Surge Staff Tank/CC Build
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Gameplay Tips While Using This Build. 

• BB (Brain Burst) has zero damage scaling and does a flat 1000 damage (about 300 DPS). This means on harder difficulties it becomes less and less useful. For example on damnation a mutant has 4000 hp flat. So even with maximum warp charges it still takes 4 BB
• Therefore BB should only be used at best situationally (maybe 5% of your run), specifically against squishy high value targets. For example it’s useful again gunner spam, or when a bomber or sniper spawns and the vet is unable to kill them. 
• The damage% gained from warp charges are minuscule. Given that a BB has a non scaling base damage of 1000 and each warp charge gives a 3% damage increase, even with 6 stacks of warp charges (which we don’t run, so we will only have 4 stacks max) that is only an 18% increase, or 1180 damage. We can use the damnation mutant example again here. With 4000 hp it does not matter if you have 0 stacks or 6 stacks, as it will take 4 BB either way to kill a mutant.
• Instead, the main appeal of warp stacks is for the warp resistance you gain using the level 10 trait. With this specific build, warp resistance helps as you will be gaining a lot of peril both while using your staff and while peril blocking. However due to how ineffective BB is on higher difficulty, this build will run both traits that allow you to gain charges passively. 
• Your gameplay revolves around your staff 70% of the time. The staff does better damage against armored units than it does against unarmored units (electricity vs metal armor). The surge staff’s charge only increases its damage, so in situations where you need to cc many enemies quickly, quickly spamming the alt fire without charging provides them same stun. 
• Once in melee range (25%) the force sword uses a combinations of attacking, pushing, and blocking. A optimal combo against horde is to run light - heavy - block/push attack and repeat. 
• Since we are running peril blocking instead of mind in motion, always active quell with the force sword or staff as the movement speed decrease while quelling with either weapon is a lot faster than quelling with hands. Similarly, use dodges and dodge slides to quickly get back into cover or away from enemies should you need to active quell while in combat 
• Similarly to the ogryn slab shield, running a force sword with deflector allow only block ranged projectiles in the direction you are facing
• Force sword “deflector” trait does not block sniper shots, dodge as usual

Typical psyker surge staff build, but you run max hp and a deflector force sword with peril blocking, which allows you to basically face tank hordes and shooter spam should you need to. Peril blocking also gives psyker clutch potential as it makes them virtually invulnerable while reviving.

Surge staff is used as usual to cc packs of elites and specials to create space and allow teammates to kill them with ease 

Lvl 5: Given we are using peril blocking and the surge staff, expect a large amount of peril gain and therefore a large amount of toughness regen when quelling. This talent also works with passive quelling and on ability use, so you can gain toughness more consistently than with the other traits. (One which requires you to kill using force attacks and the other which requires you to brain burst or rely on rng)

Lvl10: We run warp resist because the surge staff is mainly used for its CC potential and the (at most) 15% damage gained does not reach any significant breakpoints. Instead we run warp resist to allow us to chain cast more without quelling and therefore more reliably stunlock elites. 

Lvl 15: We run Psychic Communion to give us some passive way of generating warp charges without brain bursting. This trait actually procs fairly consistently on higher difficulties due to the size and frequency of hordes and will allow you to not only maintain but even gain warp charge stacks as long as a decent number of enemies are nearby. 

Lvl 20: Kinetic Deflection allows psyker to effectively tank for the team. While normally blocking an attack costed stamina, peril blocking now let’s you use peril instead. This perk is what allows psyker to tank, as an attack from a poxwalker increases your peril by ~10% when they normally would have taken 2 (of 3) stamina bars on the force sword. On top of all this, peril blocking currently does not stop passive quelling, so you are actively losing your peril even while blocking. This synergizes well with our lvl 5 trait allowing you to gain free toughness while also allowing you to block 10x more (you can block even more if you effectively weave in attacks, dodges, and quelling to keep your peril low) 

Lvl 25: Kinetic Flayer is used for free damage but more importantly it’s essentially a free warp charge every 15 seconds. This helps with keeping warp stacks up, which is useful for the peril reduction you gain 

Lvl 30: Kinetic Barrage is the only trait that doesn’t get rid of your warp stacks and therefore is the default choice for a peril resistance build. The increases BB cast speed and reduced peril generation also makes it situationally useful as a burst option should there be a gunner pack in the distance that needs to be killed (Press F to knock everything away, BB until either enemies start getting close again or the buff ends)