+12.5-20% Critical Chance for 6s on successful Dodge.
+45-60% Finesse Damage for 2s on successful Dodge.
+1-4 Burn Stack(s) on Critical Hit to a maximum of 3-12 Stack(s).
+4.5-6% Close Range damage on Repeated Hit. Stacks 5 times.
Psykers are inherently squishy characters. This build seeks to make up for this weakness through mobility and high critical hit chance. If you have ever seen a cracked knife zealot (one of the good kinds), running through a mission solo, then you should be aware of how important mobility is in high-tier gameplay. Whilst we cannot hit Mach 5 levels of speed, we do have a tremendous amount of agility to dance around hordes and move in and out of priority targets. I find this to be a fairly well-balanced build, able to deal with most threats the AI director can throw at us.
Assail is used to replenish toughness, snipe distance targets and deal respectable damage to mixed hordes. It is also fantastic at hitting marked targets to refresh Disrupt Destiny. Making use of the extra mobility and damage from both our keystone and Warp Rider whilst our peril is high, we dance into battle, slashing hordes and thrusting at heavily armoured targets. I opt to run a laspistol sidearm over a staff. This is to make use of the extra mobility it affords. Whenever our peril is low, we will be using assail to kill several targets and benefit from the buffs of a high peril count to do extra damage.
Our Assail ability is used to soften groups of enemies up at a distance before engaging in melee. There is a dance you will want to play. Using our blitz replenishes toughness when you use it, as well as when our peril is quelling passively. We gain extra damage when our peril is high. You will want to fire off a salvo or shards whenever our peril is low and use your other weapons when it is high. Peril is used only for assail and to block with Kinetic deflection. You will find it very difficult to accidentally blow even in high-stress situations as a result. Our Telekinetic Dome can help provide ranged defence and toughness regeneration to our team. It is the best support ability by far and can save your team in a pinch.
Our Duelling sword is our bread and butter. Light attacks should be used to control hordes. The heavy attack does monstrous damage and cares little for armour. It will take a little practice, but you should always be aiming for the head with these attacks. The fact that it is a straight thrust makes accuracy not too hard to achieve. You can 1-shot a charging mutant if you get it in the head, and even crushers do not last more than a few weakspot hits. If you see them charging up an overhead, you have enough mobility and distance to dodge to the side and hit them. You actually have enough dodge distance to completely disengage from unfavourable fights.
Our laspistol is used to hit the occasional long distant targets when our Assail decides to write our name in cursive before actually killing the target. Our blitz often takes some time to hit the target, so the laspistol can deal with that threat quicker. It has an incredibly quick pullout time, accurate over long distances, and actually does surprisingly high damage. This build has high innate crit-chance, so by tacking Infernus, we can apply extra damage to the main threats we will be engaging with our gun, namely reapers and Monstrosities. Hitting a beast of Nurgle consistently in its weakspot whilst applying burn does respectable damage, something Psykers tend to lack. Our laspistol should be used sparingly, relying more on our melee and abilities. However, it has a good enough ammo economy to pull out when needed whilst rarely having to worry about ammo.
Soulstealer, Quietude, Warp Expenditure and Battle Meditation are our toughness regeneration nodes. Whether we are using our abilities, quelling peril or killing things, we are regenerating toughness. I find picking all of these up massively increases survivability. If you ever find yourself low on toughness, slide back and spam assail to quickly get it up again. Mettle also increases toughness regen whilst also providing a tasty speed buff. Perfect Timing is picked up as we will be hitting a lot of criticals, and increases the damage of our frequent assail barrages. Perilous Combustion is valuable when tackling higher-tier missions, but not super necessary to make this build work and can be swapped for something later down the tree such as Anticipation.
We pick up the toughness node on our way to grabbing Assail. I prefer this keystone over Brain Rupture or Smite on this kind of build for its fire-and-forget factor. Smite is a situational crowd control tool, whilst Brain Rupture is a slow, single-target ability. Assail can stun a decent number of units whilst still killing a fair chunk of them at the same time. It does not slow us down as much as the other two options and works better at hitting the awkwardly marked target in a crowd, making it much more useful Blitz on a mobility-focused build.
We will be switching between our weapons pretty regularly, so Malefic Momentum will increase our Assail spam by a cool 20%. Prescience adds yet another critical modifier to us and our team. As we have such a high crit chance already, Empathic Evasion will help us proc our weapon talents.
We pick up Telekine Shield and go for the usual Telekine Dome & Sanctuary modifiers. I maintain that this is the best ability for the psyker. Whilst we are not speccing into being able to spam the ability like a true support psyker, it is still up frequently enough to provide protection and toughness regeneration to both ourselves and our team. Given the limited number of Assail projectiles, and the fact that we are not using a staff, I find Venting Shriek unnecessary here. One thing I adore about Telekine Dome is that if you find yourself going into a particularly disabler heavy auric maelstrom (Hunting grounds & waves of mutants), we can opt instead to go for Enervating Threshold & Bolstered Shield to enjoy watching gaggles of mutants run into the shield like a cartoon., without having to remake our build from the ground up.
Kinetic Deflection can help keep us alive when we are getting swarmed. It can also be a nice way to keep peril deliberately high, by blocking an attack to stop it from quelling. True aim aids yet another critical hit boost. Disrupt Destiny is the keystone that ties everything together. You can consistently hit marked targets with any one of your weapons, and benefit from a fairly consistent uptime to that 20% speed boost. It is also going to be hitting us with additional toughness regeneration, and a whole host of damage increases. I find this build is better than the sum of its parts, and all of these talents work together.
I prefer to pick up Lingering Influence over Perfectionism to more consistently keep our stacks up. Even on auric damnation, there is going to be downtime between hordes, and I much prefer to keep 15 stacks semi-permanently, than have it fluctuate between 0 - 30. Cruel Fortune can help build our stacks up quicker in the rare instances that we do let them fade away. I tend not to pick up Purloin Providence. The only weapon we are using to generate peril is our Assail, which is limited by the number of charges. Even if we do get it to proc, it's going to be doing very little to impact how much damage we can output. The extra toughness regen we get due to its synergy with quietude is nice, but not impactful enough to justify picking it up. We round out the build by moving across and picking up Warp Rider. A 20% base damage to all sources after using our blitz is nothing to scoff at.
The duelling sword provides exceptional range and mobility, all things we want in this build. The heavy attack deals monstrous damage on weakspot strikes, whilst the light attack is still pretty decent at horde clear. It's possible to kite a rager backwards, jabbing away at its head until it goes down. It's a great way to deal high, consistent melee damage whilst still keeping your distance. Even crushers take huge chunks of damage with repeated hits, and will be your primary method for dispatching these foes. It also has a much higher dodge distance than other weapons, allowing you to flow through combat. When facing Crushers, you can throw a heavy attack followed by a quick special attack. This does not do much damage, but has high stagger when it hits weakspots, allowing you to break Crushers out of their overhead.
For perks, I like to take extra damage to Flak and Carapace. This will let you 3-hit a crusher in the head if you get even one crit, something which we get fairly consistently with this build, and also Incentivizes us to aim for Mauler's heads, a foe we can also kill in 3 hits. Taking extra damage to maniacs lets us 2-shot Ragers. Whenever you are using a heavy attack, remember the words of Thanos and always aim for the head.
For blessings, we pick up Riposte & Precognition. Riposte will proc very frequently, due not only to our frequent dodges, but also thanks to Empathic Evasion, effectively creating a positive feedback loop to maintain the crit chain. Riposte provides a positively absurd +60% weakspot damage, and the head is the only thing we should be aiming for. Uncanny Strikes is a viable alternative, and the blessing I did use to run. However the duelling sword already has fantastic carapace damage, so I found the extra rending not to be as impactful. Both of these blessings combined will let you melt through even Flak and Carapace armour like butter.
I prefer this variant over its heavier cousin, the Kantrael Mk X Heavvy Laspistol. It only consumes 2 ammo per shot instead of 3, and fires much faster. As a result, it is better at stacking Infernus. This build has a high critical chance naturally, and benefits from the increased chance of applying burn. All Psyker staff tend to suffer in their ability to deal with boss damage. The Laspistol fills this role in situations where it is not safe to go for stabs with our sword, whilst also being better at taking out that pesky sniper that Assail is not latching on to. 'Close Range' is actually still quite a distance, and makes Dumdum rounds the best DPS increase we can opt for. I like to take increased damage to unyielding, for the extra damage and burn to monstrosities and reapers, and increased damage to maniacs as that is the most consistent ranged threat we come across. That said, increased damage to Flak is also ok if you are struggling more with those targets.
The Deimos Mk IV Blaze Force Sword is never a bad shout. It deals better with hordes than our Duelling sword and still has respectable heavy attacks that can often stagger larger targets. Picking up Deflector can also help us deal with ranged threats. It's a solid weapon, but has less mobility and less damage on heavy attacks, which is why I favour the duelling sword
The Columnus Mk V Infantry Autogun has objectively better DPS against monstrosities than the laspistol, whilst being effective at mowing priority targets down at close range. It is semi-accurate at longer ranges, but can suffer at extreme ranges. Additionally, its ammo economy is quite poor, and the last thing your team needs is a psyker hoovering up all the resources. If you are premade with friends, then it is ok. But in a public match, you run the risk of gimping your team if they cannot accommodate the loss in resources.
Scrier's Gaze can be used for mad lads who just want to ramp up damage. This playstyle will have you in melee quite frequently anyway, so the riding peril can be used to increase your damage. It will also massively increase your damage when fighting bosses as the extra damage applies to your burn. But I find our damage is already so great, that that extra bump is unnecessary. The Columnus Mk V Infantry Autogun with Scriers Gaze will absolutely shred bosses if your team is seriously lacking in Monstrosity damage. For the majority of of the match, however, being able to snipe specials and support your team with shields will provide more benefit.
After 1,000+ hours in Darktide, I have a few simple rules when it comes to Curios. Melee classes (Ogryns and Zealot) should take 2x Toughness and 1x Health Curios to give a good mix of defensive stats. Veterans should take 3 Toughness Curios, as they benefit more from Toughness than other classes, owing to their larger toughness pools and skills such as Iron Will. Psykers should run 2x Toughness and 1x Stamina curio to make up for low Base stamina, and to benefit from their faster stamina regeneration. Obviously, there are some caveats to that. A melee centric Veteran might want to run 1x Health Curio and certain knife and stealth builds might want to run a stamina curio. But for the most part, I find this a good rule to stick to to ensure you have curios that are effective for the vast majority of your builds, especially when starting out when it is difficult to find any curios, much less good ones. Oh and Wound Curios should only ever be used on Zealot Martydom builds. Having Wound Curios actually means that health stims will now heal less on you. I know some people like to take a wound curio 'just in case they go down', but in higher difficulties, there is no guarantee your team can pick you up. It's far better to invest in defensive abilities which prevent downs as much as possible.
For Perks, Always take Extra toughness and gunner resistance. Gunner Resistance is the most useful resistance node as it applies to Scab Gunners, Scab Shotgunners, Dreg Gunners, Dreg Shotgunners and Reapers. This is the largest collection of enemies out of any of the resistance perks. These enemies can absolutely shred you in seconds, and make up a significant portion of the enemies encountered in Auric Maelstroms. The ability is multiplicative, so does have some diminishing returns. 0.80×0.80×0.80=0.512 meaning that we end up with a total gunner resistance of 0.488, just below 50%. I can certainly see the argument to only running two gunner resistance curios (with an overall damage resistance of 36 %) and opting for something else (potentially sniper OR Flamer), but I still value that extra 12.8%.
For the final perk, it depends on your build. If you are using a build which relies heavily on your ability, then run cooldown reduction to more frequently make use of said ability. I find this to be especially powerful on builds which make use of Voice of Command for instance. If your build is not too heavily reliant on your ability, then run for extra health. Again you can tweak this to suit individual playstyle (and the mercy of the RNG-gods as Hadrons bricks yet another piece of equipment), but this is a pretty good rule to aim for.
I like to use builds that are well-rounded and versatile for auric damnation runs, as those matches favour builds that have an answer for every situation. The Ulgu Psyker has an answer to everything. Assail lets you thin out mixed hordes, your melee choice lets you deal big damage to priority targets, whilst your laspistol can help quickly snipe out awkward specials and chunk bosses. Mid-tier enemies are your bread and butter, and can quickly be disposed of whilst still providing a bubble shield as utility for your team. Those annoying ranged enemies all over the room that would normally pepper your team down, can be mulched by Assail, and I honestly struggled to go back to staff psykers after getting used to it. This ability alone makes it viable to go for the two-shield option instead of Telekine Dome as ranged enemies usually don't last long enough for it to be needed. Add to that the fact that you will be replenishing toughness as you fire out your shards, and even a squishy Psyker can trade blows in a firefight situation without taking damage. Your mobility is insane, and you can easily dance around hordes whilst keeping out of damage. With the recent nerfs to ragers, engaging these enemies in melee has become significantly easier to deal with.
The Shyish Psyker build is ideal for Auric Maelstrom C-I-VI missions, leveraging the Equinox Mk III Trauma Force Staff's superior crowd control and damage against groups of elite enemies like Maulers and Crushers. By staying behind your team and using the trauma staff to knock down and debuff these foes, you provide unparalleled support, especially when paired with Ogryns or Zealots. The Maccabian Mk IV Duelling Sword complements this by handling individual threats through precise, head-targeted combos. Ranged threats are managed with the Enervating Threshold ability and shield stacks, allowing you to protect against snipers and specialists while synergizing with Kinetic Resonance for effective boss damage. This build offers a versatile and powerful approach to handling elite enemies and large groups, ensuring reliable performance in challenging missions.
Psykers are naturally seen as the highest skill-ceiling class and for good reason. Your DPS and ability to deal with all targets is extraordinary, but you are always going to be a squishy character. Your main damage comes from being in melee, and with little health and toughness, your mobility and dodging need to be on point to avoid taking damage. We rely on positioning and mobility to avoid damage, something which takes practice and game knowledge to achieve. Try to get in the habit of slide dodging to extend your dodge distance and get out of sticky situations. A single overhead Mauler or Crusher attack that is not dodged can put us into the dying state.
Question: Why do the stats, weapons, and abilities in the video not match what's written in this guide?
Answer: I am constantly evolving and refining my builds. As patch notes are released, certain weapons and abilities may change in effectiveness. Additionally, as my skills and knowledge grow, my preferred builds can shift. I aim to provide videos demonstrating the effectiveness of my builds in a Damnation level Auric run as proof of concept. However, these videos may sometimes be outdated. While I strive to keep everything current, Darktide is my hobby, and I may not always have the latest updates in the videos. The information in these guides reflects my most recent thinking and should be considered more accurate than what is shown in the videos.
