This was in the Chinese version of the balance dev blog, it was translated so some of the terms aren’t fully translated 1 for 1. but the blessing is clearly referencing uncanny strikes and its values are getting halved.
Unless they buff zealot and veteran directly, this will kill their classes in high havoc tbh. Ogryn just eats their lunch in damage any day…
Veteran is already weak and this will just destroy one of the two good vet builds in high havoc, Knife zealots will be rampant too.
The only reason they will be played is for gold toughness.
Though maybe tac axe buff will make it the new meta weapon…
8 Likes
It might only be early draft for the nerfs so who knows. Hopefully they do further testing. Coz i feel like plasmagun shots not ignoring the bulwarks shields will hurt it alot especially on top of the other changes.
And with DS, the uncanny strike nerf alone should be enough to sort it out but aswell as the direct nerfs it could be rough
They are adding parry to the DUELING sword, finally.
11 Likes
Wow, those are heavy nerfs to Plasma, if they go through. Will it be a dead weapon if they do all that? Let’s hope this was play-tested.
I don’t see a reason to reduce its cover-piercing. Only two weapons have that, let it keep that lol.
5 Likes
I have no idea what the practical effects of these changes will be, there’s lots of nobs being adjusted, anyone who knows how all those numbers work wanna chime in? Not seeing anything immediately that looks awful to me, but I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at either.
What! Insider patch notes created specifically to appeal to Tencent? I KNEW IT!
(Poor) Jokes aside, these seem like reasonable changes. 
2 Likes
This and their statement about DS and plasma nerfs being a part of a future balancing patch can’t coexist together, one has to be false. My money is on this being false
1 Like
zealot does not need to be buffed…
14 Likes
huh? is this actually real? looks great
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If a parry mechanic is going to be implemented, and if the dueling sword is being reworked from scratch including new animations, then it’s understandable that the nerf is taking time.
Also, I really hope they stop strengthening the player any further. Some people argue that without buffing the player, they can’t keep up in Havoc, but the real issue is that Havoc’s balancing is too extreme, and the game shouldn’t be adjusted to fit that.
Rather, I believe Havoc itself needs to be toned down or reworked, including nerfs to gunners and players in general.
2 Likes
Changing the stagger special for parry? man… I kinda hate that
Everything else about DS changes seem fine however
It’s there
Edit: translated using Chatgpt since it seems to have scraped Darktide terms:
MacBain Duelling Sword
The Duelling Sword performs exceptionally well in-game, capable of swiftly eliminating key threats while offering excellent mobility, a powerful staggering special attack, and decent crowd control capabilities.
This balance update aims to further enhance the “duelling” style combat experience of the weapon. This will raise the skill floor, requiring players to master its mechanics in order to fully unleash its potential.
The thrusting heavy attacks of the Mk IV and Mk II were already quite powerful, and with their high finesse modifiers, they often resulted in excessive damage.
We have significantly reduced their finesse modifiers and base damage, along with armor damage modifiers against Flak Armor, Carapace Armor, and Unyielding enemies. The hitbox window for this attack type has also been shortened to reduce leniency in hit detection.
In addition, we’ve weakened the Mystic Strike blessing’s Bleed effect, as it stacked damage too quickly against armored units.
Special Attack Change
As compensation, the weapon’s special action has been reworked from a quick stab to a parry-counter mechanic similar to the Devil’s Claw.
Now, using the special action will enter a parry state, allowing you to block incoming melee attacks. If a melee attack is successfully blocked while in this state, a counterattack is automatically triggered. This counter hits the first target and deals significant damage, with strong finesse and armor damage modifiers.
Due to the weapon’s low stamina by default, it is recommended that players invest in stamina-related traits or reduced block cost to reliably use the parry special. A perfect parry (a successful block within 0.2 seconds of entering parry state) will greatly reduce stamina consumption.
Since Psykers are the intended users of this weapon, they gain an extra effect: using the parry special will increase peril by 4%, dramatically boosting the power level of the counterattack.
The new counterattack has similar strength to the original thrusting heavy attack, so while the weapon’s ceiling remains intact, it now demands better positioning, timing, and stamina management.
Mk V Adjustments
The Mk V model lacked the thrusting heavy attack to begin with, so we’ve buffed its heavy overhead attacks, particularly improving effectiveness against Unyielding enemies. As a result, the Mk V’s counterattack is slightly stronger than those of other variants.
Changes - Duelling Sword
Special Action:
- Changed to Parry-Counter
- (Mk V only): Increased power level modifier and armor damage against Flak armor
- Power level modifier: 550
- Flak armor damage mod: 0.8 → 0.9
- (Psyker only): Using Parry increases peril by 4%, boosting counterattack power:
- Mk II / Mk IV: 650
- Mk V: 700
Damage Profile
Thrusting Heavy Attack:
- Finesse mod: (1.5, 3) → (1.1, 2.2)
- First target damage: (200, 400) → (185, 375)
- Armor mods:
- Unyielding: 1 → 0.75
- Flak: 0.8 → 0.7
- Carapace: 0.6 → 0.4
- Removed targets 4 and 5
- Shortened hit window
Heavy Overhead Attack:
- Finesse mod: (1.0, 2.0) → (1.1, 2.1)
- Stagger: (6, 12) → (7, 14)
- Unyielding armor mod: 1 → 1.25
Counterattack:
- Similar to the previous thrusting heavy for the first target
- For other targets: similar to Devil’s Claw counter, but with reduced damage and cleave
Mystic Strike Blessing:
- Bleed per stack: 12/16/20/24% → 6/8/10/12%
- Stack count and duration unchanged
Dev Note: These changes apply only to the Duelling Sword series.
M35 Magnacore Plasma Gun Mk II
The Plasma Gun has always been a battlefield-clearing powerhouse, with both a stable and safe primary fire and a high-risk, high-reward secondary fire that are very effective.
However, the primary fire remains too strong, viable in almost all scenarios, often overshadowing the secondary fire, which is only used in niche cases.
To encourage players to switch modes based on the situation, we’ve shifted the weapon’s design focus toward secondary fire, aiming for better balance in usage and reinforcing the weapon’s “uncontrollable” style.
Specific Changes
Primary Fire:
- Reduced:
- Damage
- Cleave
- Suppression
- Armor damage against Unyielding, Maniacs, and Carapace armor
- Penetration
- Detailed changes:
- Cleave: 100 → 10
- Maniac armor mod: 1.25 → 1
- Unyielding armor mod: 2 → 1.25
- Carapace armor (close): 0.75 → 0.5
- Carapace armor (range): 0.5 unchanged
- Damage range: (700, 1400) → (800, 1000)
- Stagger: 45 → 40
- Suppression: 10 → 4
- Suppression on kill: 10 → 6
- Suppression radius on kill: 8m → 3m
- No longer fully ignores shieldbearer shields
- Terrain penetration: 1.25 → 0.5
- Corpse knockback force: 500 → 300
Secondary Fire:
- Ammo usage (partial charge): 5–9 → 1–9
- Unyielding armor mod: 1.5 → 1.75
- Unarmored armor mod: 1.0 → 1.1
Other:
- Weapon switch time: 0.5s → 0.625s
5 Likes
this is confusing. Thankfully, update is really soon
we’re so back!!
The finer details I’d need to see but if this is brought into the game it looks mostly like what people wanted - especially on plasma.
8 Likes
DS is an all around overperformer, but aside from exceptional ammo efficiency, the Plasma Gun is simply in good territory. I’ve yet to see the Plasma dominance people constantly complain about. A lot of people use it and put out mediocre damage.
Outside of high Havoc, the Bolter craps all over it, and the only thing stopping the Bolter from making the Plasma irrelevant in Havoc is ammo.
Ranged gameplay in Darktide in its entirety needs an overhaul that it will almost certainly never receive. The game rewards infinite cleave weapons and body shots way too damn much. The body shot/head shot delta needs to grow significantly.
1 Like
I wonder why anyone aren’t noticing that the only part that would get nerf on Plasma is primary fire(except the minor swap speed increase)
Plasma gun’s charged shot doesn’t get any nerf whatsoever while also get some buff to it. That pretty much sum up the idea of moving most of it power to charged shot so the user have to at least use some brain power to wield it.
Also these might not even be final, considering FS is not putting it up on official forum(unless they just want to postpone impending review bomb from ‘no nerf, only buff’ people)
4 Likes
Uncanny from 120% - 60%.
Only nerfed for dueling sword for god knows what reason (knife totally NEEEEEEEDDSS it guys 
).
No mention of it no longer working for dots.
I really hope this is either fake or meant to be a joke, because I wouldn’t even call that a slap on the wrist for uncanny. That might genuinely be completely unnoticeable in game.
5 Likes
This has been my experience as well. PG’s are good, but at least playing typical game modes, never seem super common or particularly dominating, and I don’t play mine anywhere near as often as I used to with the breadth of weapons now accessible. I think a lot of the mechanisms used to ramp up difficulty at the game’s higher end strongly exaggerate characteristics of the PG that you really don’t experience otherwise (such as the aforementioned ammo issue), but that’s an issue with how those modes are designed not with the PG. That said, I don’t think the changes bother me, but I also don’t think the current PG is the issue some make it out to be either.
1 Like