After experiencing more stealth/dagger users in the last month than I have in an entire year - I need to say this.
If you think surviving longer than your entire team means absolutely anything when you’re running either stealth or dagger, you are completely wrong.
If you think you have any type of skill for running away from every engagement, you are very wrong.
If you think you contribute anything to the team other than a glorified res bot, you are very wrong.
Accomplishing anything with a dagger/stealth build is the equivalent of having literal training wheels on a bicycle. Only difference is, most people can ride a bike after taking off the training wheels - take away stealth/dagger from these people and they’ll crumble into dust.
Why did I make this post? Probably because I got hit by 3 bursters in a row yesterday after “such a helpful” stealth user would go invisible directly in front of them, glitch them out, run past and let them blow on his teammates. Yes, this happened 3 times and the most hilarious part was the guy is absolutely oblivious to how utterly dumb his gameplay is.
Anytime I see stealth/dagger I instantly think “huge crutch”. To each their own.
be careful with generalities. There are good combat blade shroudfield players.
I personally hate this gameplay. With combat blade I use it on a veteran or on zealot with dash (tbh dash is my way to go, I don’t like other abilities).
And tbh, I actually play zealot loner a lot when playing in cooperation. Just cause random don’t wait. The chances to find a good team are really too tiny to hope for it. And as I loot chests, loner is really great cause I tend to be always behind (randoms never wait).
Often, I am behind until they all die… then I stay alone until I liberate them… and this never stop them to run away again…
So I guess you could also don’t like my way to play… that has changed due to randoms that never wait, now I don’t take risks to revive/help someone that never wait… too many times it has lead to a wipe. However, when I can, I help.
Sidenote, playing auric maelstrom is usually a better experience and here i rarely pick loner… just cause there are better chances to find a team that play as a… team.
Vet has shout, zealot charge.
I can’t imagine not using them, they’re just so good. Maybe the zealot chant if you’re doing havoc, but for more generalised play… pfft. Easy choice.
I used cloak to complete some of the zealot penances, and it was just that. A penance.
I’ve used cloak on a vet when I got annoyed after a string of games with players just deliberately not doing or covreing the objective hacks. But it’s a poor player’s choice vs the shout.
Only time I used a combat blade was on my Psyker so I could get the hang of moving around properly then I never touched it again. In a game where movement is KING, combat blade has absolutely no place because its extremely overtuned.
Also, “good combat blade/shroudfield players” - in my mind, using stealth or knife on this game eliminates probably 50% of the enjoyement. All that adrenaline and enjoyment goes out the window when there’s a “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD FOR 5 SECONDS EVERY 20 SECONDS” on top of extreme movement speed/dodge distance. Like I said, to each their own but in my personal opinion stealth and combat blade should both be 100% removed from this game - they belong no where close to a game like this. “Team oriented gameplay” aka “give players an anti-team ultimate” smart.
That’s my point exactly - it is a crutch. There shouldn’t be a magical “win” button where I can switch my spec and become this invisible powerhouse that can’t even be caught/seen by enemies while everyone else has to die fighting.
And that’s wrong. Shroudfield is too much for sure… but combat blade alone…
I had my time with combat blades. Honestly, I love it on the veteran cause of the mobility.
I am actually playing achlys combat axe (I love but the weapon is not the best efficient) and also relic blade (that I consider at same level of a rashad combat axe) on zealot.
I have seen players killing a lot with combat blade, and when they were reaching top DPS it was always shroudfield build. But obviously I can deal a lot more damages with a combat axe than with combat blade.
If I take a combat blade it will be:
for the movement
for the carapace damages
And only that… cause for anything else I have better options. Especially to deal damages…
Stealth as a revive or operating terminals has it’s benefit. Problem with stealth, no stagger if stuck in a horde.
It is a big responsibility - If going stealth as defence, better make sure to finish off or excess mobs will aggro to team. i.e. stealth to get out of trouble then take out the excess making it’s way to team quickly.
Dash and ability to double dash can stagger/push and proc crit damage more consistently and continuously spam literally every 3-4 secs in horde. If there 2 groups of elites, double dash can zip ahead, take one group then zip to another, by then you’ll get enough hits to charge back up to one. The chain effect is pretty good. I invite anyone to try 3x +3 Stamina curios, with CDR and stamina regen. The way the curios compliment this style of play is next level.
Fully heavy with pokey weapon and combine with dash is one shot to crusher via head. Double dash, that’s 2x one shots. All in 5 secs.
The dash also operates as fallback if you run out of blocks/dodges and fire it off to push back. 2 charges, means even more buffer if mis-judged remaining dodges.
Fun aspect of stealth - If last man standing only Stealth causes AI to completely stop whilst you get so many secs to run away to next mission segment to revive the others way before AI realises you’re unstealth to go back to you. You can create so much distance from AI to save the team compared to dash in this scenario. Last man standing more likely to survive with stealth than dash.
The revive and terminal operating I think is it’s main advantages. Almost like a support function of team.
there are people using builds with all the mobility and just swapping out the stealh for somthing else too… so you dont notice at the ready up screen and think they will have your back in combat… but in fact they just run for cover the moment anything happens and leave you hanging out to dry.
Last one into cover is a corpse lol combine this with the insane ranged enemy damage and the laggy servers letting you take hits during the slide animation and you got yourself a very frustrating game.
I really just think it has too much movement capability. It outpaces every enemy in the game with ease except for mutants/dogs. I had tons of issues trying to play a psyker after maining a zealot for damn near 1k hours - switched to a combat blade and never had issues surviving again. Couldn’t kill any hordes, but I could just run in circles while other people killed the hordes for me - which brings me to the main issue.
The dagger is a crutch tied with insane movement speed and terrible damage requiring a specific build OR decent playtime to actually be damage capable. Which means, anyone running the dagger is using it for mobility/survival, not killing ability. I don’t know about you… but there’s always TONS of extras left over in hordes and more - I have to take care of sh*t tons of extras because half the people running these knives can’t kill anything, they just run in circles waiting for the few specials they think are worth killing come out, then they go back to running in circles. It’s anti-teamplay oriented and forces others into doing more work because there’s a singular weapon that enables players to become 40k version of the flash.
I find that shroudfield is best used like fury of the faithful, and occasionally it’s good for objectives. People do need to stop being neutral in stealth while their team takes all the aggro for no reason. The combat blade is also one of the highest damage weapons in the game if you take advantage of crits and finesse damage.
But yeah, a light attack spamming shroudfield user that just uses stealth to survive while they let their entire team die - I have witnessed many times. It’s honestly worse than a smite spammer.
No joke I watched as he stood in the back firing autogun at random useless mobs, any danger he would go stealth, stand there and wait whilst aggro goes to team mates. Then goes back to firing at random mobs again.
Hmm, I’ve seen almost no Knife+Invisibility combo lately. I would venture to guess that the author has encountered inexperienced players, or those who do not understand what to do in such a combination.
Statements about the removal of these two things do sound like childish offence.
But for example about Zealot’s Prayer, which will allow the team to do absolutely anything, and vanshot the boss (if the place is suitable) - we do not have a problem with this)?
