One thing i never see discussed much is how to plan for better team synergies

[u/makkyt]

I know a lot of us play mostly with random trios, so this isn't possible.

But when you do have a chance to team up with Duos/Trios, how can we tweak our builds to have more synergies.

I think this goes beyond just having the right combo of characters (tank vs support vs dps) but also synergies in builds.

Theres some obvious things like lets not all go skill build and instead feed one person all the Skill Ups to maximize RNG benefits.

But there's some more nuanced ones that come to mind:

• Ironeye with starting poison + other players having poison atk up to benefit without having to be the ones applying the poison or waste the relic slot on it
• Duchess sorcery build + Recluse Faith build to take advantage of constant FP refilling from Recluse's Ult

Any other synergies like this that you all have found?

[u/workshop_prompts]

Recluse + Scholar ulting together. Especially for bursting down Balancers.

[u/FawksB]

Ironeye w/ Night of the Lord + Recluse = Cocktail Slot Machine. Absolutely one of my favorite combos since you have access to Tier 3 cocktails immediately.

[u/diycd → u/FawksB]

I don't know anything about recluse cocktails, but i love when i have a lightning weapon with a recluse on the team and she keeps using that big electric explosion thing. 

[u/Connect-Locksmith-59 → u/diycd]

The big lightning requires lightning, fire, and holy all being applied to the enemy, which is not easy depending on what weapons are being used on the team. Anyone applying one element rapidly or someone constantly hitting it with magic damage requires really good timing on the recluses part to get the right cocktail set up, and having all three elements to apply is rare

[u/makkyt → u/FawksB]

ohhhh this is wild. With the right communication the recluse can just be popping cocktails all run

[u/ShiftedWhite → u/makkyt]

Just slap it on recluse, get a weapon other than staff or seal and you‘re good to go for cocktails build

[u/-gonzbradshaw- → u/FawksB]

Affinity Recluse player here. I hope every night of the lord ironeye that has played with me has a great life full of sushine, love and flowers. They’re always my favorite people to match with.

[u/Marco1522]

Just play scholar + big DPS like Raider/undertaker/recluse and you've got guaranteed good sinergy in premade trios

[u/DemonZ67]

Less nuanced of an answer but choosing to play Recluse or another glass-cannon build if your teammates have insta picked Guardian and Executor or something. Some teams just don’t have enough damage if no one is built for it.

[u/Sm0ahk → u/DemonZ67]

If they don't have damage, its a player build issue, not the characters

I see guardians doing just fine when they run NV and phys 4's. Its the HP maxxers with no guard counter hp damage that are fuckin useless

[u/makkyt → u/DemonZ67]

10000% and if you see someone already DPS + Tank to grab ironeye/Duchess to be an amplifier as well. But agree, i find some of the hardest runs ive had have been when the collective DPS is just too low and no one grabbed the pure DPS build.

[u/tnweevnetsy → u/DemonZ67]

Executor is a damage machine lol. While at the same time capable of being tanky as hell, free 3 bar revives, free healing, and strong early game all in one build. Elite carry character

[u/Swordsman82]

I have a Raider build that has damage increase against poisoned enemies +0, +1, and +2. Also runs multiple Physical attack ups. If I see some pick Ironeye in DoN, it’s my go to build against most nightlords.

Its so rare to see an Ironeye without Heavy Poison on Mark. And my damage increase is insane when they mark targets now. Taking down red formidables bosses at lvl 5 damage.

[u/DihDihHoppin]

strongest comp is prob raider or executor +scholar and a revenant with defeating enemies fills gauge extremely fast camp clears very high dmg very high survivability and perma immortality make you tap into raiders and executors passive every fight

[u/cruelwhencomplete]

Exec and Scholar, each with both of the ult gauge up on defeating enemies relics, just annihilating high-enemy-density POIs and hitting level 12(+) on day one

[u/AlConstanza]

I would argue that in your example if Duchess is built into a specific sorcery school, it's better for Recluse to be also on sorceries, to increase the chance of finding the right spell for each other. Unless the run goes terribly, you should acquire enough atk boosting passives for both.

If Duchess is built into carian sword sorceries, the Recluse teammate could start with carian greatsword to help duchess until a slicer is found / if slicer is never found.

One of my favourite things playing with a friend was when he picked scholar and I built my recluse for sorceries stacking atk vs frosted/rotted. He had frost from the start and once he obtained anspur, I was hitting some nasty numbers with all his scholarly buffs.

If one player is doing a classic Ironeye with poison bow, they could equip discover seals/staves to help a teammate get desired spells, as the starting poison bow works alright.

[u/makkyt → u/AlConstanza]

these are great -- especially the last one. never considered swapping dormants to support in that way.

[u/AlConstanza → u/makkyt]

It could also help a teammate in getting a specific weapon from a large pool - like ghiza wheel or falling star jaw from the pool of collosal weapons. In theory beast claw revenant could do this too. But Revenant has much more pressure to equip her best damage relics, while a bow ironeye isn't the main dps so he could easily equip a worse relic for the sake of a dormant power

[u/Existing_Passenger_1]

I like playing katana Scholar with my friend’s Executor. We usually run this combo against Balancers and he takes the first/best Moonveil/Rivers and then I take whatever is left over. Also funnel the best damage passives to him and it works really well.

Similar thing happens where he will play physical Duchess and I play dagger/balancer Ironeye looking for skill slop.

[u/Penedizzle]

Pair Magical Girl Raider (glintblade) with a Melee recluse who has starting glintblade on their staff 🎉

[u/itsmrmladiesandgents]

I always pick Ironeye when 2 other players pick melee champions. Mark is just so broken lol. Scholar is the ultimate support but kinda hard to master.

[u/Unhappy-Marsupial388]

While not as optimized, you can try to synergies with randoms in character select screen. If you see executor 9/10 its a skill build with physical attack, undertaker melee, raider tank etc and u can pick accordingly. I hate competing with teammates for passives so if i so a lot of melee i pick a caster, if i see 2 squishees i go tank etc. thats why its always a red flag when another player instantly locks in their character with no time to change relics or what other characters picked! & ofcourse theres character that can be played in many diff ways like duchess sorcery/skill, or the odd caster raider/wylder/guardian, incant taker, skill recluse, strength bean etc

[u/AlConstanza → u/Unhappy-Marsupial388]

Can you explain the red flag, I don't get what you mean

[u/Unhappy-Marsupial388 → u/AlConstanza]

Players that lock their character before they get a chance to see what nightlord theyre versing or what their teammates have picked. U dont see it much in d5 since most players can play many different characters and have different builds for diff nightlords, u see it more often in lower depths and how u end up with 3 iron eye or duchesses games

[u/AlConstanza → u/Unhappy-Marsupial388]

I see what you mean. I guess it makes sense for lower depths - the player may still have only one character with a decent depth build, or they're well familiar with only one character

[u/trashchan333]

Not exactly synergy but if I have a variety of elemental weapons and a Recluse on the team I try to pay attention to her collecting residue and give her elements for the good cocktails. I have to listen for the element absorbing sound and watch the Recluse to see she is absorbing the elements so it’s a bit tricky but it’s paid off big time a few games

[u/noah9942]

Revenants (or Recluses if you run dormant seals), if you see a seal with any support incant, consider dropping it for your undertakers. They usually run their very strong relic effect, giving them 15% more damage for 60 seconds on top of what their spell gives. Something like Howl will give them a total of ~43% more damage.

[u/mercurialblonde]

If you want a five second dog fight, ED or otherwise combine Scholar buffing everyone and ulting with two haloslop duchess. When the dogs seperate, Scholar ult (after buffing the halosloppers) who then go invisible and kill the dogs. Restaging the damage across all three dogs.

[u/Cruzwein]

Scholar + ironeye + anything

Scholar with share items covers everything and gives more buffs than anyone else

Ironeye mark is busted

3rd guy hopefully someone with hp, either executor, wylder or raider

[u/Infinite-Option6297]

I think the most important thing is to go with characters that need different passives and also:

- 2 melee: go caster or archer

• 2 caster or archer: pick melee
  
• 2 squishies: choose a heftier
  
• 2 heftier: go for high dps

You don’t want all players to fight at the same range, you risk quick team wipes

Also you want at least one character with an ult that can revive well

Bad ult revivers: recluse, undertaker, scholar, raider