Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

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Two week observation for auric weeklies (all classes)
I play DT solo and do weeklies on 8 chars as of right now. I both enjoy playing different builds/characters and prefer to have an optimal, fun build for each one. Primary difficulty is Auric, though had to scale down to Damnation sometimes to try to get no-deaths runs, which of course does not guarantee that as Damnation has the challenge of less experienced players there.

Aurics can be punishing for many (and some of my builds) and thus someone manages to get nuked. New event can be fun, but often people do not have tools to properly deal with groups of carapace or forget that there are disablers or hordes. Teamplay sometimes is another aspect that just disappears.

My general observations on personal difficulty rating for the predominant builds I used:

- Psyker is obviously the toughest to play in such environment, very squishy, some teamplay dependability, cannot do everything on his own and carry the game if everyone manages to get themselves deleted. Great at clearing hordes, overall team support, removing some dodgy specials.
I use Deimos/Inferno staff, Brain rupture, Telekine dome, CDR aura and no keystone as I went for other utility talents.

- The second from the bottom would be veteran, my favourite class. Reasonably squishy, too, even with toughness damage reduction nodes. I'm absolutely comfortable playing the class and enjoy being the special/elite sniper, but do not feel that I can handle every situation solo either.
Use Chainsword 13/Zarona revolver, Krak nade, Survivalist aura, Voice of Command and no keystone for better utility.

- Zealot is my middle ground. Agile, very capable solo and brings good control/support. Have survived tough situations solo, saved the team. Enjoy the class quite a lot.
Use Combat Blade 3/Flamer with Blades of Faith, Benediction aura, Chorus and Blazing Piety keystone.

- Arbitrator is definitely quite easy to manage and be efficient with less effort than on the previous classes. Very capable all rounder, carried teams in tough situations with reasonable ease.
Use Arbites Shock Maul/Exaction 8 with Voltaic Shock mine, Reload speed aura, Lone Wolf, Castigator Stance and Execution Order keystone. Even with the non-working nodes I get the free marks and can react much better to the threats.

- Ogryn. Almost brain dead easy and quite efficient at disrupting and surviving anything the game throws at you. Super tough, not so agile though, so have to be mindful with dodges. Can push through almost anything, while crowd controlling and dealing solid damage. I had almost no solo-play situations because everything is on the floor most of the time and nobody dies.
Use Bully Club 3/Rumbler with Frag Bomb, Loyal Protector, toughness replenishment aura and Feel No Pain keystone.

Essentially this is a subjective ease of use/efficiency rating for the classes that I experienced during these few weeks since I got back to DT. It's predominantly from aurics and solo-play.

Eventually will start doing havocs more. My highest rank was 27 with randoms with average effort and low time spent in that mode. Reached it on vet and tried playing arbites in havoc - felt comfortable with both, but I suppose I would prefer playing veteran. I would not enjoy taking my psyker or zealot though. Ogryn would be possible.

And the bottomline would be that this is just an observation, not calling for a nerf or saying that, because I do not feel that comfortable on psyker or know zealot as well as veteran, they are somehow worse.
Last edited by Deepeye; 1 Aug @ 3:12am
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Showing 1-15 of 23 comments
DotNL 1 Aug @ 2:04am 
Originally posted by Deepeye:
Psyker is obviously the toughest to play - I use no keystone

-_-
Fenrir 1 Aug @ 2:07am 
Originally posted by DotNL:
Originally posted by Deepeye:
Psyker is obviously the toughest to play - I use no keystone

-_-
like complaining about not being able to have children after getting a vasectomy.

Being able to Spam your Bubble or destroying Elites with fast Brain Bursts. Who would want something like that.

Might want to look into that. Youre missing out on a lot of stuff there.
Last edited by Fenrir; 1 Aug @ 2:12am
Deepeye 1 Aug @ 2:15am 
Originally posted by Fenrir:
Originally posted by DotNL:

-_-
like complaining about not being able to have children after getting a vasectomy.

Being able to Spam your Bubble or destroying Elites with fast Brain Bursts.

I usually do not reply to comments that have very little substance, but since you edited to at least point out something then the idea is that for aurics there have not been a big necessity to spam bubble, natural cdr from Psykinetik's Aura is definitely enough. Yeah, Brain Burst with Empowered Psyonics is great, but not better than overall utility from other talents though.

Your comment is somewhat funny though. :halloweener:
Fenrir 1 Aug @ 2:23am 
Originally posted by Deepeye:
Originally posted by Fenrir:
like complaining about not being able to have children after getting a vasectomy.

Being able to Spam your Bubble or destroying Elites with fast Brain Bursts.

I usually do not reply to comments that have very little substance, but since you edited to at least point out something then the idea is that for aurics there have not been a big necessity to spam bubble, natural cdr from Psykinetik's Aura is definitely enough. Yeah, Brain Burst with Empowered Psyonics is great, but not better than overall utility from other talents though.

Your comment is somewhat funny though. :halloweener:
yeah sorry i noticed that my post lacked some constructive substance. For Auric the Brain Bursts are awesome. For Havoc above 30 the reduced CD on Bubble takes a lot of pressure of the group altough it invites for bad plays if you lean on the protection of the bubble to much.
Deepeye 1 Aug @ 3:06am 
Originally posted by Fenrir:
Originally posted by Deepeye:

I usually do not reply to comments that have very little substance, but since you edited to at least point out something then the idea is that for aurics there have not been a big necessity to spam bubble, natural cdr from Psykinetik's Aura is definitely enough. Yeah, Brain Burst with Empowered Psyonics is great, but not better than overall utility from other talents though.

Your comment is somewhat funny though. :halloweener:
yeah sorry i noticed that my post lacked some constructive substance. For Auric the Brain Bursts are awesome. For Havoc above 30 the reduced CD on Bubble takes a lot of pressure of the group altough it invites for bad plays if you lean on the protection of the bubble to much.

Absolutely no question about havoc. I know that bubble spam is the most solid and likely most popular build option for it.

Yet I specifically stated in my post that I play aurics. And bit lower specified that don't even plan to take psyker to havoc, I do not much enjoy psyker playstyle overall.

Again, I have to play with solo mindset with all the classes for a simple reason - I play alone with randoms where I have no clue if people know how or even want to work together in a pve game. Often this part is really lacking, especially now, so if I have pure team built psyker - I am often f... when everything goes to hell. Because nobody ever covers me, I have to be perfect at positioning and dodging because pskyer is squishy as a fly, somehow manage to remove specials that could threaten me, hold off the horde that people decide to ignore and help others at the same time.

I tested out at least 4 builds on aurics for psyker, this is what is most comfortable for me. I mean I cannot shoot myself in a leg just because others think it is not best. It works optimally for me. It is a fact, because I survive, manage to do my job and win games.
Last edited by Deepeye; 1 Aug @ 3:07am
Steinar 1 Aug @ 4:37am 
It's almost impossible to talk with people on these forums about this, because if we look at Psyker, the class has the potential to nuke large groups of enemies better than no other class in the game, but at the same time Psyker is the most squishy and team-dependant class, with lots of builds that are undesirable compared to the "melt groups" build.

So some will call Psyker weak because they look at the weak builds, while others will call Psyker strong because they look at the strongest build. Gah..

It's safe to say that Psyker functions well in some areas, and not so well in other areas. I'm confident Fatshark knows what to look at.
Psyker is the one class i feel that isn't in need for any alteration or update. The Class is super strong when played with skill. Problem with it is that its a low skill floor and the highest skill ceiling in the game.

This results in a lot of people getting "okay" results, while struggling, because they never learned the game's basic mechanics. But at the same time, if you actually know how to play it, and are fine with "complicated" builds, where you chain combos and maintain riding high peril.. and the like.. then you will absolutely make it sing.

The fact that it has "game breaking" abilities, which make people lazy, is a boon and a detriment.

In my personal "hirarchy" as someone that also plays all classes, i feel like the Veteran is on the bottom... and then everyone else is about the same. The only Class i don't feel works anymore is the Veteran. The other 4 depend on my daily desire for try harding and how attentive i am. Arbites and Ogryn require the least amount of attention while playing. Zealot if still an absolute fun monster in melee... and Psyker absolutely sings under the right circumstances.
1 Aug @ 6:07am 
If your psyker can't do everything on his own then you are doing something wrong. Psyker can absolutely crush everything in no time (well ofc expect for armor spam). The issue, indeed, is how fragile psyker is and you actually have to use your brain sometimes. I will agree on toughest to play with, but not like THAT tough. I use my psyker to nuke everything and everyone and then flex on people with their 0.25x scoreboard of mine. Also psyker keystones are fine. The right one kinda meh to me, but others are super great, not sure why not to pick them?

Veteran is the second toughest to me too, but not like he is hard, the only issue is you get staggered when hit in melee, that's it. Zarona/rapier with 30% weakspot just deletes stuff. Also ammo regen and nade regen. You can shoot every special/disabler and still sit at 90% ammo. Feels like cheating. Just don't yolo into ragers, shoot them instead.

Same weapons for zealot. Great class, just watch your ammo. Unlike veteran you should just yolo into ragers instead of shooting them. Can be really annoying if people steal ammo to shoot poxers and ignore disablers.

Arb with pocket invul and dog is great tank. Also shootgun for some nice dmg. Melee arb dmg is not that great to me. I use shotgun to kill bosses faster. Overall just yolo into everything, pocket invul/dog and bonk stuff.

Ogryn just London life simulator or rock n stone with pick. Kickback vs range. Can be like super-ultra-mega annoying on large openning areas vs sniper mod if noone kills them and kickback takes like 2-3 shots. Overall is just your mouse left click apm simulator.
What do you like about Veteran in particular? I had a hard time finding fun builds for him, his talent tree is a mess. When I get a new friend into the game I try to steer them away from him due to this.
Steinar 1 Aug @ 6:26am 
Originally posted by Ishan451:
Psyker is the one class i feel that isn't in need for any alteration or update.
I've played Havoc 2.0 since it came out, and I've yet to see any desirability for gun/melee Psykers because they can't AoE, they don't bring any utility, and the only thing they can do is already covered by other classes. Assail doesn't even function well with Scrier's Gaze because it immediately cancels it, and most of the time I see a Psyker try to spec off of Telekine Dome they get called out for it by their team.

These are real issues with the class.

It's not healthy for Psyker when Telekine Dome is the only desirable utility a Psyker brings, and is almost required for the Psyker himself to survive in Havoc against shooters. AoE with Soulblaze is essentially the only unique damage a Psyker brings, but only the left side tree, one staff, and one Ability applies it. All of this limits build options, which is why you see so many Psykers run around with Inferno Staff, Telekine Dome, and Soulblaze spreading.

It's also becoming unreasonable to expect Psykers to be punished for taking one hit when the game keeps ramping up the amount of enemies. Psyker needs to be able to survive without Telekine Dome, which means Psyker survivability must go up, Telekine Dome must go down, and either teams need to start desiring Psykers for non-AoE related stuff, or the Psyker needs to be able to deal AoE dmg in all builds.
Deepeye 1 Aug @ 7:37am 
Originally posted by Ishan451:
The Class is super strong when played with skill. Problem with it is that its a low skill floor and the highest skill ceiling in the game.

In my personal "hirarchy" as someone that also plays all classes, i feel like the Veteran is on the bottom... and then everyone else is about the same. The only Class i don't feel works anymore is the Veteran. and Psyker absolutely sings under the right circumstances.

Apologies for crumpling the text like this.

Fully agree that psyker is the highest skill ceiling class in DT. I love seeing good psyker players every time! Yet something in the dynamics of how the class should be played does not appeal to me in the core, it does not feel that satisfying to execute all of the actions mechanically. Hence I am nowhere near to such levels of skill with the class as those who enjoy the process and have played it for much longer :rankstripes:

Regarding veteran, I'm not surprised that you said that. Class feels bit outdated build quality and versatility wise.

Your last sentence, you said it - right circumstances. I imagine that this has a bit higher requirement for the class to shine as well, compared to others. At least it is my understanding of the situation.
Deepeye 1 Aug @ 7:51am 
Originally posted by :
If your psyker can't do everything on his own then you are doing something wrong. ... you actually have to use your brain sometimes. Also psyker keystones are fine. The right one kinda meh to me, but others are super great, not sure why not to pick them?

Ogryn just London life simulator or rock n stone with pick. Overall is just your mouse left click apm simulator.

Same with your reply, man. I crumpled it, apologies haha

Yes, I do not assume that I am of the perfect mindset or execution on any of the classes. Try to learn every time to do things better, yet I do stick to what I like the feel-of the most.

Definitely try to use my brain as much as possible, even in DT! :cybereye:

Yeah, no way I meant anywhere that something is wrong with the keystones for the psyker. I had to choose some unorthodox approach and sacrifice Empowered Psyonics with some connected nodes to get more speed and survivability. I tried these builds in several games and this one felt the most comfortable for me as of right now.

Ah, forgot about the Ogryn comment - made me laugh very hard...
Last edited by Deepeye; 1 Aug @ 8:17am
Deepeye 1 Aug @ 8:10am 
Originally posted by DuckieMcduck:
What do you like about Veteran in particular? I had a hard time finding fun builds for him, his talent tree is a mess. When I get a new friend into the game I try to steer them away from him due to this.

Thanks for the honest question. I get the sentiment of trying to steer new players away from the class right now.

I think the key aspect is gunplay and being the sniper of the team. Though I played A LOT with Agrippina Braced Autogun long time ago, it has completely fallen off nowadays. Feels like a different game to be frank.

I suppose there are several aspects if you go deeper though - the ranged weapon functionality (sniping specials and elites with anti-suppression talent), VoC clutch and overall usefulness, self-reliability with ammo and grenade regeneration (sometimes it's a legit spam on good 5% procs during big waves). Feel like jack of all trades. And, surprisingly, I am quite decent at sniping headshots on Zarona, never would have guessed it as I have not been a proper FPS player since early 00. Sometimes the railgun instinct kicks in really good.

This is my current build I have adapted since I am back in the game:
https://darktide.gameslantern.com/build-editor?id=9f87e5ef-6f59-47b4-8a02-ee659a11b713

The tree needs a rework, it's a bit outdated - not very streamlined and kind of lacks many good choices.

I do go DS sometimes, but then the grenade has to be Shredder. Big hordes take too much time to deal with otherwise.
Last edited by Deepeye; 1 Aug @ 8:11am
Wouldnt Empowered Psionics help you a great deal with Brain Bursting stuff?

I wonder what else you took. I assume at the auras you went left and right for some melee stuff and maybe Channeled Force, i guess the dodging and toughness damage reduction nodes before the ulti and then taking a little from all the branches at the end like Kinetic Deflection and Empyric Resolve.
Deepeye 1 Aug @ 8:32am 
Originally posted by Medicles:
Wouldnt Empowered Psionics help you a great deal with Brain Bursting stuff?

I wonder what else you took. I assume at the auras you went left and right for some melee stuff and maybe Channeled Force, i guess the dodging and toughness damage reduction nodes before the ulti and then taking a little from all the branches at the end like Kinetic Deflection and Empyric Resolve.

Yeah, true, it would help. But I had to overcompensate to get more survivability/utility as I feel that would give me a bit more of an edge compared to benefits of Empowered Psionics (and connected nodes).

Think you guessed almost exactly what I took :Credit:
This is the current primary build I use for the psyker (solo auric):
https://darktide.gameslantern.com/build-editor?id=9f87ee67-08d0-4380-affe-df3a91bf7f9e
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