Highwayman (Darkest Dungeon II)

Base = Upgraded =

"Hunted, hurried, a fugitive seeking to outpace the past."

- The Academic

The Highwayman is one of 11 Heroes in Darkest Dungeon II.

Class Description

 * ANY RANK
 * HIGH DMG
 * VERSATILE
 * RIPOSTE

Combat Skills

 * Skills available by default:
 * dd2 ability highwayman wickedslice.png Wicked Slice
 * dd2 ability pistolshot.png Pistol Shot
 * dd2 ability duelistsadvance.png Duelist's Advance
 * dd2 ability trackingshot.png Tracking Shot
 * dd2 ability takeaim.png Take Aim.
 * Permanently unlock more Skills in the Shrine of Reflection.

























Unique Trinkets
🔸Each Hero has their own 3 unique Trinkets, exclusive only to them. All unique Trinkets for Heroes have Indelible rarity, Bauble cost of 70 and stack limit of 1.

Hero Paths
🔸 All Heroes Start The Game with No Hero Path. Each Hero has access to 3 unique Paths available only to them once they Invest into The Living City. Wanderer serves as the default path for every character and gives a candle reward. The following Paths are unique to to the Highwayman.

Strategy
🔸The Highwayman's combat tactic heavily focuses on dealing damage. His skillset places emphasis on damage and offers utility such as self-Buffs, and a unique skill to destroy or steal powerful Tokens from enemies.



🔸 Offense: The Highwayman is a highly versatile attacker thanks to his ability to target the front Ranks (with Wicked Slice or  Open Vein) as well as the back Ranks (with  Pistol Shot).

Take Aim maths: The following is a mathematical analysis of Take Aim. To start, it is important to establish some basic rules.
 * Dd2 ability takeaim.png Aim is the cornerstone of HWM's damage output. It generates Dd2 token crit.png, Dd2 token dodge.png(and Dd2 token speed.png when mastered) while simultaneously clearing Dd2 token blind.png. Take Aim is exceptionally powerful when used in combination with extra turns from things such as Jester's "Encore" or the "Temptation" Trinket. When unmastered, Take Aim is marginally worse damage output wise when compared to not using it due to natural crit chances, however, when mastered, Take Aim becomes superior to using HWM without Take Aim as long as the player does not have more than 34% critical hit chance. Regardless of this, Take Aim is always a significant part of HWMs kit even if it is superior for the player to not use it whenever they are out of Dd2 token crit.png as the Dd2 token blind.png is another potent part of the skill.

Firstly. Your average attack hits between 50% and 100% of your "Maximum hit", coming to an average of 75%. Secondly. A critical hit deals 150% of your maximum hit. This means that you can view a critical hit as doing 75% more damage than your average hit. Taking this further, we can interpret each 1% of crit chance as a 0.75% increase to your maximum hit.

Take Aim requires you to invest a turn to use it in order to generate critical tokens. This means that in order to get an average damage with take aim, you need to work out the mean damage dealt per "Take Aim Cycle", or the damage you deal in the turns between using take aim, and the turn you used Take Aim.

For reference, C = Crit chance

Regular attacks: 75% + (0.75 * C)

Unmastered Take Aim: (0 + 150%) / 2 = 75%

Comparing unmastered Take Aim to regular attacks, we can already see that regular attacks do (C * 0.75) average damage than using Take Aim. However, when we factor in mastered Take Aim, it gets interesting.

Mastered Take Aim: (0 + 150% + 150%) / 3 = 100%

Using Mastered Take Aim, your average Damage Per Turn (DPT) is 25% higher than using unmastered take aim, or regular attacks when ignoring natural crit chance. From here, by dividing the 25% gain by the value of 1% of crit chance, 0.75%, we can see that Take Aim+ is equal in DPT to having a 33.333* crit chance. As we cannot have decimal crit chance, this means that in order to do more damage without using Take Aim when compared to using Take Aim, you need 34% or higher crit chance.

Another interesting property of crit tokens is that they affect all hits in a given attack, not just one, while natural crit chance rolls each hit independantly. This means that for Grapeshot blast the maths is somewhat different. Because we have 2 chances to critically hit, there is greater variance in the possible outcomes. This does not affect the value of crit % in damage dealt however, so the "34% rule" remains true.


 * Dd2 ability highwayman wickedslice.png Wicked Slice and Dd2 ability openvein.png Open Vein are suitable for finishing off enemies with Deathsdoor dd2.png Death Blow Resistance. An upgraded Dd2 ability highwayman wickedslice.png Wicked Slice can ignore much of the said resistance of certain enemies (Lord, Evangelist, etc.), while Dd2 ability openvein.png Open Vein applies aBleed dd2.png Bleed effect for extra chance of killing enemies on Deathsdoor dd2.png Death's Door.
 * Dd2 ability duelistsadvance.png Duelist's Advance is a recommended skill for Highwayman. With the skill, he can perform an effective offensive combo by moving forward to Rank 1 (where he can fire a Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot), adapt to situations when he is pushed back to Rank 4 where he can not use melee skills, as well as gain Dd2 token riposte.png Riposte to deliver extra attacks with a chance to apply dd2 token combo.png Combo . It also helps Highwayman adapt to combat tactics of Heroes whose skillsets revolve around constantly changing positions, such asPortraits-jester.pngr orPortraits-graverobber.pngrobber.


 * Point-blank.png Point Blank Shot is effective against Rank 1 enemies|alt=]]Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot is a highly devastating skill, but has rather strict Rank requirement. Its lethality is increased even further with both Sharpshot and Rogue Paths. Moreover, the skill's damage output can be substantially boosted with a Dd2 token strength.png Strength Token fromPortraits-plaguedoctor.pnge Doctor's Dd2 ability emboldeningvapours.png Emboldening Vapours, or Portraits-jester.pngr's Dd2 ability battleballad.png Battle Ballad, and Dd2 token crit.png Crit Token from Highwayman's Dd2 ability takeaim.png Take Aim for a guaranteed critical attack. These Tokens are multiplicative with each other, allowing for Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot to decimate the target. It is worth noting thatPortraits-jester.pngr's Dd2 ability battleballad.png Battle Ballad can push Highwayman to Rank 1 to use Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot, and when upgraded, also has 15% chance to grant a Dd2 token crit.png Crit Token to the Highwayman for a quick kill shot. If Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot does not score a kill, it will apply a dd2 token combo.png Combo Token to the target and enable more powerful follow-up attacks, such as Dd2 ability pistolshot.png Pistol Shot orPortraits-manatarms.png-at-Arms' Dd2 ability rampart.png Rampart, which can Stun dd2.png Stun targets when upgraded.


 * Dd2 ability doubletap.png Double Tap deals a considerable amount of damage to low-HP targets and ignores some Deathsdoor dd2.png Death Blow Resistance, ideal for taking out middle-Rank enemies, especially after they take a hit from Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot and get pushed back to Rank 2.


 * Dd2 ability grapeshotblast.png Grapeshot Blast is preferably used to remove defensive Tokens from multiple front-Rank enemies.

🔸 Survivability: The Highwayman is somewhat lacking in terms of defense, especially when he does not have access to all of his skills.


 * If he faces enemies with powerful attacks, it is advised to use Dd2 ability takeaim.png Take Aim for a Dd2 token dodge.png Dodge Token or Dd2 ability doublecross.png Double Cross for a Dd2 token block.png Block Token. These skills can also help set up solid combos for Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot (Dd2 ability takeaim.png Take Aim grants Dd2 token crit.png Crit, while Dd2 ability doublecross.png Double Cross inflicts Dd2 token vulnerable.png Vulnerable ). Furthermore, the large number of Tokens given by Dd2 ability takeaim.png Take Aim (4 Tokens if upgraded) can yield a very generous heal (50% of Icon HP dd2.png) for the Highwayman when thePortraits-plaguedoctor.pnge Doctor heals him with Dd2 ability indiscriminatescience.png Indiscriminate Science.


 * Dd2 ability duelistsadvance.png Duelist's Advance (which goes well with Dd2 ability pointblankshot.png Point Blank Shot) grants a Dd2 token dodge.png Dodge Token, if upgraded. Similar to Dd2 ability takeaim.png Take Aim, its upgraded version also applies 4 Tokens to the Highwayman and enables an equally large heal from Dd2 ability indiscriminatescience.png Indiscriminate Science.

🔸 Utility: Highway Robbery is extremely useful against enemies that can apply positive Tokens on themselves or allies, as it can remove these Tokens and destroy enemies' advantages to alleviate combat risks. With the skill upgraded, the Highwayman can also steal powerful Tokens to increase his damage and defense, such as Dodge (Evangelist, Cherub),  Crit (Evangelist),  Block+ (Sacrificial), etc.


 * If the Highwayman does not yet have access to Dd2 ability highwayrobbery.png Highway Robbery, Dd2 ability trackingshot.png Tracking Shot can be used against enemies that typically have or spam Dd2 token dodge.png Dodge or Dd2 token dodgeplus.png Dodge+ on themselves (Evangelist, Cherub, etc.). When upgraded, Dd2 ability trackingshot.png Tracking Shot will prevent enemies from gaining said Tokens for several turns and remove Dd2 token stealth.png Stealth . Due to its lack of cooldown, the skill can easily counter Urchin, who relies on Dd2 token stealth.png Stealth to attack. Since Dd2 ability trackingshot.png Tracking Shot applies dd2 token combo.png Combo, it can be combined with upgraded Dd2 ability pistolshot.png Pistol Shot to Stun dd2.png Stun enemies or any other skills that benefit from dd2 token combo.png Combo.

Shrine of Reflection
🔸The Highwayman permanently gains access to 6 skills over 5 Chapters through accessing memories in the Shrine of Reflection.

Trivia

 * The Highwayman's default name - Dismas - is named after the penitent thief crucified next to Jesus of Nazareth.
 * There are several unused story sketches related to the Highwayman which depicts some parts of his past.