Psyker Brain Burst needs to be changed

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

Brain burst does not feel like a fun mechanic to me - in fact it feels more frustrating if anything,- and has poor synergy with the class.

Pros

  • high burst damage
  • doesn’t require line of sight after initial cast
  • grants a stack of Warp Charge on kill
  • unlimited uses
  • very long range

Cons

  • no distinction between trash, elites, specials and monsters in cast time
  • grants a stack of Warp Charge on kill
  • it is easy to “waste” up to 20% peril if someone else kills your target, generating frustration.

Fix

Change Brain Burst as such :

  • Deals 20 damage and adds 2% Peril every 0.2 seconds of cast time
  • Deals 500 damage and adds 25% peril at the end of the 3 seconds cast.
  • If the target’s health falls below 500 at any point, execute the target, dealing 500 damage and adding 25% peril, ending the casting.

Lower passive Peril quelling.
Trigger explosion from ‘overheating’ Peril at a virtual 125%.

How is this better ?

There are three scenarii here :

    1. Enemy has less than 500 HP → they are executed, costing 25% Peril.
    1. Enemy has between 500 and 800 HP, say 700 → you start casting, dealing 20 damage every 0.2s. After two seconds, you have dealt 200 damage and the enemy falls under 500HP. Enemy is executed, costing a total of 45% Peril over a 2 seconds cast.
    1. enemy has more than 800 HP → you cast for 3 seconds, dealing 300 damage and then attempt an execute, dealing 500 damage for a total of 800 damage and 55% Peril.

Numbers need to be tampered with to scale with difficulty, but the idea behind that is that scenario 1 is for killing trash, allowing you to stack Warp Charges quickly and actually use that talent.

Scenario 2 is for killing elites and specials, allowing you to be reactive enough to actually get a dog or a suicide runner before they get to you by shortening the cast time ; even more so if your team is also targeting the same enemy as you.
This reinforces cooperation because allies firing at your target helps you get them under the threshold ; you are not wasting Peril and it is overall less frustrating.
This would also reinforce the Psyker’s role as elite and special handler.

Third sceanrio is mainly for bosses and monsters, keeping a high damage ability for a greater cost.

Passive Quelling should be reduced for two reasons : first is to prevent players from spamming instant head pops on trash ; second is to actually give worth to Battle Meditation.
I like that you changed Battle Meditation since the first Beta, it is better now, but is completely overshadowed by the speed at which Peril passively quells.

The 125% virtual Peril instant explosion means that if you start casting Brain Burst at over 70% Peril, you will explode if the target’s HP doesn’t drop below the execute cap by the end of your cast - otherwise leaving you at 100%. This ensures players will have to quell peril more, making BB less spammable.
In other words, if your target’s brain hasn’t popped by the time you reach 100% Peril during the cast, release LMB or die. This is a gamble players will have to play around when attempting to pop brains while above 70% Peril.

Casting anything while at 100% Peril blows you up as usual, of course.

Warp Siphon would apply to the damage part during the cast, but wouldn’t change the threshold so would only allow Brain Burst to reach “one cast kill” breakpoints on enemies with 836 HP at full stacks. (500 + 300 x 1.12)

20 Likes
2

I think the way it is could work with two minor tweaks.
Reduce the casting time to 1/3rd of it’s current duration (or 1/2 if you want to be conservative).
Prioritize elites when they are in the targeting area.

The most frustrating thing is to start casting on an elite for a “team mate” to run all the way to it, hit it a couple of times and kill it while the psyker built up a lot of perils. Using the pre-charge works but you have to do it when you know they’re there and run the risk of another enemy getting in the way and spending a nuke on a, basicaly, scaven slaverat.

Other things that I would try is bumping up the damage and putting perils gain from the final cast according to the health of the target, obviously this should be tested for balance because it might backfire and turn it into a semi-auto nuke gun.

1 Like
3

You’re missing something important. Warp Siphon is only based on kills. When bosses spawn and there’s nothing to gain Warp Charges with, a huge section of your kit is worthless.

We need a way to passively generate warp charges without needing to kill things in order to do our job as single-target boss nukers.

6 Likes
4

I do not think “single target boss nuker” is the Psyker’s role.
I’m ok with “single target nuker”, but a boss is supposed to remain a menace. 12% or 18% won’t significantly change the number of times you’ll have to cast anyway. It is, for you, less than the difference between a shrapneled and an unshrapneled boss in vt2 : it exists, it can be significant, but it isn’t necessary.

Thinking about it, I also like the Warp Charge to remain on kill because it strengthens coop and shifts power away from boss killiing if the boss is alone. Your allies are incentivized to pop the guy with a blue halo, and you’re rewarded for it with a Warp Charge in addition to removing a special or an elite, so it also encourages you to play your role.

5

Just this alone would eliminate most of the frustration with how Brain Burst works right now. There are a few times where I’m happy for the Psyker to just do their thing because it’s easier to dodge the guy for a few seconds than burn their health down (Maulers, Crushers, Bulwarks, etc.), but there are also times I have to go “sorry, I can see the blue aura, but I’m not letting that Poxburster take one more step towards me.”

3 Likes
6

I’d actually say “Almost all of your kit” is based on warp charges. Psyker is a trash tier class design because the entire class revolves around 2 things: the level 15 talent for a chance on kill for charges (that is so low as to be awful, but still mandatory because bad design), and brain burst. If you’re not doing these 2 things, Psyker falls apart fast. Hell, even its toughness generation is largely, but not entirely, tied to brain bursting and generating charges. It’s infuriating just how little though was put into the class and how everything fit together.

I don’t know how much of a change brain burster actually needs, but I’d go so far as to say the entire talent tree needs to be thrown out and redone from scratch.

8 Likes
7

Getting stacks is a pain, and using Brain Burst on anything other than Elites and Specials is a pain, but is required if you want those stacks before the fight’s ended.

1 Like
8

The you shouldn’t need to unequip the staff to use brain burst its annoying and doesn’t make sense, the psyker weapons are meant to enhance the powers of the psyker so its really jarring that you have to put the staff away to use brain burst.

wrack and ruin feels really weak the soul blaze doesn’t do enough damage for a whole feat slot, I recommend increasing the area where people are set on fire.

stunning people is pretty annoying especially with the psyker “f” ability, if enemies are climbing or in an animation for getting up then they ignore the ability leading to the ability feeling weak

the shop is annoying you only get a limited amount of shop items and some of the items you cant get because there over levelled wasting a slot that could have been something to buy

1 Like
9

Not sure if it could be done, but, what I’d like is a talent, Warp Charges on boss hit OR brain burst 4 to 6 (example numbers but a random within a range is my idea) enemies of the same type in a group. Make the psyker decide, boss killer or crowd cleaner.

But then again, haven’t played enough to try and guess the fantasy behind the psyker.

10

Change Brain Burst variables to be dependent on the enemy type its being used on.

Fodder enemies get busted fairly quickly (0.5-1.0 seconds) and only generate minimal charge (5-8%). Soldiers and the like take a bit longer (1.5-2.0 seconds) and generate a little more (10-15%). Elite and boss…etc etc.

I’d also like Warp siphon to be based on perils % rather than on BB kill, as either the target is dead before BB finishes, or the elite / boss enemies (that BB should be used for) spawn too infrequently for it to have any lasting impact. Having it based on perils % means its viable throughout play but rewards a more risk/reward playstyle that the psyker is geared towards.

At this stage in the beta, its actually almost as cost effective to just spam force staff shots and quell the perils between bursts. Rendering BB very niche (and costly) as an ability.

Most of these things were suggested during the closed beta, unfortunately FS look to have weighed in favor of the nerfhammer instead.

2 Likes
11

I really think that if the brain burst was very quick and meditating was a long and dedicated task, where you could still walk at a normal speed, Brain Burst would be very enjoyable. Sort of like making peril an ammo pouch that slowly replenishes, instead of the annoying long cast time we have now. Add in a preference for elites and the mechanics would all together flow smoother. Also think the current UI is terrible for showing your peril while in combat, especially since we have to juggle it more now, but numbers are nice for consistency ig.

12

+1 from me, and my own personal ideas for better fixes:

  • Stacks are granted on Brainburst hit, not on kill.
  • Stacks fall off one at a time, not all at once.
  • Brainburst’s primary-fire cast time is reduced to 0.5 seconds, targeting prioritizes marked enemies, and peril is only applied on hit.
  • Brainburst’s secondary fire is completely changed: it can now target multiple enemies, and spreads its damage across all selected targets (so more targets = less damage per target). Cast time of 1.5-2 seconds to give you time to target multiple enemies, while remaining tactically viable. Again, Peril only applied on hit.

This makes the skill much more fluid to use, and makes usable on elites as well as packs.

3 Likes
13

Assuming the devs don’t want to change Brain Burst’s cast time, there is a way to get squadmates to stop shooting enemies being hit by it: If an enemy would die to brain burst have them be stunned by it, panicking, holding their head, screaming and such. It’d be a really good indicator of “The psyker is killing this guy, he’s not a threat right now, move on and shoot/melee something else.”

Yeah it’d mean that psykers can lock down individual specials really easy, but Peril is supposed to be a limiting factor for that anyway, and if a special would die to Brain Burst they’re not exactly going to be a threat for much longer regardless.

Smart Psykers can also use it to protect squadmates from individual enemies that slip past who would otherwise attack those using ranged weapons. Veteran’s busy using volley fire, but the psyker is keeping them safe from random poxwalkers breaking his focus. It’d encourage teamwork both ways, and could mesh well with a lot of the other suggestions in this thread.

1 Like
14

If BB executes as I suggest, this is not an issue except on enemies with large health pools.
For these cases, I prefer it being on kill because it strengthens coop by encouraging allies to target the enemy you’re brain popping.

If execute mechanic is implemented, you can quickly pop 4 trash mobs with no cast time, costing 25% peril each, and get your 4 stacks. This is not an issue since they last for 25 seconds and would be easy to refresh. Beware of overbuffing the ability, we want it to feel good without it being too strong.

Cast time would already be reduced depending on remaining HP of target.

That is the idea behind the rework I suggest.

I’m going for

  • shorter cast times with increased Peril Cost and lower passive Peril Quelling to make the ability more reactive and still feel good without being overpowered
  • executes to be able to get Warp Charges and encourage players to focus the target of the Psyker instead of either letting them be for 3 seconds, possibly causing damage ; or killing them themselves, rendering the Psyker’s efforts useless and leaving them with Peril for nothing
1 Like
15

They actually get stunned a little bit before bursting… and they use that opportunity to shoot them since they are standing still.

I’ve got guys get out of their way to hit the glowing guy. I get it, having a glowing thing in a chaotic game where everything can be dangerous might be what prompts them to kill it, and I’ve even asked not to hit the dude with shiny head and people are like “why?” “ok… ??” and stuff like that, giving me the idea that they don’t understand what the glowy thing is.

So maybe the glow could be only viisible by the psyker and have the enemy dimmed for the other players… making it pop up less in a dark environment. Or just let it be without any change, looking as a random enemy that has no head bursting ability being cast onto it.

16

I disagree. I really like the Brain Burst. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the cast time or peril generated, especially not that we can quell so quickly and easily. The cast time is just right for the amount of damage it does along with it’s ease of use, i.e. quick lock on, fire and forget nature.

I agree that the warp charge mechanic can be tough to maintain and the skill tree could still use a little more tweaking. The only thing I’d change about Brain Burst is that if your target dies while you’re locked on to it you maintain your current charge level as it targets another enemy.

17

Brain burst could be tweaked, but I don’t think it needs a change.

Psyker’s problem is that the entire kit is designed around spamming brain burst including most of our talents, and FS decided they didn’t want us spamming brain burst.

Personally I like the fact they are trying to make us use other abilities on our class, the only problem is they made 80% of our talents only work if we spam brain burst.

-EVERYTHING that has to do with warp charges only works if you spam brain burst

-2 out of 3 level 5 toughness regen talents only work if you spam brain burst.

-2 out of 3 level 25 talents focus on brain burst.

-all level 30 talents revolve around spamming brain burst.

You built a class that spams brain burst, nerfing brain burst won’t make people stop spamming it, changing talents to not REQUIRE spamming brain burst will allow people to try different builds.

2 Likes
18

After playing a bit more with the class I still think that allies killing the enemy you’re targeting with Brain Burst is punishing (wasted peril, no stack), and goes against coop play (either “leave it to the psyker” with the risk of BB not killing the target, and having a potentially dangerous target living for 3 whole casting seconds ; or “hey look a dude with a blue halo I can see in this darkness and who is staggered so an easy target”).

2 Likes
19

Psyker can be fixed really easily.

Gain warp charges by using a force sword or staff to kill a special enemy.

Gain a warp charge for using brain burst on ANY enemy.

Gain a warp charge whenever an enemy targeted by brain burst DIES FOR ANY REASON.

Get rid of force sword push generating peril.

That solves warp charge generation without allowing it to be spammed too much.

Solves force sword in a horde at high peril problem.

And makes brain burst still worth using when theres no special enemies close enough to use a psyker weapon.

2 Likes
20

Yeah I was really disappointed that none of the psyker weapons actually interact with their kit, other than generating peril. Why would killing an enemy with a charged force sword not give a stack? Same with the staffs?

Also it’d be nice if venting could happen much quicker. I don’t mean the amount that gets dispelled (after the hotfix the rate is actually fine), I just mean the actual startup time is way too long. For example with the sword, it takes at least 1 second to start venting your peril, plus it slows you way the hell down (without the lvl15 talent), so you can’t even skillfully do something like “shove > dodge & vent for a bit > attack > vent a bit more” during a wave. This tech works perfectly fine with Sienna since you don’t get slowed NEARLY as much, but also the moment you hit your R key, Sienna INSTANTLY starts venting a lot of overcharge.

I think that’s a general problem in this game. There’s a lot of small things that completely kill the flow of the combat. Dodging with ranged weapons feels horrible due to it being half range (at least they didn’t go with their original plan of not being able to dodge with ranged weapons…), switching between weapons feels EXTREMELY slow and cumbersome regardless of who you’re playing, pulling out grenades is way too slow as well, dodging and attacking pauses stamina regen (WHY???). Hell, even the damn ping wheel takes like 2 seconds of holding the button down for it to show up, same with weapon inspections. It feels like they took all the nice, smooth features that were in vermintide and slowed it all down for absolutely no reason

1 Like