Finally done with Ogryn penances, onto Psyker ones. As title states, I’m picking the class back from when game first released, so I’m a little rusty. I wanna make sure I’m focusing on the best staff and stats, though.
I already know the best melee is either Antax V or the Force Sword. What about staffs?
Which is your favorite and why?
/Edited OP to include force/blaze swords, because I didn’t realize there were several models.
//Edited again, because I’m wondering if any ranged weapons at all, other than the Shredder Autopistol, apparently, are worth using, or if I should just sell them or take them for their blessings?
///Edited again, because which dueling sword is better?
You’ll find each staff has it’s fans, so I think it mostly depends on your preferred playstyle. Personally I run a purga with flurry and nexus. Drop is damage stat. 76 burn is necessary for max stacks but identical to 80. Cloud radius is actually range. The real BiS blessing for purga is slaughterer 4 on a force sword.
Gun psyker is pretty good overall, the staffs aside from a skilled user using trauma force are all underwhelming, and the Autopistol with pinning fire is broken in general.
The only weapon that competes with a pinning fire Autopistol is a pinning fire Bolter and Psyker can’t use Bolter. Bolter wouldn’t synergize as well with head pop chance on hit as well as the Autopistol anyway.
Force swords are all strong. I would rate Illisi at the top for the most useful power attack that can also just be looped to build peril rapidly for unstable/warp unleashed power stacking. It staggers elites which is generally better for gameplay too, much better to control 2 ragers for no commitment than lock onto 1. Not having a single target attack is 100% a gameplay buff when you have a +damage special.
I was coping for a bit but this is actually the best melee in the game atm, I have to remember to use staff.
I just got lucky with a Blaze Illisi V Sword I looted at trascended with lv4 Bloodthirsty and lv4 Slaugheter. This thing absolutely wrecks and it’s not even high rating, with 304, 40% peril resistance, and 40% movement, everything else is pretty decent, so it’s pretty good.
It’s not a weapon that can be used well by most of the player base. I don’t use the thing. It is the only staff I’ve seen that even remotely compares to an Autopistol Psyker in terms of kills and overall damage output.
I got a mad roll on a flame staff lately, and frankly imo it tops all the others, but ultimately what is best for me may not suit your tastes. I’ve seen every staff put to stellar use in Damnation, but Flame staff and Trauma are my favorites.
In short, flame staff for trash, and the OG force sword for taking down freaks that got too close to head pop.
Sword gain u good melee, kinetic barrage + warp battery gives u many oppurtunities, like oneshot flamers, maniacs, poxbusters and twoshot ogryns on damnation. Very fast, very stable, very useful when u play hi intensity gauntlet.
Weapon of choice?
I prefer trauma with critical chance (on blessing too) and surge. My second is purgatus, just when i see 3 ogryns/veterans in party, because clearing hordes with having 0 ammo is much more faster and easier when u have purgatus. Third is…surge. I know, i know somebody there will post “o my god, surge is BAD”. I answer no. Its not bad, its have different ROLE and need not only your brain active. I play many hi intensity gauntlets on damnation and i swear, when u have, at least, NORMAL teammates u can pick up surge and magick appears. Dogs? Stunned, 3 mutants train? Stunned, lots of gunners? U know the drill, stunned. Just dont try to clear hordes with it, u have teammates for it.
Voidstaff?
I dont like it. Why i need that pattern of damage (ball of energy) when it lacks of damage (even with critbuild and surge). I know many of psykers love voidstaff, but answer me - can voidstaff clear hordes? Yes, u can, but less effective then purgatus because of crowdcontrol. Can voidstaff CC many ogryns at once? No, trauma and surge better for this. Can void kill fast many gunners? Yes, but if they walks in a line. Perfect one. So kinetic barrage do this faster. Oi, and trauma is way better in things about gunners in covers (surge too)…
Guns? I dont like them. Why i need to depent on ammo when i have weapons with unlimited one?
I run illisi + infernus laspistol + ascendant blaze build.
The sword takes care of trash, pistol shreds any elites or specials (high crit chance very quickly burns pretty much everything to death in seconds) and has the cool force push special in the hands of the psyker that can push charging poxbursters down from a safe distance, and it helps pick off pesky shooters that try to keep their distance and shoot from cover (psykers biggest weakness), and the ultimate with 6 warp charges built up is a good emergency button for rescuing downed teammates or getting out of being cornered by ragers/maulers.
Also the pistol has such a ridiculously high mobility stat, you can just Sprint away from any danger at the drop of a hat.
It’s a jack of all trades build that works well in high intensity damnation, I have fun with it.
Dump stat on force swords is pretty much always warp resistance since it’s the only one you don’t need and having high peril helps boost damage in a lot of builds. Mobility is surprisingly important on psykers since your dodge is the only thing keeping you alive and it needs to actually get you out of arms reach when you use it.
I’ve never had a run with someone who used it who wasn’t a liability most of the time. Like, people NEVER consider where the enemies are going to land, and the thought that everything outside the centre of the explosion is just going to get up and start whacking people from all angles never crosses their minds. They just blow up the centre of the pack and think they’re being useful.
It’s so strong for area control, but nobody ever uses it for that, they just make hordes go boom and then wonder why their runs are always so hard.
It’s just one of those troll weapons that consistently makes easily manageable situations into challenging ones. Same as in V2.
The Illis Force sword is probably the best because it’s charged special is so strong at dealing with hordes and you don’t get locked to the target like other force swords. Warp Resist and somewhat mobility are dump stats for it. Blessings you want slaughter and deflector. If you’re fine going without deflector then unstable power is also decent.
Force Staves IMHO are all kinda underwhelming:
Purge is great for horde clear, but the force sword does well with that anyway, and you give up ability to deal with masses of ranged targets.
Surge is great for stunlocking elites/armor if your team works with you, but if you’re on your own you can be left in trouble.
Voidstrike is fun and all, but the damage is too low given the charge time that’s needed to even clear normal ranged enemies, let alone elites. It doesn’t snipe well (I really wish it was more like VT’s bolt staff)
Trauma can be good but it takes a lot of skill and doesn’t have the best flexibility because of how it’s aiming works. I find it irritating because it knocks enemies around too much and makes it harder to keep them corralled.
So given that staves are underwhelming, I’ve really embraced Gun Psyker and think it’s the way to go. You have to be carful with ammo, especially if there is no Vet on the team. But you do have Brain Burst for dealing with harder ranged targets. Guns I’ve found successful:
Shredder Autopistol with pinning fire - one of the best guns in the game. This is great for more front-line, aggressive play. Mobility is amazing.
Las Pistol (someone mentioned the merits of this one above)
Vraks Mk VII Headhunter Autogun - take Falter and No Respite. Falter gives it a huge stagger bonus and No Respite applies bonus damage to staggered enemies. This is great for helping your team deal with masses of ranged enemies and the stagger is great for countering specials.
Level 10 - Warp Unleashed if comfortable keeping your peril high, otherwise Wrack & Ruin is fun and synergizes well with Ascending Blaze (below)
Level 15 - Psychic Communion for the passive chance to gain warp charges and trigger Essence Harvest, thus keeping toughness up.
Level 20 - Kinetic Deflection is amazing for survivability and pairs well with Warp Unleashed. Especially good if using a deflector force sword, since blocking ranged can keep your peril up.
Level 25 - Kinetic Flayer. Another means of gaining warp charges for toughness, but also synergizes well with rapid fire weapons like the autopistol. the damage boost is great for killing armored targets. It’s also really satisfying.
Level 30 - Ascending Blaze. Helps thin out and quickly kill hordes and mixed elites. If you do take Wrack & Ruin it has a nice synergy with it since you can BB elites a couple of times to get 4+ stacks on enemies and then Asending Blaze for another 4 stacks. That’s enough to kill most trash mobs right there. This also gives you another pathway for gaining warp charges (and is further boosted with Wrack & Ruin).
It was a warpforged piece of equipment summoned forth by Slaneesh’s might them self. What do you mean, it’s not warp related?
What he said. Deimos for Single Target. Ilsi for Horde Clear. The original Force Sword is meh, but you can unlock it earlier (irrelevant since you are lvl 30).