Head Hunter....

[Twogun]

i really like chopping folks heads off. what background/weapons/perks would you advise?

[Morreski]

The jesters and killers on the run have a base bonus to hitting the head. Then get the head hunter perk and you'll have efficient head hunter :) Flails have a increased head hitting chance too but they dont chops heads off though !

[Muscarine]

Originally posted by {G.F.A} Morreski:

The jesters and killers on the run have a base bonus to hitting the head. Then get the head hunter perk and you'll have efficient head hunter :) Flails have a increased head hitting chance too but they dont chops heads off though !

Flail headshots result in fatalities too though if that's what you meant.
Crushes skulls.

Head hunter on regular flails is redundant in my opinion because of lash.

I'd use the perk with axes (bonus head damage), berserker chain and polearms (bonus head hitchance) mainly.

[Barahur]

Overall, I don't think it's worth it, to be honest. Versus stuff with generally squishy heads and crappy helmets, maybe. Versus Orc Warriors or anyone else heavily armoured, having a shot hit the head when everything else is hitting the body seems wasted. It's just a lot of extra armour you need to chew through and you need to bring down Orcs as quickly as possible.

If you have a guy the the Brute trait, which is -5 to melee skill but +15% damage to the head it can be tempting. However, rather than use a perk on Headhunter, I have just had the Brute specialize in the Flail and he does some pretty nasty headshots. If you have a Brute that has a high number of stars in Ranged skill, then making an archer with the Brute skill can result in a lot of one-shot kills if you have the Headhunter perk I suppose. That might be worthwhile in that case. Headshots on enemy archers are devastating as they usually wear little to no head armour.

I am currently playing on Expert mode and none of my guys have the Headhunter perk. I have one "optional" perk which I can play around with in my builds and I found that, for the front line guys, that Colossus was simply better or else something like Pathfinder to quickly get around while keeping fatigue low.

[screeg]

Cleaver for decapitate, if that's your bag.

[Pringles™]

Brute is a pre-existing trait that gives +15% damage on a hit to the head. If you have the money to cheese the recruits, you can cheese until you get a brute, possibly even a brute juggler or a brute killer on the run ;)
However, it also comes with a -5 melee skill aspect, so it's best paired with skilled melee units with stars in melee skill, or a trait that cancels that out, such as Dexterous (+5 melee skill).

EDIT: someone already mentioned it, so... nevermind I guess :p

[Twogun]

thx guys. my original 'brother' was a brute(the one that always comes with 3 stars in melee) and i made him a flail specialist. i love when he headshots guys, as their faces turn into bloody masses of goo.

we all play for different reasons. i live to disfigure people, i guess!

[screeg]

Nothing wrong with mutilation! But don't forget a *major* advantage of head shots: you get to recover armor instead of shredding it.

[Trappist]

Is it correct you need to score a hit to the body before head hunter kicks in to increse chance to hit head?

[titanopteryx]

Jugglers get a 5% bonus chance to get headshots and killers on the run get a 10% bonus. Jugglers are better because killers on the run get nasty random events. Brute is good, but if you combine it with drunk that's 25% bonus to headshot damage, 15% from brute, and drunk gives a general 10% buff to all damage. 1h axes get bonus damage to the head, I believe 50%. 1h axe, drunk, and brute combined gives 75% bonus damage to the head. Jugglers get 30% chance for a headshot by default, and killers get 35%.

A possible perk selection could include head hunter, killing frenzy, and berzerk. When killing frenzy activates that's 25% more damage, meaning at this point 100% damage increase to the head. Head hunter will increase the chance to hit the head, and berzerk may allow you for 3 decapitations per turn. You can can go shieldless for double grip, giving 25% more damage, and with duelist if you get it will increase damage to the head to a total of 150% at this point.

Head hunter was recently changed to increase the chance to hit the head by 15% for every body hit. So a killer would be at 50% chance to hit the head after 1 hit to the body, 65% after 2. As a result you'd be getting headshots every 2-3 hits with a killer on the run, Rng allowing.

If you can get a unique 1h axe that boosts the chance to hit the head you'd be unstoppable. Especially if it's a unique orc 1h axe. Do those come with a bonus chance to hit the head?

[Sarissofoi]

Polearms come with bonus chance to hit head.

[Pringles™]

Originally posted by Sarissofoi:

Polearms come with bonus chance to hit head.

Same with swords, right? And 2h axes always hit head ^_^

[Papa Pasda' Ⓢ]

Nothing like scrambling a raider's head with a 2H Hammer.

[13obo]

Are we sure that Brute increases ranged head shot damage? As far as I recall, the tooltip describing the trait specifically says hits to the head in melee.

[Sathra]

Well, considering that my 2H axe guy killed 6 bandits in the last fight by cutting their heads off (every kill was a decap), I say 2H axes are the way to go.
He also doesn't have headhunter or bloodthirsty.

[Pringles™]

Originally posted by Sathra:

Well, considering that my 2H axe guy killed 6 bandits in the last fight by cutting their heads off (every kill was a decap), I say 2H axes are the way to go.
He also doesn't have headhunter or bloodthirsty.

Lovely to see someone support the 2H Axes every now and then :) They dont seem to get enough love these days among two-handed weapons. Everyone prefers swords or mauls over them :(