Assail is clearly too strong right now, especially at removing a lot of targets that your teammates would have fun hitting.
My suggestion would be (instead of just nerfing its current state until it feels ‘fine’) to soft rework it:
Making it a better Elite and Special sniping tool but worse at killing hordes.
Lower fire rate and/or recharge rate
Lower amount of targets hit per shard down to 1 (+1 completely random target with the upgrade)
Increase peril cost
Increase its damage to everything but Carapace to make up for loss of DPS
Either make it always headshot or never headshot so damage is consistent
Increase flight speed
Make the default usage lock on when you shoot and not have to keep your aim on target (like it works now when “ADSing”)
This way it’d be faster than brain burst at killing small but important enemies, but way worse at dealing with Carapace and Monstrosity (Even if Unyelding damage is high, the damage per second on Monstrosity will be lower due to recharge rate).
And I say Assail is perfectly fine.
Never saw an Assail Psyker place 1st in the scoreboard. I only see people upset that a shard swooped in flying with an irritating throwing arc, then got the last hit on something in.
But these people give very little consideration to it’s downsides or the strengths of the other playable classes.
It’s pure envy posting because Psyker now has a fun and servicable option, that shines really well in some niches (and does poorly in a few others).
For my bit, I’m really enjoying Assail on my Psyker, but I also realize the fact that I’m often using it as my primary weapon (over and above my Warp Flurry/Transfer Peril Voidstrike staff unless I run into something big) means there’s something wrong. It’s a Blitz ability, and should be used as such.
To me, it should be an “oh s***” button, something that you can use to clear your immediate vicinity when you get in a jam, but not something that you can use to clear every area you enter or engage in a pitched firefight against a squad of Gunners across the hallway. I’d reduce the range and increase the recharge time.
Based on my reading of the weapon that is the exact inverse of its intended function. Its supposed to be the horde clear Blitz. Brain Burst is supposed to be for elites. Smite is supposed to be stagger. The problem with Assails is its really strong against everything when it should suffer against elites.
That’s basically the issue, they inherit too much power from empowered and even warp charges (seriously there’s so many taggable targets around you can be at 6 charges all game). If they were more trash clear oriented it would be fine, but you can use them to wipe out waves of dreg ragers and shotgunners.