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Darkest Dungeon 2’s Occultist commands magical powers from far beyond the mortal realm to smite his foes. To do so, he performs arcane rituals and conducts profane sacrifices to cosmic beings that can aid him and his allies in combat.
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Navigating the vagaries of interdimensional relationships isn’t easy, especially when it comes to commanding them to perform the way you want them to on the battlefield. As a result, this guide will help you figure out how to wield those otherworldly forces, what skills mesh well with them, and which heroes will play well with your stellar new powers. The Occultist’s unique, varied skills allow him to perform an offensive and support role well, so there are lots of interesting build options to explore.
Occultist Summary
- Easy combo token placement
- Needs to build Unchecked Power for some skills
- Powerful debuffs
- Low damage outside The Burning Stars skill
- Strong back line reach
- Bad Wyrd Reconstruction rolls can be fatal
- Potentially great healing
- Enemies with strong Debuff Resistance will ruin your day
Can apply Burn, Blight, and Bleed
Works in almost every Rank
- Surprising amount of HP
Occultist Stats
Resistances
The Occultist has above average resistance to Burn, Debuff, and Disease.His additional resistance to Burn and Debuff is particularly useful, because it prevents additional Burn stacks from accumulating from sources other than Unchecked Power.His natural resistance to Debuffs helps with using Chaotic Offering, since it applies a random debuff to him that can be resisted.
Unchecked Power
The Occultist has a unique mechanic through Unchecked Power stacks. Unchecked Power is used to grant additional effects to the Occultist’s skills.However, each stack has a 33% chance of applying one stack of Burn to the Occultist.
Be aware: the Burn caused by Unchecked Power cannot be resisted.
These are the only ways to gain Unchecked Power:
If looking for the best option to use to build Unchecked Power, Chaotic Offering is the most consistent.
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Occultist Skills
The effects of a skill’s upgrade are noted in parentheses.
How to Unlock
Sacrificial Stab (Melee)
Unlocked by default
Abyssal Artillery (Ranged)
Weakening Curse (Ranged)
Wyrd Reconstruction
Daemon’s Pull (Ranged)
Vulnerability Hex (Ranged)
Complete the 1st chapter of the Occultist’s story
Binding Shadows (Melee)
Complete the 2nd chapter of the Occultist’s story
Malediction
Complete the 3rd chapter of the Occultist’s story
The Burning Stars (Ranged)
Complete the 4th chapter of the Occultist’s story
Chaotic Offering
Complete the 5th chapter of the Occultist’s story
Anemnesis (Melee)
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This skill is important enough to warrant a special mention, becauseit’s an amazing tool for healing but can also be equally effective at bringing your runs to a screeching halt.
Thanks to Wyrd Reconstruction’s inconsistent healing, your results will vary when you use it.When Wyrd Reconstruction rolls high or crits with a high number, then it’s a solid heal despite its 50% HP restriction. But if it rolls low or just applies Bleed to an already dying hero, then this skill becomes more of a detriment than a boon.Using this skill becomes even more painful when you’re against enemies that can apply additional damage-over-time effects, because after a certain point, those effects will out-damage whatever healing you’re trying to give. As a result, you should avoid healing allies off Death’s Door unless you’re in a desperate situation.
To combat these effects, it’s best to use Wyrd Reconstruction when you may afford to deal with the Bleed, if you also have Bandages, a Hero that can remove those effects altogether, or Trinkets that give Bleed Resistance.
If you’re trying to bring a Hero back from Death’s Door with Wyrd Reconstruction, be aware that you need two separate dice rolls to go right for you: the amount healed and the bleed application.
Here are the Trinkets you should be on the look out for to help your team get the most out of Wyrd Reconstruction:
Occultist Paths
The Occultist has four paths:Wanderer, Ritualist, Warlock, and Aspirant.The Wanderer is largely obsolete when compared to the other paths.While the bonus candle is nice, the Ritualist does everything the Wanderer does with only a minor debuff that only happens 33% of the time and a slew of buffs.On that note, here are the different ways to build each path.
This path focuses on cursing skills and team support, but its buffs allow it to be built in several different directions.Vulnerability Hex and Weakening Curse are already wonderful tools on their own, and adding a buff to the Occultist and an increased chance of applying Debuffs just makes them even more valuable.
A 33% chance to add Vulnerable to yourself sounds bad, but putting the Occultist in Ranks 3 or 4 will help keep him away from particularly hard hitting attacks. His max HP is also high enough to help him survive one or two particularly painful hits.The best way to negate this weakness is to stop bythe Dreaming Generaland find the Footman’s Grog Trinket, or get the Seeing Sphere Trinket, to convert Vulnerable into a useful status effect.
Best Ritualist Skills
This skill set is focused on making the Ritualist one of the best support heroes in the game. Not only does Vulnerability Hex and Weakening Curse become more consistent with the RItualist, they also add plenty of utility to a team.Heroes that require combos to function, like the Leper, will appreciate Weakening Curse, since it reduces incoming damage and adds a combo token to targets.Vulnerability Hex is useful to get rid of Dodge tokens and increase burst damage to enemies. Even if you have a way to remove Dodge tokens, adding a Vulnerability debuff will help end fights sooner if you have a partner with strong burst damage. If you find that your team doesn’t need one of these two curses, you can swap one of them out for Wyrd Reconstruction.
From there, the build can go in two directions - pure support or Unchecked Power-focused. Pure support sheds Chaotic Offering and The Burning Stars in favor of more support options like Wyrd Reconstruction.In comparison, Unchecked Power-focus will use Chaotic Offering to set up The Burning Stars and an assured critical healing on Wyrd Reconstruction.This latter build creates a Ritualist that can support his team when needed, while still dealing chunks of damage through The Burning Stars. Its biggest difficulty is trying to figure out what exactly your team needs, since there are plenty of good skills for this Path and five slots feel insufficient.
Abyssal Artillery and Daemon’s Pull both fulfill similar functions - they deal damage to the enemy’s back line and apply combo counters on enemies. Daemon’s Pull offers more utility with its pull and Corpse Clear, and it’s more consistent with applying combo tokens.If you have several strong front line heroes, Daemon’s Pull becomes the better option, because it brings obnoxious back line enemies to the front so they can be quickly eliminated by them.Abyssal Artillery is better if you have consistent ways of gaining Unchecked Power, or if your team struggles with clearing multiple enemies quickly.
Best Ritualist Trinkets
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The Warlock is the most potentially powerful Occultist path. The 20% health reduction leaves the Warlock at 24 HP.This makes him a little too fragile to comfortably work his magic in Rank 1 or 2, but it makes him a phenomenal damage dealer in Ranks 3 or 4.Compared to heroes like the Highwayman orthe Grave Robber, the Warlock will require some set up through acquiring stacks of Unchecked Power. While he’ll have an easier time than the other paths, it’s still extremely unreliable outside Chaotic Offering.
Despite the focus on Ranged skill damage, the Warlock can still run a supportive set similar to the Ritualist. The benefit to this is that the Warlock will deal more damage than the Ritualist will, despite the Warlock’s weaker debuffs.
Best Warlock Skills
The game plan here is to get Unchecked Power stacks as soon and as often as possible and then cast The Burning Stars.To help with that, you can set up Chaotic Offering and then see what the next turn gives you. If both the Warlock passive and the Chaotic Offering buff both don’t give you the extra Unchecked Power stack needed to cast The Burning Stars, then you can instead use Abyssal Artillery or Daemonic Reach to help your team set up for more damage.
Once you have the two stacks, however, unload Burning Stars and watch enemies start melting. The damage isn’t the highest in the beginning, so you’ll need to invest an upgrade at some point or acquire some trinkets to help its damage numbers become worthy of the setup required.Since The Burning Stars also sets up a combo token, If the Warlock is in Rank 3, you can use Binding Shadows to gain an assured Unchecked Power stack and then use The Burning Stars again.
Best Warlock Trinkets
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Out of the four paths, the Aspirant is the one that struggles the most. In theory, it wants to stay in the front lines, where Block+ and 39 max HP will keep the Aspirant alive.Then, from Rank 2, the Aspirant can attack with its close range attacks to build Unchecked Power and use The Burning Stars, Anemnesis, or in some cases, Malediction.
While that idea sounds good, the biggest issue is howthis comes at the cost of more inconsistent Curse skills and a heavy reliance on Unchecked Power, The Occultist also does not have particularly strong melee attacks. The Aspirant’s melee is primarily good because it generates Unchecked Power stacks.
Best Aspirant Skills
This set relies on combo counters in order to start building Unchecked Power. Daemon’s Pull lets the Aspirant create his own combo counters to use later.If you have a teammate like the Jester who can mark enemies with combo counters for you, then you can instead use Binding Shadows or Sacrificial Stab to start building Unchecked Power stacks.Sacrificial Stab is preferred if you don’t want the Aspirant to move ranks very much, while Binding Shadows is better if you need more movement in your team.
Once you have 2x Unchecked Power stacks, you’re able to use The Burning Stars or Anamnesis to handle almost every enemy you can face.The Burning Stars work best, offering a large burst of damage and a combo marker to rebuild your spent Unchecked Power. Anamnesis is used for widespread Bleed and damage across the entire enemy team, making it most effective in small fights against multiple enemies.
Malediction has a special niche here if your teammates are the Vanguard Man-At-Arms and the Rogue Highwayman.The strategy here is to cast Malediction on your opponents and then set up Riposte with your teammates.Since your enemies will have Burn, Blight, or Bleed applied to them each time they’re damaged, each riposte will attack the enemy and apply more status effects.
Best Aspirant Trinkets
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First Skill To Upgrade For The Occultist
If you have another healer like the Plague Doctor or Vestal, then the first upgrade should be Abyssal Artillery or Daemon’s Pull.While the other skills are nice, they’re either stuck behind Unchecked Power, or they’re highly situational. Abyssal Artillery is worth the upgrade for the damage and double stun at 2x Unchecked Power tokens. The increased chances of combo tokens helps both the Occultist and his team.
However, if the Occultist is your only healer, then Wyrd Reconstruction should be your first upgrade.While you’ll run some risks as noted earlier, an early upgrade drops the Bleed stack from 3 to 2 and increases the maximum amount healed from 33% to 50%.
Best Rank For The Occultist
The Occultist can play in almost any rank.The only rank that the Occultist should avoid is rank 1, because he gets locked out of a good portion of his skills in that position.
The best rank for the Occultist is rank 3, where he has access to almost all of his skills and all of his paths (except the Aspirant) can perform their jobs very well from here.
Best Team Compositions For The Occultist
The Occultist benefits from heroes who place combo tokens, apply Bleed stacks, or remove Bleed stacks.Heroes who also offer stress heals are extremely helpful, because the Occultist doesn’t offer anything for stress management.
