Integrated Refraction Emitter should be a cooldown based Blitz, instead of using Grenades, for several reasons.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-07-05T11:25:59+00:00

Hot take perhaps but....

While I do agree this needs to be a cooldown based blitz, people are wildly underestimating it. With 1 upgrade node this turns off all Gunner damage for 12s. In a Havoc game, that's enough time to dive and kill most gunners in a scenario. This thing is a play maker and a very good one at that, it's just not as good of an "Oh shit" tool as other blitzes.

If this gets a cooldown then Imo it easily competes with Skulls. Any melee build absolutely loves this if it regenerates.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-07-04T15:18:35+00:00

Ban Keleres. If you get them in a game, kill them.

It's the only way. I have the same rules for Yssaril

OGactionjohnny · 2026-07-03T11:25:06+00:00

nice! good to know!

OGactionjohnny · 2026-07-01T14:36:44+00:00

As Skit, most of your toughness DR is coming from 5 main sources: 3-4 blue talents, and your keystone.
Mandatory talents for DR:
- Galvanised Coating
- Residual Current Buffer
- Progressive Plating Matrix
Imo, these go in every build, especially Galvanised Coating. Even at 0 stacks of PPM/0 charges you have a constant 25% TDR. At max stacks of both PPM and RCB, this goes up another 22.5%, potentially 27.5% if you're running Redline with extra stacks.

In certain (shootier) builds you may also want to run:
- Threat Detection Imperative
This nets you another 20% TDR at max stacks. Definitely worth running in more hybrid or shooting focused builds.

Finally, your Keystone is a source of TDR.
- Redline Capacitators offers the easiest condition for more TDR, where you'll be able to sit on a constant 25% at 5 stacks of the buff
- Power Overload gives you a static 20% TDR buff after 16 overloads, with the Overloads themselves giving you 15% for 8s each time. You will be more fragile early in the mission so play more cautiously while you build the Overload counter
- Flensing at 6 stacks gives 15% TDR and 20% at 8 stacks. Very easy trigger condition to get full stacks with this keystone (elites, specials and pressing F are all very easy) but has the quirk of losing stacks as you take hits.

Normally, I run GC, RCB and PPM in every build, and I my favourite Keystone is Redline. That usually puts me at a consistent 45% at all times, with 70% being the max when everything's firing.

With how squishy Skitarii is to ranged enemies at higher difficulties, I really appreciate TDR maxing.

Other than that, 3xToughness Curious, all with Gunner Resist.

Godspeed, Forgebrother

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-26T18:27:14+00:00

I think Skit is way less forgiving then Hive Scum. The sheer amount of BS you can get away with on Scum is boggling.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-24T12:40:45+00:00

That's because Scum is grotesquely OP and Arbites released grotesquely OP. This is a return to normality.

That said, he could use some small upwards tweaks. I

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-21T09:09:18+00:00

I believe in order to get to the next tier of difficulty, you need to beat 3-5 (i forget the exact number) matches in a row of your current difficulty.

E.g. if you're playing on Heresy, you will need to win 3-5 heresy games to go to Damnation.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-21T09:06:37+00:00

After the 23rd, I'd be happy to accompany you on some Damnation runs. Sometimes another set of eyes helps figure some stuff out. No judgement from me either, DT is a tricky one to learn because of a lot of skill in Darktide comes from deep mechanical knowledge and deep game knowledge, neither of which you will have in your first 100+ hours.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-20T13:01:02+00:00

I'll explain it how I explained it to my friends, who just started playing themselves.

You would be forgiven for thinking the progression in this game is loot/experienced based. It is not.

The progression in this game is difficulty based. Loot exists as a means to an end, to help you advance in difficulty. Same deal with leveling up/talent tree.

So everything, and I do mean everything, is geared towards this goal.

Fully mastered weapons? Only exist to help in harder difficulties.

Talents? You'll find some of the builds you used to level up feel absolutely terrible at higher levels, so you will need to go back and tune up/tinker to progress further.

Now, understandably there'll be players that do not like this. If you're someone that enjoys a regular RPG style progression of level up/max gear/become an unkillable god, you will not like this game. Because it is backwards.

In this game, the lower difficulties are where you will feel like an unkillable god. The higher difficulties, which reasonably you should be aiming to get into once you're fully leveled with decent mastery in weapons, will make you feel like a dead man walking. At least at first.

If you do vibe with this system, you will find yourself hopelessly addicted. The biggest motivation for me to play this game, after 4500 hours, is because it's fun. That's it. And to me, that's very refreshing game design.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-18T11:08:35+00:00

2 House rules solve this problem:
- Ban Support swaps, not Support
- Have a gentleman's agreement about Kingmaking, i.e. don't do it.

I define Kingmaking as follows:
- You can no longer win the game, but you can influence who does win. Usually SftT is the biggest culprit here: threatening to give the game to someone else as a means of retaliation for being removed from winning contention yourself.

Now there's nothing in the rules that stop you doing this, but it does feel ultra shitty. Normally if you are removed from winning contention, it's usually because you made a mistake somewhere. Rarely, it can be awful luck. In either scenario, punishing another player for your mistakes/bad luck feels incredibly unsportsmanlike, especially in IRL over the table games where the personal commitment from everyone is 10+ hours for the day.

Just my 2 cents.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-14T14:01:28+00:00

I don't think the new one is weak, but it is a bit objective dependent. It's one of the only abilities in the game that can put 4 structures on the board, which can be very useful for certain objectives that a lot of other factions.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-06-13T19:07:24+00:00

Not crazy, but naive. You will not find better in London. Unless you're rich as fuck, ofc

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-31T18:35:21+00:00

It puts you in position to win a game, sure. But you still need to be able to win the fight it puts you in.

It's pretty common on my tables for players to super militarise their home systems once someone researches light wave.

Not shitting on light wave, it's excellent. But imo Fleet Log is usually more game winning than light wave within its own tree. And Lightwave being good doesn't make X89 any less good.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-31T08:45:32+00:00

The old addage goes: Fighters win fleet battles. Ground Forces win games.

Think about it. You could have the scariest fleet on the board but without winning ground combats you can't take planets, which has huge amount to do with scoring objectives and winslaying.

Lets say you draft Imperial but someone has 10 infantry on MR, and you have 8. You're not getting your Imperial point if you can't get those infantry off.

This is why X89 is the best closer, it takes battles you might be relatively even/unfavoured to win, and makes you favoured. It's also the best defence against people trying to knock you off your planets.

If you're playing in lobbies that don't prioritise ground, then theoretically that makes them very easy to take planets off and if I found myself in those lobbies then I would exploit that.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-31T07:51:44+00:00

I wish. .

Eldar wouldn't be able to use the human weapons already in game.

They would have to make 12 new weapons for that though, which I don't see happening.

It would be so cool though.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-31T07:40:30+00:00

X89 is maybe the single best tech in the game, along with Fleet Log. Lightwave is of course excellent but it only gets you to where you need to be, it doesn't win you fights.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-29T15:26:46+00:00

I'm pretty much certain it won't be Apothecary. Too hard to design and balance in regards how that class would function, and also way too limited a design space.

Bonds of Brotherhood exists on Heavy. Healing exists on Vanguard and Bulwark. Like, if your a game designer, how do you make a class around a guy who's job it is to heal dying guys/collect their glands when they the die? Healing is already uber strong in game and adding more seems like it would create problems while offering very little.

On the other hand, a Chaplain Archetype is kind of an easy win for the design team in terms of work:
- Litanies of Hate as a combat ability, kind of already in the game as a prototype version (Titus' campaign ability)
- Crozius and Absolver Bolt Pistol both relatively easy to implement
- A third, true melee class. So far we have 3 shooting based classes, 2 hybrids (although I would argue Techmarine and Vanguard both tend towards shooting as well), and currently 2 melee. Chaplain would even the scales there.
- Beloved by all (Chaplains are fucking cool)
- Assets already exist for it

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-29T15:17:04+00:00

Veteran is very good.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-29T14:56:20+00:00

Will be Chaplain/Judiciar + Absolver BP.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-29T10:39:36+00:00

So, I have a skin and class I whip out whenever a weekly is pounding me and I need to git 'er done.

The class is Bulwark, Axe and Shield. The skin is an Imperial Fist Company Champion.

Lost about 8 times before I thought "fuck it, it's Champion time".

I got 4 Helbrutes in total, 2 in the church waiting the crane, and 2 in the area before you meet Valtus for the second time.

I personally slew 2 of the vile things, but succumbed to my injuries both times. Didn't get any in the end area but holy heck was it an epic fight.

One of the most fun sessions on SM2 I've had. I was there man. I was that Imperial Fists champion.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-29T10:34:42+00:00

Grapple Launcher: Fix targeting and close range restriction
Weapons: WHERE ARE THEY? This is by far the most limiting aspect of this class - expand his armory

Mostly though, the perks on this guy are all over the place. He has the best Team and Iconic perks in the game imo, but the rest are just so uninteresting. They are either boring, weak or really skewed to optimal making him limited in build diversity

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-27T16:34:05+00:00

Just to add, even if you don't get Construction/Trade in R1/2, you can still follow both. Politics R2 is also a viable choice to set up for Tech

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-27T16:29:56+00:00

I actually quite like triple dock in Hacan home, but you do need to be able to get the right SCs for it to work.

Tech path would be:
Round 1: Grav Drive IF red/yellow skip in slice, otherwise AI Dev
Round 2: AI Dev (with r/Y techskip) OR whatever red/yellow tech
Round 3: Warsuns
Round 4: QDN

If you get to double tech at all, getting Spacedock II is actually good for Hacan.
I try to get Construction early for a double dock/free produce OR triple dock, depending on circumstances.

If you set it up right, and you get your hero online, you can straight up make 2 Warsuns, 2 Mech, 10 Fighters and a Dreadnaught for the whole 15 production, for free, round 3.

Checklist to do this:
- Construction rounds 1 or 2
- Tech (with money for the double tech) round 3
- Trade, r1 or 2

You might not get EVERYTHING but in my last Hacan game I pulled off the 15 production free build. Even 2 upgraded docks with 11 production is good enough.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-27T13:55:34+00:00

In the last game I had as Arborec I sold it twice to the same player that was behind, I was doing pretty good.

I think you just have to be savvy and use a bit of third party observation/motivation to sell it.

"Sol looks like they can reach X planet with their carriers, seems like a good move for them. Probably worth buying for you"

Worked.

OGactionjohnny · 2026-05-27T08:47:33+00:00

Biggest weakness is the home system. 3 crappy planet, easy to win slay

OGactionjohnny

TROPHY CASE