A little bit about myself with these games first. I have almost 100% both Vermintide 1 and 2, I have done everything on the hardest difficulties, I enjoy punishingly hard games, I do not enjoy nerfs/restricting player choice or freedom. I play Darktide with a full party almost all the time, every night except Thanksgiving since the open beta came out, and have done all of the released map content/secondary/special conditions so far.
Mechanics
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Toughness: I really like the implementation of toughness, I think how it regenerates and the quantities of the different classes is pretty good. I dislike that health gets chip damage when being hit in melee while still having toughness. On higher difficulties you are going to get your toughness shredded if you take a few hits in melee anyways, so why not have some bleed over damage as opposed to having chip damage all the time. I think it would be more friendly to new players as well. Looking at the achievements it seems like there is a lot of new people, and that also seems plausible with 40k being more popular than Fantasy.
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Medicae Stations: I think the stations along with healing crates makes for better team play and the power cell for full charges on a station is a cool addition.
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Wounds: Because of Darktide being more difficult than Vermintide mechanically I think it is good that you can go down more times than in VT1/2. The corruption of wounds punishing going down and its removal is great.
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Corruption: Getting corruption from Grimoires and being downed makes since to me. Its a familiar mechanic to the max health drop of grims in VT, but what makes corruption in Darktide worse to me is that the corruption from grims ticks even after the initial drop in max health. They also are not worth the extra money/exp at high levels from a risk/reward standpoint.
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Scriptures/Grimoires: I like the randomish locations as opposed to VT’s set locations. However, as a rewarding bonus, they just aren’t. The amount you get money/exp wise is hardly worth the time it takes to find them. The only real reward from them I see is getting your weeklies done, and then you can basically forget about it or get partial rewards if there isn’t med crates to pick up. I think if grims did not do ticking corruption it would be better for how little they give, or if health did not take chip damage from melee it would be better, or just increase the rewards substantially.
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Special Conditions: There needs to be more variance, please stop going back to Endless Horde. It may be that in the beta this is the only stable special condition, but it is horribly boring when it is the only one available. It can be fun, but it gets really boring when thats all there is. Fewer Hordes makes it so you can push higher content with lower characters while it is still challenging and I think that is a neat mechanic. The Power Disruption or whatever the no light condition with the Daemonhosts is great especially for challenging how well you know a map and a bit more horrific with glowing eyes in the darkness. The Fog condition limiting line of sight is a fun way to make the game more horrific without relying totally on darkness.
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Difficulty: I enjoy very hard games, running VT1/2 on Cataclysm was a fun challenge. I enjoy most popular masocore games like Nioh and the souls-likes from FromSoftware, which I have 100%'ed all of them. The difficulty spikes in Darktide feel bad. On Heresy while it feels punishing for making bad decisions it does not feel too bad without some crazy difficulty spikes. On Damnation everything feels way too bullet spongey for how hard they hit you. I get that I do not have pure legendaries yet, but it feels like the scaling is way more than the other difficulties or the other games scaling. fatshark said they did some rebalancing to make things more even in difficulty, but since that update it just feels like things have gotten harder and the insane spikes have not been taken away.
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Dodging: Why has it been nerfed? You already have worse dodges with a ranged weapon, which is a big part of the game, why make it worse. I think making light weapons dodge better is good, but nerfing dodging otherwise just feels terrible. Not regenerating stamina while dodging is also super bad, at least let that happen if you are going to make dodges worse.
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Ranged Combat: I loved ranged combat in VT 1/2 and hated that so many ranged weapons got nerfed after release. While melee is very iconic for 40k, ranged weapons are definitely the most used thing in the Imperium, especially the more human imperial guards which the characters of this are taken from. Please make more of the ranged weapons more viable. I understand that there will always be a meta on what is best, but it would be nice to feel like there is more options to use besides what is best. Nerfing the meta weapons is also a terrible option, please do not do that, everyone will just be sad. Otherwise, I do feel like ranged combat is way better in this. It feels more like a modern shooter and less like an addon to a hack and slash game.
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Item Sharing: It feels like a major downgrade that our characters do not share supplies like in Vermintide 2. It makes the game really Alt unfriendly. I don’t mind level restrictions on weapons and such, but let all the compatible weapons, curios, ordo dockets, and crafting supplies be shared please. All the characters are under the inquisition, and since we have the buying/crafting mechanics we do it seems like it would make in lore sense to do so. I mean I think requisitioning things is usually how the Imperium does things, so we are already away from that.
Classes
Ogryn Skullbreaker
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The class I have played the most and enjoy the most. This class feels like it is in a good place as a bruiser/support class. The stagger potential is great, the uninterruptable revives and assists is amazing when it works (something that I think needs looked at a bit, especially for assists). The feats overall seem decent. The career skill is good and fun. The weapons feel like they need a bit more variance, but overall each weapon has its place. The grenade/blitz feels bad and I only ever see myself using it on Monstrosities.
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Talents for the Ogryn.
Column 1: Lynchpin feels like the worst choice. The bonus regen really just isn’t enough to be viable compared to the others. Maybe if you just wanted to shoot things it would be good. Smash 'Em Good! is my favorite so far because it comes in to use when fighting hardened targets and bosses, which is where I feel like I need it the most. 20% feels like a good place for restoration. Best Form of Defense I see people talk a lot about it in the forums, and maybe I will end up using this for Damnation difficulty but so far I haven’t felt like I need toughness restoration when cleaving through hordes.
Column 2: Heavyweight my personal favorite, it gives the Ogryn a much needed boost against enemy Ogryn which seems to be place where the Skullbreaker struggles a bit, since it doesn’t have any Armor Piercing melee weapons. Bombs Away I honestly do not know why this is a feat and not just how the grenade works. The feat itself is abysmal and I do not know why anyone would take it, other than to just mess around. Honestly I think the grenades detonating after it is thrown on any target would make it feel much better. Blood & Thunder I think this feat has a lot of potential to be good. It is the synergy bleed feat that many characters have something akin to. I think it should add more stacks of bleed though.
Column 3: Towering Presence Seems like the feat to take when you are either trying to get a certain penance, or focusing on shooting. Otherwise, it seems like the second worst out of this column. Lead the Charge This feat feels like the worst by a bit. When speedrunning difficulty 1’s I can see its utility, but otherwise is my last pick. Bullfighter This seems like the best pick, especially on higher difficulties where there is tons of specials. The more you use your Career Skill/Ultimate the better.
Column 4: Bloodthirst Feels like the best one of this column with the most uptime. 50% DR is great and that you have to stack it up makes it feel pretty balanced, especially against big single targets where you wont get the full bonus. Hard as Nails The clutch feat. I have used this when carrying low level friends and it has helped tremendously. Not the best feat, but not a bad feat. Die Hard I did not feel like this feat was very good, especially with health chip damage on melee hits. If there wasn’t chip damage I could see it being really good.
Column 5: Payback Time I did not really notice a difference while using this feat. I have read that it is good, but it did not seem help much to me. Knife through Butter seems like it can be good if you are fighting mixed groups of armored and unarmored enemies, but I did not like it all that much. Raging Bull This is my go to feat at this level. I feel like it adds the most to my swings, and when fighting a horde with specials/armored units in it, I could cleave and then hit them for significant damage.
Column 6: Bull Gore if you want to Bloodthirst without having to heavy attack this is a great way to do it. With Bullfighter it seems like you can keep the bleed uptime up pretty well. Unstoppable At higher difficulties I really like this feat as it allows you to plow over multiple enemy Ogryn with ease and close the gap with ranged enemies more easily. Non-Stop Violence This feat lets you charge up your toughness very quickly, which versus many ranged enemies is great, but against many melee enemies it seems very lackluster since they are still hurting you anyways. -
The Ranged weapons all feel like they have their own place/playstyle. The Heavy Stubber and the grenade gauntlet are my favorites. The Rumbler seems like nice CC and AOE, the Kickback seems alright for knockdown and horde clearing at lower levels, the Ripper Gun is a good auto shotgun for burst damage and having variants depending on playstyle is nice, the Grenadier Gauntlet feels good since the melee is considered heavy attacks and the grenade is explode on impact making it a good CC weapon, the Heavy Stubber feels like it needs a lot more reserve ammo but is otherwise in a good place of sustained damage over time.
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The Melee weapons feel like there is not enough variance. There is 3 cleavers that are all very similar with just attacks being a little different between each, they seem like the balanced weapons on attack types. The Latrine Shovel is a good crowd control weapon similar to the sharpshooter’s shovel, and it had decent single target damage with its heavy attacks. The Bully Club has the best stagger/cc but only its stab and heavy attack seem to keep up damage wise. The Battle Maul and Slab Shield feel good defensively, the special stance is great for making mobile cover or holding doors, but the damage feels super bad. It feels like the club and shield should at least do enough to one shot the first target on pox walkers.
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Miscellaneous: I love the voice lines/banter of the Ogryn, it makes the character even more enjoyable to play. Being a big fan of super mutants in Fallout, I really like the Ogryn humor.
Psykinetic Psyker
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The class I have played the second most but gave up on. I think the Psyker has a lot of potential to be fun, but takes way to much micromanaging. The stacks on the Warp Charges feels bad that they all go away at once, and they only last 25 seconds. All of the weapons feel underpowered, especially the force sword. I used the force swords special for boss killing and swiftly killing melee specials I couldn’t brain burst. The charge duration of the force sword feels really bad being like sub 3 seconds. Brain Burst feels pretty good, but needs to be able to be used through places that you can shoot, like all railings and fences. The ultimate does not work for me most of the time. Specials usually don’t get affected by it and sometimes pox walkers don’t even get affected by it for me. Something needs to change about it. Also a force push being an ultimate is pretty lame. Some sort of devastating attack would be way better for the psyker’s ultimate.
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Licious-D writes up about the feats better than I think I would. Feedback for 30 Ogryn and Psyker - #17 by Licious-D
I however disagree that the Psyker is in a good spot. I think all the staves need buffing. The accuracy of the primary attack on the non-flamer staff feels terrible when you miss someone at point blank multiple times. The Trauma and Voidstrike staves seem to do pretty bad damage with their alternate fire. If the Trauma/Conflag staff lit people with Soulblaze or fire I think it would work much better. If the Voidstrike alternate did enough damage on minimum charge to one shot a pox walker I think it would be much better. The range on the flamethrower is rough, making it so you have to brain burst everything at long range if you can’t easily get up close. The lighting/Surge staff has good CC but doesn’t feel like it does enough damage for how much peril it generates. I am however very glad the Psyker can use normal human weapons. -
The Psyker’s durability to damage ratio does not feel great. I think they either need to be a little more durable, like the other two humans, or do a bit more damage. Brain Burst should definitely kill all human/dog sized specials in one shot at higher levels. I typically love mage type characters in games, and like playing psykers in the 40k RPGs, but I am not really a fan in Darktide.
Veteran Sharpshooter
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The Sharpshooter feels like it is in a pretty good place after the patch that changed toughness damage on melee hits. Previously they got insta shredded by melee, but it feels much better now. I have not played the Sharpshooter to 30 yet, but multiple of my squad mates have. So a bit of this will be on the discussions I have had with them. I think Volley Fire should have Counter Fire’s reloading by default. In fact, thinking about it reloading on refresh would make for some amazing firefights.
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Sharpshooter Feats
Column 1: Confirmed Kill Decent feat, sees ok uptime on low difficulty and a good amount on higher difficulty. Exhilarating Takedown Decent feat, depending on skill level can be a great feat, uptime is based on skill shots which I think is good. At Arm’s Length I really want to like this feat more, but it doesn’t feel like it works correctly, or maybe I just can’t tell distance well enough. 5% a second should feel like a lot, but it doesn’t.
Column 2: Sniper Decent feat if you are into shooting from the far rear with the longest rang weapons, I however did not like it much for my playstyle. Tactical Reload Great for people who spam reload all the time, the feat I would probably take if it wasn’t for the grenade feat. Demolition Stockpile My personal favorite feat at this level, allows for grenade builds and isnt too OP at a 1 minute recharge time.
Column 3: Bio-Optic Targeting a good feat when playing with randoms it feels like. It seems like a lot of people don’t tag enemies and this essentially tags all the non-ogryn specials in its radius, including through walls. Demolition Team a fun support option to give grenades to all your allies. Procs a surprising amount of times, and is a great boon for grenade builds. Covering Fire I haven’t noticed this helping people out much, or helping me when I have a sharpshooter on my team using it. I think its range needs to be extended from melee range to a bit longer, maybe like 3-5m or something.
Column 4: Unwavering Focus Maybe its good at higher difficulties but it seems bad/unnecessary at Malice or below. Duck and Dive I never bothered to use the feat, it looked bad. getting some stamina from avoiding ranged fire via one of the methods listed seems like a waste of a feat. Camo Expert Seems like the go to feat for myself and everyone I know. Not being targeted all the time makes the other two feats in this category much less useful. I think its a nice feat for snipers and dedicated shooters.
Column 5: Frag Storm Essential for a grenade build, 8 stacks of bleed should do decent DOT damage. From what I have seen it is helpful in both DOT and helping with synergies of feats that rely on bleed. Deadshot I like the benefits and the stamina reduction doesnt seem too bad. One After Another I don’t think the +30% reload speed on elite kill is that cool of a feat, but for snipers it is decently useful.
Column 6: Sustained Fire I think the first part of this, reloading your weapon, should just be part of the career skill itself. There is already an animation you do with your gun when you initiate it why not let it reload it too. 60% toughness can get you out of some hairy fire fights, but its not that fun compared to others abilities. Counterfire I think this should designate all shooters, not just Scab Shooters. However, I think the ability itself is pretty cool. The Bigger They Are… Great for boss/heavy killing but I think it is worse than Counterfire still since there are not that many big 'uns to kill compared to other small ones. -
Melee Weapons: The power sword and chainaxe are standouts but the rest seem fairly lackluster. The shovel is pretty good CC/Stagger. The regular axes feel pretty good for leveling but are terrible in hordes. The combat knife is decently fun since you can run a bit faster with it.
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Ranged Weapons: I haven’t used any weapons that had scopes on them yet besides the little lasgun sight, which is pretty disappointing. The Stub revolver seems terrible since it has so little ammo. The heavy laspistol feels pretty good as a more damaging lasgun with some mobility. The braced autogun feels good, kind of like a movie tommy gun. The other automatic autoguns feel really bad with how much recoil they have with such terrible iron sights. The Boltgun is a solid single target DPS gun. I havent used the plasma gun but from observing others it seems like its in a good place. Both the Boltgun and Plasma gun could probably use a little more ammo. The combat shotgun is also good but definitely needs some more ammo. It would be nice to see some high caliber or powerful lazer sniper rifles.
Zealot Preacher
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I most likely missed some things I meant to cover, but this has gotten super long so I am ending it here. I hope my thoughts and feelings on the matter are heard. The game has amazing promise and is shaping up pretty well other than a few aspects that feel strangely done despite player feedback and wants. I think the biggest thing to remember is, it is all about having fun and empowering the players to have that fun. If there is a design decision in opposition to that, why is it being made?
Edit: Some formatting, sorry this is my first post.