Summary
Healers are an essential part of anyparty-based game, since they prioritize keeping everyone alive rather than dealing damage. Unlike tanks, who protect the party by absorbing damage, healers restore hit points that have already been lost from enemy attacks.
While a few characters inDarkest Dungeon 2, like the Grave Robber and Leper, can heal themselves, only a few can actively heal their allies. InDarkest Dungeon 2, most healing skills have caveats that keep them from being used until certain conditions have been met. Even so, having a healer can make the difference between victory or defeat.
6Occultist
Unpredictable Healing That Can Be Great Or Terrible
TheOccultistwas a favored healer in the originalDarkest Dungeon,although the unpredictable nature of his sole healing skill, Wyrd Reconstruction, deterred some players from relying on him. InDarkest Dungeon 2, this skillretains all of its unpredictabilitywhile adding the stipulation that targets must have less than half of their maximum health for it to be cast.
On the one hand, Wyrd Reconstruction can heal up to a third of the target’s maximum health without being upgraded, which is more than most healing skills in the game can do even when upgraded. On the other hand, it can also heal 0 hit pointsandcause the Occultist’s ally to bleed. This means that it might even kill an ally when they are at Death’s Door, which is when they need healing the most.
Using the Occultist as a secondary healer can be good, but players should not lean solely on him for healing.
5Runaway
Situational Healing That Relies On Bleeding
At launch, theRunawaywas the only character who was not a veteran of the original game. As such, her skills revolve around burn, a damage-over-time status introduced inDarkest Dungeon 2.Like the Plague Doctor, she excels at whittling away at enemy health when her support and healing skills are not needed.
The Runaway only has one skill that heals her allies, but it is one of the best in the game. Almost every healing skill in the game requires an ally to be below a certain HP threshold. Cauterize is unique in that it can heal party members before they are very low on health provided that they are bleeding. Sincemany enemy abilities can cause the party to bleed,she can nearly always heal when it’s needed. The skill also removes the bleed status from its target.
Being able to heal allies before they are desperate makes the Runaway a good healer, as long as another healer can take care of the party when they are not bleeding.
4Crusader
1 Healing Skill + Self-Healing That Can Transfer
TheCrusaderis a character that can fit one or two roles very well, or serve as a jack-of-all-trades. Most of his skills relate to preventing damage with Block tokens or setting up his team to finish enemies off, but he does have some dedicated healing abilities as well.
The Crusader can use Battle Heal to restore 20% of an ally’s health if they have less than half their maximum HP. He also has multiple skills that grant health regeneration to himself, regardless of whichHero Path the player has chosenfor him. The Templar Path focuses on his healing abilities and allows him to even transfer health regeneration to an ally.
As a versatile frontline character with a few healing skills, the Crusader can be a good choice for the expedition’s healer.
3Flagellant
Healing Others At His Expense
TheFlagellantwas introduced as DLC inDarkest Dungeon, but returned as a launch character in the sequel. He revels in living on the edge of life and death, and both his skills and his zombie-like appearance inDarkest Dungeon 2reflect that. Because of this mad zealotry, his skills heal and support his allies at the cost of his own mental and physical well-being.
His unconventional healing skills bring him closer to death by dealing damage to himself. Hecan heal stress the same way,which can lead to the unique Toxic trait that only he gains from reaching 10 stress. Finally, he can even take on allies' Blight, Bleed, and Burn tokens so that he takes that damage instead. Thankfully, the Flagellant can heal himself after taking on the burdens of his party.
The Flagellant is a great frontrank healer, but players need to be careful not to let him creep too close to death.
2Plague Doctor
Healing + DOT Removal
ThePlague Doctoris a veteran backrank healer returning from the first game with skills related to Blight damage and healing. She has a number of skills that can heal party members, but most do more than just restore hit points.
Battlefield Medicine removes any damage-over-time tokens from its target and heals up to 25% of their maximum HP, simultaneously healing and preventing future damage. Indiscriminate Science heals the target more based on how many tokens that character has, and so the player can augment the Plague Doctor’s healing output by planning ahead. The major drawback to her healing skills is that they have limited uses or cooldowns.
The Plague Doctor is a great healer whocan take care of multiple problems at oncewhen healing her allies.
1Vestal
Reliable Healing As Needed
TheVestalisDarkest Dungeon 2’squintessential healer. She has more healing skills than any other character in the game, and these skills can be improved by her Hero Path and using other skills. She is such a focused healer that the bestbuild for herdoes not even use attacks.
Divine Grace is a reliable healing skill that can be augmented to heal up to 50% of her ally’s maximum HP. She can also grant the entire party Health Regeneration with Divine Comfort or heal guarded allies with Mantra. With so many healing skills and various ways that her Hero Paths affect her focus, the Vestal is an extremely versatile healer.
The Vestal is the most reliable healer in the game with many healing skills and multiple strategies in which to use them.
