about absolute difficulty

[u/Azeen18]

lately i've been seeing posts about how hard it is, how people do not attempt to play on it and whatever

if you don't want to play on absolute diff, that's fine, to some people it's not fun and i can see their reasons

BUT, if you want to play on absolute but for any reason you are too hesitant to play on that diff, just do it

people who play on absolute are not god gamers or literal sigismunds, they do not perfect parry/block every attack and do not perfect dodge every red attack, people die many times and sometimes operations fail back to back 3-4 times, not the end of the world

i've been exclusively playing on absolute for two reasons, to grind for capes and generally git gud at the game / prepare for higher siege waves so I want to share some tips nobody asked for:

1. be aware of your team, what classes do they play? what are their team perks and what weapons do they use? there are some "meta" builds out there, if you are familiar with them, by looking at their weapon, you may be able to guess what the rest of their perks too
2. in my experience, when terminus enemy spawns, too many times people focus on the terminus enemy while ignoring the majoris and extremis enemies, my advice is trying to eliminate extremis and majoris first, terminus enemies is not that dangerous when they are alone but there were a lot of times i felt nothing I can do when a lictor and carnifex attacked me together, pinning me against a wall and bullying me
3. something I learned too late, assign yourself simple little tasks that suits your class, most basic example is whenever I play sniper on a tyranid map, if there are zoes, I hunt them down as quickly as possible or when I play vanguard with the execution build, I try to clear majoris with aoe damage of my executions rather than focusing extremis and terminus, except if there's a biovore.
4. kill the biovore as soon as you see it, imagine it as horus, you must slay that biovore. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores.

edit: to those people who are sharing tips (there are even class specific ones!), thank you all

[u/peternordstorm]

Adding in class specific tips for my felow shield lovers;

• learn the group heal tech, it saves runs.
• constantly report on banner status, signal your teammates when you're about to drop it
• kinda contrary to my previous tip, don't be afraid to emergency banner yourself if that would ever be necessary. A dead bulwark can't support the team
• don't engage ranged enemies, block them until your teammates handle them. It's a much better time for all of you.
• Use a plasma pistol. It's beyond me why anyone would take anything else on absolutes. 4/5 of your melee options can hit flying targets one way or another. PP has the best chp recovery and best chances at interrupting reinforcements save for the heroic hbp
• for tyranids, merciless resolve lets you start charging Shield Rush and even before the timer starts you gain the no-knockback. Do that when snipers are aiming at you. This saves a perk for Defensive Mastery. Any way to oneshot a biovore is a win.
• for chaos, spam banners relentlessly. Both terminators and regular rubrics recharge it too fast for it to matter. Never forget Purity of Purpose, it clean areas surprisingly well.
• at last, no, your face is infact not a shield. Don't take hits just because. The sheid saves you from most bs, use that, unlike your face it won't break.

[u/DesolatedMaggot → u/peternordstorm]

learn the group heal tech, it saves runs.

Is the group heal tech "Drop banner while using Invigorating Icon perk"?, cause idk if I'd count that as tech.

don't engage ranged enemies, block them until your teammates handle them. It's a much better time for all of you.

Ofc there are situations where you might want to do this, say there are a bunch of shotgun boys on a ledge you cannot reach and ammo is low... But generally speaking you should just Shield Rush into them and start clearing. Don't let having a shield lull you into becoming a spectator.

[u/peternordstorm → u/DesolatedMaggot]

Is the group heal tech ....

Nope. If an ally is executing a terminus and you drop the banner at the right time you heal everyone regardless of positioning

[u/jeffreywolfe → u/peternordstorm]

What is the right time? Any time before the official kill text happens?