Hidden Squidz: Man At Arms Review Darkest Dungeon

[@SCARaw]

i remember him being top class in this game recently when he was added to game he was so strong now its weird how he seems balanced, unstackable bolster ruins a lot :D

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Bolster is such a strong ability. 10 dodge and -20% stress for one turn is just too good.

[@Klaital1]

Bolster is better now since you only need to use it once and it's up the whole combat.

[@Kaeilios]

R

[@elim9054]

I definitely enjoyed using the MaA more after I realized he's meant to be a support/tank character and not DPS. Speaking of trinkets, his Crimson Court set is amazing. It gives buffs to stun chance, debuff chance, protection, crit, DB resistance(!) and the set bonus buffs acc and damage on riposte; which basically brings it up to par with Duelist's Advance but just with less damage on the initial riposte activation. In exchange for all of this, the only debuff on the set is +10% stress, which is practically nothing and is more than offset by Bolster if you choose to run it. Definitely one of the better trinket sets in the game.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

His crimson court set is probably one of the best in the game!

[@Klaital1]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming I actually prefer using him in position 4 with the Guardian's Shield and another defensive trinket, like Mirror Shield, Ancestor's Coat, or Wilbur's Flag. Putting Bolster up and then just alternating Command and Guard.

[@frogabelle]

I like the music in the video, it brings the whole thing together a bit I think. Great vid as always!

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Thank you, my friend did the music and there should be more to come!

[@valsipstones6871]

Yeah, I like it too.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Here is the community vote from a week ago! Thank you for watching and if you would like to donate I do have a patreon and subscribestar in the description! Time stamps below: 1:50 Crush 2:45 Rampart 4:40 Bellow 7:08 Defender 8:10 Retribution 10:45 Command 12:10 Bolster 14:30 Trinkets 17:30 Camping Skills

[@michaelcoffey1991]

I take no team to bosses without a Man at Arms as my lead spot 1. Love Ripsote, Love the Buff, Love the Guard option. Give him that huge plus Prot buff I gladly take the -20% dmg as I do not want him, have him, or need him for damage. Having said that @Hidden Squidz loved this video and hope you do this for every class even the special mod PC only hero's as I plan to get this game for PC due to my love of the game and my want t help support the studio. Have a great weekend, thanks for the video :)

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

You are welcome and have a great weekend as well.

[@bryanzhao4048]

Remember when bellow used to do damage? Pepperidge farm remembers.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

I actually was not there when it did damage, but man would that make the ability even stronger!

[@moldycarrot9267]

It could even crit!

[@Klaital1]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming It didn't do much damage, it was like -90%, the main thing of it was that it could crit which gave lot of free stress healing since it hits all enemies.

[@msanta1984]

I have underestimated the man at arms but now I know the strengths he has. On guard and quickdraw quirks are on him because you can retribution or bolster/bellow before some enemies can act.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

A higher speed maa can definitely do preventive damage as you said and bellow is really good on a slower maa. I think bellow is over looked because it doesn't do damage but it really allows you to control the second round well.

[@zackfake1253]

My whooe interpretation of the MAA changed after i started using him as a rank 3 riposte buffer, even better put a jester in that can shuffle him to 4th with the riposte and let him continue his buff spam shenanigans

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

That's a perfect fine strategy as well! He's very versatile which is nice

[@one-eyedepi9338]

When I tried defender against brigand Vvulf it didn't protect party members from his bombs. The fight and the dungeon seems nerfed tho, when I looked at some videos and the wiki (Vvulf has far less hp and you only need to fight 3 times before fighting Vvulf). When was the last time you fought Vvulf, I fought him about 1-2 months ago.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Stupid question but did you keep changing the guard to the new bomb target? It's something you have to keep refreshing.

[@one-eyedepi9338]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming yeah, I did, but it didn't work for some reason.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Hmm it must have bugged out or something, but makes the fight significantly harder then.

[@one-eyedepi9338]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming have you fought him recently?

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

@@one-eyedepi9338 Twice within the past year, but the one time was in CoM, so I did not have a MAA, and the second time the MAA worked.

[@skyisclear8461]

As you say, there are two battles he is absolutely essential in. There are a couple where he can be a liability, usually where you are in a damage race, like the Collector, where if you are caught out and don't have enough damage to pos 4 you can get get stuck in a horrible loop.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Agreed, POS 4 MAA, really needs some strong damage dealers to help bail out the party if you get stuck in a longer battle. Especially if the enemies respawn and take off the debuffs.

[@htlchtlc]

jewelled froot The only battle I felt he was needed was against the revelation cultists mini boss

[@TrumpIsrael2024]

So I'm a newbie. Bought this game in Mar 2020. Which is better, base 90 or base 140? I mainly strive for ACC & DMG, & forego dodge, prot, speed.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

The higher the base chance for skills, the better, so 140% is better than 90%. Your resistances should be higher as well. Accuracy is important, but I would argue speed is too. Consider who you take in and if they could benefit from more speed. Higher speeds or at least one high speed character, can disable or kill enemy stress damage dealers allowing for easier runs. Thank you for watching and commenting.

[@msanta1984]

I think speed kills, period. But there are definitely other factors that you need. Try out Quick draw charm, it will help with clear out stress casters BEFORE they can act. Also I like camping buffs more than buffing on first rounds. But depends on the situation and party comp.

[@mcwhooperekranami2035]

4 position MAA its S tier

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

It is great, since it commands and dictates the enemy line up from bellows to bolstering the party.

[@henryjones8636]

What is the item from Color of Madness that you mentioned? The one that refreshes combat skills. Is it the thing you can get in provisions or do you get it somewhere else?

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

It's called shard dust and it's in the provisions menu. It takes crystals to purchase.

[@henryjones8636]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming Ah so that's what that is. Thanks! I JUST started playing Darkest Dungeon. It's a blast. I'm watching some of your videos because I want to know about the characters without spoiling the enemies and bosses.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

I do my best to avoid most bosses by name. There may be a couple of mentions but I try to limit.

[@cyrusgasmin5201]

Which trinket/item from Colors of Madness allows you to use the MaA Bolster ability more than once?

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

It's an item and it's called shard dust

[@cyrusgasmin5201]

HiDdeN SQuiDZ Gaming I tested out shard dust in my inventory and Bolster still remains to be once per battle for each MaA I have with me

[@LucianC137]

Which boss trinket is best on him tho?

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Depends on what you are looking for. HP and bleed resist trinkets (flesh trinket) are nice since he can defend/soak damage without immediately heals needed. Stress reduction from teh siren is also great.

[@Milkyman92]

Bolster bolster? you can only use bolster once per battle...

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

It's part of the CoM dlc. It's called shard dust I believe and it refreshes once per battle abilities. Thank you for watching!

[@erykczajkowski8226]

Surely MAA is good, against some opponents excellent (Bellow against party of gnashers is soo sweet!), but the tactics his abilities enforce is just kinda... boring. Stall & stall, because no damage is done - if you brought a healer, you have max 2 people to deal damage. Also the game presents his abilities in a misleading way - instead of horizontal line going through all 4 target dots, there are just separate dots. This implies the buffs are single-target ones in which case they'd be totally crappy ones. It might add to why people misunderstand MAA.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

I still like him a lot. I know he can limit damage but he allows for a slightly slower playstyle which is nice once in a while.

[@Klaital1]

If you think the damage is low, you have never seen a party of man at arms, vestal, jester, and leper, where jester just does battle ballad every round, man at arms alternates command and guard on the leper, and the leper starts off with revenge and then just one shots every enemy with Chop.

[@erykczajkowski8226]

@@Klaital1 Well, in that example you have a single damage dealer and that is not MAA. You're right, I have not seen that. Personally I wouldn't use that composition. I prefer being able to attack back rows and here you can not reach r4 and r3 unless you're not following the strategy described. I see a number of problems with this strategy too. Will buffed up Leper one-shot high prot enemies, like Pelagic Guardian? Maybe sometimes, I'd say that rather unlikely - that requires 102 (!) damage on champion level. If he one-shots someone without crit (crit will rise to ca 50%, but only after a few rounds of buffing), there's still the corpse left. And you also use first turn on self buff. Meanwhile you're bombarded with stress attacks from R3 & R4. You do have the jester, but he will be busy buffing. I just don't see it working smoothly. The recovery from stress (healthwise it will be fine) - even if possible - will be such a pain in the ass... And what if you get shuffled? Or face a Collector? All those one-shots won't help, as new enemies will be constantly created and you have just very weak attacks for R4 and probably no time to use them.

[@1God1Fury]

I don't like buffing while he could have dealt damage like help kill position 3 with his mace. You could have killed enemy earlier instead of hoping your buff help your team dodge with more enemies left alive. I only find buffs useful during long fights or against bosses. I primally use Man at Arms as offensive damage dealer with guard and stun.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

I would agree, my natural go to is much more offensive than it is defensive or debuffs. However, for these videos and channel, I try a little of everything to show the potential of heroes or line ups. I often do keep mace bash, retribution, rampart, and bolster on though.

[@Klaital1]

And yet, MaA was so overpowered broken that they had to nerf how Bolster works in the endless harvest quest, because he made it completely trivial to actually keep going until your bags were full of shards.

[@1God1Fury]

That's exclusively color of madness DLC arena mode balance problem

[@emelyathesimpleton125]

I never liked the man at arms, but after watching this video the narrator's quote of "The raw strength of youth may be spent, but his eyes hold the secrets of a hundred campaigns." really makes sense. He's old. He's not there to do battle with everyone, he's there to help the young folk out and direct them towards victory. Thanks Squidz, for helping me understand this battle-hardened old-timer a bit better.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Well thank you! The MAA is a weird class to get into and trying to balance him out can be difficult. Once you find a line up, he is really fun to play with and you can feel the utility really shine.

[@emelyathesimpleton125]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming I can see from this video I really have been using him wrong. He's not a damage dealer, he takes hits and bolsters the party. I used to think of him as an aggressive-style character, but now I can see that he does much better helping party members and weakening opponents. I feel a bit foolish not seeing this aspect of him before but I'm glad to have a better understanding of his now.

[@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming]

Do not worry about it! It is hard to really utilize all the characters well. What has helped me greatly is diversifying myself for the channel and having people in the community comment on things I do.

[@emelyathesimpleton125]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming Trying new things is definitely important. I think I'll give Man at Arms another shot when I play next

[@Klaital1]

@@HiDdeNSQuiDZGaming I really need to at some point try a 4 MaA party, with all of them using bolster on first round, and using the +10% dodge camping skill three times on all campfires, can easily get to dodge cap. Then you just have the backline ones do command and defend while the front line ones bash enemies with their maces.