Shockless Skit
 Skitarii Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Alternatively titled: Who Needs System Shock ?

Concept

This build tries to hit as many flat damage increases as possible, minus any linked to electrocution.

Take advantage of delicious status effects from the phosphor pistol and enhanced servo skull, and you'll have 80%+ uptime on Weakness Analysis Doctrine. Note that you do not need Infernus to proc Weakness Analysis Doctrine on targets you've shot - hitting an enemy with the innate phosphor debuff is enough. I like the DoT synergy with phsophor burn and servo skull's burn stacks, but that blessing can be swapped.

Phosphor's innate 15% effective brittleness mod (and optionally Supercharge on the Branx Mk VI Mechanicus Power Sword) supply armor negation for killing hardened targets that you can't immediately chordclaw or stab to death.

Chained Deathblow and Surgical will have you activating Flux Conduit Build-Up and Power Redistribution Uplink very frequently, without needing to spec into Flensing Protocols . Both crit proc talents grant their bonuses over time, so you only need to crit once every 3-4 seconds to maximize their uptime. You'll be poking a lot of heads with the MPS, so in practice you'll often have a ~33% crit rate rate in hordes (+7.5% class innate, +6% from Last Stand Relay , +20% from Chained Deathblow). 

Toss in a horizontal chordclaw with Axial Slash while clearing hordes to keep  Moebian Conductor activated and allow Sequenced Charge to activate, and you'll usually end up making back a bunch of toughness and capacitance from weakspot kills.

Variations

• Flex talents
  • I run Assassination Protocols because I hate reapers, plus the node boosts phosphor's innate and Infernus DoTs against the target types. With the node, you can sort-of two shot reapers on H40 if you get two crit weakspots - an activated skull and burn stacks will finish them off. That said, it's the least essential node as built IMO.
  • Hydraulic Impact is probably the most salient node missing from the build as is. For MPS, it can help skipping captain phases (chordclaw hits twice and will trigger shield, MPS H3 is the single highest damage hit available to the class with H1 close behind) and for transonics it provides a welcome damage bonus that helps mitigate issues with armor. Good synergy with Sunder on the MPS.
  • Keystone: If you want to absolutely maximize your own damage output: swap Assassination Protocols for Hydraulic Impact , then swap keystone to  Flensing Protocols with Servo-Sinew Surge and Honed Dissector . I prefer the potential for stacked damage bonuses and AoE de/buffs and more consistent TDR of Power Overload, but up to personal preference.

• Defense: A third toughness curio could be taken to capitalize on this build's exceptionally high peak TDR.
  • Consistent TDR as built: 20% from Static Capacitor Drain, 15% from Progressive Plating Matrix and min 10% from Residual Current Buffer. Additional +15% damage resistance from Galvanized Coating  (total multiplicative toughness damage mod: 0.5202)
  • Transient TDR bonuses as built:  15% from Power Redistribution Uplink on crits, and another 15% from Power Overload activation. (effective toughness mod is 0.44217 with one bonus active, ~0.3758 with both)

  • If you want even more TDR, you can swap a node for Threat Detection Imperative. Remember that servo skull kills count as ranged kills, so you'll have very high uptime even if you're being conservative with your phosphor (at max stacks with other consistent bonuses, effective mod is ~0.4162. With one transient bonus, ~0.3537)

     

• Melee Setup
  • Absent the crit/attack speed bonuses from Flensing Protocols and Servo-Sinew Surge, I prefer the MPS over paired transonics. Both weapons are excellent, though, take what you like.
  • I don't find Electro-Strike Conduit particularly useful, but if you value the safety the stun provides you can get it in exchange for Binary Ballistics Protocol or Auto-Repair Doctrines . May synergize better with transonics due to their higher hit and crit rates.
  • Alternate MPS Blessings 
    • Devastating Strike can provide more consistent cleave than Sunder , but it sacrifices some burst and single-target potential.  Worth taking if find yourself conserving MPS and claw charges while hordeclearing
    • Supercharge may be better than Sunder on the MPS for rotten armor, and/or if your team lacks other sources of brittleness. 
      • You can tenderize armor packs for claw followups :> 
      • May want to get Adaptive Combat Calibration  in exchange for Servo-Core Recharge Engine or Progressive Plating Matrix to compensate for loss of cleave, especially on modifiers that increase hitmass like Rampaging Enemies, The Final Toll, Cranial Corruption , Pox gas, etc.

    • After the tweaks to Decapitator in 1.12.4, it seems like a decent companion blessing on the MPS if you want to lean further into crit effects - more finesse means more headshot and crit damage, which means you're more likely to keep procing it. Charged H3s can conditionally oneshot maulers :P Can suffer in AoE heavy comps, though.

       

• Dubious
  • If you want to maximize DoTs or provide some entertaining scab captain damage, you can take Probing Strikes instead of Axial Slash , but you'll need to be much more intentional with your activation and aim to be as effective otherwise. If using the claw for burst movement, holding for a charge has faster startup / locks you for less time than letting the three strikes play out.
  • Despite the guide name, swapping Chordclaw for Voltaic Burst is potentially an option if your team is sorely lacking in shooter suppression or AoE CC. That said, you're sacrificing a) synergy with crit and weakspot nodes b) burst hordeclear c) a fun theme :'(