Vestal and You | Darkest Dungeon 2 Guide

[@awesomepork101]

Use her consecrations, then after use more consecrations, and if it’s available, use her consecrations

[@fromthewreckage]

Don't forget you really gotta use her consecrations. Saw you left that bit out 😊

[@erykczajkowski8226]

That's so BORING though...

[@WhackedMaki2]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Jester under combos. His ability to let her get both Consecrations down on round 1 can be super strong in my experience

[@NotBamOrBing]

Not to mention consecrations last five ROUNDS, whereas (on Seraph) the cooldown on them lasts five TURNS, so encore gets them back faster. IMO "reducing the cooldown of two LONG cooldown skills with every encore" makes her, at the absolute worst, the second best encore target (only possible contender for best being BH)

[@NotBamOrBing]

O shit i forgot Comfort also has a big CD

[@0rcd0c]

@@NotBamOrBing The absolute best Encore targets are Alchemist/Arsonist => Sharpshot => Ravager/Vanguard/Flag in that order The Consecrations are relatively weak compared to other classes skills. It's only 4-6 dmg per token with low tempo

[@NotBamOrBing]

@@0rcd0c getting consecrations up faster gets her class tokens on her faster, and extra turns reduce her cooldowns (and she has a lot of cooldowns) Also, Light+'s chance for crit is super good on classes with large damage ranges like Leper and GR (particularly Leper though with his low base crit chance), turning a 6-16 into a guaranteed 24 is *chef's kiss*

[@0rcd0c]

@@NotBamOrBing Yes, but long cooldowns don't really matter in most fights because they are over before you can even cast CoL/CoF a 2nd time. I'm aware what the skills offer but numerically it's not enough. A CoL on a Chop is on average 6 dmg and it doesn't scale with anything because it's calculated off the base dmg. Now keep in mind that's THE BEST target to buff, all other classes skills get an average of 4-5 dmg. Can an Alchemist do a 6dmg dot? Yeah, with memory a trinkets she will dish out a 7-10 dot Noxious Blast or a 10-16 dot Plague Grenade. A Vanguard pushing Retribution is worth 12.6 dmg or an equivalent of 2 turns of CoL on a Leper or ~3 turns on another class. You are getting much more tempo and value encoring your other guys than Vestal.

[@asummsumm]

It always struck me as weird that the Vestal does not interact with the Combo System at all, considering that in most fantasy media clerics have some sort of guiding light ability or similar, i.e. guiding bolt in DnD 5e. Also I wish, choosing the Chaplain path would change Mace Bash aswell or just in general would change her play pattern more. Regardless, great video!

[@SierraOxygen]

I’m baffled that Hand of Light doesn’t apply a combo token in any of her paths.

[@TheGunslinger44]

I don't see any reason why Illumination and/or Hand of Light can't set up Combo

[@Kotoy1]

round 1: consecration of light round 2: consecration of fortitude round 3: judgement round 4: mantra, heal the 2 targets up to full hp and close up the fight rinse and repeat, destroy every single non boss fight with 0 issue.

[@0rcd0c]

2:16 is wrong. After extensively testing it prior and after the release of the game I can confirm that HoTs do scale with "Healing Given". However, "Healing Received" does NOT affect healing over time

[@frederickleake9122]

I think you undervalued mace bash and hand of light, you're way better at the game, but in my experience HoL is a good way to ping tokens and buff yourself while waiting for your consecration to build up, and then you can hit with a meaty (10-15ish dmg) block AND dodge piercing bonk, which is really good for enemies like spiders and dogs or a frontline cultist

[@TheGunslinger44]

I said much of the same thing.

[@Darkendragon]

I feel like it should be mentioned how chaplin specifically pairs well with man at arms, since this version of mantra will heal anyone that has guard instead. and currently man at arms (and bounty hunter, but hes not a consistent pick) are the only people that can cast guard. I really hope they bring a new hero that can do the antiquarian's "protect me" ability. as another source of guard.

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

The Houndmaster comes to mind. He had also a guard ability in DD1.

[@0rcd0c]

It's a synergy in theory but in reality it's too low tempo. Considering you need 1) Conviction stacks 2) 1-2 Guards up 3) finally press Mantra is too steep of a price for the mediocre effects. In most cases you are better off not using it at all

[@Darkendragon]

@@0rcd0c you need to read the ability again, if you're chaplin you dont need conviction to use mantra

[@0rcd0c]

@@Darkendragon I think you are mixing up Conviction Stacks with Consecrations. As a Chaplain you don't need Consecrations (the buffs) for the Mantra to work but you do need Conviction stacks as otherwise the ability basically does nothing.

[@fishyfish1917]

It is mentioned at 15:51

[@DivididedbyInfinite]

jester and seraph vestal go well together. jester can encore the vestal, so she can get both concercrations off in 1 round.

[@d-risky4994]

My first real try with vestal was on the 3rd tier run and I made it to the final rampart before the inn with her as the only survivor left AND SHE WON. I didn’t know what was happening at the time but I got the chirgeoens hat that inflicts bleed on my attacker… so while I was irritated at how long it was taking for me to lose the battle, then they started dropping dead on their own lol Now she is paired up with a crusader, helion, and jester as the replacement team 👍👍

[@Hedge_Knight_Gaming]

Another upside to Highwayman with Vestal is that Take Aim can slightly reduce her Mastery hunger. Upgraded Consecration of Light is much less of a power boost when you're feeding it to the guy who's constantly generating crit tokens as is.

[@oniuserjh]

sounds like highwayman just being better than most direct damage dealers to me, plz no take aim nerfs, just buff the others

[@fjkladsj3424]

Huh? I would say the guy having crit also having strength is perfect. Crit and strength stack AFAIK. Amounts to huge damage.

[@Hedge_Knight_Gaming]

@Mat 248 It does stack and result in big damage. I'm just saying that the priority of upgrading Consecration drops if it's being used on Highwayman, because he benefits less from the 25% chance to give a crit token than most damage dealers due to Take Aim giving him 2 already.

[@hanzolos1852]

Yeah her unupgraded concecration of light works perfect with highwayman because strength is the one token take aim doesnt make so he can skip having to use grape shot on the next round and start nuking enemies.

[@ohwn5154]

Should consider dance team with her, especially jester. You can proc consecrate on multiple characters a round by dancing correctly. It's fun but can also be funky to do efficiently.

[@ShuffleFM]

Been getting a few comments on dancing consecrations so I definitely missed on that one

[@craniifer]

I beat Act 5 with that sort of build. A longer fight really makes that tempo shine.

[@joesamsally]

I am surprised you didn't mention the consecrations importance for dance teams. Double dipping the start of turn proc with movement can make that skill go real hard not to mention if your vestal + getting full racks of tokens every turn.

[@hanzolos1852]

Divine comfort is also affected by healing given buffs so it usually gives 1 extra regen. I've gotten a beefy 6 regen on a non upgraded divine comfort. Completely nullifies dot.

[@bobthebox2993]

A team I'd suggest for Vestal is a dance team, with 2 characters switching positions on their turns. Like Highwayman with point blank shot, and Jester with fade to back. Why? Instead of triggering the consecration of light 3 times, this allows it to be triggered 6 times. Basically, it allows 2 characters to benefit from 1 consecration.

[@j.d.6915]

So Vestal pretty much changed from a main healer to a buff bot. I'm really surprised that they gave PD such a good heal.

[@dmitry2984]

I use hand of light as a finishing move, when I want to trigger death door check. The damage is meaningless then, and the buffs are great

[@xcenic]

The problem with this trash healing is like 25% healing on backline with 26 HP is healing 2 hp and thats is just garbage.

[@frederickleake9122]

Does anyone know if a guarded hwm will still riposte if targeted? If so that would make bonk vestal and rogue hwm a really good combo (guard riposte, lot's of movement for lot's consecration tokens means you quickly make your mace bash very strong, hand of light buffs the hwm dmg, etc.)

[@marooniballooni03759]

I've seen a character with a riposte who was gaurded. They don't use the riposte when they are hit while gaurded.

[@frederickleake9122]

@@marooniballooni03759 :'(

[@GroBoiD7777]

5 skills is not enough for me, i need more slots!)) Playing right now her and flagellant, almost dropping dmg abilitys becose their support so good.

[@thorinhannahs4614]

My favorite path for her is Chaplain as well. It has very 40k sisters of battle vibes to it. Unfortunately her token mechanic is a lot of work similar to Occ. The best characters do the most and the best with the least amount of work. Hopefully she gets a few tweaks as she is up there with my favorites.

[@catalax]

Everytime i use her i get wiped so i needed this 😭

[@dudlEEk]

honestly, probably my favourite character. so versatile, so useful for any composition, can play the part of a legit dmg dealer unlike the first game, and as a healer? mantra is great and her HoT, when u manage to find her class trinket, is absolutely insane. can carry you through most of the long fights with this skill alone. steam forum is full of threads about how weak she is and i cant wrap my head around it, lol.

[@Nightmare-bn4sr]

My most favorite comp with Vestal is having a Finale Jester. As someone who moves a lot, a lot of times you can get two consecration tokens per turn and buffing finale with strength or crit is just pure delight.

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

So i f i get it correctly, you put Light on rank 1 and fortitude on rank 4? Nice idea, have to try it out next time.^^

[@fortheloveofking]

I made this point too, but it should be noted that if you fuck it up, you can miss out on ALL consecrations for a round (however, it will still be there for Mantra, and you can always move someone who needs to be healed into the consecration just for the heal).

[@vinnie6591]

really like how her paths change her playstyle, it's much better than the usual "+damage -health" kind of deal. She's had a great glow up too :)

[@-_-5470]

Vestal UwU

[@azulamagnificent7601]

What to do when the game just hates you? Like resists happen when enemies have like 10 or 20 (about 4 times in a row), never crit, always miss, and enemies get through dodge and resisits

[@NathanielSotero777]

U might need to get a team that clear enemy positive token like highway or steal them with the upgraded version. Vestal illumination. I personally ran a man at arms highway plague and jester and did very well. But you need to get the skills of the characters using the shrines that might be locked... once u get more it opens more combos and understanding of the game

[@ShuffleFM]

Gotta use those tokens more like Nathaniel said. Need paths or trinkets that help with piercing resistance too. Defense is better if it has layers, like a taunt or guard coupled with dodge and block etc. You can't get rid of all the bad stuff, but the game kinda expects you to mitigate a lot of the bs

[@robbierotten3123]

I know your making region guides that have boss info in them, but I would love if you made video's for each of the bosses including the non region ones. I keep loosing runs to basically every boss. Some tips like when I should fight the boss (early or later into a run), general strategy for each boss, etc.

[@alephnole7009]

Been using Vestal as main tank along side Highwayman to push and pull her back to use the team heal when needed. Just unlocked the actual tank subclass so exited to see how that compares to the default.

[@LamePants]

Interesting that you recommend the first mastery point on consecration of light. When I saw the upgrade I thought: 75% chance to waste your mastery point

[@Nightmare-bn4sr]

And 25% chance to have a borderline broken skill. It’s worth it but I wouldn’t say mandatory. I usually upgrade it around the middle of the run.

[@ShuffleFM]

To each their own :) I don't mind my direct damage dealers getting strength if it's not crit since any bonus damage is appreciated.

[@stanley3384]

Highly recommend Shuffle, he's the berst DD2 educational content creator right now

[@plutoburn]

lol, I literally just searched this on youtube. What luck!

[@Kaspar_Ementaller]

After 200h i beat the game. Now i am doing achivments.

[@kelvinvito105]

A very neat and easy to understand guide, love your vids man ❤️

[@neilm8279]

This character is a good example for my question for you.....should you ALWAYS have 1 front line ranks 1 and 2 attack just in case you are the last character to survive out of the party to battle it out....I ask this because there's been a couple times where I've been stuck alone with no attack to give with certain builds

[@ShuffleFM]

Not always. Some people say never, but I've heard too many stories of backline heroes unable to finish a fight when it goes south. I wouldn't do it for vestal since she's so dependent on cooldowns so she needs things she can always do in her spot.

[@reidsjaaheim8237]

I'm having the most fun and best success with no consecrations! ---------- Path: Wanderer (explained below) Rank: 2 Skills: Hand of Light, Divine Comfort, Sanctuary, Mace Bash, Open Mastery Priority: Hand of Light, Divine Comfort, Sanctuary ---------- 1) Hand of Light is my bread and butter. It is far better than Shuffle gives credit to. Upgraded, it does 5-6 damage with good reach (rolling strength tokens). With a timely mace bash, this is the highest, most consistent damage I'm able to get out of her. The extra strength token to the party puts it in line with the utility of consecration of light. And it does so by being consistently offensive. Always poking enemies with this. Don't forget about the block to herself. 1st mastery point. 2) Divine Comfort - With a mastery point and +20% healing from some source, it will tick for 4 healing per turn for the whole team. Dropping this turn 1 or 2, the sustain this opens up is far greater than consecration of fortitude. 2nd mastery point. 3) Sanctuary - Another source of a timely stress heal is incredible. Also far superior option to consecration of fortitude. 3rd mastery point. 4) Mace Bash - with all the hands of light being dropped, when the time does come up for mace bash, it's guaranteed to be fully powered with a strength token ready. Dropping the right damage at the right time is very valuable. No mastery point. 5) Open. I tend to go with Judgement in case of a bad shuffle. I don't like illumination because most of the time, I'd rather get rid of the dodge token by just attacking with hand of light. ---------- Why Wanderer? Well, I'd certainly go with Chaplain if Hand of Light wasn't bugged in this path. 1-2 damage (even upgraded) is obviously not correct for a near identical ability to Wanderer. Why no consecrations? Well, Divine Comfort is my setup ability. That's turn 1. Sanctuary takes priority if there's a good reason to use it (stress or weak). That's a possible turn 2. Dropping a consecration between turn 2 and 3 just feels bad. Real bad. All in all, consecrations are just too slow for me, and between hand of light and sanctuary, they're a lot faster solutions to the problems that come up.

[@KeijoAmbersson]

It's difficult to pull of consistently, but her consecrations can be made to pop off twice or even thrice per round on a dance team. 1) GR-VES-JES-MAA Lunge - Razor's wit - Consecration on rank 3 - MaA can do whatever. 2) VES-GR-JES-MAA Cons ticks on GR. Lunge. Jester is now rank 3. Cons ticks on jester. Razor's wit. MaA is now rank 3, Rampart (also stuns on Jesters comb token). Next round Jester will get the tick. Vestal can put the other consecration on rank one since GR is now there Sub-optimal and too complicated and easily screwed by turn order, but it's the fun that counts 🙂 Highwayman could replace jester here. Yellowhand or Wanderer since we want rank flexibility and Duelist's Advance. I like MaA to be the third since he's consistently slower, and unlike most frontliners can make use of offensive tokens in rank 3.

[@fortheloveofking]

You could run VES-JES-HM-MAA for 3 procs a round and a buffed Finale. Cast Light on Jester in Rank 3 at end of round. Jester goes first, procs, Solo up front. HM goes next, procs, Duelist up 1. MAA will proc, and can do what he wants. Probably attack with his shield.

[@KeijoAmbersson]

@@fortheloveofking Yeah I did try Finale Jester on my example comp too. I just found combo more fun for Shield stuns, and second round is so high tempo you don't really need it on road encounters.

[@fortheloveofking]

@@KeijoAmbersson Yeah, that's the caveat to it. You could always do a shield stun after Finale combos them, but at that point, we're talking about a boss character. Couldn't even really do it on the General because Vestal would have to be dealing with the Taproot the whole time, in that particular party. It's all theoretical. Edit: MAA could use Bellow from rank 3 when he's pushed back there and procs, which hits the Taproot. hmmmmmm ***that's why you should always remember that skill swapping is a thing!

[@platonic4ssploughing]

sanctuary/chaplain is honestly my guilty pleasure. you can guard from any rank, gain relationship pips, and cover+enable squishy high output heroes like low health flag / occ / pd / orphan / etc... she just has such a beefy health pool and chaplain conviction gains allows you to make up for the lost tempo of guarding which someone like MAA's guard doesn't really do. being able to work in most ranks means she can guard people in positions that usually avoid cleaves (e.g. back rank vestal guarding the front to save them from a r1+r2 cleave, front vestal guarding someone in the back from shell shock / sapid drippings). i almost never run juniyasss without the guard regardless of paths

[@iMost067]

im pretty sure healing given affects regeneration. I would add PD into the mix with her, because consecration + hand of light + protect, all of them generate way too much positive tokens so PD can pretty much fully heal anyone at any turn. Also with PD you can drop all heals from Vestal

[@Justkidding277]

I'd love to see you play a Rank 4 Chaplain build. I played Rue Morgue (Vestal, PD, Flag, Leper) and it felt really strong, since the entire team is very tanky, minus PD, but the entire team can heal, too, and their damage is high with dots and Tempest bonk. I ended up not running any damage at all on her for the majority of the run, and instead focused on Consecrations, Sanctuary and healing. Mantra self heal is really underrated, and between Mantra, Sanctuary, Flag, and Leper, stress is a very low threat.

[@flaviodelhusza8320]

You didnt even mention double dipping from consecrations via dancing teamcomps. You can even potentially get 4 tokens in 1 round from a consecration, albeit very unlikely, but its pretty easy to get 2 tokens per round from a single consecration with like a hwm and leper frontline.

[@kamilbuszta6596]

Wanderers illumination - yea whatever, Confessors illumination -oh boi second highway robbery

[@wielkiedrzewo]

was there a patch or is it from "beta-patch"? i dont remember her having skills with those effects.

[@garetjaxusmc]

Anyone else randomize the names?

[@manicdogma2240]

When using Consecration of Light mostly with Highwayman, I honestly usually prefer not to upgrade it, since he'll be generating crit on his own but has no internal access to Strength.

[@F4M3Resistance]

That's a good idea! Though he gets strength tokens after buckshot if he's sharpshot :) but for everything else that's smart

[@danny_decheeto8300]

Wait so vestals paths have no debuffs like the other hero’s paths?

[@Upsetkiller456]

If she had an ability to give enemies combo tokens I think she would be a lot better. As it stands, she just kinda sucks.

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

My favorite team for Seraph Vestal is what i call "Poetry Slam Church/Monty Python Flying Circus" The reason is cause i have Vestal in rank 4 and Poet Leper in rank 1 with Jester and Highwayman dancing between the consecrations and doing the slamming. Poet Leper can sustain himself, so i can keep Consecrations on rank 2 and 3 and Jester Stress heals or sets up Combos for Highwayman. Pretty sure it is a far from optimal set-up, but i like it a lot. Also just for curiosity. Is a 27 runs/4 victories (one for each act) on a mostly blind (stopped watch EA footage after Act 2) save file proof of being decent at the game?

[@scottdick296]

Sounds pretty standard to me, especially if you're spending a lot of time experimenting with different team comps.

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

@@scottdick296 Yup, i do experiment quite a lot.^^

[@marooniballooni03759]

first, it was off heals, and now it's off tanks.

[@Slidezy]

You don't

[@ZootsXD]

Okay

[@utkuakdogan1323]

what are the skulls on the hero portraits when you are selecting them in the crossroads?

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

If you beat a boss and the hero survives you can equip a memory to them at the altar. The skull marks the ones with memories. Those heroes are then "saved" for the next crossroads with their move set-up and quirks from the last run.

[@rodrigonarvaes7032]

There's an issue with consecrations where if the character gets moved because of an ally, he carries the consecration with him. It happened to me a few times when I had Hellion and Highwayman, Hellion used Howling End and Highwayman carried the consecration of light with him to rank 1, overriding the consecration of Fortitude that was in slot one. When you Point Blank Shot with him, he carries it back, and my consecration of Fortitude was just lost.

[@TheGunslinger44]

I used Highwayman and had him moving with Consecrations many times. Never once did I encounter that issue.

[@rodrigonarvaes7032]

@@TheGunslinger44 when HE moves, he carries it. However, if he IS MOVED by someone else (such as the Hellion backing 1 with Howling end), that happens.

[@TheGunslinger44]

@@rodrigonarvaes7032 I don't think I'm following. I move my Highwayman with Duelist's Advance and Point Blank Shot. Yet the Consecration stays put. Does not follow Dismas.

[@BlackMetalVayu]

Pretty sure consecration stays on the rank it casts

[@rodrigonarvaes7032]

I know they are supposed to stay on rank, which is why I said it's an issue. It happened to me at least twice and it was weird because I actually lost one of them. I think it's a bug or some other weirdness.

[@Avabees]

im mildly investal-led in this guide

[@Avabees]

also i miss rank 2 vestal

[@PunxsutawneyDave]

Did you ever want to leave someone a comment but you didn't want it to be taken the wrong way? Yeah, me neither. There is this excellent streamer called Muscle AM. I find all his content to be incredible and I love watching him. However, there are some things that really puzzle me about his philosophy in regards to DD2 (and DD1). For example, when Muscle AM runs Occultist in a squad and he mashes Wyrd Reconstruction and gets a 0 (ZER0) heal but BLEED, it drives him crazy. As it would surely do to anyone in that situation. However, I seem to recall Muscle AM calling Vestal's healing in DD1 "Brain-Dead" gameplay and he seems pleased with the =>nerfs

[@The_Dripstale]

Pls for dd 1

[@fortheloveofking]

You could run VES-JES-HM-MAA for 3 Consecration of Light procs a round and a buffed Finale. Cast Light on Jester in Rank 3 at end of round one. Jester goes first, procs, Solo up front. HM goes next, procs, Duelist up 1. MAA will proc, and can do what he wants. Probably Retribution to keep him behind HW. He doesn't have to move back up because Finale will push him forward and HM can use Point Blank (which won't be buffed anymore, however Finale will be because Solo doesn't do damage).

[@fortheloveofking]

It should be noted that both consecrations can either be twice as powerful as intended OR literally useless for their intended purpose, depending on who is dancing around them at what time. Example: If you put it on rank one, then the person in rank 2 leaps forward, the person the consecration was used on will not get it when their turn comes around because they won't be there anymore, nor will the person who didn't START on the consecration but ENDED on it. 0 procs in one round. (However, it will still be there for Mantra, and you can always move someone who needs to be healed into the consecration just for the heal). Reverse, you could use consecration on the rank whose turn is NEXT, that person will get the buff, they could switch places with a nearby hero, and when THAT hero's turn comes around, they will get it too. 2 procs in one round (maybe more!)