It's that time again: Class tier list.

[BG88HE_FD_PA]

Now, I know these topics are always great sources of disagreement, but I'm curious to see how people feel about the characters now that the game has been out for a bit.

Just a reminder to try to remain civil even with those that have very different views of character strength than you do. My personal experience is about 150-170 hours of ingame time(inflated to like 230 due to leaving it on), all bosses beaten, entering the final floors of the Darkest Dungeon. My personal opinion is that while any character in the game can be made effective or put into a party composition that plays to their strengths, there are trends in their strengths.


(A Tier)

Houndmaster: Good at everything, extremely versatile, no weaknesses, mark synergy, DoT tied to main attack, high damage, special item allows extra damage, very strong stun. You can virtually throw this guy in any position in any party and he will be good.

Vestal: Backbone of most groups, highly effective in longer dungeons, decent stun, heals self while attacking, can focus on offense initially and switch to defense to patch your team up at the end of an encounter. Low end HP, very slow.

Hellion: Most versatile frontline fighter, high damage, best AoE abilities, double stun, strong against most bosses, high dodge. Crappy HP, has to munch on herbs to use her stronger abilities.

(B Tier)

Bounty Hunter: High damage potential, mark synergy, able to attack most positions effectively, good stuns, synergy with stuns, doesn't care much about shuffles, very strong against most bosses. Slow, somewhat fragile.

Occultist: Fast, extremely strong single target heal that becomes more effective at high resolve, effective at crippling enemy offense and defense, probably the strongest support unit, acts as marker/healer in mark parties, good at harming rear units. Low durability, stun clashes with positional requirements of his main abilities, shuffles can be a problem, offense is weak outside of Abyssal Artillery, heals have high variance and may do poorly at inopportune times.

Highwayman: High general damage potential, fast, good dodge, solid AoE, solid DoT that synergizes with other bleeders, effective in most parties. Fragile, no stun, some abilities don't scale well.

(C Tier)

Plague Doctor: Fast, double stun on back row, decent damage against back row enemies, reasonably effective against many bosses. Damage must pass several checks to be effective(initiative, resist), very fragile, unimpressive damage output generally, less effective in the Weald and Warrens. More of a stalling character and there are characters with more effective stuns as Stun Grenade loses usefulness after the first round.

Arbalest: High damage potential, mark synergy, unique ability to remove stun/mark, very durable. Slow, no stun, weak outside of mark parties/must be put into mark parties, doesn't do well out of position, her abilities outside of her main attack are fairly weak.

Graverobber: Fast, starts off strong at low resolve, has excellent targeting versatility, high dodge, excellent stun that increases her dodge dramatically. Doesn't scale well at all, weak damage output late game, bottom of the barrel pick for mark parties, her durability is tied entirely to her dodge which is streaky.

Jester: Weird case of strength being all over the place. Bad at low levels, terrible in the Ruins and Cove. Highly effective in Weald/Warrens, does amazing against certain bosses like the Flesh Monster, extremely good stress management abilities, gets much stronger at later resolve levels. High dodge, crit, and speed. Ignores Prot for the most part. Low HP, must pass additional checks to do effective damage(resist/speed), can't effectively attack positions 1 or 4, no stun.

Man at Arms: Durable, can hit position 3 with his standard attack, can effectively protect, strong party buffs, can effectively fight in positions 1-3, stun that moves him back into position, has some very interesting defensive party compositions. Weak offense, no strong multi-targeting attack that allows him to finish enemies and weaken others, bit lacking in general and most of his synergy is defensive in nature which is less ideal in many situations.

(D Tier)

Leper: Very durable, very strong physical attacks, high base stats means quirks and trinkets are more effective, Hew is great for chopping up the front line, has very strong self heal and stress heal and works well independently of others. Slow(though he gets faster later), worst accuracy in the game which seriously hurts his damage output and reliability, very limited synergy with others, TERRIBLE out of position, can only hit the front two units, can't stun, many frontline enemies by midgame have Prot which negates much of his high damage.

Crusader: Strong, durable, good against Undead, strong at low resolve levels, can act as a support unit where needed, has a stun, AoE frontline attack allows some versatility in handling melee units. SLOW, damage output pales in comparison to most other units in the game, can only hit units 3 and 4 when he's out of position, support abilities are pretty weak, can have trouble if shuffled without Holy Lance, lacks strong synergy with other classes, doesn't scale up to anything impressive, terrible against almost all bosses, moveset is very vanilla and doesn't allow for combos.

Abomination: Fast, durable, his stun does the most damage of any in the game, can blight 2 targets, has reasonably strong physical damage output, his self heal also relieves stress. Can't group with Vestals, can't hit position 4, he stresses out your entire team every time he transforms. You will need another party member actively keeping stress down if you plan to use his more physically impressive moves, which is a strain on your party's resources. His damage output isn't really that impressive. More of a jack of all trades offensive unit. Problem is that the Houndmaster is basically a better version of him.

Antiquarian Fast, versatile targeting allows her to easily hit any enemy, cares little about being shuffled, Protect Me is unique and can allow for some very strong combinations, she is a major boon to your economy over time and is pretty much a must if you're minmaxing for fewest weeks, and she has a very versatile moveset even if they're all relatively weak abilities(she can heal, DoT, stab, guard, or raise all dodge). Terrible overall in all things combat unless you abuse Protect Me/Riposte combos. Extremely fragile, low crit, low damage output, all abilities are pretty much weak versions of other class abilities. Since this list is more about combat prowess than economy, she winds up at the bottom.


Anyhow, I mostly made this topic because I'm nearing the final boss and kinda wanted to celebrate by typing out my thoughts that I had on these characters. Whether you agree or disagree, thanks for reading.

[X AE A-12]

I do disagree with a lot of your list, which is awesome, it means the game is fairly well balanced.
I just hate you for putting Leper in the last tier. Guy doesn't need synergies, he can even solo 1v4 many many fights.

[Dr. Uncredible]

Solid enough list list! Agree with it for most part, well done!

[pre-eminence]

Originally posted by b_perfanov:

I do disagree with a lot of your list, which is awesome, it means the game is fairly well balanced.
I just hate you for putting Leper in the last tier. Guy doesn't need synergies, he can even solo 1v4 many many fights.

Im with you ;)
Put him in a party with that crazily placed PD (A class on its own imo) and enjoy.

[pop pop]

Hellion become tier b or c for me because of if it bleeds nerf and camping skills nerf

[Mv]

Grave Robber at B.
Man at Arms at B.
Highwayman at C.
Abomination at D.
Jester at D.

That fix your list. Overall its well done.

[Arghaab]

I would put PD on a S tier, above the A one.

As for the Vestal, I would put her in the C tier. She's very good at healing but she's way below average at everything else, and you maybe need healing like one out of 3 fights so she's not that good in my opinion. And she's so slow

I would suggest that you start giving a look at shuffling abilities. You haven't talked about them even once in your character description, and that may be why Bounty Hunter is listed as B, Occultist is listed below Vestal, and PD's crazy low tier listing !

[Ghin]

For someone who crutches on stun so badly, I'm surprised you rated Plague Doctor so low.

[Dr. Uncredible]

Well, like perfanov said, part of the charm in the game is that it´s rare to find two players who completely agree with listings such as these.

[zariel88]

Seems about right in terms of tiers if you only focus on the combat abilities and stats. If you take into account of camping skills, you'd definitely start moving some classes up or down tiers

[Saint Scylla]

Indeed we all have our favorite tactics.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Redbeard. I'm also fighting my way into the Darkest Dungeon and really need solid and synergic teams.

[IGII2]

I agree with you that Vestal, Houndmaster and Hellion are definitely top-tier atm, however I also consider Highwayman after the recent buffs to be top-tier, he has insane damage output (he's ridiculous with Antiquarian).

These all IMO deserve to be rated A-class.


Another almost-top-tier class is Man-at-Arms, versatile class, good damage, very nice stats, excellent skills that can help tremendously in certain situations.

I would also move Crusader much higher in your list, he has a really good base damage, a lot of health and is very versatile character overall (stun, move forward skill, stress heal, heal).

Both Arbalest and Plague Doctor are excellent backline heroes that offer different kind of utilities. Arbalest is arguably the best boss-killing character in the game if you build your team around her. Plague Doctor is so valuable thanks to her double backline stun and one of the best trinkets in the game.

I'd consider these B-class.


I do somewhat like Lepers, but I think they are very situational. I always try to keep at least one Leper in my roster, however I think he desperately needs to get a good skill that moves him forward, you're screwed if you get shuffled. Nonetheless, I wouldn't say he belongs to to the bottom of the list.

Bounty Hunter is solid character but I feel like he just lacks something. Offers an excellent stun skills with one of the highest base % chance. A bit squishy compared to other characters, has good damage. Not the worst class, not the best.

Grave Robber is a good class worth keeping in your roster, fits into a certain team compositions (it's possible to make a really good jump party - tried myself, performed very well even in champion dungeons), feels weak outside of parties built around her.

Abomination is a pretty good self-sustaining hero who is usable in both forms. Very good damage, but I feel like this all gets outweighed by his downside of forcing you to build a specific party. Not a fan of Abom at all, but he works wonders if you actually manage to build a team around him.

I'd rate these as C-class.


I don't like Occultist at all, his heals are way too random, weak damage vs most enemies. His debuffs come in handy in certain situations but are not very good in general. Works well in some boss fights or mark-oriented teams. Has a pretty decent damage in dungeons with Eldritch enemies though.

Jester is what I call a fully support-oriented hero. Best party buff in the game, very good stress healing. Mediocore bleeds, weak damage, extremely squishy hero. Shines in combination with Abomination.

Antiquarian kinda deserves to be "the worst" class combat-wise, she was pretty much designed like that. She is meant to be high-risk high-reward class. She's always worth it if you can afford to take her with you, rises a lot in viability when combined with Highwayman.

These belong to D-class for me.


Sorting all these classes into tiers doesn't mean I play only those in A-class and ignore the others. I use all of them a lot and I get at least on of each class to level 6 in my runs.
I usually never go for the exact same team setup when going to a different dungeon than before, I think that being able to adapt to the new location is crucial.


That's it. That is my list and my opinions, we definitely agree on those A-class heroes, less on the others.

I hope you enjoy playing DD further as much as I do

[Maple]

S+
Plague Doctor- double stun and single target corpse-clearing stun with 2 stun trinkets. lol

[DrBibber]

I would rate plague Doctor and arbalest A) tier. doctor is the best cc in game and makes most party's in high end game so much easyer. Albalest is one of the best finishers imo. I feel dubble occultist in slot 3+4 is also awesome with there marks, debuffs and melee dps. But i agree with other comments: this game can be played in many ways viable..

[asdf]

A)
Vestal
Plague Doctor

Vestal is boring, but effective. I always feel way more comfortable in dungeons with a vestal than without a vestal - not that she's strictly necessary, but she makes things so much easier.

Plague doctor is also amazing, AoE stuns are incredibly good, she does respectable damage with blight and also has the added utility of being able to cure bleed/blight (just having battlefield medicine turns enemies like the giant crab in the cove from terrifying into a free opportunity to heal to full).

B)
Crusader
Hellion
Houndmaster
Man at Arms

Crusader gets put here in large part because he has a stress heal that can be used from the front row, and he also has a decent amount of other utility (resists shuffles with holy lance, has a stun). I usually have too many characters that I want to have in the back row, and personally I like having a stress healer which makes crusader a good choice because he doesn't take up the back row for stress healing.

Hellion has an AoE stun which immediately makes her amazing, and also does good damage. She also has the mostly unique ability to attack the back row from the front row (and actually do decent damage in the process).

Houndmaster is really versatile, he has arguably the best single target stun ability, the best mark ability, a stress heal ability, a self heal - the only sad thing about him for me is that his stress heal can't be used from the same position as his stun. Still, he offers a lot of utility and works especially wlel in mark teams.

Man at arms is insanely tanky and has a lot of great utility abilities. One of the main reasons I rate him this highly is that he's an obvious choice to bring to DD2 which I consider to be the hardest mission in the game - I'm not sure he's as good as the other 3 in generic dungeons, but I can't justify rating him lower than this because in the hardest part of the game you'll want to bring him, and it's not like he's a liability in other dungeons.

C)
Bounty Hunter
Arbalest
Occultist
Graverobber
Highwayman

I use all of these characters in some limited capacity, but they're usually not my first choices. I'm not sure it's really fair to lump them all in the same category here as they're really here for vastly different reasons - bounty hunter and arbalest are good in mark teams, but I don't like mark teams for regular dungeons and they're mostly just used to hunt down specific bosses.

Occultist is here mostly because vestal is better than him at healing (particularly because she's just way more consistent, though the AoE heal is pretty big too), and other classes fill his other roles better too. He does get bonus points for trivializing the prophet fight with weakening curse (especially if you bring both an occultist and a vestal).

Graverobber and highwayman feel like classes that are always 'okay' - I never find myself really wanting to bring them anywhere, but I never feel myself really hating them either. They're good for filling holes in teams if one of your usual characters is stressed out or overleveled or somesuch, but I don't normally like using them if I'm given the option of using any character.

D)
Abomination
Jester
Leper
Antiquarian

Abomination just feels lacking to me. One of the biggest problems of course is that he can't be used with a vestal, but even beyond that I don't like his transform ability very much because of all the stress it gives - I generally can finish fights with minimal damage/stress, but I can't do that if I transform regularly (and without transforming the abomination is kind of underwhelming too). I don't see a strong enough of a motivation to bring him personally - you can make teams with him work I just don't see any reason to want to when other teams can do the same thing with less stress and more consistently.

Jester is kind of bleh to me. All of his abilities other than his stress heal feel underwhelming and he's pretty squishy - I think ultimately if I wanted to have a backrow stress healer I'd rather bring a houndmaster as I think houndmaster has more utility than jester, but generally I use a crusader for stress healing anyway since he can do it from the front row.

Leper just isn't versatile enough. He only hits the front 2 rows which are usually the enemies I don't care about, he sucks if he gets shuffled, his tankiness is irrelevant if the enemies don't target him. He seems too unreliable for me.

Antiquarian.. I mean, yeah you get more loot and I'm sure some people will be eager to say that you can make teams with antiquarian work and you'll get more loot - but you can make the same argument that you can win the game just fine without the extra loot too. I think if you manage your stress well in dungeons (I almost never use the abbey/tavern) that money isn't actually that big of a concern, and when I played NG+ I found experience to be more of a limiting factor than money was for completing the darkest dungeon, so if you're talking about a speedrun antiquarian is still bad for that since he takes up experience (and you really don't want to bring him to the darkest dungeon). If you aren't doing a speed run then antiquarian just adds needless risks - if I were playing a NG+ (which I feel like I have to assume as there's no loss condition otherwise so you can't really evaluate it at all otherwise) I think it would be much more consistent to win the game without using the antiquarian than by using him, which I guess is the metric I'm using for everyone in the D rank.

[Grimelord82]

I think Occultist jumps a tier vs Eldritch opponents, but that is his specialty after all.
I ran one in 3rd position with the +crit surgeon gloves, his +crit vs eldritch stick, and Sacrificial stab was just amazing. He has his niche.

Graverobber can do the same thing with Lunge, even if she isn't in a jumpy party. Put on a +25% damage ring, +crit/dmg gloves, and take out position 3 like clockwork. 4 to 3 action economy at the fight start makes a big difference.

Both of those examples work okay by themselves, but the trinkets do admittedly help them shine.

I think the scouting from Graverobber and Bountyhunter boosts them a tier all by itself. Not getting surprised, and having a better chance to surprise things might keep you from losing a party to Champion Spiders. (RIPieces, 50% of my dead Champions)