Do I need to go "damage" or "stress" team?

[Corky]

New player here. Is there any point in using a stress-based character in a damage team and vice versa? Kinda crappy if you have to choose one or the other, which makes many characters useless in certain runs.

[snuggleform]

Sometimes there is value in having a damage dealer in a stress team because you fight a golem who is stress immune, not so much the other way around.

Sometimes you can have both for example the bride has a good stress attack and great physical attacks.

[Ghaleon]

Both. Some enemy comps are more vulnerable to one kind of team than the other. Mad mages for example are easily made insane. Dorfan berserkers nave nerves of steel but comparatively low hp. Then you get golems who are just flat out immune to stress.

I dont know/remember but I vaguely recall there may have been a body part advantage for stressing enemies to death instead of pure damage.

[harleyquinrazer]

Originally posted by Ghaleon:

I dont know/remember but I vaguely recall there may have been a body part advantage for stressing enemies to death instead of pure damage.

Artifact available which increases Iratus XP for each enemy dying from a heart attack. No difference in parts gained.

[Tenty]

A stress-dealer CAN be useful in damage teams, their most obvious purpose being to proc insanity on the enemies for debuffs so that your damage dealers pretty much just have to do cleanup. However, that would only make things easier/speed things up if you used the shackles of war. Add the Maddening Amulet and the insanity debuffs become an easy-to-access giant debuff, but then you're using two artifact slots to improve the utility of a single team member.

[Null Winter]

I feel the need to note that there are multiple enemies in the game that are outright immune to stress, but very few that are preferable to kill with stress. A minion instantly dies once its normal HP is gone; meanwhile, one with no stress points left might still be virtuous and take several more stress hits before it actually dies of a heart attack.

Generally, the only enemies I actually prefer to kill with stress are the Wardens (they have good armor values and ignore all standards debuffs, but they're easily driven insane) and Failed Experiments (they self-destruct for immense damage if you lower their massive HP pool below 25%, but you can bypass this with a stress kill).

I've heard that most of the bosses are also easier to kill via heart attack, but I haven't tested this out.

Lastly, it's hard to set up a good stress team that actually has a strong frontline for survival purposes; most of the good tanks are physically oriented (Bone Golem, Ghoul, etc.) while even the mediocre tanks only get their dedicated stress skills as ability upgrades after some leveling (Zombie, Black Widow, etc.).

[Wendek]

You can use a Mummy as an okay frontliner (no resistances, but good health pool and blocks/wards) as well as a Dark Knight or, if you're feeling lucky, an evasion-spec'd Banshee (she can work in position 2, though she will most likely suffer in the early game since her base stats are pretty meh) Personally I have a harder time finding a good 4th position for a stress team, as both the Infested and the Wraith largely prefer being 3rd to use most of their abilities.

Some bosses may be easier with stress but the Act 2 Dwarf is absolute hell with a stress team, last time I made one I had to create a physical team just for him and I have doubts about the Fire Mage as well since her always-respawning minions are immune to stress iirc so you're gonna eat a ton of self-destructs.

[Ellye]

The issue I have with Stress is that not only is it already less reliable due to some enemies being outright immune and due to Heart Attack being rng-based, but there's also the chance of enemies triggering positive effects from Stress.

A strong elite enemy triggering a powerful Inspiration instead of an Insanity can completely turn a fight sideways. Feels really crappy when this happens.

There's also two insanities that can be very dangerous to you (the one that allows the enemy to act twice in one turn and the one that buffs the enemy damage).

[sandman25dcsss]

Originally posted by Ellye:

The issue I have with Stress is that not only is it already less reliable due to some enemies being outright immune and due to Heart Attack being rng-based, but there's also the chance of enemies triggering positive effects from Stress.

A strong elite enemy triggering a powerful Inspiration instead of an Insanity can completely turn a fight sideways. Feels really crappy when this happens.

There's also two insanities that can be very dangerous to you (the one that allows the enemy to act twice in one turn and the one that buffs the enemy damage).

True. But there are effects like 75% chance to attack an ally or decreasing stress bar for the whole team. Sometimes I switch from physical to stress when I find the artefacts with "enemies can't retreat nor get inspiration" or "+25% XP for retreated enemies" properties.

[phaoray]

I've beat the game with both teams before. If I have a stress group, I also keep a physical or magical damage group in case of golems. Using a lich with a team that moves the enemy all over is glorious if you have a mixed stress/damage team as the lich's cloud can just strip the enemy of armor and resistance when levelled a little. Had a ton of fun with it.

Played up to Good Always wins and stress teams worked fine even on the final boss, it just depends on what you wanna do imo. If you can't stand possibly waiting another round for heart attacks to occur then it may not be for you, but I've never had much issue with it.

[Abhia1majin]

I am seriously struggling with finding a good team that is a balance of both, on top of which debuffs and stances keep forcing me to use specific characters and surviving is hard when the enemy always targets one minion over and over lol, then add enemy shields and feels like further reduces who I can add in order to get around it

[phaoray]

A vampire in third or fourth is pretty effective. Heals itself, does impressive physical damage, has a attack that takes out 30% of their life instantly, and another ability to permanently bypass all shields or wards. That gives you at least one strong person in the back you don't have to worry about dying too easily.