How is the helion any good?

[A Cute Kitty]

Just by looking at her abilities, nothing really seems to stand out as spectacular. She does nothing that another class can do better at, especially with the debuffs that come with half of her abilities. Older threads declare that she's a master at bleeding things out, but my current marking squads tear through things just fine. Does causing bleed, and the unreliable backline insta-kill summarize her?
I want to know if I'm going to have to build a party around her to get her to max level.

[Panfilo]

Hellion is amazing. She can stun the front two rows pretty reliably, and Iron Swan is amazing at killing back row enemies because it has the same profile as Wicked Hack. In contrast, many other heroes lack either the raw damage, speed, or accuracy to hit rank 4 as hard as the Hellion can.

Her speed means she's fast enough to go before many enemies, and locking in Quick Reflexes gives her enough additional speed to reliably pre empt a lot of enemy formations.

Bleeds are good for high prot enemies you can't easily brute force down. If it Bleeds also works in the third rank and targets the enemy third rank, giving you utility in boss fights. Her bleed skills are useful in the Crimson Court.

Adrenaline Rush cancels out her debuffs and in the case of her stun you don't have to worry about the debuff much. Herbs can also remove it.

[EagleWiz]

Her damage is pretty high, she can hit any row if in the front line (theres a few bosses where thats a huge help), her bleed is good, and of the three skills that debuff her one of them gets a damage bonus and a heavy bleed (ok, I didnt use it much but it was good for some fights in the darkest dungeon where you want to kill the frontline ASAP), another skill stuns two frontline targets at the same time, which is the best stun in the game, and the third is great if your doing AoE.

Also her best skill can be used from all the way back in rank 3

The only major downside is shes not as tanky as a crusader or leper, but I used her as my go to frontline for most dungeons, and shes great at killing bosses.

[teh_drewski]

She's a tank that deletes rank 4, what's not to love?

[A Cute Kitty]

Originally posted by Panfilo:

Hellion is amazing. She can stun the front two rows pretty reliably, and Iron Swan is amazing at killing back row enemies because it has the same profile as Wicked Hack. In contrast, many other heroes lack either the raw damage, speed, or accuracy to hit rank 4 as hard as the Hellion can.

Her speed means she's fast enough to go before many enemies, and locking in Quick Reflexes gives her enough additional speed to reliably pre empt a lot of enemy formations.

Bleeds are good for high prot enemies you can't easily brute force down. If it Bleeds also works in the third rank and targets the enemy third rank, giving you utility in boss fights. Her bleed skills are useful in the Crimson Court.

Adrenaline Rush cancels out her debuffs and in the case of her stun you don't have to worry about the debuff much. Herbs can also remove it.

But compared to say, the plague doctor; nothing really stands out.

Both can lock down half the enemy lineup, the only difference being positioning and well... the debuff. Which in order to get rid of requires using a turn to cast adrenaline or using herbs. I'm really cheap when it comes of additional supply items. Plague doctor's stuns are cheap, effective, and come with no downsides.

Yes, Iron swan lets her hit the back rank. I'll give her credit there, that sounds like a lovely feature.

I know bleeds can be powerful, that's why I brought two houndmasters to the Flesh boss fight and spammed "Harry." However, my plague doctor can cause DoT's, my houndmasters/bounty hunters can hit 'em with marks which pairs nicely with one another, and my occasional leper can intimidate them. Or I could just stun them and focus on killing other things. I don't have the crimson court yet, and judging by the reviews and discussions I'd rather not get it.

Adrenaline rush, once again, requires me using up round two to counter for her debuffs. She is fast, yet my luck gives speed 5 enemies turns before my speed 10 characters, so that's a grey area.

[Bill]

Without doubt the best frontline DPS in the game. She has great base damage and speed, decent dodge and health and excellent camping skills (+8 crit!). In regard to her skills, her flexibility as a DPS is key: She can hit every rank with a non self-debuffing attack (wicked hack hits 1-2, bleed out hits 2-3 and applies a good bleed, and iron swan is a god tier rank 4 hitter). This alone puts her above Crusaders and Lepers as a front line dps, and allows you to effectively focus the most dangerous enemy regardless of their position. Her only drawback is her lack of tankiness, though i find her great speed and dodge chance more than make up for this. Her skills which apply exhaustion debuffs are situational, but her self buff/heal cancels out the damage reduction from the debuff. Yawp is an incredible stun and often worth the debuff to prevent damage/stress, and Bleed out is very strong in the right situation (usually bleed weak boss fights such as the shrieker or the flesh), and breakthrough can be useful if you're fighting a boss that shuffles the party. Try her out, i think you will quickly see why she is considered top tier.

[A Cute Kitty]

Originally posted by EagleWiz:

, another skill stuns two frontline targets at the same time, which is the best stun in the game, and the third is great if your doing AoE.

Isn't that up for debate? Plague doctor's stun can knock out the stress dealers for multiple rounds with no downside. Grave robber's stun buffs her speed. Bounty Hunter's stuns either hits everywhere and shuffles or uppercuts one and moves back.

Is the Yawp skill an extremely niche skill, something that only shines in specific combat senarios rather than general combat? I'm ok with boss killer teams and setups, I understand the reason behind those, yet I look more towards the general purpose teams.

[A Cute Kitty]

Originally posted by Links_Souls:

backline insta-kill that is always the most right thing to do in the whole game
espacially when you facing radiant patch monsters
plus double stun
plus self heal/buff/cure
decent spd and hp

Are you supposed to level up her equipment and skills for her to start oneshotting things? Is there specific trinkets you need, or are camping buffs what lets her oneshot? Unless you're referring to crits, which doesn't really help me since those are random.

[teh_drewski]

I probably start 70% of fights with the Hellion with a Yawp. Combined with the PD and I get two turns to remove things before much of the enemy acts at all.

The debuff is a little bad, but she still has enough heft to kill things if you don't worry about it, just depends on your comp. Something like PD - Occ - BH - Hell means you start every fight by stunning 4 things, then ceiling spaghetti + Finish Him + Iron Swan means you're fighting 4 on 2. Or if you missed a spaghetti you can clear the debuff and Iron Swan anyway.

Throw in a self heal, clearance of blight/bleed, the ability to hit any rank...versatile, powerful, kills things, stays alive. It's a strong class.

[Just Hitting My Stride]

Originally posted by eltharion_doa:

She's a tank that deletes rank 4, what's not to love?

[myhr2]

Originally posted by A Cute Kitty:

But compared to say, the plague doctor; nothing really stands out.

That's the thing, you don't compare her to a backline hero but to other frontline heroes. Unlike the MAA, the Leper, and the Crusader, she can reliably hit rank 3 and 4 of the enemy formation, which is critical for at least two Bosses, the Hag and the Prophet. Also, since stalling is limited in Darkest Dungeon, a frontline hero that can also contribute to removing problematic targets before they act is really good! It's better to Iron Swan a rank 4 stress-dealer instead of only partially removing the stress with a Crusader action, for exemple.

Her only real downside is that she's less resilient than the others frontlines, she's kinda a rank 1 damage-dealer, but in DD, is very valuable.

[Jork]

Flexible fighter that can hit many positions with reliable dual-stun, her self-debuffs can be mitigated by simply bringing medicinal herbs as well.

I admit I don't use Hellion much, I prefer a man at arms or a bounty hunter for my frontliners since bounty hunter can hit rank 3 with Finish Him, but she is quite good.

[A Cute Kitty]

Originally posted by myhr2:

Originally posted by A Cute Kitty:

But compared to say, the plague doctor; nothing really stands out.

That's the thing, you don't compare her to a backline hero but to other frontline heroes. Unlike the MAA, the Leper, and the Crusader, she can reliably hit rank 3 and 4 of the enemy formation, which is critical for at least two Bosses, the Hag and the Prophet. Also, since stalling is limited in Darkest Dungeon, a frontline hero that can also contribute to removing problematic targets before they act is really good! It's better to Iron Swan a rank 4 stress-dealer instead of only partially removing the stress with a Crusader action, for exemple.

Her only real downside is that she's less resilient than the others frontlines, she's kinda a rank 1 damage-dealer, but in DD, is very valuable.

Alright, i'll throw her to the wolves a few more times. Iron Swan and RNG don't seem to favor me this time around.

[MagnusGrey]

Originally posted by A Cute Kitty:

Originally posted by myhr2:

That's the thing, you don't compare her to a backline hero but to other frontline heroes. Unlike the MAA, the Leper, and the Crusader, she can reliably hit rank 3 and 4 of the enemy formation, which is critical for at least two Bosses, the Hag and the Prophet. Also, since stalling is limited in Darkest Dungeon, a frontline hero that can also contribute to removing problematic targets before they act is really good! It's better to Iron Swan a rank 4 stress-dealer instead of only partially removing the stress with a Crusader action, for exemple.

Her only real downside is that she's less resilient than the others frontlines, she's kinda a rank 1 damage-dealer, but in DD, is very valuable.

Alright, i'll throw her to the wolves a few more times. Iron Swan and RNG don't seem to favor me this time around.

A lot of the time if you use her in combination with the doctor, you can lock up all 4 enemies with only two actions. Also, bwap has a very high base rate, allowing for double stuns in a lot of cases.

[No One]

Originally posted by myhr2:

Also, since stalling is limited in Darkest Dungeon

The hellion is one of the heroes that can let you stall indefinitely by herself. The penalty doesn't go off if there's two enemies left...and oh hey, yawp hits two targets.

[Cure Seraph]

Also Iron Swan, good stats help too, but she is a one size fits all Rank 1 Hero and that's why she is widely accepted and loved by many.
I also think she has one of the most badass crit barks in the game!
"I will feast on your heart!"