Maybe some positive feedback for a change - what were your Highlights of 2024?
Mine were:
locks removed
weapons made available for other classes
relic sword, I usually prefer fast hitting weapons, but this just feels so good
dark communion - new maps feel more and more unique and distinguishable
Was sceptical with havoc, but I like how it nudged you to change the meta and increase team play. Maybe reduced toughness or ammo can become switchable modifiers though, because otherwise some weapons and abilities will always be less/more optimal.
My highlight of 2024 was when fatshark posted the ā2024 recapā thing on twitter, and it showed 33 patches in 2024, but we all know that most of them were just shop rotations being added to the game
I think mine was Hestia as Iāve gotten a lot of mileage out of the penance system. Always enjoy working towards completion.
Weapons unlocked is a no brainer oc. I now donāt even bother checking brunts store and it saves me that time. I can just go straight to the mission map.
Finally getting a proper nuke skill as a psyker just feels all kinds of tingly. Mostly tho itās just its fantastic moveset and combining cleave, power, and single-target dmg all in one package that actually took a bit of learning & skill to get used to. Love it!
FGS has become such a favorite for me that I design almost all my builds around it
Unlocked & Loaded
New maps, cosmetics, weapon rebalances etc. in general
Havoc wellā¦ Letās just say itās a rare thing for me to just ignore something even when it has such wonderful cosmetics behind it. With time Iām sure they can improve on it and the party finder experience however. For now Iāll stick to Aurics.
Secrets of the Machine God + lock break update were alright. Rest of the year was a bit of a wet fart, hopefully 2025 is a year for Darktide and not finishing ports. Letās get likeā¦2 enemies instead or 1, possibly even a boss/monstrosity, 4 maps and like 10 guns. Why does that feel like weāre asking the moon? Previous track recordā¦
Lots of great stuff in 2024, but my standout highlight was ultimately Path of Redemption and the new penance system. Got me to try so many builds, got so many extra hours out of the game thanks to it (and some cool cosmetics too).
Lock breaks single handedly saved the game for me (that and finally getting in to the moding scene so I could get more loadouts/fix some other annoyances that where started to crimp my fun). The amount of build variety that opened up after I could actually get the weapon I want instead of spending an entire evening on rolling 1 weapon only not to get anything better than what I had is just astronomical.
To @Elodie 's point, the Force Greatsword has rapidly become one of the best things to ever happen to Psyker. They just feel so good, give you a ridiculous + 5 stamina (allowing you not to have to run a stamina curio for even more build variety/affordances), feel incredible to learn and get good with, and give Psyker the ability to truly feel good in melee combat. Not just functional, but good, with the massive push and āpartial push/grabā range allowing for full control of the wave and even the ability to āslap downā crushers/push away bulwark shields with the amount of force it provides. It feels great, and half my builds use it now, with it only not being on all of them for the sake of variety XD
To further the previous point, the general Psyker talent rework has gotten me even more into the class I already āalways fell back toā. Talent tree rework just made it so freeing to be a psyker, so many options, so much learning to do and get better at. You can still get dropped pretty hard when not paying attention, but it just feels so nice. Iāve finally gotten on the ā3 staminaā train when using a Dueling Sword/Knife/Force Sword and itās been absolutely eye opening to say the least. That on top of the Greatsword note above has made all my builds feel a lot more āalignedā with 5-6 stamina between them and it feels great (while still having 200-202 toughness based on toughness nodes chosen + curios, thank you +15 base toughness very cool I approve). Warp Splitting + Warp Unbound have been the two best additions to Psyker as well (along with the melee attack speed + By Crack of Bone as āvery nice to havesā) making me fully able to make āAssail buildsā that can absolutely decimate entire waves when all the cards are right (rager spam helps with that with EP procs letting you just infinitely throw funny knives and it feels so good watching hordes just melt to your tiny blades of doom, throwing just knife after knife, only stopping once everything is dead and you run out). I could go on but itās been a treat, and I feel thereās a reason there always seems to be 2 to even 3 Psykers running around in Auric+ at this point. āYou got bored with Bolt/plasma gun/melee spam, and where did it bring you? back to meā.
Havoc was cool, needs a lot of help in the systems department, but I can safely say if they took the enemy/monstrosity density of 35-40 havoc and just put that in auric, even an āAuric+ā tier with matchmaking, Iād be a happy guy. Itās the single funnest thing about the game mode, and itās what has me still doing my ā1 40 runā a week even after grinding through the party finder hell to get the armor. I can only stomach that once a week at this point now though, would love for that to be different but the death of buildcrafting in that gamemode makes it a ānice noveltyā and nothing more to me. I again, just hope they take the āfun stuffā out of it and give us that stuff in better modes, or make havoc actually fun without 150 golden toughness and a Psyker bubble xD.
New maps have always and continue to be a treat too, Dark Communion has been rather fun, I LOVE Gloriana even if itās always a ball buster and I rarely get to get past the intro because people are just not great at this game/look to get carried and die horribly to the enemy density xD. But they continue to make great stuff in that department and keep making quick play that much better. Rolling Steel is no longer AS torturous to go through either with their improvements to it, so thatās nice.
Overall, been having a lot of fun, and feel I can finally say āthings are moving in the right directionā, even if itās still as slow as it tends to be XD. But, Iām enjoying my time, and thatās a big improvement. (even if I now spend a lot of time swearing at console/newbie rejects clicking on auric without a clue. But, I canāt say I donāt enjoy the rare times I actually fully preform and drag some sorry rejects through the finish line, 14 corpses and all, and sometimes even get cudos for doing so).
Mostly tho itās just its fantastic moveset and combining cleave, power, and single-target dmg all in one package that actually took a bit of learning & skill to get used to. Love it!
