For the past day or so I’ve been stuck at home for reasons relating to health. Being a fan of both 40k and of Fatshark’s recent games, I decided to have a bit of fun and do a bit of work to keep myself occupied and to pass the time.
I’m well aware that these changes will more than likely not even be seen by anyone other than forum moderators, let alone be incorporated into the game, but – hey, we can dream, right? Really, I can only hope the right people take notice and realize how Psykers need to be refitted back into their intended role.
If you see any suggested changes that you like, let me know. Likewise, if you think something here is problematic and have a way to potentially tweak it, by all means, I’m open to constructive criticism.
So, if you want to see what an FQA / Specialist can slap together in an afternoon, here ya’ go.
What is a Psyker in Darktide?
Let’s start this off with an overview of what the class is and what role it was meant to fill.
Psykers were clearly designed to be a frail but powerful class and looking at their kit, iconic abilities included, they were meant to be Elite and Boss oriented. From the ‘Brain Burst’ ability built into their kit, to the fact that Warp Charges are primarily only collected with Brain Burst kills, to the majority of their feats revolving exclusively around Elites and Brain Burst itself—they were made, from the ground up, as a single-target DPS class.
They’re Elite killers.
They’re glass-canons that can melt Bosses, if decently supported.
They’re the Back-line Artillery that allows their team to hack and slash with impunity.
They’re designed to fill this niche—or were.
Psykers vs. Others
You may argue that other classes, like the Veteran, are also built with Elites in mind—and you’d be right. This is, in fact, part of the problem. While overlapping roles isn’t necessarily a bad thing in coop-based video games, there is such a thing as too much overlap. This is currently the case between Veterans and Psykers, and this overlap is only emphasizing the issues present with the latter’s overall performance.
As it stands, Psykinetics have now become one of the weakest classes in the game.
Tough to believe, I know, but let’s face facts:
To put it simply, a single semi-decent Veteran with a Bolter on your team makes Psykers entirely obsolete, and this becomes only more apparent on higher difficulties. Veterans can out-DPS Psykers, even against armoured enemies and especially, ironically, against bosses due to Warp attacks being unable to crit or take advantage of weak spots (meanwhile, Veterans get bonuses for exactly that). I’ll explain more further down.
The worst part? Having both a Veteran and a Psyker on the same team only exasperates the problem due to the Psyker’s Aura (Coherence) ability, ‘Kinetic Presence’.
Other Psyker Roles
Now, you may be thinking to yourselves that this is just an oversimplification of the Psyker’s potential and that, with the right feats and items, they can fill other roles, such as Crowd Control, AoE, Support, and even specialize in Melee. Again, you’d be right. However, when filling those roles, they’re only ever decent, never great.
What I mean by that is that no matter what they try to do or what builds are available to them, they’re outshined by every other class in any other role they choose to conform to. They can’t out-perform Zealots in melee, they can’t out-tank Ogryns, and they can’t even come close to out-killing Veterans.
Conclusion
While Fatshark may not want a distinct ‘meta’ to affect the game, they’ve inadvertently caused the Psykinetic class to fall out of it almost entirely.
They were originally designed and specialized to fill a niche but important role. Unfortunately, however, they are no longer the best suited to do so—yet they’re still designed as if this weren’t the case. Not only this, their current kit and Aura ability cause other classes to become even better at outperforming them in this one specific field; their support feats and Aura all revolve around giving other teammates bonus damage against enemies, usually Elites and Monstrosities, and no other support of any kind.
This isn’t even mentioning the fact that Psykers do not benefit from taking on supporting roles aside from not having to do combat.
Mix all of this together and you’ve created the potential for Psykers to be more detrimental than beneficial on higher difficulties (4-5), which is not a good feeling.
UNIQUE FEATS
ABILITY
PSYKINETIC’S WRATH
Quell 50% Peril & Stagger enemies in front of you.
At the moment, Psykinetic’s Wrath by default deals no damage but staggers most enemies in what looks to be a 100-degree cone ahead of you.
Most, but not all.
Beefier enemies, like the Crusher, are typically not affected. Regardless, this is actually a fairly decent ability for Crowd Control and Recovery. On very rare occasions, if properly aimed, it can give you just enough breathing room to come rally or recover from a potential team wipe. Still, its narrow cone makes it finicky, and sometimes even unreliable due to latency or hitbox issues. Overall, while decent, it’s still a bit underwhelming.
So, how do we fix this?
My suggestion:
- Increase the cooldown by 10% of its current duration.
- Increase the spread by 50% of what it is currently.
- Increase the Peril reduction rate by 100% of its current speed.
Really, these are just quality-of-life changes. Ideally, the increased spread will help mitigate hitbox shenanigans, making it more consistent and overall more reliable. Likewise, while the skill does not purge any more Peril than it already does, it does so much more quickly, meaning there are fewer chances to interrupt it. However, to ensure this isn’t just a straight buff, the skill now has a slightly longer cooldown.
Bonus fun:
When activated, teammates within the Psyker’s Coherency range will independently experience the following effects:
- Audio is immediately reduced to 75% and becomes muffled.
- High Peril sound effects (whispering) will immediately play at 50% volume.
- Sound will slowly return to normal over the course of 3 seconds.
- Low chance for classes other than Psyker to initiate any generic “Psykers are bad” dialogue.
BLITZ
BRAIN BURST
Target an Enemy and charge the ability to deal high damage.
Bear with me here:
Currently, Brain Burst by default deals roughly a fixed 1000 points of damage, reduced to 935 damage for Flak Armored Units and 825 damage for Carapace Armored Units, to any single enemy the Psyker targets. The ability takes roughly 2.5 seconds to cast, during which the Psyker is slowed significantly, and generates a total of 45 Peril, most of which during its build-up and then some extra once successfully cast. It has two modes of fire:
Left click activates the ability and locks onto the first hostile target to cross your reticle. Until this happens, it remains on standby and won’t build up any progress, but it won’t generate Peril either.
Right click does not lock onto a target, it instead causes you to prepare the ability in advance, allowing you to ‘hold’ onto it until you aim at an enemy wherein it will be immediately cast. Even once fully built up, however, it will continue to generate Peril until you reach 100 which, if you then cast the ability while at 100 Peril, you trigger ‘Perils of the Warp’.
At the moment, with how the Peril system works, a Psyker can safely cast Brain Burst (Left Click) 3 times. This will take them to 100 Peril and won’t trigger ‘Perils of the Warp’, allowing them to then vent Peril which (from 100 to 0) will roughly between 6 to 4 seconds depending on feats and what weapon you’re venting with. This also means, regardless of what the Psyker’s Peril is at, if it’s below 100% (Yes, including 99%), using Brain Burst will bring them to 100% Peril without consequence.
On paper, this sounds really useful already, but keep in mind, the damage does not scale.
At higher difficulties, beefier enemies may not even die after 3 uses of Brain Burst—some units need upwards of 8 uses. Poxhounds at difficulty 3 (Malice) take 2 Brain Bursts to kill, for example. This means, if a teammate is pinned and you, the Psyker, try to use Brain Burst to save them, you will need to cast the ability twice for a total of nearly 6 to 8 seconds, assuming you don’t need to vent Peril at any time.
The lack of any scaling, paired with how the ability costs and is just as slow to cast regardless of what enemy is targeted unfortunately means that it has no flexibility nor can it be incorporated into any build that isn’t strictly focused on targeting Elites. If you target anything else, it’s exclusively to either generate or maintain your Warp Charges or to snipe gun-wielding mobs from a distance. Or just for fun…
Let’s not forget, however, that if your target is killed before you can cast Brain Burst, you are not refunded the Peril generated nor do you get any Warp Charges.
It’s literally just a waste of time and a slap in the face with no reward.
As you can guess, this is pretty limiting, if not sometimes outright frustrating.
My suggestion:
- By default, Brain Burst now generates:
- 30 Peril instead of 45 when targeting Elites and Specialists.
- 15 Peril instead of 45 when targeting Unarmoured and/or Infested.
- More importantly, Brain Burst now also costs 1 Warp Charge:
- The Warp Charge token is only consumed when Brain Burst is successfully cast.
Non-Elites and Non-specialists do not consume tokens and may be targeted freely.This means a Psyker can safely cast Brain Burst 3 times, bringing them to 90% Peril (Spooky!). If, at any time, the Psyker casts Brain Burst wherein the cost would exceed 100%, ‘Perils of the Warp’ is triggered. Essentially, the ‘safety net’ Psykers have when reaching 100% would no longer exist.
This also means that, despite the ability not having any cooldown, by default, the Psyker can only cast it a total of 4 times before running out of Warp Charges. This mitigates the earlier issue of Brain Burst spam and, due to scarcity, forces the Psyker to use the skill more strategically.
However, if the Psyker accidentally targets a lowly mob instead of, say, the Sniper who may be sitting at an extreme range, they will not be punished for it—it still costs Peril, though, so it isn’t entirely consequence-free.
( How a Psyker generates Warp Charges will be explained in the Iconic section )
Additionally:
- Brain Burst’s Primary Action channel time reduced from 2.5 seconds to 1 second.
- Brain Burst’s Secondary Action channel time reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds.
Comparatively very speedy, but still paired with the limiting factor of requiring Warp Charges to use. The shorter channel duration means Psykers can more effectively keep up with other classes for Elite kills. This should lessen how many times Psykers have their kills stolen from them.
Furthermore:
- Brain Burst no longer generates extra Peril when successfully cast.
- Peril is only generated when channeling the ability.
- When channelling Brain Burst, if interrupted or cancelled, the Psyker immediately vents 50% of the Peril generated.
- Brain Burst’s secondary action generates Peril at 25% base speed once fully charged.
- If cancelled or interrupted, any Peril generated by the Secondary Action will not be refunded.
Small but impactful tweaks. Not only will it help lessen the frustration of a stolen kill, it also maintains some level of consequence to misusing the ability without fully casting it. If you preemptively charge Brain Burst with the secondary action, whether or not you cast it, you pay the price of convenience.
More importantly:
- Brain Burst’s damage is no longer fixed to a flat 1000.
- Brain Burst now scales: Base Damage 1000 + (Difficulty Level x 20%) + (Peril %).
- Brain Burst now ignores 100% of a unit’s armor.
Looks complicated? Maybe even overpowered? Well, actually, it isn’t. With the above, at Difficulties 3 (Malice) to 5 (Damnation), a Psyker using Brain Burst at max damage would still not kill a Mutant nor any Ogryn Elites in less than 2 hits. Now, doesn’t that sound familiar?
Keeping in mind that the minimum extra damage from Peril would be 30% due to the initial channel cost—this means, no matter the difficulty level, Psykers retain the ability to compete with other classes in terms of damage output. Paired with the faster channel time, Psykers can now quickly and effectively dispatch Elite units in a way that benefits the team and is uniquely strong.
However, not only is it not overpowered but it’s also limited by the number of Warp Charges accumulated, to a max of 4 charges by default. This means, even if Psykers are a death machine, other Elite killers, such as the Veteran, can still easily compete in terms of performance.
In short; Brain Burst would no longer be so detrimentally useless at higher levels.
—And, just like that, they’d be viable again. Hooray!
AURA
KINETIC PRESENCE
Allies in Coherency gain +10% Damage (Elite Enemies).
Total transparency: I don’t like this Aura ability.
It’s pointlessly selfless, as the Psyker does not benefit from it themselves, and it further dilutes their role as an Elite killer. It causes teammates who’re close enough to target the same Elites as the Psyker to be more effective at killing them with no benefit on the Psyker’s end other than having teammates who, now, need them a little less. Likewise, compared to other Aura abilities, like ammo and toughness regen, I feel as though it lacks any real utility outside of raw damage output.
My suggestion:
BENEDICTION
Restore 3% corruption to all Allies within Coherency range when an Elite or Specialist is killed by the Psyker or by Allies within Coherency range.
Yes, this is has the potential to be as strong as it sounds.
However, given the amount of corruption restored is percentage-based, having low to moderate corruption will likely mean you only recover from an unnoticeable amount. Not that great, really. But, in desperate situations, this has the potential to have a minor but still impactful effect! Now, having a Psyker on your team, even if they aren’t dealing as much damage, can still make the difference!
Players will routinely scoff at a 10% damage increase when they can kill things perfectly fine on their own, especially if it comes at the cost of positioning or mobility. However, they can’t recover Corruption independently, meaning this skill has an entirely unique value to it.
Similarly, this provides a much stronger and unique incentive to stick close to the Psyker—a class that, let’s face it, needs support to be successful. This incentive only gets stronger as things get direr, too.
Last but not least, not only does the Psyker benefit from this inherently, but it still benefits other classes more; an Ogryn with +300 health will recover more corruption than the Psyker with a base of 150 health. So, this is still a team-oriented contribution.
ICONIC #1
WARP SIPHON
Killing an Enemy with Brain Burst earns Warp Charge. Each Charge grants +3% Damage. Warp Charges are retained for 25s. You can store up to 4 Warp Charges.
This is alright on it’s own. Not great, not terrible. The main appeal to the Warp Charge mechanic, at the moment, are the feats you can take that are very specifically tuned to it, like 33% damage resistance or Peril resistance.
The +3% damage, however, is barely noticeable. Even if you’re running the specific feat that lets you carry 6 charges instead of 4; with a 1000 damage Brain Burst, the bonus damage is only roughly 180 points of damage more—even less on other things such as melee. So, really, it makes no difference whatsoever.
For this reason, the time limit before you lose all your charges feels pointlessly strict and only encourages the Psyker to waste their time popping lowly mobs instead of hacking and slashing with the team to maintain whatever buff they have.
My suggestion:
WARP CONDUIT
For every Enemy killed, you have a chance to gain a Warp Charge: 3% to 5% from common enemies and 10% from Elites and Specialists. Kills made with Warp attacks have double the odds of generating a Warp Charge.
Warp Charges do not expire. You can store up to 4 Warp Charges. Each Charge grants the ability to use Brain Burst. Getting incapacitated removes all Charges.
In essence, it’s the same feat. However, since Brain Burst now costs Warp Charges to use, they’re instead primarily gained by doing any other Warp-based shenanigans you can think of; Staffs, Force Sword’s special ability, even Psykinetic’s Wrath—Brain Burst, too.
We don’t want to punish Psykers for choosing the guns available to them, however, so it is still possible to generate charges without them.
By doing this, every other tool in the Psyker’s kit becomes inherently more useful, encouraging them to likewise explore their unique weapons. Brain Burst may still be the Psykinetic’s bread and butter, but they’re now compelled to be more flexible and, maybe, more creative with how they gain and spend Warp Charges.
ICONIC #2
BATTLE MEDITATION
+10% Chance to Quell 10% Peril on Kill.
Again, this is just an underwhelming perk. Not great, not terrible. Likely very useful on builds that prioritize AoE, but the effect is so minor that people often forget it even exists.
My suggestion:
MANIFESTATION
Quell Peril and channel staff attacks 10% faster for every Warp Charge stored.
So, keeping with the original feat’s theme of utility, the new one allows for slightly easier management of Peril and charged attacks. Since this bonus applies to the act of Quelling itself, the player is more likely to notice it.
REBUILD FEATS
TIER 1
ESSENCE HARVEST
Replenish 50% Toughness immediately on gaining Warp Charge and the rest overtime.
So, quite literally a copy-paste of the Veteran’s ‘Confirmed Kill’ ability. Psykers already have the lowest Toughness and Health combination in the game, even a stiff breeze can take them down.
With that in mind, even with all the Toughness buffs in the world, immediately recovering 50% Toughness will not change just how delicate they really are.
WARP ABSORPTION
Replenish 10% Toughness when you kill an Enemy with a Warp attack.
No new suggestion for this one.
DISASSOCIATION
Replenish 10% Toughness immediately for each 5% of Peril Quelled.
Yup. That’s right. Just by switching the values around, you drastically improve how the feat would perform when used during combat.
For example, if a Psyker is using a ton of Warp attacks and generating too much Peril, the Toughness regen here would allow them to better survive getting attacked while they’re slowed and trying to recover.
TIER 2
UNFETTERED
Gain extra damage with Force Weapons, based on your current Peril.
Force Swords gain the ability to consume a Warp Charge when using ‘Warp Charged’, doing so includes a devastating pulse of Warp energy to surrounding Enemies at the end of the strike (30% of previous damage as AoE).
The charged Force Sword will not stop at the first target and instead gains massive cleave and a slight increase in range.
Let’s face it, Psyker melee builds need some love. Recently, the Force Sword received a fairly nerf, significantly weakening its blocking / shoving / counter ability.
Not only this but the Warp Charged ability suffers from an overly long attack animation. This makes using it risky and oftentimes not at all worth the Peril and melee investment. Ideally, the attack animation would be sped up to improve its effectiveness, which would directly translate into this feat becoming more useful.
INNER TRANQUILITY
+8% Peril Resistance per Warp Charge.
Perfect example of a good, early-game feat. The Warp Resistance is useful for nearly every build unique to the Psyker and, beyond that, is fun to have for Warp heavy loadouts.
The only change I would make is to bump it from 6% to 8% for a more impactful effect; with six charges, the total resistance would be just under 50%, which is not unreasonable.
KINETIC OVERLOAD
While you have maximum Warp Charges, gaining a Warp Charge instead applies 4 Stacks of Soulblaze to two nearby enemies, prioritizing Elite enemies.
Hey- Wait a minute… Wasn’t this a Tier 5 feat?
Yes. However, having this come first synergizes best with the introduction of the later feats that are much stronger and more impactful.
Regardless, the addition of it affecting 2 enemies instead of 1 ensures that this is a worthwhile pick for builds that focus on Warp Charge generation or Soulblaze.
TIER 3
PSYCHIC COMMUNION
Whenever you or an ally in Coherency kills an enemy, you have a 5% chance to gain a Warp Charge.
Yeah, this skill can literally stay as is. I just brought it up from 4% to 5% because it felt like a cleaner number. It also mirrors the Psyker’s own chances of gaining Warp Charges through their own kills.
EIDEDIC MEMORY
When casting Brain Burst, you have a 30% chance of not consuming a Warp Charge.
Cooldown reductions are great and all, but it really doesn’t stand up against ‘Psychic Communion’.
This feat, however, can go toe to toe with it; paired with ‘Warp Battery’; a roughly 1 in 3 chance to not consume a Warp Charge could lead to some much longer Brain Burst chains. Doing so, however, comes at the cost of Allies being able to produce Charges for you—which, if you’re not the type to stick with the team, maybe the better choice.
MIND OVER MATTER
Enemies hit by Brain Burst now deal 15% less damage for 5 seconds.
Receive max Warp Charges if a Monstrosity is killed while affected by ‘Mind Over Matter’.
Passive increase in Warp damage by 10% against Monstrosities.
As said, there are ways we can make a support feat without it coming with the risk of being eclipsed by other classes.
Being a defensive feat, this still benefits the team, and arguably more so than 15% extra damage. You could potentially prevent a teammate from being taken down, or reduce the amount of corruption a Plague Ogryn slaps into your team.
Not to mention, the Psyker is then rewarded for effectively covering their team. Even if they don’t get the last hit, they still receive Warp Charges for their trouble.
TIER 4
REPULSION
While below critical Peril, Blocking an attack causes you to gain Peril instead of losing Stamina.
Force Sword Quelling speed is increased by 25% and shove strength is increased by 50%.
Easy. With the added Quelling speed, Force Swords become more valuable, potentially rivalling staffs when committed to a melee build.
Pair this with ‘Unfettered’, and you’ve got yourself a pretty scary combo with good synergy.
KINETIC SHIELD
Decrease Toughness damage received by 10% for every Warp Charged stored.
Boom. Now, whether at a max of 4 stacks or 6, Psykers can tank a fair bit more punishment than normal.
This is balanced out by the fact that Psykers have one of the smallest Toughness pools in the game. Even with Toughness stat buffs on all their Curios, their tanking potential is very limited.
Still, this is a useful feat to have for those running a melee build.
MIND IN MOTION
Your Movement Speed is not reduced while Quelling Peril and Channeling attacks.
Just broadening the feat’s utility. The classic ‘Mind In Motion’ is a great way to mitigate the consequences of mistakes, allowing Psykers to reposition more easily even when Quelling. However, with the above addition, the feat goes from training wheels to an overall good mobility feat.
The feat allows Psykers to walk at normal movement speed, but not sprint. This means, however good it may be, it is still limited.
TIER 5
WARP BATTERY
Can store up to 6 Warp Charges.
Augh. Perfect. The most idiot-proof feat Psykers have. It does exactly what it says on the tin. For builds that depend on Warp Charges, it’s a must. I wouldn’t change this feat.
THERMO–HYSTERIA
Killing an Elite or Specialist with Brain Burst causes every Enemy in a 5-meter radius from the Elite to receive Soulblaze stacks equal to the current number of Warp Charges. For 5 seconds, every Elite killed while affected by ‘Hysteria’ will trigger the same effect.
Ta-da! Now, this is a feat with some really strong potential; with a coordinated team and some luck, the effect could be chained strategically and really bite into a horde’s numbers.
That being said, the chaining potential is very situational, relying on enemy positioning and the layout of the environment, which is something the players typically cannot easily control. With that in mind, this is a feat that will sometimes perform amazingly, and sometimes not.
WARP STATIC
Killing an Elite or Specialist with Brain Burst has a 30% chance to trigger another Brain Burst. The second Brain Burst is free, instant, and prioritizes Elites and Specialists. The second Brain Burst also has a 10% chance to trigger a third and final Brain Burst.
Another strong feat, and one that can compete with ‘Warp Battery’ fairly easily, too. Incorporating it into a Psyker’s kit can dramatically boost their damage potential and solidify their role as Elite killers.
That being said, the fact that the subsequent Brain Bursts cannot be aimed and have increasingly worse odds of triggering means this feat cannot be relied upon too heavily. While not exactly random, it is still a gamble—which I find to be very fitting for Psykers, thematically.
Finally, with it competing against ‘Warp Battery’, Psykers will only ever have four attempts to trigger the feat, not six.
TIER 6
POLTERGEIST
Psykinetic Wrath affects enemies all around you.
Psykinetic’s Wrath expends all Warp Charges, for every Warp Charge expended:
- Cooldown reduced by 12.5%.
- Quelled Peril increases by 12.5%.
- Ability range increased by 2 meters.
- Knockback force increased by 10%.
- Increase stagger chance for Elites and Specialists by 15%.
Bam. It’s the same feat, but one that plays a little bit more nicely with Warp Charges’ new value. By sacrificing their opportunity to cast Brain Burst however many times, Psykers’ can instead choose to use Psykinetic Wrath in moments of desperation to create a much bigger window of opportunity.
Given this strips the Psyker of their ability to cast Brain Burst, despite all of the added effects, the shortened cooldown does not feel out of place; sacrificing massive damage potential for a brief but potentially impactful window of opportunity.
ASCENDANT BLAZE
Psykinetic Wrath no longer Quells any Peril.
Increase Ability Cooldown duration by 25%.Psykinetic Wrath expends all Warp Charges, increasing the ability’s range by 25% and applying 2 stacks of Soulblaze to all Enemies hit for every Warp Charge expended.
For 10 seconds, all Enemies killed by Soulblaze or by any other source while under its effect have a 10% chance to grant a Warp Charge, Elites and Specialists killed additionally have a 25% chance to restore 5 points of your Health.
From fun to terrifying. Like I said before, for an effect unique to Psykers, Soulblaze is rather underwhelming, even if it looks cool. Well, now it looks even cooler, and it chews through hordes, too!
This is unquestionably strong, which is befitting a level 30 feat. Fortunately, a longer cooldown and synergizing feats that also require Warp Charges prevents it from being spammed.
ENTROPIC KINESTISIA
For 10 seconds, once Psykinetic Wrath is used, every Brain Burst cast will deal an additional 20% damage for every Warp Charges stored at the moment when the ability was used.
Additionally, the Psyker will lose the ability to generate new Warp Charges for 10 seconds per Warp Charge.
Psykinetic Wrath’s Ability Cooldown will only start once the initial 10 seconds are up. For every Warp Charge spent during this time, the Cooldown duration is extended by 25%.
Big finale. The motherload of all damage-dealing deals. This is meant to be the Brain Burst using Psyker’s best friend, and for good reason; using this ability, they may be able to double their damage output, but only for 10 seconds or 6 uses of Brain Burst.
This is a big deal, too. Once this ability is used, regardless of if Warp Charges are spent, no new ones can be generated for an entire minute at most. If a Psyker uses all of their charges for that extra damage, then the Ability’s Cooldown nearly triples in duration. It’s high cost, but high reward.
The candle that burns twice as bright, lasts half as long.
