Why is Damnation missing?
If I’m remembering correctly, that’s where the game tops out individual enemy HP/capability (thereafter starting with Auric begins adding in modifiers and relying on MOAR enemies), so that feels like it should be the balance point to me.
Nothing Havoc related should be used for balance considerations outside of that mode.
Damnation/Auric no doubts
Could just be omission, but otherwise Auric difficulty uses basically the same scaling for health and damage numbers as Damnation, and Auric only features several modifiers on top, which influence the amounts of enemy types and the intervals they are allowed spawn at.
I voted Auric due to it being adjacent to Damnation, but I wouldn’t mind Heresy being the difficulty the game’s balanced around, considering that it could result in Heresy+ difficulties having a steeper ceilings for certain weapons or builds or what have you to remain „good”.
Honestly, the gap between Malice and Heresy is tiny. IMO, Malice already feels like most weapons are viable — pretty much everything has a place, and you can run almost any build and have a good time. The only real difference is that below Heresy you don’t need to think about your team at all, but on Heresy you actually have to start coordinating.
Take the Purgatus staff, which people have been discussing a lot in the thread. That staff just gets better the higher the difficulty. On Heresy it actually feels pretty balanced — sure, its kill speed isn’t as fast as Surge or Voidstrike, but where it really shines is on high diffs when Fatshark throws tons of Crushers and Maulers at you. Pair it with a Force Sword’s Uncanny Strike blessing, and the burn DoT starts benefiting from the rending — you get that 1+1>2 effect.
That said, I still think Surge staff is the better pick on Heresy for certain modifiers — like extra Mutants and dogs.
"Honestly, the real issue is how extreme some of the monster and weapon designs are. Take Uncanny Strike — that blessing is insanely strong. It could have been used to buff old, outdated weapons, but instead Fatshark gave it to already strong weapons. Like, why not give Uncanny Strike to weaker weapons like the Heavy Sword or the Devil’s Claw? That would actually be a solid way to bring old weapons back.
Some weapons are pretty weak on their own but could be saved by blessings. It’s a shame those weak weapons didn’t get the strong blessings they needed — instead, Fatshark just handed them out randomly, and now we’re stuck with this mess.
sedition
Honestly, there are plenty of ways to fix the current situation. For example, they could add more difficulty tiers and expand on the foundation they already have. They’ve done this in their other games — like Vermintide with Cataclysm difficulty and the Chaos Wastes mode. Those modes had players hooked and people still talk about them. I really think it’s worth considering, especially since Fatshark already has the experience from Vermintide.
Plus, Darktide’s weapon system could actually help balance out the strong weapons. Like I mentioned earlier in the thread — weaker weapons could be balanced by pairing them with strong blessings. And honestly, they could just turn Havoc mode into Darktide’s version of Cataclysm. That would make players way more engaged and also let Fatshark focus their energy on designing new weapons, new blessings, new classes, and new gameplay mechanics
And honestly, this talent tree and build system is pretty easy to balance too. Right now, the game has Keystones that define your playstyle, Abilities that either synergize with your Keystone or work as an emergency button in combat, and Blitzes that act as the final piece of the puzzle for each class. Take Zealot for example.
Each of Zealot’s Keystones supports different playstyles and weapons, and when you combine them with Abilities, you can get something like 3x3x3 different build paths.
· Blazing Piety gives high crit rate, which works great with weapons that benefit from crits. You can even combine it with Shroudfield’s guaranteed crit to stack it fast.
· Martyrdom trades your survivability for the highest raw damage output.
· Inexorabler Judgment rewards dodge timing and weak spot hits, giving you flexible burst damage and higher weak spot damage.
The only shame is that Zealot feels like it lacks its own unique identity. I think they could add fire-related effects to the Blazing Piety Keystone to give Zealot more personality. After all, a Zealot spreading fiery wrath against heretics sounds pretty badass, doesn’t it?
100%. When the same enemies have different stats for different difficulties, it makes it so complicated… also makes me think of Vermintide’s hero power + stagger systems which further complicate it. Makes it really difficult to balance (and confusing for players who are just trying to understand how many hits with X weapon it takes to kill Y enemy)
I much prefer how it works in games like Helldivers. There, a Bile Titan is always a Bile Titan; the only thing that changes with higher difficulties is how many of them you might run into.
True, BW remains something of an unsolved problem lmao and it will likely remain that way for eternity
Damnation
hm I actually like it that the enemies on higher difficulties have different stats like more health stagger etc.
I d rather see that the spawns are 100% the same across all difficulties. Especially how much and what spawns. Why? because having less enemies in lower difficulties makes the game very boring and does hurt it in the long run IMHO.
I definitely think the balance point should be Heresy. Damnation should be a serious challenge, and Auric should be super sweaty elite gamer territory. Havoc should be Heresy difficulty and slowly scale up with Havoc levels until 40+ which would be harder than Auric Maelstroms. Make Havoc scale infinitely with no cap similar to Diablo 3 greater rifts.
Enemies should be a Threat again on Heresy, without relying on massive numbers of Elites. Crushers need to be completely revamped. Dodging and blocking need to be crucially important, to the point where it’s worth it to use stamina and wound curios. Brain Burst should be extra useful on high armor/high health targets like Crushers and bosses (as it says in the tooltip). Area effect should be great for hordes of zombies and basic unarmored dudes but not against the big targets.
No single weapon or ability should easily kill everything you encounter, imo
Agree!!!
You’ve definitely warmed me to the idea of balancing for Heresy, although I think breakpoints are still important in Auric/Damnation for certain enemies.
The difficulty you have not quoted. Damnation.
Let’s say the poll is incomplete.
no thats auric.
Those are basically the same options, enemy stats (HP, stagger resistance etc) aren’t any different.
Auric should be used as the baseline for balance adjustments, as that is the base game difficulty, the game is intended to be played on by the majority of the playerbase. Auric missions, especially HISTG should be more of a challenge than it is now for sure. Class and weapon redesigns have allowed for too much player damage output (especially with specific setups), and plenty of defensive safety nets.
High Havocs are intended as a challenge difficulty. It’s enough that all that player power creep has undermined Auric difficulty as it is. Havoc is where player skill and understanding of the game should shine, not be carried by OP weapons or broken talents.
This is why I strongly disagree with the whole “Asian perspective on balance”. Overused “meta” picks need looking at, for downward power adjustments. Otherwise balance never improves, and meta picks become even more entrenched. Playstyle variety should be far more important than people’s perception of power fantasy or king status of few over-tunned builds.
who stole the cherry off your cake?
just some feedback Fatshark love the game play and the difficulties. I also love the most that you understand what COOP means.