An advice about IB Bardin

Wich is your preferite weapon? Melee and ranged. I’m making the dwarf (iron breaker) and I have some doubts about his weapons. Thanks guys.

I’ll be honest, I don’t like the flamethrower outside a coordinated group. Mainly because there’s a lot of situations where he’ll be useless against a special or get tunnel visioned in a horde when he should be doing other things. Obviously good if you’re the only good mob clearer in the team but that’s usually not the case.

Other than that, depending on comp, I like the Axe and shield, two handed hammer, one handed hammer. Since 1.0.6, I’ve seen some IB’s with pickaxes and axes that seem to be able to pull it off. Two handed axe needs some tuning up from what I’ve read.

For ranged, I like the sniper thingy, the idea being you only take it out to deal with specials no one else can deal with at the moment. Ammo can be an issue though if you’re not careful. Shotgun can also work. I would always take the drakefire pistols over the flamethrower since they combine the best of both worlds, sorta. No ammo means less stress.

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2h hammer or axe, they are intuitive weapons that work in single target and against groups.
2h hammer is safer and i would say i prefer it on the ironbreaker, but the 2h axe is a decent alternative, trading some single target killing power for more speed, although the biggest difference is that the 2h hammer will stagger a large amount of enemies with it’s sweep, but do lackluster damage, while the 2h axe deals massive damage, but gets stopped way earlier, meaning it doesn’t protect you as well.
Personally think the axe goes better on slayer since he is better at dodging, but might find some success with it by utilizing the IBs tankiness a little.

Other than that, probably the 1h hammer (no shield), takes some getting used to imo, but it’s certainly effective against groups and with it’s heavy against armor, while giving you much better mobility.

Ranged, you can’t really go wrong with anything. I prefer the flamethrower, although if you are really good the drakefire pistol is probably the better choice. All the ammunition variants are alright, although i prefer infinite ammo, simply because that’s kinda part of the point in playing IB.

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2H hammer + Pistols or Grudgeraker, depending on comp

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I usually go with Axe+Shield (extra push/block angle bonus and the off balance trait) and the Grudgeraker (crit chance bonus and scrounger trait). This lets you take the talent that gives stam regen after melee power hits. I make heavy use of the push+folluw up strike, especially if there are any armored units. I put scrounger on the grudgeraker and use its melee a decent amount because it provides a constant, fast, sweep-like attack that the axe+shield lacks. It also builds your ammo back up on crits.

With this setup, I typically take so little damage that I just go with regen necklace even on legend. Also, any team mate near me is pretty darn safe from attack due to all the shield pushing. And dang can that grudgeraker clear out some horde waves when they funnel in though a choke point.

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As you can see, people have different preferences, and practically anything can work. I’ve told this to others seeking advice, but test things out and find what fits your playstyle. If your (melee) style is mobile, 1-h Hammer is probably the best choice. If you want huge crowd control, 2-h Hammer. If you put more weight on blocking and pushing, either shield works, but H&S is tricky to learn. If you feel you need power against armor, choose Axe.

For ranged, Drakegun clears hordes quite easily, but requires forethought to use, and doesn’t do practically anything else. Drakefire pistols are more versatile, if not quite as good in plugging a corridor. Other ranged weapons can work too, but in this case are more specialised (and eat up ammo, of course).

My own IB experience is nearly all with either shield plus Drakegun. My friend instead prefers to run around with 1h Hammer and Drakefire Pistols. Just remember that you’re supposed to do more than just sit there blocking, and you’ll do fine.

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For champion, i like to run Axe/Shield and drake pistols. I mostly use the pistols, only pulling out melee if i need to block/deal with excessive armor. Drake pistols w/ 20% overheat reduction and 30% talent reduction = massive amounts of firepower, and w/ the level 20 temp health on kill trait, i find myself just machine gunning my pistols and using my temp health to vent my excess overcharge on hordes. works surprisingly well (as long as ppl know not to stand in front of me when i am massacring the front lines). I also run the healing trinket (free hp to use for venting if needed :stuck_out_tongue: ). I am able to usually fire off somewhere around 6-8 shots before filling first overcharge bar, and since the shots can cleave hordes, i can usually vent 2-4 shots worth of first bar before the horde fills the space that i cleared, and then keep firing until max heat. once max heat, then i switch to melee and shove/cut. Prob not a normal playstyle but i love it :smiley:

Also, running off balance on shield (enemy takes 50% more dmg for 3 sec after blocking) with the 25 taunt bosses talent is hilarious. Every boss, i bomb (shrapnel, 20% bonus dmg for 10 sec) and then 50% more bonus dmg for first 10 sec (duration of taunt) of boss fight allows my team to usually chunk most bosses pretty well.

I love Hammer/shield, but i kept finding myself completely worthless against heavy armor (CW/Bosses). The cleave of H/S is amazing, but w/o the armor pen, i find myself switching to axe for reliable pen and drake pistols for non armored enemies (which works very well). If they ever change hammer or add in some way to pen armor, i would go back instantly. I view IB as the ultimate support: Super tanky, great at clearing normal enemies, tiny (so u can shoot over him), and well rounded for supporting the team, whether by boosting dmg via blocking, or taunting hordes and spam rezzing downed teamates and turning the tides for victory!

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dont use the drake gun /pistols the flamethrower is utterly useless and the pistols make a noise that drives me crazy! poot poot poot, from the start to the finish …

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The only noises I hear are the screams of my burning enemies rolling on the floor as their flesh melts from neverending balls of fiery doom. YOU WILL LOVE MY POOTS :smiley:

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Melee:
-Greataxe
-Warpick

Ranged:
-Flamethrower

Those are my choices for legend. The melee is mainly to kill roaming and armor, when a horde comes you can solo it with the thrower.
Make sure your team is set up properly to funnel the entire horde into your flames, then you’ve three more people in case of specials and armor.

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2H hammer has great damage and cleave against horde, but you need charge every attack… so it’s a little too slow. Maybe is my bad, but between two attacks I can be hit :confused:

Axe/shield and hammer/shield are more safe… but I don’t know, they seem to have weak attacks; also hammer/shield that should be “against horde” as description. So axe/shield should be a better choice, at least is great to armoured enemies/bosses.

Gotta strafe, move in/out, and only ever charge for the minimal amount of time required. If you take like two steps back as you charge then step forward again during the swing and follow-through, you’re untouchable.

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Thanks for the advice.

don’t listen to the other guys! only use the 1h hammer!
2h weapons are too slow and deal low damage, and shield are useless and deal no damage to anything and only have like 1 stamina more than the 1h hammer. 1h hammer can kill SV in 1hit to the head, very good against hordes if you use the block charge attack and it is nice against chaos warrior maybe 4-5 charged attacks.
im shaking my head reading all these other comments

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I will try it, thanks. Anyway, against horde, use you entire combo? Or just some attacks and then you block to stop the combo?

You are aware that the 1h heavy deals the exact same damage as the light on the 2h hammer, right?
And neither can one-shot a SV without crit? Both deal 22 damage on the head, SV have 39HP.

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1h hammer is, indeed, a great weapon. It pretty much does what the 2h weapons do for the dwarf, only better. It’s the only other melee weapon I’ll use on the dwarf aside from the shield and axe. At least until they make the 2h weapons worth using.

On a related note, the 1h mace on Kruber is also great because it is the same weapon, just looks different.

It can’t deal with hyperstacking. Which are the only situations in which a horde can actually kill a group. 2H has more stagger cleave and therefore ragdolls more enemies, it’s also capable of handling situations of hyperstacking such as attacking a horde as they come up all at once, situations where the 1H hammer will hit meaty.

It’s best use has always been that you can just spam the push attack in panic situations. Nothing more. Nothing less.

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I’m finding the 2h hammer with drake pistols the way for me. Axe and shield is cool too, but the 2h deals with mobs better in my experience so far.

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Shields are pretty good, no other of his weapons can shove packs of elites back. Very strong with +50% dmg. Poor against hordes.
Drakegun is possibly the strongest weapon of the game in chokepoints. A pretty good match for most of his slow weapons.

I usually don’t use 2h-hammer anymore or any weapon besides the shield that so drastically reduces dodge. It makes you very vulnerable if things go wrong.

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