The Censer-spinning Trickster is one of the hardest classes to use and build for in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Unable to deal meaningful damage by itself, this class is dedicated to helping Pawns take down the largest foes safely.
Here are the best Trickster builds in Dragon’s Dogma 2, and the Augments, Abilities, and Gear
Best Augments for Trickster
The Trickster is an Arisen-only Vocation that unlocks during the midgame of Dragon’s Dogma 2, and it is focused entirely on supporting their Pawns in battle. As a result, augmenting this class focuses on tanking hits with extra durability and threat building, improving your Pawns where you can, and general improvements to Stamina. The following are the seven top choices for your Trickster’s combat prowess.
| Augment Name | Vocation and Rank | Description |
| Provocation | Fighter Four | Increases the likelihood of being targeted by foes. |
| Sustainment | Magick Archer Four | Augments the physical Defense and Magick Defense of Pawns in your Party. |
| Ascendancy | Magick Archer Eight | Augments the Strength and Magick of Pawns in your party. |
| Perpetuation | Mage Eight | Extends the duration of enchantments and invigorations. |
| Exaltation | Mage Nine | Augments your Stamina recovery speed. |
| Zeal | Warfarer Six | Reduces the Stamina consumed when performing a Weapon Skill. |
| Intrepidity | Warrior Nine | Reduces cumulation of the loss gauge when receiving damage. |
We don’t have any Trickster augments on the board, as they are much better for farming. They should be equipped when you decide to search for specific things: Detection for Seeker’s Tokens or Wakestone Shards, Enlightenment for crafted items, and Allure for relationships.
Best Weapon Skills for Trickster
The Trickster has six basic Weapon Skills and one Maister Skill, for a total of seven options. Four of them have real impact on standard battles, while three of them are pretty much gimmicks. Let’s touch on the good ones.
Aromatic Rally/Aromatic Resurgence
Aromatic Resurgence is your best tool as a Trickster. While this buff harms your Pawns over time, it also provides them with a large buff to their damage and invulnerability. While this buff is active, your Pawns can only go as low as one HP, basically guaranteeing them damage access during confusing combats.
Don’t worry—Aromatic Resurgence doesn’t boost your Pawn’s Loss Gauge. It’s as if they were Blighted. Their health is all recoverable, though leaving them at low health and losing the buff can be a recipe for disaster. Make sure this buff is online until your Healer can set up their curative fields or single-target heals your entire group.
Latching Effigy/Binding Effigy
The only way a Trickster can reliably deal damage is by having other enemies do it. Binding Effigy sends your Simulacrum out with a lot more range than your basic Enthralling Aroma ability. However, on miss, Binding Effigy dismisses your fog clone, so make it count.
This ability seems innocuous, but the abysmal range of Enthralling Aroma is truly unfortunate. If you ever want to play around with the pseudo-possession mechanic, Binding Effigy is absolutely necessary. This is also your best anti-Harpy tool, and a way to make other enemies target specific limbs and weakpoints on enemies like Golems.
Sweeping Shroud/Suffocating Shroud
Your starting ability remains one of the best. Suffocating Shroud drowns a large circle around you in smoke, aggroing enemies to you immediately. This lets you tank crowds of enemies with ease or lets your Simulacrum take the beating. For group encounters and single-target fights alike, this is a tool you should have—especially with its surprising range once you get the ability upgraded.
Most fights start with either casting or placing your Simulacrum and then using Suffocating Shroud to get everyone to fight your clone. Without this ability, you’d have to hit your foes with basic attacks to aggro them—which is unrealistic when you’re fighting a Chimera, let alone a pack of wolves.
Dragon’s Delusion
This Trickster Maister Skill lets you summon a mist dragon after a short charge time, which roars and scares your enemies. The fear can occur in a few ways—small enemies tend to start running away from you, while larger enemies can trip and fall in the right circumstances. This dragon is one of the few ways a Trickster can meaningfully contribute to fights against bosses—besides tanking.
Against non-construct foes, Dragon’s Delusion causes flinches and staggers relatively quickly. It has a long cast time and costs a lot of Stamina, but being able to cause an Ogre to take a knee without much help is worth it. Fickle Floor is the other way to get enemies to trip, but that feels so inconsistent while the Dragon at least guarantees stagger pressure.
Best team comp for Trickster
You are going to need some high-damage Pawns, such as Warriors, Sorcerers, and Thieves, if you want to make the best use of your Trickster. You’ll also want to prioritize Straightforward Pawns, as they tend to be more aggressive during fights. A Mage is recommended for their healing field, but the rest of their abilities should be damage-focused.
Of course, Warriors and Sorcerers go without saying. These classes can deal massive damage consistently but suffer if they get targeted. That’s where you come in, taunting foes with your Censer. Thieves are less reliant on a tank to deal good damage but can also work with your gameplan without an issue.
A Mage is an unfortunate requirement, thanks to your Aromatic Resurgence. Ensuring your party heals after you buff them is important, as you’ll otherwise be jogging around with a bunch of Pawns on death’s door. The rest of the Mage’s toolkit should be aggressive, though.
Best Gear for Trickster
Tricksters want a strong utility weapon, the best armor money can buy, and durability rings if they want to be useful in combat. Thankfully, you can get the best non-endgame Censer quite early on, leaving you with just armor to consider.
Censers are basically taken care of as long as you like riddles.
- Whimsical Daydream provides both high Strength and Magick but also a bit of Gold on hit. You get this from completing the Sphinx’s Riddle of Differentiation.
- During the endgame, you can use the Dragonforged to craft the Dragonswail Litany for 110 Wyrmslife Crystals.
Armor is a bit more complicated, sadly.
- During the base game, you can loot the Uncanny Eyes from a chest north of the Tomb of Ja’Nuwa in southern Battahl. This head armor boasts fantastic stats for this point of the game. The Summoner’s Crown is your postgame armor, looted after killing the Vermund Purgerer.
- If you like the Charming Corset, you’ve found your armor. Otherwise, the Ares Morpho Robe from Myrddin is your base game choice, and the Edified Vestment is your endgame armor.
- The Arena Breachers from Volcano Island work just fine for the base game. For postgame, the Runic Gaiters from the Dragonforged are a steal at only 30 Wyrmslife Crystals.
As for rings, we recommend a healthy mix of Health and Stamina.
- A Ring of Triumph does not go amiss, with 100 HP and Stamina to help you survive in fights a bit longer.
- A Ring of Momentum lets you spam Dragon’s Delusions like nobody’s business. You can find this in Thunderclap Cave or roll the dice and get one off a Cyclops.
You might want to consider the Ring of Disfavor, from Highland Cavern or the Coral Snakes’ Hideout, to massively increase the chance you’re targeted by attacks. We find that makes you a bit too likely to get stunlocked before you can set up your Simulacrum if you’re unprepared. However, if you master that ring, you can get rid of Suffocating Shroud and focus on keeping your Simulacrum alive through Illusive Divider.
How to unlock the Trickster
The Trickster is unlocked by visiting the Reverent Shrine in northeastern Battahl. All you have to do is talk to the spirit residing there named Luz. You can also immediately unlock Dragon’s Delusion by climbing on her roof, making the Trickster much easier to manage early on.
