Flagellant (Darkest Dungeon II)/Strategy
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
 |
This article is a stub. You can help Darkest Dungeon Wiki by expanding it. |
 |
"...it must be at least 10,000 years old, or maybe not? Who can say?" ~ Antiquarian This article or section contains information that may be out of date.
|
DAMIAN
🔸 The Flagellant is a versatile front-line hero who boasts a great deal of healing to both himself and his allies, a high 
HP pool which allows him to effectively tank, and an exceptional ability to deal 
Blight to all enemy ranks. Flagellant lives and dies on management of both his HP and his 
, as many of his attacks deal damage to himself in addition to the enemies. Flagellant has access to some of the most potent healing in the game, but much of that healing is locked behind either low HP, skills that require him to take damage prior, or skills that stress other teammates
UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES
Self Damage
Flagellant is unique among heroes in that many of his primary skills such as 
Punish deal damage to himself as well as the enemy targeted by it. Importantly this self damage checks Deathblow Resist meaning that the Flagellant can die from self-damage if he is on Death's Door.
Toxic
Toxic is Flagellant's unique Meltdown, and offers unique upsides and downsides compared to a traditional Meltdown. Its main upsides are its clearing of skill cooldowns, ability to heal Flagellant if he is below 30% 
HP, and the Blight dealt when he's hit, but like other Meltdowns, can be detrimental to his relationships with other heroes and reduces his Deathblow Resist for the remainder of a region. Toxic state can be a powerful option for certain boss fights, most notably Confession bosses where Affinity loss with other heroes doesn't matter
SKILLS OVERVIEW
Punish serves as Flagellant's basic front rank melee skill, dealing respectable damage and Blight to the front two ranks while dealing 10% HP to himself. The other primary draw of this skill is that it can be used while in rank 3, helping Flagellant continue to deal damage even if he's 
Pushed out of the front, and its 
Combo interaction giving it extra Blight resistance piercing, which can help it to go through more easily against enemies who may resist it otherwise, such as those found in The Foetor.
Fester is Flagellant's only skill that clears corpses, though unlike most other corpse clear skills, it only removes one corpse at a time. Additionally it will Blight any adjacent enemies, providing him with a more proactive way to both clear corpses and continue dealing blight damage. This skill is best used against enemies such as those in The Foetor, The Sprawl or The Tangle who routinely interact with corpses, as it will help to keep them from gaining access to certain skills that would otherwise make them either much more deadly, durable or in some cases, both.
Deathless is Flagellant's first heal that he unlocks, healing a selected hero for 25% HP while taking 20% HP from himself. This skill is notable among the many heals in the game due to its near non-existent threshold, only requiring that the target be below 100% HP to use, making it very strong for keeping Flagellant's teammates at high health at the cost of his own health. When 
Mastered it will heal for an additional 10% HP, making it much stronger at keeping other heroes healthy, though the HP cost for Flagellant himself remains the same.
Endure is a unique stress management tool rather than a strict stress heal. On use it will transfer 2 
Stress from the target onto Flagellant himself, making it very useful if a teammate is at high stress levels and another Stress heal is on cooldown. A more niche strategy for this skill is using it to transfer the Stress from one hero onto Flagellant in order to bring him to a stress heal threshold, or even to use that stress transfer to cause him to go 
Toxic intentionally. When mastered it will remove 3 Stress from an ally, though it won't add any extra Stress onto Flagellant himself.
Lash's Gift is Flagellant's first self-heal, acting as a combination heal for himself and a buff for allies. On use it will heal Flagellant for 25%HP while giving a selected ally 
Strength, 
Block and 1 , making them much stronger offensively and defensively at the cost of a small amount of stress. The Mastery for this skill increases the amount healed for Flagellant, giving the targeted hero 
Block+ and removing all 
Daze or 
Stun from the target, which can aid in mitigating the downsides of certain skills that daze the user such as Jester's Encore or Finale, or Grave Robber's Pirouette.
Acid Rain Is Flagellant's backline cleave ability, targeting ranks 3 and 4 with low damage but respectable Blight. This skill is one of Flagellant's most powerful skills, and one of the skills that helps him to fit well onto a variety of teams, as its combination of reach and damage over time help him to take down priority back rank opponents such as 
Drummers or 
Immolatists who pose significant threats due to their ability to buff their allies. The reach of this skill overlaps well with characters such as Plague Doctor, Grave Robber, Runaway and others with DoT attacks, and is best used in combination with them.
More! MORE! is Flagellant's most potent tanking ability, and is fantastic for any front rank Flagellant build. On use it will apply a 
Buff that grants him 1 
Pain token every time he takes damage as well as 2 
Taunt. At the end of his next turn Flagellant will heal for 10% HP for each pain token he's gained, with a maximum of 3 Pain tokens available at a time. This skill gives Flagellant both an excellent way to divert attacks away from other targets, as well as an excellent way to self-heal. Pain tokens are gained from any source of damage, including Damage Over Time as well as his own self damage which can make it incredibly easy to gain the maximum stacks for them. When mastered it will instead give him 
Pain+ tokens, which heal for 15% HP a piece, making it even more powerful as a self-sustain tool.
Suffer serves as a DoT transfer skill, stealing all Damage Over Time from the chosen hero and giving it to Flagellant instead while granting a 10% Buff to his deathblow resistance. This skill is great for keeping squishier heroes such as Duelist or Grave Robber safe, as their lower HP pools make them far more susceptible to bigger hits putting them to 
Deaths Door and dying from damage over time. When Mastered it will also cure Flagellant of Damage Over Time at the end of his next turn, giving him a unique method of cleansing DoTs from his team.
Sepsis serves as a potent offensive and healing tool for Flagellant, usable only when below 50% HP. On hit it applies a 4 point Blight and heals Flagellant for 35% of his health, making it one of his best ways to heal himself on the fly while also dealing very heavy damage to front rank enemies. When mastered it gains an additional 2 points of Blight damage, bringing it to the second highest Blight output in the game and healing for an additional 15% HP for a maximum of 50%, making it even stronger as both an offensive tool and as a healing skill.
Undying functions as an alternative to Deathless, applying 3 
Regen to the selected hero and dealing 10% HP damage to Flagellant. Undying serves as a good skill to pair with other Regen skills such as Vestal's Divine Comfort or Crusader's Bulwark of Faith, as particularly due to its low cooldown, it can be used much more frequently than other sources of Regen. When mastered, it will apply an additional 2 points of Regen to a target, making it much easier for it to outpace applied DoT effects.
Necrosis is a party-wide cleave that requires a target to have Blight to use, and on hit will heal Flagellant for 5% HP per target hit. Due to its restrictive targeting requirements this skill is best suited for use in Blight centric team comps, such as those with Plague Doctor, Grave Robber or ideally both. This skill also scales excellently with damage boosts such as Strength, 
Crit or 
Vulnerable, and when used with the right damage boosts can potentially decimate enemy teams if enough of them have Blight on them. Due to its niche application and dependency on Blight, it is best avoided in lieu of better damage-heal moves such as Sepsis in a team where the Flagellant is the only Blight hero.
PATHS
Wanderer
Wanderer is Flagellant's default path, and offers a well balanced playstyle with a solid mix of tanking with More! More!, Blight damage to both the front and back ranks, buffs, stress heals, and excellent support capabilities for both himself and his allies. Wanderer Flagellant typically prefers to stay in the front ranks where he can readily access both his best damage as well as his best healing abilities, and can be paired alongside other Blight/Damage Over Time heroes or alongside more traditional damage teams.
Notable skills on Wanderer:
- Deathless Deathless is a very solid emergency heal, most notable for the fact its HP Threshold only requires an ally to be below 100% HP, allowing him to readily keep allies at high health at the cost of his own
- Lash's Gift A combination of self-heal and ally buff, this skill is an excellent way to bolster both an allies offense and defense while healing a rather substantial amount of Flagellant's HP. The Stress given from the skill is also fairly negligible, and is well worth the Strength and Block tokens. When Mastered its ability to remove Daze and
Stun from an ally is similarly quite strong but can be somewhat difficult to make good use out of. 
Acid Rain Acid Rain is an exceptionally useful skill for almost all Flagellant builds, as it enables him to hit into the enemies back ranks with ease, targeting high-priority damage or stress dealers with low damage but solid Blight, and like other cleaves, also serves as an excellent way to quickly remove tokens from enemies- More! MORE! Is a very potent tanking ability, as particularly when Mastered it grants Flagellant both a way to easily redirect enemy attacks his way while also granting him the ability to heal off much of the damage he takes from incoming hits.
Maniac
Maniac trades Flagellants usual front-rank, Blight focused playstyle for a more support heavy role, with his skills losing much or all of their Blight damage in exchange for 
Debuffs, Combo application and Pushes. Additionally, he gains the unique ability to steal negative tokens from allies and reapply them to enemies, giving him a unique way to assist allies in fights where Negative tokens are regularly applied such as 
The Harvest Child
Skill changes on Maniac:
Punish Punish on Maniac loses some of its Blight damage, going from 3 points per turn to 2, but in exchange now aPushes the enemy 1 space, which can allow him to disrupt and displace frontline enemies. When mastered it will Pushe the enemy 2 spaces as opposed to 1 while also applying Combo, though the movement that this skill inflicts can make it difficult for some units to effectively utilize this Combo if it pushes them out of the reach of their skills. Units such as Grave Robber or Highwayman who have Combo skills that can target back rank enemies such as Pistol Shot or Thrown Dagger can make excellent use of this however, in particular Highwayman's Mastered Pistol Shot can Stun enemies in the backlines with Combo, which can further incapacitate enemies forced out of position- Acid Rain Acid Rain loses all of its Blight damage on this path, but now applies
Weak to the back rank enemies. This attack is best used against back-line damage dealers such as Crackshots, Skivers or Maids who would otherwise be able to deal heavy damage from the back ranks. Acid Rains ranks also change on this path, and can be performed from ranks 2, 3 and 4 as opposed to only ranks 1 and 2, giving him more ability to move or be moved by both enemies and allies and still maintain most of his skills. When Mastered has a 33% chance to apply Combo to any enemy that it hits 
Sepsis Sepsis on Maniac no longer deals damage, blight or direct, but now transfers all negative tokens currently applied to Flagellant to the enemy, heals Flagellant for 35% 
HP and will ignore any 
Blind tokens that he has at the time of activation. This skill is best used when Flagellant has an abundance of negative tokens such as Blind, Weak or Vulnerable, and when used at the correct time can devastate the enemy its used on with a variety of debuffs. When Mastered will heal for an additional 15% and transfer to the enemy if Flagellant has it applied to him. Similar to base Sepsis it comes with limited uses, starting at 2 for the base version and 3 for the Mastered, necessitating that it be used at the correct time to maximize its reward
Lash's Gift Maniacs bread and butter skill. When used instead of applying a buff to the ally its used on it will instead transfer all currently applied negative tokens to Flagellant and heal him for 20% HP. This skill can be put to great use if heroes begin a fight with a negative token such as 
Leper with his Blind tokens to allow him to better utilize his high damage front rank attacks. When Mastered will also transfer allies Combo tokens to himself and heals for an extra 10%. This skill is best used in combination with Sepsis, as it allows him to build up an abundance of negative tokens on himself before applying them to a front rank enemy to severely weaken them with an excess of debuffs
Exanimate
Exanimate emphasizes a riskier playstyle than his Wanderer variant, with skills Punish and Acid Rain gaining extra Blight dealt when below 50% HP, and he gains access to an excellent source of token generation when at low health, giving him a strong way to boost his offensive capabilities while self-healing and staying below his health thresholds to keep his Blight damage buffs
Skill changes on Exanimate
- Punish Punish retains its normal base damage output, but at base loses one point of Blight damage for both its base and unmastered versions and loses its Rank 3 launch, neccesitating Flagellant to play almost entirely in the front ranks to retain his primary damage skills. In exchange, Punish on Exanimate gains an extra 2 Blight dealt when below 50% HP, increasing the base version to 4 and the mastered version to 5, while also gaining the ability to hit rank 3, giving him a higher damage, single target alternative to Acid Rain.
- Acid Rain Acid Rain retains both its Wanderer damage and Blight output, while gaining the same low health bonus that Punish receives. When below its HP threshold, both unmastered and mastered will deal 2 extra points of Blight damage than their Wanderer counterparts, providing Flagellant a fantastic way of quickly dealing with backline enemies
- Sepsis Sepsis becomes a far different skill on Exanimate, trading its on-hit and Blight damage to become a DOT Bomb similar in function to Plague Doctors
Cause of Death. Unmastered it will deal 75% of all remaining Blight damage left on a target at once, removing any remaining Blight they have and healing Flagellant to 45% of his HP. This skill is best used in Blight heavy comps, such as those featuring Alchemist Plague Doctor and Venomdrop Grave Robber, as often times between the three of them they can quickly deal extremely high amounts of Blight damage in a very short time frame. This skill especially shines with items or effects that increase Blight dealt, such as the memory Favorite Toy or 
Galvanizing Goblet, or effects that increase Blight duration such as from CRITs or 
Brilliant Brew. When mastered its effect increases to 100% of the remaining Blight left on a target, greatly increasing how much damage it can do at one time. Importantly, this skill has limited uses, with only 2 unmastered and 3 mastered, necessitating it to be used only at the right times and when its damage will be at its highest - Lash's Gift Lash's Gift now has a noticeably lower health threshold, requiring Flagellant to be below 20% HP rather than 50%, and heals for a much lower amount, but gains several important upsides in comparison to its Wanderer variant. On use it will immediately remove all Negative Tokens and Combo before granting both a Crit and
Dodge token. It also notably lacks any cooldown, meaning the CRIT token granted can be used to guarantee the next Lash's Gift used will CRIT heal so long as Flagellant is still under the HP threshold. When Mastered it will grant an additional Strength token and upgrade Dodge to 
Dodge+, which can ensure that any attack he does next will deal dramatically more damage than it would normally
Scourge
Scourge trades some of Wanderer's on the fly healing for much more powerful emergency healing for Flagellant and his allies, as well as much more powerful effects on his Toxic state, enabling him to play in a very different manor to his Wanderer version by utilizing the extra 
Horror application that Scourge grants to him to activate Toxic and gain its extra Blight output in fights, which while risky can prove very effective against bosses, particularly those found on The Mountain. Scourge effectively works as a more potent, heavy-hitting version of the Wanderer path.
Skill changes on Scourge
- Sepsis Sepsis on Scourge retains its DOT Bomb characteristic from the Exanimate path, though it does receive a few important changes from that paths version to distinguish it. The primary changes are the fact that it no longer has any HP requirement, meaning it can be used at any time so long as a target has Blight on them, but also no longer heals Flagellant on use, and it doesn't have a use limit, meaning it can be used as many times as is needed throughout a fight. Additionally, its unmastered version only deals 50% of the remaining Blight, meaning its unmastered damage is substantially lower than it is on Exanimate. This version also gains a potent Combo effect, no longer removing Blight from a target if they have Combo applied previously, allowing Flagellant to both deal exceptional on hit damage while still keeping Blight on a given target
Deathless Deathless changes very drastically on Scourge, becoming a combination of self-heal and ally heal with a much different requirement to be used, requiring both Flagellant to be under 50% HP to be used, it also requires the targeted hero to be below 100% HP. On use it will heal Flagellant for 35% of his HP and the targeted hero for 25% (mastery increases this to 50% for Flagellant and 35% for an ally). Deathless is a powerful sidegrade to its Wanderer version, sporting better healing for Flagellant himself but is impossible to use as a way to easily keep other heroes at higher health like it normally can be. Additionally it has a longer cooldown of 2 turns and a limit of 3 uses, meaning it can't be used as often as other heals, and in longer fights is often saved for emergencies
Suffer Suffers only change on Scourge is that can now steal Horror as well as other DoT types, though notably its mastery does not cure Horror like it does other DoT types.- Lash's Gift Lash's Gift on Scourge changes to function as a DoT cleanse as opposed to a buff or self-heal skill, removing all Damage Over Time on use before applying Horror to Flagellant himself. On Mastery it will additionally apply a Buff that increases his resistance to any DoT that is removed, allowing him to quickly cure his own DoTs and bolster his defenses to them on the fly. Despite these strengths, this skills main drawback is its application of Horror, as improper use of it can quickly lead to Flagellant going Toxic, though this can sometimes benefit him mid combat, particularly when used on The Mountain due to the loss of relationship points no longer being a detriment once on The Mountain
TEAM BUILDING
Flagellant by and large is very capable of working with the entire cast, and can slot very well into most teams due to his flexibility in options allowing him to fulfill a number of roles, predominantly tanking, support and damage over time. Using Flagellant to his maximum capabilities is often about picking what area to focus on most with him and choosing other heroes to either work with him in that same area or perform different tasks alongside him.
RECOMMENDED TEAMMATES
Plague Doctor. When using Flagellant for his Damage Over Time capabilities few work quite as well with him as Plague Doctor. The two of them are capable of delivering heavy Blight damage to all ranks of the enemy team, particularly when using Acid Rain and 
Plague Grenade, the two can quickly devastate enemy backlines through multiple stacks of Blight damage. The two of them are also very capable of healing both themselves and other teammates, and can provide great sustainability for their teammates through skills such as 
Indiscriminate Science, 
Battlefield Medicine, Deathless, and Undying all providing incredible healing potential for their teammates
Grave Robber Similar to Plague Doctor, Grave Robber and Flagellant can put out a great amount of DoT damage when paired together, particularly when using Grave Robbers Venomdrop path. Grave Robber and Flagellant also both have excellent sources of taunt to draw fire to themselves with Repartee and More MORE, allowing for them to make an effective tank duo when their skills are available. Take care when playing Grave Robber with her more movement oriented skills such as Shadow Fade, Lunge and Pirouette, as they can easily disrupt Flagellants own positioning and leave him in a disadvantageous position
Leper Leper appreciates Flagellant primarily when the latter is using his Maniac path, as that paths version of Lash's Gift is an excellent way to remove Lepers Blind tokens, and Lepers continual generation of them enables Flagellant to more readily heal himself using them. When using his other paths Flagellant can provide extra reach with his use of Acid Rain, or help Leper in dealing front-rank damage with his other skills. Similar to Grave Robber, Leper also has excellent sources of taunt, enabling him to play a very effective tank game using his Intimidate skill, and due to his own hefty pool of HP, him and Flagellant can very easily take hits that would be much harder for lower health heroes to recover from
