First Darkest Dungeon run

[Ashe]

So, I finally decided to give the Darkest Dungeon a go, I knew that I should bring stacks of bandages, debuff cures and lots of food and torches..Had my Arba,vestal,Graverobber and helion all ready and willing? go to.I did pretty well throughout the whole thing, managed my stress well with crits and...well more crits.But once I got to that monster, that thing..Boy did it take a turn..Bleeds always hitting me, my hellion go insane and having a heart attack every time..I lost her and my vestal from running way, I didn't want to lose all them good trinkets..♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I knew it was going to be hard, but that was insane!...Thinking of maybe running it again with Vestal,PD for the dots and bleed heal,Maybe Highwayman or Bountyhunter, then maybe MaA or even my stupid lucky Leaper

[Hedning]

Consider using the cleansing crystal, especially if you go with the maa. Using bandages still takes one turn of bleed. Riposte is also super effective against the shuffling horror since it likes aoe attacks.

[GZstar]

I have to do the run on my NG+ game soon also and I have a lot of respect of the mission even after finishing it on normal campaign once.

I think, I will use Hellion, Graverobber, Houndmaster, Vestal again. They did manage it the first time very well even if stress was a problem in the end. Maybe crusader instead of hellion would be the better party in terms of stress healing, but I do not want to bring a crusader because I prefer taking one to the third mission.

You should have stun options to be able to fight slow after killing two enemies in terms of health and stress healing before ending a fight and entering the next. But you also need damage to beat the final boss fast. In this last fight stress healing nearly is hopeless not using jester and my strategy is based on killing the boss before being killed in terms of stress in this last fight.

Anti-Bleed trinkets really help a lot and/or the usage of holy water. I didn´t had cleansing crystal my last campaign but there are other trinkets reducing bleed and I think I used these together with anti-stress trinkets.

[lupious]

The first floor is very much about stress healing, while the boss is about having characters that can reposition themselves with skills or hit from multiple positions. Bringing a Crusader and Jester are good choices both for their stress heals and for their ability to move (Jester can move forward and backward with skills, Crusader can move forward from the back two rows). I've done it 3 times now, with little difficulty and have never gone above 100 stress with this method. All 3 times have been Crusader/Jester/Vestal/One other character. The 4th character I've used in my three runs were Hellion, Grave Robber and Houndmaster, though a lot of different characters can fill this role. Highwayman is also perfect for the boss since he can move around and hit multiple positions from multiple positions (not to mention riposte is awesome). I plan on bringing him on my next run. Grave Robber is another excellent choice, both for her ability to hit multiple positions from multiple positions, but also the ability to move forward and backward with skills.

[Ashe]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Consider using the cleansing crystal, especially if you go with the maa. Using bandages still takes one turn of bleed. Riposte is also super effective against the shuffling horror since it likes aoe attacks.

Yeah, I can see how riposte can REALLY help on the boss, and I saw my cleansing crystal after the run, gonna use that for sure

[lupious]

Ok, I just did another floor 1 run of Darkest Dungeon and Highwayman is AWESOME. Riposte is just ridiculous on the boss. All of the boss' hits are are either full party AoE, or two person AoE I think. With riposte on, I was getting two free hits a round (since the boss has two attacks per round). With this in mind, Man at Arms is another good choice since he has riposte as well. I would have to say Highwayman is probably my #1 choice for this dungeon now.

You definitely want to use at least one +Accuracy trinket on the Highwayman (like a Sun Ring) and if you take a Man at Arms, I would use a +Accuracy trinket on him as well. For the other trinket, there are a couple options: One is going with either +dodge or +healing received (like a Recovery Charm). Highwayman is pretty squishy so these help. I actually didn't do this and went a pure offensive route. I used the Crescendo Box (+2 Speed, +15% Dmg, +10% Stress). I also went with Ancestor's Candle on my Hellion (+2 Speed, +5 Dodge, +15% Dmg if torch above 50%, +10% stress). Looking back, I should have put the candle on the Highwayman for dodge. This worked REALLY well in the fights leading up to the boss though because the high speed/dmg of both those characters allowed me to kill at least one, often two mobs in the first round before they got a hit off, making the rest of the fight trivial and allowing me to stress heal with the Jester. Note: I also had the quick reflexes quirk on my Highwayman (+2 spd) locked in, so his speed was 11, making sure I always hit first and got my riposte going. I went into the boss fight with no character above 10 stress.

This run I went Hellion, Highwayman, Jester, Vestal. I ended the run with no one at Deaths Door and 0 stress on any characters (I accidentally forgot to use my camp until after I already defeated the boss, so I used it before leaving the dungeon and cleared any leftover stress - though my highest stressed person only had 30 thanks to the Jester). I actually prefer the Hellion over Man at Arms because Hellion is much higher damage and makes the fights leading up to the boss fast. That being said, Man at Arms probably does just fine instead and is likely better on the boss.

TIP: Use your camp before the boss fight and use Highwayman's camp skill: Unparalleled Finesse +10 Dodge, +2 Speed, +20% Damage Melee Skills, +10% Accuracy Melee skills. I'm not entirely sure if the +dmg/+accuracy affects the riposte hits, but even if it doesn't, they are great for your actual skill hits and the dodge/speed is nice too since you riposte when you dodge a hit just the same as if you got hit.

[Draescan]

99 hours in game, yet it's your first run? ( Suspicious psycho is suspicious ) all kidding aside, it's murder for sure. I haven't managed it but have gotten close with this setup


Going from left to right:

Vestal, Plague Doctor, Crusader, Leper


Won't spoil anything more, but I recommend it

[lupious]

Originally posted by Psycho:

99 hours in game, yet it's your first run? ( Suspicious psycho is suspicious ) all kidding aside, it's murder for sure. I haven't managed it but have gotten close with this setup


Going from left to right:

Vestal, Plague Doctor, Crusader, Leper


Won't spoil anything more, but I recommend it

I don't want to speak badly about another person's strategy, but ...I'm going to lol. Plague Doctor and Leper are not good for this fight since the boss moves your characters around. Leper is useless if he gets put in spot 3 or 4, and Plague Doctor is nearly useless if he gets put in spot 1 or 2. Again, you want characters that can hit with their good skills from nearly any position OR have good damage skills that move them forward/back: Highwayman (#1), Houndmaster (though can't do much from position 1), Jester (awesome because it has forward and back skills + stress heal), Hellion (can hit from everywhere except last spot), Grave Robber (multiple skills that move around + can hit from any position), Crusader (has a good move forward damage skill if he gets put in slot 3 or 4 and can stress heal) etc. etc.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by Nightsail:

Uhhh, no. Flesh's Heart is much better. Using it for the 2nd is good though.

That's debatable. In any case I never have the trophies when I do dd1 as it takes a long time to get to level 7 dungeons unless you are focusing one.

I don't think the shuffling horror is what makes this level hard. It's the smart ai and high crit chance from the regular mobs, so I would base my hero selection on those.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by lupious:

I don't want to speak badly about another person's strategy, but ...I'm going to lol. Plague Doctor and Leper are not good for this fight since the boss moves your characters around. Leper is useless if he gets put in spot 3 or 4, and Plague Doctor is nearly useless if he gets put in spot 1 or 2. Again, you want characters that can hit with their good skills from nearly any position OR have good damage skills that move them forward/back

The shuffle isn't nearly as bad as you seem to think. Yes it might waste a turn for 1-2 of your heroes, but the prophet can also double stun which is basically the same thing. A plague doctor in particular is extremely strong when she is in the back. She can stun their entire party in one action or she can do 40 damage on a non crit. If you get in dangerous territory she can also heal someone (take off deaths door) and remove a dot they are suffering from (preventing them from instantly getting back there). She is well worth the risk of having one of her turns wasted every now and then. If your other team members can move it is even less likely that she has to as she can be moved when they move.

Here: I uploaded this screenshot just for you with a team consisting pretty much only of characters who can't move (it's ng+ btw): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=770864735

[Draescan]

Originally posted by lupious:

Originally posted by Psycho:

99 hours in game, yet it's your first run? ( Suspicious psycho is suspicious ) all kidding aside, it's murder for sure. I haven't managed it but have gotten close with this setup


Going from left to right:

Vestal, Plague Doctor, Crusader, Leper


Won't spoil anything more, but I recommend it

I don't want to speak badly about another person's strategy, but ...I'm going to lol. Plague Doctor and Leper are not good for this fight since the boss moves your characters around. Leper is useless if he gets put in spot 3 or 4, and Plague Doctor is nearly useless if he gets put in spot 1 or 2. Again, you want characters that can hit with their good skills from nearly any position OR have good damage skills that move them forward/back: Highwayman (#1), Houndmaster (though can't do much from position 1), Jester (awesome because it has forward and back skills + stress heal), Hellion (can hit from everywhere except last spot), Grave Robber (multiple skills that move around + can hit from any position), Crusader (has a good move forward damage skill if he gets put in slot 3 or 4 and can stress heal) etc. etc.

Don't really care if you like or not to be quite honest :P It works for me just fine, and the only reason I haven't beaten the darkest dungeon is because of mistakes I made, not the characters.

[Draescan]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Originally posted by lupious:

I don't want to speak badly about another person's strategy, but ...I'm going to lol. Plague Doctor and Leper are not good for this fight since the boss moves your characters around. Leper is useless if he gets put in spot 3 or 4, and Plague Doctor is nearly useless if he gets put in spot 1 or 2. Again, you want characters that can hit with their good skills from nearly any position OR have good damage skills that move them forward/back

The shuffle isn't nearly as bad as you seem to think. Yes it might waste a turn for 1-2 of your heroes, but the prophet can also double stun which is basically the same thing. A plague doctor in particular is extremely strong when she is in the back. She can stun their entire party in one action or she can do 40 damage on a non crit. If you get in dangerous territory she can also heal someone (take off deaths door) and remove a dot they are suffering from (preventing them from instantly getting back there). She is well worth the risk of having one of her turns wasted every now and then. If your other team members can move it is even less likely that she has to as she can be moved when they move.

Here: I uploaded this screenshot just for you with a team consisting pretty much only of characters who can't move (it's ng+ btw): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=770864735

That's another configuration I like running as well. The issue is my Vestal is so bad that I've literally named her Missalot. It's a cheap joke that in the end is only at my own expense ;_;.... Oh well, hoping for a good roll on one so I can start using that setup again.

[Ashe]

Gave it another go, Vestal,Occo,highwayman, and MaA..Owned literally the whole dungeon..Until the second last room..MaA went ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane and had a heart attack and died..Then lost the HWY leaving the dungeon..I will run with this set again when I get those two classes again..And I know I have 100 hours in and I suck for not being done the first game, but I just wanna enjoy this game.Plus working on getting all those ancestor trinks

[lupious]

Originally posted by Maya Fey:

Gave it another go, Vestal,Occo,highwayman, and MaA..Owned literally the whole dungeon..Until the second last room..MaA went ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane and had a heart attack and died..Then lost the HWY leaving the dungeon..I will run with this set again when I get those two classes again..And I know I have 100 hours in and I suck for not being done the first game, but I just wanna enjoy this game.Plus working on getting all those ancestor trinks

Replace Occultist with Jester for stress healing and you're golden. You should be able to enter the boss fight with little to no stress at all.

[lupious]

As far as the Plague Doctor conversation goes, I'll take back 50% of what I said. :) I can see how the double stun would be really nice for the fight and for the fights leading up to the boss. That's the 50% I take back. The 50% I don't take back is the shuffle part. I just think there are way better choices that don't have the risk of being shuffled to multiple spots where they can't do much or can't do what they are in the party to do. Highwayman and Grave Robber are perfect examples of characters that can do damage from any position.

Not only that, but Plague Doctor doesn't have an attack that repositions himself. This is important because having a damaging move that repositions you (like Highwayman's Duelist advance) can help reposition the entire party and make it so you don't have to waste a turn simply moving a character (or sometimes two). An example would be if your Plague Doctor gets shuffled to position 1 and your Vestal gets shuffled to position two. If your Plauge Doctor goes first that round, what do you do? Move him back, putting your Vestal in position 1 now?

Having read and thought about the Plague Doctor I will say though that I changed my mind and it's not a bad choice. Again though, I just feel like there are better, or at least safer, choices.

[Ashe]

Originally posted by lupious:

Originally posted by Maya Fey:

Gave it another go, Vestal,Occo,highwayman, and MaA..Owned literally the whole dungeon..Until the second last room..MaA went ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane and had a heart attack and died..Then lost the HWY leaving the dungeon..I will run with this set again when I get those two classes again..And I know I have 100 hours in and I suck for not being done the first game, but I just wanna enjoy this game.Plus working on getting all those ancestor trinks

Replace Occultist with Jester for stress healing and you're golden. You should be able to enter the boss fight with little to no stress at all.

I don't even have a Jester..hehe..I like the occo for the damage reducer he has