I've got three Darkest Dungeon saves. The first is my main 'Normal' (Darkest)difficulty save. A save created before any DLC was released. A save I've spent a lot of time with before and after DLC, getting and completing everything. A 629 week Hamlet of pride and joy, so to speak. Doing everything in a save leaves little challenge or new experiences. When the game received changes this lead to the creation of two other saves. A radiant (easy mode) save to 'see the difference', currently 45 weeks(turns) and the other save is my "New Game +" Stygian (hard mode) which is called Bloodmoon these day's, currently sitting on 182 weeks. It's that last save/mode that I've been faffing about with.
The last few weeks have seen me pottering around more than usual with this save. The main campaign is done, DLC is there but not triggered(Crimson Court especially!). With the main campaign done the Bloodmoon 'effects' are gone so its back to a 'real' Stygian mode.
So the save is at a sweet spot where dungeons can be run, gear acquired and gold amassed without to much hassle. But gold is not flush and gear(trinkets) are lacking. Trying to heal and fix my hero roster is resource and time consuming. Unlike my main save where all on my roster are preset teams with trinkets; This save is all add-hoc and unequipped trinkets.
Over time while some tactics and strategies fade others stay with me. There's been an apprehension in my mind at taking on a specific dungeon boss for a while. I've never liked The Cove. While it's Siren boss can be a bit of a pain it's very 'doable'; The Crew on the other hand have some tactics of their own that make them a royal pain to beat. Specifically a health regen that needs a lot of DPS to stop never mind counteract. So my last few runs were more serious and aimed towards getting my own crew(3 level 3's and a level 2) to be good enough to take a trip to that boss and attempt The Drowned Crew. The second iteration of a boss is always a pain. You can't just take in maxed out level 6's to brute force things. Medium boss's need to be done with a medium level crew. I may sound bitchy about that fact but it's usually 'just an inconvenience'; More so when you've got limited resources and trying to aim those efforts into making the level 6's "better". But this boss.... With the health regen really 'gets' to me; So I've avoided it.
So long story short. Hard difficulty save has no DLC content started, has the main campaign done and just needs a few bosses mopped up. Oh and 1 last class gotten to level 6.
All pre farm district buildings are also 'done'.
All bar the The Red Hook for obvious reasons.
So yea, it 'can be' a 'sweet spot' for building resources. Easy to faff about with even in a 'hard' save.
Time to push for a challenge.
The problem with some boss runs is that you can get unlucky with the actual dungeon you need to pass through to get to the boss. So this time in I avoided as much as I could and skipped a lot of looting to keep as much of my starting inventory as possible. Getting my crew to the main objective intact was the point of the run. Tempting as the gold is!
So in I went.
Not the finest dungeon run.
Not the finest boss take down.
I would have failed the boss if not for a positive sanity check that turned my spot 1 Sheildbreaker into an anti-anchor machine!
So with her benefiting from that sanity check, the crew member couldn't anchor her to allow the main boss regenerate health. By the time I realised that was working multiple times in a row I kind of started to cheese it a bit and then went all in on the DPS.
After the boss kill I went back and looted some bits I'd passed by, I didn't want to push my luck.
I'm glad that that's over. Relieved but not as happy as I thought I'd be. The reality of that sanity check was the only saving grace to an otherwise O.K. run. It would have been a disaster without it. New experience right!? In doing up the video I can see a lot of flaws in what I was doing. A kind of benefit in a retrospective way. To be back on top of the game I need to play more. Especially more seriously with this 'hard mode' save. More lessons to be learnt and relearned.
On a side note; It's fun to watch new players to the game on YouTube. Fun in a 'they don't' know whats ahead' kind of way. Their pain, my pleasure etc.... We've all been there.
Yet some new players find it hard to shake the World of Warcraft group mentality when they form a Darkest Dungeon group. There are plenty of workable groups that don't need a dedicated healer never mind a 'Tank'. Which takes group buffs to really make workable in DD. Yes, I'd rather go with a healer at the back but run a group with dodge buffs rather than any kind of agro redirection to a 'tank'. That's just me and my voice of (my)experience. What works, works well for me, so of course I'm biased. Each to their own. Watching has made me want to dive back into the game more fully. This last boss proves I need to.
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