The Psyker main character and his damage tourists

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

Psykers are way too strong in Auric HISTG. And I don’t mean just Inferno Staffs — I mean Psykers as a whole

Across all four recorded Auric HISTG runs I played that went smoothly from start to finish with the original squad intact, the top damage dealer was inevitably a Psyker every single time

The Psyker from the first game wasn’t even that remarkable by comparison — only 24.5% more damage than the second-highest player

But the second, third, and especially fourth Psykers…

Second game Psyker:
Dealt 2.16x more total damage than the average of his teammates
Against elites and specialists specifically: 2.51x more damage
Main weapon: Force Greatsword

Third game Psyker:
Dealt 1.87x more total damage than the average teammate
Against elites and specialists: 1.98x more damage
Main weapon: Inferno Staff

Fourth game Psyker:
Dealt 2.07x more total damage than the average teammate
Against elites and specialists… 3.48 TIMES MORE!!!

And that’s despite the fact that in this particular game I slightly ruined his stats by posting the best non-Psyker DPS performance out of all four matches

To clarify: every non-Psyker player in all four games had lower DPS than my non-Psyker performance in this one. I dealt only slightly less total damage than the two weakest damage dealers combined, while also outperforming them individually against elites and specialists

That Psyker absolutely obliterated elites and specialists

And the funniest part?
His weapon was just an Electrokinetic Staff — something that barely even shows up in “overpowered weapon” discussions

Why am I specifically talking about runs completed by the original four-player squad?
Because matches without Psykers in the starting lineup inevitably turn into a revolving door of ragequits or wipe. For example, yesterday I had a respectable attempt with a full squad that reached the final event — and then collapsed there Why? Because there was no super-DPS Psyker in the team

So if Fatshark wants to restore the glory of Auric HISTG, the solution is simple: Ban Psykers from it

(To be fair, that same fourth match with the god-tier Psyker also had the lowest-DPS Psyker out of all four games — not just among Psykers, but overall. Though maybe there’s some hidden synergy between the two Psykers that I’m not aware of)

Oh, and people often mention Hive Scum as the balance-breaking class. Well, in two out of these four matches, the only Hive Scum was me — and my Arbites DPS was still 1.52x higher than the best Hive Scum DPS performance

2

Indeed… but Fatshark does not care at all about balance. See you in 5 years for the psyker nerf…
By this time, enjoy the Scum bashing (not totally unfair, however)…

3

It’s fine if the Psyker deals the most damage. The problem is that there are no longer any limits that would put them at risk for this.
The main mechanic (peril/overheat) barely makes sense as limiter. I can’t remember the last time I saw a Psyker explode from lack of control. They made the third ability (SG) protect against the explosion even at 100% (which previously belonged and should have remained only to the first one, wave), and at the same time, this “berserker mode” specifically increases exactly damage and, to some extent, defense. Previously, in… more balanced form… the SG was the rarest choice, because it was as powerful as it was dangerous to use. Now it’s used by 2/3. Of course, the downside is the constant ringing in ears and a blurry screen. But I suspect they also disable all these sound and visual effects with mods.

4

Absolutely… the mod works like a charm.

And I don’t understand why it is a problem for the Scum to deal a lot of damages and more than the others classes and that it would not be a problem for the psyker?

5

Perhaps because the effects remind them of how glorious the SG experience was before the buffs made it feel cheap.

6

I count kills instead of damage and sometimes I rack up more work on SG melee psyker than the entire rest of the team combined, which is absurd.

7

Left click EK with shriek spam is probably the most auric ruining build you could bring, even true last patch. The only thing you don’t turn off is crushers and you could basically just walk past them killing everything else and let your team have the crushers. Probably even moreso now that there’s less crushers overall. I’ve had auric matches where I’ve gotten over 55% of the team’s entire damage using that build. It’s disgustingly overpowered, and the main culprit is the PC, Shriek, and Warp Siphon engine.

That’s because of soulblaze ownership, if you’re better at applying soulblaze before other psykers are (which is usually the case on left click ek cause you kill specials and elites at a faster rate than any other staff and you outrange inferno and voidblast) then you cripple their scoreboard damage, and actually steal it if they’re applying soulblaze too after you get ownership. May have contributed a bit to the EK psykers damage but trust me, it does NOT need that assistance to ruin auric games

8

Unskilled Psykers:

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Skilled Psykers:

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9

idk, just playing with FGS and IAG shreds up literally everything

10

Mk VIII Force Greatsword is better because its Push Attack is a Stab. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

11

fgs scriers is definitely comparable, and psyker has a lot of auric ruining builds. I just give it to ek personally because of the ability to ALWAYS be killing things from range before anyone else can get to it and spreading infinite cleave dots to every horde

12

If you think that is crazy, in havoc 40 everyone went down except the psyker, from our own messups. (My brain lagged and I went up to a trapper and just stood there, no idea why I did that. Then a crusher walked round the corner and had has his way with me.) My other teammates just doing their own thing as well and didn’t notice.) probably the dumbest team wipe I’ve seen minus the psyker. I don’t remember how the other two went down because I was like why did I just do that.

The psyker proceed to just stay in the same room with two openings and just burned everything for 8 minutes before we all just quit. Nothing can touch them short of a boss.

I’ve never got trolled by a team mate like that before. They couldn’t push forward but wanted us all to know we messed up. We deserved it though haha.

13

I am going to be honest, it feels like some people forget what psyker is supposed to be. They’re the glass cannon before hive scum was even harder glass cannon (in theory). Did you expect all the classes to do even damage? You think a vet that is focusing on sniping specials is going to rack up as much damage as the psyker burning down hordes of chaff? That’s like wondering why Arbiter is good at crowd control, it’s their thing.

Are the other classes lacking or are you just that they’re doing more damage then you? Because I always get skeptical whenever someone brings up scoreboard results because people that use it have a tendency to view things in a ‘us vs them’ way.

I don’t psyker is doing too much damage, the game still feels fair. I also don’t think psyker doing more damage then other classes is a problem. Especially since they have weaknesses.

14

I did that with arbitor using the crusher, minus the burning. Crowd Control is very easy if you have the right kit, build, and weapon for it. Should arbiter be nerfed? I could also do that with a zealot or Ogyn if I am using the right build. This isn’t a psyker exclusive.

15

They don’t really have significant weaknesses anymore though. Once upon a time they were squishier than other classes, but nowadays you can get plenty of damage reduction, max toughness, and toughness recovery, along with multiple speed buffs and Empathic Evasion for high uptime on ranged immunity. Peril is easy enough to manage now that it’s more of a resource for fueling talents rather than a real limiting factor.

I think having higher DPS on Psyker would be fine if it was harder to manage peril, like it used to be when the game released, and if Empathic Evasion had a cooldown or something. I do think it’s a fun class and that’s the hardest thing to get right, but they’ve gradually taken the glass out of the “glass cannon” with repeated buffs.

16

Did you even read the post? In all three cases, the Psykers were even more effective against elites and specialists than they were in overall damage — especially the last Psyker, who deleted more elites and specialists than the entire rest of the team combined.

17

Yeah, and I’ve been in teams where I had another player mopping the floor so hard I hardly get to do anything, and they weren’t psyker. I don’t complain when I am about to fight a bunch of Crushers and the vet goes ‘nah’ and kraks them.

I am just wondering because I hear so many complaints about things being OP but more often, they’re not ‘OP’ they’re just the easiest way to do a thing. But then a pro with a different build ends up doing thing better.

Think about it, a psyker is meant to ignore armor through warp shenanigans and most of their staffs require little aiming if any. So it’s very easy for them to roast a horde. But I know in terms of raw damage that the others are going to outdo me when they use their stacks or whatever to murder a boss.

The problem is, this is working on the assumption those psykers did more because they were psykers and not because they were just good. But I’ve been in teams where the players are just so good that sometimes it feels like you’re not doing much.

I just think if we’re going to say something is OP. We should provide better reasons then ‘it did more damage than me’. Okay? What was the situation? What was the modifier? What was your build? I do not think the scoreboard is a very good metric to be used for judging class/weapon strength.

For me, OP means that if someone joins a game with that thing then the game is automatically going to become easier if they any skill whatsoever. But I see psykers die and lose all the time and the game rarely feels easier when they’re around. IT doesn’t feel any easier then the normal benefits of having good teammates, regardless of class.

I am not saying there isn’t an issue. I just want better reasons before discussing nerfs.

18

Doing more damages can be ok…
But not when you resist to anything and wipe everything.

19

The issue with empathic evasion is that it’s relatively weak on slow weapons (you can’t count on being immune to ranged damage there as there are plenty of holes where you take ranged hits in between swings of FGS for example even if you have high crit), but become excessive on high ROF weapons that can also keep crit high.

They should give it PPM mechanic to ensure it has a normalized rate of procs across weapon types regardless of attackspeed.

It’s true that psyker survivability was significantly buffed with Just a Dream and Immaterial Focus talents (and TDR on Scriers Gaze), but there is still a danger to playing (at least melee) psyker in the sense that you can’t generate your own yellow toughness as psyker, and you don’t have basically infinite dodges like scum that can dodge tank for that reason. That still makes crusher/mauler trains dangerous and a potential instant death at high difficulties, since if nobody has done VOC or chorus near you you can still die to a single crusher/mauler overhead.

I am however partial to removing or reducing the toughness dmg resist on scriers, as it seems excessive since you can also have something like 80% scriers uptime across a game, which is ridiculous.

Peril can be an issue still if you’re not running scriers or shriek, especially with Just a Dream talent. I play almost only H40 and like to coast around at 80% peril with FGS, and I’ve blown up more than once from taking a shot or melee hit immediately before doing what I thought was going to be a risky ~95% peril push or FGS special attack, but the dmg taken pushed me to 100% peril the instant I press attack.

Overall, the main offenders on psyker are the does-everything scriers gaze, exponentially escalating perilous combustion chain reactions, and inferno staff not being blocked by crushers, bulwarks, and monstrosities.

But since I normally play neither I’d hate to see nerfs elsewhere that affect the builds I run.

20

I agree with that, and doing something about the way EE interacts with attack speed. I would add the degree to which Peril has become a booster rather anything perilous. FS has a terrible habit of undermining the downsides/disadvantages in player abilities or weapons that keep the game balanced and the combat interesting.

Tying Perilous Combustion to only active use of BB might be a way to make BB relevant in this era of Elite blobs.