The Leper is so strong in Darkest Dungeon 2 that the game attempts to artificially nerf him with a debuff that puts two stacks of Blind on him to start each encounter and skills that add even more blindness stacks. This works well enough to dissuade gamers from using the Leper despite his upside. But it doesn't need to be this way.
To conquer the toughest Confessions that Darkest Dungeon 2 has to offer, gamers understand that tanking often concedes a war of attrition against the enemies. Because the Leper can deal preposterous damage as well as absorb hits, the hero can flip the script and end fights quickly.
Skills
- Chop
- Bash
- Intimidate
- Ruin
- Solemnity
Instead of constantly accumulating stacks of the Blind debuff and trying to get rid of them, the Leper is better off applying combo tokens. Intimidate adds combo tokens as does Bash when the skill has been upgraded. This allows Chop, the Leper's signature damage move, to ignore Blind stacks.
Ruin adds more damage for the Leper every time the hero takes damage. Solemnity is one of the best healing abilities in the game, getting the Leper back to nearly full health and reducing his stress by a few levels.
Path
- Tempest
There is a good pitch to be made that no path should be taken for the Leper. Poet helps with stun resistance, move resistance, and Solemnity, but these aren't important enough to take a 25% reduction in damage. Monarch gives the Leper massive penalties in exchange for a good first round. This path is terrible because the first round will likely need to be spent applying a combo token, wasting the damage.
Tempest does take reduce maximum health and slow the Leper down. But the Leper is likely going toward the end of the round already. With Solemntiy and good support, like from a solid Plague Doctor build, the max health penalty shouldn't hurt. The benefit is extra debuff and disease resistance to go along with a tasty boost in Chop damage.
Trinkets
- Uncommon Seashell
- Indelible Fate's Foreteller
The benefits of the Uncommon Seashell make the Leper what it is. By giving Intimidate a combo token, the character will suddenly be able to hit regardless of Blind stacks. The hero will also take less damage with negative tokens and an increased chance to get bleed effects. Thanks to Ruin, taking constant damage makes the Leper's damage ceiling soar.
To deal damage, the Leper will be taking many small damage sources. Indelible Fate's Foreteller heals the Leper by 20% when it resists a damage over time effect which will be happening often with the combination of the Uncommon Seashell and Tempest resistances. That's why it's one of the best hero paths to unlock.
Combat Item
- Wilbur's Flag
By adding a combo token and vulnerability, Wilbur's flag allows the Leper to set himself up for a massive Chop attack with only a single round. Using Intimidate or Bash and waiting for one full round to hit with Chop isn't always quick enough.
The best heroes can also put some combo tokens on the targets, but even they can't be babysitting the Leper during difficult boss fights. With the Leper on the team, anything that helps out with combo tokens will help. Otherwise, gamers are better off trying to remove Blind stacks with a different build.
Darkest Dungeon 2 is available now for PC.