Psyker insane smite build?

[Raindustz]

I have ran with randoms who use the chain lightning (smite) and they are destroying everything with it. I use it and all it does is stun and do little damage? It also seemed like when they used it they also got soulblaze at the same time. What build/weapons do this? Or am I missing something? Thanks.

[Ironslayer541]

if you stack all the damage nodes that effect smite (like the warp damage ones) and use empored psy you can do some ok damage.

[Toltage]

Could be running Smite alongside the Venting Shriek with Creeping Flames and/or potentially Perilous Combustion if they were killing elites with it. And yeah if they had Empowered Psionics, that boosts Smite up to 125% damage + whatever warp damage bonuses. There's a few different ways to spin it.

[Runic Tunic]

Don't have an exact build on hand right this minute but if you use your shield, shriek, or Scrier's Gaze a lot that might be causing the discrepancy. You lose a lot of power when you reset your charges.

What you also might be seeing is the Surge staff. There's a pretty strong combo that may be intentional/a bug where using Empowered Psionics with the Surge staff massively increases its damage and it doesn't expend Empowered Psionic charges.


EDIT: Also, you can use Venting Shriek while casting Smite without interrupting your cast, substantially increasing your casting time. Pair that with maxed charges of Empowered Psionics and you're gonna see a lot of gibbing.

[Mosey]

Originally posted by Raindustz:

It also seemed like when they used it they also got soulblaze at the same time. What build/weapons do this? Or am I missing something? Thanks.

Two talents in particular add or spread soulblaze on the left side. One add's stacks of soulblaze to nearby enemies when you kill specials and the other spreads fire to nearby targets when they die while on fire.

Bio-lightning does well enough against minions, especially at lower difficulty, but beyond those it takes a few full cycles to kill most specials and you'd just be better off using your staff for those.

Guessing the person you saw was probably weapon swapping on elites for quick stacks and to spread fire then blasting minions with bio-lightning to stack DoT's. Not a bad build, although too much effort for the bang in my book.

[Arani]

Originally posted by Raindustz:

I have ran with randoms who use the chain lightning (smite) and they are destroying everything with it. I use it and all it does is stun and do little damage? It also seemed like when they used it they also got soulblaze at the same time. What build/weapons do this? Or am I missing something? Thanks.

I mean the talent interactions are very obvious if you just look at what they do. I'll make it easy for you: https://darktide.gameslantern.com/build-editor?id=9a815dea-13cd-4cbd-9669-cc277330cfe9

Scroll down until you see the talents. That's not a real build ofc. but it might as well be. Usually people trade talents here and there to work better with their staff etc, but that build there probably has around the best talents you can have for maximum Smite & Venting Shriek damage output, survivability and other utility.

Smite is more effective when charged, so use RMB instead of LMB and charge it to full power. Empowered Psionics buffs its dmg by +125%. Use your ult only when above at least 80% peril to get the max 6-stack Soulblaze from it. The rest of the talents will do their work in the background, you can (and should) check their descriptions for the details.

The simple version of the gameplay is straightfoward: Wait for tons of enemies to show up, switch to Smite, charge it up, fire and hold that LMB down. When you reach 100% peril, tap your ult in the direction of the enemy, then charge & fire Smite again. You'll be CC:ing and dealing heavy damage to everything in a large area.