so i put 500 hours in which i know is nothing compared to the 8000 hour gods, but that was all before the addition of the first dlc class - the arbites. they hadnt yet added havoc and i think mortis trials was just a little bit before that.
this was all before they did the difficulty squish too. damnation was level 5 and then auric was its own set of modified missions.
ive mainly been playing veteran but from what i can tell it seems like if you have any of the dlc classes on your team everything just gets blown up. packs of maulers and ragers get tossed to the side like nothing, there is no real opportunity to 1 v 5 the packs and dance around with a tac axe cause everything just dies in 2 seconds. i am sure in general player skill has gone up since ive played but it feels less like there’s strategy and just a ton of power crept aoe. don’t get me wrong on some of the modifiers i definitely appreciate an ogryn nuke taking out 10+ maulers and ragers but sheesh. if i am not bringing in plasma gun to just aoe wipe lined up elites i dont feel like im really contributing much which is kind of boring since i prefer the autogun play style - i just think maybe that’s got left behind in terms of what is most effective in the current age of darktide.
Back on release autogun Vet was one of the strongest builds. People complained about them being too powerful and they nerfed Exe Stance by splitting its 50% extra base damage into 25/25 and removing automatic reload from it, forever ruining ranged Vet that thrived with lasguns and autoguns.
And it’s so ironic that now the same players who complained about Vet get to “enjoy” no gameplay at all when they play with PBB Ogryn, Hive Scum and Psyker, which are 100% more egregious than Vet ever was, while Vet is the 2nd most balanced class next to Zealot. So yeah… reap what you sow, and all that.
And while high skilled players got way stronger due to power creep, lots of people still “balance” this game by their very existance, because they play really poorly:
Check the end scoreboard at 29:08, my teammates died nearly 40 times. It was not even Havoc, just High Intensity Shock Troop Gauntlet quickplay lobby in auric.
There are multiple high perfomance builds on Vet which can rival meta builds on other classes.
Bolt Pistol/Frag Grenade spammer (50% more AOE range on explosion).
Power Sword Mk6 melee build - oneshots most elites on push attack.
Duelling Sword melee build - still the best Veteran melee even after nerfs.
Recon Lasgun with ammo save on crit + Focus Target + Kraks.
Bolter + Focus Target + any melee and nade of your choice.
You should be able to get 1st or 2nd place on scoreboard with any of those builds (and maybe some others I forgot to mention) in most random lobbies.
All autoguns unfortunately are just worse than every sidearm at the moment (revolver, bolt pistol, las pistol). Every sidearm has better damage to ammo spent ratio.
Oh believe me, I made this complaint the week Hive Scum was released. I main Zealot and it takes me a while to deal with a pack of crushers/bulwarks/maulers yet they released a class that not only has the movement speed of a knife naturally, they gave it some of the best movement talents in the game AND gave it the melee damage of a Zealot if not better AND they gave it unlimited ammo AND they gave it a bazooka that can one shot an infinite amount of enemies.
Exe Stance is still super strong, Autoguns have only been left behind because of poor ammo econ or just horrible stats (braced autos). Lasguns are all fine, Infantry Las needs a much better body flak profile, but besides that it’s fine. Exe Helbore is still an insanely strong build.
Has the damage of this weapon class been increased once in the entire life of the game? I honestly don’t remember that ever happening. Considering how many elite hp increases we’ve been through since launch, it feels kinda miraculous it still holds on at all.
i remember back sometime near launch, maybe feb 2023 or something, i was playing cuz a friend of mine saw i had darktide in my library and asked me to play, all i had was a lvl 30 vet from just malice and stuff, we were pushing ourselves seeing if we could get the heresy and damnation borders that required each mission type on that difficulty.
the final one was hab dreyko, with that final open area (before they stuck a big tree in the middle) with a bunch of scans and basically an endless flow of (what was, at the time) quite a few poxwalkers. i cannot begin to describe to you how DOGWATER i was at the time, i fully died 5 seperate times, all 3 wounds being downs until the final down to the point to where the ogryn who was hard carrying the match addressed me directly and told me to keep myself safe (i dont even blame him at that point tbh lmao)
that was my canon event and i looked up resources, watched videos, etc etc to get better cuz i clearly was eating poop from a butt all the time and i wanted to stop, and i saw a quick jump in performance, like i was suddenly able to live through hordes with just a couple of tricks? wuh? and further practice and experience only allowed me to improve further, learn new things and tricks about the classes and weapons and stuff, basically all of my skills in the game were developed then before we started to throw in skill trees and stuff.
i firmly believe that the progression of the sandbox and power creep significantly robs newer players ability to learn in a natural way, theres either too much happening to keep track of if youre trying to get a hang onto the smaller details that you need to have a grasp on, or something is just in your or a teammates hand to ignore it entirely. its why i think you find a fair amount of people like you did that just havent gotten a grasp on how to effectively play the game, because that kind of enviroment doesnt exist anymore. its actually a little depressing to cuz getting better at this game is probably one of the most rewarding things imo
Game is boring…
Havoc system is a problem as you cannot get into games without waiting too much time…
Auric is, or a fight against the other players to kill something, or this is walking journey… the exception is when you have to carry the entire group.
Really, I wish Fatshark would have fulfilled their promises and given us a solo game mode. Because, this is the only thing really interesting to play solo with your characters as bots.
I will try this evening to play one havoc, I fear that it will be a looooooooong wait, and if it is a loooooong wait I would have to play something else.
I am glad that I succeeded to collect again diamantines, I will be able to play again solo games.
About the others game modes. Mortis Trial and Expeditions are worse than Auric in term of number of players. However, Mortis Trial has quickplay at least.
Since the Chaos Wastes mod came out to the game, I never looked back to a normal match again. I had enough of that piece of the playerbase that whines every time an update comes out with nerfs or enemies that are hurting their characters. They have no dedication to learn and just want to be as crutch as possible. The only enemies that are a threat now are just the trappers and bombers. Nothing else. After the vanguard situation I just lost hope in all of the playerbase. People refuse to change in playstyle even in the slightest bit.
Too be fair, changing playstyle did nothing to affect the vanguard due to its flawed design.
They still burned to death. They still get exploded to death.
The issue was Fatshark focussed on the guy carrying the shield rather than the shield itself. If they were worried about headshots, change the armour type or have the shield cover the head, not apply an arbitrary damage reduction. If they were worried about people bypassing the shield but still wanted it breakable, increase the shield’s health, not make the person carrying it have more health than most elites since that negated pretty much any advantage you had from flanking them. If Fatshark ever considered DoTs or AoE, vanguard would have DR against those while they have their shields, rather than punishing people for daring to use finesse and aiming at their heads.
I feel that the changes did go too far, they could have made the shield tougher in proportion to the health reduction the vanguard got.
Havoc is where the fun is at atm, base difficulties have been power creped from the game, unless you are new or a casual. Even in Havoc avoid mass AoE team comps, they suck out the fun from the game.
Vet wise - Helbore is love, Helbore is life. Vet nades are still one of the best in the game, due to their availability. Autoguns aren’t meta for sure, but if you adjust your build, you should be fine with them if you shoot mainly at shooters, gunners and ragers?
Yes, havoc seems more fun than by the past
But there is wall named Party finder.
I am a father with a son of 10 years old and mother at 600 km…
I have no time, when I have ended all what I have to do in my day, to wait 20-30 minutes to start one game.
outside of chorus (which is definitely strong) is there really anything that zealot DOES do better than scum? I suppose flamer is epic as well, but you don’t get infinite ammo it like scum does.
I mean, I haven’t played hive scum for the sole reason of trying not to be EXTREMELY OP, but only thing I would say a zealot can do better is be on the front lines for an extended period and even then, a good hive scum with proper movement could do the same. Until death is really the only thing that separates them - that small window of being invincible and being able to accomplish anything in that span - ressing, running through fire, taking some free hits etc.
