u/Lyramion

I love tinkering with stuff in DarkTide. I played around with Smoke Grenades from time to time but the recent buff to visibility made me go on a whole spree of testing them "live" in Havoc 30-40. We already had topics about how amazing Smokes are and they flick a switch to "OFF" on all the ranged damage... which can be like 80% of incoming damage easily.

Evolving further from that, I found that on Veteran I just... did not really need my toughness anymore?! Before I was running 2-3 full Toughness Curios before Smoke Grenades to survive the typical "Hey Vet, there's 8 Gunners and 3 Reapers - this is your job!" situations. Now it's like... what "Ranged Damage?!" as Gunners run circles trying to find an angle on you.

Step 3 was an analysis of what is killing me now in Havoc. The answer was "mostly accidents and corruption". So I went to test a theory of just taking 3x 20-21% HP Curios with the Perks +5% HP & 15% Corruption Resistance. A few dozen Havocs later I can confidently say that from my perspective "This shit's cracked, yo!".

• I get to live 3 Bursters in my face and STILL get to use my second wound.
• If I have no corruption or it got cleansed by Zealot or Scum I am able to take an Overhead in the face and STILL use my second wound regardless of where my actual HP was.
• The corruption buffer versus blight or poxgas is amazing also. Instead of taking like ~25% corruption hopping around in puddles and having to balance the rest of my 98 HP in Havoc till the next medstation, I take ~15% something corruption and still have plenty of buffer left for more accidents.

I reached Havoc 40 every season but with this crackpot build my clearrate has gone up to another level. Sometimes the Director will throw the biggest bullshit at us, getting cornered, poxbursters everywhere and somehow I can survive and use "Only in Death does Duty End" on two teammates to salvage the situation.

Downsides:

• You lose your Revive Speed Curio slots. Thus I would never go without "In Death does Duty End."
• If you get really unlucky Demo Team procs and all the ranged damage turns back on, then you better have some cover nearby.
• Yeah, I wouldn't use it without Smokes. Gunners WILL kick your 95 Toughness butt in Havoc 40s without.

So I am not going around and saying "THIS IS THE NEW META BOW DOWN PEASANTS!", BUT I am saying "Give it a shot and tell me how it felt".

Zealot: Nice drip Vet!
Veteran: This is just my Uniform. Seargent is examining it every day!
Zealot: Uniform? Aren't you a Commander?
Veteran: Shhhh...don't say it too loud or the Snipers will single me out. Zealot: ...
Veteran: STOP SALUTING INFRONT OF ME!!!

I just got sudden PTSD from those accidental moments after a whole decade. You were not alone brothers and sisters.

With usually only two Monstrosities per map, these can provide a real source of Ammo and Healing in the new event. Just don't kill them by throwing them off the map with Zealot Relics, etc.

Solo killed a DH earlier on my Skitarii with Claws and Laspistol and my 90% corruption resistance. Got a Medcrate as reward to top off my whole team.

P.S. I accept no liability in you trying to kill a Demonhost and failing at it.

I like Kraks, I love Kraks. I also like Shredders. But I cannot ignore the truth anymore.

Smoke Grenades are just SOOOO strong in Havoc.

• Gunners? Walking into the next Spawndoor to get LoS and coming back out in melee range
• Shooters? Useless
• Reapers? Picking their nose
• Plasmagunners? Get their AI turned off and pull out melee weapons
• Snipers? Running into melee range to get punched
• Captains? No Plasmapistol allowed
• Ranged Twin? Spinning in a circle unable to shoot

This season my Havoc 31-39 got paid for by Smoke Grenades. My Scoreboard looked like my PP is very small. But every game people were like "Finally a good team!" or "This was ez!".

Bring an Ogryn Buddy to permastagger whatever comes into the Smoke and you are free to W through the map at the pace your Smoke Grenades regen.

Psyker Bubble wishes it was born a Smoke Grenade.