Background: I played DT during the pre-launch period(s). I’ve played it since before launch, during launch, and still to this day. Roughly 1000 hours, about 650 of which were spent as psyker. I only play damnation+ and I used to, with ease, solo damnation HI and STG and barely even take a scratch the entire match.
Now? …Psyker is so incredibly frustrating and un-fun. Even on ‘baby mode’ regular damnation no modifiers, a single stray bullet not only completely removes all of my toughness but also half my health. Every weapon is so incredibly underpowered and useless, and even the most fun game mechanic in any game I’d ever played (Brain Burst) is so slow and underpowered it’s absolutely USELESS.
What happened to psyker after the Class Overhaul?! This is exactly when something specific changed and it’s been completely nerfed into oblivion. I’ve tried multiple different builds, talents, weapons, you name it. There is absolutely no reason to play psyker, now.
I’m not asking rhetorically, btw. I’m genuinely confused and curious - I have searched the changelogs since class overhaul and can’t figure it out. What has changed with psyker? I’m taking a significant amount more dmg from all sources than “usual”, I’m not able to output nearly the same amount of dmg, and it, overall, feels bad and un-fun to play now (any build, any weapon, it all just…sucks.)
2 main changes IMO, half of the pre 13 base health and toughness was stripped and moved to nodes in the talent tree (and it’s impractical to get all of them back). Warp rider was nerfed 0-20% from 10-20%.
Strange, psyker is the class that generates toughness the most easily. It is squishy without it, but basically anything you do generates your toughness back if you choose the right talents. Brain burst was always underpowered sadly, but basically all of the staves are really strong and useful now, especially trauma and voidstrike.
i don’t want to be a dck, but it is either a skill issues or you are out of practice. Most likely the latter.
Yes I fully expected the “you suck and don’t know anything” posts but this is 100% not the information I’m seeking. Zaygr’s post (above) is more in line with an actual contribution to the discussion but still doesn’t change the fact that they’ve essentially nerfed the entire class of psyker into oblivion.
Psyker has the least amount of available Damage Reduction of all 4 operatives. Most everyone else can accumulate around +40-80% Toughness Damage Reduction* (TDR) depending on the situation and the ways their passives are triggered.
Psyker is insanely squishy now. They make up for this by having a font of toughness generation with all of the talents at the top of their tree being available, but as a lot of people find out, this generally isn’t enough when 1 Bruiser smacking you in the back can instantly delete 50% of your toughness due to so little TDR afforded to you. It takes very little for Psykers to be instantaneously taken out by a couple of enemies in the blink of an eye, and it doesn’t even have to be that bad of a situation for it to happen.
Psykers have to stop everything they’re doing just to make sure that doesn’t happen and it gets worse when the squad is a bit dysfunctional, but they’re a very powerful teammate when they operate with a well-oiled team.
*This number isn’t representative of additive coefficients. Having +20% TDR with +15% TDR with +40% TDR doesn’t actually add up to +75% TDR. It’s probably more like +30-40%.
I mean there was a vote here where people felt that psyker was the least badly affected after patch 13. The vote wanted to demonstrate that veteran is in a bad place but it also showed that psyker was at the best place. There were a few minor nerfs after that but I think it is arguable that patch 13 benefited psyker and ogryn the most and I do think that the reason for that is that these 2 classes can generate toughness the most consistantly.
Edit:
I especially said that I think that it’s not that you are bad but that you are out of practice.
IMO psyker is the strongest class right now you just have to get used to half a dozen updates first.
It’s also from people who know nothing. Anyone who tells you Psyker has good ways of regeneration toughness haven’t even looked at what other classes can do. If you take a hit as a Psyker, you have no way of instantly being back to full toughness to negate health damage, the way other classes do. People look at all the toughness talents at the top of the tree and go “wow look at all that”, but they don’t actually understand any of it, or how other classes can instantly refresh toughness way quicker and in much larger numbers.
On top of that, yeah, Psyker has the absolute worst Damage Reduction in the game, damage was nerfed, Warp Siphon was destroyed by quickening etc.
And perhaps even more importantly, most enemy health values in the game were adjusted UP, while the staves kept their old (which was bad even before) damage, and their old 95% useless worthless blessings.
Psyker is comfortably the worst class by a significant margin. It has by far the worst effective health, and it has the lowest DPS. It’s a glass nerfgun.
Do we play the same psyker? On my lvl 250+ psyker, I never struggle with toughness generation. I mean kills and quelling peril guarantees that you have toughness and your position as a psyker means that you can utilize both. DMG reduction is not as important as you make it to be. Voidstrike and surge staves got a huge buff, voidstrike had to be nerfed because of this. Trauma can get you consistant 800 000+ dmg per mission, in good hands a million is not so hard. Purgatus is meh, but it was the victim of the flamer and purgatus nerfs back in the day.
Calling psyker the worst is basically a sign of you not being good at playing the class. Sorry but what you say is incorrect and just signals people that they should not even try the class, based on not understanding it.
Psykers are nerfed everytime Veteran players are not able to top the scoreboards and complain until they are again, so most build possibilities are just horde clear if you’re not specifically implementing a purpose to the build.
How was Surge buffed, exactly? Do be specific. Does it do more, not less, damage to Carapace and Flak, for instance? Does it perhaps target more enemies than before, not fewer? The range was increased, but that’s about it.
You citing damage numbers and saying Psyker is in a great place just speaks volumes of how little you know about the other classes, and how bad you are at playing them.
Yes I am super toxic, for using the exact same argument that you did. Pot, meet kettle.
I handily debunked your argument about buffed Surge, to which all you can say is “It’s high damage, man! Like, really, trust me bro! I’m all over the auric maelstrom, man!”
Jesus, what is with this anger, man? What did you debunk? How? Our arguments are not even comparable. If you say, it is the worst class and insinuate it is this unusable, you are objectively wrong. And you being here, getting angry does not help you. Calm down and put together an actual argument.
idk, i’ve always used the psyker as a support class, and the class update made it even better for how i like to play it. i was never into damage builds, so i can’t say anything about the damage output compared to before, but as a support class, i still find it fun and satisfying on auric dmn+.
it’s definitely a squishy class, but being able to gain toughness back on the fly more than makes up for it, imo. after i’ve played a few games with my psyker, and then move back to any other class, i always feel like i was spoiled on the psyker. it rewards good positioning now more than ever. you’ll get caught with your pants down a few times, but that’s why you’ve got a team that can hopefully cover up any mistakes you make, and vice versa.
Apart from venting shriek with quietude. The dome also gives you a shitload of toughness regen. Only gun psyker builds should have systemic issues with toughness regen when played well.
This would only function when at high peril. Which means it’s only a panic button some of the time - and you’d almost never get 50%. There’s no way your timing that your peril is at 100% the exact moment you need a panic button. Shriek is also, on it’s own, a godawful terrible ability. The push/stagger is truly pathetic, and come on now, a talent to… do 100-200 damage? Holy poo. The blaze talent is also… really bad since the health of everything has increased, and it now only gives 6 stacks if you’re at full peril. YET another nerf.
It’s also a no-go for any Warp Siphon builds, since you can never press F. Doing so would dump all your DPS (direct DPS from warp charges, and indirect DPS from lower peril gain.)
You can spec into dome for 10% every second, yes. It’s the closest you could get to an ‘oh crap’ button, but it’s not instant 50% regain. And once again, it will only work if you have selected either of the two really bad keystones. Otherwise pressing F is a massive disadvantage.
Unlike the other classes, which often have huge damage bonuses to go along with toughness/Damage Reduction on the F.
Building for quick Domes or quick venting shrieks while using a staff means you are forgoing badly needed DPS from Warp Siphon, and also badly needed uptime from Warp Siphon. Obviously Void can be built to negate peril on it’s own pretty well, but then you’re giving up crit chance, double surge crit, or faster charging for blessings. On a decidedly mid staff when compared to the weapons of other classes.
Meanwhile my Zealot gets 50% toughness regen every 5 seconds, on top of insane damage reduction - and killing things a helluva lot faster than a Psyker.
Psyker is indeed in a bad state, can’t understand why people are so blind about it. the fact that in the current Twins Hard Mode Psyker doesn’t bring anything to the team is the proof of that. every other class is more tanky, deals more damage and can support better than a Psyker. Honestly i think half of the problem are its weapons while the other half is that he doesn’t have a way to give “overthoughness” to himself and teammates like other classes do.
Before someone answer me the classic comment “Nooo see i always am top DMG/elite/bosses/milfs in the leaderboard with my psyker skill issue yada yada”, please play the other classes and notice how much Psyker is weaker than them, you can be good at the game, get to be the best player in 9/10 missions but you can’t deny facts. at the beginning of the Class Overhaul Psyker was in a good spot, now he got too many nerfs, happens but be honest about it.
Btw OP if you want to do a lot of dmg with Psyker try Gunpsyker with the column and its dedicated build, i know you probably want to play staves since but it’s the only way to get good DPS with Psyker. Staves are viable but are in the mediocre category.