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Dark and Darker Best Classes Tier List

Crawling dungeons is a dangerous business, you'll want to know the best classes to survive in Dark and Darker.

There are eight main classes in Dark and Darker. Two new ones, such as Bard and Warlock, have made their way to the game since we originally wrote this guide. And some buffs and nerfs for the existing ones have shaken things up. Each class has access to perks and skills that can significantly improve their stats and overall performance, and depending on your playstyle, you’ll want to know which to choose. This Dark and Darker best classes tier list will help you do just that.

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Dark and Darker Best Classes Tier List

Here’s a quick breakdown of all the best classes in Dark and Darker:

S-Tier Classes

Cleric

Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 11
  • HP: 92

An ability to heal oneself and others plays a significant role in Dark and Darker, and that’s why Cleric can easily be considered the most important class in the game and tops our best classes tier list. And it can even resurrect other players!

Even though it got slightly nerfed at launch, it’s still a perfect class for both beginners and experienced players, who like to play in a position of a support class. If you like to have a wide choice of armor and shields, then Cleric’s got it all. Its best perk is Undead Slaying, which boosts all your damage against undead by 20%, and his best skill is Undead Purification, which functions like an AoE against the undead.

Ranger

Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 10
  • HP: 90

Ranged damage allows you to deal with enemies at a distance, and thus protect yourself from receiving damage (unless you’re overwhelmed). That’s where Ranger becomes very valuable, especially since it can shoot through holes in doors. The Ranger’s best perk is Tracking, which allows you to detect enemy footsteps, and its best skill is Multishot, which allows you to shoot five targets at once. Ranger can also heal himself by foraging food or by setting up a campfire.

Warlock

Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 13
  • HP: 96

Warlock is one of the two new classes in the game. At first, it wasn’t terribly impressive, but the new patch has definitely made it highly effective in PvE. Although it’s still not the best class for solo play, it can be of great help as an ally. It has a very strong Hellfire spell, which functions as a powerful AoE attack, but it’s really only effective in PvE. The new patch added two new perks, such as Curse Mastery and Vampirism, as well as eight new spells: Bolt of Darkness, Evil Eye, Bloodstained Blade, Flame Walker, Life Drain, Ray of Darkness, Eldritch Shield, and Summon Hydra.

Surprisingly, it has a healing perk called Torture Mastery, which functions similarly to Lifesteal, but in this case, it’s based on the damage from the Curse of Pain. Since much of its spell cost has been reduced in the new patch, Warlock has quickly become one of the best classes for PvE.

A-Tier Classes

Wizard

A Wizard in Dark and Darker
Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 6
  • HP: 78

Casting spells is a great alternative to dealing ranged physical damage, although there are a few drawbacks to this class in comparison to Ranger or Cleric. The Wizard’s best skill is Meditation, which allows it to immediately restore his spells. This is the only class in the game with this kind of ability. Although Wizard can be very effective against enemies with heavy armor, its own strength and health are very low. It can be very hard to survive without Cleric in your party.

Barbarian

Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 30
  • HP: 130

Barbarian has the most strength and health of all other classes in Dark and Darker, but that’s not all its got. The Barbarian’s two best perks are probably Iron Will, which protects it from magic damage, and Smash, which allows him to break doors. Its best skill is War Cry, which increases his own HP, as well as of his allies. But other than that, Barbarian is a very slow class with no ability to cast spells and no significant buffs. This class will survive only in a well built team.

B-Tier Classes

Fighter

Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 15
  • HP: 100

Fighter’s physical damage reduction has been reduced to 10% in the latest patch for Dark and Darker, making it more vulnerable to physical attacks than ever before. But it still has access to a vast selection of both weapons and armor, which allows you to achieve balance and flexibility. Its Dual Wield perk allows you to equip a weapon in each hand, thus increasing his damage output.

Alternatively you can wield a shield for increased defense. Fighter is also one of the few classes who has the ability to heal itself, using his Second Wind skill. But this class can be effective only against melee enemies, and it’s still highly vulnerable against magic.

Rogue

Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 8
  • HP: 84

If you’re tired of slow, clumsy characters, then Rogue should be your number one choice due to its high mobility and agility. One of the Rogue’s best perks is Lockpick Expert, which provides you with an unlimited amount of lockpicks. Another great perk is Poisoned Weapon, which allows you to detect and disarm traps. Rogue’s best skill is Hide, which basically makes him invisible. Rogue is a great class, although you may find that the damage is a bit lacking and it has no access to spells.

Bard

Male and female bards playing instruments in Dark and Darker
Image via Ironmace
  • Strength: 15
  • HP: 100

Bard is one of the two new classes that were introduced at launch, and it’s a very versatile one. But it’s mostly a support class that can switch between various instruments to help allies. I found this class to be rather slow and inconvenient when it comes to changing instruments mid-fight or even playing them, alerting all the enemies around.

Of course, such perks as Dancing Feet and Reinforced Instruments help a lot, but they’re only decent healers and buffers/debuffers, and they can only deal melee damage. It would be best to use Bard alongside Cleric, boosting its Clarity stat, which would be so much more useful for your team.

That’s our best classes tier list in Dark and Darker, and stay tuned for more Dark and Darker tips and tricks articles right here.


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Author
Image of Serhii Patskan
Serhii Patskan
Contributing Writer
Serhii is the Writer at GameSkinny. He's been writing for GameSkinny since 2015. Before that, he's been writing for various outlets and playing video games, which eventually turned into a passion. The video games that have contributed the most to his enthusiasm for writing about this industry are Magic: The Gathering, Dark Souls, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.