12-24% Rending on Enemy Weak Spot Hit for 3.5s. Stacks 5 times.
5-8% Strength for 4.5s on Kill. Stacks 5 times.
5-8% Strength for every 10% of magazine spent during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
Gain between 3.5-5% and 14-20% Critical Chance based on current level of peril.
go read “The Psyker Atheneum“ on Darktide steam community guides.
build intro:-
very safe, very damaging build With little consideration for aim (unless you’re caught poking crushers in the eye in melee)
There’s lots of personal playstyle choices in points here, so definitely play with it and find your own groove. This is mine.
Psyker tree is an absolute goldmine these days, you have a lot of fine tuning opportunity.
Cons:- weak range, while can be immune to ranged attacks when blasting staff, won’t be able to help bring that a squadron of gunners/snipers at range very effectively, oh and you’ll give everyone visibility problems, so try to soon slightly down.
Also, doubling up other purge psykers means your effectiveness is nearly cut in half, as you share stacks, and stack caps. Consider switching builds off in lobby, or assist your team by attacking another flank vs. Other Psyker (ie, you watch the back, if they’re at the front and vice versa)
Pros:- everything but crushers melt, and staff will stagger A LOT mixed horde, providing support in a way that prevents chip damage to team mates in melee. Zealots will be upset as they can’t dodge attacks as much, limiting their dodged triggered abilities.Toughness regen:- soul drinker & mettle will be constantly hitting with staff primary.
Staying alive:- empathic evasion will be constantly up, protecting you from ranged attacks nearly all the time (snipers too)
Crit rate:- 7.5% base Psyker // 5% soul drinker near 100% uptime // warp nexus 5-20% based on peril. [Sum: 17.5% to 32.5%]- more than enough to keep crits rolling for above, but not over committing to crits rate as it has very low multiple for damage (only helps apply 2 stacks to a cap of 15 on purge staff, crit on last stack before 15 will apply two for max purge staff burn stacks of 16)
Empyric Resolve is optional, depends how you manage your peril, since you’re going to be blasting venting shriek at every opportunity. Ideally at higher peril.
penetration of the soul, from what I’ve read, doesn’t work right on purge staff, and you’re likely not at high peril all the time.
Aura:- whatever you like tbh, I like elite damage as it applies to soulflame stacks. More crit would yield more toughness / ranged protection / more stack generation, CD reduction nets you 3 seconds off 30s shriek CD.
Deimos - strength and rending blessings, for chaff cleave (strength improves cleave on lights AND hits harder) and big pokes on carapace. Crit on dodge or hit it alternative to strength on kill, likely helps chaff clear and toughness regen/ranged immunity in melee combat. I don’t melee much unless it’s an odd crusher or mutant that needs poking.
Modifiers:-Maniac modifier for 1 tap pokes of mutants, I always take this by default.
The other modifier is players choice. I don’t take flak or carapace as rending has that covered. Unyielding for other Ogryns or monstrosity stabbing is my choice. Unarmored is also viable for swishing on chaff or poking dreg elites.
Modifiers will apply their buff to soul flame tick damage while the weapon is out also. So flak is viable too, if used fit this purpose.
Unmodded BB:- for when you REALLY need that range to poke a sniper.
Smite is a second option if you need to lock down a crusher pack that you’re struggling with, but in comfortable dancing with the Deimos.
warp siphon:-
10% of soul flame kill should keep you topped off all the time on 6 stacks. I don’t take peril reduction as I want more peril, and I don’t take essence harvest as I’m not getting full benefit with how often I’m creating warp siphon charges. (6% toughness a second pales in comparison to toughness from crits / soul flame kills). Toughness regen curios rounds out non staff blasting toughness regen.
Other questionable choices or missing choices (discussed):-
warp splitting:-
No one is likely asking questions about this one, but I want to put it here anyway. This is super handy if you’re struggling on clearing chaff with your pointy melee weapon (Deimos/duelling sword/knife etc) IF you have the peril built up. It’s NOT for this build imo, but it turns Deimos/duelling sword light swishing into cleaving monsters. This is definitely more appropriate in an Assail build though, where maintaining higher peril is much easier. I wanted to add this note, as chaff horde cleaving can be problematic for some.
+toughness nodes:-
I like to pick up as many as I possibly can, more toughness max, more toughness restored, larger buffer to health break through. You can drop them to pick up other things you like off your comfortable running leaner on toughness. (Ie, more skilled at dodging / blocking, avoiding damage)
no wildfire!? :-
It’s trash. It’s capped at 4 stacks, you apply burn stacks for fun, you’ll never see it do anything ever on this build. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that you should NEVER use it, as perilous combustion will void it out of existence on the second elite/specialist kill. Which are never ending in auric.soul stealer vs. quietude :- players choice here, I feel I generate enough toughness in combat with staff secondary blasting away. This will net me 25% instant toughness recovery on use of shriek (when I stop blasting, therefore am act risk as toughness recovery via attacks has stopped). Handy if you’re using the shriek to stagger a bunch of ragers that broke thru and have broken your toughness.
Soul stealer is equally viable, as kills from continued ticks from soul burn stacks will trigger it. So entirely up to the player.
kinetic deflection:- we have ranged immunity on crit, stagger and burn in short range on staff primary / secondary. I’m not blocking shit. (Personal playstyle variable though, I don’t feel it’s worth the investment and loss of damage/toughness regen).
Investing all those points would kill damage output or survivability in other realms. This is true even though I don’t have stamina curios, so I’m at high risk of never blocking anything. Shriek is normally sheets available when I need it, so I can aoe stagger everything but bosses. Then recover my precarious position.
kinetic resonance:- if your struggling with snipers or crushers /w Deimos, you can pick this up for a quick shriek stagger and head popping good time, but it leaves your toughness regen wide open, since you don’t crit with it or fire fast enough.
Warp rider:- I’m peril dumping all the time with shriek, to apply soul burn stacks. Won’t see enough up time at the highest peril for the points invested. I’d definitely pick this up first if I had spare points though, so if you tweak the build and shave a few points from somewhere you don’t like, definitely worthwhile.
solidity:- prefer coherence sure size, for more toughness regen. I’m not combat quelling a whole lot either.
I’m a hobby psyker, it’s not my main groove. I’m adept, but not expert on the class. (My most played classes are :- Vet-> Zealot -> Psyker -> Ogryn, historically over the last year. My current main IS the Psyker though, post patch.
I play auric shock troops on damnation and minor modifier auric maelstroms with great success rate though. So I’m decent enough, but not close to touching those absolute 1%’ers you see now and again.
Given this, I feel this guide will be extra beneficial to those dipping their toes into a Psyker build, coming from another class. Vs. One that is super min/max sweaty and player skill ceiling limited. It will give a good framework to start your journey and flexibility to forge your own path learning the class.
