Is this a good Crusader build?

[That One Guy]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2978432366

Never finished the game before, but picked it up again and I think I've found a great sequence of perks for the Crusader in my party. I'm about 5 runs in now:

Second Wind: +10% damage if HP below 50%
Slugger: +10% damage for melee skills
Warrior of Light: +10% damage if torch above 75
Luminous: +2 speed +5 dodge

Rabies Disease: +15% damage, -10 ACC

Trinkets:
Warriors cap +5 ACC
Reckless charm = +5 ACC, -2 dodge

I know the Plague Doctor can give a +20% damage boost. Is there anything else I should try stacking on him?

[RopeDrink]

In loose order, almost every hero will be happier with:

ACC, SPD, -Stress, DMG/Chance, Resistances (Bleed/Blight), Health/PROT, Healing Done/Received >> whatever else.

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ACC/SPD are the two best combat stats in the game - helping you to passively resolve a hefty chunk of RNG. Accuracy is more prevalent, given landing attacks (at any speed) is much better than being quick with misses, though there are times when pure support will benefit more from speed than accuracy.

Stress reduction warrants a side note. It is great for general intake management and reducing the detriments of some of the best trinkets in the game. So, saying "Reduced Stress is good" does not mean "avoid trinkets which have +Stress". Quite the opposite. You would stack it so you can avail of strong bonuses with less detriments, not to mention being great in general, even without +stress trinkets.

After that, it's a matter of making sure the hits you land actually do their job. So, if it's a stunner, +Stun Chance, or raw DMG, or perhaps +Bleed/Blight if you want to give your baseline buttons more chance (Etc).

After that, resisting DoTs - which are one of the most common causes of death in Darkest Dungeon - followed by more max health and/or PROT (which helps make intake less important). After that, making sustain more potent so you waste less time healing.

Anything after that is a luxury (or for specialized comps -- eg. +Dodge, which is RNG even if you stack it to the moon, serving best on specialized Dodge comps). It is better to treat Dodge like it is always at 0.

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With all that in mind, the above combination of Quirks is decent. Second Wind is the weakest, given it is entirely reliant on a health threshold -- where staying in tip-top shape is greatly preferred. Warrior of Light is great for safe high-torch dungeoneering, the extra speed of Luminous is always handy, and Slugger is welcome (passive) increase.

Rabies Disease: +15% damage, -10 ACC

Remove Rabies at your earliest convenience. No disease is worth keeping, and it is better to secure guaranteed hits against a broader range of enemies and dodge values (compared to merely hitting a bit harder -- at the risk of missing a target outright). By keeping Rabies, your +ACC quirks and trinket are merely off-setting the disease and keeping the CRU at baseline (rather than converting more RNG scenarios into guaranteed hits).

I know the Plague Doctor can give a +20% damage boost. Is there anything else I should try stacking on him?

It is typically better to avoid wasting turns on damage boosts and buffing. It is a dead strategy throughout the majority of the game due to how most battles work. Using that turn to kill/stun/control the field instead will do more compared to wasting a turn for variables.

[Justice]

I do like the dmg quirks and speed is always nice even if he is the slowest character in the game, At least he wont go last.
Don't like Rabies. Accuracy is by far is the most important stat in this game. You really gonna needed when you reach champion level dungeons

As for skill set is pretty good, except for self buff protection. You will hardly find situations where you will press it before other skills. I suggest replace it with inspiring cry, which stress heal you and restore tiny amount of hp, but it's enough to put you out of death's door.

[That One Guy]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

In loose order, almost every hero will be happier with...

Originally posted by Justice:

I do like the dmg quirks and speed is always nice...

These are great tips for me, thanks!

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

It is typically better to avoid wasting turns on damage boosts and buffing. It is a dead strategy throughout the majority of the game due to how most battles work. Using that turn to kill/stun/control the field instead will do more compared to wasting a turn for variables.

If you want a damage boost you'd be better having a static boost, like a Slayer ring for the main monster type of the dungeon, i.e. Eldritch for Cove, Unholy for the Ruins (where Crusader will spend most of his time anyway), etc.

[RopeDrink]

As always, it's better to walk into a fight with the things you need - rather than waste turns buffing when a fight begins - so yes, you are better served by a good trinket boost.

However, you don't need +DMG in this game to secure comfortable 1-3 rounds victories. It just makes securing those victories easier and more common -- and almost all exceptions hinge on niche battles, boss fights, and DLC content, which makes up far less of the game.

I place DMG/Chance about 4th/5th in priority because there is very little point having 20 million +DMG bonuses (or stun/bleed/blight chance) if they're going to miss their attacks, and said bonuses are far more valuable when your heroes use them before the enemy get to do anything. However, if you're comfortable with your speed and accuracy, then the more potency/chance, the better.

Heroes like PD are obnoxious because she already has plenty of speed + baseline accuracy (and great trinkets), so wasting her fight-openers on something like Emboldening Vapor (compared a any of her stuns, or even a blight or incision in most cases), is such a tremendous waste when she could kill, control, or push the enemy towards reduced numbers quicker -- reducing the relevancy of buffs, debuffs, and defensive strats outright.

Having reduced stress makes it easier to secure such bonuses (eg. making super-good trinkets less detrimental to wear, or ignore more intake even if you lack said trinkets), so I would go for that over +DMG given the choice.

Either way, they're all very strong to have from the word GO (compared to in-fight buffs). The more enemies dead or controlled, the less relevant buffs and defensive playstyles are -- and the more SPD, ACC and DMG/Chance you have, the easier it is to do so.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

As always, it's better to walk into a fight with the things you need - rather than waste turns buffing when a fight begins - so yes, you are better served by a good trinket boost.

Most dungeon types have a specific grunt that is endemic to that dungeon, generally of the prevailing type, like the fishsticks in Cove. They're usually fairly low hp but fairly high damage. If I can take someone who is reliably hitting every time anyway and make one-hit kills the norm rather than a lucky shot, I like doing that. Two frontliners who can hit most ranks and one-shot grunts reliably is my goal.

(Hellion is one of my favorites for sheer killing ability of frontliners and, obviously, the very back row, as well as having the second-best AoE stun in the game.)