Scrier's Smite
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Hi

This is my first build that I post on here. This build is for people who don't mind being cursed at for playing the most selfish Psyker build I can imagine. When you play this build, you will contribute to one thing and one thing only: Things are going to die - as long as you're looking at them, holding RMB+LMB, occasionally pressing F, and dodging Scab Snipers.

I don't feel like reading your novel:
Scrier's Gaze is what keeps you from exploding while Smite is active.
If a boss, monster, or captain shows up, you’re not going to be doing much damage to it - but you’ll keep the rest of the team safe from everything else.
I’d advise against using this build on Havoc when playing with strangers, because it doesn’t promote teamplay unless everyone knows you’re a Palpatine Roomba.
I’d recommend using this build on Rolling Steel (the Train map), as enemies spawn semi-perpetually and usually come from just two directions.
I'd also like to mention that a quick, light "tap" of the left click (while using Smite) almost immediately stuns and shoves most enemies backwards, this is great for interrupting attacks and halting Poxbursters.

Why would I use this build?

This build utilizes Smite and only Smite. Smite will be cast in the "general direction" you're looking and bounce between enemies, if you're using Smite the way I'm about to inform you, you'll be looking at groups of enemies until they either explode or tear in half. Scab Flamer backpacks will rupture, Grenadiers will drop their grenades, dogs will freeze in mid-air and you will watch it happen without looking away, because if you do - the horde of enemies will soon regain the ability to move and when they do, you'll be swiftly torn to shreds.

Until that happens, everyone will be an involuntary freeze mob until their flesh quite literally can't exist anymore, they'll fry, explode and scream while your hands stop animating, it might be a little bit hard to hear things in the game because the sound of "You're about to explode from Critical Peril" tends to blare 5 times in a row if you're doing things right. But if you're mindful and don't fuck up, you'll never explode.*

Alright, so why is this build special?

All other builds I've seen on Games Lantern implies you have an ability to see through other people's perspective, this build is greedy and selfish, you're not going to be saving people with a Shield, you're not going to headshot any Scab Sniper, you're not going to brainburst some Grenadier, you're not going to do any of that unless there's a nice group of pre-corpses ready to conduct the electricity going from your brain into the sizzling flesh of said specialist. Your team will call you names, look at you with disdain, and tell you to take your @medicine - but you’re already on your medicine: dopamine.

When you slow-walk into a room with hordes of twitching enemies, a cascade of blood eruptions as your hands try to decide if you've cast your spell yet - they will witness your power and their Bitrate will drop as their potatoes are forced to render the blinking lights for the next +60 seconds of gameplay.

But for real, I've held up Smite without break for +2 minutes with this build, I've done enough creative writing - let me explain how it works.

What's actually happening in the game?

1. Empowered Psionics will happen at 15% chance on kill.
   This means that your Smite will deal +200% more damage and spread 50% faster between enemies, we'll want to always have at least 1 on hand when we begin to cast Smite, which is why I prefer to use Bio-Lodestone over Overpowering Souls, and because we'll be using Smite and only Smite as often as possible, we'll want Charged Up to get the most out of our Empowered Psionics.
2. Smite the star of the Build, really.
   In case you don't know what Smite is, it's a "Chain Lightning"-like psychic power. Using Smite is less of "shooting a dude" and more like "deciding a general direction" and watch as the game calculates where the lightning goes next. We'd ideally use Smite charged to 100%, holding RMB until the meter is full - then, while holding the RMB, press and hold LMB on your mouse until the lightning happens (this will be almost instantaneously). You will then observe the lightning flash aggressively as it bounces from your Hand to your Enemy's soon-to-be boiling flesh. It will take a second or two depending on the target, but before long you will have hindered the target's ability to... do anything but twitch and scream, this is perfectly normal.
   
   The lightning will then find another target and do the same to them, then it will fork, spread and so on and so on until it reaches a "maximum amount" of twitching and screaming Heretics. While this is happening, none of them can do anything except for certain enemies that I will cover later.
   
   After a certain amount of time, the damage accumulated will explode the targets and they will die, the lightning will then calculate a new target to jump to until they are too far away for your Smite to reach. Which brings us to...
3. Your insanely slow movement speed.
   When casting Smite, you will be incredibly slow, you will be "Quelling warp" levels of slow. To combat this, one can turn to the side and "Crab walk" by means of dodging to the sides to gain a temporary boost in speed, just remember to occasionally look in the direction of enemies to keep stunning them. Besides bosses, your biggest enemy is Scab Bomber, Dreg Tox Bomber and Scab Sniper, because you'll have to constantly keep in mind to balance Scrier's Gaze (explained later) with your Critical Peril and your 10 Seconds of "Things need to die a little faster" - dodging Snipers is your weakness, and most importantly, should a grenade fall at your feet, drop everything you're doing and run away, when you're no longer on fire or choking to death, hold in RMB, turn around to face your assailants, press and hold LMB and resume the routine.
   
   Besides this, you will face another problem and sadly there's no way to prevent this, your Team will be a lot faster than you.
   Not only because they physically move faster than you, but because in the brain of the non-smitee, "you got this".
   This is of course perfectly true, in a couple of seconds this horde will be naught but sauce on the floor, but most importantly... it's not very fun to shoot targets that stand still and twitch.
   This means that by using this build, you will not only gain an abundance of dopamine, but you'll also deprive others of dopamine, there's a reduced amount of "brain chemical reward" for killing a target that isn't fighting back. They will look at the twitching mass and say: "Ok, I'll go to the next room then." They'll then find the same thing happening there, because of course you're stunning that room too, so They will continue until you're out of range - and before you know it, you're alone. And to be honest? I can't blame them.
4. Perilous Combustion + Souldrinker + Wildfire = Specialists/Elites die and now their fellow heretics are dying too.
   When a Specialist or Elite die, 3 stacks of Soulblaze will spill over to the other enemies nearby, this means that even people we're currently not stunning will begin to take Damage over Time from your indirect killings. If an enemy affected by Soulblaze dies, you'll get 15% Toughness replenished. If anything dies while under the effect of Soulblaze, they will spread their Soulblaze as well (up to 4 stacks) but not more than what the dying unit had (of Soulblaze). This essentially means that you kill one dude, this dude sets everyone around him on fire, then they die and the people around that guy sets on fire as well - seeing that you'll most likely kill "everything" at (about) the same time, it means a lot of things will catch fire and if someone arrived late to the Smite party, they'll get caught up to speed by means of catching fire from everyone that just accumulated and died after they joined the lump.
5. Scrier's Gaze will bring us into nigh-infinite Smitings.
   Warp Rider gives us up to +20 Damage and increases "as Peril increases", and admittedly, I think this means that the "higher your Peril, the higher the damage (up to +20 Damage)" which means that for maximum Smiting potential, we'll want to almost explode all the time. If you want, you can even Quell Peril when you're not doing anything just to get some nice +30% damage, but usually you'll notice it at about +10%, this is a bit of "what you feel is right" and I'll leave that up to you.
   
   It's not super precise, but if you're currently casting Smite, I recommend activating Scrier's Gaze at around +50% Warp Peril, which will bring you down to about 0-10% depending on how fast your eyes process information and your monitor's refresh rate.
   You will now increase in damage while using Smite. As Smite fries the room, you will see the Warp Peril percentage meter at the middle-bottom of the screen turn Red, this means we're in Critical Peril, which is normally a time for self-reflection and a Psykana knife to the back of your head, but we'll be fine, keep frying. As we reach 100% Peril, you'll hear a loud sound, this is the game telling you: "Stop, you're dying." Thanks to Scrier's Gaze, we won't be dying anytime soon*, Scrier's Gaze will leave us with the same number of seconds we gained during the "Active phase" of Scrier's Gaze for another 10 Seconds, during these 10 Seconds You Can't Explode.
   
   When Scrier's Gaze is in this "Deactivating Phase", your Scrier's Gaze cooldown begins to recover, meaning that you can (with skill and timing) get Scrier's Gaze back up to "Ready" again before Scrier's Gaze "Deactivating Phase" runs out.
   If you activate Scrier's Gaze while still in the "Deactivating Phase", you'll Quell 50% Peril and restart the process, if you do this right - you can keep Smite perpetually firing for up to 1-2 minutes without letting go of the mouse buttons.
   
   In this state, you might also accidentally Quell some extra Peril here and there, which will make the "you're about to explode" sound play a few times, it's not impossible to go down -10% perils from 100% just to hear the same sound overlap as it tries to warn you that "you're exploding" several times, but you won't. The Warp effect might "pop in" and "pop out" during this time, which might cause a slight headache combined with the flashing lights. It is therefore Extremely Important to be mindful of red lasers and the discreet "ping" of a grenade pin being pulled. as this means you have to dodge and/or run away.
6. Solidity + Empyric Resolve + Battle Meditation = Quick Peril Quelling for when you want to mess about with Scrier's Gaze Stacks.
7. Quietude Because your Peril will bounce up and down a lot.
8. Prescience + Puppet Master because you'll most likely give other players Psykinetic's Aura so you won't need Seer's Presence.
   I guess one could mess about with Kinetic Presence but I don't see a need for it.
9. Vulnerable Minds is pretty solid, but not mandatory
   If you need an extra point somewhere, there are definitively room for "personal touches" to this build.
10. And FINALLY, the largest WEAKNESS with this build:
    You're pathetic when it comes to Bosses like Chaos Spawn , Plague Ogryn , Beast of Nurgle , Scab Captain and Daemonhosts.
    Should you find yourself alone fighting a Monstrosity/Boss/Captain, your peers will laugh at you, you will look like an absolute fool and you will cry. You will not be a "Gandalf: Melee Wizard", you will not be a "Protector Battle Mage" or an "Inferno Staff Psyker", you will be a Selfish Smite Psyker and you will cast shame onto the Smite Psyker mains - should this happen, you must blame your hardware - there's no other way. "My screen flickered." "Internet is bad." "I shit my pants." Quote Dawn of War. Pretend that they are being sarcastic just to humble you - anything but admit defeat.

General thonks (FAQ Strawmen I made up in my head):

Why One with the Warp and not Anticipation ?
Because Dodging is only good when you avoid the damage, most of the time when I'm getting downed it's because I didn't see a Scab Sniper, take the shot on my Toughness and miss the Second Scab Sniper sitting next to him, killing me instantly.
Out of all the times I've played this build since Bound By Duty, I find myself much more likely to die because "I couldn't hear"/see where the damage came from because I'm looking at a horde and not constantly looking out for dangers, meaning that I usually get hurt when someone hits me out of nowhere.
Dodging is usually an action one does in anticipation for an incoming attack, and since everyone you look at won't be attacking anytime soon, you won't need to dodge their attacks.

Why Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword?
Because it looks cool when my character poses with it before the mission starts. But most importantly, when you inevitably Smite a Daemonhost, you'll want to have that shield so that you can crawl into a corner and pray to the Emperor for a brave Teammate to come along and help you slay the thing.

Why Equinox Mk IV Voidstrike Force Staff?
Because sometimes there's a Sniper five million miles away that needs to die and while a Accatran MG Mk II Heavy Laspistol can kill a Specialist decently fast, it's not a staff and it makes my character cramp their shoulder together whenever they are in a cinematic. I'm here playing a Space Wizard and I'm going to look like one.

Why put +3 Stamina on your Curio?
So I can dodge more and find my teammates faster after they've left me behind.

Why Deflector on the Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword?
Because I'm a creature of habit and I'm so used to shields blocking bullets that I'll most likely perish should I remove it.
It also feels cool to use.

Why Damage Resistance (Bomber)/Damage Resistance (Gunner) on Curios?
Because fire hurts the Psyker and so does bullets, out of all my test runs of this build, getting shot by a gun or set on fire by a grenade was the most common reason I died. This is my prayer to avoid it from happening again.

Why Corruption Resistance on Curios?
You have two wounds and a lot to prove, you're already not helping the team by neglecting a Telekine Shield, the least you can do is not die immediately when your Smite accidentally triggers a sleeping Daemonhost.



That's it. Thanks for reading my diary. Walk forth (slowly) and fry the enemies of Terra!