what stave are you even using? do you have 2 thunderhammers shackled to your ankles or something? get a duelling sword or combat blade if you dont want to actually clear enemies yourself and just catch up
I could definitely work on some stuff. I can hold my own against some maulers or whatnot, but again, my problem is that I’m left to handle an overwhelming number of enemies on my own. There’s simply too many enemies to handle, and I have nobody helping me. I’m talking about teammates literally watching me fight an entire room (the enemies surround me on all sides as well, so I can’t move) while they sit on an elevator or something and spam pings telling me to get to them when I simply can’t. If I could flee, I would. I’m not looting or anything, I’m genuinely trying my best to get away and catch up. I excel at shooting high priority enemies from afar and dodging most attacks, and I’m lacking a tad with my melee skills, so I could definitely work on surviving on my own, but it’s just not really the issue I’m having. Maybe I’m not explaining myself well enough and should’ve clipped something as an example. I appreciate your advice though.
2 Likes
Personally, empowered psionics with brain rupture and dropping and ult is a far better way to drop packs of crushers and what not on higher difficulty. It actually kills them and staggers them in the process. You can dodge & Kite crushers all day long and just Brain Burst them down. Plus you have the utility of being able to track and kill specials and other elusive enemies when needed.
1 Like
I think I have a brain rupture build like that but don’t really enjoy it. I’d hate to resort to it just to play auric stuff but I might give it a try. I know I’ve seen some people really do well with it. Just isn’t satisfying to me.
1 Like
Also how do you normally use brain burst and manage the peril? Do you charge it often or just use left click? I want to know the best way to maximize dps while staying in the fight and not quelling so often.
It seems several people are irked by smite and are missing the issue. Sorry I enjoy shooting lightning from my hands and feeling like a Sith but it’s not really the point!
you may do so with a surge staff while actually contributing and not making it a snoozefest for others
1 Like
I rarely ever pre-charge it. Just left click. If you use empowered psionics with the guaranteed stack on elite/special kill and holding three charges the charge time is pretty quick.
Perilous combustion is also great as the DoT soulblaze can stack pretty high, taking off some of the health of surrounding elites and making the Brain bursts more likely to kill (in turn triggering more AoE).
When there is a huge pack, fire off a few BBs to get peril up, then venting shriek for more soulblaze, and then you can fire off even more BBs that charge even faster.
Below is my go-to Psyker build using voidstrike, venting shriek, brain rupture, and powered psionics.
1 Like
couldn’t have said it better. that’s why many high level players don’t like smite. it just turns enemies into static targets, while smykers come to rely onto their ability and often won’t be very competent in combat. also, it’s annoying to charge your melee weapon to strike one incoming enemy, only to have him stopped cold by smite a bit of of reach.
(for me it’s also that i’ve set the game to mark enemies purple, which stands out better than red on maps like smelter, until there comes a smyker)
as for lettings players die: i try to avoid the row of lemmings coming to the rescue and going down one by one. if we risk going from 3 people down to 2, better pick up the guy at next spawn. if he doesn’t alt-f4, that is.
3 Likes
I don’t really get how you see it as a snoozefest. My squads still struggle in hi-intensity auric missions and can still get killed quickly. It’s not like the game is suddenly a cakewalk. Saying I’m not contributing is also absurd. And no, I won’t use a surge staff.
No offense, but I guess we’re playing totally different games. With the changes they made to smite, I assure you I don’t just stop everyone in their tracks. There are enemies coming from all sides that I can’t reach, and some enemies just resist smite and attack anyway. It’s not making the game that much easier in my experience, and I’m forced to switch to melee when they’re close to start reducing their numbers. If I have an opening to attack, I will. I try not to smite everyone indefinitely.
I really don’t understand how much more challenging people want the game to be. There’s plenty of special condition auric missions that’ll give you a run for your money. The game has been plenty difficult for me and people I’ve played with.
given the very situational gameplay, if in a discord team, smite can have its purpose.
with randoms though not so much for the moment you rely on strangers, your positively fkked.
now what i’m getting out of your writing is people not playing along with you keeping the enemies in place.
personally i can understand this from two points of view.
first, like said above, dont trust in others to get your stuff done.
yes its a team game, no i dont know you from atom and not take any stock in you for the one game we might meet.
so i order to match my playstyle with others i need familarity and trust in ones abilities.
by some miracle we meet a couple dozen times, i see a pattern i can relate to, i’m adapting.
a one off is just that.
second the game is won by momentum.
there’s no price for nor an option to kill everything, so getting forward is the name of the game.
no matter what.
and momentum is paid for in blood.
if one bites the dust AND its more costly in terms of health and ammo, pickup time is in the next zone.
simple math, as long as you’re in the plus pick em up, if it costs too dearly, there’s a next room coming.
now if the team doesnt harmonize at all, just f-it and call it quits.
but keeping enemies frozen for the umpth time and no one stops to clear them, thats on you rather to insist on that tactic when 3 others agree to move on.
5 Likes
Depends on the situation and how crazy stuff is. I have a much easier time clutching/ressing people on my Zealot. On my psyker however it is much more difficult and I am often forced to leave teammates to die or I will end up dead just like them.
Ragers are very easily CC’d if you do more than be a smite battery. Force Swords, for example, can easily knock them down.
I’ve seen one to many person stay behind trying to stem the ocean with a tea spoon, when it would have been way past due to move on. Especially when 2 others of the team are far ahead already, because the guy staying behind and not getting their butt into gear, keeps causing all the spawns to happen on their side.
So no, i cannot subscribe to the idea that some people only get “held up” because they are physically impossible to move forward.
Ogryn with Shield and Smite Batteries are most often falling into this “trap”.
And at some point you gotta make a judgement call. Do you try to keep the slowpoke company, who feels like they need to fight every enemy they see, and keep ending in a corner… or do you move on, let them die and pick them up ahead.
Especially when i am starting to run low on ammo, because the slow poke is “helping” by not moving.
Sometimes all that is needed to turn a smooth run into a S-show… is one guy that doesn’t get their move on.
Of course, the same can be said to the people rushing ahead and triggering spawns the team isn’t ready for. Twice so when there is a Hounds event… there often is that one guy that somehow hasn’t still gotten the memo that when the kennel sound plays, you get close to your team, brace for the hound pack and then move on. And not charge ahead on their own as the rest of the team gets a defensible position.
Point being: Neither extreme is conducive to a smooth experience.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast… and with slow i do not mean: Stop moving.
Why do you assume they consider themselves to be the best players? Just earlier i had an Archivum Sycorax mission, and in the end event the Shield Ogryn thought he was “helping” by planting his shield in one of the stairwells… all it did was cost me a lot of ammo while the other two bored themselves to death doing the event. And while we can argue that them having nobody to bother them when doing the scanning event… it still was super stressful for me… as i was constantly fighting for survival… having to deal with the entire hordes by myself… and everything because the Ogryn wouldn’t move. Instead of moving up to join forces with the other teammates, i got the “excitement” of having to deal with the enemy on my own, as the big guy hid behind his shield and the other two teammates were off doing the mission.
And it makes no real difference to me if its a useless Ogryn hiding behind his shield or a useless Psyker doing nothing but smite.
In my experience the person “left behind” is just as responsible for being left behind as the people that don’t look back.
If you want to play in the rear then you need to know how and when to disengage. And don’t give me the “you can’t physically do it”… because that tells me your build needs work as you clearly don’t have enough stamina to push yourself out of a corner.
5 Likes
The skill curve in DT isn’t like other games. If you want a clue what people mean when they say “harder” I recommend checking out Telopots’s stream or videos. He mostly does two player (no bots alive) monstrous auric maelstrom games. I can also clear these kinds of games but he’s a machine. In any case the point being made is for players like us we actually want the game to be harder, because we can more or less reliably win duos maelstrom games. When 4 competent players hit that level of difficulty its actually pretty easy and most of us just kinda screw around in 4 stacks making intentional bad decisions to try and get away with them or practice some tiny technical skill. I’m not saying the game lacks challenge for many people, I think its fairly well dialed in actually. But the people wanting the game harder are at this level of skill, which is an order of magnitude or more higher than what the average auric player has at their disposal.
6 Likes
Just a question to basically anyone who can answer it.
Doesn’t Empowered Psionics + Creeping Flames Venting shriek build just burns screens of any enemy? Was it nerfed?
I haven’t run in it or seen it in while, but when they buffed Empowered Psionics to give something like 200% damage to smite it made running auric as easy as playing an ogryn. I guess I still used DS for Crushers, but everything else just melted without any chance for retaliation.
3 Likes
If you briefly scan the forum, you’ll see a few posts complaining about “rushers”. ie players who cause detriment to the whole team by repeatedly triggering new patrols before the rest of the squad have dealt with the last.
If I may venture an opinion: “laggards” are just as bad. If you’re repeatedly at the back and dragging your heels, or you find you’re unable to clear the enemies fast enough to keep up, then I’d argue you’re causing just as many issues. Or, possibly, maybe playing above your true level or playing with a bad build.
Smoothest DT runs are always where the team keeps moving forward as a 4,at a steady pace.
15 Likes
Idk what to tell you, then. I can’t make it any simpler. I get left behind and surrounded by enemies and I can’t move. That’s what happens. Of course I know when to move to the next room, but enemies get sped up at higher levels. It doesn’t take long to get overwhelmed, so if my squad leaves me and I’m surrounded on all sides, I’m just screwed. More stamina won’t save me. I usually can push back the enemies in our rear, but the people speedrunning don’t kill everyone at the front, so those stragglers quickly turn into another horde that aggros onto me because my squad already left. Then I’m surrounded, then I die.
Again, in my case, my squad is already in safety and far ahead of me. They can at least send some shots from a distance to clear a path, but they do nothing. They’re safe, so they assume the squad is safe. I wish it was more common to have 2 in the rear and 2 in the front, but it’s usually 3 in the front and me left to cover the rear all alone. Again, the issue is that my squad leaves me to handle way too many enemies. It’s not something I can work my way out of. I’ve gotten myself out of really bad situations on my own before. This was different. I really should’ve had a clip to show you how f’d the situation was and how I was blatantly left to die. It’s not about my build. The same situation has happened with other builds and other classes. I’m talking about the players.
I’m well aware.
Ok, im going to jump in very briefly.
From what i’ve read of what you said, the problem is very blatantly obvious. You simply are not yet ready for auric damnation. You said this keeps happening to you that you’re left behind, when other 3 players are doing fine and you’re the only one lagging behind maybe, just maybe its not them that are the problem here.
Im not telling you to stop playing auric damnation though. You learn the game through the grime and your own blood, this is what darktide is about.
But if you dont feel like you’re having fun and dont really see anything fun about overcoming a difficulty then i highly recommend dropping out of auric.
BUT if you do decide to keep playing, then you NEED to drop the smite, because it will get either a rework or a nerf eventually and when that rework/nerf drops you will feel completely uprooted.
And if you absolutely cannot handle auric damnation without smite then you simply are not fit for it yet. And there’s no shame in it, no auric player started from the top, we all climbed up from malice and eventually after dozens of losses won our first damnation game.
Please take it into consideration that you are the problem, not the other 3 players.
Im going to say it again because it is extremely important :
If you cannot handle auric damnation without smite, then you’re not ready for it yet
Smite is a shackle holding back your true potential, it prevents you from properly learning the game and its combat. Abandon it for now, and after you start winning damnation games without it, then you can go back to using it.
Because then you will know when to use it, and when not to.
10 Likes