after a while of playing the game with them, I’ve come to realize they are significantly stronger than some special/elite units.
They do not stagger, have very high hp, and hits hard enough to chunk hp and shields. They are also hard to understand if hits are effective or not. Sometimes they die quickly from the front, sometimes they take several hits even on the side or back. They feel like armored shield rats from vermintide 2 rather than normal enemies, which is odd because I cannot ping or mark them.
It’s not that it’s an issue to deal with them, it’s boring that they just sit there with significantly more effective health than even most elites and barely react to anything you do until they die.
I find poxbursters, reapers, gunners, and snipers more annoying than the vanguard, least they don’t leap at you from open doors and have a 100ft blast range that can knock you off walkways, Or have a 360 deg firing arc that can still hit you while attacking reapers and gunners from behind, or Sniper that has a 90 deg firing arc while trying to flank it.
Vanguard is nothing in this game compared to all the other bugged mobs.