The Season of the Warpsurge patch brings a ton of balance changes as well, which is going to require some players to adapt their builds to stay effective. With the changes to the psyker, hoarding up Blessings became sub-optimal as they reserve an amount of Warp heat from your pool now.
Several new options became available however, many powers have been buffed or modified to
be used as components for builds which were not powerful enough before to reach lategame with.

Note- Warp Heat management is a bit different now- there are less warp heat reduction on certain weapon-skills like the Witchfire, some have increased reduction like the Force Sword and Biomantic Sword, Perks that help with the management have been boosted, and the Psy Focus Attribute gives you an extendable source of Warp Heat reduction point by point now.

Below are some of the kits I’m playing with, they can be a basis for various builds for further customization and itemization. Most of them need moderate playtime to reach, and can serve as beacons when setting short term goals in your character’s development.
None of these sets connects to the original subclasses you choose when starting a new character, and none of their names represent anything based on the Warhammer 40k role.

There are two skill-sets for a Warp-caster build I found to be prominently fun and effective. These two can be played as separate builds for characters or you can squeeze them onto a single character’s two weapon-sets with some modifications, to be able to play different playstyles as required by the circumstances.

The Warp-wizard
This set is like the classic sorcerer build- long range, high AOE damage and lots of teleporting.

This it’s the main weapon’s skill order used by my psyker.
The Wyrdwane Staff now stacks up vulnerability and reduces Warp heat very effectively and softens up any tougher enemies for your powers, even has a decent suppression damage. Use it frequently in combination with your other skills.
Precognition gives you a good amount of energy shield instead of damage reduction now. You won’t be invulnerable, but the skill can be fitted in a larger-scale energy-shield combo with energy shield effectiveness, extra energy shield-gain psalms and enchants on your items. You’re going to need large amounts of it when playing on +10 or higher missions, but it can serve a purpose in lategame-builds too.
Crush have been improved greatly in visuals and application too. It has an AOE effect now at the point of impact, and can be used to knock back and down groups of enemies to keep them away from a long distance. It also has a great variety of applicable masteries, so you can apply almost any kind of debuff with it in an area, and has decent damage too.
Constrict is your finisher move, and the ultimate tool to get rid of Trap-turrets. The power itself did not receive any major changes in the last patch.
The Personal Teleporter’s animation speed has been increased in the last patch, now it also charges back one charge periodically after it has been emptied (and all other belt items do). It is my main way of getting out of trouble and escape from harmful anomalies.
Empyrean Hail is the new psychic power introduced in this patch and my new favorite. It has a great range, and can be used as a preliminary attack- just target the area between you and your charging melee enemies to apply all sorts of crowd control and a nice amount of damage.


The Shock-way
Another playstyle, or the secondary set of your character can be a kit which mainly focuses on durability and the psychic power Shockwave.
The skills used in this kit are:

Warp Rod’s Warp blast. I use warp blast for it’s fast casting time and long range, but you can fit any type of rod here- for example Telekinetic Rod’s blast can work just as fine.
Telekinetic Dome does not use reserve and can increase your damage reduction by 36% if you use the effectiveness mastery with it. Fits right in.
Aether Blade’s Aether Strike is one of the best movement skills in the game, with it you can get near any group of enemies in a blink of an eye. Can be used together with Personal teleporter to ensure you can’t be surrounded or blocked in any situation. Can be switched with a Biomantic Sword or Force sword too for higher warp heat reduce and damage.
Shockwave- this power received a major rework in this patch- has a faster animation and cast rate, can be cast on the move and has an extremely low cooldown. I use the masteries Phase Through, Temporal Stasis and Dismantle with this one, creating a power that can be used against any type of enemy, and stunlocks almost anything that comes near you.

Attributes and Perks:
Using this second kit requires decent Warp heat management, so you either need to prioritize the Psy Focus Attribute row (this also received an update, now gives you Warpheat regeneration with every point) or/and equip one or two Perks for this purpose, depending on your build.
Warp Heat conversion is one of the best choices if you focus on the last Attribute row, the perk gives you damage calculated from your maximum warp heat value.
The Art of Crippling is a popular choice among players and fits in both of these kits too, doesn’t help you with your heat or your damage though.
Artifical Organs is one of the best Perks for managing Warp heat, and you can even combine it with Self-Flagellation to be able to forget high warp heat for the rest of your character’s life.

Kinetic kit
This build is made possible by the changes on Kinetic Staff and the Haemorrhage power in this patch.
It reaches it’s full potential when you have access to certain Psalm doctrines, but can be used on lower levels too.
The skill order looks like this:

Force Staffs Force bolt is the main pillar of this kit. In this latest patch, the skill became Piercing which means, you can deal multi-target damage with it, and is Armour Breaking, so you won’t necessarily need any further anti-armor tools. It’s the only psyker weapon-skill which can be modified with the “triple projectile” Psalm Doctrine, and that’s the key for unleashing its power.
(Ordinatus Psalm + Neuralis Psalm + Terminus Psalm + Galvanic Psalm + Terminus Psalm + Icarus Psalm) = (For each projectile with Physical Damage, two additional projectiles are created in a 10° cone but Critical Hit chance is reduced by 30%)

Warp Speed is just good with any psyker weapon. Greatly increases damage output with this build.
Haemorrhage damage type has been changed to physical in this patch, so it fits nicely in this kit now. You can hoard up Bleed damage bonuses on your items to greatly increase its damage.
If you prefer fewer casting and more raw weapon damage, you can use Foreboding instead of this.
Enfeeble remains unchanged in this patch. It’s the second skill I always keep, when trying out variations of this kit.
With the Enhanced effect mastery it stuns enemies even in yellow suppression state, so it’s able to stop any charging Plagueridden or any other Champion enemy heading your way, in an instant. It’s fun to use and an effective defensive crowd control ability.

You can tinker with the kits last two skill slot if you wish, I find it that Personal Teleporter fits my playstyle with almost any build, and the updated Precognition is still the best option if you want to get a layer of extra survivability.

Attributes and Perks:
Warp heat is usually not that big of an issue with this build, so I would suggest a balanced distribution of Attribute points between Attribute-rows.
for Perks I use Force Weapon Mastery and Artifical Organs II for a combination of survivability and weapon damage. After getting the triple-projectile psalm doctrine Close Quarters Gunnery becomes an ultimate pick, but it’s useful in early game too.

How to burn
There are two weapons I found to be fitting to a Flame-psyker kit. It’s not too hard to guess that those re the Force Rod and the Pyrokinetic Staff, although we should have a look at the buffs these two have received.

So here are the skill orders for both weapons:




Force Rods Fire Bolt has an extremely high fire-rate and applies a new stack of burn with it’s every hit. Using two of them grants you the Witchfire skill, which is still a great way to control groups of enemies, even though it has received a nerf in its size of effect and Warp Heat reduction value.
Pyrokinetic Staffs Pyro Blast has a powerful new tag now- it deals Heat Vulnerability to every enemy in its area of effect, it can be used to prepare enemies for your initial attacks so your combos can deal the most damage possible. If you reach the point where you can apply the “Each vulnerability stack has a 300% increased effect on DoT effects” psalm-doctrine (Technomartyr Psalm + Haemo-drain Psalm + Icarus Psalm + Static-burst Psalm + Uncreator Psalm) to your armor, the combo’s going to get devastating.

Regarding the psychic powers:
Fiery Form is an obvious choice if you’re looking for a blessing for a heat-build. It grants bonus Heat damage and helps you to deal with close-range engagements.
Spontaneous Combustion- This one got buffed with a twist. It receives a 1000% Damage bonus against burning targets, so it’s a great finisher skill, fitting right in a burn-build.

Firestorm did not receive changes this patch, but it can be equipped with masteries which have been reworked- Health Stimulus gives you HP equal to 10% of the damage dealt, and Warp Energy Redirection fills up your energy shield quite fast. Combining these two provides you with an extra layer of durability during combat, as do equipping Precognition as your last skill in the kit.

Using the Pyrokinetic Staff allows you an extra slot, in which I use Inferno with Vulnerability mastery added.


Attributes and Perks:
Again- warp heat can cause problems with this kit, so I would recommend spending at least 15 points on Psy Focus from your Attribute points.

As for Perks, I use Enhanced Attrition if I want my DoTs to really hurt, or Cull The Weak for direct damage boost, Warp Heat Conversion for its solid bonus damage value and Artifical Organs for class resource regen.