Arcane Weapons & Psychic Onslaught Build Guide

In today’s build guide, we’ll consider the Arcane Weapons. 

This ability expends ammo to increase the damage of an ally’s next ranged attack. It can be activated at any range, making it a powerful addition to any support or defensive unit from the Purgator or Paladin classes. To make the most of the Arcane Weapons effect, we’ll pair it with Psychic Onslaught. This is a AOE damaging effect for the Psycannon’s ranged attack. When we combine these effects, all targets hit with Psychic Onslaught will take the additional damage provided by Arcane Weapons.

To maximise this lethal combination, we should select units that have the Provident talent. While not crucial for the build to work, any ways to increase our max ammo and ultimately the bonus damage we can deal are beneficial.

Support Paladin

While the Purgator can get the most out of these abilities, Paladins can get the combination going earlier. They also offer some flexibility by requiring fewer ability points to create the build, freeing them up for other options and utilities. First, we want to pick up Extra Ammo and Arcane Weapons Ability. Warp Charge also works well due to applying to all targets hit by Psychic Onslaught.  We also recommend options to increase Willpower wherever possible.

Subthemes for the Support Paladin which use leftover points include melee-based attacks or Smite. Additional HP to improve the unit’s ability to tank incoming attacks as a supporting unit is also helpful.

Support Purgator

The Purgator will take longer than the Paladin to adopt the Arcane/Onslaught support role, but can go much further. Unlike the Paladin, we will spend most of our points doubling down on Arcane Weapons here. Let’s begin by selecting Sanctified Killzone on the way to Arcane Weapons, so that we can exchange Willpower for a powerful AOE turn. Setting up a kill zone in combat to apply debuffs before using Psychic Onslaught will decimate most groups of enemies.

We will initially skip additional critical damage options to focus on maximising Arcane Weapons, but can return to these at a higher level once the build is established. The left side of the Purgator’s ability tree offers two maximum ammo increases which we will take. Due to being an ammo-heavy build, we should skip Return Fire to avoid running out. Rapid Reload will allow you to use Arcane Weapons on the Support Purgator himself if you stack enough Focus to ensure a reload but is better used just to save that AP for other actions.

This Purgator can be set up to use a Psycannon or a Stormbolter and melee weapon of your choice. We recommend using whichever contains the higher amount of ammo. Remaining points should be used to maximise Willpower to lean heavily into the support role as we do not expect this unit to kill many enemies itself. 

Equipment and Wargear

Let’s examine the equipment which is best suited for the Arcane Weapons/Psychic Onslaught support build:

Stormbolters

We should try to use the highest ammo weapon you can find for your Arcane Weapons unit. Because we care about ammo capacity more than attacks, damage, range or critical buffs are far less important. The Stormbolters Thawn’s Glory and Eternal Wrath have excellent ammo capacity. Other great options include Galan’s Grace and Ire of Phoros which provide Rapid Reload.

Armour

Our ideal armour provides additional Willpower for using Arcane Weapons or Focus for Rapid Reload.  For Paladins, Morningplate allows you to use HP instead of Willpower. Also consider armours with extra Servo-Skull ammo or extra Passive Equipment slots. Both will help maximising our ammo and reloads. 

Wargear

There are several Passive Equipment that can help this build.  Sanctic Shards and Sacred Incense increase Focus or Willpower respectively. Most importantly, the Extended Magazine will increase the maximum damage you can impart with Arcane Weapons.

The Autoloader Servo-Skull is a ensures you can reload without spending an Action Point and can be equipped on another unit. Additionally, the Seeker Servo-Skull reveals enemies in the fog while they are still clumped together, making them perfect targets.  An Apothecary or Stratagem to immobilize them will leave unrevealed groups especially vulnerable to our Psychic Onslaught.

Psycannons

Our ideal unit to target with Arcane Weapons will be equipped with a Psycannon which provides extra Psychic Onslaught damage or area size. Titan’s Road and Soulflage are great examples, however many Psycannons are well suited for this role.

Squad Composition

A good squad composition including these builds might include a Psycannon Purgator or Psycannon Justicar/Paladin and an Apothecary to immobilize enemies in clumped groups for Psychic Onslaught. This build also compliments Astral Aim, so Purifiers or Purgators built around that are also good targets.

When carefully planned, this support build allows for incredible AOE damage that can execute most standard enemy units in a single cluster. Good luck creating this deadly effect for yourself and let us know if you find it effective via our social channels!

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5!

The Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters Team