I don’t.
I literally quit playing pubs because 90% of lobbies have either flame staff, Taunt Ogryn, or PBB Ogryn. It’s a problem that hasn’t been addressed at all. Maybe it’s a regional or time difference but that is what happened when I played pubs.
I hate it, it removes all the fun for me.
Yeah, this is pretty much my sentiment on the issue. I’m equally amused and sick of starting a Havoc lobby with a mate of mine, and whatever classes we pick, it’s a stream of inferno psykers, shiv/tac axes / needle pistol Rampage Scums, PBB Ogryns and Arc Rifle Skits. Barely any vet runs anything BUT plasma and DS. I understand not everyone has the same amount of time to play the game, but a lot of those have 100s at times 1000s of hours on specific class, and they run the same tired broken setups. I get it to some degree, I have my own fav weapons, obsessions and setups, but what we see in pub lobbies is often clear meta slaving. If tomorrow Fatshark nerfed inferno staff, and buffed Graia braced autogun to the old inferno staff level, asap the new meta was established, that is what we would see in the lobbies.
Each to their own I suppose 
I’m just having fun with power falchion, bolt pistol and frag nades on vet atm. I won’t make any national teams ;), but at least 95 percent of the game content doesn’t go to waste. No wonder the game keeps me entertained.
I kinda take it for what it is like honestly when I play sub havoc 35 I play rumbler a lot because you literally don’t have to respect the game it’s so dumb which is probably unhealthy for the game but eh
Sure, if disabling the game gives you joy, go for it. Hopefully not in my lobby.
If you asked me to do something different I definitely would
I’m not gonna lie - at the level of Damnation/Auric I usually pub at…people are not intelligent enough to bring the flame staff, and if they are, they’re not managing to build it properly and achieve the facemelting insanity on the far end of the bell curve it has in Havoc. At least by my experience.
My take on it is that I want a wide variety of good builds to play. It’s more fun to be able to switch up my groove and try something different. The problem is that the best tools are so overcentralizing that everyone uses them, or your build is bad if you don’t use them, and it feels bad.
Staves are unfun to play with because they are essentially infinite ammo weapons that don’t need much practice or skill to hit the high end of damage that easily tops other classes and anyone with a modicum of sentience can defend themselves. Smite is unfun to play with because it removes the “interacting with enemies” part of the game.
Much of my fun comes from showing off to the other players in the lobby. I thrive off the occasional compliment and the sauce a playstyle has. It’s why I run melee psyker with an infantry autogun, it’s why I play helbore veteran, it’s why I play charge zealot, it’s why I play melee hive scum. Nothing is more fun to me than mastering the mechanics of a game and being rewarded for it.
Achieving good balance enables a lot more ways for skill expression to shine. DT only really has a few overpowered tools that need to be nerfed for them to not be so overbearing, and a few underpowered tools that are worthless. Just a few tweaks here and there.
then i guess one of my recent uploads is a “balm” of sorts 
Sadly that list is growing, not shrinking, but it has common denominators:
Fatshark designers know those things are a problem, they are smart people. So the question is what is the real reason why we see them ignoring this?
Honestly, I try not to talk in the way of buff/nerfs because they are clearly watching that stuff. There is however things I think can improve the game that are quality of life issues that people interpret as buff/nerfs because that is the default lens.
Is anyone happy that the psyker staff special option is beyond worthless? Hell no, but I feel like everyone is so angry with the flame staff situation that they don’t want to see psyker’s get anything that would make them happy.
Is anyone happy that 3/4 psyker staves have the same primary fire? It’s super lame, especially when you consider that there are now abilities on other classes that benefit from debuffs being up. Kinda lame.
It’s a weird mindset when you abstract the issues, but I think it’s reflective of a greater starvation that leads to the perception of other classes being happy about quality of life turning into bitterness over one’s own situation.
Even as someone who doesn’t visit the forum very often, I’ve seen countless (but always the same few people) complaints about Inferno stealing their kills.
Yes, Inferno clears out some laughable little hordes, but who the hell can’t? Like, is there any single class can’t wipe out hordes with few more seconds? Also, a single Crusher can easily turn that flame staff sparkhead into a pancake, if he/she didn’t swap to melee properly.
No sane person would look at the scoreboard, see that the Inferno Psyker is leading in damage, and exclaim, “Wow, this guy is a damn pro!” Because they should know the Psyker is just clearing out the trash.
Not to mention without the Shriek, there are so many other classes able to deal far more damage than a Psyker. But I’ve hardly seen anyone complain about Shriek.
i think its just frustration about percieved passiveness regarding a very annoying thing which seems very solvable. hence why no convo about other changes to psykers staves is tolerated. i do absolutely think that every staff should have its own primary fire, like how VT2 wizard
Game balance is not only about comparing weapons or classes. It’s a means to achieve intended difficulty, and to be honest, I’m not very happy with the current state.
I don’t play Havoc because I don’t like its restrictions. So I either play regular Auric Missions or Auric Maelstrom, and I feel like there is too big of a gap between the two.
Regular Auric Missions are often too easy, especially when you play with decently good teammates who run meta builds. It creates situations where I feel redundant, and the game turns into a “chase for kills” nonsense. This is definitely a scenario when I don’t appreciate playing with OP meta.
On the other hand, Auric Maelstrom often comes with an excessive number of special spawns, and I don’t enjoy that either. Seeing, for example, a trapper being killed and immediately replaced by another one in the same place feels too repetitive and immersion-breaking when it’s happening all the time.
So, what I’d like to see first is some kind of difficulty bump for regular Auric Missions that won’t be achieved by another increase to special spawns. Honestly, I would actually prefer increased stats from Havoc. Or maybe bigger hordes? More Elites? I’m not sure.
I don’t feel very strongly about the Flame Staff. But if I were to change something, it would be its infinite cleave. Instead, I’d suggest for flame projectiles to start with limited cleave that would ramp up as you continue casting. In other words, creating small flame clouds would not be enough to delete the horde. You would actually have to find a position to channel the flame for some time to pierce through enemies. Just an idea.
I’m not able to sit in Fatshark’s design room nor get into their heads, but I’m thinking they’re sacrificing balance for the sake of fun. A majority of people either don’t or just don’t like running around looking for loot. Play any mission board game and pop open a scoreboard with loot stats you’ll notice pretty much no one is running around picking up ammo/crafting resources/med+ammo box. It’s pretty much been this way since launch. In addition, if you are ammo looting, you’re also competing with anyone else that is also ammo looting. So infinite ammo on ranged specs solves these problems.
As for Psykers I have no idea why. High peril just doesn’t really have enough downsides to it.
The AOE meta needs to die and fast so melee heavy builds that aren’t tauntgryn and scum can shine.
This isn’t true. Never had or seen that before. In my experience(no matter the class) when that happens to me it’s because i am not playing well. Literally is not a problem I have seen ever. Also you don’t have to play with it. Kick , leave or play with friends. Grow up.
Hey, I am actually quite neutral on nerfs. Fatshark should just do whatever they think is best for the game, it’s their job. I think you misunderstand my point a bit.
In auric I’m often top 1 or top 2 strongest player on the team, according to scoreboards. So to me flame staff is not that big of a problem. It’s just annoying seeing it all the time and it makes game run and look worse from all the soulblaze.
And I would never kick people over a build I don’t like.
Great, idc. I don’t want changes to content that has been in for years. I’m tired of “it deletes enemies before i can” That is just nonsense. People who say this probably belong on lower difficulties or are trying to make the shredder pistol or some other pos weapon work. I don’t play games for my game to be changed, my character ect. I think their business model is unethical and i consider the devs criminals.
I think I had meant to reply to someone else.
This forum is occupied by mostly 10% of top players, with some of them being 1% of the top players. Their experience drastically differs from the regular playerbase which they seem to not understand.
There’s some truth to game needing some nerfs, it’s just that people from these forums push for really hard nerfs and drastic changes to fit their personal vision of Darktide.
Thankfully, Fatshark for now only made really small nerfs to stuff, like Duelling Sword, which got like 10% nerf maybe? 15%? Still a top 3 weapon on multiple classes.
So until Fatshark finally gives in to them, I see no problem with some nerfs meant to freshen up the game. Flame staff is just objectively 30%+ stronger than the next staff in line, and like 50% stronger than the worst staff (the one that shoots balls).
Not really, its good players that found their refuge in overexaggerations and dishonesty. The flame psyker thingy is a perfect example of that, based in reality but overexaggerated to a point of being completely deranged!