Absolute Vanguard Guide

The right way to play Vanguard

BUILD

PATCH 6.0 (06/02/25)

PERK TREE

CORE
column 1 row 2: +10% melee damage against Majoris and higher level enemies
column 2 row 3: You take 25% less Health Damage after your armor is fully depleted for 10 seconds
column 3:
row 1 gives you 25% melee damage after you have been grabbed or knocked back.
row 2 gives you 1 krak grenade or melta charge every 90 seconds.
row 3 double your dodge window if you have less than 50% Health.
Choose whatever you like more

TEAM
row 3: Gives you and your teammates 15% Cooldown Reduction by performing finisher on Majoris+ enemies

GEAR
column 1 row 1: You take 20% less Ranged Damage after using grapnel launcher
column 2 row 3: Enemies hit by grapnel launcher takes 15% more Ranged Damage for 10 seconds
column 3:
row 1 gives you 20% Health Damage Reduction after perfect dodge/parry for 3 seconds
row 2 gives you 15% Weapon Damage(Range and Melee) if you grapnel launcher has 0 charges
row 3 gives you -20% Grapnel Launcher Cooldown
Choose whatever you like more

SIGNATURE
row 3: You restore 5% Health for killing Majoris and higher level enemies in melee or executing them

WEAPONS

PRIMARY WEAPON: INSTIGATOR - GATHALAMOR CRUSADE BETA
I still like Instigator more but after patch 4,5 you can use occulus
Occulus variant: Either Ammo+Accuracy or Full Ammo
Perk tree for occulus: Full bottom then after you take ammo in relic and then you can take whatever you like

SECONDARY WEAPON: Whatever you like more. It doesnt really matter

MELEE WEAPON: CHAINSWORD - AQUILAN DEDICATION

GAMEPLAY

HOW TO PLAY
1. Use your ability on majoris
2. Press melee button until its dead
3. Kill it and get your Health back
4. Use instigator to kill zoansthropes and neurothropes. Instigator also has very good damage against majoris and extremis.
5.0 REPEAT
Its really hard to explain how to play because you just have to feel it. Watch the video and just try to do the same

GAMEPLAY VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h8Aj-B00p0

IMPORTANT THINGS
Vanguard a versatile melee class that can kill both the horde and single target.
Vanguard has one of the best team perks in the game and you also has the second best sustain in the game(after bulwark) because of signature perk

1. Your melee weapon is your main weapon. You use chainsword to kill everything and use instigator only for zoans/neuro or majoris far from you
2. You dont care about armor. All you care about is how fast you kill majoris. You can lose your health while killing it but it doesnt matter because you can easily regain it with your signature perk
3. You dont care about losing your health while fighting because you will have contested health that you will regain with chainsword combo
4. Only chainsword combo you use is: Light->Light->Heavy(Shoulder Bash) and Light->Light->Light->Heavy(Stomp). You mostly use Shoulder Bash but sometimes when you are surrounded by horde you can use Stomp

Advanced Melee Info

• The reason why you take Full Throttle perk instead of Double Stomp on you chainsword is because with it you can skip first attack in combo. You just have to hold melee attack button a little and release and you will skip first attack. So instead of Light->Light->Heavy(Shoulder Bash) you can do ChargeSkip->Heavy(Shoulder Bash) but you mainly use it for ChargeSkip->Light->Heavy(Stomp).
  
• After you parry enemy it gets stagger debuff. Stagger debuff increase all your and your teammates damage to that target by 1.4. Stagger debuff lasts longer than stagger animation but shorter than gunstrike mark.
  So thing is, you dont gunstrike as soon as you get it, first you do combo either Light->Light->Heavy(Shoulder Bash) or ChargeSkip->Light->Heavy(Stomp) or just shoot it with your primary and then you gunstrike.

If you need any help you can always join Lethal 2 EZ Discord where you can play together with skilled players or just get help from them.
https://discord.gg/vCYksU6UgD

MY OTHER GUIDES

HEAVY GUIDE
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3341689526
BULWARK GUIDE
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3335446115

[You Touched My Tralala]

I only played vanguard for couple hours but DAMN was it fun. I played operations and siege but this class shines in PvE in general. Kinda of reminded me Mercenary class in Risk of Rain 2.

[Hypexs]

Have fun with it.
IMO the most important thing about vanguard is to understand how to regain contested health back while fighting in melee.
As long as you fight the enemy, you will regain contested health.
Dont panic and run away when your armor is gone, use the chainsword combos described in the guide to retain your contested health.
Dodge/parry if you have to, but never stop attacking with your chainsword and youll be fine.

[TRUSKIE]

G'day, I am currently levelling my Vanguard now as I have seen some crazy mofo's running Vanguard and thought, damn that's fun - thanks for this guide. I might put my eggs in this basket now instead of the Melta. I figured Lethal difficulty would be were some of the other more ranged weapons would be great.