No.
I actually have both matches saved on my laptop. I can upload them at some point. I wasn’t playing particularly well in either match.
Well, neither were your teammates.
In both of those matches, you got more special and elite kills, than the three teammates combined.
Unless you want to tell me (which i think, nobody would be delusional enough to make such a claim), that assail is stronger against specials and elites, than the combined power of 3 players using anything else than assail, and who are actually trying to kill something…
Your teammates were absolute garbage.
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Nah, Assail+Autopistol+Illisi really is just that strong. I understand the game and know what I’m doing, but I genuinely wasn’t paying much attention to the game at all during those matches, and I was playing on a mobile hotspot lagging frequently. The next time I play Darktide, I can keep posting boards like this. It’s every friggin’ match. I can post these kind of number gaps with lots of stuff, but it’s trivially easy with Assail. It’s broken. There is no denying it’s broken. Nothing this easy to use should be this good.
Nobody can tell me with a straight face that the MGXII doesn’t deserve to one shot headshot the vast majority of targets in Veteran Volley Fire but Assail is fine. It’s total nonsense.
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Ok then.
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If the argument is that Assail isn’t broken because exclusive use of it is not necessarily the best way to get the most possible damage as Psyker, the argument is not genuine.
Yes, Assail is not quite broken enough that you NEVER want to pull out anything else. It is however, the absolute closest thing to that in the game. You can literally use it exclusively and put out good damage, and if you spam it when it’s optimal and gun stuff down when it isn’t, you get ridiculous damage output that a 3 year old could achieve.
If you aren’t taking Assail as a Psyker, you’re leaving massive amounts of damage on the table. Assail is also incredibly easy to use. This combination is not a good thing.
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That is not what i said.
But since you are talking about arguments that are not genuine…
You tried to make an argument for how overpowered it is, by using screenshots of scoreboards with obvious trash teammates.
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Fair enough, you didn’t say this. It inferred it. I think a lot of people would agree that it was implied.
I’m so looking forward to the stream of scoreboards and videos I’m going to post the next time I sit down with Darktide for a few hours.
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All i did, was scrutinizing your attempt of showing how overpowered it is, by posting scoreboards with garbage teammates who behave like bots.
If you want to make a point, do not make use of such manipulative tactics.
Great. Have fun.
In the meantime, others will keep complaining in other threads, how bad a lot of the players in the auric playlist are.
Because that is the main reason for any exceptionally high score being achieved.
Even in the auric playlist, players still do not know where the medicae stations are, or how the objectives work.
Players get lost during objectives and do not know how to navigate through half of the missions.
I frequently see players walk right past someone, who is disabled on the floor.
Half of the auric players are so bad, that they will trigger a demon host, while it is tagged, even when it has additionally been called out in chat.
Often, you can keep a boss tagged since the moment it spawned and then fight if by yourself for half a minute, before the teammates notice that there is a boss fight happening right next to them.
Some players i have been on discord with, are so lost and overwhelmed, that you can literally shout at them and they will not notice that they have been spoken to.
How could anyone expect those players to have a reasonable offensive performance?
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I’d have a vested interest in saying I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread and just that much better than everyone else.
The truth is that the high skill stuff in this game produces worse results than the stuff a small child could master in a matter of hours.
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Assail’s power comes from its ease of use, not that it’s the single most powerful killing ability in the game. You’re basically getting weakspot-seeking, self-aiming autogun that’s got a magazine half the normal size but regenerates every 14 seconds. It doesn’t take any skill or ability to use, doesn’t require any channeling or placement, isn’t restricted to a particular range bracket, isn’t awkward or clunky to use (e.g. bolter/heavy stubber/plasma/flamer), and doesn’t offer any sort of unique teamplay ability, it’s just a damage dump.
If the explanation for its performance is always “well the teammates are all just bad”, that only goes so far when one acknowledges just how trivially easy Assail is to employ effectively. For my own part, my own performance is always notably better with Assail than Brain Rupture. Pox Hound packs on Hunting Grounds are the best example of why this is, as while killing these packs isn’t the hardest thing to do, it often requires some attention and effort or resources for a team to deal with. Even if a Vet can wipe the whole pack with an autogun, that probably took a full magazine that has to be reloaded before the next pack comes and took the Vets entire attention to aim at and keep on target and wrangle with recoil and spread. An Ogryn big bomb may wipe the whole pack, but that’s a very limited resource and need a well placed throw. An Assail psyker can just left click down the hallway a bunch of times while running around willy-nilly with shards to spare for the followup pack and immediately switch to another ranged weapon if out, and can do so again 14 seconds later for the entire game duration. There’s no corresponding situation where BR is going to be as outstandingly effective by comparison, being able to Empowered two-shot a Bulwark once in a while isn’t delivering the same value.
No it won’t one-shot a Daemonhost, no it won’t cleave through a pack of Crushers, but it will trivialize many threats and encounters in ways even very powerful weapons will not, simply because it’s highly responsive, has few limits on use, regenerates quickly, and is effortless to employ.
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lol
Doesn’t matter. It’s a team game. Veteran brings a lot of teamplay many Psykers do not.
Vet’s shout is amazing. Vet’s invisibility is amazing. Both are clutch at a level no Psyker ability compares to. And you can turn him into a melee or ranged monster, if you know what you’re doing.
And Assail Psyker is really the least effective when compared to his Staff output atm.
Not that you’re claiming the opposite here. But you do post in a “nerf Assail” thread.
It’s not, Assail performs worse than a good 80% of primary weapons. And besides, you still make the critical error of comparing Psyker Blitzes to the other character’s Blitzes. Not to mention that you can get a super spammy Veteran grenade build going, anyway.
The problem here is you go with a negative “problem” mindset onto the game instead of deriving joy from the opportunities.
And no amount of nerfing is going to fix that, because if they overnerf Assail into uselessness as you want them to, you will just find a new thing you dislike.
This is why I hate balance discussions. Once the can got kicked down the mountain, it never stops rolling. And once the “community” has strong armed the dev team into doing one thing, it gets the impression that it has this power and should use it to further influence development.
Which is exactly why I celebrate whenever Fatshark gives people with your mindset the hard block by not doing what you want.
You do not deserve to have this power.
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I think an easy change for the Assail would be for the recharge to only happen when the shard is finished, and not start recharging directly
lol
If you have a more elaborate response, I’m open to hearing it.
What’s awkward or clunky about Assail? Does it have an extended draw time? Nope. Does it have a firing delay like a Plasma Gun? Nope. Do you need to even have your cursor over your target at all to hit it? Nope. Do you have to endure the entire reload process before being able to engage another target with it? Nope. Does it need any Channeling like Smite or Brain Rupture? Nope. Is it useless at long ranges? Nope.
Is there something I’m genuinely missing on those counts?
Veteran grenade spam isn’t doing what Assail does. I certainly haven’t been able to get that build to perform anything near as well as I have been able to with Assail. Grenades are clunkier to build out than Assail is in terms of Talents, and I certainly don’t feel like I’m leaving anything out by not taking those talents in most of my builds. If I did feel so, I’d also be saying it should be getting changes too.
More to the point, I pointedly also noted the comparison to Brain Rupture directly and repeatedly in this thread, including the post you replied to.
That aside…
I’ve very clearly noted my issues with the ability, in that it takes little effort to employ effectively (quick to draw, self-guiding, no channeling, long ranged, hits multiple targets, targets weakspots) and has very limited downtime.
You’re not addressing any of these points, instead you’re arguing about things like a “negative mindset”. Meanwhile I’m spamming Assail almost every game I’m on my Psyker because it is huge tons of fun, but I also realize I’m using it instead of a staff much of the time as a primary ranged weapon and Assail dramatically outperforms its alternatives in my gameplay and for most others I see. Recognizing the latter doesn’t preclude the former.
You are taking this into very strange, very personal projections. We’re casually talking videogames here on an internet message board, there’s no power dynamics at play, nobody claiming to be a “voice of the community”, nothing to celebrate or be deserving of. Those dynamics are all of your own perception.
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An easy change would be for people to stop complaining about things that are not issues.
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No channeling, but it does require you aim at the enemy for an extended time.
Spamming only works within 20m or so. Outside of that, you do not really hit anything.
You can use the right click mode up to 50m, which is quite clunky to use.
The right click has a firing delay longer than plasma gun.
The left click has no firing delay, but both modes have very slow projectiles.
Even if the assail projectile comes out faster, it moves very slowly.
No reload process like guns, but guns reload for 1-2 sec and they are back to full dps. The time it takes to reload a gun is so short that it can often be done while there are no enemies to shoot anyway.
If you full dps with assail, you have 14 seconds downtime before you go back to full dps.
If you keep spamming it, while at 0 shards, your dps is so bad, that you might as well hit the enemies with a wet noodle.
Again, no channeling, but you are forced to keep looking at your target until the shards arrive.
With BB you can just look away. With guns, you just shoot and then you are done.
All of these things are quite big downsides to assail, which people like to simply ignore.
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I use Assail, I think it could be toned down, I never for example have found myself without any shard available
Theoretically maybe? I’ll grant that it makes snapshots on brief target windows more difficult relative to something like a Lasgun, but for anything charging at you, in the open, or standing its ground, I’ve never noticed the guidance/projectile time have much impact. The projectile travel time even across the entire Psykanum isn’t that long, and this allows you lots of opportunities to do things like switch targets and guide the shards elsewhere if one dies before your shards hit (or “oh s***” them away from a Daemonhost if you were a bit too enthusiastic), which you can’t do with other weapons.
You can’t quite replicate the Brain Burst lock on, but the right click does allow you to “Fire and Forget”. With the left-click however, relative to using a gun or stave, it’s not something I’ve ever really noticed as a downside, the shards are already hitting by the time I’m done sending them typically, usually I’m continuing to shoot/move/etc that way anyway, and total time of engagement from seeing the target to killing it isn’t generally any lower even if the projectile speed is slower because I’m spending less time aiming and taming recoil and spread or switching between fire modes to try and hit weakspots. If the travel time were longer, it might be an issue, but at least I’ve personally have never found that to be a big deal that cost me kills.
Spamming only works within 20m or so. Outside of that, you do not really hit anything.
You can use the right click mode up to 50m, which is quite clunky to use
When you get a chance, test it out in the Psykanum.
Position yourself between the two Shotgunners and look directly across at the Dreg Gunner. You should be well beyond 20m there. Place your cursor 2-3 feet above its head, right about where the metal barrier that tops the arena ring starts. When I do this and just click 3-5 times (depending on Crit rate), I’m rewarded with a dead Dreg Gunner that I didn’t even aim directly at. If I just click mindlessly floating my cursor between the Mauler and Scab Gunner and dump all my shards, the Mauler and both Gunners die. That feels like it’s working at those longer ranges pretty well to me.
As for the right-click, it’s sustained fire rate is a bit slow, but you’re trading off some speed for fire-and-forget ability and more damage, and the initial actual lock-on and fire ability is relatively slick.
The right click has a firing delay longer than plasma gun.
The left click has no firing delay, but both modes have very slow projectiles.
If the right click delay is longer than a Plasma Gun after locking on, I’m having a hard time telling (maybe firing delay and travel time combined? I don’t know that I have a good way to time that however), and it’s certainly more responsive than the Plasma Gun’s own right-click.
Yes they have slow projectiles, but you don’t need to aim them terribly well. The biggest problem with slow moving projectiles is managing moving targets like with the Voidstrike staff, but with Assail, you don’t have to worry about leading the target or matching a trajectory, they guide themselves. They’re not so slow that they’re going to fail to kill most targets before they kill you, I’ve certainly never had problems with Hound packs for example reaching me while wielding Assail.
The left-click shards are certainly fast enough to clear entire rooms of horde muppets, most specialists, and lighter elites before many teammates can often bring their weapons to bear and engage thanks to reducing acquisition and engagement time to nearly nothing.
No reload process like guns, but guns reload for 1-2 sec and they are back to full dps. The time it takes to reload a gun is so short that it can often be done while there are no enemies to shoot anyway.
If you full dps with assail, you have 14 seconds downtime before you go back to full dps.
If you keep spamming it, while at 0 shards, your dps is so bad, that you might as well hit the enemies with a wet noodle.
Right, but you can just switch to an actual gun or stave during that process, you’re not out of the fight the way you are with say, a Plasma Gun is during its long reload that can’t re-engage with a partial magazine and only has a grenade for an alternative ranged option.
On my current Assail/Warp Siphon build, I can dump my 10 shards plus the extra 3 or so that generate while doing so, and not pop from Perils, purge to zero (or Shriek if necessary), and switch to my Voidstrike staff and be landing stave hits, all in 10 seconds flat, and by the time Warp Flurry has full ramped up my charged shots I’ve got 6-8 shards back. Even better, if the enemy presence is very thick, I can take advantage of Transfer Perils and not bother purging/shrieking, just go directly to blapping horde heads and purge myself down that way. My Assail Psyker can sustain more consistent offensive pressure than any other class I’ve managed so far because of the ability to cycle between Assail and the Stave alongside four different Peril’s reduction tools (Quelling, Inner Tranquility, Transfer Perils blessing, and Shriek) while never needing to consume ammo/grenade pickups.
Again, no channeling, but you are forced to keep looking at your target until the shards arrive.
With BB you can just look away. With guns, you just shoot and then you are done.
Again, sure you can’t just look away like you can with Brain Burst/Rupture with left click (though Right Click is pretty close, for lighter targets it absolutely treads on BB/BR’s utility there) but this also allows you to keep guiding the projectiles, and the average time to kill a target isn’t really any different than with most guns (and especially against groups of targets that Assail can engage en-masse), particularly as you aren’t having to manage fine aiming/recoil/spread which can take time in its own right. I’ll grant that theoretically it could matter, but I’ve never noticed this as an issue, especially if I’m dumping all the shards anyway.
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Once again, not representative of actual gameplay.
When people start a paragraph with “Well about Psykarium…” I usually instantly skip it. Did an exception for you. Surely you bring the same stuff they all bring.
“Yeah well if you do X and Y right in the correct order and you place yourself in position Z and then when that happens you do that other thing and then it totally works…”
Not representative of gameplay. For starters, Psykarium is an unobstructed, open air arena. No map or level has it’s layout. Your argument about Assail falls flat by the fact alone that a real map has plenty of obstacles and geometry that will block your randomly flying shots.
Nor do you get the perfect mix up of enemies you need to always proc your stuff reliably.
Most important part of all this is of course that in the Psykarium nobody attacks you. Getting into the right position and staying that way and quickswapping this and that, etc. is easy when nobody is hounding you.
I still don’t see any of my “Assail ez T5 Auric clear gang”. Where are they at? You tell me.
For all this talk about how easy the game is, all I’ve been seeing lately is teamwipes and people who are too lazy to pick up P L A S T E E L.
I mean, you do know that Psyker was absolutely undertuned for the better part of a year? Yeah, I guess you really want that back. Not us, though. So we’ll be here eternally arguing about it.
In isolation, assail is arguably more useful at T5+ than it was before since trash clear was never really its forte at that level. The targeted shot is now actually useful as a sniping tool.
The changes have made precisely zero difference in T4 and below. It’s still a faceroll funsucker ability in that bracket.
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