Sergeant & Intermezzo: How to Run a Rank 4 That Doesn't Heal or Do Damage [Darkest Dungeon 2]

[@Kamayri]

mariner, this video saved my life. my friendships were in shambles and my self doubt was through the roof because I couldnt run the new sergeant and intermezzo paths. with your video, i've reclaimed my former glory. thank you

[@HePraisesTheSun]

I'm happy you decided to talk about this! Breaking down what you need in a team and what is more of a "luxury" is always a hot button topic so getting more input on that is awesome. I would argue that taunt isn't required but if you're playing the more difficult parts of this game or possibly a specific modded torch it'll definitely go a very long way. Looking forward to finishing this :)

[@Mariner_Hawk]

Yeah honestly my brain might be rotted from all the hard torches I've done, I still love taunt just to be able to give you control at least. I like saying that taunt is probably top of the next tier of importance. You could argue you don't NEED it, but it does make your life a lot easier having it

[@io8787]

@@Mariner_Hawk my favorite teams do actually have a double taunt option (Flag&MAA, MAA&Cursader for instance)..they allow you to use taunt when you need and efficiently, depending on what else you need (health, stress heal, damage)

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@io8787 yeah a lot of mine do too. Even having like a GR or duelist able to have taunt as a safety net is just such an asset to have

[@ovbrook3057]

Something else that's really good on command is that you can use it with combat items. Niche items like chalk dust can become a delivery method for full party combo, which is kind of nuts, so I really like using him with baby slime and heroes that can heavily abuse combo like stunners, hellion, grobber etc

[@Mariner_Hawk]

I recognize you from the discord, thank you for watching my video! I forget if I mention that in the video, I think I realized like the day after that I should have mentioned that cause yeah it is pretty nuts haha

[@risenphoenix74]

Glad to see you're still posting stuff. You put some really good videos out, and wish you'd see more success on the channel front. Thank you for continuing to post.

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@risenphoenix74 hey, thank you very much for the kind words, I appreciate it. I'm having fun doing KZbin stuff

[@ASAINsensation]

very much love these videos mariner, new dd2 fan due to switch release, and finally starting to get comfortable with the mechanics, so seeing videos on explorations of party comps are very welcome. Keep up the great work!

[@Mariner_Hawk]

Thank you, that means a lot! Let me know if you ever have any questions, I hope you're enjoying the game

[@DWN-Infinity]

You cooked and delivered and it shows how much you love this game

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@DWN-Infinity thank you

[@morimementos]

very cool video, glad youtube let me stumble on it. still watching, but i recently tried out sergeant command with PD mag rain, and it was very convenient to have so much combo available. I wasn't able to make it work as well as i wanted to, but this vid should help flesh out the idea

[@Mariner_Hawk]

Glad you like it, thanks for the comment! Yeah that was the idea with command/anamnesis. It's much safer and probably overall smarter to do it with mag rain haha

[@LorenTR]

Thank you for a good video. I loved how it was covering a topic which was not for beginners. I learned from this guide.

[@Mariner_Hawk]

I like doing both types of videos, just gotta bounce back and forth between newbie stuff and more advanced stuff

[@rehab8166]

okay mariner cookin i see u

[@andreysoares6203]

Bastygian Bleacon Grand Slam and DEATHLESS??? That sounds fun and specially challenging. Definitely checking your streams now, gotta see it!

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@andreysoares6203 it has been a trip. I like it cause I think/hope it's making me a better player but MAN has it had some lows haha.

[@gnerkus]

I would rank the 'needs' in this way (from most to least important): 1 backline 2 stress heal 3 taunt 4 dot heal 5 heal 6 frontline - Stress heal (healing more than 1) and taunt items are rare and 'expensive'. - Healing items are easier to come by. - Taunt lets your dps heroes focus on attacking. - Heroes almost always have a way to hit frontline

[@luke4010]

Awesome guide

[@caleb1]

I’m inspired. Trying out Sergeant - Surgeon - Aspirant - Wanderer Crusader Back-rank damage may be a bit lacking. But with Demon Pull and Blinding or Disorienting might still be able to kill fast enough. Ravager would definitely be better damage but wanted to try this.

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@caleb1 ooo that's spicy, an aspirant user also. Lemme know how it goes

[@caleb1]

@Mariner_Hawk it's going well so far! Definitely feel the lack of back rank access some times. But for the most part, the front two die fast enough to then clear corpses with Mag Rain or Demon Pull and keep on murdering. Or can use Burning Stars turn 2. Very tanky with Crusader front and MAA Defending Occ. I bet running Templar to add in another guard might be good. Cleared General without much trouble and just a couple items. Walloped Collector too. I wouldn't recommend trying act 2 but honestly, might be able to just murder it and ignore the back lung.

[@lucasdiassilveira9762]

Please do more videos, your anyalysis are great, but to be more specific wanted to know how a more experienced player can deal with teambuilding in more limited terms, a "less meta" form if you wish, like building a comp with no dedicated stress healer for instance, or a comp with specific paths that don't work without setup, for me that is one of the coolest aspects of the game

[@Mariner_Hawk]

Thank you for the kind words! Pre-Crusader I ran a bunch of comps without stress heal and basically just prayed for resolutes or spring water haha. I'm with you though, I love running misfit comps/heroes/paths and seeing how it works out, it's so fun when you find a comp that looks bad and it actually works out. I don't know if you've tried but trying to come up with a good comp that uses Monarch could be a fun challenge. Basically you master bash/purge and abilities like that to give combo and have like a Deadeye try to pop off from it. I did a 0 Torch Stygian run with Berserker in the 1 rank, basically just bleed out/bleed out/bleed out/blood lust and repeat. It was goofy but I grand slammed with it somehow

[@Linkueigman]

I did a Sergeant MMA run with hin in 4th. 1st had Tempest Leper, 2nd had Exam Flagellant, 3rd had Aspire Occultist. This comp, while absolutely damage dealing with Occultist always throwing stars when he wasn't feeding the leper or gettig crit 129 heals. Leper chopped, bashed, and hew'd his way to clearing and controlling the front line. Flagellant was healing, blighting, and absolutely ending bosses when maledicted with sepsis. MAA just buffed allies, especially with crits on Flag for lash/sepsis heal cures, guarding people, or eating the combo tokens Leper left behind to heal people for a small bur noticable amount. The comp could be perfected with better paths selection with flag/occult, but this comp isn't a joke

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@Linkueigman that does sound pretty fun, I like that. What made you go aspirant for this?

[@wizaro2487]

i did a run today with sergeant, antagoniste, arsonist, and wanderer flagellant and had a super smooth time with it on obsession stygian. antagoniste may not be the best path for duelist but using dragonfly, disengage for combo or double blind, into more dragonfly is really fun. I suggest you try it out

[@wizaro2487]

i forgot to mention that the entire team benefits from combos heavily and can set them up very well, its easily the most combo heavy team ive done which was a fun new experience for me

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@wizaro2487 Yeah one of the combos I realized real early on that I liked was that antagoniste/dragonfly combo. It's so good against size 2 and bosses, you can in theory give 2 blinds every turn if the combos get set up right. I ran it recently for the first time in a while and reminded myself how much I loved it

[@Zedkiller1101]

You ever play rank 4 Orphan with rank 3 PD w/ Cause of Death? Between Firestarter and CoD, there's a ton of backline damage.

[@Mariner_Hawk]

that's a REAL squishy team. Nah I've never tried that and I don't know why I haven't, I bet those numbers get pretty crazy haha. I had a run with Sickening Silence proccing against act 3 boss, holy lance burn and surgeon bleed so I got some real big CoDs there haha

[@stoney8378]

Im currently trying to get 5 memories onto my Duelist, im now on act 4 and when i was making my team for her i somehow ended up with Instructrice - Alchemist - Ritualist - Flagellant Its actually working pretty well so far im on region 3 after beating harvest child in region 2 (25 inventory slot trophy) see how my luck holds up as i carry on

[@stoney8378]

Also started with the Assay Gear stagecoach item which imo is super OP

[@stoney8378]

Cause of Death made easy work of the boss, now onto act 5 and I'm actually going to use the same team

[@Mariner_Hawk]

@@stoney8378 does that have enough damage? Or is alchemist just solo carrying haha

[@stoney8378]

@Mariner_Hawk instructrice is quite handy being able to use an upgraded Touché from the back rank that does good damage and I'm still using Burning Stars on the Ritualist. But with Flag also adding more blight to enemies combined with Alchemist her Cause of Death does take centre stage a lot lol

[@junaugust2705]

i'm here

[@kowel4744]

Honestly i dont think mezzo is that good for only buffing since the % chance on crit/extra action on ballad are so low that its just way to inconsistant, so battle ballad is kind of like a glorified strenght buff. Play out is not good in my opinion since its a defensive buff you are usually using ballad over it unless someone is in trouble and giving somebody who is close to deaths door bleed can just kill your character a lot of the time. Inspiring tune you just have to work way too hard to achieve good results with this thing so i think its better to just use somebody else for a solo stress heal (bolster, inspiring cry). I found that the best way to use mezzo is to do the encore/solo/finale loop while ocasionaly using echoing march and either ballad or fade to black/razors wit. Finale is arguably the best one out of all his paths since after solo you do 100% more dmg if finale is mastered and with this setup you wont bleed your team as much since encore has a cooldown and you wont be using ballad that often. I recently tried a rly fun team with mezzo that worked amazingly and its honestly one of my fav team comps rn. Banneret (zealous, lance, heal, inspiring, tenacity), mezzo (the skills like i mentioned above with razors wit to move crusader back to 4 if he uses lance), aspirant (stab, anamnesis, stars, chaotic, wyrd), yellowhand (open vein, duelists, grapeshot, robbery, pbs) The team deals a ton of bleed dmg, crusader easily keeps up with stress and heals but if you need to heal more u can use wyrd, finale/stars is a good nuke to destroy one enemy for free, anamesis amazing cleave with tons of bleed dmg.

[@busyswizzler]

Wouldnt beacher put him in the front ?

[@Mariner_Hawk]

Yep! Breacher is S tier for Man at Arms but I managed to get breacher on the one time I wouldn't want it

[@sick_nisson]

Your intro is very emo, feels a bit at odds with the content to me

[@0rcd0c]

8:15 Intermezzo Yes Sergeant No The difference between them is like night and day. Mezzo is completely viable (Solo+Finale+Encore is still strong) but Sgt is truly garbage.

[@Mariner_Hawk]

WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. Giving speed, combo ability, stress healing, AoE getting rid of negative tokens, giving DoT and move resist all in one hero. Sergeant is super good if you can build a team around it successfully

[@0rcd0c]

​@@Mariner_Hawk Let's dissect each of these benefits one by one: Bellow giving spd is nothing special because that's what the other Bellows in essence do too (except Vanguard) but they also remove 2 of the most annoying enemy token crit and riposte. Sgt can't do that so that's a huge minus. The negative token clear is situationally good though. Command giving combo requires the party member to at least hit 3 or 4 targets to be on equal terms with other combo providing skills like Dragonfly, Harvest, FtB etc. because all of them do dmg on top. Too many requirements and not reliable enough to even compete with a single button from other paths. Stress healing is what all other MAA have access to Dot and move res and are almost worthless. Dots aren't nearly as scary in DD2 because of the very short duration of the fights and the dozens of ways you can counter them without using up an action. And if you do need to clear them urgently then a direct clear is better than rng-based resistance. It seems like you've played quite a bit Sgt on your stream so I wonder how you didn't notice that he wasn't doing much in the first 1, 2 or 3 rounds for your team(s). His contribution is really lackluster compared to simple taunting and protecting the team.