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Introduced in The Binding Blade DLC for Darkest Dungeon 2, the Duelist is a mobile glass cannon that can be extremely effective but requires the team to be built around them. This guide will help you understand the best load-outs and companions for each classpath.
How to play Duelist in Darkest Dungeon 2
The Duelist is a highly-mobile, high-damage-dealing hero, with low HP and few defenses. In a way, it plays similar to the Grave Robber, however the Duelist has no self-healing skills which makes her a higher-risk, higher-reward bet.
The Duelist introduces Stance Tokens, a type of token which affects how the skills work, while also giving the character a passive bonus. These passive effects change with every subclass and aren’t listed in the class description, so the only way of knowing them is hovering over the token during battle.
Best Skills for Duelist in Darkest Dungeon 2
Here is an analysis of the skills for the Wanderer path, which is the default functionality of the skills.
- Touche: this is your basic, consistence damage, able to spam it from any row and move her forward and backwards to get in position for other stronger skills.
- Feint: one of the strongest skills of the class, it allows you to Invert Stance and also gives you Riposte 2 in its basic form and Riposte 3 in its upgraded version.
- Disengage: it ignores Riposte, so it can be useful against enemies such as The Knight. It also moves the Duelist back and gives her Dodge, to get her out of danger and combine with other moves such as Fleche.
- Flick: it has decent CRIT and damage, and it can ignore Dodge or Block from enemies depending on the current stance of the Duelist. However, it is a situational skill and may be best to equip it only for a particular battle where we know enemies will be using Dodge and Block often. The upgraded version has Execute 1, and that could be worth the investment.
- Preparation: the best skill of the class, gives the Duelist Strenght and Speed, and on the upgraded version she gets CRIT if she is in Aggressive stance; and all of this in one turn. I use this before Fleche to deal a lot of damage.
- The Boot: it is not as useful in its vanilla version since it only hits the front two ranks when you usually want to be moving the fourth enemy. However the Antagoniste path has its use for it because it can Stun enemies.
- Again: it can clear another hero’s cooldowns. However I can’t think of a class with such a powerful skill that merits losing one turn of the Duelist to reset it. It could work, but only on a very particular situation. However, the skill becomes much better for the Instructrice path.
- Fleche: the best damage dealing skill of the class, it deals extra damage when on Aggressive stance. The downside is it moves the Duelist to the front, and this skill can only be used from the three back rows, so to be used again in succession it needs a dancing hero like the Grave Robber who can jump ahead of the Duelist to knock her back one row.
- Meditation: It gives the Duelist dodge, and can also give her Taunt on defensive stance or Riposte on aggressive stance. Useful on riposte builds.
- Coup de Grace: the most useful feature of this skill is on its upgraded version: the Execution 2. This can eliminate strong enemies and bosses with strong levels of death armour, and it can be used from any row. It also ignores Block and Weakened to deal a consistent final blow.
- Ruthless Instruction: gives dodge to an ally to save them from a certain death, and in upgraded versions can also ignore Blind tokens. This works well with the Leper who blinds himself a lot.
Best party roles for Duelist in Darkest Dungeon 2
Each subclass is designed to change how the Duelist works in the party. Besides, the diverse skills of this class can make for versatile uses. It is important to decide which role she is going to play before building the team, and choosing her companions around her.
Wanderer path
This is the vanilla Duelist, focused on mobility and Riposte. Although it is more front loaded than other paths, The Wanderer can still play from any position and always has a good skill to use if you prioritize a good rotation. Below are her passive stance effects:
Aggressive Stance passives: Heal self 10% of her HP (33% chance to trigger).
Defensive Stance passives: 33% chance to gain Dodge.
Instructrice path
It is the backrow Duelist, a support path able to buff and move her allies. Her Disengage skill becomes a Dodge and a Back 2, and Again becomes an incredible buff for allies, giving them +10 % damage for each Stress level they have when she is in Aggressive stance.
Her modified Coup de Grace can clear all cooldowns on a kill when upgraded, so I use it in rotation with Again to maximize the damage of all the other heroes.
Defensive Stance passives: reduce 1 Stress after a kill.
Aggressive Stance passives: gain Regen 3 after a kill.
Antagoniste path
This Duelist is focused on debuffing enemies. Her Touche and Coup de Grace skills can apply Weakness or Vulnerable, depending whether she is on her Defensive or Aggresive stance, and her Disengage can Combo and Blind the target (on its upgraded version). This works great with The Boot, since this skill not only Knockbacks 2 but also applies Stun when the target has Combo.
Defensive stance: Sword Skills lower 5% debuff resistance of enemies for 3 turns.
Aggressive stance: Skills gain 20% RES piercing
Intrepide path
This is the most versatile and mobile path, with the highest damage potential, but also the highest risk. The passives of her stances give a buff and a debuff, and can stack up to five times, making it dangerous to play without removing her stances every now and then.
Because of her glass cannon condition, Feint now gives Dodge instead of Riposte, and Disengage gives her Stealth and can give her Guard x2 from an ally behind her on the upgraded version of the skill.
Coup de Grace becomes important since it can remove all Intrepide Stance debuffs and avoid its stacking.
Defensive Stance passives:
- +20 % damage when someone misses her;
- 40% more damage received (dangerous);
Agressive Stance passives:
- +5% bonus CRIT when someone misses her;
- -10% resistance against Burn, Blight and Bleed;
Best companions for Duelist in Darkest Dungeon 2
Because the Duelist has a lot of dancing moves (skills which make her change position), her best teammates are classes that are dancers too (Jester, Grave Robber, Highwayman, Crusader, etc.). You can build this team with the rotations in mind, using the movement of the other characters to avoid having to move Duelist so much. If you want to spam Flèche several times in a row, all you need is a Grave Robber to Lunge in front of her, or Jester to Solo his way to the front to give her another go at Flèche from second or third rank.
Another way to play her is using her Intrèpide path with a tank who can anchor themselves, such as Man-at-Arms or Hellion, since now she can use Disengage to get Guard x2 from them. While she has someone to tank the hits for her, she can stack the bonus damage from her passive stance up to five times without being punished for also stacking vulerablility.
As an honourable mention, because the Duelist can generate a lot of tokens quickly with her Preparation and Meditation skills, the Plague Doctor can fully heal her in one turn using Indiscriminate Science (10% heal for each positive token, 5% heal for each negative one).
For more information on Darkest Dungeon II, check Darkest Dungeon 2 Ending, Explained on .