Best Classes - Darkest Dungeon 2 Guide - IGN (2024)

Every hero in Darkest Dungeon 2 has 3 hero paths to pick from, alongside the Wanderer path. Hero paths are essentially classes and each one offers a unique playstyle and focus, and it's important to get to grips with the best Darkest Dungeon 2 hero paths in order to successfully beat the game.

While it can be hard to rank the best classes in the game based on pure strength alone, there are some that stand out as simply offering more value than others. This may be due to their variety of abilities, their impressive stats, or their ability to support the rest of the team.

Make sure to consider your ideal team comp when picking out which classes you want to run with. Planning is the key to success in Darkest Dungeon 2, so consider how the hero paths will interact with each other and what sort of abilities and stats you'll need at your disposal.

To help you pick from the stand-out hero classes in the game, we've sorted them in categories based on playstyle. This page looks at the best healer and support classes, the best tank paths, and the best DPS hero paths.

While we have ranked the best hero paths in this list, it's still worth checking out all the other hero paths and trying out some new comps. It's possible to beat the game with almost any comp if you plan your moves carefully and pick your items well.

Best Healer and Support Hero Paths

Having a good support hero or healer on your team can make the difference between winning or losing in a boss battle. This is a game that prioritizes planning and strategy (alongside a lot of luck) and having a pure DPS team won't get you very far.

Surgeon - Plague Doctor

The Plague Doctor is one of the most powerful heroes in the game in terms of her path variety and set of abilities. The Surgeon hero path stands out as the strongest support hero path in the game, hands down. It's powerful, has plenty of move variety, and can still act as a back-up DPS when needed too.

One of the things that sets this hero path apart from the others is the 25% health buff and the 33% healing given buff. It's usually one or the other when it comes to support paths, so adding extra health to keep PD alive while healing offers a lot of value.

Alongside the Plague Doctor's standard healing abilities, she's got some great support and damage abilities as well. If you get into a situation where you lose a hero and need to switch her in as a DPS character, she will still be able to perform and take down bosses.

The 50% damage buff makes the Surgeon a very reliable back-up DPS character. It's best to only look for trinkets and combat items that focus on healing and support, as this character has enough of a head start with health and damage output.

Virtuoso - Jester

The Jester is a tricky hero to get the hang of. His hero paths almost entirely change his playstyle and focus, and it takes some smart planning to build a solid comp around him.

That being said, the Virtuoso path is one of the most flexible support paths in the game. One of the best things about it is the 15% chance for all allies to receive a 100% Stress level resistance buff at the start of every turn. A 15% chance may not seem like much but this really adds up in long battles.

Having 3 more speed levels than usual is a great way to stay on top of team management, too. Having a slow healer or support character can often put the rest of your team at risk, so Virtuoso being a snappy and quick character makes a real difference.

Alongside the Jester's strong variety of healing and support abilities, this path gives him a 20% maximum health buff. It's a sturdy and self-reliant hero path.

Seraph - Vestal

The Vestal is a hero with some unique hero-specific tokens. Her Consecration abilities make her stand out as one of the best support heroes in the game, and this particular hero path makes them even more effective in battle.

This hero path applies a massive buff to the Mantra ability, making it heal for a maximum of 50% with a Mastery Point upgrade.

Additionally, this hero path makes Consecration of Light and Consecration of Fortitude last for 2 turns longer than usual. Alongside this, the Vestal gains a Conviction token whenever a Consecration turns up during battle.

Best Tank Hero Paths

For a hero path to be considered a tank path, it should be very sturdy and resilient, effective at mitigating damage, and have some way to support and defend the team. Tanks should be able to absorb massive amounts of damage to leave their team free to attack and heal as the situation demands it.

There aren't actually any explicit mentions of tanks in Darkest Dungeon 2 but it's a good way to think about the hero paths on offer to help you build up a strong team comp.

Ravager - Hellion

This Hellion path was made with the first party rank in mind. It gives the Hellion a 20% maximum health buff and applies a 25% damage buff whenever she's in the front rank of the party.

There are some pretty big negative aspects to this hero path, namely the lack of Bleed resistance and the chance to gain Bleed tokens at the start of every round, but these can be balanced with smart trinket picks and combat items.

It's worth the gamble to pick this hero path in most cases as the Hellion has some seriously powerful melee abilities that become even stronger with the first rank damage buff.

Vanguard - Man-at-Arms

The Man-at-Arms is likely the first character that comes to mind when you think of a tank character. He's designed to be a heavy-hitting melee character with all of his hero paths but the Vanguard path is the one that really stands out as a pure tank hero path.

One of the best things about this path is the damage buffs it gives to the Man-at-Arm's moves. It applies a 25% damage buff to Riposte abilities and a 50% damage buff to the Crush ability. These abilities are already quite strong and these buffs are huge.

Additionally, this path provides the Man-at-Arms with 20% more maximum health than usual. He's already quite tanky and self-reliant, so this health buff makes him an exceptional tank.

Best DPS Hero Paths

If you're unfamiliar with the term DPS, it means 'damage per second' and refers to damage dealers who aren't focused on mitigating damage (like a tank), healing the team, or acting as a support character.

DPS heroes can be split into the categories of ranged and melee DPS heroes, but for the sake of simplicity, we've put both categories into the same section here.

Sharpshot - Highwayman

This Highwayman path is arguably one of the best ranged DPS hero paths in the game. It offers a lot of variety in terms of moves and abilities, and has a lot of damage output potential.

One of the best things about this path is the ranged damage buff that it offers, giving the Highwayman a 25% damage buff to all of his ranged abilities. Adding this alongside the potential for a Strength token when using the Grapeshot ability makes the Highwayman a real heavy-hitter.

This hero path also provides a decent speed buff, too. With some smart trinket picks and strategic use of combo tokens, a Sharpshot Highwayman can easily one-shot quite a few enemies in the game.

Berserker - Hellion

The Hellion is a powerful damage dealer and the Berserker path provides a huge damage output. It's very DOT-focused, which makes it relevant for quite a few top-tier comps. It does come with a HP debuff but this can be overcome with trinkets easily.

This hero path means that the Hellion has a 33% chance to apply Bleed tokens to enemies and that her Bleed-causing abilities have a 10% higher chance to hit a critical strike, too. This is powerful and can work perfectly alongside abilities like the Plague Doctor's Cause of Death.

Additionally, this path gives the Hellion a 10% Death's Door phase resistance buff. This resistance stat is often overlooked but can be essential to manage in tricky fights.

Warlock - Occultist

The Occultist is a hero that takes some practice to get the hang of but he can be exceptional with the right build, team comp, and trinket picks.

The Warlock hero path stands out as one of the best ranged DPS hero paths on offer. It gives the Occultist's ranged abilities a 25% damage buff, which makes abilities like Abyssal Artillery absolutely formidable in battles.

Also, this hero path puts more focus on the Occultist's hero-specific token Unchecked Power. This special combat token charges up some of the Occultist's abilities and makes him much more powerful.

There is a health debuff to consider with this path but the damage output and self-heal abilities on offer make this hero path worth the gamble.