Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

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Markus Kruber Comprehensive Guide [Legend & Cataclysm] - All careers, all weapons
By JokXtar
Guide to learn all about Kruber's weapons and careers [Legend & Cataclysm]
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Introduction
[Updated to version 5.2.3]

This guide is meant both to teach the specific mechanics of weapons and talents of the character, as well as to showcase many different builds for distinct playstyles.
The goal is that you can find interesting, yet effective builds that best suit your preferences, even those weapons and talents which everyone keeps saying are trash simply because they are not "meta".
Everything you see here has been properly tested throughout several games.

Disclaimers:
When talking about breakpoints, I don't consider Wargors specials even though they technically are. What I mean is, if you read "all specials", that means all specials EXCEPT Wargors.

I tried to adjust the properties' percentages to the bare minimum required to reach the intended breakpoints, but sometimes it's just impossible. If you want to make sure you reach them without perfect stats, use the breakpoint calculator (link below).

Legend:
THP = Temporal Health Points
Pv* = Power vs *something* (S for Skaven, C for Chaos, I for Infantry, etc.)
BCR = Block Cost Reduction
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
AS = Attack Speed
DRv* = Damage Reduction vs *something* (S for Skaven, C for Chaos, AoE for Area of Effect)
SBS = Shot Body Shot
SHS = Shot Head Shot
CW = Chaos Warriors
SV = Stormvermin
LAtt = Light Attack
HAtt = Heavy Attack
PAtt = Push Attack
L* = Light attack number *something*
H* = Heavy attack number *something*
BlockCancel = Pressing block input to reset attack combos
1. General overview
Kruber's biggest strength is not in his careers but in his weapons.
With a whopping total of thirteen melee weapons to choose from, they will be what will determine your playstyle for the most part. They are farily easy to use efficiently but also strong, making Kruber an extremely reliable character in close combat even with the Huntsman career, which focuses all of its buffs on ranged weapons.
Speaking of ranged weapons, Kruber's are few but super effective at killing specials from afar (with the obvious exception of the shotgun), so you will always be able contribute to your team by sniping them.
Flexible builds
Unlike the other characters, Kruber's careers don't determine the playstyle and then you have to find builds to make the weapons work with it. Quite the opposite actually, you can play with any weapon and then try to find which talents empower them the most.
Beginner friendly
Partially due to the things mentioned above, Kruber is relatively easier to play than other characters and, since he's always strong in melee combat, it's easier to perform well when playing him.
This doesn't mean that it's not fun or that it's weak, but rather that you can focus more on other things like positioning, awareness, teamplay, etc. without sacrificing your effectiveness in combat.
In my personal opinion (and I'm sure many will agree with me), Kruber is one the best characters to start playing the game with and learn the basics.
2. Weapons
2.1. Melee weapons
Sword:
Fast strikes, horde-clear, high stamina
The Sword is a weapon with very fast attack speed and high damage and cleave against unarmored enemies, making it excellent at dealing with hordes.
Its damage against armored foes is very bad unless you hit headshots.
The Sword has good stamina, good dodge distance and good and cheap pushes.

Combos:
- vs hordes: L1+L2+BlockCancel
- vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam // H1+L2
- vs elites: LAtt spam // H1+H2+L3

Mace:
Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger
The Mace is a well rounded weapon, not too fast but not too slow either, with good stagger, good horde-clear and high damage against armored enemies. It can straggle against mixed hordes though, but it's still capable of holding the ground.
The Mace has high stamina, good dodge distance and good and cheap pushes.

Combos:
- vs hordes: PAtt+L1+L2
- vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L1+L2
- vs elites: HAtt spam

Mace & Sword:
Horde-clear, stagger
The Mace & Sword is a fast weapon, excellent at killing hordes and with good stagger on Light attacks 1 and 2 (the ones that use the mace). It has just enough damage against elites to be decent, but chaos warriors barely take any damage.
The Mace & Sword has decent stamina, good dodge distance and good pushes.

Combos:
- vs hordes: PAtt+L1+L2 // LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: H1+L2 // HAtt spam
- vs elites: PAtt spam

Great Hammer:
Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Great Hammer is a slow but reliable weapon, it has excellent stagger with (almost) unstoppable cleave on heavy attacks and really high damage against armored enemies on light attacks. It takes some time getting used to its slow speed, but once you do, you will love it. Try to get attack speed buffs to improve heavy attack chains.
The Great Hammer has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Light attacks 1 and 2 break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: (PAtk+)H1+H2
- vs mixed hordes: HAtt Spam
- vs elites: LAtt spam

Greatsword
Horde-clear, shieldbreaker
The Greatsword is one of the best weapons to clear hordes in the game. Even though it's not specially fast, it has great range, cleave and damage against unarmored enemies with attacks that make very wide horizontal arcs. Killing elites is its Achilles' heel though, with only the push attacks doing somewhat decent damage against them.
The Greatsword has decent stamina, average dodge distance and good pushes.

Push attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam
- vs elites: PAtt spam

Executioner Sword
Horde-clear, armor penetration, headshot bonus, shieldbreaker
The Executioner Sword is slow, but compensates greatly with its high damage on headshots, long range and wide horizontal arcs on its light attacks. Light attacks are excellent to kill hordes and mixed hordes, while heavy attacks can even oneshot some elites. It requires to land headshots consistently, otherwise it's just a worse version of the greatsword.
The Executioner Sword has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: L1+H2+L3 // LAtt spam
- vs elites: HAtt spam

Bretonnian Longsword
Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Bretonnian Longsword is excellent at everything. Great against regular hordes and mixed hordes, with good damage, stagger, range and speed on horizontal sweep attacks; and high damage against elites on its overhead attacks.
The Bretonnian Longsword has decent stamina, good dodge distance and good pushes.

Push attacks, Light attack 3 and heavy attack 3 break wooden shields.
While charging heavy attacks, you can block attacks.
Combos:
- vs hordes: L1+BlockCancel // L1+H2
- vs mixed hordes: L1+H2
- vs elites: (PAtt+)H3+L3

Halberd:
Armor penetration, shieldbreaker, complex combos
The Halberd is a well-rounded weapon with high damage and armor penetration. Unfortunately, its attacks are vertical slashes instead of horizontal, which reduces its effectiveness against hordes. Still pretty strong, but requires to take advantage of its range and to play more defensively than usual by spamming pushes.
The Halberd has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Push attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: L1+H2 // L1+BlockCancel
- vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L3
- vs elites: H1+L2+L3 // PAtt+L3+H3

Tuskgor spear:
Horde-clear, stagger, headshot bonus
The Tuskgor spear is a very safe and defensive weapon thanks to its wide horizontal sweep attacks, long range and strong stagger. Its speed and damage are average, but can bring a lot of utility to any team composition.
The Tuskgor spear has decent stamina, good dodge distance and strong pushes.

You can charge the heavy attack 1 infinetly, which gives you extra movement speed.
Combos:
- vs hordes: (PAtk+)L1+H2
- vs mixed hordes: (PAtk+)L1+H2
- vs elites: H1+BlockCancel
(cont) (shield weapons)
Sword & Shield:
Improved block, high stamina, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Sword & Shield is a balanced, but weak, shield weapon. It does good against regular hordes, but it struggles against mixed ones. It has a decent combo against elites, but requires to land headshots to deal with them quickly.
The Sword & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

Heavy attack 1 is a shield slam that breaks wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: H1+L1+L2+L3 // L1+L2+BlockCancel
- vs mixed hordes: (H1+)L1+H3
- vs elites: PAtt+H2

Mace & Shield:
Armor penetration, improved block, high stamina, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Mace & Shield is a well rounded weapon with the addition of a shield. This gives it better block, a shield slam attack and more stagger, but doesn't sacrifice much damage for it.
The Mace & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

Heavy attack 1 is a shield slam that breaks wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: (L1+)L2+H2
- vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L3
- vs elites: PAtt+L3

Spear & Shield:
Horde-clear, improved block, high stamina, shieldbreaker, headshot bonus
The Spear & Shield is... overpowered. It is insane at killing hordes and mixed hordes since it has high damage, high cleave, long range, strong stagger and quick combos. Its damage against armored enemies is not crazy, but its easy to land headshots.
The Spear & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

Unlike other shield weapons, it doesn't have a shield slam attack; but it has a special attack while blocking that allows you to hit enemies while covering behind your shield.
Heavy attacks 2 break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: L1+L2+BlockCancel // LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: H1+L2+L3 // (Push+)H1
- vs elites: PAtk+H2+H3

Bretonnian Sword & Shield:
(Grail Knight only)
Armor penetration, improved block, stagger, high stamina, complex combos
The Bretonnian Sword & Shield is a bit slower than other shield weapons, and its combos are quite tricky, but it is even more defensive thanks to the double shield bash. It also has good damage against elites.
It has less range than what it seems like though, so be careful when trying to reach enemies that are not right next to you.
The Bretonnian Sword & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

As of (05/03/22), Push-Attacks’ and Heavy attacks 3's range are bugged to be extremely short.
Heavy attacks 1 and 2 break wooden shields.
Light attack 3 and heavy attack 2 are shield slams.
Combos:
- vs hordes: L1+H2+L3 // L1+BlockCancel
- vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L3
- vs elites: H1+L2+H3 / PAtt+H3
2.2. Ranged weapons
Handgun:
Long range, armor penetration, special sniping, pinpoint accuracy, ignore shields
The Handgun is an excellent sniper weapon, capable of one-shotting specials and even some elites (depending on buffs and difficulty) from very long distances. Since it's hitscan and it has a nice zoom in when pressing the secondary fire button, it's very easy to aim with it. Handgun's shots ignore shields.
The only drawback is that it has to be reloaded after every shot, which takes one and a half seconds.

Repeater Handgun:
Mid range, special sniping, rapid fire
With high clip size and good breakpoints on specials, the Repeater Handgun is a reliable and flexible weapon, capable of killing several enemies before having to reload. It doesn't have a long range, but thanks to its clip size it's more forgiving on bad aim.
Holding Right Click will make the barrels rotate. While this is happening, holding Left Click will shoot bullets very quickly. Shooting this way is only faster, the projectiles are exactly the same and deal the same damage.

Blunderbuss:
Short range, horde-clear, AoE
The Blunderbuss is a powerful shotgun, with wide area of effect and high damage against unarmored enemies, even Plague Monks and Savages. It has more range than it seems, so don't be afraid to shoot at specials (except Packmasters, those take less damage from shotguns).

Longbow:
(Huntsman only)
Mid range, long range, armor penetration, headshot bonus, special sniping, rapid fire
The Longbow is a very flexible ranged weapon, capable of shooting quickly to deal with weak enemies but also able to charge the arrows while aiming to snipe elites and specials from far away.

Kruber's Longbow is one of the hardest weapons to use in the entire game. Let's get into detail now so I don't have to it later in the Hunstman's section.
The Longbow can shoot arrows in three different states, each dealing different amounts of damage, with different effective ranges and different accelerations (which affects how early the trajectory will start to fall down):
  • Quickshots: By simply pressing the primary fire button, you will shoot arrows. This way you can shoot quickly, but they will deal very low damage (starting to falloff at 15 meters) and will have low acceleration.
  • Partially Charged Arrows: If you press the secondary fire button you will charge an arrow, improving your accuracy and increasing the damage of the arrow shot, its effective range (damage falloff starts at 30 meters instead of 15) and its acceleration; but reducing your fire rate significantly. Shooting an arrow at any point before it's fully drawn will be a partially charged arrow.
  • Fully Charged Arrows: There are two ways to know if an arrow is fully charged.
    The first one is the animation, the bow will be moved into a more vertical position once it reaches this state (look for the moment it starts to move).
    The second one is the zoom in, although this only works for the first arrow, since holding the button after shooting will keep the zoom.
    A Fully Charged Arrow will deal massive damage and cleave through several unarmored enemies.
Knowing when to shoot one way or another is very important to maximize your ammunition economy without loosing more time than necessary on drawing the bow. To do this properly you need to learn the different breakpoints.
3. Careers
3.1. Mercenary
General tips
Mercenary is the bruiser career par excellence. A bruiser focuses on controlling the frontline by killing enemies unlike tanks, who do the same by staggering them.
The increased cleave and attack speed from his passives ("Hitting the Sweet Spot" and "Paced Strikes" respectively) make every melee weapon much more effective against hordes, even those with high elite damage. It also has a nice defensive career skill and a lot of THP generation, making him very tanky. This allows you to do something called "hit trading". Let me explain this technique quickly.
Usually, you will try to prevent taking damage as much as possible by playing defensively when necessary (blocking, pushing, dodging, etc.). "Hit trading" consists on taking a hit or two willingly in order to not interrupt your attacks. Bruisers like the Mercenary or Viktor's Zealot career can sustain some damage without a problem, and they need to attack as much as possible to not loose control of the horde.

The good thing about this career is that it's very simple, stay in the frontline and hit things.
Unfortunately there is not a lot of variety when it comes to builds.
  • Strengths: Insane horde-clear, good dps, tanky, easy to play.
  • Weaknesses: Low single target damage, poor mobility, almost no build variety.
Career skill
The career skill, "Morale Boost", is one of the best survivability career skills in the game. It provides temporal health to you and to nearby allies and pushes back enemies around you, which can help anybody in your team to get out of sticky situations like reviving a surrounded ally, shoving enemies away from them so they don't get cornered, interrupting a lifeleech, assassin, packmaster or monster attack, etc.
It's better to use this career skill preentively, in other words, it's better to interrupt enemies that are about to attack rather than using it afterwards to regain health.
Another great way to use it is to gain space for yourself so you can start a new chain of attacks with slow melee weapons, or to safely swap to your ranged weapon and snipe a special or two.
Talents
  • THP on hit is really good for all of Kruber's weapons, and with the extra cleave and attack speed even more so.
  • THP on kill can be good on very specific situations in Cataclysm, where elites are abundant, but generally speaking THP on hit is more consistent.
  • "The More the Merrier!" is absurdly strong for a frontline playstyle that will always look for being close to as many enemies as possible. Remember that power affects damage dealt, stagger strength and cleave. By default, this is always the best option.
  • "Limb-Splitter" is both excessive (since you already have extra cleave passively) and overshadowed by "The More the Merrier!".
  • "Hellborg's Tutelage" is a niche talent that requires good micro to take advantage from it. It's not necessarily bad, but "The More the Merrier!" is better almost always.
  • "Mainstay" is generally speaking a weak talent, but the high cleave and stagger strength of Kruber's weapons and the career skill pushing enemies into the ground (stagger level 2) can make it very easy to take advantage from. Unfortunately, Mercenary is already super good at killing hordes and there are many weapons that are too slow to really use it effectively.
  • "Smiter" helps a lot at killing elites, which is the only "weakness" of this career (not really a weakness, but it's not as strong as its horde-clear).
  • "Enhanced Power" is a good power boost that sinergizes well with "The More the Merrier!" and "Reikland Reaper", but it gives less damage than the other two talents to your melee weapon, and you don't need it to reach breakpoints on your ranged weapons either. Not worth it unless you need it to reach stagger breakpoints.
  • "Reikland Reaper" is a solid choice with any weapon and works as a strong general purpose buff.
  • "Enhanced Training" is usually not worth it unless you desperately feel the need of more attack speed (for example, if you are using an Executioner Sword). Once you play better with those slow weapons you can consider swapping to any of the other two options.
  • "Strike Together" is super strong in teams that play together (as it should be), granting a total of +30% extra attack speed. If you are a team player, this is the best talent for this row.
  • "Stand Clear" can compensate the Executioner Sword's and Great Hammer's very short dodge distance.
  • "Blade Barrier" is the right choice 99% of the time, allowing you to survive for longer and reducing the punishment from hit trading.
  • "Black Market Supplies" is a good talent, but clearly outshined by the other two options since you shouldn't be using your ranged weapon too much.
  • "Walk it Off" helps your team survive for longer in pitch moments, but since your career skill already does that by pushing enemies away, you are not gaining anything during the first half of this buff's duration.
  • "Ready for Action" is plain CDR which is, well, good in any situation.
  • "On Yer Feet, Mates!" looks great on paper, but you can still revive your allies after using your career skill without this talent, so it doesn't really add anything special to it.

Builds
Mercenary bruiser
A bruiser is a frontliner that controls hordes through doing damage and killing multiple enemies quickly. Mercenary's passives and talents make him incredibly strong at this role.
Gear
Melee weapons
Properties
Traits
Talents
Executioner Sword
BCR + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
(1/2)-1-2-2-1-2
Bretonnian Longsword
BCR + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying/Parry
1-1-2-1-2-2
Greatsword
BCR + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
1-1-2-3-2-2
Mace & Sword
Stamina + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
1-1-2-3-2-2
Spear & Shield
BCR + PvS
Opportunist
1-1-1-3-2-2
Tuskgor Spear
Stamina + Crit Chance
Resourceful Combatant
1-1-2-3-2-2

Ranged weapons
Repeater Handgun
Handgun
Properties
L: PvS + PvA
C: PvS + PvI
L: PvS + PvB/PvC + PvI
C: PvC + PvI
Traits
Scrounger
Conservative Shooter
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + PvS
C: PvS + Attack Speed
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvS + PvI
Decanter
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel

Executioner Sword can kill elites very easily, which makes THP on kill almost as good as THP on hit in Cataclysm, just slightly less reliable. Bretonnian Longsword's unique block mechanic makes "Parry" a trait worth considering, specially since you are already gaining extra attack speed from your pasive.
Regarding the Level 20 talents, unless you really need extra power or attack speed ("Reikland Reaper" or "Enhanced Training" respectively), "Strike Together" will always be the superior choice, specially in Cataclysm where teams (should) play very close together.
Playstyle
As a bruiser, your job is to hold the frontline by killing every enemy that gets close to you. All the melee weapons listed above can kill regular infantry very easily and safely thanks to either their range or their speed as long as you play aggressively. Still, all of them have their own quirks that change the playstyle ever so slightly:
  • Executioner sword is the slowest, but headshots deal a lot of damage and stagger elites (light attacks don't interrupt overhead attacks or Chaos Warriors, so be careful!). Shields are its biggest counter.
  • Greatsword is extremely good against regular hordes, but elites and shielded enemies can pose a big threat since they interrupt your attacks.
  • Bretonnian Longsword is a mix between the other two big swords. It takes some time to learn the right combos, but is very solid in any situation, being both fast and able to kill elites with ease.
  • Mace & Sword is fast, has great cleave, great damage against unarmored enemies and high stagger. Killing elites can be a bit tough, specially chaos warriors, but you can easily stagger them to help your team finish them off.
  • Spear & Shield has insane horde clear and very strong stagger, blocks, pushes, range and THP generation. It's good enough against elites as well, even in Cataclysm. Safe to use, great utility to the team and damage against all types of enemies in all combinations. Blatantly OP weapon.
  • Tuskgor spear can interrupt almost every attack (exceptions are CW overheads and berserkers combos). It can stall enemies infinitely and generates an insane amount of THP on hit. It has low damage though, but the utility it brings to the team compensates that.
With the exceptions of the Mace & Sword and the Spear & Shield, the other weapons require good dodge dancing to prevent getting hit. It's a technique that requires time to learn, but you can start by trying to dodge right before every attack that you feel is slow. Every weapon has it's own combos and pacing, so I would recommend taking some time with only one before trying out the others.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
Breakpoints
Executioner Sword heavy attack breakpoints:
Legend:
- With Smiter:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Monks, Savages, Wargors and all the other specials
1SHS all specials and elites except Maulers and Chaos Warriors
2SHS Maulers and Chaos Warriors
Cataclysm:
- With Smiter, +6.5%PvS or 2 stacks of "The More the Merrier!":
2SBS Stormvermin and all specials
1SHS Stormvermin and all specials
3SHS Chaos Warriors

Bretonnian Longsword stagger breakpoints:
Heavy attacks 1 and 2 interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads and Plague Monks combos.
- With either "Reikland Reaper" triggered or 2 stacks of "The More the Merrier!":
Heavy attacks 3 can interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads, Savages combos and Plague Monks attacks.
- With +10%PvS and either "Reikland Reaper" triggered or 3 stacks of "The More the Merrier!":
Heavy attacks 1 and 2 can also interrupt Plague Monks combos.

Spear & Shield stagger breakpoints:
- With Opportunist, +20%PvS and 1 stack of "The More the Merrier!":
Pushes interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads.

Repeater handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvS, +10% PvC and +10%PvA:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors and any other special
3SBS Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS all specials except Packmasters
2SHS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Packmasters
Cataclysm:
- With +15.5%PvS and +10%PvI:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials except Assassins and Packmasters
3SBS Packmasters and Stormvermin
2SHS Stormvermin

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
1SBS all specials, Stormvermin and Bestigors
1SHS Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
3SHS Chaos Warriors
- With +20%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Maulers
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC and +5%PvB:
1SBS Monks and Savages
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS Stormvermin and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Bestigors
Mercenary dps
A melee dps usually focuses on killing elites first and then helps the frontliners to keep the hordes under control. Thanks to Mercenary's passives and talents, you can do both things at the same time, so don't ignore the regular infantry to chase around an elite.
Gear
Melee weapons
Properties
Traits
Talents
Halberd
Stamina + BCR
Swift Slaying
2-3-2-3-2-2
Sword
BCR + Crit Power
Swift Slaying
1-3-2-3-2-2
Mace
Stamina + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
1-1-1-1-2-2
Great Hammer
BCR + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
1-1-2-2-1-1

Ranged weapons
Repeater Handgun
Handgun
Blunderbuss
Properties
L: PvS + PvA
C: PvS + PvI
L: PvS + PvB/PvC + PvI
C: PvS + PvI
L: Crit Chance + PvA
C: Crit Chance + PvA
Traits
Scrounger
Conservative Shooter
Scrounger
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + PvS
C: PvS + Attack Speed
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvC + PvI
Decanter
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Stamina Recovery
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance/CDR
Shrapnel

Since you are using "Hellborg's Tutelage" with the Halberd and the Sword, you don't need Crit Chance properties. That allows you to pick CDR in your trinket and BCR in the weapon.
These weapons benefit greatly from the extra attack speed, cleave and power that passives and talents give, allowing them to tear through mixed hordes as if they were made of paper.
The Blunderbuss is a nice complement to the Halberd and the Mace, since they can sometimes straggle against very thick hordes. One quick shot can clear the mess and give you more breathing room.
Playstyle
Your job will be very similar to that of a bruiser, but you will have more damage against elites in exchange for other things. Overall these weapons are more balanced, but can straggle if left alone in the frontline.
  • The Halberd need to be played defensively, spamming pushes and abusing its range. It has the highest dps and can land headshots with relative ease, but the lack of wide horizontal attacks, "long" delay in its attacks and the inability to stagger elites make it a bit riskier when surrounded. Luckily your career skill is perfect to help with those situations.
  • The Sword is very fast, but has very low damage against elites. The guaranteed crit from "Hellborg's Tutelage" help a lot to compensate that. Try to always use it with a heavy attack to gain the maximum value possible. Additionally, heavy attacks are very useful to stagger elites (that are not attacking) and to trigger "Paced Strikes".
  • The Mace is fast and flexible, capable of dealing with big masses of infantry with push attacks and elites with heavy attacks. The problem comes when armored elites are mixed in hordes, since its push attacks can't cleave through them. It also has nice stagger strength and mobility.
  • The Great Hammer is super slow, but with "Enhanced Training" and Swift Slaying you can mitigate that, making this weapon extremely strong at killing hordes of any kind and density. It's also amazing at killing elites with its light attacks, even Chaos Warriors die in just a few hits. Starting chains of heavy attacks without the attack speed buffs is its biggest problem, but with some training you can get used to it easily (try starting the heavy chains with a push attack!).
While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
Breakpoints
Repeater handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvS, +10% PvC and +10% PvA:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors and any other special
3SBS Maulers , Monks and Savages
1SHS all specials except Packmasters
2SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Packmasters
Cataclysm:
- With +15.5%PvS and +10%PvI:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials except Assassins and Packmasters
3SBS Packmasters and Stormvermin
2SHS Stormvermin

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
1SBS all specials, Stormvermin and Bestigors
1SHS Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
3SHS Chaos Warriors
- With +20%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Maulers
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC and +5%PvB:
1SBS Monks and Savages
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS Stormvermin and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Bestigors
Mercenary tank
Using the Sword & Shield or the Mace & Shield with the Mercenary wastes his passives and talents, and you can achieve much better results at holding the frontline with the bruiser builds.
With these two weapons you will only be staggering enemies, not even doing good damage, generating THP for yourself or applying buffs nor debuffs. There is really no advantage to using them with Mercenary.
3.2. Huntsman
General tips
Huntsman is probably the hardest career in the game, but at the same time its skill-ceiling is the highest. This means that it's hard to master, but very strong once you do.
Don't focus on headshots too much, you will only waste time and ammo (you will miss more than you will hit if you try too hard). Consider "Waste Not, Want Not" an extra, not your main strength. Getting consistent headshots comes with practice after playing a lot of hours, so don't force yourself.
Additionally, you should use your melee weapons as they are very strong and will be more useful against hordes than your ranged weapons (some of them even against elites).
The longbow is a weapon unique to this career. It's extremely hard to master, but once you do, you will see it can be incredibly powerful in any situation (except when you are completly surrounded). Learning how much you need to charge the bow to hit killing blows takes practice, but is very well worth it, since it will save you very important seconds while fighting.
  • Strengths: High single target damage, high ammunition sustain.
  • Weaknesses: Bad horde-clear, poor mobility, squishy (can compensate with high THP generation), very hard to play.
Career skill
"Hunter's Prowl" is a 'get-out-of-jail card', a dps boost and a time window in which you can recover ammunition; all at the same time. Learning when to use it one way or another is difficult, but its flexibility makes it really good if you know how to take advantage of it.
Be mindful of your team when using the career skill as it immediately puts you in stealth, forcing the enemies to aggro your allies instead and putting more pressure into them. Sometimes saving yourself can mean killing an ally.
Pushes with your melee weapon don't cancel stealth, so you can open yourself a path through the enemies and still be useful to your team while you safely move to a better position.
Talents
  • THP on stagger is the most reliable for pretty much every weapon.
  • THP on kill can be good if you are using your melee weapon to kill elites instead of your ranged weapon.
  • "Keep it Coming" increases the uptime of your weapon by not having to reload with the Handgun and the Blunderbuss, which greatly increases their efficiency.
  • "Make 'Em Bleed" increases the damage when scoring critical hits, not only yours, but also from your allies, this is very useful against monsters. This talent can also be applied with your melee weapon (even with shield bashes!). The extra damage affects the attack that triggers it as well, so it's never really wasted.
  • "One in the Eye" is a nice boost to reach headshot breakpoints. This talent also applies to your melee weapon.
"One in the Eye" grants more dps to weapons with high finesse, which are: Executioner Sword, Spear & Shield, Sword, Mace & Sword and Tuskgor spear.
"Make 'Em Bleed" grants more dps to these weapons: Bretonnian Longsword, Halberd, Greatsword, Mace & Shield, Sword & Shield, Great Hammer and Mace.
Of course, landing headshots is skill-based while critical hits are luck-based, so that should be the most determinant factor.
  • "Bulwark" is good at supporting the team with defensive playstyles. Not Huntsman's thing unless you are using a shield weapon a lot and don't need "Enhanced Power" to reach breakpoints on your ranged weapon.
  • "Smiter" helps at defending yourself in melee combat against elites, but you are most likely going to kill them with your ranged weapon.
  • "Enhanced Power" is the only option that increases your ranged weapon's damage, but it also gives some extra cleave to your melee weapon, which can help during hordes.
  • "Thrill of the Hunt" is great for the Handgun since it has to reload after every shot. For the Blunderbuss too if it has Conservative Shooter as its trait.
  • "Makin' It Look Easy" is an amazing dps boost to your ranged weapon but also helps with the ammunition economy if your weapon has Scrounger as its trait. The right choice for Repeater Handgun and Longbow. The Blunderbuss benefits from this talent too if you have Scrounger as its trait.
  • "Burst of Enthusiasm" is a nice extra protection, but overall not worth it, specially considering how good the other options in this row are. It can compensate melee weapons that don't have good THP with either level 5 talent, but Boon of Shallya is usually enough for that.
  • "Shot Crafter" ammo recovery is useful if you are not consistent at landing headshots.
  • "Thick Hide" provides a huge and consistent damage reduction buff due to the high amount of elites and specials in Legend and Cataclysm. With this talent, Barkskin looses some value, making Natural Bond and Boon of Shallya worth considering (not necessarily better, just having more options).
  • "Longshanks" can help reposition frequently with certain weapons like the Halberd and the Blunderbuss. It can help prevent getting hit, but "Thick Hide" is more consistent protection.
  • "Blend In" gives you more frequent stealth so you can reposition more frequently, making it a great choice if you are using the Handgun, with which it's harder to get out of tough situations.
  • "Concealed Strikes" lets you attack and keep the stealth, great for more aggressive uses of the career skill, allowing you to escape from enemies while killing them.
  • "Head Down and Hidden" gives you more buff uptime, which means more dps and more chances to recover ammunition, but it's riskier than "Concealed Strikes".

Builds
Huntsman is a ranged dps career with strong melee weapons. This means that pretty much any combination of weapons works. That's why I will format the builds a bit differently.
Huntsman melee weapons
Good combinations
These are my recommendations of what works best, but pretty much everything is viable as long as you play accordingly.
Melee weapons
Longbow
Handgun
Repeater Handgun
Blunderbuss
Sword
X
X
Mace
X
X
X
X
Mace & Sword
X
X
X
Sword & Shield
X
X
X
Mace & Shield
X
X
X
X
Spear & Shield
X
X
X
X
Halberd
X
X
Tuskgor Spear
X
X
X
X
Great Hammer
X
X
Greatsword
X
X
Executioner Sword
X
X
X
Bretonnian Longsword
X
X
X
X
Gear
Melee weapons
Properties
Traits
Level 5 talent
Sword
BCR + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
THP on stagger
Mace
Stamina + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
THP on stagger
Mace & Sword
BCR + Stamina
Swift Slaying
THP on stagger
Sword & Shield
BCR + PvS
Opportunist
THP on stagger
Mace & Shield
BCR + PvS
Opportunist
THP on stagger
Spear & Shield
BCR + PvS
Opportunist
THP on stagger
Halberd
BCR + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
Both
Tuskgor Spear
Stamina + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
THP on stagger
Great Hammer
BCR + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
THP on stagger
Greatsword
BCR + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
Both
Executioner Sword
BCR + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
THP on kill
Bretonnian Longsword
BCR + Attack Speed
Swift Slaying
THP on stagger
Note for shield weapons: With Opportunist, Enhanced Power and +17%PvS (one property on weapon, another on charm), shield bashes and pushes can interrupt all attacks, including Plague Monks combos.
As for the second property on your melee weapon: Attack Speed gives more safety at clearing hordes, while Crit Chance gives you more damage against elites, but it's less consistent. You can choose either, but I recommend what is written in the table.
Sniperino
A standard ranged dps build that relies on hard hitting ranged weapons with long effective range while also has access to strong melee weapons to defend oneself or to help in the frontline.
Gear
Ranged weapons
Longbow
Handgun
Properties
L: PvC + PvA
C: PvC + PvB
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvC + PvI
Traits
Conservative Shooter
Conservative Shooter
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin/Natural Bond
Charm
L: PvS + PvI
C: PvC + PvS
Decanter
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel
Talents
1-3-3-2-2-2
1-1-3-1-2-1

For your melee weapon slot, deffensive weapons like shield weapons and tuskgor spear will work better, since they will allow you to build space for your team and yourself, in addition to having a lot of THP generation.
Due to the Level 20 talent "Thick Hide" Barkskin looses a bit of value, making the other options slightly more viable. Boon of Shallya is overkill with most of Kruber's melee weapons and THP on stagger, while Natural Bond synergizes well with ranged dps playstyles, although you should be fighting with your melee weapon frequently, so it's up to your preference.
Playstyle
Your main priority should be to kill specials and elites at long range while helping the frontline against regular infantry. The latter can be done with either weapon. Or you can just play as a slightly weaker frontliner for a while, it's not mandatory to stick to a ranged playstyle.
With Conservative Shooter and the "Waste Not, Want Not" passive, every headshot recovers 2 ammunition, making these weapons very ammo-sufficient even if you can't land headshots consistently (a good trick is to shoot at unaware enemies for easy headshots/free ammo).
Reserve your career skill to reposition or to get extra damage against Chaos Warriors and Monsters. With the Longbow it's also a good idea to activate the career skill and spam quickshots during hordes to recover a lot of ammunition.
While the Handgun is much easier to perform well with, it has its limitations due to the long reload time. On the other hand, the Longbow has a much higher skill ceilling, meaning that once you get used to the timings and breakpoints, it will perform better.
Breakpoints
Longbow breakpoints:
Legend:
With +10%PvS, +10% PvC, +5%PvI, +5%PvA, Enhanced Power and One in the Eye:
Attack
SV
Besti
Maul
CW
Monk
Sava
Assa
Gun/Warp
Warg
Globa
Leech/BS
Pack
Full charge
1
1
2
10
2
2
1
1
4
1
1
1
Headshot
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Partial charge
2
2
3
-
2
2
1
2
-
2
2
2
Headshot
1
1
8
13
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
Full + Partial
1
1
1
10
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
- Fully charged shot:
1SBS all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS all enemies except CW and Maulers
2SHS Maulers and CW
- Partially charged shot:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials (except Assassins), SV, Bestigor, Monks and Savages
3SBS Maulers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Packmasters
2SHS Packmasters
- Fully charged shot + partially charged shot combo (bodyshots):
Kills all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
With +10%PvS, +18% PvC, +9%PvB, Enhanced Power and One in the Eye:
Attack
SV
Besti
Maul
CW
Monk
Sava
Assa
Gun/Warp
Warg
Globa
Leech/BS
Pack
Full charge
2
2
3
15
2
2
1
1
6
2
2
2
Headshot
1
1
2
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Partial charge
3
3
4
-
3
2
2
2
-
3
2
3
Headshot
2
2
13
20
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
Full + Partial
1
2
2
15
1
1
1
1
6
1
1
1
- Fully charged shot:
1SBS Assassin, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS SV, Bestigor, Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches/Blightstormers and Packmasters
1SHS SV, Bestigor, Monks, Savages, Wargors and all specials
2SHS Maulers
4SHS CW
- Partially charged shot:
2SBS Savages, Assassins, Ratlings, Warpfires, Leeches/Blightstormers
3SBS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Globadiers, Packmasters
1SHS all specials except packmasters, Monks, Savages, Wargors
2SHS SV, Bestigors and Packmasters
- Fully charged shot + partially charged shot combo (bodyshots):
Kills SV, Monks, Savages and all specials

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +5%PvS, +10%PvC, +18.5%PvI and Enhanced Power:
1SBS all enemies except Chaos Warriors and Wargors
2SBS Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and Chaos Warriors
3SHS Chaos Warriors
Cataclysm:
- With +10% PvS, +17%PvC, +7%PvI and Enhanced Power:
1SBS all specials, SV and Bestigors.
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors.
1SHS Savages and Wargors.
4SHS CW.
Manling gunner
A ranged dps build more forgiving to players that don't have excellent aim. Having a multipurpose ranged weapon that can be used almost constantly makes it complement very well with any melee weapon.
Gear
Ranged weapons
Repeater Handgun
Repeater Handgun
Properties
L: PvS + PvA
C: PvI + Crit Chance
L: PvS + PvA
C: PvI + PvA
Traits
Scrounger
Barrage
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + PvS
C: PvC + PvS
Decanter
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel
Talents
1-(1/2)-3-2-1-3
1-1-3-2-1-3

For your melee weapon slot, since the Repeater Handgun is an all-purpose weapon, anything works. Defensive weapons can build you space to shoot more, anti-armour weapons can help at killing chaos warriors and sword-type weapons can clear infantry more easily. Try to compensate your team's weakness.
For the Level 10 talent, "Keep it Coming" gives more ammo sustain, while "Make 'Em Bleed" increases the damage you and your allies deal to elites and monsters. It's not consistent enough when it comes to reaching breakpoints with the Repeater Handgun, but it will increase your overall dps with both weapons.
There are two setups for the Repeater Handgun, one with Scrounger that focuses more on scoring critical hits and the other one with Barrage, with less ammo sustain but more ammo efficiency and better breakpoints.
Playstyle
Your main priority should be to kill specials at long range while helping the frontline against regular infantry and elites. Wait for elites to get close so you are not penalized by the Repeater Handgun's damage falloff (it starts at 15 meters).
Depending on your Repeater Handgun's setup, your playstyle will be slightly different:
  • With Scrounger you will have almost infinite ammo. Use the Reapeater Handgun to kill elites and specials and you will still have ammunition to spare on infantry. Still, your melee weapon will be better at dealing with hordes.
  • With Barrage you will have more damage against key enemies like berserkers and monsters, but less ammunition to kill the more common types of elites. With this setup you will have to use your melee weapon more frequently.
Reserve your career skill to reposition and then unleash deadly barrages at your enemies. Try to shoot as much as possible during it to recover more ammunition, focusing first on elites.
The extra damage from the career skill is very noticeable against berserkers, so don't hesitate to use it aggressively if you see a group of them.
Breakpoints
Repeater Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +18.5%PvS, +10%PvC, +9%PvA and Enhanced Power:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Maulers and all specials except Assassins
3SBS Monks and Savages
1SHS Stormvermin and all specials except Packmasters
2SHS Wargors, Monks and Savages
- During "Hunter's Prowl":
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS Packmasters and all elites except Chaos Warriors and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and Chaos Warriors
1 crit SBS all enemies except Chaos Warriors and Wargors

Cataclysm:
- With +10% PvS, +10% PvC, +10% PvI and Enhanced Power:
1SBS Assassins and all regular infantry except Marauders
2SBS any other special except Packmasters
3SBS Stormvermin, Maulers and Packmasters
4SBS Bestigors
5SBS Monks and Savages
2SHS/crit Stormvermin
- During "Hunter's Prowl":
1SBS all regular infantry, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
2SBS Stormvermin, Maulers, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
3SBS Bestigors, Monks and Savages
1SHS/crit Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SHS/crit Bestigors, Monks and Savages

- With +10% PvS, +10% PvC, +10% PvI, +10%PvA, Barrage and Enhanced Power:
1SBS Assassins and all regular infantry except Marauders
2SBS any other special except Packmasters
3SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Maulers and Packmasters
5SBS Monks and Savages
2SHS/crit Stormvermin
- With +10% PvS, +10% PvC, +10% PvI, +10%PvA, 5 stacks of Barrage and Enhanced Power:
2SBS Stormvermin
4SBS Monks and Savages
1SHS/crit all specials except Packmasters
2SHS/crit Bestigors and Packmasters
Bluntsman
This build uses a shotgun instead of a long range weapon, changing the playstyle dramatically.
Gear
Ranged weapons
Blunderbuss
Blunderbuss
Properties
L: PvS/PvI + Crit Chance
C: PvA + Crit Chance
L: PvS + PvI
C: PvA + PvC
Traits
Scrounger
Conservative Shooter
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvS + PvA
C: PvS + PvA
Proxy/Decanter
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel
Talents
1-1-(2/3)-2-3-2
1-1-(2/3)-1-3-2

Blunderbuss right click generates THP with "Taste of Victory" since it staggers enemies. Melee weapons that are good at killing elites sinergize better with the Blunderbuss, since it can kill anything but armored enemies and monsters (including Packmasters). Some examples are the Halberd, the Mace and the Executioner Sword. Deffensive weapons are a good combo too as they allow you to retreat unscathed after shooting the Blunderbuss and to create space to reload it.
"Enhanced Power" is not mandatory, but it's very welcome to secure kills with the Blunderbuss. Still, "Smiter" is a great buff for melee weapons if you use them to kill elites (which you will).
Level 20 talent "Thrill of the Hunt" increases the dps, specially during "Hunter's Prowl", but "Making' It Look Easy" does the same and also increases the ammunition economy if you have Scrounger as your weapon's trait.
Level 25 talent "Longshanks" makes you move faster even while reloading. Is just the right amount to get out of range from enemies and prevent getting hit in a vulnerable state. It's also useful for melee weapons that rely on their range like the Halberd.
Realistically, all three options in this row are good for this build.
There are two setups, one with Scrounger that relies on critical hits and the other with Conservative Shooter. Because getting headshots consistently with the Blunderbuss is very difficult, I wouldn't recommend it until you master this weapon first.
Playstyle
Use your ranged weapon to thin down hordes and kill unarmored elites (Maulers, Plague Monks and Savages) and your melee weapon to help your frontliners by staggering or killing armored elites. Ideally you want to position yourself close to the frontline, but not so close that you get the aggro. You need to stay unpressured in order to use the Blunderbuss since it's very slow to reload.
Moving in and out of the frontline can be tricky at first, but with some practice you can get the hang of it. I recommend pushing enemies with the Blunderbuss and then dodge back, that way you can gain space and let your allies aggro them.
The Scrounger setup is reliant on rng, but easier to pull off.
The Conservative Shooter setup on the other hand is much harder to capitalize on, requiring a lot of skill from the player, but it also has a huge problem. In this game, shotgun shots are considered headshots when the pellet shot at the exact center of the screen hits the head of an enemy before any other pellet hits a target. As you can imagine, unless the enemy has its head poking out in front of their body (aka skavens) it is super hard to land headshots in normal situations.
But this is not the problem I was talking about. Shooting at an enemy's head means that half of the pellets will miss (theoretically), effectively reducing the damage you do.

The Blunderbuss (like all shotguns in the game) deals negligible damage to monsters, and that won't change with the career skill's damage buff. Use your melee weapon instead.
"Hunter's Prowl" is most useful when a bunch of elites approach the team.
Breakpoints
Blunderbuss breakpoints:
Since the Blunderbuss is a shotgun, talking about breakpoints is always very inconsistent but I will try my best to explain them.
Legend:
- With +10%PvS, +5%PvI, +5%PvA and Enhanced Power OR +12.5%PvS and +10%PvA:
1SBS mid range Monks, Savages, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SBS close range Maulers
1SBS very close range (almost melee) Stormvermin, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
- During "Hunter's Prowl":
1SBS mid range Maulers, Monks, Savages and all specials except Packmasters
1SBS close range Stormvermin, Bestigors and Packmasters
Cataclysm:
- With +14%PvA and Enhanced Power OR +8.5%PvS, +8.5%PvC and +14%PvA:
1SBS mid range Assassins
1SBS close range Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SBS very close range (almost melee) Maulers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS very close range (almost melee) Stormvermin and Bestigors
- During "Hunter's Prowl":
1SBS mid range Monks, Savages, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SBS close range Maulers, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SBS very close range (almost melee) Stormvermin and Bestigors
3.3. Foot Knight
General tips
Your main role in the team will always be to hold the frontline, either by bullying enemies with pushes or by killing them.
Keep yourself around your team, specially other melee classes and help them kill enemies easier by staggering and/or damaging whatever is the biggest threat. You might not get the best stats at the end (although you perfectly can, depending on the build) but, if you do your job properly, you will be the key to victory.
  • Strengths: High power, high stagger strength, good horde-clear, very tanky, good mobility, team buffs, easy to play.
  • Weaknesses: Low single target damage; rigid builds, has to commit to either a defensive or offensive playstyle.
Career skill
"Valiant Charge" is a really powerful crowd control tool with very low cooldown. Learning when to use it and the perfect moment to cancel it (by pressing the block button) is key to optimize its use. You can use it aggressively just to stagger enemies as much as possible thanks to its short cooldown, save it for big groups of elites or save it for reviving an ally. You will eventually learn to read the situation and know what's the best strategy to follow.
Since it has such a short cooldown and you are so tanky, it might be a good idea to let yourself get hit on purpose to recharge it faster, but that requires good game knowledge.

There are a few advanced tricks to further improve "Valiant Charge" 's usefulness:
- If you activate it while reviving an ally, the revive won't be interrupted and you will stagger enemies and dash away.
- If you hold the block button before charging, you will block attacks during the charge dash (but be careful, if you ran our of stamina the charge will be interrupted!).
- You can press the attack button during the charge to throw a light attack right after the charge finishes.
- If you start holding the attack button during "Valiant Charge", you will charge a heavy attack. If you hold it for long enough and then release the button, you will throw a heavy attack right after the charge finishes.
- You can shoot your ranged weapon during the charge.
- If you hold the block button with the repeater handgun equipped (making the cannon rotate), then activate "Valiant Charge", you can hold your attack button to shoot bullets at maximum fire rate too.
- If you start reloading your ranged weapon and then use "Valiant Charge", the reload won't be interrupted.
- You can do many of these things during the same use of "Valiant Charge", but it's hard to manage given that you won't see the animations (the animation of the skill will override them).
Talents
  • THP on stagger is absurdly strong with weapons with high stagger strength such as shield weapons and the great hammer.
  • THP on hit is great with high cleave weapons such as the three two-handed swords, and also the only viable choice for weapons with high damage per hit like the Halberd.
  • "Staggering Force" gives a passive increase of your stagger power, excellent to reach specific breakpoints without having to worry about weapon propeties or inconsistent buffs.
  • "Have at Thee!" increases your power for a long duration every time you stagger an elite. This effect is triggered no matter how you cause the stagger, so ranged weapons and the career skill can do it too. Extra power means more damage, cleave and stagger strength; but unless you are in Cataclysm, the uptime for this buff is severely low.
  • "Crowd Clearer" is a great dps boost to weapons that frequently push as part of their combos.
  • "Bulwark" increases the damage taken by enemies that you stagger from any source. Most of the time your job will be to stagger enemies with your weapon and with your career skill, which makes it a great option to boost your whole team's dps consistently.
  • "Mainstay" is a nice damage buff for yourself, but it only grants 10% more than Bulwark in exchange for not increasing your team's damage. It's better in Legend or lower difficulties where players tend to play more individualistic.
  • "Enhanced Power" can help reach both damage and stagger breakpoints, although if we are strictly speaking in terms of damage, any of the other two options for this row are better, specially with how much this career's kit revolves around the stagger system.
  • "Rock of the Reikland" gives more BCR to the whole team which is undoubtedly strong. Doubling the area of effect is super good in Legend, making this talent the best choice.
    In Cataclysm though, players tend to play closer to one another (or at least they should) and not doing so usually means death. The extra range can make them survive a little longer, but given that your role most of the time is a supportive one, you will be more useful by staggering or aggroing the enemies.
  • "That's Bloody Teamwork!" works great in Cataclysm since players should play very close together anyways, and giving +30% damage reduction to 4 characters is insanely valuable. It has diminishing returns with other damage reduction effects, which means that is not as beneficial for Ironbreaker and Unchained, but it's still very good for melee careers that are squishier. It has little to no value in Legend though.
  • "Comrades in Arms" is the only offensive talent in this row, and it helps reach breakpoints without sacrifing a weapon property or "Bulwark" at level 15. It greatly buffs the closest ally, which can be of great help to careers with melee playstyles that usually lack defensive stats like Slayer and Witch Hunter Captain. It's equally viable in both Legend and Cataclysm.
  • "It's Hero Time" allows you to use Valiant Charge constantly/agressively and still have it available when an ally gets incapacitated (dying, hooked, pounced by an assassin, sucked by a leech or falling off a cliff).
  • "Counter-Punch" gives you free pushes after blocking attacks, allowing you to scape from very tough situations. It also combines amazingly well with level 10 talent "Crowd Clearer".
  • "Inspiring Blow" might seem bad on paper, but with level 30 talent "Battering Ram" you can pretty much use Valiant Charge nonstop against patrols. The area of effect is very limited, but if you are close to your allies then you can get even more value from this talent.
  • "Numb to pain" is a good choice for going for clutch resurrections when there is Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers or Poison Wind Globadiers. It also eliminates the risks of using a slow weapon right after charging (i.e. the great hammer). Remember that cancelling the dash earlier doesn't affect the invulnerability, giving you more time to attack during its duration. Great in combination with level 25 "It’s Hero Time" talent.
  • "Battering Ram" works great with level 10 "Have at Thee!" and level 25 "Inspiring Blow" talents, since with "Battering Ram" you won't be stopped by elites and you will trigger both effects multiple times. It also makes your career skill more useful in any situation that involves elites and it creates more space (literally) for reviving teammates too. Best of the three choices for utility.
  • "Bull of Ostland!" is amazing for any weapon that benefits from extra attack speed and, if used aggressively, you can keep the buff up almost permanently.

Builds
Bloody Battering Ram
Full tank build that focuses on staggering enemies and buffing your team.
Gear
Melee weapons
Sword & Shield
Spear & Shield
Mace & Shield
Properties
BCR/Push angle + PvS
BCR/Push angle + PvS
BCR/Push angle + PvS
Traits
Opportunist
Opportunist
Opportunist
Ranged weapons
Repeater Handgun
Handgun
Blunderbuss
Properties
L: PvS + PvA
C: PvI + Crit Chance
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvI + PvA
L: Crit Chance + PvA
C: Crit Chance + PvA
Traits
Scrounger
Conservative Shooter
Scrounger
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + PvS
C: PvC + PvS
Proxy
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Stamina Recovery
C: Stamina Recovery + Movement Speed/
Revive Speed
Grenadier
Talents
(1/2)-3-1-3-2-2
(1/2)-3-3-(1/2)-2-2

There are two talents setups.
The first one, with "Bulwark" and "Comrades in Arms" is more offensive, boosting the damage dealt by the whole team (yourself included).
The second one, with "Enhanced Power" and either "Rock of the Reikland" (Legend) or "That's Bloody Teamwork!" (Cataclysm) is more defensive.
For your level 5 talent: THP on stagger for the Mace and THP on hit for the Spear and the Sword.
Playstyle
Full tank build meant to hold the frontline. Focus always on staggering enemies and grabbing their attention. Give your team time and space to do their things safely, while also being able to slowly but safely clear hordes. Spam pushes and the follow-up combos to capitalize on the level 10 talent "Crowd Clearer".
Each weapon has some small differences:
  • Spear has more range and damage than the other two, but lower stagger on weapon attacks and lacks a shield bash.
  • Sword has a good balance of speed, damage and stagger (shield bash), but none of these are strong enough to really stand out in Cataclysm difficulty. Kinda mediocre, but it works well enough against infantry.
  • Mace has good damage vs armored and a great overhead push attack that can combo into a fast light attack for killing all types of enemies. It can slowly but safely kill hordes and elites alike.
While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
If you opt for the Blunderbuss, use it to kill Plague Monks and Savages or to thin down big masses of infantry.
Breakpoints
Shield weapons stagger breakpoints:
- With Opportunist, +17%PvS and either Comrades in Arms or Enhanced Power:
Pushes and shield bashes interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads.

Repeater handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvS, +10% PvC, +10%PvA and either Comrades in Arms or Enhanced Power:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Maulers and any other special
3SBS Monks and Savages
1SHS Stormvermin, all specials except Packmasters
2SHS Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
Cataclysm:
- With +7%PvS, +8%PvC, +10%PvI and either Comrades in Arms or Enhanced Power:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials except Assassins and Packmasters
3SBS Stormvermin, Maulers and Packmasters
2SHS Stormvermin
3SHS Bestigors and Wargors

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +5%PvS, +18.5%PvC, +10%PvI and either Comrades in Arms or Enhanced Power:
1SBS all enemies except Chaos Warriors and Wargors
1SHS Wargors
3SHS Chaos Warriors
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +7%PvI, +7%PvA and either Comrades in Arms or Enhanced Power:
1SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS Wargors
Stagger Hammerer
A balanced build with excellent tanking and support without sacrificing too much damage. Slightly more aggressive than the full tank build, but nowhere near a dps build.
Gear
Melee weapons
Great Hammer
Mace
Properties
BCR + Attack Speed
Stamina + PvS
Traits
Swift Slaying
Opportunist
Ranged weapons
Repeater Handgun
Handgun
Blunderbuss
Properties
L: PvS + Crit Chance
C: PvI + PvS/Crit Chance
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvI + PvS/PvA
L: Crit Chance + PvA
C: Crit Chance + PvA
Traits
Scrounger
Conservative Shooter
Scrounger
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + Attack Speed
C: PvC + Attack Speed
L: PvC + PvS
C: PvC + PvS
Proxy
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Stamina Recovery
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Grenadier
Talents
1-1-1-2-3-1
1-2-2-3-3-(1/3)
1-3-2-3-2-3

The Charm properties are meant to match the melee weapons, not the ranged weapons (attack speed on the Great Hammer, PvS on the Mace)
Level 10 talent "Crowd Clearer" is a consistent dps boost for the Mace, since you will spam push attacks for horde-clear.
There are two setups for the Great Hammer:
  • Defensive: Level 10 talent "Staggering Force" alone is enough to reach important stagger breakpoints for both light and heavy attacks (check breakpoints below). Having "That's Bloody Teamwork!" as your level 20 talent allows you to hit-trade more often. Ranged weapons breakpoints also change!! Check any of the Mercenary's builds above to know which properties are best.
  • Offensive: A more aggressive setup would be "Have at Thee!" at Level 10, "Comrades in Arms" at Level 20 and +8%PvC to still reach the important stagger breakpoints at the same time that you increase you damage output (check breakpoints below).
    It's important that you trigger "Have at Thee!" first with a push attack, a heavy attack, your ult or a handgun shot. This setup is harder to make it work, but once you are comfortable with the Great Hammer's pacing, it will increase your dps.
Playstyle
Both melee weapons have insane THP generation on stagger thanks to their high stagger strength and cleave. While they lack damage when compared to other options, they are far more safe and bring more utility to the team.
  • With the Great Hammer start your heavy attack chains with a push attack. You will need to dodge dance properly to get in and out of range of the enemies, but with the damage reduction and THP generation you won't be punished even if you make a few mistakes. Light attacks can interrupt elites while dealing very high damage.
  • With the Mace you will mostly be spamming push attacks against hordes and heavy attacks against elites. Managing your stamina correctly is vital with this weapon, remember to swing a few light attacks in between your push attacks to regenerate it.
While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
If you opt for the Blunderbuss, use it to kill Plague Monks and Savages or to thin down big masses of infantry.
Breakpoints
Great Hammer stagger breakpoints:
- With Staggering Force:
All attacks interrupt all enemies except Plague Monks combos and Chaos Warriors overheads. Light attacks can't interrupt Savages combos either.
- With Have at Thee!, Comrades in Arms and +8%PvC:
All attacks interrupt all enemies except Plague Monks combos and Chaos Warriors overheads. Light attacks can't interrupt Savages combos either.
Triggering Have at Thee! is mandatory for Light attacks' breakpoints and for Push/Heavy attacks to be able to interrupt Savages combos.

Mace stagger breakpoints:
- With Opportunist, +12.5%PvS, +8.5%PvC and Comrades in Arms:
Push attacks, Light attacks 1 and 2 (sweeps) interrupt all enemies except Chaos Warriors overheads.
Heavy attacks interrupt all enemies except Chaos Warriors idle and overheads, and Plague Monks combos.


Repeater handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +9%PvS, +9% PvC and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Maulers and any other special
3SBS Monks and Savages
1SHS all specials except Packmasters
2SHS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Monks and Savages
Cataclysm:
- With +9%PvS, +9%PvC, +5%PvI and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials except Assassins and Packmasters
3SBS Stormvermin, Maulers and Packmasters
2SHS Stormvermin
3SHS Bestigors and Wargors

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvC, +5.5%PvI and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS all enemies except Chaos Warriors, Plague Monks and Wargors
1SHS Plague Monks and Wargors
3SHS Chaos Warriors
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvI and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS Stormverminand all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvI, +5%PvA and Comrades in Arms:(Mace setup, with PvI + PvA in the weapon and PvC + PvS in the charm)
1SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS Monks, Savages and Wargors
Chad Knight
A hyper aggressive build that deals insane amounts of damage while keeping enemies staggered.
Gear
Melee weapons
Properties
Traits
Charm Properties
Talents
Greatsword
PvC + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
PvC + PvB
2-1-3-3-(1/3)-3
Executioner Sword
Attack Speed + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
PvS + PvB
2-1-3-3-(1/3)-3
Bretonnian Longsword
BCR + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
PvS + PvB
2-2-2-3-(1/3)-3
Mace & Sword
Stamina + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
PvC + Attack Speed
2-3-2-3-2-2
Sword
BCR + Crit Chance
Swift Slaying
PvC + PvA
2-1-2-3-(1/3)-3

Ranged weapons
Repeater Handgun
Handgun
Properties
(Enhanced Power +
Comrades in Arms)
L: PvA + PvC/PvS
C: PvA + PvC/PvS
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvI + PvS/PvC
Properties
(Comrades in Arms)
L: Crit Chance + PvS/PvC
C: PvI + PvS/PvC
L: PvC + PvI
C: PvI + PvS/PvC
Traits
Scrounger
Conservative Shooter
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin/Boon of Shallya
Charm
*
Decanter
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Stamina Recovery
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel

THP on hit is more consistent, but THP on stagger is not bad either.
Level 25 talent "It's Hero Time" allows you to use your career skill aggressively and still have it available when your teammates need your help. "Inspiring Blow" is a good option for this row too if you want to spam "Valiant Charge" even more.
For the ranged weapons properties, choose PvS or PvC to compensate the properties on your charm (you always want one of each).
Reaching the stagger breakpoints on your melee weapons is more important, focus on those first.
Playstyle
With this build you can kill everything incredibly fast, from huge hordes of infantry to chaos warriors. The only downside is that you have to play very aggressive, which means that you can't protect your allies as well as with other builds.
Taking damage is worth it if it allows you to keep attacking. The moment you stop hitting enemies, you will quickly become overran.
The idea is that you charge into a group of enemies using your career skill, canceling before you get too deep into them, and then you start swinging your weapon. With the fast attack speed and high cleave of these weapons, you should recharge most of your skill's cooldown by the time the buff wears off. Rinse and repeat until all enemies are dead.
While there is a general playstyle for this build, every weapon is slightly different:
  • Greatsword has excellent horde clear and good stagger with heavy attacks. Can kill elites decently with heavies and push attacks aimed at the head.
  • Executioner Sword has a lot of damage, but it requires to hit headshots on elites to stagger them with light attacks, and heavy attacks are slow. Use your career skill to gain space and then throw a few heavy attacks to kill elites.
  • Bretonnian Longsword is more flexible but harder use. Even if you don't land headshots with your heavy attacks, they still stagger elites and do decent damage.
  • Mace & Sword has insane horde clear, good stagger with mace light attacks and decent damage to elites if you hit their heads. CW can be quite challenging, but a few heavy attacks to the head should do.
  • Sword is the weakest when it comes to dealing with elites, but with its high mobility and attack speed you can still hold the frontline.
You should let your allies deal with specials, but if you have the chance and you are not busy killing enemies, there is always the option to do the job yourself.
Breakpoints
Greatsword stagger breakpoints:
- With +20%PvC, +10%PvB, Staggering Force, Enhanced Power and Comrades in Arms:
Heavy attacks can interrupt all enemy attacks except CW and Bestigors.
Push attacks can interrupt all enemy attacks except Monks combos and CW overheads.
Light attacks can interrupt Plague Monks normal attacks and Savages (normal attacks and combos)

Executioner Sword breakpoints:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvB, Staggering Force, Enhanced Power and Comrades in Arms:
Heavy attacks damage breakpoints in Cataclysm:
1SHS SV and all specials
Stagger breakpoints:
Light attacks can interrupt SV overheads, Wargor overheads and Monks and Savages combos.
Heavy attacks can interrupt all enemy attacks except CW overheads.

Bretonnian Longsword stagger breakpoints:
- With +12.5%PvS/PvB and Comrades in Arms:
Heavy attacks 1 and 2 interrupt all attacks except CW overheads
Heavy attacks 3 interrupt all attacks except CW overheads and berserkers combos

Mace & Sword stagger breakpoints:
- With +10%PvC/PvB and Comrades in Arms:
Light attacks can interrupt all attacks except Monks combos.

Sword stagger breakpoints:
- With +6.5%PvC, +10%PvA, Staggering Force and Comrades in Arms:
Heavy attacks interrupt all attacks except Plague Monks' (normal attacks and combos), Savages combos and Chaos Warriors overheads.
Light attacks 3 (overheads) interrupt SV, CW (except overheads), Wargors and berserkers normal attacks (not the combos)

Repeater Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +10%PvA, Enhanced Power and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, all specials except Assassins
3SBS Monks and Savages
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
2SHS Wargors, Monks and Savages
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +9.5%PvA, Enhanced Power and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS Assassins
3SBS Packmasters, Stormvermin, Bestigor, Mauler
2SBS any other special
1SHS Ratlings and Warpfires
2SHS Stormvermin, Bestigors

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +10% PvC, +10%PvI, Enhanced Power and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS all specials and elites except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
- With +7%PvC, +7%PvS, Enhanced Power and Comrades in Arms:
1SBS all specials, SV and Bestigors
1SHS Monks, Savages and Wargors


For the breakpoints with only Comrades in Arms, check the Staggerer Hammerer build.
3.4. Grail Knight
General tips
Grail Knight is a melee-only career with incredibly high single target damage and access to both very aggressive and very defensive weapons simultaneously, making you a perfect frontliner. With his high damage output the best strategy is to first kill elites and monsters/lords and then to control the horde.
The lack of a ranged weapon and mobility makes you very vulnerable to specials though, therefore you should stick close to your team and wait for them to deal with them.
As a little extra, you can block Warpfire Throwers' attacks with a shield, greatly reducing the knockback received and allowing you to get closer and kill it yourself. Still, this is inefficient and creating space for your teammates to deal with them is a better strategy.
  • Strengths: Insane single target damage, good horde-clear, team buffs, easy to play.
  • Weaknesses: No ranged weapons, relatively low tankiness for a melee only career, poor mobility, only one playstyle.
The Lady’s Favour
The party gets 2 random tasks ("Duties"), which permanently reward a bonus ("Benison") to all players once completed. Some of the tasks have higher quotas depending on the difficulty level.
These duties can be completed by playing normally through the mission, you won't have to go out of your way to complete them (except, maybe, picking a Grimoire).
Career skill
"Blessed Blade" is very simple to understand: frick this enemy in particular.
It has low cooldownAfter the nerf, it's cooldown is relatively long for its limited use. It can oneshot 1 Chaos Warrior, and it deals a ton of damage to monsters/lords and ignores shields. It grants THP with both Level 5 talents.
On Cataclysm you need Level 15 talent Smiter + headshot, or Smiter + 2 properties (+10%PvC and +10%PvA on the Charm) or the level 10 talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper" to 1SBS Chaos Warriors.
You can hold the button to precharge it, and you can even cancel the cast by pressing the block button during the animation.
Concoction combo: If you drink a potion when having the "Concoction" trait in your Charm, you will get the effect of all three potions at the cost of halving its duration.
This is excellent with the Grail Knight, since it allows you to boost "Blessed Blade"'s damage and get closer to a second activation.
Talents
  • THP on stagger is more consistent and, with the right weapon (shield weapons), it can generate insane amounts of THP very quickly and very safely.
  • THP on kill is good with weapons that focus on killing elites like Executioner Sword or that have enough damage to kill infantry in just a few hits (like Sword and Greatsword in Legend). Kills with "Blessed Blade" generate THP too.
  • "Virtue of the Ideal" is an almost constant +24% power buff. Extremely strong in any situation and with all weapons.
  • "Virtue of Knightly Temper" makes weapons that deal high burst damage and weapons that attack very quickly extremely powerful. The former (like Sword) can oneshot groups of regular infantry with this talent, and it can also help it against elites; while to the latter (like Executioner Sword) allows them to reach important breakpoints in Cataclysm like oneshotting Chaos Warriors and other elites.
    It also improves your career skill's damage, as it always counts as a critical hit. This talent is excellent in combination with the level 30 talent "Virtue of Confidence".
  • "Virtue of Heroism" only increases the damage of heavy attacks and "Blessed Blade", not the power. This means less cleave and stagger strength than "Virtue of the Ideal". After the last patch, it does grant a bit more damage, but loosing cleave and stagger on a melee only career is a big deal.
  • "Bulwark" is a good talent for very defensive playstyles, but with the Grail Knight your value comes from direct damage output, so it's not worth it.
  • "Smiter" sinergizes incredibly well with Grail Knight's kit and playstyle. The best option by far.
  • "Enhanced Power" could be useful alongside talents that increase your power like "Virtue of the Ideal" or "Virtue of Discipline", but it will always grant less damage than "Smiter". It's best to ignore this talent.
  • "Virtue of Duty" grants an extra chance to receive the better benisons.
  • "Virtue of Purity" makes the benisons stronger, but the increases are meaningless in some cases (e.g. the difference between 5% attack speed and 7,5% is negligible).
  • "Virtue of Penitent" works very good with Concoction trait and level 30 talent "Virtue of Confidence", allowing more spammable use of the career skill on hordes. Good pick when your weapons don't have good elite damage and in high difficulties where consumables are scarce.
  • "Virtue of Stoicism" helps a lot with hit trading. Slow aggressive weapons such as Great Hammer, Executioner Sword and Greatsword can benefit from this talent, but THP generation shouldn't be a concern with a balanced build and this talent only works properly if you don't get hit multiple times in a row.
  • "Virtue of Discipline" pairs greatly with weapons that have good animation cancelling on their attacks, since these also can usually counterattack very quickly after blocking (push attacks or not). Weapons like Bretonnian Longsword, Mace, Mace & Sword or even shield weapons.
  • "Virtue of the Joust" increases stamina regeneration, one of the most important stats in high difficulties. This is a very solid choice in any circumstance and build.
  • "Virtue of Audacity" for more damage against monsters/bosses or to be able to kill 2 Chaos Warriors in one use. Makes the animation longer, therefore making you vulnerable for longer. If you see an incoming attack you can cancel the second swing by blocking.
  • Picking "Virtue of the Impetuous Knight" is trolling unless you are doing a speedrun challenge.
  • "Virtue of Confidence" makes "Blessed Blade" very useful in most situations, but it can't cleave very well past through Chaos Warriors. Useful against thick hordes that mix a bunch of elites and shielded enemies and when picking the level 10 talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper".

Builds
Since the Grail Knight has two slots for melee weapons, the builds are a bit different than usual, giving him the ability to fulfil more than one role effectively at the same time. To better understand how to combine your weapons, I recommend mixing two of these types:
  • Shields. Block, stagger and THP generation: Sword & Shield, Mace & Shield and Bretonnian Sword & Shield
  • Horde-clear. Quickly kill infantry in big groups: Sword, Greatsword, Mace & Sword and Sword & Shield
  • Elite killers. High single target damage: Mace, Executioner Greatsword, Great Hammer and Mace & Shield
  • Balanced. Can kill infantry and elites alike: Bretonnian Longsword and Bretonnian Sword & Shield
Bretonnian Wall
Tank + Bruiser + Half melee dps.
With this build you will be a very solid frontline for your team, able to kill all types of enemies while always having a strong shield to get out of difficult situations, gain time for the rest of your team and generate tons of THP. This is a very balanced and strong build even in quickplay.
Gear
Melee weapon 1
Bretonnian Sword & Shield
Mace & Shield
Sword & Shield
Properties
BCR + PvS
BCR + PvS
BCR + PvS
Traits
Opportunist
Opportunist
Opportunist
Melee weapon 2
Bretonnian Longsword
Mace & Sword
Great Hammer
Greatsword
Properties
Crit Chance + AS
Crit Chance + AS
Crit Chance + AS
Crit Chance + AS
Traits
Swift Slaying/Off Balance
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + PvA
C: PvC + PvA
Concoction
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel
Talents
1-1-2-X-(2/3)-1

Due to Bretonnian Longsword's unique block mechanic, "Off-balance" is a trait worth considering, specially if you are tired of using "Swift Slaying" with all weapon or if you prefer something more consistent. It also increases your team's damage against high health enemies like elites and Monsters/Lords.
Level 10 talent "Virtue of the Ideal" and Level 25 talent "Virtue of Discipline" help reach stagger breakpoints on the shields. Instead of the latter, you can pick "Virtue of the Joust", which gives you extra stamina regen and allows you to use pushes and push attacks more often. This is really important to reduce any risks while playing aggressively and enables more combos with some weapons.
For the level 20 talent, pick your favourite.
Playstyle
During hordes, focus first on killing elites or controlling the frontline depending on your team composition. Look at what your allies are prioritizing and try to compensate for that.
While fighting monsters and lords, focus on them, try to get their aggro and pull them away from your allies so that they can deal with everything else.
When a special shows, run towards your teammates and build a safe space for them to kill it.

Shield weapons provide a lot of protection and with their high stagger strength you can interrupt all enemies, which is perfect to safely generate THP and build yourself space to regroup with your team or swap to your other weapon.
Speaking of which, it's very important that you combine your two weapons properly, making sure you always have one with high single target damage and another one with high cleave and/or speed to clear hordes. E.g. Mace & Sword deals very low damage against armored elites, therefore I wouldn't combine it with Sword & Shield, which also struggles against them.
Breakpoints
Shield weapons stagger breakpoints (they are the same for Legend and Cataclysm):
- With +5%PvS, Opportunist and either "Virtue of Discipline" or 2 stacks of "Virtue of the Ideal":
Pushes and shield bashes (heavy attacks) can interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads.

Bretonnian Longsword stagger breakpoints:
- With +7.5%PvC or PvA:
Heavy attacks 1 and 2 interrupt all enemies except Monks combos and Chaos Warriors overheads
Heavy attacks 3 interrupt all enemies except Chaos Warriors overheads, Monks attacks and Savages combos.
- With additional 3 stacks of "Virtue of the Ideal":
Heavy attacks 1 and 2 can interrupt Monks combos as well.

Great Hammer stagger breakpoints:
- With +5%PvA:
Light Attacks interrupt Stormvermin and Wargors
Heavy attacks and Push Attacks interrupt all enemies except Chaos Warriors overheads, Plague Monks attacks and Savages combos.
- With +5%PvC, +5%PvA and 3 stacks of Virtue of the Ideal:
Light Attacks interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads and Monks and Savages combos.
Heavy attacks and Push Attacks interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads and Monks combos.

Greatsword stagger breakpoints:
- With +10%PvA and 3 stacks of Virtue of the Ideal:
Push attacks can interrupt all stormvermin attacks.
By adding Enhanced Power, heavy attacks can interrupt them as well.
Grail Gambler
Half tank+bruiser+melee dps
Level 10 talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper" is the star in this build. It helps low damage weapons instantly kill regular infantry (Sword, Mace and shield weapons), but it also helps weapons with high damage attacks to oneshot elites (Executioner Sword, Great Hammer).
Gear
Melee weapon 1
Mace
Executioner Sword
Great Hammer
Properties
Crit Chance + Stamina
Crit Chance + AS
Crit Chance + AS
Traits
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Melee weapon 2
Bretonnian Sword & Shield
Mace & Shield
Sword & Shield
Sword
Properties
BCR + Crit Ch
BCR + Crit Ch
BCR + Crit Ch
BCR + Crit Ch
Traits
Off Balance
Off Balance
Off Balance
Swift Slaying
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin
Charm
L: PvC + PvA
C: PvC + PvA
Concoction
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel
Talents
(1/2)-2-2-3-3-3

You can use the Sword instead of a shield weapon to improve your ability to kill hordes of infantry, but loosing the protection the latter provide can be very detrimental in high difficulties.
Grail Knight is one of the few careers in the game that can benefit from the trait "Off Balance" consistently. Since he's very likely going to aggro monsters and lords he can buff the damage dealt to them by the whole team. It does stack with Shrapnel, but not with other characters' talents and passives that have similar effects (like Witch Hunter Captain's tag passive).
THP on stagger is usually the safest and most consistent option, but with this build you will instakill enemies frequently thanks to the level 10 talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper". Also, you should focus on killing elites, which makes THP on kill better the higher the difficulty you play at.
For the level 20 talent, "Virtue of Penitent" allows you to spam your career skill more often, which is great when there are several elites and shielded enemies together.
Playstyle
During hordes, focus first on killing elites. With this build you specialize in high burst damage, but this comes at the cost of less crowd control capabilities. Thanks to its low cooldown and the "Concoction" trait, you can use "Blessed Blade" more frequently against hordes, compensating this weakness.
While fighting monsters and lords, focus on them, try to get their aggro and pull them away from your allies so that they can deal with everything else.
When a special shows, run towards your teammates and build a safe space for them to kill it.

Shield weapons provide a lot of protection and with their high stagger strength you can interrupt most enemies, which is great to build yourself space to regroup with your team or swap to your other weapon.
With this build, your main weapon should always have access to high burst damage attacks while your secondary is only meant to fight regular infantry when you start getting surrounded by lots of them.
Breakpoints
Executioner Sword breakpoints:
- With "Virtue of Knightly Temper", "Smiter" and +15.5%PvC/PvA (properties not necessary in Legend):
All attacks kill all enemies in 1SBS crit except Chaos Warriors, which only die to crit heavy attacks.

Great Hammer breakpoints:
Legend:
- With Virtue of Knightly Temper and Smiter:
Light attacks kill all enemies in one crit.
Heavy and Push attacks kill all enemies in one crit except CW
Cataclysm:
- With Virtue of Knightly Temper, Smiter, +10%PvC and +10%PvA:
Light attacks kill all enemies in one crit.
Heavy and Push attacks kill all enemies in one crit except Maulers and CW
Stagger breakpoints:
- With +5%PvA:
Light Attacks interrupt SV and Wargors
Heavy attacks and Push Attacks interrupt all enemies except CW overheads, Plague Monks attacks and Savages combos.

Mace breakpoints:
- With Virtue of Knightly Temper and Smiter:
All attacks kill all infantry units in 1 crit.
Heavy attacks kill all enemies except CW in 1 crit.
Stagger breakpoints:
- With +7.5%PvA:
Push attacks and Light attacks 1 and 2 interrupt all enemies except CW overheads and berserkers combos.

Shield weapons stagger breakpoints (they are the same for Legend and Cataclysm):
- With +12%PvC/PvA:
Shield bashes (heavy attacks) can interrupt all attacks except CW overheads and Monks combos.

Mace & Shield breakpoints:
- With "Smiter" and "Virtue of Knightly Temper":
Push attacks crits can 1SBS all enemies except Chaos Warriors.
Green Circle Knight
This is a greedy build with a very aggressive playstyle that falls under the motto "No shield, only damage". It has very high damage output at the cost of protection.
Gear
Melee weapon 1
Mace & Sword
Sword
Bretonnian Longsword
Properties
Stamina + Crit Chance
BCR + Crit Chance
BCR + Crit Chance
Traits
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Melee weapon 2
Great Hammer
Executioner Sword
Mace
Properties
Crit Chance + Attack speed
Crit Chance + Attack speed
Crit Chance + Stamina
Traits
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Swift Slaying
Necklace
Health + BCR
Barkskin/Boon of Shallya
Charm
L: PvC + PvA
C: PvC + PvA
Concoction
Trinket
L: Curse Resist + Crit Chance
C: Stamina Recovery + Crit Chance
Shrapnel
Talents
(1/2)-(1/3)-2-3-(1/3)-3

Weapon 1 for horde-clear, weapon 2 for elites.
THP on stagger is more consistent with the Mace and the Great Hammer, but THP on kill also works with them since they can kill elites very fast. For the Executioner Sword though THP on kill is the only option. For the weapons on the first slot, THP on stagger is more consistent but THP on kill is not terrible.
Level 10 talents: Unlike "Virtue of Heroism", "Virtue of the Ideal" grants stagger strength and cleave, not just damage, which makes it much better against hordes. On top of that, "Virtue of Heroism" only works on heavy attacks, which means that using anything other than those takes away your advantage. Heroism does grant a bit more damage though, so if you are willing to commit to only using heavy attacks, it can be a better choice.
Level 25 "Virtue of Stoicism" allows you to hit trade more often and keep playing aggressive for longer. "Virtue of the Joust" is great for weapons with push attack combos (Mace & Sword and Mace) and with the Bretonnian Longsword.
Playstyle
With this build you will have to play very aggressively to unleash your true potential. It can do very high damage against both infantry and elites, but the lack of a shield weapon takes away your ability to be independent. Stay close to your teammates in order to survive longer and never stop attacking.
You don't have to focus any type of enemy first, just judge based on the situation you are at.
11 Comments
JokXtar  [author] 6 Feb, 2024 @ 11:19am 
@Fenris
To me DPS builds mean high single target damage. Great Hammer fits as a DPS weapon for Mercenary because its light attacks have very high damage and stagger strength (without any buffs they can interrupt most elites' attacks). Still, once you learn the heavy attack's pacing and when you get used to starting the chains with push attacks, you can hold the frontline just as well as with Bretonnian Longsword and Executioner's Sword. The main difference being that instead of killing very quickly, you stagger the enemies.
It's a very tricky weapon to learn, I also hated it for a long time, but once it clicks it becomes super fun to use.

I recommend you to try the "Chad Knight" builds in this guide for Foot Knight. They even outperform Mercenary in terms of damage while also reaching great stagger breakpoints. They are very "greedy" builds though, as in they have to be played extremely aggressively to work properly.
JokXtar  [author] 6 Feb, 2024 @ 11:18am 
@Fenris
Mainstay is definetly better when it comes to damage if you spam pushes, but Enhanced Power is more consistent, so it's not really a bad choice.
If you play around your team, then Strike Together is a beast; otherwise Reikland Reaper is plain better. In Legend, specially when playing with random people, it rarely has any value. But in Cataclysm playing close to allies is the best strategy 99% of the time, that's why I favour it in the builds. It highly depends on the playstyle and awareness of each player though.
Loosing Opportunist can be a big deal if you are facing a big group of Plague Monks, but I like the different approach. Still, to me the career skill is better used to prevent damage altogether by staggering enemies rather than to mitigate it with the THP or the damage reduction. Not that it's a bad talent, it's just a different way to gain value from it.
Fenris 5 Feb, 2024 @ 12:55pm 
I dunno how to play your DPS build with Great hammer ; hitting multiple enemies at once means relying on heavy blows, wich are, even with swift slaying and 20% attack speed, horribly slow and permanently letting holes in your defense, plus atrocious stamina/block radius/stagger power... Wich in turns means your THP is horribly slow.
I got far better DPS and overall tankiness, by far, with Bruiser build (with your version or mine).

Only downside I see is the relatively slow career skill, and the inability to full stagger monsters and Elites, for that I prefer Foot Knight, but it's very low damage on that career, and slow weapons are unuseable to my taste...
Fenris 5 Feb, 2024 @ 12:55pm 
Thanks for your builds !
I tested out Mercenary in Legend, and found out a Bruiser build I prefer, with :

- Enhanced Power instead of mainstay (wich is negligible damage bonus against already staggered enemies, instead of getting extra stagger/damage overall especially on bosses), and scales very well with extra power from other talents.
- Reikland Reaper instead of Strike Together, wich ensure getting to useful breakpoints and is a very nie addition to monster/ranged DPS when needed.
I found the attack speed bonus to not be very useful for allies, 10% is pretty negligible no matter weapon speed, and everybody is likely playing Swift Slaying anyway (or high speed weapons).
- Walk it Off instead of ready for action, using weapon (Spear and Shield) with Resourceful Combatant, wich is more or less halving career skill cooldown, making it about 45-50s, and allowing to buff teammates with damage reduction.
JokXtar  [author] 20 Jan, 2024 @ 1:39am 
@BethTheBean1676 Spear & Shield is op in general, but it synergizes extremely well with Merc's playstyle and the extra cleave, making Cataclysm a child game.
Huntsman is a ranged career so it can't really get any melee weapon to a point where it can be considered super strong. Still the best choice.
Foot Knight on the other hand makes specialized weapons more balanced. Spear & Shield is op because it's very strong at everything, so the difference is not as noticeable. Nevertheless, it's super strong on him too, just not interesting when it comes to making combinations with talents.


I don't think it's worth loosing the stagger breakpoint on Plague Monks' combos for that. You can always do a regular push after blocking the overhead and stagger them.
ImCalledBethy 14 Jan, 2024 @ 3:33pm 
Why is the shield&spear and OP weapon for Merc, but just ok for Kruber's other classes?

If you have vs. Chaos on a shield weapon and you charm, you can stagger chaos warriors when blocking their overhead attack.
d4rkm4rk 9 Jan, 2024 @ 11:18pm 
Great guide, as a new player to this gem of a game I appreciate the effort very much!
qawal 10 Dec, 2023 @ 3:33am 
":empirecross: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIII :empirecross:" - Markus Kruber
Billy Borpa 25 Nov, 2023 @ 7:45pm 
Very informative! I love the detailed breakpoint differences for legend/cata
Zimarodok 15 Nov, 2023 @ 8:44am 
nice