this needs reconsidered.
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I agree with this, love me my devil claw sword even if all it mainly does is give me funny clutch moments on my Psyker where I run around parrying the wave while I wait for my Assails to recharge to clear it all. (or use it on my other classes just for the fun of being able to counter a monstrosity/overhead by just standing there menacingly).
But Ragers in general are fine, they are threat like they are supposed to be. You are not supposed to allow them into melee with you, or if you do, block/dodge away from them to mitigate the damage as best you can before slaying them. They are literally built to punish mindlessly swinging your weapon and not actually taking into consideration what’s in front of you, so I’d probably try not doing that and you’ll notice them threatening you a lot less.
Also backstep, they actively made it so the ragers swings can be dodged as they root themselves in place as they start swinging, so dodge/backstep away from them instead of to the side (as most do) and you’ll find yourself not getting obliterated. Pushes help with that too (especially with something like a Forcesword).
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increase dreg rager speed to differentiate them from scab ragers
make scab ragers carapace
nerf flamer ammo because of chastise interaction
remove chastise interaction
imma be real i dont interact with ragers in melee anymore unless i’m on ogryn otherwise its shoot shoot shoot
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This strategy is inconsistent in melee when dealing with, for example, multiple final toll dreg ragers with boosted attack speeds doing their moving attacks with a desync between one another. You will often dodge one and get hit by the other, or you dodge and their double swing misses the first hit, but the second clips you into stunlock and now you’re being cycled by other ragers possibly to death. There is also no cooldown on these fast swings, so backing up often times leads to them just doing it again, unless you go really far away where you won’t notice it. You also consume a lot of dodges, lose a lot of space, and you’re dragging the horde into other players, which never feels good unless you simply have high dps infinite cleave weapons and enough stagger and yellow toughness that ragers aren’t a threat in the first place anyway.
Yes, it’s easier to just run away an incredible distance and keep blasting them as they try to catch up, but personally, I think melee enemies should be fought in melee in the melee game, not designed to be so punishing that melee is a last resort in a corner or entirely dependent on having an overpowered parry attack that they can’t hit through unless you’re out of stamina.
Vermintide 2’s monks, for example, would unleash a flurry, which forces the player to either use dodges or hold block, and failing to do either leads to death. But after the flurry, they’re slowed down and put onto cooldown for a limited amount of time. In higher difficulties like onslaught, this means you choose between maintaining dps or holding the frontline, not giving up all of your space to gun them down and bring everything else on top of your backline because otherwise it’s impossible to fight multiple of them.
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Just pull a Benedict Arnold and Shroudfield away. Who cares if the teammates get wrecked by the 10+ ragers on the screen, at least you’ll be able to speed away to safety like Sonic the Hedgehog on crack.
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Don’t forget to catch the dog after you leave the stealth, type “trash team” and quit for maximum authenticity.
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This is incorrect. They used to slow down heavily back when their attacks were undodgeable, but move much faster now - especially with Pox Gas, which makes them able to keep up with block-dodging players without even stopping their combo.
On top of that Dreg Ragers specifically start their combo far outside of their melee range, making even hit-and-run melee strategies unfeasible. I bet Duelling Sword users would disagree on that, though.
Very solid advice.
Should I expect the discussion to be deflected into “skill issue” now?
Do note that everything I’m saying here applies to Dreg Ragers exclusively. Scab Ragers packs are a challenging melee target, but perfectly feasible even with low mobility weapons.
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Scab Rager attack combos are slightly slower because they have Carapace armor on their body, whereas Dreg Ragers are pretty much unarmored so a higher combo attack speed makes sense.
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Maybe, just maybe put away your small or large toothpick and engage rangers with a proper melee weapon. Heavy sword heavies stun and oneshot rangers, tak axe push attack and heavy attack stun ragers, crucis TH heavies wack around whole packs of rangers, there are probably more…
Mechanically? Not at all since they end up just fast enough to make a wall of blades against normal melee. The issue here is with their combo trigger range as well, though, so perhaps if this was normalized to Scab Rager they would turn out just fine.
Narratively? Please don’t tell me you meant it makes narrative sense or you’ll force me to bring up how a
is more devastating towards armoured enemies than power and chain weaponry, while incendiaries that should literally boil them alive are basically useless. Narrative cohesion in Darktide has been eroded too far for attempts to save it by sacrificing balance to be worth it.
But yes, it does sound somewhat intuitive. I think there is a sweet spot to be reached here, perhaps through the aforementioned combo trigger range, introducing a delay between their combos or some other means.
EDIT
Correction for historical accuracy, thanks to @Durandal94
More like 18th to 19th century sabre, people used proper chad swords during medieval times because sabres are useless against armor.
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DS can stun ragers btw
Agreed, the current trigger range for the Dreg Rager combo is a bit ridiculous and should be reduced. As for delay after they finish their combo before starting another combo, a bit longer would be good to give some more melee stagger options a chance when attacked by multiple Dreg Ragers in an ambush. Not every melee stagger is as fast and powerful as DS4 after all
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The original post was made in the context of Havoc, where the global increased enemy melee speed throws any nuance of fighting ragers out the window. Final Toll is the best havoc modifier but it makes fighting multiple ragers in melee absolutely terrifying.
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