Darktide

[Defensive Ella Purnell]

Arbitrator is fun, for Havoc he's a marginally worse version of the Ogryn, but considering how busted those are it's quite a compliment.

The talent tree is great, not a lot of the boring passive nodes, decent amount of choice, it feels like every point matters and there are some interesting tradeoffs.

Something I haven't seen mentioned (or I might be blind) is that Fatshark has somehow outfatsharked themselves on the jewery this time.
The price of the class I'm fine with, it makes sense, it's designed well, alright.
No commissary armor, kind of sucks, but I expected it, there are still weapons that haven't gotten their (dogshit ugly red or blue paint) skins there that have been in the game for years now, so at least no disappointment.
The penance track does kind of sting. They could easily have made some blue moebian coat of paint there, but it's still whatever, minor disappointment.
The real zinger however are the UNIVERSAL cosmetics. You know, the ones that have been advertised as "non-ogryn" in the REAL MONEY shop and able to be used by all regular human classes up to this point. This includes a lot of the back items (very few are usable with the Arbitrator, most aren't) and all the headwear. None of them are particularly lorebreaking though, you can't convince me GW made them do it. Anyhow, these were all (as expected) usable when the class initially launched, then after a while it was hotfixed out with the CM having the audacity to go 'Teehee, we fixed a nasty BUG allowing you to equip universal (REAL MONEY) items on Arbitrators, you're welcome!" This alongside the 5 euro cost for a raised visor on the default dogshit helmet is just astounding to me, for me they erased all goodwill they could have gotten with the release of a quite good DLC and octupling their usual playercount. Fucking niggers, you really couldn't let me have my bionic eye I paid for with my hard earned money, could you?

Its at the point where I actually felt grateful that my vox caster backpack could be equipped on my arbites.

Absolute state of it all. I have stockholm syndrome with fatshark.

 

[Crocodylus Acutus]

I saw someone in the hub game chat say: "time for no knock raids in Hab Dreyko" lol

 

[Asian tech support]

I kinda notice the dog is unironically a whole lot effective with those supposedly "support" debuff nodes.

It's nuts how good the dog is with the dog nodes versus without.
I've noticed a bizarre anti-Lone Wolf stance among certain circles, with the sentiment being that the dog is just too good to pass up, even without the dog nodes. I'll see someone with a break the line brusier build similar to mine take the dog with no dog nodes and do 200k less damage. PowerDI (a scoreboard mod) got updated to distinguish dog damage and on non-kitted dog builds, the damage the dog does is pitiful and bringing it to pin one elite or specialist at a time isn't worth the Lone Wolf trade off. The dog with the dog nodes absolutely can put in serious damage and actually kill elites, especially when it's enabling weapons with the high voltage blessing or the bleed explosion interaction I mentioned last night (assuming that isn't working as intended). And it's fun. I really enjoy throwing the dog around and making things blow up.

edit: i read what i posted and it's incomprehensible. dog with dog nodes=good, lone wolf=really good, dog without dog nodes=shit.

 

[ChampFantana]

Is there any way on console to see my kill score after a match?

 

[Asian tech support]

Is there any way on console to see my kill score after a match?

Scoreboards are mods so I don't think so.

 

[ChampFantana]

Now that I have the trait for my Arbiter that gives me a sixth round in my Stub Revolver as the God Emperor intended, I really like that thing.

It's pretty nasty paired with my Shock Maul+Suppression Shield combo.

I've gotten my Arbiter up to Trust Level 25 since Monday. That should indicate how much I've been enjoying this game.

Side note: We need a proper Gunslinger Class that can dual-wield pistols at some point in the future.

 

[Snekposter]

Best part of being an Arbitrator, IMO.

 

[Asian tech support]

View attachment 7564146
Best part of being an Arbitrator, IMO.

I ran into one man but two legends the other day

 

[Blazing Piety]

A friend was kind enough to gift me the DLC so I've been able to try out the class. I've played him up to Auric 3VEG games and have almost every penance done, so I think I've gotten my opinion settled on the guy.

First, I made the mistake of replaying the campaign. Don't waste your time on it, all it does is add a handful of post mission cutscenes to dump lore that I cannot be bothered to give a shit about. I feel silly for hoping that the changes would be anything more than that.

For the class itself, man is the Arbitrator tanky, perhaps even more so than Ogryn is. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing - if it's just skill or the talents of the class itself - but in almost every game I've played I've ended the game either taking no damage or barely any (<30). The only damage I take really comes from corruption damage, usually from one of the shitty hounds on that one Maelstrom modifier or from a trapper net that I have no way of dodging.

Going Lone Wolf is definitely the way to go if you want to maximize your damage. Unless you are going to take pretty much every single dog related node, you are just better off taking the benefits that LW gives you. When taking the other middle keystones for dog damage and not taking any other dog specific node, I got basically no benefit out of it (I also didn't realize you can skip past the middle keystones if you want, which is neat).

The mines ended up being way more effective than I thought they would be, probably because I ignored the 15 second duration on the things when first looking at the tree. If you like Smite on Psyker, you'll like the mines. The grenades aren't slouches either; I almost like them more than Veteran's grenades solely because of the explosion on impact property. Most of the games I played had people just spamming them against bosses, and that doesn't surprise me. The remote detonation is more effective than I gave it credit for but I still wouldn't take it beyond doing the penance for it. It is funny to watch a bunch of dogs stunlock a Nurgle.

The abilities are all pretty decent but I found Castigator's Stance to really stand out. The 80% damage reduction is fucking nuts - I've had moments where I accidentally smack a Poxburster while having the ability active and taking no damage from the explosion; same with sniper shots. I never found the lack of sprint to be an issue.

Now for the keystones, I honestly can't really feel their impact no matter which one I pick. I had pretty high hopes for Terminus Warrant but didn't find it super critical to my build (granted, I used this one the most at lower difficulties, so my opinion might change running it in higher difficulties). Forceful basically acts as Ogryn's Feel No Pain, so if you like that keystone you'll like this one. Using the Crusher, I had practically no downtime on it, and I'm sure the results would be the same with the mauls. Execution Order is alright, but fuck whoever decided 3500 kills was the right amount needed for its penance. Even on 3VEG, the most I could get was around 200 specials and elites killed. I'm considering doing a keystone-less build just to see how it does.

I have two issues with the dog itself. One is that when there are 4 of these dogs running around in close proximity to you, I instinctively think they are hounds, and it always throws me off. The highlight on the dogs does not help. The other is that the dog seems, or at least seemed to, have buggy/unclear behavior. As an example, there were times when I pinged an enemy a few meters in front of me, only for the dog to take off in the opposite direction to attack something 150 meters away. I still can't tell if this is intentional or a bug because that enemy had been pinged by a teammate, but if teammates can steal your dog pings, that hurts the effectiveness of the dog.

As far as weapons, the Arbites Shock Maul seems okay, the Maul + Shield combo seems pretty strong because of the on-demand stun, I found both marks of the shotgun to be very strong in different circumstances though the Mk 8 variant is probably better overall, and I didn't really like using the shotpistol + shield. I don't have much to say on the weapons because I've been exclusively running the Crusher.

Overall a pretty decent class, 7.5/10.

Spoiler: Other Assorted Thoughts

- ManyMoreTry got nerfed apparently, which really sucks. I've tried finding 3VEG games to play with no success. Guess it was bound to happen eventually.
- The new mission selection UI is fucking awful and I don't understand why it needed to be changed. My core complaint with the mission system is still the lack of ability to pick specific maps at specific difficulties with specific modifiers. Being able to change the difficulty of the map is only one piece of this.
- The grind to unlocking Auric is stupid and should be bypassed by accounts that are high leveled on their other classes. You can also just queue with a friend to get free access to Auric still, so that comment they made about ensuring people in Auric should actually be there is completely moot.
- I'm getting tired of seeing all the Dredd and Robocop names, but on the other hand I do chuckle seeing all the George Droyd related names and police brutality related ones.

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

gone back to the game after a couple months of not playing. the update is pretty cool, i like that there's always one guy playing arbites that just walks forward and every specialist/elite dies for reasons beyond my understanding. been running a support focused veteran using a lot of toughness recovery for teammates, the big yell to revive downed players, and the recon lasgun to hose down trouble. i haven't gone on any missions on a difficulty above damnation due to queueing for matches on solo. since when were people able to get to level 40? do they get 10 more talent points?

 

[Blazing Piety]

since when were people able to get to level 40? do they get 10 more talent points?

You might just be seeing their Havoc level which is separate from their character level (I believe this is shown in unmodded games but is definitely shown with the TrueLevel mod). Havoc levels go up to 40 and just reflect the highest difficulty of Havoc that you've completed - they don't grant you any bonus talent points, you still stop earning those once you hit character level 30.

 

[Asian tech support]

I'll share my builds, in order of most to least favorite.

All rounder bruiser
No frills get-in-there-and-hit-things build. I've been using the Arbites shock maul and the mk8 executioner shotgun, though probably any ranged weapon besides autoguns work fine. I don't even think the executioner shotgun is better than the bolter but it's not as unwieldy and can still snipe specials. I just like it. I think the biggest weakness the Arbites has is gunners so I'm using two gunner resistance perks on my trinkets. He doesn't have a ton of toughness DR and can get shredded easily if caught in the open. Could probably drop the charge distance node for another damage node somewhere but whatever.











Castigator's stance shooty bang bang
I personally enjoy castigator's stance as a ranged augment as my melee playstyle has always utilized lots of sprinting and sliding (I know you can dodge-slide in castigator's stance). Good with the mk3 executioner shotgun, shotpistol + shield, or bolter. I don't think this build is that good in maelstroms or havoc as there are too many armored enemies but it's fine otherwise. There's probably a way to incorporate the dog into it and make it a boss killer but bosses aren't enough of a threat outside of 3-vegs to make that appetizing.












Dog explosion
The only way the dog works for me personally. My new criteria for a dog build is "can the dog plus the explosion output approximately the same damage as lone wolf plus impact nades over the course of a map?" If it can, than it's usable. It'll probably still be ok even if the interaction between puncture and remote detonation gets fixed but right now, that's what lets the build clear out packs of elites effortlessly. I tried using a mod (Less Annoying Arbites) to help distinguish and control the dog better but I think it messed with the dog's AI, resulting in a a propensity to not pounce or roam and also at times broke entirely with the dog sitting at the start of the level until entering an airlock.











"Support"
Not particularly fun. Doesn't have the offense and isn't as survivable as the break the line/forceful build. The cd on nuncio aquila is so damn long that it practically forces you to take execution order with the cd node to have usable uptime. Nothing else to say. I used this to get the nuncio aquila penances and then washed my hands of it. Theoretically there is a bunch of "support" stuff tucked away in the Arbites kit but a lot of it doesn't jive well with the rest of it.












Some thoughts on certain choice nodes, both the good and the underwhelming:

Up Close, Force of Will, Concussive, and Suppression Protocols: these four nodes I think belong in every build. Up Close and Force of Will give the class its toughness regen which it needs lots of, Concussive enables most of its damage output and also makes it not useless in havoc, and Suppression Protocols is a cheap one point DR node next to a node you're going to be taking regardless.
Zealous Dedication and Soulguilt Scan: massive damage increase. The shotpistol and executioner shotguns have higher than normal base crit chances. Slap scattershot on the mk3 shotgun and you're almost guaranteed to crit. Most melee weapons have access to aide horizontal swing patterns for easy horde clear.
Strike Down: I used this initially but swapped it for The Emperor's Fist. It's not as good as a tier 4 blessing. Virtually every melee weapon has an anti armor option that's better than this mode and most do decent armor damage anyway.
No Lenience: 10% rending is crap. This should be like 25%. It's amazing how stingy the game is with rending.
Rebreather: incredibly niche but probably quite good on certain havoc maps. Having a node that you take on specific maps is cook, almost like having an extra piece of gear in tow.
True Grit: in theory this makes you super hard to kill but the class is already blessed with high defense through a powerful offense. Outside of mistakenly tanking an overhead or a sniper shot, death tends to come through lots of small chip damage instead of big oneshots. I wish this node was something else or was incorporated into a keystone. There were a couple talents that were this exact effect (with different numbers) in VT2's pre 2.0 talent trees (I think on zealot and slayer).
Terminus Warrant and the rest of its keystone nodes: I don't think this is the worst keystone in the game but it's certainly awkward and underwhelming. I figure that's because there isn't really any feedback besides attack speed and reload speed, unlike Weapons Specialist which has a mobility component. This keystone should probably be reworked and soon. The whole balancing stacks act is more maintenance than playing grenadier vet.
Judicial Force: I see what they're trying to do with this node (use it with Arbites Vigilant) but the issue is that anyone using Forceful is almost assuredly also using Break the Line which already does a stun so you take this node to get a stun when reaching 10 stacks? Ok who cares.
Rapid Movement: none of the effects are worth the node. 5% sprint speed is nothing and 5% stamina on kill with an internal cd is also worthless. Just use stamina regen.
Street Smarts: another almost must take node. Psyker has the same node, albeit slightly better, but Arbites weapons are slightly less agile.

What I really like about the tree is that almost all the tiny nodes that plague the other trees have mostly been done away with and the ones that remain have a greater magnitude than the others. There aren't really any tax nodes besides maybe No Escape when trying to go for Razor-Jaw Augment. I also like how there aren't any exclusive nodes on the keystones or abilities.

 

[Asian tech support]

@latinlover @Defensive Ella Purnell they fixed your cosmetics, presumably because the discord clique yelled at Kitefin or whichever tranny janny CM they're on now.

 

[h3catoncheries]

Man are Arbites broken, H40 finished yesterday with 2x Arbites, Purgatus Psy and me as Chorus/Flamer zealot.
Both Arbs OBLITERATED the psyker in damage, each clocking 1,4 and 1,6M damage to the 1,0 of the Purgatus (I was 0,9 but such is the life of a Chorus bitch).

And the Psyker wasn't bad, I mean in the caos of course it's hard to keep exact track but it looked to me he was blasting pretty good, certainly not significantly worse than average, where in previous seasons Psyker was guaranteed top damage.
All the while easily dealing with gunners, utterly smashing monstrosities (melee twin died in a couple seconds more than the duration of a single Chorus), armored Elites completely neutered.

I can get the Melee control, I can get the above-average boss damage, but how the hell do they eclipse a Flamer (two actually) in damage in a mode where the environment is literally filled with bodies pretty much all the time? Where do they get the AoE? Can't be just by single-target Elite bashing... c... can it?

 

[Asian tech support]

I can get the Melee control, I can get the above-average boss damage, but how the hell do they eclipse a Flamer (two actually) in damage in a mode where the environment is literally filled with bodies pretty much all the time? Where do they get the AoE? Can't be just by single-target Elite bashing... c... can it?

It's the sheer amount of multipliers and cleave nodes. People used to talk about duelist being broken (it is) but duelist has nothing on the sheer amount of damage stacking in the bottom of the arbites tree. When fully spun up with all the shock maul blessings added in, it's something like +160-170% damage and an additional 75% strength. Strength used to be called power (VT2 carry over term) but it grants damage, stagger, and cleave and it's pretty rare to see so much of it in one place. Same with cleave nodes, usually cleave is on blessings and they're in a weird spot of being generally on off meta weapons where you'd rather have damage or something else. I don't even really think the class is overpowered as it seems like a response to the stakes being raised by havoc. A lot of things about the other classes just don't jive with high tier havoc, be it some of the archaic weapons or the shoehorning into an extremely limited number of hyper specific builds.
Also I'm pretty sure the scoreboard mods have a hard time accurately calculating actual vs overkill damage or at least PowerDI does, I dunno about the other one. Purge psyker isn't going to have a ton of overkill damage whereas arbites is.

E: I forgot about soulguilt scan. Since that's a weakspot strength multiplier, that's introducing a multiplicative increase to the already heaping additive increases. This plus the cleave shit lets the arbites eat hordes for breakfast. Why yes, I'm a push attack-heavy-heavy enjoyer, how could you tell? If I had to pick one thing to nerf. It'd be relentless strikes on the maul. With all the glazing skullcrusher gets, that would somehow be less busted.

 

[Michael Wade]

Who wants to bet money they'll put in space marines at some point?

 

[Mag bobrów]

Who wants to bet money they'll put in space marines at some point?

I'm pretty sure (Like 99%) that they won't. I think that they are very hesitant to tackle that power scale while keeping the other classes populated. Maybe a scout marine, MAYBE. But for the most part they should keep it to low level agents of the imperium, like maybe skitarii, death cultist, ratling, and so on. I've really been enjoying the update nonetheless the dog is funee and I love the interplay of actual professionals and idiots too stupid to die.

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

Who wants to bet money they'll put in space marines at some point?

i hope not. the only way i could imagine it not being wack would be if your squad is hunted down by a couple invincible death guard marines the entire mission.

 

[Asian tech support]

I think that they are very hesitant to tackle that power scale while keeping the other classes populated. Maybe a scout marine, MAYBE. But for the most part they should keep it to low level agents of the imperium, like maybe skitarii, death cultist, ratling, and so on.

When the game was announced, there was a sizable group on the FS forum who were bummed that the playable characters weren't going to be space marines. In VT the characters were never superhumans and leaning into the relatively weak and fragile players overcoming insurmountable odds has been something I think is a staple of the games thus far. Mixing an Astartes in craps all over that. The player being able to take on daemonhosts is already slightly pushing it. That said, as gay and unnecessary as the story is, I could see Grendyl eventually having enough and sending in a sister of battle to take over in the stead of Rannick, though a playable Sororitas class would be too power scaled for the game as well imo. Atoma isn't an unimportant world and sooner or later, someone is going to be looking for their shipment of Leman Russes.

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

how about a low ranking techpriest as a playable class? mechadendrites to dual wield weapons and/or even a little gun servitor?