Party composition (Darkest Dungeon)

Good day. At first I thought that the optimal composition of the party would be. Jester + Vestal + Bounty Hunter or Knight + Barbarian, but with each dungeon I am more and more frustrated by the Jester. Even if you pump his skill for a group stress-heal, it will still not be commensurate with what some monsters are able to impose. I'm thinking of replacing him with either an occultist or a second vestal

I'm not a barbarian either. He has a lot of denials to hit, and it is not yet known whether it will hit or not, but denials will work.

For me, the composition is the Knight, Highwayman, Bonty Hunter and Vestal (They stand in this order)

Vestal (position 4) + Bounty hunter (position 3) + Crusader (position 2) + Hellion (position 1).
Crusader in second position so that you can use Holy Lance once, after which Crusader is moved to first position.

I am delighted with this composition. The game is gorgeous, very effective. All four have a camp, which is very convenient, because control will almost always come in handy (except for bosses, of course). In any case, in the fifth level dungeons, I calmly drove enemies into the camp, but of course not all, because some of them simply have transcendental resistance to the camp. Perhaps in the release version of the game, at a higher level, it will be problematic to do with any opponent, but by that time my whole party will have such a dodge that I will just stop worrying about the impossibility of catching the enemy.
These are my assumptions.)

Let's continue. Hellion's double stun is very, very good! Although he will impose a serious fine on her, with a very high probability he will not allow the two closest opponents to undertake
any action. I find the penalty inconvenience worth it. This stun deals one point of damage, which will allow you to keep the last enemy stationary for a long time ... or the last two, while Vestal is busy healing the entire group. At the same time, the Crusader, while Vestal is busy healing, can reduce the stress of his comrades. Thanks to these tactics, I always got out of dungeons with zero or minimal stress.
True, if the healing of a group is relatively fast, then stress relief is a rather lengthy process that not everyone can endure. But such a tactic will help save money that can be spent on artifacts or improvements, and not on relaxation by drinking alcohol, prayer, meditation, etc.
Bounty hunter also has a stun with minimal damage, which also allows him to be abused in order to manipulate with healing and stress relief. In addition, the hunter's camp can pull the victim from the rear position to the frontal one, and vice versa, push it deeper into the rear.

Instead of Vestal, of course, you can take Occultist. Occultist, although he is able to heal a large
amount of health, but he often fails, and may not only not raise a single unit of precious hit points, but also manage to poison. Personally, I prefer stability.
Occultist is more suitable for risky guys / girls.) And the mass treatment of the whole group that Vestal possesses can be very useful.

Also, Bounty hunter could be replaced with Plague Doctor, for the sake of one single ability ... double stun. Plague Doctor paired with Hellion can keep all four opponents in a daze, but personally I don't find the Plague Doctor a good enough companion.
In my opinion, he is too weak, and the double stance is his only strength.
But the eye admires when characteristic yellow halos begin to glow over the heads of all enemies.)

You can also replace the Crusader with a powerful enough Highwayman, which should be put in the vanguard, in the first position, in order to beat the first adversary with point blank, then make a lunge that will take the Highwayman back to the first position, and again hit with point blank ... You can also combine Hellion and Highwayman's triple hit if needed.
But in this case, if you replace the crusader, the group will lose stress relief and possible additional healing, albeit minimal. But if the abuse with stress is not interesting for you, then ...

Somehow it turned out to be a bit too much letters ... In general, there are plenty of good combinations, but personally I, the four that I highlighted in bold, liked the most.
In general, in the release version, they should add three more, or even five characters, and they can also correct the mechanics with the balance, so that it would be more difficult for the players, so maybe I was in vain here, and my view of the composition of the party may change in the future.

PS Played version 7415

my composition is a monk (4th position) a robber (3) a barbarian (2) a crusader or a leper (1) although I am more and more inclined towards a bounty hunter and so the economy option is a monk and a crusader.
Will ever introduce estus or red glass atoms to pull the battle is not very pleasant?

vestal + vestal + highwayman + highwayman a
lot of heal, some kind of camp, a lot of damage due to a point-blank shot (highwaymen ride for each other), due to a duel lunge while mixing the party, they quickly restore their battle formation, if necessary, a good AoE and a shot at long-range positions

cruel of course, but a couple of crits and the party will need one well-armored one always.

(nun) - (shooter) - (aunt with a halberd) - (aunt with a halberd) The
first two aunts often crit with good artifacts, and their ability to bring down three at once is generally irreplaceable. and with crits and kills, the spirit in the team also rises.
the shooter shoots.
nun heals.
quickly and angrily.
With such a composition, a witch with a bowler hat (for me the most difficult boss) a
lot of people of level 5-6 took out, and it is not interesting to play further. until new territories are discovered. and I don’t know if my saves will be saved. Downloaded a pirate from ex

Jester-Nun-Hunter-Barbarian - this scheme was recommended in several guides, and indeed it works well, universally. Of course, at high levels, the jester's ability to relieve stress is ineffective, but buffs and combat skills are still valuable. The one-target hunter's camp is good against bosses, in ordinary tasks it is better to take a marauder instead, if there is a halt (for the sake of abilities for exploration and a surprise) or any other Persian with a blow to several cells, if the task is short (the second barbarian, knight, bandit and even a leper)
Occultist as a healer is also good - only at high levels of characters, then he stops causing bleeding during treatment (high resistance affects, growing with level), zeroes also rarely fall out. Plus he has a great hit on 3 + 4 and a debuff, high crit and speed.
I pumped a character of each type to level 6, played with a variety of compositions, so I understand the topic)

In the course of numerous tests, he determined the ideal composition of the party: Doctor + Trainer + Nun + Barbarian; More risky and interesting option - Doctor + Mystic + Crusader + Barbarian

During my playthrough of the game: Tomb Raider (4) - Vestal (3) - Warrior (2) - Barbarian (1)

Critically best herself - Tomb Raider.

I have an all-out scheme - an occultist in last place, a plague doctor in third, and two damage tanks in the first two places. Not much of the essence of what. The occultist heals, debuffs and destroys the enemy's formation, can damage. The plague doctor takes out everything hell with poison ... plus heals, removes poison / bleed, stuns, buffs. He put on the front: mercenary + savage, mercenary + crusader, crusader + savage, warrior + savage, werewolf + leper, etc. Everything works well. In third place, the shooter, dog lover, thief and crossbowwoman worked quite well. But the plague doctor is clearly more imbove .. The occultist can be replaced with a vestal - he also copes well, but the heal is weaker. But there is a stunning - already great.
Only the jester seems useless to me. His ability to relieve stress a little does not make sense - it is better to take someone more magical, kill everyone faster, so that this stress does not have time to accumulate. For example, a plague doctor in conjunction with an occultist often kills the last two from the enemy, already in the first turn. Both at high speed - the doctor throws a grenade at the poison for two, the occultist hits two with artillery. If 5 hp or less remains, then both die on their turn from poison. If not, then the doctor also throws both corpses, because the poison stacks .. The poison is used with a high probability.
Most of all I liked to put the savage on the front - in addition to the standard attack, there is a swan (or something like that) from the first place hits the last one from the enemy, with good damage. Cool thing - you can immediately kill some petty brat who throws up stress. Plus - hangs bleed, hits three people at once with normal damage.
I like to put a warrior / werewolf / mercenary in second place. The mercenary stuns, destroys the enemy's formation, throws a bleed. The Warrior buffs, debuffs, and he has a cool thing - parry. The werewolf is just very damaging - it is not uncommon to have one-shot crits. But ... stress. So you need to be careful with him.
In general, my build with which I managed to kill a bunch of bosses the first time is:
4. Occultist, 3. Plague Doctor, 2. Warrior / Werewolf / Mercenary, 1. Savage

There are many options for a good alignment of forces, and each has its own advantages
1) Crossbowman + Ocultist (++ -) An
excellent combination. You can entrust one of them to mark the goal, which I actively use. Also, the Ocultist has the most powerful healing agent (even though it can cause bleeding), and together with a crossbowwoman with a dressing skill, which can enhance the effect of healing. and in combat are quite useful when it comes to eliminating enemy back rows.
+ Excellent treatment
+ Efetkivny against the back rows
- Disruption of the formation can confuse all their advantages for a long time

2) Plague Doctor + Crusader + Leper (- +++)
The Plague Doctor is a useful character, but not in terms of healing, but strengthening your own and weakening enemy fighters. He can poison enemies, and stun the back rows, simultaneously clearing the battlefield from corpses. But he also has the skill "Encouraging couples", which should not be underestimated, actively use on all tanks and damage dealers. The Crusader is an excellent damager, and with his strengthening in pairs and using "Accusations", as for me, he is simply a destroyer of enemy groups. A leper, if he has a "Healing Bracelet", perfectly takes all the damage on himself, and he can be quickly healed, and he heals himself well and buffs resistance on himself.
+ Crushing Power
+ The ability to control Groups
+ Do well against well-defended targets
- Requires some training
- Requires healer: Vestal or Ocultist

3) Jester - Mercenary - Warrior (- +++)
Jester - Graceful bloodletter, and is able to weaken opponents well. And in the end he is able to quickly make a victory with his “Final”. A mercenary capable of marking targets and controlling groups, and his attacks have a number of advantages against humans and stunned targets. The warrior is a good guard. Unlike the cross-bearer, he does not buff a mark on himself while defending an ally, and at the same time he is able to inflate buffs to both his own and enemies.
+ Weakening of enemy ranks
+ Control of groups
+ Excellent defense
- Very effective only against people
- Requires a healer: Vestal or occultist

By the way I want to ask:
here is an unclear arrangement (Jester - Plague Doctor - Leper) gave some kind of country buff "Masquerade"
Someone cut through its advantages?

Guys, I found another buff for the whole group during construction:
Vestal - Rogue - Mercenary - Crusader
Buff: Jack of all trades

Another unique group buff: Soul Company
Vestal - Plague Doctor - Rogue - Leper

What do these buffs give? what effect?

Barbarian on the first position + Vestal on the second + Jester on the third + Veteran on the fourth
Party "CRITICAL days"
on vacation we use the Sharpening of the spear, Training with weapons, Tactics and the Beast's eye and the Barbarian already has ~ 30-35% crit. A pair of trinkets and queers for crit and / or damage + buff of the jester and grandfather and we get ~ 45% crit in 2 turns.

Pumping:
Barbarian - shout, breakthrough, swan,
Vestal tide - heal, mass hill, lighting, hand of light
Jester - harvest, cutoff, buffs for stress resist and crit
Veteran - Shield, buffs for crit and dodge

Role in the game
Barbarian - DD. Lucky for crit - one-shot, unlucky - strong drawdown
Vestalka - healed, debuffs
Jester - healed stress, buffs and bleeding
Veteran stupid trades face and buff on the CD crit and accuracy

essence of the party - a quick and relaxed grind medium dandzhey

Pros:
+ lots of survival at the expense of healing and grandfather
+ good stress resist
+ vanshot any dead stressovika or arrow (they almost always stand in the fourth position)
+ it is quite realistic to shoot the first three enemies.

Minuses:
- depends on the camp, without it, the efficiency drops sharply
- without camp skills, you will have to overclock the crit for 2-3 moves and stupidly
- stressors are in the 3rd position, tk. they have nothing and no one to cling to
- there is no control of the 3rd and 4th positions

UPD: judging by the mechanics of the game, when attacking several enemies, the result of the blow is calculated separately for each, that is, crit damage can be received by all or one or two enemies, independently of each other. in this case, the probability is not simply added up, but calculated somehow differently. I need to test, but already now I figured that with 33% crit when three enemies hit, crit flies at least one at a time in about 90% of cases. at 45% crit, the percentage of crit releasing remains, but crit is already received by two and at 75% - all three.