Steam Community :: Guide :: 【Updated to Patch 6.2】【Cataclysm】Bardin all careers

51,496	Einzelaufrufe
5,170	Aktuelle Favoriten

Introduction

Cataclysm is a difficulty for players who have finished the gear grinding and looking for high-level challenges gameplay.
This guide highlight one to three builds on each career as recommendation for non-modified Cataclysm difficulty. These builds have good skill ceiling and strong to play with practice. For more builds, check out the last section with Ranalds Gift links.

For my Cata Twitch 200%, check out this spreadsheet[docs.google.com]

Extra Resource

My Cata Twitch 200% build spreadsheet[docs.google.com]

Builds & Items Spreadsheet for my Legend & Cataclysm Guides [docs.google.com]
Credit to RedBeardedGiant

Legend Builds Collection:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2034609078
To learn basic information/strategy about Cataclysm difficulty:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1845062917
To learn the best combo for melee weapons mentioned in this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1821186836
To learn some Vermintide Mechanic including the lvl15 stagger system:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1816101198
To learn how to fight all Monsters:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1723437775

Changelog

Patch 5.4

Tweaked builds to be more meta focus than newer player focus.

Ranger Veteran (Dual Hammer/Hammer/Hammer & Shield + Grudge Raker)

Talent

LVL 5
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Dual Hammer: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won't stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Hammer/Hammer & Shield: With 1h Hammer has insanely high stagger power and cleave on its horizontal light attacks, same with shield bash and shield push, making THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites for these two weapons.
LVL 10
Range Verteran is a range focus career and has strong utility career skill. It also synergizes greatly with Grudge Raker and LVL 25 talent.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output on all situation. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
Grungni's Cunning provides the best ammo sustainability (30% max ammo per special kill). Core talent of this build. Grudge Raker is very ammo hungry, this is talent your ammo regen resource most of the time.
LVL 25
Greatly increase Grudge Raker damage output. If you somehow cancelled reload and need the buff again, you can use your shotgun bash to trigger it.
LVL 30
Provide a free grenade usage at least every 120 second. You can use this free grenade usage whenever you want, not just limited during your career skill duration. For Grudge build, you should carry a explosive bomb to help with armour damage and monster DPS.

Melee weapon

With Grudge Raker, the main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP, kill some strafing trash unit, and kill close armoured elite when your teammates can't deal with them for you.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

1h Hammer has good stagger, good armour damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield and defence. Its push attack only cost half stamina shield, heals you a lot during the horde and with this build it stagger almost all elites out of everything, one of the best defence focus weapon on dwaf.

Hammer & Shield has shield block, amazing crowd control and best THP regen among all dwaf weapons. It suffers a bit from low AP damage and dodge distance/mobility, but still has a move tech to heal it out compare to Axe & Shield. Overall a very solid choice if you are not confident about your melee or your teammates already covered the majority of armoured damage.

Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor/Savage/Monk all attacks

Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks

Range weapon

The core playstyle of Grudge Raker build is use Grudge Raker to eliminate any none monster/armoured target for your team so they can focus on other aspects of the game. Focus fire on Mauler/Savage/Monk/wooden shield as you can 1-2 shot multiple of them or destroy wooden shield in one hit. Use your free grenade on high density armour units or help with boss DPS. When there are both horde and boss present on the field, dump your ammo onto the horde to stop them from interfering your boss killer.

Breakpoints: 10% infantry, 10% skaven, 20% chaos, Enhanced Power
One shot all specials except hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
Two shot hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
Reduce the pallets you need to kill Mauler/Gor

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough stamina shield to perform pushes. Extra health is critical.
Although career has low HP pool, with high THP farm speed Barkskin is great at providing survivability. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Concoction let you charge your career skill with excessive potions and make the bomb you throw has strength effect with any potions, works very well with a build that's using Parting Gift.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Shrapnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.

Ranger Veteran (Dual Hammer/Hammer/Hammer & Shield + Handgun/Masterwork Pistol)

Talent

LVL 5
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Dual Hammer: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won't stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Hammer/Hammer & Shield: With 1h Hammer has insanely high stagger power and cleave on its horizontal light attacks, same with shield bash and shield push, making THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites for these two weapons.
LVL 10
Range Veteran is a range focus career and has strong utility career skill. Use it to reduce your career skill cooldown.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output on all situations. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
Depends on your playstyle, choose different talent.
Drunken Brawler provides good melee boost and damage reduction for the whole team. And this talent provides 2nd best ammo sustain on this row as you still have 10% ammo back every time a special died. Use this talent to boost your melee damage and survivability.
Grungni's Cunning provides the best ammo sustainability (30% max ammo per special kill). It allows Masterwork Pistol to spam onto elites and specials, since due to its high damage drop off and low accuracy on alt-fire mode you might need multiple shots to kill one.
Scavenger provides constant item drop for the team to deal with high difficulty spikes. However, whenever you drop item it will replace ammo, so you might have issue sustain ammo depends on your accuracy and range uptime.
LVL 25
With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol build, Range Veteran need to clean horde in melee. Exuberance can proc on both melee and range, and provides enough damage reduction for a semi-front liner.
LVL 30
Provide a free grenade usage at least every 120 second. You can use this free grenade usage whenever you want, not just limited during your career skill duration. For Handgun/Masterwork Pistol build, either explosive bomb or fire bomb works well; explosive bomb help with super armour damage and monster DPS, while fire bomb can help with horde clear and still does decent work on patrol.

Melee weapon

With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol build, the main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP and kill close horde. Leave the elites to your range weapon.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

1h Hammer has good stagger, good armour damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield and defence. Its push attack only cost half stamina shield, heals you a lot during the horde and with this build it stagger almost all elites out of everything, one of the best defence focus weapon on dwaf.

Hammer & Shield has shield block, amazing crowd control and best THP regen among all dwaf weapons. It suffers a bit from low AP damage and dodge distance/mobility, but still has a move tech to heal it out compare to Axe & Shield. Overall a very solid choice if you are not confident about your melee or your teammates already covered the majority of armoured damage.

Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor/Savage/Monk all attacks

Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks

Range weapon

With this build, Handgun/Masterwork Pistol are your main elites/specials/boss DPS weapon. Use your frontline and terrain as cover, focus on all tag-able units first. Only use melee when you cannot find high priority target anymore, or when you have to defend yourself/generate THP.

Currently, Handgun is the most consistent elites/special/boss killing option for Bardin careers. It has amazing one shot breakpoints for specials and most elites on Cataclysm and super ammo efficient.

The Masterwork Pistol has almost the same base damage as Handgun. Combine with the alt-firing mode, it can delete Skaven/Beastman patrol in a second and serve as the highest Monster DPS Ranger Veteran weapon. The downside, however, is it has a very early damage drop off, and cannot penetrate Chaos Warrior armour by default. The two fire modes also have high fire delay or low accuracy as drawback.

Handgun Breakpoints: 10% infantry, 10% chaos, 10% skaven, 10% armour, Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Beastgor at effective range
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk at effective range

Masterwork Pistol Breakpoints: 10% infantry, 10% chaos, 10% skaven, 10% armour, Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor/Hook), SV and Beastgor at effective range
Two shot-bodyshot Hook/Mauler/Savage/Monk at effective range

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough stamina shield to perform pushes. Extra health is critical.
Although career has low HP pool, with high THP farm speed Barkskin is great at providing survivability. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
All potion effects benefit Masterwork Pistol build, and Concoction can give you very good DPS boost and guarantee some ult charge with any potion, also make the bomb you throw has strength effect with any potions, works very well with a build that's using Parting Gift.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Shrapnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.

Iron Breaker (Dual/Cog/Great Hammer + Handgun)

Talent

LVL 5
Temporary HP on Stagger talent is very viable with high stagger weapon. It generates more THP on skaven horde than THP on kill.
LVL 10
Provides some extra damage. Essential for some stagger breakpoints.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit. Use it if you want to boost your own elites damage or when your team has 1~2 melee careers.
LVL 20
Gromril Curse provides great passive survivability and CC. The knockback range is not great, but it can stagger all types of units including Monster. This means it can save you from hookrat/assassin/chaos spawn grab and all types of stuff.
LVL 25
Dual/Cog/Great Hammer don't use stamina on both horde clear and elite killing, so The Rolling Mountain will have great uptime. It helps recharge your career skill greatly since the damage/charge ratio on Iron Breaker is very low and its cooldown is very long.
LVL 30
Depends on your playstyle, choose different talent.
Drengbarazi Oath provide 20% power level for the whole team for 10 sec. It increases damage/stagger/cleave on all attacks, making it a great option if you want to increase team's DPS on patrol/boss/lord fight.
Booming Taunt extra radius and duration suit the scenario that you want to use your career skill the best. You can easily grab all dangerous units on the field for your team and hold them until they die.

Melee weapon

With this build, melee weapon should be your main DPS source. Focus on horde units with your melee most of the time, and wait for opening to focus attack on elites.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

Cog Hammer is a 2h weapon with great all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.

Great Hammer has high stagger on all attacks. The light attack has fantastic armour damage. Its push and heavy attack can cleave through and stagger multiple elites/armoured units, great for dealing elites mixing in the horde, making it respond very fast even with low attack speed. However on its cleave attacks, the stagger cleave is higher than damage cleave. Meaning you stagger more units than you damage. Choose your choice of attack wisely.

Cog Hammer Breakpoints: 10% skaven, Smiter
Heavy attack oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin

Range weapon

With this build, range weapon should only be used against specials due to ammo limitation. Only shoot elites when there are ammo source nearby, or when you cannot find melee attack opportunity but needs to eliminate them ASAP.

Handgun can reach all the important one-shot breakpoints for specials on Cataclysm. Plus with the fast reload speed and fairly large ammo capacity, it is one of the best special sniping weapon in the game right now.

Breakpoints: 20% infantry, 10% skaven, 10% chaos
One shot-body shot all specials except Wargor

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.

Iron Breaker (Dual/Cog/Great Hammer + Trollhammer)

Talent

LVL 5
Temporary HP on Stagger talent is very viable with high stagger weapon. It generates more THP on skaven horde than THP on kill.
LVL 10
Provides some extra damage. Essential for some stagger breakpoints.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit. Use it if you want to boost your own elites damage or when your team has 1~2 melee careers.
LVL 20
Gromril Curse provides great passive survivability and CC. The knockback range is not great, but it can stagger all types of units including Monster. This means it can save you from hookrat/assassin/chaos spawn grab and all types of stuff.
LVL 25
Dual/Cog/Great Hammer don't use stamina on both horde clear and elite killing, so The Rolling Mountain will have great uptime. It helps recharge your career skill greatly since the damage/charge ratio on Iron Breaker is very low and its cooldown is very long.
LVL 30
Depends on your playstyle, choose different talent.
Drengbarazi Oath provide 20% power level for the whole team for 10 sec. It increases damage/stagger/cleave on all attacks, making it a great option if you want to increase team's DPS on patrol/boss/lord fight.
Booming Taunt extra radius and duration suit the scenario that you want to use your career skill the best. You can easily grab all dangerous units on the field for your team and hold them until they die.

Melee weapon

With this build, melee weapon should be your main DPS source. Focus on horde units with your melee most of the time, and wait for opening to focus attack on elites.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

Cog Hammer is a 2h weapon with great all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.

Great Hammer has high stagger on all attacks. The light attack has fantastic armour damage. Its push and heavy attack can cleave through and stagger multiple elites/armoured units, great for dealing elites mixing in the horde, making it respond very fast even with low attack speed. However on its cleave attacks, the stagger cleave is higher than damage cleave. Meaning you stagger more units than you damage. Choose your choice of attack wisely.

Cog Hammer Breakpoints: 10% skaven, Smiter
Heavy attack oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin

Range weapon

Trollhammer Torpedo is the best weapon in the game to remove difficulty spike, the only limitation is the ammo count. During normal pacing, only use it when there are too many elites for the team to handle, and prioritize using your career skill for those situations first, unless there is an ammo box nearby. For patrol and boss, don't hesitate to just use all your ammo on them.
While fighting patrol/boss, try to block some attacks to trigger Off Balance on enemies first, then use your Trollhammer to increase your damage efficiency. Your career skill can help you apply this debuff on multiple regular enemies.

Breakpoints: 10% armour, 10% skaven, 10% chaos
One shot-body shot all special and elites including Chaos Warrior naturally
Increase AoE damage against armoured target.

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. DIf you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.

Slayer (Great Axe + Great Hammer/Cog Hammer)

Talent

LVL 5
THP on cleave gives the most consistent regen. Especially when there is a horde for you to cleave. Plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
LVL 10
Choose it according to your weapon setup.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, helping Slayer eliminates key targets.
LVL 20
Adrenaline Surge let you spam career skill to stagger elites and keep up high attack speed, provide best utility and most consistent damage boost.
LVL 25
Grimmir's Focus provide a flat 40% damage reduction in all situation. It requires more micromanagement now since you need to land a charge attack on enemies every 5 sec. Still better than Oblivious to Pain since it doesn't apply to mobs.
LVL 30
Crunch is the one of best talent in the game if you want to be a stand-still front liner. On Cataclysm, it can stagger SV/Mauler/Beastgor all movesets (including their overhead attack and Beastgor charge). It can stop berzerker/monk even if they are doing the combo attacks. It can stagger hook rat when it's not in the hook animation or when it already hooked someone. It can stop ratlin/fire rat firing. For Chaos Warrior, only the overhead and running attack cannot be interrupted.

Melee weapon I

With this build, use Great Axe for horde clear and deal with Mauler/Monster, you can also use it on armoured unit/Savage/Monk if you don't have space to use your cog hammer. And since this is the weapon you will have BCR on, use this instead of the other melee for blocking.

Great Axe has devastating DPS potential. The chain light attacks has amazing single target damage, especially on monster. Heavy attacks have way better stagger and very good horde clear. Its dodge is not the best, but chain lights give slightly speed boost so not bad among 2h weapons.

Great Axe Stagger Breakpoints: 10% skaven, Skull-Splitter
Heavy attack stagger SV/Bestigor/Mauler/Monk/Berzerker all attacks

Melee Weapon II

With this build, use Great Hammer/Cog Hammer for armour damage. Also, Great Hammer heavy can also be used for control multiple elite; the heavy and Cog Hammer light can be used to control shield horde, and Cog Hammer heavy can be used for Savage/Monk if you can land headshot.

Great Hammer has high stagger on all attacks. The light attack has fantastic armour damage. Its push and heavy attack can cleave through and stagger multiple elites/armoured units, great for dealing elites mixing in the horde, making it respond very fast even with low attack speed. However on its cleave attacks, the stagger cleave is higher than damage cleave. Meaning you stagger more units than you damage. Choose your choice of attack wisely.

Cog Hammer is a 2h weapon with great all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.

Cog Hammer Breakpoints: Skull-Spliter, Smiter, Trophy Hunter(passive)
Oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin with heavy attack
With full stacks of Trophy Hunter, oneshot-headshot Bestigor/Savage/Monk with heavy attack

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. DIf you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire..

Slayer (Dual Axes/Dual Hammers + Cog Hammer/Great Hammer)

Talent

LVL 5
THP on cleave gives the most consistent regen. Especially when there is a horde for you to cleave. Plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
LVL 10
Choose it according to your weapon setup.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, helping Slayer eliminates key targets.
LVL 20
Adrenaline Surge let you spam career skill to stagger elites and keep up high attack speed, provide best utility and most consistent damage boost.
LVL 25
Grimmir's Focus provide a flat 40% damage reduction in all situation. It requires more micromanagement now since you need to land a charge attack on enemies every 5 sec. Still better than Oblivious to Pain since it doesn't apply to mobs.
LVL 30
Crunch is the one of best talent in the game if you want to be a stand-still front liner. On Cataclysm, it can stagger SV/Mauler/Beastgor all movesets (including their overhead attack and Beastgor charge). It can stop berzerker/monk even if they are doing the combo attacks. It can stagger hook rat when it's not in the hook animation or when it already hooked someone. It can stop ratlin/fire rat firing. For Chaos Warrior, only the overhead and running attack cannot be interrupted.

Melee weapon I

With this build, use Dual Axes/Dual Hammers for horde clear and deal with Mauler/Monster, you can also use it on armoured unit/Savage/Monk if you don't have space to use your cog hammer. And since these are the weapons you will have BCR on, use them instead of the other melee for blocking.

Dual Axes are Slayer's best utility weapon. Brings a lot survivability on the table with the best dodge ability in the game. It is also the highest Monster damage among all Slayer's choice. Although with the high stagger resistance on Cataclysm, you need to play it with caution.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

Dual Axes Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, Trophy Hunter
With full stacks of Trophy Hunter:
One shot-bodyshot slave rat with light attack
One shot-bodyshot hook rat/fanatic/gor with heavy attack/push attack

Melee Weapon II

With this build, use Great Hammer/Cog Hammer for armour damage. Also, Great Hammer heavy can also be used for control multiple elite; the heavy and Cog Hammer light can be used to control shield horde, and Cog Hammer heavy can be used for Savage/Monk if you can land headshot.

Great Hammer has high stagger on all attacks. The light attack has fantastic armour damage. Its push and heavy attack can cleave through and stagger multiple elites/armoured units, great for dealing elites mixing in the horde, making it respond very fast even with low attack speed. However on its cleave attacks, the stagger cleave is higher than damage cleave. Meaning you stagger more units than you damage. Choose your choice of attack wisely.

Cog Hammer is a 2h weapon with great all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.

Cog Hammer Breakpoints: 10% Chaos, 10% Skaven, Smiter, Trophy Hunter(passive)
Oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin with heavy attack
With full stacks of Trophy Hunter, oneshot-headshot Bestigor/Savage/Monk with heavy attack

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.

Outcast Engineer (Dual Hammer/Hammer/Hammer & Shield + Handgun/Masterwork Pistol/Trollhammer)

Talent

LVL 5
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Dual Hammer: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won't stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Hammer/Hammer & Shield: With 1h Hammer has insanely high stagger power and cleave on its horizontal light attacks, same with shield bash and shield push, making THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites for these two weapons.
LVL 10
Bombardier gives you 2 bombs from start, and making all your bombs more effective, greatly improves your bomb damage. These 2 bombs are enough to clear 1 trigger on their own.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output in all situations. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
Depends on your range weapon, choose different talent.
Handgun/Masterwork Pistol: Perilous Overclock With these two as your range option, ideally you would use your Crank Gun to kill all the horde and non-armored elites. Perilous Overclock provides the best Crank Gun up-time, giving you infinite Crank Gun usage as long as you have some HP to spare.
Trollhammer: Superior Gaskets provides power level, increases all attacks damage/stagger/cleave, and most importantly one of the few buff in the game that affects explosives, which is the main burst damage of this build.
LVL 25
Ablative Armor gives you the most consistent defensive benefit. As a squishy range career, any damage reduction is good for Engineer.
LVL 30
Linked Compression Chamber fast firing speed and no wind up time making it much less clunky, allowing you to use your Crank Gun in more situations safely.

Melee weapon

The main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP, kill some strafing trash unit, and kill close armoured elite when your teammates can't deal with them for you.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

1h Hammer has good stagger, good armour damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield and defence. Its push attack only cost half stamina shield, heals you a lot during the horde and with this build it stagger almost all elites out of everything, one of the best defence focus weapon on dwaf.

Hammer & Shield has shield block, amazing crowd control and best THP regen among all dwaf weapons. It suffers a lot from dodge/mobility and its AP damage is not the best. Still, a very solid choice if you are not confident about your melee or your teammates already covered the majority of armoured damage.

Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor/Savage/Monk all attacks

Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks

Range weapon

With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol, use range weapon to kill armored elites/specials or just long range specials in general. Use Crank Gun to kill close range non-armored specials/horde and boss. Choose Handgun for consistent special sniping and better ammo efficiency. Choose Masterwork Pistol for close range emergency burst and extra Monster damage.
With Trollhammer, use range weapon for patrol/got surrounded and other emergency situations. Use Crank Gun for everything else.

For this build, use your Bombs for patrols and Crankgun for boss. If you choose to use Trollhammer, use it for Chaos patrol and boss, Skaven/Beastman patrol and other high density elites should be cleared with Bombs instead.

Currently, Handgun is the most consistent elites/special killing option for Bardin careers. It has amazing one shot breakpoints for specials and most elites on Cataclysm and super ammo efficient.

The Masterwork Pistol has almost the same base damage as Handgun. Combine with the alt-firing mode, it can delete Skaven/Beastman patrol in a second and serve as the highest Monster DPS Ranger Veteran weapon. The downside, however, is it has a very early damage drop off, and cannot penetrate Chaos Warrior armour by default. You also run out of ammo fairly easily if you spam them mindlessly.

Trollhammer Torpedo is the best weapon in the game to remove difficulty spike, the only limitation is the ammo count. During normal pacing, only use it when there are too many elites for the team to handle, unless there is an ammo box nearby.

Handgun Breakpoints: 20% chaos, 10% Skaven, 10% Infantry, Spotter(passive), Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Bestigor
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk

Masterwork Pistol Breakpoints: 10% chaos, 20% Skaven, Spotter(passive), Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Beastgor at effective range
Two shot-bodyshot Gas/Blight/Leech at max range
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk at effective range

Trollhammer Breakpoints: 10% armour, 20% chaos, 10% skaven, Enhanced Power, Spotter
One shot-body shot all special and elites including Chaos Warrior naturally
Increase AoE damage against armoured target.

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough stamina shield to perform pushes. Extra health is critical.
Although career has low HP pool, with high THP farm speed Barkskin is great at providing survivability. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
All potion effects benefit Crank Gun greatly. Concentration increases your firing time, Strength increases your damage, Speed increases your fire rate. Concoction can give you very good DPS boost and guarantee some ult charge with any potion.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Grenadier gives you a chance to throw more of your buffed bombs.

Outcast Engineer (Dual Hammer/Hammer/Hammer & Shield + Handgun/Masterwork Pistol/Trollhammer)

Talent

LVL 5
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Dual Hammer: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won't stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Hammer/Hammer & Shield: With 1h Hammer has insanely high stagger power and cleave on its horizontal light attacks, same with shield bash and shield push, making THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites for these two weapons.
LVL 10
When pairing with Trinket Trait Explosive Ordnance, Engineer Bombs crafted by Ingenious Ordnance have enough AoE to damage and stagger decent amount of enemies. It is effective when used to get yourself out when surrounded, or just to help with Skaven/Beastman patrol.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output in all situation. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
With this build, ideally you would use your Crank Gun to kill all the horde and non-armored elites. Perilous Overclock provides the best Crank Gun up-time, giving you infinite Crank Gun usage as long as you have some HP to spare.
LVL 25
Ablative Armor gives you the most consistent defensive benefit. As a squishy range career, any damage reduction is good for Engineer.
LVL 30
Linked Compression Chamber fast firing speed and no wind up time making it much less clunky, allowing you to use your Crank Gun in more situations safely.

Melee weapon

The main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP, kill some strafing trash unit, and kill close armoured elite when your teammates can't deal with them for you.

Dual Hammer is the best all around high dodge weapon for Bardin. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system. Its single target DPS is also good enough to handle most situations.

1h Hammer has good stagger, good armour damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield and defence. Its push attack only cost half stamina shield, heals you a lot during the horde and with this build it stagger almost all elites out of everything, one of the best defence focus weapon on dwaf.

Hammer & Shield has shield block, amazing crowd control and best THP regen among all dwaf weapons. It suffers a lot from dodge/mobility and its AP damage is not the best. Still, a very solid choice if you are not confident about your melee or your teammates already covered the majority of armoured damage.

Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor/Savage/Monk all attacks

Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks

Range weapon

With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol, use range weapon to kill armored elites/specials or just long range specials in general. Use Crank Gun to kill close range non-armored specials/horde and boss. Choose Handgun for consistent special sniping and better ammo efficiency. Choose Masterwork Pistol for close range emergency burst and extra Monster damage.
With Trollhammer, use range weapon for Chaos patrol or extra Monster damage. Use Crank Gun for everything else.

For this build, use your Engineer Bombs for patrols or when you got surrounded, and use Crankgun for boss. If you choose to use Trollhammer, use it for Chaos patrol, Skaven/Beastman patrol and other high density elites should be cleared with Bombs instead.

Currently, Handgun is the most consistent elites/special killing option for Bardin careers. It has amazing one shot breakpoints for specials and most elites on Cataclysm and super ammo efficient.

The Masterwork Pistol has almost the same base damage as Handgun. Combine with the alt-firing mode, it can delete Skaven/Beastman patrol in a second and serve as the highest Monster DPS Ranger Veteran weapon. The downside, however, is it has a very early damage drop off, and cannot penetrate Chaos Warrior armour by default. You also run out of ammo fairly easily if you spam them mindlessly.

Trollhammer Torpedo is the best weapon in the game to remove difficulty spike, the only limitation is the ammo count. During normal pacing, only use it when there are too many elites for the team to handle, unless there is an ammo box nearby.

Handgun Breakpoints: 20% chaos, 10% Skaven, 10% Infantry, Spotter(passive), Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Bestigor
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk

Masterwork Pistol Breakpoints: 10% chaos, 20% Skaven, Spotter(passive), Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Beastgor at effective range
Two shot-bodyshot Gas/Blight/Leech at max range
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk at effective range

Trollhammer Breakpoints: 10% armour, 20% chaos, 10% skaven, Enhanced Power, Spotter
One shot-body shot all special and elites including Chaos Warrior naturally
Increase AoE damage against armoured target.

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough stamina shield to perform pushes. Extra health is critical.
Although career has low HP pool, with high THP farm speed Barkskin is great at providing survivability. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
All potion effects benefit Crank Gun greatly. Concentration increases your firing time, Strength increases your damage, Speed increases your fire rate. Concoction can give you very good DPS boost and guarantee some ult charge with any potion.

Trinket

Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Explosive Ordnance is mandatory for bombs crafted by Ingenious Ordnance to consistently stagger more than one unit.

Check out my other build guides on Steam

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1831243904
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833337461
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833338040
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833925976

All my Bardin builds on Ranalds Gift

**Masterwork Pistol Range Veteran - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/VK1rXe89R05catstN8ma/view
Notes:
Masterwork Pistol: 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor at close range; 2 SBS Gas/Leech/Blight at max range

**Grudge Range Veteran - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/1hQxp9l6XaKyv2dmgsG8/view
Notes:
Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Monk/Berzerker.
Grudge: One shot all specials except hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
Two shot hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.

**Crossbow Range Veteran - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/4NTX4urpqXVQ7e6hGyU8/view
Notes:
Crossbow: 1 SBS assassin/ratlin/fire rat, 2 SBS rest of specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS all specials/SV/Beastgor/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

**Handgun Range Veteran - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/fHE0XsO4F8ZI5AS1mJ6y/view
Notes:
Handgun: 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor

**Fake Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/rZH6KXtS0zKTg993W3Mn/view
Notes:
Throw axe: 1 SBS assassin/firerat/ratling, 1 SHS all specials except Wargor
2 SBS Leech/Gas/Storm/Hook/Savage/Monk/SV/Bestigor
Last axe trigger Last Resort: 1 SBS all specials except Wargor

**Drake Fire Pistol Iron Breaker - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/xQjEbphvvZ0ev99fyOXI/view
Notes:
Cog Hammer:
1 SHS SV with heavy attack
On medium ~ high heat, 1 blast slave rat, 2 blast fanatic, 3 blast gor

**Cog/2h/Dual Hammer Iron Breaker - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/ZI4wM6P1sWGLaLmqc12z/view
Notes:
All melee use attack speed/bcr/swift slaying
Handgun: 1 SBS all specials
Cog Hammer: 1 SHS SV with heavy attack

**Hammer & Shield Iron Breaker - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/tI4rUqGhpksArb4CW1NX/view
Notes:
Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Savage/Monk.
Handgun: 1SBS all specials/SV/Bestigor

**Trollhammer Ironbreaker**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/mL4WLCutamWq1lPJj8HL/view
Notes:
Cog Hammer: 1SHS SV with heavy attack
Trollhammer: 1SBS all specials and elites with direct hit

**Flame Thrower Iron Breaker - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/FNqsQzfFw9eabsWEvplo/view
Notes:
Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Berzerker.
High damage but extreme high heat. Learn the minimal charge to kill different types of units.

__**One-handed & Mixing build**__

**Dual Axes + Cog/2h Hammer Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/9iWFUv2VY6no4h8AMzwk/view
Notes:
*Cog Hammer*: use opportunist/crit/speed, use it for staggering high density horde, kill elites. 1 SHS SV with heavy, 1 SHS Bestigor with heavy when full Trophy Hunter stacks
*2h Hammer*: use it for staggering high density or mauler/sv mixing in the horde, killing CW/multiple SV
*Dual axes*: use light for skaven horde, heavy/push attack for chaos/beastmen horde. Use it when you are clutching, have a co-front liner, killing boss.
With full stack passive: 1 SBS slave rat with light, 1 SBS fanatic/gor with heavy/push attack
1 SBS hookrat with heavy/push attacks on full stacks

**Dual Hammer + 1h/2h Axe Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/CiaCm5vsVLkmoUa7mvrs/view
Notes:
Use same property for 2h axe
Compare 1h axe to 2h axe, 2h axe has more stagger/monster/armour damage, 1h axe has better dodge/super armour dmg.

**Dual Hammer + Pickaxe Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/ciTRVr8UFNiD4yUtzsNO/view
Notes:
Pickaxe:
1 SBS SV/hook/wargor with full charge heavy, 1 full charge heavy + 1 push attack kill Bestigor/monk/zerker
Full charge heavy stagger CW overhead

**Throwing Axe Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/8BC6BTUIIPxhWizcTDIj/view
Notes:
Recommend to pair with Dual Axes, Dual Hammers, 2h Hammer. For dual hammers/2h hammer, use attack speed + block cost reduction + swift slaying, and use health + block cost reduction on necklace.
Dual axes: use light for skaven horde, heavy/push attack for chaos/beastmen horde
With full stack passive: 1 SBS slave rat with light, 1 SBS fanatic/gor with heavy/push attack
1 SBS hookrat with heavy/push attacks on full stacks
Throwing axe: 1 SBS assassin, ratling/fire rat with 0 stack passive. 1 SHS all specials with 0 passive. 1 SBS Gas/Hook with full stacks passive.

__**Two-handed build**__

**2h Hammer + 2h Axe Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/VTwiTaDwoxYbaHFud6o8/view
Notes:
2h hammer stagger horde + kill CW, 2h axe kill horde + kill rest of elites/monster.
2h axe heavy stagger SV/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks.

**Cog Hammer + 2h axe Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/K68Na5NI2pbNYKj4UfBz/view
Notes:
Cog hammer stagger horde + kill elites when you have time to charge heavy, 2h axe kill horde + kill elites when you can only light + kill monster.
2h axe heavy stagger SV/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks.

**2h Hammer + Pickaxe Slayer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/TwV83E32jZHasUVji1K9/view
Notes:
2h hammer stagger horde + kill elites with small window, pickaxe kill horde + kill elites with big window.
Breakpoint:
for pick axe
Storm Vermin: 1 SBS Heavy 2
Beastgor: 1 SBS Heavy 2
Berzerker: 1 SBS Heavy 2
Monk: Heavy 2 + Push attack
Mauler: Heavy 2 + Push attack
Wargor: Heavy 2 + Push attack
CW:2 SBS Heavy 2 + one Push attack or 1 HS + BS Heavy 2

**Cog Hammer + Masterwork Pistol Engineer(Okri farm build) - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/SFpLv8PID0gVQw2wLawJ/view
Notes:
Cog Hammer: 1SHS SV with heavy attack
Pistol: at close range, 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor, 2 SBS Monk/Savage/Mauler

**Handgun + Horde Clear Crankgun Engineer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/BwaeVbb1ARzpZgjSbd01/view
Notes:
Handgun: 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor, 3 SHS CW

**Drakegun + Armour Piercing Crankgun Engineer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/ws8NNsQmlkBnHGT9oQt2/view
Notes:
Crankgun 2 SBS SV/Gun rat/Fire rat/Assassin, 3 SBS rest of specials

**DFP + Armour Piercing Crankgun Engineer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/oXwRVz50KSAz8N5NxpLG/view
Notes:
Crankgun 2 SBS SV/Gun rat/Fire rat/Assassin, 3 SBS rest of specials
DFP:
Left click 2 SBS Gor/Clan rat/Marauder
Right click 3 SBS Fanatic/Clan rat with dot, 4 SBS Gor with dot

**Trollhammer Engineer - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/FmF92I9JP0G8UiZXQhNm/view
Notes:
Trollhammer: 1SBS all elites and specials with full AoE damage

Warhammer: Vermintide 2