Ranged weapon viability for Sharpie on Damnation

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

Just a couple of observations on some of the ranged weapons on Damnation difficulty for Sharpshooter:

I generally find that people resort to the same guns in general when playing on Damnation. Some of them simply don’t cut the mustard for different reasons.
Some of these include the Recon Lasguns (all of them), the Plasma Gun and the Laspistol.

These weapons have their merits. I like taking the Recon Lasguns because I can hipfire a lot and relax my index finger a little and spare it from all the clicking compared to using, say, the MG XII Lasgun.
But it has a significantly longer time to kill (TTK), which is fair when you’re more mobile when using the Recon guns, and it’s also meant to be less effective against certain enemy types.
But the TTK against some enemies just straight up isn’t acceptable. Against specials in general it just takes too long to kill some of them, even with good aim. The Recon guns also eat up too much ammo, so much in fact, that you end up being a detriment to your team when bringing one of them.

Fair enough that the Sharpie picked a less than optimal gun, but eating through the team’s shared ammo resources is not okay for a team-based game. That’s why I feel bad for taking it even though I enjoy the heck out of it.

The Plasma is known to be bugged in terms of its charge rate messing with the damage it ends up dealing. I love taking it because it’s so pleasing from an aesthetic standpoint and it can two-shot most specials and elites on Damnation. I also like the overcharge mechanic taken from Vermintide and it fits well with the lore and tabletop rules as well. But compared to the Boltgun and other weapons, it loses out in every aspect. It’s worse at killing Elites, Specials, hordes and its (lore-accurate) overcharge doesn’t help. While the XII is slower at killing Ogryns, for example, it can at least stagger while you’re shooting and it can continue firing once you’ve taken the Ogryn down.

Generally I find the two most viable weapons for Sharpie is the Mk XII and the Boltgun. The XII because it’s easy to use, has a large magazine count, it has a good ammo reserve (perhaps too good or are many other guns just lacking including the Plasma and Recon-guns?), and its TTK is pretty low, especially because you’re rewarded when having solid aim.

The Boltgun seems overpowered to me. It has a low magazine count, which is more than fair, but it can still not only shred a several Bulwarks and Crushers in one magazine, but also stagger the living love out of everything, including hordes. If I play to win, for example in a high-intensity zone, I bring the Boltgun so I can make a difference.

I know it seems like a bit of a rant, and I generally don’t post on forums of any kind, but I really needed to say my piece. I love the gameplay to bits, but there are several things in this game that needs some love and attention. Today I wanted to point out some of the gameplay-related things I’ve noticed and that bug me every time.

TL;DR: Some guns are straight up better than others (ex: Boltgun) and some are an active detriment to your team (ex: Recon Lasguns).

1 Like
2

I think most of the Boltgun’s OPness stems from the Pinning Fire, giving you double damage effortlessly.

I’ve never used the Recon Lasgun (not my kinda weapon), but it seems to be in a pretty sore state. Any time I’ve seen someone unload with it, I honestly think it must feel miserable for that player because the enemy barely reacts and takes quite a while to die

2 Likes
3

Braced, Plasma, Infantry, K12, Helbore, Bolter, Autopistol are all good weapons on damnation. Some are harder to use than others. Some work with more builds than others. I’d put Plasma, Braced, K12, and Helbore in the top category and others a bit below. On High-Int Stg specifically Braced and Bolter are the best (for me) and plasma kinda falls off due to the bad ammo return from passive (but you can function on the same level if you get the majority of the ammo pickups).

Plasma shines especially if you can take around 50%+ of the team’s ammo supply and in that case, others don’t really have to use that much ammo since you can kill most elites and specials outside Mutants extremely fast. It just needs an increase in passive ammo gain on an elite kill from 2 to 3.

Recon works best as a mid-range anti-shooter gun. Hipfire is actually really bad, but ADS is very precise with close to no recoil. Aim for the heads and pull the gun downwards in a small burst. I use the blue one with Infernus (which helps a lot against elites like maulers/ragers) and it works well but it is a bit undertuned. Pair with Bleed nade setup and Chaxe/Caxe.

Laspistol is actually great. It needs Reasurringly Accurate to get the best out of it, but once you get it you can just walk into shooter teams with ult/unwavering up and execute every heretic. It’s also good at mid-range and accurate at long-range. Pick +crit chance for perk. Again pair it with Bleed nades and Caxe/Chaxe like recon.

Laspistol and Recon struggle against maniac specials the most and that’s the main thing why they seem not viable. All other weapons can deal with all specials relatively well. Flamers and mutants are major problems for both of them, and they are also way slower at killing trappers than other weapons. Recon is also just a bit weak in general.

I’m unsure if it’s a charge rate thing since I also tested Plasma with the same charge rate and damage was still inconsistent between weapons, but yeah damage inconsistency is pretty infuriating.

Edit: Firebreath shotgun is also very good on damnation, haven’t tried it on High-Int STG. Just spam special shots.

4

The Boltgun with the Pinning Fire blessing is now the last ranged weapon I love to use since the Flamer was neutered.

Please do not change it.

5

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.