Let Sharpshooter instantly switch to their ranged weapon with no delay animation on power use

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

It will be a nice quality of life change if your ranged weapon comes out instantly with no animation/delay on Volley Fire use.

Some weapons have really long switch animations/delays where if you didn’t already have the ranged weapon out the weapon switch delay will eat most if not all of the time Volley Fire is up for.

The cooldown of the ability is enough of a cost, I think, to allow a one-off instant swap when activated. If you want to instant swap weapons all the time, go with a pistol or autogun.

3 Likes
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As a Sharpshooter Main using a Boltgun, I don’t honestly see the real reason for this change beyond wanting to buff a class that is already the strongest in the game as of right now.

I personally see making it so that you can just pop that ability and mag-dump to save yourself several times over to be rather overpowered after experiencing the effectiveness of the said tactic using the Boltgun, especially when you take into consideration the feat you have at level 30 which automatically reloads your weapon for you. It’s fine as it is right now in my eyes, you have a Power Sword to cleave rushers and your allies on a theoretical level will keep you safe long enough to go through the second or two it takes to manually switch to your weapon so you can pump into the enemy.

It would also make it very, very difficult to punish the Veteran for bad behaviour. No other class in the game would be able to push through as much nonsense as the Veteran in such a case where popping the class ability would allow them to instantly start blasting. Where your Power Sword isn’t enough to save you, pulling out the trusty Boltgun would dumpster any would be attacker instantly, especially when combined with the delightful +50% range damage boost which allows you to kill several Bulwarks, Crushers, Maulers and Ragers like they were chump change.

3 Likes
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Stronger guns have longer switch / ready animations to compensate. Frankly, every gun available to the Veteran is so absurdly strong with little to no downsides aside from slightly smaller clips or total ammo that I’m almost in the opposite camp—make the switch take even longer, because seeing a Veteran out-kill a Psyker against Elites is absurd.

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I already use Volley Fire situationally (I’m engaging enemies melee on veteran) when something unexpected charges at me, and the swap animation is significantly shorter on ranged weapons I’ve yet had a chance to use it with, and I like it.
I understand this post is about the heavy extremes, with very long swap animation (introduced to give interesting choices and for balance purposes)? Well then, learn your weapon and work on your position so you maintain control despite the animation, or get lighter weapon if you need to be flexible. That makes gaming and building your gear interesting.
Also, I agree with @FuzzyWolfy

5

Exactly this, too.

The fact that a semi-decent Veteran with a legendary Bolter can just make a Psyker utterly obsolete should say something. They’ve already got it good, a 0.4 longer than normal swap animation for the best DPS / utility is the absolute best tradeoff you could ever ask for — and yet, here we are.

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I guess i would like to see the class buffed i play but i also see the point and the design decisions in making the swap animation. But here is also the point where i just start to get comfortable with the status quo.
I would really like to see the racking go. Just keep the slow hoist Animation but please god emperor remove the unnecessary racking.

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While I can agree with the sentiment of Psykers needing a buff, the Veteran is not as godly as you make it out to be.

The Psyker gets basically an Auto Aim on its Brain Burst where the Veteran needs to actually aim their weapon, now, this is where the issues of the Veteran comes into play.

A single hit from anything will send your aim flying, making you miss the target in vast majority of cases. On top of that, your reload is disrupted every time you get hit, so when you are trying to reload your weapon, say the Boltgun, and you have those delightful pairs of Poxwalkers that were spawned behind you come and hit you, you need to stop reloading, pull out your melee weapon and then whack them before you can even begin to reload. This thing tends to then escalate rapidly when this takes place once several dozen Elites begin to swarm the team.

You also need to remember that the Sharpshooter is exactly what the name implies, their role is to take out Elites. That one is on the camp of FS for giving us two awfully similar roles for starters in this way.

The Veteran is by far the best class in the game, don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t without its major flaws, which aren’t highlighted as badly as the Psyker’s.

Basically what I am saying is that we should first buff the weaker classes before we start nerfing anyone.

8

Unfortunately, I disagree quite strongly.

The Veteran, even the Sharpshooter class, get grenades and a wide assortment of guns that are not restricted to single-target DPS. The Bolter, for example, has AoE on-hit. So, while they do undoubtebly have top-tier DPS, they also have decent crowd control. Is it the best crowd control? No, far from it—but they have it as part of their base-kit. The Psyker, meanwhile, has to equip a staff specifically designed for crowd control in order to compete on that front.

That’s not even taking into consideration how Brain Burst, no matter how good you say the tracking is, does not scale in damage, even at higher difficulties. So, again, a good Veteran with a Legendary Bolter will absolutely put a Psyker to shame, and usually without even trying. Their arsenal rockets past what a Psyker can do in terms of damage, meanwhile Brain Burst still requires a 1 - 2 second long cast time at the flat cost of 45 Peril, and can’t even kill Elites in less than 2 - 3 consecutive hits.

Do they have downsides, like their aim shaking when taking damage? Yeah—so does everyone, and the Psyker’s cast-time / targeting is reset when they take damage, too. So, this is an entirely moot point.

So, the long and short of my point is: As it currently stands, the Sharpshooter’s swap animation is, frankly, barely any longer than other high damage weapons, and for a class that can dominate the playing field, I don’t think this should even be a complaint to begin with.

1 Like
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I’ll reserve my judgement when they actually bring the Psyker up to snuff with the rest of the classes, aka, have the Brain Burst scale with the level among other things.

As of right now, the Zealot is the melee anti-horde blender, Ogryn is the tanking and control class, and since the weapon options for the Veteran as of right now are mostly precision weapons, making it more difficult for the Veteran to be able to do the only thing they have a use for beyond spamming a single ability when his kit is otherwise geared towards single target elimination is fair when a significantly better solution is to, you guessed it, buff the Psyker who is clearly underperforming as of right now.

Once we get things such as the Hotshot for example in the game, or even the Melta Gun, then we can see about looking at the weapon switch times, but as of right now, nerfing them when we know the Psyker is just brokenly bad, it becomes a tad ridiculous in my opinion.

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I wouldn’t necessarily call guns that can go full-auto, like the Recon Lasguns and Autoguns, ‘precision weapons’.

That, and the Psyker related stuff, is besides my point though—though I agree with you, Psyker needs a major buff. My point is Veteran is absolutely dominant right now, and the only downside I can think of is slightly longer swap animations, which is not even exclusive to that class. So, to say that this is a needed change is just absurd.