Ascended Witch

The Ascended Witch is a cultist, blessed by her Eldritch god. She utilizes the same moveset as her counterpart, mainly causing massive stress damage and marking with Fate's Reveal, and occasionally using her shuffling attacks. This enemy can be encountered on the first expedition in the Darkest Dungeon.

Abilities
The ascended witch possesses the same skillset as her lesser counterparts albeit renamed. Nevertheless, they are significantly more dangerous, specially her stress-inducing attacks.

Behaviour
- COOLDOWNS: The Ascended Witch's "Fate's Pull/Push" cannot be used more then once every fourth turns. They are not mutually exclusive, so her using one of these skills does not prevent her from casting the other on the next turn.

- PREFRENCE: She will most likely open her first turn with "Fate's Reveal" (20x greater chance), causing some stress damage and marking your party for the ascended brawler's. The next turn, she has a tenfold higher chance of casting "Fate's Pull".

It should be remembered, that she WILL NOT use "Fate's Reveal" if:

· 2 or more of your heroes are MARKED.

· 3 or more of your heroes are VIRTUOUS.

On another note, at any given turn, the Ascended Witch will have a ten times greater chance of using "Fate's Reveal" if the target is highly stressed (+50 stress) on said hero. Similarly, marked targets are ten times more likely to get "Fate's Pull" used on them, thereby allowing marked targets located on the back to be moved forward where they will be mercilessly rended for extra damage by the brawlers.

Strategy
Much like regular Cultist Witches, they should be your top priority: their stress attacks hit extremely hard, and their mark allows the Ascended Brawlers to do significantly more damage with their Rend for the New God ability. Furthermore, the fact that they focus fire their stress attacks means that they can easily give someone a heart attack if left unchecked.

A Plague Doctor with extra speed in form of trinkets or quirks can stun both witches on the first round, possibly allowing the rest of the party to wail on them and quickly dispatch the Ascended Witches before stress becomes unmanageable. Move skills are drastically less useful on the Witch than other monsters: she can still cast most of her skills from any rank. Any stun+Damage skill would be a welcomed addition as well, although you might be tempted to inflict some burst damage on them in order to wipe them out as quickly as possible.

As common for heavy stress-hitters, stress-healing heroes such as the crusader or jester will provide your ranks with some relief should you be unable to deal with their "Fate's Reveal". Try your best keep your stress low: the Witches will mercilessly exploit anyone with high stress.