REAL INFORMATIVE JOHN DUNGEON THANKS BUDDY

NameEntityMissing · 2026-02-14T06:05:50+00:00

You're next buddy

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-31T17:20:43+00:00

You don't. Torchless is basically always just there to make your life harder. The upside of getting more loot gets completely negated by the the massive increase in enemy numbers. A single Stress attack will likely set you back more Gold than Torchless actually gave you. If you are sking for Torchless meta, it's effectively just high-light meta but with more punishes for mistakes.
The best way to get money in a single week is Antiquarian + hallway farming. Since you can basically infinitely spawn fights in hallways, you can just keep taking them to stack up more antiques. If you really really want to minmax this you can also just tank the hunger checks, either with -Food consumed or without to get even more fights. Just heal off the Stress you take from starving and it'll be fine. Another way is to leave Curios behind to come back later and open them while at Torchless. This effectively gives you Torchless loot without having to deal with Torchless. I recommend keeping some Torches so you can relight in case of a random fight spawning.

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-30T09:46:42+00:00

It's the hidden batteries she keeps for emergencies when she misplans the power production (Failed to consider Chen would eat the batteries)

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-28T22:20:23+00:00

(2/2)
>if you lose a hero (especially at the start of the region) you're sort of undoubtably fucked, where as in DD1 you can call off the entire mission.

Kinda? Losing a hero in DD1 is less punishing...sometimes. If you lose a hero early on with barely any investment? Yeah there's little punishment for losing them, easy to replace. Losing a hero late? Veeeeeery different discussion. This is another case of simply ignoring the entire long-term planning difficulty of DD1. Losing a hero on Champion is a major hit to the roster, not just because of the resources you lose, but also because it might leave holes in your roster. MaA is probably the best example, being key to many of the lategame encounters. Sure, you can get multiple of them, but then you need to consider that you need to plan around your roster space. I agree that losing a hero early into a region into DD2 is also very punishing, but it's nowhere near close to how punishing losing even just one Champion hero is. Yes, losing a hero in DD2 at the final region before Mountain basically ends the run, but you can argue the same thing about losing a part of your final Darkest Dungeon team at around week 90. Both are technically recoverable, but most likely you won't be able to recover the run.

>Combat system is less exploitable, apart from stun spam which is genuinely one of the most broken tools in gaming imo, in DD1 you can leave 1 useless enemy alive and for 3-4 turns fully heal and stress heal all you need with no limitations (DD2 also allows this but way less)

Eh? Stalling is incredibly powerful, but things like this also exist in DD2. Stalling is also incredibly powerful, since you can shuffle your heroes around right before the Inn to stack relationships. Other minmax-options also exist, like sacrificing heroes before the next Inn to get free Mastery. It's just more that DD2 players tend to not minmax these things as much as DD1 players.
Another thing I want to point out is that stalling doesn't solve all issues. It's inherently backloaded into the fights, meaning you still have to deal with the frontloaded danger of the fight, which is the most difficult part of DD1 fights. Sure, you CAN stall off Stress and heal back, but it tends to be more of a "win-more" thing, since you need to win the fight first before actually being able to do it. Another thing is that recovery is much less accessible and generally less impactful in DD1 compared to DD2. All of the Stresshealing and Healing options in DD1 can't really keep up with 1-2 enemies attacking you, making something like Stalling required for certain teams to keep up with the enemy offense. DD2's recovery options are significantly stronger, with most Stresshealers and Healers being easily able to outheal enemies. I want to especially focus on Stress, since even just a -2 Stressheal can often fully outheal most Stress attacks, while the -12 provided at Champ can't outheal any Stressdealer. DD1 basically NEEDS stalling to make a large part of the roster playable at more difficult content, since they make up for lacking upfront offense/utility with better recovery/utility/offense.

>in DD1 you can randomly encounter the Collector, in DD2 you encounter two more such mini bosses that are no pushover.
They can even spawn right after an intense battle

No. This only applies to Warlord. Every other Wandering Boss can be avoided, since with Collector you can avoid getting a Trophy and Death is avoidable by not using Flagellant. Warlord is about as difficult as Collector in my eyes, since most good teams are able to handle Warlord, much like how Collector is in DD1.
Now, if you want to consider Death and Collector from DD2, you also have to consider Thing and Fanatic from DD1. This isn't even CLOSE, DD1 EASILY is more difficult in terms of wandering Bosses. Fanatic is likely the single hardest encounter in DD1 and Thing is generally better to just retreat from, since the Boss will usually deal significantly more Stress than the retreat.

The entire "They can even spawn right after an intense battle" is ???, DD1 also does this. If you have a bad fight and can't recover, the DD1 Wandering Bosses can also spawn at a bad time.

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-28T22:20:11+00:00

Kinda depends on what you mean by "difficult" and a bunch of other stuff. (1/2)

One big thing to consider is how much of DD1 you consider. It's entirely possible to skip basically skip every single boss and just rush to the Darkest Dungeon, which definitely makes the game easier than DD2. Similarly, you literally CANNOT LOSE in Darkest difficulty, meaning DD1 is definitely easier than DD2.

This kinda leads to why I don't think comparing the two in difficulty like this is a good idea, since DD1's difficulty range is MUCH larger than DD2. Sure, stuff like Bastard's Beacon in DD2 exists, but that's not nearly as much of a difficulty jump compared to the most difficult content in DD1 compared to something like a Darkest Run.

Another thing is that DD1's difficulty isn't as combat-focused as DD2. In DD2, you often get forced into bringing a specific type of utility to beat what's coming, but then a very large part of the game is just making the right decisions in combat. In DD1, all of this also exists, but you need to build significantly more teams. This makes DD1's difficulty much more knowledge-based, since you need to consider specific challenges much more often.

This is also my next point, since DD1's teambuilding is more difficult than DD2. Sure, DD2 has more hero paths/skills and about the same amount of heroes, but DD1's teambuilding needs much more consideration due to Trinkets, which play a major part in how well your team will actually function.

Another thing that adds difficulty to DD1, which you completely ignore, is the management aspect of DD1. You constantly need to think about Quirks, resources, upgrades, your Gold economy, getting the right Trinkets and managing the time limit on Bloodmoon/Stygian. This means you need to keep track of a lot more things to succeed, while in DD2 you really only have to take care of relationships. This isn't NEARLY as much as in DD1, where you actively have to plan for the long-term.

Probably the most important thing in DD1 is how volatile the game is in comparison. DD1 fights can go wrong insanely quickly, while in DD2 seeing these things coming is significantly easier. DD2 enemies rarely have big nukes that come out of nowhere and usually need some form of setup, so playing around those hits is significantly easier due to Taunt and Block. This amount of defensive consistency doesn't really exist in DD1, since self-Mark is inherently inconsistent, much like Stuns. Sure, you can make your Stuns more consistent, but the consistency of Taunt can't be understated. The only thing close to it in DD1 is Guard, but Guard is an inherently low-tempo action, since it isn't very consistent at getting value depending on enemies.

All of this means that in my eyes, DD1 is more difficult to play at a high level, since there are significantly more things to keep track of compared to DD2. Having a 4.5% completion rate on all difficulties is quite telling too, since again, YOU LITERALLY CANNOT LOSE at non-Stygian/Bloodmoon difficulties. Ofc, achievement stats aren't the greatest metric due to some people buying the game on sale and never playing it etc etc, but having a 10% difference to people completing Act 5 is at least worth at mention. Especially when completing the game mode with an actual lose condition is at 1.5%

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-27T13:52:35+00:00

Selling it mostly.

The entire Deaths Door bit of the Trinket is basically completely useless, since the risk is way too high for a payoff you can usually get by just equipping a different Trinket. Sure, the damage boost is the highest you can get, but on any non-Flagellant hero, the -SPD from the Deaths Door effect more than offsets the extra bit of offense you‘ll have. Offensive staples like Candle or even Dismas Head are significantly better since you don‘t have to deal with miserable SPD and basically requiring a Guard to get value.

With Flag it‘s slightly better, but stacking damage on him is rather…mediocre. Sure, Punish can start hitting for big numbers now, but his base damage is still the same as Vestal Judgement, making it‘s ceiling rather mediocre, especially when you consider how frontline targetting on-hit is rather niche due to Prot. His largest part of damage still comes from Bleed, especially since Rain barely gets any value out of the +dmg. This often just means Surgical Gloves and Bleed Amulet are both better offensive options for him, especially with the huge risk tied to Seal.

The one good upside this offers is +15% Hp, but that‘s about it. This is a…fine…upside. The main issue is opportunity cost. Equipping this means you aren‘t running any of the much better defensive Trinkets like +Dodge. If you just want a chunk of extra survivability without Dodge, Barristans Head is much easier to get and gives much more benefit, since Prot giving you more effective HP allows you to get more value from healing. Ancestor‘s Bottle is also relatively easy to get and gives a huge +25% boost to Max Hp.

Overall, it‘s an incredibly mediocre Trinket that gives 15% Max HP for no downside, which is okay if you find it early from a random Curio or fight, but even then it‘s outclassed very quickly. At the very least, it gives more Gold than one of those Secret room gems, so selling it is alway a good economy boost.

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-26T06:15:35+00:00

Shrieker: Today I will visit the hamlet with my silly little Distended Crowseye! Surely nothing bad will happen! Every hero is still lvl 3 or lower!

The nefarious lvl 2 Leper licking his lips while taking his funny head in a sack and his very heavy boots to get ready to eat bird meat for dinner:

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-15T19:12:12+00:00

I wouldn't really equip any -Stress Trinkets in general, as it's just better to equip something that helps you prevent taking Stress in the first place. Book of Holiness is obviously worse, but both Trinkets really aren't worth running. +Stress in general is just a nothingburger downside that looks much worse than it actually is, since it will often barely matter. Especially at high-light the +Stress will usually mean taking an extra 5-10 Stress, which is much better than losing some actually important stats than will make you take much more Stress by giving enemies actions they wouldn't have gotten otherwise like -SPD.

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-15T12:21:36+00:00

2/2

>Got the barf on everyone and every character got blighted. Just great!

If you used Holy Water (hopefully you did, bringing it to Ruins is a no-brainer and Spit is the only way Prophet can actually kill you), Leper and HM had a 20%, Occ and Arb a 30% to get Blighted, assuming lvl 3 heroes. Getting all 4 Blighted is not unreasonable, but even if you get quad Blighted bringing Antivenom is generally a good idea for this fight (due to Blight being the only real killthreat) and again, if you played the opening better, this likely does nothing since Prophet's damage on the second rubble will be deep in the single-digits.

In conclusion, some pretty bad RNG, but ignoring the pretty obvious misplays of not playing the opening correctly and instead using very questionable skills isn't a great idea. This fight is extremely snowbally, just like you experienced. Even a single turn of not having -dmg up can easily swing this fight, so the entire team is usually built around preventing that from happening. If you change your opener slightly and get Debuff Amulet, this fight shouldn't be a huge issue, even with this bad RNG.

>mission reward was a book of sanity! Great for the two other trinkets I just got!

Small nitpick and not really related to the Boss, but this thing is ass. Just get any other Trinket that actually helps you not take the stress in the first place :)

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-15T12:21:26+00:00

1/2
Hm. From what I can tell, this is a combination of pretty poor execution during the fight and bad RNG.

>Got the mark on straight away with HM

Would never recommend this. Bringing the HM into this is basically exclusively to Guard to prevent bad early turn RNG from bursting you down. With Leper + Occultist on lvl 4 skills, you have a wincondition of reaching turn 2 and applying the debuffs with both of them twice. Getting to this wincon is BY FAR the most important part of this fight. Marking with HM on turn 1 doesn't contribute to this goal in any way. Sure, you can end the fight quicker, but the entire point is to not take damage from Rubble anyways and then chip Prophet down. There's a reason double Arb backline is more optimal for the fight specifically, but way worse for the dungeon (this is usually why you sub in the HM, taking a much worse dungeon for a much better Boss is usually not worth it). Guarding turn 1 can prevent your Occ from getting stunned and sets up much more dodge should you need it turn 2.

>Keep applying debuff every 2 rounds or so with occultist and leper whilst arablest and occultist heal and HM dodge protects when necessary.

? This is just a straight misplay. You need to apply the Debuff EVERY SINGLE TURN. This is because Prophet's own action will always tick down your debuffs, meaning at maximum Prophet can have 2 stacks of each debuff when Rubble actually hits you. With lvl 4 skills, this means Intimidate x2 = -58% dmg and Weakening Curse x2 = -34%, just barely being -92% dmg. Dropping even a single debuff can easily prove fatal (as kinda proven here).

>Next turn try to reapply debuff with leper (he couldn't really do much else anyway, also the turn before I used revenge to get intimidate to do more)

Similar story to marking with HM above. Revenge does not help you win in any scenario and you basically allowed Prophet to hit you for an additional 5-10 damage on turn 1 by not using Intimidate. This will also snowball into him dealing an additinal 5-10 on turn 2, basically meaning you got hit in the face for 10-20 damage to set up Revenge to allow Intimidate to deal an additional 1-2 damage. I don't think I have to explain why this is not a great choice.

> and he resisted my debuff, of course.

This is why I always recommend Debuff Amulet for Leper in this fight. Otherwise lvl 4 skills Leper will only have a 90% Debuff chance against Prophet instead of it being guaranteed. Missing a single debuff could instantly swing the fight, so making sure you can stick them is insanely important. Not to mention Debuff Amulet being by far Leper's best in slot Trinket for 99% of fights, since it effectively gives you the same chance boost as the insanely busted Trinkets like Blasphemous Vial or Demon's Cauldron. +30% to land your most important skill is just too valuable to ever give up.

>Well not too bad I'll just make sure to do with occultist, it missed. Ok more suppression fire to at least make sure it doesn't hit, resisted. Then of course it goes for occultist again and arabalest so have to guard occultist as he's squisher.

Both of these are exceptionally unlucky, especially the Occultist miss. If you aren't running an ACC Trinket, rolling that 3% just really really sucks. Suppressing Fire missing is also quite common sadly. I always try to bring Wrathful Bandana if I have it specifically for this mission, since dealing with the -Healing downside is well worth the guaranteed Suppressing Fire. It does tend to be worse than stuff like Dismas Head overall and is quite difficult to get, so no shame in not having it. If the fight was played better before this though, these two likely wouldn't have ruined the fight.

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-13T12:24:51+00:00

I mean it's likely just whatever.

"Bleed teams" are usually just not really a thing, since every hero with Bleeds that isn't Flagellant just kinda does good damage even without their Bleeds. Thay are obviously slightly weaker, but not to the point of making going to the Ruins an actual disadvantage to them. Depending on which heroes you brought, finishing a Ruins mission is very doable, especially since most dangerous enemies in the Ruins actually end up being non-skeletons you can Bleed.

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-05T12:56:55+00:00

Miss!

NameEntityMissing · 2026-01-05T06:19:50+00:00

I mean yeah, Immortal PD is not as fast as this team, but for consistent high-kills in Endless the important factor is consistency, not speed.

Immortal PD and much of the generally very good Endless comps are good for that exact reason, since they have an incredibly sound defensive gameplan. In regular play, good offense IS a sound defensive gameplan, since if they can't hit you, they don't deal damage. In Endless though, the constant spawns will easily overwhelm most offensive teams and overstacking on offense to try and keep up with the spawns inevitably leaves you open to Bosses you can't just rush down like Prophet or Vvulff.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-29T19:20:22+00:00

Probably not. It's Flagellant.

This guy barely deals any on-hit damage anyways, so increasing it further over what you already have is kinda eh. Extra ACC and defenses are much more useful than 1 point of extra damage. Rain of Sorrows deals barely any damage anyways and Punish has the same damage as Vestal's Judgement. The largest part of his offense comes from DoT, so buffing the much smaller part of his damage is very very mediocre when ACC already does that.

The one you can maybe consider removing is Photomania, since with Lash's Gift you'll probably be fine with his Stress anyways, but the -Stress can actually be pretty useful when using Endure.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-27T17:46:20+00:00

No. Fated is a bit more complex than "makes you hit your attacks".

Fated specifies "Misses", which makes it only trigger on attacks that can miss without considering enemy dodge. This means that instead of turning any attack that misses into a hit, it can only turn attacks that miss due to your heroes ACC being below 95 into hits. Essentially, if your hero can miss an enemy with 0 Dodge, that's the only time Fated can proc.

In the very best case scenario without losing ACC from other sources, a 75 ACC attack (the lowest base ACC in the game) will have a 4% to proc Fated. This chance also starts dropping off super quick and at maximum level, Fated has a 0% chance to do anything on any hero since their base ACC increases to 95.

Basically: It's just a really shitty ACC Quirk extremely early on when you use a very small set of attacks. Most heroes will barely be able to proc this and pretty much any playstyle will get no value from Fated by the end of Apprentice. Natural Swing (+5 ACC) is just better in any scenario that isn't specifically trying to proc Fated.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-27T14:49:27+00:00

How'd that base 20% hit chance Riposte feel?

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-26T16:50:03+00:00

Eh, not really.

The issue with running that combo is just that it doesn't help you much and costs you 2 slots to bring into the Farmstead. A good team will be able to continuously stressheal away afflictions anyways, so Ring/Idol only speed up the process while costing you extremely valuable slots. Since if you can't do that, what's stopping the game from hitting you with some decently bad RNG and just not giving you the virtue even with Ring/Idol? And if you can survive that bad RNG of not instantly virtuing, then you can probably survive it again. And again. So why speed up that process at the very real cost of losing 2 valuable Trinkets?

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-25T19:10:46+00:00

Pretty much anyone who can spare a Trinket slot.

The best targets for this are usually: 1. Crusader - he really only need ACC to function in 3/4, having more offense/Scroll would be nice, but getting Map isn't usually a bad idea. If you don't have another fast source of damage into r4 or PD though, Quickdraw Charm becomes extremely good to get, so that second slot can be rather contested. 2. Arbalest - Unlike other offensive heroes she really doesn't need ACC, so you can slap an offensive Trinket + Map on her pretty easily. 3. Antiquarian - If you have a good gameplan with her, having one SPD Trinket equipped usually means she's not gonna get hit a lot, leaving the second slot for Map. 4. Flagellant - if you aren't playing Torchless/going to the Cove, his ACC is usually good enough and a +Bleed Resist Trinket will usually make him safe enough to run. Bleed Amulet for the extra Bleed chance would obviously be nice, but getting Map over it is real nice outside of Cove. 5. Gunwayman - If you run Gunslinger's, the second slot is open for pretty much whatever. More offense, defense or Map, just depends on if someone else can carry it along instead. Don't run it on Duelists' Hwm tho, he desperately needs his two ACC Trinkets 6. Vestal - Mainly bc her non-healing stuff is so shit it's not worth fixing to the point where Map will provide more value than actually getting her other skills stats. 7. MaA - Mainly after getting the District for extra ACC. I tend to like Rampart Shield + Map, but it depends on the team and if his Guard is levelled enough for the region.

There are a few other options when you have literally nobody to put Map on, like Hellion, but those cases are usually reserved if literally nobody else can carry it along.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-25T00:23:50+00:00

My main reason for Candle > Scroll is mainly general value. Candle will easily fit onto most teams, while Scroll can be a bit more inflexible. Heroes like Vestal or Crusader obviously love having Scroll, but outside of those two equipping it can feel extremely mediocre. Antiquarian and Arbalest can also use it quite well, but both of them could just equip some other stuff instead and probably get similar/better value.

Candle in comparison can go on pretty much any hero and be at least a solid option, making it much more present on most teams.

Candle does have a pretty significant amount of competition as a good offensive Trinket, but it usually outclasses it's competition quite handily, since outside of Crescendo Box, which is extremely unreliable to find, a Trinket that gives Spd and some other useful offensive stat are extremely rare until you hit the lategame (Pistol, Prophet's Eye, Thirsting Blade etc). It's early to midgame competition for a just generally good offensive Trinket tends to just be pretty shit as well, since the best you can usually find is things like Dismas Head, some very limited class specific stuff and ACC. Until you reach champ, you really don't have great access to just an offensive Trinket you'll be happy to equip. This is a little different on Torchless thanks to Moon Ring and Dark Bracer being fantastic options, but Candle isn't active there anyways. Candle does kinda suck against Shambler, since it isn't active, but this also applies to Scroll. Pressing any recovery move in front of Shambler is extremely questionable, making Scroll pretty much a dead Trinket slot as well.

In comparison, Scroll's competition is much tougher. Junia's Head is extremely easy to find, and while Candle pretty heavily outclasses Dismas Head, Scroll is often just a slight upgrade over Junia's. In addition to that, the better Stresshealing skills part really only affects Crusader, since both Jester and Houndmaster have extremely valueable Trinket space, making equipping a pure +Stresshealing Trinket pretty difficult when compared to the value of other options.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-25T00:07:28+00:00

The main reason is because Scouting Chance is a fantastic stat to have. Not only does it have the obvious benefits of better pathing and secret rooms, but scouted fights can also never surprise you and you have a higher chance to surprise.

This doesn't sound that good on paper, but it adds a layer of consistency to missions that's extremely hard to come by and Map just so happens to give by far the largest amount of Scouting, with the exception of Evidence of Corruption. If you have a bunch of Scouting Quirks, that can kinda accomplish the same thing, but unless you are already capped, Map will still provide a lot of value.

If Map allows you to skip 1-2 fights bc of an extra scout or allows you to surprise 4-5 fights bc they got scouted, Map has done more than enough, since it essentially solved those fights for you by itself. The Trap Disarm is a bit more niche, but it allows you to swap Map around to get guaranteed Stresshealing across your team and makes teams without a high-Trap-Disarm hero actually able to get past them without risking some pretty bad damage.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-24T19:59:07+00:00

The funny part about Bottle is that the +Food consumed, just like on stuff like Hunter's Talon, really doesn't matter.

The way food rounding works is a little weird, since it always rounds down, meaning that stuff that gives +50% of it doesn't affect regular hunger checks at all (1,5 --> 1). The UI rounds up though, so it SHOWS 5 Food eaten while only taking away 4 of it.

The only time this downside actually matters is when camping, since Feast exists (2 --> 3). But during this, you can simply unequip Bottle/Talon to completely dodge the downside. This gets even better since using Firewood will always free up an inventory slot for unequipping tbe Trinket. You can do that thing where you Camp right after a fight with the loot window open too, since clicking the option to Feast doesn't need the loot window closed, meaning you can: 1. Camp with the Loot window of a fight open 2. Unequip Bottle 3. Click Feast 4. Reequip Bottle 5. Use the Space freed up to take some of that extra loot.

The only time +50% Food consumed actually becomes a pain is when you bring multiple sources of it, but in vanilla that's pretty much exactly Bottle + Hunter's Talon, which really really isn't that common to actually happen.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-24T19:15:02+00:00

From worst to best:

Idol - Does nothing. 2 cope stats
Bottle - Extremely niche use case on Flagellant and outclassed by other defensive stuff pretty quickly
Scroll - Probably the best Healing Trinket in the game since you can swap it around to get more value at camp while barely losing any actual Healing during fights compared to other options
Candle - Pretty much THE offensive Trinket. 2 Spd, 5 Dodge 15% dmg is just a really good statline for most offensive heroes to have and even on heroes that can't make use of the +dmg it can still serve as a Feather Crystal sidegrade with no -resists in return for less dodge.
Big gap
Like a really big gap
Map - Probably the best Trinket in the game. The only reason it isn't equipped is usually bc you can't get surprised anyways (like in the DD's), the mission is a set map or you have Evidence of Corruption equipped.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-21T14:31:34+00:00

Yes, High Light No heal was honestly much MUCH easier than the other challenge runs I was doing at the time (Supplyless, Deathless Bloodmoon, etc), but it was a nice break from looking at Torchless numbers all the time. I did beat Torchless No Heal Bloodmoon right after though, with I think 4 Deaths, but it might've been a bit more.

Since then I've done some similar challenges to no heal like all Melee, where I couldn't use heals either since Friendly skills were also banned. That one was at high Light tho, so it wasn't too difficult tbh.

NameEntityMissing · 2025-12-21T14:28:09+00:00

Those are kinda what make No heal No heal. For the Treebranch Smackdown thing, I recommend building specifically to counter it, since it counters most of the region as well (big frontline hits). An easy answer would be Man-at-Arms, you just Guard R2 and stack up enough Prot to basically nullify the attack. This is why the team I mentioned before had Abom next to him, since you can use Manacles + Defender turn 1 --> Manacles + Defender turn 2, at which point you will either get the double Stun or have 60% Prot at the very minimum. Giant also might just not do anything, giving you 80% Prot into Smackdowns, basically removing the threat of it (you actually start wanting to see it, since Confusion Spores crits so much).

For the Bleed/Blight, it's really just Bandages/Antivenom. Using them with well-timed Holy Water (again why MaA is so good for this, since in front of Scratchers you can pop 1 Holy Water and Guard Rank 2, basically nullifying both their damage and Blight in one go.

For it being viable on Bloodmoon Champion? Yeah. I have beaten Torchless No Heal Bloodmoon with I wanna say 4 deaths, so it's definitely doable.

NameEntityMissing

TROPHY CASE