I got it again on Live for H40 as:
Me - ogryn.
2x Zealots 1 fotf 1 chorus 1 w/flamer 1 w/ BP
1 psyker w/ bubble and voidblast
Though way more interesting was our anti-meta H40
Zealot W/ FotF but Agrip shotty and Relic
Me - ogryn Indom/FnP Shield
Vet - BP and Rashad w/ Infiltrate and WS
Psyker - BB, Voidstrike, scriers and FSGS melee.
We won. Amusing game.
I’m gonna need some video evidence.
If you run a Power Maul, it is indeed Auric Heresy Havoc 40.
We did a number of runs already. Tossing random stuff at 40 to see what sticks is half the fun. Sometimes you find something that works way better than expected, other times you just bang your head against the wall until the wall relents and lets you pass.
This is exactly what I hoped to see out of this thread, the off meta builds and runs that conquered havoc. I can see the nearly unlimited cleave of charged power maul being exceptional for crowd control.
Pretty much exclusively with “random” teams. For a few levels I had a buddy with me but yeah, essentially randoms only.
I was the one who chose the assignments and the one chosing which randoms “made the cut”.
Most of my time in havoc was spent, getting my assignment level up and then doing level 35+.
I only played ogryn on the very first matches (because I did weeklies for him) and then only ever played with 3 ogryns across 60 completed runs. One match was because the ogryn came attached to a zealot I accepted, not knowing that the ogryn would be part of it. The other two runs were with the same 1400+ levels ogryn that I picked because he was by far the most competent player available.
All of those 3 matches were sucessful but if I had the choice, I would’ve picked a more useful teammate in all 3 cases.
There were several ideal comps, I tried to look for.
VoC, bubble, 2x chorus or
2x bubble, 2x chorus or
1 bubble, 3x chorus.
I filled any role and had success with all of them.
My specific loadouts used DS and all 3 classes, plasma gun, boltgun or flamer or flamestaff with meta talents. If I or someone else asked someone else to change, they would always change provided they played the requested class, no complaints. Very often, people would ofer to switch if an ideal comp wasn’t present out of the gate.
Other deviations were successful as well but the difference was felt. I used charge a great deal and others used shroudfield or shriek. Two times I also ended up bringing a non-havoc build on accident into 40s, woupps.
Below level 30, everyone used whatever they wanted and that usually worked just fine. Most people tried to take bubble, chorus and shout but there were plenty of other abilities used and most weapons worked just fine.
From 31 to 35, I noticed that taking a meta loudout could make a significant positive difference but it wasn’t really a requirement. From 35 onwards, each higher level needed everyone to pull their weight and even if they had a meta loadout, you could easily tell if they were carried into that level or were a contributing factor to completing that level.
From 35 onwards I also took more time to chose better teammates and tried to find teamcomps as close to the ideal as possible but deviations would still get the job done. This was also the point after which I would find a lot of the same players so picking them again was a simple choice. Almost everyone I played with, knew what to do and played correctly.
I usually ended up being the most valueable teammate, either because I got the best stats or because I stayed alive the longest / with the highest consistancy and therefore ended up getting the most successful clutches. That said, most teammates where a pleasure to play with and very competent. Something very new for me as I usually get “average” teammates in auric maelstrom.
I finished several 40s and multiple true survivor runs. Some on level 35, some on level 40. Those required much better communication and someone calling the shots, making tactical decisions, coordinating movement and abilities, usage of ammo and stims etc. Sometimes that was me, sometimes that was someone else. True survivor on level 35 was significantly easier than on 40 but the most important contributor to finishing a true survivor run was the map. Archivum sycorax easily being the easiest map.
My only complaints had to do with the rewards being essentially useless and that there is a penance for helping others. Essentially, I had a rather annoying time, finding lower havoc levels and not being the lobby leader. Most people are slower than me and sometimes picked obviously bad teammates, making the whole thing less enjoyable than it could’ve been. Some maps are also much easier or harder than others. Not major issues but not ideal.
I only had two matches that I would classify as negative experiences. Both ended up being wins anyways but they either had me get toxic or ruined my mood. Not an easy feat to pull off, I might add.
One of them was a level 25 mission where people asked me to use a medpack for them eventhough it was an objectively wrong decision. I’m talking: only 2 were missing HP, the medicae was in the next room, they were on their last wound anyways or had fully corrupted HP bars from standing in blight with no field improv and they took damage so easily and frequently that healing wasn’t going to help a slight bit.
When they inevidably died to dumb plays like: running into 20 gunners without even attempting to slide or dropping alone into 3 reapers, half a map section ahead of everyone, they blamed me for not having dropped the healing previously. They also ended up getting annoyed when I calmly explained to them why I chose to not waste the only madpack we had. At some point they found a 2nd medcrate, used it and then either died in the next room or wasted it all by getting all that HP corrupted again.
I was clearly the most experienced and best performing player but they would argue those nonsensical points the entire way through, eventhough I had to clutch 3 times that mission, two times as the last one alive against 2 bosses, horde gunners and specials. Proper idiots and extremely annoying to have to play with. A win I was thinking of throwing just to be that petty a-hole, because they ruined my mood proper.
The other match was just one guy misunderstanding me, berating me because of his misunderstanding and asking me to stop talking because “I was the least useful player on the team”.
Someone that looked at damage and damage only to make that call. I had 353K damage at that time and he 358K. I hadn’t taken a single down, he died for the 2nd time at that point.
I ended up having to do an insanely unlikely solo clutch and save the 3rd attempt at this level 39 run. That same player ended up dying for the 4th or 5th time with the lowest damage of all of us, by a massive margin and I had the most damage. I had a really strong urge to point that out to this guy with 3X my levels but I ended up not doing that. At least the other two players were awsome and were super thankful for a saved run, improving my mood greatly.
I went into great detail here but that was 2 runs out of +/- 75. The others were all great fun with great people.
The best individual run has got to be the level 35 first true survivor run I completed. I was the most experienced player of the group and was the coordinator of that run. It was on archivum and there was an instance where a chorus zealot saved the run because he activated chorus eventhough we weren’t in immediate danger but we didn’t have gold toughness. Withing 5 frames of him activating it, I take a sniper shot, putting me to 2 HP. Everyone played flawlessly, coordinated perfectly and it felt great to win in such a dominant fashion.
The best experience I had was playing with a group of 3, beyond god-tier, randoms that legit didn’t need to coordinate with a single word to just destroy that level 40 map (chasm station). Play at such a high level and in such stark contrast to your regular “DT with randoms experience”, it could make you weap tears of joy. I hadn’t felt so happy to play with strangers in a very long time.
I’d put links or screenshots here but I’m currently not home 
I might add some footage after the holidays.
Is Chasm Station finally on the havoc list?? Love this map and haven’t seen it in havocs yet.
More likely I confused the name of the map.
I mean the one with the trains in the middle and the 5 ammo capsules in the end 
Ah poop, yeah that’s Chasm Logistratum 
(still a good mission tho)
Jup, that’s the one
Ahh, those very rare moments with great players in pubs. Nice… Sadly, I wasn’t so lucky to get that at all in my experience. I had to play with a pre-made, but these guys were incredible also. It fulfilled my heart & neurons with absolute charisma. We played our hearts out together & succeeded. We were along for the ride the entire time till rank 40. Even got ‘True Survivor’ not even thinking about it just kind of happened. Always nice to actually have that trust & understanding in people while playing, it’s a good feeling.
this. waiting in the party finder and depending on randos to accept me kills my desire to play havoc.
it’s like they made this finder, no one used it, so they decided to make something that requires using the finder.
i just want to get to 40 and be done with it.
Yea, I logged in tonight, put my havoc mission in the finder and waited for a while. Two requests to join. Waited for a while longer. Never got a third request. Eventually I logged off. Playing Balatro now.
Literally,100000000% true. Pubs are dead weight awaiting for the slaughter to commence. Every. single. time. Literally, literally, every time. I’m last alive trying to clutch my little heart out. I’m not trying to be mean, but the vast majority of players aren’t that skilled at this game. Just some people are not built for this game & that’s fine. I’m willing to bet only a small percentage are Havoc-ready-worthy, sweaty try-hards like myself lol 
Pre-mades are where it’s at right now. Trustworthy, dependable, hardly any downs, skilled, you don’t carry them much & they’re fun. Changing from pubs to pre-mades is a night & day difference for sure. I wanted to get 40 & True Survivor with the cosmetics fast… that’s what happened, within 2-days of it coming out grinding with buddies. It was a blast.
i have the feeling that party finder will end up pretty empty, with many good players having earned their titles and leaving, and the later arrivals just waiting. kind of how finding today people for twins hardmode without discord is the hard mode.
Wellllll I’m not sure this describes EVERY premade… 
No, it would be pretty absurd to say every single one is amazing Pre-made-wise… Mine was incredible because I know 2 of them IRL & they’re great at the game, but I’m willing to bet on average they’re better in general compared to Pubs lol. Now, I would say this has to be closer to the truth than not. I’ve played a few so far (Pre-mades) & already vastly better than Pubs. Almost every single Pub I’ve played lately is disgraceful. I’d never make such a ridiculous argument, though. I can say in my experience as somebody with almost 2.6khrs, Pubs are garbage. It’s like comparing Mike Tyson in his prime to like Eddie Croft. I’m not trying to sound super elitist here. But, I’d rather play with people with a higher skill level ability. Less stress.
This ^
I can confirm. I only have slightly over a thousand hours in the game as of now. I only play premades and yeah, they’re much better. The quality of players seems to drastically go up. Not sure why that is, but my hunch is that they’re just looking for like minded people with the skills to complete hard objectives too. Maybe they’re also tired of pubs? Who knows… That’s just my opinion on it. With pubs it’s more or less RNG luck it seems maybe that’s why it’s just bad in general. Granted… not all pubs I’ve been in are bad. Just that my success rate of wins with premades are just increased by a much wider margin lol.
among other reasons
Before havoc, I would’ve agreed with this instantly.
Playing auric maelstrom with randoms was essentially “solo-carry training mode” for me in 99% of cases. Very rarely did I find someone that could keep up or do better than me. It happend, it just usually was one other player and certainly never a full team of that caliber. There’s a reason I have “true survivor” but not “atoms elite guard”.
Playing auric maelstrom with premades from either my friendslist or the public discord was a night and day difference.
Now in havoc, randoms are usually more than good enough to get the job done, most of the time. The dynamic hasn’t really changed for me. I’m still usually the best player but the gap is nowhere near as large as it was before. Then again, I vetted whomever I accepted more thoroughly than I’ve seen most people and I got most of my playtime in the first week and a half so I had the most serious players to pick from.
Having tried to help others for my penance, I can tell, most of those same good players are now foundin one of two places. In level 40s or offline.
The average quality of randoms will go down over time until we get new content for havoc.
If you’re doing your own assignments, which teammates you get is on you, partially.
If you’re doing someone elses, you wont know what you’re working with.
That’s where I’m going to look to my friends to help them, help me
I just want to say something about Havoc in general. I know get ready… Controversial take in coming. I actually really enjoyed it personally & not because of the lazy artificial difficulty either… It really was the people you play with that made it great. I never felt more alive playing Darktide before with this mode because now more than ever you really have to work together because it’s really a life & death situation depending on the team decision making. I really like this aspect a lot in Havoc. We all know only a certain percentage of the player base can really complete this mode effectively (the ones with more talent), so obviously not too many people are going to last or really complete this 100%. I know it gets sht & all that. I know some stuff needs to be fixed still. Overall, I’d give this like a solid 7/10 in my book, which is a slightly more than middle-of-the-road. This was really designed for I feel the more committed try-hard, end-game players. The ones who’ve really been there & were dedicated. Like us in this forum. Next big update; I really want to see another game mode, but with a more broader audience in mind where all players can really give it a go & be included. We know after the more try-hards get done with this mode & collect titles, insignias, cosmetics, that’s it, it will be dead most likely just how it is. Just look at twins mode it was dead literally in a month or so. All-in-all, it was decent for sure even with all my complaints with it.