The Psyker is the mage archetype, similar to the elf from Vermentide 2. The Psyker is all about controlling its ability to harness the warp, dealing big damage, and crowd control, without making itself submit to the evils of it. For those looking to play the Psyker in Darktide, we have a guide full of tips, tricks and recommended builds for it.
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Here is a look at a Darktide Psyker class guide, featuring recommended talents, leveling tips, and other useful information. Image via Fatshark.
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Darktide Psyker Guide and Build¶
The main playstyle for the Psyker class is that it is all about burst damage, making it an effective boss killer. Moreso, it’s one of the furthest reaching classes in the game, with its Brain Buster ability allowing you to easily pick off distant targets, such as the Snipers, Flamers, and other big baddies. It also has decent single-target damage. This is the core of the Psyker’s build and playstyle moving forward. This is important, as one of your unique class traits is the Warp Charge mechanic. Warp Charges increase your damage by 3% per stack and last for 25 seconds, up to a stack of four by default. This makes you a builder and then a heavier DPS unloader.
The other big selling point of the class is its unique ability, the Warp Charge. This skill will knock down enemies easily, especially the regular dumb horde enemies. Even the bigger, and more armored dudes can get stunned slightly from the skill. This is handy, especially when your team needs a breather, or there are big enemies you need to stun so you can pop them with your ability, or your allies can beat them up or shoot them too.
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As for the Psykers aura, you grant Kinetic Presence, which offers players a 10% damage bonus against Elite enemies.
There are some downsides, though, as this class is one of the squishiest classes in the game for base health and toughness.
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| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| High Burst | Squishy |
| Solid sniping on key enemies | Managing Peril can be tricky |
| Great Crowd Control | Poor starting loadout |
| Anti Elite and Boss skills and passives. | Managing Warp Charges can be tricky |
Psyker Feats and Talents¶
The recommended Psyker talents for you to get are as follows:
| Talents | Description | Level unlocked | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essence Harvest, and then Warp Absorption when you have a force staff | Replenish 30% Toughness over 5 seconds on gaining Warp Charges. Absorption grants toughness when killing enemies with a Warp Attack | Level 5 | First option is a great leveling talent, while the other is good for when you get force staff with warp kills. |
| Wrack and Ruin, switch to Psykinetic’s Wrath when you get a Force Staff | Killing an Elite or Specialist with Brain Bust applies 2 stacks of Soulblaze to nearby targets within 3 meters. Wrath increases your damage with force weapons based on Peril. | Level 10 | Great AOE cleave on elite heavy moments, the other talent grants general DPS improvements to your Force Staff. Both talents are slightly negligible, but really work when paired with either the Purgator Staff for more Soulblaze burn stacks, or when you get much higher damage force weapons from master crafted max level items. |
| Either Cerebral or Psychic Communion | Cerebral grants damage buffs to your and your allies on the target affected by brain bust, while Psychic grants better Warp Charge generation | Level 15. | Either support build onto bosses, or helps build your own DPS boost. |
| Mind in Motion | Your movement speed is no longer affected when quelling Peril | Level 20 | Flavor option but movement speed is very nice. |
| Kinetic Flayer or Overload | All attacks have a 10% chance to Brain bust the Target. Does not occur at critical peril and has a 15-second cooldown. Or you take Overload for the Soulfire spread | Level 25 | Specialize into better pack clearing or single target damage. |
| Ascending Blaze | Expend all warp charges and apply stacks of Soulblaze to enemies based on the number of Soul Charges. Enemies killed have a 10% chance to grant Warp Charges. | Level 30 | Nice way of getting damage buffs without having to Brain Bust, especially on hordes. If you need to spec into boss damage, Kinetic Barrage is fine too. |
The talents you build cater largely for your Brain Bust’s ability to support yourself or the team. Moreso, some of the talent choices depend on the level, mission and the affix that affects the level. If you know you’re going into the assassination missions, or you want to prepare yourself for random chance bosses on the level, then you may consider the more boss-focused one. If you know a level has particularly hard sectors, such as hordes of heavy armored enemies, then you can choose the Soulfire talents, as that will help with general cleave damage against many tough does at the same time. You will need to alter your build slightly every mission to adapt to the situations of the map, mission and effects.
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End game weapons¶
This build also helps to enhance your Force Staff, which is by far the best ranged weapon for the Psyker. When you enter late game, you can switch your build to the following items:
- Surge Force Staff
- Force Sword of choice
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Your ranged heavy attack will be the front of center of your horde killing potential. Moreso, being ion Coherency will likely grant some stack of Brain Bust’s damage buff, so you can get more out of you peril attacks. Meanwhile, the force staff deals less damage to individual elites, so, a force staff come in handy for special attack damage boosts. Its melee attack also isn’t too bad for swinging wildly at close range hordes when necessary.
The only thing you need to monitor is you block into push attack counter, as that will use peril instead of stamina. If you’re already high on peril be careful of this potential death trap. Make sure you save your kinetic blast for moments you need to shove and have high peril. Your staff should quell peril fast for regular peril management methods.
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Psyker Leveling Tips¶
As you level up, you will unlock access to shops, which will help you unlock more types of weapons, and getter better quality weapons.
Upon starting out with your class, you will only have the Devil Claw sword. The Devil Claw sword is really good, as it has a great cleave, which is handy when fighting hordes of enemies. As for your gun, it largely preference, laz pistols are okay, as are the rifles when you get to buying them from the shop around level 5. Shotguns took a heavy nerf from CBT to pre-order beta, so you might want to skip them for now.
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You also want to keep your hands on the Devil’s Claw swords, as one of the biggest weaknesses of the Psyker is that it dies easily. Being able to cleave when enemy hordes close in is incredibly handy. This an item you want to prio buy when you can afford a decent quality upgrade.
Leveling up is one of the only ways to get gear early. These will always be better than your starting gear, so replace them whenever you get a new weapon.
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When you get to level 13, you get to play with the Requisitortium. This place is where you can spend your special currency on big-ticket items, such as the master-crafted weapons. These will eventually replace the gear you get from the regular store and the missions themselves to complete your build as you level up.
Psyker Gameplay Tips¶
Finding angles you can easily pick enemies off to preserve ammo, or beat elites and specials is key to the class.
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In this section of the Psyker class guide, we will go through some tips and tricks for the Psyker class.
- Build up the peril and then expend it using Warp Charge. You can reset your peril using the Warp charge skill that knocks enemies over. Moreso, the higher the peril, the bigger the range will be. The cpre-order beta nerf resets it by about 50%, so it means you follow it up fairly easily with a special attack or another Brain Bust.
- Get to vantage points: The platforms you can stand on or the distant ledges that let you overwatch areas are handy to see the elite or specialist enemies in the area for you to snipe. You’re Brain buster is better suited for killing those enemies, rather than the general hordes of enemies that charge.
- Be near allies: Your aura grants enemies bonus damage to elites and specials. Be near enemies when fights start going crazy in case they can hit the elite or special and you cannot. You also get their aura buffs too!
- Weapons: The weapons you ideally want to use are the shotguns, devil claw sword and the force staff. The Force Sword is a strong warrior playstyle that uses Peril to deal with increased melee damage, but this build does not spec into the toughness or melee-focused talents, so avoid this weapon. It also generates peril fast, and peril makes you fairly exposed thanks to the new nerfs, so using your force sword is not ideal until much higher level.
- There’s also a 10% chance to reduce your peril when you kill an enemy using Brain bust at 100 peril.
- Peril takes 6 seconds to drop down, but Force Staff weapons can lower the peril lowering with stat modifiers.
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This concludes the Darktide Psyker Class Guide. Good luck fighting the Chaos and not succumbing to the perils of the warp like a filthy heretic.
