So I've seen people suggest this party comp many times on this sub, but haven't ever seen anyone go into detail about how exactly they're putting it together. I've had fun with this arrangement, but it's still been pretty hit or miss (mostly miss lol), so I'd love some feedback. Hopefully this is also useful for anyone else who wants to attempt this comp.

Through trial and error with some different configurations, here's the best setup I've come up with so far...

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4th SLOT: VESTAL

Primary healer stuns.

I always run Divine Grace, Divine Comfort, and Dazzling Light. If I can, I usually try to keep one enemy party member stunned at all times, typically rotating between 2 to avoid the post-stun buff. Occasionally I'll open the match with a stun depending on the opponent's comp. For the 4th skill: Mace Bash is a nice backup if she gets pulled to the front row or ends up the last man standing, but more often than not goes to waste; whereas Judgement and Illumination are nice because they hit any row. Haven't gotten much use out of Hand of Light.

For trinkets, Brass Knuckles has been essential—the stun strategy doesn't work without it—then I usually equip Monkey's Paw to buff her dodge and accuracy. I've tried Exotic Snuff instead which is helpful to avoid getting her pulled to the front, but nuking her accuracy definitely doesn't seem worth the tradeoff (even with it, her move resist is still pretty low). I've also tried Silver Syringe or Idol of Purity, but it didn't feel like the healing boost made all that much difference for the outcomes of the matches in the long run (maybe it would if I started healing sooner rather than waiting til they're on or close to death's door? but then it feels like I'm spending too many turns healing and not enough turns stunning, I dunno).

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3rd SLOT: PLAGUE DOCTOR

Key to the "Buff" portion of the "Buff the Leper" strategy, but also my secondary damage dealer, secondary healer, and useful for managing the opponent's back rows.

I always equip Emboldening Vapors, obviously. Then usually Incision, Battlefield Medicine, and Disorienting Blast. Disorienting Blast has been super helpful, and (in combination with the Vestal's stuns and the Leper's knockback skill) can sometimes successfully keep an opponent jumbled enough to prevent them from acting effectively, and spend a lot of wasted turns moving people around. Will typically use Emboldening Vapors the first 2 turns, but sometimes will play defense and start with Disorienting Blast instead.

I've tried not using Battlefield Medicine, but I've found I'm way better off with it – not only is it just useful to have a secondary healer (for those times you need to get someone off death's door twice in one round), but the 2-for-1 blight/bleed cure ends up being essential more often than not. Incision I've found to be the best skill for using him as a secondary damage dealer, especially because she can still attack from the front rows. I tried Blinding Gas, but found debuffing the back rows to be less effective than shuffling them around. Plague Grenade is too much of a slow burn imo (although if Vestal isn't equipping Judgement or Illumination, it becomes the only way to deal damage to the back row). Noxious Blast can be a good substitute for Incision (especially useful as a counter to any Restoration skills), but I'd only make that swap if I put her in the back row—otherwise, she risks getting pulled to the front and becoming totally useless.

I've gone back and forth about which trinkets to equip: currently I have Monkey's Paw and Retarius' Net. Have tried Exotic Snuff, but her move resist is already so abysmal that buffing it seems futile, especially given the accuracy debuff. Have also tried Eerie Eye (while running Blinding Gas)—didn't seem all that useful—and The Finisher, which is nice if you want to position her as the "cleanup crew" finishing them off after the Leper brings them to death's door.

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2nd SLOT: MAN-AT-ARMS

Primarily for guarding and buffing.

Defender is a must, of course. I'll almost always use Bolster as my opening move (though I've started to wonder how effective of a strategy buffing dodge really is, and if I'm wasting a slot on a one time use skill). Typically I'll equip Retribution—I've death blowed enough people with a riposte to feel it's worth it—and I'll alternate between guarding and activating riposte.

I used to always have him equip Rampart for the knockback and to help get my units back in order if they get shuffled; but I got frustrated that if I used it while he was in the 2nd slot, I'd be preventing the Leper from using Purge and making it easier for the Leper to get pushed to the back rows. More recently I've been trying out Command instead. Not sure yet how I feel about it. Ideally I'd guard the Leper and then use Command to buff his damage even further, but more often than not I end up having to guard one of the squishier units instead. The accuracy buff is still nice though, and can help offset the debuff from Exotic Snuff (on any of the other units) if I don't want to offset it with another trinket like Monkey's Paw.

Bellow I think could be useful, but I think I'd have to totally rethink the party build to be more stress-dealing-oriented to get the most use out of it (more on that below). I haven't tried Crush, but maybe I should? I have run into the problem somewhat often where dealing 4-7 damage would get someone to death's door, but he's only capable of dealing 1-3.

Trinket-wise, I just lean into his tankiness by using Pitfighter's Helm and Gladiator's Helmet to buff his PROT up to 40% and give him a little HP boost. Open to other suggestions there.

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1st SLOT: LEPER

The star of the show! Primary (sometimes more or less sole) damage dealer.

Hew is absolutely essential imo. Very often I'll have one of the opponent's front liners at death's door, and rolling the dice on death blow for them while simultaneously chopping down the HP of the other front liner is so satisfying. Or I'll bring both front liners to death's door simultaneously, making them choose only one to guard or heal before I get a shot at death blowing the other on my next turn. Typically I'll equip chop as well, but I've experimented quite a bit with freeing up that slot—hew gets the job done more often than not, but it can be frustrating when you're just a few HP shy of getting someone to death's door and you know chop would have done what you needed. And if his DMG gets debuffed (damn you, MAA spamming Bellow!), it really starts feeling sort of wimpy, whereas chop pretty much always remains relatively effective.

More recently I've been using Purge and absolutely loving it. Will sometimes open the match with that. Will sometimes use it twice in a row to get both backliners up front quick. The accuracy buff is also great, and the corpse clear becomes super useful later on when you've cleared out a front liner or two but can't reach the guys in the back (PD's Disorienting Blast can serve this role too, but sometimes by that point she's dead). With his DMG fully buffed, he can easily wipe out half a unit's HP with this move too—which means it can sometimes be an effective strategy to just spam it as you cycle through each of their units one by one.

Typically I'll use Revenge on his first turn (or 2nd or 3rd if I'm using Purge instead). I go back and forth on whether to equip Withstand—if I do, I'll usually use that before Revenge, but waiting until round 3 for him to start dealing damage seems to get me in trouble more often than not. There's something to be said though for 70% PROT (buffed guarded; or 80% if also trinketted with Gladiator Helmet), and the debuff resist is useful.

Solemnity has saved my ass on more than one occasion. The stress relief can actually be more useful than the healing (i.e. when up against a stress comp and a heart attack is looming). You just have to choose whether it's worth giving up both Chop and Withstand for. I haven't tried using Intimidate, but maybe I should? Something to be said for him being able to deal damage to the back lines, even if it is mod -80%.

Retarius' Net is a must if you're equipping Purge. I actually can't think of a time where the knockback effect didn't work. I've tried a few options for the second trinket: straight boosting DMG CRT with Gladiator's Mask (Eagle Eye Talisman or Hunter's Charm are also options, but once fully buffed he pretty much never misses); making him hard to stun (80%) and harder to move (90%) with Exotic Snuff (ACC debuff not ideal, but offset by Retarius' Net); or making Hew a more reliable finisher with The Finisher. Have wondered whether Rancid Cure-all would work well—more for the debuff resist than anything else.

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WHERE I'M FAILING:

When I lose matches, it's typically for one of 3 reasons:

1. stress-dealing comps
2. shuffle/move-based comps
3. guard-breaking

Basically Occultist, Abomination, and Shieldbreaker are my worst enemies (well besides Jester and Flagellent, but they're annoying with any comp I've tried).

I've tried dealing with #1 by swapping out some units with stress healers (Crusader, Houndmaster), but have yet to figure out the best way to utilize them. I've considered equipping everyone with a stress reducing trinket or two, but I wonder how worth the trade off that is.

#2 I've had limited success combating with move resist trinkets or buffing dodge, and otherwise have mitigated by just making Vestal and PD more versatile. I've also tried swapping Vestal with Occultist or Antiquarian, with mixed results (more on that below). Leper is the most vulnerable—Exotic Snuff gets him to 90% move resist, which works pretty well, but if he does get moved to the back rows it pretty much throws the whole match.

#3 I have absolutely no idea how to counter short of just abandoning guarding as a part of the comp strategy entirely.

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VARIATIONS I'VE TRIED:

• Swapping Houndmaster for MAA:
  • Awful. Just could not get this to work. Maybe it's just me, but tanky guard >>> dodgey guard. No matter how much I buffed his dodge he'd still seem to end up on death's door very quickly. The stress heal is puny, even when buffed with trinkets. Having a second stunner is nice, but that was the only advantage he seemed to have. Plus you lose all the MAA party buffs.
• Swapping Occultist for Vestal:
  • You know the deal: higher risk, higher reward. The real benefit here is you get a more well rounded unit than just a straight healer. Daemon's Pull takes the place of Vestal's stun function as far as disrupting enemy strategy. Lots of debuff potential as well as straight damage dealing. And of course ideal if you want to go the stress dealing route (more on that below). Trinket for healing, move chance, debuff, or stress dealing (or maybe dodge??).
• Swapping Antiquarian for Vestal and Crusader for MAA
  • AQN goes in the back; spams Rejuvenating Vapors maybe Invigorating Vapors; uses Festering Vapors to try for death blow on occasion; I probably wouldn't bother with nervous stab. Trinket for survivability.
  • CRU shares healing duties with Rally to the Flame; replaces Vestal's stun function with Stunning Blow; complements Leper's hitting the front rows with Zealous Accusation and maybe Smite; can act as stress healer with Inspiring Cry; can mitigate against shuffle/move-based comps with Holy Lance; option to replace MAA's Bolster with Bulwark of Light. Trinket to boost stun chance, healing, stress heal, PROT, DMG CRT.
  • This comp was okay? Might want to try playing around with it more. Limiting stun to the first 2 rows is a drawback, but it's not a huge one. Not having a guard option makes the whole team squishier, but it does solve problem #3 above.

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VARIATIONS I'VE CONSIDERED TRYING:

Curious about combining variations 2 & 3 above and doing a PD/OCC/CRU/LEP comp. 3 units with move skills a 4th with a stun sounds like a nice combo. And having the Crusader's heal would offset the unreliability of the Occultist's.

I also think that there's strong potential to turn this comp into a stress dealing centric one. Obviously you'd want to swap Occultist for Vestal, equip & buff PD to center his stress dealing skills, and then I would think use trinkets to buff up MAA's stress dealing and have him spam Bellow (alternative option would be swap MAA for Crusader with Zealous Accusation). Put Sanity's Bane on the Leper, and probably also a secondary damage dealer / finisher (Crusader would get the most use out of it with the stun chance boost; Occultist already has the Death Blow vs Afflicted mod on Sacrificial Stab – not sure if there's a cap).

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Anyway, those are all my notes. Let me know what you think!