Been thinking about this one a bit and debating whether or not to post it, but I’ve got a weird feeling about them that I want to discuss. Put simply, Skitarii is weaker than three other classes in the game (Psyker, Hive Scum, Ogryn) in terms of damage output, defense, and mobility, but requires a LOT more execution to play optimally.
Skitarii’s tree very much encourages staying on top of cooldown manipulation to maximize buff uptime and effect, and on top of that their cooldown works differently from any other class in the game.
Nevermind the fact that their unique weapon options have awkward melee chains that need block cancels for best DPS and charge management (MPS), stance-switching and slow starts on chains (dualies), and slow reloads (arc rifle and plasma gun). Phosphor pistol doesn’t have any of these problems because it’s special I guess.
To be clear, I don’t think a high execution requirement is a bad thing. There’s a reason I respect Hellbore Veterans and people who play puppet characters in fighting games, and a high execution barrier just makes thematic sense for admech. But if Skittles have to do so much work just to get maybe half the reward that the other characters do, I gotta question what we’re doing.
I don’t think Skitarii need a buff, and are well-balanced as they are, but we really need to take a look at the amount of brain a psyker has to use to get the same results as a skittle.
What’s interesting is that IMO the class marketing was most geared towards returning players (down to the forced tutorial) due to thematic popularity. And yet, it’s arguably the juiciest class for veterans because of build diversity and toothsome melee weapons.
I will say that noosphere and arc-rifle spam is pretty oppressive (albeit in different ways) in pub lobbies, not sure how much brain is needed but I’m sure it’s down there with the worst offenders…
I’m not sure I agree with this, because in a realistic setting Skit brings a lot to the table that no one of the classes you mentioned do. Jack of all trades blah blah blah!
The greatest execution-heavy tool that Skittle had was MPS which has since been significantly simplified. But besides that, I don’t believe Skittle has an execution barrier greater than any other character, I think it’s the opposite in fact. The combat gameplay in execution is the simplest of any human class in the game (I forgot arby existed when I wrote this) and it doesn’t require much extra awareness either besides capacitance. And many of the talent proc conditions are so simple they hardly impact how you play. Personally I find any complexity from this class to only exist in buildcrafting, in gameplay it’s honestly kind of boring.
Maybe I’m just building them wrong but I can’t really agree. I have to constantly check my chains and claws to get decent damage and I find myself taking a lot of chip, meanwhile if I play Scum I just W+M1 and mash dodge to win.
Sure, I don’t think you can get to that level with Skit. Especially with dodges; HS just is the best. But, I feel you can get pretty close!
If we are limited to M1 spam, maybe Arc Rifle can do it. Not saying it’s fun, for you, or anything, but it might be the most W+M1
However if we can hold M1’s (ooooh), the club has a horizontal infinite combo I feel is quite good. Then add stun immunity, impact, and electro damage buffs – it’s quite a good effort:result ratio.
Also, I strongly feel Chordclaw has what it takes to qualify as extremely low effort for high reward. Very “hi crusher, bye crusher” x3-5, no followup perks required. Even CDR is optional imo.
Honourable mention goes to any build you can run an infinite plasmagun on; Skit takes this to a level beyond Vet since the ammo recovery is passive. You don’t even need W, just M1
Plus, dumbest way to restore toughness has gotta be by standing around doing nothing via Resurgence keystone and Toughness Regen Speed curio perks!
I had a moment so I whipped up the tabby-cat skit perks for Low Brainpower Gameplay ™
skulls for days to revive your intellectual team mates (since it’s off-paper one of Skit’s superpowers)
chordclaw for crushers/bulwarks/bosses so you don’t have to strafe, can just press W
heavy attack spam (sorry idk about light attack spams) with club
solid toughness regain passively (still will get chipped, but not by gunners!)
never reload
+10 free perk points (actually 11, I over-spent in the screenshot)
So yeah, it’s no super assassin flying around and invincible, but for an all-rounder that is hard to kill but dishes out plenty damage to priority targets and can survive mixed hordes, without much effort… pretty good!
Feels weird to have a chordclaw build without sweep claw. That thing is so integral to my gameplan whenever I play melee.
I do gotta point out though that you’re using medic skull and flame skull, both of which have a risk/reward analysis you need to make in the moment of whether you want to spend a charge to use either skull, which I would consider as “requiring a brain!” :^)
Disagree about damage, i think it’s as high as top classes,maybe harder to get,but not by much,but defence might be worst in game even with crutch like personal shield.
Most psykers show bad to mid results, especially out of havoc.
The weak defense in particular is what hurts me, I did not play as someone set free from the frailty of flesh (and who are bigger than the usual player characters) only to be THIS easy to kill!
I really like the all rounder capabilities of skit. For every problem it brings a solution, making it a great class to solo q and carry pubs.
However, i personally define survivability by how forgiving to mistakes a class is and skit is definitely lacking there. The few meaningful options it has are behind too high opportunity costs.
Leading up to it I was super jaded because arbitrator and hivescum both got boring after like 3 weeks of playing it. I haven’t played arbitrator probably in about a year, I just have no interest in the class unique weapons (shield, maul, shotgun). Hivescum’s weapons were cool (shivs and cleaver) but the abilities are just all steroid abilities (gun does more dmg, melee does more dmg, buff team) which for me is the lamest thing to play.
I complained about yet another DLC class that I would try and then never play again. I’m glad I was wrong. Mechanicus powersword has a fun moveset. The transonic blades are interesting too, I like playing with multiple different blessing combinations including the one that rewards you for switching modes. Chordclaw gives you effectively a new weapon with 2 extra modes to choose from. ACD could be less janky, but currently it’s still fun with high-spread weapons like agrip revolver and braced autos. The only thing I don’t like as much is voltaic emitter ability because anything that’s a button press for AoE 360-degree stun is kinda lame (smite, taunt) but I still use it to keep things fresh. Hey, 2 out of 3 is pretty good. Just fix ACD targeting please and we’re golden.
Skitarii’s best builds are some of the best across all classes but many of their builds are some of the most pointless, mishmash of random mechanics and talents that don’t lead anywhere and don’t create a coherent playstyle that aims to fill a special niche, unique only to them. Any ranged build that is not arc gun, melee builds with off-meta weapons and such.
It’s just a class that was under-designed without a proper idea how to fit them into the game, so they kinda have everything at once but nothing other than servo skull and claw makes them honestly shine as something unique and special.
Here’s some of my best games playing Claw with transonics in Havoc 40, but other two ultimates make me wanna retch and I think shock mauls and arc maul are very mid on them, despite all the theme’ing around lightning which is supposed to make them crazy good…
The power sword is kinda cool I guess. I’ve seen some people say it’s their favorite weapon.
This is pretty much my thoughts with the class as well. Even when I first went through the talent tree I figured that the only thing that’s going to keep this class in play was going to be the mega damage ability and the servo skull to turn events off and make rescues and special management easier. Their talent tree has 4 branching paths and you pretty much build heavily into one of two while scrapping the others for the good stuff you can take in every single build.
Since it’s release, Skitarii is my most played class and currently lvl 430. The main strength of the class is variability and disabling enemies by shocking them. I specialized my build on dealing with specialists and supporting the team, with a bit in both melee and ranged. While I can’t nuke groups of enemies or deal overall damage as other classes can, I greatly excel at surviving most encounters and reviving teammates in difficult situations compared to other classes, despite not playing servo skull.
To sum it up, the class isn’t the best at making big damage numbers but you have so many build possibilities to be useful in different ways.
