PSA to my siblings: The Psyker is different from (and better than) what you think it is

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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Everyday* there are forum posts and threads bemoaning the state of the Psyker class. For those that need a reminder, the complaints are some combination of the following points:

  1. Brain Burst (BB) is pointless at Heresy+ difficulty!
  2. Too many talents tie into BB (which is itself useless)!
  3. I can’t kill anything! Everyone else steals my kills!
  4. Psyker is too squishy and I die all the time to ranged enemies!
  5. Peril builds up too fast!
  6. No build variety in the feats! Soulblaze is worthless!
  7. Psyker needs a total redo! A complete rework must be done!
  8. I don’t “feel” like a space wizard!!
  9. Wah, wah, wah!!!

It’s getting really tiresome.

I’ve played 60+ hours on Psyker, and I feel that people making claims like those above are falling prey to some combination of the following mental traps:

  • Complainers have a preconceived notion of how the Psyker is “supposed to play” (Space Wizard - WhateverTF that means?) and don’t recognize that the class is designed differently - and so they miss it strengths.
  • Complainers are overly focused on using BBs and trying to maintain max warp charges all of the time. This is an important part of the Psyker’s kit but isn’t the only part.
  • Complainers are trying to play from the backline and aren’t playing aggressively enough to take advantage of the class’s potential.
  • Complainers just need to play better. This is an FPS action game, not an ActionRPG. The psyker’s kit comes alive when you can multi-task your abilities (e.g. charging BB while dodging).
  • Complainers are bandwagoning onto the above talking points without actually trying to play the psyker differently on Heresy+. In short, they don’t know first hand what they are talking about.

The Psyker class is by no means “perfect”, and it may need more attention than other classes as it has a fair amount of underwhelming feats**. HOWEVER, the class is certainly not broken and has strong builds and play

styles. For me, with the right build setup, it’s a joyous class to play and my favorite by far in the game.

My WORRY is that all of the complainers might prompt Fatshark to change the class to suit their ill-conceived, misguided notions, and in doing so ruin something that myself and other non-complaining Psykers currently love about the class.

What is it that makes the Psyker powerful and fun to play at Heresy+ difficulty?

There are a number of key cornerstones of both playstyle and build/kit that makes Psyker an incredible jack-of-all-trades class with powerful options for dealing with nearly any situation. What are these you ask?

  1. Aggressive playstyle. The Psyker needs to be on the front line, playing aggressively, and regularly switching between melee, ranged, and BB as the immediate situation demands. It can do this because of all of the below points:
  2. Tankiness: The Psyker can be one of the toughest classes in the game and can clutch revives in the worst situations. Taking a Force Sword with Deflector and Kinetic Deflection Feat (plus some +stamina and block efficiency sprinkled in) they can tank hits for a long time. You can tank Demonhosts almost as well as a shielded Ogryn. You can revive teammates in the densest horde. You can walk out into open gun fire and close distance. It’s incredible. Did I mention that the force sword has infinite dodges? Not dying and taking damage is #1, and psyker can excel at this.
  3. Brain Burst is an awesome clutch utility - and even stronger on Heresy+ for turning around bad situations. People that claim otherwise, “because it doesn’t kill like it did on Malice”, clearly don’t actually play on Heresy. BB may not kill a Bulwark in one hit like on Malice or whatever. But do you know what it does do? It staggers them horrendously and breaks their shield block so your team can kill it. And half the time, if you start a second BB that will be the killing blow anyway. Also, not enough people seem to realize the power of using Kinetic Barrage preemptively to quickly multi-BB a hard target before it’s even alerted. BB also retains tremendous utility for killing specials that like to run away, killing ranged threats from behind cover. Did you know you can dodge while charging BB? Take Essence Harvest and a BB will quickly replenish toughness, letting you whittle down groups of ranged enemies when your team is getting pinned. Did you also know that you still get a warp charge if someone else kills your BB target as long as it was 50% charged?
  4. The Force Sword is the best melee weapon - change my mind. This is somewhat kit dependent, but Force Sword with Slaughter (and deflector of course) is a horde cleaving monster. It has the strongest single target push attack stagger to my knowledge (it will knock over a crusher in one push-attack), which can be paired with the special attack for the ultimate knock-down and soul drain combo. The Psyker laughs at Maulers and maniacs alike. It’s faster and does more single target damage than chainswords. It’s an incredible weapon. Oh yeah, and it has infinite dodges.
  5. Warp Charge & High Peril Synergy. Too many people seem to freak out about having high peril and struggle to maintain warp charges. Take Psykentic’s Wrath (+15% damage - which IS calculated correctly despite the rumors - at max peril), Psychic Communion, and Kinetic Flayer. The combination, supplemented with a BB or two to get going, means you’re doing upwards of +27% damage (not even accounting for +damage effects on your items). Maintaining high warp charges during long fights requires very little effort with these feats. Playstyle wise, look for opportunities to mix in a BB or a quick switch to a force staff attack (or force sword special attack) to keep your peril up and the damage flowing. If you don’t like the risk, don’t play the game.
  6. Voidstrike Staff is the psyker’s most versatile staff. Pair the staff with Transfer Peril and enjoy nearly unlimited partially charged, infinitely penetrating, force bolts that refunds your peril cost. You can hold off a horde at range single handedly by lining up headshots. A full charge can decapitate specials/elites in many situations. But the fun doesn’t stop there. You can also pretend it’s a quake-style rocket launcher and “aim at the feet” of a clump of enemies, catching them in the blast radius and doing a decent stagger. This is also glorious for dealing with packs of ranged enemies. The charged projectile has a large hit box and getting headshots is easy with it. Surge and Purgatus staves are also solid, but frankly I find the horde clear of Purgatus unnecessary (dealing with just a horde is the easiest combat challenge IMHO), and while Surge is nice for crowd control, I’d rather just kill the threats outright. You can’t clutch well with a surge staff without your team to deal the actual damage.

The result of all of the above is that psykers have a solution for nearly any situation. They can clutch, kill elites/specials up close or at range, tank a tough situation, revive like a BAMF, and manage a horde. They are not broken or underpowered. They don’t need a rework**. Psykers are awesome and if you don’t think so you’re doing it wrong.

PSA over.

'* Slight exaggeration

** There are some poor feat picks IMHO. Soulblaze feels a bit weak unless paired with Purgatus build, and going for 6 warp charges feels like a trap compared to the other feats. But there are still good picks at every level.

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Oh, so I need a force sword with Slaughter and Deflector to play psyker at the same level as other classes?

What are the chances i actually have access to that again? If i correctly remember the post here on the forums about the RNG issue, getting a specific weapon with one specific blessing was .05% or something similar. In the .01-.09 range. And getting I’m just going to assume getting a specific blessing through crafting is an equal chance for all options. according to google, the force sword has 11 possible blessings, reduced to 10 because our ~.05% chance sword already has deflector.

That means we have .001-.009% chance to get the weapon you describe. (this is without bringing up the perks you mentioned, which lowers odds significantly, even with crafting letting us swap 1 of them)

Literally 1-9 in 10,000 odds.(i’d like to say that this is just basic math and i’m too lazy to go find the post about RNG in the shop but the numbers were not good, and hedge even commented in the post saying the devs were aware, which, considering how often they say that, means it REALLY isn’t good.)

Saying the class is good because it has access to a specific blessing on a specific blessing is simply wrong because most players don’t actually have access to that.

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Fun note: Pretty much every game like that has a meta build that works better than the rest. As a matter of fact, same with the other classes in this game!

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Some good points but 2 of the 5(Point 1 is more of an opening argument) are Force Sword with Deflector.

I have seen this weapon/trait combination once (luckily I nabbed it at the time). Some people have not had the chance to get this and may not have the chance for a while.

While the Deflector Force sword isn’t OP in the way that Power Sword was, I think it is too strong relative to other melee options for the Psyker(poor internal balance). The Force Sword is still competitive without Deflector( Moveset, Weapon Special, Unlimited Dodge).

I think it would be best to decouple Force Sword and Deflector. Make deflector a generic trait that can be found on any melee weapon (For Psyker) or attach it to a feat.

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Deflector isn’t mandatory. The kinetic deflection feat with other weapons (certain axes) is also quite tanky. Just need to be cautious about being in the open vs ranged mobs (be aware of close cover).

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I have to congratulate you on how much condescending ad hominem horse manure you were able to fit into just one post. It’s almost impressive, if it wasn’t so depressing.

I might have to explain that to you. Since you talk about mental traps so much, it might be fitting. Ad homimen is when you lack the arguments or simply the capability to defend your own opinion or to attack the opinion of others, so instead you attack the people holding the opinion, not the opinion.

To summarize, you think anyone who holds an opinion on Psyker that isn’t your opinion are not only falling into mental traps. They’re also wrong about any opinion they have on it’s design. They only play from the backline. They lack the skill, they just need to play better, they think it’s an RPG. Certainly none of them have tons of VT2 experience, right? Oh and best of all, they are all bandwagoning onto other opinions. In fact, they haven’t even played heresy!

But you, with your 60 hours, know better, of course. You are well informed. You are skilled. All your opinions are your own.

I’m glad you made it so clear in your post how you debate (which is by saying anyone else is wrong, they’re stupid, they’re not good enough at the game). It means I know there’s no point in ever spending any time on this forum debating you. I did however feel the sheer amount of arrogance and condescending BS on display needed to be pointed out.

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It’s worse than that, you need block efficiency curios. I have seen those 2 times in 160 hours. Of course, that means you’re good at blocking. Which is useful for revives, and nothing else. Who cares if you can block a demonhost? Know what you’re not doing when you’re blocking? Killing things.

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It’s awesome that I’ve so triggered you. Mission accomplished. /s

My tone was sarcastic intentionally, hence my *'s.

I laid out some pretty clear reasoning why I think people are not realizing the Psykers value. I’d be happy to discuss details with you if you want. The phone lines are open.

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Psyker has value, the other classes just have a lot more value. Anything psyker does, other classes can do better. You are right about the force sword being the best melee weapon in the game, but that doesn’t make the rest of psyker’s kit worthwhile.

plasma gun is a better voidstrike with more dmg
flamer is a better purge with more aoe and dmg
flashbang can shut down a horde to revive someone in ways a surge staff simply can’t

I’ve been playing this game for 200hrs already and mostly on psyker, and when i switched to zealot and played aggressively(as i always do) the game got way easier.

Also, I was already using most of the feats and gear you talk about. I haven’t seen a peril transfer voidstrike but I lucked out for a deflector force sword after 150hrs of buying every green and grey force sword i saw and upgrading it for more roll chances.

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It doesn’t matter how handicapped you might be, some will still manage the impossible without limbs or with half a brain.
That is not the argument people are making regarding psyker.

People complain about psyker because they shouldn’t have to play a class handicapped and working twice as hard to be half as effective… And only getting to a place of equal using a specific meta build using lucky rolls of blessings and perks.

That is just stupid and spiteful.

I can only compare psyker with ogryn as that is the only one I have at 30, but with ogryn I can pick any weapon combo and still thrive. I can ignore weapon blessings and use feats to make up for shortcomings of not having those blessings.

This is how psyker should work as well. It doesn’t and your post actually helps that arguement. Since if we need those specific tools to be useful than something is clearly wrong.

I’m glad you are enjoying yourself as psyker, great for you, but I would guess most aren’t and most won’t even attempt rank4+ because of it, and less will even feel like staying around hoping something will help them.

Since a class shouldn’t be built around weapon blessings and builds using them. Feats and the things you can do with them should be the focus, because everyone will be able to spot them and use them, everything else should be extra.
However a lot of online rpgs fall into the trap of making weapons or equipment sets modify gameplay to such an extent that it because mandatory.
This is such a stupid practice and they shouldn’t do it. It alienates players and forces people into a grind to get to the fun.
No one wants to pay to grind… It’s like going to the movies but being forced to hop on a treadmill for 1hr before you’re allowed to watch the movie.
that cinema would go out of business, fast, and it should, because it is stupid.
in a f2p environment I could see the arguement of grind for content or fun, but not in a p2p game.

The base psyker has to be able to be fun and useful, everything else can make it awesome, not manditory to be ok.

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I not gonna comment on everything but i shouldnt have to play with specific weapons to have a better time or feel like i actually have a good build.

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Balancing works in both directions and poeple act like this game would be already well balanced, which is not the case. Vet is in a broken state and so are some of the weapons they scale with.

Zealot is pretty much braindead to play, but hey… ppl even claim that only the knife-build is viable on damnation, so should we buff zealot based on this?!

About Ogryn you mostly read that they underperform, are nothing else but meatshields… now you show up and say you can play with any weapon and do your job?

It´s all so relative and based on different skill-levels. Psyker doesn´t need blessing X or Y, it´s just a gain for a build that´s it.
And looking across the whole feats, Psyker is pretty much the most balanced class, because nearly everything is usable and nothing mandatory unless you, and you´ll do, skill somewhat around your weapons. But you definatlely don´t rely on weapon X, perk Y or something.

Tbh there´s just a lot of tunnelvision on Psyker and every time someone shows up being like “it´s fine, it´s strong”, ppl start nitpicking on something to devalue everything.

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This is my exact experience. As Zealot I can dive into incredibly dangerous situations with confidence, and I can clutch in ways a Psyker can only dream of. All the CC in the world isn’t going to save you if no one’s actually killing all the stuff.

It’s also incredibly funny how the OP and others keep claiming that Soulblaze is super duper good. The reason? Because if you ult with 6 warp stacks, you get enough stacks to kill basic poxwalkers in what feels like 10 seconds.

That’s… good? That you can get it to kill the most basic of enemies, with insanely slow DPS, if you have max stacks? I don’t understand why people think killing basic horde mobs, or even whole hordes, makes something good. Killing hordes is absurdly simple.

Maybe it’s because they’re all running Force Sword - and for all the talk about how good it is, it’s actually a really, really bad weapon. Especially against hordes. Maybe that’s why they think being able to kill a couple poxwalkers with your ult is a big deal.

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Easy. I still don’t have Force Sword with both of this blessings and decent base stats - after playing for more than 200 hours.
So your super-duper Force Sword does not exist in the game for me and about 80% of the players that play Psyker.
I can’t even just test everything you say - because I physically can’t access the Force Sword with Blessings like that. And I won’t be able to for an indefinite period, because the developers themselves don’t know when the entire crafting system will be in their game. I can’t sit 24/7 in the game checking the shop for weapons with good base stats and one of the two perks I need, and then farming resources for an upgrade, and then praying to the Gods of Random that I will be given 1 specific blessing when I upgrade my sword to orange quality.
It was the most idiotic decision to release the game with such a poor system for obtaining items and completely absent crafting.
And that’s the main problem with this game. For example, I hated playing Fanatic until I got an ax with Brutal Momentum and Shred. And after that, I kind of started playing a different character. I can maintain 75% crit damage resistance, my ax has an infinite cleave and can kill all enemies in the game without any problems. But none of my friends (12 people) could get not only two of these blessings at the same time, they can’t even get an ax with normal base damage.
So it’s absolutely pointless at this point in time to attack players for being frustrated with their experience on a character that requires specific weapons with specific stats in a specific build to play normally.

I don’t know what you don’t like about player complaints about ranged enemies. These complaints are absolutely justified, because they are literally the most dangerous opponents in the entire game, against which the Monsters seem to be some kind of joke. Well, unless you play Sharpshooter. Because in this case, you can Tank them with your Face, being permanently in the ult and regenerating your toughness even under fire.

Did you also know that this does not happen half the time? Because in half the time the network code of this game refuses to work and you do not get this Ward Charge even if you charge Brain Burst on the target up to 70-80%.

I can’t understand why Soulblaze doesn’t have any effect other than direct burning damage, if it gave additional damage to targets it would be much better.
But at the moment, both talents that inflict Soulblaze, either after killing an elite or when getting a Warp Charge, are completely useless. 2 stacks of Soulblaze on enemies within 3 meters around the elite does nothing, 4 stacks on the nearest ONE enemy after getting a Warp Charge is a joke. These talents need to be buffed. Something like: increase the number of Soulblaze stacks after killing an elite to 4, and the radius to 4, maybe 5 meters at least. And change the feat from stacking Soulblaze on the nearest enemy to stacking Soulblaze on all enemies in a small radius around Psyker.

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Uh, yeah. Anyone that thinks a Force Sword is good have clearly never even heard of infinite cleave Antax MkV. Or a Power Sword. Or any number of basic rapiers, axes and chain swords that actually do everything way better than a Force Sword. The only thing it’s got going for it is a unique RNG blessing to block ranged (which is sometimes good, but it’s not as good as you think), and a high damage special. It had better be, though, for how long it takes to charge, and for how long it locks you into a 100% vulnerable animation.

And the push, of course, that people talk so highly of. They sure do mention how it can push over anything. They tend to leave out that it’s single target, so it’s useless for anything that isn’t a 1 on 1, and the range is also terrible.

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That´s exeggerating as always. Yes Zealot is braindead to play, and? It doesn´t mean Psyker can´t kill anything.

It´s 4 stacks + CC anyway on the ultimate and you´ll get them back for sure.
Also you don´t need a staff for CC or hordeclear then, so you can still go for other strong range-weapon choices and don´t have to rely on BB all day long on mid / long-range.

Yes it´s simple and? You can pretty much “driveby” them and focus on the elites or specials between them with your weapons and you can do it freely thanks to the CC and dying enemies somewhat later.

It does a good job in any situation. The waveclear is fine especially since you don´t even need to push or something. Just dodge and let it flow.
Also it´s special is a deals great with elites. But well… if i read this:

I know where you´re coming from and that´s obviously better to rely on broken stuff instead of having a balanced game.

Seriously your whole posts read more like ignorance instead of having tried more than just some basic builds around staves. “No way this is good, it all sucks, Psyker is useless etc…” Skill issue?

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The mythical Zealot knife build I’ve never seen anyone actually use in damnation

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Vet is broken isn´t it?

Yes they can be really annoying at some map-spots and i would claim to be it´s a map issue that there´s only one completely open way like the Khasma bridges…

But overall a lot of poeple are too feared to go in, even Zealots and Ogryns. They miss that there are a bunch of health-stations anyway. Losing some health to force enemies into the way easier melee mode will be way safer than playing that ranged meatshields and wasting a lot of time, meanwhile dealing with spawns etc…

Of course poeple should try to get ride of gunner-elites first, in case of Psyker that´s what BB is for. But overall, use your ultimates, try to push to a better spot with dashes or the long-range cc. Try to force the enemies into cover with autoguns or SMG´s instead of running bolters all day long.

There are ways to deal with them and i wouldn´t touch them right now in case of balancing. It might lack of some enemy-management due to the new class-politics and poeple relying on the same choices, but that´s it.

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If you think that the Force Sword is a balanced weapon, then you have a problem. And I even wonder where exactly the Antax MkV is broken?

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I think psykers biggest issue is that it has no defined role in the team. i think the true strength is a psyker can fill any role on the team based on kit, and most people complaining dont see everything it can do, and only look at what they think it should do, or they dont want one on the team because theres a lot of players still figuring out how to play it well, and its about a 60/40 split on the bad to good ratio. Id say after playing all 4 classes, its the hardest to level up, and the hardest to play. I constantly found myself wishing I took a different staff in matches just due to situations where one excels more than another. Thats a feeling i never had with any other class.

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