No, seriously, I may be biased here, as Psyker is probably the most favorite my class. But I really feel like most classes’ trees are kinda “stiff”. They will allow you to create 3-4 meaningful builds which feel truly different when played - but past that point in subsequent builds you just start to recognize the general patterns that already was used in the “core” few ones.
With Psyker though I have all my builds slots filled already (had to start a new psyker character lately, to keep experimenting) - and all those flavors really feel unique, each of them.
Also, please post your special, off-meta builds of your favorite classes that may not be top performing or the most optimal - but still are super-fun to play and somehow unique, to the point you like them more than meta ones.
It probably feels like that to you because psyker has access to the most unique weapons.
Aside from that psyker feels very rigid in its tree choices. Left keystone is the best by far, top and middle section always look very similar to me. The only unique build is I occasionally run is an assail + improved psyonics setup.
Zealot has a lot of variety in its keystones and midsection. You have agile as a skill, soap and damage reduction for your team. You have a keystone which makes you nimble as a dagger on the clunkiest weapons in the game, one that allows you to go down as often as you want and reap benefits and the one fits all plain crit chance to everything you do. All equally good, all with their own set of nice befitting adjacent nodes.
This by the way is no comparison to arbitrators, with the craziest choice on keystones: exe stance in good, unkillable mode, and the one that sounds so bland in comparison I never tested it.
Vet used to have different styles but that is no more, now the only real choice seems to be what grenade you take.
Scum has a lot of number buffs. The only interesting thing I see on it is the possibility to generate multiple medi crates but I have yet to come across that or make it myself work
because psyker has the most amount of blatantly strong options everywhere you turn, from ranged to melee to talents to abilities, its pretty hard to not land on a build that is different from the last because so many things they have are just that strong. arbites does this “pick anything and it works“ thing better but psyker already just has more things to pick from that are also stronger to begin with
Exe stance MMF helbore vet is still underrated, one shotting every elite and 2 shotting crushers in havoc 40 while having your toughness regen completely in like 1 second being looked down upon is crazy, then there shovel and double barrel weapon specialist vet, its like psyker if you had to work for it and was fun. Fatmangus zealot is really funny because you just stack up so much health and health affecting dr that you can just consistently shrug off things that would kill literally anyone else, all while still being able to chunk bosses and one shot captains, even in h40, plus the insane clutch potential to keep games going no matter what. “health is a resource and i am spending it to deal more damage“ is more true to life here than martyrdom
yeah most loadouts are just effort vs low effort, and a lot of the low effort is also low risk. though I think nuncio aquila, infiltrate, telekinetic wall and point blank barrage are just awful and in need of reworks. at best infiltrate can cheese enemy aggro and the rest of those are either extremely buggy (specialists running through walls damaging it without taking stun) or stupidly built (like point blank barrage blurring your vision so you can’t see without mods, why). or just straight up ass (nuncio).
this is one loadout I like, except bad positioning you basically don’t go down. the las pistol has a ridiculous amount of movement potential for running around, and the heavy las pistol is kinda weird with high stagger and base damage instead of high finesse (though you still want headshots and especially crits). it has 29 points down because I fluctuate with that last point - sometimes I share intel with teammates, sometimes that revive spec, sometimes deadshot, sometimes out for blood…I’ve played too much vet and just like to experiment. though I guess you could also use it on one of the gross grenade perks with how dumb grenades are at the minute with 3 kraks.
power sword doesn’t lose power cycler when you have executioner stance because you can’t get hit stunned. mostly I just focus on melee combat and blap with the las pistol for cool Dirty Harry style takedowns with 1 shot (when agile/skirmisher/exe are up and you crit basically everything but the ogs/mauler/mutant is dead). you don’t use ammo if you game WS so you can have more dodge and attack speed while using exe’s slowdown immune to power sword everything.
psyker can be played with staves and with guns, offensive with vent or defensive with bubble, even boring with permasmite if you want. i know inferno can yield damage in the millions. but i’m not that eager to put blue flames on everything, i like zapping heretics with the electro staff more, and my preferred way to play psyker is with guns like a warp-powered zealot, the mosst dynamic imo.
It takes advantage of Ogryn Power, where you don’t need that many perks to perform well in melee and most weapons can kill hordes very easily. Sure you sacrifice some optimal perks, but you make up for it with a super dynamic smash n’ blast experience with free salvos and quick feet. And any build you never have to reload is a winner in my books!
The build is super flex, just take these nodes and a (ripper) gun of choice:
The Ripper fires bursts, which are free whenever Lucky Bullet triggers (3 for the price of zero!). You could use any weapon though (>1 bullet:clip recommended), I’m just Ripper-brained.
When you kill something in melee, you are more likely to trigger Lucky Bullet (and in fact you should do so regularly – both things).
When you kill something with ranged, you get a 3s movement speed boost which feels great on the big man. Places to be, rashuns to eat!
My melee weapons of choice are Paul/Branx as they are strong, versatile weapons even without perks to back 'em up. Bonus for anti-carapace since the Ripper is not armour-piercing.
Playstyle is mostly melee, with regular (free) bursts to give you some reach in the thick of things. I’ve taken it up to Auric, and while it’s not my top performing build I do bust it out a lot because it feels special and I like builds that don’t need ammo/reloads.
Here’s the goofy Ripper I run with it (but red ofc):
Again this is mainly for fun since Ogryn gets a pathetic amount of crits even with the perks and talents. Still, it’s nice when you (very) occasionally wing a sniper/bomber from long range and they die from bleed – especially since they can get staggered back into cover (ah, Ogryn things).
Just want to reiterate that this is not the strongest build… it sure is fun tho
