same hero. Focus Fire. This is what you need to prevent. Not winning, not killing, only focus fire. Killing foes is a way of doing that. Blinding Gas is a very cheap way of getting this done, it borders on cheating.
Bellow + plague grenade. Using blinding gas would be inferior.
Not going to lie, I still get mad at the leper when I have two accuracy trinkets and he still misses multiple times in a row.
That's luck for you.
@@fecomate2542 if there is a 1% chance to miss, best believe my leper with 25% extra accuracy in full torchlight is going to miss atleast twice. Lol
@@devindameron yepp. That being the games biggest flaw.
@@devindameron funny thing for me is: in all of my playtroughs - my Lepers hit most of the time. Way more than every other hero.
Thats because I like to send the enemies flying to another continent or snipe the back row on low hp.
Play him with Chop, Purge, Intimidate and the stress heal for stalling and you are good to go. Don't focus on chop and hew.
Push the front row back and snipe the low hp targets with intimidate (still does like 3 to 6 dmg)
The Leper can stand on his own and has the highest base damage. You don't need him as the main dmg dealer. Even without dmg trinkets he deals insane dmg with his support skills.
Build your team around him and don't rely on him.
Ince I experienced the potential behind his knockback skill (he basically deactivates the front row enemies and brings the back row into dangerous positions) he became my favourite class and since then, never failed me. In all of my ~300 hours on DD the Leper was never the reason for my overconfidence.
@@MightyAlien1221 I've never complained about his obviously high damage, his accuracy is literally the worst base accuracy in the game. So much so that even with double accuracy trinkets in full torchlight he still has a large chance of missing in Champion dungeons.
Bounty hunter mistake. Never using caltrops.
The speed debuff is actually really good on certain enemies. Caltrops allow for DoT parties to trivialize the thing from the stars.
Most common mistake for each hero is it not being a leper. The main mistake for Leper is not worshipping him as the god he is
I have tried contracting leprosy for my Leper cosplay, but my cheap copy could never truly replicate his majesty.
For Darkest Dungeon 2 I really dont think why redhook felt the need to add other "heroes" aside from maybe being there to worship Leper for the God that he is. We are grateful to be in the presence of such majestic being, Leper is the way.
Why the is leper being worshipped
Like, only thing he can do is deal damag
But why woshipp
@@GGorsty you dare question the Leper and all he offers to the world? It's treason then
@@DanteMcFlurry in ordner to accept the leper - tell me what he is good at
2:37 "However, if you open with Plague Grenade..." You mean Blinding Gas, no?
cheers Shuff.
I always save The Abomination Transformation for boss battles, his stun is really good with trinkets. I mostly focus on keeping an enemy from attacking with his chain whip attack.
Great list!
The only point I disagree with is the blinding gas opening. There's usually two scenarios:
1. Your other heroes have enough dps to bring down at least one backliner on t1.
2. Your plague doc plays a major role in bringing down the backline.
In scenario 1, your blinding gas often times stuns enemies who could've been dealt with. That saod, blinding gas is usually good here since your other heroes like flag or hellion can finish off the back row on t2-ish.
In scenario 2 though you just prolongues the inevitable for one turn, only the enemy is now very resistant to stun. By using plague grenade on r3+4 first, you allow the enemy one turn, yes. But when you stun them the next turn they take 2 blight rounds compared to the 1 when starting with blinding gas.
The reason I advocate for it so heavily is because turn 1 is the most important turn in the fight. I'm personally not letting the enemy hit me 4 consecutive times if I can help it, and I'm not letting cultist witch do 20 stress while marking someone for cultist brawler to punch for synergy right after. I'm not letting the spitting pig get extra chances of disease, or cove lepers the chance to pull my backline.
Even if the lifespan of the enemies is potentially extended by another turn, you're getting an extra stun out of it because most cohesive teams have the backline down by turn 3, which they will be stunned on and dying on 4 with plague grenade if they do survive. Opening plague is also much worse against stronger backline enemies like skiver because it's harder to do 50 damage by turn 2 than it is to do 30. Spiders are another example. I really value the safety and control of opening stun to protect my teams and set up any other buffs or disruptions I have, but you can probably tell that at this point :P
Thanks for the response
@@ShuffleFM Blinding Gas start is pretty good in an unmodded game, i am using Stun rework, and that does change some things quite considerably
@@ShuffleFM All depends on the comp you use. PD's stun would be inferior for me. Spiders are never a problem.
This is especially true if you use another hero who can stun in the back line, like Vestal. When I run the 4 OG heroes, I usually open with plague grenade.
Vestal: I thought the stun was common because of how op it is?
Plague Doctor: Her stuns so op, just spam as much as possible.
Hellion: Didn't really know how good bleed out was, just took it as if it bleeds but with a debuff.
Grave Robber: Her pick is so op man.
Crusader: Personally treat him more as a destresser then a bruiser or if someones on death door, just heal them.
Thanks for the tips.
Leper: he is perfect and needs no team to help him
Why is lepper a meme?
My girlfriend recently got the game, and got her ass handed to her so hard. Coached her with the help from these videos and she's already on her way to the first boss :')
Nice!
Nice! Love to hear about new people still getting into the game. Makes me think back to my first raids... wasnt pretty ._."
@@americantoastman7296 i just got the game and on my 3rd dungeon, my Plague suffered a heart attack, and my Shieldbreaker, one after another. And then only my abomination and Crusader were left and my abomination suffered a heart attack and somehow survived until we retreated and then died, finally my crusader was the only one left and gained the Nervous attribute.
:')
@Serious Ways grindset
Nice try! I almost believe you got a girlfriend.
love the different pics for the individual heros
One mistake I used to make was bringing Bleeding damage characters in area with enemy resistant to it and Blight damage characters in area with blight resistant enemies.
People don't use "Pick to the Face"? That's like, my favorite all-time move, I use it every opportunity I can.
Granted, it's not really out of any strategizing or optimization play; I just really like the idea of going up against unspeakable cosmic terrors from beyond the void, with a PICK to the FACE!
Also, it seems silly for her to carry that pick around all the time, and not use it.
I prefer to use the move that make her disappear in front line rather than this non damaging pick
All theese dungeons, all theese bosses, all that loot, and all Grave Robber was doing during this times is playing minecraft
I don't find myself using it horribly often, but it did give me my first win against the Thing From the Stars.
And it works pretty well too, I did a lot of crits with that in my day!
Pick to the face is good for those high Prot, front row enemies, but Grave Robber has a good crit chance which makes her throwing knives good for KO back row squishes before they get a chance.
Counterpoint for highwayman : Getting a numerical advantage by straightup deleting an enemy on turn one (except for the tankier enemies) prevents you from taking a lot of damage and it can renders half (or even all) of the enemy backline useless in some cases. So point blank is still a great move for most encounters.
IMO it's a versatility problem. Opening with HWM in R1 for PBS is an example of: you commited to it and you eat it whether it fits or not. What if a hard tank is at R1 on enemy formation? your HWM R1 is less than stelar and you can't do anything about it. From R2 or even in the backline you have most of the HWM arsenal to use and he can attack any rank allowing to actually prioritize based on what enemy team you got.
I run HWM with Bounty Hunter, and I use HWM in R1 with max damage. If you can one shot an enemy frontline, enemy R4 slot is locked off and Bounty Hunter can pull a backline towards you. If your other 2 manages to kill that backline enemy, the second backline is now in R2 and can't do shit. It's a really solid strat, and it's why I don't just rely on pistol shot to kill anything really, it just doesn't have the consistent damage that PBS has to me.
Consequently I also run Duelist's Advance to keep this strat going in longer fights, incase he needs to or incase I need to use his health as a resource to the max. HWM isn't squishy, but he's not tanky, and both these things don't matter because Duelist's advance does a ton of damage and sets up another PBS.
I used transform on abomination every single combat, but i always use the low stress items and jester in the team, i know is not optimal, but hey, is much more fun to me in that way
It's a good way to play tbh. He has good crit, and leper level damage.
I have done these mistakes(Crusader only bruiser) and actually played completely opposite to the mistake(Jester ballad usage). The only thing I would say is with Abomination you get the right trinkets and you can transform for days(I try to aim for this set up when possible), but that could be said of any hero if you have the right trinkets.
Aria box works wonders with him.
I love running Vestal in position 2 with her special trinket, and Flagellant is an amazing hybrid tank/healer/bleeder who can sit in the front 2 spots all year long
Shuffle, I've been reading though the comments on this video, and your dedication to this community is unreal. Thank you for engaging so much with every person on your channel. It helps me understand your reasoning better, and it really makes this community feel responsive. Keep up the great work, king. 👑
Thank you :)
One alternative to leading with Blinding Gas (albeit a situational one) is leading with Disorienting Blast because if used on an enemy in Pos 4, they can only end up being brought forward assuming it procs.
Other common mistake with Occultist: Massively undervaluing Daemon's Pull and Hands from the Abyss. The high chance preventative healing of his stun and moving enemies out of position is so much better than relying on an inconsistent heal.
One other common thing people try to do with Leper is go for a low probability hit on turn one, when a Purge would be both more disruptive to frontliners AND backliners, and it further buffs his ACC.
Another common Flage mistake is being afraid of Reclaim because of the self-bleed.
Hands from Abyss is my favorite ability in the game, since you can consistently stun even the big enemies
Another alternative is Plague Grenade
1) Crusader is fine with Leper as long as you're using a self-shuffling team, which is by far the strongest way to use one (Crusader, not Leper). Crusader actually has solid backline access when paired with Shieldbreaker, Highwayman, Man-at-arms, or Grave Robber. And while Leper doesn't really like shuffle-heavy comps, it's better than position-inflexible ones where no one has ways to get behind their Leper without having people pass turns or do multiple move commands (which is almost as bad as passing).
2) I'd argue Crusader is best as a generalist that leans bruiser; even with designated trinkets for healing/stress, they're too weak compared to his damage/stun ability. The ability to swap skills mid-dungeon gives you the freedom to not have to run multiple support skills at once and choosing one that best suits the team's needs. Putting him in the back is a waste of his humungous health pool and above-average move resist. He hits this really unique niche of being a position-flexible character that's literally slower than Leper, which pretty much guarantees that your other shuffler will go first and give you full control over whether you want to double-lunge (Rampart/Lunge/Whatever + Holy Lance) to snipe both backline units or do something else (idk, maybe Vestal outsped Highwayman and stunned the rank 4, so now Highwayman can just knife the rank 3 and Crusader is free to stun a frontliner or something)
4 crusaders. It's just awesome
I'm guessing HM will be forgetting to eat treats
It's less about forgetting and more about wondering when and why to use them.
You can only bring two so tend to save them for "that one moment when you really need them"...
Using them to secure just one kill always feels like it would be a waste though that is probably what they are there for.
Are you able to include the ability icons when you do videos like this, I think most new people like myself remember the ability icons not the ability name :)
Sure :)
Leper: Party composition that moves him backwards, eventually to position 3 or 4 where there is little he can do for anyone else or towards the fight.
bUt ThAtS lEpErS FaULt!!!
Tbh I think that HWM is at his most fun when in 1&2. Counterattacking and blasting around the field and slaughtering every thing with crits is so much fun
I agree. I had two HWM in the front legit just blank shotting back to back against the swine king. We almost died. But damn that was fucking fun lmao
Agreed. Plus HWM has great dodge. Buff that a bit and have a solid healer and you're golden.
Antiq Jester HWM HWM
Funny but risky
I agree. Using Duelist's Advance with him and Riposte with a Man at Arms helped me clear "We Are The Flame," since with those active, a Priest using Death Lash would get counterattacks from both of them.
God I remember when I ran into a Thing from the starts and my GR DIDNT have pick to the face
I really like these more concise videos you've been doing, they compliment your deeper dives.
I've been having great results with Crusader, Highwaymen, Vestal and Plague Doctor, Ill open with Stunning blow, Pistol Shot 2, Judgement, and Disorienting Blast. Stunning the enemy Backline, possibly critting the other to death, Judgment has been treating me as a backline attack and Disorienting Blast stuns. Like your one video said "Battle should be over by turn 4" now my battles rarely go past Turn 5
The four starter classes combo well with each other, to the point of having three different party names, one of which being "the usual suspects" and another literally the devs. Who would have guessed?
Not trying to be a dick btw, just wanted to make that joke. And yeah i agree, perfectly solid comp.
@@bonogiamboni4830 it's all good. It's been a year since i played though. Might pick it back up.
I tend to have a vestel act as a stunbot instead of my plague doctor because I like the Frontline stun option, even if I can only stun one at a time. The stun resist on fungal scratchers and artillery in the weald is super low which can save a lot of damage if someone gets marked. (You can replace vestel with abomination if you would prefer as well they hit the same 3 ranks)
Don't forget that noxious blast debuffs ACC as well, which if you're not running bloody herb or something you should use instead of incision if you're going for blight.
The number ONE mistake with Hellion is a bad teamcomp with allies that like to dash into first position pushing her back.
Jester and his stab, Grave Robber and her lunge attack, Shieldbreaker and her pierce. These guys mostly.
Her breakthrough is good for getting back to 1 though. I just started but my hellion probably has as many kills as my roster combined. Hits like a truck.
Opening with ballad for jester has helped me a lot with him. I used to open with dirk stab so I could rush finale but I’ve been using finale as a panic button more lately. Opening with ballad works really well since I like pairing leper with jester (Lester?) and ballad fixes the accuracy and speed problems on leper. Thanks! :)
I haven't played DD since February, and I keep telling myself I'll get back to completing my Stygian playthrough - but I still watch these from time to time. I'm definitely guilty of the Arbalest mistake, I mark everything for her because I'm a sucker for those big damage numbers.
This is all rock solid advice, good stuff. One of these days ill stop levelling 100 characters to 6 and actually go into the darkest dungeon proper :)
My most common mistake as a player is forgetting to buy torches for a new party- it does not end well...
First time DD Player here: I made a lot of these mistakes when I started playing. Especially with the Abomination and the Grave Robber. I kept using transformation with Abom and it absolutely destroyed my team’s stress level, also I never ran pick you the face with GB because I always just overlooked it in terms of her other abilities. And of course, she would be taken into Rank One or Two and barely be able to do anything.
Either way, this video helped quite a lot, much appreciated!
GR jumps herself to R1/R2 when using Lunge: an option for front positions is a must and "Pick to the Face" it's actually really good skill and Shadow Fade is really overkill for minor fights: GR doesn't need to hit ensuring >30 DMG hit at 2 rd cost when at bare minimum she'll CRIT 1/3 doing that in one round and that can be boosted to even greater odds.
Keyword: "Ignore PROT". How many guards getttign up to 75% PROT? How many frontline enemies have >40% PROT: Pick melts those enemies
For me newbie GR mistake was actually making Shadow Fade an integral part of her gameplay instead of just setting things dead hitting them upfront.
As for ABM it really depends on the setup: using his trinket for transform can be done often without stress melting the party. But then you trade it off for his excellent stun in human form and if you set him up for being in human form then transform need to be an emergency skill otherwise stress destroys the party.
Serious play improves and enjoyment since finding your channel Shuffle, thanks!
5:00 I like how the worst thibg you can do on Lever is put him in a wrong team... He is my favorite hero - self heal is so good
Bounty hunter is cool with Leaper, i think. You can, like, stun enemy or pull him into claws of Leaper.
If I run Vestal or Occultist with Plague Doctor, the enemies are surprised, & I’m confident I can kill the 3rd or 4th enemy on the 1st turn, then I use plague grenade. If the enemies are not surprised then I use blinding gas. In my experience this is the proper way to use plague grenade over blinding gas.
Vestal: not using bonk vestal
0:46 yes, healing is best reserved for when the enemies are already weakened and their DPS is lower than your healing.
MAA: Definitely agree. I can't speak for others, but I overvalued His buffs for the longest time. Now when I take him out, pretty much every build has Crush Retri and Rampart. 4th is up in the air depending on what I think I'll need.
I don't honestly get it. Why not use Command on turn 1. It's bonus crit and accurancy, then you can do riposte and basic attack
@@PrivateDaisy in longer fights I can see that. But generally, since MAA is a slower character, I usually want him to either finish off a target that just needs a bit more damage put in to them, usually spot 3, or failing that, stun. Command is lacking the speed bonus that makes battle ballad so good. Usually I've already accounted for accuracy with trinkets as well.Don't get me wrong, command is still good and has its place. But I don't use it as often as I used to for the reasons above
I agree so much with Crusader. Some people underestimate Crusader as frontliner just because they didn't deal as much damage as Hellion or not as tanky as Man At Arms.
Crusader has so much utility on one character.
- damage dealer
- tank
- stress healer
- secondary healer
- stun
- buff
- great camping skill
- doesn't worry too much even if he's out of position
U should add the skill icon and their effects when comparing them… by the time someone memorize the skill by name. They'd already be good enough to even go without the guide.
Hohoho, man, you REALLY had me going with the Flagellant "Suffer" tip
Can confirm my worst run was leper crusade antiquarian and vestal. Every fight was 10 turns and they all got afflicted.
I don't think there's even a mathematical argument for opening with plague grenade, unless your math is specifically regarding your plague doctor's theoretical dps. When you're trying to min/max the action economy, the "math" pulls blinding gas wayyyy ahead.
But I'm glad you mentioned that because I remember telling a friend to open with blinding gas before and they were like "naw gotta start with the blight"
I agree, I’m a relatively new player and I thought stacking blight early was nice but I started opening with the blinding gas. Especially when a lot of the times the back two are people who have straight stress attacks I feel like I have (like he said) more control over the whole encounter when I open with stuns. Just one less round of stress or whatever the back ones have
It depends on team composition, if you pair PD with high speed characters, especially GR, I can see no use for blinding gas since most of the time the enemy backline will be dead by round 2 having used Max 1 attack. With blinding gas to achieve better results you'd have to have the rest of the team hit the backline on turn 1, actions better reserved for controlling the frontline imo.
I noticed that your thumbnails have been looking way better recently. This one in particular looks really good!
Thanks. One of my discord mods has been making the important ones for me and they're doing an excellent job :)
The abom tip is so spot on - in fact he's AMAZING in the front row since he can heal and destress himself simultaneously making him a great damage sponge.
I disagree with the MaA tip though - especially if you're going for the Dodge buff, at least in the right comp; Getting that evasion up can potentially save you from a lot of grief, again provided your team is built to take advantage of that.
I mean the abomination transform always felt like a panic button, I always assumed that was the lore of it.
Okay but turn 1 bolster is a good always. the -stress is amazing for long dungeons where stress is an issue, and the dodge buff is very nice too. This move gains value the longer the battle goes for, unless you're versing spiders or something bolster is the way to go.
Shuffle: “With the abomination, you dont need to transform in every fight bruh”
Me: uuuummm
Love to bring the skinny little evil people that lurks behind up to front with Daemon Pull and Dis. Blast. The corpses clearing make them even better.
I bought the complete edition of darkest dungeon a few months ago and have tried to get into it only to fail. Thank you for this advice! I really want to be better and I just struggle with strategy at times.
You'll get there!
I'm something of a newer player, but it seems I just naturally started using Bounty Hunter, Vestal, and Plague Doctor pretty well. Cool.
I did kinda goof up with the other mistakes, though.
this was very informative.
i haven't played the game in a long time because i got frustrated at the rng, but now i kinda want to jump back into it
Do it! :)
Another comment made a joke about it, but Leper is nearly always the one that makes it out in a lone-survivor situation for me.
Had a run turn south instantly when my Level 0 Occultist died to 4 spiders before he even got a turn, in the first fight. Whoever else it was I’d brought also died until it was just Antiquarian and Leper. Leper ended up never going below half health that run but the Antiquarian, on Death’s Door, survived 5 hits across two combats to earn herself a permanent spot on the team and a well earned visit to the brothel
Who needs to reach rank4 as Leper when you can just 1 hit crit enemies and force backliners to the front B-) Leper supremacy
Also purge is a fantastic move skill especially in pvp too
i remember once having graverobber be my lone survivor in the final bossfight in DD2 but i wasnt running pick to the face so i was just drinking absinth over and over (it still had infinite charges back then) because i refused to give up even though it was already over.
The most common mistake with the hellion for me personally is taking her along at all, every time I do she afflicts in the first battle against some measly maggot and it's just disaster dominoes from there. I was hoping to find an explanation in one of these videos, bu honestly my RNG just seem to hate hate hate her.
I had that exact same issue with Grave robber in both DD1 and DD2! I dont remember the team layout, but we were going against the act 1 final boss, and about two of the easiest chains were remaining, and I had a grave robber and an occultist alive, the occultist was designed around weaking enemies and healing allies, whilst the grave robber was focused on taking huge chunks out with her advancing moove and blighing- so when my 2 upfront tank and dps died, i couldnt do anything.
Almost happened exactly the same in DD1, during the shuffling horror fight, but this time, instead of the occultist, i had this GIGA CHAD FLAGELLANT who just REFUSED to die, and his crit after crit whilst the Grave robber just kinda... watched
5:15
Jestal Crus Lep isn’t actually that bad of a team composition, all things considered. You have Dirk Stab, which can reach 3rd, and sets up Crusader for Holy Lance, which can hit 4th, and as you mentioned yourself, there’s also Judgement which can project damage into 4th/3rd, if need be.
As for Shieldbreaker, I think she doesn’t quite mesh as well with Leper, at least in 2nd, because she can disrupt Leper’s positioning for Purge or Intimidate, and makes dancing with anyone else in 3rd much harder.
10:54
I’d actually argue that the issue is not marking TOO much, but rather not knowing HOW to Mark. Just as an example, say that the starting turn order has Occultist going before Arbalest, and there’s a stress dealer in the backline. Occultist marks the target, and both it and the debuff land. Then, the Arbalest, with boosted accuracy, damage, and crit from the skill, on top of the Dodge debuff from Occultist, will most likely kill the stress dealer turn one. If the order was reversed, I’d likely go with Suppressive Fire and use Hands instead.
I really like Pick to the Face unironically. It is so nice against heavily armoured enemies that are resistant to debuffs like the Thing From the Stars, and when I don’t need it, I just use another move
Love this list and video!
Highwayman: Duelist's Advance hits up to rank 3 from any position it's used in, so imo your strategy works even better starting in rank 2. Open with an Advance on rank 3 (riposte activates), then Point Blank (likely killing the front enemy and pushing you back into rank 2), rinse and repeat. The amount of dmg he puts out with just this combo is terrifying.
Flagellant: I totally agree. It's worth noting that Exsanguinate and Redeem have evolved to now have limited uses (3 and 2), so they're more like panic buttons (similar perhaps to the Abomination's Transform)
@O K An exaggeration perhaps, but since that big patch that introduced usage limits, the flagellant has become less useful imo. Used to be fun to try to ride the brink of death with him all the time. Also not really useful in wave-based maps anymore
Learnt some cool tricks and thoughts here, definitely guilty of first turn plague doctor blighting and only going for Bounter Hunter roflstomping... but also kinda proud of myself that I've figured out a good number of these myself... I absolutely love human abomination coupled with any other blight class :D
Maa Bolster opening is sick when used in synergy with Antiquarian dodge buff on any level. With Graverobber shadowfade opener you are invincible on novice and late veteran missions
Exception to 6:36 never starting with point blank is when you either 1 shot frontline with a proper build. Or have 2 highway mans with staggered speeds endlessly chain pointblank shots.
Jester: i literally always start with ballad and either keep spamming it or use inspiring tune when someone is on high stress (i only use dirk stab to set up finale and that's my build)
Happy to know the only mistakes here I really make are with Crusader and Highwayman, although I almost have the opposite problem with Abomination, where I don't use transform ENOUGH (usually only for bossfights)
Weird, I use a ton of Hellions and never gave Bleed Out a chance. I usually run Swan, Break through, if it bleeds, and Yawp.
I learned the pick to the face rule when I was in that literal situation. All the doge means nothing when you can't fight
I have been watching your DD videos for a while now. thanks, I am shocked how new and current some it is for an old game. wow again
Shuffle's fatal flaw is truly forgetting to guard with houndmaster...
Yeah that grave robber mistake happened to me early on when I foolishly touched a shambler altar without knowing what it was. Everyone else died and my girl was left up front all alone against one of the shambler minions and the worst thing about it is I could have won the fight if I had pick to the face but cuz everyone else died and she only had ranged skills I lost out entirely
It's funny how me having been playing darkest dungeon for so long can still be learning a few more thing to get better
HWM with point blank shot and riposte is the best way to use it. Leave pistol shot for range and open vein for high prot foes.
I played against the Swine King (or prince, I forgot), lost two teammates to Wilbur, barely finished off the boss and lost my last teammate to Wilbur. My last remaining character was Grave Robber, no Pick. It was humiliating, having to retreat from the battle.
In regards to bounty hunter its always fun in Butchers Circus to watch them fumble after he ropes the occultist or jester to the front turn 1 and their leper is now in row 3.
the flipping image for your piece on Leper was perfect XD just super sad leper while you basically say "Everybody ask what is Leper doing but never HOW is Leper doing." xD
With Vestal I always run: both heals, stun, and Illumination. Illumination can hit the very back if you need 1-2 damage, with the bonus of keeping the torch high. And I'll always try to hit that stun if I can
+1 for GR tip. In my Bloodmoon run the HoD had me down to just Vestal and GR and my Vestal had to face tank like 4 attacks so GR could stack enough Blight to DoT the win. If it had run out or Vestal had Deathblow'd like...a turn earlier I would have had no option but to sit there and pass turns until I died.
New Player: these videos have helped me SO much! I learned that Crusader mistake early enough, and took two Crusaders in against the mid-tier Necromancer, and just ran a rotating Holy Lance between the two every turn.
It felt borderline broken. Not sure if it will work later, but as I said, these videos helped me teach myself little things like that. So thank you!
Lance dance is always viable :)
Leper: Not running 4 Lepers.
Okay fiiiiiiiine, but only because I'm thirsting for _any_ kind of DD content at all at this point
A nice analysis. Generally agree, although I can definitely see where some of our playstyle differences show (I tend to run DOT-heavy).
8:59 this is a weird one because yeah the low health skills are usually saved for last but in longer fights its different. the healing debuff only lasts two rounds so opening with one of them and on round four doing it again. so either open with it or save it for last
I had no idea before watching these videos that people didn't use Ballad on Jester. I personally thought Jester's purpose was Ballad, even undervalued his stress heal.
My issue with flashpowder at champion (and even veteran) is there is there is 2 checks you have to make when using it. 1. actually landing it 2. debuff chance
While enemies typically don't have good chance to resist and anti has a trinket that raises it, I have missed enough and gotten enough of my flashpowders resisted, to pretty much never run it outside of apprentice missions. While it is rare, it happens and honestly do not prefer taking the chance, especially when running anti at higher dungeons is already a risk for most scenarios
10:43 do people really ignore his control abilities?
I've always loved bounty hunter because of that aspect, his hook and punch making it really easy to mess up the enemy positions, and kill important targets with mark synergies, maybe its just because I havent watched too much Darkest Dungeon live play but that's how I've always played him, never lost a run with my favorite boy on the team.
They do. And some people say why use BH when you can use HWM which means they only see him as damage
@@ShuffleFM the poor simple simple fools
I often times feel using serpent sway is less useful than just using pierce on something or impale. Against the giant it would be pretty good I guess, but there isn't any way you can guarantee that the enemies will even attack your shield breaker out side of antiquarian's force guard.
Every time I use protect with maa the enemies attack someone else
Your SBR got a CRIT and is poisoned/bleeding at 50% HP(for SBR that's 18): you better use Sway in that situation instead of waiting for a Murphy's CRIT sending her to Death Door rather than impaling something. Safe play goes a mile away from killing stuff sooner.
One point missed about Flashpowder: removes stealth. Best your Aunty spend her turn removing a stealthy foe that than a Highwayman or Musketeer.
Vestal: Wholeheartedly Agree with this one, although with a slight caveat that I've had runs where I've kept parties at nearly full health, but remembering Judgement and her Stun even exist is a massive thing.
Plague Doctor: I think this is more build dependent than just "Always use Blinding Gas Every Time". Like a lot of my own PD builds carry both Plague Grenade and Noxious Burst because of seeing them as a Blight focused class and might not even HAVE blinding gas. Granted, I keep getting doctors with Incision and I really should drop that out, though it has been a nice Screw You to shuffle enemies.
Houndmaster: Need to check if this still is a thing, hope it isn't.
Grave Robber: if the game could GIVE me pick I'd consider it
Highwayman: I've just always kept HWM in rank 2 just by default. Though I don't mess around with PBS or Advance enough to really make the use of that. Also 90% of my HWM play is with Dismas who was basically made to be in rank 2 with Open Vein, Pistol, Tracking Shot, and Grapeshot.
Crusader: Luckily I think I do better with this mistake than I do Highwayman, but my time using Reynauld has gotten me very used to the classic crusader bruiser quartet of Smite, Accusation, Stun, and Bulwark of Faith. Occasionally I'll swap out Accusation for one of the more supportive abilities on Rey, and other crusaders I'll often carry whatever they have