Patch Notes 1.0.25

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Announcements
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None and neither can the Flamer. It deals good damage to Poxwalkers, but you need sustained fire for any other type of enemy. I ask you again, what difficulty you are playing on.
Of course you have might have that godroll Flamer with 80 in all stats and the right perks. But it still works as intended and it still is not as great an option as you think. You just don’t know what you miss out on by packing the clumsy flamer.
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Because the Purgatus staff is very clearly faster, less unwieldy and has basically infinite ammo. You keep glossing over all that as if it was nothing. By the time you have your Flamer packed out and started firing, you’d have already killed half the mob surrounding you with whatever melee choice you’re bringing.
Oh and the Purgatus staff obviously is affected by the Psyker talent tree, too.

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Ogryn

  • Tough as Nails still felt solid (mostly on the grounds of my finally going “full hard carry” on Damnation today and finally winning a Damnation mission)
  • Raging Bull is in a weird place. Weird because the value is fairly underwhelming unless you’re in a fairly optimal situation (ie my BB has 8.7 targBasically it feels underwhelming unless you have a fairly specific weapon able to cleave 10+ targets, and at a certain point it’s really quite powerful, but it feels weird to balance around that one optimal situation (my BB with 7.13 targets at +175% cleave presumably hits 19.6 targets, has +175% cleave which presumably means I can hit ~23 targets a swing which is +47.5% damage on every attack if there isn’t a limit on that feat.) Not really suggesting a change, just pointing out it’s weird.
  • Love the HUD icon, thanks.

Zealot

  • Love the shift in toughness/mitigation feats, as 75% was too much mitigation.
  • I suspect the 3rd toughness feat (EWEW, where you regenerate toughness if 3+ enemies are inside 5m) has too small a radius to compete with the other two, due to dancing in/out when toughness is scarce (feels like a single dodge-slide backwards can take you beyond the 5m radius?)

Psyker

  • Stacks falling off gradually is a huge quality of life change.
  • Also appreciate that the changes didn’t go overboard with BB damage increases.

Veteran

  • Duck and Dive feels like a pretty bad design as-is because when you dodge ranged fire you don’t need stamina. If it worked in melee too, that’d be where stamina was much more important (for pushing/dodging/blocking), but I think it should just provide some sort of buff relevant to ranged fighting like increasing ranged crit. (I’d suggest mitigation, but that’s already basically what the other two do; this one is about dodging manually and you should be strongly rewarded for the much more difficult skill requirement.)

Chainaxe

  • The new heavies feel much dramatically better at dealing with hordes.
  • Definitely rounds the weapon out more, though I suspect it deserves more revved DPS against armored targets so that it’s not as similar to chainsword’s DPS against armor (since despite these changes, Chainsword is still much better at handling hordes).

Kickback

  • Definitely a big improvement, but it still felt inferior to Ripper/Stubber when it comes to clearing hordes and it doesn’t seem to deal with non-horde targets any better. The gap is much smaller though.

Krourk Cleavers

  • Still doesn’t feel like it brings enough value to be worth choosing over Bull Butcher.
  • It might be the fastest non-cleave way to clear basic flak enemies in the game with H1 (one enemy) into L2>L3 (second), so that part is great. The Flak melee guys (bruisers?) seemed just above the HP threshold for this to work but my test weap was 79% Dmg, 73% FirstTarg without +FlakDmg so presumably with better attributes and/or perk they die.
  • Weakpoint hits are weirdly hard to get on this weapon, and especially with stabs you have to aim weirdly above the enemy’s head (rather than stabbing right at the face) in order to land the hit where you want.

Headhunter

  • Still reserving judgement, but they do feel better. (Only used mine with a friend on Malice, so didn’t really get a true sense of the balance; I just mowed down everything with headshots for free.)
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I agree with a lot of your criticisms about DARKTIDE, and I do agree that psyker could use some work as they have some feats that are still fairly underwhelming.

But, and especially in light of the significant buffs they just got, if you think psyker is weak or under powered I dont know what to say. This just isn’t my experience at all. Do I single handidly kill every elite or special, or get the killing blow every time? Of course not, but I know I’m being impactful to the team across a wide range of situations.

I switched back to Vet recently and I was playing on a team with no psyker. Dealing with Bulwarks in narrow spaces and a ton of other situations had me saying “this would be a lot easier if we had a psyker to open things up.”

Anyway, the recent changes to warp charges does a ton to open up build diversity for the psyker. If you can’t spare 2 seconds of effort every 50 seconds to keep your charges topped off, then I don’t know what to say.

Durability wise, the stamina fix on curios is huge. Force sword with deflector and 10+ stamina is crazy, coupled with infinite dodges and about the strongest push move in the game. Psyker IS a high skill ceiling class and demands you to pay attention. It punishes mistakes 100%.

Maybe at this point psyker just isn’t the class for you and it doesn’t gel with your play style and expectations. Which is totally fine. But for me, I still love it the most over 100+ hours on the class.

2 Likes
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Before this patch it only procced every second hit and you only got the bonus on the first enemy cleaved. Now it applies every swing and you get the bonus against every enemy cleaved. Noticeable buff overall, which is funny because it was already the winner in that tier. Raging Bull is fine they really need to make the rest of that tier decent now.

EWEW is actually more like 8% per second due to tick rate. Pretty simple math shows you need to be killing more than one enemy per second for Purify in Blood to outcompete it, and if you ever need to play a bit defensively EWEW is bringing a lot more value. Generally EWEW is still better but there are use cases for Purify like heavy sword that has very far above average horde clear. That said a small radius buff for EWEW wouldn’t be bad. Purify should really be +100%.

My dude chainaxe can one shot a lot of things on Damnation that chainsword definitely cannot. Thrust and slaughterer blessings strongly advised.

Everything else you said I pretty much agree with.

2 Likes
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1.) Flamer

I personnally think it needs a nerf, but a slight nerf and not a brutal one.

I use the flamer cause this is a really efficient weapon. You don’t need to aim, you also don’t need a clear line of sight. So you can burn something you don’t clearly see…

I don’t use it a lot. I prefer my combat axe (yes I don’t actually like critic template, even if they are more efficient to stay alive, and that’s what made me try an other template to force me acquiring more skills). However, I use it when we have hordes (and here I think this weapon is clearly designed for this) or when there are lot of specials.

I would say that this weapon should get an overheat mecanism. Not something as strong as psykers or the plasma gun, but something that forbid you to burn everything with more than 2 fuel canisters.

The balance to find here is really hard to establish. If it is nerfed too much, the weapon will be garbage, but without, the weapon is really one of the best weapons.

2.) Other weapons

I repeat it, I am less concerned by nerfing the two weapons I think that are OP (power sword and flamer) than seeing the weak weapons corrected.

By example, the shotgun could have its ammunitions x2 or even x3. At x2 it could be an alternative of the bolter, a bad alternative less effective, but you could get the advantage of the reloading system of the shotgun. At x3 ammunitions, here it would be a real alternative of the bolter.

Same for revolver… This weapon needs a little buff of its damages and a little more ammunitions (x1.5). Same for the shredder autopistol that can be good but need more ammo (x1.5 to x2.5).

Same for autogun but here, maybe, a reduction of the amount of ammo for the braced autogun could be more smart.

MG guns also have this problem. MG XII is too efficient, has lot of ammo… MG Ia and MG IV are less efficient and less ammo… I would say that the MG XII could keep its ammunitions, but maybe the magazine should permit less shots and the reload could be a little longer.

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IMO specifically the agrip brauto should have its hipfire accuracy tuned down a bit so there’s at least a reason to brace. The other two brautos are fine. Graia feels a bit undertuned to me if anything.

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… Is it gonna be next week ?

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I got a 380 base flamer pretty early on and rarely use it. I use combat axe as well, though I run shred on it so I use it with the crit build.

The times I do bring the flamer, the downside of not having a proper ranged weapon is non-trivial. I do public matchmaking, not premades, so I can never know if the team will have a decent Vet or even a Vet at all. Even when I do bring it, I use it so rarely that if there is a Vet on the team, I never pick up ammo.

I’m not sure if there is a reasonable compromise to be made, that allows the Flamer to do what it needs to do, and also stop people from using it all the time to never have to melee any difficult enemies. If you reduce the ammo, those people will keep doing what they’re doing and just suck up even more of the ammo supply. If you reduce the range or power on it, it becomes incredibly questionable to bring it instead of an actual ranged option.

I think any balance pass on Flamer, if they ever try to balance it, will have to be handled with extreme care.

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That’s why the overheat mecanism is the right path. Tbh, this is not my idea, but something discussed on discord (zealot channel). And I think it is the good solution.

In fact, if we nerf the damages or by reducing the impact zone (cloud radius) or by the damages done, the flamer can become a garbage weapon. Any time a nerf is introduced, it has to be done carefully.
The line between a good weapon and a garbage weapon can be really tiny.

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I am getting this error when trying to queue into a public game.
Tried reconnecting, now I can’t log back in. Many people seem to experience the same issue

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yep, same here…

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Played a few missions last night. On Heresy this is what I had equipped, and what I experienced.
T2 Feat is the 6% peril resistance per Warp Charge, T5 Feat is Warp Battery, T6 Feat is the “Pop ult get 25% reduced charge time for BB, and 50% peril resistance”. Voidstrike staff, Force Sword with deflector and Curios stacking Stamina and Stamina regen.
Bulwarks, Reapers and Crushers I left for the Veteran and Zealot. We came around a corner and BAM! Gunners and shotgunners and shooters everywhere. I cleared the room. With 6 Wc’s that provided 36% peril resistance, combined with Ult I popped off almost 8 BB’s in under 10 sec. The Gunners and Shotgunners dropped like flies. I ducked behind cover, quelled and started picking off shooters. It was glorious to see my name at the top of the screen clearing mobs like a God. And with Deflector it was easy to protect myself for re-positioning and then picking off more shooters.

NOW HOLD UP! The squishyness was still an issue. ONE volley from ONE shooter and Toughness is gone and they’re chipping into my health. That is still an issue. But at Heresy difficulty I did feel like the WC’s being easy to maintain definitely contributed to my helpfulness when we got into a ruckus. My Ult knocked back the crowd and I started popping heads.

Still feel the Psyker could use some more utility and differentiation of Feats, but this build was a fun “Nuke” option. Also the other Blessings on my curios are “3% Combat skill regeneration” Which allows me to Nuke more often and in a pinch if I accidentally go to far and I’m about to explode the Ult is an emergency cool down and the skill regen blessings make it available more often.

*EDIT: Buddy was Playing Ogryn. He said he noted almost ZERO difference. To Quote “It feels like they’re just playing with knobs and sliders, turn up this, turn down this…but it didn’t really matter.”

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Did you use psykinetic aura for reduced cooldown? Seems like with the psyker changes that could be a good way to go to. With BB being stronger and more incentivized, seems like that could be a good synergy.

I feel like overall there are now a few good general directions for the psyker, driven by how much you want to use BB and what you’re level 30 talent is.

Option 1: Ascending Wrath (older meta?)
This would be using Psykinetic Wrath (10), Psychic Communion (15), Kinetic Flayer (25), and Ascending Blaze (30). You’re mostly NOT using BBs, but instead relying on the passive skills to keep warp stacks up so you can spam Ascending Blaze (which is is great for staggering and damaging hordes). Mostly geared towards using force Sword and staves, playing in melee range, etc.

Option 2: BB Barrage (newer meta?)
Inner Tranquility (10), Psykinetic aura (15), Warp Battery (25), Kinetic Barrage (30). Stack stuff to reduce cooldown where you can. Seems like this is a good build option for leaning heavily into BB for dealing with ranged threats and carpace armored elites. Deflector sword is good. Probably want to take a horde control staff (e.g. pugatus)

Option 3: Gun Psyker (???)
Inner Tranquility (10), Cerebral Lacerations (15), Kinetic Flayer (25), Kinetic Barrage (30). Sort of a hybrid you can run if you want to use a gun instead of a force staff. Cerebral lascerations now gives +25% damage which can stack with 4 warp charges (another +16%). If you do use a force sword, you’ll get up to another +15% damage at high peril if you take wrath instead. Otherwise you’re talking a +41% damage boost to ranged weapons. Vrakis Mk vII headhunter (the semi-auto fire one) would probably work really well. If you run into a pack of enemies Kinetic Barrage can held you out.

Overall with Psyker, the “dead” feats that I see people rarely use, and still need some enhancement, are as follows:

Wrack & Ruin (level 10) - This is just garbage. Should just make it so that after killing an elite/special all your attacks have some % chance to apply soul blaze for the next X-seconds.

Kinetic Shield (20) - does anyone use this? I would just make it do something like a flat 50% of ranged attacks are “deflected” Or take deflector off the force sword and make it a feat here.

Mind in Motion (20) also not great. I think it should make it so that quelling AND charging BBs or Staves alt-fire doesn’t slow you down. That would be awesome.

Kinetic Overload (25) This is also hot garbage. It would be better if when you gained a warp charge it would apply a nova blast of maybe 2 soul blaze stacks to ALL enemies with X meters of you.

Quicken (30) This is completely useless. I’d love to see this change the nature of the ultimate so that maybe it provides a huge stagger in 360-degrees AND immediately restores your toughness and all allies toughness within coherancy. Makes it a bit like Sienna’s living bomb ult with the healing effect.

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Here’s my Feat build amigo.
Lvl 5 = Warp Absorption
Lvl 10 = Inner Tranquility
Lvl 15 = Cerebral Lacerations
Lvl 20 = Kinetic Deflection
Lvl 25 = Warp Battery
Lvl 30 = Kinetic Barrage

Curios are Stamina, Stamina Regen and Combat Skill Regen. I use Voidstrike Staff, and Force Sword with Deflector.
That’s what I tested last night. Even with losing one or two WC’s it was very easy to get back to full 6 charges when you only need one or two. The Synergy between Inner Tranquility and Warp Battery was nice. 36% reduced peril was very helpful to keep BB as an option constantly. I prefer Cerebral Lacerations to Psykinetic Aura, ESPECIALLY with it being buffed to 25%. I feel that it’s more of a Teamwork Feat and helps the Vet/Zealot kill off those Big Chonky guys.

I wish the burst area, and splash damage was a little more robust for Voidstrike staff, but the fact that it blasts through entire crowds of walkers and kills a handful means that Warp Absorption is regenerating 40-50% of my toughness per blast.

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  1. People are already used to the current ult. I don’t want Battle Wizard’s ult (despite how fun it is) until we get new subclasses.
  2. No. Power Sword really isn’t that good at higher difficulties. A good melee weapon is one that lets you reliably handle the worst hordes without taking any damage. The huge sprint and block cost, miniscule damage when unactivated, and long vulnerable period needed to activate means the Power Wword simply doesn’t cut it (pun intended). Force Sword with Deflector + Slaughterer (or whatever the +rending on headshots blessing is called) is way stronger for unactivated damage, pure horde control, and defensiveness. The fact that it does a really good single target special attack (when it’s safe to, just like every other melee with a single target special attack) is a pure bonus. In fact, I’d argue the special attack of the force sword is miles ahead of the Thunder Hammer, Evisc, Chainaxe, and Assault Chainsword.
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The feat that added 15% DR replaced zealot passive instead of adding onto it, btw, so it was worse than it seemed.

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I would strongly prefer W&R was just replaced with a gun feat. It’s the perfect feat tier for it, neither of the other 2 do a whole lot for a gun build.

I’ve heard people defend it, it’s just that its main application is a Purg build and Warp Battery straight outcompetes it. Don’t really know what the best thing to do about it would be.

I think Quicken would be ok if, like AB, it also provides another avenue to gain warp charges. Then it gets to play the role of CC spam with the bonus of a lot of free peril venting (can be further combined with quietude to keep replenishing toughness).

I would personally also like to see kinetic flayer buffed somewhat. I don’t think there’s a great argument for it over warp battery now that stack maintenance is so so much easier. Maybe it could only proc on enemies you’ve tagged and have a shorter cooldown? Could have some cool applications for gun Psyker then.

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It was still 90% DR.

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I’m pretty sure DR is multiplicative. Hence it was actually like 79% DR. Still very good obviously.

1 Like
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Yeah it still stacks with his sprint reduction in a pinch and still feels powerful in general. My T4 headtaker/T3 decimator Mk2 Taxe with a 385 error roll absolutely unloads with the crit psynergy and I was rarely if ever taking HP damage at all.

The toughness gain on kill talent is still terrible because it just moves the gain from 7.5 pre buff to 8.75 post. Definition of number-fidgeting not-buffs like the BB ones.

However if this was nerfed for being too simple I wonder what the dev take on Unwavering Focus is. Its literally playing Malice difficulty + damage scale from 1.5x damage and 1.5x headshot damage for some reason.