Summary
Dark and Darkeris a great, cooperativedungeon crawler. It can be played solo, but it shines when a small group of players create a synergistic party, with abilities that complement each other. This is a free-to-play game that doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, its core gameplay simply works, even though it isn’t the deepest RPG around.
Building a good party is key when playingDark and Darker. As with similar games, certain classes have traditional roles. A fighter or tank generally deals damage, a cleric generally heals, and a bard generally provides party buffs, for example. All classes have several perks they can choose from, which help to flesh out their roles. However, some of these perks are better than others.
1Best Fighter Perks
Building A Swashbuckler
Dual Wield:This is aFighter classperk inDark and Darkerthat improves damage when the player is dual-wielding. Any fighter can dual-wield, but this perk makes it more viable by increasing the player’s attack speed by 15% when they are holding a weapon in each hand.
Slayer:Building on the dual-wielding potential of the Fighter class, the Slayer perk gives 5% additional damage when holding a weapon in each hand. However, there is a downside to this perk, as the player will no longer be able to wear plate armor.
2Best Barbarian Perks
More Axe Damage And Berserker Mode
Axe Specialization:There is nothing very complicated about thisBarbarian classperk inDark and Darker. All it does is increase the Barbarian’s damage output by 10% when they are wielding a one-handed or two-handed axe. Simple but effective.
Berserker:This Barbarian perk is a little more complicated. In simple terms, the more health the player loses, the more damage they do. For every 10% of their health a player loses, they receive a 3% bonus to damage output, up to a maximum of 30% additional damage.
3Best Rogue Perks
Classic Rogue Abilities
Ambush:Nothing is more iconic for arogue classthan attacking from stealth. And the Ambush perk inDark and Darkeronly applies to stealth attacks. As long as the player attacks within 3 seconds of dropping stealth, they will receive a whopping 50% damage bonus to their first attack.
Back Attack:Building on the previous perk, the Back Attack perk enables rogue players to stack even more damage bonuses. In this case, when attacking from behind, the player will receive an additional 30% bonus, and this is for every attack.
4Best Ranger Perks
Maximizing Ranger DPS
Quick Reload:This is aRanger classperk inDark and Darkerthat helps the player keep up sustained DPS. Usually, reloading a bow is simply downtime. But with this perk, the player receives a 50% action speed bonus with a bow.
Nimble Hands:Combining this Ranger perk with the previous one mentioned, will stack even more speed bonuses and boost overall DPS. Nimble Hands reduces all shooting animation speeds by 15%. This might not sound like much, but consider for a moment that, with a slow bow, some combo attacks can take more than a second to complete.
5Best Wizard Perks
General Purpose Mage Perks
Mana Surge:There are a number ofWizard classperks inDark and Darkerthat increase DPS. However, most of these align with a specific damage type, such as fire. Mana Surge is different. It increases the damage of all mana base attacks by a flat 5%, giving it better utility than the specialized perks.
Quick Chant:This is another Wizard perk that is aimed at increasing damage output. In this case, Quick Chant speeds up the player’s casting speed by 10%, which equates to more sustained DPS over time.
6Best Cleric Perks
Solid Healing Buffs
Advanced Healer:The Cleric class is traditionally a support class, althoughDark and Darkerdoes add some options for different Cleric gameplay styles. The Advanced Healer perk helps a Cleric do what a Cleric does best, by boosting their healing abilities by 5%.
Kindness:This Cleric perk builds on the previous one. It helps a player survive longer in battle by adding some self-healing to all outgoing heals. Whenever the player heals a party member, they receive 15% of the amount of health healed themselves.
7Best Bard Perks
A Tanky Damage Buffer
Melodic Protection:A Bard can fill quite a few roles inDark and Darker. However, the traditional role of a Bard is a team buffer. The Melodic Protection perk gives the Bard some extra survivability so that they can keep the party buffs up. It gives a flat 15% damage reduction to the player.
War Song:When a Bard tries a performance, if it is successful, the War Song perk will trigger. This is a party-wide damage boost of 3% that lasts for 6 seconds.
8Best Warlock Perks
Iconic Dark Warlock Powers
Dark Enhancement:Warlocks have a strange niche inDark and Darker. They act more like a necromancer class in some ways. The Dark Enhancement perk is one of the few Warlock perks that provide utility most of the time. It simply boosts the player’s dark magic spell damage by 10%.
Dark Reflection:This is a self-buff for the Warlock class that also does damage to enemies. While Dark Reflection doesn’t have a cooldown timer running, 10 dark damage will be reflected onto the attacker.
9Best Druid Perks
Building A Healing Druid
Force of Nature:The Druid class inDark and Darkerhas quite a bit of overlap with the Cleric class. A Druid can be built to be a very capable healer, and the Force of Nature helps with this. Wherever the Druid casts a heal on a party member, the target gains 3 physical power for 3 seconds.
Natural Healing:This is another Druid perk that works very well with a healer build. It works as a heal over time. When the player uses this ability, every party member within 4.5 meters will receive 1 health every 3 seconds, up to a maximum of 10% of the target’s maximum health.
