I’m slowly working on a general guide on steam for “making good builds” and I’m wanting to have ONE build for each class to showcase key aspects of the class in a way that’s fairly quintessential. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the strongest “meta” build - but something that exemplifies the class and is “strong” and also flexible enough to work with a decent selection of weapons.
Here’s what I’m thinking for each class:
PSYKER
Brain Burst has a lot of utility and want to make a build that showcases how it can work with empowered psionics and ult use to be a pretty strong killer. Assail is finicky and smite is irritating, which leaves BB.
Venting Shriek is helpful for people learning psyker as it gives them a “get out of peril” card, plus lets you play around with wildfire.
Voidstrike and crits is probably the most fun staff to start to out with (although personally I like Trauma a lot)
Various abilities to reduce cooldown is awesome.
EDIT: The Illis Force sword has great horde clear and is the “safest” to use (don’t lock yourself into the special animation as easily). Build features Deflector because that’s a pretty quintessential/unique thing (even if it’s a bit of crutch later on). Can switch to Deimos easily enough. Shred on the sword to take advantage of Mettle when fighting in melee.
So maybe like this:
VETERAN
Bit torn on veteran. Plasma + Voice of Command is probably the strongest combo, but plasma is a bit overplayed. Recon lasguns are strong right now a bit of a sleeper hit. So I’m trying this build instead:
Krak grenades because yes, plus extra grenades and extra grenades every 60s
Went for an infiltrate build with the base weapon specialist build. This combo gives vet lots of utility (escape bad situations, rescue a teammate, krak grenade a crusher, escape being caught in the open, etc.) and encourages vets to frequently switch into melee and not camp out on ranged.
Recon Las gun - I love the heavier hitting VId mark because it’s the most accurate and controllable at range. Combined with onslaught, infernus, and shock trooper it’s got great sustained damage even without survivalist.
Chainsword for melee because it’s flexible and iconic. Can also work with a dagger or shovel pretty nicely.
I went light on keystones to make the point that the vet keystones aren’t really that necessary given all their other talents to pull from, and taking them often has too high of an opportunity cost.
ZEALOT
This one is a little off meta / meta adjacent, but gives a unique zealot flavored feel.
Crit focused with Blazing Piety, Invocation of Death, and various other abilities that relate to crits.
Kantral Shotgun is a unique entity and can stack some pretty sweet damage.
Throwing Knives are a unique piece of the Zealot’s kit and newer players are prone to underrate these. Pairs nicely with the shotgun.
Fury of the Faithful with two charges plus backstabbing cool down reduction means you get a lot of uptime here.
Combat axes are great - and showcasing brutal momentum seems like a good call.
OGRYN
Here’s a skullbreaker build that’s pretty flexible and can work with a range of different weapon combinations.
Took slab shield for melee and ripper gun as a starting point, since the ripper is fun and showcases the unique stab special/melee attack (which takes advantage of the various heavy melee talents). Slab shield is unique.
Can use any of the blitz’s really, just pick the one that compliments your main weapon options.
Ogryn Charge is pretty solid and it’s good to learn how to use it to quickly close range or get to a teammate that’s in trouble.
It’s a good build. I use upgraded krak and grenade regen. I use auto gun but not Recon. I agree with you that vets don’t really need keystone. With that said, I don’t spec into one. Good luck with the guide.
Having played a bit of Zealot myself, I think Tactical Axes are the way to go for the class. They just seem generally superior to Combat Axes - faster, similar cleave with BM, and similar damage per hit.
For easy crowd control with Brutal Momentum, you can use the Atrox Mk IV with its wide-sweeping lights, though I find the Atrox Mk II works fine as well. It’s a good fit for any of the three human classes, really.
I think you’re going a bit too much in on CDR with Piety and the keystone would be better served with Brutal Momentum - it doesn’t demand as much skill or specialization as Martyrdom does, and rewards zipping around the battlefield as you are wont to do.
I made a build here that I hope still feels like Zealot gameplay (complete with Flamer!) but is “better” in a sense. I don’t really like the shotguns all that much.
Incidentally, I realize I ended up making crit-focused builds for all three of these. Crits are pretty good though and there are great talents and blessings that trigger off crits so I guess it’s okay that they are all a bit crit focused.
You made almost exactly my same build as I have when using a flamet (albeit with combat axe). I really haven’t used tactical axes for some reason, but I’ll give them a go on your recommendation.
I do feel like blaming piety is even better with a flamer though. Crits apply double burn stacks on the flamer IIRC which is quite a bit more burn.
I’ve never found inexorable judgement that impactful? Something about it feels way to subtle and inconsequential seeming - especially compared to basically +25% crit chance.
I’ve also gotten somewhat fond of the bolt PISTOL on this sort of build. The Zarzona revolver is great and all - but I really don’t like the single shell reloading. The bolt pistol is a little clunkier, sure, but reloads faster and works in a bitter range of situations. Really enjoying it, and that can also work well in this sort of zealot build.
Both are good keystones, but I like the attack speed boost Judgement gives. The damage is whatever.
I think boltpistol/revolver is redundant if you’re running throwing knives, so you should bring a power weapon to deal with big groups of enemies or heavy armor. My main build I’m using currently runs stunbombs/revolver/martyrdom, which I think is more effective, but definitely not as flashy.
This is my view about the game and approach to creating builds.
When creating a build, I aim to cover a variety of important aspects, including:
Offensive:
Hordes or groups of enemies
Heavy armor enemies
Monsters
Fluidity
Note: Fluidity refers to reload speed, equip speed, and attack speed.
Defensive:
Mobility
Survivability
Each build will perform differently in these areas, so players will need to adjust their playstyle accordingly. Focus on your strengths and avoid situations where you’re at a disadvantage.
I highly prioritize mobility because it enhances my kiting ability. No offensive power is enough to take down everything by yourself in the highest difficulty and you never know who you’ll get in PUG. So the ability to kite, reposition, and res teammates is very critical for me.
I shy’d away from a martyrdom build just because it takes a little more of a mental life to put all pieces together for it I feel. Definitely can be a solid too - but maybe not the first one to showcase (but prolly a good second). What melee do you use with martyrdom?
Yes, I have a pretty similar thought process here. Agreed on mobility. I’d clarify on survivability that knowing your tools for regenerating toughness and leaning into that is super important.
For offense, I tend to think about:
Anti-horde
Anti-armor (with an asterisk for how I’ll deal with crushers)
And anti-specialist (generally need to be able to dispatch multiple specialists pretty quickly if you want to get far in HISTG).
Monsters are the lowest priory for me, the thinking being that if you can kite the monster and deal with everything else bringing down the monster is relatively trivial.
Taunt, I would like to recommend getting Rush ability, but Taunt feels real awesome and easy to use(with +damage modifier please);
Now get bleed with aura for heavies;
And the left keystone with only +10% speed, so heavy spam would feel nicer;
And CDR ability, it’s pretty much a must have;
Also, getting as many Toughness nodes as it is possible is real good, so here’s the guideline.
Curios - 2 Toughness curios + 1 Health, or all Toughness(that’s what I run with, it feels good not to take Health damage);
With gunner resistance to not suffer and mostly chill
Weapons:
Kickback - is just a very cool ranged option, be it pretty ordinary. It can be changed to Rumbler, because it’s pretty unique, but I don’t like the weapon so can’t recommend.
Shield - is just real good and a signature weapon for Ogryn, but I am afraid of people just sitting in their special all the time.
Karsolas Pickaxe - this weapon is pretty insane and real simple to use, so I just can’t not include it. But honestly, Shield is preferable.
Short Summary:
Ogryn with Taunt + Kickback + Shield + Heavy spam
Eh…missing out on top-mid nodes for top-left is a worse pick in general, regardless of throwing around the meta buzzword; it doesn’t have to be strongest but you can make some easy better choices.
Even shifting Skirmisher and Weap Special keystone to the mid and grabbing rending strike is better. And no DR after Stealth? Kinda seems the opposite of flexible.
P.S. Dum-Dum boosts fire dots at any range, vs Headhunter on Recon.
My brother in nosh, why do you hate CDR on a super long Ult!?
Move the bottom right points to left to get Bruiser.
The target audience for any shared public builds is newb-to-mid-average. I get that these builds are not 100% “MeTa”, whatever the hell that means, and the game is forgiving of mistakes, but it’s ok to pick easily attainable good/great nodes in lieu of bad-to-useless ones.
Again, since you plan on sharing them, assume your target audience is below average, it’s a safe bet.
It’s like picking Vet VoC Shouts without overshield.
P.S. Had a game earlier with a greenbear ogryn without bruiser, he performed as well as you’d expect. Grab the CDR nodes, they’re basically a mandatory tax.
i’m not wise about whats meta on Ogryn after patch13, i used play more of ogryn back when the meta was bull butcher knife and grenade gauntlet
i know the new ranged ability with burn stacks is super strong though, and i love it to burst down bosses with ripper gun, so i’ve suggested it
i’d just thought that anything could work nowadays, didn’t even know he had a cooldown reduction perk
but namely i’ve just gone this way because i’m fond of
if i had to go for the cdr perk i’d could sacrifice this and that
I did use to go down Feel no Pain path before its nerf for the record, but i also realize the left path is super strong, namely on maces
thing is i never went for the cdr perk even back when i played with feel no pain, i was using this talent build with either stubber or ripper
namely because i dislike this talent
if there is a thing i hate in this game is to give movement speed buffs to my team mates, especially when you are not the one benefiting from that since after you activate your ability you would be shooting for the duration of the buff
so yeah, i never played a single game with the cdr perk
i reckon its superior to big boom of course, even if i never tried it, although on my history i’ve been just happy getting baited by the extra radius on my nukes
That said, it’s not easy to come up with something that showcases the classes well, but are newbie-friendly too. Many of the best things about each class need a high level of skill to reach it.
For psykers, BB is the least newbie-friendly blitz and judging by the ppl in the forums and in-game, the least popular too. Void also basically does the same thing as BB except with massive cleave on top, so BB doesn’t add much there. Smite on the other hand pairs well with Void, since it adds horizontal control and a way to reach the disablers through the front-line elites, both of which Void tends to struggle with. That would also leave you with room for Warp Siphon for much more newbie-friendliness with its peril efficiency, dmg & ult CD, or DD for a fantastic dmg buff to Void.
On vets all I can say is plasma & VoC both being so OP and easy make a strong case for newbies as an easy introduction to the class. But they’re so overpopularized they hardly showcase anything at all, so… yeah.
Regarding zellies, I’m all for shotties and Kantrael is the easiest among them, but it requires very specific blessings to reach even a fraction of its real potential. I doubt newbies or ppl who need introductions have Man-Stopper after all.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. I don’t have much better to offer either, DT is a really complex game so I don’t envy your challenge.
Close Order Drill and Confirmed Kill over Longshot and Exhilerating Takedown?
Drop weapon specialist and skirmishes to get rending strike.
Dropping Weapon Specialist would free up a slot for Hunters Resolve.
Regarding Dum-Dum and Infernus - I think the forthcoming patch is removing that synergy, as DOTs won’t proc dum-dum if I understand it correctly. Still worth taking?
It’s not just for that - also works great for snaring mutants, other elites, random ragers, etc. Illis is totally good too - and gets you better horde clear though.
