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Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

Rogue Trader Psyker Build - Pyromancer

By
Craig Robinson

The Psyker is perhaps one of the more in-depth classes and playstyles in Rogue Trader, offering players supportive, offensive, and super late-game builds that only improve the class as you get extremely powerful items. While there are battle mage, support, and other playstyles out there, we are here to recommend a Pyromancer Psyker Build for Rogue Trader, allowing you to play the role of a very long range firemage burning enemies, and also whithering enemy armor down, offering your team a very unique armor shredding support playstyle. Due to its uniqueness, you’ll find some of the challenging fights with enemies that possess slots of armor suddenly become a lot easier, not to mention the steady, yet solid damage you’ll begin to do from the mid-game onwards.

Without further ado, here’s a closer look at our Rogue Trader Psyker Build for the Pyromancer subclass.

Character Creation

Set your characteristics, origins, and homeworld like this, and you’re ready to start your Rogue Trader Psyker Build, focusing on Pyromancy.

If you’re following this build right from the get-go, we recommend building your character like this. This will impact and reflect the way we recommend taking talents and skills for the coming Archetypes. If you’re part way through your own Pyromancer build, you may need to adjust some talents to keep up with some of the item and talent recommendations we suggest later on in the playstyle.

We also recommend a quick read-up on Veil Degredation and Perils of the Warp.

Soldier Build

Level Unlock 1 Unlock 2
1 "Run and Gun" iconRun and Gun
2 Optional
3 "Revel in Slaughter" iconRevel in Slaughter
4 "Firearm Mastery (Heroic Act)" iconFirearm Mastery (Heroic Act) "Fired Up" iconFired Up
5 "Willpower" iconWillpower "Combat Addict" iconCombat Addict or "Rack and Ruin" iconRack and Ruin
6 "Willpower" iconWillpower "Concentrated Fire" iconConcentrated Fire
7 "Perception" iconPerception Blazing Inferno
8 Melting Armour Optional
9 Firearm Mastery 3
10 "Nimble" iconNimble "Perception" iconPerception
11 "Firestorm" iconFirestorm Optional
12 "Agility" iconAgility Psy Rating 1
13 Sparks of the Great Flame It Will Not Die
14 Backdraft Optional
15 Firearm Mastery 4

The premise of the soldier build is about getting your character’s background set up for when you easily ramp up damage later on in the game. You’ll be taking key soldier talents like Fired-Up and "Rack and Ruin" iconRack and Ruin for damage boosts, followed by your key DoT-themed fire enhancements. The crit will prove useful as you continue through the game, alongside the other armor shredding, which is important for future Bounty Hunter and Exemplar talents. You also grab your key defensive stats early so you can go all in on your magic spells, enhancements, and Bounty Hunter talents later on.

Bounty Hunter Build

You can combo your spells to spread Warp Burn to clumped enemies or free-cast your staff to deal huge spell damage and spread Burn naturally.

Level Unlock 1 Unlock 2
1 Hunt Down the Prey
2 "Cull the Bold" iconCull the Bold
3 "Pierce the Armour" iconPierce the Armour
4 Wild Hunt
5 AP Increase + "Perception" iconPerception Psy Rating 2
6 "Perception" iconPerception or "Strength" iconStrength "Share the Spoils" iconShare the Spoils
7 "Molten Beam" iconMolten Beam
8 "Gruesome Kill" iconGruesome Kill Optional
9 "Agility" iconAgility "Swift Movements" iconSwift Movements or Heavy Armour Proficiency
10 "Heightened Concentration" iconHeightened Concentration
11 Optional "Willpower" iconWillpower
12 Wild Hunt 1
13 "Catch" iconCatch
14 Optional "Willpower" iconWillpower
15 Psy Rating 3 "Inflame" iconInflame
16 Fire Within
17 "Agility" iconAgility Optional
18 "Pounce" iconPounce
19 Characteristics Training: "Perception" iconPerception
20 Wild Hunt 2

The general premise of the Bounty Hunter is that you’re looking for ways to largely strip away your enemy’s armor and enhance your crit. "Cull the Bold" iconCull the Bold is the main tool for this, with it granting a large amount of armor reduction when you’re a few turns in, and your fire has spread and triggered the Melting Armour talent, you can strip even more armor away to improve your damage, ally damage, and potentially even dodge if you get it to below 20%, which you should be able to for many enemies. Reducing dodge is very handy since it is by far the strongest defensive stat in Chapters 2 and 3, thanks to the Aeladri and Drukhari enemies. Consequently, you can now nuke armor even more than you once could, using "Molten Beam" iconMolten Beam as the crème de la crème of the build.

Once you start getting Psy Rating, you’ll find the Sparks of the Great Flame will begin to crit often, taking advantage of "Heightened Concentration" iconHeightened Concentration for more armor penetration synergy in your build. You also naturally gain more and more crit through Bounty hunter kills, either through "Share the Spoils" iconShare the Spoils or getting the kill yourself. Being able to ramp your damage against well-armored targets and enemies with little armor will greatly benefit your ever-growing damage and ever-growing burning stacks for even more damage.

Essentially, you’re ramping up your own damage and power through Chapters 2 and 3 using this build. At the same time, your allies also get some benefits from attack-reduced armor targets and potentially even dodge-reduced targets.

Recommended Accessories, Armor & Weapons

Item Item Location Notes
Anatomist’s Amulet Kasballica 4 If the wearer inflicts bleeding, burning or toxin, then they get +2 stacks of this effect.
Warp Surge Brooch Kasballica 15 On the first turn of combat, gain additional attacks equal to the number of Psy Ratings the character has.
"Staff of Endless Flame" iconStaff of Endless Flame "Fellowship" iconFellowship of the Void 7 This will be your main pyromancer staff you’ll use to increase your damage further. Every time you burn two enemies the power level of the staff increases. Expect to get this around the midpoint of Chapter 2 if you manage your reputation and cargo correctly.
"Chains of Domination" iconChains of Domination Looted from the Unidentified Ruin Energy Beam light puzzle on Latotian’s passage. Grants the wearer a stacking 5 bonus to willpower for every enemy they kill. "Willpower" iconWillpower affects the Psyker’s main damage scaling on spells, which is a handy bonus to spell casts for "Molten Beam" iconMolten Beam.
Psyker’s Breastplate Kasballica 7 Heavy Armour from Kasballica that grants perils of the warp proc rate and increases Psy Rating. If you get the requirements to buy this earlier than we anticipate, feel free to swap the "Swift Movements" iconSwift Movements Talent for Heavy Armor Proficiency in Bounty Hunter to Heavy Armour Proficiency, and then take the talent again when you reach Exemplar. You’ll need 45 "Strength" iconStrength to use it.
"Battle-Psyker Boots" iconBattle-Psyker Boots Earned from cargo in an Idira Void Ship Travel event in Chapter 2. Improves dodge chance when you use your Psyker Spells against enemies.
Kasrkin Gauntlets Kasballica 6 Grants a 10% Crit Chance increase. Doubles if you don’t move during your turn.
Ghost Helm Final Explorator Reward Dodges are done using "Willpower" iconWillpower instead of "Agility" iconAgility. Every time you dodge, you gain +1 Psy Rating. You may not be able to get this, but it’s worth mentioning in case you can. "Willpower" iconWillpower will be your highest stat, largely thanks to your +15 stave bonus, Chain of Domination +5 stacking bonuses on kills, and the +7 from your "Fortress World" iconFortress World talent. It also adds the 10% bonus from "Nimble" iconNimble too.

At a minimum, these are the accessories you want to build your character around, with a recommended flamer staff weapon. For the most part, you’ll be getting the low rep value items in Chapter 2 by managing cargo, doing colony projects, and then some items you acquire via pickups in Chapter 2, 3, and 4.

The idea behind the build is you want to be able to ramp up as many stacks of burning on your enemies as possible. The more enemies you ignite using the "Staff of Endless Flame" iconStaff of Endless Flame, the more damage you deal. When you take into account your talents, like Sparks of the Greater Flame for criting enemies while they burn, this will deal a lot of damage around the mid-game. This then gains more crit from the Blazing Inferno talent, and then its damage is increased from the skills like "Inflame" iconInflames, Molten Beam, etc. You’ll also be freely stripping enemies’ armor down easily due to spreading burning for the Melting Armour talent.

Another key feature of Psykers is improving your Psy Rating. You want to find ways to increase it, since many of the Psyker talents scale from it to deal more damage or make an effect stronger. So, it is why we recommend Ghost Helm and Psyker’s Breastplate to increase it. You also get some accessories to increase burning effects, gain more crit, Willpower, and a better dodge increase from the likes of the boots and helmet. All in all, it is a mixture of DoT empowering, build enhancing, and survivability all mixed together.

We recommend reading up on reputation tips for the Kasballica and the Explorators since these possess your main items to purchase from vendors.

Exemplar Build

We won’t go into too much detail here, largely since you already have all the core Pyromancer Psyker talents, armor reduction, and damage increasing tools. However, you’ll still be collecting characteristics, so make sure to continue to increase your Willpower for damage scaling from your Inferno spell casts and your Molten Beam, and Perception to negate high dodge. You can also consider Toughness if you need some more Wounds.

When it comes to Exemplar Talents, we recommend the following options:

  • "Critical Velocity" iconCritical Velocity - Better crit chance and damage scaling
  • "Puncture" iconPuncture - More crit chance since you’ll likely have more armor penetration than enemy armor once your Melting Armor and Cull the Bold effects stack up.
  • "Cataclysm" iconCataclysm - You want to attack more unique enemies anyway for Staff of Endless Flame, so this offers good synergy with its increasing damage.

Oh, and you want to grab "Incinerate" iconIncinerate when you can, too, to round out your Pyromancer spells, along with grabbing Psy Rating 4 when you get to level 40 or as soon as you can select Psy Rating 4 after hitting that level in Chapter 4 and beyond.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Owlcat Games
  • Platforms,
    PS5, Steam, XB X|S
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    23 November 2023
  • Last Updated
    16 June 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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In the grim dark future of the 41st millennium, there is only war. The Imperium of Man, ruled by God-Emperor of Mankind from atop his Golden Throne, is a vast interstellar empire with countless armies. Despite the Imperium’s apparent strength, however, its enemies are even more numerous and threats to mankind both surround the Imperium and gnaw at it from within. Where the constantly strained military might of the Imperium can’t reach, humanity must find other champions, and blessed with holy Warrants of Trade, Rogue Traders have almost unlimited authority to operate in the unconquered reaches of the galaxy beyond the Imperium’s direct influence. After unexpectedly inheriting the title of Rogue Trader von Valancius, you’ll have to secure your holdings in the Koronus Expanse, establish and develop new colonies, investigate the conspiracy that led to your ascension and fend off threats, internal and externals, humans, xenos and worse…

This guide will provide the following information:

  • Tips and info about various gameplay mechanics, including injuries and trauma, veil degradation, momentum, resolve, heroic acts, weapon types and space exploration.
  • Recruitment guides and builds for every companion in the game.
  • Walkthroughs for main quests, boss battle strategies and the effects your choices have.
  • Complete chapter overviews.
  • Best weapons lists for each chapter.
  • Guides for optional dungeons, side quests, errands and solutions to puzzles.
  • Colony guides, including colony projects and their rewards.
  • A vast database of weapons, armor, accessories, abilities, talents and more!

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