Havoc: what do you think about it? [POLL]

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
1

Several polls to see what the community thinks about Havoc.

Havoc general appreciation

First question is about the time you have spent in Havoc. This is not a question about the hours spent in this mode, but about the mission ratios. Did you spend more time in Havoc or in “classic” missions?

Time spent on Havoc mode
  • I have played a lot this mode
  • I have played this mode and played also regular/auric missions
  • I played it a little
  • I could not enter this game mode
  • I don’t want to play with this game mode
0 voters

Next poll is about your current Havoc level. Consider your highest level achieved. If you unlocked level 35 with a party, even if the Havoc level displayed is 2, answer 35.

What is your current Havoc level
  • 0
  • 1-10
  • 11-20
  • 21-30
  • 31-35
  • 36-39
  • 40
0 voters

Considering the Winter announcement where they announce Havoc developments, this poll aims to gather opinions on this. Specifically, the question is about your desire to see more Havoc developments.

Do you want more Havoc developments?
  • Yes
  • No
  • No opinion
0 voters

This poll is solely about your feelings. It is not a definitive decision you need to make. Simply share how you think you will engage with the mode in several months based on your current interest in it.

In 3-4 months, you think that you will play Havoc
  • Regularly
  • From time to time
  • To clean the penances if needed
  • I don’t plan to play it in future
0 voters

The poll focuses on the current difficulty of Havoc. Share your thoughts on the level of difficulty.

About difficulty, what do you think
  • It is easy / too easy
  • It is hard and I appreciate it
  • Difficulty is fine
  • The game mode is too hard
  • This mode is insane and I can’t play it
0 voters

Classes and Havoc

The next polls concerns the class you believe is best suited for Havoc games. Note: 1 not suited for Havoc, 2 bad, 3 can work in havoc, 4 performs well, 5 great

Veteran
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Zealot
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Psyker
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Ogryn
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters

Havoc features

The following polls are simple ratings of Havoc features. Rate on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means you hate this feature and 5 means you love it.

Your appreciation level of Havoc mode: General appreciation of the game mode.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Hidden modifiers, the feature: The idea of seeing Havoc with its own taste that is currently translated in the hidden modifiers - This is not about the values
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Party finder: General appreciation of the feature. At 1 you hate the concept, at 2 you don’t like how it is implemented, at 3 you have a mixed opinion, at 4 you like it, at 5 you think it is perfect.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
New conditions: Your appreciation of the new conditions.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Leavers penalty: Please do not take in consideration current bugs. Note the feature itself. In other words, the question is do you appreciate the leavers penalty feature?
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
Monstrosities: Your appreciation of the monstrosities spawn rate in Havoc, included the fact we get Captains in the missions.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 voters
13 Likes
2

Nice poll that covers majority of the Havoc aspects. I appreciate your effort!

I would have one remark. I answered that the mode is “too hard” but my exact opinion is that it is poorly balanced resulting in artificial difficulty. With proper squad you can clear the maps pretty fast and relatively easy, but several design choices, mostly the insane damage from standard ranged enemies, omnipresent corruption, green goo etc. force you to play with certain playstyles, resulting in a game which is “too hard” if you do not play meta. Also godspeed with randoms!

I cleared with my mates all weaves in Vermintide 2 and in my opinion it is the same core issue of “artifical” difficulty. In that mode, any weave above 100+ had very stale party composition and gameplay, as the insane damage scaling rendered majority of the classes literally unplayable. Play meta classes and tactics or suffer. Some forum goes made excellent summaries on that topic and the current state of Havoc reminds me of that situation.

Not to mention the hidden mechanics, which is already already a well-known classic move + the unholy mixture of the party finder and the demoting feature, that can turn every random lobby into a basin filled with toxic sludge last seen in the Convocation of Decay.

Still, I plan to finish the mode with my mates, because a part of me likes the challenge, but currently it is not offering that much replayability for me.

7 Likes
3

I feel the same.
I answered too hard cause the game requires a skilled team and / or that you use metas. As I play with randoms… this feels hard. I know that it is not “too” hard, but it is, in my mind, too hard to be something I want playing. I don’t get pleasure in this game mode like when I play auric maelstrom.
Also, I don’t like how the difficulty is extremely punishing. I had an havoc game where I have been full health to definitive death in less than 4 seconds. Corruption played a big role in that.

EDIT and precisions: This is the last time I use “number rating” polls.
We don’t see easily what players think.
I cannot redo the polls anyways. :confused:

6 Likes
4

I’m hoping they change ranking up from weekly to instant (for non-hosts) and downranking from instant to weekly (to avoid punishing hosts).

5 Likes
5

Question regarding difficulty is not correct. It is “too hard” if you don’t use meta builds. It is “ok” if you use them. Should have added “it is artificial” variant.

6 Likes
6

Agreed with above posts about artificial difficulty, other than that it was a great poll.

4 Likes
7

Nice set of polls!

Some of them I wont answer because I dont think Iv put enough time in the mode to give a proper opinion i.e. difficulty and viability of classes etc.

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Time spent on Havoc mode: I have played this mode and played also regular/auric missions.
actually i could have been like 10 levels farther with havoc if i played more of it.

What is your current Havoc level: 21-30

Do you want more Havoc developments? yes - it’s just how, not how much.

In 3-4 months, you think that you will play Havoc: To clean the penances if needed, mostly.
there’s also the question of how many competent players you’ll find there after everyone has his h40 and little incentive to go back and risk the clearance.

Difficulty is fine. one needs to adjust from the normal settings, especially the “get cover” part. some little gunner you barely see because the wall behind him is crap-colored like him, and brrrrrrtt your whole toughness is gone.

classes: zealot and psyker first, vet is good, ogryn more difficult. although very much possible to play, as some here have shown, despite all naysayers.

so if i wanted to play non-meta and against odds, i’d take ogryn. that is, if i could quickplay havoc. but as it is, i just want to be done with it so i don’t have to use this terrible party finder again which is required for havoc. this was the sole reason why i ignored havoc last week and went on with maelstrom.

but i guess you have to do havoc if you want to have every experience and achievement. well, this means hoping being lucky with whoever shows up. had a bunch of chicken yesterday and then great people. so there’s this asking for a hike in party finder first, and then everyone playing safe and meta for fear of demotion. having a premade (and lots of gaming time and the same schedule) is very different.

New conditions: having stronger and faster enemies is appreciated. monsters very much. gunners need book and shield to suppress, else they make the game more like a tactical shooter, which is not my thing, but at least people tend to stay together. no knife zealots running off. on the other hand, i use to play fury and stealth zealot, didn’t use book except for penances, but here you absolutely need book. fury zealot was struggling with corruption.

leavers penalty: that’s what the alt-f4 plague tree monkeys brought us.

2 Likes
9

honestly i’m so fed up with the tediousness of finding matches to the pointi play something else entirely.

up until now darktide was hop into a HISTG or auric maelstrom 4-6 times an evening, pound my chest at some great clutches and felt good about the experience.

now its 15 minutes of rejections for 1 match played IF folks muster something else than just books and bubbles cause for all the cushions and airbags they’re pinned down and falter one by one.

usually thats the moment to roll up your sleeves and get it done (or prevent such situations in the first place) in maelstrom and below, but havoc despite the same physical capabilities says otherwise.

yeah its a team game but most memorable games where those clutches above and beyond, now if it aint for sanctioned counterplay its a surefire for desaster.

premades got options, randoms are just that…

1 Like
10

@Gideon404 what’s it like down there?

Screenshot_20241219_084538_Chrome
Screenshot_20241219_084538_Chrome999×1706 196 KB

Personally I don’t see myself playing a ton of Havoc unless there’s some more variety added to good loadouts you can bring.

3 Likes
11

Realistically think playing it regularily isn’t going to be up to the player who wants to play it regularily, it has all the makings of a gamemode that will die off at some point. It’s just out of the way enough for people to stop checking the party finder when there’s less and less games going up, which will have a combination effect of then causing even less games to go up because they don’t fill. Unless you got 3 friends who wanna play it on the reg I guess.

4 Likes
12

I like Havoc, but it’s not a great mode unless you have a pre-made. As an older guy with a demanding job and non-standard work hours who has no set group to play with, it takes an annoying amount of time to get into a run - and then frequently they’re substandard and fail quickly. I know I’m running into my own skill gaps etc in Havoc 21+, but frequently I find myself the last one standing on these failures and usually they’re due to basic teamwork fails (headless chicken scatter fiestas in a mode that demands teamwork).

I’d love to find a regular group and plow through it, I’m certain I could contribute (did plenty of insane VT2 twitch modes, havoc’s quite fun from my pov), but as-is just running another auric is much less time consuming and doesn’t have the social pain / agonizing slowness of the party finder. Plus, no group wants to stick together for more than 2 tries for fear of demotion. I still try to get in a havoc run or two a week, but I have doubts I’ll ever progress past mid-20’s the way the system is designed today (and I’m more talking about the social aspects of the system than the game levels themselves - those are perfectly fine from my POV, I like challenge).

That being said, just took a year off, came back, threw a bunch of money at the shop to thank them for all their good work (crafting, wow!), and I like havoc … but without anyone to play with it’ll just be something I occasionally dip my toe in unless I get lucky some weekend with a discord pug.

4 Likes
13

Lonely :slight_smile:

It’s harder than other modes so the dopamine hits are stronger. I am assuming they will trickle out more modifiers over time to keep it fresh-ish too. Will there be other people to play with in 3-4 months is the real question.

1 Like
14

Regard the difficulty, it’s not only about “too easy, too hard, I can/can’t play it”

It’s also about: is it balanced or artificial and unfair? Is it fun?

2 Likes
15

Almost 50% wants to see havoc developments, but also rated below 3 stars. Somethings not right here.

16

On this I can agree. Clutching a level 35+ Havoc feels much better than clutching an Auric Maelstrom.

As I mentioned before however my main barrier to consistent play is balance/variety (a little bit is I don’tlike shooters being such a massive part of the difficulty/build making). I’m really not a fan of most of the “”“meta”“” weapons so there only a few loadouts that I like. Ofc in premades there is more area to try stuff but especially for randoms there is a lot of stuff I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to bring.

1 Like
17

I dunno I have some mod issue causing me to black screen if not CTD in party finder. Do not care enough to play without 70+ mods.

But I will point out that weaves didn’t nerf players. And had modifiers that actually mattered, and changed the visuals of the game…doing none of these things make me not want to bother trying it. At least metal weaves were fun, if stupid.

2 Likes
18

Tried it and played it a bit. But I largely only did so to A, at least give it a chance, and B, so I could contribute to conversation on the forums.

It’s not for me. And to be fair, there’s no reason it needs to be, nor perhaps even should be since I’m more fond of heresy level difficulty gameplay flow.

I was just kinda hoping for something more akin to the Chaos Wastes.

Personally, I find it tedious, the difficulty adjustments feel arbitrary to me in a way I can quite articulate, and the “rewards”… Well, why mince words, the rewards are pathetic, but I know that’s perhaps not the point.

Again though, this comes with the caveat that I’m probably not the target audience of this mode in the first place, so take that for what you will.

1 Like