Psyker
25-40% Cleave on Hit. Stacks 5 times.
12.5-20% Critical Chance for 6s on successful Dodge.
2 Shots on Critical Hit. 2-5% Ranged Crit Chance.
Gain between 3.5-5% and 14-20% Critical Chance based on current level of peril.
***Still Testing***
Playstyle: Allrounder, Anti-Elite, Anti-Special, Horde-Clear, Melee
Difficulty: Damnation
Hi all!
This is my first build that I wanted to try since I personally wasn't interested in the Disrupt Destiny keystone builds I kept seeing. I'm not a theorycraftor and didn't really run the numbers here but I'm liking what I'm seeing and getting some great damage in Damnation difficulty.
This build is going to be a dance between your sword and your psyker staff due to Malefic Momentum where warp damage buffs non-warp and vice versa. You want to open/maintain your stacks here by just throwing a few staff bolts out toward the enemy and then going to work with your sword. Your Psyker sword counts as a warp attack so once you get enough energy in your bar you can throw that in to maintain stacks but it's better to just use the staff for this purpose. When you kill a special you also have soulblaze as another warp attack which seems to do decent damage to trash and every time you kill something with Soulblaze you heal for 5% toughness and get 5% critical chance (refreshing, not stacking).
Let me make clear that you are NOT tanky and can't get in the face of a Crusher train or bosses but you will be able to hold your own in hordes of enemies, especially when you pop Scrier's Gaze. I wouldn't necessarily call you a front-liner however, more a skirmisher.
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- You want to use the Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword and not the Mk VIII because it's easier to access the heavy thrust attack (H2) which does a ton of damage on a weakspot hit. On the Mk VIII the heavy thrust is only available after doing a Block-Push.
--- You can follow the Heavy Stab up with a light attack, which is a strikedown! H1 > H2 > L4. Or quicker, L1 > H2 to get picks on Mutants.
- Keep your stacks of Malefic Momentum up by dancing between your primary and secondary but focus on your sword for primary damage.
--- Use your staff to deal with specials at range and keep that peril high.
- Always aim for the head/weakspots! This will help in peril quelling and keeping your toughness sustained via By Crack of Bone & Quietude.
- Try to maintain a peril of 50% or higher in fights or whichever is manageable to have bonus damage and damage resistance.
--- Scrier's Gaze is also good for this and a great OH S***! button as long as you can keep killing but use it whenever a horde comes. Use active quelling if no enemies around to keep the stacks going longer.
- See a horde? Got a full energy meter? Use that special and watch them dismember!
--- If its a Crusher train then you're usually better off killing the trash around them to build your special, chip away with your staff alt fire, or Smiting the Crushers for your allies to deal with.
- Great damage with sword primarily and no slouch at range for a secondary.
--- With good aim and crit, you can still harass long range foes like snipers and gunners!
- Once you get your stacks of Malefic Momentum going, you can really mulch down hordes. And you only have to light attack spam! Throw in a couple heavy attacks for special/elite hordes.
- Good survivability if you keep your peril high but manageable. Still need situational awareness.
- Just kill specials for your keystone, you don't need to chase/pick Marked Enemies. Keystone lasts until you activate your ability.
- The Blaze Force Greatsword is a very skill-dependent weapon that requires you to know its combos and how best to utilize its special attack.
- Critical Chance dependent.
- Bit difficult to solo carapace armor enemies (Crushers, Maulers) in melee and horrifying when there's multiple. You need to make sure you use the HEAVY STAB, or hopefully have a full charge meter on your sword. If you're fully ramped up and get a crit-weakspot then you can take a crusher down to about 15% HP.
- You are still squishy but less so. Remember: YOU ARE A PSYKER, NOT A ZEALOT/OGRYN so you have lower base health than the two front-lining classes and do not have their damage mitigation/regen. Having good situational awareness and liberal use of your block-push and smite can help here!
- You will explode after Scrier's Gaze if at 100% when you use the Greatsword's special activation or even Block-Push so be careful.
Weapons
- Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword
--- The crux of this build! Much of my idea on how to build this came from the YouTuber Reginald. See the credits for full breakdown but basically dump Warp Resistance because the only time warp is used is when you activate your special attack. You're already getting a bunch of critical chance from your talents so go with Damage v. Armor Type for your perks. Namely Carapace & Unyielding because you can easily mulch anything else with light attacks. Your top blessings would be Riposte for the Critcal Chance buff on dodge which you'll be doing constantly and Wrath because you want additional Cleave% to avoid the 'hit mass cap' where your weapon attack stalls against groups of enemies.
- Equinox Mk IV Voidstrike Force Staff
--- This might be personal preference as long as you are using a psyker staff or something to consistently generate peril. I personally like Voidstrike Staff because its going to be a great way to deal with clusters of enemies and range and have a consistent way of generating toughness at range via critical hits. You don't want to dump Warp Resistance because you want to spam bolts for as long as you can for healing but enough to keep your peril high and you don't want to dump Quell Speed so you can keep Scrier's Gaze lingering when enemies aren't nearby and dump all peril for a fresh Scrier's Gaze activation.
--- Alternative: Nomanus Mk VI Electrokinetic Force Staff [very good!] or Equinox Mk III Voidblast Force Staff w/ Rending Shockwave.
Curios
- Toughness (x2) & Health w/ same minors for all three.
--- Since we're going to be fighting melee in hordes often we want to get that health up as much as possible.
--- I'm still trying to figure out what I like for the third minor perk but at least of the Curios should have Block Cost Reduction to slow your peril gain when blocking because of Kinetic Deflection. And the other could be Combat Ability Regeneration (for Scrier's Gaze it gives about .7 seconds off for each +4% curio assuming 4 stacks of Warp Siphon so 1 curio = 16.8 seconds if Math/Current Info) or Damage Resistance vs. ENEMY. Faster Scrier's cooldowns mean more consistent toughness damage resistance on demand as opposed to just resisting the one enemy type you hate.
Want to give credit to Reginald for his breakdown of the sword.
Title: The Great Force Swords | Darktide TutorialCredit: Reginald
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqI5bd2vVQU&ab_channel=Reginald
- It was difficult to grab Scrier's Gaze, the left keystone node, and still maintain survivability. If you're feeling confident in your ability then you can forgo some tankiness or toughness regen for more damage Precognition, Warp Splitting, or Warp Battery (+2 Warp Charges = +8% damage).
- If you need more tankiness then remove Warp Rider for a point into Endurance for damage reduction upon Scrier's Gaze activation.
- I wasn't sure what to do with the Blitz ability but Smite seemed like a good choice if your cornered and need some breathing room. Just charge smite and let go to knock enemies prone. After a quick glance, I wouldn't go any deeper into smite because the heavy melee electrocution does way less damage than soulblaze, and plus you don't have a vanguard attack with the Mk VI.
- I'm curious how a Kinetic Presence focus would look like but I wasn't sure where to move one point to come back around.
- I'm also curious how this would look without Soulblaze which would give you two additional talent points I believe.
Created: 12/3/2024
