How to use Smite without making sweatlords mad

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Player Guides
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Written by a salty sweatlord who hates Smite

Why do we hate smite?

This is a common question I see. Smite is a powerful tool the game gives you, after all, so why do some people discourage it? If it makes the game “too easy”, why not go play Havoc 40 instead and leave well enough alone? I can think of a few reasons why:

  1. It’s often used when it’s not necessary. If your Zealot is frontlining trash mobs and not taking any damage from it, they don’t need the help smiting that horde of mobs would provide, and your abilities are better used elsewhere.
  2. It builds bad habits. The term “Smyker” is usually thrown around when anyone uses Smite an excessive amount, and I think it deserves the pejorative nature. I fell into this trap too - it stunlocks EVERYTHING, so naturally you use it on everything, and now you’re not learning how to play the way every other playstyle has to play with your defense, because you just bypass that part. Once you get bored of Smite and switch off, you haven’t learned anything, and now you’re getting killed and don’t know why.
  3. Death is a better status effect. This is a timeless classic of a thing I’ve seen in video games. You have all these debuffs you can apply to your enemies to hinder them or throw them around or otherwise protect yourself from them, but nothing will be more powerful than just killing the enemy outright. Smite is a low-damage spell that has trouble killing things on its own and Psykers have many options they can use to kill faster, which is what you want to be doing anyway.
  4. It’s boring. This point is the most subjective of them all, but something I personally subscribe to - I have a lot more fun avoiding getting hit through my own skill of dodging and blocking rather than just hitting some lifeless dummy. It also definitely does make the game easier, and someone seeking a challenge might not like that.

Okay, so when do we use smite?

Let’s take the Zealot’s stunbombs as an example. The situation is starting to get out of hand - you’ve got a teammate down in a puddle of fire, two more are surrounded by a horde, there are 3 bulwarks and 4 crushers, and a pack of maulers is on the way. This is a good time to use a stun grenade and get control of the situation for precious few, run-saving seconds.

Or maybe you see a huge mob of elites coming your way, and you’re not confident your team can handle it without spending some kind of resource. Might as well throw a stun grenade at that and save the headache of trying to clutch when it does happen. You’ve got three of them, anyways, and better to be proactive than reactive.

Smite should be used in the same way - for emergencies and emergencies-to-be. If your team is getting backed up into a corner, surrounded by Ragers, or just ate a Crusher overhead and now it’s coming for you, that’s a perfect time to use Smite. Notably, this means it’s a tool you want to use sparingly. Smite is NOT your primary weapon! Ideally, you never use it at all.

TL;DR Smite is an emergency tool frequently used when it’s not an emergency and it’s annoying, stop it.

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The only occasion I personally do use smite psyker is when I want a guaranteed win on T5 aurics to farm for an event.

Empowered Psionics (3 stacks), All Smite modifiers and Empyric Resolve together with venting shriek.

Infinite Smite which kills stuff and can carry every group of… let’s say semi decent dorktide enjoyers.

I agree with all you said however…

… when playing with randoms on T5, chances are high, every situation is about to be an emergency xD

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Strong agree with OP. It’s also blinding, and I feel like this game hates our eyes enough. Sometimes when you have Smite and fire going around I literally can’t tell what’s going on.

All the points are valid, but especially #4. I really don’t enjoy a run when everything is getting smited, especially since I know that as soon as things get intense that Smyker is probably going to go down because of #2, and then we’ll be down a player. So it’s just bad all around.

Not to say it doesn’t have use cases, again as OP says. I’ve run it sometimes and I will pull it out to save a run. I’ve seen players stop and look at me in surprise when I Smite 2/3 of the way through a run because they didn’t even realize I had it since I wasn’t using it every trash mob.

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One more reason: it ruins my setups.

In this game anticipating an enemy’s movement can be used to ready and deliver a fatal blow. Like a mutant charging you that you dodge just in time to land a headshot or charged thammer blow and kill it as it sails by. Nothing drives me more up a wall than a smyker stunning a mutant just out of range and having my entire prepared attack chain wiff. Now i have to re-queue everything and walk forwards to kill the damn thing who also has a 10% chance of escaping stunlock and instant pinning me because the smyker wasn’t paying attention.

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When I use smite in my builds, it’s only because it’s right above the psykinetic aura and seer’s presence nodes for cdr, without the 2 additional smite nodes below.

So my only use for smite is a brief pulse to throw enemies on their asses, or to pump peril as gun psyker.

Perma-smite is a crutch that builds bad habits like standing in a corner and not knowing to melee.

I hope fatshark changes it I to something that requires more than holding a key. At least, one has to move with the dueling sword.

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There are so many perma smite psykers on the auric board and in maelstrom missions who genuinely dont get a single kill all game that I barely even want to play the game anymore. They have invaded every single difficulty and I dont know why they have darktide because they dont engage with the core mechanics at all whatsoever. Anytime you flame them people act like you are the problem which is hilarious because we didnt ask for someone to turn off all of the ai for 30 minutes straight while contributing no damage to the team. Someone telling you to leave the game doesnt change the fact that someone with 30 hours played can beat missions they have no business being in because of an ability they crutch on. You leaving their game also doesnt make them stop because as soon as they beat a hi shock mission according to them the playstyle is validated and theyre contributing playing support while contributing nothing except cc. Its the smite psykers who cant be bothered to kill anything and most of them arent even playing with venting shriek which is also really funny they cant even be bothered to contribute in terms or horde clear.

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one of the most annyoing aspects of smite is it messes with my “footsies” when i place my enemies and sequence of how to dispatch them.

if multiple different approach me i assess their position, speed and make a list of who/when/how.

in comes the smiker to save the day only to let me swing into the void cause everyone and their mother stops 10 feet back, having a seizure.

why is that a worse scenario in the first place?
cause it never happens in a void, all the time chip damage’s coming in from ranged and my “gun-fu” had a nice map to leech toughness on each stop from a>b>c>d

now “d” keeps volley firing while “a” is still to far off to be a proper gas station.

plus as stated above, my pattern would leave dead heretics in my track, the smikers way just pauses them in the distance.

can i close that distance? of course i can, but in doing so i unecessarily pay with ressources such as health and toughness that would be totally available in the first place.

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that’s exactly what makes smite so insufferable. you charge a strike and then the incoming mutant just stops. perhaps only to be released at the worst moment.

also, skill nodes that give more damage or resistance on a successful dodge like vet’s reciprocity or the 4 of them on zealot don’t work when there’s nothing to dodge. ogryn doesn’t care about such finesse, but you still look like a dork with your weapon raised, especially if you don’t use the “unstoppable” node to run while charging a strike.

and the best thing is that smykers believe they’re actually helping the team, and often react badly to being told to try something different, even if it’s honest advice.

btw, i remember when smite was something new that i played CI-VI using it, because i guessed it’s smart to use a class that needs no ammo when the game doesn’t give you any. and it turned the game into a snoozefest until i ran out of smite and got bonked on the head deservedly. so it will only help psykers improve when this ability is reworked into something less of a crutch.

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Didn’t expect you to side wit hthis considering your previous posts.

Its in the game, people are free to use it however and whenever they see fit.
If stunning a mutie is a problem, I’d hate for you to ever join a pub game, the amount of nitpicking there that will be evident from the first 10 seconds must drive you insane.

If you can adjust on the fly to any situation it’ll make you a better gamer, let alone DT player. DT was made as a grind game but there is no grind and itemization is nonexistant, smite is part of this larger problem. Its gameplay mechanics are moot when theres no reason to grind through maps, it should either be totally removed or gotten used to, as the majority of Smiters arent griefing by any subversion of logic.

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I like using smite to delay a threat, a blob of elites or a surprise horde when fighting a big threat. Seems to be the best use for it to me.

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Sounds like a fat lie, with psionics against thick hordes smite does a lot of damage and raking up kills and that’s with no flame, soulblaze or bleed on top.

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I mean youre wrong. Every game I play with a bubble smite psyker they dont get a single kill all game and not once do they pop up in the kill feed at all whatsoever. Nobody cares that you may have potentially killed a stray poxwalker or 5 when you let smite go. Im talking about kills that actually matter and if your name isnt popping up in the killfeed you actually arent doing anything in a game. Also im not talking about competent smite
Psykers in havoc 40 destroying everything, im talking about out of place noobs who suck at darktide getting hard carried through hi shock missions contributing absolutely nothing to said game. I never said smite is not a viable build with empowered psionics, im talking about noobs who are hard carried by smite who refuse to ever use a ranged weapon or melee weapon for 30 minutes straight. I have games where I will watch the killfeed the entire game and the smite psykers name does not pop up because they arent killing any specialists or elites. Theyre just standing around watching their teammates kill anything. They only think theyre contributing because 1 they finished the match, and 2 theyre “holding enemies in place” so they think theyre playing support. Idk how you support your teammates without ever killing anything. Perma smiting is not a playstyle its a crutch.

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Stunning a single mutie is a problem when the psyker is stunning said mutie because they refuse to kill anything and havent killed anything for ten minutes straight. How the hell do you play darktide and never use a ranged weapon or a melee weapon?

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Well said. Smite needs a rework so badly, I refuse to touch it until it gets one.

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I agree. But thats a pretty specific scenario to a general mechanic. Im not responsible for how people play, unfortuantely.

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How is it a specific scenario? Smiting a single mutant is something bad psykers carried by smite do and its almost all you ever see when you see smite in a game nowadays. How is it a specific scenario when i see people abusing smite almost everyday playing this game. Perma smite psykers have infiltrated every single difficulty from damnation to maelstrom. The way that smite was made and created and how it functions within the game allows people who are not capable to basically not play darktide at all and exist in difficulties they have no business being in. Now sure the people who dont use smite that way arent abusing the ability and using as a crutch but everyone else is. The ability is totally flawed and completely skews the percieved skill level one has of themselves within this game and not having a scoreboard makes that infinitely worse. Also 9/10 times you see smite in a hi shock or a maelstrom lobby it is someone carried by the ability and not someone using it properly or sparingly. Most smite users in my games either use smite 70% of a game or they use it 100% of a game there is almost never anything else.

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Specifc to smite, the player using it, and the team. Smite does a lot of other thigns except stun Muties.

You play low-med difficulties, I cant play anything below Auric Maelstrom. There may be a difference. A lot of projecting, also.

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I think you are incorrect, but more importantly, you’re looking at it incorrectly.

This was Auric Damnation Maelstrom, modifiers Hunting Grounds and Waves of Mutants. The mission from start to finish took 17m 47s. We rushed through the mission and all the encounters. I didn’t have a single ranged crit, or weak spot hit, I did kill a couple of stragglers with my sword. The rest was 99%+ Smiting only.

Now, was the damage amazing? No. Was it terrible? No. In a longer game, with higher density, I would have performed a lot better, damage-wise. Since Smite hits a large amount of targets. Now it was 3-5 Shotgunners and maybe 50 chaff. The two Zealots and the Ogryn, steamed rolled them down pretty easily.

But, what I lacked in overall damage and kills (even though the numbers themselves are respectable considering), I made up for in keeping everything nice and static for all to kill, trivializing every encounter.

The main issue I’ve seen as a Smiter (when I do play it), are inexperienced players, who can’t dish out damage, who don’t know how Smite works, who doesn’t know how to push and kill.

I agree that it’s better for a Psyker to deal damage instead. Because good players, doesn’t need Smite to survive, even when everything has gone to hell. But I think the Smite hate is misplaced and misunderstood for the most part. I also don’t tell other players what they can play.

In short, Smite is fine, Smite does respectable damage, Smite brings unparalleled crowd control, dealing actual damage is preferred in a decent team, people can play what they want.

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These players want to play their diff, not push or challange themselves, feel comfy i nthe addictive power fantasy and not have their bubble burst. He’s going to say that what youve posted is an example of why smite should be removed, oblivious to the fact some people want to finish the mission; end of.

The arguement ‘i can tell you how to play but not you tell me how to play’ is their oblique attempt to preserve this bubble, despite being more than obvious to everyone reading. Or watching. To them, you’re ‘abusing’ Smite. Youre ‘abusing’ a simple Lasgun eliminating threats before theyve seen them being ‘toxic’ removing their fun. But this doesnt apply the same way to you.

He misrepresents skill to further his arguement. In fatc, their vision of what ‘skill’ is is totally warped from reality. Thermaal even references his own perceived skill level as being the axiom of the arguement, in fact a meta-arguement only applying to the bubble. Devoid of logic. Basically these players need you to play certain styles to carry them, and this is their way of flipping the narrative. If you dont play it, they say you are toxic, despite it being them thats toxic reinforcing and excluding playstyles. This isnt the same as the ‘old’ version of skill that was universally accepted despite if one was not personally able to do it. Skill now is gatekept before any semblance of the concept has been seen in game. Its a narrative swap of what they perceive as a form of oppression. And most of them are so sick with this socio-patholog ythey dont realise their very language and outlook has been subverted. They just see ‘other’. Its very sad.

The reason its sad is that ‘balance’ is for all, not to gatekeep meta builds as the most efficient. All classes, all weapons, all builds. This assumes a reasonable level of balance, however, and honestly the balance isn’t too bad in DT, the Dueling sword fiasco is a ‘soft balance’ issue while Ogryn toughness and Smite is a hard balance issue as these are actual mechanics employed in man ydifferent ways (something they literally will not understand).

Smite is fine, its a playstyle, its fun, its balanced. If it wasn’t you’d see mroe pub Smiter in Havc and less complaining about how difficult the mode is correlated with builds discussing Smite variance. But you don’t. Because its not OP. Personally I enjoy having a Smite bot. Because my notion of skill isn’t dodgespamming through a map, which is basically what DT is. Dodge spam and incoming dps reduction through teamwork leveraging enhancing and multiplying your teams effectiveness. Smite is actually the epitome of this.

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I never ever said smite cannot be used properly I said smite is broken and should not function the way it does. Also idk who you think youre talking to but all I play is hi shock and maelstroms and occasionally I play havoc. I play thousands of hours in this game im not a casual. Also me speaking truth to reality regarding this game is not projection so idk where youre pulling that from and you seem offended but its not some personal attack against you. Smite is useful high havoc due to enemy density and it performs well their but in standard missions smite is almost always not needed. I never ever said smite is not a useful tool in this game I said the rate at which its crutched on and abused is absurd and that goes for every difficulty and you cant dispute that. I play this game all day everyday and the amount of horrible players i see crutching on it is exhausting and annoying and absurd. Also no there should not be an ability in this game that allows you to completely turn off the game for all of your teammates and there isnt anything they can do outside of leaving your game, that is a design flaw regarding smite. Idk why youre acting like im some idiot malice player who plays 3 hours a week who has no clue what hes talking about, as if there arent dozens of threads all over the forums about horrible players crutching on smite in every single difficulty in the game. Theirs no way you only play auric maelstrom and you havent noticed how totally ruined the difficulty is due to fatshark making it so if you beat a maelstrom you get a havoc head start. Constantly in maelstrom you losd into a game and its some dog water perma smite psyker on your team trying to smite his way to victory so he can go suck in havoc cuz god forbid he actually learns how to play the class or the game before they go participate in end game content. No i dont think noobs who have never beat a tier V hi shock mission in their life should be infiltrating difficulties they have no business being in just so they can go try and do the same thing in havoc only to fail miserably.