Blade of the Librarius | SMITE | SCRIER'S GAZE | AURIC MAELSTROM
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

"The true power of a Librarian is not in the mere strength of his mind, but in his unwavering dedication to the Emperor and his ability to channel the power of the Warp." - Mephiston, Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels

So, to be honest, I'm actually a Zealot main. When I picked up psyker, while I originally wanted to try all the magical tricks, and sink fully into the wizard role, I started to crave something more... unconventional. I looked at a lot of the options, and something that really stood out to me wasn't something unique to the psyker at all, but available to all the human sized classes: the Bolt Pistol. I took a look around here at the builds, and came across one in particular that was really interesting, and that was CaptainDante's Grey Knight Build (thank you for the inspiration. Its a great build). So this honestly started off as an "optimization" of that build, it morphed into something, I think, pretty unique. My favorite types of Zealot build, and games in general, are crit focused builds, and with his build, I saw the skeleton for something really cool and fun. Thus, I bring to you all, the Blade of the Librarius, the Crit-DPS Sword-Psyker!

HOW IT WORKS:

So what makes this even a "Crit-DPS Sword-Psyker" anyways? Well, my intrepid viewer and purveyor of fine builds, I'm glad you asked. By combining certain talents, abilities, and weapon perks together, we create the means for high crit, damage, and toughness generation. Everything is picked with the idea of synergizing with other talents and abilities. The result is a very capable all rounder, that clears hordes, and stops problems in their tracks. The build starts with a natural high crit chance, that builds through combat. Soul blaze, weapon perks, and our combat ability all build up our crit chance to crazy levels, but also is our way of staying alive. This build is very much "A great offense makes a great defense" style of play, with fighting being our main way of toughness generation, through crits, spell casting, and even soul blaze. This allows psyker fantastic horde clear potential, as well as fighting off elites and specialists that threaten you. 

That's all fine and dandy, but what is this build doing for the team? This is a co-op game, after all. While this build doesn't have shield and isn't a dedicated support build, that doesn't mean it isn't *supportive.* This is where Smite and the Bolt Pistol come into play. With Smite, you are able to hold back dangerous groups of threats, such as Bulwarks, Crushers, Ragers, Gunners, Trappers, Flamers, the list goes on. This gives the team much needed breathing room, as well as boosting their killing power, and generating toughness for yourself. The Bolt Pistol is your scalpel, just as the chosen perk suggests. You are using this expertly crafted, Divinely Sanctioned, tool of death to snipe and delete problems. Trappers, gunners, flamers, snipers, all these things are solved by a bolter round to the dome piece. Also, you're a primo horde clearer and pseudo tank with the sword. When the going gets good, you won't even think twice about a shield.

That said, this is a very aggressive build, that requires focus and diligence. Without Telekine Shield or Deflection, you're going to have to be more diligent in your movement. Slides and dodges are going to be incredibly important, but most importantly is also going to be positioning. You're going to want to create and capitalize on spots for you to do damage and not recieve it. The main avenue to success with this build will be determined on how well you can manage your tools, and knowing which is good for what job, and the ability to switch between them to get the most out of your kit.

 Range is going to be how you start most engagements, with a focus on managing your peril levels with Smite and Scrier's Gaze. Peril is the key to your offense and defense, and being able to bounce between Scrier's Gaze, Smite, and you're two weapons will make all the difference in engagements.

TALENTS:

Like I stated earlier, every talent picked specifically with the goal of synergizing with each other. Quietude and Warp Expenditure are standard for toughness generation, and works well with Smite spam. Mettle is picked over other toughness generation, specifically due to the nature of the build, as crits as going to pop off on almost every other hit. Perilous Combustion and Wildfire , combined with our sword, spreads mass soul blaze, and coupled with Souldrinker , boosts toughness and gives more crit chance, synergizing with Mettle again. One with the Warp , Warp Rider , and Warp Splitting work with Smite to boost peril, which in turn boosts our physical stats tremendously, giving strength and defense when we switch to our weapons. Paired with Malefic Momentum , the switching back and forth becomes even more advantageous, boosting the damage even further. Empathic Evasion is a very neat ability, as during any crit, it will count you as dodging ranged for 1 second, making hack and slashing a bit more safe.

Smite is our ability of choice. While I originally picked it because it was the coolest option to me, as I'm sure others would agree, it turned out to be the best tool for the build, and one of the main "engines" this build operates on. Smite on its own will zap enemies, and jump to the next enemy over and over for as long as you hold it, with charging it boosting its capabilities tremendously. What really makes this a useful tool for most, is its ability to stop enemies dead in their tracks. Nothing, except Monstrosities, bosses protected by energy shield, and some enemies buffed on fart gas (green eyes and glow), are immune to its trapping and holding effects. This is amazing on its own, but where it really gets good for the build, is the peril generation. It builds peril at a steady and fast rate, which we can cycle between casting and quieting for toughness generation, or pumping our peril and switching to our weapons for a big boost to our overall battle power. The two following talents are more quality of life talents, but they synergize with eachother. Enfeeble is boosting not only our damage by 10%, but our allies damage, against smited enemies. It also leads us to Charged Strike . 

I'm going to be honest, I looked for any reason to use this (seemingly) useless talent. After some testing in the Meatgrinder, I did find a use. Charged Strike coupled with Enfeeble allows our sword to reliably 3-hit crushers on charged heavy attacks, with no crits. It doesn't seem like much, but taking crushers down in 3 hits over 4 can make the difference in the right situation. That said, the two talents aren't as important as everything else, and is more for that delicious flavor that makes a build fun and neat. 

The Aura buff we choose is, predictably (Ha!), Prescience . This, coupled with +5% crit node and sword refinement, will give the build a natural, base 20% crit chance on our sword, which by itself is nothing to look down on. This gives us a great platform to start from when we start really building our crit potential. 

Scrier's Gaze is another piece of the puzzle, and the second engine which this build can operate on, outside of Smite. This is chosen specifically because it does two things: boosts our crit/damage, and builds peril. Popping this during a horde, or when you need to act on defense during events, makes a tremendous difference in the builds capabilities. While this seems antithetical to using Smite, I find it to be amazing when coupled with Warp Unbound , as this essentially will give you pretty much 9 seconds of unmitigated, uninterrupted Smite surges. If you make it to 30 stacks, we are talking 30%+Warp Rider's 20%+200% from our keystone. Its hilarious! Precognition is perfect with our sword and pistol, as they are going to be weakspot hitting machines. By Crack of Bone is a newer edition to the build, chosen over Perfect Timing, as while perfect timing is neat, most damage is coming from your sword and pistol, and with the mkVI being a weakspot hitting machine, having more uptime in SG will be far more useful in maintaining its uptime, as well as getting to 30 stacks. 

As mentioned just before, the Keystone decided on is Empowered Psionics . While Disrupt Destiny is an attractive choice for the buffs it would allot us, I find Empowered Psionics to be not only more useful, but better for our talent point management. Empowered Psionics is awesome, boosting our Smite to crazy levels, doubling the power and speed of it. We only need need the one keystone modifier, and that's Overpowering Souls . That, and just battling hordes, allows a stack of EP to crop up constantly, making the need for more stacks of it unnecessary. If you can pair this with the lingering effect of Scriers Gaze, you can get some really, really busted smites off.

WEAPONS: 

Alright, getting to the fun parts. Our two weapons of choice are actually two of some of my favorite weapons in game: the Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword and the Godwyn-Branx Mk IV Bolt Pistol .

For the Blaze Force Greatsword, we are using the Covenant Mk VI, for its higher damaging moveset. Its light attack moveset, while not as capable as the other, is still fantastic in clearing hordes, especially when coupled with high peril boosting our damage and cleave. The heavy moveset is a real gem, and combined with carapace refinement, makes dealing armored enemies a breeze. Crit refinement, Blazing Spirit , and Shred are the last piece of our crit generation puzzle. Blazing Spirit works in tandem with our Soulblaze talents, spreading it like Wildfire (Ha!), replenishing tougness and boosting crit. On top of crit, Shred gives a 20% bonus when it gets going. I don't know if you've been doing the math, but when the going gets good, we are looking at a max of 65% crit chance. This is going to give us crits on every other hit pretty much. This puts it on par with Zealots for melee crit generation!

The Bolt Pistol is just delightful. Its the God Emperor's signature weapon for the Imperium for a reason, and that's because its freaking awesome. Like I said earlier, this is our build's scalpel. I used to run carapace and unyielding refinements, but since I changed to flak and maniacs, it has made the world of difference. Your preferred targets with the bolt pistol are gonna fall under these defenses typically, and you're just wasting ammo shooting into anything stronger in most cases. For Blessings, I like using Surgical and Deadly Accurate . These two work in tandem to delete most things in one headshot. Within 2½ seconds of aiming, you have a guaranteed crit headshot that does massive damage, but even if you don't hold the sights long, you still have a great crit chance.

CLOSING WORDS:

This is a build I've grown to be really proud of. What started out as a side grade of another person's build, evolved to something really unique and engaging, in my humble opinion. It's one of my favorite builds to play in game, if not my number 1. Although, I do wanna throw some disclaimers. While I am able to pilot this build and do really well in Auric Maelstrom, this isn't a beginner friendly build. It requires good foundational knowledge and skills, and you have to be "on" for most of the time, especially if you're a more average player, like myself. This can lead to some intense and really engaging gameplay, but it could be too intense or difficult to operate if you need more help in staying alive. Movement, positioning, and prioritizing are going to be the skills that make or break this build for the newer player. I don't think this need for higher level play makes this a bad build, or the average player bad because they're struggling, but its something you should keep in mind. Also, without shield, you might not make many friends. A lot of people hate Psykers that do anything other than shields (as if its your job to keep them alive, not them). Doesn't matter how good you play or never go down, you're gonna come across those people who go down or die, and looking for anyone to blame but themselves, makes non-shield psykers subject of scorn. That said, I have two main suggestions if you're struggling with the build as is, or just want to take it in a more supportive direction, but still like the core concept of the build. 1st) try CaptainDante's Grey Knight Build. Similar build, but more support focused. 2nd) Change Scrier's to Telekine, with two talents into the bubble toughness regen shield. Then, change Charged Strike into Psykinetic's Aura, and Enfeeble to either Soul Stealer, or something of your choice. You're going to lose damage, 20% crit, and a peril engine, but the defense you gain from shield is going to make up for it, as well as further support teammates. 

I also just wanna thank CaptainDante. He don't know me, I don't know him, but if it wasn't for his (older model) Grey Knight Build, I'd have never been inspired to make this build. So, thanks.

[Video showcase coming soon!]