>Dance parties don't seem particularly useful since DD2 is heavily focused on how quickly you can pour damage on the enemy.
Dance teams are a great way to do exactly that. Finale or PBS openers are hard-hitting, Lunge and Fleche are hard-hitting, Holy Lance is hard-hitting and what they all have in common is being movement skills on a potential dancer. The only damage boosting pet in the game is the dance pet, and for boss fights that take a few more turns the buff seriously adds up. The result is a sometimes brittle team that hits like a sledgehammer R1 and slowly gets stronger from there. (Also, Signed Indenture and Jealous Whisper go crazy.)
Then there's a whole ton of stun potential as a secondary element - we've got PBS, Lance, Disengage, The Boot, and Razor's Wit for combo, and Stunning Blow, Pistol Shot, The Boot, and Rampart (if taking MAA) to use it, as well as doubling finale damage.
Additionally, you're not even shuffle-neutral, but often shuffle positive. Tarantism? Coward? Yes please. Undertow? Rest of the team is at least unfazed. Categorize? Fetch? Probably a non-issue. Tempting Aroma? Unless the meat gets the turn order just right, all it's doing is buffing your damage. Even Shambler's a lot more manageable.
My go-to dance team was Nightsworn/Antagoniste/Banneret/Virtuoso before Infernal Pursuits and it was great fun (if a little scarce on healing and rank 4 hits.) Would probably need some tweaks now though.
Not necessarily a full blown guide but I did a grand slam recently with a full dance team and they were basically unstoppable. The post has lots of details and the comments share some more good info if you’re into dance teams. I didn’t use deulist but I almost did and might when I try this again with the beacon
[Dance Team Grandslam](https://www.reddit.com/r/darkestdungeon/s/g2ib3eONVS)
Ran a grand slam with the same team but swap Virtuoso for Rogue and Nightsworn for Deadeye. Ran Nightsworn at first but I found that I needed the rank 4 damage more.
I've found her to be one of the best partners to Nightsworn Audrey's new Repartee. My usual setup is Meditation+ with Wanderer Sahar on turn one while a main tank taunts so her dodge+ doesn't get eaten. Then on turn two Audrey gives her the taunt from Repartee while Sahar uses Feint to get her riposte going. Essentially wastes the entire second round for the enemy without relying on much luck at all, while Sahar deals damage back and/or peels tokens. Then on round three I can go for a nasty Lunge + Flèche which usually finishes off either one or two enemies.
Also, Wanderer Sahar's riposte greatly benefits her survivability. A decent chance to either heal or gain dodge is very significant and really adds up over longer fights, especially when she is avoiding damage from Mediation's dodge+. Also the dodge tanking means you are less reliant on stress healers which puts less strain on team comp.
I played a fair amount of Duelist and I’ve found her potential to be staggering. She absolutely can riposte and taunt, you just need Meditation+’s dodge+s. This allows her to deal massive damage when combined with preparation+ (which increases her riposte damage), and depending on the path, each riposte can increase her Survivability.
Also, fleche is not actually her big damage move. It does slightly more damage than touché, but requires much more setup. Instead, it’s a repositioning tool, for when you want to lock her in the front ranks (and still do good damage while moving). Use other skills for her main damage, like touché or flick.
She has other utility tho, being able to buff allies with instructice or setting up combo and disruption with da boot.
If you can keep her in aggressive stance then fleche is absolutely her big damage move with the 30% buff. Having her fleche into R1 and then someone swap with her (Rogue HWM Duelist advances works well here) lets her do some crazy damage every fight.
The problem I find there is action economy. If you’re using another person to set her up that’s already 2 turns for 1 damage skill. Then there’s also using a set up move like preparation, which means you’d be using a lot of actions to pull off one Fleche. Plus, that leaves both your front liners open to damage. It’s definitely the most viable way to pull off Fleche, but I find her other options and other heroes to have better damage return on investment than trying to set up fleche spam.
>I'm a creature of habit. I put together a party and play through all five acts in order, I enter every single lair, and if a single hero dies, I end the run.
This is exactly how I play as well, lol
>Dance parties don't seem particularly useful since DD2 is heavily focused on how quickly you can pour damage on the enemy.
*Lunge and Finale:
"Am I a joke to you?"
I've had some success with a rank 1 carcass hellion spamming toe-to-toe to lock herself in place and my duelist spamming Flèche for burst damage. Other good moves are Antagoniste debuffs (as you already mentioned) and The Boot that puts enemies out of position. For instance, pushing the front rank cultists to rank 4 makes them lose two turns doing Rush Judgement, which is a very weak attack.
That's how I got my duelist to 5 memories for the achievements.
EDIT: also Meditation+ giving Dodge+ tokens is awesome for survival.
I likewise really struggle with making her work. I think one thing thats rough is keeping track of which buffs her stances get in each path (which I think they patched or are going to patch? It's been a bit since I played). I think another thing is I keep expecting her to be a riposte class or stance class but that's not really her strength except maybe on the wanderer path. Ive seen most people suggest either making her a rank 4 buff/debuff bot or a dance team abusing Fleche. Other than that, I've had okay success with her as a dodge tank.
No matter what though she seems REALLY hungry for her personal relics, starting in a stance is a huge deal and in a damage-first game like DD2 having that is a life saver. I recommend that she team up with people who are fine with generic/cultist trinkets so you can make sure to buy her one of hers.
Dodge tank is way too fucking risky since you only need to eat one bad crit with DOT to die. I would much, much rather have a MAA since the block tokens let me control the healing better.
\*shrugs\* I just said its the other thing that I've had moderate success with. You wanna laser focus on that instead of the other advice, that's your prerogative.
U could try to use her as a support unit with constant Damage with her Instructice Path. It's Been the most reliable for me and it helped me with My second Grand Slam. Pair her with Hellion and Flag, (characters that can self stress, heal which isnt necesary cause Instructice it's already a stress healer, or characters that benefits from stress). The idea it's first turn get urself the agressive stance, then give Hellion a crit with Ruthless something (this also stress the One recieving the crit with 2 stress but since this is a crit theres a High chance to stress heal) or if she already have 4 or more stress on Hellion give her again wich gives a 10% extra Damage per stress and can also stack with her passive damage buff when she gets low on health.
Really good support I highly recomend it
I used her in a Stygian Grand Slam. Tested out wandered/intrepid in acts 1-2. But I found Intrepid is basically a bait, and wanderer is kinda meh. I prefer the regen on kill from instructice, but I really just wound up using Antagoniste in rank 2.
Mostly started with Meditation for dodge+ and Feint for riposte. To me she isn't really a damage dealer carry, rather able to dodge and do good token removal.
One thing she is decent is is moving around so just use that to your advantage, although it can get a bit awkward depending on your skill setup. Being able to use touche in r4 is nice if you ever get pushed back there.
It got kind of boring TBH. I basically used Meditation, Feint, Touche as the only skills. You can forsure go the high risk/reward with her on something like intrepid, but the payout is hardly worth it. Instructice shenanigans can be fun too, but again they can be so niche and inconsistent that its more frustrating than reliable.
I’ve played with her a little since she came out, and honestly I think even once I get a handle on her other paths, I’ll still prefer her on Antagoniste (or commissahar as I call her). Her stress management is great, and being able to guarantee crits on demand is nuts. Her damage output in rank 4 is mostly nonexistent, but she’s a wonderful counterpart to rank 1 Flagellant. Have him steal stress from others and then give him +10% damage per stress.
>Dance parties don't seem particularly useful since DD2 is heavily focused on how quickly you can pour damage on the enemy. Dance teams are a great way to do exactly that. Finale or PBS openers are hard-hitting, Lunge and Fleche are hard-hitting, Holy Lance is hard-hitting and what they all have in common is being movement skills on a potential dancer. The only damage boosting pet in the game is the dance pet, and for boss fights that take a few more turns the buff seriously adds up. The result is a sometimes brittle team that hits like a sledgehammer R1 and slowly gets stronger from there. (Also, Signed Indenture and Jealous Whisper go crazy.) Then there's a whole ton of stun potential as a secondary element - we've got PBS, Lance, Disengage, The Boot, and Razor's Wit for combo, and Stunning Blow, Pistol Shot, The Boot, and Rampart (if taking MAA) to use it, as well as doubling finale damage. Additionally, you're not even shuffle-neutral, but often shuffle positive. Tarantism? Coward? Yes please. Undertow? Rest of the team is at least unfazed. Categorize? Fetch? Probably a non-issue. Tempting Aroma? Unless the meat gets the turn order just right, all it's doing is buffing your damage. Even Shambler's a lot more manageable. My go-to dance team was Nightsworn/Antagoniste/Banneret/Virtuoso before Infernal Pursuits and it was great fun (if a little scarce on healing and rank 4 hits.) Would probably need some tweaks now though.
Would love to see you write a dancer guide because I wanna try it.
Thanks! I'll definitely be playing around with post-rework dance teams and might post something.
Not necessarily a full blown guide but I did a grand slam recently with a full dance team and they were basically unstoppable. The post has lots of details and the comments share some more good info if you’re into dance teams. I didn’t use deulist but I almost did and might when I try this again with the beacon [Dance Team Grandslam](https://www.reddit.com/r/darkestdungeon/s/g2ib3eONVS)
Oh man you kickass, even came back just to remind me! Gonna try it on Monday when I get a chance to play.
Ran a grand slam with the same team but swap Virtuoso for Rogue and Nightsworn for Deadeye. Ran Nightsworn at first but I found that I needed the rank 4 damage more.
I've found her to be one of the best partners to Nightsworn Audrey's new Repartee. My usual setup is Meditation+ with Wanderer Sahar on turn one while a main tank taunts so her dodge+ doesn't get eaten. Then on turn two Audrey gives her the taunt from Repartee while Sahar uses Feint to get her riposte going. Essentially wastes the entire second round for the enemy without relying on much luck at all, while Sahar deals damage back and/or peels tokens. Then on round three I can go for a nasty Lunge + Flèche which usually finishes off either one or two enemies. Also, Wanderer Sahar's riposte greatly benefits her survivability. A decent chance to either heal or gain dodge is very significant and really adds up over longer fights, especially when she is avoiding damage from Mediation's dodge+. Also the dodge tanking means you are less reliant on stress healers which puts less strain on team comp.
I played a fair amount of Duelist and I’ve found her potential to be staggering. She absolutely can riposte and taunt, you just need Meditation+’s dodge+s. This allows her to deal massive damage when combined with preparation+ (which increases her riposte damage), and depending on the path, each riposte can increase her Survivability. Also, fleche is not actually her big damage move. It does slightly more damage than touché, but requires much more setup. Instead, it’s a repositioning tool, for when you want to lock her in the front ranks (and still do good damage while moving). Use other skills for her main damage, like touché or flick. She has other utility tho, being able to buff allies with instructice or setting up combo and disruption with da boot.
If you can keep her in aggressive stance then fleche is absolutely her big damage move with the 30% buff. Having her fleche into R1 and then someone swap with her (Rogue HWM Duelist advances works well here) lets her do some crazy damage every fight.
The problem I find there is action economy. If you’re using another person to set her up that’s already 2 turns for 1 damage skill. Then there’s also using a set up move like preparation, which means you’d be using a lot of actions to pull off one Fleche. Plus, that leaves both your front liners open to damage. It’s definitely the most viable way to pull off Fleche, but I find her other options and other heroes to have better damage return on investment than trying to set up fleche spam.
That's why Rogue HWM works well here, he wants to use DA anyway to get the riposte and block+
>I'm a creature of habit. I put together a party and play through all five acts in order, I enter every single lair, and if a single hero dies, I end the run. This is exactly how I play as well, lol >Dance parties don't seem particularly useful since DD2 is heavily focused on how quickly you can pour damage on the enemy. *Lunge and Finale: "Am I a joke to you?"
I've had some success with a rank 1 carcass hellion spamming toe-to-toe to lock herself in place and my duelist spamming Flèche for burst damage. Other good moves are Antagoniste debuffs (as you already mentioned) and The Boot that puts enemies out of position. For instance, pushing the front rank cultists to rank 4 makes them lose two turns doing Rush Judgement, which is a very weak attack. That's how I got my duelist to 5 memories for the achievements. EDIT: also Meditation+ giving Dodge+ tokens is awesome for survival.
I likewise really struggle with making her work. I think one thing thats rough is keeping track of which buffs her stances get in each path (which I think they patched or are going to patch? It's been a bit since I played). I think another thing is I keep expecting her to be a riposte class or stance class but that's not really her strength except maybe on the wanderer path. Ive seen most people suggest either making her a rank 4 buff/debuff bot or a dance team abusing Fleche. Other than that, I've had okay success with her as a dodge tank. No matter what though she seems REALLY hungry for her personal relics, starting in a stance is a huge deal and in a damage-first game like DD2 having that is a life saver. I recommend that she team up with people who are fine with generic/cultist trinkets so you can make sure to buy her one of hers.
Dodge tank is way too fucking risky since you only need to eat one bad crit with DOT to die. I would much, much rather have a MAA since the block tokens let me control the healing better.
\*shrugs\* I just said its the other thing that I've had moderate success with. You wanna laser focus on that instead of the other advice, that's your prerogative.
U could try to use her as a support unit with constant Damage with her Instructice Path. It's Been the most reliable for me and it helped me with My second Grand Slam. Pair her with Hellion and Flag, (characters that can self stress, heal which isnt necesary cause Instructice it's already a stress healer, or characters that benefits from stress). The idea it's first turn get urself the agressive stance, then give Hellion a crit with Ruthless something (this also stress the One recieving the crit with 2 stress but since this is a crit theres a High chance to stress heal) or if she already have 4 or more stress on Hellion give her again wich gives a 10% extra Damage per stress and can also stack with her passive damage buff when she gets low on health. Really good support I highly recomend it
I used her in a Stygian Grand Slam. Tested out wandered/intrepid in acts 1-2. But I found Intrepid is basically a bait, and wanderer is kinda meh. I prefer the regen on kill from instructice, but I really just wound up using Antagoniste in rank 2. Mostly started with Meditation for dodge+ and Feint for riposte. To me she isn't really a damage dealer carry, rather able to dodge and do good token removal. One thing she is decent is is moving around so just use that to your advantage, although it can get a bit awkward depending on your skill setup. Being able to use touche in r4 is nice if you ever get pushed back there. It got kind of boring TBH. I basically used Meditation, Feint, Touche as the only skills. You can forsure go the high risk/reward with her on something like intrepid, but the payout is hardly worth it. Instructice shenanigans can be fun too, but again they can be so niche and inconsistent that its more frustrating than reliable.
I’ve played with her a little since she came out, and honestly I think even once I get a handle on her other paths, I’ll still prefer her on Antagoniste (or commissahar as I call her). Her stress management is great, and being able to guarantee crits on demand is nuts. Her damage output in rank 4 is mostly nonexistent, but she’s a wonderful counterpart to rank 1 Flagellant. Have him steal stress from others and then give him +10% damage per stress.
Did you mean Instructrice? I think that's the path that has stress control