The title says it all already but do let me explain.
I played my psyker most than any other class (didn’t even try veteran yet) and I do understand what the class is “supposed” to be good at.
The psyker should be good at crowd control, helping everybody do what they do even better, and it should be amazing at picking off specialists to make the run smoother and lower the overall pressure on the team.
This works up until Malice threat level, and then goes all the way down the drain from Heresy up.
Up until Malice I felt like I was a glass-cannon, which is what the psyker should be. I play with randos all the time 'cause I ain’t got no friends playing this game so for me to enjoy a class it is necessary that it plays well even with a team that does not shine for its squad coherency. 'Till Malice my psyker did well enough, being frustrating only with terrible teams because he is indeed fragile.
As soon as I tried Heresy with a lvl 30 Psyker with a really fun and effective build (soulblaze/purgatus staff/auto warp charges generation for massive cc) the class became unplayable.
Brain Burst doesn’t kill anything with one shot anymore, entirely loosing its usefullness (especially considered how slow it is to cast and how vulnerable it leaves you) and the squimishness of the psyker became just unbearable seen how hard it was for me to kill anything. I was getting swarmed constantly cause hordes are huge and teeming with specialists I was now unable to brain burst to death. I found my self dying constantly and doing barely anything at all.
I imagine that if I had friends to coordinate with that could front-line to perfection I could have been more useful but then again, I can only play with randos so…
Every other class performes better than psyker above Malice. Literally any of them, to the point that bringing a psyker instead of a veteran seems to me like a waste of time. Veterans could kill specialists in bunches before I managed to cast a single Brain Burst, rendering me completely useless. Maybe if I could buy specific weapons of the desired rarity things could better, but only just marginally.
If I hadn’t hammerd down the point already let me just say it plainly: above Malice level the Psyker is nothing but a liability to a team of randos, and a sub-par choice for a team of friends.
To be honest I disagree. Psyker is amazing at heresy+
The peril to block feat allows you to infintely tank demonhosts and hordes, get clutch rezes off in hordes without taking damage. Combine that with a force sword that has deflection and you’re the tankiest guy in town. Infinite dodge also allows you to melee literally anything.
BB is also very effective at softening and killing crushers, bulwarks and other hard to reach/kill elites/specials. Most of the time you can take down a crusher in 2 BB once the team starts focusing it as well. Especially if you mix it into your melee and ranged moments. Most Psyker’s I’ve seen rarely to never switch to melee. It works best with the final feat that allows you faster BB cast with half cost.
For CC I personally prefere Void instead of Surge or Purgatus, due to it actually deleting hordes even on damnation. When combined with the quell on weak spot hit blessing you can effectively hold off or solo most hordes by utilizing the occasional F for rapid quelling.
I feel that most people expect to be able to solely rely on BB to get around like Vet’s almost exclusively playing ranged. Psyker needs to utilize his whole kit with decent gear to matter on heresy, this requires lucky RNG I agree, but in exchange you’re indomitable from the get go up until and including malice due to the OPness of BB in that range.
You can very much carry on heresy+ and clutch on damnation with Psyker but it only works with a very specialized build and the exact blessings. Now I’m not saying, that that’s a good thing, as it limits the play style and makes most of his feats & kit useless, but he does work. He’s just not as versatile as other classes when it comes to options.
Only thing I personally would want to change is making Warp based attacks either completely ignore Armor or have increased Armor Penetration.
For a farly simple Reason: That’s what they should DO in-Setting.
I’d argue that you would do a helluva lot better with the same amount of effort on the other classes, especially if you take into account having good luck in the shop and good blessings. Not to mention the other classes have talents that actually do something. Not that most of the others have lots of options either, but at least they have a talent tree where you can actually find a build.
Psyker is not in a good place. Can you do well with it? Of course, it’s not useless. But it certainly isn’t fun or even close to worth the effort.
Brain burst has 2 ways to be used, left click, fast with autolock, and right click, charge.
I could suggest to tune the right click, it feels useless now, it could be charged more to deal a heavy amount of damage or maybe increase his charge time to allow almost a oneshot on damnation elites and such.
I mean you are hereby supporting OPs argument.
For how little BB is ideally used in its current state, the talent tree focuses to much on it and doesn’t exactly offer variable playstyles. Voidstrike sure does some damage, but suffers so hard against armor, that surge becomes literally infinitely better.
Sure BB might “soften up” Ogryn elites, but if 50% of the time I try to BB one and he dies beforehand and do not get anything for the time and effort put into it, then that just feels bad and is horrendous design.
I admit I can make the class work myself and is probably my strongest for solo clutches (having all classes on 30), but it is clunkiest and most unrewarding to play when together with your mates and the main contributor for me and a lot of people feeling that way, is that the class is centered around an ability, that does not get used remotely enough within teamplay situations, to warrant having so many talents bound to it or even the class’ passive.
The fact that the only build, which truly fills a functional niche - and does not feel like a dollar store veteran - being Surge + Force Sword, is also extremly demoralizing and discourages replayability to boot.
The issue with right click for BB is, that it is not guarenteed to target the minion you actually want to target. So you might actually start precharging just to kill a Poxwalker instead of a Crusher which is silly.
I would argue that there are ways to make Psycher insanely useful (like surge staff and/or blocking shots with Force Sword), but it is very gear dependant, which, thinking about it a bit, I don’t really hate.
I like this versatility.
What I don’t like is that
a. other builds are slightly lackluster (compared to what other classes can do)
b. brainburst is very lackluster compared to the amount of perks that focus on it
The way I played my psycker prior to the visual surge staff changes (now it just hurts my eyes physically) is by stunning elites/specials and (partially) hordes for my team to kill.
Yes, that is a support role, but it feels so satisfying being able to stop a mutant in its tracks or knocking back poxbursters.
Outside of that (once again, I love the above mentioned playstyle) I can’t say I enjoy Psycher too much.
I hate the Trauma staff (there is no use for it it seems)
Purgatus staff is much weaker than a flamethrower (there is an argument that the staff doesn’t cost ammo, but ammo is easy to come by unless all four characters are using guns)
Voidstrike is ok, but it really falls off on higher (4-5) difficulties. It is a “jack of all, master of none”, and while it can be fun to use, it struggles to fill any specific role enough.
Brainburst I rarely ever use on higher difficulties. It really needs to have some way to one-shot the squishier elites/specials on difficulty 4-5. Having to cast in twice on a dog is just plain stupid. So I just drop it completely, just hoping for a passive cast every 15 seconds with one of the talents.
Psycher is playable, but really gear-dependant.
I would hope something can be done with brainburst at the very least.
Then again, the surge staff is in a great place (not op, feels great), and this playstyle should stay, but something needs to be done about the new visuals asap as it’s borderline physically harmful right now
I’ve been maining Sharpshooter, and every time I switch to psyker, I’m just blown away at what a powerhouse it is. My psyker is a nuke and I love it. It frankly feels OP af to me, on any difficulty
No there is exactly one way to make Psyker useful:
The class having only two weapons that are complementary is in no way
to me. The rest of Psyker’s weapons are simply subpar as you have realised yourself.
The core kit of the class being centered around an ability that is infinitely less usefull on diff 4/5 and 50% of the time a waste of time, due to someone else killing your target, is just the nail in the coffin.
The class needs to have a functional identity separate of its gear and then weapons that complement each other and round out the class, as should be the case for every class, though it is not, albeit Psyker has it the worst imho.
I’m glad to know you find it so good and I will look into the build you’re mentioning. Actually would you share the exact feats/blessings you’re talking about?
I don’t play relying on BB only, the opposite. I use my staff a lot (void or purgatus) and BB when the need arises but don’t you think that the way the shop works makes building your character even harder? I’ve never seen weapons with the blessings you mentioned in the shop, nor have I been gifted one. I also feel that those things shouldn’t be absolutely necessary for a class to work, don’t you?
If a class has one aspect that is sub-par, you can fix that aspect and the class becomes good. If a class is 75% miserable, then that is a much bigger problem. Psyker is of the later issue. Psykenetic’s wrath is vastly underwealming and feels like it should replace replace trauma staff’s alt fire, brainburst is unreliable at higher difficulty, fails at doing its singular job in a timely manner and using the vast majority of weapons aside from staff or force sword is always a detriment. As a result of brainburst being so useless, any feat that relies upon the warp charge system is also useless. Add onto all of that that psyker is horrifically squishy under the majority of circumstances and that means the class needs a larger scale redesign.
Bluntly, the fact someone’s perfect transcendent gear roll allowed a class to perform adequately or being able to hyperfocus something irrelivent to the class to perform is not relevant to arguing against the original thrust of the thread.
Psyker is miserable to play both early and late game, it only becomes functional in lower difficulty in its later levels. Compare to Ogryn or sharpshooter, whom can be effective with grey quality weapons on malice.
Small guide for Psyker with Surge + Force Sword without relying on perks and stuff:
Talents:
Level 5: Essense Harvest - you will be quelling a lot and with Force Sword special you have peril on demand.
Level 10: Either Psykinetic’s Wraith or Inner Tranquility - I prefer the later cause it allows for more staff spam
Level 15: Anything goes really - I prefer Psykinetic’s Aura cause I have the most agency over it and having your failsafe up more often feels good to me
Level 20: Mind in Motion - slowdown while quelling is horrendous, though there is an argument for kinetic deflection as stated above
Level 25: Kinetic Flayer - you need more ways to generate Warp Stacks and this is your only choice
Level 30: Kinetic Barrage - it allows for some BB spam and saves the ability from the pits of being literally dead all the time. This way you actually can deal some meaningful damage to high value targets sometimes.
Surge staff: Anyone with decent damage, Quell and Peril characteristics.
Force Sword: Anyting goes but defelction is easily best in slot if you can find the unicorn in the lottery
Playstyle:
Stun everything all the time. If more Psykers are on the team and also just stunning you have to bite the bullet and go into melee so that you actually kill some stuff.
If possible try to chafe of some elites here and there with the Force Sword Special-charged heavy 1. That attack is also amazing against mutants up till heresy as it manages to one-shot them. So dodge the charge and special heavy one them and watch them crumble.
For BB - if there ain’t any targets worth of stun try to BB some individuals here and there or if there are to many elites and your mates have the frontline - play backline and lessen the burden some - if they seldom happen to not manage themselves. Otherwise try to Burst long distance Snipers as long as railings actually let target the Mofos at all.
Ted Talk end
This is literally the only Psyker build at the moment with identitiy and it gets severely boring after a while to feel like a glorified taser. Here you go and have fun. Weird VFX decisions part of the package as of late.
I get the feeling that Psyker was the last class in development and was rushed out the gate shortly before release.
Let’s be real, the class is completely reliant on its weapons, since BB and force push alone will do nothing to save your skin when the going gets rough, and add to that, that there are really only 3-4 weapons that the Psyker can use without shooting themselves in the foot.
The force sword is the ONLY melee weapon they have access to that has ANY synergy with the class, and getting one with a deflector perk is almost mandatory to make surviving beyond malice possible.
As for ranged, you have 3 staffs to choose from (the trauma staff doesn’t count, since the voidstrike does what it does…over and over again through a whole crowd until it hits a wall).
The staffs are very strong, absolute beasts for crowd control, but that doesn’t make the class viable, since without them…Psyker is not a crowd control class.
It’s just a class that has access to a couple very good crowd control weapons, and if not used, you just become a liability to the team.
That’s a big problem.
I would love to try any melee weapon other than force sword…but every option is just worse, it’s the only one that gets a damage boost from peril and can utilize a force-blocking mechanic.
The chainsword in the hands of the psyker does not even half as much damage on the special attack as the force sword…so why even bother?
It’s been 2 weeks since release and the psyker already has a very distinct meta, since it’s the only way it works, there’s no variation, room for creativity or flexibility.
I honestly can’t wait to get it to level 30 and finally start playing zealot, I heard they’re actually fun.
I was very lucky to get the force sword gifted by the emperor. It is highly specific and requires to play very aggressively. Since I played a lot of Unchained & Zealot/WHC in VT2 and did all damnation runs on Zealot in Darktide, I’ve kinda got the melee aggressiveness and slide dodging ingrained into me. This helps a lot when trying to apply his kit. This build especially works best (for me) when going into melee and close range very often.
I’m generally always in the thick of the fight, when sh*t hits the fan. Mostly to help kill elites/specials or create space. That is what his kit right now is the best for. F can give your allies breathing room and allows the entire team to get some heavy shots/BBs in to delete annoying things and generally clear a sticky situation as well as CC.
Void strike I generally just spam, even at melee range. Otherwise I also pull it out when swarmed. First creating some space either with F or the force sword push → swap to void ->one quick burst off to create space & suppress. Then kite and spam void.
The Force swords heavy is also incredible at closing gaps due to the forward momentum, and it’s recently gotten quite fast. You can reliably onetap/headshot most scabs or stronger trash with it. Wit the right amount of stamina you can also stunlock everything around you by spamming block. Helps when you can’t clear something around a teammate fast enough in order for him to snipe/kill something you can’t. Perfect for CC.
In terms of curios I focus stamina, stamina recovery, and block cost reduction. Below is my current equipment and build. It’s also very much a work in progress but so far it’s been a literal blast. Been farming my last 9 missions to get the final headgear on heresy and it’s pretty good.
I don’t particularly hate that Psycher’s mechanics/playstyle/gearing is different from other classes — it is what makes it unique.
But I agree that “unique” doesn’t always mean “good”.
There are some changes I would welcome, but I do struggle to propose anything particular that wouldn’t make Psycher op.
It needs more force weapons. A 2h sword, maybe a maul, the force sword is good for single target damage, so we need something with cleave and something with stagger to fill the gaps in.
BB needs to scale flexibly on harder difficulties, something like being able to charge it up slower with alternate fire in order to do more damage if you hear a mutant coming and only have a split second to react when it turns the corner.
Warp charges need to actually do something, they’re too short and too weak to have any effect.
There needs to be more interaction with the soulblaze effect, like a chance to set enemies on fire with normal attacks.
And there needs to be perks that benefit non-force weapons for alternative builds, like force weapons get increased armor damage with peril, non-force weapons get better cleave or a damage bonus (like a bloodlust effect)
In terms of ranged: the class needs gun options that fill the same crowd control role as the staffs, something like the combat shotgun that they could use in the beta, or a machinegun.
The whole range of lasguns and axes that specialize in single target damage are completely redundant and useless on the psyker since they do nothing to even out the class’s weaknesses.
For me, I think the psyker class is ok. Its akin to mage in mmorpg. It can do what warrior and ranged can with different style but does not really excel at them.
You want to become vet, here you can use gun, also you can use voidstrike staff which is akin to torpedo.
You want to become tank kinetic deflection is your friend.
You want to cc horde here is your purgatus
You wan to cc elite here is your surge.
You wan to snipe something here is your brain burst. Bb is slow sure, that’s why we have lvl 30 talent kinetic barrage. It charges it way faster.
After experimenting with psyker, here is my conclusion what feat is best for psyker
Quititude
Please guys psyker is not melee spam the staff like rambo. Quell, this is what you want to do if your peril is at critical, stop going melee if you can, your are fukng paper. Some gunner melt your toughness, Quell, and your toghness is back online.
Psykinetic wrath/Inner Tranquility.
Both are good. I prefer Psykinetic wrath since I run force weapon. The damage increase at high peril is worth. And for god sake, quell. This will also fuel your toughness.
Psychic Communion/Psykinetic Aura.
This depends on what staff you are running. Purgatus run Psychic Communion, Surge run Psykinetic Aura. Purgatus kill horde very fast and this will in turn fuel your warp charges with the feat. Surge staff has very low damage against unarmored enemies so basically when you run this staff you are a supporting your team. So might as well give them cd reduction with Psykinetic Aura.
Mind in motion/Kinetic deflection
Kinetic defletion if you have deflector blessing.
Kinetic Flayer.
Both staff purgatus and surge deal a lot of instance damage. 10% chance to suddenly kill elite can come in handy sometimes.
Kinetic Barrage.
This talent is the best because BB charge is slow. It can melt down elite fast.
