So, I'm not particularly far into the game. Mostly it's because I've been waffling about without defeating the Apprentice Necromancer. So far, I figure I've discovered a few things:
- I'm not sure how great the rewards are from letting the torch go down, but to be honest, I keep torchlight at pretty much maximum all the time. Since I haven't spent that long of a time playing, I don't know how much it's helping, but seriously, the higher chance of surprising enemies seems worth it to me. Fights where the enemies start out surprised go so much smoother I usually end up bringing 8 torches along on scouting mission and 6 on the skirmish missions. So far, anyway. I might let torchlight get lower if it's increased by camping.
- I always bring a shovel. Always. I think it'd be worth it to bring 2 when exploring the Weald, since I seem to consistently encounter walls there. Walls are just too expensive in terms of stress, health, and torchlight. Not too much of a discovery, but so useful that I feel it bears mentioning.
- Bringing guaranteed success (Are they guaranteed success?) items might be worth it, I think. I just went through a skirmish in the Weald, encountering an old, rotten tree trunk. Using a medicinal herb at that moment gave me 12 food, so I definitely came out ahead, even if I was doing fairly well in the skirmish so far. I've also had decent luck with keys when exploring the ruins. I imagine you can use the holy water on altars to purify them. Maybe you can also use a torch on experiment tables/bookcases? You have the option, but I don't remember an event that seems like it would necessitate a torch. Maybe like two medicinal herbs/one key when exploring the Weald, and two keys/one medicinal herb when exploring the ruins might be a decent experiment.
- There's one skill that, for me, makes Vestal totally worth it: Dazzling Light. Fair chance to stun, +5 torch? Hell yes. Vestal + Occultist means that, if you get the right set of enemies, you can basically heal your whole team (minus bleed damage) and recuperate your entire bar of torchlight by chain-stunning an enemy will high health, low stun-resist. It doesn't really help with the stress, though, but if you added a Crusader who can relieve stress, you could probably get a fair amount done there, too. I'm still in the beginning of the game, so I really don't believe that this strategy will hold up later on in the game where enemies will probably have a lot more stun resist, but it's fairly useful so far. It helps to have a backup stun, though.
- Actually, stuns in general are fucking useful. Removing enemies from play, even for a turn is so amazingly handy for damage control. Sure, you can still get fucked over by the occasional AOE crit, but you'd get fucked over by that even without stunning one of the enemies. The only downside to stuns is that they have essentially two rolls to fail, that being the dodge vs. accuracy chance and the enemies' resist chances. Still, they're handy enough that I'd consider taking a Doctor just for that double back-row stun. Blights, bleeds, and push/pulls are fairly useful, too, but not so much as stuns. I haven't really had good experiences with more specific debuffs like the -20 dodge debuffs. Buffs seem to be okay, but minus dodge debuffs don't seem to do anything so far, even to enemies whose defenses focus around dodge. Plus, there's the irony that the enemy can just dodge your dodge debuff. Fuck that nonsense.
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Topic: Darkest Dungeon II. Emotionally traumatize some adventurers. Wagon Life. (Read 222240 times)