Dovahkiin
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Works in Auric. I don't play Havocs.

OVERVIEW:

I don't like staves (except the Trauma staff) and Scrier's Gaze bores me so I put this together.  Its a style I've wanted to play around with since touching Psyker but this version actually works thanks largely to Peril Equilibrium and Just a Dream allowing you to run Shriek instead of Gaze.

Reasonably tanky.  Solid enough damage into everything.  Good single target and horde clear.  It doesn't lean too hard into either melee or ranged and can do both well.  You spread around fire enough that its fun but not so much that its everything.

Once you hit 75% peril activate your sword to push it higher, then Shriek. Shriek.  Use Shriek on CD as much as possible when fighting groups of enemies.
 

Blazing Spirit and Perilous Combustion help keep Soul-Drinker running. Disrupt Destiny lets you actually do damage. Venting Shriek is fun as hell, disrupts the enemy, and does a lot of damage by setting everything on fire. Seer's Presence lets you scream more. Your Las Pistol is excellent for boss damage and Dealing with annoying specials, as well as being solid in a ranged fight.

Both the sword and the pistol are highly mobile weapons so that paired with Anticipation and Empathic Evasion also makes you a slippery bastard.

This build mostly plays itself as long as you stick to the ever important fundamentals of the game.  You're still going to eventually eat shit if you can't block, dodge, and fight in melee but its extremely forgiving for a Psyker.  I haven't deliberately tested just how tanky it can be but I know for sure there are times I absolutely should have died and didn't.  A surprise pack of ragers suddenly in your ass sending your peril to the moon but giving you time to react instead of putting you to sleep immediately.

The only things to manage are using Shriek and making sure to stack up Disrupt Destiny by killing the blue things.  And not blowing yourself up with your sword but this is generally easy.


WEAPON EXPLANATION:

You can run this with either force sword and any ranged weapon except a staff.

Dueling Sword or Knife of course also work quite well, but there are a few tradeoffs.

I love the push attack from the force swords since it can proc Kinetic Flayer. This is hilarious to me for some reason.  Blazing Spirit on the Force Swords smooths out your damage and tankiness a bit by giving you another way of getting "kills" with soulblaze while Shriek is on CD to more consistently keep Souldrinker up, and using a non-force weapon means you'll have to take a hit or hard cast Brain Rupture to push past 83% peril to apply 6 stacks of soulblaze when you Shriek.

The Las Pistol is an excellent all round ranged weapon but this build should work with anything except a staff so long as you know the weapon.

The build is overall highly weapon agnostic and dependent. Use whatever you like but your mileage will depend entirely on your proficiency with your chosen weapons. 


KEYSTONE EXPLANATION:

I have only run this with Disrupt Destiny. If you're goated you can drop Psykinetic Grip and take Perfectionism into Cruel Fortune, either of which would technically be more optimal but I just like head pops and running Perfectionism without Cruel Fortune doesn't feel great.

I wouldn't recommend any other keystone as the loss in damage and Utility would be significant. Dropping Disrupt Destiny will cost a lot of damage and dropping Warp Ghost kicks one of the legs out from under this build.


ABILITY EXPLANATION:

You can run this with any ability however:

Bubble / Shield looses a lot of "free" damage from Shriek setting everything on fire and keeping Kinetic Flayer up without thinking in exchange for a fair bit of team utility. You'll also be less tanky at high peril since you can't immediately drop from critical peril if you're getting beaten / shot to death.

If you run it with Scrier's Gaze drop Peril Equilibrium and pick up By Crack of Bone. Due to the loss of the perk that dumps peril on ranged crits you're now mostly shoehorned into melee so consider swapping to the Force Greatsword with the same perks.

Venting Shriek is the way this is intended to run.
 

AURA EXPLANATION:

I tried running this with Prescience instead of Seer's Presence and it didn't feel as good. Using Venting Shriek more often is better than 5% crit based on how it felt for me. I wouldn't discount it as a viable option though.