I suck as ogryn on Heresy+, need advice on how to get better

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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Edit: trying out this build. So far it seems okay, I enjoy it, but my gear is subpar so it will be a long time before I can get rolls as crazy good as the author supposedly has. Edit 2: not anymore.

Well, at least I feel like I suck. Maybe I’m doing better than I think and it’s just that playing ogryn is difficult, but that isn’t how I feel. Not fishing for head pats here, just saying what I think.

This is where I’d link my build but, after creating it, the website I’ve used decided not to let me see it. Long story short: Power Maul or Bill Butcher Mk III, Rumbler or Grenade Gauntlet, bleed and bleed damage reduction. I do NOT want to use the billy club because I hate the way it looks, otherwise I’m open to suggestions.

My problem is that I feel like I’m useless and a third wheel in the party. Any decent Zealot Preacher outperforms me in melee and any half-decent Veteran Sharpshooter does better than me in ranged combat. Any combat situation involving ranged enemies that I can’t tie in melee in the first few seconds requires me to play a “cover shooter” or get punished by walking out into the open. I have good stagger, especially with the Power Maul, but so what, most of the time killing things is more important than staggering them. I can’t do squat to bosses; best I can do is kite the Plague Ogryn and stay as far from the Beast of Nurgle as I can. I’m sure there are other problems I have but I can’t remember them right now.

All in all, I can’t do anything well and I don’t think that I contribute much to the party. I do get hit a lot, though.

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As much as people can say things like “you have all the tools you need for Ogryn” I wouldn’t also say that it’s easy. It’s very chaotic and it helps to have a good team. My main strategy is to stagger and knockdown as many enemies as I can until everything on the field is dead. Once it’s time to break from cover it’s a lot of moving around while charging, pushing, smacking, blowing up enemies. Your toughness is probably going to go up and down and you’re going to take hits here and there, but you have the health and damage reduction to take them (more so if you get some decent curios.)

The Rumbler is probably my favorite for higher difficulties since it covers most of your needs - plus it’s fun to bounce around corners and blow stuff up. The Mk III knife and the Bully Club feel kind of interchangeable to me, based on their stats. Each have pretty notable strengths and drawbacks, but they can both get the job done. I haven’t used Power Maul too much on Heresy or Damnation, I could see it working on Ogryn though, it has a decent attack chain and AoE suppression could come in real handy in a tight spot.

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There are couple of questions here, that will probably be tied to either skill or decision-making in tides games. Lets start with the basics:
Are you plaing pub games or with friends, if it is the latter what is the team comp?
If pubs it does not matter, but it would be good to check if you have at least one range/elite/special handler in the team.
Can you hit with rumbler or GG from mroe than 20 meters? If not, then maybe try Stubber or Ripper, may suit your playstyle, abilities better.
In general nade is good horde opener, corridor clear and if you have a clear shot soemtimes good for specials, but I would prioritise that.
GG is also vedry hvy dmg on heavier enemies and bosses with Special attack.
I personally build for Toughness regen on Heresy+, Power Maul with Confident Strike belssing helps. I use Best form of Defence and Knife through butter.
Thus my focus is ghore clear and knocking over Close Combat Specials/Elites.
With secondary function of being a medic.
It is very important to determine what your are getting yoursel finto with Bull Rush, so listed to the sound quese if therea are any specials try tagging befoire charging in. You may want to ust help your mates with a big horde, or pin down most dangerous heavy hitters of the enemy.
In both cases you will be in the thick of things.
If you have more specific questions for the builds, weapons or strategies just PM me. I am not an expert and I am sure there are more and better Ogryn specialists out there, but I play Heresy and Damnation regularly on all classes, so I know thing or two.

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I’ve mentioned it before: You’re in charge of denying enemies the ability to actually act. Prioritize knocking things around when possible. When possible lure things to a choke point, ogryn essentially dominate choke points. Don’t be afraid to lure things far away in by backing out of LoS.

Learn how to fight plague ogryn with dodges. In an ideal world you should never take health damage from the plague ogryn. Charge it if it tries to go after a teammate or if you need to get back toughness via confident strike.

For Beasts learning to bounce rumbler shots directly into them will hurt them a lot. There’s zero need for the blessing that makes them stick. You can also use your massive melee range to hit it safely if it’s after somebody else without going in the snail trail.

I’ll link it again just in case you look at it this time around: A random run if you want to see how I approach things. Alternate run with a rumbler where I was a zombie.

Feats are here. 1, 1, 1, 2, X (T5 feats are meh, pick your preference, I use 3), 3.

Two toughness a health curio.

Bull butcher and a gauntlet/rumbler. Rumbler is generally the stronger option though gauntlet can be good if you struggle with elites/specials.

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Either you go full explosion memery and embrace the “cover shooter” aspect or you simply accept the idea that you really cannot frontline in a traditional way.

Without going into the classic learn to dodge, block, etc advice that can be found anywhere i would rather suggest looking at the maps more deeply the next time you play.
Map knowledge is probably the number 1 thing i’d say ogryns should pay more attention to. If you know the spots where you can hunker down to not get shot to pieces by ranged enemies and can still slap hordes/elites that are coming your way, then you are contributing. Ogryns can effectively tie down almost any composition of melee threaths if you are good enough.
If melee threaths are tied down then more space for your shooty and zappy boys to clear those pesky shooters.

But without seeing some gameplay its hard to pinpoint any specifics from just a forum post.

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I’ve decided to give this build a try. I enjoy using the weapons this build uses, like how it suggests Lynchpin instead of the other two toughness-regenerating feats and, well, the author just seems to know what he’s talking about. My equipment is subpar, though (he has a melee weapon with both Confident Strike and Momentum? Lucky mf… lets see how long will it take for me to find a power maul like that), and my plasteel supply is non-existent, so for now I’m limiting myself to Heresy until I can roll/craft better gear.

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Guess I’ve sold myself short on the Plague Ogryn. Assuming it is just me and the boss, I can kite/fight it without getting hit much if at all. Not that that’s a large accomplishment, Plague Ogryn’s pretty easy and nearly the same as Ratogre from Vermintide.

I’ve tried doing that but very often I’ve paid for it with getting hit for unneccessary amount of damage. I’m slowly changing my approach to playing ogryn from “get in the thick of it and have fun like in the good old Vermintide” to “charge in when needed but generally be damn careful”. Point is, I’m quite often far away from specific enemies that could use a knockdown.

Choke points, yes, that is obvious even to me. Most ogryn weapons allow me to hold down reasonably well against an incoming horde and/or elites.

The build I’m trying out utilizes heavy stubber, and while that weapon does many things well (I remember you calling it a trap but no, it really does have many uses), its boss damage is s-h-i-e-t. I suppose avoiding its snail trail and smacking it from behind is possible but it is very difficult for me because of how more often than not there are enemies that attack me or there isn’t enough room to maneuver. Besides, melee hits on beast’s body do very little damage.

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This is why you have a rumbler/gauntlet. When I say the stubber is a trap it’s akin to why I think the shield is a trap; the opportunity cost of it isn’t worth the loss of the massive utility of the gauntlet/rumbler.

You’re more akin to a conflag staff unchained than you are to a foot knight in terms of overall playstyle.

I wasn’t referring to hitting the beast’s body, you can reach the weak point safely many times.

It’s just advice dude, I’m not trying to debate it. It’s something that works for me and consistently wins me damnation, even with teammates who repeatedly die and whatnot despite all attempts to keep them on their feet. I’d highly recommend glancing at one of the videos, I don’t expect you to watch all of it but it can give you an idea.

EDIT: Meant to comment: I’m 99% sure toughness damage reduction on curios isn’t in the game so take that linked build with a grain of salt. Same for inspiring barrage. While a good amount of the advice I saw from skimming it isn’t bad, well… see above.

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I would recommend the bleed build on ogryn until you get very good with enough weapons to branch out.

The bleed fixes ogryn’s biggest weakness in melee, armored targets.

Your bleed will cause much more damage than your swings so there is no need to hold the heavy attacks, let them go as soon as the animation goes far enough for it to be a heavy.

I personally have success with the shovel or the shield.

shovel’s 1st heavy does acceptable dmg to armor and its a vertical so you don’t waste it on the horde. I use exclusively heavies against specials, elites, and bosses.

With shield I rotate light => heavy => light => heavy both swings go right to left and are wide sweeping attacks causing the enemy wave to be swept to your left, your light attack causes more damage to trash, but the heavy makes them bleed to give you damage reduction with a later talent. Against specials, elites, and bosses I just spam heavy hits bc they crowd control anything other than a boss so I never get hit by ragers/crushers/maulers.

Talents per lvl

Lvl 5 -smash em good

Lvl 5 talent is toughness on single target heavy attack. This talent allows you to get 20% shields whenever you need it and has helped when a ranged enemy took all my shields and I desperately needed more before the next barrage.

Lvl 10 -blood and thunder

Bleed is your anti armor and your damage reduction.

Lvl 15 Towering presence- more passive shield regen bc of more allies in range.

Lvl 20 Bloodthirst- great damage reduction bc it has more uptime than the other talents in this tier. Don’t focus on keeping max stacks bc if you do then you might be using too many heavy attacks and killing the trash faster by mixing in some lights would be better for everyone.

Lvl 25 -anything other than knife through butter, fully charging a heavy attack is NEVER worth it bc you take too much damage. Always charge your heavy the minimum needed for it to be a heavy, our bleed will do the heavy damage.

Lvl 30 Bull gore- this talent is not for good damage, its to have max damage reduction from bloodthirst.

its a great way for you to charge through a horde to focus down a priority target in charge range and then focus the horde. The damage reduction combined with smash em good should keep your shields up long enough to kill your priority target and turn to face the horde.

I have been playing with 2 hp focused curio’s and 1 toughness curio. Ogryn get damage reduction on both so double dipping doesn’t hurt you.

As far as ranged weapons, controlling longer distance ranged threats is the go to.

Rumbler is a great ogryn weapon if you’re very accurate. A direct hit does great damage and then explodes resulting in dead specials, but if you don’t direct hit they just get knocked down, it gives you a chance to charge or a teammate to finish the job.

Rumbler also clears a horde in emergencies, shoot it at the ground so it bounces in the air bc it seems to affect a wider area if it explodes in midair.

Ripper gun mk VI seems to have the most accurate long range shot out of the ripperguns. Do not aim down sight, the hipfire gets a tighter spread if you are stationary and it fires a 2 shot burst so the crosshairs stay tight. Use aim down sight to burst a crowd mixed with specials or elites.

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Nailed it. The core problem with Ogryn is that he is outperformed by the other classes in all aspects of the game that actually matter, which is killing. Be it ranged or melee, a veteran with a powersword does better at both.

Without any other options or roles to fulfill, the Ogryn is just not that good. We can’t taunt, or bind mobs in melee more effectively. We can’t properly engage in long distance gunfights and with the suppression mechanics being as janky as they are, we can’t reliably take pressure off the team either. Add to that a hitbox that you can see from orbit and what you get is very frustrating gameplay.

Knocking guys around is fun, but you just make them harder to kill by splaying the enemies flat. Worst case they stand up and immediately run to the backline and attack unsuspecting teammates…

A passive ability to draw more melee aggro and make ranged enemies switch quicker to melee might be a solution but I don’t know…

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the easiest way to survive as ogryn 4+ is learn how to do sharpshooter’s job yourself. Sure, ogryn is outperformed by veteran, and even zealot at countering ranged units… on paper, but in practice your veteran will be using a shotgun and a chain axe, and your zealot will be using a stub revolver and a combat knife. They will suck at dealing with elites, specials, ranged units, and many times even horde clear, and you will have to just do everything yourself and hope that you neither run out of ammo or get clowned on by a dog or something during a critical moment.

I am finding good success with power maul and stubber. I prefer to use ripper but ripper while extremely good in close quarters, its ammo economy makes you dependent on your teammates to be useful, which is bad news. I never thought I’d say this but some kind of PVE MMR would be nice.

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@bcna

Try the ripper mk VI

It gives up the full auto on secondary fire for a much more accurate 2 shot burst on hipfire(primary)

Its a little counterintuitive but you hipfire for long range and ads for close range burst.

The hipfire crosshair tightens a lot if you stand still, enough to hit a bomber or sniper.

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for me having a ripper that dispatch trapper and dog immediately is very important, so i use mkii

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The kickback can actually work as a sniper if it has good ranged, stopping power and damage. However the most important statt on that gun is Reload Speed and a perk for even more reload speed.

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You don’t seem to want to use the slab shield.
Sure it’s unwieldy, but it does allow you to protect teammates and have a tanking role.

For that you will give up on being able to easily kill non chaff in melee for sure.
It is still a good tool to use despite what many people will write (and how pitiful its stick damage is).

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The key things I know from my friends playing Ogryn are as follows:

  1. Shield is hot garbage and an absolute noob trap. You’re a detriment to your team with this.
  2. Dodge slide works as an ogryn even though it doesn’t look like it should. You can dodgeslide a shooter and he’ll shoot right through you for no damage.
  3. Bully Butcher, Bully Club and (now) Power Maul are the choices you have for melee
  4. Gauntlet, Rumbler and (controversial) Stubber are all considered viable range options.
  5. Dodges and dodge sliding is your key skill. Use it. Once you’re not taking unecessary health damage from ranged units and damage from melee fights then Heresy should go easily.
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I’ve never seen the toughness damage reduction perk myself and, according to my findings online, only few other people have. Yesterday I’ve spent good five minutes on refining a curio and didn’t see it once. Don’t know what to make of it. Is it extremely rare? Was it possible to roll it before but not now?

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It’s only ever been seen as a datamined stat. (Possibly in early betas, I don’t recall if it was in the October beta)

If people claim to have seen it on live they’re lying through their teeth or have a bad memory.

As I’ve said many times before: There’s a ton of bad/misinformation about this game out there. No matter what else you might think of my advice, at least I’m not bullshitting you and relying on my own experience (And will freely admit when I’m not sure on something) That build is just using stuff on the site that doesn’t even exist.

EDIT: Yep, I was curious and checked that site for the Bloodthirsty blessing cus I hadn’t seen it before and it’s on a chainaxe. The site claims it can only be on chainswords. Good job site.

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@Reginald

Disagree on your melee choices, I reliably kill most elites and lose very little health using shovel or shield on difficulty 4.

Shovel is easy, use lights on trash, use heavy attacks on everything else.

Shield needs a little skill, rotate light attack with the shield bash that sweeps across your screen against trash, spam heavy hits against everything else.

Using the shield’s block is the trap, only useful against daemonhost and plague ogryn.

Another use of the special block is to regen stamina, walk toward gunner while blocking, when stamina runs low, activate special until stamina regens and then continue walking toward gunners.

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What do you think about swapping bull butcher for power maul? The way I see it swapping one for the other equals losing some dps and gaining a powerful stagger. I enjoy opening up bulwarks, maulers and other heavies with a powered-up strike with a maul and then whacking them freely. Edit: assuming I find one with good blessings, because my current one has neither Momentum nor Confident Strike, which hurts.