One of the most frustrating things to happen is to brainburst a target only to gave it die almost instantly afterwards from your team mates and you getting zero charge. With this idea in mind the Psyker will still get a return on their warp buildup instead of having 45% peril with no reward.
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When I play as a Veteran, I pay close attention to selecting my targets. If I see the blue glow around their head, I know not to shoot them.
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Brain burst needs to be reworked in a way that synergizes better with the team. Whether it do damage over time as it charges, increase incoming damage, or give something back when someone else shoots it before the burst goes off, any of those would be good.
I’ve heard a few rework ideas. I’m a fan of warp charges being a passive acquisition, and spent using brain burst with higher damage scaling applied. Maybe a 6 stack burst could kill a crusher on Damnation.
Brain Burst shouldn’t make the charges, it should use the charges. The worst thing about brain burst is that it’s a tactical ability that can’t be allowed to be powerful because it doesn’t have a limiting resource that makes you actually use it tactically.
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Could maybe add some kind of buff or debuff to the target it hits, so either have the target do less damage after it has been hit by the brain burst, or have it take increased damage after being hit by brain burst.
Perhaps make it so that you get stacks on hits instead of kills.
Or add a mechanic that would build up stacks on non brainburst kills, which reduces the cast time and adds a little bit of extra damage to brain burst, up to a point where it turns into an insta cast that will one shot human sized targets no matter the difficulty.
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bump, id like buffs or convenience added to warp homies.
I still like @Saryk rework post from a while back.
Ironic that the Purgatus build that doesn’t even really use brain burst seems to have the easiest time with warp charges.
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Make the brain burst channel time based on the target’s health. AKA if teammates shoot it, your brain burst charges significantly faster. Lets you help finish things like crushers/bulwarks/bosses as well.
Possibly with a lesser peril cost, depending on balance.
As much as I try to follow this example, it’s not always feasible. Sometimes, it’s a bomber that’s ready to throw a grenade. Sometimes, it’s a trapper that’s already warming up to shoot you. Sometimes, it’s a dog or a mutant, and, where one is usually already in front of you, the other usually has a backup brain in its pants.
I feel awful about it, every single time, but the same psyker I’m usually stealing kills from told it to me plain when I started my own. To paraphrase, “You’ve just got to accept that you’re not going to get most of your targets before they die.”
I’m in support of both the initial lock-on having some kind of effect, and being granted a charge whether or not you killed the target. That way, everybody wins.
i was thinking earlier that BB would be a lot nicer if it reset warp charge timer when you get it past 50% but the target dies. 50% less reason to hate the veteran who popped the one head he saw glowing in the distance. you don’t get the charge but at least it reset the timer.
wouldn’t it make more sense to just refund the peril cost or have less peril build up before the attack goes off?
Just throwin’ my own ideas out there.
#1. Brain Burst becomes constant damage while you’re using it, for the same total damage over time that a completed BB does. Maybe it’s linear (so like 300 damage per .75 seconds) or logarithmic (damage starts small and gets greater nearer the end of the BB.) The charged doesn’t really change its behavior.
#2. The # of warp charges you have is really expanded (let’s say 10 and then 16 or something for the talent.) The stuff running off of warp charges gets tuned to accommodate the new number of them. This makes having Warp Charges less binary, less “either I have them or I don’t” and instead you have on average more than not, without it becoming too OP. (5% blah per warp charge would change to 2% blah per warpcharge.)
#3. Warp Charges accumulate every second you’re BB a target. So you get like, 1 charge per bursted target like an Infested or Moaner, because they’d die pretty quickly to the damage BB would now throw out per second.
#4. You no longer get Warp Charges on killing the target, although the kill effect should still be recognized for Talent purposes and general coolness. If you’re BBIng a target that is killed by someone else’s damage, it still counts. So instead of trying to beat people to the kill for your Warp Charges, you’re racing to start BBing as often as possible.
I think this has a few benefits.
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Your Peril isn’t for nothing. You’re always adding some damage no matter what. And it helps you back because while you’re BBing a target that is rushing you down, your teammate’s damage is helping you get it that much closer to dying immediately.
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You get Warp Charges a lot easier, more regularly, with no real change in effort. There’s more in play for you more often so more Psyker Talents come to the fore.
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Teammates are encouraged to shoot your BBing target because a) the light singles them out and our lizard brains want to shoot them, b) they’re helping trigger your talents by doing so and c) you’re doing concurrent damage with each other which melts targets faster and feels more like focused fire and less like kill stealing.
I personally consider Brain Burst flawed in the core as a mechanic.
The “Blitz” skills should be powerful tool used sparingly and in case of Psyker they are almost the backbone of the class. The constant farming and lack of difficulty scaling on the Brain Burst render it not just tedious but woefully ineffective on higher difficulty levels.
For me, the best solution would be, if warp charges could be generated through skillfull play (f.e. scoring headshots, killing multiple enemies and so on) and spent on Brain Bursts instantly. Just make a head pop on the fly, spent a charge or two, and carry on.
I disagree with this. I liked the way it was layed out in VT - some were powerful, once-in awhile, others were decent but frequent, e.g. merc’s heal vs foot knight’s charge. (Yes, there were balance issues, like pyro’s skull, but the general rule held).
Brain burst is frequent but hard to use, which I like. I do wonder why everybody sees the blue glow, and not just you. A lot of the incidental fire would go away if only you saw the blue glow.