There is a successful case to make regarding the best teams in the Warhammer 40,000: Darktide having one of each unique operator. Because of the auras, they can all help each other. Balance is really important to the game; Diversity becomes strength by overcoming the weaknesses of individual operators.
That said, there are operators who are constantly at the top of the damage lists. Some classes feel impossible to kill. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide can say that they have given equal love to all their operators, but a couple of them just don’t have it in them to be as strong as the others.
4/4 Zeal: Preacher
| Unique property | Name | Description |
| The ability | Punish The Wicked | The Preacher dashes forward or towards a targeted enemy and replenishes all toughness, increasing the damage on the next melee by 25%, making it a guaranteed critical hit. |
| Iconic | Martyrdom | +5 damage for every 15 missing health. Max stacks 3. |
| Iconic | To death | Every 90 seconds, when you take damage that would kill you, you gain invulnerability for 5 seconds. |
| Iconic | Quick exorcism | +10% melee attack speed. |
| Flash | Overwhelming Grenade | Throw a stun grenade that stuns all enemies within its blast radius. |
| Aura | The Emperor’s Testament | +7% toughness damage reduction (allied in context). |
| Unique melee weapon | Two-handed chain word | NOW |
| Unique ranged weapon | Flamers | NOW |
The preacher is a good idea that fails in practice. Obviously, this operator should exclusively use melee attacks when possible with so many advantages in that regard, but the two-handed chainsword is a massive letdown. Revving it requires an extra action and the charge doesn’t last nearly long enough. Flamers are cool, but using them loses the other benefits of using a Preacher.
It requires getting to a very high gear level to gain the toughness needed to survive on higher difficulties. And at this point, other classes are blowing enemies away, not just surviving.
The grenade is the final nail in the coffin. The sharpshooter essentially gets the same grenade, except it kills the enemies while the preacher still needs to kill the enemies that are hit. Also, it doesn’t work on the mini-bosses. Unless the players really love all the voice lines in the game about loving the emperor, maybe let a teammate handle this role.
3/4 Psycher: Psychokinetic
| Unique property | Name | Description |
| The ability | Wrath of Psykinetics | The psyker releases its accumulated warp charges, knocking enemies away. |
| Iconic | Warp siphon | Killing an enemy with Brain Burst gains a warp charge. Each charge deals +3% damage. Warp charges are retained for 25 seconds. You can store up to 4 warp charges. |
| Iconic | Combat meditation | +10% chance to suppress 10% danger on kills. |
| Flash | Brain Burst | Target an enemy and charge the ability to deal heavy damage. |
| Aura | Kinetic presence | Allies in context take +10% damage against elite enemies. |
| Unique melee weapon | Force sword | NOW |
| Unique ranged weapon | Force Spells | NOW |
It should be understood that Psyker, as the lone caster class, is going to have some fans. And it should. But dealing with danger is no fun at all and forces Psyker to use attacks they are not gifted with while waiting for the danger to go down. This is almost a total copy of the incredibly unpopular premium system used in others Warhammer game.
Warp Siphons can be difficult to stack as they drop every 25 seconds. Brain Burst is lethal, but it must be charged to deal lethal damage against most enemies. While charging, players do not take other forms of damage. Against single targets, this can be a fair trade, but it’s not smart to do while swarmed by enemies. Unfortunately, it is the most common occurrence of combat. Some of the new and unique enemies suffer against Psyker, but there are too many opponents that work against the core gameplay loop.
2/4 Ogryn: Skullbreaker
| Unique property | Name | Description |
| The ability | Bull Rush | Charge forward, knocking enemies back and gain 25% attack speed and 25% movement speed for 5 seconds. |
| Iconic | Excessive force | +25% melee swings. |
| Iconic | Loyal protector | Getting hurt while reviving or helping allies no longer interrupts you. |
| Iconic | Thick skin | +20% toughness damage reduction and +20% health damage reduction. |
| Flash | Big Box of Hurt | Throw a box of grenades with great strength and enthusiasm for a single attack with high damage. |
| Aura | Frightening presence | +10% heavy melee damage (allies in context). |
| Unique melee weapon | Plate shield | NOW |
| Unique ranged weapon | Grenade gloves | NOW |
Where Preacher fails, Skullbreaker succeeds in being the best frontline combatant. Thick Skin makes Ogryn an incredible tank while his extra stagger and heavy melee are perfect against elite units.
Keeping elite units off balance cannot be underestimated. Many groups without a Skullbreaker will simply trade blows with elite units, taking big hits to their health at inconvenient times. Skullbreaker’s stagger can greatly reduce their chances of dealing damage.
The Big Box of Hurt may be the best single target move in the game. Any operator can hack and hide the melee horde, but not everyone can handle the most dangerous bosses. Slab Shields function as both offensive and defensive weapons. Finally, quality grenadier gauntlets, even on tough difficulties, can one-shot specialist units and displace or wipe out large groups. The class does not have automatic weapons and does not need or lack them.
1/4 Veteran: Sharpshooter
| Unique property | Name | Description |
| The ability | Volley fire | Enter a ranged stance for 5 seconds, equip your ranged weapon immediately, and designate nearby non-Ogryn elite and specialist enemies as priority targets. During this stance you deal +50% damage at range. |
| Iconic | Make every shot count | +15% damage to weak spots. |
| Iconic | Be prepared | Increase the ammo reserve of all ranged weapons by 40%. |
| Flash | Frag Garnet | Fragmentation grenade that explodes after a short fuse timer. |
| Aura | Treasure hunt | You and your allies in conjunction gain a small amount of ammo each time one of you kills an elite enemy. |
| Unique melee weapon | Battle spades | NOW |
| Unique ranged weapon | Plasma guns | NOW |
Sharpshooter is decent and probably a bit too decent to be considered balanced. Ranged weapon damage is the best source of damage against bosses. And for those playing on the toughest difficulties, bosses are truly where battles are won or lost.
Against elites and specialists, the Sharpshooter can mark everyone nearby. These types of enemies can incapacitate a player in one hit, and everyone needs the element of surprise to land their shot. With Volley Fire, they are tagged and the player has an absurd amount of damage ready to go.
Losing ammo is the only danger of the class, but it has two properties that, when invested in, trivialize this issue. There are enough ammo caches in the game to stay topped up after leveling up the Sharpshooter. Unless the game’s PC requirements are too high to handle intense battles, there’s no reason not to play Sharpshooter.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is now available for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
