Introduction

Many changes have occurred in the past month for Dungeon Challenge. Most notably the death of empty wave stun meta. As a result, the focus has shifted towards more of a nuke-oriented defensive strategy. This strategy revolves around trying to utilize high damage defenders who when paired with Kingdom shrines, can obliterate would be attackers. As a result, the dependency on resurrections remains high and defenders are now beginning to target Astral Watchers with dark-heavy floor ones.

Dungeon defender stuns have now become less powerful due to the fact that you can no longer chain stun and an incapacitated Creature will always be able to take at least one action before being restunned. This is amazing because no one enjoyed being stunned into oblivion, but had an unwanted side effect of neutering several S-tier bosses and their own ability to act as a dungeon defender.

Finally, while no one is currently able to run enough dungeons to achieve boss stun/silence immunity, it will most likely happen in the next 1-2 months.

You can read about the most previous Tier List updates HERE.

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 will eventually 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.

In addition to all of this, successful Offense teams are now built around funneling Mana into a specific Creature to instantly remove a floor 1 defender and Creatures that have exceptionally high base single target damage will be more favoured.

For example, my team funnels Mana into Phoenix to have their special ready every single turn if they are used first:

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 unless it is blisteringly high

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. However, an exception to this rule is if a Creature has an outrageously high single target damaging special that can remove common floor 1 threats.

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. In addition, some S-tier cards have the ability to instantly remove floor 1 defenders with a single Special. 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 – October 4, 2017 –

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*Debut*



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Changes explained

Thunder Giant A -> S

Thunder Giant received a demotion last update due to the lower dependency on pure stuns; however, with the advent of challenging floor 1’s, he has risen once again. Thunder Giant is one of the few Creatures with AoE stun and can completely incapacitate an entire row. Furthermore, his passive enables him to gain 70 Mana which can further fuel his ability to neutralize encounters.

I am well aware that Sandworm can also stun a row, but is far more fragile by comparison and cannot gain Mana as easily.

Colossus D -> A

Several top ranked Gold players have begun to use Colossus more and I began to research as to why. The simple answer is he is able to deal the highest amount of AoE damage (due to ignoring DEF) that does not reduce down based on number of targets hit. As a result, he can completely sweep through floor 1’s but has to gain a combo multiplier of either 4-8x. This can result in a slower cast as you must use other Creatures beforehand (after funneling Mana into him) but the pure damage output cannot be denied.

Megalodon C -> B

Megalodon is comparable to Lich for highest single target damage when facing multiple enemies (random targets do not do well here). As a result, even a simple 2x can most likely remove a Floor 1 threat. This is further augmented by the +80 Mana on Deathblow that will enable you to spam Megalodon’s Special all the time.

Archmage D -> C

Archmage has always been in an awkward spot, but his base PWR would often enable him to keep abreast with many single target nukes. However, with the latest update (1.5), he will gain the ability to generate Mana for his team. Depending on the scale of the Mana generated, we can liken this to a budget Colossus as the damage will be lower, but may help charge up your other Specials while removing 1-2 threats.

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).

Another point to keep in mind is that colour counters are even more effective as a Creature that is weak to another will have a significantly lower chance of landing their debuff statuses along with dealing half damage.

Stun was King

The Stun Meta was one of the least enjoyable mechanics as it was effectively flipping a coin as to whether or no the spawning floor had their Specials up. With the latest patch, Dungeon Defenders are no longer able to chain stun and each attacker will always be able to take at least one action before being stunned again.

This results in an indirect nerf to stun-heavy bosses as their greatest asset is no longer available.

Colour Counters are more meaningful

The latest update has given colour counters even more power when facing what they are effective against as they will be far less likely to become debuffed. What this means is that a Red Boss will be significantly less likely to be stunned by a Green Attacker. This also applies to Boss’s Specials against attackers.

What this means is that the popular meta cards will be able to effecitevly solo what they are effective against. This also means that Bosses that rely on debuffs are going to lose even more ground.

As a result, many bosses that used debuffs are now demoted and in all honesty, Wood bosses are now even more vulnerable to Phoenixes.

With all that being said, White and Black Bosses remain unchanged.

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 addition, they ideally do not rely too heavily on debuffs to succeed. 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 – October 4, 2017 S

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*Debut* H

Changes explained

Ancient Blue Dragon / Thunder Giant S -> B

Being no longer able to chain stun has dramatically diminished the ability for both Ancient Blue Dragon and Thunder Giant to function. However, their damage output is still reasonable so they can stay in B.

Cerberus B -> A

Despite the fact that Cerberus is random target in nature, his damage output is simply incredible. Furthermore, the +40% chance to attack again is somewhat silly and will often enable him to pick off a target or two. However, you must bear in mind that he is only a true monster when fully awoken.

Sludge Hulk C -> B

With the upcoming changes to Sludge Hulk, he will be able to blanket the attacking team with his DoT which can later be detonated as well as providing a source of healing and damage mitigation. In theory he has the potential to move up but it will be hard to find a fully awoken one for me to test.

Fire Giant A -> B

Fire Giant can obliterate a single target along with providing a reasonable DoT, but I feel he is just too slow given his effective single target nature.

Vampire B -> C

Vampire is purely single target and while he does have a sizable nuke and self heal, his own lack of durability is his main downfall.

Sandworm S -> C

Sandworm is the most heavily hit by the stun nerf as he has the lowest stats and damage output. He used to be built around the fact that he can continuously stun an entire team and heal up from each kill, but can no longer chain stun and has an even harder time dealing with Green attackers.

Conclusion

The change to stun mechanics have heavily hit certain defenders along with further power from colour advantage. 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!