Psyker Nerf Community Poll

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
1

I main Psyker and with over 2k hours majority as Psyker, I’d hate to see the class castrated. That said, its a popular sentiment that Psyker is currently overtuned and that’s putting it mildly.

That’s why I’m creating this poll to hopefully guage community sentiment with the purposes of potentially helping Fatshark make some tweaks without overdoing it.

The Big Three

With that said, I think by now it’s safe to say most of Psyker’s power “creep” comes down to three main areas: Soulblaze, Scrier’s Gaze, and Warp Unbound

Obviously there are others, but perhaps just a little bit at a time for less likelihood of overdoing it.

Soulblaze:

Details and Poll

Arguably the most egregious, Soulblaze is Psyker’s strongest ranged weapon by far - especially when factoring in Perilous Combustion and Uncanny Strikes.

Uncanny Strikes:
Allows Psyker to effectively ignore armor resistance to Soulblaze DoTs. I see two main ideas being thrown around to adjust this:

  • Cap Uncanny Strikes at 40% Rending
  • Remove Uncanny’s Effects on Soulblaze Entirely
  • None of These, Comment Below
0 voters

Perilous Combustion:
Allows Psyker to push stack cap from 16 up to 31 stacks. Easily applicable in higher difficulties due to frequent and large Elite clusters especially Shotgunners/Gunners/Ragers, all which are extremely weak against Soulblaze.

One particular way to solve this would be to implement a Cooldown. This way PC could still be triggered with any build and be helpful against hordes, but the exponentially compounding effectiveness against Elite blobs would be gone.

  • Put a Cooldown on Perilous Combustion
  • Put a Cooldown on PC and Increase Stacks to 6 to Compensate
  • Exlude Warp Kills From Triggering PC
  • Other, Comment Below
0 voters

Scrier’s Gaze:

Details and Poll

Arguably my favorite Psyker Ability by far, Scrier’s Gaze has seen a lot of buffs over the past few patches. That said, it’s gone from being a fairly weak, unpopular Ability to arguably one of the strongest offensive Abilities in the game sub-Havoc.

Let’s compare Scrier’s Gaze to Zealot’s most melee centered offensive Ability Fury of the Faithful:

Screenshot_20260122_215713_Chrome
Screenshot_20260122_215713_Chrome1080×738 106 KB

Vs…
Screenshot_20260122_215650_Chrome
Screenshot_20260122_215650_Chrome1080×1111 175 KB

With Crack of Bone and any Flurry or high cleave melee weapon, Psyker is quite easily able to Quell over 10% Peril each second provided enemy density is heavy enough.

This - combined with Seer’s Presence, Psykinetic Aura, and Scrier’s short 25s CD - allows Psyker to chain Gaze back to back rather easily.

Keep in mind, Psyker is already getting very generous Toughness regen from the top of the tree but now with back to back Scrier’s Gaze Psyker basically has 20% TDR and 2.5% Toughness Regen per second on tap, in addition to Toughness regen from the top of tree and often Disrupt Destiny.

Now, I don’t necessarily think just taking away Toughness Regen without replacing it is good either as melee combat can be much riskier in higher difficulties. That said, it could probably be replaced with something else:

  • Just Remove 20% TDR and 2.5% Toughness per Second from Scrier’s Gaze
  • Replace With +25% Dodge Speed, Recovery and Linger
  • Neither, Comment Below
0 voters

Warp Unbound:

Details and Poll

I remember back when Gaze was the antithesis of anything that required Peril to attack or push and basically staff Psyker’s were locked to Sanctuary or Shriek for higher difficulties.

Now I’d prefer never to have that again, but Warp Unbound coupled with Scrier’s Gaze uptime dramatically increasing alongside enemy density increases (Seer’s and Psy) effectively allows Psyker to ignore Perils of the Warp which isn’t good either.

Perhaps draw inspiration from Hive Scum:

  • Upon exiting Warp Unbound, become Exhausted for 10s. During this time, you are unable to use Warp Attacks.
  • Upon Scrier’s Gaze Ending, you take 5% Toughness Damage per second spent above 75% Peril, up to the full 10s of Warp Unbound
  • Neither, comment below
0 voters

Option 1 tones down Damage, option 2 introduces more risk for the great reward of Perils free Warp spam albeit 100% controllable by the player deciding to quell during Unbound.

Thank you to anyone who contributes to the discussion, I look forward to reading feedback.

15 Likes
2

Good post.

Scriers gaze has no business cleansing 50% peril and CDR on Psyker needs to be reigned in. Then maybe also increase the CD of Scriers.

I think Scriers Gaze will still be powerful then for certain playstyles, but not as overtuned as it currently is.

I don’t want this nerf to be too heavy handed.

11 Likes
3

I cannot wait till they break Psyker’s kneecaps with a big juicy nerf. The class is comically OP. I guess they’ll end up just nerfing Ogryn again, because that’s where the real problems truly lie, of course.

14 Likes
4

th9bXzz
Not the kneecaps!

Yeah that part is over the top as well, wouldn’t mind also removing the 50% Peril Quell, increasing Gaze CD a bit and nerfing Psy Aura a bit.

I really dislike the 2.5% Toughness per second and 20% TDR though. It’s a frail Psyker, not a Zealot. Psyker and Scum should be all about speed and dodging, not Toughness tankiness, which Scum already does.

6 Likes
5

this tree rework + armor buffs were both huge nerfs to assails but buffs to the already ridiculous flamepsyker builds, you can’t even get EP with assails anymore without dropping 4 or 5 other talents that u got automatically in the old tree this build is useless now while flames are stronger than ever with all the 24/7 armor spam they profit from highest density and spread within seconds to infinite stacks

2 Likes
6

Assail nerf was overdone IMO. I’m all for it having 0% effectiveness against Carapace but the tweak that decreased the rate at which LMB Assail hit head weakspots was a bit too much.

2 Likes
7

Reduce stacks

Not sure about this. I would prefer the exhausted mechanic for Scier Gaze.

In fact I feel that you have not pointed the talents that could be the more problematic. The ones that requires you to be at high peril and permit to manage such situation.

1 Like
8

Revert the change where it can trigger itself AND don’t let it break the 16 stack cap. This one should be simple and it’s crazy it was ever allowed to exist in this state.

12 Likes
9

Lol

1 Like
10

Do you have anything of value that you can contribute to this conversation?

7 Likes
11

It was the best he can do. Sorry.

6 Likes
12

Yeah that was such a surprising buff when patch day came out… I already loved Scriers Gaze..

I’m not sure about most of these suggested changes, but something should be done so Psyker isn’t just known for SoulBlaze.

Seems like just fixing uncanny would be the start… what is it somehow melee rending effecting dots that already ignore armor is very OP… at least that’s how i understand the situation.

7 Likes
13

Misunderstanding must be pointing out. The tdr and crit bonus only take effect before peril reaching 100%. Without 50% peril quelling SG is purely trash because when you use it in 100% peril it will end immediately. They use several versions time to make this ability truly useful. Even if, a scrier still need to spend at least 4 talent points(includes by crack of bone) on it to get full benefit. Zealot’s charging only needs 2. If we compare it with scum’s rampage ability. We can find that the truly overpowering effect of SG is warp unbound smite. That’s the question of smite, not SG.

Generous? Mettle has already been nerf to the ground. This talent could once recover 5% toughness per crit hit. And it was gunkers’ core survival talent. But look at what they do. They modified it in several versions. In order to nerf it’s behavior on inferno staff. Now no one will think it as a toughness recovering talent because the efficiency of TR is purely trash.

1 Like
14

Remove Uncanny’s Effects on Soulblaze Entirely (along with other blessings affecting anything not related to the weapon) and remove stack cap bypass on PC. Nerfing PC by putting a cooldown on it would ruin it for most non-meta builds.

No opinion on other topics, I think Scrier’s Gaze and Warp Unbound are more or less fine.

Also Smite should be reworked completely (make it a charged chain-lightning attack with more damage and stun the longer you charge it, then it goes to a cooldown) and assail needs a buff/rework too. Old Smite could be repurposed for a new Staff alt attack.

6 Likes
15

Same here

2 Likes
16

There’s a very easy solution for this and it worked before it stepped on Venting Shrieks toes.

Hint: it’s to quell peril before activating the ult.

You know, that thing that used to be a mechanic, managing peril.

6 Likes
17

Yeah, and not just for Psyker and Soulblaze.

The fact that Uncanny increases damage on anything but the weapon itself is already bonkers and I’m convinced it was never originally intended to be like that.

5 Likes
18

Well. Should a veteran/ogryn/scum sweep their weapon to range weapon and finish reloading and bolt action, and then use their range ability? This is a FPS game, no one want’s more preparatory actions.

19

None of these suggestions are going to “fix” psyker.

You don’t even mention the Inferno staff insanity in high density difficulties. That staff should have never been added to the game in the first place…but we cannot have all we want. Combined with infinite cleave on demand, Soulblaze needs a lower max stack value. Stacking SB from different sources should be removed or crippled enough by the new max SB value. Infinite cleave with no damage fall-off on Inferno staff and Venting Shriek should be re-done, and nerfed.

2.5% T regen per second is inconsequential. Why the 20% TDR SG upgrade talent has been combined with the SG ability itself is a mystery to me. It should have stayed a separate upgrade.

Perilous Combustion and Warp Unbound should be removed from the game. Smite should get a total rework or be replaced by something else entirely, and never mentioned again.

1 Like
20

Once they nerf Psyker are they going to keep enemies the same to compensate?