Most?
My dude how did you took a thread with 21 unique users in it and conjured most players out of it?
well, i didnât count the contrarians.
itâs on fatshark though that smite is a badly designed ability. people will use it as long as it lets them get away with standing in a corner holding a button.
It sounds like you think smite is trash and offers nothing, but I have seen a lot of people complain about the opposite. That it makes the game too easy and becomes a cake walk and they want a challenge.
I donât feel like I encounter these perma smite players very frequently and I got over 1000 hours in the game now. I pretty much only do auric QPs (which I donât think throws me into Maelstrom⌠would be nice to have a âquick play buttonâ button that could add me into auric mortis trial, auric vanilla, or maelstrom mission). Havoc⌠I have to play too careful for it to be fun.
But when I have played with smykers I havenât really cared. Let them be the cool CC peep while I killed things. Sometimes they made a match super easy, other times they were new and I just carried a bit. No big deal either way.
And the casuals which are the majority of players and likely do not care about the smite and also the portion of the players that are serious about Darktide and are fine with smite.
You didnât count at all, did you?
Smite has a bit of a two-sided rep thing going on. On one hand, itâs useless when used wrong and some newbies actually complain it needs a buff (it really doesnât).
The real problem being discussed here is the opposite, itâs far, far too strong. Built right & used well it renders an entire screenful of mobs AFK basically indefinitely. Which makes the game super boring, easy, and just erases all the fun interactions & gameplay we actually play DT for.
Now thereâs nothing wrong with people who love a power trip and prefer this. I use cheese and even cheats in some singleplayers too, just to adjust the gameplay closer to something I like. But many of us play the hardest difficulties precisely for the challenge & adrenaline. That anyone can just come along and hold a button to say âno, youâre gonna be shooting AFKâs for the 5:th round in a row bc I say so and you wonât have any challenge or fun at allâ, and that weâve had this situation for close to 2 years now? Thatâs a problem. 
90% useless, overused crutch that gets user killed and stunts their growth and makes the game a crapshow of a slog always waiting and rescuing smyker.
10% really (too?) strong in the hands of a good player.
Read the older thread if youâre new here, e.g.:
P.S. Another oldie Smykers getting out of hand
search the forum for threads on smite and youâll find the same arguments against it everywhere: it turns the enemy off. itâs simply not engaging to fight against enemies who canât even move. it also turns off buffs (toughness / crit) that activate on dodge, because thereâs nothing to dodge. that ruins the experience of others who would like to play against active enemies, see OP.
as for the smykers themselves, they get so used to their crutch that they never learn to melee properly and fall on their face when trying to smite green enemies. the only reason why many builds use smite is psykineticâs aura and seerâs presence right below. one can also pulse smite briefly and send the enemies to the ground, or use it to pump peril for more damage. but i guess thatâs too demanding for casuals who like to think that keeping a button pressed equals good gameplay.
I was in your shoes once. This was the first big âcontroversyâ I saw in the community when I started poking around. I didnât get it either, I hate build policing in games in general.
Then, as I climbed in difficulty and personal skill, I started to understand.
The best way I can describe it is to start off with how I think Darktide differs in the horde genre. The key thing I donât think I see in other horde shooters is that the horde is a resource, not just an impediment. Player power in this game comes from interacting with (attacking, dodging, CCing, etc) the hordes.
Smite psykers (the specific type that spam it endlessly), deprive you of this resource. That makes you and your build worse and is also just plain less fun to play around.
The first time I really opened my eyes on why it got so much hate was in Havoc 1.0 when a smyker would use it at the most inappropriate times from within their own bubble and cause the rest of us to overextend outside of safety to deal with the mess they were making.
Then I started to notice it more in regular missions and how much less fun it was having to take out one poxwalker at a time.
Then I noticed what it was actually doing to my builds and I joined the smyker hate train.
I donât leave lobbies or flame in-game like some stories youâll see, but Iâm never happy to see smite on a sparkhead when partying cuz the chance they know how to use it appropriately or donât use it at all are pretty low. I say that even as I have a favorite psyker build with smite that I never use, itâs just the best node for it.
No one (hopefully) hates psykers who use it right, which is usually as an âoh shite, Iâm in a baaad spotâ in their back pocket. Itâs Smykers that main it and (near) nothing else.
Adding to this, itâs so common. I wouldnât mind if I just occasionally got a Smyker in my match, but in Aurics it feels like at least 50% of my runs have a Psyker who uses it constantly, even on small groups of Poxwalkers, which slows the game to a crawl.
If someone brought it, used it in emergencies against a horde of Bulwarks and Crushers to save the team, I would not mind. That is what the skill should be used for; a panic button in intense situations. This is why, if it had charges or something, it would be okay.
Between smite and the new taunt Ogryn it completely takes the fun out of the game for me.
I just kinda sit there having an âOhâŚ.okayâ moment while everyone either stands still or walks away from me. Its a really selfish playstyle that pauses the momentum of gameplay, rather than being a short breather to gather yourself (which I assume its meant to be).
This is where where smite shines.
Smite by it self doesnât really do much it just stuns a bunch of enemies and softens them up. You need your teammates to kill the ones you are smiting otherwise you will be in that match forever.
I love smite, itâs cool as hell and itâs a supportive skill!
Essentially itâs crowd-control, like: Frag Grenades, Stun Grenades, Indomitable, Loyal Protector, Ogryn Block Taunt, VoC, Zealotâs CoSF, Arbites Shield Special Attack, Push Blocking, Staggering and suppression etc.
All these things âdisruptâ the engagement with the enemies making them do essentially nothing.
I havenât been bothered by a Psyker using Smite yet! But i never play Smite on my Psyker, if another psyker has it because itâs really inefficient, and Iâm terrified to use it to much when i play Psyker.
But itâs not just âholding down a buttonâ that is kind of disingenuous, a lot of builds in this game revolves around holding down a specific button.
- If anything hits you, instantly you are interrupted.
- itâs about 7-8 seconds from 0 - 100 peril. (Then you need to quell or fight)
- You move really slow when are casting peril. (You will be left behind)
- If no one engages the targets getting smitten you arenât pretty much doing nothing.
So you need to constantly look around, dodging but not to much so you have dodges left for when that Poxwalker spawns behind you and keep track of your mates so you donât fall behind or paint yourself into a corner with 6 crushers and a horde.
Smite is much more noticeable when it happens compared to other CC mechanics.
Sure is nice ability to have as a glass cannon when you are in tough spot.
Not much to add here really other than they should definitely rework it so I can use it without feeling dirty. Itâs just got too many synergies with the rest of the tree that give it absurdly high uptime.
My friend, Smite doesnât have to be nerfed into the ground. It can still be a great Blitz, it just needs to be redesigned. Think more like this:
The biggest issue with Smite is the uptime, it needs longer cooldown between uses. Doing so could justify making the damage and stagger - at least against the initial target - stronger. Staggering bosses for example. Smite could become much more versatile as a Blitz if the right changes are made, while simultaneously becoming more balanced.
Exactly my thoughts, also because of this electrocution being tied to stamina consumption for push attacks there would be a reasonable limit to it.
Here is an idea!
What if smite just slowed enemies down rather than stunned them outright.
Temporarily slowing down the movement speed and attack speed of the enemy would keep its utility without entirely pausing the gameplay.
Fair thought but I think a burst ability with a cooldown would be preferable. However it works ideally it shouldnât be something you can just spam the whole map.
You sacrifice your damage for control and it enforces team-play, design-wise I think itâs fine but apparently it doesnât fit well with some synergies, and feels disengaging for other players.
I donât really see way for smite to be âfixedâ and keeping itâs designed intention.
I was thinking this as well, but it might be just as frustrating if it slows down melee timings etc.
This. Sidegrade some of that uptime into damage.
My way. It keeps the current functionality of Smite while giving Charged Smite actual downtime.
This prevents the issue of perma-Smite, which is currently turning Missions into a glorified Psykhanium. My way retains Smiteâs current functionality while enforcing its intended role.
There is nothing wrong with this build, itâs a full-support build of psyker, and many people prefer playing support builds in general. We must not rob them of options, this game is packed with action enough, literally 95% of builds are action-driven.
The fact that you met some ppl that canât use it properly doesnât justify its removal (or anything else). New players, or experimenting players, will always be the case, and when playing PUGs you have to deal with it, comes with the territory. Find a static group with âproperâ psykers in it.