Darkest Dungeon Tier List with In-Depth Analysis: Part 3/3 (Visual Spoilers)

[@ShuffleFM]

I made a revision video since it's been several months. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYrYgI2PeMaIpJo

[@guxtse]

Oh and I just finished 1, 2 & 3. Also "I use 'anti' to buff highwayman," but now I realize highwayman makes everyone look good. Dodge tank, reposte, money maker.

[@FussyPickles]

70% chance is higher than 2/3 >

[@Kaemonarch]

@@FussyPickles I think Virtue is capped at 60%. That +45% (up to 70% with base 25%) is only relevant (I mean, beyond +35%) when you get reduced Virtue somehow. That's why he said "Almost 2 out of 3", because it doesn't even reach the 2/3 point at 66%.

[@toad23567]

>Reynauld and Dismas S-tier On the old road, we found redemption.

[@MasterJoEJG]

3rd quest i went on, Collector appeared and killed my whole squad except Reynauld. RIP DISMAS :(

[@SinsiAlpha]

@@MasterJoEJG Find item Dismas's Head and give it to Reynald. Problem Solved!

[@Underworlder5]

@@SinsiAlpha i got that once while dismas was still alive. then again, the game does take the TF2 route of each class having their own backstory, personality and motives, yet you can find more than one of each

[@DragonB001]

My reynauld just DIED to a spider, idk ir i shoud reset

[@IQuarent]

@@MasterJoEJG Why didn't you just leave the fight once the first person died or even before then?

[@archlordv3494]

Friendly reminder: "Zealous Vigil" prevents nighttime ambush and reduces the Crusader's Stress. I'm going to repeat that...because it bears repeating. *The Crusader considers keeping a nighttime guard-watch over his allies a stress-relieving activity.* I don't know what Gods watch over the creatures of the Dungeon...but they had best pray to them...

[@tinheart2853]

An absolute Chad

[@Crawver]

I always got the impression that all the other characters ended up here because they thought they could get rich, or couldn't fit anywhere else in the world. They didn't really want to be there, but circumstance brought them to this place. The crusader arrived as he wants to be there. This is a holiday for him.

[@maguc5906]

@@Crawver pretty much his story. He left his son and wife because he had become too entranced in war and violence

[@emberflameninetales3918]

I just saw this comment and all I can think of is the Crusader standing watch like a statue, all night, while the local monster collective is just mortified because he does not sleep, move, or even blink. The fact it heals his stress is like the most bro energy ever.

[@MrPizzapoika]

@@Crawver I think the highwayman is genuinely attempting to find redemption, since there are so many ques in the game to indicate it. Which is why I never let him die in the final mission, so he has to stay alive and deal with his guilt instead.

[@garrhettroebuck8402]

I can't bring myself to not use Zealous Accusation sometimes. The thought that the Crusader is killing things by showing them his grocery list is too hilarious to me.

[@MadSwedishGamer]

He's reading them his fanfiction.

[@bDe4d]

@@MadSwedishGamer Crusader: ...And then I said, "L-lick my ass, daddy.." Pretty good, right? Enemy: *dies* Crusader: ..guess not..

[@yunogasai3350]

IT SAYS YOU'RE GAY!

[@SilentDragonite149]

I love the fan-art for Zealous Accusation. There was one online which just flat out insults Skeletons. Even the positions which are unaffected showed a reaction in that one!

[@johnblack4380]

Your comment made my day, ty sir.

[@Avenus112]

You have a good point. Crusader is like the guy at your office who does so much work that you never notice him but the company exists because he's there. Everything works because of what he does but no one notices because he's always there so it doesn't fail.

[@baba50040]

So larry from gumball?

[@ShiningDarknes]

Vestal + triple crusader is just hilariously broken in almost every situation and with all that stress heal it becomes not a factor. Who cares if you are slow you have the most chonky team in the game, come at me heretic. Oh let us not forget -speed on him is just laughable like is that even a trade he is the slowest character in the game who cares if he gets even slower he wasn't going first anyway.

[@eaglemount9287]

What's about speed buff quirks and trinkets on crusaders? It makes them real OP.

[@pubcle]

@@eaglemount9287 Who cares if you're slow if the enemy literally can do nothing to you significant enough to matter as you stab them in the face in the name of God?

[@bonogiamboni4830]

Even better, all of them are religious. The vestal's "pray" camping skill becomes fucking ludicrous when it gives four different people -stress by a lot and +15% prot.

[@ShiningDarknes]

@@bonogiamboni4830 Yuuuuup

[@gabrote42]

I shall always remember when this happened on the second ever mission: ''Dismas' resolve is tested...'' *Courageous!*

[@maki5082]

Similar story, I didn't realize I could retreat, so that virtue(powerful) saved 4 characters....

[@Underworlder5]

@@maki5082 to be fair, the game tells you that you can back off only after you lose someone

[@feferson492]

man, I sometimes swear dismas has like, a double virtue chance or somthing (and a double chance to get crit by those damn spiders too)

[@GeraltofRivia22]

@@feferson492 what's with Dismas and spiders? Maybe he should get an "arachnophobic" quirk.

[@benjaminblancodirusso2671]

So we start with the best characters in the game? Oh boy.

[@drowsyCoffee]

Yeah, but you also start with kinda the most sub-optimal build on them. Still pretty good tho, specially Dismas

[@ShuffleFM]

That early klepto on reynauld absolutely sucks lol. He can take a couple thousand gold sometimes before you can get rid of it.

[@andregon4366]

@@ShuffleFM Send him to the ranch.

[@andregon4366]

@@oORoOFLOo They're great fir the lower level dungeons, but when you get to red difficulty dungeons the enemies get so much dodge you'll be forced to change because your current team can't land a single hit.

[@ow3nmahp935]

@@ShuffleFM he sure does. When i first started the game I never noticed how impactful the quirk was since it wasn't smthg like "-10 dodge" so I left it till he became lvl4 and reallized how much i had lost

[@Astrhal]

I was like Meh Are you sûre crusader is that good ? And then i remembered that i have 5 level 6 crusaders for reasons

[@ShuffleFM]

Haha nice. He used to be pretty bad, but the buffs helped him immensely.

[@U6kCtBuN]

if you think about it in the terms of being as consistent as possible, it makes perfect sense why they would start you with the 2 most powerful, most consistent characters, that can work in basically any party.

[@SimasPrime]

About 200 weeks in and my boys Reynauld and Dismas are still kicking

[@agustincorales4786]

I lost both of them in the first 7 weeks T_T Im re-naming another 2 adventurers of their same class as "x the second" in their memory, if i don't get them back in the revive town event

[@dandini0698]

I just loved that party composition with 3 crusaders and 1 vestal. Rare to find that many crusaders but definately a holy team^^

[@yoli6373]

I had a whole team of this wiped yesterday. Sad 😭 Died from the first veteran dungeon.

[@drent5666]

@@yoli6373 I feel you... Lost my team against the first Veteran dungeon too 😭

[@hamiltonharper]

@@yoli6373 this literally happened to me yesterday and I rage quit the game, which is something I haven't done with any game in years. Of course that's just going to hook me into this game even more

[@davemckinney6555]

I feel all of you, I'm terrible at this game, but I f...ing love it.

[@AdrasAdraki]

The 2 bros being s tier net you a sub. Hope you cover dd2 when that goes in early acess.

[@juliengrenier9672]

I remember back in 2016, Highwayman was poor men's Grave Robber has people pointed out online. Then Red Hook buffed him to epic proportion in a few patches. He has been the best hero ever since.

[@chrisbendross6229]

The king crimson reference made me smile so fuckin hard and i cant place why. Keep up the great content!

[@benb.8550]

I learned so much about synergies and just what everyone does well from this series. Thank you for your work!

[@DogginsFroggins]

Remember when HWM was weaker, weird times man. Thanks for the tier list, very informative. I'm definitely gonna try the healing crusader trinket setup, cool workaround for when all the healers are MIA.

[@atmosdwagon4656]

Highwayman is the poster child of a meta-switch character. A year and a half ago, he was mediocrity cubed. Today, he packs ludicrous crit potential and solid survival into a self-contained package that can easily strike at all ranges, from all ranges. If there's any digression I make here, is that he isn't actually strictly superior to the Bounty Hunter in all cases. Rather, it's a matter of time. For the early game, Bounty Hunter is a safer pick simply due to the huge array of CC he offers. He's at his best messing up enemy formations and dragging the dangerous, high stress enemies to the fore for summary removal WITHOUT sacrificing the potential for serious damage to the enemy's front line. However, by endgame, the Bounty Hunter is weaker because he's a victim of his own (prior) success. Most of his trinkets are awful; often being significantly worse than generic items of equivalent tier, he's been nerfed on top of that, making his prior benefits from Marks a crutch for his damage and without Trinkets, his previously stellar array of Stuns, Moves, and Bleed become unreliable. Highwayman on the other hand, started with some of the best Trinket choices in the game and these only got better due to the buffs he received last year. As a final comment: Vestel is still my top tier pick simply because she can fix so many bad situations in both the short and long term, and because early game is an absolute nightmare to manage without her.

[@idaylighti3455]

Makes me happy knowing my absolute favourite character art and lorewise is the best, when I first got the game 3 years ago I was expecting for the love at first sight to fade away but even after collecting every character and maxing everyone out, I still stuck with the highway man as my main boi.

[@rafciu123123123123]

Good job on that list, everything well explained. I actually use marking strategy and its do the job. I putted on first place Man at Arms who most of the time buffs critical ratio of the party, on second place Bounty Hunter who are focused on dealing damage, third place belongs to Arbalest who do same thing as bounty hunter, on last position Occultist who are the one that marks targets and heal party. They hit pretty hard after 3 turns when criticals get's up. I really like the sentence from part 1, there is no bad characters. Its really fun when You learn how they work with right team.

[@styru4980]

That's some great stuff that you got here my dude. As most people here, i also disagree with some things, but i love how you make solid points for every single choice of yours. It always amazes me how everyone has a different opinion on almost everything in this game, and no one is actually wrong. Such a great game that truly has room for a variety of strategies and playstyles. Only thing i didn't really like in this video, is the fact that you use footage of the Final Boss. I've just beat the game like a week ago, and now i'm looking for more opinions for my Bloodmoon run, but i beliave that a lot of people that are looking for Tier Lists might actualy just be trying to beat the game for the first time, that's the kind of info that even a complete novice could use, so my advice for you would be to take more consideration on Spoilers in your future videos, if they do appeal for novices.

[@ShuffleFM]

That is a great point about the final boss footage. Honestly if this video only had 100 views or something I would repost it and cut that. I'll keep it in mind going forward so thank you for pointing it out.

[@GustavoVPetersen]

lmao that spoiler warning was kinda sneaky and even tho i got spoiled i appreciate the attempt, tho hope u can be more careful leaving warnings in the actual video, besides that it they were 3 great videos. I wanted to learn more about the game since it was my first playthrought and its been very helpful

[@falkarios2944]

This was a very informative tier list, thanks for the effort put into this. If possible, I'd love to hear your thoughts on some of the more popular class mods. Lamia, Thrall, etc.

[@ShuffleFM]

That's a great idea, we can definitely cover class mods.

[@drowsyCoffee]

@@ShuffleFM You should cover Muscarine mod classes, even though they're all kinda OP, they are surely gimmicky enough to be fun to use and they make some weird strats viable, like how the Shrapnel (Specially with her CoM trinket) can make Mark parties kinda good

[@greenmarcosu]

You got a new sub for this series. I would love more videos on team comps and strategy for bosses and general dungeons.

[@ShuffleFM]

Don't worry, they're coming :)

[@technoparanoid]

My god. You change my mind about Highwayman. Especially his early trinkets. Be on yourway. TY

[@andrewwestfall65]

You talking about the Highwayman reminded me of a discussion on DnD from a group called WebDM. They were talking about a class that had good support options and one of the guys stopped and said, "That's great and all. Unfortunately, there is a best stat debuff to give your enemies, and that's death. You can poison them, you can stun them, but both of those combined aren't as good as just killing them."

[@ShuffleFM]

Nice reference, I love webdm lol.

[@andrewwestfall65]

@@ShuffleFM Awesome, lol. Loved the tier list videos, they're the first videos of yours I watched. I actually feel like I got a bit better just listening to your thought process on character selection and usefulness.

[@ygaudreault]

Having two highwayman swapping spots with point-blank shot, favourite move :p

[@fabshooter4891]

"On the Old Road we found the S tier" I never tried to take the Crusader out of the ruins before. Definitely using him more often from now on. For the Highwayman I wanted to go Dodgy Sheath + Sharpening Sheath but I'm definitely reconsidering after your video. I indeed only use Open Vein, Riposte and Point Blank. Now how about making a Quirk guide ? For example which quirks are to be locked for certain classes and which one are an absolute no-go ? Anyways it was great spending a whole afternoon listening to your analysis. Now time to apply it ingame!

[@ShuffleFM]

I can do a quirk guide, it would probably be more general as a standalone. When I make class guides I'll do specifics per character but maybe they'll be self-explanatory at that point. Thanks for listening to all this, hope your dungeons are nice and your RNG is favorable!

[@hoonty4890]

Fabshooter4 I feel u in the highwayman skills

[@Jenny-sf4ne]

This series has been so much more helpful than any guide i've seen. Great job, thank you!!

[@ShuffleFM]

Considering all the content out there that's high praise. Thanks a bunch.

[@gregorywhatley9659]

Yo, when'd Wicked Slice get +15% damage? Omg as well as the many enemy debuffs on his attacks, that's crazy. He was nothing like this last time I played Fantastically written my man, great finale

[@ShuffleFM]

Wicked Slice probably got that buff when the HWM got an overhaul. Thanks for the input and watching sir.

[@gregorywhatley9659]

@@ShuffleFM No worries at all sir!

[@drowsyCoffee]

The Highwayman is broken to the point that thanks to him i managed to, on the 8 week, defeat a Shambler AND an Aprentice Necromancer on the same quest.

[@georgiykireev9678]

@@drowsyCoffee It's certainly possible to do without the highwayman if you play your cards right. I know the Collector is easier than the Shambler, but I did get 2 bosses on the same mission very easily. The necromancer is a pushover, and no harder than a standard group of enemies.

[@TheRustyBox]

Grave Robber = S I had a really fun set up with 4 Grave Robbers. The opening 4 moves would always be 4 Shadow Fades. This is followed by the enemy passing all turns, doing nothing. Round 2, first Round SPD Quirks are gone and so Grave Robbers turn order changes. All Grave Robbers Lunge. Battle ends. Enemy does nothing. Rinse and repeat.

[@tinheart2853]

I made "on the old road we found redemption" with only 3 characters. The third one was jester but he died because he didn't land a crit. Yeah crusader and highwayman are pretty busted

[@RichardParker84188]

We can all agree that the antiquarian is the worst class and yet it has an amazing synergy with Highwayman. Also something you didn't talk much is the fact that you always want one guy who is good at traps, one guy to prevent nightime ambush and one guy who is good at scouting. Houdmaster does all three wich is why I think it's the best class

[@ryomaanime4563]

i put all those on my antiquarian in general. Scouting/trap/loot and buff/debuff, he's amazing until everyone else is. it's the real bro

[@unregisteredaccount6555]

Doesn't mean he's the best character. Probably a different word though.

[@TwoSpark55]

Maybe the crusader having a lot of 'stress reduction' at camp is because he is such a U N I T This lad will stop at nothing because he does it all so well and so often 💀🗡️😇

[@Shorsey30]

Great videos man! I just found this gem of a game and have grown to love my highway man, but kept hearing friends say he is not good. I have been using him as much as possible though, and this kind of proves my gut was right. Thanks for the effort in these vids man

[@ShuffleFM]

Glad you're loving the game and thanks for the kind words :)

[@xWhackoJacko]

I can certainly agree with Highwayman being #1. I'd have Crusader in high-B, low-A though. You make a compelling argument, but I've never felt like I needed more than 1 of them - whereas on every blood moon / stygian run I've wanted at least 2 highways. The only other differences I'd have would be Flag in A and Jester to S. Jester is so ridiculously good for not only the final DD shit, but ALL of CC. Nice video series. Under 2 weeks for DD2 baby!

[@JimnyThePython]

Remember how Reynauld starts with klepto? On my last playthrough Dismas got it after the first dungeon. yay

[@brandonbernard1570]

I love just alternating between dualist’s advance and point blank shot the entire match. It’s kinda hilarious how effective it can be.

[@ShuffleFM]

It's really satisfying to play that combo, and it has great damage output :O

[@brandonbernard1570]

Honestly, everything about the highwayman should’ve as effective as it is but oh well.

[@user-aloupeep]

thanks for all the explanation I just started playing this game And the difficulty of this game really backs me off... I took me three loads to really get on track the first try was terrible the second one, I watched a bit of your video then found my self stronger by knowing more about this game and the characters eventually ends up failing myself by overestimating the my team The third time, I actually had get way better, I am no longer concerned about the stress stuff in my first team which is a great improvement I think And I also didn't spend a lot of money curing and removing quirks, which saves me a tons of money In the end, before it's too long, I appreciate your experience sharing and all the kindness of being so specific into details of the characters. Although the first team the game put us in is already so strong that I don't think I can do any better with other teams, I will try out some other combinations. After all, I have only seen a few old video you made, there might be some updates in the game. And I think I'll get myself crimson court DLC after I'm a bit more familiar with this game. Thx again for the wholeness.

[@ShuffleFM]

Glad it helped, thanks for watching :)

[@kirakiller44]

when he said in depth, he really meant it xD

[@eliasbryce8]

My Reynald and Dismas went on the final task in darkest dungeon. Dismas was the only survivor, Reynald just gave up. It literally broke my heart

[@indissolubilisociavit6560]

These 3 videos helped a lot with addition of my DD knowledge I'm currently stuck at champion runs Troubles with accuracy because I don't like spending money on skill upgrades when they are mandatory Got Slaughtered in my first champion run Very nice videos :)

[@ShuffleFM]

Self plug but if you watch my playthrough I get crushed there as well for a minute lol. The difficulty jumps are pretty significant.

[@indissolubilisociavit6560]

@@ShuffleFM yea totally changes how you need to play

[@-_-5470]

Both really strong classes but in my opinion the Highwayman is the best allround class in the game by a big margin when considering raw damage (riposte is broken PLUS He can bleed targets that Others can't with the Resistance Reduction and strong class trinkets), row versatility (both your and target Position) and Camping skills (big damage boosts, nighttime ambush with utility on top of it). On top of that He can easily disarm traps and has huge Dodge and crit modifiers, making His riposte even Stronger AND the high amount of crits two Highwayman can put out makes a Stress management basically redundant (If you Focus enemy Stress Dealers First which should Not be a Problem with the Speed and damage of Highwayman) except for the hardest Missions (and even there you can Play around with some virtue trinkets to ensure quite a few virtues). Also Dismas is a fucking Boss!

[@SuperEndiku]

It was worth going through all three videos just to reach the Highwayman and all his glorious absurdities.

[@Krisisisis]

Uses Vestral in all his setups; also does not put her to S tier

[@JJ-dr7vs]

my personal favorite team is 2 highway man, 2 vestal. just relentless point blank duelist advance. come on, attack me...I dare you to

[@Detector1977]

For me Crusader is not S tier, but still A tier. Why? Several reasons. 1. He is very slow and often goes last after the enemy has attacked 2. He can only hit spot 1 and 2 from his normal starting place 3. He is a tank but the fact that he can't protect anyone else compared to the houndmaster and man at arms is a huge drawback 4. His heal is just not good enough, it just isn't 5. his stress heal could had been a little better He is good but the Highwayman is so much better

[@ShuffleFM]

I appreciate the thought out post. The ideas I'll challenge are that it might be worth considering his starting positions aren't just 1 and 2, have some faith in the holy lance haha. Hellion is good for the same reason. She can "cheat" in a way to get her big damage into the squishy backline. Extra heals are always good, his stress heals are also good. Removing mortality debuffs are also nice. HWM is absurd, no argument there :P If you left crusader in A on your list I would be fine with that. My issue is with the people that think he's somehow a worse Leper, which shows they don't understand the character.

[@Detector1977]

@@ShuffleFM No, no. Holy Lance makes the Crusader much better than the Leper. But you just take on the Crusader in your party for pos 1 or 2. You don't start him in the back as the holy lance is more used to get him back into position. The hellion is just as good as the Crusader for one reason, the ability to hit spot 4. That is huge. While I agree that the extra stress heal is nice the Crusader needs more versatility to be S tier. If his protect would shield other members he'd be S tier but he lacks that versatility in the front row. His camping skills are good but kinda average on the whole.

[@ShuffleFM]

You can use Crusader with another movement character to spam it, I think it's a viable option. He can already heal, stress heal, and do damage so I don't think you want him to be more versatile so much as he needs to be better at the versatility he has :) Maybe that's not being versatile then I guess if only certain things are viable?

[@Detector1977]

@@ShuffleFM Well, he doesn't have that thing that makes him special. The hellion for example got the swan and double stun while the crusader got single stun, hits spot 1 and 2, small heal but nothing that makes him great except tankiness. It's something just not something that makes him top class.

[@bdoggyfresh6062]

Funny the two starting character are the strongest I loved the tier list it was great I loved how detailed you went with examples you got excited to see what you up load next

[@fogacio411]

Funny fact, after the release of the game, the crusader was a a tier and the highway man was the worst charecter.

[@jadeamulet2339]

Early game sweep with two highwaymen grapeshot saves me so much time on new games

[@igordmitriev7211]

I don't see how this criteria reflects the reality of DD. Crusader is the epitome of Jack of all trades, master of none. That team of 3 Crusader 1 Vestal will do alright until mobs with high prot/high dodge show up. I honestly don't see any particular role where crusader is better than someone else. Helion is a better damage dealer (that also has decent mobility, bleed damage and can hit all the ranks), Jester is a better stress healer (that also has decent mobility, can buff the team tremendously, can stack bleeds and can one-shot a lot of things with Finale), Vestal is a better healer (why would you ever need supplemental healing anyway), MAA is a superior tank (that can actually protect someone, has very good buffs and can chip in with riposte). I'd even rank Antiquarian higher because if you're broke it's so easy to take 3 of them sightseeing with Hellion into apprentice dungeon and get that cash quick (also they are not that useless, can heal debuff and blight while there). Consider this: most battles in DD are either quite short, or rather long. In the former, you want your moves to be as impactful they could be, meaning you want the best DDs (Helion, HWM etc), best healers etc. In the longer fights you want the best buffs and stress heals/tanks (MAA/Jester) or stuns/blight (PD), not the mediocre ones. And while Crusader can indeed in vacuum be quite versatile, when faced with the reality, he is far down the list of heroes I'm choosing for the task (even below Antiquarian).

[@ShuffleFM]

I appreciate the thought out response. I think you aren't valuing flexibility in this game enough. He may be "master of none", but you can take a crusader to literally anything in the game and have him do well. Even against enemies they can't chop down quickly, crusaders have enough defenses and recovery that they win the war of attrition. He's better than MAA and leper almost every time unless you specifically need guard from MAA. If you need more riposte then take another HWM. Supplemental healing is amazing. If your vestal gets pulled to the front, put in the pot or put on the stake then you're SOL on heals. If she gets stunned, you sometimes need extra heals. These are just a few "for instance" situations, because there are several. Fights don't always go perfectly and having heals from any rank is great. Crusader is one of the most resistant heroes to bad rng, and he helps your team mitigate it as dedicated support with bruiser damage. It's fine if you don't like him, but I think putting him under even antiquarian is a bit of a slight. Crusader does fine in short and long battles. He does well anywhere, hence my placement.

[@igordmitriev7211]

@@ShuffleFM well maybe I need to complete the game on harder difficulties to comprehend it.

[@ShuffleFM]

@@igordmitriev7211 I'm never one to shame people for difficulty, but it does shake up what is viable and what isn't a bit.

[@lechampi5324]

First time I play, my whole team is dead, I don't know I can just run away. There was just this crusader. Alone on the frontline. Believe it or not, he was able to destroy every single skeleton, crits after crits. It was epic. I cried a lot when he died against the Swin Prince.

[@oneminutereviews25]

These videos have been the best guide for darkest dungeon I have found thank you thank you thank you

[@ShuffleFM]

Thanks for watching!

[@frazer_1997]

>bought DD one week ago >first proper run, first couple ones were for practice, deleted due to frustration >Crusader from the start of the game, called Francesco, is still there, level 6, kicking hard >we win a tough dungeon but he tragically dies with a boss >when I return to base, a LV.6 Crusader with excellent quirks is avaialble to hire JUST LIKE JESUS HE DID NOT DIE, HE JUST RETURNED HOLIER THAN EVER

[@feferson492]

first time I've beat crimson court blood moon i had like, four teams that were exactly a vestal a highwayman a crusader and a hellion never felt like i needed anything else

[@feferson492]

i really like listening to charlie from moist cr1tical talking about how reynauld and dismas are the best characters from darkest dungeon

[@darkranger116]

*not putting bounty hunter or leper in upper A with helion* “In time, you shall know the true extent of my failures.” - ShuffleFM lol

[@arzeey]

All this time, we started with 2 bosses in our team and we didn't even know it.

[@haka666]

dude this game is way too good like i didnt expect this game to be this deep when it came out

[@AvariceInc]

Had a hunch it would be like this at the S-tier! Halfway through my playthrough and whenever I get to do a dungeon with my double Highwayman setup with them swapping positions with Duelist's Advance things just go too conveniently. :D

[@msanta1984]

Thanks for giving love to the Crusader. I really like this classes wide range of abilities and how well it plays together with other classes. Also I just realized how well the Highwayman and the Antiquarian work together. Amazing! I also love the Grave Robber ❤️

[@cemiller]

I nickname my highwayman from Dismas to Critmas just cus of the sheer amounts of crits he gets.

[@jobRobbemond]

Thank you for making this. This was amazing. I don't agree on everything, but that is what makes it great. You clearly stated that it is your opinion, and you do back up your decisions with logic and facts. Thank you again.

[@ShuffleFM]

Thanks for watching :)

[@idkusername2981]

ok i got myself very familliar with all the classes in the game thank u.

[@johnmcniffe7941]

The JoJo reference just made my day

[@ryanwong1778]

Reynauld & Dismas gang

[@victorcobane6644]

I'm so glad someone else realizes how actually borderline broken the highwayman is. I'm even more glad it wasn't the devs, lol. No nerfs!

[@Prodigial]

Vestal, Helion, Plague Doctor, and Houndmaster being below Highwayman and Crusader especially is highly suspect...

[@potawatadingdong]

I have a real hard time ranking these characters since they all have their uses. The one I use least would be leper but I still enjoy using him when I do. My go-tos are typically plague doctor, jester and vestle. I'll usually have two of the three on any given run. Favorite damage dealer is probably hellion but strategies can vary so much it really depends on your team.

[@ShuffleFM]

I feel it. This was more an exercise of fun than anything else. Any hero can be super strong given the circumstances. I put Leper near the bottom but I love bringing him to farmstead to blow stuff up for example.

[@ВолодимирЛозицький]

Solid, but Shieldbreaker should switch places with Graverobber and Arbalest is also C, as it's the same as Musketeer.

[@ShuffleFM]

I ended up moving SB into A

[@Matuse]

Crusader is great, amazing really. But other than specific circumstances (Endless Farmstead, and the Countess), I have never liked the Highwayman. Grave Robber is just completely better when you aren't abusing the Riposte mechanic, and the the opportunity cost of activating it is massive.

[@ShuffleFM]

First time I've heard GR > HWM before, I like it lol.

[@clintongriffin2077]

I beat the whole game with double doctor 1 heal girl and 1 man at arms. Blight stacking wrrcked everything

[@user-eu8vz7cy8v]

Puts Old Road Friends into S tier, get rekt by cannon boss LULW

[@ShuffleFM]

Facts lol

[@shadowslayer1178]

See, I knew my boy was the best. HWM forever

[@nineinchnailzPSN]

I’m new to DD and I’d like to hear how well the vanilla game holds up or if it’s balanced for the DLC. Your videos seem to all be based on DLC so probably a comprehensive vanilla guide would be helpful. I’m enjoying the game and considering purchasing it all.

[@ShuffleFM]

Some things are mainly balanced around the color of madness dlc, but it isn't much. Some examples are minor things like usage per battle limit skills and abomination's stun chance on manacles being balanced around a color of madness trinket. Ultimately none of these will have a noticeable impact on the vanilla experience, so you should be okay if you choose to not get dlc.

[@lineman7207]

This is very good. I have to start playing darkest dungeon again now.

[@lifeiswonderful22]

Why are musketeer and arbalest in different tiers? Is it because of their trinket pools?

[@onion69420]

Knight Class is basically Deus Vult Infidel And highwayman just crits non stop

[@Justanotherconsumer]

The big question for me is not individual characters, but synergistic teams, especially in context. This is part of why I never thought much of the A/B tier distinction - all of it situational. I’d concur that Highwayman and Crusader are excellent, but they’re just a solid base rather than game changing. It’s always, for me, about having the right tool for the situation, and the only character I’d consider S tier on that is the Vestal, because she is always the right tool for healing and you always need healing. There are times when using another healer makes sense because of their specific abilities (e.g. Arbalest for Swine Prince) but even in that fight having a Vestal in the team is welcome. I guess I’d add that I concur on Abomination as distinctly bad - just doesn’t shine in any specific situation.

[@ShuffleFM]

You can definitely have a strong case for Vestal considering how crucial she feels.

[@johannessturm2754]

IDK why but Crusader never got me. He is a good alrounder, maybe the best because he can act from everywhere and can stress heal and heal normal. But he feels so underwhelming to play for me. I always loved Hellion or Abomination as Frontliner with support of Occultist and Jester. That worked for me and was and will always be my fav comb. The Dmg of the Hellion is Insane and the Abomination will crit the shit out of the enemy with rage i mean 13,5% crit Modifier? Oh boy. I also Transform him in round one because in Human stance he felt kinda useless to me beside of absolution. But I get your point. Most of my friends like the Crusader, its just me who favs the design of the Hellion. AH-KLORA!

[@theotv5522]

I'm still fairly new to this game, so I play this super safe knowing any hero loss is very serious. So once I grind any hero to Legend I just let them sit there and maybe only take them in Veteran short/medium maps. I don't know if there is such a thing like a deadline in this game where once you grind all the easy missions they won't spawn anymore.

[@ShuffleFM]

If you aren't on the hardest difficulty then there is no deadline. Take all the time you need

[@Walpurgisnackt]

Surprised Crusader is so good. Played before that lance buff but is is really I haven't been valuing versatility. Gaming instinct that a party of specialists working in tandem is usually stronger.

[@ShuffleFM]

You'd be right, a specialist team is usually a well oiled machine if done correctly. As you noted the versatility is why I rate him so highly, and the holy lance change is still being slept on I think.

[@mikhaelethier6807]

Vestal as one of the must have healer on nearly any team should be S-tier

[@skltfz4997]

quite weird ranking. i believe highland has very good base status, but he has no self sustain, using him almost means 100% come with an reliable healer. for crusader it is handy to use in almost any situation. but the fact is he is tank based char and low acc, using it as offence you need acc trinket, using it as healer you need heal item, which means he is just the middle of everything as a tank. i think leaper is highly under rated. he has high dmg and sustain and good camp skill. it is really strong and someone can use only it to finish heart alone

[@ezrasmith3389]

I use highwayman, crusader, vestal, houndmaster , plague doctor, hellion , occultist .

[@MelancholyPanda13]

I'm a bit of a noob at darkest dungeon (cant be bothered to check what team combos are best for each area and stuff like that cause of adhd and more) but I found that having 2 crusaders or 1 crusader and something like a leaper is broken just have crusader with bulwark,stun blow and his heal skills and just give him prot trinkets and just completely make him a tank then just have him bulwark then heal every round (himself or others) you can lay the beat down on basically everybody without worrying about damage (I usually have a jester just for stress heal) and then plague doctor and flaggelent and just bleed blight everything to oblivion

[@StaticSilence1]

Ironic. The first two default heroes you get when you start are the strongest. Dismas and Reynauld FTW.

[@baconlover7747]

i just realised...of all my champion level heroes vaas my highwayman and godrick the cusader are the only og's left. all the oldheads died....and vaas saw em all go no wonder hes fucked in the head....says something about how splashable the highwayman is though considering i sent the bastard to die against every boss in the game at least twice and hes one of the only veterans left

[@kanuos]

Dude... did you really had no other footage than the final boss? God damn it.

[@ShuffleFM]

Sorry man. I was a newbie content creator back then and I did my best to warn people after the fact :(

[@kanuos]

@@ShuffleFM No harm done. Thanks for the amazing tier list! I still miss annotations for this exact reason. A full screen pop-up with "SPOILERS AHEAD" seems like the ideal use case for it.

[@TReXcuRRy]

Thanks a lot for those 3 videos. Was interesting to hear an informed opinion. Although personally I feel like this was like reviewing how good a tomato is. How good salt is. How good pasta is. And review all these totally independently without ever mentioning spaghetti bolognaise. What I'm saying is. DD is about cooking up effective, yet fun and unique team comps. Where all 4 characters work so well together, in fact so much better than you have thought they would, that you must take a picture of the lineup mid-dungeon just so you remember to have fun with it next time. And the amount of possible lineups you actually can come up with is an absurdly high number. So there's always room for experimentation and discovery. I feel like, despite the obvious knowledge you have of the game and the great work you put into making those 3 videos (and thank you again for this), you kinda missed the point of the game. I don't think the point was ever to find the best characters. But rather to find creative ways to make the weird ones powerful. And so of course, the game first presents you with crusader and highwayman. What a surprise, they are 'S tier' on your list. Well I guess the Devs themselves knew their strengths were so obvious that they would be fit for the tutorial mission. Well, some other characters need a set up to be effective. And honestly, at least keep the Antiquarian off this list... Anyways i hope I didn't sound too harsh or anything because I really enjoyed watching your videos but I just feel like if I was a developper at Red Hook and I saw videos of people ranking the heroes on a tier list, I would first consider that they missed the point of the game and then use the video to perhaps look into eventual nerfs and buffs. The whole point of the game is to make a great team, not find the individually strongest characters :/

[@ShuffleFM]

I appreciate the extensive and thought out response. I thought I addressed the point you raised at the start of the series when I mention that even though I'm focusing on individuality, any character can be good which implies that comps are always the most important factor. Further, I'm going to expand into specific comps and maximizing characters and synergies in the next set of videos. So again I appreciate how cordial and thought out your response was, and also that you watched so much of my content, but I feel your concerns are misplaced :) Personally I just really enjoy discussing the game. There's no shortage of things to talk about and dissect.

[@SinisterThoughts11]

Extremely helpful, thank you!

[@somethingelse6343]

crazy, I rate crusader at the bottom along with the jester

[@unregisteredaccount6555]

Marking requires at least 2 other characters that can take advantage of it

[@steveharrison76]

Why does Stunning Blow have the tip of the blade, and not a picture of the Big, Shiny, Bulgy, Dangling, PENDULOUS HEADSLAMMIN' POMMEL on it? I often think that this fact proves that Red Hook cannot make good games, they just don't have the vision for it. (Obviously this is a joke, btw)

[@davidmartin7219]

I made it super far with 4 crusaders like 2 lancers/ healers in the back and 2 high accuracy hitters in the front

[@cavegoon3994]

This has been a brilliant series. Very high quality, with a humorous script, and great, simple editing. Great idea to have gameplay in the background. Would love to see some class mod reviews/tier lists.

[@ShuffleFM]

Soon™

[@KillerOfDoom77]

GraveRobber is still SSS tier in my heart♥️

[@Dachnik228]

SSS tier waifu

[@Charlie.G506]

even in a tier list, dismas and reynauld remains best buds.

[@BotSupportIronValiant]

Yeah until this vid I 100% definitely underestimated the highway man and crusader. Also how fitting the first 2 units you get in game are arguably the best in the game. P.S. DEUS VULT

[@kamran8483]

So party you start with has one of the best heroes

[@ShuffleFM]

You can do all the content in the game with that party, though some stuff would be harder for it.

[@jodyrappin]

Personally I only like highwaymen for the riposte, but if they don't attack him its not so good. l'd only call him s tier when fighting shamblers and the first dd mission.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

J037 the cycling point blank double highwayman is hilarious.