Arbitrator has an exemplary Skill Tree, but that’s not an issue at all for me. Veteran and Zealot are envious of such good Skill Tree design. But having a well-designed Skill Tree doesn’t excuse the Archetype from simply being too strong, full stop. You can tune the Arbitrator down without ruining their Skill Tree.
The issue is where the game’s Enemy/Player Balancing has gone completely out of whack because Players are simply too powerful and it’s destroying the game on a deeper level. Elites and Specialists shouldn’t need to spawn with clown car numbers to pose a threat to the Player, but they do in the current state of Darktide.
Solo players should not be able to deal with groups of elites on their own easily
Elite and Specialist enemies should spawn in lesser numbers and be more individually threatening
Players should be able to take more chip but still die quickly to elites
Player defense needs to be adjusted to make blocking a more worthwhile (and sometimes necessary) alternative to dodging, because right now it’s almost never worth doing
While death is the best status effect to apply to enemies, the game should be designed such that CC is an attractive temporary alternative to just killing them outright (because right now player damage output is so high that you don’t even have to bother with CC)
A good player with any class (source: me #humblebrag) can wipe the floor with Auric, this argument doesn’t mean anything. Arbites and Ogryn are both top class right now because they trivialize defending yourself.
A bad player will use the damage resistance and toughness regen and knockback bonuses as a crutch to make it so they don’t have to actually learn proper defense. A good player who knows how to properly defend themselves amplifies it and becomes basically immortal.
Psyker has just as much insane damage output as Arbites, but I find myself being downed on SG Psyker more often despite doing the same amount of melee, because I’m more often forced to actually engage with defending myself using system mechanics, which gives more opportunities for me to mess up and die.
to me the most fun classes are vet and psyker, two classes considered “underpowered” in comparison
what is fun to you, may not be fun to everyone else
overpowered crutch classes are a problem because they trivialize the game
arbites is the worst offender atm
a smite psyker dies instantly once he reaches 100% peril and cannot hold F anymore to play damnation
ogryns need at least a certain understanding of game mechanics and an aggressive playstyle to be broken (which they are)
arbites is just easy mode: take his shock maul, his shotgun and fart all over anything because those weapons are broken af. if you feel fance go lone wolf with infinite regen shock mines for lulz too
On the contrary, I’d like to ask you: Do you think it’s healthy for a game when beginners, who just started playing, can clear the highest difficulty by using an overpowered class that blatantly exceeds the game’s intended balance, almost like a cheat? If so, what does difficulty even mean anymore? Are you saying it’s fine as long as beginners are having fun? Please explain.
A nerf to Arb, probably wouldn’t really even impact you on the difficulty you’re playing on.
It’s more likely that the offensive capabilities will be nerfed, because he can outkill Elite density that doesn’t even spawn on your difficulty. That’s the problem with him.
OH WAIT VERMINTIDE ALREADY DID THIS my bad. even the rotshields they added to the game after DT bulwarks are so much more fun to fight because you have interesting and varied counterplay against the big shield. boggles my mind that the same studio developed both of these games
More like Castigator Stance needs a nerf. Turns you invincible, gives damage boost and reloads your gun, which is crucial part for the shotgun as you can just keep shooting into the packs of elites. Also the pile of damage boosts you get as judge during combat.
The way I see it, getting good at a video game, and overcoming a challenge, is part of the fun. Optimizing your builds to turn yourself into a powerhouse or abuse a weird gimmick is fun, too. When you’re so strong that the challenge is essentially removed, what’s the point? Arbitrarily handicap yourself? I know full damn well I’m not gonna hold myself to it.
I think that being carried by an overpowered or otherwise braindead (SMITE) tool removes enough of the learning process that you’re not really learning how to play the game in any other way, because as soon as you try something out of that comfort zone in the difficulty you want to play, you die almost immediately, and you’re confused and frustrated. So you stick to the tried-and-true which gets boring faster since that’s the only thing that works for you.
I used to be a smyker when I was a baby Darktider and unlearning that made me both a more effective teammate and Psyker more fun to play. In other words: balance making more options viable gives more room for experimentation on a difficulty you know you can handle, making things more fun when you try various stuff!
Less enemies on the screen for everyone else to hit
Less time actually hitting something
Gameplay of threats is removed, due to everything being killed
End up just playing catch up, because squishier Classes can’t always ignore small Infantry, like Arb can. He can run ahead soloing the match
Roles don’t matter, because he can do everything (Boss killing, Horde killing, Special killing, Elite killing, CC) Versatile in a way that’s just not fun for anyone else
If one Class does too much damage in Tide games, it means other people have less to do in the game.
Battle Wizard
Outcast Engineer Bomb build
SoTT DLC release power creep
Hagbane
Imagine, there’s 100 enemies on the screen. Arb kills 70 of them. 3 other players get to hit 30 enemies, then chase Arb to the next area (same applies for other OP things).
I remember a Mission where I was a Mk XII Chainaxe Veteran and everyone else used Mk IV Duelling Swords. It was a constant game of catch-up where I was subjected to watching the rest of my team kill 90% of Enemies within seconds of them spawning.
You’re not, and I do think Veteran and Zealot need some serious fixing. A few tweaks to the obviously overpowered stuff the cops have can be a good bandaid while most of the manpower focuses on making the two outliers less bad.
Ultimately, there needs to be a definitive “this is how powerful we want XYZ to be” before we go any further with buffing or nerfing around it. Without a fixed point to focus around, you’re going to just be tweaking random values and hoping for the best.
It’s not even the lack of enemies either, it’s the pace of the fights. From a room that might take 4+ mins, and may even cause you to tactically move backwards , to a 1 min fight, and then just zerging the next area.
tactically move backwards 
, to a 1 min fight, and then just zerging the next area.