【Updated to Patch 6.2】【Cataclysm】Saltzpyre all careers

Builds for Cataclysm run. Some of the breakpoints cannot be reached without perfectly rolled items. Use this Reddit post to calculate your own breakpoints.

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

Jaysea's comprehensive Bounty Hunter guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2457614039
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.

Witch Hunter Captain (Bill hook/A&F + Crossbow/BoP)

Talent

LVL 5
Both THP on crit/headshot and THP on cleave are very viable. THP on cleave has better performance with good cleave high speed weapons.
LVL 10
Flense bleed damage is stackable, providing huge damage bonus to horde and berzerker. It can also be proced on SV/Beastgor if you landed a headshot or crit shot, great for elites mixing in horde.
LVL 15
Assassin provides a 40% increase in melee crit/headshot. Witch Hunter Captain has base high crit chance and high headshot damage, synergize greatly with this talent.
LVL 20
Heretic Sighted has 15 second duration, which can consistently cover the whole length of the game if you Tag fairly often, provides overall the highest DPS for WHC himself.
LVL 25
All melee weapons recommended in this build use push attack a lot to crowd control and kill horde. 40% stamina regen helps a lot on that.
LVL 30
Depends on your playstyle/range weapon, choose different weapon
Fervency provides overall best damage potential in this row, giving you the ability to delete all man-sized enemies at front. Best choice for your melee DPS boost. However it will take away your range crit bonus/crit bonus for your teammate. Use this if you want more raw melee damage for yourself.
The Unending Hunt provides cooldown reduction for extra crowd control. It gives you and your team both melee and range crit chance. Use this if you want more utility or choose to use Volley Crossbow to burst monsters.

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. Use Bill Hook special to interrupt elites attacks when you can.

Bill Hook has super long reach and lower but still decent elites/monster damage. The specials attack can stagger all types of the enemy except Monster/Lord, which including hookrat and CW. On WHC, chain special attacks can safely handle multiple elites since it can trigger crit headshot instant kill passive.

Axe & Falchion is still one of the highest DPS melee weapons in the game, especially for monster damage. The great headshot angle on heavy attacks makes it very efficient in handling elites mixing inside horde situations very well.

Range weapon & Charm - Crossbow

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.

Crossbow is the best sniping weapons for Saltzpyre. It also has very high monster damage, if you can save ammo by headshot.

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.

Breakpoints: 20% skaven, 10% monster, WHC passive 25% headshot bonus, Witch-Hunt(Tag)

Unit/Attacks	Crossbow without Tag(Bodyshot)	Crossbow With Tag(Bodyshot)	Crossbow without Tag(Headshot)
Assassin	1	1	1
Hookrat	2	1	1
Firerat/Ratling	2	1	1
Leech/Storm/Gas	2	2	1

Range weapon & Charm - Brace of Pistols

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.

BoP is easy to use and doesn't suffer a lot from aim-punch. The large clip provides more room for mistakes. However it has less ammo efficiency and monster damage than crossbow if you can headshot constantly.

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.

Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, Witch-Hunt(Tag)

Unit/Attacks(all bodyshot)	BoP without Tag	BoP With Tag
Assassin	2	1
Hookrat	3	2
Firerat/Ratling	3	2
Leech/Storm/Gas	2	2

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. WHC also kinda fits in this category. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.

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.

Witch Hunter Captain (Rapier + Crossbow/BoP)

Talent

LVL 5
Both THP on crit/headshot and THP on cleave are very viable. THP on cleave has better performance with good cleave high speed weapons.
LVL 10
Choose different talent for different build.
Anti Elites build:
Deathknell synergize greatly with the high headshot bonus of Rapier and high base headshot bonus of WHC. Pairing with LVL 15 talent you can one-shot headshot most of elites with some properties.
All Round build:
Flense bleed damage is stackable, providing huge damage bonus to horde and berzerkers. It can also be proced on SV/Beastgor if you landed a headshot or crit shot, great for elites mixing in horde.
LVL 15
Assassin provide a 40% increase in melee crit/headshot. Any rapier user should constantly be looking for headshot, giving rapier the ability to one-shot or two-shot horde units.
LVL 20
Heretic Sighted has 15 second duration, which can consistently cover the whole length of the game if you Tag fairly often, provides overall the highest DPS for WHC himself.
LVL 25
Rapier uses push attack a lot to crowd control and kill horde. 40% stamina regen helps a lot on that.
LVL 30
Depends on your playstyle/range weapon, choose different weapon
Fervency provides overall best damage potential in this row, giving you the ability to delete all man-sized enemies at front. Best choice for your melee DPS boost. However it will take away your range crit bonus/crit bonus for your teammate. Use this if you want more raw melee damage for yourself.
The Unending Hunt provides cooldown reduction for extra crowd control. It gives you and your team both melee and range crit chance. Use this if you want more utility or choose to use Volley Crossbow to burst monsters.

Melee weapon

With these builds, 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. Use Bill Hook special to interrupt elites attacks when you can.

Rapier has default high dodge and low block cost reduction, making it one of the safest melee weapon to use on Saltzpyre. Its fast swing and low push cost still provide great horde crowd control. Damage wise, all attacks excluding side pistol have low bodyshot damage. High headshot rate is mandatory for both horde and elites damage.

On the Anti Elites build, both Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 have decent breakpoints on elites. Carefully judge your space and time window to decide when to use Heavy 1/Heavy 2.

On the All Round build, high attack speed combing with bleed provide huge horde and monster damage. The most of your elites killing power comes from triggering Killing Shot and bleed. Use Heavy 1/Light attack to get a headshot crit shot to instant kill them.

All Round build is generally better unless you have amazing headshot rate.

Breakpoints: Only recommended attacks are listed
Anti Elites: 10% Skaven, 10% Chaos, Assassin, WHC passive 25% headshot bonus, Deathknell
All Round: 10% Skaven, 10% Chaos, Assassin, WHC passive 25% headshot bonus, Flense

*
For Anti Elites build
For All Round Build
For both

Units/Attacks	Light/Push attack	Heavy 1	Heavy 2	Combo: Side pistol + Heavy 1
Fanatic/Slave rat	One shot-headshot	/	/	/
Marauder/Gor	Two shot-headshot	One shot-headshot Need 1 tick bleed on All Round build	/	/
Mauler	/	/	/	Three shot-bodyshot
Storm Vermin	/	Three shot-headshot Two shot-headshot with Tag	Two shot-headshot One shot-headshot with Tag	/
Beastgor	/	Three shot-headshot Tag for All Round	/	/
Monk/Savage	/	Two shot-headshot One shot-headshot with Tag	One shot-headshot	Two shot-bodyshot with Tag

Range weapon

With these builds, 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.

Crossbow is the best sniping weapons for Saltzpyre. It also has very high monster damage, if you can save ammo by headshot.

BoP is easy to use and doesn't suffer a lot from aim-punch. The large clip provides more room for mistakes. However it has less ammo efficiency and monster damage than crossbow if you can headshot constantly.

Breakpoints:
Crossbow: 20% skaven, 10% chaos, 10% monster, WHC passive 25% headshot bonus
BoP: 20% skaven, 10% chaos
Crossbow one-shot headshot all specials/SV/Beastgor/Wargor/Monks/Berzerker

Unit/Attacks(all bodyshot)	Crossbow without Tag	Crossbow With Tag	BoP without Tag	BoP With Tag
Assassin	1	1	2	1
Hookrat	2	1	3	2
Firerat/Ratling	2	1	3	2
Leech/Storm/Gas	2	2	2	2

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. WHC also kinda fits in this category. 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.

Bounty Hunter (Rapier + Crossbow)

Talent

LVL 5
Both THP on crit/headshot and THP on cleave are very viable, but usually THP on cleave is more consistent.
LVL 10
Increase your damage when crit enemy. It also increases the damage of the attack that triggers the crit. Essential for range breakpoints on Bounty Hunter since he has guaranteed range crit.
LVL 15
Choose different talent for different build.
Enhanced Power build:
Enhanced Power boost your damage output on all situation. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
Assassin build:
Assassin provide a 40% increase in melee crit/headshot. Boosts your melee damage greatly, especially for rapier. Giving rapier the ability to one-shot or two-shot horde units.
LVL 20
Blessed Combat gives you crit whenever you need it. Even with crossbow focus build, melee still takes a big portion of the fight.
LVL 25
With this build, Bounty Hunter one shot all elites/specials with crit. You will have a full 30% damage reduction very soon.
LVL 30
Double-shotted allows you to one shot CW without crit shot. If landing headshot consistently to get the cooldown refund or using potion, it is one of the best Boss damage source in the game.

Melee weapon

With crossbow build, the main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP, kill some strafing trash unit to reset Blessed Shots, and kill close horde. Leave the elites to your range weapon.

Raiper has default high dodge and low block cost reduction, making it one of the safest melee weapon to use on Saltzpyre. Its fast swing and low push cost still provide great horde crowd control. Damage wise, all attacks excluding side pistol have low bodyshot damage. High headshot rate is mandatory for good killing speed.

Assassin Rapier Breakpoints: 10% chaos, 10% Infantry, Assassin
One shot-headshot slave rat/fanatic, two shot-headshot gor with light attacks

Range weapon + Charm - Enhanced Power build

With this build, Crossbow is your main elites/specials/boss DPS weapon. During pacing, actively seeking trash unit to kill with melee to reset Blessed Shots, and use the crit attack to fast kill elite/special. During horde, use your frontline and terrain as cover, focus on all tag-able units first. When there are multiple elites/specials threatening the team, rapid fire range weapon is more efficient than seeking melee kill to reset crit first.

Crossbow is the best sniping weapon for Saltzpyre. With this build, Bounty HunterIt can one shot all specials and most of the elites on the body with crit arrow. It also has very high monster damage and since Bounty Hunter has guaranteed crit you don't need to worry about ammo.

Decanter with a concentration potion can easily delete a boss's most hp. If you are very confident about your aim, use Concoction.

Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 40% crit power, Open Wounds, Enhanced Power
Without Crit:
One shot-bodyshot assassin
Two shot-bodyshot rest of specials and SV
One shot-headshot all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

With Crit
One shot-bodyshot all specials/elites except CW and Wargor

Range weapon + Charm - Assassin build

With this build, Crossbow is your main elites/specials/boss DPS weapon. During pacing, actively seeking trash unit to kill with melee to reset Blessed Shots, and use the crit attack to fast kill elite/special. During horde, use your frontline and terrain as cover, focus on all tag-able units first. When there are multiple elites/specials threatening the team, rapid fire range weapon is more efficient than seeking melee kill to reset crit first.

Crossbow is the best sniping weapon for Saltzpyre. With this build, Bounty HunterIt can one shot all specials and most of the elites on the body with crit arrow. It also has very high monster damage and since Bounty Hunter has guaranteed crit you don't need to worry about ammo.

Decanter with a concentration potion can easily delete a boss's most hp. If you are very confident about your aim, use Concoction.

Crossbow Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 10% armour, 10% infantry, Open Wounds
Without Crit:
One shot-bodyshot assassin
Two shot-bodyshot rest of specials and SV
One shot-headshot all specials/SV/Bestigor/Wargor

With Crit
One shot-bodyshot all specials/elites except Monk, Berserker, CW, Wargor

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With the high damage on Cataclysm, low HP pool character can't survive two hits even with Barkskin. Use Boon of Shallya to get away from instant kill threshold faster.

Trinket

Bounty Hunter replies on passive for guaranteed crit, which makes space for other offensive properties. Cooldown reduction stacks additive with the Double-shotted refund, makes you delete Chaos Warrior more often and improves your Boss/Lord DPS even further.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It's also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.

Bounty Hunter (Rapier/Axe + BoP/Griffonfoot)

Talent

LVL 5
Both THP on crit/headshot and THP on cleave are very viable, but usually THP on cleave is more consistent.
LVL 10
Depends on your range weapon, choose different talent.
Griffonfoot: Open Wounds increase your damage when crit enemy. It also increases the damage of the attack that triggers the crit. Essential for Griffonfoot build since the core playstyle is using melee kill to reset crit every time you shoot.
BoP: Weight of Fire increase your damage consistently and reach some breakpoints on BoP. It also increases your career skill damage. Every efficient on high clip size weapons.
LVL 15
Assassin provide a 40% increase in melee crit/headshot. Boosts your melee damage greatly, especially for rapier. Giving rapier the ability to one-shot or two-shot horde units.
LVL 20
Blessed Combat gives you crit whenever you need it. Combine with Salvaged Ammunition you can switch between melee and range actions freely. The extra bit of melee/range damage is the icing on the cake.
LVL 25
Salvaged Ammunition can reduce your reload frequency on high clip size weapons. Combine with Blessed Combat you can switch between melee and range actions freely. It also helps ammo hungry weapons like BoP to sustain ammo by killing elites with your melee or career skill.
LVL 30
Double-shotted allows you to one shot CW without crit shot. If landing headshot consistently to get the cooldown refund or using potion, it is one of the best Boss damage source in the game.

Melee weapons

With BoP build, the main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP, kill some strafing trash unit to reset Blessed Shots, and kill close horde. Leave the elites to your range weapon.

With Griffonfoot build, the main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP, kill some strafing trash unit to reset Blessed Shots, and kill close armoured elite when you don't have Blessed Shots ready.

Raiper is for both BoP and Griffonfoot build. It has default high dodge and low block cost reduction, making it one of the safest melee weapon to use on Saltzpyre. Its fast swing and low push cost still provide great horde crowd control. Damage wise, all attacks excluding side pistol have low bodyshot damage. High headshot rate is mandatory for good killing speed.

Axe is for Griffonfoot build. It has great single target dps with high dodge/attack speed/movability. With Griffonfoot you can just leave horde clear to your range weapon while focusing low density enemies with your melee.

Rapier Breakpoints: 10% chaos, 10% infantry, Assassin
One shot-headshot slave rat/fanatic, two shot-headshot gor with light attacks

Axe Breakpoints: Assassin
One shot-headshot slave rat/fanatic, two shot-headshot gor with light attacks

Range weapon

For BoP build, use your range weapons to kill all the elites. Use your melee to kill horde units to reload and farm crit, then use the crit to farm ammo. Use you career skill to kill CW/Wargor/Monster. When you run out of ammo, using your career skill kill one elite will give you 14 ammo back.
BoP does not have insane monster/super armour damage, but it still has good bodyshot specials/elites breakpoints, and you can always use your career skill to delete boss and chaos warrior. Combine with the amazing ammo regen talent and fast reload from Bounty Hunter, it is very spamable.

The core playstyle of Griffonfoot Pistol build is to use your melee weapon to get one melee kill, which reset your guaranteed range crit & reload your Griffonfoot Pistol, and then shoot the pistol once or twice to clear the horde in front of you. Crit Griffonfoot shot can also oneshot bodyshot most of elites at close range, so some times it is more efficient to find trash unit to reset your crit then range crit the elite.
Griffonfoot is the main horde clear damage of this build. With the unique spread pattern and high ammo/pellet count, you can solo high density horde very easily.
For none armour elites/specials, Griffonfoot shot can kill them very quickly.
For armoured elites, either melee reset on trash unit to get a crit Griffonfoot shot, or just switch to melee weapon to kill the elite.
For long range specials, spam your shot.

BoP Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 10% infantry, 10% armour, Weight of Fire, Blessed Combact
One shot-bodyshot assassin
Two shot-bodyshot rest of specials
Three shot-bodyshot SV/Mauler
Four shot-bodyshot Beastgor

With Blessed Combact & Crit:
One shot-bodyshot Leech/Storm/Gas

Griffonfoot Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 10% armour, 10% infantry, Open Wound
One shot-bodyshot all horde units
One shot-bodyshot Mauler/Berserker/Monk/Assassion/Life Leech/Blight Stormer/Gas Rat with most pellets land.

With Crit:
One shot-bodyshot SV/Bestigor with most pellets land.

Necklace

BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With the high damage on Cataclysm, low HP pool character can't survive two hits even with Barkskin. Use Boon of Shallya to get away from instant kill threshold faster.

Charm

To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Decanter with a concentration potion can easily delete a boss's most hp. If you are very confident about your aim, use Concoction.

Trinket

Bounty Hunter replies on passive for guaranteed crit, which makes space for other offensive properties. Cooldown reduction stacks additive with the Double-shotted refund, makes you delete Chaos Warrior more often and improves your Boss/Lord DPS even further.
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.

Zealot (Bill hook/A&F/DH/GH + Crossbow/BoP)

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
Just like your passive damage stack, this talent works with THP. A huge boost to your damage output.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient on melee elites killing power.
LVL 20
With the nerf to THP regen, extra health regen is better than damage reduction.
LVL 25
Both A&F and Bill Hook use push attack a lot to crowd control and kill horde. With this talent, appropriate amount of hit trade will give you tons of stamina to transfer into crowd control and damage.
LVL 30
Flagellant's Zeal provides a huge cooldown reduction to your career skill. Way superior than the other choices.

Melee weapon

If you don't own any of these DLC weapons, use Falchion or Flail(same property/trait as the rest).

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.

Bill Hook has super long reach and lower but still decent elites/monster damage. The specials attack can stagger all types of the enemy except Monster/Lord, which including hookrat and CW.

Axe & Falchion received a small nerf on push attack cleave/crit in the recent patch, but it is still one of the highest DPS melee weapons in the game, especially for monster. The great headshot angle on heavy attacks makes it very efficient in handling elites mixing inside horde situations very well.

Paired Skull-Splitters is the best horde clearing weapon for Zealot with good dodge and high block, also provides decent elites damage to be used on a melee DPS. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.

Holy Great Hammer is a well-rounded weapon with great stagger and damage ability. Its heavy sweep attacks are able to stagger and cleave through normal elites like Storm Vermin and Mauler while interrupting their attacks. The single target combo also provides one of the highest armour/super armour damage in the whole game.

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.

Crossbow is the best sniping weapons for Saltzpyre. It also has very high monster damage, if you can save ammo by headshot.

BoP is easy to use and doesn't suffer a lot from aim-punch. The large clip provides more room for mistakes. However it has less ammo efficiency and monster damage than crossbow if you can headshot constantly.

Breakpoints:
Crossbow: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 10% monster, Fiery Faith
BoP: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, Fiery Faith
Crossbow one-shot headshot all specials/SV/Wargor, Beastgor/Monks/Berzerker for 6 passive

Unit/Attacks(all bodyshot)	Crossbow with 0 passive	Crossbow with 6 passive	BoP with 0 passive	BoP with 6 passive
Assassin	1	1	2	1
Hookrat	2	1	3	2
Firerat/Ratling	2	1	3	2
Leech/Storm/Gas	2	2	2	2

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. Zealot generates amazing amount of THP so it is much better than 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.

Zealot (Bill hook/DH + Volley Crossbow)

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
Grants you guaranteed crit, free the crit chance property from weapon/trinket. The crit can be utilized by some micro-management, e.g use a strong single target attack w/ the crit to kill elites enemies. It can also be triggered by Volley Crossbow alt fire multiple times, making this range weapon essentially infinite ammo.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient on melee elites killing power.
LVL 20
With the nerf to THP regen, extra health regen is better than damage reduction.
LVL 25
The movement speed from Devotion allows you to dodge continues damage easily. It also allows you to position & reload Volley Crossbow more freely.
LVL 30
Flagellant's Zeal provides a huge cooldown reduction to your career skill. It can also be triggered by your Volly Crossbow shot, so you can dash away reload & shoot and still receive CDR. Way superior than the other choices.

Melee weapon

Bill Hook has super long reach and lower but still decent elites/monster damage. The specials attack can stagger all types of the enemy except Monster/Lord, which including hookrat and CW.

Paired Skull-Splitters is the best horde clearing weapon for Zealot with good dodge and high block, also provides decent elites damage to be used on a melee DPS. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.

Range weapon

Volley Crossbow provides super high utility to all situation. Special sniping ability is not the best of best, but is good enough to handle base Cataclysm difficulty. With talent Smite you basically have infinite ammo for your Volley Crossbow. As long as all your arrows landed on enemies, spamming alt fire mode will not consume ammo. Spam it on to high density horde + elites to gain more breathing room, or use it on monster to delete them. Use the movement speed talent and your career skill to compensate the slow reload speed.

If you find yourself run low on ammo, use your melee weapon to farm a guaranteed crit from Smite, and use Volley Crossbow alt fire to farm ammo.

Breakpoints:10% skaven, 10% chaos, 20% crit power, Fiery Faith
With 6 stacks of Fiery Faith:
One shot-bodyshot slave rat/clan rat/fanatic
Two shot-bodyshot Assassin/Hook rat/Gor
Three shot-bodyshot Gun rat/Fire rat/Leech/Storm/Gas

With 6 stacks of Fiery Faith & Crit:
One shot-bodyshot all elites except CW with a crit volley

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. Zealot generates amazing amount of THP so it is much better than 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

With talent Smite crit chance is useless. Use cooldown reduction to gain more utility. 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.

Warrior Priest (Paired Skull-Splitters/Flail & Shield + Holy Great Hammer)

Talent

LVL 5
THP on cleave gives the most consistent regen. Both Paired Skull-Splitters and Holy Great Hammer have high cleave, making it a more consistent option. Plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
LVL 10
Most consistent DPS increase on this row. Both Paired Skull-Splitters and Holy Great Hammer use heavy attacks in their horde & single target combo, bringing high efficiency for this talent.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, helping Warrior Priest eliminates key targets.
LVL 20
From Fury, Fortitude provides strong sustainability for the whole team. In a normal run, you can generate at least 100 Permanent Health for every member of the team, which is roughly equal to 4 healing draughts.
LVL 25
Prayer of Vengence is simply 15% Power vs Monster for the whole team. With one more property on charm, it allows Shield of Faith explosion plus DoT to kill Cataclysm Packmaster consistently at close range.
And pure Monster DPS can some times be the difference of kill the boss before specials/hordes show up or not, consistently improving your win rate as it helps with game biggest difficulty spike.
LVL 30
Depends on your playstyle, choose different talent.
Unyielding Blessing enables more aggressive play. The longer invincibility duration allows you to deal more damage safely, especially if you need to deal with special pressure by yourself somehow. The pulse effect is just icing on the cake, be able to only stagger trash units.
United in Prayer is similar to proxy. With one more person blessed with invincibility and guaranteeing you getting the blessing yourself, the chance of someone utilizing this buff is increased.
The Comet's Gift opens more utility usage for the career skill. It allows you to instantly heal back elite overhead damage if you pay attention to teammates' health. The long range revive is also useful for a no-mobility skill career.

Melee Weapon I

With this build, you use Paired Skull-Splitters or Flail and Shield as your main horde clear/THP farming weapon. Single target wise, they are also your best option on Berserker/Monk/Monster enemies. And since this is the weapon you will have high block ability, use them instead of the other melee for blocking.

Paired Skull-Splitters is the best horde clearing weapon for Warrior Priest with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.

Flail & Shield is a shield weapon that fully inherits regular Flail's horde clear and dodge ability with the benefit of strong shield block and high stagger shield push, while surpassing Flail a bit in terms of single target damage. It can also block incoming attacks while charging your heavy attack, providing an extra layer of safety. Plus heavy attacks can cleave through normal elites like Storm Vermin and Mauler, it can deal with high density or multiple elites easily.

Melee Weapon II

With this build, you use Holy Great Hammer as your main anti-armour weapon, able to focus down one armoured elite very fast or stagger multiple of them.

Holy Great Hammer is a well-rounded weapon with great stagger and damage ability. Its heavy sweep attacks are able to stagger and cleave through normal elites like Storm Vermin and Mauler while interrupting their attacks. The single target combo also provides one of the highest armour/super armour damage in the whole game.

When having high stacks of Rising Judgement, make sure to use light attack - light attack - heavy attack for single target DPS and land the last 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

Combined with Prayer of Vengence, allowing Shield of Faith to guarantee kill Packmaster with explosion plus DoT at close range.
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.

Warrior Priest (Paired Skull-Splitters/Flail & Shield + Holy Great Hammer)

Talent

LVL 5
THP on cleave gives the most consistent regen. Both Paired Skull-Splitters and Flail & Shield have high cleave, making it a more consistent option. Plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
LVL 10
Most consistent DPS increase on this row. All the weapons in this build use heavy attacks often, making this talent has the best uptime.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, helping Warrior Priest eliminates key targets.
LVL 20
Blazing Bright is provide the highest tankiness for Warrior Priest himself, especially when pairing with The Comet's Gift. Normally, you can use the free cast of Shield of Faith to farm THP while being invincible. With The Comet's Gift, you can aggressively hit trade with any elites or even boss/patrol when you are close to enter Fury, and then trigger The Comet's Gift to refund all the HP lose in past 3 sec. On top of your own career skill cast, you can refund tons of HP with this combo.
LVL 25
Prayer of Vengence is simply 15% Power vs Monster for the whole team. With one more property on charm, it allows Shield of Faith explosion plus DoT to kill Cataclysm Packmaster consistently at close range.
And pure Monster DPS can some times be the difference of kill the boss before specials/hordes show up or not, consistently improving your win rate as it helps with game biggest difficulty spike.
LVL 30
The Comet's Gift opens more utility usage for the career skill, and has amazing synergy with Blazing Bright. It allows you to instantly heal back elite overhead damage if you pay attention to teammates' health. The long range revive is also useful for a no-mobility skill career. The effect fully functions when you trigger career skill with Blazing Bright too, allow you to do some aggressive but calculated hit trade against any units in the game.

Melee Weapon I

With this build, you use Paired Skull-Splitters or Flail and Shield as your main horde clear/THP farming weapon. Single target wise, they are also your best option on Berserker/Monk/Monster enemies. And since this is the weapon you will have high block ability, use them instead of the other melee for blocking.

Paired Skull-Splitters is the best horde clearing weapon for Warrior Priest with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.

Flail & Shield is a shield weapon that fully inherits regular Flail's horde clear and dodge ability with the benefit of strong shield block and high stagger shield push, while surpassing Flail a bit in terms of single target damage. It can also block incoming attacks while charging your heavy attack, providing an extra layer of safety. Plus heavy attacks can cleave through normal elites like Storm Vermin and Mauler, it can deal with high density or multiple elites easily.

Melee Weapon II

With this build, you use Holy Great Hammer as your main anti-armour weapon, able to focus down one armoured elite very fast or stagger multiple of them.

Holy Great Hammer is a well-rounded weapon with great stagger and damage ability. Its heavy sweep attacks are able to stagger and cleave through normal elites like Storm Vermin and Mauler while interrupting their attacks. The single target combo also provides one of the highest armour/super armour damage in the whole game.

When having high stacks of Rising Judgement, make sure to use light attack - light attack - heavy attack for single target DPS and land the last 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

Combined with Prayer of Vengence, allowing Shield of Faith to guarantee kill Packmaster with explosion plus DoT at close range.
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.

Check out my other build guides on Steam

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1831243904
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1832306381
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833337461
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833925976

All my Saltzpyre builds on Ranalds Gift

**Raiper WHC-Anti Elites - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/PJ7PL4GzmG1rro398lzO/view
Notes:
Raiper:
_Light:_
1 SHS slave rat/fanatic with light
2 SHS gor
_Heavy 1:_
1 SHS marauder
1 SHS Wargor
2 SHS SV + Tag
3 SHS Beastgor
_Heavy 2:_
1 SHS SV + Tag
3 SHS CW + Tag
_Combo(Heavy 1+sidegun): _
2 SBS marauder, 3 SBS mauler

Crossbow: 1 SBS assassin
1 SBS hookrat with Tag
2 SBS rest of specials and SV, for Bezerkers/Monks need Tag
1 SHS all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

**Raiper WHC -All Round- Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/e2MiYQlBh5PNELhXTZME/view
Notes:
Raiper:
_Light:_
1 SHS slave rat/fanatic
2 SHS gor
_Heavy 1:_
1 SHS marauder + bleed
2 SHS Wargor
3 SHS SV
3 SHS Beastgor + Tag
_Heavy 2:_
4 SHS CW + Tag
_Combo(Heavy 1+sidegun): _
2 SBS marauder, 3 SBS mauler

BoP:
1 SBS assassin with Tag
2 SBS rest of specials with Tag

**Meta WHC - Cataclysm**
BoP: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/wpAT07rLW8YZvNK5PLjB/view
Xbow: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/tTuVv1Odq1JSmGH2ZzsL/view
Notes:
For A&F use the same property/trait
Crossbow: 1 SBS assassin
1 SBS hookrat with Tag
2 SBS rest of specials and SV, for Bezerkers/Monks need Tag
1 SHS all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

**Falchion Volley WHC - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/MD7MD584sHfaKsvgWW4R/view
Notes:
Rely on dodge, not push/push attack. LVL 30 use CDR to provide some CC and for volley boss dps/emergency burst.
Volley:
2 SBS assassin/hook with Tag
3 SBS rest of specials with Tag

**Twin WHC**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/Rgf6Lsj4QgksZm0gyOOH/view
Notes:
Spam heavy attack. Rely on dodge, not push/push attack. Yell at horde get 50% cdr.
BoP: 1 SBS assassin with Tag, 2 SBS rest of specials with Tag

**Raiper/Crossbow specialized Bounty Hunter - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/Le4gpGK5vdWgSTgLWcO0/view
Raiper:
1 SHS fanatic, 2 SHS gor with light
Crossbow:
No crit: 1 SBS assassin
2 SBS rest of specials and SV
1 SHS all specials/SV/Bestigor
With crit: 1 SBS all specials/elites except CW/Monk/Berserker

**Crossbow Bounty Hunter - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/DdkoK3tMoJqtSI0xBPBU/view
Notes:
Crossbow:
No crit: 1 SBS assassin
2 SBS rest of specials and SV
1 SHS all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk
With crit: 1 SBS all specials/elites except CW

**BoP Bounty Hunter - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/ITq6ZIZr7xNuJNNSY9PN/view
Notes:
Raiper:
1 SHS fanatic, 2 SHS gor with light
BoP:
1 SBS assassin
2 SBS rest of specials
3 SBS SV/Mauler
4 SBS Beastgor

**Volley Bounty Hunter - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/5H7syKRrVVofSz4x6GFt/view
Notes:
Raiper:
1 SHS fanatic, 2 SHS gor with light
Volley:
Horde: 1 SBS fanatic, 2 SBS gor/clan rat
Specials: 2 SBS assassin, 3 SBS rest of them
Elites: 1 crit volley kill SV/Mauler/Bestigor

**Griffonfoot Bounty Hunter - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/dPs7SFFwDNThX3galyW2/view
Notes:
Raiper:
1 SHS fanatic, 2 SHS gor with light
Griffonfoot:
1 SBS all horde units and infantry/berzerker specials and elites
1 SCBS SV/Bestigor with most pellets land

**Meta Zealot - Cataclysm**
BoP: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/YzkOa07rSojiexaPZMAl/view
Xbow: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/KdgIccP6fnHDmF28CvKD/view
Notes:
For a&f/billhook/dh/gh
Crossbow with full passive: 1 SBS assassin and hookrat
2 SBS rest of specials/SV/Bezerkers/Monks
1 SHS all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

**1h axe Zealot - Cataclysm**
BoP: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/PaCPm6YIx68fO3Zlnhkh/view
Xbow: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/RNES03y4js34v9oIQmKI/view
Notes:
1h axe with full passive:
1 SBS fanatic, 1 SHS/SCS gor with light attack
Crossbow with full passive: 1 SBS assassin and hookrat
2 SBS rest of specials/SV/Bezerkers/Monks
1 SHS all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

**2h Sword/Flail Zealot - Cataclysm**
BoP: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/P2S1z3IS1yuxTlL7T6UJ/view
Xbow: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/ekzyh7i9JoMvfTFP2nC0/view
Notes:
Flail use the same property/trait.
For 2h sword, only light attack for pure trash horde. Otherwise push/heavy attack.
For fail, always heavy attack unless on single armoured unit.
Crossbow with full passive: 1 SBS assassin and hookrat
2 SBS rest of specials/SV/Bezerkers/Monks
1 SHS all specials/SV/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk

**Infinite Volley Zealot - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/bkHDqLSMdUY3tDDDGwNz/view
Notes:
All melee weapons are fine, here list Rapier for bps:
Raiper with full passive:
_Light:_
1 SHS slave rat/fanatic
2 SHS gor
_Heavy 1:_
2 SHS Wargor
3 SHS SV
4 SHS Beastgor

Volley with full passive:
Use volley mode to gain infinite crit/arrows
Single arrow:
1 SBS fanatic, 2 SBS gor
2 SBS assassin/hook, 3 SBS rest of specials
Crit single arrow:
1 SBS gor, 3 SBS SV/Beastgor/Mauler/Monk/Savage (= 1 crit volley)

**DH/Flail + GH Warrior Priest - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/Zf6NH3iES0t0Xe93gXnr/view
Notes:
Use DH/Flail Shield for horde clear, GH for armour. Flail Shield can give up BCR.
For monster damage, qq cancel DH heavy 1 or Flail light 1.

**Blessed Tome Warrior Priest Build - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/vgKZXVerQn0soNfrwFEh/view
Notes:
Use DH/Flail Shield for THP & tight situations. Flail Shield can give up BCR.
Hammer & Tome is for single target & mixed horde.

**Shield Warrior Priest - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/Ot68VLNSrbYlnKnO0mK3/view
Notes:
For main hand, use DH/GH, speed + crit + swift slaying
For shield, use Flail/Hammer shield, skaven + bcr + oppo, flail shield with cleave thp & hammer shield with stagger thp
Both Shields: Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Berserker/Monk/Gunrat/Firerat all attacks

**1hh Warrior Priest - Cataclysm**
https://www.ranalds.gift/build/BJjtP1NGevcrqdjDjPQZ/view
Notes:
1hh for breath room, GH for dps.
1hh:
Push attack/heavy attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor all attacks

[Royale w/ Cheese]

It's fair point and I know a lot BH players do that, but personally I don't like rely on it for BPs, if you are required to spam range into elites heavily without having the time or safety to melee, relying blessed combat while make dire situations will make things worse.

[some random wanker]

Hey, been using your guides as a gateway to learn building, has been really helpful.

One note for Bounty Hunter's Croosbow Build: since you now recommend people run "Blessed Combat" to reset their crits (I remember you used to recommend "Prize Bounty" a while ago), the breakpoints for the builds have changed.

For the Enhanced Power Build, if you have Blessed Combat active you are actually able to one-shot bodyshot a Wargor on Cataclysm with a critical hit.
For the Assassin build, if you have "Blessed Combat" active you can one-shot bodyshot the Armored Specials (Warpfire Thrower and Ratling Gunner) without a critical hit.

Keep up the great work, can't imagine what hell it must be to keep updating all of these pages.

[Royale w/ Cheese]

That's for hybrid/frontline style. Generally it's more efficient and faster to keep shooting till all tagable enemies(elites/specials) are dead and then melee the trash. You are an elite/special focus career with crossbow.

[Arnstrong]

I've got a question for BH with Crossbow: Why not "Salvaged Ammunition" combined with "Blessed Combat"? Melee kill, followed by a shot into the horde. With Ammo back on Crits you can spam shoot basically nonstop.

[Royale w/ Cheese]

Mostly yes, breakpoint will be not optimized for lower difficulty but they should work well enough.

[.113]

Hey, thanks for the guides, very helpful! Are these builds ok for legend and champion runs too, or would you recommend other things for earlier difficulties? Me and some friends just started playing so we're looking into champion difficulty at the moment so just wondering if these are good to master early or if it's just better to run other builds until we learn enough to up the difficulty. Thanks in advance :)

[Royale w/ Cheese]

Yes, that talent provide Range Power, which increases range attack damage and stagger.

[Ha尺ⓓɧed]

Ah okay, the talent just work for range weapon, (but not for melee weapon :/ )

[Ha尺ⓓɧed]

Talent 10: Weight of Fire (BountyHunter) not work it, why? (I tried with Volley crossbow, I saw the mannequin damage and it doesn't work)

[Anby Chambers~~~]

Aye good to know, thank you for the quick correction!