Are plague doctors worth it?

[AutumnLeaf]

I'm having quite a bit of trouble with champion level quests, and I'm honestly wondering if I should even bother bringing a plague doctor with me. Everything hits like a truck and while blight damage is nice, it just takes too long to bring enemies down, leaving myself vulnerable to the inevitable crit from a full party of four still standing.

Is there a way to use the plague doctor effectively, or should I just leave her for lower levels quests in the ruins and cove?

[Peats]

Well they're great to cure bleed and blight. Also they can stun enemies in the rear, preventing them to deal stress damage to you, that's basically the hellion's stun ability with no debuffs. There's a very nice trinket for doctors which will make their stuns and blight attacks very reliable. It's a very rare trinket, can't remember the name.
I also use their vapours a lot, they really allow for some insane damage.

[Scorpiova]

Their blight damage is great. Usually by round 2 back row stress-attackers like the cultist witch are dead.

She does an excellent job with a dual stun as well.

I often find it hard to give her a role in my party, but when I do she makes the run a lot easier.

[squerc]

it is actually the character I like the most,I alwais put it in 4th position and with a trinket with blight chance and the trinket that gives you like 8 speed on first round and then minus something on the rest,with that you alwais afflict 2 targets and the damage will actually start to count before it would usually attac,and that is 6 blight damage plus at least 6 more on next round plus 12 on the following which in the end pretty much solo kill position 3 and 4,his stun is great aswell can cure blight and single target all positions,really what could be better then that

[No One]

Use blinding gas. It is fantastic. If you have a BH, his skill that hits row 3 gets bonus damage against stunned, so it's even better. Plague bomb is more for finishing off almost-dead stuff so your main damage dealers don't have to waste a turn on a guy with 2 hp. The forward blight is good on anything with prot - it effectively does +prot% extra damage. Although plague bomb is also great for back-row hugging things like bosses, and particularly the unstable flesh since both targets proc the poison.

Trinket Peats is thinking of is the blasphemous vial, and every PD should have one stapled to their face.

[AutumnLeaf]

Guess I need to get good, then. Apprentice and veteran dungeons weren't much of a problem, but champion is kicking my ass time and time again. Suppose it's time to actually care about my moves and trinkets.

Thanks for the advice

[LaserGuy]

Plague Doctor is okay on Champion. Her damage is quite pitiful compared to the high HP of the monsters you're fighting, but you can throw a blight or two against the high PROT frontliners to soften them up while you work on the back lines. Best though, is to make use of her back row stun... with trinkets, you can easily get a massive +70% or more bonus on this, which lets you stun in two consecutive rounds fairly reliably unless the monsters are naturally very resistant. Her stun + shuffle move can also be handy against some formation sensitive enemies. You need to counterbalance the PD with a very high damage front line though.

[itssirtou]

As the dungeons get harder the PD turns into more of a support role, like curing the 30+ damage dots in the final levels and stunbotting.

[Liliana]

Yeah, PD cures dot stacks, stuns enemies, and whittles down high prot enemies. If you have a proper blight team, such as PD, PD, Abom, Hellion, you can basically stunlock them and let them evaporate.

[Panfilo]

Plague Doctor has her uses, but its kind of specialized. Situations where she shines:

-Cove, which has enemies that are vulnerable to Blight but resistant to bleed. Also enemies like Plated Maggots, which have low HP but insanely high PROT allowing the Plague Doctor's blight attacks to actually kill them far faster than more beefy heroes.

-Boss fights, Collector or Shambler where you have a monster that's gonna be around for some time but might end up positioned in a spot thats hard to reliably damage with conventional attacks.

-With high speed, Blasphemous Vial and Witchs vial you have a super high chance to stun the back two rows. Get her speed up high enough and she can go first, stun back two rows, then you have your other 3 heroes focus down the front two enemies. Next turn you can try to stun again or blight them depending on how damaged they might be from other attacks.

-In Warrens, take Bloody Herb and use Incision from the 3rd position. Take advantage of her ability to cure blights and diseases, and focus on bleeding and stunning enemies. With Blasphemous vial/poisoned herb you can also crank up your Blight chance high enough that even blight resistent pigmen can become vulnerable.

[ParryBlossom]

I use Occulist as the healer and use Plague Doctor if it bleeds the companion.

[Ghin]

I like her for Cove and Ruins. She's good at killing PROT enemies, stunning back row, stopping bleeds, killing bosses, etc.

[Razor Ramon]

plague docs are amazing utility and the blight stacks add up quick. totes worth!

[kNIGHT]

The Cove is where PD shines the most. But decent everywhere except maybe not the Weald.

[Lujo]

She seems to do such a good job of messing up the enemy back line one way or another, that I'm having plenty of fun alternating through battlefield medicine and the vapors buff afterwards. I like the herb + bleed instead, too, but for those times when you really don't want her hogging the 3rd slot the buff feels like a legit alternative to the front row blight.

[NecroMierda]

Plague Doctor is good, its excelent for some kind of Bosses.