The Vestal isDarkest Dungeon2’s most heavily armored support. While her offensive capabilities are nothing special, she has quite a few tools at her disposal to keep the rest of her team alive and protected. Thanks to her conviction mechanic, her best moves can be empowered with the occasional boost.
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In practice, the Vestal will almost always be a support, as her attacks generally lack the punch to swing a fight in your favor and her healing and other supportive abilities are too good to pass up. Through those skills, you can decide what kind of support she will be. She can be a buffer, a tank, and a healer, but to make each work you need to know which skills are recommended and how to use them. Here are her very best options.
11Mace Bash
Mace Bash is exactly what it sounds like: the Vestal just gives your enemy a crushing wallop with her mace. She has to be in the front two ranks to use it, and can only target those same ranks of enemies. It does a standard amount of damage, but its best used with at least two conviction tokens. At that point the vestal ignores block and dodge tokens and pierces any protection another enemy may be giving her target. With a third conviction token, it doubles its damage. Upgrading increases the skills damage and crit rate. It’s a skill only really worth having if you know the Vestal will be upfront or pulled there, but it can be potent in the right circumstances.
10Illumination
Illumination is the Vestal’s counter for stealthy and/or nimble enemies. Ignoring Stealth, she can illuminate hidden enemies and allow them to be targeted by the rest of your team. It also removes all Dodge tokens an enemy has, so their follow-up attacks will have a much greater chance to land. Upgrading it also prevents that enemy from gaining any Dodge tokens for the next two rounds as well. Usually a niche ability, it does get better with the Confessor path, as it removes positive tokens from enemies at the same time. In general, however, you only need this when dealing with Stealth.
9Hand Of Light
Hand of Light is a low-power melee attack the Vestal can use when she’s brought forward to the front two ranks. It deals a little damage to any enemy but the one in rank four, but that’s not its main feature. Hand of Light gives the Vestal a token for both Block and Might, improving her offense and defense at the same time. Since it won’t use up her conviction, it’s useful for setting up the attacks that will. When upgraded, it does a little more damage, but it spreads its buffs to a random adjacent hero. The ones they get depend on your Hero path.
8Sanctuary
Since the Vestal is a sturdy support character, she can use Sanctuary to guard an ally from attack. As with most guarding skills, she can be anywhere in her party and still use the skill. After selecting the ally you want to protect, the Vestal will gain two Block tokens, and protect that ally from the next two attacks meant for them.
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When upgraded, it also works asa stress healif the ally has accumulated five stress or above. With the Chaplain path, the stress heal is replaced with a greater Block token. It’s a fine skill for protecting the squishier party members.
Mantra is the final skill the Vestal learns, and the one that’s most changeable betweenthe different Hero paths she has available. The most consistent thing it will do is heal. As a Wanderer, it can heal targets with a Consecration and potentially activate that Consecration. As a Confessor, it will do the same, except remove all negative tokens if the Vestal has three Conviction stacks. As a Chaplain, the Vestal will heal both the body and stress of their guarded ally and themselves if they have enough Conviction. Finally, Seraphim Vestals will end their Consecrations, in exchange for giving the associated Heroes a big heal. Mantra is flexible, but its use entirely depends on your Hero path.
6Ministrations
A vital support skill when facing enemies that slowly whittle down your HP, Ministrations is a full cure for any of your Heroes. It removes all kinds of damage over time, as well as stuns and dazes. A lot of enemies in the game love to pile on damage over time, especially the cultists. Without someone that can cure these conditions, you’ll be taking severe damage any time your Hero’s turn comes around.
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A lot of Heroes that can cure have a limit on how many times they can do it during a fight. Not the Vestal; Ministrations only has a one-turn cooldown instead. When upgraded, it also grants resistance to any of the tokens it removes.
5Consecration Of Light
Consecration of Light buffs not a specific Hero, but the rank where they are located. This Consecration gives offensive buffs to the ally in the right zone. The standard version only gives Might tokens, but the upgraded version has a chance to give crit boosts instead (though Might is still more common). The Consecration lasts three turns by default, and five for Vestals following the Seraphim path. With this, the Vestal can consistently boost teammates' damage while keeping her turn for healing or other buffs as needed. Its basic version is good enough that you don’t need to upgrade it if Mastery points are scarce.
4Divine Comfort
The Vestal can heal the whole party at once with Divine Comfort, though it works differently than it did in the first game. Instead of providing a direct heal, it provides regeneration for all heroes in the party. When starting their turn, heroes will regain two health, or three when upgraded. With a four turn cooldown, you won’t be using it that frequently in a fight, but it is a good move for the first or second round of an encounter. Be aware that if a hero is suffering from damage over time, the healing and damage will compete, and if the damage overtime is greater, the Hero won’t be healed at all for Death’s Door recovery.
Judgment is a ranged attack the Vestal uses when in the back ranks, and is one of her staple abilities when in that position. It isn’t the most damaging offensive move, but more importantly than that, it’s flexible. Very few attacks in Darkest Dungeon can target any enemy of your choice. That alone makes it worth keeping in a Vestal’s roster, so the Hero can provide damage wherever it’s needed in a battle. Upgrading increases its power, but to get the best use out of it, you’ll want to have at least two Conviction tokens on the Vestal when you use it. It can be difficult to set it up.
2Divine Grace
As the Vestal’s main healing tool, Divine Grace is a single target healing spell that she can only use while in the rear ranks. Your target has to be on one-quarter health or below to be targeted by the skill, but upgrading the skill raises that threshold to one third. Divine Grace will heal at least 25% of your target’s health when used, and an additional 10% for each token of Conviction after the first. While it has a two turn cooldown, Divine grace has consistency that other healing skills lack.
