A casual player's impressions on the Darktide weapons

[TwiceBorn]

This is a casual player’s first-impressions writeup of all the weapons I used during the Darktide Open Beta and up to Darktide Official Release, Patch 1.0.13. I’ll be talking about how I felt while using each weapon, their perceived strengths, their perceived weaknesses, and brainstorming ideas on how they could be improved (if applicable).

For context: as of the time of this writing, I have 105 hours logged on Darktide, having played since the start of the Open Beta. I played almost exclusively with strangers via Quick Match on Uprising (Difficulty 2), with occasional forays into Malice (Difficulty 3), using exclusively unoptimized weapons beyond putting in reasonable efforts to keep the Power Ratings on my weapons up to date–I am basically judging these weapons solely based on their “base stats” and base movesets. I have not extensively played in any higher difficulties. I also have 58 hours logged on Vermintide 2.

Because of this, I feel like I’m a decently representative casual player to the Tide series. I’m not a sweaty veteran who can solo Damnation/Cataclysm who can consistently pull off sick clutches with god-tier optimized weapons, but I’m also not a total newcomer who doesn’t know how to properly dodge, block, and shove while trying to kill enemies with the starting weapons.

For weapons usable by multiple classes, I’ll also talk about how each weapon felt in each class (again, if applicable).

PART 1: NON-UNIQUE MELEE

CATACHAN SWORDS

The Catachan Swords came across to me like early-level horde-clearing melee weapons available to all non-Ogrnys. All three variants of the Catachan Swords I saw (Mk I, IV, and VII) felt fine to use, and their simple, straightforward movesets makes them intuitive to understand. An excellent starting weapon for new players, all around solid melee weapon–I certainly wouldn’t complain if I, for some reason, ended up being forced to use a Catachan Sword, compared to some of the other options out there. While it’s not an offensive powerhouse like some of the class-signature melee weapons, its special parry stance is very handy for cheesing bosses. Chopping up enemies with it was also visually and audibly satisfying–sound, art, and animation team really did a great job for all the Catachan Swords.

Because it’s so solidly average, the Catchan Swords ended up getting overshadowed for me later in the game, once the non-Ogryn classes start unlocking a more diverse array of melee weapons. By the time I unlocked the Power Sword, Chainsword, Eviscerator, and Thunder Hammer, I couldn’t think of a reason to ever bring a Catachan Sword unless I was planning on tanking a Daemonhost.

On Veteran: Not a bad weapon line of weapons for the Veteran, though it competes with the Veteran’s Shovel for horde-clearing duties. The overhead swings for some of the Sword variants, plus the Parry, gives it an edge over the Shovel in certain cases, while I feel that the Shovel has superior crowd control at the cost of a bit of speed. Of course, like most other Veteran melee weapons, the Power Sword blew the Catachan Sword out of the water for everything except maybe tanking Daemonhosts.

On Zealot: Overshadowed by some of Zealot’s other melee weapons (namely the Combat Blade, Chainsword, and Eviscerator), but not a bad early game weapon. Zealot’s innate boost to weapon attack speed gives it a real bump in how satisfying it is to use.

On Psyker: Solid weapon for the Psyker, though I feel like it’s slightly overshadowed by the Chainsword. Otherwise, it’s one of the best melee weapons for Psyker for controlling crowds, and less risky to use than the Force Sword.

CATACHAN COMBAT BLADE
The Catachan pigsticker reminds me of Kerillian’s dual daggers from Vermintide 2, in a good way. It naturally encourages you to spam light attacks and slash like a madman, though I worry that new players won’t understand that you also have to dodge and aim for enemy heads and thus be underwhelmed by this weapon. On Difficulty 2, I haven’t noticed the nerf to dodge spamming making this weapon unusable, though with the greater number of enemy spawns and higher enemy health in higher difficulties, my attitude might change.

Kudos to the devs who lovingly animated the little flourishes for the Combat Blade. Seeing my character toss his knife from one hand to another as he draws it is a visual delight, a small thing that adds a lot of character to the game.

On Veteran: It’s not the worst melee weapon on Veteran, though I wonder if the Combat Blade wouldn’t be more suited on a class intended to spend most of its time on the frontline instead of shooting things from the backline–the Combat Blade seems to work well for cutting down enemies that are busy being staggered, but I’d prefer a heftier tool for dealing with stragglers trying to sneak up on me. That said, the Combat Blade might be handy for Veterans looking for more mobility, since you can sprint a bit faster with this weapon and get into better firing positions faster. Overall, it’s not my first choice of melee weapon for my Veteran, but it wouldn’t be the worst, either.

On Zealot: I’ve heard plenty about powerful Zealot builds exploiting certain feats and weapon traits on the Combat Blade, but I haven’t tried it myself. It definitely fits the Zealot’s role as a frontline damage/general support class, and the Zealot’s speed boost making a fast weapon even faster is great-. As a matter of personal preference, though, the Combat Blade doesn’t fit my Class fantasy for the Zealot the way Chainswords, Eviscerators, and Thunder Hammers do, so I personally didn’t find using the Combat Blade as satisfying on the Zealot as some of the other weapons.

On Psyker: what I said for Veteran pretty much applies to the Psyker. Not the worst melee weapon to use with Psyker, but not the best. Certain Psyker staffs could synergize decently with the Combat Blade, though, its fast swings means it’s handy for quickly switching to it to fend off straggler enemies sneaking up on you, and its boost to mobility could let you get into position more quickly for a staff blast, Brain Burst, or just evading certain enemies.

COMBAT AXE
For reference, I am talking about the Combat Axe–the two handed, slower-swinging weapon–not the faster, one-handed Tactical Axe.

I feel like in Tide games, your melee weapon is generally your best and most reliable weapon for clearing out hordes–while hordes by themselves aren’t necessarily the most threatening enemy in the game, it’s important to take them out quickly and efficiently so that you can take out the greater threats (Specials and Monstrosities) faster and safer. As a result, I’m not the most comfortable with melee weapons that struggle badly with hordes.

Unfortunately, the Combat Axe tends to struggle badly with hordes, outside of perhaps the Zealot.

Its rate of attack is slow compared to dedicated horde-clearing weapons like the Catachan Sword, and it has almost no cleave to speak of outside its push attack. From what I can tell, it also can’t dance-dodge the way the Combat Blade can, either. It can take out Specials if they get in range, but trying to kill Specials in melee is a dangerous proposition. This means that you’ll have to rely more on your ranged weapon to clear hordes–which is risky for Zealots and even Veterans, especially if this means you’re forced to forgo certain ranged weapons in order to compensate for the Combat Axe’s weaknesses. Overall, except for perhaps the Zealot, I don’t feel comfortable bringing the Combat Axe in most circumstances.

It does feel good to swing around, though. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to fighting what’s basically zombies with what’s basically a fireman’s axe, and the Combat Axe’s meaty thwacks are an audio-visual treat.

There are at least two variants to the Combat Axe, but I didn’t feel that there were sufficient differences between them worth mentioning.

On Veteran: The Combat Axe’s main strength is killing Specials in melee, and if you’re playing as a Veteran, you really ought to be bringing your ranged weapons to handle that job instead. IMO, you’re much better off bringing a different melee weapon, something that can let you clear hordes so you can dedicate your ranged weapon to taking out shooters and Specials.

On Zealot: the Zealot’s improved weapon attack speed compensates somewhat for the Axe’s inherent slowness–with a bit of practice, I feel like it could be decent as a second melee combatant’s weapon, where one team member (say, an Ogryn) bowls over the enemy while the Zealot kills off staggered enemies with quick axe strikes. Still, in both horde-clearing and killing Specials in melee, the Combat Axe is definitely overshadowed by the Zealot’s later weapons.

On Psyker: I didn’t have a chance to properly test the Combat Axe on the Psyker, but if you bring a good staff (Voidstrike or Surge), it could combo surprisingly well with the Combat Axe? Namely, using the staff to stun/destroy enemy hordes and Specials, finish them off with the Axe. Still, I’d much rather bring a Chainsword, Dueling Sword, or Force Sword over a Combat Axe with Psyker.

TACTICAL AXE
For reference, I am talking about the Tactical Axe–the one handed, faster-swinging weapon–not the slower, two-handed Combat Axe.

The Tactical Axe is to the Catachan Combat Blade, what the Combat Axe is to the Catachan Sword; fast, mobile weapon that you want to fish headshots with. The Tactical Axe seems to trade a bit of mobility and cleave in exchange for better stagger, damage, and breakpoints–basically a sidegrade to the Combat Blade, and as far as I can tell, it should be treated as such.

On Veteran: like I said, I think a Veteran should look at the Tactical Axe the same way you would a Combat Blade, though the Tactical Axe’s slight downgrade in sprint speed makes it less useful as a tool for repositioning myself into better firing positions than the pigsticker.

On Zealot: oh boy, does this weapon turn into a karking blender when you give it to a Zealot. The Tactical Axe’s attack speed and movement speed gels perfectly with the Zealot’s aggressive playstyle, though it’s probably more useful for chopping up hordes and squads of enemy Shooters than it is for one-shotting enemy Specials with a Chastise The Wicked-heavy attack combination.

On Psyker: see what I said about the Psyker and Combat Blades. I’m still of the view that the Psyker’s Dueling Swords are better for the Psyker overall if you need a fast, dodge-spamming weapon.

CHAINSWORD
One of my favorite weapons to use in the game, and not just because of its moveset. I heard some bad things about the gamefeel of using the Chainsword in the Closed Beta, and it looks like those issues have pretty much been solved by the time of this Open Beta. Get a Chainsword if you want the best chainsawing experience since Space Marine (2011).

The Chainsword’s a very versatile, well-rounded weapon. It’s not quite as good at horde clearing as the Catachan Sword and Shovel, it’s not quite as good at attacking Specials like the Combat Axe, it’s not as fast or amenable to dodge-dancing as the Combat Blade and Tactical Axe, and it doesn’t have the raw power of the Eviscerator or Power Sword, but from my own experiences playing around with it, the Chainsword has no true weaknesses either. Light attack spam does good damage and takes out stragglers well, heavy attack spam manages hordes effectively, and the special rev-up mode is handy against armored targets and bosses. It certainly felt like I could never go wrong with picking the Chainsword, no matter Class or build I was bringing.

On Veteran and Psyker: again, great pick for either Class. I’m personally not the biggest fan of the Force Sword on Psyker, so I personally think the Chainsword is the best melee weapon for Psyker, though the Force Sword is generally better for killing Specials than the Chainsword.

On Zealot: excellent pick for Zealot. The well-rounded Chainsword becomes devastating with the Zealot’s innate speed boost to melee attacks. I’d personally rate the Chainsword as being up there with the Zealot’s unique Eviscerator in terms of overall utility, while being easier to use than the Eviscerator.

CHAINAXE
Chainaxe for me was a bit of a tricky weapon to figure out how to use. It feels a lot like the Combat Axe–slow, large windows where you’re vulnerable to enemy counterattack, has trouble hitting more than one enemy at once. You’ll need some practice to get the most of spamming heavy attacks to do what horde clearing you can.

As for the audiovisuals on using it…well, being forced to watch as your weapon is stuck chainsawing through an enemy is great from an aesthetic perspective (very satisfying spectacle to watch) and irritating from a mechanical perspective (I really need to be blocking, dodging, and counterattacking instead of watching one dude get chainaxed in half).

On Veteran: it’s effectively a Combat Axe that has a touch more ability to clear hordes, though not by that much. Overall, I felt like I was probably better off taking a Chainsword.

On Zealot: Like with the Combat Axe, the Zealot’s innate speed boost is a much-needed upgrade to the Chainaxe. In the hands of a Zealot, it almost felt like using a Tactical Axe that traded some speed for a lot more power. It can pair very well with a melee partner who can bowl over enemy hordes, since the Chainaxe on Uprising difficulty can kill most hordes with a single bodyshot (or failing that, a headshot). A solid weapon on the Zealot overall.

[TwiceBorn]

PART 2: UNIQUE MELEE WEAPONS
VETERAN UNIQUE MELEE WEAPONS

POWER SWORD
The Power Sword is overpowered. I’m sure everyone knows this already, but it does everything too well.

Light attack spam grants easy headshots, making it great for quickly clearing out stragglers. Heavy attack is akin to the Executioner Sword’s moveset from Vermintide 2, letting you score LOTS of easy headshots on hordes and killing them quickly. Power-field mode turns the weapon into a Special killer that’s almost as good as the Combat Axe, while also giving you the option to cut down swathes of enemies by using the powered-up heavy attacks. It just kills everything extremely well: hordes, squishy Specials, armored enemies, there’s simply no reason for me to take any other melee weapon when the Power Sword exists.

One suggestion I might make to bring the Power Sword more in line with the other melee weapons (and to buff the Chainsword) is to swap the heavy attack movesets between the Power Sword and the Chainsword: meaning Chainsword would get the Power Sword’s head-level horizontal swings, while the Power Sword gets the Chainsword’s slightly diagonal swings. I feel like letting the Chainsword be the better horde clearer while having the Power Sword specialize in Special-killing would go a long way to preventing the Power Sword from being overwhelmingly the superior melee weapon choice for Veterans.

Still, in terms of audiovisuals, the Power Sword felt pretty good to use, and I appreciate the temporary activation of the power field as an interesting take on how power weapons are normally depicted as working in 40k. I wonder if having a more dramatic visual effect for activating the power field might be better, though? It definitely doesn’t have the same oomph to it the way revving up a Chainsword does.

SAPPER SHOVEL
The Sapper Shovel can be considered a sort of sidegrade to the Catachan Swords for Veteran. They serve similar roles, focusing heavily on horde clearing and having easy-to-understand movesets. The Shovel’s flat horizontal swings, solid cleave, and faster light attacks makes me think it’s a bit better than the Catachan Sword for horde clearing, while Catachan Sword has the Parry stance for kiting bosses and some Catachan Sword variants have overhead strikes that are better for killing Specials.

Overall, I think it’s a coinflip as to whether I would take the Shovel over the Catachan Sword or vice versa, based purely on their mechanical effectiveness. I personally prefer the Shovel purely because there’s a certain 40k grittiness to bonking people on the head with the Shovel, and I sure love me some Krieg Death Korps cosplay. Very solid weapon overall for a Veteran, especially if you judiciously choose a ranged weapon that can take out Specials, Shooters, and/or armored enemies.

ZEALOT UNIQUE MELEE WEAPONS

HEAVY SWORD
I…did not like the Heavy Swords. I did not like them at all.

In theory, it has a good moveset for horde clearing with its light attacks (lots of flat horizontal swings), but its damage is anemic if you didn’t get headshots with it on unarmoured enemies, and I found it unusually difficult to get consistent headshots. Meanwhile, the light attacks are pretty much worthless on anything wearing even the slightest bit of armor. The heavy attacks are much more effective overall on unarmoured heads, but even then its ability to cleave through hordes is mediocre. Overall it felt like a downgrade from the Catachan Swords or even the Catachan Combat Blade.

Apparently you’re supposed to open with its unusual special attack, which stuns the enemy for a bit and gives you a window of opportunity to attack? But it comes out a bit slow and doesn’t hit very many enemies, so I don’t find it very useful in the heat of combat.

Aesthetically, the Heavy Swords look interesting, but they swing unusually fast for a two-handed weapon called a “Heavy Sword”. As a result, my attacks didn’t feel like they had much weight behind them.

I’m wondering if the Heavy Sword needs a rework. There’s also the question of what the Heavy Sword’s “role” should be: horde-clearer? Special killer? Some mix of both? If so, to what extent? My initial thoughts are to make it something like a chainless, slightly faster version of the Eviscerator–a versatile weapon that requires a bit of discretion and footwork to use properly due to a slower attack speed, but dealing lots of damage and great for cutting hordes in twain. Speaking of the Eviscerator…

EVISCERATOR
I think Zealot might be my favorite Class in the game, in large part because chopping dudes (even Ogryns!) in half in a single blow just feels so damn good. The Eviscerator in 40k lore is a hefty two-handed battle chainsaw, an embodiment of the Emperor’s divine fury, and Fatshark did a tremendous job in conveying that in the looks, sound, and feel of the weapon. Blood for the God Emperor, skulls for the Golden Throne indeed.

The one hiccup for the Eviscerator is its unusual moveset. Most melee weapons I’ve encountered in Darktide tend not to mix vertical and horizontal attacks in a given attack chain too much: so for example, spamming light attacks with the Sapper Shovel will result in a series of sharply diagonal swings that primarily target the enemy’s heads, while spamming heavy attacks with the same will let you use exclusively horizontal swings that are great for clearing hordes.

Not so with the Eviscerator. Its light attack and heavy attack combos mix and match verticals and horizontals, meaning you have to create your own custom combos, so to speak, to get the most out of the weapon. Tide veterans will be more than familiar with doing this, and I’m sure said veterans have already come up with optimal Eviscerator combos, but new players might end up having a bad time with this weapon due its native moveset not being well optimized for either hordes or single targets.

That said, being forced to come up with your own combos for the Eviscerator is its own fun, and this plus the slow speed of the weapon gives it heft and a high skill ceiling that I really appreciate. It makes chopping dudes in half that much more fun.

THUNDER HAMMER
I heard a lot of bad things about the Thunder Hammer–lots of comments on how disappointing and mediocre it was–and after testing it, I can see why people say so. Nonetheless, I karking love this weapon and how it feels.

My first impression is that, overall, this weapon is probably going to be one of the least accessible melee weapons in the game. It’s much slower than any other melee weapon, to the point that its light attacks run a real risk of letting you get hit by enemies before your swing connects, and the same applies to its heavy attacks as well. Activating its power field also takes a second–the delay between power field activation and swinging the weapon is noticeably longer than the rev-up animation for the Chainsword and the power field activation for the Power Sword. The Thunder Hammer, I feel, will very much be a weapon that forces players to learn how to block, dodge, shove, and play defensively unlike any of the others. Woe unto the newbie who tries to rush in swinging wildly with the Thunder Hammer–maybe that could work for a little while with the Catachan Sword or Chainsword, but a berserker weapon the Thunder Hammer is not.

Its damage is also weaker than what you might expect from a hefty two-handed hammer. Headshots with it will kill hordes in one blow in Uprising difficulty, but bodyshots are surprisingly weak–Scab Bruisers and Dreg Bruisers seem to require at two or three bodyshot hits with the ponderous light attacks to kill one, so being able to consistently headshot with the Thunder Hammer will probably be a necessary skill. Heavy attacks, while excellent for knocking hordes around, don’t actually do all that much damage beyond the primary target, either, typically needing around two hits to actually kill most horde enemies on Uprising difficulty.

The Thunder Hammer’s attacks with the power field activated is, of course, devastating, but it’s very much a burst damage weapon relying on killing the target in one or two hits–any more than that, and the long power-field activation animation means your actual DPS is mediocre. As a result, you really have to pair the power field attacks with the Zealot’s charge to try and kill the enemy in as few hits as possible…a task that will surely be harder the higher up in difficulty you go.

So, between its high skill ceiling and somewhat low damage output, I can see why people walked away disappointed with the Thunder Hammer. Unlike just about every other melee weapon in the game for Psykers, Zealots, and Veterans, it almost comes across more like a utility weapon with a bit of burst damage on it, more similar to how Ogryn weapons work–great for knocking people about and maybe DPSing down certain Specials, not so great for actually killing things en masse.

Still, I can’t hate it. The animations and sounds for the weapon are just great. Fatshark perfected the two-handed hammer’s animations and gamefeel in their previous Tide games, and they certainly did not try to fix what wasn’t broken. Bonking heretics in the head feels good; scoring a home run with their ragdolling bodies feels great.

PSYKER UNIQUE MELEE WEAPONS

MACCABIAN DUELING SWORD
The Dueling Swords are basically the Psyker’s slightly improved (or sidegrades) to the Catachan Combat Blade, being used pretty similarly; spam light attacks while dodging like a madman and focus on scoring headshots. I personally favor the Mark V version, since its moveset makes it a bit easier to score the headshots necessary to make this weapon work (bodyshots with the Dueling Swords don’t do much more than tickle the enemy). Overall, it definitely feels more or less like a cosmetic variant of the Catachan Combat Blade, so anything I said about pigsticker for the Psyker pretty much applies here.

A solid weapon for the Psyker, with some cool animations, and a nice callback to Saltzpyre’s rapiers for Tide veterans. True chads place their offhands behind their backs to avoid unnecessary injury.

FORCE SWORD
An interesting sword for the Psyker, it’s specialized for killing non-horde enemies at close range, with poor horde-killing abilities; you can sort of think of it as a Combat Axe that swapped its native armor-piercing capabilities for the ability to charge up a special attack that can kill most non-horde enemies in one or two hits.

It’s a weapon that brings a lot of risks with it, and I’m not 100% sure those risks are necessarily sufficiently rewarded. The weaker power of its light and heavy attacks are compensated somewhat by its infinite number of admittedly bad dodges, but it doesn’t feel like a true dodge-spamming weapon like the Catachan Combat Blade or the Dueling Sword, either. Its main draw is its ability to spend a chunk of Perils to power up an attack that can devastate Specials, but at a cost of 36% Perils, it’s a hefty price to pay and can get in the way of using your other Psyker abilities. (Luckily, testing indicates that the Force Sword cannot cause you to explode from Perils unless you use it at literally 100% Perils.)

I personally had trouble getting into the Force Sword. The weapon felt too light and flimsy to be satisfying to use, and its ability to charge up and deal massive damage to a single enemy is unique and flavorful but ultimately felt like it was trying to do the Combat Axe’s job in a more convoluted way, while being weaker than the Axe for clearing hordes. I think I might like the Force Sword more if its light attack combo was a little better for dealing with horde enemies.

OGRYN UNIQUE MELEE WEAPONS

CLEAVER
Although they’re all called Cleavers and look similar to one another, the Ogryn’s Cleaver weapons (Mk III, IV, and VI were the ones I tested) all work remarkably differently from one another, to the point where they’re really more like three separate weapons that happen to share the same name.

The Mk III appears to be the one best suited for crowd control, with wide sweeping horizontal light attacks that are fairly quick for Ogryn melee attacks and heavy attacks suitable for clonking Specials on the head. In exchange, it struggles the most with armored enemies.

The Mk IV seems to be the Ogryn’s answer to the Catachan Combat Blade: its light attacks are very quick jabs that can’t hit more than two or so enemies at once, while the heavy attacks are an odd combo of vertical and horizontal swings.

The Mk VI is somewhere in the middle of the previous two Cleavers, offering faster bonks to the head with its overhead-centric light attacks, and a bit of crowd control with wide-sweeping heavy attacks.

I tend to view the Ogryn as being better for knocking around enemies than outright killing them, so I personally prefer the Mk III over the others. Mk IV might work if the rest of your teammates are already so good at keeping the horde off their feet that any more from your Ogryn would be redundant, whereas the Mk VI tries to be a happy medium between the other two variants.

Regardless of how well they function, I like how the Cleavers look and feel. They show off the crudity of the Ogryns and, like all Ogryn melee weapons, they make excellently meaty thwack sounds as they mash into enemies.

BULLY CLUB
Most of the weapons in this game feel good to use, but the Bully Club makes me laugh outright, on top of being a very effective weapon. It lacks the outright damage of the Cleavers, but more than makes up for it with wide sweeps and amazing stagger to keep enemies off their feet.

The Bully Club feels delightfully designed because it achieves several things at once. It’s an effective weapon with a clear niche (crowd control) without being oppressively overpowered, it aesthetically fits the Ogryn by looking like something he pulled out of a junkheap (or made from a junkheap), and the amazing slap attack is both very useful and hilarious. Hearing the wet plap noise as my Ogryn’s meaty palm connects with the enemy is one of my favorite things in the game. Very solid choice for an Ogryn looking to tank enemies.

LATRINE SHOVEL
The Ogryn’s Latrine Shovel felt very much like the Veteran’s Shovel–big wide sweeps excellent for crowd control, with some head bonks to deal with anything individually strong. Granted, the Latrine Shovel seems more flexible than the Veteran’s, with a special attack that can knock most enemies around and its head bonks being useful against armored targets.

It’s a very solid weapon, sitting as a nice compromise between the damage-dealing of the Cleavers and the crowd-control of the Bully Club while offering lots of utility to the team, like any good Ogryn weapon should. And, of course, there’s the comedy factor of bonking enemies with a ginormous shovel used to dig toilets. Solid pick for any Ogryn.

SLAB SHIELD
The Slab Shield is good…perhaps too good? It’s so useful that, despite my praises for the Ogryn’s other melee weapons, I honestly can’t bring myself to bring them over the Slab Shield.

This is because the Slab Shield does something no other Ogryn weapon seen thus far does: block ranged attacks. I’m sure my fellow Ogryns have felt like ripping their hair out over being gunned down by packs of ranged enemies while our teammates are looking the other way, and the Slab Shield makes such problems a non-factor by simply blocking enemy ranged attacks–even better if you hunker down using the special attack and render yourself immune to stamina loss from blocking. Judicious use of it can even render Daemonhosts a nonfactor, so long as you can keep it focused on you and your unbreakable defense. On top of that, the Slab Shield lets you tank phenomenally for your team in melee, in addition to having a light attack combo that can knock enemies about quite well.

The shield part of the Slab Shield is just too useful to leave at home, leaving me wondering what’s the point of bringing any other Ogryn weapon. Maybe in a team with an Ogryn, who already has a Slab Shield, you could justify bringing a different Ogryn melee weapon like a Cleaver, but the Slab Shield’s ability to block ranged attacks and trivialize certain enemies (like Snipers) just makes it too good not to bring.

[TwiceBorn]

PART 3: NON-UNIQUE RANGED WEAPONS

Note on Ranged weapons: I’m of the view that the Psyker’s staffs are too valuable to be replaced with a non-unique Ranged weapon, so I will not be relaying my impressions with them as a Psyker. As far as I’m concerned, bringing something like a lasgun or a revolver for the Psyker would basically turn the Psyker into a worse Veteran who swapped out grenades for a half-decent Special-killing ability.

KANTRAEL-PATTERN INFANTRY LASGUNS
The semi-automatic, holosight-equipped Kantrael Lasguns felt like the ranged weapons that set the standard for all others. Boasting good accuracy, long range, solid rate of fire, a large ammo pool (even if it looks bigger than it actually is), and great damage against just about everything except carapace armor, you can pretty much never go wrong with a Kantrael. You can thin out the hordes with it, it’s arguably the best overall weapon for taking out Shooter enemies, it can reliably take out squishier Special enemies, and you can even put a dent into carapace-armored Crushers if you aim for the head.

Of course, other ranged weapons will ultimately beat out this generalist gun in their respective specialties; the humble Kantrael will not be outdoing the Combat Shotgun at close range, for instance, or clear hordes better than the Accatran, or erase beefier targets like the Plasma Gun or Bolter can…but much like its 40k lore counterpart, the Kantrael lasgun felt like it could never truly let me down.

It’s also a pleasure to shoot. The buzzing crack of its fire is sublime music to my ears, and the holosight (appropriately shaped like a church window) makes aiming much more convenient than the clunkier ironsights found elsewhere in the game.

On Veteran: I view the Veteran as the job best suited to mowing down enemy Shooters at range–an important role, given how lethal and oppressive packs of such enemies can be–and the Kantrael Lasguns are, in my opinion, the best weapon overall for doing just that (appropriate, given the lasgun’s role as an anti-infantry weapon in the lore). I personally prefer the XII variant for Uprising difficulty due to the good breakpoints–most Scab and Dreg shooters will go down in one torso shot from even an unoptimized XII, and no Shooter can survive a headshot, which are easy to get with Veteran’s various feats, abilities, and the native holosight. That said, I’ve had friends remark that the other, faster-firing variants are just as good. The built-in flashlight is handy, as well, for darker maps.

On Zealot: the Kantrael is less useful on the Zealot, in my opinion, since as a Zealot I generally don’t want to be sitting back and sniping enemies unless I have no other choice. It’s not the worst weapon for thinning hordes or killing Specials at the range Zealot wants to be at (melee), but there are better weapons to supplement Zealot’s melee play. That said, there may be times when a Zealot needs to be more self-sufficient and must snipe enemies at range themselves–in such cases, a Zealot can’t go wrong with a Kantrael.

ACCATRAN-PATTERN RECON LASGUNS
The Accatrans Lasguns are the shorter-range, faster-firing cousins to the Kantraels, handily able to mow down hordes and kill squishier Specials at range. Being able to hose down enemies with a flood of lasers was a visual treat, and I’m glad that they kept at least one type of Lasgun with no recoil…and I’m also glad they stuck to giving just the Accatran no recoil, because I totally see what Fatshark meant when they said that Lasguns with no recoil feel really strange to shoot. I know plenty of other people who love their recoilless laser hose, though, so your mileage may vary.

In terms of effectiveness, the Accatrans certainly gets the job done, but its ammo pool is deceptively small–900 to 1000 rounds with 100 round magazines seem like a lot, but I spent a lot of ammo killing any given enemy and the full-auto, slightly inaccurate nature of the weapon meant I missed or wasted some shots as well. As a result, those 1000 rounds went by quick. I was generally running lower on ammo than I normally would with my trusty Kantrael. This, combined with the Accatran’s higher time-to-kill on common enemies, made me acknowledge the Accatran but prefer my Kantrael MkXII.

Still, the Accatran felt like a well-designed and useful weapon, suitable for Veterans who like to remain in closer range to enemies while still having an option to take out enemies from a distance.

INFANTRY AUTOGUNS
The Autogun family’s answer to the Kantrael Lasguns, Infantry Autoguns feel like a letdown compared to their lasgun counterparts. They come across like trying to strike a balance between the Braced Autogun family’s rate of fire and mobility, with the Headhunter family’s damage and precision, but instead the Infantry Autoguns just feel like it got the worst of both worlds. Its damage is the worst of the lot, its ability to fire at full auto is nice but the recoil is too strong to make good use of it outside of close range (where the Braced Autoguns are superior), and their damage falloff and accuracy are inferior to the precise Headhunters. To add insult to injury, their magazines are woefully small for weapons designed to be fired at full auto and requiring a good number of bullets to put down a target, and you deplete your ammo reserves real fast compared to Kantraels. They look good and sound good, but overall I just can’t come up with a reason to ever take an Infantry Autogun when Braced, Headhunter, and Kantrael Lasguns exist.

On Veteran: the Infantry Autoguns feel like they’re trying to be a closer-ranged version of the Kantrael, and come up short in just about every way. They can deal with hordes a bit better, but their low magazine size and distressingly small ammo pool gets in the way; their inherent inferior accuracy, meanwhile, makes them lose out to Kantraels and Headhunters for picking things off at range. Meanwhile, they lose out to Braced Autoguns when it comes to hosing down a Special enemy at short range. Infantry Autoguns may technically be more flexible than its Autogun siblings, but as a Veteran looking to take out Specials and Shooters at range, I have far better options.

On Zealot: Zealots, in my experience, primarily want an Autogun that will supplement their melee combat, rather than be a primary weapon or something that can snipe enemies from far away. For that, the Infantry Autoguns lose to Braced Autoguns; Braced Autoguns are stronger at the close ranges I want to be in, and their ability to brace makes them easier to hipfire as I make my way towards ranged enemies or focus down a nearby Special. Like with the Veteran, there’s just way better options than Infantry Autoguns for what I want to do with the Class.

BRACED AUTOGUNS
The close-in member of the Autogun family, Braced Autoguns do an admiral job at chewing up enemies at close range, being capable of thinning out hordes, killing squishier Specials up close, and suppressing enemy Shooters. Like all Autoguns, however, it struggles with Crushers. While its ammo pool still isn’t the best, it has a reasonable enough magazine size to accomplish its job and does quite a bit of damage per bullet, though you shouldn’t expect your ammo supply to last you the whole mission if you try to shoot every horde enemy with it. All Braced Autoguns should be about as viable as one another–whether you prefer rate of fire over firepower, or vice versa, will be up to personal preference.

Aesthetically, shooting a Braced Autogun feels awesome. It sounds great, and it’s an excellent way to live out your Hollywood 90s action movie fantasies, letting you hose down enemies with a storm of hipfired bullets.

On Veteran: I’m of the view that Veterans are better off focusing on picking off enemies at range than trying to hose them down in close quarters, so putting a weapon this specialized for close-in work on a Veteran doesn’t sit right with me. That said, it can absolutely shred Specials at close range combined with the Veteran’s ultimate, so if the rest of your team has long-range sniping covered, then you could do worse than Braced Autoguns (though I’d still recommend the Combat Shotgun or Bolter in that case).

On Zealot: In contrast, I absolutely adore the Braced Autoguns on Zealot, lending well to a playstyle where you spray bullets with the Braced Autogun at enemy Shooters as you run towards them, forcing them to take cover and buy you time to charge into the fray. It’s also tremendously useful for quickly taking out a nearby Special who’s just out of melee range, or thinning out a horde before you lay into them with your melee weapon. Because it synergizes so well with Zealot’s playstyle and offers a surprising amount of utility, it’s my favorite gun to use with Zealot.

HEADHUNTER AUTOGUNS
The marksman’s family of Autoguns, the Headhunters feel like a sidegrade to the Kantrael Lasguns, trading a bit of precision (due to the Headhunters’ ironsights being worse for sniping than holosights) for higher rate of fire and easier use at close range. I like the sound and feel of the Headhunters, so they’re a good way for me to mix things up if I need a cosmetic alternative to the Kantrael Lasguns.

Just mind your ammo count! Kantraels still seem to beat Headhunts out in terms of ammo efficiency by a noticeable amount, either because Kantraels seem to require less total ammo per kill, or something about Headhunters makes me use more ammo with them. Regardless, I found myself keeping a closer eye out on my ammo with Headhunters than I did with Kantraels.

On Veteran: If the Kantrael works for the Veteran, so will the Headhunter. As I said, it’s basically a sidegrade of the Kantrael, which is already one of the best all-around weapons for a Veteran. Excellent marksman’s gun, though as with all Autoguns it can’t deal with heavily armored enemies.

On Zealot: Again, the Headhunters are comparable to Kantraels in every way…including how a precise marksman’s weapon probably is not the best use of the Zealot’s ranged weapon slot. Braced Autoguns will likely work better as a supplementary tool for Zealot than the Headhunters.

COMBAT SHOTGUN
Other FPS games train you to think of shotguns as exclusively short range weapons. While this is true to some extent with the Combat Shotgun, its aim-down-sights mode makes it remarkably accurate at long range, making the Combat Shotgun one of the most well-rounded guns in the game.

It can thin out hordes well with rapid-fired semiauto shots, or you can use the Special Attack to blast enemies in a horizontal line; its aim-down-sights mode, meanwhile, drastically reduces pellet spread, letting you pummel enemies from afar. Plus, for a gun you get pretty early on in your career, it’s very good at staggering and bowling over tougher enemies, letting you support your team by stunning such enemies before they can harm you or your allies. Its main downside is its limited ammo pool, small magazine, and slow reload; I had to learn the hard way that running empty on your Shotgun’s magazine in the middle of a hectic battle is a real bad time.

Kudos to the sound design team for this gun–it sounds meaty and impactful, just the way a shotgun should.

On Veteran: although the Combat Shotgun is still useful at long range, it doesn’t excel there, so I found that I was better off using something else to cut down enemy Shooters and Specials at long range. However, I think it could be useful on a Veteran on a team that’s already got anti-Shooter roles handled, where it could work as a sort of ranged support weapon, thinning out hordes and knocking over Specials before they can do anything nasty.

On Zealot: speaking of ranged support, the Combat Shotgun felt like it complemented the Zealot’s playstyle perfectly. Like the Braced Autoguns, the Combat Shotgun was amazing for helping my Zealot get into range, stun or kill nearby Specials that were just out of melee reach, and thin out hordes a bit as necessary. Combat Shotgun just feels like it belongs on the Zealot.

STUB REVOLVER
I didn’t use it very often, but when I did, the Stub Revolver felt like a high-risk weapon that fell a bit short of rewarding me for that risk. With a pathetic magazine size and disturbingly low ammo pool, I had to make every shot count…yet while every shot did good damage, it wasn’t such overwhelming damage that I’d want to use it over the Combat Shotgun (for stunning Specials) or the Kantrael Lasguns/Headhunter Autoguns (for sniping). So, while the Stub Revolver was useful for knocking enemies about at range, I’m just not sure why I would ever want to bring the Stub Revolver when there’s other, less punishing weapons to use.

It definitely has the cool factor, I’ll admit. The gunfire sounds are so meaty that it almost felt like I was using a Bolt Pistol, and the attention to detail in the reloading animation (where the revolver chamber visually remembers the remaining shots left in the magazine) is super neat. But I think it’ll need a little something for me to consider using it over other ranged weapons.

On Veteran: See the above–I’m of the view that Veterans should be killing things at range, not just knocking them around, and the Revolver’s long reload time and small magazine gets in the way of that. I just don’t know why I would want to use the Revolver to stun enemies from long range when I could kill them even faster with any of the Lasguns or Headhunter Autoguns.

On Zealot: stunning enemy Specials at range has its value on a Zealot, but I feel like the class generally wants to be mobile, using its gun to help get itself into range or taking out Special enemies that are just out of reach. Meanwhile, with the Revolver, you want to be using its aim-down-sights mode to get in precise shots, and you especially don’t want to miss your target with it. A Combat Shotgun felt like it would do pretty much everything the Revolver does for the Zealot but better.

LASPISTOL
I don’t see the point of ever carrying a Laspistol.

It draws and switches out quickly, it reloads fast, and it lets you sprint faster with it…but it felt like it has nothing else going for it. Its shots felt weak and inaccurate, leaving it unable to do very much at all other than kill the stray Poxwalker at close range. A ranged weapon that’s primarily designed to support your melee abilities is fine, but I’d prefer if the Laspistol could actually kill something on top of letting me move faster. In my opinion, it definitely felt like the most useless weapon in the entire game.

On Veteran: see above. A Veteran should be killing things from relatively long range, not attempting to tickle things to death up close.

On Zealot: from what I could tell, the Laspisol seemed unable to suppress enemies or efficiently damage them at close range enough to warrant using. Being able to be drawn quickly is actually useful on a Zealot, as is the ability to sprint faster, but when everything else about the weapon is so dire, the few upsides of the Laspistols just don’t compensate for its many downsides. I’d much rather bring a Braced Autogun, Combat Shotgun, Flamer, or even

The uselessness of the Laspistol makes me wonder if pistol-type weapons (Stub Revolver, Laspistol, Autopistol, etc.) should be separated into their own category, with certain ranged/melee weapon combinations opening up the ability to take an additional pistol-type weapon. There’s certainly precedent in the 40k setting for one person to carry a full-sized ranged weapon, a pistol, and a melee weapon all at once, and the addition of a new category of weapons could open up some interesting design space.

AUTOPISTOL
The Autopistol comes across like a sidegrade to the Braced Autoguns, exchanging a noticeable amount of firepower and a bit of range for increased mobility and switching speed. As a result, I found it to be a little less of a ranged weapon and more of a tool for supporting melee combat.

As for the Aesthetics of the Autopistol, it was alright to shoot. Its recoil and sounds made it felt like a peashooter, even though the actual damage it inflicted was surprisingly high, but that’s appropriate for what’s supposed to be an automatic pistol.

On Veteran: what I said about the Braced Autoguns on Veteran, applies here for the Autopistol; the Veteran should not focus on close-quarter engagements with their ranged weapon or use it to support their melee combat, they should be outright killing enemies with their weapon from a distance. You can’t really pull off precision marksmanship with what amounts to an inaccurate machine pistol, so I never felt compelled to bring an Autopistol on my Veteran.

On Zealot: the Autopistol is a more compelling case on the Zealot, since it supplements the Zealot’s focus on melee well. Being able to switch to and from it very quickly is extremely useful, letting you put out a quick burst of fire as you run into melee. That said, it doesn’t seem to suppress enemy Shooters as well as the Braced Autogun, and it definitely doesn’t kill Specials as well as a Braced Autogun–I suppose whether you want the Autopistol’s extra speed over the ability to suppress Shooters and better kill Specials is going to be a matter of personal taste. Either way, the Autopistol is a solid pick for a Zealot.

BOLTGUN
Good lord, the Boltgun feels good to use. It’s insanely powerful, accurate at long distances so long as you can deal with the recoil, and it feels like the fully-automatic armor-piercing mini rocket launcher it’s supposed to be. Based on my experiences with it, the Boltgun feels just barely within the outer edge of balanced; it will kill things real good at almost any range, but its ridiculous recoil, slow reload, small ammo pool, and slow draw speed keep it from being the best weapon for every single situation.

If it HAS to be nerfed, perhaps changing out the aim-down-sights mode for a braced mode (a la the Braced Autogun and Autopistol) would be appropriate? That way, you can force the Boltgun to be more of a close-mid range weapon and let other weapons do the sniping.

On Veteran: I often found myself switching between my melee and my ranged weapons very frequently as a Veteran, since I’m expected to help with melee if there aren’t any Specials to snipe that instant. This meant I frequently encountered one of the Boltgun’s major weaknesses–you really feel it when you need to take out a Special yesterday but your gun takes a second or two to get ready. Still, the Boltgun felt like it combo’d amazingly well with the Veteran’s ultimate for deleting Specials of all kinds at close range; pop Bastion 220 Combat Stance, hold down the fire button, and watch everything in front of you die. Its beefy rounds are effective at sending Shooters scurrying into cover, as well. One of the best ranged weapons to bring on a Veteran.

On Zealot: although the Boltgun in the hands of Zealot was still cumbersome to pull out in the middle of a melee, the fact that it’s so absurdly powerful at close range means the slow switch speed felt completely worth it, especially since Zealot is particularly good at sustaining its Toughness in melee combat. Like with the Veteran, being able to lob a few rounds at enemy Shooters to get them ducking as you charge into melee was very handy, as well, plus I appreciated being able to use the Boltgun as a long-range tool when needed. One of the best ranged weapons to bring on a Zealot.

[TwiceBorn]

PART 4: UNIQUE RANGED WEAPONS
VETERAN UNIQUE RANGED WEAPONS

LUCIUS-PATTERN HELBORE LASGUNS
The Lucius Lasguns are clearly supposed to be a marksman’s rifle of some kind, and aesthetically they’re associated with my beloved Krieg Death Korps…so I was pretty disappointed with how these guns handled.

The one thing going for the Lucius Lasguns is the power of their charged shots and their accuracy, which are certainly very good. However, just about everything else about the weapon feels awkward or ill-fitting. The they some time to switch to, because your character has to work the safety each time they pull out the gun; they use ironsights despite being a marksman’s weapon, making the Kantraels ironically superior for marksmanship thanks to their holosights; they use up a ton of ammo while having a smaller ammo pool compared to Kantraels; and the normal uncharged shots felt anemic despite its lower rate of fire and smaller magazine, making it an inferior option for killing Shooters compared to the Kantraels. Plus, the flow of the game means it’s much harder to have the space necessary to line up a good charged shot on an enemy–a problem that the Veteran’s Camouflage perk can mitigate somewhat, but I still felt reliant on my teammates to watch my back for me to put the Lucius to good use…and, well, sometimes my pubbie teammates let me down. Given all these downsides, I just don’t know why I’d want to bring a Lucius when my MG XII Kantrael does basically the same job but better.

Having the uncharged shots consume less ammo, plus having a better aim-down-sights mode (perhaps adding some sort of scope?) would help the Lucius feel a lot better to shoot.

The bayonet on the Mk I variant felt fun to use, at least, and it mitigates somewhat the Lucius’s slow switch speed–the Mk III’s bayonet, on the other hand, felt awful. The strange windup animation for the Mk III’s bayonet swing and the sharp vertical hitbox meant it was difficult to land a hit on the enemy without getting struck first, unlike the Mk I bayonet’s quick stab.

PLASMA GUN
As the Veteran’s premier anti-Special weapon, the Plasma Gun feels amazing to use, with some of the best sound and visual design among all the weapons in the game…but it’s only good for doing exactly one thing–killing Specials at range–leaving it in the shadow of the Bolter.

The Plasma Gun certainly packs an extremely powerful punch, being able to take down almost any enemy in one or two shots, and it can kill even Crushers with a fully-charged headshot. However, its ammo pool is deceptively low, giving you only 70ish uncharged shots or 23ish fully charged shots total. It’s also not a weapon I could reasonably reload in the middle of combat, thanks to its absurdly long reload animation, though its massive magazine size mitigates the issue somewhat. The overheat mechanic also means that, even if I had the ammo or magazine capacity to do so, I wouldn’t be able to take out more than a couple of Specials before being forced to switch to melee.

This would all be fine if the Plasma Gun could do something other than just killing Specials or could be used for long-range sniping…but it can only kill Specials at close to medium range. It can do this job quite well, but the Plasma Gun’s lack of flexibility kept making me compare it to the Boltgun. The Boltgun might take longer to switch to, but it can thin out hordes and squads of enemy Shooters as well as delete Specials, whereas the Plasma Gun can only do the latter–its ammo is too precious, and Shooter enemies too numerous, for me to consider mowing down a squad of Shooters with the Plasma Gun. This wouldn’t be so bad if the Plasma Gun had aim-down-sights mode and a better crosshair to let it be a specialized sniper weapon, but it doesn’t have that either, making it difficult to use at extremely long ranges. The fact that even the primary fire mode needs half a second to charge up before unleashing the projectile means hitting a moving target is extremely difficult, and its pointlessly large and ambiguous targeting reticle makes it all that much harder to snipe things.

Overall, while I’m very fond of the Plasma Gun, I think it could use a few boosts here and there to make it competitive compared to the Boltgun. For one thing, removing the charge-up animation for the primary, uncharged fire mode would make the weapon more comfortable to use. Furthermore, I think combining the primary and alt fire together to form a single, optionally chargeable shot, and having the alt fire be an aim-down-sights mode, would help by turning the weapon into basically a bigger version of the Lucius Lasguns minus a bayonet. Lastly, having uncharged primary-fire shots be weaker, in exchange for costing much less ammo and preserving the weapon’s current rate of fire, would also help the Plasma Gun do something when there aren’t any Specials to delete.

ZEALOT UNIQUE RANGED WEAPONS

FLAMER

I’ve always been of the opinion that a ranged weapon that can only clear hordes is a bit of a wasted slot, because melee weapons can do the same job but without having to use ammo. The Flamer embodies this view of mine perfectly; it’s arguably the best gun in the game for wiping out a horde, but you’re gonna feel it if you need to kill anything tougher than a Poxwalker and you can’t get to it with your melee weapon.

It does feel really good to hose down an entire horde with holy Promethium, though, and I do appreciate that the Flamer has two firing modes–one to quickly slap some burn stacks on a target, and the other for proper flamethrowing goodness. Still, the lack of flexibility on the weapon leaves me reaching for other ranged weapons as a Zealot. I suppose the Flamer might be a lot more viable if you have teammates who can handle ranged combat reliably, but otherwise, picking the Flamer leaves you a lot less self-sufficient as a Zealot.

PSYKER UNIQUE RANGED WEAPONS
A quick word on the Psyker Staves before I dive deeper into them:

I think having each staff have a unique primary fire would go a long way to giving the Psyker some extra flexibility; I recall Sienna’s staves having similarly unique primary fires for each one, so I’m wondering if the same could be done for the Psyker’s weapons. Several of the Psyker Staves feel a bit pigeonholed into very specific roles, so each having a different primary fire could open up some design space to make each staff more useful, as well as giving them some extra options in combat.

TRAUMA STAFF
The Trauma Staff SHOULD be the Pskyer’s premier staff for obliterating hordes, what with it being able to summon an expanding circle of explosions on the ground, but its excessive Perils cost for a slow-charging, short-ranged ability prevents it from being satisfying to use.

The explosive circle can be very powerful if you can get it to full charge, but it simply takes too long to get to that fully charged state. Meanwhile, the relatively short range within which you can place the circle means it’s hard to blow things up from a safe distance, and the high perils cost means you can’t do it very often. Overall, if destroying hordes is what you want to do with a Psyker Staff, you’re better off using the Voidstrike or even the Purgatus Staff instead.

I think lowering the Perils cost of the Trauma Staff by just a tad, plus either making the charge time faster or giving the staff a longer range would go a long way to making it feel much better to use.

VOIDSTRIKE STAFF
Out of all the Psyker Staves, using the Voidstrike feels like the absolute best. It’s basically a psychic rocket launcher, shooting a ball of energy that will obliterate any hordes in a straight line before exploding, dealing good damage to anyone caught in the explosion. I found it extremely useful for annihilating hordes of enemies, disrupting Shooters hunkered in cover or bunched up, and stunning Specials in a pinch. (For everything else, there’s Brain Burster.) The cherry on top is the fast charge time and low Perils cost, not including the staff’s tendency to frequently trigger the Psyker’s Battle Meditation proc to automatically Quell 10%.

The Voidstrike looks to be the strongest among all the Psyker Staves in terms of raw killing power, so if you want to see stuff blow up, I highly recommend the Voidstrike. If you’re not as concerned about killing enemies and would rather have a staff more oriented towards supporting your party members instead, look no further than…

SURGE STAFF
If the Voidstrike is the king of Psyker’s offensive weapons, the Surge staff is surely the king of Psyker’s support arsenal. This staff’s charged attack will only hit a handful of enemies, but those enemies will be easy pickings for the next several seconds as they stand around being tazed by your powers, and as far as I can tell, every enemy in the game short of a Monstrosity or a boss will be stunned. All of them.

Charging Mutant? Taze it. Trapper about to net you? Taze it. Poxhound jumping around? Taze it, then get out your Brain Burster. Pair of Ragers about to chop you apart? Taze ‘em. The Surge Staff does good damage on the enemies it hits, charges up and fires pretty quickly, and automatically hits enemies in range without you having to bother to properly aim it. Armored enemies take extra damage, making the Surge Staff extra handy for killing Scab-themed enemies that frequently wear Flak or Carapace armor.

The one downside is that you basically give up almost all long-ranged options for your Psyker; I felt this pretty hard when a squad of Shooters was gunning me down while they sat just out of reach of my lightning.

PURGATUS STAFF
A flamethrower powered by the Warp, the Purgatus Staff is decent at its job of clearing out hordes…but that’s pretty much all it can do. Its damage, I’ve found, is not anything to write home about, its charge time is slow, and its primary fire is a near-useless puff of flame that puts weak damage-over-time stacks on whatever it hits. If you need it to kill something other than Poxwalkers, it’s not going to be very helpful at all.

I’m not entirely sure how to go about making the Purgatory Staff feel good to use. Perhaps giving it the ability to stun certain Specials and Dreg Shooters by having them do a “Oh no I’m on fire” animation would help, making it an anti-unarmoured version of the Surge Staff? Also, beyond just adjusting stats, beefing up the sound design of the Purgatus Staff would help a lot as well–the sound of psychic flames drawn from the depths of Hell should not sound so quiet and anemic. Perhaps the psyflame making unholy screeching noises would make this staff more enjoyable to use.

OGRYN UNIQE RANGED WEAPONS

GRENADE GAUNTLET
The Grenade Gauntlet is one of the most unique ranged weapons in the game, smoothly combining melee and ranged combat in one neat package–appropriate, since visually it’s a honking big slab of metal encasing your Ogryn’s forearm.

Overall, the Grenade Gauntlet comes across like it’s the Ogryn’s most flexible ranged weapon. You can use the grenade shot to stun hordes (though not kill them, since the AOE damage is negligible), take out squishier Specials on a direct hit, stagger whatever survives, and it has solid range compared to other Ogryn ranged weapons–a skillful shot can arc the projectile to snipe stationary Specials standing far away. The primary fire can be used to swat away stragglers trying to poke you, as well, or even bonk Specials on the head as needed. I’m still trying to figure out how to use the Special Attack’s grenade punch, but at least it looks cool. Not to mention, the Gauntlet has wonderfully meaty THUNK sounds whenever you fire it or use the grenade punch.

Fatshark did a great job with the form and function of the Gauntlet, rendering it as a unique, interesting, and all-around useful ranged weapon. I don’t think you can ever truly go wrong with bringing the Gauntlet on a mission.

RIPPER GUN
A full-auto shotgun with a bayonet attached, the Ripper Gun–like most of the Ogryn’s ranged weapons–offers great firepower at close range, focusing mostly on crowd-clearing and close-range deletion of less-armored Specials.

It does this job admirably. The primary fire’s burst-fire mode is great if you need to kill a Trapper or similarly squishy Special at close range, though it won’t do much beyond tickle enemies at anything beyond a few meters. The alt fire feels great, letting you brace yourself to unleash a salvo of full-auto shotgun blasts to thin out hordes. The weapon’s balanced by a lowish ammo pool, a deceptively small (but still serviceable) magazine size, and moderately long reload time. Its short range is a problem, but it fits the Ogryn’s overall theme as the close-in party tank.

If you like using shotguns in FPS games, look no further than this Ripper Gun. The audiovisual design of this gun is fantastic; every shot feels like I’m shooting something out of a small cannon, which I am, really, whenever I’m firing a Ripper Gun, and the crunchiness of the reload animation further emphasizes just how big and unwieldy these guns are.

KICKBACK
The Kickback is an interesting ranged weapon for the Ogryn, because it’s arguably more of a ranged support tool than a weapon meant for actual killing. However, the amount of time you’ll spend reloading it hampers its potential as a ranged staggering and horde-thinning tool.

Now, since it’s basically a small cannon that fires several shotgun shells’ worth of shot in a single blast, it can definitely kill certain things as needed. It can rip out a big chunk of a horde or obliterate a squishier Special at close range fairly reliably. However, fittingly for a FPS game shotgun, its damage is greatly reduced by any form of armor, and it has pitiful range.

Its greatest weakness, however, is the incredibly slow reload time combined with its single-shot nature. It’s not very practical to reload this thing in the middle of a fight, especially if you’re doing your job and getting stuck in melee to keep them off your teammates. I had a hard time finding a use for it other than as an “opener” to an engagement, thinning a horde out a bit or knocking over a Special at a critical moment. Otherwise, it’s not an easy ranged weapon to use during a fight if you’ve fired it off already.

The Kickback is a fun weapon to use now and then, but I’m not entirely sure if I’d really want to bring it over the more flexible Grenade Gauntlet or more manageable Ripper Gun.

RUMBLER
The Rumbler is a deceptively simple weapon. It looks like a single-shot grenade launcher, and that’s basically what it is in essence, but it can be surprisingly useful to stun Specials at range as well.

When used as a normal grenade launcher, the Rumbler is solid in terms of form and function. The sounds it makes are satisfying, the resulting explosion looks great, and the weapon just feels good to use. Its gimmick, though, is that the grenade doesn’t explode on impact, instead detonating about 3/4ths of a second after it impacts something.

If that something happens to be an enemy, it does what you’d expect a hefty projectile the size of your fist would do.

This, plus the following explosion, makes the Rumbler more than just a horde clearer, because you can use it as a quick way to keep Specials off their feet as well as blow up incoming hordes. Overall, it felt like an excellent ranged weapon for the Ogryn, a sort of alternative to the Grenade Gauntlet, albeit one that’s a little weaker against armored targets.

HEAVY STUBBER
An actual karking heavy machinegun. Two of them, even!

Out of all Ogryn weapons, the Heavy Stubber is probably the best at clearing hordes and Shooters–a useful trait, since the latter type of enemy is usually a bad matchup for an Ogryn packing other weapons. It’s still useful for taking out squishier Specials at shortish range as well, and it has a ginormous magazine size.

A few things prevent it from feeling overpowered, however. It does little against heavy armor, it’s extremely inaccurate, its braced alt fire takes time to set up, and it appears to be tied with the Plasma Gun for having the longest reload animation in the game. Also, its ammo pool isn’t as big as it looks at first, since the weapon chews through its munition supply so quickly.

Still, I can’t blame players for wasting ammo on this thing, because it feels so good to shoot. No other weapon in the game lets you feel like a mobile machinegun turret, and mulching hordes of enemies with the Heavy Stubber feels just damn amazing.

[Hoshi]

Very much seconded, especially when it comes to the Heavy Sword. I really want to like the Heavy sword. I like big hefty two-handed swords in general, and I really like the chunky, single-edged curved blade on them.

But the damage is just so horrendously low that it’s honestly comical. I need like five swings with this gigantic blade to take down a single unarmoured Dreg. All the cleave in the world is of no use if you need like half a minute of swinging away to actually thin out a horde. Doubly so since it often doesn’t even stagger enemies even on a headshot. The only way to actually get any effectiveness is using heavy attacks, but those are generally very unsuitable against hordes due to the high risk of a single attack slipping through and interrupting you.

As it stands, it’s really just a worse Eviscerator.

[MangoSeasons]

I’m gonna add to this :

Laspistol can be extremely fun to use. They have a trait to fire when sprinting which makes them completely great for a zealot having some fun getting some scriptures below heresy for now.
It just needs a bit more ammo reserve to play with.

Autopistols are also great when doing so. I actually use one on my Psyker I had as a reward and run it in malice and below when I want to switch from the staves. Is it efficient ? No. Is it a great change of pace for a character to do some weeklies. Absolutely.

The One gun that is absolutely terrible is the psyker Revolver.
Oh my. Completely irrelevant as it is.