Darkest Dungeon 2: Greatest staff comps

A lot of the work in a Darkest Dungeon 2 run is accomplished earlier than the run has even formally begun. The occasion creation stage, the place you select which 4 heroes you’ll be taking with you, is extremely vital, outweighing many of the particular person selections you’ll make out on the street or in battle. It’s vital to choose the very best heroes for the job, after all, nevertheless it’s equally vital to rearrange them into a celebration that is smart, and has the inner synergy crucial to hold you thru to the Mountain. If you need some solutions on squads that may just do that, then learn on for our information to the very best staff comps in Darkest Dungeon 2.

One of the best staff comps in Darkest Dungeon 2

The ol’ dependable

That is the staff comp you’ll see most frequently in Darkest Dungeon 2, and for good motive: it supplies the very best, most balanced set of skills potential, and may get you thru runs very persistently. The truth that it’s nearly completely composed of characters unlocked by default exhibits that Crimson Hook Studios does have a coronary heart, someplace in there.

Plague Physician Jester Highwayman Man-at-Arms Path: 

Alchemist

Path: 

Virtuoso

Path: 

Sharpshot

Path: 

Vanguard

Expertise: Noxious Blast Battlefield Medication Plague Grenade Emboldening Vapours Indiscriminate Science Expertise: Razor’s Wit Fade to Black Harvest Finale Encore Expertise: Pistol Shot Take Goal Grapeshot Blast Double Faucet Freeway Theft Expertise: Crush Defender Bolster Maintain the Line Bellow

We’ll begin with the Man-at-Arms. On this comp he does what he does greatest: lead the occasion from the entrance and help his teammates as they carry you to victory. Vanguard is our path of selection right here, offering a strong well being and injury enhance whereas the Man-at-Arms is in your entrance rank. Defender is his major talent, letting you defend one among your different heroes from a few assaults. That is nice when somebody is low on well being, or after they’re gearing up for a giant assault and also you don’t need them getting disrupted by standing results. On prime of this we use Bolster for Stress therapeutic with incidental Block acquire, Maintain the Line to get better from rank disruption strikes like Categorize, and Bellow to decelerate enemies and forestall them from touchdown devastating important hits. We prime issues off with Crush, a strong attacking transfer, particularly on the Vanguard path, and one that may present essential therapeutic in a pinch.

Subsequent up is the Highwayman, the occasion’s foremost injury supplier. On the Sharpshot path, all of his ranged assaults get a large injury enhance, and we’ve chosen to lean arduous into that right here by together with all three of them: Pistol Shot, Grapeshot Blast, and Double Faucet. All three have their makes use of in numerous situations, however earlier than you utilize any of them you must open every fight with Take Goal, which ensures two important hits as soon as upgraded. Take Goal adopted by Grapeshot Blast is a dependable opening sequence, dealing huge injury to the entrance ranks whereas sustaining a Energy and Crit token in your subsequent flip as nicely. Double Faucet is probably the most damaging of your assaults right here, particularly on foes under 50% well being, so when you have got the possibility to make use of it, achieve this. Pistol Shot is not any slouch both, nevertheless, and may attain the again ranks, making it a terrific selection towards utility enemies who cover within the again and supply help to their allies. Lastly, we end off with Freeway Theft, a talent that may take away, and as soon as upgraded, steal, optimistic tokens from enemies. That is notably helpful in Cultist battles and boss fights, and may prevent from a whole lot of injury if timed appropriately.

The Jester is up subsequent, and he fills just a few totally different niches on this occasion. He can apply Combo tokens with Razor’s Wit, Blind with Fade to Black, Bleed with Harvest, and deal huge injury himself with Finale. Harvest is a good opener towards enemies with Block or Dodge, because it hits two ranks without delay and may eat by way of these pesky tokens with the intention to clear the best way for the Highwayman to deal full injury. Razor’s Wit can arrange a double-damage Finale from the Jester himself or a heal on the Man-at-Arms through Crush, and it will possibly additionally get the Jester in place for the previous as nicely, since by default he’s unable to make use of it. Lastly, we’ve got Encore. This grants an additional flip to a different occasion member, and it has an enormous array of potential makes use of on this comp. One strong line is to start out the Highwayman off with Take Goal, then have the Jester use Encore on him, permitting for a right away important hit. It will probably additionally enable for essential heals, of HP or Stress, by concentrating on the Plague Physician or Man-at-Arms, respectively.

Final however not least, we’ve got the Plague Physician, who serves as a healer and help unit for the occasion on this comp. We embrace each of her therapeutic abilities, Battlefield Medication and Indiscriminate Science, as each are nice in numerous situations; the previous when coping with standing results, and the latter when coping with debuffs. Whereas Battlefield Medication barely advantages from being mastered, Indiscriminate Science most actually does, so get that executed as quickly as potential. We additionally use Emboldening Vapours, which lets us apply the Energy standing to both the Highwayman or the Jester for an enormous hit subsequent flip. Lastly, we spherical issues off with two Blight-inflicting abilities: Noxious Blast and Plague Grenade. Each are ultimate on massive targets, and may soften them up properly in your injury sellers to complete off later, however Plague Grenade specifically is extraordinarily helpful, as it will possibly hit each of your back-rank foes without delay, eradicating Block and Dodge and inflicting Blight . Notably in Cultist battles, it is a precious talent to convey.

The combo meal

Picture by PC Invasion

Whereas our first construct emphasised stability and synergy, our second is extra of an all-in technique, going for probably the most injury potential within the fewest variety of turns. Hellion, Leper, and Jester are all able to huge injury, and all make nice use of Combo tokens, which the Runaway and Jester can arrange reliably every flip.

Runaway Jester Leper Hellion Path: 

Orphan

Path: 

Virtuoso

Path: 

Tempest

Path: 

Ravager

Expertise: Firefly Smokescreen Hearthlight Cauterize Firestarter Expertise: Razor’s Wit Fade to Black Battle Ballad Finale Encore Expertise: Chop Face up to Solemnity Reflection Bash Expertise: Depraved Hack Iron Swan Adrenaline Rush Raucous Revelry Howling Finish

The Hellion is our frontline fighter on this comp. The Ravager path provides her 20% additional well being and 25% additional injury so long as she stays in that rank, two important bonuses that concurrently let her last more and make sure that your enemies received’t. In addition they play properly along with her innate passive capability, which grants 25% additional injury whereas she’s under 50% well being, and an extra 25% injury when she’s under 25% well being. On this comp, we’re funneling all of that juicy additional injury into Hellion’s attacking strikes: Depraved Hack, Iron Swan, and Howling Finish. Hack is probably the most primary, and shall be your go-to in most situations. It offers strong injury, and offers much more if the goal has a Combo token. Iron Swan is extra specialised, hitting the again rank solely, and is useful in battles with annoying help items that like to hang around there. It additionally applies a Combo token when mastered, which performs very properly on this comp. Howling Finish is immensely highly effective, nevertheless it applies Winded and pushes Hellion again into rank 2: two issues you can very a lot do with out. For that motive, it ought to primarily be used as an emergency kill button and never as a strong opener, tempting as which may be. Past injury, we’ve got a few help strikes: Adrenaline Rush, which provides therapeutic and a way of eradicating the Winded tokens inflicted by Howling Finish, and Raucous Revelry, one other heal that may additionally present important party-wide Stress therapeutic.

The Leper is subsequent in our lineup of heavy hitters, and whereas he can’t do as a lot injury because the Hellion more often than not, he can take much more, which supplies him a robust defensive area of interest throughout the occasion. His core attacking transfer is Chop, which offers huge injury to enemies in rank one or two, however usually leaves the Leper Blind afterwards. This may be a difficulty, however we’ve got a number of methods of working round it. Firstly, Combo tokens. Chop at all times hits, no matter Blind, if the goal enemy has a Combo token. Given how simply you’ll be able to apply these on this comp, you’ll be counting on this side of the talent quite a bit. Secondly, you’ll be able to take away Blind utilizing Reflection, a talent which additionally supplies incidental Stress therapeutic and removes the uncommon Combo tokens enemies place on the Leper. This talent will get quite a bit higher when mastered, because it heals extra Stress and can be utilized with out a cooldown, so throw a degree into it when you’ll be able to. The Leper’s different attacking transfer right here is Bash. It doesn’t deal a lot injury, nevertheless it locks the goal in place, which may be useful, and it additionally applies a Combo token when mastered, tying in properly with our comp. We prime this strong base off with Solemnity, which is an unimaginable therapeutic possibility for each well being and Stress, and Face up to, which lets the Leper tank up and take hits for the remainder of the occasion for some time. That is notably helpful when the Hellion is operating low attributable to frontline publicity, or when she’s been pushed again attributable to Howling Finish.

The Jester performs a lot the identical as he did within the ol’ dependable comp above on this one: he applies Combo tokens with Razor’s Wit, doubles up on highly effective abilities with Encore, and sometimes lands a killer blow himself with Finale. The latter state of affairs is more likely right here, nevertheless, given our quick access to Combo tokens, that means the Jester will get to share extra of the highlight this time round. He nonetheless does loads of supporting although, utilizing Fade to Black to close down highly effective enemy attackers, and Battle Ballad to use Energy to both the Hellion or Leper: whoever’s subsequent within the flip order. Battle Ballad additionally pushes the goal ahead one rank, which makes it a good way of reorganizing the occasion post-Howling Finish.

Lastly, we’ve got the Runaway. She’s at her greatest in a help function, and that’s what she performs right here, establishing enemies to take enormous injury from the Leper and Hellion, and providing situational therapeutic in a pinch. Smokescreen is her greatest talent, and top-of-the-line setup abilities within the recreation, making use of a Combo token, Blind, and, as soon as mastered, Weak, to a single foe. This all however ensures that the subsequent Depraved Hack, Chop, or Finale that hits the enemy in query will end it off, until it’s a boss such because the Dreaming Basic after all, whereas additionally lowering the specter of the enemy through Blind. Hearthlight removes Stealth from all enemies, which is area of interest at greatest, nevertheless it additionally removes Blind from all the occasion when mastered, which is the explanation for its inclusion right here. This works notably nicely for the Leper, after all, however Blind can also be pretty frequent all through the sport, so it’s good to have an accessible remedy on-hand while you want it. Cauterize is an admittedly-situational therapeutic talent, nevertheless it’s nice when it really works, and Bleed is frequent sufficient for it to be viable. Along with these help strikes, we’re additionally operating two Burn-inflicting abilities right here: Firefly and Firestarter. The Orphan path boosts the Burn inflicted by every, whereas additionally letting Firestarter grant you a Crit token on use. Each may be helpful in drawn-out boss battles, and in between cooldowns on different abilities, however typically Runaway ought to give attention to supporting your different three occasion members on this construct.

The sunshine and darkness

Picture by PC Invasion

A pleasant thematic construct in addition to a mechanically highly effective one, the sunshine and darkness comp sandwiches two of the sport’s most evil characters between two of its most virtuous. The Man-at-Arms and Vestal present two-sided help to main injury sellers within the Occultist and Flagellant right here, forming a construct that may hit arduous and get hit arduous in equal measure.

Vestal Occultist Flagellant Man-at-Arms Path: 

Seraph

Path: 

Warlock

Path: 

Wanderer

Path: 

Vanguard

Expertise: Illumination Judgment Consecration of Fortitude Consecration of Mild Mantra Expertise: Abyssal Artillery Weakening Curse Daemon’s Pull The Burning Stars Chaotic Providing Expertise: Punish Lash’s Present Acid Rain Extra! MORE! Sepsis Expertise: Crush Defender Bolster Maintain the Line Retribution

Man-at-Arms does what he does greatest on this comp: protects your different occasion members from hazard. He does this through Defender and Retribution primarily, the previous of which accurately guards one other member from a few assaults, and the latter of which attracts the subsequent two enemy assaults to him earlier than shelling out injury in return. Retribution will get a pleasant enhance since we’re on the Vanguard path, nevertheless it’s the Taunt side we’re most all for, because it permits us to maintain the warmth off of the Flagellant and Occultist. Bolster and Maintain the Line allow you to take care of Stress and occasion lineup disruption with ease, whereas Crush supplies a strong attacking transfer to make use of in a pinch, additionally backed by a lift from the Vanguard path. Total, the Man-at-Arms helps you retain your occasion alive, which is completely important.

The Flagellant is without doubt one of the extra complicated characters within the recreation, and the function he performs right here is complicated as nicely. He concurrently supplies strong injury, Blight, and help in a single twisted bundle, making him really feel a bit like a ‘darkish world’ model of the Man-at-Arms. Punish is a strong attacking transfer that inflicts Blight as nicely, making it your go-to on most turns. Acid Rain features very equally to Plague Physician’s Plague Grenade, letting you disrupt the enemies within the again ranks, take away their Block and Dodge, and apply some Blight to melt them up. Lash’s Present is a self-heal and a buff multi function, greatest used after a pair rounds of Punish and Acid Rain, and greatest utilized to the Occultist, since he could make greatest use of the Energy and Block tokens. Extra! MORE! Is just like Retribution, drawing fireplace to the Flagellant whereas offering him a profit in return, on this case self-healing. This can be utilized when your different heroes are operating low, or when the Flagellant himself is, and it’ll work nice in each situations. Lastly, we’ve got Sepsis: in all probability the Flagellant’s strongest transfer, offering injury, self-healing, and Blight multi function. If you fall low sufficient to make use of this, you nearly at all times ought to, since it will possibly flip the tides of a battle in a single flip.

The Occultist is our major injury supplier on this comp, relying primarily on his devastating Burning Stars talent to demolish your foes in a single hit. His immense energy comes with two important tradeoffs: his personal frailty and lack of well being, and his reliance on Unchecked Energy tokens, which put extra stress on his already-limited life by recurrently making use of the Burn standing to him. Due to this, a whole lot of this comp is devoted to defending the Occultist from hurt in order that he could make the very best use of his excessive energy degree. The Burning Stars requires two Unchecked Energy tokens to make use of, so we’ve included Chaotic Providing right here as a straightforward technique of producing them. Mixed with the Warlock path, it’s potential to generate two Unchecked Energy tokens a flip with Providing, which is able to mean you can use The Burning Stars each flip, because it doesn’t have a conventional cooldown. For turns when the Stars don’t fairly align, we’ve got our different abilities. Weakening Curse is a perfect setup transfer, making use of Weak alongside a Combo token, whereas Abyssal Artillery and Daemon’s Pull are various ranged assaults that profit from the Warlock path whereas supplying you with extra choices. Pull specifically is nice, as it will possibly convey pesky utility enemies to the entrance, inside vary of the Man-at-Arms and Flagellant.

And to prime off our morality sandwich, we’ve got the Vestal. She performs a help function right here, utilizing the Seraph path to maximise the ability of her Consecration abilities, then utilizing stated abilities as a lot as potential to spur the opposite staff members on to victory. Consecration of Mild boosts injury, and may subsequently be utilized to the Occultist in the beginning of each struggle, because the 5 turns it lasts must be sufficient to spice up two to 3 makes use of of Burning Stars. Consecration of Fortitude can be utilized on both the Man-at-Arms or the Flagellant, whoever wants it extra on the time. It raises defenses, and is right for supporting the tanky playstyle we use on the frontlines. We additionally run Mantra, which is a strong therapeutic talent with a large utilization window, due to the prolonged lengths of our Consecrations. These three abilities shall be what Vestal is utilizing more often than not, however her different two slots enable for some extras. Illumination removes each Stealth and Dodge, which may be useful to make sure you don’t miss with The Burning Stars, and Judgement is a strong ranged assault that may hit any rank, and deal first rate injury after you amass two Conviction tokens through the use of your Consecrations. With the Vestal, you must cycle between establishing Consecrations, eradicating Block and Dodge with Judgement and Illumination, and therapeutic with Mantra when crucial.

The rogues’ gallery

Picture by PC Invasion

Our ultimate staff comp is one among our most complicated: a group of the darkest-hearted heroes within the recreation, organized into a celebration that makes in depth use of motion abilities and off-kilter ways to win the day. Should you’re on the lookout for a extra dynamic and attention-grabbing approach to play Darkest Dungeon 2, then that is the occasion for you.

Runaway Grave Robber Leper Highwayman Path: 

Arsonist

Path: 

Nightsworn

Path: 

Poet

Path: 

Rogue

Expertise: Firefly Smokescreen Hearthlight Managed Burn Firestarter Expertise: Poison Dart Useless of Night time Lunge Pirouette Shadow Fade Expertise: Chop Face up to Solemnity Reflection Intimidate Expertise: Pistol Shot Duelist’s Advance Monitoring Shot Take Goal Level Clean Shot

We start with high-damage favourite the Highwayman, albeit on the Rogue path this time slightly than his standard Sharpshot. As a Rogue, the Highwayman will get a major injury enhance whereas in rank one, in addition to a free Riposte token after every use of Level Clean shot, a strong talent that may solely be used from rank one. For that reason, we begin him out in rank one, however he’ll be leaping forwards and backwards between one and two for many of every struggle. This is because of Level Clean Shot, which sends him again a rank, and Duelist’s Advance, which brings him ahead one. Neither of those abilities have cooldowns, so you’ll be able to change ranks at will. Whereas up entrance, you’ll typically simply be utilizing Level Clean Shot and fading again once more, whereas in rank two you have got extra choices. You should use Pistol Shot to achieve extra of your enemies, or arrange for elevated injury with Monitoring Shot and Take Goal. He’s efficient in each ranks, however his place additionally determines which abilities can be found to our subsequent hero in line, the Leper.

By selecting the Poet path, we relegate the Leper to extra of a help function than a damage-dealing one on this construct. With much less injury however extra self-healing, he can afford to spend extra time taking hits for the occasion slightly than dealing them out himself. We nonetheless convey Chop, after all, because it’s fairly highly effective even with the injury discount, and it’s good to make use of on the off turns in between self-healing and help strikes. Face up to is important, and may normally be your opener, because it lets the Leper tank by way of a whole lot of hits for the occasion. Solemnity and Reflection are your self-care abilities, nice for holding well being excessive and Stress low in an intense battle the place the Leper is taking many of the warmth. Intimidate is an unimaginable help transfer, appearing as one other supply of Taunt alongside Face up to, whereas concurrently weakening any goal’s subsequent two assaults. It additionally, bizarrely, lacks any sort of cooldown or use restrict, that means you’ll be able to spam it with impunity when you’ve exhausted your provide of Face up to to maintain the taunt practice chugging alongside properly. It does require the Leper to be in rank one, nevertheless, so that you’ll must time it proper, and use it when the Highwayman has slipped again to rank two.

Subsequent up is the Grave Robber, the occasion’s resident Stealth knowledgeable. Whereas selecting the Nightsworn path reduces her well being by 20%, it supplies an enormous 50% injury enhance whereas in Stealth, making the target of this construct clear: purchase Stealth, and assault from it as usually as potential. To attain this, we’ve got two abilities: Useless of Night time and Shadow Fade. The previous requires an enemy corpse to make use of, nevertheless it supplies therapeutic and corpse clearing alongside two Stealth tokens. The latter is extra accessible, however supplies no extra advantages, outdoors of sending the Grave Robber again two ranks. When you’re in Stealth, the same old line is to make use of Lunge, adopted by Pirouette on the subsequent flip. Each of those are high-damage abilities with excessive Crit charges, which mix very properly with the 50% injury enhance that Stealth affords the Grave Robber right here. They mean you can focus down the enemies within the entrance ranks, earlier than retreating to the again to attend out your cooldowns. In addition they each transfer you round, Lunge ahead by two, Pirouette again by three, that means they’ll unlock some position-dependent abilities for our final occasion member, the Runaway. Whereas these are the Grave Robber’s core strikes, we additionally run Poison Dart for a dependable assault possibility that can be utilized with out altering rank, for turns when doing so would mess up bigger plans.

Lastly, the Runaway rounds issues off, adopting a Burn-focused moveset alongside the Arsonist path, for apparent causes. She retains Smokescreen and Hearthlight from her moveset in our combo meal comp, to help the damage-dealing efforts of the Leper and Highwayman, however this time she leans tougher right into a Burn theme with Managed Burn. This is a superb talent that units a everlasting fireplace in an enemy rank, inflicting Burns over time. She will solely use it from rank three onwards, that means you’ll must shift her place through the Grave Robber, however that is simply executed with both Shadow Fade or Pirouette. Past this she makes use of Firefly and Firestarter for full Burn protection, letting her convey down her vengeful flames on any enemy, wherever it’s. The Runaway ought to alternate between setting fires and establishing injury, utilizing Smokescreen at any time when potential, and softening up enemies with Burn on the off turns.

So there you have got it: the very best staff comps in Darkest Dungeon 2. These 4 occasion setups every have a whole lot of inner synergy, a coherent gameplan, and, most significantly, the capability to get you to the top of a run. Some are trickier to grasp than others, and a few shall be extra attention-grabbing to play over a number of runs than others, however all 4 will serve you nicely in your quest to achieve the Mountain.