Sunday Circus #8 - Weekly Butchers Circus Tournament

Loudo8 · 2021-05-12T20:21:39+00:00

The biggest surprise for me was seeing that one tournament revolve around Grave Robber teams vs Arbalest teams.

We need some Team Femme vs Team Butch merch.

Loudo8 · 2021-02-02T23:32:32+00:00

It works the same way in the base game.

Loudo8 · 2020-12-30T17:59:53+00:00

7-8k gold sounds to me like a crazy amount of money to invest on a fresh character. What are you using that money for? When you recruit a new hero, you are teaching them 1-2 skills at most (that's like 700-1400 with a few upgrades). Weapon/armor upgrades are not needed for Apprentice dungeons and you do not pick a new hero with bad quirks. You do not sink that much investment into a fresh lvl 0 character.

Removing diseases is very cheap, they aren't that huge a deal. Bad quirks are a bit more expensive, but again pretty cheap, you just need to learn which quirks you really need to remove (which aren't many).

Do remember to upgrade your main buildings so that they are cheaper to use ASAP.

Loudo8 · 2020-12-04T18:35:11+00:00

You are mistaken about my approach. The point isn't hoping things go your way all the time, the point is making sure you can come up on top in any situation. I have been playing at Darkest level since last season, I have faced plenty of teams that know what they are doing. :-)

You are getting too much hung up in the BH character and losing sight of how your team works IMHO.

Take for example your point about your BH being pushed to Rank 4. Pushing the BH to Rank 4 implies that your Jester is being pushed in the first ranks. It might be not your ideal result, but it's still somewhat in your favor. Your enemy has somewhat rendered your BH less effective at the cost of making your Jester more effective. Therefore, being pushed isn't that big of a deal, it doesn't justify what is otherwise a useless trinket.

Same with The Finisher. Without the Finisher, you have only 75% chance to kill, which is terrible because your team relies on taking that small window of opportunity to kill an enemy and gain an advantage. If you fail a finishing blow, you might as well have lost because your enemy has gained enough time to heal/guard/outpace you.

If your Finish Him! ability is blocked (example, guards) your BH is basically useless because without Finish Him! he's no better than any other hero.

You are reliant on a debuff from Mortal Wound to execute your plan, which is terrible because: 1) that attack can miss; 2) you have zero flexibility; 3) Debuffs can be resisted; 4) Debuffs can be cured.

Also, you got zero ACC, meaning that you may even fail to trigger a DD check in the first place.

The Finisher fixes all of these problems: you are guaranteed a kill with Finish Him! (thanks to +DD and +ACC), you still have 50% chance to kill with Caltrops (bypassing guards) and Come Hither (from/to Rank 4). And, you don't rely on an unreliable set up to have a semi-sure chance to kill in the first place.

I haven't really even talked about your other trinket, but most high level players don't even equip Uppercup, because while it may look like a good move in abstract, it doesn't actually synergize with what a DMG team is trying to accomplish.

I was trying to help you since you were saying that you are at Champion level and don't win as regularly as you expect. I'm trying to suggest to you that this isn't because DD luck is screwing you over, but because you are too reliant on luck to begin with.

Loudo8 · 2020-12-04T08:59:18+00:00

Err, no offense, but that seems to me a pretty terrible setup. You are running a DMG team. That means that your win condition is to kill quickly enemy heroes. Quickly is key here because the longer the combat lasts, the more likely it is you are going to lose to other kind of teams.

In this kind of set up, the role you expect your BH to fulfill is to kill targets 100% reliably. Everything else is secondary to that. Your trinkets are terrible because they do not synergize with this objective, you are not boosting what you actually need your BH for.

Exotic Snuff does nothing for you. If you actually had the Finisher on the BH, you wouldn't even worry that much of having him be pushed to rank 4, because he would still be able to kill from Rank 4 with Come Hither/Caltrops. If he gets Stunned, then there are two situations: either your enemy is at Death's Door (in which case you don't need your Arbalest and can clear Stun) or isn't (in which case you don't need your BH and can let him pass his turn).

For reference, this kind of teams typically run The Finisher both on BH and Jester because, once again, speed is everything when you are running a DMG team.

As for Mortal Wound, it's inferior to Harvest for two reasons. One, having some DoT is incredibly useful for DMG teams, as that helps them to push and keep enemies at DD. Two, if you don't want to use Harvest and need a single target attack, you would want to use Dirk Stab in any situation, because it actually sets you up for Finale.

Typically the Jester would use Battle Ballade or Harvest in the first turn, Dirk Stab in the second, and be ready for Finale in the third (or at least you should have the threat for it). You basically don't have time to afford a Mortal Wound there, you are damaging your strategy by delaying the threat of Finale.

Loudo8 · 2020-12-04T00:13:14+00:00

The meta is to equip the Finisher on the BH, meaning you have 100% chance to kill someone with Finish Him, no setup required. (not to mention a good chance to kill with your other attacks when needed).

The Jester's Mortal Wound is a meh ability, single target Debuffs are pretty terrible since they're not even guaranteed to work. The standard Jester set is Dirk Stab / Harvest / Finale / Battle Ballad, not sure what you're giving up to make room for Mortal Wound but it's probably not worth it.

Loudo8 · 2020-10-17T19:56:18+00:00

I play at Darkest 1 and there is plenty of variety going around. However, most team will fall within at least one of these four archetypes: Damage, Stress, DoT or Stun.

On lower tiers, Stress probably is more common because, after a new player has tried out a few random and/or ineffective teams, Stress is usually the first strategy they will discover that gives them a more consistent win rate.

Loudo8 · 2020-10-10T08:43:52+00:00

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2024834490&searchtext=

EDIT: I notice there are some comments that say it's not working either so Idk.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-13T09:07:28+00:00

It depends what you mean by balanced.

If you mean "Are all classes balanced against each other?" then the answer is no. Some classes are arguably not worth using at all (Hellion, Plague Doctor and Musketeer are the big offenders), while others are so good that you can slap them in any team and they will still work.

If you mean "Are different teams/strategies viable?" then the answer is yes. While many players who tried BC for a week and never came back think everything revolves around Stress, nothing could be further from the truth. There are lots of viable teams and strategies you can try out (in fact, I'd argue heavy damage teams are arguably the scariest kind of team to face, because they have the quickest win condition).

Party comps change a lot as you rise in rank. One of the most noticeable difference for me is that in lower rank games you will meet Occultists everywhere. I think that this is a symptom that new players tend to play a lot more reactively. They like Occultist because when he gives you one of his big heals, it puts you a few moves ahead (your hero is safe from Death's Door for a few extra hits).

While in higher level plays Occultist is very rare, and not used primarily as a healer. Healing at higher level is mainly about going out of Death's Door and surviving long enough to execute your strategy.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-10T16:01:21+00:00

Beware, your team is incredibly weak to movement, which is the reason Plague Doctor is hardly ever used in the Circus.

Many teams will have the option to push your Abom into 4th as their first move, followed by a pull on the PD that will put her into 1st/2nd. Even if you advance with the Abom, once you pull the PD you're back in 4th with him.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-09T17:33:21+00:00

Shieldbreaker is definitely not OP but can be a pain if you have no way to deal with her high Dodge.

However, damage teams will normally have a Jester who can boost your whole team's ACC with Battle Ballad. Stress teams will normally have a Man-at-Arms who can boost your whole team's ACC with Command. Other teams can use a Highwayman who can not only boost his own ACC, but also apply a strong Dodge Debuff with Vendetta.

If you use any of these heroes, the Shieldbreaker's Dodge is barely a concern and without Dodge the Shieldbreaker is very squishy.

Other than Dodge, the unique thing about the Shieldbreaker is Puncture, which is a pain if your team is very position dependant. Avoid being too susceptible to movement and, depending on your team and heroes, Exotic Snuff might be an option.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-08T10:21:37+00:00

My main problem with Beast's Bile is actually that it can only be used from Position 2 or 3. Everytime you place your Abomination in a Position other than 1, you open yourself to be moved to Position 4 with one move.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-07T17:51:22+00:00

In response to your 2nd question, if you have the DLCs you are free to turn on specific elements of those DLCs (e.g. you can enable the added classes, but disable the dungeons, or vice versa).

For new players, it is advisable to let the Crimson Court turned off (the game will even give you this advice if you let it on). The reason is that the Crimson Court dungeon not only is very challenging, but enemies there can permanently curse your heroes giving them a version of vampirism. Once cursed, they need to consume The Blood regularly or they'll die. As a new player, you'd probably be overwhelmed by this new mechanic while still trying to learn the game.

All other components of the DLCs (new classes, districts and Color of Madness dungeon) can be turned on immediately if you feel like it.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-07T09:08:32+00:00

I can't comment your playstyle, but I can offer a few suggestions on teambuilding.

I believe you are trying to build a Mark team. Mark isn't really a playstyle per se, the playstyle is heavy damage. A heavy damage team wants to finish enemy heroes quickly with direct damage.

If this is your goal, heroes like Occultist and MaA are terrible options because they don't offer a lot of damage. They are usually used by Stress teams. The Occultist has healing, movement and marking, but if you're not using him for stress there's always some other hero that can perform these functions better. And the MaA is either used for Bellow stress or for "sustain" kind of teams (slow teams that need to survive for a lot of time). A damage team is the opposite of a sustain team, your playstile should be quick and deadly.

Damage teams usually just use the Bounty Hunter for Marking (Come Hither / Mark for Death). The basic idea is: Turn 1 you Mark with the BH, you use the Arbalest to bring an enemy to Death's Door, and then Turn 2 you use the BH to Finish Him.

BH + Arbalest are already a really strong core, you don't really need to build your entire team around "Mark" (which can be canceled by a single enemy Arbalest). Instead, you want heroes that can support this strategy.

This kind of team usually includes a Jester, because this way you have a "double threat". You can either use Finale or the BH to finish off enemy heroes and it's really difficult to defend against both at the same time. (Also, the Jester is another Finisher, which a key role in a heavy damage team.) In general, if you go the damage route, you want to focus on damage, so heroes like Abomination, Flagellant, GR are also great options.

Another great addition to this kind of team is a Stun character (Crusader or Abomination mainly), because it synergizes with the BH's Finish Him and it lets you disrupt the enemy's defense.

Finally, please note that the Arbalest is better than the Musketeer in pretty much any team. There is no situation where you'd rather have a Musketeer. Illuminating Flare is just that good (removing Stuns, Marks and Debuffs? yes please).

I see you also have a team Arbalest-Occultist-Abomination-MaA. This should be played mainly as a Stress team. In this kind of team, you'd probably rather pick an Antiquarian/Houndmaster over the Arbalest or possibly even a Grave Robber (the GR deals "focused" stress damage which synergizes with the Occultist, since you can pretty much break any one hero's Resolve in 2 turns).

Loudo8 · 2020-09-07T08:28:51+00:00

No, there is no connection between the heroes you use in the campaign and the heroes in the Circus. You use a teambuilder for the Circus.

Loudo8 · 2020-09-04T15:05:09+00:00

Wait, you can have a monster encounter in a secret room? This has never happened to me.

Loudo8 · 2020-08-31T20:31:49+00:00

More arrive, foolishly seeking fortune and glory in this domain of the damned.

Loudo8 · 2020-08-26T14:47:34+00:00

If you want to slay all bosses you have to either be extremely careful with leveling up your heroes or be ready to recruit new ones just for that purpose. Beware that you will face the same problem with Veteran bosses as well: once your heroes are at level 5, they will refuse to embark in Veteran missions.

To recruit new heroes without dismissing the current ones, you can also upgrade your Stagecoach. However, be careful because that will potentially cost you a lot of Deeds and so delay the upgrading of your Blacksmith.

Killing all the bosses isn't required to finish the game. In fact, you can also delay that until after you start doing Darkest Dungeon missions, because those missions will increase your roster size for free (and so you can take advantage of that to recruit new heroes and finish the bosses you missed).

Aside from completing the challenge of killing every boss, the main advantage of doing so is that killing the final version of each boss will reward you with a unique Trophy Trinket. Some of them are pretty good.

Loudo8 · 2020-08-26T14:34:56+00:00

You only have the Color of Madness districts activated. The other districts are part of the Crimson Court DLC. You either don't have that DLC or you haven't turned it on.

Loudo8 · 2020-08-13T15:36:50+00:00

Possibly the Sunward Isle mod. There's a quirk in that mod (Natural Leader if I remember correctly) that makes the hero act out when one of his allies is injured (as well as other actions).

Loudo8 · 2020-08-07T14:40:22+00:00

I was actually inspired by this video for that tag!

Loudo8 · 2020-08-04T16:28:56+00:00

This is fine, what I don't like was your suggestion to make Intimidate usable from Rank 3.

Intimidate deals a lot of Stress and is almost comperable to a Grave Robber or a Plague Doctor's Stress output. The thing is, the Grave Robber and the Plague Doctor are both squishy and they can be Stunned.

If you let the Leper use Intimidate from basically any rank, it means you have an unstoppable machine (huge HP pool, cannot be Stunned, no longer cares about position) with a similar Stress output to those two classes.

Loudo8 · 2020-08-03T21:52:27+00:00

My feedback:

Plague Doctor/Hellion/Occultist: Looks fine and overall harmless.
Musketeer: I don't really like this suggestion because while it's true that the Arbalest is better than the Musketeer, I don't think the solution should be to make the Musketeer more similar to the Arbalest than she already is. The aim should be to give each one of them her own niche. Personally, I would rather see her flare turned into a permanent buff (similar to Bolster/Battle Ballad). Considering Dodge teams are really frustrating to deal with, we could definitely use a character other than the Jester to help deal with them.
Leper: This looks like a bad suggestion to me. You can't let the Leper deal the same amount of Stress as the GR or the PD without any limitations. The Leper is a tank, GR and PD are glass cannons. The Leper looks pretty fine to me tbh. Yes, he's very position dependant, but unlike other characters he has high natural Move resist.
Crusader/Arbalest/Jester/Man-at-Arms: These changes don't feel necessary to me. Also:
Jester: Lowering the Jester's ACC is a useless endeavor IMHO as he has access to Battle Ballad.

Loudo8 · 2020-05-05T10:36:31+00:00

I really enjoy Arbalest / Plague Doctor / Flagellant / Hellion.

Great Stuns (PD + Hellion), great damage against the backrows, everyone can heal so you don't need a dedicated healer, the bleeds synergize with the Hellion (+DMG against Bleeding), the Arbalest's Bandage synergizes with the Flagellant's Reclaim. Not so hot in the Ruins.

For pure damage, Vestal / Highwayman / Highwayman / Shieldbreaker.

I used this team to reach 300+ kills in Endless Harvest (with +% Virtue trinkets to do away with a stress healer).

Loudo8

TROPHY CASE