It feels like Venting Shriek is the least used Ability on Psyker. And I can get why - comparing to insane utility of the Shield and excellent combat boosts provided by Scrier’s Gaze, it feels.. underwhelming? A stagger effect is negligible (barely able to knock down chaff at close proximity, if at all), Peril dump is fine I guess - but Scrier’s Gaze does exactly this as well, and much more. The subnodes allow you to apply some DoT and mass-debuffs, but again seems insignificant, comparing to the other two.
I actually think it would become MUCH more interesting option would it also restore your toughness, scaling with number of foes hit.
It’s a meaningful ability for being a catalyst of soulblaze, be it through Inferno, Voidblast or chaining Perilous Combustion kills, or just being spammed with yellow stimm/cooldown-reducing effects at high peril.
It’s not bad at all - it has uses that can be both aggressive and defensive, say high peril allowing you to easily apply light stagger to multiple non-Crusher elites, but also specials and shooters, since the range is massive - opening either to further attacks or actions.
@edit
If anything, its other upgrade - the one that was recently changed to apply a debuff to enemy damage and damage resistance - could be tweaked in a more interesting way. Having yet another ability to debuff enemy damage resistance en masse, but at the expense of not having a lot of soulblaze applied to potentially a lot of enemies, is just not a good enough trade-off to consider taking it.
If it’s indeed so useful, why can’t we see remotely as much builds utilizing it, comparing to number of builds utilizing the other two? I don’t think there is a single “meta” build with Venting Shriek in it.
The initial 50% Peril dump is overkill as is the 2.5% Toughness per sec with the buffs to Warp Expenditure and Quietude; but the Peril quelled on kill part of Scrier’s makes Crack of Bone optional and should be kept.
In addition to the 112% Toughness gained from killing 15 poxwalkers with 6 stacks of Soulblaze (Soulstealer) and the 20% Toughness gained from just using Shriek at 100% Peril with Quietude? No, Shriek doesn’t need more Toughness regen.
Scrier’s is just more engaging, Shriek is definitely not underwhelming. That said Scrier’s has been getting a lot of buffs and could use a few adjustments - 50% Peril quelled and 2.5% Toughness per sec is overkill with the Toughness regen Talents Psyker has. Dump those two parts of Scrier’s for sure and maybe remove movement penalties for charging staff secondaries while in Scrier’s Gaze instead.
I think the main reason most Psyker players take Shield is because of Havoc.
As you know, the usefulness of Shield in Havoc speaks for itself.
Additionally, as you’re aware, Psykers are glass cannons and have lower survivability compared to other classes.
If they take even a few hits from gunfire, they’re quickly downed, so they need to rely on dodging, sliding, and proper positioning to survive.
However, for many players, such technical movement and decision-making are difficult.
That’s why, just like with the VoC, Shield is the easiest way to stay safe and survive with just the press of a button.
AoE clear with a press of a button, soulblaze max stack circumventing by adding shriek on top of max stacks (multiple times), easy self-popping ward, toughness gain by quelling… And with the new nodes you can probably even use it as gunpsyker. That reminds me I wanted to try that; double barrel with power/damage stacking and then just run everything over with shriek. Or on a las pistol with the push…
Yeah giving peril dump to SG was a mistake and makes zero sense. They should revert that. SG has gotten more than enough other buffs since that change anyway.
Shriek is fine, it’s still infinite AoE with soulblaze application. It just needs other abilities to not encroach on its shtick.
Because people regularly sleep on good things in this game… probably because its not bismeta (you heard it here first) which doesnt make it bad, it just means it might be either more difficult to use or not immediately obvious how to build around it.
The trick here is it applies DoT on top of the inferno staff cap of 16 stacks. If your goal is to maximize your damage output with the inferno staff, this is how you do it. Apply 16 stacks with inferno staff and then use your ability to shriek 6 more stacks on top. Now you’ve 22 stacks. Which is crazy pants damage. But hey, Perilous Combustion will put more stacks on top of that. And, oh look, whip out the DS, get some Uncanny Strike stacks, and now your DoT has that too. Everything, including Crushers, melts.
So, if we’re talking about maximizing things (which I assume is your goal since you’re talking about Scrier’s Gaze) that’s when you take it.
I also like it on elektro staff surge build since it can help a lot with horde clear (since you’re gonna be high peril most of the time).
Actually… The only buff VS should get is increased force/impact. I think it used to throw enemies away with a greater force, now it just knocks them down on the ground.
Agreed 100% on effectiveness of PC. Speaking of maximizing, would it be better to drop Warp Ghost and Anticipation for Soulstealer and Perilous Combustion?
Warp Ghost increases the uptime of Warp Rider in melee combat between Scrier’s Gaze uses and gives extra push attacks with stamina boost, Anticipation is just an all round great talent for a high mobility weapon like Taxe that also boosts Empathic as a bonus; but there’s no denying PC scales very well with Elite density. Choices choices
That sounds like it’s some low-grade niche stuff only used in a particular build, not really that useful for anything else. It’s pretty bad spot to be at, as an Ability. About Infiltrate-bad.
