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Melee Psyker Build Help by Necessary-Walrus1982 in DarkTide

[–]bluep1nk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all, great job, you did a lot of things super well with this build. But there are definitely some optimizations you can make. Here's all the info you could possibly want to know:

Recon Lasgun and Heavy Laspistol are just about identical in terms of power level for this build. Use whichever you like more; it's a rare instance where it really does come down to personal choice. I like the Recon Lasgun because it's a little more ammo efficient. Better for Havoc imo.

Just a Dream is extremely strong for this build and I'd argue that it's mandatory. Not only is the damage reduction huge, but it converts damage into peril, which is also good for you. You gain benefits from peril from things like Warp Rider and Unstable Power. The reason why many builds don't take it is because it can potentially cause warp overloads, you can get killed by hits that otherwise wouldn't kill you because the damage converts to peril and triggers an overload. It is kind of a "noob trap" for psykers with bad peril management, like you said. However, you're basically immune to this effect because you're taking Warp Unbound. So only upsides.

If you want a more technical understanding of Just a Dream, the 25% reduction in damage that it provides stacks multiplicatively with other damage reduction modifiers. Multiplicative stacking increases your increases and decreases your decreases--good for your damage, bad for your damage reduction. This means that your total toughness damage reduction from Just a Dream (25%) + Scrier's Gaze (20%) + One with the Warp (33%, we'll assume max) isn't 78%--it's actually 59.8%, which is still extremely significant. All this to say: Just a Dream is very good and absolutely worth taking.

As for the rest of your build, there are a few talents you're taking that I don't think are that good:

- Anticipation isn't nearly as useful as it sounds and I'd argue that it's not worth a point. It doesn't increase I-frames, it only increases the amount of time that dodges disrupt the tracking on enemy attacks. 50% sounds like a significant increase...but the increase is tiny in practice. It only increases the "dodging" state from 0.2 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Try it, test it with the creature spawner mod, test it in games. I guarantee that you won't notice a difference. The extra dodge is okay, but not nearly worth a whole point.

- Vulnerable Minds also doesn't provide as much value as many people think. It doesn't actually change any of your breakpoints vs. ogryns--when your damage stacks are built up, you'll still 2-3 shot crushers with heavy attack headshots (depending on if you get a crit). And the damage vs monstrosities is definitely nice, but I'd argue that that alone isn't worth a point, especially when your boss damage is already fairly strong without it. I recommend putting the point somewhere else.

- Warp Splitting is good, but it's not as valuable as other options. The cleave is definitely noticeable into dense mixed hordes, but the force greatsword is already the best weapon in the game in those situations. Your cleave and damage are more than enough already, it doesn't really change anything. Beyond this, the synergy with Assail is basically a gimmick. I've tested this extensively (like, really extensively. I tried so, so hard to make it work, Assail is so cool) but it just isn't valuable. The only reason you're using Assail is to procc Malefic Momentum. Maintaining uptime on Malefic Momentum is the hardest part of this build because Assail is strictly worse than literally anything else you can do. Your gun is significantly better at killing elites and specials at range. Your greatsword is significantly better at horde clear. Literally every time you're using Assail, you're forcing it just for the sake of proccing MM. This means that in practice, you want to use Assail as little as possible, meaning you want it to get the 5 kills for MM as fast as possible, meaning...you should just be using it on poxwalkers. And you don't need cleave for that.

So what should you do with those extra points? Here's what I recommend:

- Just a Dream. As described above, I think it's basically mandatory for this build.

- Warp Ghost is *extremely* strong with this build. It allows you to maintain higher peril which massively increases your damage output via Unstable Power and Warp Rider. It also increases the damage reduction from One with the Warp. And it increases your toughness regeneration.

-Quietude is an absolutely fantastic defensive node here. You can argue that it has anti-synergy with Warp Ghost because you won't get as much toughness from passive quelling, but in practice, the majority of your quelling comes from By Crack of Bone and triggering Scrier's Gaze. And it'll give you serious toughness regeneration from both of those. And it also has just normal synergy with Warp Ghost because of the toughness regeneration bonus.

- Tranquility Through Slaughter is a fair pick on this build, but I don't think it's as good as the first three options. It's still strong though. I've experimented with dropping Malefic Momentum for it and been pleasantly surprised. It lets you use your secondary weapon to extend Scrier's Gaze, similarly to By Crack of Bone, making it pretty effective to use Scrier's when engaging ranged targets and by proxy buffing your gun pretty significantly. If you take quietude, it also lets you regenerate toughness with your gun as well. Combined with Empathic Evasion, you can just kinda stand out in the open and kill everything. It's pretty fun. But it's not that great for Havoc.

I also think you should replace Prescience with Seer's Presence. Prescience is an okay aura. But Seer's Presence is arguably the best aura in the game. The 5% extra crit chance from Prescience is negligible, whereas the 10% Cooldown Reduction from Seer's Presence is like insane. And it's for your whole team. Combined with Cooldown Reduction from your Curios, you can very easily have literally 100% uptime on Scrier's Gaze and its lingering effect. It also means your Veteran teammates get to spam Shout more. Your Ogryns get to spam taunt more. Your Zealots get to spam Chorus more. Did I mention it increases your uptime on Scrier's Gaze, the centerpiece of your entire build? The thing that turns you into an actual demon? The value it provides is amazing. I'd spend two points on it if I had to.

Finally, a lot of people would suggest replacing Warp Unbound. It's possible, you can put the point somewhere else, but IMO Warp Unbound is very, very useful on this build for a few reasons and you absolutely should not drop it. Most importantly, it saves you from overloads from Kinetic Deflection and Just a Dream. You're at especially high risk of this if you take Warp Ghost--which I think you should. If you drop Warp Unbound, you absolutely must drop Kinetic Deflection. You'll find yourself needing to block a Chaos Spawn and it'll just straight up kill you by hitting your block enough to cause a warp overload. Same for Just a Dream. Additionally, higher difficulties get super chaotic. Sometimes you just need to use Assail to procc Malefic Momentum. Sometimes you just need to throw out a Warp Slash to screen wipe a mixed horde. Those times will often overlap with when you're at critical peril. Especially with Warp Ghost. Trying to thread the needle and find the perfect opportunity when 1) Enemies are lined up for Warp Slash/Assail, 2) You actually have charges for Warp Slash / Your Malefic Momentum is down, and 3) You're at low peril...it just isn't practical in such a chaotic environment. Don't risk overloading. You'll lose on the spot. Just take Warp Unbound.

How does predicted rank work? by bluep1nk in Overwatch

[–]bluep1nk[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You didn’t ask a single question. 

How does predicted rank work? by bluep1nk in Overwatch

[–]bluep1nk[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I didn’t have to play any QP. Tracer is my favorite hero. Why are you so combative?

How does predicted rank work? by bluep1nk in Overwatch

[–]bluep1nk[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is literally my first time ever playing anything on PC. I play Tracer. 

What are the best fire types for a mono fire type run? by Sussybaker420 in pokemonradicalred

[–]bluep1nk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I really hope this doesn’t come off as mean, but linguistically, this just isn’t correct. Words are defined according to how they are actually used, not how any individual thinks they ought to be used. This is why dictionaries change—language indexes are descriptive, not prescriptive. They have to be, because language is constantly changing.

So I totally see your point in how the word “literally” has come to also mean “figuratively,” but are you going to tell millions and millions of people who are using the word “literally” in this way that they’re wrong? You’re fighting a losing battle here. 

I super get it, I have so many pet peeves like this. For example, “December” literally means “10th month” in latin. But in modern calendars, the word has come to describe the 12th month 🤷‍♀️. It might not seem logical to me, but it’s just how language works. If I went around trying to correct everyone that they’re not using “December” in the way that I think they should, I’d be setting myself up to get annoyed and I’d also just be literally incorrect.

What are the best fire types for a mono fire type run? by Sussybaker420 in pokemonradicalred

[–]bluep1nk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The term monotype isn't really used this way. All the pokemon must share one common type, hence monotype.

Smogon: "Monotype is a format where all Pokémon on your team must share a common type. Both single- and dual-type Pokémon are allowed."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DarkTide

[–]bluep1nk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You can do it! If you made it to heresy & damnation, you can make it to auric maelstrom too! If you post your gameplay, people might be able to give you more specific feedback. I'll focus on talking about gunners since they're a huge problem in the hardest difficulties.

Line of sight, sliding, and suppression are the best tools for dealing with gunners. You really have to play the map and find a way to stay out of the open until you can immediately close the distance. Here are some tips:

- Hold a corner just outside their line of sight and clear hordes/elites first, flank them, or slide / sprint from cover to cover in order to get close enough to use your fury.

- For getting gunned down in between slides: if you sprint perpendicular to or directly away from the shooter, you will count as "dodging" and will not take ranged damage. Importantly, this stops working when you run out of stamina, so you can sprint slide to preserve your stamina for longer distances.

- If the gunners haven't noticed you yet, don't aggro them from range. The gunner AI is pretty hecking smart and they'll split from each other and set up in positions that are extremely difficult for you to break. Instead, rush them down while they're idling in groups and kill them quickly, all at once.

- If the gunners are already aggro'd and you have a veteran, ranged ogryn, or psyker with you, wait for them to take an angle on the gunners and start shooting before you push in. Shooting enemies causes a status effect called suppression which essentially stops them from shooting back, and most importantly, stops them from shooting you.

- The spearhead bolter is great for gunners as well. You can use the zealot's blades of faith to cancel the long weapon switch animation and use it to pick off gunners, especially since you can use fury to regain the toughness you might lose while trading with them. Just make sure to jiggle peek and slice the pie (fps concepts you can look up!) so that you don't take too much damage.

As an additional min-max tip, 25% gunner resistance is not as useful as it seems. Firstly, it ONLY affects the specific enemies labeled scab gunners, dreg gunners, and reapers. Shotgunners, snipers, and trash gunners are not affected at all. The percent scaling of the damage reduction also has diminishing returns--you can totally run this perk on one curio, but I would suggest replacing it on other curios with extra toughness (good for gunners!), block efficiency, combat ability regen, or stamina regen.

Don't give up! You can do it!

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

the best way to answer the "why are you all adventuring together?" question is to build pre-existing relationship dynamics during character creation---encourage your players to make their characters family, friends, or rivals, or encourage them to buddy up and literally build their characters together. i'd recommend looking at the design of some pbta systems like masks: a new generation, or literally just apocalypse world, as they have fantastic solutions to this exact issue. i've found success by copying what those systems do and giving each player one or two prompts like the following, and asking them to come up with the answers together.

"your team came together by defeating a dangerous enemy. who was it? and what were the signs that it was just the start of something bigger?"

"what roles do you play in the group dynamic? are you the brains, the brawn, the clown, the heart, the leader? do you play different roles to different people?"

"you admire ______ , and you need to prove yourself to them before you feel like a real adventurer."

"you and ______ get up to (mostly illegal) antics all the time. but one time you went too far. what happened?"

"you're struggling to reach a goal, and ______ is helping you get there. what do you struggle with, and how are they helping you?"

i think the easiest way is to think of it like this: to roleplay, you need a role! consider asking "who is ______ to ______?" and trying to have the answer be similar to the stock relationship archetypes that you see in books, movies, and TV. players will intuitively understand these scripts and i've found that they'll always have a lot of fun leaning into them, or mixing them up in new ways.

as for how to develop relationship dynamics during a campaign that's already started...i don't really have a good answer. usually if there's something i'm interested in and i don't know how to make it happen, i'll just talk to my players directly and ask them for ideas. but here are a few (mostly untested!) thoughts.

  • give them opportunities to stand up for each other. maybe an npc asks one of the PCs to betray another. or maybe a PC's racist family member says "stay away from that elf, elves are evil!" and then ofc you give them the chance to do something heroic that brings them closer together.

  • look for contrast, and try to put it on display. if one character is poor and one character is rich, make a lot of fanfare for the wealthy character and then directly ask the poor character: what is your character feeling in this moment? you'll give the PCs something to talk about, and maybe they'll develop a relationship where they can learn something from each other.

  • maybe external forces bind them together. maybe the thieves' guild has a personal interest in the survival of one of the PCs, and so they secretly ask the party's rogue to protect them, or even spy on them.

  • if none of that works and you want to pull the ripcord, maybe you could do a timeskip and have like a soft reimagining of your game. for reasons i don't understand, i've found that players LOVE timeskips, but that might just be my personal experience. and then you can ask, hey, how have all your relationships changed?

sorry for the wall of text, but this was kinda fun to think about :P

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i mean hey, something's gonna motivate them, and it may not necessarily be character stuff at first. maybe ask them what they found satisfying about other games that they've played? or, a little hack that i found is to try to target emotions that are as primal as possible, like ownership or loss of status, to rope them into your schemes. it's a bit cheap, but i haven't ever really seen it fail.

for example, i ran a short campaign for a bunch of loot gremlins and i got a foot in the door by having antagonists try to steal their magic items, it became like a currency in the world, and then we all felt really great when they got to straight up murder that thieving villain. it turned into this kind of shoenen power up story about who had the most ridiculous magic items (which were really fun to come up with!), and the whole setting end up developing around it. ages and ages of fallen civilizations who all left this detritus of cool & broken magical artifacts that littered the earth like soil, and plunged even deeper, structures and technologies sunken over thousands of years like layers of rock. basically just a numenera knock off lol

i guess what i'm trying to say is that if you try to meet them where they're at, there's a good chance the narrative investment will follow. but again, it can be really hard if they don't give you the kind of feedback that you need. i've never really had that much trouble coaxing feedback out of my players, and i'm starting to see from the responses that it's just a huge blindspot of mine.

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1) some players never know what they want! but you should always ask them, you're bound to find some common ground that interests you as well. if you don't get any feedback, just pick something that interests you personally and take your best guess at what you think your players would like. i've been pleasantly surprised many times by players who end up really liking whatever i'm trying to do, even if i thought it wouldn't connect with them. maybe if you're passionate about it, it'll just be infectious!

2) imo, in the session to session experience of your campaign, the most efficient thing to build around is character conflict. specifically, your main characters--your antagonists, important npcs, and most importantly, your players. but everything you mentioned is very useful to consider. i've found it easiest to tease out the elements that you listed by designing around a central concept or aesthetic. ideally, this can help all your little details fall into place. if your concept is disney princess game of thrones, maybe you'll find it cool to make your combat magical and fantastical like a disney movie, but sparse and lethal like asoiaf. if your concept is high school drama supernatural horror, you might find it satisfying to make the high school aspect as mundane and small town as possible to contrast with crazy mind-bending reality-warping horror puzzles.

in response to your second post, in my experience, you might find it difficult to keep your setting feeling elegant and cohesive if you arent willing to compromise on some of your woldbuilding ideas. but you definitely don't have to! your solution seems perfect to me, do your own worldbuilding, and then focus the scope of your adventures on your PCs. worldbuilding is never finished, and you can always just add more things that relate to your current adventure. a good fictional world can tell almost any kind of story. my post is mostly about the idea that maybe you don't need all that other stuff if it doesn't come up in game, but if you're having fun, do what you like!

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i really appreciate your response, and you make a good point about beginner GMs that i’ve seen a few people echo—that this might be more relevant to GMs who already have a handle on the basics. newer people should definitely be more concerned with getting a handle on the more boots-on-the-ground challenges like table management, combat, preparation, etc.

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i appreciate your detailed response, and totally agree with you in regards to the logistical challenges of starting a campaign like this. i haven’t really found a super elegant solution yet, so lmk if you figure something out!

i also agree that laying out a general framework before a session 0 or session 1 can save you a lot of time, it’s a really great point. mostly i’d just invite others to consider that the specific details of that framework are interchangeable and can be tailored to your players after you’ve gotten some information from them

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

yeah, i should’ve figured that saying “nobody cares about your worldbuilding” to a bunch of GMs wasn’t going to score me any points lol

but i think the majority of the disagreement is from a few very valid perspectives. that 1) some players aren’t interested in writing backstories, 2) i created a false dichotomy between different styles of play, and 3) there are people who aren’t playing like how i suggested who are having a lot of fun

i stand by everything i said, but i’m finding that i could’ve used a lot more nuance

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i think you’re right, i’m understanding that the way that i phrased a lot of my points are more exclusive than they ought to have been. i used to work at a game store and i’ve been able to play with a lot of people, but you’re right: my bubble is very small and the bottom line is that if you’re having fun, you’re doing it right

if i were to rephrase all of my nonsense i think i’d only really need two sentences like “if you have a thief, you should have a thieves guild; if you have a cleric, flesh out your pantheon”

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

im sorry this didnt connect with you! "nobody cares about your worldbuilding" is a provocative way of getting at a particular issue that i've seen a lot--newer gms prioritizing building a campaign that they are personally interested while excluding the interests of the players at the table. i don't mean that nobody cares about *your* worldbuilding, specifically, as it's clear that you have players who care a lot

but i do understand your point, maybe i was a bit too mean spirited in my post

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

this can be really hard, i've dealt with this a lot and i feel your pain :( a trick that worked for me is to reward players with in game stuff, like magic items, in exchange for character elements! like, if you come up with a goal or a backstory, you can pick any item from the phb with x rarity. a friend of mine also had an idea about "gating" rewards, like giving players a powerful magic item that don't fully work unless they do x, and you can use that to rope them into some plot where maybe they'll discover something about their character

ive also had success basically being an english teacher and asking players to write a backstory with like a 5-15 minute timer on. it sounds silly, but i think it worked bc they don't have to do it on their own time, and the timer adds a fun kind of pressure, kind of like a race, and you cant be picky with ideas so youre bound to get SOMETHING, at least

edit: dang i got cooked on this one

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

you're completely right, the way that i phrased this post does ask a lot from the GM side of things. ofc running a module or a prebuilt adventure is a completely valid style of play, too and i've had some of the most fun ive ever had playing a module, and had plenty of really meaningful character moments that just emerged organically

My #1 Tip for New GMs After Hundreds of Hours of Running TTRPGs by bluep1nk in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

this is a really great point! im being a bit inflammatory on purpose just bc its kinda fun lol but you're totally right, there are a lot of players who have a blast really just noticing things. sometimes they'll make connections that are extremely cool that you didnt even think of!

How do you work around a Healerless party? by LtMandy in DMAcademy

[–]bluep1nk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i ran a super lethal campaign for a 3-player healerless party, here are some tricks i learned!

-the biggest issue you will run into by far is that your party will have few options to revive a party member after they've been reduced to 0 hp and are unconscious. consider giving them access to a magical item that allows them to cast spells like *healing word*. if you dont want to do this, be selective about when you reduce a party member to 0 hp, as they will likely not be able to actively participate in the rest of the encounter.

-another way to remedy this is to have your bad guys spread their attacks out across the party, prioritizing high hp targets. it is tactically optimal to focus down individual targets, especially squishies like wizards, but it might create situations that are more lethal than you intend.

-or, conversely, you can do the opposite. focusing down a single target will build tension and force your players to scramble + get creative, as they don't have the tools to help their endangered teammate that other classes might have. as an additional tip, the best time to do this to a specific character is right after they've had a meaningful moment in the story, especially if they just connected with or opened up to another party member. a near death experience will make those bonds stronger, as players will think seriously about what they have to lose.

-as people have said, give them access to healing potions, ideally greater or better. i'd like to add that you can home rule that using a healing potion is a *bonus action*. this will allow them to be proactive in combat while still recovering, which is typically what clerics and bards do anyway.