Personally, I really like what shooters bring to the game. They’re an extra factor you need to think about and the “I’m getting shot at” dance is way more satisfying to pull off than dodging in melee.
The little moment-to-moment scenarios they bring to the game add something of a cinematic quality in my mind. It feels great. Like when I’m pinned behind an island of cover and being focused by shooters; Watching the beams and bullet trails fly around either side of whatever I’m hiding behind, fighting off the melee enemies that get close, waiting for that break in the fire where I can move to another position or try to take a few of the shooters out.
They’re a good addition and I’d hate to see them trivialised.
My main gripe with shooters is that trying to force them into melee is unreliable enough to be noticeable, the more shooter orientated Scab riflemen would engage you in melee from across the room and the allegedly close quarters specialist Scab stalkers tend to either kite you just out of melee and keep shooting or still unload one or two more bursts even when hit by melee. Dreg stalkers tend to be relatively consistent on when they engage in melee.
Uh, the majority of those shooters were targeting the other person, you were just in the crossfire for the most part. The primary reason you survived was due to toughness gating (IE: Taking ~83% less damage from follow up ranged attacks after having your toughness broken from ranged fire for a second), not dodging fire. Overall you dodged very little of those shots. The other zealot looks to be using the toughness damage reduction feat as they’re consistently getting hit but taking much less toughness damage.
The biggest gripe I have is not being able to tag scrub ranged enemies. The maps are dark enough and at long range it can be frustrating being a sustained firefight because you can’t coordinate with the team or see ranged units. Certainly doesn’t help that 90% of the weapons don’t have any sort of optics, and few have usable iron sights.
That and forcing them into melee combat at close range still isn’t always reliable and the dozen-man squad volleys that instantly gun you down as you’re right in the middle of a group hacking away doesn’t feel great.
My biggest complaint with trash shooters is their friendly fire (yes, they can hit one another) sphere wasn’t made big enough to keep them from doing the 40k Guardsmen salvo stacked 10 on top of each other that will instantly shred up your bar and do like 75 HP damage through the toughness grace (imagine if this didn’t exist lol) when you’re Ogryn. That just feels like a bug, still.
And shooters are unnerfed and dreg shotgunners are back to not melee’ing, but again I don’t mind any of those as much as I (still) mind hyper dense patrols spawning on each other or all falling down from a ledge on top of each other and doing a same-frame teamshot with more burst damage than a sniper shot, and less warning.
Nice. Their friendly fire can lead to interesting situations. I was pinned by a dog as last standing team member. Got saved by a mutant charging through and knocked dog off.
IMO this problem is probably the one that needs addressing more than anything else. Specifically how willing shooters are to shoot one another. Its one thing to see them magdumping at you while you’re wading through poxwalkers. But when they just unload into the back of four of THEIR platoon’s guys you’re using as cover while you hit them; it feels wrong. I’d like to see some tiered priority on how they shoot into one another based on enemy type and disposition.
Dreg gunners seem pretty heartless and I have no issue with them blasting into their own shooters. But scabs seem more like a division of feircly ingroup loyal and well disciplined warriors. Savage and evil for sure, but they refer to one another as “brother” and work in tight groups. They should only be willing to engage friendly fire against groaners and poxwalkers who they are intentionally using as chaffe. This would make engaging dregs vs scabs more dynamic.
Ive never felt the need for stamina apart from as a vet to feed the damage bonus feat.
I guess I’m a fast weapon dodger. Knife on zealot for speed, caxe on vet, cleaver Ogryn and illisi on psyker.
VT2 I blocked a lot, not v much at all in darktide outside back swipes (block on sound cue) or the odd mob swing in a horde. We’ll, not by comparison. Certainly for me not so often that I need it regenerating faster. I’d much prefer to have 90% toughness.
Stamina curios affect total capacity not just for blocks and pushes but also efficient sprinting which allows me to dodge ranged fire by just running at an oblique angle. I run +8 with efficiency and regen perks as well. While everyone else is wheezing i’m STILL sprinting. Its also favorable for some weapons where push attacks can be very helpful for control while fighting. The chain axe in particupar benefits greatly from at least 1 +3 stamina curio on vet and zealot.
Chain axe is one of very few times I’d consider a stamina curio, and that’s mostly just because the chain axe is pretty bad outside of its push attack. I wouldn’t go for all stamina curios though.
I’m also biased because I loathe the camera lock on every single attack, it just feels bad to use.