Excluding keystones, blitz, and combat abilities.
First is Toughness Restoring, compared from two aspects: Toughness regeneration per second and Direct Toughness Restoring.
The Skitarii have quite a few Toughness regeneration per second talents, most of which are relatively easy to trigger, with values generally around 3-5%. It is quite easy to have multiple of these triggering simultaneously, achieving 15-20% Toughness regeneration per second.
Next, the Skitarii’s Direct Toughness Restoring talents. There are four in total: two that trigger on kill, and two that trigger under specific conditions.
S-CRE requires a weak spot kill to restore 5% Toughness, while the Veteran’s OFB restores 5% on any kill, the Arbites’ UC restores 5% on close kills, and the Psyker’s Soulstealer restores 7.5% on warp attack kills. Compared to these three talents with similar or even higher Toughness recovery values, S-CRE is harder to trigger. Meanwhile, the Hive Scum’s PV restores 4% or even 12% Toughness on melee hit, weak spot hit, or crit conditions alone, making S-CRE a completely useless talent in comparison. Additionally, PRU is also far inferior to PV when compared directly. Although S-CRE’s Toughness Damage Reduction somewhat narrows the gap.
Maximum value of the Skitarii’s SP is only half of the Zealot’s BP, and the Zealot’s BP is already a niche talent that almost no one takes.
DSP and VR have decent effects, but they are not reliably triggerable Toughness recovery. On a side note, combining the Veteran’s BL + Skitarii’s PO + the Ogryn’s Aura: SC! can stack to increase VR’s 20% team-wide Toughness recovery to about 35%.
Looking further at talents with similar trigger conditions, the Skitarii’s KED is also far inferior to the Hive Scum’s BoE.
The Skitarii’s BBP is also inferior to the Veteran’s CK, the Arbites’ TN and the Hive Scum’s VOT, all of which cover enemies including Specials.
In summary, in terms of Toughness Restoring, the Skitarii have too many Toughness regeneration-per-second talents and lack stable Direct Toughness Restoring. This makes it difficult for them to rely on consecutive kills to mitigate damage in high-pressure situations.
Next are the Toughness Damage Reduction and Damage Resistance talents.
The Skitarii have a total of four Toughness Damage Reduction talents, with values of 15%, 15%, 10-22.5%, and 20% respectively. The values provided by individual talents range from 15% to 22.5%. Comparing these with other classes, we can see that aside from the Operative Modifier talents, most offer’s Toughness Damage Reduction talent at least 20%, with the highest reaching up to 50%.The only exception is the Psyker’s OWTW, but even though its minimum is 10%, it can scale up to 33% based on high Peril. The values given to the Skitarii’s talents in terms of Toughness Damage Reduction are too low—the Skitarii often need the combined value of two talent points to match what other classes get from a single talent point.
The Skitarii have three Damage Resistance talents. Only GC’s 15% can maintain high uptime, and Stun Immune is decent. AMR is difficult to sustain during combat. ACE provides 30% but only activates after Toughness break. However, as I mentioned earlier, the Skitarii lack Direct Toughness Restoring talents. The Skitarii’s inherent lack of burst Toughness recovery means that ACE can only delay death in high-pressure combat scenarios.
Even the Psyker has two Damage Resistance talents at 10% and 25% respectively. The Arbites also has two stable Damage Resistance talents at 25% and 15%. The Hive Scum has 20% that is almost always fully stacked. Additionally, the first two DLC classes also have talents that reduce damage dealt by enemies. The Zealot has been mentioned less frequently, but when it comes to Damage Resistance, the Zealot’s talents in this category are unprecedentedly diverse and abundant.
Finally, when it comes to Stamina recovery, dodge, and block talents, the Skitarii have only two Stamina recovery-related talents. ESR’s effect is rather mediocre, while DSP has such a simple trigger condition and a long cooldown that it’s difficult to trigger when it’s actually needed. Compared to other classes, the design of the Skitarii’s talents in this category is overly monotonous.
Summary of the Skitarii’s survivability talents: monotonous Toughness recovery—too much Toughness regeneration per second and almost no burst Toughness recovery; mediocre Damage Reduction, especially the Toughness Damage Reduction talents; only two Stamina recovery talents with mediocre effects;the only effect worth mentioning is the Stun Immune effect provided by Galvanized Coating; no ability to stagger boss enemies; no sprint speed increase, no block efficiency increase, and so on. As a class with 150 base health and a 0.75s Stamina Regeneration Delay, I think the Skitarii’s current survivability is on par with the Psyker. The talent tree shows no sign of any mobility, stamina, or defense from a mechanically augmented being.
