Darkest Dungeon Tier List with In-Depth Analysis: Part 1/3

For those who want entirely too much information behind reasoning. WATCH PART 4 before you complain about the Shieldbreaker or Abomination please :)
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► Playlist: • Let's Play Darkest Dun...
Tier List Part 2: • Darkest Dungeon Tier L...
Tier List Part 3: • Darkest Dungeon Tier L...
Tier List Part 4: • Darkest Dungeon Tier L...
0:00 Intro
1:55 C Tier
2:00 Antiquarian
5:38 Abomination
10:12 B Tier
10:36 Shieldbreaker
15:46 Arbalest
20:56 Bounty Hunter
26:50 Flagellant
32:43 Man-at-Arms
44:10 Leper

[@nutmag8138]

C-Tier: 1:55 -> Antiquarian: 2:00 -> Abomination: 5:38 B-Tier: 10:12 -> Shieldbreaker: 10:36 -> Arbalest: 15:46 -> Bounty Hunter: 20:56 -> Flagellant: 26:50 -> Man-at-Arms: 32:43 -> Leper: 44:10

[@ShuffleFM]

YT originally flagged your comment as spam but it should be public now, I really appreciate the time stamps.

[@nutmag8138]

@@ShuffleFM That's weird, maybe because I edited my comment multiple times while watching the video? Tbh I really enjoyed it! Sadly I'm kinda busy latetly but I'm looking forward to watch the rest of your Darkest Dungeon Tier List. The video was really informative, helpful and your reasoning seemed very understandable.

[@ShuffleFM]

@@nutmag8138 That means a lot, thank you. The other 2 are there when you're ready lol. I think you're right that it's because of the multiple edits to the comment but it looks public now so everyone can see this super helpful greatness.

[@N3t0L1n]

How the hell abomination team up with crusader and vestal?

[@ShuffleFM]

@@N3t0L1n A patch was introduced that removed the restriction some time ago.

[@hafurg]

Did you say that you feel confident enough? CONFIDENT? Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

[@miraqen7801]

man, it gets old...

[@Abyzz_Knight]

*Overconfidence* is a slow and insidious killer.

[@hafurg]

@@Abyzz_Knight corrected my comment, thank you!

[@serlistogiette4168]

@@miraqen7801 Saving lives through vague mostly meaningless and crptic sayings is NEVER old

[@miraqen7801]

@@serlistogiette4168 the fucking copypasta

[@shotgunshelz7987]

I think it’s a testament to good game design that I disagree so strongly with a bunch of these choices.

[@sarojolibois6088]

as he said in the beginning, every character can have its glory if used in the right party/setup/map. I love arbalest, because she can just blast through bosses with the right party, but tbf, she is a specialist, you cannot use her with optimal effectiveness in most situations unlike some other characters that are jack-of-all-trades But I strongly agree with your statement

[@AgentSapphire]

I agree with you. A lot of this video seems off to me. But at the same time I don't feel I think of the characters the same way. It's such a fascinating game. The fact you can approach parties from a million different ways.

[@marioncobretti8210]

Omg this video game is a treasure to find and play. Im so glad i found it

[@EldritchAugur]

It's pretty incredible that there isn't really a single class in the game that isn't at least good. Some are more versatile, more optimal than others, sure but I pretty much always have at least one of every class in my roster and don't regret it. I'm sure some people will disagree with this but the Flagellant is the only class in the game that I consider to be overly-limited in their usefulness. They are great in the Crimson Court, but anywhere else I would rather bring a Man at Arms or a Crusader, or even a Leper any time. The nerfs hit him too hard. He doesn't have a stun, can't hit the 3rd rank with his primary attack, exsanguanate and redeem are too unreliable at the 40% threshold, etc. He's never been a versatile character but he made up for it with his clutch healing and big bleeds but now that's pretty much gone and I'd much rather have the stuns and stress healing and guards of the other frontline classes. He's still great in that very specific window of the Crimson Court and that's why I always have at least one, but if they'd just bring back the 50% threshold for his healing I think they'd have every character almost exactly where they need to be.

[@billyhaigh9274]

My choices for A tier are also the opposite, but I also think his correct at the same time 😅

[@Treyway31201]

No character in DD is bad, just incredibly niche, jack-of-all-trades or swiss army knife

[@Treyway31201]

Also for flagellant, I always go with Martyr's Seal and the Eternity Collar and abuse deathblow resist. So far I only lost 1 Flagellant that way in my ~300-ish hours

[@ehoffart529]

Swiss army boomer(Man At Arms)

[@IMakeMetal]

I think you're approaching the leper the wrong way. You did focus on his strengths, but I've found that when on darkest difficulty, you want to be building your team around the leper if you want to bring one. Putting all your eggs in one basket for quests has huge payoffs with him. It's not uncommon to crank up the crit chance to 30% after buffing him, then when combo'd with the jester and plague doctor, you can mow down bosses or higher leveled enemies without trouble. On a bloodmoon run, I had a leper 3 shot the swine prince for instance. He should be the focus of the group, not a consideration to one. For these reasons, I think the leper should be placed higher up and you're a dummy stupid face for disagreeing with me before I stated my opinion

[@palahbutoh]

could you elaborate on how you'd make a team around the Leper? Love his character and would love to build comps around him.

[@IMakeMetal]

@@palahbutoh Well I kind of gave it away by mentioning the plague doctor and jester, who are both good in their own rights. You want your other characters to do things like buffing accuracy/crit, handle movement, dish out bleed/blight. The leper on his own can handle all the direct damage and use the other 3 characters as supports to cover things he doesn't. I've watched a leper of mine 3 shot the swine king on bloodmoon difficulty. Just let leper do leper things and have the rest of the team cover what he doesn't do.

[@markrexington8397]

I think you make a fair point for why the leper is good with a team supporting them, but one of the criteria was "how much support do they need" and yes the leper is amazing and pairing him with the jester is good, but then you need to build the team off of having one characters only purpose for existing(not really but hopefully you get the point) to support the leper.

[@nathancheema1091]

I think alot of the hate for leper is just people jumping on the hate bandwagon cause its popular to do so atm. The leper has his downsides but is he the worst class in the game? Me hitting 2 60 crits on big bird says otherwise.

[@CrowsRevenge1]

@@nathancheema1091 the hate comes from people who play in harder settings. Leper is trash in 0 light. You need consistent, fast, and accurate damage on ranks 3 and 4 round 1 and 2. He's a good class on easier settings. But in 0 light, you need all your toons projecting damage to the back ranks then using a turn or 2 to recover. Leper is slow, misses a shit ton In harder modes, and can't hit the targets you need hit. Also, if you need to use one or more toons to move a target so the Leper could hit it, then your losing damage potential for on your toons not putting out damage to try and set up the Leper or move a min versus just binging characters that can hit 3 and 4, ie a SB or Helion.

[@ShiningDarknes]

I mean the simple fix is just two man with the leper lol. Big brain time: can't get moved to rank 3 or 4 if there are only 2 ranks

[@sernoddicusthegallant6986]

This is how I win

[@dr.dickhole2147]

Bigger Brain, Quad Lepers. They get shuffled with fresh Lepers

[@Creshex8]

Give them a couple grave robbers so they can zip to the back and put the leper’s back in front. I’m kinda kidding a little though.

[@assiaisindegyara4905]

@@Creshex8 idk if the game has more movement issued with red court. But i so rarely have movement problems (and dont have red court) the only time i can ever think of movement being a problem is trying to take out a darkness abombination (those guys living in the crystal you put the fire on/ that can also sometimes spawn in pitch darkness) -i havent played in a bit iv forgotten the names of things- Shambler, got mentioned in the video

[@yozarahirvi4750]

​@@assiaisindegyara4905yep, red court does add a lot of movement issue, the best exemple is the countess who put a debuff on your heroes that shuffle them at the start of their turn ...

[@OatsMealz]

Flagellant on release was for sure S+++ tier

[@richardjared960]

OatsMeals if you have him with another healer he wreck shit.

[@AdonanS]

I remember getting him for the first time and thinking, "holy shit, this guy is tanky".

[@KRIMZONMEKANISM]

11:05 Man, I had this one Shieldbreaker. An absolute beast of a woman! Srimalla was her name and she got the quirks for more melee damage, more crit chance and more accuracy. She even got to having the Hot to Trot quirk, but I wasn't fast enough to lock it in. My god she just critted everything at first round and almost immediately killed an enemy right there and then. The fact that you can just pierce through protection is amazing, and her regular crits with Adder's Kiss were incredibly powerful. I miss her. :( She died to the Countess after literally clearing 90% of the Courtyard dungeons. Rest in peace best girl. º7

[@exantiuse497]

You said that the antiquarian is bad in time-limited playthroughs, I'd say the opposite is true. She helps you get more gold from each dungeon, while bloodmoon gives a limit to how many dungeons you can take. Sure, she becomes useless once she hits level 5 but by that point she will have produced tens of thousands of extra gold meaning less need to farm for gold

[@konstantinethebest1139]

Thanks for the tip

[@barkerm9]

I agree completely, especially if you plan to abuse the bank district from the start, it’s a big time savings

[@sthcproductions]

Ehh not useless. Her odd utility and ability to work with every character can be suprising

[@NixViche]

yeah shes an early game character that you transition away from later on. I didnt really understand the time constraint argument either

[@C20521]

Super late reply but she can also be used as part of the 2nd darkest dungeon stage to guard herself with someone who has inmunity to revelation and then stack blight damage against the templars, which is a decent niche.

[@ivankalinin407]

You know a video is great when you sit through 50 whole minutes and you think that only 20 minutes have passed.

[@RichGunderlock]

2 things I love about about Shieldbreaker that you didn’t mention: - ability to hit those targets in the back rows - Her color of madness trinket is insane

[@ShuffleFM]

I agree her ability to target all ranks combined with her high base damage is a great quality, and her color of madness trinket for 1 slot is also very strong. If I had to do it again I considered moving her up a bit more.

[@ShuffleFM]

Your post was one of the ones to shape a change in my opinion, specifically for these 2 reasons. Thanks for the insight.

[@RichGunderlock]

ShuffleFM yeah I actually just beat Bloodmoon for the first time and had 2 Shieldbreakers I used all the time towards the end. A fully leveled SB with quirks like tough and hard skinned, who gets the camping buffs instead of the snakes - total badass. Utterly wrecks Vvulf and the Hag and some of the other bosses. Also, even just a little bit of crit chance makes impale such a good move.

[@ShuffleFM]

Congrats on the bloodmoon clear!

[@RichGunderlock]

ShuffleFM thanks man! Added bonus: I had Reynauld die somewhere in the middle but I got him back in the resurrection event in like week 92 so I could get that final achievement

[@surreal9583]

Imagine making such a masterpiece of a discussion based objective tier list that it is still active almost a year later. Wonderful video

[@ShuffleFM]

It's because of wonderful people like yourself stopping by :)

[@furanshiso7583]

Actually is not that accurate

[@surreal9583]

@@furanshiso7583 I did NOT ask for your opinion, fortunately

[@the1truepickaxe298]

@@furanshiso7583 Forgive the other guy's rudeness. What about this tierlist do you find inaccurate?

[@binber2450]

@@surreal9583 "wow so cool people are still discussing this tier list a year later" *guy discusses tier list* "wtf? why are you discussing this tier list"

[@isaacjones748]

Leper B tier? Fair enough? Leper quotability? S+ tier. The pure satisfaction when he's the one to final-hit buffed-crit the Heart of Darkness? p r i c e l e s s

[@crocketlawnchair259]

R a i n i n t h e f o r e s t

[@hafurg]

Leppy will always be S+ tier for me. Just motherfucking put acc trinkets and crit%, use his self buff then the jester buff. Oh and he's beefy AF, so fighting against him is like hitting a wall, a wall that crushes you when its his turn.

[@unfazedo]

Never forget that one hit crit 172 damage to HoD

[@isaacjones748]

@@unfazedo Legendary vid, that and "The Wall"

[@kindnesstemmie6625]

Blood in the mud

[@pauciloquentflibbertigibbe5217]

It feels like a design mistake that a character can successfully resist a forced movement and still be forced to move.

[@dariussonofjazzlin7433]

Something I personally really like about the Bounty Hunter is that he is more scouting-oriented. The ability to outright avoid fights and find an optimal path is something I really value. I think his value as a character rises the longer the quest is you take him on.

[@vantablacc3264]

The shieldbreaker is amazing in my opinion despite her having nightmares. However, once you purge all her 7 nightmares, she will be downright amazing.

[@ShuffleFM]

Don't worry, she moves to A by part 4. She is really strong.

[@hariman7727]

I used the shieldbreaker almost exclusively on short missions, which negated the nightmares.

[@andrewwelker7287]

I'm a big fan of Lepers. Like, even when they suck, I still want to play with a Leper because I just like 'em so much. I'm looking forward to finding your guides on how to play a class well.

[@ShuffleFM]

Leper is super fun and satisfying. Even if I rate him low, he can still do really well with help.

[@miraqen7801]

The good old days where you only needed a single flagellant to beat an entire boss dungeon.

[@kenpatchiramasama1076]

Flagellant making the garden guardian bleed was always fun too

[@joshuaarnett762]

Enemy: Has blood, The Flagellant: "No."

[@DSpiritwolf]

It's been a long time since I've played but I've always considered the arbalest more if a support character especially with with their camping skills in mind. Its like they trade less healing for more damage as oppose to the vestal. Personally, I always used them with party members that could heal themselves so she can boost them or pick off any back liner managed to survive from another party members attack.

[@ShuffleFM]

Arbalest definitely gets a lot better as healing support and with camping.

[@nathancheema1091]

Arbalest really shines if you run a critical mark team. Arb, occ, him and BH literally carried me through the entire crimson court dlc. Long as a target was marked it was common to see my arblest hit 44 crits consistently. Plus the healing buff it gives helps with healing during and after battle. I used to heal someone on low health then when I gave them food afterwards it would heal more then usual.

[@GiantShoe]

"i dont have that much experience with it so i dont feel that i will have an accurate opinion" fucking bravo. lifetime subscriber.

[@mariloutanluzuriaga6805]

Fun fact: the snakes can spawn randomly at any time in any dungeon at a really low chance after you complete all the nightmares and they can spawn without the need of a shieldbreaker in the party. Also id like to mention that the shieldbreaker is REALLY GOOD against the thing from the stars because of the full armor piercing that she has.

[@ShuffleFM]

I didn't know that, that's kinda scary but also cool that they don't go away. I think I undervalued the shieldbreaker a bit but she really does take a while to get off the ground imo.

[@raptorxmv]

@@ShuffleFM I met once thing from the stars , but it almost kill my party, next time im gonna take Ocultist with Leper

[@ShuffleFM]

@@raptorxmv A shieldbreaker or grave robber for the armor piercing is what I like to do personally. Let me know how it goes :)

[@raptorxmv]

@@ShuffleFM I can send you some screenshots on steam :) , raptorxm

[@duke3250]

my ptsd is ramping up just hearing this music

[@diablofrag2177]

Abomination is so OP! The only trade off is stress, but quite often I have at least one stress heal in my party in the form of a jester or flagellant (or both for a bleed build). Jester is my favourite class, and Abom and Jester pretty much come hand in hand. Abom can have absolutely insane damage output on its own, he doesn't even need buffs to be dealing extreme amounts of damage with decent accuracy, versatility, he can fit in any place other than 4th, high tanky capability, stuns, blights, self heal/stress heal. The only difficulty would be the stress it deals to other characters, which is easily fixed by having one of a few classes in the team with it, which means that he doesn't even need much in terms of others to accentuate. Half my teams have a jester and an Abom and I used this tactic for high base damage/crit builds for my no deaths darkest difficulty run. From what I've found, the hardest character to use is the arbalest who literally only works in a mark party, and I've had some trouble with bounty hunter for the same reason but he has much more versatility in terms of a stun party and can play multiple ranks.

[@aguyunderabridge.8794]

To be honest, 3 jesters strumming away stress and stacking Finale damage while the buffed Abom acts as the bullet catcher is fun. If a Jester is near\on death's door, I pop Finale in case it's about to be their last performance. Honestly acts as a good "Oh shit" button if your in a tight spot.

[@Windowsprodukt]

It might not be the most efficient, but running the leper with acc & crit trinkets and throwing one or two Plague Doctor buffs on him for speed & damage is insanely fun, turning him into a one-man wrecking machine.

[@phoenixjones2569]

Me, someone who uses Antiquarian: I just like money

[@JaxonZero0]

This is a great video. Even after at least a hundred hours or so in this game, I still can't do analysis this deep. Good on you good sir. You learn something new every day I suppose. Edit: Oh, and I like 3 Antiquarians and a Leper. That sh*t's hilarious.

[@shuliu8436]

I've always used BH as more of a stunner than a DPS, I really like his flashing which both stuns and moves and can hit the back row and his uppercut that can knock some front liners back and stun at the same time

[@ShuffleFM]

He definitely has some solid support options with the ability for damage.

[@jacobhoover1654]

@@ShuffleFM I don't think you mentioned his abilities that moved targets. Pulling (and marking) a back row stresser to the front or uppercutting a front line damage dealer to the back is great utility that prevents foes from using thier most dangerous abilities. With the right trinkets & team support he is great on either a Stun or Mark Team! Bounty Hunter is an A, but other than that great list!

[@Avenus112]

BH was a boss assassin for me. Leper was unreliable but the marks caused explosive damage.

[@VonTyrant]

S+ tier: Darkest Dungeon wiki

[@pohateos9394]

Flagellant definitely deserves to be higher up, he has INSANE death blow resistance and his trinkets increase his stats while at deaths door. I love playing that thin between life and death, having him hit Hella hard at the end of fights or die swinging. I also don't mind him being rapturous, yea he hits your teammates from time to time but nothing to crazy. His stress healing is powerful when paired with a jester, I use that combo in endless mode

[@YojimboJames]

I love hearing everyone’s opinions on classes and seeing their favorites. My favorite classes are flagellant, plague doctor, and houndmaster. I love using those three in the same team despite not being very good in ruins and cove like you said.

[@Detector1977]

I still think the Man at arms is A tier. Yes, he's worse than before but he still does what he is supposed to do well. He can protect allies, has riposte, and can hit the 3rd spot.

[@korkstyl]

Man at arms is easily high A tier for me for sure

[@augustday9483]

MAA is my most most-used tank, his riposte has helped me out so much. I like pairing him with HWM. Worth noting that his camping buffs are pretty nice, at least I like them.

[@VisibleNoises]

MaA is easily S tier. He has excellent camping skills, good stun skill, good buffs and a guard/riposte. He's also probably the best hero for bosses if you spam Shard Dust and stack Bolster, nobody can counter infinitely increasing dodge.

[@aladinlizalo602]

Crusader:"I cant hear you over the sound of JERUSALEM"

[@kordami28]

DEUS VULT

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

kordami you for the INFIDEL part

[@Sightss_]

I... Don't play Darkest Dungeons. Why am I here? Oh cause it's entertaining for some reason... What. How?

[@wichiewamirez5599]

nilo fernandez I didn’t play darkest dungeon either when I first watched this. 3 days after I started playing and I’m back

[@marioncobretti8210]

Well to each Its own its fun imo

[@thelegion4698]

Antiquarian is the best character in the game, here is XY and Z.

[@elim9054]

What??? Shieldbreaker is amazing, at least in the late game. She's one of the few characters who can pierce armor without DOTs (which is very strong against the Brigand Pounder and The Thing from the Stars, as well as some other mobs that have both high protection and high DOT resistance), she's one of the few characters with a single skill that can hit any rank, she has really solid speed, crit and accuracy; and she's arguably the most "shuffle-resistant" class in the entire game, due to how insanely good she is at getting back to her desired rank when she does get pushed or shuffled out. I think her big weaknesses are weak defense since she has no healing, no stun and only one defensive combat skill with limited uses per battle, and camping with her can be rough because of how brutal the nightmare fights are if you're unprepared. If characters like the Crusader and Leper are tanks, then she's a glass cannon in the same vein as the Highwayman or Grave Robber.

[@ShuffleFM]

Pretty much lol. If she didn't take so long to get online and had better defenses she'd be higher. Her armor piercing is definitely the best thing about her. I consider her a bit higher now than she was, but not sure where I'd move her to. Maybe the start of A? Maybe the top of B.

[@chrisdrover12]

@@ShuffleFM do you realize how strong it is to straight up just block attacks? full damage attacks? have you seen a powerful shield breaker lineup?, she's honestly broken.

[@ShuffleFM]

@@chrisdrover12 I bump her up quite a bit by part 4. Blocking is great, but her other defenses are lacking. Slightly above average dodge, low hp, abysmal blight resist. I'm not trying to be snarky when I say this: if you have a video to link me to I wanna watch it so I can learn from it :)

[@charlesherbrechter268]

I'de like to add about the Shieldbreaker: Her Color of Madness trinket is really good, gives her max hp and damage. Also her armor penetration makes her really good against the Brigand Pounder and one of her skills is a direct counter to Garden Guardian.

[@ShuffleFM]

Excellent points.

[@theotv5522]

"Leper is bad in backlines" *flashbacks to that one guy running 4 Lepers*

[@moonboy5851]

Man, this content is awesome. I’m going to watch the entire series :) late to DD but loving it so far.

[@Archer-1453]

I've always wondered about the Shieldbreaker’s reputation in the DD community. I see basically everything you spelled out, and you’re definitely correct, she's soft as hell, but I would not have been able to finish both my first Darkest Dungeon incursion nor my first completion of the Farmstead without her. I will say, a cheesey use of the crusader and vestal definitely helped compensate for her low health but honestly, her line clearing capabilities and honestly powerful crit chance is a crutch for me. Obviously, this is subjective, I may just be more accustomed to playing with her so I have a better grip on her use Great ranking, all the same, love these videos.

[@ShuffleFM]

She makes a big jump in the 4th video for what it's worth.

[@yonmexiton6502]

Very informative tier list/guide, nicely structured and laden with relevant information. Great video, cheers!

[@qwerty7426]

37:19 "You can't miss your party with your own buffs" Afflictions refusing heals/buffs: Allow us to introduce ourselves

[@atmosdwagon4656]

Leper is solid mid-tier for me as well, purely because of his atrocious accuracy, speed, and lack of range. I call him the bulldozer for a reason. Trinket wise, the only thing you're sleeping on (IMO) is Last Will. +% HP matters a lot more when you start with more, and so does PROT. Getting BOTH on one item is ridiculous, because it's not like the guy needs help with damage. If you're reaching Death's Door often enough where that -10% is becoming a serious issue, you are officially Doing It Wrong(tm) with Leper. Focus Ring helps a lot because when you're starting at least 10 of ACC points BEHIND everyone else you feel those whiffs a lot more even when you're properly using pulls/shuffles to get him targets other than the walls and dodge tanks to swing his head-lopper at.

[@ShuffleFM]

Quality post. I agree about HP and prot being good in that combo. I'll check out the CC set again since I am probably sleeping on some of his trinkets.

[@theunderdog1359]

Personally I like setting up leper as the when he hits he hits H A R D. Using a pos 4 man at arms to buff accuracy. Leper is actually part of one of my "dream teams" of leper flag vestal MaA. It's probably not viable on stygian tho

[@dunndolo]

Noice vid. Great explanations and you still find ways to keep it comedic. That image insert of yourself gave me a lol. 😂

[@ShuffleFM]

Changing it up is pretty important when you have almost 1 straight hour of dialogue so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@EleonMythos]

This is just your opinions. And wether anyone agrees with or against you, what I like the most is that you justified everything fairly. Thank you.

[@gregorywhatley9659]

Wow it's been ages since I played DD, I had no idea that Flag had his moves changed to have a "uses per battle" restriction that's a shame 34:35 I think that hit was so strong it even winded me on the other side of the screen, cause I audibly went "Pffffft" when I saw it "This character has been bouncing around from top to bottom tier in the past hour before making this video. He could really go anywhere. The Leper is _decidedly_ B tier" made me laugh

[@ShuffleFM]

That crit on the man at arms irritated me haha. I said to myself "I'm just recording some background footage dude calm down. I'll look stupid having a character die here when I'm trying to sound knowledgeable." I didn't get as much pushback on the Leper as I thought I would either.

[@gregorywhatley9659]

@@ShuffleFM that may be because a lot of people would grade him even lower than you. Loads of people think he's the worst character in the game. I'd say he's about on par personally with the Abomb. They're both very fun but can be a danger to use and your party really needs to play around thrm

[@ShuffleFM]

Not sure if you will feel better with this but I bump the abomination up at the end of the final video. And if I could do it again the Arbalest would probably be in the C tier.

[@gregorywhatley9659]

@@ShuffleFM It does haha Arbelest too, she's not bad, she's just so underwhelming and there are characters who perform her role of ranged damage so much better. She's probably my least favourite character Also I had no idea about the Musketeer and how she works till now, and tbh, she's the only character in the game that it actually hurts you to have her in the game. So I'd say she's got a strong argument for D-tier lol

[@felix56p]

sounds like a more fun critikal

[@Cortax955]

The Shieldbreaker is extremely strong against the garden guardian boss in the Crimson Court. I ran 2 of them in the front line - Break guard on the shield, destroy the spear and you have a free win.

[@ShuffleFM]

She is, and I got her wrong in this list. In the part 4 revision she goes up to high A tier.

[@WallHamer]

Shieldbreaker is a straight up S in my opinion 🙂 her mobility makes her super easy to play and manage. She has good single target and group damage and she can save herself when marked by using the block ability.

[@paxton_wulgus]

Really great and informative video thanks for making it!

[@subprogram32]

Part 1 of 3? Holy shit this will be greatly detailed I see!

[@jhon1406]

thank you for helping me get thru this work day!

[@esaedromicroflora1247]

dude you made a DD encyclopedia, I'm amazed by all your content

[@s0vnds]

When you put the abomination as second worst I was shocked but then you convinced me with every point you made, I also found it funny that you said he works with blight and stun spam with plague doctor and that's exactly what I've been doing

[@ShuffleFM]

I'm sorry to take you on this ride but if you watch part 3 and 4 I move the abom up to B and then A. He's better than I thought. 9 speed, high base damage, solid defenses, and he can play with religious heroes now. You were right to be suspicious. Blight and stun spam is very strong for him.

[@Thurgor_Supreme]

Abomination/Occultist/Plague Doctor is god mode in the Cove. It doesn't even matter who the 4th is

[@RachelRoseMitchell]

"No strategy is outright terrible unless it's actually stupid." good advice for life

[@jennyperpa5302]

One of the things I love about Bounty Hunter is his ability to move enemies around. He can really disrupt enemies thriugh shuffling and the bonus damage against humans is useful almost everywhere.

[@quetzacoatlx]

Bounty Hunter is one of the strongest stunner classes. He is crucial for a stun-based team.

[@irrelevant12]

parties usually have stress healer/healer/tankydmg dealer or tank/ dmg dealer, for his role he gets outshined by all other damage dealers, in the right party he might shine but he is not flexible at all. atleast in the last difficulty, in lower ones everything is viable.

[@Bourikii2992]

@@irrelevant12 Not flexible? He can be in 1,2,3 row, has a pull that marks, a bleed, stun the pushes back, mark that reduces prot, a stun that shuffles, good damage, and good hp. Probably one of the most flexible heroes in the game.

[@Profdragon122]

I know i kinda late at this moment, but about that friend of yours - paladin in your pathfinder group. “Chopies” might be one of the most unpaladin names he can give to a sword, lol

[@iucss8658]

As a new DD player, your videos help me with good advice and game plan, I've looked into building a team around the Leper and I'm really having fun thanks to the wiki and vids like these

[@pierrecourtois5167]

I feel like Red Hook needs to buff debuffs in general (I include the mark as a debuff). Very few debuffs are used as such, generally you use an attack with a debuff attached (like a resistance debuff on a DoT attack for example), and as you say with "Below" for the MaA, 2 checks for a capacity to be not useless is too much. Maybe making some debuffs impossible to miss or on the other way, always affecting the ennemy if the attack doesn't miss would be a good thing. I really hope debuffs (and moving ennemies since it's the same problem) become more viable in DD2

[@fredc9195]

Very informative. Thank you for making this video

[@Section8dc]

This is such an under played game, I just picked it up one day and ended up putting 120 hours into it. Still never beat it cuz my friend took his Switch back afters all that time, which I didn't expect, but it was an awesome game. Im definitely gonna play DD2.

[@francescogiacovelli8468]

Well, I think that marking is one of the best mechanics, especially against bosses. It is not slow: you need an action that will last for 3 turns and with the "Marked for Death" team you can rip off anybody. Harbalest and bounty hunter are way stronger in my opinion

[@tiagocosmos]

just got the game on steam (still waiting for it to be added to my library as I paid with a bank payment slip) and i've been watching videos on it as well as let's plays, i feel like i'm studying for a test. great video, subscribed.

[@ANGST.ARGENTINA]

Shieldbreaker is amazing for Prophet as she can block the debris attack and can always position herself without losing momentun. Is easier to farm those wooden things when you dont have to worry about getting double deaths door. Also a peculiarity about SB is that she pairs extremely well with antiquarian as she is the only damage dealer than can be target for her forced protect since block + 15% prot from crits make her reliably tanky. Best part she is the only one out of the protect squad (leper, crus and man t arms) that can hit every position taking a lot of the strain that antiquarian puts you throught.

[@WVRLORD]

This just shows how in-depth this game is that you made an hour long video and that’s only part one of the tier list lol

[@khaorix2667]

Dat giant crit against the Man at Arms at 34:35 holy Jesus

[@Kerze]

"Anything with a time limit and her usefulness falls off quickly" Uhh, that would mean the opposite, since late game money becomes less and less of a problem. In Bloodmoon/Stygian, the Antiquarian is incredibly useful for giving you breathing room by letting you stockpile resources faster and getting essential upgrades up and running (Guild and Smithy upgrades for sorely needed accuracy and speed bonuses), which alone for those difficulties should put her high up on any tier list. For uses outside of resource gathering, she is useful when paired with a Highwayman whenever he uses Duelist's Advance which already is potent, but is more so when you effectively only have 3 heroes that can be targeted. This is making one of the best classes in the game even stronger, which is a huge boon to be honest. For her other skills, she's basically a swiss-army knife to help her fit into more group compositions, like with her blight lowering blight resistance, being able to reveal stealthed enemies while reducing their accuracy and to top it all off, she is insanely fast. The Antiquarian's high speed stat allows her to use those skills before anyone can act most of the time, letting the rest of your party benefit from it much sooner. Finally, her camp skills are pretty darn good for their point value (20% resist to nearly every negative effect for 2 camp points along with 50% stress reduction for herself for 1 point) and really help her staying power. double edit: Watched more and holy crap, she can bring in more than 5k extra gold a run, though you not realizing this is more her mechanic being poorly implemented: In order to get her effect to work (more treasure), she needs to be selected when interacting with curios which will almost always yield her unique treasure item showing up from any curio you loot items from which include torch curios. Also she increases the stack limit of all gems and gold piles (which stacks, if for some reason you wanted to bring two along). Also paused as you put the Abomination as bottom tier and nearly shrieked >=(

[@GordKeen]

What makes abomination good? Seems pretty risky to bring him since if he gets stressed he cant use his transform move. He is good if you have jester maybe, but idk. I only have like 80 hours in the game so im not as familiar as other people are. Especially since my first 70 hours was when he still couldnt be brought with religious people.

[@Kerze]

@@GordKeen You should very rarely if ever have him get significantly stressed out due to Absolution being amazing self-sustain. The stress damage he deals to the party when he transforms isn't really that much as long as you aren't trying to do so all the time, with stress heals from crits being more common after the final patch. Outside of his transformation, the Abomination actually has a fairly damaging stun that can hit most rows while also having easily accessible trinkets that boost his stun chance. His blight attack isn't too bad either, softening targets up while also hitting multiple enemies which in turn means more chances at getting a crit, healing party stress.

[@Neremworld]

This just really means that there's a strong issue with how the tier list is devised, which is a thing I think can be very fairly criticized. 'How good is this unit effectively in a solo party' is a very different game than Darkest Dungeon plays. Also 'jack-of-all-trades' actually never implies bad stats. It actually implies GOOD stats overall, as you can't be good at everything without having good stats in everything. Hell sometimes this means amazing stats. A good example from another game is Zen from Persona Q, who is specified as a Jack Of All Trades and he is. He has a versatile array of skills and the best stats in the game across the board. He only suffers from being the slowest character to rank up his skills and not being able to equip a second Persona because he permanently has one equipped already.

[@mtaur4113]

Antiquarian sounds more like early-game farmer you eventually stop using than strictly bad straight up. So the tier list should be a crowded line graph? X-D

[@rickyroughton8098]

I haven't watched the other videos in the set yet so I don't know how you rated the Hellion, but the bounty hunter segment just reminded me of a time where I made a conscious decision to not camp during a go at the level 3 Swine King because I'd gotten four Curio damage buffs totaling... I think it was +110%, onto my Hellion who had four Quirks buffing damage a total of about 50% and two trinkets buffing damage a total of about 50%. She critted for over 100 damage...

[@ShuffleFM]

Absolutely disgusting lol.

[@brailleeulogy120]

I frequently used man at arms in the hag area. The mushroom people focus on marked champions, so I would control their target that way. On blood moon, he can take the hits well enough while hitting back.

[@GS-el8ll]

eternity collar + matyrs seal flagellant OOF abomination: useful for rushing virtues with heros ring/elder tentacle for self inflicted stress im realizing alot of my favorite strategies dont work well in bloodmoon, which is why im watching this video haha

[@thesuminer]

I just want to say I dont think I have ever been able to defeat the 3rd fight with the Drowned Crew without using a Bounty Hunter and an Arbalest giving the bounty hunter the trinket from Vuulf. It's the only strat I have been able to figure out that out-damages his healing

[@ShuffleFM]

Whatever gets the job done right?

[@StevetheWizard2591]

imo, Martyr's Seal and Eternity's Collar on Flagellant... works, I guess? He gets inherent buffs at Death's Door, so tripling down on that (with one of the buffs being a +10 to dodge) is definitely... a playstyle, if you're willing to gamble your dude's life.

[@ShuffleFM]

If death wasn't so punishing it would be worth trying I think. But you're right, you can cap him at 87 or 89 iirc so it's basically a crit chance to kill him.

[@StevetheWizard2591]

@@ShuffleFM Flagellant has the same Deathblow Resistance cap as everyone else: 87%. However, he's also immune to the Death's Door Recovery debuff, so if you can drop his speed through Quirks while also having a speedy healer (Plague Doctor's 9 speed at Legend puts her in the top spot there), you can make sure he survives one attack per round. This also has the benefit of healing the rest of the party for 10% of their max HP once per round, turning a heal on the Flagellant into a full party heal. Again, it's a risky strategy, but it lets the Flagellant be effective both as a damage-dealer and as a healer.

[@soundaholixx]

There are certain missions at champion level that can be nice for the Antiquarian, you can easily pull 30k+ with a bit of scouting and smart navigation.

[@blame7121]

It's fun to see how everyone has a very different tier list for the DD characters, mostly depending on the difficulty settings they are playing in. For example one can take in to heavy consideration the character's dodge when ranking them, but then someone who plays on the hardest difficulty with no light will consider that stat completely negligible, and maybe even detrimental as the dodge is wasted power from another stat that the character could of had.

[@ShuffleFM]

I hear ya. Dodge is interesting in torchless. It's harder to stack, but at the same time the hits are so damaging that not receiving them at all is even more beneficial than before

[@darthjoel6357]

I’ve added so many types of heroes via mods I wish you could do a gigantic video on all of them.

[@PinkyJustice]

I'm glad you have enough information, experience, and objectivity to blast down the walls of my anecdotal evidence, lack of experience and information, and sheer subjective taste. Thanks for the heads up.

[@ShuffleFM]

Thanks! Though I did get the shieldbreaker and abomination wrong at the start of this list. In part 4 they go up to A because they are really good.

[@Devchi]

Lol, the automatic subtitles actually translated Flagelant into Flatulent

[@brothir]

He could probably bleed even a fart dry.

[@IcedCoffeeGaming]

The upside of thousands of extra gold per dungeon on top of utility make Antiquarian at least a B IMO. I use her reverse guard on riposte units to put dodge/prot on them, and in short fights you can spam it to stack it, giving any unit absurd prot/dodge rates. Also has utility AoE dodge boost which can be spammed, some blight, good chip damage/last hitting from any position with blight or clumsy stab.

[@mildlymaliciousbanana2700]

There is definitely an argument for leper being low a to mid a if you are pushing it, but I respect your opinions, good video

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

As far as trinkets for Man-at-Arms are concerned, one of those is always a -stress for me. Considering that he rarely hits stuff and he gets hit a lot (being a front-liner and having a Defend skill), the biggest problem I have with him is actually stress. Then the other trink can be any other defensive trinket that fits the dungeon. If I don't do this, this supposed "mountain of muscle" in front of my team ends up being the most problematic member, always on low HP, always stressed, always blighted/bleeding.

[@waldo2547]

oooo this sounds intriguing

[@EldritchAugur]

Ancestor's Signet Ring + Debuff Amulet pretty much covers all the bases The Man at Arms needs and makes bellow supremely effective even on champion dungeons. Plague Doctor + Man at Arms basically allows you to stun the backrow for two turns in a row. First with blinding gas and then putting their speed in the dumpster for round 2. On top of that he has a guard, a stun, can hit rank 3 with his melee attack, he's just the best tank in the game by far even after his nerfs. The only time I don't bring him is when I need the stress healing from the crusader, but otherwise he's pretty much always the best option to bring for any quest. Bolster just shifted the meta to Bellow, and as long as you itemize for it it's absolutely equivalent in it's intended purpose.

[@jamesanderson6580]

Bruh I always get the snakes a camp room right before a boss, on every level

[@lustejon]

For the flagellant trinkets, his crimson court shard of glass actually makes him viable for the cove, and for the other one i just roll with his crimson pair. Still a very good character imo

[@ShuffleFM]

Interesting point. I'll have to try the CC set for the cove.

[@technoparanoid]

Maaaaan, it's a fantastic content. So straight and so easy yet so wide and helpfull. From the bottom of my heart i say you thanks. hello from Mother Russia.

[@ShuffleFM]

Thanks for watching, and hello from America :)

[@catsndogs98]

Honorable mention ROT SQUAD THE WALL PAIN TRAIN THOMAS CTHLHU FLAGN

[@Fernando-cs9fp]

Leper is one of my favourites for lower level dungeons and a couple lower level bosses. Hits like a truck at those ranks and can chop down almost anything in his path. As long as you're bringing someone to buff his accuracy you're all good

[@Tocha_official]

Antiquarian is easily my favourite hero. Her dodge buff can stack endlessly and lots of the enemies attacks got dodged because of it. I have literally come out of some some missions unscathed because of her and another healer.

[@Patton1944]

Yeah, I like Arb a lot solely to make the Swine Prince and Prophet bosses trivial. Also kinda like her in DD4. Was surprised how low ranked MAA was ranked with how much battlefield control he provides. I found the way Filthyrobot used him with opening every fight with the bellow to be pretty effective.

[@greenseagull9611]

Can you do one with some of your favorite and most popular workshop heroes?

[@ShuffleFM]

Sure, that sounds like fun.

[@greenseagull9611]

@@ShuffleFM sick, can't wait.

[@ShuffleFM]

@@greenseagull9611 Just so I'm not being a dummy, we're talking about hero mods right? I haven't done much with the steam workshop in the past so I'm a newbie lol.

[@greenseagull9611]

@@ShuffleFM yup, oh while I have you here, my two favorites are the Twilight Knight and The Falconer, they're fairly popular aswell. I'm fairly new and those classes(especially Twilight Knight) has carried me through my first boss battles. So I'd appreciate it if you could check them out aswell.

[@ShuffleFM]

Will do! Thanks for the ideas and the video watching.

[@rayderrich]

So helpful even in 2021, thanks for all the wise words.

[@supermushroomariojenkins1717]

To the Flagellant and stress, I've found I prefer to keep them with the stress they accumulate and retain the Affliction for bonus damage and the Very Rare trinket that gives more damage at 85 stress and up and the Martyr Seal and in a pinch use him as a healer. Best Boss kill ever though: Final Siren boss is at 38 or so hit points, getting close, she had failed 3 previous turns with Siren's Call and then finally she caught the Catfish. The Flagellant was at 60% bonus damage and pulled the old "attack a team mate" routine, critted her for 61 dmg. Dropped flails and left the cove. I found he can bleed a rock...just not Unholy rocks. But he can bleed the cove well and paves the way for a bleeder team with his speed.

[@ericmohn4002]

i'm 4 years late, but i recently did the dd2 on bloodmoon without maa. had crusader without the beacon and just put minus struss and prot on him and had him stress heal. it was totally fine.

[@ShuffleFM]

Congrats!

[@starlight4649]

Antiquarian can make a good buff/heal soldier with the right trinkets

[@nathancheema1091]

My new favourite class bounty hunter, not only he is the reincarnation of scorpion from mortal combat he is the only one to hit a 50 crit and be like "......"

[@ibroyaz]

It pained me when you left the jade and kept the citrine in the beginning

[@ShuffleFM]

Don't worry I throw away most citrine on sight now.

[@pabloescolar_]

I think we play VERY different Abomination my dude, I almost never have him in his human form, I paired this beast of a character (pun intended) with a stress healing and buffing Jester and he has been one of the main carries in my A or B team. And the best part is, you don't even need the stress healing aspect of Jester most of the time because crit buff + rake = almost guaranteed crit = stress heal. I rest my case.

[@ShuffleFM]

If you make it to the 4th video the abom goes up quite a bit, my opinion changed a lot in the time since I recorded these.

[@leetningvancleenf5843]

Antiquarian at a C? Do you get to the Cove District very often? Oh, what am I thinking, of course you don't.

[@glek9054]

I personally wanna slide the shieldbreaker up to A tier but otherwise I agree. The natural armor penetration is criminally underrated