RESILIENT MELEE/GUNNER
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

* This is a slight variation on the Build that I personally use, designed to help accommodate a few players I know who wanted to optimize their resilience. In service of that, this Build incorporates extra 'Toughness Damage Reduction' instead of my preferred 'Warp Speed' and 'Purloin Providence' nodes.  

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-- A Public Service Announcement --

Let's preface this with a controversial fact... Gun-Psyker builds are legitimately potent. There exists a far too prominent misconception that a Psyker player must brandish some variety of staff in order to afford value, but this is blatantly incorrect. Sure, when sporting a firearm, you won't afford your team with the luxury of their having access to extra ammunition (thanks to staffs requiring none), but this "inconvenience" is is rendered largely irrelevant by virtue of the fact that an optimized Gun-Psyker build is one of (if not THE) highest Damage-dealer in the game. If said approach were more popular, it would 100% be top priority on FatShark's "Too Nerf" list.
 

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-- BUILD CONCEPT / APPROACH --

Melee Combat:

Although this build is titled "Gun-Psyker", it's also very potent in Melee combat, affording both stellar crowd-clear prowess and a rather high level of resiliency.

When contending with hordes of lesser enemies, spamming LT with the Mk V Force Sword is more than sufficient to swiftly slaughter everything. When facing a mixed horde entailing enemies like Bruisers, Dreg Stalkers, etc., work in a few Heavy Special Attacks. 

When faced with a massive flood of enemies, activate 'Scrier's Gaze'. While active, your Melee DPS and resilience are profoundly enhanced.

lastly, it should go without saying, but you want to Dodge routinely while engaged in Melee combat. Beyond doing so simply being standard practice, with this build it serves to proc. your Melee Weapon's Blessings.

Ranged Combat:

As a general rule, activate 'Scrier's Gaze' when using your Ranged Weapon for the heightened DPS.

As a Psyker, your ammo-efficiency is obviously inferior to a Veteran. As such, generally reserve your Ranged Weapon for priority targets like Elites, Specials and Monstrosities. That said, there are intense situations where you need to back-pedal and reposition, but it's still optimal to concurrently dispatch enemies as you're doing so. When this transpires, it's perfectly reasonable to use your Ranged Weapon on horde enemies.

Before targeting heavily armoured targets, look for adjacent enemies highlighted by 'Disrupt Destiny' that you can take out first for the extra DPS output. Obviously, when you are in a situation where firing on a horde is warranted, you should also prioritize highlighted targets for the same reason.
  

Just to reiterate, with 'Scrier's Gaze' active, and coupled with stacks of 'Disrupt Destiny', your DPS potential gets pretty insane.

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-- SMITE --

• With this build, your Blitz is really just supplemental. Save it for ominous scenarios where you're being pinned by enemies like Maulers and Crushers, or when you're being multi-directionally engulfed by a horde. Employing it under the aforementioned circumstances allows for safe repositioning / resets.

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-- ILLISI Mk V BLAZE FORCE SWORD --

• 'Warp Resistance' is your dump-stat. 'Damage' only needs to be 65% or so. 'Mobility' is very important with this weapon, as it is inherently somewhat lacking in said department. Ideally, you want 'Mobility', 'First Target' and 'Finesse' should be as close to 75% as possible.

• You could also use either a Combat Blade or Dueling sword. Obviously Combat Blades are versatile with insane Mobility. The Dueling Sword offers better Single-Target Damage than the Force Swords, but it's less adept at crowd-control, unless 'Disrupt Destiny' is active, in which case it can be quite potent.

Blessings:

• 'Precognition' is ideal, but 'Shred' works fine.

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-- COLUMNUS Mk V INFANTRY AUTOGUN --

Blessings:

• 'Dumdum' can be supplanted with 'Deathspitter'.

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-- CURIOS--

Stamina: 

     'Toughness' and 'Health' are pretty standard, but please, do yourself a favor and utilize a 'Stamina' Curio. It is astounding how under-appreciated Stamina is amongst the Darktide community. On a routine basis, your ability to Block multiple Attacks in rapid succession will dictate your prospects of survival. Accordingly, Stamina literally equates to survivability. It's that simple. 

     For the same reasons, having 'Stamina Regeneration' and 'Block Efficiency' Perks on your Curios is massively useful. I would argue that, for most builds, having both is so beneficial that incorporating them would qualify as a borderline imperative. That said, being that this build entails 'Kinetic Deflection', you don't need 'Block Efficiency' on two Curios. Feel free to replace one with a 'Toughness Regeneration Speed'.

'Combat Ability Regeneration': 

     For most Builds / Classes, your Combat Ability is the most impactful facet of your arsenal. Being able to use it more often is, accordingly, very valuable. Regarding Gun-Psykers, given the degree to which 'Screier's Gaze' optimizes your DPS (and therefore your overall team-value), enhanced 'Ability Regeneration Speed' is even more beneficial.

'Toughness Regeneration Speed':

     Despite what is routinely seen amongst the Darktide player-base, don't run this on more than one Curio due to diminishing returns.

'Damage Resistance (Gunners)':

     Another hugely overrated Perk. Please, do yourself a favor and abstain. In the vast majority of situations wherein you're being accosted by a Gunner, the duration of Damage Resistance you receive from said Perk(s) is barely perceptible, and it only truly enhances survivability on rare occasions. This is compounded even more so when more than a single Gunner is firing on you. It's almost at though most players don't bother testing / assessing the effects of their Build implementations...
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So, moral of the story? Think for yourself. Test $&!# for yourself. Use brain = good.