This keystone is simple and solid, but compared to DD or Warp Syphon you sacrfice too much making Brainburst worthwhile to use. My suggestions are
1: Faster charge time. I’m talking one second head pops before any kind of buffs like celerety stims or kinetic resonance. This would be what i want most.
2: More damage. If the casting time can’t or wont be reduced I want 25% added to EP bringing the total bonus to 75%. More damage is overkill outside of havoc and monstrosities so this one is a whatever pick
3: Bring back Cerebral Lacerations and bake it into Empowered psionics with a twist. You kill an elite or specialist with a stack EP nearby enemies suffer cerebral lacerations for 5 seconds.
Nothing crazy, dont want all of these at once just want slight improvements to a simple keystone
My idea is to make charge time dependent on target health, up to a limit, but with the result that it will kill every human sized enemy in one charge. Ogryns in twoalso. Captains and monsters can remain as they are.
Brainburst is in a weird place. As the difficulty and enemy density increases (especially armor spawns), it gets worse and worse, while Smite only gets more valuable. And when it comes to sniping, Assail does the job quicker and helps with hordes and Malefic Momentum on the side.
It would need quite a big speed increase or some kind of CC utility to make me consider using it in Auric…
Would also solve the OP’s issue with EP as one EP charge would be good for one elite kill (which would ofc restore the EP charge). For that reason, I would also be open to ogryns dying in one (long) charge too.
Killing ogryns in two brainbursts (that are presumably significantly slowed down) doesn’t seem like a great idea to me. First of all brainburst is already quite slow, so slowing it down even further (even if only against some targets) would make it very dangerous to attempt to pull off when crushers and bulwarks start piling up and you’re already surrounded by a lot of chaff. This is exactly when you need big single-target nukes and you need them fast, not slow.
I’d much rather see base brainburst buffed in the following way:
Has a higher base rending value to increase efficiency against armor.
15% reduction in base cast time.
15% increase in base dmg.
15% reduction in peril cost.
Pre-charging it takes the exact same time as on-target cast.
Buffs to Empowered Psionics in particular:
Further increased Brainburst rending.
While charging brainbursts gain +20% dmg resist against ranged dmg.
Dmg increases by 5% with game-mode difficulty (becomes +20% Auric, +25% on Havoc).
Or possibly, make it’s dmg scale more strongly with peril.
The exact numbers are all arguable, but from someone that loves playing brainburst with EP I feel like it’s greatest weakness is:
How long you’re left basically defenseless while charging it up.
That you’re often wasting a ton of time bursting things that are shot just before the burst lands(why both charging time and pre-charging time needs buffs).
That it has terrible scaling.
It becomes very bad once it takes 4-5 brainbursts to even kill a gunner, which is typical for various Havoc modifiers that toughen enemies up. That in particularly combines in a negative way with how long you’re just standing there defenseless while charging up brainburst after brainburst on that same stupid gunner.
I love that in Mortis Trials, but it would be insanely powerful.
Adding a CC upgrade node to EP would be cool though. If the mob survives the burst, it’s slowed and bleeding for 5-10secs afterwards.
Alternatively heads are crushed with such force, on kill it creates a small shockwave that staggers nearby enemies. That could make brainbursting chaff a viable crowd control strategy.
Or terrifies lesser enemies and sends them running in the opposite direction of Psyker. FS could use more of that mechanism tbh. There’s already enough stagger options, it would be refreshing to have something different.
This is the way.
Base BB: 3 sec to one tap Ogryn, 2.25 to one tap human sized Elites. EP grants 75% charge time reduction with Overload immunity - still generates Peril. 1 EP charge = 1 tap on Rotten Armour Crusher, 1 tap on Rampage buffed Gunner.
Resonance increases the AoE of the shockwave from BB that terrifies enemies and makes lesser enemies run away, also makes Psyker count as dodging while charging BB. Basically the Talent would focus on making BB safer to use, while EP would focus on the damage aspect.
This would be incredibly overpowered. 3 seconds to just delete any ogryn mob in one hit would be bonkers nuts. Even more if you simultaneously scare off surrounding enemies. It would effectively nullify all enemies with a single EP psyker.
Throw out a number then, please. Correct ne if I’m wrong, but it appears as though you are also in agreement that BB EP buff should one shot Ogryns, it’s just the time that it takes where we disagree.
One post earlier:
Please, clarify how terrifying nearby lesser (non-Elite) enemies is effectively nullifying all enemies with an EP Psyker (even though the “terrify” boost was Resonance, but staggering nearby enemies is not.
I think another way to buff EP, is to require less talent points to access the full benefits of it. There should be 1 maybe 2 nodes after the keystone so that you have more points to use elsewhere. More functionality baked into the single keystone point since its a blitz only keystone so that you can be more flexible to gain damage/ utility elsewhere.
That all being said in the current state of psyker it absolutely does not need any damage buff. It could use a “how it works” shake up though.
also
Smite should be reworked its a terrible mechanic in the game. (not thrilled with the arby trap either) I think it should be a buff mechanic to you melee attacks. like the chain lightning affect in v2 chaos wastes, not as strong though
