Please Fatshark. Stop rearranging the same lego pieces we’ve had since 2023 into strange new configurations that half the playerbase doesn’t like. (I’m talking about Expeditions. Obviously.)
Throw some new pieces in there. In terms of new enemies, since launch we’ve had, what, the plasma gunner added ? The radio specialist, which has disappeared since ? The gunners who learned how to strafe ?
We’ve only just gotten one of potentially three expedition templates (“Wastes”, i.e., Deadside) - there’s no way they won’t develop the remaining ones (“Oil” & “Quarry”), unless they somehow turn the ship around (and they never do that).
As much as I’d like some things to be tuned in the direction Reginald was suggesting, I reckon that:
I’d like for there to be a more aggressive Ogryn Enemy with a Brute Shield instead of a Slab Shield, regardless of whether it’s considered a Bulwark variant or not. Heck, OUR Ogryns should also get access to Brute Shields.
My main anti-sentiment for Bulwark variants is that Fatshark generally doesn’t seem to want to develop a whole lot of new content that pertains to new animations - and I don’t know why, considering we had to wait 2+ years since Karnak Twins - which basically was a pair of enemies that reused a lot of old animations (and got a couple new ones) - and just now have had another enemy added with actually new animations implemented (Pack-master Ogryn).
It’s as if there was a very specific recipe for what -Tide combat is according to the devs, and them not wanting to deviate from it at all, even if the soup has become quite stale since Vermintide 2.
A point on the Dreg Roster.
The addition of a mauler/ogryn equivalent would be a prime opportunity to make Infested not a joke armor type.
there should be some new melee oriented elites like they were used with black skavens with lunges polearm weapons
physically breakable shields would be odd but I think they should deffo adopt the same logic as the Chaos Warrior equivalents have where the shields have a stamina pool you can break to force them to open up for a couple to a few seconds
double push to stagger/stun them a bit like with black skavens with shield in vt2 
I don’t see why this has to be another ogryn enemy, just make it a standard elite type. That way we can have a dreg and a scab variant, with different interactions from them. Fatshark mentioned that they loved the idea of making a boss that talks back at you, why not have corrupted commanders/commissars that just bark commands and orders to their men? Don’t even need new animations, just give them a one handed pistol and captain’s plasma pistol animations and there you go. Give them a special aura effect that lets you know enemies are under their influence in a given area, and make them different buffs between the scab and dreg variant. Have these be really expensive and fill up a lot of elite slots, and make them really difficult to deal with, and that way you have less but more dangerous enemies in the game altogether.
It’s amazing that chaos bulwarks in vt2 and ogryn bulwarks in dt are both missing features between each other for no reason. Chaos bulwarks have a stagger meter that, once full, completely opens them up to attacks for seconds, and repeated staggers repeatedly reset this timer. Why do bulwarks just sit there if you stagger them and shield bash you? They should just open up.
Carapace bruisers and dreg maulers are both boring imo. Make a dreg spearmen model and give it slaverat or beastmen animations.
Also, regarding the ogryn beastmaster. Does he actually have new animations? To my knowledge it’s the rager swing combos for his attacks and the plague ogryn charge for the charge attack.
Carapace shoulder pauldrons and helmets for Bruisers would really mix things up for hordes, they wouldn’t be as lethal as Mauler w/ overheads, but they could make cleaving attacks less effective at clearing hordes.
A Dreg Mauler with this?
A weapon with a jab attack, and a pull attack that causes players to stumble forward unless side-dodged?
I would be so much for those. Either as an elite, or a reiterated VT2 Troll-type boss that summons several of them at once (with smaller-than-average monstrosity health pools).
But they already have that - as far as I’m aware, the shields can accumulate stagger damage still and will put Bulwarks into a unique stagger state where they get exposed to attacks from the front. Problem is - Bulwarks also have stagger/impact reducing properties for most melee attacks, so making them staggered by hitting the shield is only possible by doing it repeatedly, and quickly, since the window to accumulate stagger is short; or by applying a lot of impact with one attack to it (Thunder hammers, chain weapon rev attacks and select Ogryn weapons notably are capable of doing that).
And it doesn’t matter nearly as much to break the stagger threshold of one Bulwark, but if there’s several more backing it up (or other elites), following up on it can be tricky.
It doesn’t have to be an Ogryn-type enemy - there’s design space for human-sized enemies for sure.
There’s something to be said here about the “charge” ability Chaos warrior Bulwarks have in VT2 - I’d already mentioned that Bulwarks can be staggered by applying impact to their shields, so that carries over, but VT2 Bulwarks apply a lot of knockback whenever they perform their “shield bash”.
While having that in full could be cool and give DT Bulwarks some more “aggressive” an ability, it could be adverse in relation to say, geometry, because it’s rather easy to be thrown off a ledge in Darktide’s maps than it is in most Vermintide 2 ones - which maybe wouldn’t be too big an issue, but considering how rather frequent Bulwark encounters in Darktide are, maybe that could use some tweaks first.
I also think that giving Bulwarks a proper ability would make them just complexity enhancers not just by being a shield-wall - say if you get thrown off guard by them, and lose stamina, or get hit while trying to strafe, and get exposed to ranged fire in the process. I wish more enemies could just hamper a decision a player makes. Also the shield bash should deal damage - it seems odd that VT2 Bulwarks can nick you for 10 HP for trying to engage it head-on, but DT Bulwarks just deal 0 damage to you in the process and barely move you a quarter step back as punishment 
I’d have to spend more time see him attack in public matches, but as is he’s usually been shut down faster than I could observe proper attack patterns in Expeditions, so maybe it’s too early to tell. The animations seem new, is what I’m settling on for now.
After I’d written what I did about a new Dreg elite, I was conceiving in my head an idea of a mid-range melee debilitator that would mainly try to expose players to attacks from other enemies in melee with something like a billhook or some other polearm-type weapon. So… yeah. One of those, please!
I think it would be awful - positively for creating complexity - but as long as there’s proper counterplay to it - say just dodging better, or causing perfect parries to throw it off-guard, I think it could be a fun enemy to include.
huh, I’m ngl I wasn’t aware because I’ve never noticed it, feels a lot more consistent in VT2
bulwark clipping is straight up horrible to deal with, idk what the solution to that would be but it needs fixing
Quote for truth. Even during the worst update they’ve ever put out for a ‘tide game (the free update alongside Winds of Magic in VT2), where they broke the core combat system and the community went into dangerously toxic levels of backlash, they never actually reverted the changes, but instead just nerfed them. Fatshark are extremely pig-headed, to an extent I’ve never seen in a company that purports to want to make money.
Infested should be highly resistant to, if not outright immune to DoT damage types. Like ok the Needler/Purgatus/Bleed melts 90% of Elites and Bosses, Plaguebearer and other Infested types should shrug it off.
Making Infested highly resistant to DoTs would also open the door for interesting difficulty spikes where a Specialist Psyker could cast a “Blessing” to nearby enemies and turn them Infested.
It would also affect Rotten Armor because they’re Infested so tone down the Rotten spam on higher difficulties finally?
This was a classic FS misunderstanding, unless they changed it with the adjustments. It’s not actually infested class, they were just speaking thematically, without realizing their own terms have meaning to us.
Lol. It’s an interesting concept though - Nurgle’s chosen, blessed with rot. Infested armor type being that rot of course, with Infested as a heavy counter to DoTs.
Imo different damage types should counter different enemies and vise versa.
Bleed and toxins dealing less damage vs infested, but fire deals full/ more.
Fire deals less vs armored, but blunt, electrocute deal full/more.
Etc.
Dots, status effects and armour types feel a bit meaningless. Anything that is good vs carapace being also good vs anything else creates a narrow meta problem.
Plaguebearers have almost the same body model as bile troll in V2.
Even BT’s abilities fits them - vomit and regeneration. FS basicaly has a free almost ready concept for infested elite enemy with actual mechanics.
Love this. Then imagine if there was a Specialist like Psyker or Traitor Commisar that could alter the armor type of enemies in proximity on the fly, with these armor type rules in mind. (Rally for ex could buff Flak armor of enemies in the AOE, higher damage resistance to burn DoTs and hitmass values)
Of course these suggested rules don’t mean much if Blessings like Uncanny Strike exist that effectively allow burn DoTs to ignore the armor their supposed to be weak against.
