Game getting samey- any fun team suggestions?

[ashhhhh]

I've been playing DD for a while and I really like the gameplay loop, but I always keep coming back to the same units in the same positions. Does anybody have any more unique builds I could try out?

I normally go
P1: hellion, leper
P2: sheildbreaker, hellion, crusader, highwayman
P3: vestal, occultist, sometimes antiquarian
p4: arbalest, PD, rarely houndmaster, occultist (If i have the antiquarian in P3)

Ik theres more I can do but I dont rly know how to get good DPS/results out of other heroes. Any help is appreciated

[RopeDrink]

Most teams work at the end of the day, and dabbling with the sheer amount of potential compositions is one of the best ways to keep the loop fresh.

Rather than trying preset team examples offered on a platter, consider condensing the concept down to specific needs and putting them together yourself. It will be more gratifying (and you can also account for your preferences).

While there are plenty of elements to consider, most battles boil down to a collection of the same fundamentals. Thus, many teams will succeed if they have doses of the usual go-to elements, such as speed, accuracy, stuns, sustain, projection, rank flexibility, mobility, camping, etc., with some being more valuable than others in general or at given moments.

When dabbling on the embark screen, consider all possibilities and how many gaps are covered (or left open) by your composition. For example, if you have hyper-fast stun teams, they can cover quite a few gaps -- but as an example of a problem, let's say it's a super-static team that doesn't like being moved around, and thus, easier thwarted by the likes of shuffle-surprise -- something eased by mobility or rank-flex).

Remember - a comp isn't just the four heroes you choose to place together, but also their skills, positions, trinkets, camping, functions, the works. I wouldn't have played either game for as long if it wasn't for the obscene amount of potential compositions -- and if No One were here, he'd tell you the exact total (which is pretty ridiculous). It's easy to churn out bundles of comps that will simply "work", and people will also have their favourites, but again, I recommend plotting them out yourself and testing your handiwork to keep things interesting.

Either way, have fun experimenting.

[Alias Yak]

This is not what you asked for, but Marvin Ceo has some insanely good class mods. They fit into the game perfectly.

As for positions 2 shieldbreakers at front is fun. Position 2 vestal is interesting if you have the trinket.. double PD for ruins, or quadrupole houndmaster for Warrens :D Also what can be fun is antiquarian with high speed in position 1 and 2, using protect me on someone. Also occultist in position 2 can be fun

[Velvet Waltz]

I've never run any comp that looks like yours, and I have beaten the game several times in hundreds of hours of gameplay. there's much to discover.

[Justice]

Do you want spesilized team comps for specific region?

[Ghoul Hunter]

Do a randomizer. Get some dice, assign each number to a unit and roll. Whatever 4 rolls you get are the 4 units you need to beat the game with.

[Tanagram]

Where's your Bounty Hunter, Grave Robber, Jester, and Man-at-Arms? Just stuff to learn/try :)

Here's a random suggestion:
P4: Occultist
P3: HM
P2: HWM
P1: BH

That's pretty different than what you have tried so far. And a bit of a random one I just came up with. Use the occultist to mark, dont bring marks with the others (except maybe the pull for BH). Might be a fun thing to try.

And then there is Man-At-Arms! I'm still learning his fits, but he can be good in P4, and has some maneuverability so there's a lot of potential comps for him to get worked into where he'll have something useful to do each turn.

Funny seeing someone ask for help with comps and mention Arbalest - I haven't really even gotten around to her or Grave Robber yet! I have comfortable comps with the other characters though.

Another one that is a little different than anything you said:

P4: PD
P3: Vestal
P2: Jester
P1: Crusader

If Vestal and PD are swapped, and if Crusader/Leper is in P1, this is a named comp. But, this way when Jester uses Finale, PD is still hyper-effective in slot 3. Vestal doesnt totally fall off in slot 2 either, and by that point you should be mostly through the battle as Finale has already been used...

This comp has wonderful healing, stress healing, torch buffing, stunning, DOTs.....

[No One]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

if No One were here, he'd tell you the exact total (which is pretty ridiculous)

Including total jank like leper in rank 4, there are 83521 distinct party lineups.
If you tried eight parties a day every day, it would take over 28 years to try them all.
Most of them play significantly differently too.
We can also account for possible ability lineups. 7 choose 4 is 35. This gives you 125 billion different parties.
If we remove stuff like leper in row 3 and putting a crusader in the back with only bulwark, smite, accusation, and his stun...
Also, consider trinkets. There's "only" a couple million reasonable parties.

I suggest making new parties based on a theme.
For example, what if my theme is a particular ability, such as abyssal artillery? I want an abyssal artillery party.
HM-OCC-ABM-MAA. HM makes up for OCC's weak ability to hit row 4. MAA frontliner because it's nice to guard anyone who hits death's door and has only wyrd reconstruction as a lifeline. ABM because at the time he couldn't pair with a vestal, so why not? Result: start every fight with abyssal artillery. Whee!
Pick a theme and build around it.

The super-fast stun party that Ropedrink refers to is PD-JES-ABM-OCC. This was born of trying to fit all the best stuff in one party. JES because inspiring tune. PD because PD OP OP, plus disease clear. They hog the back ranks, but I want a main healer...conveniently, OCC can heal from the front. I have a JES anyway, why not bring an ABM? If I want to transform, the JES has my back.
It turns out ABM never wants to transform, so it turned into a party that runs five stun trinkets and e.g. unclean giants only get to take 1 turn in 3. Yes the PD hates shuffles, but there's only one way for all three stunners to be out of position at the same time, ABM-OCC-JES-PD, and even then unless the turn order is PD-ABM-OCC-JES or similar I can fix at least one of them. You would think they would be bad at shamblers due to having favourite spots, but the opposite is true; shamblers hate this party.

Pick a character you think is cool or an ability that seems neat, then build a party around it.

Don't worry about efficacy more than you intrinsically want to. OCC-OCC-OCC-OCC is a perfectly viable lineup. VES-VES-VES-VES works too. HM-HM-HM-HM is actively good... Don't try LEP-LEP-ARB-ARB tho, lel. Nor ABM-ABM-ABM-ABM unless you really really love the absolution animation.

With fasting seals or bloodthirst rings you can make food requirements zero. Then you can take a dungeon with no torches and no victuals. I laughed for two minutes straight when I was told - you can "feast" at camp for 0 food. Then you do self-healers, so HM-ABM-ABM-LEP... going all self-healers isn't a great idea, but it is thematic.

As another example of trinkets, consider PD-OCC-BH-HEL. You can do my preference and go CC/COM on the Hellion. Ten speed, 120 acc, 175% bleed, nice. Or you can go double +stun, dazzling charm plus stun amulet. 170% AOE stun is not exactly bad. With this one change the party plays sufficiently differently.

The Wall: VES-MAA-CRU-LEP. It's not good, but boy howdy is it hard to kill. Even tougher: ARB-MAA-CRU-LEP, all with their CC sets.
Then...what if you slot in a real DPS? In particular, GRs have stealth, so she can't +prot herself, but she doesn't get hit, and gets +dodge. The Wall doesn't mind at all that she's spending every other turn doing 0 damage. They're fine. They can wait.
There are many, many varieties of Wall.

How about a dodge/doesn't look like a wall? JES-MAA-FLG-GR. Solo, shadow fade, bolster...and FLG just kind of eats it if he gets hit. Nom nom, tasty. Still extremely hard to kill.
PD-HM-CRU-FLG, wall of healing, wall of restoration.

[RinzlerRules91]

Try Flagellant in the back row healing and support only, then build out from there, make sure to give him bleed resist for his restoration ability. For boss fights try Man-at-Arms equipped with bolster and command. Take a full stock of comet shards to refresh bolster, equip him with at least one virtue or stress suppression trinket, your team should be untouchable for the fight duration, once all comet shards are used up start using command to buff crit and accuracy.

[BrutalGlory]

One of my favorite teams is: Vestial, Houndmaster, Highwayman, Bounty.

[Tanagram]

Originally posted by BrutalGlory:

One of my favorite teams is: Vestial, Houndmaster, Highwayman, Bounty.

have you ever tried replacing Vestal with Occultist for his mark? He has decent healing/usefulness, and this might free up one of HM's/BH's abilities depending on what youre running

[Garrow]

been having fun with crusader, vestal, flagellant, leper. They're all religious and flag is the main damage with dismas head, candle, blood lust, and purposely keeping rapturous.

Crusader holy lances back line turn one, then just stress heals the whole fight to combat the affliction. This team has so much sustain through four healers and three stress heals. If stress gets out of hand, you have three team wide party stress heals, plus everyone gets vestal's religious bonuses.

I've done three dungeons in a row with this team and no ones ended a dungeon with more than 10 stress, it's actually a little difficult to keep flag rapturous. It's strongest in long dungeons but weak in the ruins since killing the back line depends on flag's bleed.