I’ve heard a lot about Voidstrike recently, actually. It used to be, like, the WORST staff. I even somehow preferred the Surge over it. Honestly, I use the Assail sparingly and I do still dodge a lot. Crushers are a Vet’s job but the Krak Grenade fuse is so long it’s easier to just… stab the Crusher to death with my sword sometimes.
Auto aim - check
Horde, elite, specials clear - check
Can crit - check
Kills anything in one or two shots that isnt ogryn or mauler - check
Cheap on peril - check
Excellent keystones - check
Able to finish entire maps without switching ONCE to other weapons - check
Now, I do love assail but atm especially on lower difficulties the new people play on, it trivializes content that others dont even need to shoot or melee.
I wouldnt mind if regular cast did less dmg per pierce and rightclick cast flew even faster with even slightly more dmg but did one less pierce.
3 Likes
Dear god thank you somebody said it. Psyker hasn’t been bad or close for a long time. Psyker was probably my most played class in the lead up to this patch and if you think they were bad you’re delusional or had long since abandoned them to go brrrrr with some hyper meta Vet build.
Anyone who makes the hurr durr Psyker bad before this patch argument is pretty much just self reporting at this point.
Which isn’t me trying to say there aren’t valid arguments defending assail. That just absolutely isn’t one of them.
8 Likes
Psyker was good, but it wasnt a psyker. It was veteran with magic.
NOW it actually IS a psyker
Played helbore with vet… could not hit anything that was not killed instantly by the 2 psykers with assail.
Was a greeeeeaaaaaat game (or not).
the problem is enemies are supposed to go down easily on anything below Tier 4. If they don’t no matter what class you’re playing, you’re doing it wrong. My opinion? Increase the Zealot’s throwing knife supply or the ammo pickup resupply of them to twice the normal amount, or even both. Re-buff the Vet’s stats that were nerfed for no reason and reduce the Krak grenade fuse time (Zealot with Shroudfield will kill the Crusher before it even goes off), then also reduce Vet’s aim speed (for Executioner’s Stance) Ogryn brace time for Point-blank Barrage a bit so they can both aim in and start shooting faster. Nerfing Assail sounds more like a cheap copout when compared to actually fixing the other classes overly-weakened skill trees. If we fix those other classes, Assail Psykers will have no choice but to use it as a Blitz otherwise they risk wasting it in case of a sudden silent enemy spawn or something of that nature.
Honestly, Vet just feels unsatisfying to play now anyway. Lots of folk seem to ignore my suggestions on how to fix that rather than making Psykers useless again, though. I had 2 Assail Psykers in my game with me and I was a Helbore Vet, I was killing enemies just fine because I have a good build and a Power Sword on top of my Helbore. The secret is being at least somewhat pro-active.
I dont disagree vet is clunky, or that zealot knives are worse than nades or that ogryn shooty ult could decrease brace time.
But assail DOES trivilize content and thats a fact, I have scoreboard I CAN SEE how much dmg and enemies psyker killed.
I have eyes and before I even get into melee the horde is dead.
I can 100% obejctively state that it is peak wigglemancer siena or machinegun elf back from V2, where those builds generated 80% of dmg the entire team did
2 Likes
thing is, beside the lightning being bugged, when you paralyse someone a friend then help you kill it. when you drop a dozen of shard vaguely in the ennemy direction they can just walk pastthe corps to the next room. Assail being powerfull is at is root more frustrating because that’s like walking near an auto turret doing the work for you. It doesn’t really require actions from anyone including the psyker itself.
And while vet do need some ammo buff assail also need a change to make it less prevalent when used. either make it bad against elit or bad against trashmob but not good against both or reduce how availabel theshard are. (or make them more powerfull but farless easier to regrow or harder to aim). So the answer to anything but ogryn isn’t to drop all yourshard then think of something if that doesn’t work.
I play psyker in a four player group indamnation (not auric). I used empowered assail once. Then never again as itwas so boring for the others and even for me it stop being fun after half the mission. Now I either use the other blitz or not empowered assail.
Smite also needs a buff, it’s currently so useless and can in fact be a burden on the team in its current state. Smite triggers more Daemonhosts and fries more GPUs than enemies it kills. To summarise from a friend of mine who used it, in Palpatine’s voice, “EXTREMELY LIMITED POWER!!!”
Psyker was not weak before patch but also you can’t faceroll HI-STG with Assail and random party. Premade does not count and dont use Void strike because it is broken. Assail is cruch on lower difficulty but cant carry you in highest.
Yeah, Voidstrike left a bad taste in my mouth when it was still an awful staff, and I just adore my loving Purgatus too much to replace him.
Lol? Smite pauses the game for entire enemy areas while your team effortlessly clears it out.
If smite dealt damage then it would eclipse assail so much we would be in warframe territory broken.
Judge the ability for whats intended, and on higher difficulties with competent people smite is arguably even more broken than assail.
And Iam not even considering the middle tree bug that gives infinite stun
2 Likes
But the problem is it DOESN’T, unless you wanna waste all your points into the peril reduction that breaks it. Smite is useless in its base form. It just slows down your teammates’ FPS dramatically and without quelling buffs you’ll just explode before it becomes somewhat useful. As I said, it’s better at triggering Daemonhosts by accident than stunning hordes because it chains at either the wrong times or not at all.
Smite is very strong similar to Surge staff before. Assail is really weak in difficult situations but using Smite can save your run. The bug should be fixed.
Do you even use Smite? As far as I know you can’t blow yourself unless you use other peril generation (not talking about bug here).
2 Likes
Smite can save runs, but assail weak in difficult situations?
I mean a crusher-mauler-bulwark mob is something assail does diddly d-ck against, sure.
But outside of the HEAVIEST and MOST STAGGER resistant packs of enemies, assail just replaces your 2 other weapons.
2 Likes
And mutant trains, it is wonky against pox busters, hard to kill snipers and is very random. It does nothing against boss. It just kills lesser or unarmored enemies well.
Bruh, play the game, smite is bugged cause of empowered psionics, it generates 0 perill.
2 Likes
things are broken and op when they bring so much power it adversely affects balance .
and assail turns damnation and lower into a walking simulator for the other team members , braking the game and making it utterly pointless to play.
as the op points out , smite is currently bugged and can be used one castfor the whole map. that doesnt come close to be as broken as working as intended assail.
maybe assail works fine on higher difficulty than damnation. but so what? balance doesnt just have to exist for the top 1% that kills games, the game needs to work at all difficulties.