From my experience Assail only works well if you have a decent team to mop up stuff for you and decent weapons to defend yourself. And if you don't suck at the game obviously. I've seen many Psykers with Assail get overwhelmed to the point of dying to poxwalkers or exploding themselves. On lower difficulties with no modifiers Assail is king though. Psykers have enough breathing room to recharge and quell, so they can "give it their all" in every encounter. But its lower difficulties. Everything is good there. The only difference is - Assail is also easy to use as it requires next to no input from the player. I think a decent way to balance it without just making it weaker through numbers alone, would be to introduce a multi-lock, similar to RDR. So that Psykers has to lock onto targets that will be pierced first, with their heads glowing, so that it won't surprise teammates and will require at least some skill and coordination to use.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

YO! I like that idea a lot! 100% agree to that one. Solid mate, solid.

@termlesscipher8045

9 ай бұрын

@@mistermugsy Psykers abilities from my observation are Special hunting (Brainburst and Brain Rupture), Horde management and disabling (Smite) and Trash clear (assail). Most pykers use these out of context of how they should to be getting the most out of their abilities. But when i play my vet with like 2 - 3 Assail Psykers... I just become dead weight and i want to leave the match because I've built myself for Special hunting and i can exactly do that when everything is just melting right in front of me

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

@@termlesscipher8045 my problem is Assail is not even good at trash clear or special hunting, but when you have 2 or 3 of them , its hard to tell. The shards feel like they fly super slow toward like a sniper or whatever you want to purge thats further away then melee and in actual large hordes they only clear 2 or 3 trash with 2 shards usually. It s harder to notice the shortcomings in low tier with 2 or 3 assailers.

@joshuabarron8535

9 ай бұрын

Or don't, because it's perfect as is.

@termlesscipher8045

9 ай бұрын

@@Koranthus its all in hows its used tbh.

As a lowly guardsman who's had his ass saved from being turned into lunch meat by a pack of chaos ogrins by a scary French lady throwing darts like a mad woman: I have no complaints about psychers.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Lad, have a drink on me, one guardsman to another.

@KageRyuu6

9 ай бұрын

The French truly are terrifying abhumans.

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

You weren't saved by the Psyker, those darts do no damage to Ogryn

@Barak43

9 ай бұрын

@@Koranthus well, it can, but it takes a long time 🤣

@jblockman_59nunyabidnis68

9 ай бұрын

@@Koranthus did you not watch the video? You see him kill like three.

It’s difficult to take some of this seriously when you open with saying that empowered psionics is “not that great”. It’s a peril-less, ammo-less, higher damage projectile that has a chance to reproc itself and provides toughness to the whole team. It’s even easier to use empowered psionics on auric because the amount of elites make procing empowered psionics much more consistent

@bobertastic6541

9 ай бұрын

I love using lightning with empowered psionics, I can just hold down m1 on a spawn door and lock the whole thing down myself

@vacuousvulpes

9 ай бұрын

You missed what he said: it only works for 3 projectiles, and you get more damage from Warp charges that are almost always constantly up during combat with the right points spent. You may also want to finish the video because he proved that Asail does not one-shot things and takes multiple shards to kill anything, so you don't get that no-cost ammo effect very long.

@isThreeman

8 ай бұрын

@@vacuousvulpes Yeah literally anyone who has touched psyker knows it's not a one shot but people don't alt into the other classes like they should. I'm an ogryn main but I have alts to grind currency of course but also to know what the other classes are capable of. If I don't know what a veteran and psyker can take and do then how can I possibly be an effective bulwark for them. Zealots are simple enough I can see what they do, run ahead really fast and then get killed.

@MrHoodlin

8 ай бұрын

@@bobertastic6541 Of course you love it, it's an unintended bug.

@bobertastic6541

8 ай бұрын

@@MrHoodlin ??? Bro it literally is in the effect description. That’s the whole thing it does for the lightning. Free. More damage. You just can’t get hit or you get whacked outta it. It’s still dog and can be out damaged by an ogryn with a cleave knife but it’s fun.

The thing about the shards is not, that it takes 5 shards for a rager. It's that it also takes 5 shards for many ragers. I just throw 2 or 3 shards and didn't even notice, that I killed the whole pack of pox hounds after 1s. I noticed it first, when I saw the kill feed full with my name. Just like said in the comments, the recharge rate has to be increased, or the max number. I went with a gun build and took the revolver against the carapace armored enemies, or let them kill by my mates For Smite, I also use that for a laser pistol build, using it for an alternative, if the laser pistol won't work

Yeah, my big issues with Assail are the players using it like idiots. Last night I was a vet and ended up with a zealot and two assail boys. I guess they were competing for kills or something, because they were way the hell out ahead constantly (even outpacing the zealot!), and quite often getting dogged because it was a hound map. On top of things it was the 'defend the docks' mission, and for some reason they were on top of the train cars, just for better LOS on incoming hordes. They kept getting sniped. And did either of them have the dome or shield to keep them somewhat safe? No, of course not. This was far from a unique experience, sadly. So for me it's not Assail being quite good, it's the players that it can attract. You don't have to aim, and the damage is solid. They can face-roll their way to a high kill count in a game where kill count is completely irrelevant. XD And you'd have this problem in any class or build that requires little thought and results in a lot of 'sploded heads. It's not the power, it's the players, and I'm glad to see more content creators pointing out the numbers on these things.

@serronserron1320

9 ай бұрын

I could imagine this would be a problem in a rookie inquisitorial kill team.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

I’ll always use the numbers when it comes to things like this. I also build my builds around the numbers. People throw around blanket statements or post stupid things on reddit where they use a mod to show how all unhelmeted elites, specialists, and fodder gets trounced by assail. I wont lie that it isn’t powerful. But it does what it does so damn well. As do so many other Skills/builds/kits. Once builds start coming that use the numbers for psykers to realize they dont need to spaz and commit to the shards things will get better. But other blitzes and Grenades/builds need love too. Great comment. 100% with you. Sorry to hear the Psykers had zero in the brain department. It sucks hard when people play the I need to have a HIGH KILL COUNT! Keep playing and hope to see you in a match one day.

@Mutsume82

9 ай бұрын

this, jfc this is a coop game dont just run way ahead of everyone or rambo the shit out of everything, the moment i see this kind of psyker i instantly won't help you if shit coming your way because i know it will and this is coming from myself who main psyker

@spartacus6256

9 ай бұрын

I know understand why Fatshark hasn't added an individual kill feed anymore, and they shouldn't ass it adds nothing to the game.

@efkelley

9 ай бұрын

@@spartacus6256 Yeah, very much so. I had an assail psyker tell me in one game that smite was useless. He said I should just kill targets instead of playing with them. I see what he was trying to say (badly), but Mugsy's vid shows exactly why Assail isn't the end-all answer to every mob. Those oggies and the heavily armored elites take a full stack of spikes. And sure, I'll never kill a carapace ogryn with Smite, but it's not supposed to. The carapace goon can do *nothing* while it's getting Palpatine'd. Assail boy should whip out his force sword and two-shot it. Or let one of the other heavy hitters take it out while it stands there convulsing. And he just didn't grok that at all. Some people.... XD

I think the only thing that needs to be tweaked with Assail is increase the recharge for the shards a little bit, it would at least incentivize using a staff or sword for a bit until you have shards back. When I use it I almost never run out and can just spam them all over

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, the recharge rate is pretty high. But considering that most enemies you'd be targeting need two to three shards, running out shouldn't be an issue.

@serronserron1320

9 ай бұрын

If they give up bit more power

@Jcornman24

9 ай бұрын

Lol my bad decrease not increase, I want shards to run out more@@mistermugsy

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

No worries, I figured it.

@serronserron1320

9 ай бұрын

@@mistermugsy There was a chick in a Alpha Legion short story that crushed an entire Hive spire and propelled a space station into a star. Can I do that?

The main issue i have is on lower difficulties. Leveling up your other characters on malice only to have 1-2 psykers kill everything outside of carapace enemies isn't fun Feels like you can't play the game at all on those difficulties anymore

@goaway5297

9 ай бұрын

Additionally those guys are often new and never learn to melee as a result. And the number of times I've seen these guys aggro Daemonhosts is not worth bringing up for the sake of my mental health.

@KillerOrca

9 ай бұрын

@@goaway5297 You'd think people playing a 40k game would know not to approach something making weird ass noises and buzzing sounds...

@robowolfzane6666

8 ай бұрын

@@KillerOrca not everyone knows the setting

I’ve been experimenting with a stealth knife preacher build and if the stars align, I can one shot backstab most things in the game and I’m not even level 20 yet. Every strong build seems to have weaknesses…I really like the new talent trees.

@snappa_tv

8 ай бұрын

Stealth knife preachers have hard carried me through auric damnation maelstrom missions. Their powers absolutely insane

The accent is bonkers holy hell. Props g. Please keep this up. I am inexplicably excited to see up to date darktide content dude

The biggest issue I've got.. ironically, is not the builds. Its players in high difficulty being braindead monkeys, rushing ahead and getting themselves killed - and then blaming the other 3 in the team for not keeping up. Initially this was only an issue with Zealots (it still is, whenever I see a loner-aura zealot i already roll my eyes cus guaranteed, that one's rushing off ahead the moment the mission starts) but its since spread to Assail Psykers and Infiltrator Veterans as well. I know people have been begging for a solo mode but holy damn theres a mod for that. This is NOT the way to play solo. ..specially if you're gonna blame your team afterwards for not keeping up.

@porkerpete7722

9 ай бұрын

They calked Zealots for a reason 😂

A way to balance brain burst is to add more Crowd Control affects. It could suppress everyone in a big radius on a kill or knock everyone down. Just doing light soul fire damage isn’t enough. Another idea is to always have brain burst one shot, but have the charge up and peril cost be reduced or increased based off of the health of the enemy (aside from monstrosities). You can now reliably target weaker specialists without your teammates killing them too quickly.

Krak Grenades don't even need Grenade Tinkerer. It one-shots Crushers. I had an Auric mission, I threw a Krak Grenade into a crowd of Ogryns, and I killed three Crushers and a Bulwark. It's overkill unless you're trying to kill Monstrosities, and they don't show up often enough to warrant taking Grenade Tinkerer.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Yup, that is what I show in the vid. But it does feel good to know Krak can kill everything in one shot but Monstrosities.

@jamesgrose510

9 ай бұрын

I actually saw that you couldn't kill Reapers with one grenade, and I was confused as to why, because mine do. You're not running the talent that affects Ogryn and Monstrosity damage, are ya? Obviously weaker than Grenade Tinkerer for the sole purpose of hurting Monstrosities, but it helps a helluva lot with taking out one or two Ogryns without spending more valuable resources.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

@@jamesgrose510I always run GT but I only had the first needed clicks for my point.

Assail is important for new players because it teaches them early on that all kills belong to the psyker. as a blunt your job is undoing nets, killing dogs and doing the objective (and of course thank the psyker whenever they allow you to have a kill or two)

Ive been maining Assail with a Voidstrike staff and force sword, lot of people yeah just spam assail to the point of waste or killing everything before anyone else gets a chance too. I keep the assail for quick sniping specialists, wave clear, i got my force sword for wave clear and it has deflector so i can Jedi stop ranged attacks, and the Voidstrike for massive single target dps, for ogryns etc, and telekine shield, idk how people blow themselves up so often honestly ive never found managing assail difficult

For what it's worth, the problem with Assail isn't really that it's too powerful, it's that it makes the game boring for everyone else on the team. A halfway decent psyker with a solid assail build can obliterate 60-80% of enemies before anyone else on the team can even engage, typically leaving only crushers, maulers, and maybe a rager or two from a full mixed horde for the rest of the team to deal with. And that's _painfully_ dull. Much like with the infinite surge gimmick, it's the psyker essentially telling the rest of the team that they're playing a walking simulator for the next 20 minutes. Which is why it needs fixing. It doesn't need that much, honestly. Substantially increase the damage vs maniacs and infested, have the homing prioritize specials, lower the charge cap, increase the recharge time, and make it so it only hits 1 target without the pierce talent and 2 with it. This would make it a really good special killer, but poor at dealing with hordes, which surge is good at, and elites, which brain burst is good at. And this has the end result of assail being extremely good with a low skill floor, but that also doesn't put the rest of the team to sleep.

@siegfread9683

9 ай бұрын

Even that isnt strictly speaking the problem with assail. Its a great ability with a solid niche on level 4 and 5. Level 3 and below it is uniquely disgusting in the way you describe with no other blitz having that level of power imbalance. I get why they dont change the players power on different difficulties but that seems like the only real solution without making assail completely worthless in the end game levels

@Agayek

9 ай бұрын

I mean, I play nearly exclusively auric damnation quickplay, and it works exactly the way I've described there. It's closer to 60% than 80%, just cuz there's that many more enemies in most auric missions, but assail is just as oppressive there as it is anywhere else.

@raeishimura

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, ive noticed this since helping out a friend who is new to the game. Running into psykers in the lower tiers hes still more comfortable with at his lower level has seen them really oppressing the battlefield. We've see them mop the floor with mobs and effectively leave nothing for him to do, and i always tell him not to worry, it'll get better later in the mission where the psyker can't do that as easily. But i hate seeing him want to play the game and have this happen, leaving him feeling like he doesn't get to do anything

@zappli45

9 ай бұрын

Very little people talks about the teams experience. Everytime I see a video or reddit post explaining why Assail doesn't need tweaking in anyway, the person explaining always only speaks in the perspective of the psyker player. And anytime you try to argue you'll get something along the lines of "You're just a salty vet main"

@ijoel6747

9 ай бұрын

I don’t like that I am just supposed to “mop up” for the psyker. Maybe that’s an effective strat, but I personally don’t find that fun.

As a psyker main myself i don't think Assail is busted damage-wise, i think it's just far too spammable and easy to use. With literally zero effort or skills you can spend the entire game just spamming it and you'll be contributing almost as much as a skilled teammate actually trying I feel like they should make it even stronger (like extra damage or, preferably, more pierces) but significantly limit the regeneration rate. Or even buff them to the moon and make it so that they don't recharge at all and you have to loot them

@isThreeman

8 ай бұрын

I think I'd prefer if Assail was like 3 strong shards that hit like 5 to 8 enemies stopping on carapace but you had a solid 0.5 to 1 second regen time. The aimed shot would be more of a high damage javelin like thing that pathed to the targeted enemy. It would burn all the shard charges so you'd have to wait for them all to recharge to use it again. This would make it more of a blitz like the other classes and not a primary weapon. It would make it so that you could clear a single crowd in a volley but not semi-continuously slaughter a whole horde.

@lv1543

8 ай бұрын

Bro its the ONLY spell that makes psyker viable rn. If they nerf it im dropping the class and going back to veteran

@DrunkGeko

8 ай бұрын

​@@lv1543 It got nerfed twice ever since my original comment my dude

@lv1543

8 ай бұрын

@@DrunkGeko damn ive been playing with the dollar store version? Still plays great

@12halo3

6 ай бұрын

@@DrunkGekoand I would not have it any other way (I also main psyker along with zealot)

personally I like using the palpatine lighting, while it can be lack luster in actual fun for the user its extremely helpful in locking down everything around you for teammates to end them safely with melee, and how easy it is to acquire charges for the infinite its not bad.

@the_furry_inside_your_walls639

9 ай бұрын

I dunno what you mean about it not being fun. I find it a lot more enjoyable watching enemies explode from the lightning than throwing magic mind crystals around.

@Ratccoon_

9 ай бұрын

@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 the point being you just sit there and hold one button and occasionally dash around, that's the point made in the video but I don't mind it, I like being able to lock the entire area down

I've been running assail, ilisi and surge and it's awesome, I constantly switch between 3 weapons and it just feels so fluid and fast, I can respond to almost every threat pretty quickly (assail for general use, ilisi for moving through hordes, surge for muties, maulers, crushers, dogs and other big threats) and the only problem I'm having are monstrosities, enjoy running auric damnations and I feel like I can pull some weight, except when I blow up that is

I need to be able to deal with heavy single targets,gunners and hordes brain burst isnt currently able to pull its wieght on any of them,really need to do something with it

Thank you for the video man, It helped me refit my Psyker!

Brain Burst really should be the be-all-end-all for burst damage.

Stun-locking everything is super-useful in Auric. If you have a Palpatine in the group, it's usually easy game, even in Damnation maelstrom (that and a assassin zealot that just shanks everything). he can stun lock super heavies for days, and your zealot / ogryn can bash them to death. The Psycher might not kill them, or have fun while doing it, but in some ridiculous situations, where you have for example, 4 crushers, and two shield ogryns and some maulers in the middle of a horde of pox walkers, stun-locking all those gangbangers can be game saving. You might have any grenades left, you might not have Voice Of Command available, you might not have Chorus Of Fortitude ready, so it's a nice security, at least to give your team time to reposition or reload. In general, it's very useful. Or, big packs of hound, or hordes of mutants. I tend to play bodyguard zealot with that psycher. Despite my ravenous hatred for his kind, he is too damn useful to die. he can be executed later, or sent to the black ships, whatever the Inquisition deems appropriate.

Me * a psyker that uses voidstrike staff because I have for as long as I could remember and started using assail because I've been using new blitzs for classes *: oh no

Assail is the diaper and pull-ups up to Malice. The big boy potty of Heresy and above will have you using better builds without it. It's fun, but good luck on Auric shooting lawn darts at Satan and his boys when you could be using Smite to lock down the horde and be useful.

@rose.i

9 ай бұрын

that's an interesting take because im a big boy whose been potty trained and i find assail to be pretty busted I play either damnation or auric malestrom depending on my current mood and with assail i can clear entire screens of anything in my way that's not an ogryn or monstrosity just by going cross eyed and sneezing

I'm doing assail build for my Psyker ...I put earn blessing on one surge staff to get the warp nexus blessing but I can't find it when I tried to re bless my Voidstrike staff... which staff has a built in warp nexus? Can you give me your psyker assail build?

Brainburst is certainly a shadow of its former self and needs some love. I run 4 psyker builds and only one of them has assail in it (the gunpsyker). The rest has 1 brainburst and 2 smite. Smite in my opinion (as an auric level player) shines most and can be a gamechanger in auric maelstrom missions, where you are constantly "assailed" (heh see what I did there) by everything the game can throw at you. The ability to keep things in place long enough for the team to cut them down is gold. In endgame it's not all about damage but also control. Smite + Domeshield can really save the game when used in the right moment. As for assail... Well it certainly needs some tinkering but I wouldn't call it op by any chance. As long as people don't get killed by their stupidity/bloodlust and they don't aggro a daemonhost let them use what they want.

@the_furry_inside_your_walls639

9 ай бұрын

Literally this. Smite is far more useful than brainburst or assail because of the crowd control. You either give your teams enough time to kill the enemies, or you eventually watch the stunlocked enemies explode from electric overcharges while your teammates are fighting a bigger foe or doing the objective.

@pooppilot9979

9 ай бұрын

it hits different when the infinite magic perk activates on the smite.

@grogphilip8979

8 ай бұрын

I mean damage legit creams you through a game though.

Shards are the most fun ive had in a long time playing this game, i hope they dont nerf it and instead buff the bad abilities like lightning

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

"Bad", while most people are running it because the CC is completely broken and lets you walk through all the missions.

@PannkakaMedSylt

9 ай бұрын

Bad? what xD I'm 2 manning Damnation malestrom with my friend running Lightning. Much stronger ability then Assail. I'm using Scries Gaze, Smite & Disrupt Destiny! all 3 fairly unpopular choices it seems, but makes for the strongest build imo. I wouldn't be able to 2man Damnation malestrom with an Assail focused build.

@0-B1

9 ай бұрын

​@@PannkakaMedSyltbad as in boring as fuck honestly

@bobertastic6541

9 ай бұрын

@@Koranthus well tbf I can cc better with ogryn, the best use for lightning is to stop specials from doing the bad. It’s especially great on hunting grounds missions.

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

@@bobertastic6541 Yeah that is better CC than Ogryn in like every case.

I think another thing that could be cool is something like mind war from dawn of war, where you basically just turn brain burst into a dot as long as you focus. It'd pump out the same damage as a regular brain burst, but it just pulses with damage

Smite is not a blitz to kill but it an excellent cc, charged smite can stun the whole wave including elites and make enemies take 10% extra damage from all sources. Infinite Smite or "Unlimited power build" you can have 3 cherges of Empowered Psyonic from Charged Up and Overpowering Souls is a guarantee charge for killing Elites its an upgrade from brain damage to a minor concussion but that build relying on competent party cus you can't do any significant damage. but you can use it as a cc. My build is Smite, Seer's Presence, Venting Shriek and Warp Siphon. Playing around cc and applying soulblaze from Venting Shriek to clear wave of groaners and Warp Sphon reduces cd of Venting Shriek when killing Elites. And Voidstrike as a main damage.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

solid build and solid point. Smite isn't for killing, but when your team ignores you and your targets it can be frustrating to get ganged on from behind the moment you lock down one section and the team ran off. I'd offer a Trauma staff if you havn't tried one yet.

@usernamealreadytaken9330

9 ай бұрын

@mistermugsy You can do 360 with Smite, it doesn't perma stun but when the Smite disconnected it still push enemies back give you a breathing room. Then switch to Force sword and crab walk out of there.

Before the Veteran used to bully the Psyker... now the Psyker bullies the Veteran. Ironic.

I've no issues with those cosplaying as Yondu, so I just want to chime in on Brain Burst. While I agree that it should be more powerful, I think comparing Brain Burst to Krak grenades is a false equivalency simply due to the number of times each Blitz can be used. You touched on this already by mentioning the free grenade every minute, but even with that... the number of grenades a Veteran can throw out every mission is a fraction of the number of brains a Psyker can burst. I think Brain Burst should be powerful enough to one shot most enemies, but I think it should still take 2-3 pops for a Mauler, Bulwark, or Crusher. Making it as powerful as the much more limited grenades seems like a mistake. I think the balance or trade off between the two Blitzes is the finite number of grenades a Veteran gets (assuming an extra 30 for a 30m mission, more with pickups) vs the almost unlimited uses of Brain Burst (which is balanced by the downsides of being vulnerable during the cast time). But how would you feel if Empowered Psionics allowed you to kill Crushers with one Brain Burst? Then the more powerful application would at least be limited and closer to the number of grenades available to Veterans without making them feel obsolete. Alternatively, maybe Brain Burst could be channeled for longer to kill a Crusher in one go? Then it would leave you vulnerable for longer during the extra cast time. A risk/reward scenario that would still keep grenades relevant.

Heres me feeling like yondu with the shard darts

I think that Brain Burst should scale its peril cost based on the target, possibly the time too, but mostly the cost. So the highest things it can one shot kill will take the most peril and the weakest things will take the least. This would be forgiving if you miss a hard target, but still waste some time and peril, and if you get a mid ranged (in difficulty/hardness) target then you use up a fair amount of peril and can't just pop something heavy straight after. The only thing that this doesn't account for is monstrosities. I suppose the question is, should brain burst simply not work on them for the scalable benefit of guaranteed one shots on everything that isn't a "boss"?

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

If BB didn't work on Monstrosities it would be unviable. So it still has to work on them. However, the Trade off of Increased Damage for Increased Peril has the player need to Ride the Line of making a Warpy or dunking something that can cause an issue. I actually like this idea a lot. Quality.

@Kilmoran

9 ай бұрын

@@mistermugsy Perhaps it could cap out on damage when it comes to monstrosities (enhanced by the talent nodes of course) a percentage or specific amount since it by passes defenses by the nature of what it is. I am not sure what is best here, but just saying it obviously can't one shot monstrosities.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

No and it never should. I was just hanging on the Bulwark, Crusher, Reaper, and Mauler. 😁👍

@graveyardshift6691

9 ай бұрын

I take you haven't seen the Psyker Penances. There's one for soloing a Monstrosity using only Brain Burst. So already the fact that penance exists means your idea is invalid. Monstrosities have to be a valid target for Brain Burst or they have to replace that penance which they seem unwilling to do. An unenhanced brain burst on Heresy or higher already generates roughly 33% on regular specials. Elite Terror (Bulwark, Crusher, Reaper) take two shots and they build 45% peril with each attempt. So you can only get off 2-3 BBs on a single 0-100% charge. And yes the stronger the enemy, the longer it takes to actually charge. Trash will pop in 2-3 seconds while the average special takes 5 seconds. Terrors and monstrosities will take 5-7. There are some talents that can help reduce this charge time, peril build, and enhance brain burst damage but ultimately you should try completing the new Psyker Penances before you go talking about BB like that. I finished all of them and trust me, they were a hassle to complete.

@Kilmoran

9 ай бұрын

@@graveyardshift6691 Those penances existed before the update which is why there are only brain burst ones to begin with (when it comes to ability penances for Psykers). And it doesn't really invalidate an idea just because of a single penance achievement given that the list itself isn't updated post patch. Still, it was a thought given the context of the other portions of the idea, recognizing that there was a hole to plug.

I definitely feel like brain burst needs a little extra love. I use BB most the time (probably because I'm stubborn and used to it) I would be ok with it doing more damage in general it having a faster cast speed. Which ever would be a a nice step forward. Assail and smite are fun but gimmicky feeling. I do find assail to be very good for hunting grounds, but that's about all I prefer to use it for.

You better have something for monstrosities and Crushers is all I'm going to say. I think it has value, but when you get 8 Crushers running your way, the empowered psionics BB is much more effective, or smite. I love wiping out an area of elites with the empowered BB. Assail for me can be both awesome and flaky. At the end of the day it doesn't solve every problem you run across. To me it's most effective when enemies are concentrated. The more spread out the enemy is, the less effective it is, especially if you're caught on your own surrounded on all sides. You want to talk about something really annoying? Talk about the zealots that run off and think they can beat the entire map alone. I'm not saying they aren't powerful, but that is getting on my nerves.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Mate, Zealots running off and dying has been a thing since launch. Now they just do it faster. haha. It hasn't mattered what Blitz I've had, Trauma staff has always been my go to for that massive burst. Staff I have now is nuts.

@the_furry_inside_your_walls639

9 ай бұрын

I legit do not get why zealot players do that. As a zealot player myself, I've always seen myself as a aggressive-support role, and with the new skilltree Update I can actually fulfill that playstyle with the chanting ability.

look you have some good points but as a veteran of vermintide 1 and 2 and coming 400 hours of darktide playing auric t5 with my friends who have similar experience to me we came to the same conclusion that assail is very strong in the right hands the reason psykers don't one shot everything on t5's is because they have no supply limitations that force them to conserve supplies you literally just throw them out and pull out ur force sword quell on some trash clear and do it again and if you don't know how to dodge that's on you, you easily end up with 800k + damage at the end of the mission where as classes with supply limits that can't spam 10 billion grenades even with skills that recharge them on elite kill which is 5% chance or 60 second refresh deal like anywhere from 250k to 500k with alot more effort and danger involved in doing it psykers have the best survival skills in the game right now they have passive toughness restoration on peril quell and psychic kills also walls that block ranged fire and restore toughness and the other wall blocks mutants and dogs charging you and stuns them. point is that psyker is the strongest class in high level play as long as you know what ur doing. also ps we played cataclysm and weaves on vermintide 2 so maybe our opinions don't apply to 95% of the games population so i think that people who want to have fun with a little bit of challenge will play t4 and those who are hardcore masochist's will play t5 and t5 modified.

I use lighting stuff for huge targets (it takes 3 targets an once) and Assail + sword for low mob (espesially in the dark and mist, just like you mentioned). Oh and I use a Dome based build to boost team survival.

Empowered Smite is clearly bugged as the description does not mention Peril Reduction for it like it does for other Blitz, but it does make for a wonderful "oh shit" button, so if given the option I'd leave it as is because the speed debuff alone more than balances it. Though one can somewhat negate this by back sliding, but that can be risky. Also love combining it with the bugged Lightning Storm modified Surge Force Staff for that extra jump because one just isn't enough. Either case I have no idea what the controversy is about, but I do enjoy some Assail on my Gun Psyker, love clearing hordes with it, then Scrier Gaze Elites with my Accatran Mk VIIa, before Force Swording some Crushers.

@the_furry_inside_your_walls639

9 ай бұрын

I think the controversy is that Assail just OP enough to be a noob trap, while not being OP enough to be completely braindead victorious with. A lot of newby psykers use assail expecting it to win every fight for them because they saw someone else doing crazy damage with it, only to quickly end up in situations where assail cannot save them, and they then sit there and act like the game's combat is garbage because they didn't bother learning the ability's strengths and weaknesses.

Assail is somewhat op but i like Smite just for the fact that it also stun elite enemies giving other players the oppurtunity to kill them with ease. its not about the kills, its teamwork

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

Its really not OP, its damage and penetration are very bad, its just annoying to teammates.

@Browncoatful

9 ай бұрын

Both are great depending on the team. What I see as powerful with assail is its ability to deal with specials and lighter elites quickly especially if ellites are mixed in with a horde. Even more so when a pack of pox hounds come in. Both playstyles can help a team but smite is def an ability where you NEED damage on your team to pull off.

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

@@Browncoatful Yeah but what team isn't bringing damage. Thats the thing is everyone is bringing damage for the most part even the support trees have damage nodes. The only exception would be if you get in a team with only support builds? Hell even then, the enemies cant move, a zealot or Ogrryn with subpar damage cans till kill things quick when given free reign.

@Browncoatful

9 ай бұрын

​@@Koranthus I would say other classes are more able to bring support while still keeping their big damage. WIth a smite build you are kinda full suport. IDK for me I just do not see what smte brings to the table that is significantly better then assail. I can either CC everything in from of me or just kill everything in front of me. The only think I can see it bringing is being able to stop a Mutant when it hits someone. It can do the same with the Crusher and Bulwark but you can also CC them with a Surge or Voidstrike staff.

@Koranthus

9 ай бұрын

@@Browncoatful except you dont kill everything in front of you, you kill trash. Assail has no pen and not good enough damage to be useful on many elites or half the specials. and everything kills trash including Smite if you hold it long enough. Yes i agree other classes bring more damage, which is why it's acceptable to use smite. and if you are playing with anyone you know they can literally go all in on damage if they want. At high levels, completely disabling every enemy on the field is more useful than an ability that can only kill regular mobs and weak stuff.

Something that really annoys me as a psyker running brain burst on console is the game auto targets random crap in the hordes rather than elites and even if I manually target sometimes it’ll randomly shift targets and hit a poxwalker rather than the crusher that’s running at me.

@Chevalier_knight

9 ай бұрын

Turn aim assist to low.

Mugsy: Lets do some math. Me: I'm out!

me just running around like emperor palpatine smiting UNLIMITED POWER

Currently level 8 and I'm glad Im slowly getting this build up cause Def will get a buff some point. Only level 8 I was like hmmm. Doesn't feel great right now, compared to my zealot at level 20 but even level I liked zealot.

I like the direction they’re going in the next patch where rapid fire does less damage but you can actually ‘snipe’ with it

My main issue with assail is mostly how it seems to encourage bad behavior from new players. They tend to explode themselves, run on ahead expecting the shards to kill any threat and ignore objectives to focus on kills. They also tend to be the ones that piss off the daemonhost thinking their shards can kill it.

THANK you for this video, I'm still finishing it but my opinion since this dropped as an endgame player is that, while this is powerful early on, it definitely balances out for the most part by the time you reach damnation. It's great for horde clearing and can handle the more lightly armored elites and specials too, but it's not some godly ability that completely invalidates the rest of the team's experience. It's a mostly silly controversy. That being said it, like most stuff in this update, does need some balancing. Some stuff feels overbearing, like gun lugger ogryn with certain weapons, and some stuff is underwhelming, like vet stealth. I hope Fatshark doesn't kill assail because of the people complaining

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

I hope so too. Vet stealth does need a boosting, while Zealot's steal is so damn fun using the baseball bat. Ogryn Shout is AWESOME, but bull rush could use an extra little something. A lot of the initial builds that the game came with need love. Nothing needs a Nerf, just other things need love.

@GrimViridian

9 ай бұрын

​@@mistermugsyvet stealth may need a boost but I'm loving my sniper stealth build

That's why I switch to Zelot, with axe and shotgun and DPS/suport bulid. Fun and dynamic

I loooove them' hope they don't change

I use my psyker as CC with the purgatory staff and IT works absolutely fine

Scriers gaze with shards is awesome but you scaled left instead all the way right

This video gets a subscribe from me because on my soul why is the psyker my favorite class but has the least amount of damage out of all classes

I feel it's pretty clear the intented use of assail is on a gaze build to throw out some extra damage when gaze is on cooldown.

@siegfread9683

9 ай бұрын

Nah, assails role is to be an anti infested blitz. It clears most unarmored enemies like pox hounds dreg ragers and all really well even in higher difficulties especially if you use the secondary fire to guarantee headshots. I tend to use it at medium range when im in a scenario that voidstrike isnt sutible for hoard clar. With venting shriek to reset peril when they start getting inti melee range so i can get a couple empowered heavies off with the illisi before i have to start dodging between attacks. Or the secondary fire at long range when i see a group or ragers or a sniper or sometbing else lightly armored that a shard or 2 would be more efficient than a void strike. But then i just find gaze to be a bad ult. Its not nearly impactful enough for the cost without very specific talent picks

For my own psyker I tend to keep to the lightning staff. My one god weapon is great for handling elite heretics, while I use assail to deal with hordes or the occasional long range snipe on a sniper in the distance...if I see it of course.

amen brother! preach! \m/

FYI, there are provisional patch notes out that are adjusting and balancing things. One seems to be Brain Rupture and it's damage profile. May be worth a video when it actually comes out or is official.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Editing that video now

My main complaint with assail is that every time there's a daemonhost nearby, the damn psyker is going to hit it even if he's looking the other direction and even if we all yell at him to put it away because we don't want to fight it

They need to do two things to assail. One, increase the recharge so that you have to actually play the game in between uses. Second, make the first projectile have 0 tracking. It’s a first person shooter, forcing someone to aim is the bare minimum. She sit can track once it bounces but you should have to land the first projectile manually. Maybe if you score a headshot you can guarantee more bounces before it stops. Something to raise the skill ceiling. If the damage were less consistent a little more bursting and dependent on skilled plays I feel no one would complain. Right now it’s too easy to access the max potential of damage so there is no skill expression.

Psykers my favorite class. As I level my zealot, the only thing I don't like about assail is when there's more than one psyker using it. On heresy I had 2 psykers in the party using assail. The only time I got to fight anything was when armor or bosses showed up.

Bubble and wall shield offer more survivability than Assail. I just use Assail to clear groaners. They sometimes don’t even get rid of Poxwalkers that effectively unless you have empowered shards. Don’t know about brain burst. I feel it’s fine but I don’t know if I would change it to “let me blow up armor even if you send me to 100% peril” in one shot. I don’t know, maybe main fire have it so that it takes longer to build up on heavy armor targets, but costs 30-40% peril, empower takes half the time but only 15% and it takes the entire empower stack. And maybe give it that execute heavy armor but if your above 85% it sends you automatically in to explosion. Because I don’t want to go back to the days of 100% juts lower it to 98 and do it again.

I love when i have a good psyker on my team and will stick with them and sacrifice myself defening them

The meat grinder isn't always the best way to test things, empowered psionics stacks up to 3 charges with a node, and it can proc multiple times in a Salvo of shards so that you end up having 20+ shards in real combat, if you have proc on elite kill in shock troop you can have practically infinite assail, it scales really well in higher difficulties. The problem I have with the stacks build now is there's no way to keep your stacks on ability use like the old tree. They both can be good but the stacks tree for me is only reliable with purg staff and stacks on blaze perk since you can't afford to avoid your ultimate on auric. And I agree brain burst needs some love, so does that low hp shield.

Assail is tight, but I never leave my chainsword and shredder pistol at home.

The problem with assail is that it can clear almost any enemy from the map with minimal effort for free. Its very easy to keep your peril under control, and you can literally make a build where you almost never have to quell your peril while using assail. I'm not an amazing player so I usually play on heresy difficulty, but with that assail build I literally walked through a damnation mission using nothing but assail and a surge staff for carapace without ever having to quell peril or really slow down. The issue with assail is that you can do it to no cost, Psykers strong point is being able to dish out good damage without any cost to the team with their limited ammo supply, but assail surpasses most gun builds in both single target and horde clearing, and a surge staff can deal with armoured enemies. I play Psyker a lot but even I admit its too busted, and when I'm playing other classes theres nothing more annoying then ending a mission with 20-30 kills because everytime you've seen an enemy 7 blue bees come flying out of nowhere chaining from enemy to enemy and wipe half the map. Brain Burst is underpowered, but if it is made good it would be great at killing single strong enemies without exposing yourself to danger. Smite is good at stunning hordes so your team can purge them in melee with minimal effort, while also controlling poxhounds, mutants and trappers so your team can stay up. But assail does both these things while also purging everything else that isnt armoured. I get the argument that people want Psyker to be strong, but I dont get the argument that it should be as strong as other classes that have to manage a limited resource (ammo). It would make more sense for assail to stay as strong as it is but with a heavily increased cooldown, so its more of a burst of big damage rather than a permeant map clear, that way it can still deal with hordes and larger groups of enemies, but not have the ability to walk through the entire map on damnation without a care in the world

Speaking truth. I think it was Reginald who said that you can’t depend on your teammates to take care of elites.

I experienced this today there was 2 of them! honestly I was a little upset at first but I’m leveling so it was basically free xp. We finished the mission in 18 minutes and I got to get ready for work a little early then I expected so a W is a W 😂

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Most freaking wholesome comment I’ve seen! Cheers mate.

Psykers need more traits for soul blaze and have brain burst detonate Soul Blaze stacks on the target and have it cascade out if it kills its target. Make that an optional trait for brain burst and give bio lightning percentage damage

My only real main issue i have with assail is just the players that use it, mainly the bad ones. I mean in terms where all they do is spam them and throw rocks like a neanderthal but is completely oblivious to the enemies behind them, never pulls out there melee, and runs off in a corner to get mauled by 15 dudes. It may sound specific but i have had to cover for so many psykers bc they can't block or look behind them. I know it'll balance better when i actually start playing with more experienced players but damn it's just my current experience rn.

Have you seen the completely broken psyker build with lightning? You can literally keep the shocks on for as long as you need without the risk of exploding yourself. The lightning causes staggering to all enemies it hits. It doesn't do much damage but controls a large number of enemies for the team to safely eliminate.

@danilomoura9663

9 ай бұрын

I hadn't seen the entire video when I posted it. You talk about the build later

I started playing like 4 days ago, and i started as a psyker a got him to 15th level but i got bored because on low difficulties there is no reason to not take assail. It kills everything on like 1.2 difficulties (hay i am a newbie) and i tried to use brainburst, but why bother when basically anything can oneshot everything, i tried lightning, and i expected it to be more like: " Oh i stun them and while they are stunned i can shoot them with... Idk pistols and whatnot, but they are not stunned for long enough to swith weapons and do that, so all i become is a stun turret which isn't bad, but not very fun. What i would do with psykers with all of their bilities is allow them to be used the same way zealots throwing knifes are used like in one wand you have your revolver or laspistol and on the other hand you have your blitz so you could use them at the same time. It would make gameplay so much more enjoyable, like you wouldn't feel useless when charging your braiburst and your dps would go up by a lot for abilities like brainburst and lightning, and assail would be more engaging but also because of how it is used it would be basically the same, just more convenient Also it would mean that staffs aren't the only good options for psykers

Well, they are shifting its power to the aimed shards, given that most people wanted to nerf how spammable it is, this might be a good change.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Working on my thoughts vid bout the the patch.

Brain burst should just scale its charge time and perils based on health of the mob. The more health the more charge time and more perril but once fully charged it kills the target. So if your teems hitting your brainnburst target its taking you less time and perils to make it go pop

I switched my Shards for a flame staff ... They get boring so quickly

I love having an assail psyker on my team takes a 5min fight and makes it a 3min fight

I’ve actually been thinking about moving over to Assail Psyker once my Zealot is done. I had no idea it was as good as it is truth be told. I just liked how it looked and to try something different than what my gf did. My gf is just about to get her Psyker to 30 and she uses Smite. The only time she’s able to kill things is with her staff and I’m like “wtf”. Yeah smite allows you to CC the whole screen, but I personally would want more oomph behind my zap zap power. Idk. I’ll still relatively new to this game so I’m still learning stuff.

I feel like I'm the only Psyker that mains smite to help my team hold down hoards or strong enemies

As a bolter Vet main I love when I have an psycher with assail, that means mobs are getting merced while I popping heads its great

Imagine nerfing the classes after they recently buffed elite and monster spawns.

They could give brain burst a hand by increasing the AoE reach of the soul blaze maybe?

I have no issues with assail. I have no issues with a class being a bit overtuned either (not saying assail is). This is a Co-op game against AI. It doesn't have to be perfectly balanced. It doesn't have to be "fair". What matters to me is that it's fun. So far, I've found every part of this update (except stealth, just not my thing) fun. Does BB feel weak? Yeah. Personally, I love smite. Locking a room of crushers and maulers in place while me team casually dismantles them is a treat. I'll never understand complaining that another class is "better" than you in this style of game. When chasing the Meta in a PvE game starts making you lose out on fun, it's time to reassess your priorities.

If brain Burst doesn’t one shot then make it faster. I prefer the idea of big explosion of damage but need touch staff.

I first started playing darktide a few days ago. I picked a veteran for my first character, first game in I see a guy shooting yondu guardians of the galaxy style arrows/spikes from his hand and flying everywhere decimating hordes of enemies... I made a psyker and have been playing for 5 days straight leveling up my character. Y may be new, but I do believe theyre not broken, you can clear a horde yeah but that's it, any more enemies come and youre surrounded and forced to switch to something else. Assail feels powerful and so much fucking fun, but it doesnt make higher difficulties trivial or anything like that

Pyskers using shards of hatred to steal all my kills pisses me off

You are high if you think a spammable ability should do the same damage as a limited charge, 60 cooldown grenade.

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Brain Burst has been the weakest ability in the game since launch. It was viable at launch for about a month, when everyone complained about Psyker BB going off a lot and no one else feeling special. So, they nerfed it hard, increasing it's charge time and reducing the pops by half, while giving no buff to damage as a trade off. Psyker has been the most underplayed class up until this patch. As I said, if you watched the video, increase the peril generation dramatically. Make it something that hits like a truck, because most teams will ignore a psyker casting BB and let them get walloped while they shoot the glowing head and wasting the players time. Hell, I'll even take BB as it now, if they decrease the Charge time back to 3 seconds rather than 5. It isn't fun to have your time wasted by other players who target your BB target. It sucks for a Psyker player, and you cannot deny it.

Can't agree more about head burst. One of buddies absolutely loves brain burst because he is a huge Darth Vader fan, dude still is trying to suffer through the current meta with brain burst because that's literally how much he loves the game. But it then quickly worn him out just due to how ineffective brain burst currently is at dealing with just about everything. Before the current meta, he was doing okay since we don't have a veteran main in our common group. My veteran build wasn't really solid enough to break everyone else's experience. But now? I tried to talk him into the "Unlimited Power" lightning blitz, but it was fun for the first few games when he actually saved our asses from a few armored ogryn patrols. Then it bore him out. Because he could not really do anything else. After we all downloaded the mod that shows match stats it became apparent that he was really doing nothing with the lightning chain and he just stopped playing Darktide with us. Like, he could try to assail, but his numbers won't nearly be as good as our preacher backstabing the entire hive city before we even getting anywhere close. I guess part of the reason why FatShark didn't include the stats like Vermintide 2 did was just due to how unbalanced the classes are compared to each other. The only way we managed to make psyker effective on damnation was with the void strike staff. Well built void strike staff, fast charging and power increase from high peril. This allows an average psyker player (like myself) to do about 350-400k damage per match (not excluding overkill damage). But this still pales compared to ranged ogryn with a well built ripper gun, and the invisible backstabbing preacher (which can do up to 500k damage just because they like to go fast and kill everything before anyone else can). The void strike staff has no friendly fire and will pass through allies, this made it intense effective at shooting through ogryn shields and ogryns themselves (or the other 3 teammates in general, regardless of their class), they also buffed its charged damage from 300-something to 700. Now you can literally down a bulwark in 2-3 consecutive charged shots. But in comparison, a well-built preacher class can solo the whole match. I've seen it done by some dude with squares on his name. Dude literally rushed out at the start, dumped the rest of us to die and when we did, he opened the gate that normally required all players present and went on. Others basically quit at that point since it was becoming apparent that the man didn't want us to be there. I stayed and watched, he stealthed most of the tough engagements, then knifed a bunch of goons to charge stealth back up then just went the whole way. At that point I was just a baffled as frustrated. FatShark could have just allowed these baffons to play by themselves without forcing them to play with others, since they're doing just fine without the rest of the team. On the other hand, it looked like it was difficult to solo the whole match but jesus, I don't think any other class can go a full game without teammates.

Psykers have always been good if you’re good. Always been the strongest class.

Honestly the stand out OP thing in my experience so far is the plasma gun, and I have had no issues with psykers as far as "balance" goes. am a vet main btw. Brainburst is annoying as a helbore sharpshooter, but only because they and I are overlapping on target priority. I shoot a gunner in the head, and the head is already gone cuz their head EXPLODED. good times.

huh, didn't know people were complaining about it. I find that the "most broken" stuff that Psykers have access to post class reworks (Infinite lightning, infinite bubble, voidstrike spam, Assail) all feel like they do incredible things at lower difficulties and then fail to work well at higher difficulties. Lightning channel can be interrupted by fast or beefy targets or just a poxwalker punching you in the back of the head, bubbles pop under concerted fire very quickly and require you to rebuild a warp charge quickly to replenish the dome, voidstrike nuts your ability to move during combat effectively as well as the channeled attack's damage doesn't feel super high, and your notes on assail pretty much echo what I'd say. If anything, Smite and Assail create a nasty newbie trap where weapons stop mattering as much as how you run the blitzes, making people make poor choices about weapons for higher tier content or misallocating resources. They become the focal point of the entire build rather than something you use in concert with the rest of your kit.

Psyker, gets even slightly okay, might eventually be viable in Damnation Aueric Everyone who doesn't play psyker starts crying.

At lower difficulties I find psykers annoying to play with, but they're effective so I can't bitch too much. Also there should be a perk that makes Brain Burst do the damage you want but make the cost higher, or charge longer; I'm only saying this because of balance. It doesn't consume a grenade so their has to be some way to balance it compared to krak grenades.

Assail is cool and all but smite cannot be topped in terms of fun

Great video. I really like your analysis of this. You should make more analysis videos like this, maybe about other abilities or the trees for the classes, maybe a rank structure even.

Electric build on psycher is kind of broken, you can hold it indefinitely with the capstone charges, and it WILL stagger the hell out of anything Damage is useless but the CC is invaluable, and it's going to get nurfed for sure I still use brain burst it's fun but yeah it needs to somehow chain or something, or if there were more modifiers for the ability.

I don't think everyone who plays pysker is going to be a toxic player, i find the pyskers lines in conversations with my veteran to be very comedic especially random lines. I have a pysker myself that i've yet to play and figure out how to use and such, i mainly like the other three classes even so, i feel like anyone who plays as a pysker can vary if you ask me...

Help me understand how is throwing shards (that look wack as hell btw) is better than stunlocking an entire hoard and burning them with soulblaze? I do not get why are there so many builds based on assail when it looks like shit, and feels like shit too.

I don't play Psyker, mainly play Hammer Zealot but I totally agree that Psykers are in need of buffs, not nerfs.

Virtually 100% uptime cowdclearing is not comparable to 60 second cooldown small aoe

@mistermugsy

9 ай бұрын

Wasn’t comparing Assail to a grenade. Good attention to detail.

I can understand why ppl complaining about shards and voidstrike, but, honestly, fuck them. Psyker gameplay finally feels great, it's fast, it takes 'some' brain to position yourself against enemies, it requires a third eye to watch your allies since now you can and i think should help them when you see they overwhelmed by a horde, and you can quickly help yourself when you see dangerous enemy running at you. It's just fun, and I'm playing this game for fun. Besides, it's helluva satisfying to see ( and hear) the horde melting, just like special dopamine button

As a psyker main myself I refuse to use assail. I loathe playing meta and play support with smite and bubble. It keeps the team alive and geoups in check. What use is assail if you are crowded? It is strong yes but in the end is supports the team less.

"Smite is underwhelming" Stopped reading there.

Completely agree. Assail is fine and is only so popular because all other skillpaths for Psyker are a waste of time. People defend Smite by saying it stops the game because it stunlocks everything. Maybe it just should not do that and deal damage instead of purely crowd control. Have the channel melt enemies while the quick Smite attack stuns things.