Tac Axe ≥ Shiv Mk I >>>>>> everything else > Crowbar. Using tac axe on an optimized build feels like I’m cheating. General weapons that are shared by all the human classes are significantly harder to balance now that Hive Scum exists. I think tac axe should atleast get a small nerf of some kind honestly.
Hive Scum getting new exclusive weapons would be cool. It would avoid the balancing nightmare of making sure it’s viable on every class without Hive Scum turning it into a handheld nuclear bomb. Maybe a fist weapon update where Ogryn and Hive Scum get brass knuckles or gauntlets or something. Or Hive Scum gets access to the two handed chain glaive that’s definitely coming out anytime soon am I right guys ahahahah.
Crowbar is especially in a bad spot. Bone Saw I think is fine, I can see it performing well outside of Havoc, but in Havoc it underperforms compared to even general weapons like Heavy Sword or Devil’s claw because of the sawing mechanic, hit mass struggles, and the special is difficult to use with the downtime.
But I guess none of this matters outside of endgame content either. HS one shots everything in Auric Maelstrom anyway.
How recently have you played? Because tac Axe was my fav with a stimms build but the recent update saw a horrible cooldown added to the swings…and it feels much more restrictive now.
before the update it definitely felt like cheating…a pure blur of infinite-dodge carnage…not now it feels sluggish and boring. I don’t use macros but I have a pretty snappy finger and could get an immense amount of swings in…now it feels like about half of what it used to be.
I hate what they have done to it but I guess it needed to happen.
A note about GW:
There is absolutely no chances to tune General weapons between classes with some fairness for all.
Just keep in mind: “all could but one should”
That’s very generous description of Bone Saw. Bone Saw is horrible on Havoc 40. It should oneshot Ragers in one heavy attack considering its slow base attack speed and how it leaves you open by getting “stuck” into an enemy, but it often does not even with multiple buffs. It has worse horde clear on push attack->diagonal heavies than Shivs have on just light attack spam.
Crowbar I disagree with though, it’s great in Havoc after all the buffs, just completely outclassed by Shivs, Knife and Tacaxe. It has mid horde clear and bad horde clear against moebian 21st tho. But against elites it’s pretty great.
Knife BTW is very underrated on Hive Scum surprisingly. Use 8 stacks of bleed blessing, 20% crit or uncanny and Chem Dependancy with tox explosion node. Double DOT Hive Scum kills many targets as fast as optimized Shivs.
I have this little game I play when we open up our party through party finder. I bet what players will we see try to join. Starting with class and then what weapons / core build they will run. The player queue fills up with staff psykers, followed by hive scums. If it’s staff, it 9/10 inferno, if its hive scum, its shiv / tac axe and needle pistol. People are so unimaginative, and apparently fearful to try something different. There is also a clear trend of players being afraid to frontline for sure, you can see it in their build and also melee weapon choices.
Having played a bunch with both tacaxe and shivs I think shivs are slightly better but both are best in slot anyways. Bonesaw I haven’t touched but Crowbar I would agree feels bad. You need a crit to do any meaningful damage with it using spike mode and I just can’t agree with that with how slow it is.
I use a mouse1 spam macro (nothing else cheeky) and I haven’t noticed any issues with melee spam post-update, but I’ve heard a lot of complaints about it so I can’t just deny that it exists.
I played Scum for the first time since the update just a few days ago and I thought the game was bugging out on me lol…it felt horrible. Then I remembered there had been the change added and I wept a bit…my zippy tactical blur is gone.
I probably feel it more because I was clicking fast and ‘felt’ the reaction/swing from the character each time…which used to feel like 1-1. Now I am clicking away and the swings lag drastically behind so it makes the weapon feel completely disconnected for me (if that makes sense?).
If you use a macro then you’d not have the muscle memory of fast clicking. It’s very noticeable to my muscle memory.
Tac Axe is still very viable but if “feels” gross now lol.
You’re describing situation where you have Adrenaline buff present, 20% crit buff present, Rampage nearing its end for max bonus damage and having other specific buffs. In real games charging special against elite packs leaves you open to attacks from other enemies, you won’t always have Rampage active, etc. Let’s also not discuss how it performs outside of Rampage builds…
While it’s not a “bad” weapon, there’s clearly some reasons nobody really plays it.
Which is true for a lot of other classes: martyrdom stacks present, DD stacks present etc etc. The reason why no one plays it is the same why so many people just use shivs or tac axes on Hive Scum. Social media brain rot. “It’s the best, therefore, it’s the only build I shall play on this class. Wow, Darktide is so boring”
The reason Hive Scum uses these weapons better is because they have access to melee rending and cleave from talents and stimm lab while stacking a lot of melee damage nodes on top of eachother. I don’t think zealot or psyker have rending available from their kit.
No, they don’t, unless you count warp attacks. But then, this is one of the reasons why I refuse to use shivs and tac axes on Scum, it does feel like cheating, and blowing up everything en masse is only part of the reason. You get insane mobility, even more survivability and superior action response time to any input. Don’t get me wrong, I like the class, but its power levels made it feels a bit boring after a while.
Bonesaw, Chainaxes, and Crowbar, but admittedly I haven’t used Crowbar in a while. Dual Stab pistols, with Run & Gun and Sticky Hands they are really good, also at longer ranges. I also like my usual go-to utility range picks like bolt pistols and heavy shotgun. I would probably play some Combat Axes and Heavy Swords too, but these day I find a bit boring due to monotonous attacks.
Shivs / tac axes, needle pistol are absolutely great. I just find it funny and sad that seems to be all people play on Hive Scum, it’s almost like nothing else exists.
overhauled achlys is super good on scum without feely overly scuzzy because you have to keep accessing H1 which can only be done with combo reset or push attack (wow not M1 mashing for 1.5 million damage per auric game what a refreshing scum experience). though the M1 spam is pretty broken with hyper violence still that talent should be nuked
In Havoc or just in general? I played combat axe today (antax) on Hive Scum and I don’t really like how it struggles to oneshot Gunners with one heavy during rampage.
