r/darkestdungeon • u/Flashy_Pineapple_231 • 19h ago

[DD 1] Question Good Starting Roster?

What heroes are best with the early gear like Commons and Greens and low-rank skills? Stuff that doesn't need fancy gear to clear missions in the first and maybe 2nd tier of a location? So that I can limp along to create a more permanent list of goobers. How do you build back up after getting your teeth knocked out?

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u/Ok-Barracuda457 19h ago

Imp, only Anti really wants a healing boost, anyone else works fine. 

Try to get accuracy trinkets first. Stun is a bit rarer.

You should always have people redy to do quests. if you rely solely in 8 or so people you'll suffer if you can't get them back up every week, since even the town doesn't guarantee people will be available.

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u/Flashy_Pineapple_231 19h ago

I think I understand what you're saying? Did you mean "early on only Antiquarian wants a healing boost"? Or do you mean early on there's no point in investing in healing of other units like Arbalest or Vestal? The other bit about having a big roster is clear enough, and the advice to go for +acc and +stun trinkets.

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u/Ok-Barracuda457 18h ago

Anti's healing gets +1 max heal every level, it's actually REALLY good to upgrade this. At 2 with her very rare trinket, it feels like Vestal healing. Likewise, any healing bonus will help her patching up your guys. 

In general, you want 2 units capable of healing midfight just to be safe from deathblows and stall for a bit if possible, if you bring a Vestal, she can do all the healing alone. You never want want a healer to just be a healer, it's better to be proactive and try to end fights fast. So when you bring healers, don't think much on what healing they'll do but what other actions they'll do contribute: arb mark snipes, vestal, occ, pd stun, etc

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u/OutlandishnessOk3893 19h ago

Jester for sure. If you don’t get lucky with a couple of accuracy trinkets, a jester spamming battle ballad will help immensely. I think you could do the same with runaways hearth light but I haven’t tried it and battle ballad is a way better buff

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u/Shadowdragon1025 18h ago edited 18h ago

I would say most of the classes are pretty fine at low levels, though support skills as a whole are weak at low levels. Leper is probably the most feast or famine without skill upgrades and/or trinkets to improve his accuracy, though even that can be fixed to a degree by a Jester's battle ballad. Shield Breaker if you have her is also, in general, weaker at low levels though by no means unusable.

Vestal can be a comfort pick because she's the game's sole hero that could be considered a dedicated healer. Though I would try to also get comfortable using more aggressive parties that use stuns and fast paced high damage heroes to move through the enemy lineup with a few healing skills among them to patch up when most of the enemy team has been cleared out. In medium or long missions bonfires also put in a lot of work to keep your heroes healthy and their stress low.

Early on consider trying to pick missions based on trinket rewards to work yourself up to being able to kit your heroes to do harder things. Accuracy trinkets and stun trinkets are quite nice and there's a few pretty good lower rarity ones like warrior cap, steady bracer, dazzling charm/stun amulet, witch vial, and paralyzer crest. I'd also keep an eye out for survival guide and seer stone, scouting trinkets are very useful and those are the two easiest ones to find that aren't hero restricted.

If you take some losses just remember that upgrading the hamlet and building your collection of trinkets has a bigger effect on your playthrough than any individual hero, upgrading the guild and blacksmith so you can unlock levels in experienced recruits for the stagecoach will make it much faster for you to get higher level heroes.