MELEE with WALLS or SCRIER'S (Havoc 40 focus)
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

WHY USE MY BUILD?

- Build revolves around using the "Uptime" mod across 150+ Havoc 40 games* with this build

• *Most games are with Party Finder and many are without Gold Toughness, Shock Mines, or some other game-breaking tactic

- Utilizes walls to their maximum potential

- Most unholy clutch potential, can deal with every situation that presents in Havoc 40

- Huge, palpable impact on the team and is very fun

- Bonus Scrier's Gaze variant - there are many out there, but this one was crafted using the same data collection methodology as above

Gear Philosophy

Blaze Force Greatsword Covenant Mk VI (will be abbreviated to FGS)

• By far has the most single target ease of use and time to kill on elites and bosses versus the other mark
• INSANE range, you outrange almost every melee attack in the game

Electrokinetic Force Staff Nomanus Mk VI (will be abbreviated to EK staff)

• Innate +21% crit chance and +31.5% crit damage, other staves do not have the 'Critical Bonus' stat
• Primary attack crits do 2x to nearly 3x damage at base, plus the 'Surge' blessing is a global 2x multiplier to that damage
• Crits also trigger several important talents
• Is used like a warp revolver and ranged elite, special, and dreg rager destroyer
• I use +Maniac specifically for flamers. You can swap Maniac to Flak, or run Maniac and Flak together

Talent Philosophy - from top to bottom

Perilous Combustion

• For non-soulblaze builds, this is rarely noticeable aside from shotgunner waves, which are already easy to kill

Blitz

• Doesn't matter which you use, I will run Assail a lot purely because it takes almost no time at all to gain 10% peril to upkeep buffs
• I used to use Kinetic Flayer a lot, but a lot of the procs were redundant

Malefic Momentum

• NO MICROMANAGEMENT: 60%-70% uptime on warp damage buff; 30-40% on the non-warp damage buff
  • No micromanagement means using the staff / warp slice naturally and not thinking about this talent
• MICROMANAGEMENT: 60-70% for both, done by treating the staff like a revolver and quickly 1 shotting something every 5-7 seconds

Empathic Evasion*

• *If you are comfortable without this talent, you can pick up whatever you want
  • Suggestion: either Kinetic Flayer, or run Assail + True Aim for much easier Malefic Momentum uptime
• Talent is mostly for clutching when you have no dodges + fighting elites/bosses + getting shot at. Allows time for dodge counter to reset

Anticipation

• The +1 dodge makes the FGS feel a lot more forgiving

Just a Dream

• Big global damage resist, often times when you need it most 

Abilities

• Scrier's Gaze plays differently and is my second favorite build (mini-guide below)
  • If using Scrier's Gaze, swap the following talents from top to bottom:
    • Battle Meditation YES: higher Scrier's Gaze stacks are much higher with this
    • Warp Splitting SWAPS TO By Crack of Bone: much higher average Scrier's Gaze stacks
      • For cleave, your FGS special will take care of that anyways
    • Empathic Evasion NO: *see below*
    • Precognition & Warp Speed YES: I have played with and without Warp Speed, and the movement from Warp Speed lets me handle impossible scenarios by *safely destroying all ranged units* and maximizing the power of the sword's long reach while backpedalling
      • Warp Unbound NO: doesn't matter for melee, your peril will get reset to 0 very quickly anyways. 
    • Lingering Influence SWAPS TO Perfectionism: the high stacks are more consistent with Scrier's Gaze
  • Don't worry too much about peril management unless you are low stacks + high peril and about to use a FGS special
  • FGS reroll: SWAP FROM lowest sub-60 warp resist TO 60 warp resist
• Bubble typically has bad uptime and you can get forced out of it easily (like with rotted armor packs)
  • I used to use walls to be quirky. After so many games, I genuinely think walls are better than bubble after you learn them
• Shriek doesn't really do much for melee

Warp Ghost

• Makes upkeeping Unstable Power and Warp Rider easy
• During a dreg rush, the +2 stamina has helped to compensate for an inactive Kinetic Deflection (maxed out peril) during reviving or buying time for dodge-counter
• Toughness Replenishment is a 1.25x multiplier to all toughness sources that actually matter in Havoc

Disrupt Destiny - 3 different builds, depending if you are:

1. Confidently aggressive with max damage possible, but *potentially inconsistent*: Perfectionism + Cruel Fortune
   1. My average stacks: 18-20 *(12-22 range)*
   2. I always run this with the Scrier's Gaze variant**
      1. **Rotted armor? I may or may not depending on mood, but often times have NOT been running it lately.
          
2. Confidently aggressive with a free talent point, but *potentially inconsistent*: Lingering Influence ONLY
   1. My average stacks: 10-11 *(8-13 range)*
   2. Free talent point for whatever you want
      1. Suggestion: either Kinetic Flayer, or run Assail + True Aim
          
3. Lazy, but consistent: Lingering Influence + Cruel Fortune
   1. My average stacks: 12-13
   2. I almost always run this with the Wall variant

• Difficult to kill enemy highlighted? Look away for 5 seconds, the next markable enemy you see will be instead highlighted

Tips - Havoc 40 focus

FGS

• Special Wave
  • Half charge can kill most trash mobs in a close range (used mostly if at severe risk of getting stuck)
  • Full charge can kill trash mobs in a long range, plus severely weaken or outright kill elite waves depending on buffs active
  • There are two parts - the wave, and the physical swing. The physical swing itself (without the projectile) can be a light or heavy attack. The heavy has HUGE DAMAGE on its own and kills with either swing WILL GENERATE charges for the special. If you slide heavy special your wave into a horde, you can sometimes get an instant full charge
• Combos
  • Trash clear: practice how many light attacks it takes to access the sweeping heavy attack in psykhanium, it changes depending on what movemement/action you are doing prior to starting a light chain. Do this until you get a half or full charge special, then repeat!
    • Using the force push (not push attack! just push) will EASILY give room to safely combo light --> heavy if you are surrounded by non elites
  • Single-target: heavy repeating
    • After H2, can practice L L H repeating for non carapace for more utility but don't worry too much about this
• All stab attacks in Darktide will hit weakspots if you aim at the weakspot, even if you are behind them. 
  • Example: You can hit a Beast of Nurgle's weakspot when in front of them 
• Push attacks can open bulwarks, knocks captains down (you can push twins / captains off the map), and will be extra insurance against bursters (because enemies can knock bursters into you)
• PRACTICE playing around its long reach. 
  • Only a chaos spawn grab can reach you, everything else you can out-range

EK Staff

• Primary attack is the focus - for range elites, specials, and occasionally dreg ragers (absolutely melts them)
  • When not shooting (swapping targets, using movement, etc) try to quell briefly if you know you'll be shooting more
  • Careful when only aiming for the head, many enemies will duck and make you miss entirely after. It is okay to just aim at the body unless you can guaranteed headshots
  • Weapon swap is so quick that it can be used like a revolver
• Secondary attack is for fast moving specials

Peril

• Warp Rider and Unstable Power do a lot of heavy lifting for damage. Keep your peril above 80%
• Try not to waste the FGS special progress just to maintain high peril, instead use your staff or blitz, whichever is faster / makes sense

Surviving

• Mettle and Disrupt Destiny provide a very frequent +35% movement speed
  • While charging a heavy with the FGS, you can sprint slide forward with this movement speed and basically launch yourself across the room, nonstop chaining this to destroy range elites / anything else. Use this as needed
• Mettle and Warp Expenditure are very consistent toughness gain nodes. Disrupt Destiny kills elevate this toughness gain even more. Warp Ghost multiplies all of the above and when combined, your toughness gain is basically the same as a Zealot using Chorus
• The sword has very long reach, keep your distance if possible

Walls

• Main intent is for anti-special use
  • As long as a pixel of the enemy touches the wall, they get stunned. You can pretend the wall is actually wider than it looks
• Spam them, they have a low cooldown
• Most of Darktide consists of narrow paths that a wall can cover most of, or a narrow path that specials will take
  • Can put walls diagonally to enhance anti-mutant properties 
    • Example: -----------  /  ------------ the space between the lines is a doorway and the slash is an obliquely-placed wall. The recoiling mutants (see below)* will get stuck for much longer and it will still block other specials. 
    • You can rotate the wall while holding the ability button and pushing whatever button it says to on-screen
       
• *Mutants will recoil against the wall, but they may recoil too late and then be on your side of the wall after recovery
• *Dogs will run through, then be stunned
• *Bursters, when not able to be pushed (we all know when this happens) will also walk through walls