Darktide

[Defensive Ella Purnell]

So I just started playing and difficulty 2 is easy and difficulty 3 is kicking my ass.

I feel like every time I join a put on the third difficulty we get wiped by the first major enemy pack.

Could just be bad luck, but how much does gear/talents matter if you're not super good at the game? Do I just need higher ilvl and talents? My gun feels so weak when difficulty increases.

My skitarii is level 16 with 200 level gear, my galvanic rifle does 48/80 damage and my sword slightly less, maybe thats part of it?

@Asian tech support is absolutely the man to listen to in regards to basically everything Darktide but I'll add that, in general, at lower difficulties the players also tend to be less skilled and that can make it harder no matter how well you play.

I'm a decent but not exceptional player currently levelling up my hive scum and the only time I've had a wipe is on heresy difficulty. Malice (dif2) forgives mistakes and you don't need to rely on your team, damnation (dif4) punishes mistakes and requires more teamwork but players generally have a decent knowledge of the game and gear to get by, but heresy is in a weird spot where although it's easier than damnation many players don't seem quite able to deal with the difficulty increase compared to malice. They still have a solo mindset and that can cause problems.

Point is, heresy is a weird difficulty that I also have struggled on after having not played below damnation since Arbites came out. Don't give up, stick at it. Skitarii is powerful but can be squishy too. Arbites is a great beginner class if you have it, good damage and survivability, also has the dog which can save you if you get separated from your team.

 

[Asian tech support]

Point is, heresy is a weird difficulty that I also have struggled on after having not played below damnation since Arbites came out. Don't give up, stick at it. Skitarii is powerful but can be squishy too. Arbites is a great beginner class if you have it, good damage and survivability, also has the dog which can save you if you get separated from your team.

I actually don't think skitarii is that squishy. Don't get me wrong, it certainly can be but after the better part of a week stalking people's builds, I think people are sleeping on some very good defensive nodes. The class has a lot of damage reduction in its tree, in very convenient places too I might add, and can generate good amounts of toughness too, like surprising amounts. When we think of the tankiest playstyles in the game, shout vet, basically any flavor of zealot or arbites, tauntgryn, etc., they all have either some form of aoe stagger or disengage built into their respective builds which definitely increases their survivability. After all, you're not taking damage when the enemy can't hit you. Hive scum can build into a bunch of toughness damage reduction but the only way it can generate massive amounts of toughness on demand is either with rampage or by popping a stimm with the one chemical dependency node, and its only stun it has is forges bellow, which is kind of makes me consider it a necessary pick up when using rampage. Or at least that was my experience playing the class, I'm by no means a scum afficionado. Skitarii has the damage reduction and the toughness generation but only voltaic emitter is a stun, and boy what a stun it is. I get that the class has only been out for a couple of days but it's my gut feeling that once the dust settles, the bog standard havoc skitarii player will be running a voltaic emitter build.