Sword and Board Crusader

This guide covers a +118 optimized/+129 viable Sword and Shield Crusader build, along with variations and other Crusader experimentation.

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to detail a Power Sword/Storm Shield Crusader capable of speed-running +118 missions/Void Crusades (VCs) and tackling +129 VCs. This build optimizes survivability while sacrificing minimal clearing speed by combining area of effect (AOE) damage per second (DPS) from enrage shock aura, heat aura doctrine, and shocksplosion doctrine with single target DPS from the Power Sword. Enrage and Berserk tokens provide damage scaling to overcome 99% damage reduction. Optimized damage reduction and resistances combined with stun aura provide survivability. Finally, the Storm Shield and Assault Armor provide combat mobility and increase clear speed. This guide will also cover experimental Crusader variations optimized for other than +118 clear speed.

Items - Overview, Enrage/Berserk, and General Enchant Selection

The core of this build's damage comes from mixing enrage and berserk tokens and effects in the relic enchants. Enrage provides low-end damage (pre-berserk token stacking) and shock aura, whereas berserk provides high-end damage (post-berserk token stacking) and additional sustain if desired. Stacking vulnerabilities and "damage against" effects provides multiplicative damage increases. Gearing enchants (relic, primary, and secondary) and doctrine/socketing optimization revolves around balancing low end vs. high end damage, movement speed, survivability, sustain, and loot.

There are a few situations where one would gear for exclusively enrage or exclusively berserk. A common situation to gear for exclusively one or the other is the absence of critical gear necessary to run both enrage and berserk tokens simultaneously. A situation to gear for exclusively enrage is when expecting a single strong boss with minimal or no other enemies to sustain berserk tokens upon. Another situation to gear for exclusively enrage is when maximizing loot quantity/quality in all slots, thus precluding use of the Eye Implant of Insanity and the Purity Seal of Trauma. Gearing for solely berserk in the absence of gear restrictions is atypical but could see some use if not using shock aura/shocksplosion doctrine. The following items sections will address gearing variations if pursing solely enrage or solely berserk builds.

This build's primary enchants' intent is to emphasize movement speed, survivability, sustain, and damage. My personal preference is to maximize movement speed and survivability before rolling primary enchants for sustain and damage. You can consider undermaxing movement speed if running one or more Neurophine inoculator components consistently. You can also consider undermaxing damage reduction and/or resistances if running Blessing of St. Victorious consistently. Of note, movement speed can only be rolled onto a purity seal or belt primary enchant by a Tech Adept, so you may find creating a Tech Adept reroll monkey beneficial. Tech Adepts can also roll a higher unconditional movement speed enchant on neural implants and power armour.

I encourage rolling both loot quantity and loot quality into all secondaries until you are satisfied with your gear (6-affixes and 90+ level for all equipped and alternate items). Loot quantity improves drop chances of rarer gear (morality>ancient>archaeotech>relic) and has a slight positive effect on total number of drops. Loot quality improves the chances of dropped gear having more affixes and rolling higher enchant values (both fixed and variable). This recommendation applies to all non-ancient pieces of gear that I will discuss in the following sections.

I encourage rolling CDR into every slot where able. That being said, CDR does *not* appear to increase blade flurry DPS past a certain point due to the animation speed cap. However, it does materially reduce wide strike's CD for additional AOE DPS and Assault Jump/Shield Dash's CD for additional mobility.

There are some secondary enchants with effects that are not easily duplicated by passives or primary enchants, such as champions/elites dropping supply charges, inoculator CD resets, or supreme CDR. Other secondary enchants, such as damage against bleeding or damage against slowed/shocked/stunned, have larger than expected effects on damage. Finally, secondary enchants can be a source of capping out resistances, especially if trying to save points from the Defense passive tree.

Enchant selection should impact passive selection and vice versa. This is most prominent when discerning whether to add points into the defense tree. Try to avoid overcapping damage reduction and resistances (especially warp resistance if puritan) inadvertently when rolling damage reduction and resistance enchants while simultaneously assigning defense passive points. Keep in mind that melee and ranged damage reduction enchant values do not reflect anywhere on the character sheet.

Items - Weapons and Armor

Main Hand - Power Sword. The Power Sword provides maximum single target DPS of both 1h and 2h weapons by virtue of Blade Flurry's base damage ratio, combo attribute, and swing speed. This DPS increase surpasses the armor-bypassing effects of the Power Axe and Power Hammer even on Armored and Heavily Armored targets. Wide Strike's AOE damage is not to be underestimated since the attack resolves instantly without an animation speed throttle and the 2 second base CD is quickly reset on crit (and AOE tree if specced thusly).

Relic enchant should be either holy/daemonforged deathsplosion for AOE clear; or holy +15% supreme crit or holy +70% damage against Daemons and Cultists for focused DPS. Bleeding on crit is suboptimal but acceptable if Purity Seal of Trauma is unavailable or not used. Although Wide Strike is potentially enhanced on archaeotech swords, the morality enchants provide far more DPS than non-morality enchants. Rather, archeotech/relic swords are ideal for boosting defense. Consider the archaeotech/relic rosarius on crit enchant for additional survivability. If additional sustain is desired instead, consider the archaeotech/relic %HP on crit enchant (although in my opinion the rosarius enchant is far superior). Ancient swords are suboptimal due to the lack of life/shield drain, although Ancient Power Sword of Stride can be used in a pinch if absolutely necessary.

Primary enchants should include life and shield drain for sustain. Vulnerability effectiveness should be the 3rd primary for DPS. Consider crit chance if having problems with enrage token generation or stunning, or roll crit chance as a 4th or 5th primary if minimal secondaries are desired.

For secondary enchants, I typically roll loot quantity and loot quality on all pieces. (I will stop mentioning loot quantity/quality hereafter; but know that I typically recommend rolling it on every piece). If more DPS is desired, use damage against bleeding targets followed by damage against shocked/slowed/stunned targets. Running 3 secondaries isn't useful here even if for some reason you decide to run without life and/or shield drain to maximize main hand DPS enchants, in which case running crit damage and poison chance on hit as additional DPS primaries alongside vulnerability effectiveness outstrips damage to Blade Flurry in the secondary.

Off Hand - Storm Shield. The mobility provided by the Storm Shield is far more useful than the point-blank AOE provided by the Suppression Shield, especially considering the amount of AOE DPS provided by shocksplosion. Archaeotech Storm Shield is heavily preferred due to the reduced cooldown on the enhanced Shield Charge ability. Relic enchant should be damage bonus equal to deflect chance, though the armor piercing chance enchant is marginally acceptable in the event of facing armored enemies. Storm Shield of Aversion can be considered for maximum DPS purposes but this comes at the expense of the reduced Shield Charge CD.

Primary enchants are limited for DPS; melee damage bonus and AOE damage bonus. Melee/ranged damage reduction is useful here for capping overall damage reduction. Consider %HP and suppression on hit for additional survivability or sustain as well. Secondaries are quite useful here, as the 20% against bleeding targets benefits all damage and supreme cooldown reduction on shield charge increases mobility even further. Also consider suppression damage reduction or heat resistance (typically the lowest of the three resistances) for additional survivability.

While the Storm Shield provides a hefty amount of base Deflect, I do not recommend trying to cap Deflect unless going for ultra-maximum survivability. Unlike damage reduction and resistances, deflect does not protect against AOE damage, DoT damage, or ground effects. Additionally, deflect avoids damage rather than mitigates it. Thus, a string of unlucky non-deflects will melt your character equivalently to a character that didn't have deflect at all.

You can consider a pistol off-hand as a DPS stat-stick in lieu of a Storm Shield at the cost of survivability and mobility. I will go into this in more detail in the experimentation section.

Armour - Assault Armour. I recommend Assault Armour primarily for the mobility and gap closing. The AOE damage is also fairly robust. Demolition Armour can be considered for dedicated boss slaying (I will also go into this in more detail in the experimentation section). Relic enchant for survivability should be either daemonforged lethal teleport, holy DOT immunity, or holy invulnerability on kill. Non-morality enchants to consider include rosarius field on hit for survivability or %hp/%suppression restored on focus use (see experimentation) for sustain. Holy 5% supreme damage reduction or archaeotech %damage reduction while protected are marginally acceptable. If using ancient relic armour, consider Power Armour of Concussion or Oppression for additional DPS, or Sanctity or Shattering for CDR (which isn't rollable on the armour slot).

Primary enchants should include damage reduction and all resistances (either the Protected or non-protected flavor) to hit defense caps. You can roll both the Protected and non-protected damage reductions simultaneously, but not Protected and non-protected all resistances. Other primary enchants include movement speed (Protected and non-protected flavors), flat HP, and %HP (typically superior to flat HP). Secondary enchants include damage and supreme crit chance/strength against slowed/shock/stunned targets for DPS, or slow/shock/stun duration or suppression reduction for survivability.

Items - Neural, Eye, and Main Implants

Neural Implant. Relic enchant of +1 enrage token/crit is (near) mandatory. This is the most reliable generator of enrage tokens available which is necessary for shock aura. The enrage tokens themselves also represent a 160% damage increase at full stack which far outvalues any other enchant in this slot. Archaeotech and ancient relics aren't viable in this slot due to the lack of enrage token generation options. The only somewhat viable alternative is the berserk tokens on killstreak relic enchant; if one doesn't have the Eye Implant of Insanity and is willing to drop the *substantial* AOE DPS provided by shock aura shocksplosion in favor of berserk token stacking, or if one is trying to maximize berserk token generation even with the Eye Implant of Insanity.

Primary enchant options include all resistances and movement speed. Consider heat resist and/or physical resist if attempting to cap resistances (warp resistance is typically capped before heat and physical, especially if puritan). Consider AOE damage as well if going that route. Secondary enchants should almost always include %chance to reset inoculator. Other secondary enchants include damage against bleeding targets for DPS, or suppression damage reduction or slow/shock/stun duration for survivability.

Eye Implant - Eye Implant of Insanity. This is the only berserk token generation option for this slot. If you don't have this ancient relic, then I would heavily consider going for an enrage-only shell instead. If going for the enrage-only shell, the relic enchant on this should be %damage/enrage token. Archaeotech shock aura is also acceptable if going enrage-only and shock aura isn't available or desired on an archaeotech belt item. One can also "consider" using the Ancient Eye Implant of Shattering or Stride if not using enrage tokens (though it's *highly* atypical and suboptimal to use neither enrage nor berserk).

If not using an ancient relic, roll crit chance and crit strength in the primaries. Consider movement speed while protected and possibly AOE damage as additional primaries. Secondaries are more useful here, with %damage bonus agaisnt bleeding, % damage and % supreme crit chance/strength against slow/shock/stun, and/or inoculator duration for DPS, and duration increase for slow/shock/stun or knockdown duration for survivability.

Main Implant - Relic enchant of berserk tokens on killstreak is mandatory if integrating berserk and enrage tokens and heavily recommended if going for a berserk-only shell. If going enrage-only, this should either be an Ancient Main Implant of Wrath, or a relic with %damage/enrage token enchant. Marginally acceptable alternatives are crit chance/strength per berserk token in a berserk-only shell when that enchant is unavailable on belt/signum and shock aura in an enrage-only shell when unavailable on belt/eye.

Primary enchants should include warfare for DPS and all resistances when protected and/or damage reduction for survivability. Consider toughness, flat HP and/or %HP for additional survivability. AOE damage can be considered for additional DPS; however, more consistent DPS is obtainable from secondaries. DPS secondaries include %damage and supreme crit chance/strength against slow/shock/stun. Suppression damage reduction can be considered for survivability in the secondary. Chance to reset inoculator cooldown can also be swapped from the neural implant to the main implant. This may occur if rolling both physical and heat resistance primary enchants in the neural implant.

Items - Purity Seal, Belt, Inoculator, and Signums

Purity Seal - Purity Seal of Trauma. This Ancient Seal provides bleeding on crit for all damage sources, which in turn allows for general vulnerability stacking from the signum. This is the only non-weapon source for the bleeding on crit relic enchant. Until you farm up the Purity Seal of Trauma or if you're wanting to roll loot quantity/quality in all slots, consider using the HP regen/berserk token relic enchant or invulnerability on hit taken archeotech enchant (preferably 29% or 30% to combo with St. Victorious). Also consider the double bodycount chance relic enchant on seasonal if farming for a seasonal item (most notably, a 4-yellow Redemption inoculator, especially one with 5 or 6 enchants). Ancient relic alternatives while farming are Purity Seal of Concussion for damage, or Anguish or Ascendancy for damage and CDR.

If using a relic or archaeotech purity seal, roll movement speed and CDR on the primaries. Also consider rolling all resistances and/or damage reduction if not already capped from other sources. Secondaries are far more limited, with only suppression damage reduction possibly being useful.

Belt - Any archaeotech belt with enrage shock aura to enable shocksplosion shenanigans. If given the option, I strongly prefer rosarius as proper usage will nullify any death threat you encounter. Personal teleporter is a reasonable alternative to reduce clear times. Until you farm up an enrage shock aura belt (or eye/main implant as an interim replacement), your AOE damage will be rather limited. Several relic and archaeotech enchants are useful in the interim such as crit chance/strength per berserk token, 20% supreme damage reduction on hit, berserk tokens on hit, or HP on hit per enrage/berserk token. These enchants are typically more beneficial than any available Ancient relic options.

Roll movement speed and vulnerability effectiveness in the primaries. Also consider suppression on hit, flat HP, and/or %HP for additional sustain or survivability. Useful secondaries include damage against bleeding targets, inoculator duration, knockdown duration, and suppression damage reduction.

Inoculator - As many yellows as you can. 4 yellows is best. 3 yellows with a green for duration increase is probably the next best. In my opinion, 4 yellows is more important than the relic enchant, with the exception that the seasonal Redemption inoculator proc on killstreak is extremely powerful. If not using the seasonal Redemption inoculator, consider rolling HP regen/berserk token on a relic inoculator or invulnerability on hit with an archaeotech inoculator. Berserk token on hit is also acceptable if struggling to build berserk tokens. None of the Ancient inoculators are particularly enticing, though if they roll with 4 yellows then consider them in the absence of a 4 yellow relic or seasonal inoculator.

For primaries, roll warfare and movement speed. Consider toughness, flat HP, and %HP for additional survivability. You should almost always roll %chance to obtain supply charges from champions/elites in the secondary, at a higher priority than available primaries. Additional secondary enchants can include medical supply charges, inoculator duration, and/or suppression damage reduction.

For components, consider 4 Frenzons for max burst damage, 4 Murderdusts for max sustained damage, or 4 Neurophines for maximum mobility. Note that Neurophines provide Cooldown Recovery Rate, which is a different stat than Cooldown Reduction. Frenzons are especially powerful when combined with duration extension secondary enchants and/or the seasonal Redemption inoculator, although the seasonal inoculator makes uptime for Murderdusts and Neurophines near-100% with minimal management if not going with the Frenzon route. Consider using at least one Neurophine if not movement speed capped. Consider balancing one or more Frenzons with Murderdust if nearing 100% crit cap (such as when using one or two +15% supreme crit chance weapons and/or multiple %crit chance vs. slow/shock/stun secondaries). Consider swapping one or more Murderdusts for Pyschons if at the 100% crit cap (double supreme crit chance weapons and 2-3 %crit chance vs. slow/shock/stun secondaries). If using one green, go with Holdfast.

Signums - crit chance/strength per berserk token; general vulnerability/debuff. The crit signum provides high end damage and the gen vuln signum provides a damage multiplier. Interim alternatives while gearing include gen vuln/hit, damage/berserk token, HP/berserk token, and/or damage/enrage token. Consider damage against burning if using an enrage-only build but getting token starved by the damage/enrage token relic enchant (common in single target scenarios). Also consider Ancient Signum of Oppression for DPS while gearing and Ancient Signum of Wisdom while leveling.

Roll CDR and vulnerability effectiveness in the primaries. Consider rolling crit chance for better low-end damage or if using an enrage-only shell and/or crit damage for better high-end damage. Since none of the secondaries (other than the perennial loot quantity/quality) are particularly useful, also consider AOE damage, damage while protected, or even flat damage% as additional primaries.

Shards, Psalm-Codes, and Doctrines

Armor - Shocksplosion 6-psalm doctrine. Since we're using sword and shield, this is the only place to slot the shocksplosion doctrine.

Main hand - heat aura 4-psalm doctrine. Essential for AOE DPS and debuff/vulnerability stacking. Also combos with stun on crit doctrine to create a stun aura.

Off hand - stun on crit 4-psalm doctrine. Combos with the heat aura to make a stun aura. Also combos with the debuff perk that provides 10% suppression regeneration from stunning enemies. You can consider an uncreator psalm and 3 crit chance or melee damage shards to min/max DPS, but I recommend against this.

Main Implant, Belt, and Inoculator - Consider loot quality shards in all pieces. If desiring damage instead, always have one Uncreator Psalm (+50% effectiveness to Vulnerability debuffs) in each item. Your primary option is then one each of Haemodrain Psalm (+10% Damage Bonus against Bleeding enemies) and Phosphoenic Psalm (+10% Damage Bonus against Burning enemies), as these "damage against" effects are multiplicative will all your damage modalities (shock aura, heat aura, and skill DPS). Consider swapping in AOE shards if emphasizing AOE damage with passives/primary enchants or single target shards if emphasizing single target DPS. Also consider shock-deathsplosion doctrine in the main implant or inoculator if not using a deathsplosion weapon enchant. Finally, if you're going for the long stun duration route (useful in edge-case scenarios when trying to permastun enemies in a large area) with secondary enchants and are willing to give up additional damage for longer stuns, consider using Binharic (psalm-code effect duration) and Emanatus (+0.5 sec to stun) Psalms.

Passives - Core

Melee Combat - Take the fifteen points needed for Overwhelm. The Physical Vulnerability debuff provided by Expose Weakness and the stacking melee damage bonus from Overwhelm are the big ticket items. I also almost always take Hasten due to that movement speed buff stacking with all other movement speed sources. You can consider Sweeping Strikes and Riposte for slightly improved melee DPS and Weapon Mastery if not crit capped and not using Berserk.

Physical Attacks - Take the eight points needed for Concussive Trauma. Concussive Trauma provides multiplicative damage on a sustained single target and Impact Necrosis provides a second source of Physical Vulnerability. Mercy Kill is an extremely strong trait if using Purity Seal of Trauma since it buffs all damage (heat aura, shock aura, and skills DPS). Incensed Weapons can also be taken to slightly boost single target DPS.

Critical Hits - Take the fifteen points needed for Red Thirst are mandatory, along with two points for ColdBlood and Berserker Rage. Critical hits are one of your multiplicative damage sources. You can marginally consider Torment if you have a point to spare, but that point is likely better used elsewhere.

Damage over Time - The nine points needed for Toxin Synergy are mandatory. Even if you're not using Purity Seal of Trauma, Toxin Synergy represents +15% for all damage sources from Burning alone. This increases to +30% when using both Burning and Bleeding. If using Bleeding and you have two points to spare, take both Haemophilic Shock here and Paralyze in the Debuff tree for +10% damage for all sources. Take Fast Metabolism if not using DoT immunity armour. Finally, I have zero idea about how prevalent (or not) enemy HP regeneration is, but I take Caustic Reagents as well just in case. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me on the Discord can affirm/deny this trait's usefulness.

Heat Attacks - The eight points needed to reach Spontaneous Combustion and Superheated Discharge are mandatory. This provides Heat Vulnerability and the Burn DoT (also known as Ignite, silly game nomenclature) to your heat aura.
Suppression - Take the nine points needed for Grim Resolve. Grim Resolve is the largest single-point passive for combined DPS and survivability. Natural Predator and Traverse can be used if needed. Suppress Pain has a marginal edge-case use in my Supreme Demolisher build detailed below.

Movement - Take the five points needed for Cerebral Feedback. 99% of the time, you'll take the additional three points available for CDR. I haven't played enough with Overreaction to notice if it makes a difference. Add points to the movement side of the tree if not maxed out on movement speed from enchants and not using one or more Neurophines in the inoculator. If you do add significant movement speed passive points, Evasive Bionics will be up often from Shield Dashing and Assault Leaping. I do not recommend taking Blessed Ruination as your HP is either almost always full or you're dead.

Passives - Supplementary

Debuffs - The points placed into Debuff have the lowest damage yield of all your passive points. If you're looking to significantly boost one of the other supplemental passive trees, take points from here. That being said, Domination is mandatory due to the suppression restoration effect it has with your stun aura. As mentioned in the DoT tree, Paralyze combos with Haemophilic Shock to add +10% damage for all sources. Other than that, take the points you need to reach Dirty Fighting if not applied to other trees.

Area Effects - If you want to boost your AOE damage from Wide Strike, Shield Dash, and Assault Leap, consider placing your excess points along with pruning points from Dirty Fighting in the Debuff tree to max the AOE tree out. Every trait is useful here with the possible exception of Area Denial since Domination from the Debuff tree provides ample suppression restoration.

Support - If you're not using the seasonal Redemption inoculator, you may find increased inoculator capacity and/or inoculator CDR useful. Galvanic Fuel Cells also grants an extra rosarius belt charge. The focus-focused (haha) points are less useful except for a Demolisher-heavy build.

Single DPS - Traits to consider here include Myo-Encasing and Purgative Protocols for additive single-target DPS boosts, Focusing Monocle for a multiplicative single-target DPS boost against slowed/shocked/stunned, and Repulsive Bionics to help get tanky enemies into the Suppressed range so that they can be affected by slow/shock.

Health - In general, I favor the Defense tree over the Health tree if looking to boost survivability, but some beneficial traits can be splashed for a few points. Neural Rewiring provides conditional 20% Suppression Damage Reduction for three points. Field Surgery can come through in the clutch while leveling and using red inoculator components for four points. If you're shooting for max survivability and have capped damage reduction and resistances with enchants and the Defense tree, you can at that point consider placing points towards Enhanced Organs to maximize effective HP.

Defense - Be prudent about the points you place into the Defense tree versus the enchants you roll for damage reduction and resistances. Either passive points or enchant slots may be worth more than the other depending on what other build priorities you have. It is very easy to overcap resistances, especially warp resistance in particular. Splash points include two points for Skeletal Padding (6% damage reduction) and potentially four points for Shock Dampening (8% total damage reduction). Three points for Shield Mastery will cap your Deflect out, which might be desirable for maximizing survivability and/or if running the Feint Mastery trait. Splashing into the physical and/or heat resistance branches as needed is also acceptable. Reanimator Glands looks powerful on paper, but consider whether dumping all those points into Defense is worth it over using one trait slot for St. Victorious.

Puritan - Holy Conclave is super boring but very efficient for one passive point. Hater and Daemonic Lore provide multiplicative damage against their specified enemies as they are "damage against" effects. Finally, Monodominant Commandments is an extremely strong sustain option when fighting Daemons (which is often). I would love it if Holy Rage was useful for resistance itemization efficiency but Crusaders (especially Puritan Crusaders) already have plenty of warp resistance as is.

Radical - Sadly, Radical points aren't as exciting as their Puritan alternatives. Blood Focus can diversify your damage portfolio, especially if comboed with the Diversive Tactics trait. Touched by the Empyrean will further boost your diversified damage if you go with the warp damage route. Soul Harvest Ritual and Radical Istvaanism provide extremely marginal DPS increases and should be avoided.

Ranged Combat/Aimed Shots - This is not a ranged build. Avoid.

Execution - Don't. ***Hypothetically,*** Execution is needed for the largest crits possible; but still, don't.

Attributes

Warfare - Max this out. For those of you that don't know, you can exceed the 25 point allocation cap by Ctrl + left-clicking the Add Point (+) sign. I don't know how to do that on a controller. Ideally, roll a Heavy Crusader if you aren't deep into a Crusader toon yet so that your starting attribute point distribution is weighted towards Warfare. There are very few ways to boost base damage in game: weapons, signums, a psalm-code doctrine (I think?) and the Warfare (or class equivalent) attribute. If you're allocating points elsewhere for some reason, keep at least 25 points in Warfare for the multiplicative +50% Damage Bonus against Elite and Boss enemies provided by the Beast Lore milestone.

Toughness - You could consider allocating points here to hit the heat resist, physical resist, or damage reduction milestones; especially if rolling toughness on one or two items. However, you would lose out on the base damage points from warfare, which is far harder to duplicate versus points in the Defense passive tree and/or damage reduction and resistances enchants. I recommend leaving this at the minimum.

Virtue - I don't think any Crusader background will have less than 5 points in virtue after all heroic deed attribute points, which is part of the reason why Crusaders cap out on warp resistance before other resistances. However, he Unbending milestone suppression damage reduction is a trap. You need one to two virtue primary enchants (Purity Seal of Trauma does provide +4 virtue) to unlock the 10% suppression damage reduction without allocating attribute points directly to virtue, when instead one secondary enchant can provide 18% suppression damage reduction by itself. Definitely leave this at the minimum.

Perks

Stride of the Blessed - I run this 99% of the time because the extra 30% uncapped movespeed stacks on top of the 50% movespeed basecap for 80% movespeed goodness 100% of the time (except when slowed). The -10% damage reduction seems pricy but is easily mitigated with enchants and/or passives if desired.

Cull the Weak - I also run this 99% of the time because 50% damage against debuffed enemies is a multiplicative (rather than additive) damage modifier.

Blessing of St. Victorious - This is not strictly necessary, especially if building heavy on defenses and judicious rosarius use. However, the quality of life it provides at higher difficulties is unmatched by any other trait. I roll with this 80% of the time.

Feint Mastery - If going for full damage, I swap out St. Victorious for this. It's a flat 48% - 60% damage increase; what you see is what you get.

Gameplay

Clearing Grimstalker's Viridian VC 10-mission relic run:
https://youtu.be/8w_AJ7M9S9A

Clearing Level 124 Mechanicus mission:
https://youtu.be/Ryu4PuYuND8

Clearing Level 129 Khorne mission:
https://youtu.be/TzbDg5fSfq4

Farming Fabius Bile (Experimentation to be published):
https://youtu.be/v9lF15RVtzQ

Experimentation - Sword and Board Variations

Pistol in Offhand - Using a pistol in the offhand instead of a shield offers little to no tactical flexibility. I cannot think of any situation where you would want to shoot a pistol shot at an enemy rather than closing into melee with the main hand weapon. What a pistol does offer is a DPS stat stick at the cost of mobility and survivability. You're able to roll supreme crit chance, "damage against", damage/debuff, or deathsplosion on a pistol relic enchant and DPS primaries/secondaries such as crit damage, vulnerability effectiveness, damage against bleeding, etc... If you're looking to min/max DPS and don't care about the loss of survivability and shield charge, by all means go for the pistol offhand. Personally, I keep a "Damage against Daemon and Cultist" Power Sword and pistol with Combo Skills damage doctrines in my secondary weapon set but rarely remember to swap to it during boss encounters.

Demolisher Crusader - Demolisher armor with triple shot doctrine is currently the best boss-slaying tool. If going Demolisher Armor instead of Assault, consider keeping a 2h weapon such as a shotgun with triple shot doctrine in set 2. You lose mobility from the Assault Armor but gain on-demand anti-boss DPS.

Experimentation - Supreme Demolisher Crusader

Supreme Demolisher Crusader - Credit goes to Cheeser as the inspiration for this build. You can check out his Artillery Crusader Build here: https://youtu.be/TvE457lc7tA

Crusader has multiple ways to generate sufficient focus to spam demolisher rockets without relying on crits thanks to the Self-Flagellation perk. +45 HP regen shards are the simplest way to accomplish this, although they come at the cost of AOE damage shards or crit strength shards. You can also gain unconditional HP regeneration from the Toughness attribute 10-point milestone and conditional HP regeneration from the Inoculator Augmentation trait in the Support passive tree and Suppress Pain from the Suppression tree. Alternatively, one can also take the Augmented Body II perk and stack toughness and flat/%HP from enchants to convert 1% total HP into focus regeneration. This is especially powerful when running in a group with a psyker who is buffing endurance, as 2% total HP into regeneration requires a very low HP threshold to achieve the focus regeneration ceiling. You can also run a single item with berserk HP regen which will sustain focus indefinitely at any reasonable amount of berserk tokens. Finally, (least recommended), one can stack pure focus regeneration along with the 100% focus regeneration psalm-code doctrine, and/or stack focus cost discounts with the armor relic enchant and/or main/neural implant secondary enchants. Shoot for 17 focus/sec if not using tactician (50 focus/3 seconds), or 25 focus/sec if using tactician (50 focus/2 seconds). Slightly less is acceptable due to focus regen on crit. Less is also acceptable if using focus discount enchants. I have not tested the +1 focus on crit armour, so I cannot speak to how effective it is at reducing the focus regeneration threshold under normal use circumstances.

The supreme demolisher has two armor relic enchant options. The first and most obvious one is +5 additional missiles, which turns into +15 missiles with the triple shot doctrine. While this is the most powerful DPS option, another powerful option is the %HP/suppression regen per focus spent. With this relic enchant, you regen *100%* of HP and suppression each time you fire missiles at 50 focus cost, so every 3 seconds without tactician or every 2 seconds with tactician. The massive sustain from this relic enchant is completely independent of tokens and on hit/on crit. You merely press a button every 2-3 seconds and return to full health/suppression. If going this route, you actively want to avoid focus discount enchants so you reach the 100% threshold with each activation.

For this build, I recommend either dual +15 supreme crit weapons; or, if facing Daemon and Cultist enemies, dual 70% against Daemon/Cultist enemies. The main hand can be melee for life and shield drain (especially recommended if going with the +5 missiles route). The off-hand weapon must be a ranged pistol. If going dual pistol, I recommend double grav pistols if possible for the slow field. If supreme crit weapons aren't available, damage/debuff is the next best DPS enchant. Consider deathsplosion on one of the weapons as well for additional clear speed.

The only necessary doctrine for this build is the triple shot doctrine. I usually don't run with heat aura due to engaging enemies at maximum range. Similarly, I usually don't run crit aura due to the knockback/knockdown providing ample CC. In their place, I socket HP shards for focus regen if/as needed, then AOE shards or crit strength shards in the addons and CDR, crit chance, or ranged DPS shards in the weapons.

This build is not optimized for clearing as you have to stop to shoot and the missile spread often results in enemies escaping death. It melts bosses more quickly than a non-dedicated demolisher missile build, but those builds already melt bosses quickly enough as-is. I recommend this build either for team play or for kicks and giggles.

I prefer an enrage-only shell instead of a berserk-only or combination shell for this build. Killing enemies in a timely enough manner for consistent killstreaks is difficult to maintain due to the missile spread and having to stop to shoot. Conversely, the upfront low-end damage an enrage-only build provides increases clear speed from enemies being more likely to die in the initial salvo. Since only one enrage token is consumed per activation, you should have no trouble maintaining enrage tokens even without heat aura or with damage/enrage token signum(s). If not using rosarius in an enrage-only build, consider going digital weapons to counteract the -30% crit from the triple shot doctrine.

While not having a gen vuln signum is suboptimal DPS-wise in almost all cases, one can consider going double damage/enrage signums in the absence of a gen vuln signum or if not using Purity Seal of Trauma for the bleeding debuff on crit (for example, if not farmed; or if using a relic purity seal for loot quantity/quality). If using both weapon sets, consider using double damage/enrage signums with at least one deathsplosion weapon for a trash-killing set, then double supreme crit weapons with one damage/enrage signum and one gen vuln signum on the second set for boss-slaying.

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide provides the community the analysis and guidance I intended to impart through it. Hit me up on the Discord (Joseph Y#2435) anytime for questions, comments, or loot requests. I'm typically trolling the Discord app even if not in game.

Acknowledgements

Grimstalker - For his VC clearing guides, especially his Viridian 10-mission relic farming route. Check out his YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynpapwlLOpaF0VpcO6c5zQ

And his VC guides here: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198014914180/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=527430

Vrakos - For his VC maps, found here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/9thWardAngeloiAdamantiphracts/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=527430

Cheeser - For the Supreme Demolisher inspiration. Check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxaoFwdtHKEyEw3Kdm2-w7Q

Mome Borogove - For his enchant viewer, found here: https://mome-borogove.github.io/40K-enchant-viewer/

Kykuy - For his ancient relic viewer, found here: https://40k-ancient-viewer.netlify.app/

Versioning

Version 0.9, 4 January 2022 - Initial draft without videos/pictures.

Version 1.0, 17 January 2022 - Initial publish. Fabius Bile farm and alternate one-handed weapons write-ups in development. Level 129 YouTube needs refilming. Needs Chaos Knight YouTube.

Version 1.01, 17 January 2022 - Forgot to acknowledge Mome Borogove and Kykuy for their enchant/ancient viewers. Added into acknowledgements.

[Lord Phaericel]

@*sm1Ly . The Heat Aura (or "red aura" as you called it) is a Psalm-Doctrine.

- 1 Phosphoenic Psalm (Purple psalm code)
- 1 Technomartyr Psalm (Green psalm code)
-1 Binharic Psalm (Yellow psalm code)
- 1 Neuralis Psalm (Red psalm code)

Creates a damaging Aura dealing +100% Heat Damage per second.

[Persian13666]

[*sm1Ly]

how you get this red aura? around you. i dont understand. I want it too

[Daohor]

Looks like I found my next build to try, thanks for the work and time you put into this guide.

[Millor]

Also every once in a while an enemy just melts like 10 times faster than all the other identical enemies around it, even if I never directly targeted them or hit them with anything... Wish I could figure out what particular effect was making that happen, it'd be nice if everything died that quickly! Good build though, went from like struggling on some 8's to like +16 in okayish but def not great gear

[Millor]

damn this heat aura is just fucking broken with the shenanigans it enables lmao

[((Satan Chosen))=((Endless War))]

Why is movement-speed so important?

[Narot23]

I made a silly build called the Shocker using enrage tokens and shock explosions... and wrote none of it down, only made some YouTube videos coz it cracked me up. This guy here, this guy documents. Awarding, I am not one who seeks guides for these types of games, but for those who are you are building a lot of fun for people.

[Daddy's Young Buck]

Also, a tip I might add. It would be nice to see what someone that isn't level 100 should take. The gear takes time to get but the skill tree, yeah I'm level 64 and I still use a flamethrower over the sword and shield because it gets everything done faster. You may want to elaborate more.

[Daddy's Young Buck]

Gonna give it a shot thanks