Don’t know how you want to get to that point, but it just seems silly at this point how bad brainburst feels.
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True, but if bb would be as good on how easy is too kill crushers with krak, i think it will need to work with “ammo” (like assail), other way it could be kinda op, or just make an entire rework on bb.
It does have ammo: perils. But perils management is significantly undertuned right now.
Hopefully there’s a giant psyker rework at some point, but brain burst feels OK with KR and EP keystone finally stacking. Maybe it could do more damage to carapace, unyielding and flak but they would also make the EP breakpoints irrelevant. I would be fine with that since 3 brain bursts into maulers/crushers is not very sweet.
Maybe you could hit 2 brain burst breakpoints on them with warp charges, but again I’d rather that entire keystone be redesigned.
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What do you currently need to stack to hit 2 shot on crushers? I’m pretty sure EP on its own isn’t enough? Does it need a certain peril threshold with warp rider?
IMO WS and EP should both hit 2 shot on all Ogryn elites without further investment. Kinetic flayer also needs a rework/serious changes then BR would be fine. Would be nice to get cerebral lacerations back in some form as a bonus (could also help Psyker more meaningfully contribute to boss killing without guns).
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So, here’s my arguments for Brain Burst…
1: Not ammo dependent.
2: Doesn’t require Line-Of-Sight after lock-on.
3: Works against everything.
4: Unlimited range.
I saw in the comments that they compare Peril to ammo, but I don’t agree. It’s a “heat” mechanic which can be vented freely and on demand with nothing but time as a cost. To vent one tick in order to cast again takes milliseconds.
The not requiring LOS after lock-on, frees you up to survey the battlefield, preventing tunnel vision.
Although, in order for me to 2-shot a Crusher, I need stacks of Warp Siphon and Perfect Timing. Anything else, it’s a 2-shot +tiny sliver of health left. That sliver can easily be done by any of the other 3 rejects in the team, and in most cases, they’ve already damaged multiple crushers.
I personally think that BB is underutilized, underrated and misunderstood. It’s a tool. Like every tool, it has pros and cons. It’s not meant to destroy everything, because then nobody would use anything else. It’s something there, in your kit, to be used when the opportunity arrives.
I think it fills its part in dealing with specials, disablers and many elites and monsters. Personally, for elites and mostly for monsters, I’ll use my staff. I only really use my BB as a sniping tool, especially when I run Purgatus staff. Or when you’re pinned down by 20 gunners from great distance.
I’m not saying it can’t or shouldn’t get a damage buff. I’ll always take whatever I can get. It’s just that I don’t think it needs it. My experience is that it works for the part it has to play.
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Tunnfisk makes a good point. Krak Grenades and Brain Burst are two tools that look similar on the surface but in reality fill different niches.
Kraks have a blast radius - it’s small, but it’s enough that in a dense pack of Crushers or Maulers, you can easily remove several of them with a single one. Brain Burst will only ever hit one target, and it’s not a one hit kill - it takes much longer to kill a Crusher or Mauler compared to Kraks, something that can very easily leave you overwhelmed.
If you want an anti-armor weapon for Psyker, look no further than the Trauma Staff - a knockdown machine that even comes with a blessing that applies a bunch of stacks of Brittle on a fully charged blast. This allows you to deal high damage and let your teammates clean up with their debuffed armor values.
Kraks SUCK at dealing with anything other than the heavy enemies they’re designed to. Veteran has a gun, if it’s an enemy at long range, they should use it, but guns still have time to kill, and you have to aim, and maybe there’s other stuff going on that you can’t pay attention to because you’re tunnel visioned on that one sniper in the distance.
Brain Burst needs no such investment. Simply look at whichever enemy you don’t like, hold the button, and presto! You’ve just nailed a Gunner or a Bomber so nobody else has to, and all you paid was an opportunity cost of not doing active crowd control. It doesn’t one-shot Crushers and Maulers because it’s not supposed to. You were never intended to use it for them.
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Sure, “unlimited range” and no LOS (after lock-on) are great… except when it needs to be a pixel perfect lock with no chainlink obscuring your path and once the enemy pops you realize you locked onto mob trash instead of literally any target of value.
BB’s pretty clunky.
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BB could do a % of damage, rather than flat amount maybe.
Not sure how that’d be balanced; but one squishy brain is pretty much the same as any other I’d argue, regardless of whether you wrap carapace armour around it.
Monsters probably should be immune to mind thingies. Like Jabba the Hut.
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Yep, no tool is perfect. The amount of Krak grenades that won’t stick to monsters, or simply goes after a lesser target than a Crusher or Bulwark, is all too often. That’s why I mentioned that everything has pros and cons. With experience you can limit the negative side of the tool. But of course, never fully remove it.
To me, that’s also part of the fun. Like recoil. Ever played a game where you removed the recoil? It gets very dull very fast. Part of the fun of shooter games is the mini-game of controlling the recoil. So when you do well, when you hit your targets with BB or when controlling recoil, I at least, get that little extra kick of “I’m performing very well”.
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I thought about this at one point, but having to do 2*BB for a Mauler, or a Gunner would utterly ruin the skill. However it could be based on armor/enemy types. So Gunners, Zerkers, Specials are 1 hit. Mutants, Crushers, Bulwarks, Rippers are 2 hits. Monsters I guess would have to be balanced on the amount it takes now really. Not sure. Interesting idea though!
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That’s a good point! Serves me right for writing off the cuff again 
Maybe %, or a minimum flat damage?
I don’t know what “lore” is. Don’t know if a BB is even in the original W40K attack set.
But surely one squishy brain is the same as any other. And actually, feasibly, maybe it’s inversely proportional. I’m not one to tar everyone with the same brush, but I would contest that a Crusher and a Rager is a bit more stupid than your average scab shooter. Maybe they should take MORE damage. A pox walker has no brain of sorts at all - they’re immune (and non-targetable). Dogs easy. Maulers mid. Snipers high resistance.
Dunno. Just spitballing!
But it could be a skill that is inversely proportional to physical damage, which would certainly give it a niche. Though possibly too strong without some further thought on balancing it.
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So I did actually take psyker for a spin post-fix.
BB feels comfortable with the stacking cast speed buffs, not too OP, not too clunky. Aim still needs some work and I’m sure anyone using a controller is feeling the pain but most of the time for my issues it’s just me being bad at psyker rather than the tools at my disposal.
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Two brainbursts to kill a crusher is perfectly fine. A Krak grenade one-shots a crusher. And no, brainburst should not compete with that.
Pretty much the only thing that should is a thunder hammer.
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Not sure if you’ve tried it before, but yes, 50% flat damage bump is enough to 2 shot anything in the game (besides monstrosities) with BB regardless of Peril level.
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Largely agree with this sentiment at this point, especially after the fixed interaction between KR and EP now properly additively stacking together. It feels really nice with EP’s ‘guaranteed stack on elite kill’ to go about actually helping your team kill a wave of Bulwarks/Crushers and ESPECIALly any form of Gunner / Dreg Ragers with near snap casts of BB after a quick scream/shield cast. Makes one feel rewarded for learning the intricacies of the class and still gives you the proper option to deal with such threats in a timely manor (Especially when paired with Perilous Combustion/Wildfire. Just eases the breakpoints all the more and helps keep the wave still managed while you deal with the large threats, it’s a good time and is why my Purgatus staff build is still probably my favorite just barely edging out the rest of the options).
While I’d never scoff at a damage buff to make things even easier, or a cast time increase to make the stacking literally a snap cast, I think it’s fine where it is after the recent change, and rewards skilled play and active use of synergies, which is what Psyker’s already good at doing.
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We’re in the same boat. I think BB may need a slight tweak to allow some consistency in killing human-sized specials but with the speed buffs 2-shotting a crusher is suddenly acceptable (because it does it quickly and at low cost).
TH on the other hand is a clunky melee weapon that needs more love.
BB needs imo a big buff
People will not rest until BB is instant and oneshots every enemy in the game
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TBF there is a pretty big gap between that and where it is. Completely agree people catastrophise it as if it is awful (it’s definitely not), but some gentle nudges upwards and/or added utility I think is a reasonable ask.
For sure anyone who says it should one shot a crusher should kindly re-evaluate their opinions.
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