In patchnotes it seems Fatshark is trying to encourage players to create more defensive builds. “We’re increasing the power of a few nodes in the defensive parts of the tree with the intent that we will see more successful builds that prioritize defense.”
It’s really hard to justify taking the Feel No Pain (FNP) keystone because you have to sacrifice too much DPS and utility to get it. So I have few ideas on how to make this keystone competitive.
An Ogryn with FNP should feel like the tankiest, most protected class in the game—but 30% damage resistance alone doesn’t protect you from the most dangerous threats.
On lower difficulties, experienced players probably don’t need Feel No Pain at all. In high-difficulty Havocs, however, the real danger usually comes from just a few specific threats:
Getting trapped or jumped by a dog through a wall of 15 Crushers and multiple bosses, and teammates can’t get you.
A Mutant carrying you into a terrible situation.
A Crusher or Mauler landing an overhead attack. This doesn’t happen often, but given the number of variables and enemies, it does happen.
The Feel No Pain keystone doesn’t address the most dangerous threats, which makes it hard to justify sacrificing so much damage and utility for it. To compete with Heavy Hitter, which offers more immediate value, FNP needs stronger impact. It’s reasonable to place powerful, high-impact nodes behind it—especially if they offer team utility or help in truly deadly situations—so that players have a real reason to take it.
Example Ideas for FNP Nodes:
One shot protection: Zealots and Arbites can deflect Crusher overheads with their tiny heads. Why can’t the biggest boy with the biggest head do the same? Give the Ogryn a similar ability—like True Grit or Until Death—so he can tank when it really matters.
Anti-incapacitation: Borrow the “Unrestrained” buff from the Goliath Indulgence archetype in Mortis Trials: “Automatically nullifies a Netgunner or Chaos Hound incapacitating attack. 30s cooldown.”
This would fit perfectly as a node for FNP. It makes sense for the mighty Ogryn to break free from nets and push dogs off. You could also add that Mutants get staggered when trying to grab you, preventing them from picking you up. A cooldown still allows for moments where you can be chain-incapacitated, so it remains balanced.
You can’t be pushed by anything—Monstrosities, Captain shields, barrels, etc.—while at max stacks and for 3 seconds after losing max stacks.
Team Utility Ideas:
Replace the “25% Toughness Replenishment” node with “25% Team Toughness Replenishment.”
Add a talent similar to Veteran’s Born Leader. (Allies in Coherency Replenish 20% of any Toughness that you Replenish. +50% Coherency radius.)
When allies kill enemies within a 4-meter radius around you, they receive damage or toughness replenishment (or a similar buff).
Give teammates Toughness Damage Reduction (TDR) if they are behind the Ogryn within a 10–12m radius.
I’m sure other players also have ideas on how to make the nodes more interesting and useful.
If more nodes are added, the middle-bottom section of the talent tree should be compressed to make the Feel No Pain nodes more accessible. Weapon swap speed and Get Stuck In could be moved to the top of the tree to replace less useful Coherency talents.
Great ideas. I’d like to see team utility, because I think that’s what really would solidify FNP.
It would be cool if losing a stack would provide toughness to those in coherency. That way you can really lean into the tank role.
A more interesting coherency aura would also be that the Ogryn takes a small percent of the damage of other team members. Like 3-5% maybe. Maybe with a maximum number within a certain time frame to not get completely stomped. Or it could be a side upgrade of the Taunt ult.
That way they can really protect the lil uns. If you end up with randoms eating a ton of damage, you can always walk away from them. But I see this mostly as taking it in a team you know you can rely on, or be so confident in your abilities that you can take that damage with your own TDR and replenishment.
How about when you have 10 stacks? If you are on max stacks and you get netted, you just break out of it. If you get dogged you push it off, etc, but lose all your stacks. Could be a talent upgrade node or bake it into “Pained outburst”
What if it’s based on Toughness you lose? Then it’s different and synergies with taunt and Ogryn’s healthy in-combat toughness regen.
Born tuff!
I would hate this for the sole reason that Ogryn wants enemies close by to replenish toughness and it’s a massive pet peeve of mine when allies think they are protecting me from the lone chaff I’m trying to hit for toughness while eating lead from shooties!
Yeah, some interactivity for the keystone would be great instead of “you just get damage reduction.”
It could be implemented in several ways, but I think if it activates at max stacks, it needs a short grace period — something like ‘active at max stacks or for 4 seconds after losing max stacks.’ Otherwise, it might fail to trigger when you drop just one or two stacks.
Interesting idea! It sort of punishes you for playing well and avoiding hits, so the allies’ toughness replenishment probably needs to be quite high to make it worth you losing your own toughness.
Maybe not my best idea, but the main goal is to make sure you, your allies, or both get rewarded for actually playing your frontline tank role, rather than just sitting back and spamming Rumbler)
I was going to suggest the same condition for Oggy to get some of that Zealot/Arby treatment with a “max damage limiter” condition, now that it’s not locked to only the emperor’s most pious.
