Honestly; I’m really trying to like this sword. I just can’t. I feel I’ve better options on the zealot (knife/bleed+crit build) and psyker (illisi+slaughterer), and even on the “nerfed” power sword at rtng 504 it’s a better option for the veteran than this.
Feels like a 539 weapon should really cut the mustard, but I can’t even get traction at tier 4 with this, never mind t5.
If anyone uses this sword regularly and can help, then I’d really appreciate some technique advice.
(500hrs+ counting!). Saved any edits to the weapon just in case…
I actually do not use this weapon. So take what I say with a grain of salt, but I suspect you want Savage Sweep instead of Skullcrusher on this thing. And probably Unarmored over Unyielding. Or maybe infested if you want to kill poxwalkers faster.
I think it is well known that the catachan swords aren’t very strong but perhaps if you persist you can write or publish a guide to teach us all the way of the sword.
I think shred is the way to go on this weapon, crits curve strong and it has good cleave values and wide sweeps to keep it up most of the game. It has huge problems from the damage fall off across targets cleaved so I usually only use it on psyker or zealot. They have built in power boosts or feats to assauge this. The real issue is the special being completely worthless. It should have a context sensitive swing where it either does a single target strikedown or a sweep depending on the number of enemies in range. It would also be nice if the counter itself were slower so you didn’t eat an attack using it if the enemy didn’t stagger. I’d rather try to work it into something usable because it is unique. And like a ton of melees the carapace damage is just sad. Really its only good on maniacs as far as elites are considered.
I wasn’t trying to be smart, if it at all came across that way.
I used the Catachan Sword maybe lvls 10-20 on my first avatar ( zealot, Oct 22 ) and thought it was fun vs the profane crap that i’d had before, but then never looked back with any avatar thereafter.
When this dropped on my vet in the shop I thought I’d give it a go as I’m not a lover of the power swords, nor the combat axes (too slow!!).
Guess I’ll try a tactical axe next. But I do appreciate the blessing suggestions. tkx.
I wasn’t taking it that way. I was being sincere. I have been publishing youtube guides on less than popular weapons. I can’t do this for all of them since I don’t have infinite time but I do think its a fun subject. Maybe you can work out what they’re good for. Or at least how to use them to maximal effect.
IMO MK IV with Savage + Shred probably the best version of it. The light heavy repeat combo is two nice horizonal sweeps that for some reason has a strike down profile on the light attack (light 3) which still has passable cleave with Savage but actually kills things. Run it with crit Ult cooldown build on Zealot and it at least controls and resets Ult like crazy and does passable horde clear. Plus the MK IV has access to the solid overhead heavy 1 cancel repeat for single target. Was nice with devastating strike instead of Savage before that was senselessly nerfed out of existence.
It’s not like, actually good, but that’s the most useable iteration I’ve found.
I’ve also heard talk of a kinda meme CC sword that uses Zealot impact feat and impact blessings for absurd levels of stagger but haven’t tried it and don’t really know what exactly is optimal for that route.
You summarize it pretty well. Don’t forget the heavy sword, that makes the devil’s claw pose as a mere butter knife…
I’ve recently been wrapping my head around this weapon trying to make it work and it is really mediocre. It’s not intrinsically bad, but like you say there are definitely other weapons that will do the same job, but better…
Then you absolutely should try the shovel! (with the “decimator” blessing, which is mandatory on it)
It’s like a mini Antax Caxe that trade some raw power and armor busting for attack speed and extra mobility. It’s deceptively good at horde clearing, and the special attack can stagger pretty much everything (even crushers). Plus the “bonk” sound of heavy attacks is awesome
Get a Mk IV. I know some people say the Mk I is the better devil’s claw, but for my money I’d take the Mk IV all day long. The Mk I lacks the overhead heavy, and on the MK VII the overhead comes last in the chain. For specials/elites, use block cancel to repeat overhead heavys. For hordes you alternate light-heavy, which also provides better stagger protection than chaining heavy attacks on a MK I.
Zealot can actually make a decent crit build with devil’s claw because it has access to the shred blessing. For vet and psyker your best options are probably rampage and savage sweep. Perks depend on your exact use case and the ranged weapon you pair it with, but I tend to prefer +flak and +maniac.
It’s true that the catachan gets outperformed by other options (heavy sword, power sword, illisi), but that’s mostly due to poor balance and power creep. If power cycler wasn’t a thing, devil’s claw would be one of the best melee horde clear options on vet, and the same goes for the power crept illisi and the psyker (I used a MK IV with my surge staff before illisi was a thing). And the heavy sword for some reason has access to a special version of headtaker. Catachan is not a bad weapon, Darktide is just poorly balanced.
I think the sword may have a place on Veteran as a decent defensive option with okay horde clear, assuming the Power Sword eats yet another nerf. Personally I prefer tactical axes on Vet as is due to the class’ terrible stamina regen, which neither power sword helps with.
In my view of how balance should be in darktide that is how it should be. Mundane weapons might have better mobility but suffer in flexibility against armored targets and are not as strong. I realize that means we will end up with “trash” weapons. But the answer to that is to add more variety at the top.
Something I don’t trust fatshark to be able to accomplish in a timely manner. Maybe by 2025.
Well, I don’t think we’ll agree on relegating a whole category of weapons to the trash by definition. I just don’t think that’s necessary, and even if it was, Darktide isn’t deep enough in terms on content to allow for it.
I can appreciate that people want the 40k weapons to stand out. IMHO that’s better done by giving them a niche and letting them do what they do well. I love the plasma gun, for example. It’s a standout elite killer, and you won’t see anyone complain that it doesn’t have the flexibility of a lasgun or the horde clearing potential of a flamer. It’s got a niche, and it does what it does well. I like that. It’s when weapons start replacing all other options that we have a problem.
It’s another victim of Fatshark design philosophy. Now that they padded the game with unnecessary variants and some weapons stand out the question becomes, what do we do?
1.Do nothing and these weapons become extinct because people always pick the path of least resistance.
Buff them to actually be fun (add brutal momentum and increase mobility) and you will have all the sweats crying for nerfs again.
Nerf everything fun and make everything a mediocre nerf gun or foam sword unless you dedicate your life to the game?
I’d prefer option 2 because it’s not a competitive game, it’s a coop PVE game and nerfing everything to the point that it actually requires feats or blessings(like the powercycler has become) isn’t fun unless you spend your life in the basement farming them.
nerfing everything to the point that it actually requires feats or blessings(like the powercycler has become) isn’t fun unless you spend your life in the basement farming them
I feel like a number of weapons were already in this state before the PS/Flamer nerfs. Just going off the top of my head, do people enjoy using
axes without Brutal Momentum
autopistols without Pinning Fire
heavy swords without Headtaker*
Slaughterer-capable weapons without Slaughterer
And before anyone says “A grey weapon can do Damnation!”… unless your specific objective is to create an artificial challenge mode for yourself, is that any fun?
To me, the fun factor of a weapon comes down to how it feels and how it performs - I really like how the Eviscerator feels but playing it feels like work compared to alternatives; on the flip side, axes perform very well but I don’t really like the feel of them. If a weapon could be viable on its own, and blessings serve as QOL improvements (I’m counting damage as QOL here, since it makes things faster/smoother), that’d be awesome.
When I think back to the last time I played VT2, I feel like there was a very limited pool of good blessings BUT the weapons themslves were still fun even if you didn’t have a good blessing.
*Rampage fills part of this void, so it’s not as big of a deal as the others IMO
