Yet another Veteran Scavenger rework idea

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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tldr: Reduce/remove the cd, now only melee elite/specialist kills restore ammo.

So, first of all. Yes, virtually infinite ammo is an issue. It needs to be balanced in order to allow the melee part of the game to shine through. The best example of how ammo can ruin this game is pre p13 Veteran with Shredder that could evaporate everything on sigh before any Zealot could reach it, or now a Crying Gaze Gun Psyker outputing so many crits with finesse multipliers that it can guarantee top (orange) damage dealt every game.

Yes, I know being good at the game does not mean doing the most damage, but it pictures how effective weapons are at doing damage. Weapons like the Columnus Mk V Infantry Autogun have so much DPS because we’re not supposed to use it against everything. It should be a high DPS weapon limited by ammo and we should use it to kill a selection of high priority targets.

Ammo reliability as an aura can be toxic. I think everyone has seen someone being toxic because the only veteran on the team doesn’t have the ‘only right’ aura. Any Gunlugger, Gun Psyker, or Vet player who learns to play Zealot and still uses a braced autogun to solve every problem is expecting a Vet to come in and solve their problem. I don’t think that’s healthy for the game.

One of the ideas to solve this was to make this ammo regeneration a keystone so that it only works for the vet, but that would require another rework of the vet talent tree, and I don’t think that’s very likely.
So I am going to present you with an idea that came to me this morning.

ONLY MELEE KILLS SHOULD REFUND 1% AMMO.
Now, I expect to be eaten alive for even suggesting such an unholy condition for a ‘ranged focus’ class, but please let me explain why the more I think about it, the more I like it.

  1. Scavenger is an aura which means that if an Ogryn has just killed 6 shotgunners with his club, you all get the 6% of the ammo back. Now you have some of you ammo back, so you can all magdump that 6% ammo into a mixed horde deleting it instantly. Now you are low on ammo, so you have to melee the second part of the wave, which gives you some more ammo to deal with specials that have just come around the corner. This is a very simplified situation, but it describes how this will create a natural cycle of ammo recovery. I think this will create situations where the high dps Veterans will have a moment of respite and allow the rest of his team to deal with with a mixed horde, so he can have both ammo and attention ready for the specials that can come at any second, and this is exactly what is expected of the ranged specialist class and I love this idea.
    It will also make sure that the teammates in pre-mission loading screen will balance the teams around ranged/melee, and not harass the vet to equip a scavenger build, or they will harass him less I hope.

  2. This change can make it interesting to plan around when preparing the build. Now we have to ask ourselves the following questions: Which enemies do I want to kill in melee in order to get some ammo back? Which weapons do I pick? Dagger for mobility? Power sword for armor penetration? It will force veterans to use weapons that are appropriate for their build, rather than just slapping plasma on everything and calling it a day because ammo efficiency won’t allow it.

  3. It does a very good job of balancing out the fact that psykers don’t use the natural ammunition reserves found in the level, so any kills they make with their powers don’t contribute to the regeneration, making them trurly neutral unless they play a melee focused Crying Gaze giga chad build or a Gun Psyker.

  4. Additionally, I feel that Bleed should also count for this passive, as most of its application comes from melee, so it will prevent some accidental ammo loss.

I think it does well what the original nerf was trying to do. It limits the amount of ranged only dependence of veterans and forces them to adapt to the melee reality of this beautiful game.

And that is just a theory, I’m open to discussion. I suspect that if this change is impelemented into the game, all the veteran mains will get so angry that they will raise the temperature of the globe and melt the snow cover at both poles, dooming us in the process.

Cheers!

2 Likes
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Please don’t take my jokes about vets too seriously, this is my attempt at humor, not an insult.

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Maybe. I think it would give too much ammo honestly if all players could proc it… And you run into issues with squads of a all veterans or mostly psykers or other ranged/ammo heavy squads.

I think the easier approach is to delay when you get the ammo back and in what amounts.

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It could be too much ammo, which is why I think the % restored or proc delay should be balanced by people who have the stats for the game and can do the math. (not me)
A squad of mostly psykers shouldn’t have a problem, as they can handle the entire game just by using their powers/staves, and this will allow the only ammo user left to eat all the ammo bags.
And yes, this will affect ammo-heavy squads, and as much as it’s unfortunate to queue into such team in quickplay, there has to be a downside to playing that kind of comp.

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