Introduction

VCME has been undergoing extensive testing and tweeking to help revitalize the PvP experience. Presently speaking, the current set up heavily favours empty first waves and all out stuns to lock down attackers. This is by no means a fun mechanic as it is almost akin to flipping a coin in whether or not you get lucky in defender’s special timers.

As such, the new DC 2.0 changes will significantly buff Boss waves by granting them Stun and Silence immunity for the first turn. This means they will always be able to cast their Specials as it will be impossible to kill before they attack (worst case scenario is that they are on a 3 turn timer upon entering). However, this only occurs if you completely fill out all of your dungeons which removes the empty-wave meta.

While there will be rotating colour buffs and Kingdoms playing a role, my new revisions to the tier list will only take into consideration the immunity to crowd control.

Video commentary

—video coming soon—



Dungeon Challenge 2.0 buffs

With DC 2.0, dungeon defenders will receive rotating colour buffs but every week will always have bosses gaining stun/silence immunity to guarantee them casting a special first turn. This will greatly influence how Bosses function as we know for sure a special will be cast. This will also mean that there will need to be revisions to current attacking rosters as older strategies of stun -> nuke will not work in this new day and age.

Naturally, a boss undergoing a colour buff will be the strongest so this list will just assume all bosses are either buffed or neutral. With that being said, if you had to choose between a buffed colour boss versus a non-buffed boss, the buffed one will most likely be stronger even if less invested/ranked lower.

Updating Tier Lists

Indicates a Creature has moved up that many tiers since the last posting.

Indicates a Creature has moved down that many tiers since the last posting.

Always assumes max awoken and equal number of Combo Dots.

Debut Tier Lists along with further explanation can be found for Offense and Defense through their respective links.

Lists all assume fully awoken and equal Combo Dots. However, due to the scarcity of 4-dots, it is safe to assume a Creature may move up 1-2 tiers if they are your only 4-dot.

New criteria for Offense

You now have to plan your team around the fact that you are going to be eating a Special Ability from the defending Boss. This means some Creatures may instantly die (especially if colour weak) and your team will need to have a back up plan or even less combo dot synergy as getting off a 16x may not be feasible any more. However, it would still be ideal to have a 16x when facing colour-buffed Bosses.

While stun and silence are less potent due to the first turn immunity, you still need to bring them along because you want to instantly lock down the Boss after their first turn.

With that being said, Counter-Attack abilities are now more powerful than ever because they will most likely trigger and may help buy you some extra time. By extension, passive awakenings are also a powerful force.

However, Debuffers will become your strongest counter to the Boss’s first Special Ability.

Rise of Debuffers

A Debuff acts in the opposite manner of a buff: it reduces a stat of the target for a specific duration. This will still take effect on a Boss because they are only immune to Stun and Silence. Thus, the most powerful universal Debuff possible is PWR.

I state PWR as the strongest Debuff because it is the most common stat used to amplify a Special Ability (also most commonly used stat for the higher ranked Creatures). By reducing a Boss’s PWR, they will have significantly reduced damage and may not wipe your whole team. This will then allow you to hopefully follow up with your own form of crowd control and neutralize as per usual.

Following PWR, Debuffing LUK is the next best option as it can help prevent the Boss from landing their own Stun/Silence and will enable any form of your crowd control to land.

Third best is ATK as it will lower some of the incoming damage, but to much lower degree unless that Creature relies on ATK for their Special.

Team buffs have more meaning

While Debuffs will remain stronger because the base stats for a Boss are significantly higher, being able to buff your own team has merits. Most notably, a Protection and LUK buff can help avoid being stunned/silenced which can be vital to success while large DEF buffs can help you avoid being one-shotted.

Pure damage is less powerful

Prior to DC 2.0, you could get away with less utility, but now that you need to absorb an incoming Special, it becomes more important to have a bit more to offer.

Creatures need to survive

Due to the fact that you are going to be on the receiving end of a Boss’s Special, your Creatures must have a certain degree of durability in order to actually survive. As such, many cards that were quite fragile have been demoted accordingly.

Dungeon Offense Tier List Criteria –

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S S-ranked Creatures compose the best of the best from a dungeon offense point of view. These Creatures tend to have an innate tankiness that helps them survive challenging Floor 1’s while offering valuable Special Abilities for your team. In addition, some may have self healing abilities that help enable them to solo dungeons or persevere when others have died. Furthermore, they tend to occupy the strongest colour slot to help ensure your team has a someone comboing for 16x. S-tier Creatures also tend to have very well defined roles on your team as they do not dabble in hybrid abilities. Finally, they are all Single-Target oriented so none of their damage is wasted. With the introduction of DC 2.0, Counter-Attack/Passive abilities have new merit in helping you survive the first Special Ability from a Boss. Finally, Debuffers have gained tremendous value as they are the most reliable way to survive the first turn. Strongest universal Debuff is PWR followed by LUK then ATK. –

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A Creatures falling into A are still wonderful cards to own and they are sometimes only a small step down from S-tier. This is because they may simply not offer as much value overall, may be less durable or have a Creature of the same colour who is stronger overall (as you want to be rainbow for 16x). They may also possess valuable Counter Attack abilities or a valuable Debuff. –

– – B B-tier Creatures may be have some wasted damage via AoE, random targets, or slightly more varied Specials that are approaching a hybrid status (assumes wasted secondary benefits). While these types of Specials are still meaningful, they may require careful planning and execution to use efficiently. However, some of these cards may excel in one role, but they are lacking in every other department and are often vulnerable targets that may require babysitting to survive. They may also require additional support from other members to fully shine. – C Creatures in the C tier tend to be hybrid in nature which means they try to fulfill too many roles without excelling in anything in particular. In addition, C characters may be heavily AoE-oriented which diminishes their potential for damaging a Boss or for sniping a dangerous target in non-Boss waves. Finally, C Creatures may often be quite fragile or only offer modest damage output. – D The D-tier Creatures comprise the weakest Dungeon Offense cards as the do not successfully fulfill any required role. They are often AoE in nature while providing less desired secondary effects. Overall their abilities may be too slow for success in PvP as they may require multiple casts to activate an additional benefit. Damage over time (DoT) abilities may have the highest output, but are not influenced by combo multipliers.

Dungeon Offense Tier List – August 31, 2017 –

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Changes explained

Jabberwock C -> S

Jabberwock was in an awkward spot upon his release as he was reliant on a teammate to provide a debuff to trigger a silence while also not fitting into the meta of stun -> kill. Thankfully, with DC 2.0 changes, you are now unable to stun/silence a boss on the first turn which means Jabberwock is now on even ground compared to other crowd controllers.

However, Jabberwock gains notable superiority compared to other crowd controllers due to the fact that he debuffs PWR and LUK. PWR and then LUK are the two best stats to debuff as they will reduce the incoming damage as well as hopefully preventing the Boss’s stun/silence from hitting your team. Furthermore, Jabberwock also has significantly reduced damage while stunned so he will often survive subsequent attacks.

Oathkeeper A -> S

Oathkeeper has always been a powerful Creature to own, but now with the greater dependency on survival, his Protection buff and innate durability make him an outstanding choice. Furthermore, the healing component is another wonderful benefit as he can help ensure your team survives the next attack.

Sphinx A -> S

Sphinx is the only Yellow S-tier Creature and this is because of their 100% chance to counter attack and debuff all stats by 35%. While this does not help you survive the first turn, it helps ensure the next few turns you are kept safer. This is best played alongside Creatures who can provide team buffs or some other form of protection as this does not require Sphinx to actually cast their Special.

Druid and Kirin B -> A

Provided your team survives the first Special, having a true healer is invaluable as you can not only restore your team to full health, but also cleanse away any debuff. Furthermore, Kirin’s massive LUK buff can help you avoid stuns/silences.

Genies

All 5 of these Genies (excludes Ifrit) move up as their buffs can help you survive, but they also have innate durability when max Awoken along with the ability to heal, cleanse, and/or dispell on their second turn. Ifrit does not move due to the fact that the Mend does not trigger on turn 1 and the ATK buff does not help you survive.

PWR Debuffers X -> A

Tiamat, Archdevil, Succubus, and Sludge Hulk all have the capacity to debuff the Boss’s PWR which helps your team survive the incoming Special.

S -> A

Vampire is a wonderfully self-sufficient Creature who does have the capacity to solo dungeons, but he is unable to handle the higher tier-defenders along with being somewhat fragile. This fragility makes him vulnerable to the first turn Special while not providing any preemptive protection as healing is a reactive measure.

In addition, Thunder Giant and Abomination lose their chance to stun on the first turn. This automatically diminishes their value and their Counter-Attack/passives are not as strong as their Giant cousins.

Valkyrie C -> A

Valkyrie is able to provide 45% buffs to all 4 stats which makes her the strongest buffing Creature in the game. She is also the only combination of LUK and DEF available which will help ensure you survive the first Special.

Chimera C -> A

Chimera is often viewed as a budget Phoenix, but with the changes to Dungeon Challenge, their innate durability and DoT damage have more meaning. Being able to survive is crucial to success and having a large DoT damage going off can provide meaningful damage.

VIP 8/Blue Dragon A -> B

VIP 8 is essentially just damage with modest durability and a deathblow self-heal. While this is nice from a defender perspective, it will not hold up as strong compared to the other Creatures in A.

Blue Dragon was favoured for their stun but now with the changes, their primary function has been diminished.

Various downgrades

With the meta being less open to pure damage, many Creatures that had a pure damage component have been demoted as they do not offer any other benefit to the team. Of course, some options like Titan and Lich stay in B due to the fact that they have incredible damage and can function with a small combo multiplier.

New criteria for Defense

Dungeon 2.0 changes how Dungeon Defenders work in that they gain immunity to Stun/Silence until they cast their first Special. This will automatically interrupt any hope of one shotting and grants more reliability. Thus, our choices for Defenders will have to shift as we now can play into the notion that we will have at least one Special landing.

This gives rise to more conditional abilities that require pre-existing conditions to be met as the buff/debuff will be put in place right away. Furthermore, we ideally want to remove as many threats as possible right away so more AOE-oriented Specials (that kill off someone) will become valuable. it is safe to assume that most Creatures will kill their colour counter so we need to look beyond that. Do note that random-target Specials are still less valuable as they will often not do enough damage.

Killing off at least 1 team member can disrupt their combo multiplier, remove their Stun/Silence, or their resurrection ability.

Just bear in mind that a 4-dot Creature will often surpass higher-tiered alternatives with 3-dots. This list assumes all Creatures are 4-dots (which is unrealistic in practice).

Stun is King

We have all seen the fun and joy terror of being stunned into oblivion from empty 3-waves and we can apply that logic to Dungeon Defenders. Stunning works differently for Defenders as they can repeatedly chain a stun against the same target so you can potentially never be able to take a turn and just watch your Creatures die.

However, this tends to work best when you are able to stun as many Creatures as possible as it will prevent those Creatures from taking any action (donating Mana, providing Combo Multiplier, etc.). Furthermore, each stunned Creature will provide the Defender an extra turn ticking down which can hasten the stunning process.

Area of Effect is valuable

Area of Effect (AoE) can play a significantly larger role provided it is not random target and can remove their colour counter while severely damaging the entire team. A 4-dot Creature will be able to cast another Special approximately 4 turns after the first move and if you were able to remove some of the enemy team, your chances of finishing them off rise.

Single Target needs a collateral benefit

Being able to instantly remove 1 Creature is nice, but that means it will take 5 turns to wipe the entire team. As such, a Single Target Special needs some form of collateral benefit to ensure your Boss survives long enough to see that happen. This can come in the form of passive damage mitigation, stuns/silence spreading beyond the primary target, or some form of self healing.

Conditional Specials now work

Prior to DC 2.0, many Specials could be seen as too slow as they required some sort of condition to be met to achieve their full potential. However, now that you are able to guarantee the first turn, those conditions will always be met. For example, the Stegosaurus requires a DEF debuff to unlock their self healing and damage mitigation. This applies to many other Legendaries as their full potential can always be unlocked.

Dungeon Defense Tier List Criteria –

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S These Creatures compromise the best Dungeon defenders in the current meta. They have the potential to wipe/solo your entire team even if everyone is alive due to their high damage/crowd control/sustain. They become even scarier when missing a team member and you can no longer stun them on your first turn. In addition, they may also have innate tankiness to survive longer and be able to cast additional Special Abilities beyond the first guaranteed one. In essence, S-tiered Creatures have the potential to completely turn the tides of battle in their favour which is further amplified by their guaranteed first Special cast. –

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A Creatures that fall into A are still powerful defenders but lack the potential to wipe your team as easily compared to S-tier Creatures. They may struggle against a full roster of Creatures as they may not kill them quickly enough even if able to cast their Special Ability multiple times. However, with your first Special being guaranteed, you are able to wipe out at least 1 team member which dramatically improves your chances of success. –

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B B-tier Creatures are a noticeable step down from A and tend to only succeed when something has already died. This is because their damage is either too low to kill multiple Creatures, they are too squishy, or they are purely Single Target in nature. They may have a certain degree of sustain and be able to absorb large amounts of damage, but without a second Boss, the Attacker will win the long grind as they do not have to have specials for a subsequent Boss floor. –

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C Creatures in the C tier tend to be somewhat lackluster as they often fail to kill something that they are not effective against. They may also be less durable or have random target Specials that further dilute their damage. With that being said, they may still pull off a victory if several members on the Attacker’s team are dead. –

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D The D-tier Creatures comprise the weakest Dungeon Defenders (outside of H-tier) as they are poorly designed for this role. They are often hybrid Creatures that help fulfill an off-healing role, provide supportive buffs, while having some damage output. In addition, other Creatures may be Area of Effect (AoE) in nature that prevents them from killing a single Creature, have random target specials that are only effective if one Creature is left alive, or are DoT in nature. Finally, these Creatures tend to be very flimsy and are often knocked over by a stiff breeze. —

H The H-Tier represents pure healers who have no offensive capabilities. As such, they are the worst possible dungeon defender as they cannot kill anything outside of Basic Attacks.

Dungeon Defense Tier List – August 31, 2017 S

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Changes explained

Ancient Blue Dragon A -> S

Ancient Blue Dragon was always the strongest A Creature, but now that they can guarantee a Special AoE stun, they become truly terrifying. However, their awakenings are still problematic as they are all focused on overkill Fire Creatures. As such, he is certainly a step above A, but one of the weaker S.

Stegosaurus and VIP 8 B -> A

With the new changes in DC 2.0, Stegosaurus will guarantee themselves 50% damage reduction along with large damage, DEF debuff, and massive healing on their second Special. While their stats are still not as amazing as they were months ago, the fact that they become twice as durable right away lends them to moving up.

On the flip side, VIP 8 will always one-shot a single enemy as well as dealing significant splash damage to all other Creatures. This lends me to believe he could 2 Special most teams and the fact that he always comes with 4 dots is just a nice benefit. Finally, the massive self healing upon deathblow means he has to be killed right away.

Frost Giant A -> B

Frost Giant does retain the ability to one shot any non-Yellow Creature, but the fact that he can only kill one person at a time is alarming. While he does have naturally high bulk from being a Giant, he was mostly the victim of being over-evaluated beforehand.

Cerberus, Jabberwock, & Medusa C -> B

Cerberus and Jabberwock have more conditional Specials, but since they can guarantee a first turn activation, their ability to kill attackers has increased. With Cerberus, the Counter-Attack combined with chance to hit 3-6 times means he has to potential to pull off a surprise victory.

By comparison, Jabberwock will be able to deal near-lethal damage while applying a debuff, but when he is able to cast a second round, he will either kill or silence into oblivion. Furthermore, the LUK debuff can help him avoid future Stuns/Silence.

Finally, Medusa has always suffered from fragility, but being able to stun all enemies means her single target nuke may work. This is because she has the potential to permanently chain stun the entire team. However, unlike Thunder Giant, Ancient Blue Dragon, or Sandworm, Medusa can only kill 1 person at a time so she may be too slow if you are unlucky with stuns.

Genies, move up 1

All the Genies have conditional Specials, but this is alleviated through your first turn always casting them. As such, their buffs will take effect along with becoming monstrous on their second turn. Furthermore, the passive damage reduction they enjoy can help them survive until that crucial second turn.

Archmage D -> C

I am still on the fence about him, but due to the fact that he has one of the highest (if not highest) PWR stats in the game means his AoE can potentially kill off one Creature. Furthermore, his damage becomes more fearsome when less team members are alive since the chain will continue to bounce and deal damage. As such, he may have the potential to sweep if given enough time. Remember, it is Garbage CAN.

Varies C -> D

All of these Creatures have been brought down as they are simply too slow and were possibly overvalued initially. They will often fail to kill a single Creature on their first turn or may only kill 1 and promptly die.

Conclusion

Dungeon 2.0 brings numerous and exciting changes as it does shift up the meta and strategy required for success. It brings back the focus and power to your Boss waves along with encouraging players to have a deeper pool to draw from.

Just bear in mind that these tier lists assume 4-dots and max awoken so your own experience will vary. Furthermore, as more strategies emerge/develop, these lists will change to reflect them.

Let me know what you think about the upcoming changes and how you plan to tackle the new Dungeon Challenge 2.0

Happy Questing!