Let's discuss Trauma staff in depth?

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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Hi! I want to have an in-depth discussion about the Trauma staff and compare it to other weapons. It’s not a rant or a cry to nerf/buff the weapon, I’m only curious on what you people think of it and also want to share my opinion. To better illustrate my arguments I recorded a portion of my gameplay with the staff. It’s not perfect, but shows what I’m talking about - https://youtu.be/QMxpe57Ql7A?si=c4ahPdemQEJ0DSLb

I enjoy it very much and it’s definitely my favourite weapon in the game. The way it sounds, the way it looks and it’s controls all are very satisfying and unique. That said, I just can’t shake off the feeling that it’s not only an overtuned weapon overall, but that it’s absolutely the best weapon in the entire game! And while using it, even though I’m having a lot of fun, not only do I start to understand that it’s a giant crutch for me and the main reason I can perform so well in the most crazy situations the game can offer, I’m also afraid that a lot of time my teammates start to get bored while playing with me for a while.

Here on forums and on reddit I have often noticed people claiming that weapons like Plasma gun, Revolver, Kickback, Knife and even Shovels are the biggest examples of being overpowered. And while they are very powerful, maybe even more than they need to, I still can’t stop wondering - do they even compare to Trauma staff? For me personally it’s on an entirely different level of being overpowered but since I see people talk about it much less than about other outliers, I wanted to ask people here directly - do you agree with me that it’s the best weapon in the game?

Here’s why I think that is: Infinitely cleaving powerful AoE stunning charges that work against any types of armor, are easy to aim and quickly charge/spam, restore lots of toughness due to Psyker’s peril-based toughness regen talents, and waste no ammo. Doesn’t it sound like… A VERY lot? You could of course say that other weapons have a lot of powerful capabilities mixed in as well, but I don’t think that any of them reach that level of “A Master of all trades”.

Plasma gun (probably the most often mentioned weapon in balance discussions right now) even while having much better sniping capabilities is still worse in many other aspects:

  1. Doesn’t have a giant AoE escape button to completely secure your position in an instance.
  2. It’s heat venting is not as quick and safe and also takes very small chunks of toughness instead of giving you even more my doing so.
  3. After shooting for a while you’ll still need to reload and perform a very long animation that makes you vulnerable. And also it has limited ammo, of course.

Other weapons don’t do nearly as much as these two can offer, even though they are still very good. But Trauma staff for me feels not as much as a weapon, but as a whole spamable ultimate ability. Even other staves, while all also being very powerful, have their limits. Purgatus is much worse against armor and shooters, surge is worse against dense hordes. Voidstrike is probably the closest one to Trauma in terms of capabilities, yet still it doesn’t have that huge AoE controlling and is not as easy to aim or spam.

The only two downsides that Trauma has in comparison to Voidstrike are it’s range and bugginess while using it on stairs and some surfaces. However they both can be easily offset just by better positioning and properly utilizing Psyker’s Blitz abilities.

I recorded two extreme instances to showcase Trauma’s power at it’s finest and I just feel like other weapons can’t compare. Even if they can still do a lot, they have their limits and come with much more risk to make a mistake while using them. Trauma is not limited by ammo (meaning by no time as you can take as long as you want to traverse the map while not being afraid to run out even at some point), not limited by extreme skill (so that it would be a high risk-high reward), not limited by any cooldowns or bad build synergies as it does so much and so consistently that it’ll do just fine in any build (well, apart from gun psyker probably).

Maybe it’s because this weapon is less popular than the other ranged options and it’s strengths aren’t as apparent at first glance to some players, but personally I’ve seen very few people mention how insanely powerful that weapon is (in comparison to other complaints like for Plasma, Smite, Kickback, etc).

The knife is probably the only other weapon that kinda breaks the rules of the game but it’s only doing that by providing extreme speed that can be abused in some builds. And then it still just allows you to outrun and ignore enemies, not safely delete whole chunks of extremely mixed hordes while sitting in one spot only by yourself. Trauma, however, just does everything at once and all the time.

So my questions - do you think it’s overpowered? If not, then why? If yes and it was already stated and complained about by many before, then i’m sorry if I missed those threads/posts and I would kindly ask you to share some links (I like reading stuff like that).

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I don’t think it’s overpowered. The general consensus seems to be that it’s “weak” but I think it’s in a good spot.

The reason why Trauma doesn’t get the attention like other strong weapons is that the time to kill is longer, particularly for big targets. Sure, Trauma keeps them staggered, but plasma and other weapons will just kill those targets outright in a few shots without needing to do charged attacks or anything fancy.

Trauma is good, BUT it also requires a bit more skillful or at least thoughtful play, which makes its appeal more niche and leads people to think it’s weak. Really, they just haven’t figured it out yet.

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That was a bit of an eye opener for me. I only watched until the first fade mind you.
It was admittedly the perfect place to hold out; tight corridor, shield screen, trauma. That said; I wouldn’t have been able to with anything I play with. Some skill on show too mate :wink: , so it’s not just the weapon.

Can you share a build from Games Lantern maybe? I’d like to try that out. Some serious quelling happening!

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Trauma staff isn’t OP because not everyone knows how to use it right. For the longest time my friend didn’t like using it and in the beginning didn’t even believe me when I told him how strong it was.

Only recently has he come around to it, even if it still isn’t his favorite staff.

It’s just like Sienna’s staff (which he also didn’t like), only slightly less useful because there are more long range enemies in Darktide.

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That’s the one I used in video but usually I also take Inner tranquility instead of Essence Harvest for even less peril generation. Kinetic deflection talent might seem like an overkill with all the stamina curious I have but with it sometimes it’s enough to hold block against numerous gunners for like half a minute to wait out the kinetic shield cooldown.

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Its not considered overpowered because the amount of effort / positioning to make it work in a overpowered way is beyond what most people can do with a psyker.
Its infinitely easier to just range enemies with something like voidstrike and get similar results. Its also not particularly good staff for sniping far away specials like snipers which many players seem to value way more highly.

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I wouldn’t say trauma is easy to use and also overpowered.

Flame and Surge are way easier to use. For unarmored hordes flame staff is actually better than trauma, because there’s almost no downtime between uses and peril builds up the slowest amongst all the staves. If anything, Trauma is probably the hardest staff to use, because it has the largest gaps in-between attacks that enemies can take advantage of and also many people consider its aiming mechanics kinda clunky, especially if you want to hit enemies on elevations. Surge staff can hit enemies behind cover, while trauma often gets “stuck” on the cover and doesn’t do full damage to them. Flame staff can apply burn DOT to the enemies without the need to constantly spam it.

Trauma is only shining in the current state of the game, because nowadays the game spawns way too many armored elites at once and it has the best stagger power against them. It’s really strong at keeping large armored hordes in check and gives your team space to breathe amidst the horde, but it doesn’t really kill Crushers, Maulers or Armored Ragers faster than other staffs. In fact, a Surge or Voidstrike built around crit can kill armored targets faster, they just don’t have as much AOE and stagger on their attacks.

We need to stop calling weapons OP just because a talented player knows how to use them and is good at the game.

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Trauma is really good, and has 2 clear weaknesses that stop it from being OP. The first is long range, but that can be mitigated with BB or assail. The second:

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But! If you know how to dodge and dance around swarms, you can go almost a whole game without your melee out. It is great at keeping things around you slipping.

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I am the worst psyker you could find… but trauma, I don’t think it is the best staff. I would point voidstrike… but I may be totally wrong, I hate so much psyker that I have not played my psyker for at least 3 months.

Knife is not OP. What people points about knives is that it permits you to dodge really better than with anything else. But if we would not have this, then this weapon would be under others weapons in term of DPS and would give us no advantage.
Shovel… well, I guess you point ogryn shovels, but the pick axes are not bad at all. I don’t think they are OP
Plasma, the problem is the infinite cleave + the lack of difference between simple and charged shots.
Revolver, there’s a cleave problem and a rendering problem.

But trauma staff? any time I see a psyker that does lot of damages (like 50% more than others) it is with a void strike. And I guess it is linked to the “cleave” of this weapon that can destroy everything in front of you.

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I should probably clarify - by powerful or strong I don’t mean how fast a weapon can kill a target. I take everything into account, all the capabilities - how fast can you kill enemies, but also how many in a given period of time, how reliably and consistently, how safe and unharmed by enemies you are during the killing. Trauma has a few weak sides in terms of ranged play, but Psyker blitz are compensating it greatly, making it a deal-with-all weapon ultimately.

In public games you can never trust your teammates. Yet if you still want to win a lot, you need to start coming up with certain plans if things go wrong and you can only rely on yourself. That’s exactly where the true powers of a weapon, or a talent, or an entire build are showing. You need to be as ready as you can for anything that might expect you around the corner and you can never trust random teammates to cover your weaknesses. That’s why you need to have as fewer weaknesses as possible.

I judge the weapon/build on how much can it offer me solo throughout the entire mission with me only being able to rely on myself. No ammo management and sharing, no teammates, no supporting them or from them. Only how good can I deal with any given situation with as little risks as possible. And that’s where the Trauma staff becomes literally the best weapon of all.

Sure, a purge staff will kill a horde faster. But why does it matter? What’s it gonna do against 5 crushers mixed with berserkers around next corner? Or a plasma gun will definitely clear the room of gunners more efficiently. But when the time to reload has come yet the horde never stopped coming while multiple dogs and flamers are already heading your way - what can you do in such situation? For most weapons - not much. Trauma, however, is an exception. It can always be a reliable way to not only survive but defeat any mixes of enemies with the exception of Monsters/ multiple Mutants in a Crusher patrol (which are a big problem for any solo-carry build).

Here are two examples of Trauma/Brain burst combo being able to reliably clear any room with no help on a solo damnation high intensity shock troops. https://youtu.be/qzDdszCAalg https://youtu.be/DbNJDd3AR8M (I failed the runs because got tired and started making mistakes but the core gameplay for more than 40 minutes is shown with me being able to consistently survive AND kill any threats with a good enough positioning).

Again, I assure you I would not be able to do that with literally any other weapon and I don’t think that a truly solo, safe and reliable playstyle like that is even possible with any other weapons with the exception of a knife stealth zealot).

Now when we actually add the team that you can somewhat rely on while still playing with this build, you basically win anything.

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You are still talking about the absolute peak of skill here. Which is where the disconnect is I think. Based on the parameters you have provided, sure it is OP.

However, I think that I can comfortably say that usually players and developers alike don’t look at how a weapon outperforms other weapons at the peak level of skill. (Obviously this doesn’t hold true in PVP games as much)

The balance typically comes from, “How effective is this weapon vs the level of effort it requires from its user”

I assure you the average psyker is not facerolling with the trauma staff like the average vet is with the plasma gun.

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Thank you for the response. I guess it never occured to me that using Trauma optimally for many people can be more difficult than firing a Plasma. I always think of something being overpowered in a sense of it being too good at dealing with everything, not just how easy it is to get value comparatively to other options.

Personally I find Trauma much easier than most options on top of being so good, that’s why I think of it as the ultimate weapon. But I guess this is really not as common as I thought.

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Oh yeah, I agree, it’s the best all-rounder staff by a decent margin. When I’m not running gunpsyker I will default to trauma just because it’s so good/fun.

I think this is one of those rare scenarios that is just going to exist by virtue of how certain staffs work. If they nerf the trauma to make it less powerful at the level of play it is most effective, then nobody outside that level of play will even consider using it.

Conversely, they can’t really buff up the other staffs to perform as well as the trauma because (at least for the purgatus) left click go brrrr.

You would just end up in a reverse situation where there is no use for the trauma staff because X, Y, Z staff is easier and performs just as well with less effort.

i.e. The current revolver > headhunter autogun meta.

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A good challenge is to see if that stays true is if you try and pair it with another special skill. Drop your shield (which is itself a very strong ability) - maybe play with Shriek - then see if it’s still the case.

I would bet that the combined abilities to block charging enemies coupled with the stagger effect makes it easier for you as enemies cannot get close. Once they do, I suspect the effectiveness will change.

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If anything trauma is underpowered because it gets the surge blessing but doesn’t actually fire two charged shots when surge procs. (unlike voidstrike). Surge only applies to the hipfire which is pretty weak, the blessing that applies brittleness also lacks synergy because staff attacks already pierce armour.

The upcoming item update supposedly updates the blessing pool for every weapon type, but it remains to be seen if it does something (anything) to buff trauma.

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Any weapon with infinite or excessive cleave makes me raise an eyebrow, especially if that translates into silly damage or abuse of ability cooldown reduction. Purge staff is just a total aberration with its infinite cleave and brainless playstyle, but then I also dislike it for the same reason why the firestorm staff was hated in VT2. The attacks VFX obstructs other players visibility in a game which is known for poor visibility as it is.

Ultimately some of those issues are down to poor design of some other talents, and a lot o them are related to ability cooldown reduction. Zealot’s got a nerf. I would imagine Fatshark will catch up with few others sooner or later.

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Surge blessing + Gaze, it’s just silly.

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Trauma, Voidstrike, and Purge are all 3 weapons that I would consider “op” because they have near 100% uptime, no worry about ammo, they do great damage, the peril economy is currently non existent, and perhaps worst of all they are very simple weapons (at least VS requires a little aiming).

Part of this is simply the Peril economy in general and how easy it is to manage or completely ignore the mechanics, lack of interesting keystones outside of Disrupt Destiny, and a harsh ammo economy outside of Psyker Staves.

But maybe to get more on track Trauma is a strong weapon even if I consider Voidstrike better.

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trauma is very weak pls buff

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Here’s the Trauma build run: