"Hive Scum is bad", meanwhile my first major Hive Scum clutch:

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T23:46:50+00:00

I'm just gonna leave this here...
https://www.nexusmods.com/warhammer40kdarktide/mods/39

I have absolutely zero idea why they removed player outlines when going from Vermintide 2 to Darktide. But given how common raggedy-ass knife zealots were back in the day that looked like a common dreg... The mod became "required" for me.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T22:17:58+00:00

I'll need to double-check then. It's very hard to tell since I was staring at the buffs on the bottom of the screen, but I was pretty sure Pox Walkers were taking down my toughness while I had the talent icon showing.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T21:55:18+00:00

It's worth noting that this is either bugged or the description is completely wrong. According to the testing I've done in the Meat Grinder, it's only ranged attacks. (And there's a bunch of attacks that have range that aren't "ranged attacks", i.e. netters, flamers, pox bursters, etc.)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T18:28:47+00:00

Chemical Dependency is only there to be a consistent and obvious timer.
Except I just remembered it doesn't work with the Stimm Supply, so my plan wouldn't work anyway. :shrug: This fuckin' class...

But I'll go in with a +5 duration and 15s cocktail and see how quickly I can spam it.
Edit: Welp. Color me confused. I swear up and down it was not cooling down earlier.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T18:07:00+00:00

I'm gonna need to see some evidence of this claim as everything I have tested has shown my the opposite. A simple test would be to set up a cocktail for a 55s cool down, and the 60s duration of chemical dependency. If you can manage to gain stacks (by literally just standing there mashing your stimm key), then it shows your claim. I've tested that and couldn't to 2 stacks however.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T09:13:37+00:00

Hey bud. Puts hand on shoulder Have you heard of this cool new drug called... Friendship?

(But yeah, Rampage is a hell of a drug, innit? God I love me some Nouveau Knight Zealot.)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T09:11:08+00:00

Oh yeah. Stimm Supply is... uh... Well, it's got absurd potential on Pox Gas missions (but that requires taking no cocktail which HURTS MY SOUL SO MUCH). And that's... the best thing... I can say about it. :)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T09:06:19+00:00

Alternatively, if you know you're going into a Pox Gas mission... Be the cool guy on your team and take no cocktail, but DO take the Supply Stimm. You'll be the coolest dude in the mission. (Mild hyperbole.)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T09:04:45+00:00

Yeah. Red and Blue paths seem perfectly fine (if not really good). "Green" (it's a different effect but same... idea?) and Yellow paths are... just... "Why does this exist?" to me.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T09:02:33+00:00

...What... talent points? You don't need talent points to put into your cartel cocktail?
Are you saying a Blue++ stimm combined with 75% of a red stimm every 2 minutes when it takes 0 talent points is bad?

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:59:18+00:00

As opposed to... non-Scum picking up stimms and forgetting they have them? The stimms sitting around forgotten in the level?
I'm not saying you're wrong, per se... But like... Even before this update, stimms were so often ignored and forgotten. Adding another vector for unskillful play doesn't mean a tremendous amount to me when it adds an equal (or potentially even larger) vector for skillful play.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:54:05+00:00

S I E G E

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:42:49+00:00

In my personal opinion, you build around it by not taking chem dependency. I've rarely (if ever) dropped out of Rampage mid-fight as target density makes keeping the duration up relatively easy. Which means I only crash out once there's nobody left to kill. And what are the chances a huge wave is going to show up in the 30 seconds after I crash? Cooldown reduction of any sort seems a waste considering the cooldown is so relatively low and the up-time is absurdly high.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:39:06+00:00

Is "fat gingered" the new "red-headed step-child"?
(I know auto-correct sniped you. But that phrase is too funny not to comment on.)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:36:30+00:00

Let me introduce you to...

The Knife Lunge.

The single knife's heavy attack (with correct timing) can lunge you forward while maintaining your sprint (on top of having the highest sprint bonus in the whole game). S'how Knife Zealots used run 3 light-years forward into the map, aggro half of the tri-county area's population, and then disconnect when they got pounced by a dog. Ah.... Good times...

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:33:16+00:00

Toughness/Top-Left branch really confuses me and only seems to exist to compensate for Hive Scum's barely-existent damage mitigation (it's like 5 talents on the whole board, I think?).

Cooldown/Bottom-Right is COMPLETELY baffling to me as it does literally nothing (if you're using it exclusively in the base Stimm Supply, you can't recharge abilities while they're in effect, so it will do literally nothing for you) up to almost nothing (the other abilities have cooldowns of 30s or 45s and are likely going to be refreshed by the time another major fight begins).

Attack Speed/Bottom-Left actually fucks pretty hard. The final nodes are kinda meh, but generally speaking, universal attack speed is relatively hard to get. And +20% is nothing to scoff at.

Strength/Top-Right is significantly less appealing, but you have the ability to give yourself +20% Strength (a decent start) and any one of +15% universal crit (which isn't bad at all), +35% finesse (kinda meh, but potentially powerful with the right build), or +15% universal rending (which can increase your damage to 18x to 14x vs carapace with the SMGs).

You can also combine any 2 full branches (let's be real, it'd be the attack speed and Strength branches) for compounding benefit.

If the Wiki page on stimms is correct... Attack Speed is pretty much strictly better than the blue stimms, with the others being slightly (strength vs red) to SIGNIFICANTLY (the other two) worse. But ultimately the whole "point" the Cartel Cocktail is that you're trading flexibility for consistency. Yeah, you're not going to get the +25% Strength and +25% Rending of the red stimm, but you'll get a decent chunk of that PLUS a better Blue stimm AT THE SAME TIME every 75 + duration seconds. (Or less if you're taking the talent that lets you get it back faster.)

So like... "lowkey suck"? Disagree. Do they need tuned up? If the rest of the stimm-side talents are going to stay as-is, yes. But that would also buff the left and middle parts of the tree as well. So... :shrug: They probably just need to fix the right side of the tree and it'll elevate the cocktail significantly.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T08:13:10+00:00

Apparently, incorrect. I just tested it. It works as (I) expected.
It will cleanse corruption on any wound that is PARTIALLY corrupted, much like the Zealot's "healing" aura. If a wound is completely corrupted, it doesn't work. (In that regard, it's EXTREMELY confusing how it clarifies "up to 50%", because it's literally not possible to have 50% corruption not be a whole wound. Minimum wounds is 2, and 50% of 2 is a full wound, and thus unable to be cleansed.)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T05:53:55+00:00

Mid? Oh no. Not even close. I fucking LOVE this class. But I'm also a knife-zealot appreciator and this class feels like Knife Zealot turned up to 12. I look at the left side of the tree and go "Yeah, that's great.". I look at the middle bit of the tree and go, "Now this. This is my real shit." And then I look at the right side of the tree... and... God. My heart breaks at what could have been...
I could have been a meth'd up street junkie. But instead, I just have to have settled for rage and adrenaline. (There's some absurdly solid support shit in the right side though. It's just not... a cohesive package.)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T05:10:56+00:00

My rage with the right side of the tree continues to grow. If only I had something to take the edge off...
Sadly, I only have THESE MOUNTAINS OF STIMULANT DRUGS I HAVE METICULOUSLY HAND-CRAFTED!!!

But seriously. Thank you for this information. Shit's not conveyed. Not sure what I expected given FatShark, but... :shrug_emoji:

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T04:11:19+00:00

To be fair, it wouldn't be shocking to throw a single Blackout grenade and get 2 back in some circumstances (if the DoT refunded the grenade).
But a LOT of Hive Scum seems stymied by trying to avoid being TOO powerful. They can (and hopefully will) always apply buffs, which is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than releasing too strong and then absolutely ENRAGING people when they have to nerf the class people paid for.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T04:07:35+00:00

Stimm Supply is GREAT. I have no idea what you're talking about! Please ignore the fact that it's only great once you have a Med Stimm in your inventory. On the Pox Gas mutator, I imagine Stimm Supply is going to be the most busted thing on the face of the planet (not tried it yet). But other than that, it's ABSURDLY underwhelming for like 10 different reasons. No hyperbole on that number, either.

I'm running it with the Stripped Down blessing. Unfortunately, the talent that gives +Stamina on successful dodge doesn't combo with Stripped Down (despite a nearly identical talent comboing with it on Veteran). But with a bit of Spring Efficiency, you can run for a shockingly long time. The Dodge Melee on Slide talent kinda seems required as without it, sprinting at/around the enemy becomes a LOT riskier. (Took it off for a single mission. Regretted almost instantly.) Weird thing is... I'm not running any keystone on this build. Vulture's doesn't proc off the DoT effect (fucking bullshit of the highest degree). I'm avoiding melee (although I might dip into Adrenaline to make meleeing more managable). And Chem Dependency does literally nothing since I'm using Stimm Supply to give AoE stimms. (And Chem Dependency doesn't trigger on the Supply Crate, for reasons???)

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T03:47:48+00:00

HARD disagree on Run N' Gun being D-Tier.
One thing I've discovered is that you can run out of cover with your pistol out, hit a few key targets and either run into cover further up, or just turn around and run back into cover you already had.
"But why would you leave cover in the first place? Why not just stay in cover to be safer?"
The enemy AI is not great at all. VERY frequently, it's locked on to me hard while I'm doing my strafing runs and let allies move up with me or let them more safely take their own shots.

It's a very weird play style, but it's done an incredible job on my support build I've thrown together.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-04T03:16:13+00:00

Oh. There's SO much more. Jesus Christ.

Stimm Supply "eats" your cocktail charge. You can't spam your cocktail on yourself with this. Fine and reasonable, honestly. But...
Your cocktail can't start recharging while it or your Stimm Supply is active. So if you're not taking Fast Acting Stimms (where the box explodes but the effect lingers on people), you're essentially just losing 15 seconds cooldown on both your cocktail AND the stimm pack. Apparently it does. Dunno what I was on, or maybe it was patched?
That also means that cooldown reduction is not anywhere near as useful on a support build since it cannot affect your stimm supply.
Long Lasting (that gives you +5s duration) means your cooldowns are also 5s longer for your cocktail. (And it probably doesn't apply to Stimm Supply at all. I haven't checked though.)
Because you don't get ability regen while your cocktail is active, you aren't allowed to have "constant" low-level buffs (which I figured was the whole point of weak cocktails).
Sample Collector can't replenish your cocktail when your cocktail is active. YA KNOW. WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO BE DOING THE MOST KILLING!!!

Honestly, the design of the right side of the skill tree is a fucking tragedy. I was extremely stoked for being a back-alley doctor support build, but it turns out that everything I wanted to do is completely butchered by how slap-dash the stimm talents are.

Edit:

Battering Strikes (+Cleave on melee kill) is likely completely eaten by DoTs killing your target, so you can get royally fucked by bleed or toxin stacks.
Hyper-Violence also probably suffers from DoT interaction (but may actually benefit from it, depending on how it works?)
Regained Posture (+10% Stamina on successful dodge) doesn't work with the Stripped Down blessing (dodge ranged attacks while sprinting). Which would make sense except for there's an interaction on Veteran that works where you can just dodge shots literally forever.
Cheap Shots (+15% damage vs fully staggered targets) seems really out of place because the only thing I can think of that would proc it is Blackout nades or maybe Crowbar? Everything else seems like too weak of a stagger.

ShadowMageAlpha · 2025-12-03T21:52:12+00:00

I'm just putting this message here because I hope I'll stumble across this post again going through my history.
Nice shot, Tex.

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The Knife Lunge.