Is Bromentum over Shred on the Tac Axe the better option, even for this Psyker Crit build?
Headtaker seems to be a must for easy access to a damage/impact/cleave boost with a time decay that doesn’t punish missed attacks. It’s readily available for hordes, bosses, elites, pretty much every engagement.
Crit modifiers on the Tac Axe are strong, at least on paper.
Assuming the combo H1-L2 is the best for horde clear due to it being the most consistent horizontal-ish swing pattern without strikedown interrupts, that’s a 178% damage increase against Flak (most common armor type in a horde) on a weakspot crit for the H1 attack vs just a weakspot hit with the same H1 attack.
Assuming light spam to weakspots is the best for bosses, that’s a potential 194% damage increase for Crit weakspot hits vs just regular weakspot hits.
Enemy density at higher difficulties is where Tac Axe struggles a bit more so I see why people suggest Bromentum for the cleave.
The extra Crit chance by Shred just seems extra costly on the Psyker that doesn’t have access to Piety, FoTF and Scourge as Crits proc Mettle, Empathic Evasion, and get damage bonuses from Scrier’s Finesse Talent/Disrupt Destiny so not only is Shred good for damage but it improves survivability.
Im bias but I’d go with the cleave in almost every situation. Power stacking hasnt worked greatfor me in testing and cleave is just great QOL. Noone wants to spend 5 mins chewing through an armoured horde because your Ogryn is having fun sniping gunners…
If you dont run the risk of encountering this issue, full power all the way. All Or Nothing is great on Tac Axes. Its great anyway.
re crit synergy, I dont find it to be worth it but if you have a team comp and youre role is to push and shutdown ranged blobs it’ll help a lot. As melee chars should. If youre covering the back, the extra crit is nice as theres always a few shooters left behind. Momentum and Headtaker is a solid take all comers (get it? huehue) setup.
Damage is damage but I get your point.
Tac Axes (should) make use of their stagger combo chains a lot.
I’ve tried Decimator and other double power buffs and found it not reliable, but again, I get your point that the Cleave isnt reliable because of the swings and range. Ergo, Double pwoer buffs is going to be more reliable for the raw killing power.
But Im bias and I really enjoy having the cleave, and feel it when I dont have it.
Scriers gaze and pew pew shards together seems like overkill to me. The shards alone are enough to get to 100% peril for the melee cleave talent. Alternating between shards and tacAxe is a fantastic play style. On the other hand by the crack of bone and scriers gaze have kind of a reverse style to that. I would run only one of those. Likewise 10s Disrupt Destiny are enough to easily get to max stacks especially with pew pew shards, so you can ditch the bottom talent or get the 25 stacks instead
You do know that a 50% power boosts includes a 50% cleave boost?
Edit: In comparison to the chained 50% cleave boost which is just enough to hit three bruisers I find the momentum bonus cleave to be way less consistent especially with elites in a horde or that tentacle mod of havoc
Crack of Bone pretty much guarantees Scrier’s Gaze Precognition Talent will be maxed out during the duration of the ability, so that’s the point of it. That 30% Finesse buff is crazy strong for Tac Axe and I believe Assail as Assail crits consistently and hits weakspots. So, proc Scrier’s, max out Precognition, then unleash hell with Assail during Warp Unbound’s protection period.
I do agree, alternating between shards and Tac Axe is fantastic, thanks in large part to Malicious Momentum.
I do try to use Tac Axe’s special as much as possible, especially against Elites. Very strong. For hordes, what’s your go to combo?
It seems alternating H1/L2 provides the best cleave possible, yet other times spamming light attacks for L3’s horizantal slash seems effective. Push attack followed immediately by two consecutive heavy swings is an interesting combo, but their downward attack paths are awkward for hordes.
Interesting suggestion, Decimator is not very forgiving as it immediately deletes all stacks on one missed swing but in theory it should be great for dense hordes with lots of hit mass so less chance to miss swings.
I dont do rotations. I play based on the situation.
If theres density I’ll do as much cleave. h1l2 is kinda overrated just because people are like ‘ooh, combo’. But it has its place. That weapon (Forgot the mk) has a very unique push combo I use a lot to cleanup chaff within coherency and keep the squad tight and focussed. If people are having to stop to cler a few pox here and theres its a lot less dps and often much more dps taken. Pushattack into lights gives 5 fast attacks as opposed to the usual 3light combo.
If we’re being pressured I’ll reposition and see who needs help or start cleaving. The MK4 wit hits high damage push attack is great for this, but the MK2 has been my bae since day 1.
If not, Im aiming for max threat elimination to watch over the team before they have to deal with flamers/ dogs/ ragers/ranged etc. I have a very aggressive babysitter playstyle suited to DD builds. I always keep an eye on every teammate to see 1. whose worth their salt and 2. who needs help. Ogryns that wander off when they could be peeling for someone else while I’m not with them (sniping specials for example) I let ranged chew them up. I’ll go back to whoevers being pressured and help them out. Even if we wipe, they deserve it.
I need to focus on this more. It’s easy to get swept away in the moment and get overly aggressive.
Excellent advice, a very important yet often underrepresented role. All it takes is one dog, Trapper, Rager ambush on the wrong player to start the cascade of unfortunate events that results in a wipe. I’ve found Psyker with Electrokinetic is excellent for this “overwatch”, spec elimination role.
Mk 2 and Mk 7 are basically sidegrades but I personally prefer 7 and it seems like the patch is buffing them more over the other marks for some reason. Your Psyker tree is perfect. Psyker’s base 7.5% crit, 5% crit node, and the 20% from Scrier should be enough to sustain his crit talents with the 12% from Taxe.
Bromentum and decimator combined with melee damage buffs will allow you to cut down hordes; but, naturally, you will need to consistently hit heads and not miss. Taxe lights will stack decimator very quickly so missing isn’t that punishing. Unarmored perk with your tree will hit the Havoc 40 Moebian 21st breakpoint. Heavy>light or pushstab>heavy are the goto horde combos. The only Havoc modifier that really hampers Taxe is Rampaging Enemies (orange) since you won’t proc bromentum.
Taxe is also great because it allows you to dunk on Rager hordes. Taxe heavies will stunlock them and bromentum lets you kill multiple of them. I haven’t played Auric in a while but I believe Taxe Psyker hits the one shot crit headshot heavy breakpoint for Scab Ragers so with bromentum that’s 4 at a time.
I forgot that All or Nothing on Taxe is bugged and gives 50% global power that also works on dot damage; so if you want to abuse that on Psyker, that’s an option.
This is likely an unpopular opinion but I suggest testing/using the skill that resets your dodge counter on weak-spot hit- it is a direct DPS loss, but if you side-dodge towards your next target after each reset you can absolutely wreck gunner squads or staggered formations faster than combat knife while also keeping you safer (dead DPS = no DPS after all).
It’s a lot of fun, and yeah like others are saying the cleave talents are a primo choice; I prefer the no hit-mass on weakspot hit since I’m already going for them. With a Block>HLMB>HLMB combo on some of them you can cleave through trash pretty well tbh.
