Heyo…
I don’t think that I’m an WH40k Lore expert or so but shouldn’t Psyker be kind of extremely powerful? I mean yes they were advertised as Glas Canon High Damage Elite Killers, but somehow they are less Canon but more Supporter for crowd control while Veterans and Zealots are the primary damage dealers or am I wrong? Even on Youtube channels they say Psyker are mainly supporter… But why are they still that squishy that you would expect from a high damage glas canon caster while Zealots and Veterans have a lot more damage and serviceability?
Actually I really hope I just missed something but lets break it down:
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Brain Burst: Kind of strong single target special, but the cast time is so long that most targets are dead from the Veterans before you’re done (I think the Vets think its really funny to shoot targets with the glowing head down before the head can pop!) and on the other hand there are much stronger attacks like a zealot with thunder hammer and active speacial.
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Force Sword: yeah thats cool and strong but be aware that you are squishy as f*** and you really go done very fast if you’ll be surrounded or a speacial CCs you. And why the hell should you go in melee as a glass canon caster if not because of necessity?
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Staves: Right now you see the Purgatus, the Surge and the Void staves on players (actually only Purgatus and Surge but I guess the Void is also sometimes seen). While the Surge is doing a little better in CC but less damage, the Purgatus right now is basically the dominating staff and can do decent damage (mainly) to hordes but its lacking damage agains armored targets and is only viable in close range (again something that is dangerous for a glass canon)
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Feats and Abilitys: Most feats right now revolve around warp charges there are only two options to gain them. Brain Burst and the feat Psychic Communion ( Whenever you or an ally in Coherency kills an enemy, you have 4% chance to gain a Warp Charge). We already talked about the issue with brain burst and there is only one thing to add: Monstrosities! You only gain warp charges on kills, so a monstrosity won’t give you any charges during the whole fight! Thats why Psychic Communion is a must have feat for every psyker right now. The only problem with the feat is that its quite unpredictable. Sometimes your group fights a hore and you have instandly up to 6 charges and sometime its maybe 1.
So in sum the psyker unfortunately is very mediokre. And Its not that I think that the Veteran and Zealot should be nerfed, I think the Psyker needs some love. Ether the devs put the Psyker on purpose in the Support spot, then they should make him more survivable, or they make him they a real Glas Canon. In my view the second option is more fitting to WH40k lore and would fit with the description of the class that fatshark gave us.
Suggestion:
So enough blaming, its time to suggest something to improve the situation!
- Since brain burst is such a central feature of the class, I think it has to be viable to use. The long cast time is the show stopper right now imo. So I would make it an instand ability but with a cooldown. Sincle Ogryn need two brain bursts you should have at leas two charges. Maybe even do a feat that increases charges or decreases the CD for that. Also for monstrositys you should get a warp charge on hit, not on kill!
- Next are the staves. Right now we have a torch staff, a low damage CC staff, explosive bolt staff and a ground explosion staff. But what I miss is a strong disintegrate kind single target staff. Something that makes the Psyker a real Elite killer that he’s suppose to be!
- Psychic Communion is nice but to unpredictable! I would suggest that the proc chance should ramp up the more heretics are killed without a proc and then reset on proc. Also elite and specials should get a higher proc chance. And for monstrositys you should get a proc chance on hit that is also ramping up.