Here’s yet another topic, theorycrafting an AdMech class. Just thoughts that have been kicking around in my head that have coalesced into some general concepts for the AdMech class that I think is widely wanted and expected.
I don’t actually care that much if they are a Skitarii or a Tech Adept or a full-on Tech Priest. I don’t think the presence of a full Adeptus Mechanicus group would be that hard to introduce, since they could be taking an interest in the lost Moebian Steel factory that we helped activate. Some powerful Magos got wind of this and rolls up, introducing his forces to Tertium alongside some ramp-up in heretics, hoping to get control of, or at least study, the factory and its special steel.
As for gameplay, I can immediately think of three things that could make an AdMech class unique:
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Mechadendrites - mechanical arms/tentacles that could be equipped with various weapons or tools.
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Servo-Skull - Growing off the Arbites doggo, this could be a true companion, who could talk (to some extent), be armed with weapons (which could be altered with talents), and also interact with machinery! Perhaps he could be ordered to open doors, pick up items, or even do hacking puzzles for you (albiet slowly). Plus, if you look up pictures, some wear HATS! Who wouldn’t want to put hats on your floating skull buddy?
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Radiation. This could be a new status effect/DoT that can be put on enemies. This could be on some weapons but also the class itself, as sometimes they are irradiated so much that they’re dangerous to be around.
In-game, I’d imagine this as a weak DoT, but it either spreads among enemies, or a highly irradiated enemy will actually damage others around it. I dunno - adding another DoT that can get bloated into crazy numbers by armor reduction could be a problem.
The Mechadendrite would figure into the core combat loop of the character. It would be the Blitz skill of the AdMech, with each option (Ranged, Melee, and Support) having multiple sub-nodes to specialize it. Uniquely among Blitzes, you can use it while doing anything else, since it is (literally) a third arm. So you could hava a ranged option in melee or a melee option with ranged if you like.
Mechadendrite Blitz Ideas:
Melee - Manipulator Arm, the default melee option. Activating it could do a heavy attack, on charges.
Arc Claw - deals damage, can electrocute enemies. Activating it again does a heavy attack.
Breacher - Heavy drill that can drill into an enemy, dealing massive damage. I imagine would lock you in place akin to a chain weapon, but could do huge damage even to Carapace enemies. This one probably wouldn’t attack on its own, only charges for the heavy attack.
Any of these melee options could even block attacks automatically when you have a ranged weapon out, but this uses up a charge.
Ranged - Lasgun is the default. By default I imagine it shoots at enemies you aim at, with infinite ammo, and activating it causes it to shoot in bursts or stronger shots.
Grenade Launcher - Want a grenade? Here’s your grenade. I imagine it would function similarly to Ogryn’s grenade launcher. No automatic firing, has limited ammo, must be manually activated.
Other options are almost unlimited; you could put a Plasma Caliver on here, an Irad Cleanser, a Flechette launcher.
Support - Default scanner that highlights ranged enemies and specials, akin to some nodes on Volley Fire. Perhaps it has charges again and you press your Blitz key to ping a scan, lasting a certain amount of time.
Smoke Emitter - When the player comes under fire from ranged attacks, will emit a smoke cloud to obscure their vision. Has a cooldown. Obviously this would not be as big as the Smoke Grenade vet has.
Omnispex - Analyzes enemy weakpoints, passively increasing Crit Chance and Weak Spot Damage.
Servo-Skull
Like the default Mechadendrite, the Servo-Skull comes by default with a Las pistol equivalent, just flying around and shooting enemies, willy-nilly. Like the Cyber-Mastiff, enemies don’t attack it and it can’t be hurt. Also like the Cyber-Mastiff, it could be ordered to interact with things, not just targeting enemies but also electronic devices, allowing it to do hacking minigames in place of the player (though I imagine taking quite awhile). Or it could scan targets. It obviously couldn’t do anything else while doing this.
I imagine it could also attack dogs/Mutants who grab you, but I can’t imagine it staggers them very effectively. It could even, theoretically, cut you free from a Trapper net, but I think that would be a bit too much.
Servo-Skull Keystones
Like the Arbites Doggo, the Servo-Skull could have optional keystones related to it specifically.
Gun-Skull - Giving the Servo-Skull more Lasguns, allowing it to shoot a lot more.
Sensor Skull - Another way to provide increased intelligence on enemies, similar to the default support Mechadendrite arm. This wouldn’t highlight enemies, but instead put a mini-map on the character’s screen that shows all enemies around the player.
It would be a fun nod to classic FPS games, and subsequent nodes could add different colored markets for certain types of enemies, like elites or specials, or highlight pickups.
A subnode could allow it to bring you small ammo packs - not from the map, but ones it generates, with the idea that it found them.
Medi-Skull - Could automatically give the player random Stims occasionally, when in combat (not green, obviously). These could be somewhat tailored to the situation; if your ability has a long cooldown it gives a yellow stim, if you are immersed in melee combat it gives you a red stim, if you are far from the team it gives you a blue stim.
Active Abilities
A lot of possibilities here, many people have suggested some, these are the ones I like or have thought of.
Overclocking - A self-buff, giving increased Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Toughness regen, perhaps even buffing dodge to some degree. Especially good in melee or when kiting.
Sensory Assault - as per the Sicarian Infiltrators, could be a shout-type ability, staggering enemies and debuffing them to take more damage, and suppressing shooters similar to Chorus, but not giving any gold Toughness.
Subnodes on this could also trigger your Servo-Skull to get bonus damage or go into an overdrive.
Shield Projector - Your Servo-Skull projects a shield that moves with the character and follows where he’s looking; sort of like the big shield Reinhardt has in Overwatch. This would allow a new option for approaching enemy gunner positions, though one that only faces a single direction. Perhaps a sub-node causes it to apply shock to enemies who touch it. I would definitely give it a health bar, so you can get an idea of when it will go down.
Player Keystones
Neutronic Activation - A damage-oriented Keystyone that causes the player to emit radiation when certain criteria are met; perhaps based on melee, as that is where this would be most useful.
Mechadendrite Loader - Allows the mechanical arm to reload your ranged weapons when you don’t have them out.
My only other thought is some kind of Toughness buff, allowing him to build up a very big toughness bar without going into gold Toughness.
Talent Trees and Nodes
The talent tree would have the usual three archetypes; one lending more towards a combat playstyle, in the same path as Overclocking, Melee Mechadendrite and Gun-Skull.
A more tech/pet-oriented one that focuses a lot on buffing the Servo-Skull and Mechadenendrite.
And a more ranged-focused build. Perhaps there could be stability, fire rate, and magazine-size buffs in his tree, to give him something of a more unique focus.
Melee Weapons:
Arc Lance + Shield - Shock spear and shield. Since we have shield weapons now, it seems pretty reasonable. And Shield+Spear are a combo seen in the Vermintide series.
Electroleech Stave - A two-handed weapon with a cog-axe head at either end. They supposedly “drink the electrical energy” of the target, whatever that means. I’d put that flavor into some blessings and mostly just make it like a dual-ended spear that you can spin and attack with. Like maybe it restores Ward on hit innately.
Omnisian Axe - A two-handed axe! Considered to be some of the finest power weapons, I imagine it would be a slower but harder hitting equivalent to the Relic Blade.
These are weapons of great honor, even holy, perhaps above the station of a playable character - but they are also iconic to the faction, so I’d expect to see them.
Transonic Blades - Always used in pairs. These blades match their sonic fields to things they hit, making them better against armor. They come in sword, dagger, and claw varieties. Any or all of those are options, I think. Claws would be pretty unique to the series, but Vermintide already has Dual Swords and Dual Daggers, so those variants seem very reasonable.
Ranged Weapons:
Most Likely: The core ranged weapons of the AdMech.
Radium Weapons (Pistols/Serpentas/Carbines/Jezzails)- Guns that shoot bullets - but those bullets are extremely radioactive. Enough fire is said to be enough to start a “rad storm”, so I’d take that as an AoE effect.
So, on hit give an AoE burst that spreads a unique ‘Irradiated’ DoT to all targets it touches. Its fire rate and direct damage output could be lower to account for the DoTs it is giving out.
Arc weapons (Pistol/Rifle) - Lightning gun, shocks enemies on hit. Since shock seems to give a bunch of good debuffs to enemies. This would probably function similarly to a Las Gun, but with higher damage, lower rate of fire and debuffs attached to it. Peraps each shot would have a wind-up, similar to the Plasma Gun.
Galvanic Rifle - Single shot, slow-firing, but high damage per shot. I’d think of it like a DMR.
Transuranic Arquebus - Another precision weapon, but with this one I would expect some kind of homing quality to its shots - the bullets are said to have a Machine Spirit that can adjust its path in flight.
Less Likely: While undoubtedly weapons used by the AdMech, they aren’t as prominent as others.
Electrostatic Gauntlet - Shoot bolts of lightning from your hands, kind of like psyker. I would hope it’s not you-know-what 2.0, but instead more of a damage-dealing weapon.
Flechette Blaster - Super high rate of fire smg that fires tiny darts. These are said to have a homing ability once a target has been hit; in gameplay terms this could be the special attack, shooting a shot that then will cause the next shots to home in - perhaps not perfectly, but decently.
This thing is supposed to shoot hundreds of tiny darts, so its rate of fire would be immense; I’m guessing it would spit out multiple darts per each shot in a somewhat narrow cone.
Plasma Caliver - A burst-firing Plasma Gun. Each shot is less powerful, obviously, but it fires in bursts.
Mitralock - las shotgun, basically. Not much to say here, hopefully it would be good if they make it.
Unlikely: These weapons are rare, obscure, or potentially lost.
Phosphor Pistol - Shoots glowing balls of energy that stick to enemies and continue to deal damage and give burn stacks. Perhaps it fires in bursts?
Gamma Pistol - Heavy damage, very few shots. Perhaps it overheats? Its shots are good even against Carapace. I’m not thinking one-shotting a Crusher, but dealing decent damage to them on a headshot.
Rotor Cannon - Like a minigun. Everyone loves a minigun. Very heavy, slow to bring out, but churns out a lot of lead. No windup, that’s a silly trope and certainly these things are electrically-run. I would think it doesn’t need to reload but instead can overheat. This, notably, is something normal humans use, there’s a model of a void marine with one, so I’d imagine that if this was added it would be available on Veteran.
Conversion Beamer - Shoots out a beam that deals more damage the further away the target is. Holding the beam on the target until it dies will make the target explode, dealing damage to enemies around them.
In lore, moving while firing this somehow ruins the effect, but that would translate terribly into Darktide, so . . . perhaps it just slows you down a lot?
Irad Cleanser - This is a 30k weapon, don’t know if any are still around, but I think it has interesting potential.
It unleashes blasts of radiation; my thought is that it fires a wide cone shot that damages everything it hits and gives Irradiated stacks, and overheats after a single shot so you have to take a moment before firing again.
It would be something you’d whip out to soften up a lot of enemies in front of you. It won’t kill them, but it will damage them, making them easier to take out, lending it to a quick-swap playstyle.
Personalities
For the three options, I would suggest
Omnissiah Believer - Very religious, often talking about machine spirits and how he so dutifully performs the rituals to bless his weapon and whatnot.
Scientist - Only pays lip-service to the religious dogma of the Mechanicus. He’s here to learn and understand. Always toeing the line of acceptability in this regard.
Pre-Servitor - Basically lobotmized at this point. Very little personality, frequently misreads things people say that aren’t very direct. He enjoys collecting spores.
Stats
I would imagine that the AdMech depends largely on its Toughness, with relatively low health. While they do often wear armor, it just seems to be a niche that could be expanded more.
I wouldn’t say this necessarily means he’s weak; with talents he could probably spec to have a lot of Toughness and Toughness DR, so he could be rather tanky.
His other stats would be pretty standard; 2 wounds, normal dodges. Some of his movement could also be upgraded with nodes, with better leg servos or such. Lots of options here.
Melee:
Combat Axe
Tactical Axe
Chainsword
Power Sword
Chainaxe
Ranged:
Laspistol
Flamer
Autopistol
Infantry Lasgun
Boltgun
Plasma Gun
Shock Maul
That’s just my thoughts. Any feedback is appreciated.
