Character Tier List Based on Darkness 15

[[ATG] Derrick770]

Since I made a weapon tier list I thought I may as well make a character tier list. I will be ranking the characters based on how easy or consistent it is to win with them on darkness 15 as well as taking their synergies with weapons and skill. I will be ranking them from S to D in tier list fashion. Note- All the characters are perfectly able to win with certain weapons, I am merely comparing them to each other.

S Tier- Abby, Spark, Shauna

Abby- This comes as no surprise, Abby is the strongest character in the game. She does well with almost every weapon but in particular the dual SMGs and batgun do serious work. Even the grenade launcher is not half bad on her. Her 3 unique skills are all great or ok, 2 of them being great and one of them being just ok, so this is good for building a run. Skills are amazing with Abby as she is able to spread frost at an unsurpassed rater and projectile increases are ludicrous with her. Additionally, lightning is very good as it increases her time in her ability.

Spark- Spark is a very good character who can work well with many weapons and skills. She works well with almost every weapon excluding the cross bow and grenade launcher, but her favored weapon is the Dual SMGs as it allows for way more lighting. Speaking of which, the lighting skill is quite good for her as it can make her have nearly infinite ammo and do a lot of damage. She is average when it comes to spreading frost and paired with her immense lighting/fire synergy it is quite strong. Her unique skills are range from ok to great with the 2 of them being great and one of them being ok.

Shauna- The starting character is also one of the strongest. She is able to re-roll skills which is useful for higher darkness levels. But what really bumps this character to S tier are her unique skills. All three of them are among the best unique skills in the game. The Halo is the weakest of the three due to its delayed impact but is is undoubtedly quite strong. The 40% extra XP is absolutely invaluable as it allows you to be well ahead of the difficulty curve. And the x3 to next upgrade is game breakingly good as it can allow you to become invincible. However, I will not consider the absolute peak of this skill to rank her so I did not rank her higher. She has no particular synergies with any weapon or skills and any can work with her.

A Tier- Diamond, Lilith

Diamond- Diamond has a lot of health which at first glance may not seem like that big a deal as you should not be getting hit to often if you are able to beat darkness 15 consistently. What really make Diamond good are her unique skills, all of them increase her stats based on taking damage or healing, meaning that you can leverage your high HP to get other stats. This can get out of hand quite quickly if you get the HP regen skill early along with runes you can get quite a bit of stats out of your HP. Other than this she does specifically synergize with any weapons or skills.

Lilith- Lilith's specialty is summoning. However, I don't particularly like the summoning playstyle and think you should take another route. Even without going for the summoning route Lilith basically gets extra damage for every kill so I think she is still quite strong. If you want to go the summoning route, the batgun is the obvious choice, otherwise every weapon has no specific synergy with Lilith. Her three unique skills range from bad to good. The skill that makes two skulls per kill is quite good regardless of build, and the one that increases summon damage highly is good for summon builds and make the skulls better. The other one is bad as it is simply not as good as the other two.

B tier- Scarlett

Scarlett- She is supposed to be based upon fire but I don't particularly value the burn status effect. However, why her ability is good is not the burn, but the ability for it to spread frost as it has infinite pierce. Scarlett plays particularly well with the dual SMGs as it allows her to belt fire. Her unique skills are quite good other than the one that increases burn damage at the expense of bullet damage.

C tier- Hina

Hina- Unfortunately, Hina is the worst character in the game as she has only a soft synergy with summon builds and again summon builds are not really my favorite. Her ability to dash and put a shadow clone is not good, unless you get her 1 good unique ability, which makes her invincible when dashing and dealing damage to whatever you dash through. This ability kept me from putting her in D tier as it is legitimately strong, but not enough for me to put her any higher than C tier.

[anima132000]

Scarlett is not B-tier by a long shot you're completely undervaluing her unique perk of Scarlett Pyromaniac which in essence is absolutely broken with SMG or Flame Cannon as both essentially create an endless wave that can fill up the entire screen since the firing rate is just complete absurd.

You might not value flame much but this perk alone breaks her because it allows for easy proccing of the invincibility or healing. And building around this late game with the ethereal rune means 10 seconds straight of just erasing everything with what is essentially a death beam at that point.

The only real downside of the ability is that the game itself can't handle it and will lag or have slowdown after a short while of just shooting.

[TheFoxing]

just because you like scarlett doesn't mean her passives aren't that great at the end of the day. she works with 2 weapons and "beam" doesn't compare to 360 degree coverage.
you could pick shana's x3 upgrade with burn damage and you'd effectively have the same character.
picking ethereal rune and not having cadence instead is probably a reason you think she's good.
cadence with flamethrower is legitimately just the same thing as her passive.

[[ATG] Derrick770]

Originally posted by anima132000:

Scarlett is not B-tier by a long shot you're completely undervaluing her unique perk of Scarlett Pyromaniac which in essence is absolutely broken with SMG or Flame Cannon as both essentially create an endless wave that can fill up the entire screen since the firing rate is just complete absurd.

You might not value flame much but this perk alone breaks her because it allows for easy proccing of the invincibility or healing. And building around this late game with the ethereal rune means 10 seconds straight of just erasing everything with what is essentially a death beam at that point.

The only real downside of the ability is that the game itself can't handle it and will lag or have slowdown after a short while of just shooting.

I agree that unique perk is good and with runes it is quite strong. I however was looking at the overall character and while the Dual SMG is indeed good, she really does not bring as much to the table with other weapons. The flame cannon is a bad weapon in my view even with Scarlett.

[Torniquet]

Hina can dash through boss area s tier character... Hope they buff her, would be nice if her Lens enhanced shadow clone attack would be baseline or if you could place multiple clones.

[anima132000]

Originally posted by TheFoxing:

just because you like scarlett doesn't mean her passives aren't that great at the end of the day. she works with 2 weapons and "beam" doesn't compare to 360 degree coverage.
you could pick shana's x3 upgrade with burn damage and you'd effectively have the same character.
picking ethereal rune and not having cadence instead is probably a reason you think she's good.
cadence with flamethrower is legitimately just the same thing as her passive.

I mean picking the right runes is basic with any of the characters that is a given with regard to their balance, you have a character that basically spreads flames effectively and taking advantage of that is the optimal way to go about. So picking ethereal and the fire rate runes allow seems the most straight forward way to about using the runes which are mean to be equipped according the weapon or character in mind.

And to be fair Shana's x3 can put any of the characters to shame really with whatever she builds provided you didn't get unlucky, she can basically outdo anyone if she gets any %damage buffs with the x3 or better yet saving the perk for a tome so you get x3 the bonus with that.

And the fire rate itself can easily go 360... I'm not sure why you seem to think it is locked in one direction when you quickly rotate it with the high fire rate going on.

In the same manner she can handle any weapon with a high fire rate or ammunition just fine, just that she has ones that she clearly excels at. She certainly terrible at using Crossbow and Grenade, but neither of those are that optimal at D15 runs as is anyways. And she can pull off a shotgun build just fine because aside pyromaniac she also gets pyro affinity which provides a 67% buff to burn rate, which just all adds with the new tome and intense burn and with a fast stacking weapon that just quickly deletes late game enemies even without having to rely on frost due to the high numbers. Flame is still a very effective boss killer which does matter at D15 since it makes sure you stay ahead of the curve in progress.

[[ATG] Derrick770]

Originally posted by anima132000:

Originally posted by TheFoxing:

just because you like scarlett doesn't mean her passives aren't that great at the end of the day. she works with 2 weapons and "beam" doesn't compare to 360 degree coverage.
you could pick shana's x3 upgrade with burn damage and you'd effectively have the same character.
picking ethereal rune and not having cadence instead is probably a reason you think she's good.
cadence with flamethrower is legitimately just the same thing as her passive.

I mean picking the right runes is basic with any of the characters that is a given with regard to their balance, you have a character that basically spreads flames effectively and taking advantage of that is the optimal way to go about. So picking ethereal and the fire rate runes allow seems the most straight forward way to about using the runes which are mean to be equipped according the weapon or character in mind.

And to be fair Shana's x3 can put any of the characters to shame really with whatever she builds provided you didn't get unlucky, she can basically outdo anyone if she gets any %damage buffs with the x3 or better yet saving the perk for a tome so you get x3 the bonus with that.

And the fire rate itself can easily go 360... I'm not sure why you seem to think it is locked in one direction when you quickly rotate it with the high fire rate going on.

In the same manner she can handle any weapon with a high fire rate or ammunition just fine, just that she has ones that she clearly excels at. She certainly terrible at using Crossbow and Grenade, but neither of those are that optimal at D15 runs as is anyways. And she can pull off a shotgun build just fine because aside pyromaniac she also gets pyro affinity which provides a 67% buff to burn rate, which just all adds with the new tome and intense burn and with a fast stacking weapon that just quickly deletes late game enemies even without having to rely on frost due to the high numbers. Flame is still a very effective boss killer which does matter at D15 since it makes sure you stay ahead of the curve in progress.

I always use frost personally it is a must take for me. However you make a lot of good points, if I made the list again I probably would put Scarlett in A tier.

[TheFoxing]

i'm not saying she's bad, but ethereal ammo is only good 25% of the time, and on specific weapons and with a bunch of passives.

every character is powerful late in the game, but using cadence and getting level 10 before the first boss spawns and overcoming the weakest point in the game. 0-7 minutes decides the rest of the game for D15.

i did reckless on D15 with abby and grenade launcher and i'm not even sure other characters can use the grenade launcher.
also i understand you don't need to do those type of achievements on D15, but that's no fun.

seriously tho, use flamethrower and cadence, 3231 sword 3111 shield.
scatter, frost, frostbite,shatter. pretty much afk, personally i think frostbite/shatter needs a nerf bcus it makes basically everything else irrelevant and only way i've done crossbow on D15.

[anima132000]

Originally posted by TheFoxing:

i'm not saying she's bad, but ethereal ammo is only good 25% of the time, and on specific weapons and with a bunch of passives.

every character is powerful late in the game, but using cadence and getting level 10 before the first boss spawns and overcoming the weakest point in the game. 0-7 minutes decides the rest of the game for D15.

i did reckless on D15 with abby and grenade launcher and i'm not even sure other characters can use the grenade launcher.
also i understand you don't need to do those type of achievements on D15, but that's no fun.

seriously tho, use flamethrower and cadence, 3231 sword 3111 shield.
scatter, frost, frostbite,shatter. pretty much afk, personally i think frostbite/shatter needs a nerf bcus it makes basically everything else irrelevant and only way i've done crossbow on D15.

It isn't going to activate 25% of the time because it does seem to keep track of kills while you're on a rampage to a certain degree. The uptime especially with a high fire rate can be quite high or it could be from energized shot as well. But the uptime of ethereal on a high fire rate on higher mob densities of D15 is not low at all by the time you reach the 12 minute mark from what I've observed, that you can consistently proc ethereal at that point onwards with more ease.

I'll just post a video I did for this thread to show quickly this thing snowballs as a trait, much like x3. All I can say is it basically was the fastest wave clear alongside boss killing without having to rely on shatter at all. And this strategy can be replicated easily on other weapon aside grenade and crossbow honestly. So it is a lot more general than just two good weapons.

[Jaeus]

I would personally put Diamond higher.
Other than statistically brutal RNG on upgrade offers (something which can sabotage anyone), I have to say Diamond has been my #1 and #2 easiest D15 clears, and the means by which I forced through a Crossbow win.
Her free stats from getting hit or healing can really start to get out of hand if you force a Burn build for the healing. She does have 1 bad chest drop, but when considering her good early mid AND late game, I feel better about using her with any weapon except Grenades than I do several other combinations.

[[ATG] Derrick770]

Originally posted by TheFoxing:

i'm not saying she's bad, but ethereal ammo is only good 25% of the time, and on specific weapons and with a bunch of passives.

every character is powerful late in the game, but using cadence and getting level 10 before the first boss spawns and overcoming the weakest point in the game. 0-7 minutes decides the rest of the game for D15.

i did reckless on D15 with abby and grenade launcher and i'm not even sure other characters can use the grenade launcher.
also i understand you don't need to do those type of achievements on D15, but that's no fun.

seriously tho, use flamethrower and cadence, 3231 sword 3111 shield.
scatter, frost, frostbite,shatter. pretty much afk, personally i think frostbite/shatter needs a nerf bcus it makes basically everything else irrelevant and only way i've done crossbow on D15.

I actually don't think frostbite needs a nerf it allows some of the weaker weapons to not get left behind and be painfully bad. Don't get me wrong it is quite ridiculous and I basically take it every run, but I think weapons like the flame cannon and batgun (to a certain extent) need the help frostbite provides.

[Jaeus]

Frostbite needs a nerf. The crowd control proc should not also be an absurd source of Max HP% damage. Frostbite+Shatter pretty much obsoletes all other sources of damage while being the strongest crowd control available.
I don't hate the CC.
I don't hate damage procs to offset weak hits.
But I don't think attaching those 2 traits together was a good balance decision.

I would like to see the CC remain but the % damage procs moved somewhere like that Death Rounds synergy or the Overload synergy.

[[ATG] Derrick770]

Originally posted by Jaeus:

Frostbite needs a nerf. The crowd control proc should not also be an absurd source of Max HP% damage. Frostbite+Shatter pretty much obsoletes all other sources of damage while being the strongest crowd control available.
I don't hate the CC.
I don't hate damage procs to offset weak hits.
But I don't think attaching those 2 traits together was a good balance decision.

I would like to see the CC remain but the % damage procs moved somewhere like that Death Rounds synergy or the Overload synergy.

That may be a good idea as frostbite and shatter not being synergies does feel weird as they are probably better than any synergy.

[anima132000]

Originally posted by TheFoxing:

i'm not saying she's bad, but ethereal ammo is only good 25% of the time, and on specific weapons and with a bunch of passives.

every character is powerful late in the game, but using cadence and getting level 10 before the first boss spawns and overcoming the weakest point in the game. 0-7 minutes decides the rest of the game for D15.

i did reckless on D15 with abby and grenade launcher and i'm not even sure other characters can use the grenade launcher.
also i understand you don't need to do those type of achievements on D15, but that's no fun.

seriously tho, use flamethrower and cadence, 3231 sword 3111 shield.
scatter, frost, frostbite,shatter. pretty much afk, personally i think frostbite/shatter needs a nerf bcus it makes basically everything else irrelevant and only way i've done crossbow on D15.

Originally posted by ATG Derrick770:

Originally posted by anima132000:

I mean picking the right runes is basic with any of the characters that is a given with regard to their balance, you have a character that basically spreads flames effectively and taking advantage of that is the optimal way to go about. So picking ethereal and the fire rate runes allow seems the most straight forward way to about using the runes which are mean to be equipped according the weapon or character in mind.

And to be fair Shana's x3 can put any of the characters to shame really with whatever she builds provided you didn't get unlucky, she can basically outdo anyone if she gets any %damage buffs with the x3 or better yet saving the perk for a tome so you get x3 the bonus with that.

And the fire rate itself can easily go 360... I'm not sure why you seem to think it is locked in one direction when you quickly rotate it with the high fire rate going on.

In the same manner she can handle any weapon with a high fire rate or ammunition just fine, just that she has ones that she clearly excels at. She certainly terrible at using Crossbow and Grenade, but neither of those are that optimal at D15 runs as is anyways. And she can pull off a shotgun build just fine because aside pyromaniac she also gets pyro affinity which provides a 67% buff to burn rate, which just all adds with the new tome and intense burn and with a fast stacking weapon that just quickly deletes late game enemies even without having to rely on frost due to the high numbers. Flame is still a very effective boss killer which does matter at D15 since it makes sure you stay ahead of the curve in progress.

I always use frost personally it is a must take for me. However you make a lot of good points, if I made the list again I probably would put Scarlett in A tier.

This is basically how it ends up... And this is with a shotgun mind you, so lower ammo baseline... This can easily be replicated with Revolver, SMG, Batgun, and Flame Cannon with ease. The only ones it doesn't work well with aren't really performing as well in D15 anyways.

The conditions for this is not niche at all and as you can see from the 12 minute mark wave the activation for Pyromaniac and Ethereal is ridiculously easy, and from that point on you can combine this with anything to extend the pyromaniac time. This is a D15 run to boot so you can see how quickly it melts a boss with just pure damage. I also avoided ice for as late as I could just to show this more or less is self-sufficient. Other than that I was clumsy enough but hey I survived XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca0Qw8koiXQ

[Torniquet]

Sick deer dodging lol.

[[ATG] Derrick770]

That does look quite powerful and fun, might have to re-evaluate scarlett further if this is easily reproducible.