I shared my thoughts about the PS here and have come to the conclusion that it’s still one of the best melee weapons veteran has. I really have no problem using it post-nerf, and I think once I get one with Power Cycler on it, it will still be abhorrently broken.
I agree that stagger is still too high. I have a blessing that ignores 60% of all stagger resistance and even baseline stagger is still very generous. Maniacs should probably have a condition that lets them ignore braced flamer/purgatus stagger so there’s an actual enemy counter to a weapon type that functionally trivializes the game.
And just in case anyone doesn’t know, since a lot of people in this thread give that impression: unbraced left clicks on the Purgatus Staff/zealot Flamer both have insanely high stagger. They are explicitly designed to stagger enemies.