Bolter & plasma do just a bit more damage on a headshot and it is always white numbers, meaning they don’t apply weak point damage. They also don’t have crits so they are useless with feats & perks that affect weak point / crit damage or chances.
Well rolled Lucius in conjunction with Deadshot feat can do crazy weakspot crits consistently.
that’s just it though… a Bolter doesn’t need to land headshots or use feats… it just pours out a steady stream of very high average damage per shot.
Hard disagree. If you’re gonna run Boltgun on Veteran running 30% reload on elite kill, and 20% reload speed with ammo left in mag is a NECESSITY, as well as the Ogryn/Monster lv30 ability feat.
The only viable guns in my opinion are the Lucius lasgun mk III pattern, and the Boltgun.
Not comfy with low ammo reserves and 15 mag capacity? Rock the lucius, but land your headshots.
Not comfy with charging your shots, and not worry about headshotting? Rock the Boltgun, but watch your ammo count and run reload feats.
This better be how it works, considering a bolter is about 1/8th shotgun 7/8th RPG. Literally. Small charge to propel and ignite a rocket engine, then a rocket engine that propels any type of munition the plot demands. It would actually get deadlier with range if it’s remotely lore accurate. And speaking of accuracy, gyrojet-styled rounds are typically more accurate than conventional bullets provided the rocket nozzles aren’t gummed up for some reason.
The only thing wrong with the bolter is that it’s a little bit too thumpy and loud for the type of munition it actually is. And I don’t think anyone truly cares.
Talents [from up to down]: 1 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 3
I will change this only for a better weapon = other bolter or sniper rifle that was leaked but probably not buyable in game as for now.
1 shots most specials , 2 shoots zerks & maulers , wiped 5 bulwarks with one volley fire & probably would kill more if there were more… shreds half HP bar of monstrosity like ogryn or beast if you dont miss on Malice where most people farm money & quest for the Melks shop.
& it’s only blue… I bought it like on lev 20~ & use still on 30.
Tested all other ranged weapons that I saw in shop for sharpshooter in meat grinder on last difficulty setting & nothing compared to bolter.
Flamer is a team savior.
CC and damage.
Just can’t touch armour in some cases
A standard wave on diff 5 looks like this:
3 ogryns (any combination of shield and maulers)
Dual snipers
Dual mutants
Doggies
Backed up by hordes of shooters (who replace the melee trash from lower difficulties. They also shoot more frequently, accurately, shoot while moving, and do more damage)
A flamer is either completely ineffective against the targets that get close, or will get you killed because you can’t take out shooters. Lasers are good against shooter trash, but can’t kill fast enough/take out heavy targets, break shield ogrn pushes, or stun crowds with every shot. Revolver: wastes your team’s precious ammo because it has the worst efficiency, huge damage dropoff, ineffective against heavy armor, won’t break shields or kill multiple with one bodyshot – switch time completely irrelevant because you can always have your bolter out and instaswap to melee when you need it.
The only answer is bolter / rapid laser with headpop psyker build.
I salvaged mine a couple days ago and another one hasn’t showed up since 
Will def keep an eye out for further testing.
its base 15/80 ammo is a serious problem for Zealots.
You’re forgetting the important thing that fire stuns enemies, so even this primal attack puts a stun on it which gives you a big advantage. Also, it’s not a problem with ammo (using a flamethrower I don’t have to fight for every ammo box)
As a Zealot, there is no option to use any weapon other than the flamethrower at the moment.
Theflame does not have such a long range, so it is effective against close targets.
Lucius Lasgun also 1 shots most specials, 1 shots zerks, 2-3 maulers. Lucius problem arises bulwark comes into play, but you can easily dispose of everything else.
The main appeal of the bolter, is the full auto volley fire into bulwarks/monstrosities, and penetration through multiple targets.
My bolter is at 406 rating. 401 for Mk3 lucius.
For talents I run [ 1 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 3 ] and play only malice+
Personally I find that the Sharpshooter feat is not as good on bolter, and better on Lucius. The reason being that the only extra damage that you need is for Ogryns and Monstrosities.
Why do I run reload speed with ammo in a mag, and elite kill? Because the default reload time is 6 seconds or so, and cutting that in half to 3 is a huge game changer and allows you to dump more mags down range on those moments where there is TONS of specials and elites, where 15 bullets just isnt enough.
I will again just say, unfortunately for higher difficulties I only see Boltgun and Lucius MK3 as viable.
Bolter is great, flamer has a valuable role as a space clearer, shotgun is phenomenally versatile with both close and long range functions. Revolver has a niche as a quick and dirty special/elite clearer, owing to its very short weapon swap/priming time and high damage at close range. Autogun is simply not worth taking in any scenario.
… But all of them pale in comparison to the MG XII lasgun. It takes a bit of getting used to, but in skilled hands it rests head and shoulders above the competition. High damage, immense ammo capacity, decent reload time, a relatively short weapon swap time. Get used to the nasty recoil, and you can just blast that sucker into hordes all day long while simultaneously executing every special you see. Snag one with the “Deadly Accurate” trait that grants ~50% bonus damage on weak spot hits, and there’s nothing short of bosses that’ll survive half a dozen shots to their face.
Are you playing on diff 5?
The stagger resistance increases, so there’s a lot of things the flamer won’t stun. It’s completely ineffective against the armored melee elites/specials damage-wise, and won’t stop ragers/mutants.
Not to mention you’re going to be sniped every which way and won’t even be able to leave cover because many of the melee hordes are replaced with ranged hordes.
Even on diff 4 flamer has trouble except a few niche situations. It’s “serviceable” for the final ammo transport event and boss assassination hordes, but nothing a zealot can’t already take care of with melee.
What are you talking about? Until I went to the Training Hall to test your stun guesses. Surprise nothing changes. Flame stuns/interrupts still the same way.
And the dmg against the horde, poorly armored enemies is still effective. One magazine to get rid of even an elite ;like Reaper.
Don’t come up with nonsense just to defend your opinion. I play 4+ levels and know how well Zealot Flamethrower works there. It makes no sense to take the Bolt because its effectiveness is low without Zealot’s low ammo, plus it doesn’t suit an aggressive playstyle. That’s how you can use it effectively. I saw the teams, I tried to play 2-4 bolt with my friends. It works, but it’s not the only right choice.
Dev heard you were having fun with the revolver and nerfed all movement and dodges in game kek.
That’s just so wrong. I main currently Vet on level 30, playing Diff 4-5 missions with my Vermintide 2 team. While I do agree that Boltgun is the most solid range weapon (there is always best and worst one, that’s how statistic works) I am running both Difficulty 4-5 mission with success on following loadouts:
Shotgun. I have 442 Power Shotgun that 1-2 taps with Vet almost everything, taking few shots to kill reaper. Yes, I can’t kill Crusher or Bulwark but then I have Power Sword for it.
Plasma Gun. While it has it’s issues (Overheat too fast and ammo count too low) it packs BIG PUNCH without any charging shots. I have 424 Plasma Gun and It 1 tap headshot most specials/elites under Volley Ult and 3-4 taps Crushers/Reapers. It has great penetration, opens up Bulwarks and it sounds cool. I pair with Chains sword because it’s cool.
Mark IV/MG XII Lasgun. Onlt ~410 so I take them on Diff 4 only so far (not that good traits sadly) but it’s Headshot DPS machines. I pair them with Chain Axe to have great tool for Crushers and Maulers. Tons of ammo, great accuracy, crazy headshot DPS if your aim is good. Love it.
I am finishing missions without issues on those loadouts. Yes Boltgun is the best, but there will always be best range weapon. That’s just how it works. But others are not that far away to not be viable. Veteran makes tons of them viable. Just give them a spin.
In Vermintide 2 Long Bow (later Javelin) was best Kerri range weapon, Rifle best Kruber weapon (but his Repeater was close second and also viable), Troll Hammer best Ironbreaker one (but you could run rifle without issue), Pistol for Ranger (but you could make shotgun build or crossbow build and run Cata too), Crossbow for Slatz (but pistols and repeater and griffon were also viable).
There will always be some weapon that is most optimal but it doesn’t mean other are not viable to use and win even highest difficulties.
Also people just started this game. Everyone want to use Bolter. People were WAITING YEARS to finally get proper, powerful and great Bolter in 40k video game. This is what Warhammer fans want. It’s was dream for many. Give it few weeks people will use other range weapons too becasue they will get bored of Bolter. Also many didn’t even get to 40, didn’t even get other range weapons properly rolled in RNG Store.
Meanwhile Revolver… Pain nerfed and slaughtered into the ground. But yah I agree there are other viable guns, but Boltgun is just a little too optimal imo.
Nope, it’s other weapons that need love. Revoler, Autoguns, autopistol, heavy laspistol. Boltgun just does what range weapon should do one Diff 5. Boltgun is in good place, other weapons need little/more love.
In Darktide’s 40k universe, regular human rejects can carry 95+ uranium rocket shells, but can’t carry more than 35 pistol ammo.
Not asking for much, but can the inferior weapons at least have better ammo efficiency/larger reserves, so you’re not dumping away the team’s resources?
If not larger reserves, at least make ammo packs replenish more clips, especially for shotguns/revolvers/autos.
What you dont like getting 5 bullets back from picking an ammo pack up and then using all 5 on a mauler and only doing 80% of its hp with 5 headshots at close range lol.
To be fair that mauler would be dead if you hit them in the body and the real culprit is the weakpoint report system. Scab maulers have a heavily armored head but an unarmored body like the (guess) mauler in VT2. So the game telling you you’re hitting a weakpoint that is in fact blocking almost all damage except from specific AP weapons is bad design.
But it was also in VT2 and also annoying there after 1000s of hours of people dumping non-huntsman arrows at mauler’s heads.