been using the revolver as a regular for a long time and am looking for a change. i tried going back to the recon lasgun; it was ok but not as good as i remember. tried the helbores but idk, they’re also not for me lol
i bring krak nades for tough enemies and i’m sticking with my shovel for melee. are there any ranged weapons that would compliment the krak-shovel combo well?
edit: just to reiterate, this is for AURIC difficulty lol
The fact is that the shovel is inherently rubbish and to adequately deal with using it against hordes in close combat is pretty bad. (takes a lot of time, does little damage, kills very slowly, etc.) Shovel can be replaced by a power sword with a blessing to add an additional charged blow and the problems with the crowd will immediately disappear.
As for ranged weapons. Depends on the build in which you play.
But the standard, at the moment. It’s a plasma. While I hate this weapon, still, if you can play it, you are doing adequate damage. + if you took an active voice ability that gives a shield, you will have no problem.
But. Let’s say you want to play specifically with a shovel. Just like I play with a bolter.(which is a pretty rubbish weapon at the moment, but I can easily unlevel that with a sword, aoe grenades and an active ability that makes me practically unkillable).
For a shovel, on the other hand, I think something from automatic weapons or infantry weapons might be suitable. Since I don’t play on Veteran through them, but I’m sure you’ll get dynamic gameplay with these guns. The guys from downstairs will show up soon and tell you more accurately. You will play like a Shooter, in its full sense, and use the shovel a lot less often.
And yes, one more piece of advice. Do not dare to take shotguns, I assure you, you will regret that you spent time, effort, money to collect an adequate shotgun and get, in the end, rubbish assembly.
P.S. And yes, we will soon have a one-handed bolt gun. That would be interesting to see.
Bless your heart. Foldable Shovel + Plasma Gun is significantly more reliable overall due to its increased mobility and crowd control compared to Power Sword + Plasma Gun.
Control or kill. Let him try to take the plasma with a shovel, okay. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good option, but, he can always try, plasma won’t be superfluous anyway.
Power Sword is very good at killing things… but it leaves you extremely slowed and vulnerable 90% of the time which is NOT ideal when you are already running something heavy and… “lacking in mobility” like a Plasma Gun. If you use a Foldable Shovel, you can safely knock enemies over, quickly run away or just keep swinging from side to side until they are all dead depending on the situation.
There are situations (particularly on Damnation+) where you will simply be overreaching by attempting to just kill everything right there and then, therefore your best option will be to make a run for it… and in those situations your Power Sword will only slow you down, ESPECIALLY if you are also running Plasma Gun. Basically, your Foldable Shovel will not wipe a crowd of trash in an instant… but it still does the job and it is likely save your life where a Power Sword is likely to end it.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the Foldable Shovel is also significantly better at blocking Ragers and that is EXTREMELY handy on Damnation+.
bolter, shredder nades, catachan sword, voc and focus target is simply the most fun vet loadout for me
Either the evil midnight bomber that bombs at midnight (4 grenades + stealth, if you soft toss grenades stealth stays active) or the dreaded last Samurai with both stamina nodes refusing to do anything but 2 power sword 6 attacks all game lately. Though shouting with a las pistol and commissar cap will be repeated by me, especially with cadia 4 not feeling as bad anymore with crushers ignoring like every stagger so its not uniquely bad for it. The other chain weapons still do and actually slap though.
Plasma is the obvious choice. Shovel combos well for trash clearing/safety and plasma blasts anything tougher.
I’ve personally also enjoyed using vraks MK VII headhunter as of late but it probably needs weapon custom mod to get full enjoyment out of it.
Vraks VII, Kantrael MG 1a, Kantrael Mk X Laspistol, Accatran MK VId Lasgun would be my go to’s for counter shooting and special sniping. You have armor killing with grenades and maybe nodes / weapon perks. You could also try the fan revolver, bolter, or a shotgun. They’re more specialized but also fun.
Agri shotgun with munitorum standard issue sapper shovel and frag grenades. Honestly, if you are a decent player, you make any build and weapon combo work. I prefer using builds based off of cool factor and what is fun over anything else. Getting too caught up in meta chasing ruins the fun factor for me. Of course, above all else, do not be a detriment to the team if your build isnt working for you.
Chainsword & Columnus/Recon Las for me.
Kraks for meaty mofos.
Most of my choices are based around Auric Maelstrom runs:
I always pick krak + grenade regen every 60 so that I’ve always got armor and bosses covered. This also frees up the ranges choice.
Columbus 5 for general use. With range immunity + power blessings it allows you to basically sht on every gunner situation in game as long as you get one close (8m) trash kill. And it’s also a fun aggressive and fast play style.
Same with a few brautos, albeit a bit slower.
Cowboy/regular revolver when I’m feeling like sniping.
Plasma I rarely pick anymore. It was fun at first with 100 cleave but it feels boring to me now. Still great for armor only modifiers, where you tend to run out of kraks fast.
I used to run an infint ammo crit laz build ages ago after the class overhaul as well but that’s no longer viable.
For melee I prefere mobility. Which is why I use the knife. Being able to quickly get out of a bad spot and find better positioning to mow stuff down is one of the most important aspects for me and vet especially.
It also packs a hefty punch when stacking the right buffs. Even without vet gets so many free damage buffs that you can very comfortably melee with it.
Power sword I don’t really use as block striking gets old very fast. I also hate its horrible dodge count/distance and stamina.
I actually really hate the plasma gun because it feels so clunky and slow, and I’m much more a player that prefers to have full mobility at all times. Plus, the fact that the shot takes half a second to charge when firing results in a kind of “negative edge” input that makes playing puppets in fighting games and using the helbore lasgun unenjoyable to me.
I prefer to use the columnus - it’s a universally solid option, has surprisingly good ammo economy (as long as you don’t unload into hordes), and Onslaught makes it top tier.
If you spread your talents around properly, a power sword turns into a lawnmower. Yes, there are talents for attack speed, etc. And instead of running, you just cut through everything. You can stun with grenades and an active ability.
In this case, a power sword, with normal talents and blessings just kills with a single blow to the head. And the point of blocking immediately disappears.
P.S. But if you want to play through the shovel. Well, that’s your choice.
You underestimate the utility of crowd control. Look at it this way:
With a Power Sword, you sacrifice sure footing for a potential killing blow… and on Damnation+ that can easily become a lethal mistake. For example, a Rager could land multiple devastating hits on you before your Power Sword even begins slashing at them and they’ll easily break through a Power Sword’s block.
With a Foldable Shovel, you have the ability to negate the ENEMY’s sure footing and/or block what could’ve been THEIR killing blow. On top of that, the Foldable Shovel’s special attacks do the job just as well against Elites/Specialists as the Power Sword’s special attacks.
dodges are the one aspect they’re different in, which is also where a huge skill gap comes in terms of frame-perfect dodging. like you can do it into deep fatigued negative dodge count with anything as long as your timing is perfect. power sword mostly doesn’t need to get out of the way of anything anyway, if you get the whole zap push strikedown snipe thing going.
shovel on veteran is a huge cry from shovel on ogryn, even incorporating more thunderhammer esque downsides (latching for the second hit is just like hit lag for landing an empowered hit with the hammer). the best one even has the same issue as crucis, a diagonal strike for a single target move. and on hordes its basically my pre-13 experience with ogryn, whacking a group of enemies into a ball of writhing staggers until it stops moving some 3 minutes later. it’s a little overrated, especially when veteran is god with the Rashad which is better than a vet thundershovel even if it can’t do the big hit. you just dumpster ogryns while dancing around them instead.
You are indeed right on some points. The delay in activating the sword. But then again, if you have a commander’s shout or grenade ability, it’s not as much of a problem.
I was thinking that the Rashad axe would actually look better with plasma. It kills targets instead of staggering them and has mobility.
what’s even funnier is that the internal name for the Mk3/Mk7 ‘shovels’ is combat axe. they knew, they just weren’t going to dethrone the combat axes any time soon.
personally I like the Agri inf auto and the standard sapper shovel, can’t really go wrong
dclaw is also very fun
My fave build of recent has been a Lawbringer shotgun + mk3 plasma sword combo with stealth vet and krak grenades.