For my own part, weapon balance for this game is largely fine at this point. Most everything is useable in some form or fashion, even if not ideal or in every build or setup.
Are some things stronger than others? Yes. Is that a huge problem in and of itself? Not really. Is there anything strong enough that it can, on its own, trivialize content for the typical user? Not that I’ve seen, we’re not seeing Malice-level players using Revolvers to roll through Damnation games with ease for instance. Likewise, the proportion of the playerbase that’s so good that Auric Maelstrom is just too easy with the weapons we have in game is so small as to be negligible.
One issue the game has is that in some respects, it has too many weapons. For the 18 different Las and Auto guns in this game, tabletop 40k considers them all the exact same thing with one singular weapon profile. Autopistols, Revolvers, and Las Pistols? Again, tabletop 40k treats these and all their different Marks as one identical profile. Dueling Sword, Combat Knives, Axes of all kinds, Shovels, etc? All just generic “close combat weapons” as far as tabletop 40k cares.
In exploring all these varied weapons, Darktide is more trying to show off the detail of the 40k universe, rather than maintain some strict semblance of balance. I’ve noted it elsewhere, but if someone made a super realistic Cold war era shooter with G3s, FALs, AK74s, and M16s, all you’d ever see used in competitive play would be the FALs and M16s because their manipulations can be handled faster with the same damage output as their slower alternatives. When we look at competitive shooting events with timers, they’re full of ARs, AKs are basically absent from finishing places because they take too long on clock to manipulate for very experienced shooters. However, that doesn’t mean that AKs and G3s are incapable weapons or would have no purpose in games alongside smoother operating weapons, and it doesn’t mean the average user is capable of taking advantage of those differences either.
The one issue I have is with weapons operating outside their niche, as that’s a consistency issue as well. If a Dueling Sword is an amazing weapon for voiding and blocking/parrying attacks, great. That’s how a real saber works too, and I don’t really have a problem with it being a bit over the top in that respect in a Coop PvE game. If however the Dueling Sword is a spectacular killer of heavily armored opponents, that’s an issue, as that’s not how that weapon is supposed to work. That’s the sort of thing I have issues with.
Either way I think we’re in a far better state than previously in DT’s life. I remember on launch how so many weapons were just bad or not fun to play with or that reflect properly, like autoguns with visibly equipped with quad stack magazines that could only hold 20-something rounds or where Slaughterer was the blessing to put on everything. Whatever balance issues do exist, overall they’re much less pressing than they used to be.
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where my extra rations