Is Psyker a Bad Class?

[Trashbag]

This is actually more nuanced than I initially believed. The discussion usually begins at "lmao why brain burst when I can just Veteran shoot head?" And that is a good point. The game seems to be balanced more around Malice than Heresy or Damnation, so Brain Burst's theoretical dps falls off fast when it starts failing to hit those kill thresholds. And even before that, the long charge time gives Veteran a marked advantage over lower-health enemies and even Elites - probably with the exception of Bulwarks and Crushers, depending on what they're running and the angles they can get.

I would say brain burst is definitely weak right now, and it could certainly use a buff, but I think it can be understated sometimes the value it has in only needing a fraction of a second being pointed in the general direction of a special to basically mark them for death.

Brain Burst is a huge segment of their kit, but I wouldn't be someone to go so far as to say they have no value compared to stacking a second Veteran. And that would be where their staves come in. Barring the Trauma staff, which can be a little awkward and could probably use some buffs, the Psyker's staff selection is quite exceptional - being able to control hordes and put out massive damage over an area with a relatively low "reload" time in their quell speed.

This does, however, often lead to a playstyle that doesn't develop much beyond contantly charging and firing alt-fires. Which can get dull. Would that be considered "bad?"

I think their Feat selection is also a bit lop-sided. But that's true with most classes now, I feel. They'll probably need some buffs to particular feats and potential reorganization to make more tiers competetive with eachother, but that will come with time.

Overall, I think Psyker's a very FLAWED class...? But a decent backline support and anchor for the team when played well. I personally hope that when Fatshark does their next pass over the class, they pivot from a burst damage class competing with Veteran, to instead lean into that more distinct support role. Possibly through more debuff options on brain burst.

I definitely wouldn't mind seeing some better scaling on BB to keep it hitting certain kill thresholds on light classes in Heresy or Damnation, or maybe having the cast speed shorten based on the health of the target, but I think I'd rather see the ability focus on more large-scale crowd control. Something inherent like a guaranteed stagger on target (would definitely have some good use cases if the Psyker could time it), or a microchosm of the Soulblaze feat where a target killed by burst will deal damage to targets around it based on a percentage of the health of the target killed, or at least offering stagger or suppression in a wide radius from the killed target. More feats that could flavor the effects brain burst could inflict would be very welcome - ideally on Tier 10, competing with the decent Soulblaze feat, since the Feat tree for Psyker is already kind of dominated by Brain Burst right now.

I'd also love to see them do something more interesting with their gun selection. I'm not well-versed in 40k lore, so I don't know if there's any precedent for warp infusion, but a feature like that on Psyker's guns might give me an actual reason to pick them on Psyker beyond "oh, I'm the third Psykinetic on the team. Guess I'd better pretend to be a Vet." Maybe something similar to Veteran's perk that gives them bonuses on ADS - but (of course) at the cost of Peril instead of Stamina? Give me some Feats to make Gunpsyker a compelling archetype.

[Grr. [SG CMD] Majah Lazah]

No combat and ability synergy

Literal avatar of meh

[Oro]

Yes.

[Germaine's Bra]

I mean there has to be 2 bad classes at all times. So there is a 50% chance to be one at least.

[Breakdowns]

They're exceedingly good at their primary job: murdering armored specials who would otherwise bully their way into the team and make everyone's life hell. Even with no stacks you can kill them in 2 bursts.

After levelling one to 30, I think I can safely say that with all of crowd control options and the ability to kill just about anything in 1 brain burst the only "problem" with the class is that it's a little too straight-forward. You keep your head on a swivel to take care of Big Problems and choose a staff that feels right to help clean up trash mobs.

When you get a force sword you can even take care of more immediate melee problems like maulers with a charge or two, effectively making you a massive threat at any range.

I dunno, I don't think psykers are bad in the least. They just might not be for everyone.

[Trashbag]

Originally posted by Oro:

Yes.

I love how you had this locked and loaded.

[Oro]

Originally posted by Jigabachi:

They're exceedingly good at their primary job: murdering armored specials who would otherwise bully their way into the team and make everyone's life hell. Even with no stacks you can kill them in 2 bursts.

After levelling one to 30, I think I can safely say that with all of crowd control options and the ability to kill just about anything in 1 brain burst the only "problem" with the class is that it's a little too straight-forward. You keep your head on a swivel to take care of Big Problems and choose a staff that feels right to help clean up trash mobs.

When you get a force sword you can even take care of more immediate melee problems like maulers with a charge or two, effectively making you a massive threat at any range.

I dunno, I don't think psykers are bad in the least. They just might not be for everyone.

Plays on malice only.

[P.Diddy's Baby Oil]

yes. yes it is. it's alright in malice but falls off hard beyond that

[Die†rich Borks†ein]

imo psycher is a waste of team member slot

[Breakdowns]

Originally posted by Oro:

Originally posted by Jigabachi:

They're exceedingly good at their primary job: murdering armored specials who would otherwise bully their way into the team and make everyone's life hell. Even with no stacks you can kill them in 2 bursts.

After levelling one to 30, I think I can safely say that with all of crowd control options and the ability to kill just about anything in 1 brain burst the only "problem" with the class is that it's a little too straight-forward. You keep your head on a swivel to take care of Big Problems and choose a staff that feels right to help clean up trash mobs.

When you get a force sword you can even take care of more immediate melee problems like maulers with a charge or two, effectively making you a massive threat at any range.

I dunno, I don't think psykers are bad in the least. They just might not be for everyone.

Plays on malice only.

I'm maxing out everything so I have to admit that this is true.

[Muscarine]

Psyker is a good class, i'm regularly running Heresy and Damnation with mine
But that's almost entirely due to staffs

You could bring a good Voidstrike or Surge staff and Force Sword, no feats, you'd be almost just as good, all you're going to miss is Kinetic Deflection

The class's entire feat tree is a design wreck
I mean, all you have to do is take a second to notice the class ability, Psykinetic's Wrath, has exactly the same name as one of the level 10 feats, both make the other bug on hover, to realise the entire class was basically rushed at the last minute

Also why its trailer came out so late

[Trashbag]

Originally posted by Jigabachi:

Originally posted by Oro:

Plays on malice only.

I'm maxing out everything so I have to admit that this is true.

I also don't play on Heresy or Damnation very often because I don't trust even the level 30 players to stay with the team. I'm mostly going off hearsay from people who play Heresy-grade Psyker.

[Breakdowns]

Originally posted by Trashbag:

Originally posted by Jigabachi:

I'm maxing out everything so I have to admit that this is true.

I also don't play on Heresy or Damnation very often because I don't trust even the level 30 players to stay with the team. I'm mostly going off hearsay from people who play Heresy-grade Psyker.

I'm curious about what the difference is. Mayhaps I'll pause levelling my zealot to try some higher difficulties and see what's up.

If you're no longer killing thing in 2 brain bursts at most I can see psyker being a real pain.

[MrButtermancer]

They're super squish for little reason. Could use a little more base HP or toughness, or potentially a little more toughness on their toughness perks which got nuked from orbit after the closed beta.

Maintaining stacks is very feelsbad. It would be a lot better if they ticked down one at a time, a little slower, and you could collect stacks from other warp effects.

All the fire stuff has felt very lackluster at high difficulties even when built for it specifically. Trauma staff is garbage. And if you're running guns, why are you playing this class?

Brainburst feels decent for killing off hard targets engaged in packs like crushers or bulwarks, snipers from behind cover, or dogs which are Moving Like They Do. But the casting time and vulnerability are TERRIBLE which make the kinetic barrage ulti seem a lot better than the alternatives. Combine that with the 15% ability reduction on elite kill in coherency and you're blitzing a ton. This is the only perk combination I've found that feels like it has any rhythm.

The ulti has surprising utility as a defensive tool and you can actually cast it in the middle of other abilities without interrupting them. So you can cast it in the middle of a brainburst to stagger the rager getting up in your face and then immediately brainburst it again while staggered.

I can imagine the block ranged attacks blessing on top of the build warp instability instead of losing stamina on blocking can make for a surprisingly robust block, especially combined with tactical ulting -- but given I can't roll that on a forcesword to save my life after camping the shop for days and crafting essentially hasn't been added yet, I'm not hopeful about seeing it soon. And moving while quenching just seems like too much quality of life to give up. It seems like that should be on all the perks of that level and the specific perk for it should be replaced by something else. The slow-while-quenching just feels terrible while tactically not being THAT big of a deal. It feels like something that's only clunky so you can fix it with the perk it exists to justify.

Staff primary attacks are awful. They do no damage, so you have to do headshots, but they're slow and inaccurate, so good luck. They could probably survive with one, maybe two among slow, low damage, inaccurate -- but they're all three. They have decent stagger, and they don't cost ammunition -- but as it stands, what they aren't worth is *the time to use them,* so that's in a really bad spot. If Fatshark didn't want Psykers brainbursting friggin' everything maybe they should have given them a usable primary ranged attack on their main class items. Not enough to challenge Veteran's niche, but enough to justify itself.

So there ARE some things in the class that work, but a ton of the perks are undertuned or garbage, the class tends to be incredibly squishy, and itemizing is a huge pain because most of your weapon pool doesn't interact with your class mechanics.

[Oro]

Originally posted by Jigabachi:

Originally posted by Trashbag:

I also don't play on Heresy or Damnation very often because I don't trust even the level 30 players to stay with the team. I'm mostly going off hearsay from people who play Heresy-grade Psyker.

I'm curious about what the difference is. Mayhaps I'll pause levelling my zealot to try some higher difficulties and see what's up.

If you're no longer killing thing in 2 brain bursts at most I can see psyker being a real pain.

It takes three brain bursts to kill the enemies you said psyker was "exceedingly good at killing," which is to say, 8+ seconds isn't exceedingly good, but rather, exceedingly bad.

[CopperBack]

Wish brain burst was more of a "blitz" ability target and release with cooldown or half casting time as with ult talent, still as is I still feel like a powerhouse glass cannon. Lightning stunner, clutch brain burst on running or hiding specials and force sword aoe push