Darktide

[RCRA/CERCLA/GOONER]

Has anyone played the new class for darktide? Hive Scum? It's pretty good so far.

 

[ChampFantana]

Those twin Stub Pistols look like a lot of fun, and the twin Autopistols do too.

I hope a single version of the Stub Pistol comes to other Classes in the future.

It would also be cool if the Hiver could dual-wield Laspistols and Revolvers in the future.

 

[FagDiddler]

Has anyone played the new class for darktide? Hive Scum? It's pretty good so far.

I have and yeah its fun, but fuck is it squishy, The class really NEEDS its keystone talents and ability to avoid death. There's definitely a learning curve and I wouldn't be surprised if it sees some buffs soon enough. Its not a weak class, but it's in that strange grey area of hard to learn and master(compared to the other classes) where if you know how to make the class work it really works and outperforms the others, but if you aren't that sort of player it could easily feel flimsy or just flat out unplayable.

 

[ChampFantana]

I started up a Zealot last night for shits and giggles.

Any build tips from you fellas?

 

[Asian tech support]

All my mods are busted (more like one is causing a ctd and I'm not gonna bother troubleshooting rn) so I could only stomach one game. Incredible how much I've come to rely on even simple shit like kill confirmations.

Named my character Rekieta as they've got every permutation of fentanyl and jenkem on lockdown. A couple of weeks ago, my arbiter was forcibly renamed (it was "open up its ICE") but I came up with a better one that I'll share once it inevitably gets reported by dickless wonders. This makes the fourth time this has happened. Anyway, one map on toddler difficulty isn't enough to judge anything on but I do not like the basic shiv moveset as of now. Maybe the other variant is better but I'd rather just use the combat blade.

edit: it's crosshair hud that's fucking things up i think

 

[RCRA/CERCLA/GOONER]

I have and yeah its fun, but fuck is it squishy, The class really NEEDS its keystone talents and ability to avoid death. There's definitely a learning curve and I wouldn't be surprised if it sees some buffs soon enough. Its not a weak class, but it's in that strange grey area of hard to learn and master(compared to the other classes) where if you know how to make the class work it really works and outperforms the others, but if you aren't that sort of player it could easily feel flimsy or just flat out unplayable.

It's essentially a glass cannon, you have to rely on dodging and try not to dye to a random pic walker lol

 

[Asian tech support]

I started up a Zealot last night for shits and giggles.

Any build tips from you fellas?

Sure.
Almost every build is going to take disdain, second wind, and duelist. Pretty much every other node in the top portion of the tree besides enemies without, enemies within is worthless.
All of the "on dodge" nodes are good (second wind, duelist, good balance, riposte) and it's a good idea to take as many as you can.
Martyrdom is VERY GOOD and you only need two wound curios for maximum effectiveness now. The only sub node on the keystone that's bad is on the brink.
Benediction is the only good aura. Beacon of purity is a havoc thing and the other stamina one might as well not exist.
Inexorable judgment is kind of only usable with the knife. Nothing else has the mobility to make it worth the effort.
If you choose to use the flamer, you're going to want to use throwing knifes as otherwise you have serious trouble with gunners and specialists out of reach.
Likewise, the flamer (and immolation grenades) is best paired with weapons that have uncanny strike.

At least imo.

 

[RCRA/CERCLA/GOONER]

All my mods are busted (more like one is causing a ctd and I'm not gonna bother troubleshooting rn) so I could only stomach one game. Incredible how much I've come to rely on even simple shit like kill confirmations.

Named my character Rekieta as they've got every permutation of fentanyl and jenkem on lockdown. A couple of weeks ago, my arbiter was forcibly renamed (it was "open up its ICE") but I came up with a better one that I'll share once it inevitably gets reported by dickless wonders. This makes the fourth time this has happened. Anyway, one map on toddler difficulty isn't enough to judge anything on but I do not like the basic shiv moveset as of now. Maybe the other variant is better but I'd rather just use the combat blade.

I tried downloading mods but they won't work? Like the game won't boot up, so I just have them off :/

 

[FagDiddler]

It's essentially a glass cannon, you have to rely on dodging and try not to dye to a random pic walker lol

The key to surviving is to kill everything before it can reach you. With the right talents you can unlock the secret that ammo isn't real, and that mag dumping into literally everything including lone poxwalkers is not only viable but fucking optimal. I've been shredding through my last few games while barely if ever touching my melee and dodge weaving through shotgunner blasts between desperado cooldowns, all without ever taking an ammo pickup.

The only issue for me are these occasional lag spikes that cause desyncs if they don't outright cause a dc.

 

[RCRA/CERCLA/GOONER]

The key to surviving is to kill everything before it can reach you. With the right talents you can unlock the secret that ammo isn't real, and that mag dumping into literally everything including lone poxwalkers is not only viable but fucking optimal. I've been shredding through my last few games while barely if ever touching my melee and dodge weaving through shotgunner blasts between desperado cooldowns, all without ever taking an ammo pickup.

The only issue for me are these occasional lag spikes that cause desyncs if they don't outright cause a dc.

I get that, it's also annoying how it randomly fucking happens

 

[Punished Mirabeau B Lamar]

I've been using basic shivs with flak maniac lacerate uncanny strike and dual autopistols flak maniac blaze away pinning fire and mostly sticking towards the left in the talent tree and have been having a pretty good time shooting anything that moves, stabbing everything else that lives, and using the stagger flashbangs when things get too close. It feels decently powerful but you do not really have an answer to crusher packs that spawn on higher difficulties outside of the rocket launcher I guess. Overall pretty fun though.

 

[Blazing Piety]

I started up a Zealot last night for shits and giggles.

Any build tips from you fellas?

Zealot is my most played class by far, so my two cents in addition to what @Asian tech support said. I'm not some master build crafter or anything, but this is what has worked for me.
For the talent tree:

• For the top of the tree Duelist and Second Wind are always taken. I flip flop on using either Disdain or Backstabber, sometimes running both, but Disdain is probably the better option of the two. You can optionally take Purge the Unclean if you are building towards dealing with monstrosities. Sometimes I run it, sometimes I just run 25% unyielding damage on my melee, and sometimes both. You aren't handicapping yourself if you don't take it. The rest of the nodes aren't worth taking in my opinion.
• All of Zealot's blitzes are good, but I consider immolation grenades to be the weakest of the three. It isn't bad against trash mobs and can be useful against armor, but I find that Zealot already deals with trash quick enough where they don't compete against the other two. Stunstorms are a strong and consistent utility and deinitely nice to have. Knives are as strong as ever and what I always run, but you need to get comfortable with both hitting things in the head and hitting them from varying distances. If you aren't comfortable with the knives, play around with them in the Psykhanium for a bit.
• For the middle section, I recommend always going to the left of the tree and taking Sustained Assault, either of Desperation or Punishment, and Faithful Frenzy. I would also move over to the right taking Providence and Good Balance. Optionally, Abolish Blasphemers is nice. Two special ones to call out:
  • Holy Revenant: I'm a bit torn on this one because you automatically have to take Until Death now. Mileage will vary here - if you aren't getting hit, it's worthless, but if you're playing bad one day, it can be nice to have. Usually I put it on and forget to take it off. Helpful for preventing cheap bullshit deaths especially in Havoc.
  • Thy Wrath be Swift: Even though the node doesn't say it, the stun immunity also applies to gunfire (at least it used to, I haven't kept up with talent changes but last I checked this was still the case). I take this in every build, because trying to play Zealot without it is noticeably more annoying.
• Like Asian tech support said, Benediction is the only aura that matters. If you have the goop modifier in Havoc, one Zealot runs Beacon of Purity for that specifically. Zealous is worthless.
• For abilities, Fury of the Faithful is the most consistent by far. If you take Fury, you should always take double charges and the new talent Unrelenting Fury to keep it up as much as possible. I only find Chorus useful for Havoc, and even then nobody I play with runs it. Shroudfield is numerically strong and useful for boss killing builds but I find it to be extremely overrated, and stealth can easily fuck your team over if you aren't careful. I don't think any of the abilities are bad per se, but Fury is what I typically run.
• The bottom section has a lot of choices depending on which keystone you're interested in. Some nodes to look out for are Scourge, Enduring Faith, Blinded by Blood, and Invocation of Death on the left tree, and Hubris and Riposte on the right tree. The middle tree's nodes aren't particularly impactful in my opinion; the only one that matters is Faith's Fortitude if running Martyrdom.
• Keystones:
  • Blazing Piety is still a strong keystone. If you take this, I would always take Righteous Warrior and Stalwart. If you have the points to spare and feel like being a team player, you can also take Infectious Zeal, but I don't consider it essential.
  • Martyrdom is actually good now. If you want to take Martyrdom, make sure to take Faith's Fortitude and also run 2 wound curios to maximize the benefits. Always take Maniac and I Shall Not Fall. Restorative Verses is also nice, but not a requirement, and On the Brink is never worth taking in my opinion.
  • Inexorable Judgement is a fun keystone to play around with. It's probably the weakest of the three, but you can still get value out of it. Always take Inebriate's Poise and Eternal, Retributor's Stance sucks from my experience. You can make any weapon work but the keystone shines with quick weapons like the tactical axe and the knife.

My personal favorite melees are the Heavy Swords (marks 6 and 7), the mark 2 Tac-Axe, the mark 2 Relic Blade, the Crusher, and the mark 7 Devil's Claw. The knife is still strong, but I hardly ever use it. Never use the Dueling Sword unless you want to be that guy. I've been meaning to play with the chain axes more but haven't really gotten around to it, so I can't vouch for their effectiveness.

Since you aren't super focused on guns when playing Zealot, you have a lot of options here. Most people run the Flamer or the Bolter nowadays because they are very effective, but I don't find them super interesting to play with. The Zarona revolver is/was a popular choice. I personally have more fun using the Agripinaa. Other fun weapons to experiment with are the shotguns, the double barrel, the Bolt Pistol, the mark 2 Heavy Laspistol, and the Shredder Autopistol (moreso for generating toughness via Inspiring Barrage than actually killing things honestly). I recommend just trying specific weapons out and seeing how you feel with them since you aren't going to be using your guns very often during a match.

For curios, everyone I know does something different here. For non-Martyrdom builds, I typically run 1 of each of the non-wound curios, but I also see people run 2 toughness curios and 1 stamina curio. I would always make sure to have 1 stamina curio and 1 toughness curio. On Martyrdom builds, take 2 wound curios and 1 stamina or 1 toughness curio.

 

[latinlover]

Banger DLC, honestly. I was a bit butthurt too when it turned out not to be skitarii or whatever and I do think the reception for the DLC would have been ten times as favorable (and would make more sense thematically, call the police in to tardwrangle all the crackheads on the loose) if Hive Scum dropped before Arbites.

I really enjoy the new weapons. The crowbar is probably my least favorite, it's strong and can abuse some blessings/talents really hard, I just find the mode switching to be too clunky. The class is strong if piloted correctly but you need to have the fundamentals down to survive, you can't just ignore half the mechanics the game throws at you like you can with Arbites.

Bonus points to fatshart for making the Deluxe Edition Cosmetics look like absolute ass, saved me a few bucks.

 

[ChampFantana]

Since you aren't super focused on guns when playing Zealot, you have a lot of options here. Most people run the Flamer or the Bolter nowadays because they are very effective, but I don't find them super interesting to play with.

I'm not very far along progress wise with my Zealot.

I've been running the Shredder Autopistol and the Eviscerator ever since unlocking it.

My basic technique is to empty the gun at an oncoming horde, switch to the chainsword and charge.

I use the Immo grenades just because the fuse is much shorter than the stun grenades.

I'll probably stick with just pistols for this Class simply because it fits my aesthetic preferences and I'm not familiar enough with the different auto guns to make the best use of them.

I'm looking forward to unlocking the Relic Blade and giving that a go.

 

[Blazing Piety]

I'm looking forward to unlocking the Relic Blade and giving that a go.

It's probably the most fun weapon that they've added in recent memory in my opinion. If you struggle with the mark 2, the other mark has an easier moveset to get down, but I highly recommend taking the time to learn 2's moveset.

Sticking with pistols is perfectly fine. I find that you can make any combination of melee and gun work on Zealot provided that your build is strong enough, moreso than the other classes.

 

[Asian tech support]

I tried downloading mods but they won't work? Like the game won't boot up, so I just have them off :/

The mod loader was broken but it got updated late last night (my time at least). Something besides crosshair hud still causes a ctd on entering a game.

Thy Wrath be Swift: Even though the node doesn't say it, the stun immunity also applies to gunfire (at least it used to, I haven't kept up with talent changes but last I checked this was still the case).

I think this got patched. Was kind of a deal breaker for me.

Shroudfield is numerically strong and useful for boss killing builds but I find it to be extremely overrated, and stealth can easily fuck your team over if you aren't careful.

Shroudfield actually got gutted hard. Well, not shroudfield itself but its enablers. A huge portion of why it was good was that invocation of death and pious cut throat kept the toughness damage reduction after leaving stealth at like 95% uptime. Because of how retarded cooldown reduction works in this game, exiting stealth with a backstab kill instantly took the cooldown to 18 seconds (with cdr on curios) and all that was left was to get a few crits in the window to achieve that uptime. Now, you have to take the new perfectionist as a tax.
Both of zealot's offensive abilities are kind of more about the associated buff (attack speed from fury and tdr from shroudfield) and their immediate effect is largely identical: eliminate that there nigger right now. Because those buffs are more difficult to achieve high uptime on than they were before, this is where the perception that zealot is now "weak" comes from. While that's not entirely true, the class is weaker than before even though it's more rounded. I think it more than any of the other trees needs some work.

Fantastic post. Excellent breakdown of the current state of the class.

The crowbar is probably my least favorite, it's strong and can abuse some blessings/talents really hard, I just find the mode switching to be too clunky.

I like the crowbar BUT a QoL change that's desperately needed is the ability to change stances mid chain.

 

[Asian tech support]

ALRIGHT double posting because I'm frustrated with all the kneepads and anti-fun safety measures this class comes with. Let's talk about the interaction between stimms, stimm supply, sample collector, and chemical dependency. Here's how everything works:

• stimms by default have a 15 second duration. this can be increased by the long lasting node to 20 seconds.
• the weakest stimm (one node invested in the lab) has a cooldown of 15 seconds. a fully invested in stimm has a cooldown of 75 seconds.
• the stimm cooldown does not tick while the stimm is in effect. the lowest a full stimm cycle can be by default is 30 seconds and the longest is 90 seconds (or 95 seconds if long lasting is taken. stimm cooldown is obviously not affected by ability cooldown.
• stimm supply has a default cooldown of 60 seconds.
• the stimm supply cooldown does NOT tick until the player is no longer affected by the buff and the crate itself is gone. the default buff is 20 seconds. this is NOT affected by long lasting, meaning the FULL time in between supply uses in 80 seconds by default.
• fast acting stimms has no effect on when the cooldown for stimm supply begins.
• practiced deployment does exactly what it says: the stimm coming off of cooldown restores the cooldown of stimm supply.
• using stimm supply puts the stimm on cooldown if it's off cooldown.
• the cooldown reduction effect of the stimm, if taken, only goes into effect IF the ability is on cooldown and not in its neutral state. in other words, the entire duration of the cooldown reduction effect from the stimm, if taken, and deployed with stimm supply, has absolutely no effect on the cooldown of the ability itself.
• three stacks of chemical dependency gives 30% cdr. taking maxed out chems boosts that to 40% at the expense of the stacks only lasting 60 seconds, down from 90. this brings the cooldown to 42 or 36 seconds depending on the number of max stacks.
• sample collector grants 1% stimm cooldown per kill and 2% if the enemy was affected by chem toxin. this is a mandatory node for any build that plans on using stimms as it's what holds stimms together with some semblance of uptime

So can you see how anti-synergistic this is? Just to make the playstyle work at all requires a ludicrous amount of babysitting. Getting chemical dependency off the ground requires at least three stimms, more like 4, and God forbid you accidentally used stimm supply when the stimm was off cooldown because WHOOPS you don't get a stack if it's used that way. This is what has to happen to get the maximum efficiency out of that playstyle:

• use stimm
• use stimm supply
• kill a bunch of things to get the stimm off of cd
• use the stimm again, you must use it before using supply or it goes on cooldown
• use supply but be careful not to stack it with your stimm or else that's not effcient
• use stimm again and now we're at three stacks of chemical dependency so the cdr on supply is rolling so don't fuck up now

MAN fuck this and people thought grenade vet was a high maintenance playstyle. The stimm box is actually shit, every stimm effect that's not damage is bad, the rending from the stimm isn't on par with a red stimm, chemical dependency works better with non stimm crate abilities....
These cooldown lockouts and all the strings attached to the stimm and how stimm supply works kind of kills a lot of the fun I thought we'd be having.
The stimm needs a big ol cooldown timer like an ability and the buff from supply needs a timer too. I get that those mods probably already exist but this shouldn't be this much of a problem.

Fatshark you fucking niggers.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

Is the game still shit? I wanted to play as I was a fan of the Vermintides (for a while at least) but every time I checked in on the game some dumb shit was happening and turned me off.

 

[Asian tech support]

I completely forgot to include my conclusion I was so upset.
IN CONCLUSION it's not possible to stimm>drop supply>stimm>drop supply without a stupid amount of downtime no matter how well you optimize your usage due to the cooldown lockout timers, how practiced deployment works, and the fact that supply eats the stim if it's available. This completely invalidates the cooldown reduction portion of the stimm, in fact, because EVERY ABILITY has cooldown lockout and they all either last longer than 15 seconds or can easily be extended past 15 seconds, COOLDOWN REDUCTION ON THE STIMM IS ABSOLUTELY USELESS UNLESS YOU PLAN ON USING IT TO DO ONLY CDR and even then because it's only 15 or 20 seconds of +50% cdr it's still not that good. No I was never planning on popping the stim and using my ability, I would never do that. THANK YOU FATSHART for going so far out of your way to make the crackhead class almost impossible to abuse in a game where my arbiter can floor a line of armor on a 6 second cooldown and toss shock mines that turns off infinite enemies, that's working as intended THANK YOU for ensuring my London simulator is free of knoives and crack.

Is the game still shit? I wanted to play as I was a fan of the Vermintides (for a while at least) but every time I checked in on the game some dumb shit was happening and turned me off.

It's really fun. Disregard any of the above outbursts. Not to be short or anything but this question has been answered a half dozen times over in previous pages. Unless your issue was specifically with the monetization or stability, then it's better than it was in every metric.

correction: the crate using the stimm if its available is intended behavior. i'm the retard for not thinking for more than half a second about what the ability is supposed to be doing. there is no efficient play, it's simply try and patch the stimm cd including what you get back with sample collector to the cooldown of the crate. much less interesting with none of the potential.

 

[latinlover]

COOLDOWN REDUCTION ON THE STIMM IS ABSOLUTELY USELESS UNLESS YOU PLAN ON USING IT TO DO ONLY CDR

I mean it's fine if you're running Desperado. Just faucimaxx with the CDR+ CDR on melee kill line whenever Desperados ability is on CD, it does help you get it back significantly sooner. I do agree that it's like the only possible use case for the CDR stimm.

Also yeah, fuck the right keystone side of the tree. Way too much hassle and cd micromanagement to make it work, just pop ability, hold down lmb and go brrrr is way more fun on the left.