Other ‘Tips and Info’ threads for other Characters are linked at the bottom.
- Mercenary
- Huntsman
- Foot Knight
- Grail Knight
- Links to other threads
Feel free to ask or answer any questions, and I’ll add it to the main post, so it’s easier to find. I will add, remove or reword sections on request.
Introduction:
These are discussion threads, where the aim is to share and test different mechanical interactions or gameplay strategies that aren’t made clear by game descriptions or by general gameplay experience. For that reason I will not be focusing on breakpoints too heavily.
Links to other guides:
These are links to builds and in-depth information on every Career and Weapon. My guides are more to share information and mechanic interactions that aren’t obvious or take some testing:
For in-depth guides with specific stat builds and breakpoints, check out Sleezyrats and Royal w/ Cheese’s guides on Steam guides:
Steam Community :: Guide :: Tweaking Your Build (Supplement to the Build Guides)
Movement Speed techniques with all Characters/Careers/Weapons:
Steam Community :: Guide :: In-depth Movement Guide
1. Mercenary:
1. Mercenary:
Health: 150 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 169 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 90s (63s with 30% CDR)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.5s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.5s
Tips:
- Potential x?% Damage Reduction with Walk It Off, Barkskin and Blade Barrier
- Potential 20% Crit Chance
- Potential 30% Attack Speed (40% with Enhanced Training)
- Potential 47.5 Power
- Potential 40% Dodge Distance with multiple weapons
- Helborg’s Tutelage gains double stacks from Mace and Sword Heavy Attacks
- Shield Slams grant Paced Strikes
- Ranged Weapons benefit from Helborg’s Tutelage
- Hitting the Sweet Spot (Passive): Attacks cleave through more enemies. Enemies’ hitmass is reduced by 25% (This can also be read as “cleaves through ~33% more enemies, rounded down”).
General opinion:
Merc is an all-rounder, with lots of Talent choice, and enough Power, Attack Speed and THP generation to make Parry and Opportunist viable, while still doing a lot of damage.
In terms of Career Skill usage, use your Career Skill offensively or preventatively (Damage Reduction), rather than only reactively (to heal people). If you’re playing Cooldown Reduction, and Cooldown Reduction on Trinket, use it whenever your team stacks up.
Obviously all of his Weapons are useful, due to his melee bonuses, with Halberd and Exe Sword requiring a bit more Stamina/BCR, or Stand Clear to help survive.
I highly recommend trying Greatword on the Tzeentch Twins weekly event, or on more Horde/Elites Deeds.
Row 10:
More The Merrier is just the best Talent on this row, as it’s 25% Power, which is Stagger/Cleave/Damage.
Limb-Splitter increases the amount of damage-cleave (see Armoury Mod guide), which could make it good on Cata+ (Deeds, events, modded), but More The Merrier will let you Push Stagger Elites. It does increase Range Cleave though, for Shotgun builds.
Helborg’s Tutelage is a bit pointless, as you can very easily reach 20% Crit Chance, but you could play a meme Shotgun build (it’s a lot of work), or Dual Wield with Smiter for more Elite killing damage (just play GK at this point).
Row 20:
Reikland Reaper gives you Stagger, Cleave, and Damage.
Enhanced Training is just a bit too situational. Even on higher difficulties.
Strike together gives everyone in the party 10% Attack Speed, which is a huge boost to damage and survival.
Row 25:
All 3 Talents on this row are viable, Stand Clear can be most useful with 2H Weapons, to get you out of difficult situations. Combined with Parry makes Chaos Patrols and Bosses much easier to deal with. However, Blade Barrier’s general use makes it the go-to for most builds.
Row 30:
You should learn which Careers need more THP, which would benefit from DMGR, or if you’re playing on a difficulty where a ress might come in handy.
Walk It Off is extremely good for Damage Reduction stacking, if you have teammates who share some, or you’re using Blade Barrier. You can trade with Minotaurs, when Barkskin procs.
Ready for Action is great with 10% CDR on Trinket. The team will have an insane amount of THP for the entire match.
On Yer Feet, Mates! is a bit more situational than both others, but can come in clutch in difficult situations.
Synergy:
Merc has good synergy with most Careers. His Career Skill makes him especially good with anything that uses Overcharge or doesn’t have a lot of THP generation. Strike Together makes him synergise well with other Melee Careers.
Questions:
**
2. Huntsman:
2. Huntsman:
Health: 120 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 135 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 90s (54s with 40% CDR)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.3s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.4s
Tips:
- Potential 40% Cooldown Reduction, making him capable of near unlimited ammo with every Ranged Weapon
- Potential 20% Crit Chance (45% with Makin’ It Look Easy)
- Potential 15% Movement Speed
- Using your Career Skill while out of ammo gives you ammo back
- Conservative Shooter stacks on top of his Passive Waste Not, Want Not
- Use Shot Crafter with Shields and Thick Hide with any other melee
- Makin’ It Look Easy works with Melee, allowing you to easily get Swiftslaying up
- Using a Shield or Weapon with high mobility is recommended to make space for yourself so you can reload
- Hunter’s Prowl (Ult): Markus disappears from sight and gains the following effects for 6 seconds. Attacking ends the invisibility, but not the other effects.
Loses -5% dodge range
Loses -10% movement speed
Increased damage on ranged weapons
Ranged weapons do not consume ammo
Gains +40% reload speed
Can access increased zoom, similarly to Waystalker - Make 'Em Bleed: Critical hits cause enemies to take 20% increased damage for 15 seconds . Does not stack with similar effects
- Makin’ It look Easy: After scoring a ranged headshot Markus gains 25% increased critical hit chance until his next critical hit
- One in The Eye works with melee headshots too
- Make 'Em Bleed does stack with Bulwark
- Make 'Em Bleed works with melee Crits too
General opinion:
Huntsman has one of the widest skill gaps in terms of playing different builds in the game. Blunderbus is extremely easy, while Longbow and Handgun require a lot of thought and good accuracy to make competitive. Once you start consistently landing headshots with Longbow and Handgun they do a lot of damage. The one-shot all Elites/Specials build with Handgun makes you very specialised, but effective.
Any of his Melee Weapons work, given the right build, with two-handers becoming a bit more difficult to use in higher difficulties.
You can use a Shield Weapon and the Shot Crafter Talent to give you a lot of THP, and make up for no Damage Reduction, by making space for yourself. Hunter is then a more viable option on Ranged Weapons.
Longbow deals a huge amount of damage to Monsters if you land headshots. Especially if you’re using Hunter, which is works well with his Passive to sustain ammo. Longbow has the highest potential damage output of any of his Ranged Weapons, except Blunderbus. You do need to land headshots though.
Spamming Light Shots on Hordes is completely viable on Huntsman, if you find a good headshot angle. Using Burst Of Enthusiasm with Thick Hide, will make you surprisingly tanky.
Handgun is easier to use, due to the bodyshot breakpoints, and does good Boss damage.
Repeater Handgun is one of the best Special killing Weapons across all of his Careers and that doesn’t stop on Huntsman. His Talents and Passives make it extremely good at sustaining ammo while killing Elites and Specials. Using the alternative fire and spamming automatic shots as much as possible is advised. If you use his alternate fire to do automatic fire, and then use his Career Skill as you run low on ammo, you’ll get all of your ammo back and keep spamming. This is extremely effective on Bosses.
Blunderbus is still one of the strongest builds in the game and deals a huge amount of damage to Hordes. As with Repeater Handgun, the ammo sustain and ability to use Traits like Hunter benefit the Blunderbus greatly.
Synergy:
Huntsman can be very glass-cannon and can rely on teammates a lot, so he has a lot of synergy with Melee-focused Careers, and feels safest when he’s the only Ranged Career.
Using Longbow or Repeater Handgun, WPoS, who bubbles you during high Elite Density.
Questions:
3. Foot Knight:
3. Foot Knight:
Health: 180 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 203 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 30s (27s with 10% CDR)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.25s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.5s
Tips:
- Potential 55% Attack Speed
- Bull of Ostland! is granted stacks from corpses
- Pressing right click after using your Career Skill cancels it’s movement
- Bandaging and then using your Career Skill works. Cancelling movement while bandaging also works
- Potential 32.5% Power
- Potential 80% Block Cost
- You have x?% Damage Reduction and more if you use That’s Bloody Teamwork!
- Stamina/CDR and Bull of Ostland! will allow you to maintain stacks. FK also has 0.5 seconds of Career Skill CDR per hit
- Career Skill moves you backwards slightly before forwards. Do not use it with your back to a ledge
- Staggering Force & Stagger THP generate the most THP with any of his weapons
General opinion:
Foot Knight is one of the most versatile Melee Careers in the game. He can be a really good tank or strong DPS. He can create the most space of any Career in the game with his Career Skill and general Stagger. Building him as a DPS makes him competitive on Cata and Cata+, especially considering the fact that he’s so generally tanky, which allows you to stay offensive for longer.
He has the most viable and unique Talents of any Career, with the only exception being Inspiring Blow, and even that has it’s place against Patrols and high Elite density modifiers.
All Weapons work with Foot Knight, even getting enough Attack Speed and defensive buffs to make Halberd viable. Staggering Force, Bull of Ostland, and THP On-Stagger generate a huge amount of THP, even for Exe Sword and Great Sword, they can outdo On-Cleave, due to it’s 5 enemy cap.
When using a Shield stay close to your team, as standing alone leaves your group vulnerable, and doesn’t let anyone make use of your Stagger. You should be deciding where the frontline is and holding it. If you’re standing alone somewhere knocking rats over, you’re defeating the point of using a Shield.
It’s Hero Time and Battering Ram are strong, but the alternatives are good too. Angling your Career Skill and waiting for more Elite density before charging is a good strategy when not using Battering Ram.
Using Numb To Pain is really good for Special killing with a Shield, with Handgun. You can use it to CC Horde/Elites and get kills on Specials or to reload during Hordes. While other Special killers usually are detached from the Horde, you’re in full view of the Horde and Specials appearing around them.
Synergy:
Foot Knight synergises well with squishy and Ranged Careers, as he’s able to give them lots of space. His Career Skill also makes Melee Careers safer while they do damage.
He’s very good for duos, especially with a Ranged Career.
Questions:
4. Grail Knight:
4. Grail Knight:
Health: 180 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 203 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 40s (36s with 10% CDR)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.25s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.25s
Tips:
- Potential 50% Movement Speed while using Virtue of The Impetuous Knight Ult and 5% Movement Speed on Trinket
- Potential 60% Stamina Regen (160% with Handmaiden’s Aura)
- Virtue of Discipline combined with Virtue of The Ideal is 50% Power. Combined with Virtue of Heroism is 45% Power. Combined with VoD, Enhanced Power and Virtue of Purity (Power Quest) you can reach 72.5% Power
- Virtue of Heroism only increases damage and not Power, as the Talent description states
- Virtue of Heroism increases Ultimate damage, which combines well with the Virtue of Confidence Ult. Chaos/Chaos/Armour, and Enhanced Power, will kill one Chaos Warrior, and leave another with 8HP left - Quest Power will probably make it 2 kills
- Virtue of The Knightly Temper works with Ultimate damage, making Virtue of Audacity deal a huge amount of damage to low HP Bosses
- Virtue of The Ideal is granted from Bombs and Barrels
- Putting Resourceful Combatant on your Executioner’s Sword is a good way to make use of it’s 25% Heavy Attack Crit Chance, and the short amount of time you will have it out (Swiftslaying on main Weapon recommended)
- Lady’s Wrath (Life-On-Kill) combined with Virtue of Stoicism, will generate huge amounts of HP when used together
- Virtue of The Joust can be used instead of running Stamina Regeneration on Trinket
- When using heavier Weapons (Great Hammer or Greatsword), it’s better to use Virtue of Duty Quests for a better chance at the Attack Speed Quest
- Virtue of Audacity’s second attack is always a Critical Hit
- Career Skill always goes through shields
General Opinion:
While there’s not much depth to Grail Knight, there is lots of potential for interesting builds. His Passive ‘Knight’s Challenge’ essentially gives you a free Smiter, so using it with Enhanced Power is extremely strong, but doubling up with Smiter is also really good.
Surprisingly, even though he has no Attack Speed Talents or Passives, he can make use of any of his available Weapons and deal a big chunk of the groups damage too, provided he has the right build.
Virtue of The Penitent will guarantee your team can kill Bosses or Patrols. For Beastman and Skaven Patrols, it’s safer to have teammates kill the Patrol, while you spam CC and Ult on cooldown with your shield out.
Virtue of Heroism can be better than Virtue of The Ideal for Elite and Boss killing, due to there not always being enemies to maintain Virtue stacks. As it also benefits your Ultimate, Virtue of Confidence can outdo Virtue of Audacity on high non-Chaos Warrior density.
All of his Weapons work, and all Weapon Traits work (except Heroic Intervention). Parry can be especially good for doubling down on dealing with high Elite density.
Synergy:
Grail Knight synergises well with high AoE Careers, and Careers with lots of Attack Speed, as he’s slow and generally better at dealing with big single targets.
Anyone that can buff him and enable him to deal as much damage as possible is great. He can also be versatile and create space for others.
Grail Knight has good synergy with WPoS and Waystalker, due to Waystalker’s Passive AoE Health Regen, GK’s Quest AoE Health Regen, and WPoS’s From Fury, Fortitude.
Questions:
Breakpoints with Exe Sword?
Does Virtue of The Knightly Temper outdo the normal Power builds with a WPoS (Crit Power) or WHC (CDR Ult/Trink build)?
Heavily depends on your headshot rate, even with WHC. Though with WHC your can technically out damage regular build consistently due to current Sword & Mace(dual wield + high cleave).
5. Links to other discussion threads:
5. Links to other discussion threads:
Bardin:
Saltzpyre:
Kerillian:
Kruber:
Sienna: