how to suck less with veteran?

[icardias]

well for me he is the squish character here, maybe i build him wrong but i got 2 hits and i am dead lol (damnation) even my psyker are more durable than him, i got 2 curios with toughness and 1 wound, so yeah i think i need more tips to survival, and no i am not the one that have his ranged 100% on my hand so how you play them?

[Decitron]

upgrade to ogryn brother

[Versus]

Take Voice of Command with Duty and Honour without Only in Death. Go down the middle path tree and also take Iron Will.
Spam F as much as you can.
If you went straight down from the top going middle, then you can probably afford to go to the right skill tree and get the very bottom of Weapon Specialist, On your Toes.

[Tunnfisk]

Originally posted by icardias:

well for me he is the squish character here, maybe i build him wrong but i got 2 hits and i am dead lol (damnation) even my psyker are more durable than him, i got 2 curios with toughness and 1 wound, so yeah i think i need more tips to survival, and no i am not the one that have his ranged 100% on my hand so how you play them?

IMO, know when to drop your gun and start swinging for the fences with your melee weapon. Make sure you have a weapon that can deal with hordes.

In Psykhanium, I spawn 30 trash horde mobs (with a mod from Nexus Mods), then I see how many swings it takes me to kill 30 trash enemies. If it's not under 12, then it's bad for hording.

It would also be good if you can deal with flak and carapace with the same melee weapon. Unless you have a ranged weapon that does that for you. Personally I run Rashad or Antax Combat Axes. Both with Headtaker and Brutal Momentum. Each kill on weakpoint cleaves through the enemies. And the swing patterns are excellent for hording. Also, the heavy attack kills carapace.

Otherwise, an MK3 Power Sword does the same business. But, I personally find it a bit harder to charge up in between and not get hit. While the combat axes is just spam LMB and win the game.


Beyond that, practice, play, see where you fall short. Is it heavy armor enemies? Is it hordes? Monsters? Try sticking closer to friendlies so the enemies have someone else to hit too. So on and so forth.

[Glockasaurus]

Most important thing is to always take survivalist. Nobody wants a Vet on their team that took one of the other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ options instead of the regenerating ammo. It's probably the single biggest contribution a new or less skilled type vet can make. If you can regen ammo for your teammates you'll always be useful.

To expand further , take either voice of command to constantly heal your team, or else take the cloak and -90% aggro sub node to basically do most objectives for your team for free, as well as give yourself a safe escape from most deadly situations. You can also use the cloak to revive downed or captured players easily.

Either or though, you can't do both.

If you're not super good at aiming, the braced autogun Agripinaa MK VIII is your best friend. Just run around your team popping off heals regenerating their ammo, and machine gunning anything you see.

If they still can't appreciate your input after that, they're the problem not you.

[jautja]

Originally posted by icardias:

...so yeah i think i need more tips to survival, and no i am not the one that have his ranged 100% on my hand so how you play them?

The trap is in the perception of the class as only ranged combat. Unfortunately, in modern conditions, range builds are losing a lot.
Now the veteran is always HYBRID builds.
"Voice of Command", "Duty and Honour" practically mandatory, "Close order drill" very good, but you can do without it.
Then you can switch to more ranged builds, but only when you gain confidence and skill in movement and positioning.

[Grail]

There is no niche for veteran, they are very versatile. Don't get stuck trying to play what is considered the meta either, play what you like, and what you are good with. The Veteran can be quite tough, because they have the highest base toughness of any character, and good options for toughness regeneration. Rely upon that to keep you up over Health.

Here are my 3 favourite, and most often used Veteran builds currently. I play them all on Auric Damnation/Maelstrom.

Guerilla Build (Infiltrate) [darktide.gameslantern.com]

Commissar Build (Voice of Command) [darktide.gameslantern.com]

Sniper Build (Executioner's Stance) [darktide.gameslantern.com]

[Brother Bigot]

stamina curios
vet base stamina is terrible the best thing you can do with him is buff his stamina so you're not screwed if enemies catch you off guard.

[PJ]

Use Shroudfield to peel enemies off yourself and use your teammates as tanks.

[功夫kappa]

have you tried using your gun?

[Eidrog]

Toughness is your friend! Veterans start with good toughness, so adding even more to it with +% curious is great! I use:

+17% Toughness curio
+17% Toughness curio
+20% Max Health curio <--- But I'm thinking about replacing that with more toughness!!

*EDIT* Ooooooh, maybe prioritize Health over Toughness now, I hadn't realised Vets start with 140 toughness and 165 health since the last update. . . oops. o_O

For perks, all 3 curious have:
+5% Toughness
+20% Resistance (Gunners)
+4% Combat Ability Regeneration

My reasoning is:
- Toughness is your friend.
- In Damnation Gunner Spam can be instantly deadly, so resisting it is good.
- My combat ability is "Executioner's Stance" with "Enhanced Target Priority" so all allies in coherency can see elites get highlighted. This is both good offensively and defensively. For defense, it lets the team know when scary monsters are around the corner, or where exactly the 'Tik Tik Tik' of that Pox Burster is coming from!

More Survivability options:

Get a Power Sword
Perks:
+25% Damage (Carapace Armoured Enemies)
+10% Melee Damage (Pox Walkers)
Blessings:
Lvl 4 Power Cycler
Lvl 4 Sunder

This will let you literally lawnmower though trash mobs, and in a pinch, you can take down heavily armored enemies in melee - But really you should use Krak grenades against heavy armor.

Get an Agripinaa Mk VIII Braced Autogun:
Perks:
+25% Damage (Unyeilding Enemies)
+10% Reload Speed
Blessings:
Lvl 4 Deathspitter
Lvl 4 Fire Frenzy

Stacking Deathspitter and Fire Frenzy turns your gun into a laser drill in up-close combat. Quick reload speed lets you keep your stacks up, even between reloads.

Talents:
Get:
- Krak Genade
- Survivalist
- Field Improvisation
- Demolition Stockpile
- Grenadier
- Fully Loaded

You want 3 krak grenades at all times. When 3 crushers, or ANYTHING frankly, come around the corner you'll laugh merrily as you instantly vaporise them.

Survivalist is a MUST, a veteran without ammo is useless, and your allies will benefit from the ammo regeneration as well. Likewise, Fully Loaded gives you another +25% ammo.

Field Improvisation is fantastic. Ammo crates restore grenades now - so drop an ammo crate and watch any monstrosity instantly die from you tossing infinite krak grenades. Plus medipacks healing corruption is huge.

I'm not saying this is the 'BEST' setup. This is just the setup I've found works well with my playstyle. I win the majority of Damnation/Auric games I play, but there are certainly other loadouts and playstyles. If you want something with good survavbility, this can work. : )

EDIT: Lastly, make sure you hug cover (getting caught in the open is no good), and stick with the group. There are lots of coherency bonuses you can benefit from, and it's just good practice to move as a group so everyone can help each other.

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by icardias:

well for me he is the squish character here, maybe i build him wrong but i got 2 hits and i am dead lol (damnation) even my psyker are more durable than him, i got 2 curios with toughness and 1 wound, so yeah i think i need more tips to survival, and no i am not the one that have his ranged 100% on my hand so how you play them?

Don't get hit - dodge and push attack. And use your melee instead of trying to shoot melee attackers. That's the most common ♥♥♥♥♥♥ I see noob veterans doing, thinking they're ranged sniper man and their melee weapon is purely decorative.

For curios, I have two +20% health and one +1 wound on my veteran, taking +5% toughness perks on all three curios. Used to take a toughness curio back when veteran had 200 base toughness, before the talent trees, but no longer seems worth it.

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by Yamatoad:

Most important thing is to always take survivalist. Nobody wants a Vet on their team that took one of the other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ options instead of the regenerating ammo. It's probably the single biggest contribution a new or less skilled type vet can make. If you can regen ammo for your teammates you'll always be useful.

To expand further , take either voice of command to constantly heal your team, or else take the cloak and -90% aggro sub node to basically do most objectives for your team for free, as well as give yourself a safe escape from most deadly situations. You can also use the cloak to revive downed or captured players easily.

Either or though, you can't do both.

If you're not super good at aiming, the braced autogun Agripinaa MK VIII is your best friend. Just run around your team popping off heals regenerating their ammo, and machine gunning anything you see.

If they still can't appreciate your input after that, they're the problem not you.

This is a great post. I can aim but still prefer the agri braced auto. 5 ragers coming at me? Oops dead.

And +1 about survivalist. The other two auras are a joke. Needs buffed to 10% on each to even consider an option.

[Eidrog]

Originally posted by Bomoo:

Used to take a toughness curio back when veteran had 200 base toughness, before the talent trees, but no longer seems worth it.

Oh? Veteran isn't 200 base toughness anymore? I didn't think to check when the talent trees got updated. That's why I like these types of discussions! Helps spot things like this.

Edit: Yeah, Veteran base is now: Toughness 140, Health 165.

[Tanner_Lindberg]

Originally posted by jautja:

Originally posted by icardias:

...so yeah i think i need more tips to survival, and no i am not the one that have his ranged 100% on my hand so how you play them?

The trap is in the perception of the class as only ranged combat. Unfortunately, in modern conditions, range builds are losing a lot.
Now the veteran is always HYBRID builds.
"Voice of Command", "Duty and Honour" practically mandatory, "Close order drill" very good, but you can do without it.
Then you can switch to more ranged builds, but only when you gain confidence and skill in movement and positioning.

https://youtu.be/Yuu4tzpCLBk?si=zVC-RExtmL2_SgG2

Wtf are you talking about? Sitting in the back with plasma gun or columnis mk5 is literally the best thing you can be doing right now

[Tanner_Lindberg]

Originally posted by Eidrog:

Toughness is your friend! Veterans start with good toughness, so adding even more to it with +% curious is great! I use:

+17% Toughness curio
+17% Toughness curio
+20% Max Health curio <--- But I'm thinking about replacing that with more toughness!!

*EDIT* Ooooooh, maybe prioritize Health over Toughness now, I hadn't realised Vets start with 140 toughness and 165 health since the last update. . . oops. o_O

For perks, all 3 curious have:
+5% Toughness
+20% Resistance (Gunners)
+4% Combat Ability Regeneration

My reasoning is:
- Toughness is your friend.
- In Damnation Gunner Spam can be instantly deadly, so resisting it is good.
- My combat ability is "Executioner's Stance" with "Enhanced Target Priority" so all allies in coherency can see elites get highlighted. This is both good offensively and defensively. For defense, it lets the team know when scary monsters are around the corner, or where exactly the 'Tik Tik Tik' of that Pox Burster is coming from!

More Survivability options:

Get a Power Sword
Perks:
+25% Damage (Carapace Armoured Enemies)
+10% Melee Damage (Pox Walkers)
Blessings:
Lvl 4 Power Cycler
Lvl 4 Sunder

This will let you literally lawnmower though trash mobs, and in a pinch, you can take down heavily armored enemies in melee - But really you should use Krak grenades against heavy armor.

Get an Agripinaa Mk VIII Braced Autogun:
Perks:
+25% Damage (Unyeilding Enemies)
+10% Reload Speed
Blessings:
Lvl 4 Deathspitter
Lvl 4 Fire Frenzy

Stacking Deathspitter and Fire Frenzy turns your gun into a laser drill in up-close combat. Quick reload speed lets you keep your stacks up, even between reloads.

Talents:
Get:
- Krak Genade
- Survivalist
- Field Improvisation
- Demolition Stockpile
- Grenadier
- Fully Loaded

You want 3 krak grenades at all times. When 3 crushers, or ANYTHING frankly, come around the corner you'll laugh merrily as you instantly vaporise them.

Survivalist is a MUST, a veteran without ammo is useless, and your allies will benefit from the ammo regeneration as well. Likewise, Fully Loaded gives you another +25% ammo.

Field Improvisation is fantastic. Ammo crates restore grenades now - so drop an ammo crate and watch any monstrosity instantly die from you tossing infinite krak grenades. Plus medipacks healing corruption is huge.

I'm not saying this is the 'BEST' setup. This is just the setup I've found works well with my playstyle. I win the majority of Damnation/Auric games I play, but there are certainly other loadouts and playstyles. If you want something with good survavbility, this can work. : )

EDIT: Lastly, make sure you hug cover (getting caught in the open is no good), and stick with the group. There are lots of coherency bonuses you can benefit from, and it's just good practice to move as a group so everyone can help each other.

Power sword is vets worst survival option. While yes its a super strong melee it has zero mobility and high stamina consumption on block. Theres a very good reason literally no one posts clutch clips or solo/ duo gameplay with the p sword. In 4 man teams its very good but the moment things start going wrong its a horrible handi cap