Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Best Classes In The Game

Updated:

10 Jul 2024

With the recent Warhammer skulls event and the announcement of a new map it seems like a good time for new players to get into Darktide. But with four playable classes all with their own skill trees new players might feel overwhelmed and struggle to pick that class that’s for them. In this guide we’ll rank the classes from weakest to strongest as well as showing the pros and cons of each.

4. Zealot (ok)
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Nice and roasted.

The premier melee class of Darktide the Zealot excels at diving into hordes of enemies and slicing them to bits.

Zealot exclusive weapons like the thunder hammer are perfect for killing bosses while the two-handed eviscerator can grind up light to medium threats with ease.
Zealot is the fastest class in the game with skills like “Swift certainty” and “Thy wrath be swift” increases sprint speed while skills like “Dance of death” and “Good balance” helps the Zealot dodge more.
The Zealot also has the invaluable “Until death” skill which makes the Zealot invulnerable for 5 seconds whenever they take fatal damage albeit with a 2 minute cooldown.
Zealot also boasts one of the strongest active abilities in the game “Chorus of spiritual fortitude” which has them raise a holy relic that pulses light every second for seven seconds which stuns and pushes back enemies while also healing the Zealot and nearby allies’ toughness.

Even with these strengths the Zealot does have its drawbacks.

While the Zealot has ranged options, without the ability to increase their ammo capacity they struggle to deal with a lot of ranged enemies.
The “loner” aura is a selfish aura which only serves to help Zealot when they are far away from their team and choosing it locks the Zealot out of auras that can heal max health damaging corruption or gives toughness damage reduction.
The Zealot exclusive flamer, while powerful against most enemies, doubles down on the Zealot’s poor ranged capabilities, forcing the Zealot to close the distance on most ranged enemies.

3. Veteran (Good)

Plasma Precision.

The opposite of the Zealot, the Veteran is the class to pick if you want to maximize your ranged potential. With a high variety of guns and grenades the Veteran brings multiple answers for every ranged enemy in the game.

With skills like “Longshot”, “Kill zone”, and “Precision strikes” the Veteran can easily maximize their ranged damage with little investment.
The Veteran has very strong exclusive ranged options like the Lucius Helbore lasguns and the all powerful Plasmagun deletes most ranged enemies in a few shots.
On top of the very strong guns the Veteran has, they also have access to 3 equally strong grenade options which can help cover the Veteran’s weak melee options.
The “Survivalist” aura gives the Veteran and his allies ammo replenishment whenever they kill a specialist or an elite and with skills like “Demolition stockpile” and “Demolition team” the Veteran gets the ability to replenish their grenades too.

Despite their powerful ranged options the Veteran just like the Zealot suffers in the opposite area.

The Veteran doesn’t have strong melee options and while they do have a few decently strong exclusive melee weapons in the power sword and folding shovel a melee Veteran will never be as strong as the average Zealot.
While the Veteran has some strong skills, their final skills or “capstones” at the bottom of their skill trees either don’t have enough consistent impact to be very useful or forces you to play in a very esoteric and confusing way.
The “Survivalist” aura, while very strong, makes the other two auras lackluster in comparison. The choice of consistent ammo replenishment versus a five percent damage buff or five percent speed boost seems very obvious to most people especially since they’re playing the ranged class.

2. Psyker (Strong)

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Unlimited Power.

The Psyker is the most unique class in the game and has their own mechanic called “Peril” which dictates nearly everything the Psyker does. Managing “Peril” is important because it can lead to the use of strong melee and ranged attacks, the ability to block bullets, and infinite ammo.

The grenades the Psyker as acts more like spells having no ammo count and only raising peril and with their “grenades” giving you the option of a chargeable single target “brain burst”, stunning chain lighting with”smite”, or the homing knives that “assail” offers gives the Psyker grenades on par with the veteran.
The Psyker exclusive staves they get can replace their ranged gun options and just like the grenades they only raise peril and while they lose the ability to hitscan enemies they all do great damage to most enemies and the Psyker still gets access to a low damaged far ranged option.
The Psykers active abilities can be very useful. The “Venting shriek” ability can give the Psyker a way to instantly lower their peril while also pushing back enemies and the “Telekinetic shield” puts up a shield that blocks all projectiles and can be upgraded to become a dome.

Despite these strengths the Psyker is a very volatile class and can lead to big downfalls because of its flaws.

The peril meter is something you always have to pay attention to, while you can hit the r key when you have a staff or grenade out to lower it, if you use a grenade or shoot your staff while at 100 percent you will blow up and down yourself.
The Psyker is the most fragile class in the game sporting the lowest max health and toughness making you play more carefully than any other class.
While the Psyker can use normal guns and does have a skill tree dedicated to critical hits they still don’t have any way to increase their maximum ammo count which forces the Psyker to really hit their shots or waste ammo.

1. Ogryn (Best)

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Big man on Tertium.

The large and in charge man himself the Ogryn is arguably not only the best class in darktide but also the most versatile. Boasting class specific passive abilities, strong weapon options, and an easily accessible taunt the Ogryn can do it all.

Just like the Veteran the Ogryn has a ranged damage tree that actually has a skill that increases his maximum ammo count. Pair that with his capstone “Burst limiter override” which gives the Ogryn a 8 percent chance to refund a bullet and you can save a lot more ammo.
The Ogryn has only Ogryn specific weapons, all of which have some form of use. The maul and shield acts as the best blocking option in the game while the knives and shovels give the Ogryn big sweeping melee attacks. The “Heavy stubber” and iconic “Ripper gun” can synergize well with the Ogryn’s ranged skills and they even have two different grenade launchers for crowd control.
Just like the Psyker the Ogryn has strong grenade option with arguably the strongest grenade in the game the “Big friendly rock” which is just a big rock the Ogryn found that one-shots most enemies in the game, is rechargeable on a minute timer, and can knockdown whatever it doesn’t kill. Also the Ogryn gets four rocks total so don’t be afraid to start throwing them.
The “Loyal protector” active ability and the “Attention seeker” skill gives Ogryn the ability to taunt enemies and even bosses into attacking him which is something no other class can do so the Ogryn can easily force a horde onto him whenever his teammates need a breather.
On top of all of this the Ogryn gets two passive abilities just for being an Ogryn. Those being the ability to carry heavy objects like medic batteries and some mission objectives faster than any other class, and the ability to receive other players while taking damage which is huge and can literally save missions.

But just like every other class the Ogryn still has a few drawbacks that stops him from fully steamrolling the competition.

The Ogryn is big, like really big and because of that the Ogryn is going to take hits he really doesn’t want to even if he isn’t specializing in being a tank. Not to mention because of his size the Ogryn can block shots from his teammates.
The Ogryn also suffers from getting through a specific type of enemy armor in this game called “Carapace” armor. Enemy Crushers and Maulers have this armor and unless the Ogryn brings their own collapsible shovel it can be a slog to deal with them.
While the “Big friendly rock” and its counterpart the “Frag bomb” are both good grenade options for the Ogryn to use, the third option the “Big box of hurt” is lackluster. It does around the same damage as the rock but also drops tiny grenades that explode, the problem being whatever you hit with the box will probably be dead and the grenades don’t do enough damage to be useful.