Flagellant and You: Darkest Dungeon Guide

[@luckx6533]

I bled a skeleton today in ruins with Flag, was great would recommend.

[@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist]

So he got him to spill out his marrow?

[@22z83]

​@@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishistthats hardcore

[@mkv2718]

@@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishistmaybe that’s how magic skeletons move… all their muscle and blood is inside their bones… …. tiny little hearts all through their ribs 😂

[@JustOnlyHallow]

​@@22z83 HARDCORE TO THE MEGA!

[@Pennywise12528]

Brief clips of Flagellant killing an allied Occultist then dying of a heart attack while fighting a Shambler, leaving only an Antiquarian alive. Move on to full gameplay footage, where a team containing a Flagellant, Occultist and Antiquarian find a Shambler Shrine. No torches though. Later in the long play, find a torch and backtrack to the Shambler Shrine, at which point the footage transitions to another playthrough entirely. It's like watching a found footage horror movie.

[@ShuffleFM]

S tier post

[@fireblossom9618]

@@emiliolucca9224 Series of what?

[@arealhumanbean3058]

@@fireblossom9618 It is a bot ignore it

[@fireblossom9618]

@@arealhumanbean3058 oh

[@kronoscamron7412]

lol its funny when the flagellant goes rapturous and kills an ally. the animation and the comment is funny af.

[@szucsmarkus3248]

17:55 "it heals the flagellant for half his life" so under my management...... that means...... for two weeks

[@scrubzero1735]

I had to read this like four times before I got it... that’s hilarious

[@aaankms4450]

@@scrubzero1735 I had to read it more that 4 times and honestly once I got it I started laughing out loud.

[@cleftboywonder]

You got me man!!😂😂😂 thanks so much for the laugh.

[@botep5529]

I love pairing him with plague doctor and just completely dotting the shit out of the back line.

[@theotv5522]

Or just play 2 PD if you're like me and don't have his DLC.

[@TheSpiritedFendron]

@@theotv5522 or play 2 pd chans, a flag on 3 and another flag on 1

[@gerkadas]

@@TheSpiritedFendron you cant take 2 flags, no?

[@TheSpiritedFendron]

@@gerkadas nope, you're right xD

[@grevok]

Anyone else miss when you could solo dungeons with this lad How far the great have fallen

[@anonimowyrecenzent4319]

steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1623072519 This mod removes the nerfs made to Flagellant. I highly recommend to try it.

[@shavsk8769]

You mean the broken 😒

[@the_epic_uploader]

back when he didn't have move limits so he could be immortal😔 I remember soloing kingpig

[@LucaTheHyena]

least you can solo bosses with our toxic boy in dd2

[@frostag4821]

"If he dies, that's it, he is gone and will not come back in town two weaks later, he's gone" My flagellant, who was ressurected two weaks later in the town event: Hah! gottem

[@couchpotatoe91]

I actually really like flagellant rank 2 and hellion rank 1 together. The flagellant's bleed debuff helps with "if it bleeds". The hellion doing +33%dmg vs bleeding when landing a critical hit for the next 3 rounds synergizes very well with him as an enabler. The hellion doesn't even have that many (good) bleed skills, so having a houndmaster or flagellant in the party to actually bleed while you yawp and iron swan is really good.

[@ShuffleFM]

I'm reading this comment again and I feel I should have included the idea of hellion in rank 1. Double stun, iron swan, and bleed synergy are all good.

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

Hounds Harry round 1 to enable a Crit machine Hellion to just fuck shit up is amazing

[@scrubzero1735]

20:55: The Vestal can’t do it all by herself Me going into the 6th straight dungeon with no Vestal: If your damage goes zoom your enemies are doomed

[@listerineclean343]

Vestal sucks tbh

[@crabking3525]

This is why Judge and Execution is secretly the best team

[@Mr.Sparks.173]

The ancient saying "the best defense is a strong offense" works with elder gods as it does in war

[@theotv5522]

42:48 Yes I have encountered that "event" first time without knowing. And yes, that "event" did ended my playthrough because it killed 3/4 of my main heroes and I was too emotionally damaged to continue.

[@deviousskylark5767]

I found him so hard to play at first but once you grasp his unique mechanics, he can be so clutch

[@grantgarbour]

When I started playing DD I didn't think the Flagellant would be my favorite class lol

[@gewreid5946]

His feel, aesthetics, style and quotes are just so amazing. The animation of redeem or exsanguinate is so meaty and satisfying and his "getting hit" animation is great too. That alone makes him extremely fun to play in my opinion. It really makes you feel like nothing can shake you and you carry the fight into the Dungeon. Darkness flees before the Blood!

[@metachrist723]

Bounty hunter or bust

[@relytho1548]

@@gewreid5946 hitting a crit exsang with a crit heal makes the game worth it

[@ShuffleFM]

Time Stamps - 0:00 Intro and Unique Abilities - 5:44 Strengths - 11:33 Weaknesses - 16:19 Skills, trinkets, quirks - Teams * 1st 38:32 (Standard Bleed) * 2nd 48:22 (Mark) * 3rd 58:58 (Sustain) * 4th 1:08:57 (Martyr)

[@lelanddyke8386]

hey if you put these in the description, it'll automatically split the video into chapters on the red bar and it looks really nice I think you have to reformat it to: Time Stamps 0:00 - Intro and Unique Abilities 5:44 - Strengths 11:33 - Weaknesses 16:19 - Skills, trinkets, quirks Teams 38:32 - 1st team (Standard Bleed) 48:22 - 2nd team (Mark) 58:58 - 3rd team (Sustain) 1:08:57 - 4th team (Martyr) kliksphilip has a more detailed video on how it works if you want to check that out

[@ShuffleFM]

@@lelanddyke8386 Oh wow nice! I'll try it in a bit. Thanks for the idea

[@pigslayer275]

you opened the curios WITHOUT THE ANTIQUARIAN HERESY

[@jmandafish]

Been waiting on this one in particular, always had a little trouble finding real synergy with this guy. Thanks for the company.

[@PRO100SashaX]

The thing I really REALLY don't like about Exsanguinate is that if you miss it as an opening to a battle, you're in really tough position. Even missing it mid-battle is very bad. You've not just skipped a turn, you've made the situation much worse for yourself. If the enemy takes advantage of that, like swine dude crits you with a knife and adds -healing received, well good luck going out of almost 0 hp. I personally run parties with flag as primarly healer, usually without healer at all besides him (or some sort of "get out of dd heal" like pd or antiq; pd is actually nuts with flag, they literally erase backline, and battlefield medicine helps fix bad rolls on redeem). As such missing Exsanguinate hurts. A lot.

[@michaelcoffey1991]

I will be coming back to these videos again an again :) Huge thank you for taking the time to put all the quality in these videos for newbie's like me, or veteran players to learn from. Many Thanks

[@Dontaexy]

"I get knocked down! But I get up again, cus you are never going to keep me down!" Classic

[@clincher3751]

I'd love to see a Man-At-Arms guide :) Thanks for releasing this content Shuffle!

[@eldritchemissary4718]

Punishment papa yay. Im Looking Forward to actually having him when crimson court goes on sale again

[@ragnar3434]

Whips at work, whips to relax. Dudes never worked a day in his life.

[@heathlouis4529]

1:03:21 I would honestly swap finale out for his dirk stab so that you can jump forward and set up a holy lance

[@ShuffleFM]

Not a bad idea. Probably higher and more consistent damage output

[@bdoggyfresh6062]

I’ve been waiting for my favorite self harming boi

[@Jonas_Fox]

I'd love to see some "build of the week" videos where you dedicate 10-20 minutes to showcasing a team like the martyr, breakdown down how it works, show where and when it works best, and lastly, how to built it (collect the necessary pieces and prerequisites.) Thanks for the great content!

[@ShuffleFM]

I like this idea! It may be hard to do weekly, but if I can do that I will.

[@DeadWhiteButterflies]

I like to think of the Flagellant as the personification of the Sickos meme. Just openly encouraging the enemy to hit him as he gets off on the pain in front of the whole party.

[@christiaanboshoff]

This dude carries my Holy Team hard. His only role is stress healing his allies (like 12 at a time) and taking it for himself (like 2 at a time); that's a pretty damn good conversion that my double Crusaders (not Knights) can remove easily. edit: I enter long dungeons at 0 stress and leave with 0 stress almost every time.

[@moraiel7925]

Just got this in the recent sale for £10, and if that wasn't enough of a bargain it brought me to your great channel, hundreds of hours of good backlog LPs to watch.

[@ShuffleFM]

Welcome in. How do you like it so far?

[@moraiel7925]

@@ShuffleFM Liking them alot, both the channel and game. The vids are good to watch, going through the old souls stuff atm. Unlike most YTers you rarely say good when you mean well, which is that small thing that disproportionately annoys me. So I don't find myself getting anoyed 3 or 4 times a video. ;)

[@ShuffleFM]

@@moraiel7925 Oops haha. I meant the game but I'll take the kind words too

[@PizzaRatJC]

>he like bdsm >he have big benis energy >he have face period That's my entire guide fkr the flag

[@iwanmanders34]

Love the thubthuming song reference at 4:00

[@falseking989]

It took me a while to realize that Flag is actually the best healer in the game, even better than vestal, and is extremely rewarding to play.

[@Horridian1200]

Great video, Shuffle. Flagellant has always been one of my favorites, and I'd love to see an Abom guide. Also minor note, imo, as far as worst CC trinket goes, I think there's still a few worse options than glass shard. Vestal's atonement beads, Graverobber's absinthe, Leper's last will, and both of Jester's trinkets are the main ones that come to mind, especially absinthe.

[@ShuffleFM]

You're right, those are definitely top contenders for bad CC trinkets

[@gewreid5946]

It's sad there are so many bad ones and it always feels horrible to get them instead of something else.

[@Horridian1200]

Gewreid the thing is, I think you can make the argument that they're meant to cater to different playstyles and give you more variety in how to use characters, but a lot of them end up being a little too niche or overall not that strong. The set bonuses are even worse in this regard because a lot of them contradict what one or both of the trinkets do. Abom has one that increases ranged damage and range skill crit, it's good if you do exclusively ranged abom, the other one buffs his dodge and something else I forget. The set bonus gives him +20% damage when in position 1 where he is unable to use either of his ranged skills.

[@ShuffleFM]

@@Horridian1200 The one that stands out to me is the vestal set. It is clearly made for rank 2 vestal, but profane scroll already exists so why do that again?

[@Horridian1200]

ShuffleFM You could probably get away with the set in the Ruins, but you gotta ask yourself if if's worth having two slots taken up to have +35% stun chance and having only an AoE heal unless you bring another offhealer, but Vestal's damage is rather pitiful, and I'm not sure +15% is gonna help her all that much on its own. Wait, what do you mean the occultist has a base 150% stun chance with a singular trinket that gives him more stun chance than the Vestal's set bonus and has access to his (usually) powerful single target heal among other handy utilities? That's preposterous. Could be worse though, there's always absinthe Graverobber.

[@dbfan199]

In case you haven’t found it yet steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=956735607&searchtext=Flagellant here is a mod that lets flagellants party together. (If you don’t trust links it’s called Shared Flagellant Suffering)

[@kamikadze1451]

I bought crimson court few days ago so this guide might help me a lot thanks :)

[@falseking989]

While Flagellant is the best healer it’s important that he either has another hero that can get someone off death’s door or can use guard for his reclaim to heal someone up.

[@gewreid5946]

Really cool party compositions, i'll make sure to try some of them out.

[@lambhands408]

My favorite hero for curb stomping the warrens.

[@moody6143]

NGL this is my favorite class in DD

[@LiverbestGibs]

At one point, I thought he was called "the flatulent" :)

[@Coffilkeychitea]

The auto-generated subtitles still think so. :D

[@kapitan19969838]

3:59 I understood that reference!

[@Tigerblade11238]

My first flagellant got afflicted on his first run. I camped and he refused the heal and stress relief skills. It was also my first run with a shieldbreaker....

[@alidenizbayram4403]

'I think Flashpowder is her worst move' - Shuffle, 2020. xD

[@ShuffleFM]

Shuff 2022 out here arguing it's one of her best now T_T

[@Ironsuaba]

I've recently discovered that support flag can slot in Redeem/Reclaim/Endure/Rain of Sorrows, it works really well as a primary healer, where you ditch Punish since frontline enemies are the last to be killed and least threatening anyway. But other party members have to have a lot of damàge

[@GeraltofRivia22]

Pairs well with Hellion/Leper.

[@oukt237]

Very nice overview! Thanks!

[@Striferose]

Dismases head + acid husk ichor allows him to hit for high high twenties, he's essentially completely reliant on being guarded though as hell go to death door from a single Seward slash or a crit. Pretty useless but satisfying seeing him one shot enemies

[@heartlessmushroom]

If you're doing a run with modded classes, he's really fun with The Excorcist. I ran them alongside The Vestal and Crusader on the last stretch of The Baron's Courtyard mission and they did fantastic.

[@christopherdelorme7040]

I was like " it's not a mace" then like 2 seconds later it was like "it's a flail"

[@e.x.watson9997]

Exsanguinate's killed a lot of Collectors for me. Love it.

[@JonavicH]

3:58 God damn it... Now I can't get that song out of my head...

[@pedroemo5477]

hes really broken, thats why you can only use one of them lol

[@flaviocbrangel]

I’ve actually had a rapturous flagellant hit himself at death’s door and die But despite that I still think he’s a beast of a character Vestal Jester Flagellant Hellion tears through the Courtyard, I’d say it almost trivializes it

[@NoName-md6fd]

Oh he's like leper's best friend. Leper has self marking abilities and poor bleed resists. Suffer solves everything.

[@germanyballwork5301]

Occ-Jester-Flag-Leper party seems a tad busted in theory no? Occ wyrds, pulls and removes prot, jester jesters, flag bleeds everything, side heals and steals lepers bleed, leper deletes rank 1-2. Only bad thing I'm seeing here is a severe lack of stuns

[@cntipede1000]

I missed the part about how to ensure your Flagellant doesnt fail his 87% death blow check can you timestamp it for me.

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

Controversial trinket choice: Baristans head. Don't ban me just yet, I have an argument; first off, it's prot, so stress casters won't kill him on DD. Additionally, they'll attempt to snowball him, which is his entire goal in the first place. The second trinket can be whatever, but I think I'd go with another prot item like A's Ring for accuracy and a lil extra prot. The reason being is max hp isn't as good as prot in many cases, especially on a guy who self heals half his HP on 1/3 of his moves. Prot allows him to stay in 40-1% range far more than lets say 35% more hp (Flesh Heart and Life Stone or whatever it is). It also means the healing he does receive sticks longer, and enables on of his least useful moves, Suffer. Taking marks means those moves do less damage due to prot, you negate the stress damage from the head, and your DB res increases for the inevitable. I like this theoretical combo with Antiquarian, as she can pump him even further beyond for basically no detriment. At that point, you can use any manner of stress heal to keep him down, or camp

[@genericalias6307]

I love the Flagellant. But for some reason my dumb ass keeps sending him on Ruins expeditions

[@callmeaboomer]

not too bad if you bring 2 pds :P

[@BuenasNaczos]

Great guide

[@Llando]

that flatulent character seems pretty good

[@lucasbortoluzzi9369]

I did some missions in ruins with him just forgot to avoid bleed. But this char is still good. You are both a tank and a heal, you Can take stress heal in case one of your party members struggles. Allowing you to have 3 dmg chars in the black including a Plague doctor who is very good in ruins

[@arthursimsa9005]

Regarding what you say at 1:13:30: healing trinkets aren't very useful on the occultist, because they won't save you from bad rolls.

[@ShuffleFM]

It would be nice if something like his butcher's circus trinket was in the vanilla game. Giving him + minimum healing would fix a lot.

[@od1401]

They way I play flag is forget about that razor's edge crap and play him for the bleed damage in the court and Warrens and maybe weald. I've got great use in all difficulties having never had a flag afflicted or on death's door. So that's the front row bleed, the back row bleed, the low health exsanguinate and the low health redeem. It's slow but it's safe. Jester or HM awesome partner for stress relief and backup bleed Reach anywhere, heal and never die, healing an ally also in dire situations or healing whilst hitting a hard-core bleed with exsanguinate depending on the situation. The stress move and the suffer move I have never used in my life and maybe that's my bad for not figuring out how how use it properly. I could probably switch it for the heal over time tbh and benefit greatly

[@ashtengreen2727]

All of my flags always die to their first deaths door which usually is from a dot that just got inflicted. Doesn't matter if I add any trinkets for it either. I stopped running em after 3 in a row (like all 3 I acquired in one run)

[@ShuffleFM]

Deathblow resist is a myth

[@chrisgardner5534]

When the closed captions keep showing "flatulence"

[@QuillanJacobson]

They should change that acidic husk charm to increase low health skills and buffs by 10/15/20% whichever seems most balanced. Do that, remove the heal, he gets his damage boost at 60% HP and you can be more tactical about when you choose to heal.

[@blitzboy2934]

I know this video is old, but would anyone mind explaining why reclaim is a good ability? It does regen for even more bleed damage. Unless you want to spam bandages, or have a way to cleanse it, wouldn't it just be worse to use than any of his other healing skills?

[@ShuffleFM]

You can resist the bleed. Regen makes it impossible to die to dot since it triggers first. Since it ticks 3 times it has 3 chances to crit and stress heal as well.

[@blitzboy2934]

@@ShuffleFM thanks man. I also misread the skill thinking flagellant got the regen and bleed. Thanks for replying to those of us asking for help :)

[@BaranZenon]

2:15 - "I can hear the mouse pointer" :)

[@GoodnightCoombsy]

Ive always put flag behind my leper/hellion Seems to work great for me

[@danteinpuro319]

Endure for me is now "Gimme your stress!"

[@quirkyturtl]

if they bleed he can kill it

[@quinnlee-miller9792]

If you want to be really funny, bring a Bounty Hunter with Caltrops for Exaunginate! 20% more damage means all DOTs do even more, and it can stack! It lowers speed too so youll be able to land them all before the boss even moves.

[@dudewhy6953]

I love my bleedy boy :)

[@MelancholyPanda13]

Emos seeing flagellant in dd "that's mah boy"

[@mysteriousdonkey4624]

Pretty sure +melee dmg/crit doesn't affect riposte I believe it's considered neither melee or ranged

[@ShuffleFM]

You might be right. The only thing I've found is that it's based on the weapons base stats. I'd assume flat + damage would boost it though since it's untyped. Interesting nuance to say the least.

[@budinhapalmieri]

I'd remove the last 2 flag abilities from the game if it meant I could take his 5 good ones at once

[@zorkwhouse8125]

If you're playing with mods, then coupling the flagellant and the revenant is pretty close to OP. You revenant has a skill that allows him to transfer all the bleeds on friends and enemies to a single enemy target. So b/c the flagellant can bleed two targets in a turn and so can the revenant, you can potentially transfer 3 additional bleeds to a single target. Combine that further with those big enemies with the whips that hit the entire team and you can end up loading 30+ points of bleed damage/turn onto a single target (like the jerk that just hit your whole team with his whip hehe). So, this is a pretty nuts team-up. But really the revenant can be teamed with any other character that causes bleeds (the jester is another good one b/c of his double bleeds also.) For the Occultist I usually give him the head that grants healing if/when I'm using him as a healer.(I think its 35% - in fact I tend to give it to all my healers if I can balance out the stress it causes). Incidentally, another awesome healer from the mods (and possibly OP again) is the Bogatyr (sp?) he only does party heals, but it gets so high with trinkets at his higher levels that he can party heal at the same level of the Vestal's single target heal. And for whatever reason he crits on his heals a bunch, but even without crits he can regularly heal 10pts in his party heal when he is boosted up all the way. Such, that you can use him as your single party healer - and in between heals (b/c he's limited to every other turn) I have him throw his shield, which can hit all but the front row and also crits a lot, for somewhere around 15-20 damage.

[@Xnoob666]

his weapon is a chain scourge, the right term is french and it's a goupillon (pronounce goo-pee-ion) and is a close relative to the discipline weapon

[@shavsk8769]

This will s the only class I can't bring myself to level

[@Maethendias]

f on that shambler shrine btw THAT LUCKY TORCH DROP THO

[@ShuffleFM]

That shambler killed 3 people haha. The bait was too strong

[@teemomain5913]

Hi, i've just started the game and im trying a mark/bleed comp with musketeer, jester, hound master, flagellant. Do you think that it will work consistantly?

[@finempra8730]

I think it would work well, just make sure to not sleep on musketeer heals and use battle ballad with jester

[@wideout7838]

How would PD HM flagellant Hellion work? Tons of billed PD to help w self bleeds and stun the back hellion to stun the front you have bleeds and blights to afflict different types of mobs and get around resists and lord of back line reach w hellion HM and bleeds/blights. Maybe missing some rank 1 damage but idk sounds good but I’m ass

[@ShuffleFM]

Sounds great!

[@wideout7838]

@@ShuffleFM thanks for the reply on such an old video man im impressed haha. ik you may not make a ton of DD1 content anymore but i just fixed my PC after having it broken for a while and it caught my eye when i opened it again. im in my 1st ever playthrough(technically did 9 weeks in another but stated over) and its going well so far ive only lost 1 hero that was lvl 0 and have quite a few lvl 5's now but i cant ever get enuf deeds to upgrade my blacksmith to get them to lvl 4 armor n stuff so im afraid to take them in a lvl 5 dungeon. any tips? also do you think the comp i mentioned in my previous comment is better or do you think a PD X Occ Flag is better? for the X im thinking HM or HWM but rn i have a jester in that spot as its all ive got for that level bracket (apprentice). thanks again and great to hear from u man appreicate it!

[@cool_chemist7644]

In the first team set up (bleed party), if I don't have the Crimson Court activated, what are some good alternative trinkets you would recommend for the Houndmaster?

[@ShuffleFM]

An accuracy trinket like steady bracer, reckless charm, ancestor pistol, signet ring, focus ring, or sun/moon ring for the first one and bleed amulet for the second one (bleed chance and resist up, blight resist down). Spiked collar is also good for a second choice if you have one.

[@cool_chemist7644]

@@ShuffleFM Awesome! Thank you for such a quick reply!

[@ShuffleFM]

@@cool_chemist7644 NP, I happened to be checking comments on the channel at the time :)

[@mateuszkwapisz]

I thouroughly enjoy your content, the deep dives into more obscure mechanics are very interesting, and some of the team comps would never cross my mind. One suggestion though, the music is often too loud and it makes focusing on what you have to say hard in places (especially the battle music). Maybe turn it down a bit, you have a good voice so shifting the music towards the background would be for the better.

[@ShuffleFM]

Was it bad for this one in particular? I had someone say something similar before so I made sure to turn the music down a bit further for this one, but if it wasn't enough I'll lower it more next time.

[@KingMaraxus]

4:16 Wait, is there a reason to let antiquarian do the looting? I though just having her in the party was enough.

[@ShuffleFM]

Antiquarian finds antiques that sell for gold if she is the one to open curio. It has to be her first it to work

[@KingMaraxus]

@@ShuffleFM Well damn I thought all you needed was for her to be in the party. No wonder my luck hasnt been so great lol.

[@improversionhooman3812]

thanks

[@Emanuelmartins69]

How good is hippocratic on Flagellant? And why?

[@ShuffleFM]

It's okay on him. His heals are already massive and hippo doesn't affect reclaim which is what wants it most.

[@Emanuelmartins69]

@@ShuffleFM so I guess it’s to buff exsanguinate and redeem, I usually run exsanguinate and reclaim…

[@arthursimsa9005]

Full Marking team with rank 1 Occultist is amazing. Tons of stuns and marks. I really don't think replacing him with a flagellant is best. I love your Martyr team, though, I'll sure check it out! But if the Antiquarian uses "Protect me" on the Flagellant, does that mean that the Houndmaster only gets to guard the Ocultist (along, I guess, the Flagellant when he's on Death's Door)?

[@ShuffleFM]

Yeah, HM guards occultist in that team exclusively. The guard is more of an insurance. In my experiences I don't find myself needing to guard with HM that often.

[@AnishChari]

Google auto caption keeps calling him "The Flatulence".

[@arthursimsa9005]

Yo Shuffle, it's your greatest fan again:P I've commented at length on your martyr party, which I love, in a previous comment, and wanted to add a few things on the Flagellant and Bleed Parties. I don't really get why most of the comps you present here feature both a flag and and vestal, which is completely redundant in my eyes and understimates the healing power of the Flag. Let's recap: his healing is less universally reliable than the Vestal in general because of the delay between the casting of Reclaim and its effect, and the HP requirement of Redeem. But I have found that unlike the Occultist who can just NEVER be your only source of healing (lost many Hellions because of him ^^), the Flag's healing weaknesses can very much be compensated if you party is well thought: stealth, self-healing, enough stunning power, possibly a guard... The obvious mistake would be to have him as the only healer along three squishy damage dealers with no defensive capabilities. Really one of the biggest strengths of the Flag is that he can be your only healer (=your only source of healing) while sitting on the frontline - something that neither the Occultist nor the Vestal can achieve. That opens amazing possibilities in terms of party comp, notably Grave Robber/Plague Doctor/Abo/Flag - but more on this in another comment on your Grave Robber guide! So yeah, I don’t think that your “standard bleed team” here is really optimised. I think that a DOT-focused party absolutely needs way more stunning than that, as we cannot allow ourselves to stand there at the mercy of the enemy while we slowly bleed them out. Hence the stunning. Ergo: Plague Doctor/Highwayman/Flag/Maa PD : Noxious Blast, Blinding Gas, Battlefield Medicine, Disorienting Blast; 1) Blasphemous Vial, 2) Witch’s Vial or Prophet’s Eye or Aria Box, or even Hag’s Laddle or Ashen Distillation HWM : Opein Vein, Duelist’s Advance, Pistol Shot, whatever (Tracking Shot preferably); 1) Sharpening Sheath 2) Shameful Locket Flag: Punish, Rain of Sorrows, Reclaim, Redeem; 1) Flesh’s Heart, 2) Bleed Amulet Maa : Crush, Rampart, Defender, Bellow ; 1) Rampart Shield, 2) Focus Ring The main engine of the comp is the synergy between Blinding Gas, Rain of Sorrows and Rampart, but everything else synergises beautifully. Rampart and Disorienting Blast give us lots of shuffle control and allow to push or pull in the reach of other skills. We don’t use Incision but Noxious Blast, as even with just the Blasphemous Vial the blight has strong chances to land. Just as significantly, it’s additional accuracy debuff is effectively a way for the PD to neutralise rank 1 even though she can’t stun it, or to neutralise a rank 2 who can no longer reasonnably be expected to be stunned. The PD and the Maa have 175 and 170 % chance to stun, which makes stunlocking stun-weak enemies quite frequent. The HWM actually starts on rank 4 so that he can Duelist’s Advance on turn 1, as the Riposte mechanic lends itself very well to our strategy of sitting and waiting for the enemy to die. Pistol Shot helps cleaning up the backline/bringing them low enough so that they die on the next Bleed tick. So does Crush for the Maa, for the first three ranks. Defender provides even more defense (duh). Both Open Vein and Bellow debuff Speed - very helpful against a Ghoul, or just to extend the recovery part of the fight as long as possible. And the camping. Man, the camping. A Hwm with Tactics and Weapon’s practice has 43% to crit with Open Vein and Pistol Shot. The crits are so strong for everyone that no other form of stress is needed. Paired with all the stunning and disrupting power, It is not uncommon to leave a long dungeon with absolutely 0 stress.

[@ShuffleFM]

"So yeah, I don’t think that your “standard bleed team” here is really optimised. I think that a DOT-focused party absolutely needs way more stunning than that, as we cannot allow ourselves to stand there at the mercy of the enemy while we slowly bleed them out. Hence the stunning." I do like the idea of including more stuns. I geared the team more towards raw damage and recovery than control. You're right that you don't want to let enemies have free reign over you, but I think the recovery can be overwhelming for the shell I listed because you have so much raw healing output and a stress healer. Turns the Flagellant spends healing are turns he spends not doing the best bleed damage in the game. With that said, I do think there is a lot of synergy with stuns and dot. Heavy control teams are awesome so I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for checking back in with some new stuff, I really enjoyed it :)

[@arthursimsa9005]

​@@ShuffleFM Oh yeah, I was not saying that HM/Ves/Hwm/Flag is not functional; I'm sure it works. You certainly do have plenty of healing. But having just one stunner in a DOT team, and one not particularly efficient at that, makes that party react to attacks instead of preventing them, and I'm sure I've heard yourself, among many others, defend the idea that damage prevention was generally best. In addition, I don't think the team is particularly raw damage heavy. Hound's Rush is quite unimpressive outside of marking synergies. Judgement is often surprisingly effective but requires a +acc trinket (which is what I actually do with all my Vestals, but I have never seen you do it), and while is certainly capable of securing a kill, it will also by definition prevent you from stunning anyone on this turn. And the thing is that with so much stunning, shuffling, accuracy and speed debuffing (Noxious Blast, Open Vein, Bellow) and Dodge buffing (Tactics, Bolster if you don't equip Bellow), you will very fairly hit the Reclaim button, so you should not be worried about the Flagellant not spending his turns attacking, he very much will. Let's not forget that the Flag likes to be hurt (so that he can use Redeem), that the Hwm is far from squishy and that the Maa is literally the only tank in the game, capable of guarding the PD (for instance) if need be. Also, the Weald frontline really likes to target our own frontline, and our frontline just doesn't care. The Weald frontline is also more easily disrupted by pushing/shuffling (it's litterally called "Harmless Swipe"). Honestly at the start I would never have thought that an optimal Bleed team would feature only two bleeders, or a Plague Doctor without Incision - that's just counterintuitive. And for the longest of time, the Maa was the character I could not make sens of. But all "the control" (as you say - that's a nice concept btw) and synergies are super effective, and it encourages clever, deliberate playing. And as a bonus, the camping is stellar and the party is quite shuffle-resistant.

[@kiltronfi6805]

I'm planning to buy the crimson dlc but I'm not confident enough on fighting with the crimson curse.Can I still get the character without starting the crimson dungeon itself?

[@ShuffleFM]

Yes. Opening the courtyard is a town event with an apprentice quest, so it's optional. You get a free Flagellant a few weeks into a new file.

[@kiltronfi6805]

@@ShuffleFM Thank you,I finally got my hands on the DLC.welp time to bleed the skeles

[@evanblack20]

My occultist hit 26 crit heal twice in one dungeon. He gets vestals spot until he 0 bleeds someone on deaths door.

[@BlackAxon]

I don't know if you were being serious but I'm pretty sure Exsanguinate is Flag like clenching his fist and sucking the blood out of someone.

[@arthursimsa9005]

I've tried your Martyr team in a long mission in the Warrens:) Wall of text incoming, but since your own videos are soooo long, I hope you won't mind!:D 1) My biggest gripe is probably stress. The Flagellant is the only one to get tons of stress since he guards the Antiquarian and the Houndmaster "dodge guards" the Occultist, so Cry Havoc felt useless. Besides, given the nature of the team (not much stunning or quick killing, see point 3), there was no real recovery phase to speak of in which to spam Cry Havoc. Camping was enough to get rid of the Flagellant's stress, but on another hand, the Warrens are probably the least stress-heay area, so I'm kinda worried that other regions will be even worse int his regard. And we don't want our flagellant afflicted, right? That's what you said in the intro of the video. Any idea to work around that weakness other than camping? 2) Main question: you named this comp "Martyr", but what does that really entail? Do you actively try to play most of the time with your Flagellant on Death's Door? Or is it a bad scenario that you try to get yourself out of as quickly as possible (and you certainly can, with Exsanguinate)? Because I played safe and just used Wyrd Reconstruction when the Flag was down 50% of his health. Which was not really often, with all the prot and dodge. And playing that way, Exsanguinate and Redeem were very rarely used (twice and once, respectively). And maybe they should, maybe they're intended as panic buttons, but then again if I had Reclaim slotted, maybe I wouldn't have had to Redeem once. Now which of these two is the most efficient in the long run, I have no idea. 3) General considerations on the team: this team was fun to play, but also very awkward. It departs so much from the usual stunning and quick killing meta. You don't really get a recovery phase either. Funnily enough, you don't really need it. In a sense, I think we could define this team as a "Bleed/dodge team", the meta being "Raw Damage/Stun", so that makes it quite unique to play. Specifically, the fights are extremely long - I encountered perhaps six or seven Swinetaurs, and these fights lasted for the same number of turns! 4), Gosh, my Occultist had so much things to do! Going for stuns on every other turn, and then, do I mark the Swinetaur or do I debuff him?:D Whenever having to choose between Vulnerable Hex and Weakening Curse, I was always saying to myself "Well, I'd rather use Target Whisle actually!" And now that I'm thinking of it... you could run double HM actually:D You'd have to make the rank 2 HM quicker than the backline HM though, which is still annoying because Cudget Weights gives -1 SPD and my favourite trinkets for backline HM are actually Ancestor's Pistol/Prophet's Eye and Fuseman's Matchstick, but you really don't want SPD on this HM in this team. And getting back to the "Vulnerable Hex/Weakening Curse" dilemna, I think that marking is actually best since the HM is the main (if not only) raw damage dealer and debuffing prot is not much use to the Flag. Knowing this, I'd ditch Weakening Curse in favour of Sacrificial Stab, which might come in handy once in a blue moon to finish off a target.

[@ShuffleFM]

1) You don't have to keep guard at 100% up time. If stress is an issue, then focus on doing damage to the backline with HM at the start and using cry havoc as the fight ends. OCC and HM are also the most replaceable since the focus of the team is to have antiquarian funnel damage into the flagellant. You could use a crusader in front and still get stuns plus stress heals. 2) Martyr entails getting the flagellant as torn up as possible for the longest amount of time. You ride at death's door for as long as safely possible and try to keep flagellant under 40%. You should be letting flagellant drop low enough to use his low hp skills and only fire them off to get kills or save people, otherwise spam punish to make use of his low hp damage boost. You can certainly use reclaim. It's a great skill and helps him get under 40% easily. 3) I agree it is very awkward to use. Out of the teams I listed it is certainly the least effective. It was born from someone suggesting AQ/FL being paired and this is what I ended up with after some testing. The team can pick up some damage if you get a chance to mark, but otherwise it's pretty much how you described it: a bleed/dodge team. The more I think about it, swapping OCC for crusader should help it feel more consistent, but then it will start looking like the other teams I suggested. 4) Occultist is the hardest to use in this team by far. He has to choose his turns carefully. I can't remember if I mentioned it in the video, but in my notes for the guide I wrote that Target Whistle is great for this team. When Flagellant starts hitting punish, being able to remove prot from enemies is very helpful. A second HM should do just fine, so let me know how it goes if you use one :) Thanks for watching and thanks for the thorough comment.

[@arthursimsa9005]

​@@ShuffleFM Hey Shuffle:) I've tried Martyr with double HM, it turned out well. The fights were much shorter, but also more dangerous - which should not be surprising! There was a certain Pig Spear that hit hard everybody and the lack of Wyrd Reconstruction was certainly palpable... I actually went full offense mode this time with no dodge trinkets and no self-heal on the HMs (I mean, I want Target whisle and Hound's rush on both, Cry havoc and Guard on the backliner and the stun on the frontliner, and I do want one to have Hound's Harry, so there's no room for self-healing:P) All in all it's hard to say which is better after just two runs, but it is obvious that what you gain in offense you lose in defense. For the Martyr Flagellant, you're talking about "riding at death's door for as long as safely possible", but, well... it's never safe, is it?:P We've established the resistance is capped at 87%. This time I was on Death's Door twice - once blighted - and on this occasion I quickly used the HM's dodge guard and next turn was Reedeem/Exsanguinate.

[@arthursimsa9005]

@@ShuffleFM Oh, I almost forgot: I actually hit Death's Door against a Swine Heaver and had -100% Healing skills LOL. I kept exsanguinating for 2 HP before I figured it out xD It was hectic

[@ShuffleFM]

@@arthursimsa9005 It's great that you are putting in the testing. Each have their benefits. You're right that deaths door is never safe lol. 13% chance of dying is still very threatening. Honestly if there was a way to ditch antiquarian from it the team would be a lot better, but there's no easy way to funnel damage into flagellant besides using mark. Maybe suffer is the answer then? Hmm

[@mathijss.8347]

Try flag+houndmaster+jester+ves Triple bleed Triple heal And triple stress heal

[@TheSpiritedFendron]

so... steady isn't good on him?

[@strongsmith1897]

I can't not hear you say flatulent not flagulent. I'm just picturing him farting profusely in the dungeon.

[@melancholyman369]

I wish Flage's damage base was 15% higher, make "rain of sorrows" usable from rank 3 and make "punish" hit rank 3. That would make him perfect👌......thank god for mods🙃

[@dbfan199]

So... make rain of sorrows worthless? Like if punish can hit rank 3 what reason is there to ever use rain of sorrows?

[@melancholyman369]

@@dbfan199 makes the support Flage or "backline Flage" viable, "punish" can hit rank 3 but is performed from it's base positions 1&2 while "rain of sorrows" can be performed from position 1,2,3 and hit rank 3&4. Makes sense right

[@dbfan199]

No... because it still makes no sense to ever use flag in position 3 if you wanna deal damage. If you want backline dots a Pd fills that roll. Or even a hound master. Especially since RoS has really bad damage in general.

[@dbfan199]

Also to add to my previous comment. Just because something Is “viable.” Doesn’t mean it will ever see use. Rank 2 Vestal is Viable. But you never see anyone use rank 2 vestal.

[@melancholyman369]

@@dbfan199 Flage has gud support abilities those changes would make him work has a support role and give him more opportunities to deal damage. Battle vestal isn't really viable cause her healing input sucks with only "divine grace" and her damage is shit, it'll only work if you build around her, unlike what am proposing.

[@DrownedLamp]

Is it just enemies with mark attacks (bleed occultist with rend for the gods) that focus on marked heroes or is it supposed to be everyone?

[@ShuffleFM]

I haven't been able to confirm the second part, but I'm 99% sure enemies with mark damage bonus attacks are more likely to exercise it

[@ArtyomFinch]

Don't know if it's just me but these guides feel like they talk about other people for wayy too long. I know people need team suggestions but damn it's like half the video right there

[@ShuffleFM]

It does add a lot of time, I agree. I'll try and shorten it in the future.

[@ArtyomFinch]

It could easily be the fact that I just prefer coming up with my own team comps, so it feels kinda like I'm skimming through it. They have all been terrific videos and extremely helpful

[@arthursimsa9005]

I disagree. Characters don't exist in a vaccuum, examining in length their interactions makes perfect sense!

[@plebploob361]

I loved on the countess fight but, everywhere else he was meh

[@Janynstar]

Shouldn't Heartburst Hood be bad? You want to be slower than your healer if you're on death's door with a dot.

[@ShuffleFM]

Between the higher base death blow resist and his access to self healing, it's worth using. The only dot that should be sticking to him is blight which isn't as common as bleed. More speed is never bad or wasted imo. If he was slower, the enemy would get more chances to finish him off.

[@jimboindamix6232]

Honestly, the only time he's been useful to me is when he dies and heals my allies. I like him but have the worst luck with him

[@ShuffleFM]

My sympathies friend

[@purple_1884]

I've stopped using Flags after both of mine fucking killed themselves while afflicted. After a nerf their actual use is very limited.

[@ShuffleFM]

Agreed. I found myself using him less and less after the nerfs

[@Dadbod007]

My flag always die

[@Shadow_-sx2nt]

The KZbin voice!

[@zombieboss5178]

I never knew you could only take one, I just never tried to take 2 before because I thought it would be stupid lol.