Weapon traits and tactics guide (v1.8 patch)

This guide will give you information about weapons and ways to use them.
Big thanks to Kyrial for datamined info about weapons.

---------------------RATS-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name		Type	Nightmare HP	Cataclysm HP	Additional info
Clanrat		Normal	6	10	Ambient rats.
Slaverat		Normal	3	5	Hordes consists of them. Same behaviour in battle as that of the clanrats.
Stormvermin		Armored	14	20	Have AoE attacks. Overhead blocking cost = 3.5 shields, Sweep blocking cost = 2 shields.
Packmaster		Resistant	28	36	Can be staggered only by handgun, longbow charged shot, drakefire pistols alt-fire and knockback trait.
Assassin		Normal	16	20	Stops moving and crouches for ~0.9 second before jumping on you.
Globadier		Normal	16	20	Throws 2 globes, wanders for ~10 s., then throws again. At less than 66% HP turns into a suicide bomber.
Rattling Gunner		Armored	8	10	The gun will jam after 8-10 sec. of fire, the gunner will reload for ~3.5 sec
Rat ogre		Resistant	1400	2000	Overhead smash attack breaks through block and deals full damage.
Chieftain Krench		Armored	500	800	His attacks can be blocked with no damage or not much damage.
Sack rat		Normal	40	50	When alerted, moves quick and unpredictable, very hard to hit. Vulnerable to shotguns, handguns, auto-aim weapons, melee attacks.

A weapon (attack) deals different amount of damage on different enemy types (normal, armored, resistant). And sometimes headshot bonuses are different too.

--------------------INTRO-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Русский язык / Russian language:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=859166986

Damage&stagger values of all weapons. Push, dodge, stamina info. Enemy info.

-> Link[docs.google.com]
By Kyrial (steam discussion)

Possible trait combinations:

http://verminguide.com/weapons/
^Choose a weapon, at the bottom where Weapon Rarity is click Exotic (orange).
No DLC weapons though.

Possible trait combinations 2:

https://rats.nyaasync.net/
^Choose a hero, weapon type, rarity. All weapons. Traits have icons. By Goomi (reddit thread)

Video guides:

Playlist [Youtube]

A 1-page general recommendation on trait choosing (for 1.9 game):

http://steamcommunity.com/app/235540/discussions/1/1488866180614439312/#c1488866813753568245

1) Selected weapon, 2) trait combination and 3) playstyle are very dependent on each other. So there are no best traits, only those that support your tactic or not. The real question is: what playstyles in combination with what traits are most effective for selected weapon? The aim of the guide is to give you my opinions on that matter. Every viable weapon will have one or more trait combination, basic info, and tactics - mostly individual, but sometimes team-based.

The guide is made for those who play "Adventure", and not "Last Stand". Difficulty levels - Nightmare and Cataclysm. But just in case, Cataclysm is considered as default difficulty.

Note:
Cataclysm is harder than nightmare because of many reasons:
- player HP is reduced from 150 to 100
- normal rats (clanrats and slaves) have x1.66 times more HP
- normal rats deal x1.5-x3 times more damage*
- normal rats recover faster from any push and attack
- when a normal rat does hit you (not the block) - he will start new attack quicker**
- stormvermins, specials - they too have more HP and damage
*Depends on how many rats aggroed to you. Damage numbers:
Source 1[docs.google.com]
Source 2
**On nightmare, after a rat does hit you (not the block), he have to wait 1 second before he can attack you again, on cataclysm he waits 0.25 seconds. In practice, when he attacks standing and you stand on place - there is no difference in difficulties, because his attack animation still plays a bit after you were hit. When he attacks on the run, since you running away, then on cataclysm after he hit you once, he will start another attack almost instantly, and so on.

I advise you to read about every weapon for various info about game mechanics and general tips included here and there.



I dont want to go through each trait for each weapon and talk about why i didn't choose that trait for that weapon, it will take too much time. But i'll say about some traits.

Knockback trait on handguns: never knock-downs both stormvermins and packmasters (even after 1.8.1 patch). Even sack rats. Other targets either die in 1 shot or too tough (ogre).

Knockback trait on shotguns:
-shot
Knock-downs packmasters as intended.
Have the chance to knock-down the stormvermin only if he is doing the overhead attack. Doesn't have the chance to knock the stormvermin down when he stands, runs or does horizontal attack.
Have the chance to knock-down the rattling gunner only if he is shooting.
Can't knock-down the sack-rat.
-buttstock bash
The only enemy that can be knocked down - packmaster.

Hail of doom on xbows and handguns: 2nd projectile have random spread, and maximum deviation is strong, at distances more than 13m chance is very low that it will hit a stormvermin you were aiming for. Hail of doom procs like once in seven shots (15%) and handgun / xbow have slow rate of fire and high damage, so i don't see much sense in this trait on these weapons. But if Hail of doom is on the other weapons like brace of pistols, repeater handgun, longbow etc, then the 2nd projectile from the trait will have the accuracy about as that of the weapon itself.



I've organized traits like this:

-name of the weapon

1st slot

2nd slot

3rd slot

<- this is one combination of traits

A trait in the 1st slot is more essential, than a trait in the 2nd slot. A trait in the 2nd slot is more essential, than a trait in the 3rd slot (but often you should have all 3 specified traits). If traits are inside one slot, separated by / symbols, it means there are alternatives for this trait slot.

If you see a "for nightmare" tag (or something like that), then, imo, this weapon or trait combo isn't very suitable for cataclysm.
Here we go:

========WITCH HUNTER:======================================

                                                     

-falchion

bloodlust	perfect balance	devastating blow / backstabbery		<- i like this more
killing blow	regrowth_light / perfect balance	backstabbery		<- for cataclysm

Good for quick running through the level, as it kills ambient clanrats and stormvermins quick. When the horde comes, better stay close to your team, or you can use the tactic that i'll describe later in Waywatcher's 1h sword.

Charged attack vs armored deals 4.5 dmg with x2 headshot multi, so headshotting stormvermin is rewarding. Charged attack one-body-shots cata clanrat, and is relatively fast.

Light attack hits 3 normal type targets with (4)-(3)-(0) dmg and x2.5 headshot, it have good stagger - like from 2nd level of push (see Waywatcher's 1h sword), that compensates small number of max targets hit. With that high headshot multiplier and good damage, you are most effective when you do headshots. When fighting against not big amount of clanrats that are spread out, you have the time to aim for individual rats heads. When facing a lot of rats or the horde, you should just aim at a certain level, headshots will still happen thanks to the attack angles and the high height of the hero. Don't forget about your own safety though.

3rd light attack is overhead, so in a fight vs many rats, tap block to break the combo chain after the end of 2nd light attack. Falchion have very quick animation of getting in and out of block state, so you can do series of attacks without delay.

With damage boon (+25% dmg) acquired in quests&contracts table, your light attack will 1-body-shot cata slaverat. With the damage boon the bloodlust verison is better than the killing blow verision for cataclysm, imo.

Backstabbery deals x2 damage when you hit the back (of any enemy type), nice to have this to fight ogres, but other than that it have little use, cause its the rats that usually outflank you, because they have superior numbers, not the other way around.

Vs ogre it's better to use light attacks, with them it's easier to hit the head - then the dmg will be comparable to charged on the body. When attacking ogre's back - charged are a bit better.

Falchion charged attack will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead.

About killing blow variant: regrowth chance on falchion is 5% instead of 10% like on majority of weapons, it hits 3 targets, and with high damage and killing blow it'll kill rats very quickly. In order to compensate for less efficient healing, wear heal share trinket (see more in Dwarf ranger's grudge raker). Recommended ranged options: xbow or repeater xbow, both with bloodlust.

-1h axe -for NM

bloodlust

devastating blow

perfect balance

Light attacks hits 1 target, one-body-shots nightmare clanrat, have good speed, combo consists of 3 horizontal strikes.

Note: combo means a sequence of light attacks (not charged), that every weapon have. Combo of 1h axe - 3 strikes. With 1h axe (and some other 1h weapons), if you attack non-stop, then delay between these 3 strikes is minimal, but after the 3rd strike a little time passes before you will be able to start this combo again. Right after the end of the combo you can press block for a split second to reduce the time of combo restart and attack earlier.

Therefore this weapon is perfect for clearing the way of clanrats. Use block for quick combo restart, do sideway dodges to evade clanrat's attacks and attack them at the same time, choose your targets in the right order, basically you're the best butcher of clanrats on nightmare difficulty. On cataclysm this ability is lost, unfortunately, because clanrat won't die from 1 hit in the body.

If you have teammates that can control crowds, then effectiveness of 1h axe vs slaverats is not bad, but still it's risky to fight horde with that weapon, attacks have zero crowd control. And if you dont have teammates to control the horde, you'll have to do it yourself with block or pushes, and that will reduce your killing speed significantly.

Both types of attacks of 1h axe are suitable for stormvermin killing. Both types of attacks have good headshot bonus. Choose the type of attack by situation, with charged it's easier to hit the head and light attacks are faster.

1h axe light and charged attack will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead.

[melee, pt.2]

-rapier

killing blow	regrowth_light / improved guard / perfect balance / devastating blow	off balance
bloodlust	devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare

Read Waywatcher's 1h sword for tactics on how to fight multiple/many rats. Also see Waywatcher's swift bow for the macro command.

Same problem as with falchion: regrowth_light is only 5%. Recommended ranged options: xbow or repeater xbow, both with bloodlust.

Off balance works like this: a rat hits your block, he gets stunned and have red particles above his head, during these 2 seconds the rat will recieve increased damage by your teammates, but not by you.
Damage buff depends on enemy type:
- x3 times more dmg vs normal type enemy (clanrats, slaverats)
- x2 times more dmg vs resistant type enemy (ogre)
- Damage against armored type (stormvermin) is replaced with damage vs normal type enemy
^ It is the same buff like from strength potion (about the strength potion look at the end of the guide).
This trait requires teamplay, other players should let you be in front, so rats will aggro at you, and they should wait until rats will start landing hits on your block.

Light attack of rapier hits only 2 targets, but it's fast with no overheads/stabs in combo, and with not bad stun. You can easily control and kill up to 4 rats that are trying to hit you. The damage of light attack is (2)-(2) with x3 headshot vs normal rats, so headshotting clanrats&slaverats is rewarding.

On nightmare with damage boon (+25% dmg) your charged attacks will oneshot clanrats in the body (5 dmg -> 6.25 dmg), use it to quickly deal with small amounts of ambient rats. And on cata you'll be able to kill a slaverat with 2 light attacks in the body (default dmg is (2)-(2), with buff: (2.5)-(2.5) ).

Charged attack deals dmg vs armored, but wont interrupt any stormvermin attack.

Rapier have not only charged attack, but also charged heavy attack. When you hold left mouse button, after a certain moment in the animation your resulting attack will be enchanced.
This moment is: after you start charging the attack, witch hunter lowers his rapier, so the tip of rapier becomes directed at enemy, then witch hunter's arm pulls rapier back, right after the start of that motion you can release your left mouse button. If you have done right, after the enemy is hit you'll hear clanking steel sound fx. You can train on dead rat bodies.

Charged heavy attack will interrupt all stormvermin attacks and he will suffer impressive knockback, this attack also hits 2 normal type enemies with better headshot multi. Its useful vs stormvermins mostly for staggering them.

Rapier's light attack is effective vs ogre, 10 dmg with x3 headshot multi.

[melee, pt.3]

-2h sword

bloodlust	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved pommel / improved guard / endurance
killing blow	regrowth_light / swift_slaying_light	safety in numbers		<- for cataclysm

2h sword shows its strong sides when used against a big amount of normal rats. It have low-average effectiveness against single clanrats - on cataclysm, and average - on nightmare.

Rats of a horde event try to surround your team as much as possible, situations when rats surround you from 180 degrees or half-circle are quite common. 2h sword's charged attack hits 6 targets with good damage, this attack deals the biggest total damage to multiple targets of all melee attacks in the game. But it takes some time to prepare this attack, and delay between charged attacks is relatively long. But it's not a problem when you have a teammate that fights beside you (see General tip #2 at the end of the guide). Charged attack have also good stagger, you will contribute to crowd controlling. Because delay between charged attacks is long, you should hit as much rats as possible with every swing, do it by moving your camera in the direction of released attack. You can hit in 180 degrees in front of you with 1 charged attack, slow speed of attack actually helps in that regard, but it's a wide angle so you need to move your mouse quite fast after you release your attack.

On cataclysm, with bloodlust version of 2h sword, i recommend you to use charged attacks for the most part. Why? Because charged attack fits better with principles described in General tip #2, than light attack. You get in contact for 1-2 powerful strikes and get out of it, hiding behind a teammate for a second, and get back in and so on. While light attack have less impact and dmg per strike, and worse angles (more diagonal) - so it's harder to use the high multi-target damage potential to the full extent. Mix in light attacks to finish wounded rats or when you don't have teammates around. If you fight alone, dev.blow pushes between charged strikes can work too. Or double push, only then charged attack - depends on the power of horde flow. Or you can rely on the tactic described in Waywatcher's 1h sword.

The problem with charged attack is that your movement speed is slowed down significantly while you charging an attack. To compensate this you should use dodges to get into position for a good strike. Example: you are moving towards the enemy, a bit beyond your attack reach turn to the rats so your left shoulder is facing them, start charging your attack, dodge to the left - in the face of the enemy, release power attack moving your mouse over as many rats as possible, dodge/run back to safety. It'll take some time before you'll start to do it intuitively and quick, but it will maximize your damage as you'll hit more targets while minimizing the risk of being hit. By getting closer to the enemy you will hit not only 1st row of rats, but also those rats behind. It will work well if you have at least 1 teammate which you can use as cover between your charged attacks. Also you can use sideway dodges to extend your hitting area in width, and by dodging to the side you can evade any type of rat's attack, if timed properly (it's not hard).

Note: Every weapon have a limit on how much dodges you can do, before your character gets tired, after that dodges will turn into trampling on a same spot, until your character is rested. For 2h sword - 2-3 dodges, for rapier and Waywatcher's 1 handers - 100 dodges. There is no indicator for that dodge stamina, but it seems that it regens at constant rate. You should learn to feel that regen speed to use dodges as frequently as possible.

Something that i learned quite recently:
Empire soldier and Witch hunter are the tallest heroes (Witch hunter is a tiny bit taller). And slaverats are a bit lower than clanrats in stature. So when playing as one of these 2 heroes and fighting a horde you will be towering above your enemies. With the picture below i will try to describe the downside of that height difference. On the picture i've made the soldier is very tall and rats are very small for clarity. Ingame, your 1st person camera is in your character's head (surprise) and your attack directions, angles are tied to your camera. Blue line segment named "1" is your weapon reach, orange area named "1" is the resulting hitzone from your charged attack. Elements marked with "2" are what will happen, if you'll crouch, purple area - your hitzone. The difference isn't that drastic ingame though, but still.



By crouching you maximize your actual attack reach and chances to hit everything around, in the current scenario. When crouched, your dodges are the same. Tactic: do charged attacks as i described before, with side-ways dodging, just crouch in the right moments. It concerns the 2h hammer for Empire soldier, as it used for wide 180 degree strikes too. Also, in case of 2h sword charged attack, your angle of attack isn't purely horizontal, by bringing all target's centers of mass at the level of your camera, you guarantee that at any moment of your attack you wont miss (higher or lower).

With damage boon (+25% dmg) recieved from contracts table, your charged attack will kill 3 slave rats in first swing at cataclysm. (Slave's HP is 5).
(6)-(4)-(4)-(3)-(3)-(3) is default dmg of charged for each normal target.
(first target gets 6 dmg, 2nd and 3rd - 4 dmg and last three - 3 dmg)
(7,5)-(5)-(5)-(3,75)-(3,75)-(3,75) - is with boon.
Also light attack is:
(4)-(3)-(3)-(2)-(2)-(2) without boon and
(5)-(3,75)-(3,75)-(2,5)-(2,5)-(2,5) with it, so first slave rat will die in first light swing.

Push of 2h sword have 12.5% more reach than on most of the weapons, that's 1 more reason to have devastating blow+perfect balance or improved pommel, although the reach is not as good as on 2h hammer or shields (+25% reach).

For nightmare bloodlust verison is preferred, 3rd trait can be replaced with swift slaying_light. Light and charged attack are both good at killing hordes of slaves there.

Charged 2h sword will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead.
Dmg vs armored is weak, so a good choice is to take handgun / repeater handgun (Empire soldier) or repeater pistol / xbow / brace of pistols (Witch Hunter).


Killing blow version is meant for cataclysm only.
It's a different style. All your attacks should be light strikes, move your mouse in the same direction as your weapon to hit wider areas. See Waywatcher 1h sword (last part) about diagonal swing angle. Delay between starting a light attack and hitting a target in front of you is relatively long (compared to 1h weapons), but each next attack starts very quickly after the previus attack is done. So the 2h sword kinda rewards you for attacking non stop and being always in contact with 1 specific group of rats, but that is risky. Also you have very slow move speed while doing light attacks. Like with bloodlust version, you should use dodges to move around, but this style uses dodges a bit differently. Start an attack and press dodge button right away. More emphasis on side-dodging to evade rat's attacks and keep hitting them. Or on side-dodging for moving between different spots to attack unsuspecting rats (in team vs horde scenario) (more about this in General tip #2 at the guide's end).

[ranged]

-brace of pistols

rupture

ammo holder /
scavenger

skullcracker /
hail of doom /
targeteer /
scavenger

Stats:
Damage: [6 / 2.5 / 12] vs [normal / armored / resistant].
All with x2 headshot.
No penetration by default.

Brace of pistols is considered to be a multi-purpose weapon, for killing specials, stormvermins, clanrats, hordes of slaves, with less effectiveness in every aspect than specialized ranged weapons. But its multi-purposeness is killed by limited ammo. Stormvermins require a lot of bullets to put them down, your damage per bullet on the slave horde isn't that good, and each clanrat takes 2 bullets to the body on cataclysm. You have to specialize in something, so you won't burn through all ammo very quickly.

Now i don't think that specializing in clanrat/slaverat killing is a good idea, a comrade with shotgun, hagbane bow or swiftbow will do this job much better. You can help your team better if you dedicate your attention to stormvermins and specials, with stormvermins being your primary target. When hordes try to swarm you, you usually want to get in a corner, so rats won't flank you. In these cases, stormvermins are trouble, you can't dodge their long halberds, the quickier you kill them, the better. Meleeing them takes a long time and it's dangerous, cause there is a lot of normal rats around, not counting the stormvermin itself.

Brace of pistols give you a reliable, steady damage source for taking down stormvermins in a pinch. Your total ammo is 56 without ammo holder, 73 with it. It takes 8 and 6 bullets to the body to kill cataclysm and nightmare stormvermin respectively. It may seem a lot, but you can fire rapidly and you really should.

Rapid firing with brace of pistols is done by holding right mouse button (block), and then pressing and holding left mouse button (attack). Recoil can be compensated by moving the mouse down. You'll hit a stormvermin more relaibly, when he faces you (bigger target), he's stationary or moves straight at you. Optimal distance for rapid fire is 0-22m, the further stormvermin is away, the better your recoil management must be. At distances 0-10m when stormvermin faces you and he isn't doing sharp moves (like attacking), you can manage to hit the head most of the time, in other cases you better aim for the center of the body, but then you shouldn't miss at all.

Basic teamwork is required, you have to stay behind somebody so no rat will harm you while you are shooting, a teammate with devastating blow or shield keeps stormvermins away. You can work with handgun/xbow/trueflight longbow user like this: he makes 1 shot on each stormvermin, you finish them off, or in the reverse order. Also a nice combo is when both brace of pistols and repeating handgun are fired at stormvermins.

Rupture helps your bullets in reaching your target, teammates or normal rats can get in the way, also this trait is useful against hordes, patrols of stormvermins, packmasters in a horde.

Learn the maps and the locations of fixed ammo boxes, if ammo box is close or you will find it soon, then you can use your ammo on everything.

It's not bad vs ogre.

For the 3rd slot the most optimal trait is hail of doom, imo. I feel that the default accuracy is enough, and more damage will be more useful.
On brace of pistols hail of doom is better than skullcracker, because:
- headshot multiplier is x2
- spawned projectile from hail of doom have about the same accuracy as of the weapon
^(for brace of pistols, repeater handgun, longbow... but not for handgun/xbow)
- 2nd projectile from hail of doom can kill another 2 slaves in the horde
- if you hit the head of a stormvermin/ogre, and hail of doom procs, then the 2nd projectile can hit the head too, or at least the body, while skullcracker proc is useless when you have done a headshot manually

-xbow

mastercrafted	ammo holder / scavenger	bloodlust / knockback
mastercrafted	bloodlust	regrowth

8 dmg vs armored with x2.5 headshot, so 1 headshot kills any Stormvermin. 1 shot kills 5 cata clanrats in line, with ammo holder it have 39 ammo (+9 from the trait).

Damage boon from contract table will increase dmg by 25%, on cataclysm with it you'll be able to 2-body-shot stormvermins, and 1-body-shot rattling gunners and packmasters.

Note: bow and xbow weapons wont penetrate stormvermin, only powder weapons can do that with default penetration or if there is none - with rupture.

Tip: Headshotting stormvermins can be tricky when they are running or attacking, especially with horribly strong zoom on all ranged weapons that cant be configured. If stormvermin is running at you, aim for the head, try to copy his head movements with your mouse (it slightly bounces from side to side), only then shoot. If he is close and starting to attack you or a teammate, you have several methods:
1) Wait till he completes his attack animation (after you dodge ofc), for example he makes an overhead, after his weapon hits the ground, he returns to his idle animation, in this brief moment his head moves slowly and predictable from down to up and is easy to hit. Same principle with his horizontal attack, but harder, you have much less time window.
2) After stormvermin pushes, even if he touches you, you have a moment to place easy headshot, cause again he have predictable animation which transits from his push to idle pose.
3) Or you can push him with devastating blow or a shield, and then quickly switch to ranged and shoot.
4) For quick aimers: you can headshot stormvermins when they're just preparing their swings and they're facing you, each time they have the same animations, so you know how to aim.

^These methods will work better, when you and your target are standing on a flat surface and at the same level. With xbow / handgun you can accurately shoot at close range without zooming, but with handgun you have to stand still.

Knockback (40% max chance) - isn't very useful, but is fun. Crossbow have good damage when hitting stormvermin's body, good rate of fire and 40% - isn't a low chance, so this trait is justified.

Skullcracker trait now works, but you can have it only with inspirational shot (useless). Skullcracker implies that you will aim for the body, but with dmg boon or on nightmare, stormvermins will die in 2 bodyshots, so roughly only 1 in 6 stormvermins that you encountered will die to skullcracker, not counting the times when you headshot them manually, so this trait isn't perfect.

[ranged, pt.2]

-repeater pistol

extra capacity	rupture	ammo holder
rupture	ammo holder / scavenger	scavenger / bloodlust		<- for nightmare

Fast rate of fire and reload, 12 rounds in magazine with extra capacity, 130 total with ammo holder. Charged shot fires all rounds in the magazine, no need to wait until barrels will start rotating, when left hand touches the weapon - you can press LMB. After the charged shot you can use active reload by pressing R to speed up reloading.

Light attack oneshots NM slaves, charged attack oneshots any stormvermin up close (with extra capacity).

Vs armored targets: normal shot deals 1.5 dmg with +0.5 headshot, and every bullet of charged shot deals 2 dmg with +0.5 headshot. That means 12 bullets of charged shot dish out at least 24 dmg (stormvermin have 20 hp on cata), but the damage of charged shot begins to drop-off after 5 meters, and the spread becomes big, targeteer affects the spread little. Headshots give little damage increase, the main thing is to put all bullets into the body, optimal distance 0-5m.

Charged shot with rupture and extra capacity is a perfect solution for cata patrols of stormvermins, especially in narrow passages.

Light attack have good DPS vs rat ogre and packmaster (he takes 3 shots to kill on cata). 6 light shots to kill cata assassin and globadier. Use macro command that i'll describe later in Waywatcher's swift bow to deal good damage vs ogre. If you're at 0-9m from the ogre, you can do charged shots for slight increase in DPS with higher ammo consumption, because each bullet of charged deals 6 damage max, while primary attack deals 12 damage without drop off (both with x1.5 headshot).

It's fun to use repeater pistol on nightmare with rupture, cause it oneshots slaves there. But on cataclysm you should save ammo for stormvermins and specials, not wasting too much ammo on slaverats.

-repeater xbow

extra capacity	ammo holder	mastercrafted / bloodlust / scavenger
extra capacity	skullcracker	hail of doom		<- you prefer aiming for the ogre's body

One of the best anti ogre weapons, the other two are Waywatcher's hagbane bow and trueflight longbow.

Vs ogre:
Bolt deals 25 dmg vs resistant targets, headshot dmg multiplier - x2.5, so headshotting is very rewarding. Secondary attack releases a row of 3 bolts, the longer they fly the more they fly apart. You have 15 ammo in magazine without extra capacity and 21 with it. Strength potion increases your damage by x2 against resistant targets.
25(bolt dmg) * 2.5(headshot) * 2(strength) * 21(ammo in magazine) = 2625 dmg.
While ogre have 2000 hp on cataclysm and 1400 hp on nightmare. In reality though, its really hard to put all magazine in the ogre's head under strength duration. Like the majority of rats in the game, the ogre moves sharp.

You need to be at 0-8m from the ogre for all 3 bolts of the charged shot to hit the head reliably, head hitbox is not that big. You can wait untill ogre will get close, only then drink strength. Dodge his attacks with equipped melee weapon, and shoot between his attacks, his head will be close so bolt spread is not a problem. The problem is that you can headshot more reliably when the ogre misses you and stands idle for a moment, waiting for these moments can reward with precise headshots, but strength potion duration is not eternal. Also the ogre can throw you out with regular attack so you'll be out of effective shooting distance. But if you have succeeded more or less, ogre's hp will go down to 10-25% after 21 bolts are fired. Another problem: charged attack have rate of fire, which is hard to feel. Use the macro command, described in Waywatcher's swift bow to shoot in charged mode as fast as possible.

Also teammates should protect you from ambient clanrats or specials that scurrying around while you're dealing with ogre, and teammates should not aggro the ogre, so he will always face you.

The other way is traditional: you line up with your teammates, someone shares the strength potion and you all shoot from a distance, you - with secondary attack, aiming at head or body level. 21 bodyshots of repeater xbow under strength will deal solid 1050 dmg.

I don't believe that hail of doom is worth the perk slot, bolt spread of secondary attack is already high for headshotting, with hail of doom additional bolts will fly even further to the right or left. And the chance is 1 out of 7 to proc this effect, so, yeah.

Skullcracker now works, but vs ogre it doesn't makes much difference, if you shoot being close to the ogre and your aim is good. Each bolt of charged shot rolls % for skullcracker to work, not all 3 at once. Like hail of doom, skullcracker isn't a bad trait, they both will help you in killing ogre if you are aiming for the body, but manual headshotting is much more rewarding, it makes these 2 traits to be less useful.

From the start of the map you should save your ammo for encounter with ogre, at least full magazine of 21 arrows, and strength potion too if you find any.

Light attack on repeater is weaker than on regular xbow:
-Deals 7 damage to max of 2 normal targets in line.
-3 dmg vs armored.
-But still good damage vs resistant targets (ogre, packmaster) - 25 (35 on regular xbow).

Charged attack is useful vs specials and stormvermins that are close. Vs armored headshot is still x2.5, so one headshot is 7.5 dmg. Each bolt that hits a stormvermin pushes him away, like a shield push. When stormvermin is close, you can shoot him once in the body with normal attack, to push him away, his head is now easy to hit during that animation (or after), now you can do headshots with normal attacks, or even put all 3 bolts of the charged attack into the head.

========WAYWATCHER:========================================

                                                     

-1h sword

killing blow	regrowth_light	improved guard / perfect balance / devastating blow
killing blow	regrowth_light	scavenger		<- for hagbane and trueflight
bloodlust	swift slaying_light / devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare
scavenger	regrowth_light	<any>		<- for nightmare and hagbane and trueflight

This section will contain a lot of info on game mechanics and general advices.




There is a lot of traits related to stamina and pushing, most of them are easy to understand. I'll touch on Devastating blow trait and the stagger/stun levels from pushing normal rats (slave, clanrat).

Note1:
The push have 4 levels of power against normal rats:

1. (rapier, falchion, elf's 1h/dual 1h)
Rats will move for ~0.5m back with a stun for ~0.6 second.

2. (1h sword for soldier/wizard, 1h axes/hammers, 2h swords/axes/hammers/glaive etc.)
Rats will recoil for ~1.5m back, with a stun for ~1 second.

3. (shields)
Rats will recoil for ~2.5-4m with a stun for 1.5-2 seconds.

4. (shields with devastating blow).
Rats are learning to fly.

Duration of stun was counted from the moment the push touches a rat until the moment this rat recovers and starts to move. Stun time values are for Cataclysm, each lower difficulty have a bit more stun time than higher difficulty level. Cataclysm stun time = normal stun time*0.6. Distances on which rats are traveling because of the push have been measured quite approximately.

Devastating blow trait lets a weapon to pass 1 stage higher on this scale.




The next weapon stat is push reach, which i consider even slightly more important than the stagger/stun level.

Note2:
All attacks of melee weapons and attacks of normal rats have equal range, roughly speaking (there are slight deviations depending on weapon). But the reach of push on most of the weapons have noticeably less reach than of skaven attacks.

2h hammers/shields have 25% more and 2h swords have 12.5% more push reach than usual. All other weapons have standard (low) push reach.

The range of shield/2h hammer push is close to the average attack range (but still slightly less, i think).

After reading General tip #8 (at the end of the guide), you know that some (~half) of slaves/clanrats have the standing attack animation that puts them further from you while it plays, right until they will end their attack. Also, after starting the push action, you're open for a short period of time for the enemy hits. After the actual push happened, your character doesn't returns to the block state instantly. An enemy can wound you:
1) Before the actual push will happen (less likely)
2) During or after the actual push was completed (more likely), because he was out of reach - by making standing attack. Or fast running attack by getting close only atter the push was completed.
3) Lag adds the possibility of pushing the rat and still getting hit by it.
^This becomes a problem when you try to push a lot of rats (>4) with weapons that have standard push reach. 1-2 rats could get lucky and will hit you or your block. Also that means the push was useless - some rats weren't affected by it and will continue attacking you. You push to disable rats in contact with you, to make a breathing room and freely attack them, and you can't do it in this case (reliably).




--------------
All things considered: pushing with most of the weapons might be unsafe or useless - due to the low push reach. And on some weapons with 1st level stagger - their pushes are just horrible, especially on cataclysm where rats recover quickier.

I developed a tactic on how to fight multiple normal rats without the use of pushes. It is suited well for 1h weapons with long dodges.

Tactic:
If facing ~4 rats, attack first, then use block to stagger enemies. After a rat hits block he's out of combat for ~2 seconds, and also recoils back for ~1m. That way you fight not 4 but 1-2 rats at once instead. 1 handed weapons have fast move speed with block on, so you can move away from stunned rats, this way when they recover, they'll have to run some distance to catch up with you, so you'll have even more time to kill other 2 rats. 2 seconds of stun is enough, when you have fast hitting weapon with killing blow. While moving around with block on, you should always keep an eye on how many rats you fight, who is stunned, who is only running, or in attack animation, to see opportunities for a strike.

[melee, pt.2]

If there is too many rats, like 6-10, then while standing still block some of them to stagger them (or wait till they start preparing their attacks - they will stuck in attack animation for some time), then dodge back while block is still up and do another dodge to the side (to prevent rats from surrounding you), while doing second dodge you attack others who are dont staggered by your block (they will come at you), and you keep fighting untill rats overwhelm you (usually you'll be able to do 2-3 swings), then make a block while standing still, again stay on place for a bit, then 2 dodges, and so on. Improved guard will give you ability to stagger more rats per period, just keep an eye on stamina, if there is only 1 shield left you better not risk it and start dodging. Between these blocking phases your stamina should regen, so dont push at all. Also one important note, your dodges will reset stamina regeneration cooldown, so its better if you can manage with 1 dodge or even without it, running backwards in right moments. 2 dodges are justified if u fighting in open space vs large group that tries to circle you. Killing blow combined with fast attack speed will steadily reduce enemy count. Remember that if you start to run/dodge in any direction (exception - into the rats faces) at least a little, rats will start to charge attack you with their fast stabs, and if you stand still they will just slowly come close and do slow attacks - that is what you are after. So if you facing a really big horde of ~20 rats alone and in open field, which is the worst scenario, you cant possibly do much by blocking, you do the same thing as above, but now you rely more on rats standing attack animation and how they'll get stuck in it for a moment. You block 2-4 hits, just in order to stay a bit in place so more rats will start doing their slow standing attacks, and then dodge back, and then you should use these couple of seconds very well, kicking those rats who are running for you, when other half of the rats are busy hitting the air and then are busy with catching up to you. But even with this tactic it will be hard to solo 20 rats in open field, but at least you have a chance, and if you use the 1-2 level push with standard reach - it will have almost no effect. The game is for 4 players coop, keep that in mind. If you're defending vs horde in corridors, narrow passages, etc, then using this tactic it may be that no rat will come for you after you dodge, all of them will hit the air/your block, in that case you wait 0.5-1 sec. after you dodge for rats to stop hitting the air and then you engage them to make 1-3 hits and then go into block again. This tactic can be used with other weapons too as you see fit. Even with ranged weapons, u can use that principle about rats standing and running attacks. But with weapons that have long dodges and fast multi-target attacks this tactic is more efficient.

Stamina traits like perfect balance / improved guard are useful for the tactic described above.




Note3:
About devastating blow and pushes vs stormvermins:

Without devastating blow, 1st and 2nd category (see Note1) will function the same against stormvermin: you push when they run - they flinch on place for 1/2 second, you push when they do horizontal attack - you interrupt their attack and they flinch on place for 1/2 second, if you push them when they do overhead - your push does nothing. 3rd category - shield, will interrupt all attacks and recoil stormvermins for ~2m.

If you put devastating blow on all categories, then: 1st and 2nd will interrupt all attacks, but 1st category will recoil stormvermin only for ~1m, while 2nd - for ~2m (like shield without dev.blow). And if dev.blow is on the shield, then you recoil them for ~3m.

^That's the main reason to have devastating blow trait on weapons with 1st level push. The resulting push isn't really helpful vs normal rats, but useful for interrupting stormvermins. But do remember, that stormvermins do 2 short steps back in overhead attack animation, like the part of normal rats do it. Might be hard to get them with standard reach push.




Note4:
About devastating blow and attacks vs stormvermins:

I dont know what part of it is a bug:
Devastating blow trait can upgrade weapon's attack so it will be able to interrupt stormvermin overhead attack. The general rule is: if an attack of your weapon can interrupt only sweeping attack of stormvermin by default, then with dev.blow trait your attack will be able to interrupt overhead attack too. But the whole thing only works for the host, lol. 3 other players with dev. blow on their weapons wont have this upgrade.

[melee, pt.3]

Now about the 1h sword of Waywatcher:
Charged attack of 1h sword oneshots clanrat on cata, use it to kill stragglers and specials, or you can hit specials with normal attacks hoping for killing blow proc. Charged attack will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead.

1h sword light attacks:
3rd light attack is stab, so when fighting horde make two normal slashes, then block for a slight moment to break the combo chain, then attack again. After practice you'll improve your timing to do it quicker (applies to falchion, 1h sword, and other weapons with overhead/stab in combo). Light attack is a bit uncomfortable to use, cause it have almost diagonal angle, the problem is that with this angle its harder to hit in one swing, for example, 2 rats that stand 1.5m from each other. Usually, with pure horizontal swing, to hit these 2 rats you move your camera in the direction of the swing and everything comes out naturally. This is because the swing that starts from the right side of your screen is already on crosshair level, and it stays like that to the end. So a rat can stand to the right of you, and be hitted when your attack is barely began. That's not the case with diagonal strike: at first moments the sword is way higher than needed, will go past that rat standing to the right of you, and at last moments the sword is too low, it will hit only the ground. There is a method though, to make diagonal strikes viable too against multiple targets. Lets go back to 2 rats that stand 1.5m from each other and they face you in a row. You aim with your crosshair at the level of rat's belly, you aim to the right from the rightmost rat, like 0.5m righter. You have Waywatcher's 1h sword, you do first attack in chain, that goes from up+right to down+left. You wait just a bit until your sword gets down a bit from highest point, right after that you move your mouse to the left very quickly to hit both rats. You need to move your mouse quick because you dont want your sword to go down until you have hit all targets. Also swing speed is fast, so that's another reason to move your camera quicker. At last moments of the swing, when sword hit box is getting lower and lower compared to your crosshair level, you can compensate this by moving your mouse upwards. Same thing for 2nd attack in combo, only in reverse. I recommend this method for 2h sword light attacks also, they're diagonal too. This way you'll be able to hit in ~50 degree angle in front of you, more is possible but not exactly safe to do. Be careful when you're trying to kill 3 or 4 rats just by swinging at them, trying to control them with just your attacks, because stagger from 1h sword is very weak, rats will recover instantly, and if you miss one of them he'll attack you before you'll do another hit on him.

Note5:
- Waywatcher's 1h sword, dual daggers, dual swords, sword+dagger*
- Empire soldier's 1h sword, sword+shield
- Bright wizard's 1h sword
^ these weapons have weakest stagger from their light attacks in the game. After you hit a clanrat with one of these weapons, he plays an animation of getting hurt and after the end of the animation the rat will instantly start to attack you. You should be more careful.
More info about stagger&stun effects of attacks you can find in the spreadsheet[docs.google.com], under "Hit Stagger Effect".
*First enemy that is hitted by 1st attack receives not bad stagger.

-sword+dagger

killing blow	regrowth_light / improved guard / perfect balance / devastating blow	off balance
killing blow	scavenger	off balance		<- for hagbane or trueflight (with bloodlust)
bloodlust	devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare
scavenger	regrowth_light / devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare and hagbane or trueflight

Same tactic as with Waywatcher's 1h sword. Compared to 1h sword, light attacks of sword+dagger are a bit faster, have more comfortable angles (more horizontal), but they hit less targets, use only first 2 attacks in combo vs many enemies, cause last 2 attacks hit only 1 target each. But if enemies are spread out, you can make full combo of 4 strikes. Regrowth_light on red quality is 10% instead of 5% on orange.

First charged attack in sequence wont interrupt any stormvermin attack. 2nd charged will interrupt sweeping attack, but not overhead. Vs armored 1st charged attack deals 5 dmg with x2 headshot, great damage if you can hit the stormvermin's head (actual attack goes from left to right), but it won't interrupt stormvermin attacks so you have to dodge them. And 2nd charged attack deals 4.5 dmg with only +0.5 headshot.

Even if you deal 0 damage on stormvermins with light attacks, killing blow trait will still work, so you can kill them with 1 hit.

Vs single or spreaded clanrats both charged attacks are good, both attacks one-body-shots a clanrat on nightmare, but on cataclysm you need to hit the head with 1st attack for a one hit kill.

[melee, pt.4]

-dual swords

killing blow	regrowth_light / improved guard / perfect balance / devastating blow	safety in numbers
killing blow	scavenger	safety in numbers		<- for hagbane or trueflight (with bloodlust)
bloodlust	devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare
scavenger	regrowth_light / devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare and hagbane or trueflight

See 1h sword for a fighting tactic versus many rats.

Light attacks of dual swords have the same damage characteristics as first two light attacks of 1h sword. While combo consists of 4 strikes with similar damage, you shouldn't ever use 3rd and 4th strikes, they are noticeably slower and have weird unusual angles, just do a combo cancelling after the 2nd attack is finished (by tapping block) and continue striking.

Dual swords have good angles of attacks, like sword+dagger, and they hit 4 targets per strike, like 1h sword. Also the combo breaking is done a bit faster, than with 1h sword, you can attack with a good rhythm. It's an effective weapon for dealing with hordes.

Regrowth_light is also 5%, like on sword+dagger.

Charged attacks are similar to the 1st charged attack of sword+dagger, they don't interrupt any stormvermin attacks. They hit 2 targets, first target takes 5 dmg if armored and 6 dmg if normal, headshot multi - x2. After the glaive's 2nd charged attack, dual sword's and sword+dagger's charged attacks are the most effective anti-stormvermin melee attacks of Waywatcher.

-glaive -for NM

bloodlust	perfect balance	devastating blow
scavenger	perfect balance	devastating blow / regrowth_light		<- for hagbane or trueflight

Light attack hits 2 targets, dmg is 6 and 4 vs normal enemies with x2 HS. Run speed with block on - isn't slow.

Charged attack is a combo, hold Lmb, after the first attack just press Lmb to do 2nd attack. First attack deals 4 dmg, second - 16 dmg vs armored.

Light attack of glaive will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead. Both charged attacks of glaive will interrupt all stormvermin attacks.

A method to speed up light attacks will be described in the 2h hammer of Dwarf ranger.

The use on nightmare:
Light attack 1-body-shots a clanrat, kills 2 slaverats in one strike.

2nd charged attack destroys a stormvermin. The stormvermin is pushed far away when hit by 1st charged attack, and it might not be comfortable to land the 2nd attack (you need to run forward), so you can do the 1st attack aiming for the air or ground and only then get close to do the 2nd attack. After the end of the 1st attack you have about a second to continue the combo. 2nd charged attack is almost vertical strike, aim well.

If you like speed, you want to fight through pre-spawned clanrats and stormvermins quickly, take glaive+swift bow. Swift bow 1-body-shots clanrats, have high rate of fire and a lot of ammo, and also it's silent. Use glaive for instant elimination of stormvermins, and clarnrats too. Only Dwarf ranger's combo of 1h axe+grudge raker is as cool as this one.

On cataclysm:
The same story as with 1h axe, the 1-hit kill capabilities are reduced significantly, and those capabilities are improtant for the glaive too. With damage boon (+25% dmg) it's ok, like on nightmare you'll be able to kill 2 slaverats with 1 light attack and a stormvermin with 2nd charged attack. Pairs good with hagbane bow.

[ranged]

-swift bow -for NM

ammo holder

bloodlust

scavenger

Light attack oneshots cata slave and NM clanrat. Spam light shots into the horde, dont worry, dead bodies wont stop arrows. Vs non-armored specials light attack have more dps. Light and charged shot both deal same damage, except charged can damage armored targets and have x2 headshot multiplier, when light have +1. Both have 0 penetration, so you should utilize swift bow's fast rate of fire at maximum when facing a horde.

Trick: To shoot as fast as possible you can make yourself a macro command that will repeat the sequence if you hold a key/mouse button and stops when you release this key/mouse button. Example: LMB down, 10 msec delay, LMB up, 10 msec delay. You will need to compensate strong recoil that pulls your aim down and right. It will be useful with many other melee&ranged weapons (light attacks of rapier, 2h sword, sword+shield, repeater pistol, hagbane bow, and also charged attacks of repeater xbow, and so on).

Swift bow's barrage of arrows is not bad vs ogre. With 130 arrows, so much speed and 1-shotting cataclysm slaves, swift bow - is a good weapon against hordes, however it is effective when horde comes from a distance, not when they spawn close and all around you.

On cataclysm, hagbane bow does everything better (small ammo count isn't a problem when you have scavenger trait). Swift bow is too narrow specialized and isnt very effective in these fields. The arrows don't have penetration and they have ballistic trajectory and flight time, that makes the swift bow a less reliable weapon for killing assassins, globadiers, packmasters. Very weak vs armored.

Swift bow is fun on nightmare, because it oneshots clanrats with light attack and is silent, so you can shoot clanrats from a distance and they won't even notice anything.

-longbow

mastercrafted

ammo holder /
scavenger

bloodlust /
scavenger /
hail of doom

Damage from charged attack is fixed, it doesn't matter how long you draw the bow. You can release an arrow as soon as possible.

Charged shot deals 8 / 4 / 24 damage to normal / armored / resistant targets and have x4 headshot multi. So a charged headshot will deal 16 dmg to a stormvermin and 96 dmg to an ogre or 192 dmg with strength potion active. Charged shot will damage 3 normal targets in line, killing 3 slaves on cataclysm or 3 clanrats on nightmare.

With damage boon (+25% dmg), charged shot becomes more powerful:
1 headshot will kill cata stormvermin.
1 body-shot will kill 3 cata clanrats in line.
2 body-shots will kill cata assassin, globadier, rattling gunner.

On cataclysm, longbow is worth using only with damage boon, imo. But still it won't be a really powerful weapon, unless you are a headshot master.

54 ammo without ammo holder, 71 ammo with it, longbow's primary use is vs stormvermins and ambient clanrats, secondary use is vs specials and hordes of slaverats.

See Witchhunter's xbow for headshotting tips against stormvermins. You can also do headshots like this: make a charged body-shot to stagger a stormvermin, and instantly do a 2nd charged shot aiming for the head. After the 1st shot the stormvermin's head will be an easier target for a brief moment. Mastercrafted is recommended for this.

Longbow is one of the few weapons that can stagger packmasters, charged shot does that.

-trueflight longbow

Any combination of these traits:

mastercrafted / ammo holder / scavenger / bloodlust

ammo holder

mastercrafted

scavenger

<- i prefer this

Same damage output as normal longbow but with less ammo and auto-aim (32 arrows with ammo holder, 24 without). So vs stormvermins & ogre it will be very nice, considering that every charged shot is a headshot. Auto-aim weapons (trueflight and bolt staff) are good solutions for fast moving assassins. Also with trueflight it's much easier to one-shot-headshot distant globadiers and rattling gunners, than with normal longbow.

Locking on is required for the bow to guide a projectile into the head. When you hold charge button, red outline will appear around an enemy you got in your crosshair. To headshot specials that don't look in your direction more reliably, lock on, then aim higher or to the left or to the right - depends on in what direction the special is looking. After the shot, projectile will fly in an arc and right into the head. When a stormvermin is surrounded by normal rats, you lock on him, aim a bit above his head and shoot, this way you make sure that the bow will stay locked on the stormvermin, and the arrow won't find any obstacles.

To shoot faster, don't wait for that red outline to appear. Just keep your crosshair at an enemy from the moment you started to draw the bow, you shoot the charged arrow as soon as possible, and at the same moment the bow becomes locked on the target. This will work when an enemy is facing you, so the arrow will find its way to the head easily, for example when an ogre comes at you, you need to do as much shots as possible, until strength potion wears off.

Vs groups of slave/clan rats charged shot works like this:
- 3 targets maximum in each shot.
- First target recieves headshot (if the arc is proper), after that arrow will hit 2nd and 3rd targets in the body (but rarely will hit in the head too), if conditions are right.
- For the arrow to hit 2nd target after the first, the position of that 2nd target must not go beyond borders of the cone which have apex located at the position of first target, with apex angle ~45 degrees (hard to say accurately). Bisector of this apex angle is defined by the arrow when it hits first target. So, after locking to first target, you can by aiming to the side (or higher/lower when you're below/above the rats) modify the trajectory of the arrow, and thus modify the cone, to hit 2nd target you normally wont be able to. I belive bolt staff's charged spell works the same way.

It might seem that 45 degrees is a lot, but keep in mind its from the position of first target hit. And it should be divided by two so you can imagine how far left/right 2nd target should be relatively to the first target.

[ranged, pt.2]

-hagbane bow

scavenger	bloodlust / regrowth	ammo holder / mastercrafted
scavenger	bloodlust	mastercrafted		<- most optimal combo, imo

46 arrows with ammo holder, 35 without it. Light shots are very effective vs ogre, but you need at least 15-20 arrows to do good damage against him. So i recommend to save ammo and strength potion for encounter with the ogre.

In 1.6 patch, damage over time is fixed (poison in this case) - now it's more consistent, before damage dealt from poison DoT was random and in a bad way - it could be lower.

Hagbane bow is good vs horde of slaverats, impressive even. Charged shot creates "poison cloud" in 2m radius, this "cloud" works more like a mini-explosion, it pushes all rats, every rat that got hit starts to take damage over time. Effect of poisoning lasts 3 seconds, total damage to one normal target - 5 or 4. Essentially, every slaverat on cataclysm that got hit by the cloud have a chance 50/50 % to survive the poisoning with 1 HP left. So on cata you do 2 charged shots in each slaverat group or take damage boon (+25% dmg) from contract rewards.

Damage from charged attack does not depend on how long you draw the bow, so you can release an arrow as soon as possible.

Light attack always one-body-shots a single cataclysm clanrat with arrow+poison DoT, duration of poison is 3 seconds. Also light attack is good vs assassins, globadiers (on cata they have x2 more HP than a clanrat), do 2 quick shots on them. And just 1 light shot kills packmaster, but you can also do it with 2 poison clouds of charged shots.

Vs armored light shots wont work, to kill cata stormvermin you need 4 charged bodyshots, you can do them as quickly as possible. It's not worth to aim for the head, poison does all the work. 2 charged bodyshots - to kill rattling gunner.

If you'll get scavenger both on hagbane and 1h sword, it'll be nice. I recommend to have scavenger on ranged horde-killing weapons with small ammo count and high effectiveness per shot, for example: grudge raker, blunderbuss. And on melee that you'll take with these ranged too. Cause each time scavenger procs, it will replenish 1 ammo and not % of maximum ammo.

Note:
Scavenger on ranged weapons procs not from killing an enemy, like description says, but just from hitting an enemy (that's 1 more reason why this trait is good on hagbane bow, and the chance is high - 24%). Scavenger on melee weapons procs from killing, like description says.

^So don't be surprised, when after fighting a horde of slaves you will have a lot more ammo, than before.

You can switch to melee weapon with scavenger trait after you hit the rat with hagbane bow, if the rat dies from poison when you have melee equipped, trait on melee weapon can proc, so you potentially can get 2 ammo from 1 dead rat! This principle can be used vs ambient clanrats, you can manage to hit 3 rats with light shots before the first one will die.

Hagbane bow - is a very good weapon, multipurpose and effective.

========DWARF RANGER:======================================

                                                     

Features of the hero:
- Low height, it's harder to see what's going on behind 1st row of rats.
- With 1 handed weapon equipped (no shield), the delay between dodges is reduced, that is you can do dodges much more frequently, than other characters (until the dwarf is tired). The dwarf can be so fast it's almost funny.

-1h hammer

killing blow	regrowth_light	off balance
killing blow	scavenger	off balance		<- for shotgunner on cataclysm
scavenger	regrowth_light	devastating blow / perfect balance / improved guard		<- for shotgunner
bloodlust	devastating blow / swift slaying_light	<any>		<- for nightmare

First 2 light attacks hit infinite targets with decent stagger and stun duration (similar to that of 2nd lvl push), they deal (3)-(2) dmg to first 2 targets hit. 3rd light attack deals (2)-(2) and have worse angle, the stun it causes have less duration, than from first two attacks. 4th light attack is overhead that hits 1 target with 6 dmg. (damage values are for normal type enemy)

Vs multiple normal rats: make 2 first light attacks in chain, tap block to break the combo, repeat. With 1h hammer/mace the combo breaking is very quick, you can start new attack very quickly after the end of 2nd light attack. Attacks are quick so its not easy to hit wide areas by moving your mouse.

Universal weapon, perfect for killing blow. Charged attack 1-body-shots cata clanrat, deals good dmg vs armored and resistant targets, and have pretty good speed (the delay between charged attacks isn't big).

Light attack in the body deals 0 dmg vs armored, but can stagger stormvermins and interrupt their sweeping attack but not overhead attack. Charged attack interrupts all stormvermin attacks.

-1h axe -for NM

bloodlust	devastating blow	perfect balance
scavenger	devastating blow	perfect balance		<- for shotgunner on NM

Read about 1h axe in the Witch hunter.
With the dwarf it's harder to do headshots to stormvermins (and clanrats - but that doesn't really matter). But dodges can be done more frequently. And ranged weapons availabe: grudge raker and drakefire pistols.

On nightmare with 1h axe+grudge raker you turn into Doomguy or Ranger, clanrats and stormvermins spread throughout the lvl should think twice before messing with you.

-2h hammer

bloodlust

devastating blow

perfect balance /
improved pommel /
endurance

It is a teamplay weapon, at least on cataclysm. If nobody in your team can control stormvermins good enough, i.e. there is no shielder/another 2h hammerer, then taking the 2h hammer is justified.

Vs horde: charge attack and move your mouse to hit as many rats as possible. You dont have to dodge sideways like with 2h sword, cause your movement speed doesn't reduces that much. But if you're playing Empire soldier, then like was said in 2h sword, crouching before releasing an attack can be useful, that's when side dodges are needed for movement. Although, dodges with 2h hammer - slower, for a shorter distance, and you can do only 1-2 dodges before tiring. Because of bad dodges, fighting style is completely different, than with 1h weapons, you need to always position yourself right, fight alongside teammates, use surroundings to your advantage and watch more carefully for enemy attacks - to interrupt them with your push or attack. Prefer using charged attacks instead of pushes, push when you are about to lose control of the situation.

Charged attack deals dmg to 2 targets only: (5)-(3.5), it's not much - by cata standarts, on nightmare dmg is good enough, cause 2 slaverats will die in 1 charged swing, but for example 2h sword can kill 6 slaverats in one charged swing there, just with a bit less speed. From 2h hammer charged attack first 2 normal rats will recieve stagger similar to 3rd level push, all others - similar to 2nd level push (see Waywatcher's 1h sword).

Charged attack of 2h hammer have good reach and angle. But the difference in maximum attack distance among all weapons is subtle.

Poison trinket 6% is useful, because 2h hammer have not enough damage (on cataclysm), and it hits infinite targets. Poison trinket deals damage over time during 3 seconds, total damage is 4 or 5 (depending on chance) vs normal and armored targets.

If stormvermins are in reach mixed in horde, push them away (dev. blow helps), else your hammer will stuck in stormvermin, leaving some normal rats or other stormvermins unharmed. If stormvermin is alone and you have teammates that actively fight at the same spot, you can stun the stormvermin with charged attacks.

Both light and charged attack will interrupt all stormvermin attacks. But your charged attack will interrupt overhead stormvermin attack only if that stormvermin was the 1st or 2nd target on your hammer's way.

The reach of the push on 2h hammer is like on shields: it have +25% range compared to the push of any other weapon (except for 2h sword, which have +12.5% reach compared to standard).

In 1.8 update light attack damage is buffed from:
[ 7 / 4.5 / 20] -> [ 9 / 8 / 24 ] vs [normal / armored / resistant].
Headshot bonuses: [ +1 / +0.5 / x1.5].
That means you can one-head-shot cata clanrats and packmasters. Damage vs armored is increased almost twice. Current damage numbers are very good with damage boon, see the damage boon table for specifics.

Trick: to speed up weapons with slow light attacks: after the first strike lands switch to ranged and back quickly to be able to strike again without delay and character slowdown.
Below are macro commands that do the same.
-HAMMER FAST - if you always have high FPS.
This'll speed up light attack almost twice.
But it wont benefit weapons with medium-fast speed at all. Also, when this command sequence is running (attack->switch-to-ranged->switch-to-melee), if you press and hold block button mid-way, your character will try to zoom in with ranged weapon (or whatever is on secondary), and this will prevent last command that switches to melee. So you'll stuck with ranged weapon in hands and unable to block that hit you wanted. So there is risk involved, dont block mid-swing, you must decide beforehand will you attack or not.

[melee, pt.2]

-2h axe

bloodlust	devastating blow	perfect balance / second wind / improved guard / backstabbery
scavenger	devastating blow	perfect balance / second wind / improved guard / backstabbery		<- for shotgunner on cata

Light attack one-body-shots cata clanrat, vs armored deals 7 dmg with x1.5 headshot.

Normally, the delay between light attacks is long. After you hit something, your movement speed is slowed down and attack animation still plays a bit (just like with 2h hammer).
1st way to decrease the delay between attacks is by using macro commands described above for the 2h hammer.
2nd way is by pressing the block button: start an attack, right after that press and hold block - it won't interrupt the attack, then the axe hits your target, and shortly you will see shield icons (you got into block state), as soon as you see them release block button and start next attack. This method works for 2h hammer too, but with worse results. For 2h axe this method is better than the slower of the two macro commands described above, because it gives about the same speed and more control&safety.

On cataclysm, 2h axe is good for clearing the way of clanrats and stormvermins. Its difficult to use it vs horde, because charged is slow and hits only 4 targets with almost the same damage as 2h sword which hits 6 targets.

Both light and charged attack will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead.

Drakefire pistols and grudge raker are good additions to 2h axe.

Damage boon (+25% dmg) will benefit this weapon good:
(6)-(4)-(4)-(4) - default charged attack damage
(7,5)-(5)-(5)-(5) - with bonus, you'll kill 4 slaverats in one charged swing at cataclysm.
Also you will be able to one-body-shot cata packmaster with light attack. And to kill cata stormvermin 1 headshot and 1 bodyshot will be enough.

Why second wind / improved guard? To block overhead attack of a stormvermin and have a chance to not get your guard broken. You block it when you can't reach the stormvermin with devastating blow push or can't get out of his hitting range fast enough. The problem is that the 2h axe have both the worst dodge and push types. Dodges are like on the 2h hammer or a shield, you can do only 1-2 dodges before tiring, and the distance and speed are worse even compared to the 2h sword. Push have standard reach, and that is the lowest reach, and the stormvermin makes two short steps back in the overhead attack animation (more about this in General tips 8-9). With perfect balance you will get your guard broken anyway, the stamina will be 3.5 shields and overhead attack costs 3.5 shields to block.

-2h pick -for cata

bloodlust / regrowth_light	devastating blow	perfect balance / swift_slaying_light		<- orange
killing blow	regrowth_light	off balance		<- orange
killing blow	bloodlust	swift slaying_light		<- red

Fully charged attack oneshots any stormvermin, you dont have to hold it untill it releases itself though, watch for dwarf's arms, when he lifts them up you can release. If you keep holding charge you'll get a speed boost, use it to charge from a safe distance to make a kill. If stormvermins are close, use pushes/dodges to give yourself time for charging. Example: you're charging while backpedalling, stormvermin makes a swing at you, you dodge back, he misses, you enter the charged state with speed boost and run at stormvermin to kill, end. You can fend them off with drakefire's charged shot to make yourself some time too, especially if normal rats mixed in there. Also there is a risky but cool move: while charging an attack when you're close to a stormvermin, if he makes an overhead, then move to the side and try to dodge in the right moment.

In a normal battlefield scenario, when your team fights ambient clanrats (~5-8 rats) and stormvermin is mixed with them, your fully charged attack, due to the dwarf's small height, can hit not the stormvermin, but clanrats. To improve your chances of hitting stormvermin, which towers above clanrats but can be a little behind them, jump at the last moment to be at stormvermin's height when your attack is about to hit him.

It makes more sense to use pick on cata, as stormvemins there have more HP. Tell your teammates to focus more on normal rats than stormvermins. And i don't really like the 2h pick on nightmare, because it takes a long time to do both types of charged attack, and light attack isnt fast and can't oneshot a clanrat, it also deals little damage to armored enemies (3), so in ambient encounters it feels as a clunky weapon, when fighting hordes it kills 3 slaverats in 1 swing - that isn't bad.

Be careful when dealing with patrol of stormvermins, in tight corridors stormvermins can run straight through you (for example chasing other player) and lock you down from all sides, so stay mobile, dont charge attack if stormvermins are trying to run past you in a corridor or in a some kind of narrow passage. When stormvermins are finally slowed down, you can start to do fully charged attacks using the method described earlier (with dodging). Stormvermins have AoE attacks, their attacks go through other rats, and their overhead strikes have huge reach, so dont be surprised, when you got hit by a stormvermin from 2nd row, which you can't even see.

Normal attacks are not too slow after you start to feel them. You can also use trick described in 2h hammer to speed up light attacks. Light attack hits 4 targets with great stagger, if you are alone vs group of rats you can push or charge fire with drakefires between your attacks. Try to use corners or narrow passages for defending.

Vs ogre do partially charged attacks or light attacks with increased speed.

2&3 variants with killing blow dont have devastating blow, a little less effective vs stormvermins but more effective vs horde. If you have drakefire pistols with you, and i recommend to go with them, then you can stun stormvermins with alt-fire, no need for devastating blow push. So i rate variants with killing blow higher.

Both light and charged attack will interrupt all stormvermin attacks. Light attack hits 4 targets and it doesn't matter which of them is a stormvermin, he will be pushed with good force. You can control 1 stormvermin per strike, the advantage of this is that the range of attack is better than the range of push on the pick and killing blow might proc if you have it.

Damage boon (+25% dmg) will be nice on 2h pick:
(4)-(4)-(3)-(0) - default light attack damage
(5)-(5)-(3,75)-(0) - with bonus, you'll kill 2 slaverats in one light swing at cataclysm.
2 light attacks will kill 2 cataclysm clanrats (it's 3 attacks without boon).
Also partially charged attack will one-body-shot cata clanrat (cause 8 dmg becomes 10 dmg) and one-body-shot cata packmaster.
Overall it's much needed improvement. With that dmg buff i think, that on cataclysm bloodlust will be more effective at healing than regrowth_light, cause it'll kill 2 slaves in each strike. While on nightmare 2h pick oneshots 3 slaverats without buff, so bloodlust on NM is obviously better.

[ranged]

-xbow

Same as Witch hunter's

-handgun

mastercrafted

rupture

ammo holder /
skullcracker

Hits 2 targets in line without traits. Reload is much slower than xbow's. Bodyshot to stormvermin - 12 dmg. On cataclysm a good combination will be one player with handgun and another with xbow / beam staff, if they both will shoot stormvermin in the body once - he's dead (xbow and beam explosion deal 8 dmg vs armored). Also a good combo: handgun+brace of pistols (of Witch hunter) or handgun+repeater handgun (of Empire soldier).

Tips on how to headshot stormvermins are in Witchhunter's xbow.

Strong sides of this weapon:
1) At any distance one-body-shots assassins, globadiers, rattling gunners, but not packmaster (cataclysm) - he'll have 1 hp left and will get staggered for a moment.
2) Handgun have insta-hit projectile without drop off, unlike xbow. Easier to headshot distant and idle stormvermins.
3) With rupture and strength potion kills 3 stormvermins in line with one shot.
4) Good addition to shields&other melee weapons with not bad crowd control.
5) With damage boon (+25% dmg), handgun can kill nightmare stormvermin in 1-body-shot. On cataclysm one body shot won't kill a stormvermin, but will cripple him good, leaving him with 5 hp (20 - 12*1.25).

Handgun deals high damage to allies - 10 HP for a shot.
Max. player HP without grims: on cataclysm - 100, on nightmare - 150.

-grudge raker

extra capacity	scavenger	ammo holder / rupture
extra capacity	scavenger	bloodlust		<- preferable

Used for quick eliminating of hordes and groups of clanrats.
Usually, to kill specials and stormvermins shooting is required, and it's hard to do it, when you're under pressure by normal rats. Stormvermins and special enemies can be very dangerous to the team in these cases. Shotguns (grudge raker+blunderbuss) increase the speed of killing hordes and groups of clanrats significantly, lowering a chance that some bad special will appear in a wrong time. And of course the benefit - the killing of normal rats itself.

Ammo is your second hp bar, use it for 2 and more targets only, if its not a special. Better to have that killing power lasting until next resupply, than for couple of engagements. When dealing with ambient rats, run around and try to group them up to kill atleast 2 in 1 shot. Effective range 0-25m. At this range each of 8 pellets will deal at least 5 dmg (6 is max) vs normal targets. Each pellet penetrates 1 target, so it can kill 2 slave rats on cata in line. In my experience, sometimes i feel that i need to increase distance from me to incoming horde, to be able to hit more rats in one shot. Usually rats prefer to spread out a bit rather than run in perfect line. So i dont recommend to use targeteer on grudge raker and blunderbuss.

Try to keep your gun fully loaded at all times, reload as soon as possible (when there is no direct threats), to always have 4 shots that you can put into one single pack of rats, or several smaller groups - these smaller groups can deny your reloading.

Be aware, that your shots will alert all clanrats and stormvermins in a large radius (same with Empire soldier's blunderbuss). Sometimes it's a good idea to aggro rats to slaughter them, being in a good defending position as a whole team (when there is a lot of clanrats).

I dont recommend wasting grudge raker ammo on stormvermins, except for when you're under strength potion effect - then your shotgun will one-body-shot them at about 0-8m. Basically, when 4 pellets hit 1 stormvermin that is closer than 20m - he dies. And dont forget that blackpowder weapons can penetrate armored enemies. When you are under strength effect, damage of each pellet vs armored increases x10 times (because damage vs armored is replaced by damage you deal against normal type enemy) (more about potions - at the end of the guide).

^ Melee weapons have Off balance trait, when a player with the trait blocks a rat, that rat recieves increased damage for 2 seconds from other players. Damage increase from the trait is the same as from strength potion. So you can work with a teammate that have this trait - he blocks a stormvermin, you kill it with 1 shotgun shot.

Globadier and assassin are normal type enemies, so shotguns are effective against them. Shotguns are weak vs resistant targets (ogre, packmaster).

Secondary attack - is buttstock bash, which is fast, stuns infinite targets but deals weak dmg (3 vs normal). It interrupts all types of stormvermin attacks, but overhead attack interruption works like from shield's charged attack, you can interrupt overhead only if you hit that stormvermin as your first target. When you are on nightmare and with 1h axe, the buttstock bash will help you good vs a slaverat horde. Also, because the scavenger trait procs on hit with ranged weapons, by bashing enemies you can replenish your ammo, but only 1 target is registered per attack, others are pushed with secondary "bubble" effect (like from shield charged attack).


Full melee+ranged setups:
I recommend to go with 1h hammer, 2h axe, 1h axe [nightmare], cause they kill single rats quick and so are the nice addition to the shotgun, scavenger on them will slow down ammo depletion.

If you don't have healing traits, both on shotgun and on melee, you can wear heal share trinket and item duplication trinket on picked up, or med duplication on healed. So u'll carry meds instead of tomes, using meds on yourself when someone in team is having white healthbar, or there is spare med.

On cataclysm 1h hammer is easier than 2h axe, cause you'll be more safe with long/frequent dodges and with that light attack.

Examples:
1)
1h hammer [killing blow + scavenger + off balance]
grudge raker [extra capacity + scavenger + bloodlust]

2)
2h axe [scavenger + second wind + devastating blow]
grudge raker [extra capacity + scavenger + bloodlust]

3) <- nightmare
1h axe [scavenger + devastating blow + perfect balance]
grudge raker [extra capacity + scavenger + bloodlust]

4)
2h axe [bloodlust + second wind + devastating blow]
grudge raker [extra capacity + scavenger + rupture]

5) <- nightmare
1h axe [bloodlust + devastating blow + perfect balance]
grudge raker [extra capacity + scavenger + rupture]

^ 1-2-3 variants are more universal, 4-5 variants have rupture, which is worth it only in very close quarter maps (Castle Drachenfels, The Dungeons, Khazid Kro, etc.), where you often have a horde that runs through a single corridor with very high density.


Note: In 1.5 friendly fire is reduced on shotguns and raised on handguns/xbows.

[ranged, pt.2]

-drakefire pistols

bloodlust

mastercrafted

hail of doom

Both normal and charged attack have damage drop-off depending on distance to target.

->Normal attack:
Dmg vs normal type enemy:
(6) at 0-5m
(5) at 5-13m
(4) at 13-infinite m.
^Damage values are rounded down to the nearest whole, to see how many shots are needed to kill a full hp slave or clanrat.
Headshot bonus is +1 (vs normal type).

By default the spread of projectiles is strong but accuracy is enough to hit a single rat in the body at 13m or to hit a horde at 25m 90% of the time. Targeteer is not needed, cause drakefire pistols have damage drop off which makes them effective only at close distances. Not to mention that drakefires have ballistic trajectory and slow flying speed of the projectiles that makes them a bad weapon for long range combat.

Vs horde of slaves (3 hp on NM, 5 hp on cata).
When they come from a distance and from one direction, fire series of 2-4 normal shots, and vent between them - do these steps as quickly as possible, to do more kills. And at the same time you keep your heat level low in case the wave of slaves will get close, then you do charged attacks. The faster you fire normal shots, the more shooting phases of 2-4 shots you'll get before the wave will get to you (if it will). So it's good to have increased rate of fire with mastercrafted. And Hail of doom can launch 2nd projectile that can hit another slave in the thick horde. On nightmare no matter how far slaverats are they'll die in 1 bodyshot. On cataclysm they'll die in 1 bodyshot at less than 13m, with damage boon - on an unlimited distance.

Vs stormvermins its weak, 10 bodyshots or 8 headshots to kill cata stormvermin at less than 5m.

Vs ambient clanrats (6 hp on NM, 10 hp on cata).
Great for run&gunning through the level, cause you have unlimited ammo with good damage.
On nightmare i just run closer than 5m to groups of clanrats and blast them to pieces, mastercrafted helps greatly here. Also i use AI behaviour against them, when i'm less than 5m from incoming clanrats, i just stand and shoot, rats that will get close will do their slow standing attacks and not running attacks like when they chase a player. This way either i'll have enough time to shoot them all or if i see that there is too many alive i will dodge backwards and continue shooting, rats will stuck in their standing attack animation and i'll have a little more time. It's the same principle as described in Waywatcher's 1h sword. So using this trick killing groups of 4-7 clanrats is easy.
On cataclysm you cant kill a clanrat in one head-shot even at point blank range, he takes 2 bodyshots at less than 13m to kill. A clanrat will suffer serious knockback from drakefire normal shot. When 4-7 clanrats run at you, fire each time picking a new target, so nobody will even get to you, or if they will you know what to do. Dont miss, shoot fast. Hail of doom is even more useful here than vs horde.

->Charged attack:
Charged attack is a conical AoE shot, you hit everything in the area the size of ~half of your screen. It wont become more powerful, if you keep holding the right mouse button.

It deals:
(5) at 0-3m
(0) from 7m
^Dmg starts to drop down from 3m and ends at 7m. Applies fire DoT - 1 dmg each second for total of 2 seconds.

This attack is good vs horde of slaves, at any difficulty. Shoot standing as close as possible to the targets, so more slaverats will be in the killing zone. Vent heat between shots if you manage to hold the horde off. I dont know whether targeteer trait affects this attack or not, but if it reduces spread here too, then this trait is bad. Charged drakefire shot have good damage and nerfing the area of it for better accuracy on normal shots is unreasonable, also normal shots will lose mastercrafted or hail of doom which are pure beneficial traits.

Charged attack staggers and pushes away stormvermins and packmasters. It wont kill full hp cata packmaster with 1 shot, but you can make another shot easily.

->Drakefire+melee:
Drakefire pistols due to its properties can compensate weaknesses of melee weapons:

-2h hammer, 2h pick (without dmg boon), hammer+shield - on cataclysm, with these melee weapons it's problematic to deal with ambient clanrats. Drakefire's normal attack helps greatly, you have unlimited ammo and you can go full gunzerk.

-2h axe, 2h pick, 1h axe(NM) - charged shot will compensate the lack of crowd control. Also you'll be able to stagger both a stormvermin and normal rats, and kill the stormvermin with fully charged 2h pick, it's risky though, but very awesome.

->Overall impressions:
The weapon works bad versus stormvermins, rattling gunners, globadiers, assassins, ogre. Good vs packmasters, slaves, clanrats. Can help in crowd control. It have less horde killing power and less multi-functionality than grudge raker. You can take drakefire pistols if you already have a good shooter with anti-special weapon in the team.

========BRIGHT WIZARD:======================================

                                                     

-1h sword

killing blow	regrowth_light	off balance
killing blow	earthing_rune_light	off balance		<- vent by light attacks 1
bloodlust	earthing_rune_light	berserking / devastating blow / improved guard / perfect balance		<- vent by light attacks 2
bloodlust	earthing_rune_charged	berserking / devastating blow / improved guard / perfect balance		<- vent by charged attacks
bloodlust	berserking / swift slaying_light / devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare

The same tactic as with Waywatcher's 1h sword, pushes a bit more powerful, but stagger by light attacks is weak too, be prepared to attack, block and dodge at appropriate moments. Charged attack hits infinite targets with better stagger than from light attack (but still it's not really a powerful stagger) and have weak damage. If you have killing blow, then dont use charged attack at all, cause you will be more helpful to your team as damage dealer with your light attacks (on Cataclysm).

Earthing_rune_charged will be better at reducing heat than earthing_rune_light only if you hit more than ~4 rats. Light attack hits 4 targets max, its a bit faster, so to reduce heat at same speed as light variant, charged variant have to hit ~4 targets in each strike. Its easier to hit wide areas with charged strike though, thanks to a bit slower speed and angle being more horizontal, and increased stagger also helps.

Bloodlust trait cannot be combined with killing blow, and without killing blow 1h sword's damage output is noticeably worse on cata, and that in turn makes bloodlust not too effective. But bloodlust besides it's obvious heal on kill have 1 advantage: if you throw a spell with fire DoT and switch to melee with bloodlust, then after rats will die in flames you'll get a chance to heal with bloodlust on the sword.

Berserking will be useful on Nightmare, but much less useful on Cataclysm, cause there you cant one-body-shot slaverats anymore, both with light and charged attack. 1st charged attack deals (3.5)-(2) and 2nd charged attack - (3.5)-(3), so with 2nd attack you kill 2 slaverats in 1 swing on Nightmare.

Charged attack will interrupt sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead.

Personally i prefer 1st variant, but the choice is up to you. Also it depends on the staff and how you are going to use it. I play on cataclysm, so killing blow for me is important. And i prefer to vent staves manually. Manual venting is fast and reliable, in horde fights you can throw a lot of spells in a short time, without the need to get into melee. Of course if you are alone or nobody can cover you from rats, then earthing rune traits will be helpful, but that's not how i view the wizard, imo she is a fire-support crowd-killer (except for bolt staff) and requires protection of teammates to maximize her potential. When you are overheated your attack speed becomes slower, so the traits that require you to hit enemies in order to vent will become less effective. Healing traits on 1h sword and staves are also important, health is the ammo of Bright wizard, when you're venting with heat level higher than the threshold, you take 5 dmg per time period.


Other melee weapons of Bright wizard are worse than 1h sword, imo.

[ranged]

Note:
Overcharge threshold - 10 (marked on the scale).
Overcharge max. - 40 (before exploding).
When charging any staff, except the beam, your heat increases 0.83 per second.

-fireball staff

bloodlust

hail of doom

knockback /
distraction /
mastercrafted

On normal rats primary attack deals 6 damage on hit and 1-2 with fire DoT, and the damage doesn't depend on distance, so this attack is better than similar attack of drakefire pistols, with the same heat generation. On cataclysm you can shoot every clanrat with normal attack and finish them off with a sword or in the reverse order (damage of the sword to the first target - 3). And with damage boon (+25% dmg) from quest board your normal attack will kill cata clanrat sometimes with 1 bodyshot and always with 1 headshot.

Also normal attack isn't bad vs armored targets, 5-6 hits in the body will kill cata stormvermin. It's more efficient to kill lone stormvermin with normal attacks.

When charging a fireball you increase hit radius and damage until a quiet sound will play (about 1 second after you started charging) - it tells that the fireball is fully charged. Charged attack can punch through several normal type enemies and explodes upon contact with ground. If charged fireball hits resistant or armored target it explodes right away. Fireball can penetrate 7 normal targets, the ball (not explosion) deals direct damage [0.75 / 0 / 10]* and DoT [2 / 2 / 16].
* [normal / armored / resistant]

Parameters of the charged fireball, from minimum charge to maximum:
Heat: 3 - 6
Full radius: 0.75 - 3 м *
Radius, where maximum damage is dealt: 0.5 - 2 м **
Max. area damage to normal targets: 3 - 6
Max. area damage to armored targets: 0 - 4
Max. area damage to resistant targets: 22 - 36
DoT for targets inside the full radius: [2 / 2 / 16] ***
*Explosion looks always the same.
**Outside of this radius the damage drops.
***[normal / armored / resistant]

Charged fireball can be very good vs slave hordes at maps with a lot of narrow corridors and little free space, like Castle Drachenfels or Khazid Kro. Remember that the penetration by the ball deals little damage to the horde, aim for the ground. Slightly charged fireballs can be used for crowd controlling in tight spaces when needed.

Vs assassins and globadiers its better to use normal attack, because charged fireball flies slower and can punchthrough these specials and explode far away.

Vs packmaster charged fireball is good, direct hit will oneshot him on cata. And even if you miss, he can die from the area of effect explosion and fire DoT.

Knockback and hail of doom will work on both primary and charged attack.

Charged fireball will destroy doors and barriers that are breakable with melee.

-conflagration staff

regrowth

distraction

hail of doom

Primary is the same as primary of fireball staff, hail of doom works on this attack only.

The more you hold charge attack, the larger the spell will be, until it reaches maximum size and you'll hear a noticeable sound cue - that means the spell is fully charged. The spell is a circle divided into 3 zones starting from center, which have different direct damages and DoTs. The whole spell grows when you charge the spell, and these 3 zones grow in proportion to the spell. These 3 zones have these radiuses from the entire spell:
1) center 0-25%,
2) mid 25-75%,
3) far 75-100%.
But you can't see them directly, you only see a rune ring and its outer radius is 100%. The empty circle inside the ring takes about 50% of the whole spell - that should give you an idea where these 3 zones are.

On cataclysm:
Center zone oneshots slaves with direct damage.
Mid zone kills slaves with direct damage+DoT.
Center zone kills clanrats with direct damage+DoT.

Fully charged spell also creates firepatch on the ground that lasts for 4 seconds, if a rat (normal or armored) will stand there for the whole duration, total dmg will be 4 or 5 to him. But rats are getting pushed away from the center of the firepatch, makes more sense to do it when there are walls around. It can kill slaverats that were in far zone, or clanrats that were in mid zone. Other un-hit rats will try to avoid the firepatch, running around it to get to you.

When a horde of slaverats comes, depending on your surroundings you can block the entire horde from advancing to you or at least half of it (when the other half goes from the other direction). Wait a bit, so rats will gather a bit, and cast fully charged spell, aim it so the rune ring will cover all space in the passage (between walls) and aim it to cover as many closest rats as possible. After the firepatch is deployed, slaves inside the radius will die, other slaves, that were running behind, will stop (if there is no way around), after that you almost immediately start charging a 2nd spell aiming at the gathered rats to kill even more. Don't wait long, firepatch lasts for about 4 seconds.

Generated heat from charged attack: 3-8 if you do it before getting the full charge, 12 with full charge.

A stormvermin can be pushed only if he stands inside 0-75% radius of the charged spell, he is pushed away from the center of the spell. Learn to push stormvermins away, and not into your ranks. Conflagration can be used as a tool for crowd controlling. Using half or slightly charged spells its easy to stagger rats / stormvermins that try to hurt your team, and you can decide in what direction to throw your enemies.

With conflagration staff you can kill a packmaster that runs through the horde to get you.

On nightmare bloodlust instead of regrowth will be ok.

I prefer distraction instead of stability / channeling rune. Stability reduces heat generation by 10%, channeling rune reduces damage of venting overcharge by 20%. I understand that heat mechanic is limiting combat capabilities greatly, and so you might think that these traits are a must have. Lets compare: without stability you can throw 21 fireballs (with primary attack on fireball / conflagration) maximum and then you explode. With stability each fireball will cost 10% less heat and you will be able to throw 23 fireballs before exploding. Its a tiny difference, same with channeling rune which reduces damage you get from venting from 5 to 4, when you have 100 hp on cataclysm (without grims). Distraction on the other hand can be invaluable in some situations, on cataclysm rats don't mess around and beat downed teammates to death very quickly. This trait heals downed teammate by big portion of HP, when you hit any rat that in state of combat against the downed. It works well with weapons that hit multiple targets in one shot. Though i recommend to use this trait on Bright wizard only because she dont have better alternatives.

[ranged, pt.2]

-bolt staff

bloodlust

hail of doom

inspirational shot

Anti special weapon on cata, on NM can also mow slave rats with primary attack.

Normal attack deals 3.5 dmg vs normal targets (with +0.5 headshot) and generates only 1 heat. You can help in clearing the way of clanrats that are spread throughout the level, on any difficulty.

Charged attack have 3 levels of charge:
1) after 0.5 s.--- dmg*: 6 / 2.5 / 12 --- targets: 2 --- heat: 4
2) after 0.8 s.--- dmg*: 8 / 4 / 24 --- targets: 2 --- heat: 6
3) after 1.25 s.--- dmg*: 10 / 8 / 35 --- targets: 5 --- heat: 8
*Dmg: normal / armored / resistant (ogre-packmaster)
All have headshot multi x3.5.

See Waywatcher's trueflight longbow to understand how guidance system works on multiple normal targets (slaves, clanrats) and how to place headshots more reliably.

Like trueflight arrow, charged bolt projectile wont penetrate armor. So it hits only 1 stormvermin. Locked on projectile can hit several normal targets, and only first should recieve a headshot, others recieve shot in the body.

Countdown starts after you press RMB, not when your mage starts to draw fire from the staff. When 3rd level of charge is reached you will hear a sound effect.

On nightmare, 1st level charge kills rattling gunner, 2nd level charge kills stormvermin.
On cataclysm, 2nd level charge kills rattling gunner, 3rd level charge kills stormvermin.
Globadier, assassin, packmaster will die from 1st level charge at any difficulty.

At close ranges it's harder to headshot a stormvermin with the charged projectile, because he moves his head more and the projectile have less distance to fly (and the projectile starts to guide towards the head only after it flew for about 1-2m from you), so try to stay away, or use primary attack, or aim for the head manually with charged spell.

Vs ogre do 2nd or 3rd level charge attacks. Headshots will do good damage. If he is aggroed to you, dodge his attacks with 1h weapon (because longer dodges) and shoot between his attacks, better with 2nd level charge - you might not have enough time to do 3rd level charge and dodge afterwards, and the head is easier to hit when the ogre just recently finished his attack.

Hail of doom: Second projectile will hit the same target or seek another target - it depends on whether the enemy survived first projectile. So if you got 2 stormvermins and one of them died from your spell, 2nd projectile will try to hit another stormvermin but in the body. 2nd projectile from hail of doom can find its way even if those 2 enemies stand in a row relatively to you, but if 2 stormvermins stand in line, then that 2nd projectile wont hit the last stormvermin, it'll just hit the dead body of first stormvermin. 2nd projectile spawned from HoD doesn't generates heat (unlike charged beam attack explosion).

-beam staff

regrowth /
bloodlust

distraction

skirmisher

Multi-purpose staff, with it you can deal with everything.
Primary is shotgun blast which deals maximum damage at 0-2m range. Its good vs slaves, they will die from blast + fire DoT in one shot at 0-3m on cata (0-6m on nightmare).

Charged is constant beam, if you press Lmb while charging, you'll do beam explosion, which is your primary tool vs specials. You can press Rmb for a slight moment to get into charged state and then Lmb to make fast beam explosion, it can be inaccurate at medium distances though. If you hold charged beam and it hits your enemy the first time, then after that beam explosion will be dead accurate. While you hold your beam at the enemy, you can hear a sound effect when enemy takes damage from the beam (not DoT). It ticks every half-second or less, it doesnt matter, you should just notice this.

To kill specials on cataclysm:
Packmaster - damage him with beam once and then explode him.
Gunner - damage him with beam two times and then explode.
Globadier / Assassin - damage them with 3 beam hits and then explode.
Stormvermin - damage him with beam for 2 hits and then explode, vent a bit of heat if you can, then do one more beam explosion after one beam hit.

Vs ogre you just use beam at him non stop. It is effective even without strength potion, beam will steadily decrease ogre's HP. When you hold the beam on a single target, the beam will start to increase its "rate of fire", so the longer you hold the beam - the better damage output will be (for a period of time), but should you miss the selected enemy with one damage tick - the "rate of fire" will be reseted. A good scenario is when you have plenty of distance between you and the ogre, and your teammate carries an explosive bomb. When the ogre is close, you can wait until he will aggro to the other player, then you start using beam. To not lose your "rate of fire" when the ogre is close and aggroed to you, you can backpedal and dodge with the staff to evade his attacks. To not risk: switch to 1h sword for a moment when he's about to hit you and dodge back (still holding RMB), then switch to beam again.

On cataclysm for beam staff regrowth is probably better, cause shotgun blast often kills slaves with fire DoT, after rats are knocked back with blast, so if you shoot full hp slaves with shotgun attack and then quickly switch to sword, then bloodlust on beam wont work at all. Also teammates can finish off burned rats, and vs clanrats beam blast is a 2 shot kill with fire DoT (which applies after knockback effect), so chances that you are gonna heal with bloodlust are not too great. On nightmare shotgun blast can oneshot slaves without fire DoT, so bloodlust will be viable in horde fights there, but not much vs clanrats.
But no matter the difficulty, with beam's ray attack you hit specials and ogre frequently, so regrowth with that attack will proc more often than bloodlust, compensating for less heal per proc.

2nd trait is distraction, it's explained in conflagration staff.
Skirmisher is a little useful vs ogre and groups of stormvermins.

With damage boon (+25% dmg) slaves will die just from the shotgun blast at 0-2m (cataclysm). Beam explosion will deal 10 dmg instead of 8 dmg vs armored, so u can 2-body-shot cata stormvermin and 1-body-shot cata rattling gunner without the need to do damage by holding the beam.

========EMPIRE SOLDIER:=====================================

                                                     

-1h sword

killing blow	regrowth_light	off balance
bloodlust	swift slaying_light / devastating blow	<any>		<- for nightmare

Same properties as of Bright wizard 1h sword, read it for more info.

About killing blow variant (on cata):
With these traits and the right playstyle in mind and good team coordination, this weapon will serve you well, but blue 1h mace with killing blow (and damage boon - to bring dmg values up to the orange mace) - is a more all-around weapon, compared to 1h sword its drawbacks aren't very essential: no damage to 3rd and 4th target hit, and less headshot damage, and it's preferable to have the damage boon. Mace's light attack hits infinite targets (1h sword - only 4) with much better stagger, proccing killing blow on hit. Mace have charged attack that oneshots cata clanrat (with dmg boon) and it have good effectiveness vs a stormvermin, interrupts all it's attacks and pushes it for some distance. 1h sword charged attack have little use on cataclysm, it cant kill, it can't control the crowd good enough (stun times are short). 1h mace can deal good dmg to single targets and good dmg to infinite targets, it can get you out of more dangerous situations.

1h sword have longer animations of getting in and out of block state, compared to 1h mace. That means combo breaking gives worse results, there is more delay between series of 2 light attacks. And that isn't good considering 1h sword hits 4 targets max.

-1h mace

scavenger	regrowth_light	devastating blow / improved guard / perfect balance		<- orange, for shotgunner
killing blow	regrowth_light			<- blue
killing blow	scavenger			<- blue, for shotgunner
bloodlust	devastating blow / swift slaying_light	<any>		<- orange, for nightmare

Similar to Dwarf ranger's 1h hammer. Unfortunately killing blow can't be rolled on the orange mace. Blue mace charged attack is 8 dmg vs clanrats, to oneshot them at cataclysm you'll need damage boon from contracts table (+25% dmg).

Orange mace do oneshots clanrats with charged attack on cata, but lack of killing blow hurts this variant, but at least you'll have both scavenger and healing trait.

-2h hammer

Same as Dwarf ranger's

-2h sword

Same as Witch hunter's

[melee, pt.2]

-2h sword executioner

bloodlust	devastating blow	swift slaying_light / perfect balance / improved pommel / improved guard / endurance		<- orange
killing blow	regrowth_light			<- blue, for cataclysm

Here is a list[docs.google.com] of possible trait combos for blue&orange executioner sword provided by Kyrial.
Keep the blue quality if you got it, orange can't roll killing blow trait.



-> Light attack
Damage of orange sword:
Vs normal: (3)-(1.2)-(1.2)-(1.2)-(1.2)
Vs armored: (0)
Vs resistant: (12)-(6)-(6)-(6)-(6)

Damage of blue sword:
Vs normal: (2.5)-(1)-(1)-(1)-(1)
Vs armored: (0)
Vs resistant: (10)-(4)-(4)-(4)-(4)

Hits infinite number of normal targets with decent stagger, but with not so good stun durations.
Headshot multiplier is x5 vs all types.
Interrupts only sweeping attack of stormvermin.

Note: When your melee attack don't have armor penetration and deals 0 damage to the body of armored target, then if you do a headshot on armored target - you will deal damage, equal to your headshot bonus vs normal type enemy.
For example:
-Rapier light attack have x3 headshot vs normal rats and 0 damage vs armored, when you headshot a stormvermin you will deal 3 dmg.
-2h sword light attack have +1 headshot vs normal rats and 0 damage vs armored, when you headshot a stormvermin you will deal 1 dmg.

If you headshot a stormvermin with light attack of executioner sword (blue or orange), you will deal 5 dmg, it doesn't matter how much normal targets got hit before your attack reached the stormvermin.

Combo consists of 4 light attacks with same characteristics, except for angles. First two attacks are horizontal, last two attacks are angled. If you attack after pushing, you will start from 3rd light attack in combo.



-> Charged attack
Damage of orange sword:
Vs normal: (10)
Vs armored: (7)
Vs resistant: (30)

Damage of blue sword:
Vs normal: (6)
Vs armored: (5.5)
Vs resistant: (25)

Headshot multiplier is x2 vs all types.
Very long charge time.
Interrupts all stormvermin attacks.

-> Push and dodge
All is the same as on 2h sword:
2nd level push with +12.5% push reach compared to the standard.
Not the worst dodge type.



-> Impressions
Charged attack is slow, it takes a long time to charge it, not worth using for most of the time. This weapon isn't good for killing stormvermins, on both difficulties. Yes, 1 charged headshot from orange sword will kill nightmare stormvermin, but the long charge time means you risk a lot, exposing yourself to every rat around. Also while you charge the attack for that long time, the stormvermin's head can change its position many times. That makes headshotting more harder than usual. Vs clanrats on cataclysm - you better headshot them with light attack.

Executioner sword is suited for fast killing of ambient clanrats and slaverat hordes. Use first two light attacks in combo, avoid doing last two attacks, break the combo by tapping block after the end of the 2nd attack.

Vs single clanrats, aim precisely for the head.

Vs multiple rats aim at the head level and move the camera to the side to hit more targets, the style have similarities with the style of killing blow version of 2h sword: face the horde, control it with your attacks, dodge sideways/backwards, better to not stop attacking. The difference is, that you need to look where your weapon goes and where are the rats heads to adjust your aim, that worsens your awareness a bit, for example: the rats on the flanks can be overlooked. Pushing is problematic - you start from the 3rd light attack in combo after that, which is angled and not good for a fight vs horde. Can be solved by holding block button a bit longer after the push, you wait until the animation of putting the block will start to play - then you release the block button and start attacking.

Using block to stun some enemies like was described in Waywatcher's 1h sword isn't ideal too, because from the moment you started the light attack (after getting out of block state), it takes a relatively long time for the attack to reach the enemy in front of you. When in contact with multiple rats, they might not give you the long enough opening. While you can take care of yourself vs 4-6 rats, it won't be easy for you to handle the horde alone.

This weapon shows its strong sides when you play on cataclysm, where your headshots can do impressive damage on clanrats and slaverats. On nightmare executioner sword is nothing special, you still need to headshot rats to do reasonable damage, and other weapons can kill with same or better speed without the need for headshotting.

The fact that the blue sword have less damage from light attacks than orange - doesn't matter on cataclysm, considering the HP values of normal rats. Killing blow compensates one of the biggest flaws of this weapon: low damage to the body. Headshotting single clanrats isn't hard, but still they can be in an uncomfortable animation, like turning their back to your sword. Headshotting multiple slaverats - you rely more or less on luck, aiming at certain level, while enemies in attack animations can move their heads up or down, also the hands or other parts of the body can get in the way. I view the blue version as the best executioner sword: to the great headshot damage it adds the insta-kill chance for slaverats, that was hit not in the head, and for clanrats too.

[ranged]

-handgun

Same as Dwarf ranger's

-repeater handgun

mastercrafted_reload

ammo holder /
scavenger

hail of doom /
scavenger /
extra capacity

After 1.8 patch:
Repeater handgun is like brace of pistols of Witch hunter, but does everything x2 times better.

The damage is buffed:
[6 / 2.5 / 12]* -> [8 / 4 / 24] vs [normal / armored / resistant].
*The same values as from brace of pistols.

Charged mode is buffed:
Noticeably faster rate of fire (it was already faster than the ROF of brace of pistols).
Much less recoil - more control (one of the biggest weaknesses of the weapon - is no more).

The shot now staggers stormvermins and interrupts sweeping attacks, but not overheads. A stormvermin can't get close to you simply because your shots stop him. Shots from brace of pistols do not affect stormvermin movement in any way.

Nerfs:
A bit slower rate of fire in normal mode.
Headshot multiplier from x2 -> x1.5 vs all types.
You move slower when you shoot in charged mode.

Other stats:
Magazine is 8 bullets, 12 with extra capacity.
Penetrates 1 target by default.
Total ammo: 64, 84 with ammo holder.


Mastercrafted_reload is very useful, compensates the flaw of this weapon - magazine (like rupture compensates the flaw of brace of pistols). You can do active reloading - when a magazine is spent you press R yourself, it's faster this way. Why mastercrafted_reload is valuable: in worst cases when surrounded by a lot of enemies, you need to fight in melee and also find the time for shooting and reloading, time is important. For example, you have empty magazine and 2 stormvermins approach you. After emptying magazine you reload faster and so you can switch to melee faster and protect yourself. And when you need constant fire, your repeater can deliver it.

Rapid firing is done like this: you hold RMB, then click and hold LMB. No need to wait until barrels will start rotating, when the left hand touches the weapon - you can press LMB.

The tactic of usage:
Destroy stormvermins at close-medium range.
Destroy rat ogres under strength effect.
Shoot specials.
Ammo crate is close or soon will be found - shoot everything that moves.

Look for the damage boon table (before general tips), repeater handgun becomes noticeably more powerful with damage boon.

A way to improve the DPS in charged mode:
For example your maximum mag size is 8.
Hold RMB always. Start rapid firing and stop firing by releasing LMB to have 1-2 bullets left in the magazine (better if 1), press reload button right after you released LMB. And right after your gun is loaded (you can see the exact moment by looking for ammo counter next to the weapon icon: 8 | 30 ) press and hold LMB to start firing, keep firing until 1-2 bullets are left, and so on. This way you won't waste time for the spinning animation.

-blunderbuss

mastercrafted	scavenger	ammo holder / rupture
mastercrafted	scavenger	bloodlust		<- preferable

Same role as Dwarf ranger's grudge raker (read it for some info on shotguns). Use active reload: when the barrel is on its highest after the shot press R. Conserve ammo, your main targets are groups of clanrats and slaves. Secondary bash is the same as raker's.

Effective range 0-15m. At this range each pellet deals at least 5 dmg (6 max) vs normal type enemy. Blunder have 12 pellets per shot (x1.5 more than raker's) with more spread and less rate of fire, compared to grudge raker. Each pellet hits 3 targets in line. While having almost the same ammo count as grudge raker, so the blunderbuss is more ammo-efficient. Because it have no magazine and slower rate of fire, it takes time to adjust after grudge raker, group your enemies a bit more before shooting.

I dont recommend putting targeteer, it doesnt affects dmg drop-off, it only reduces spread. Rats tend to spread out and they get close very quick, i view the big spread of blunderbuss as it's advantage, each of 12 pellets deals good dmg. Rupture isn't a bad trait, but the penetration is already good.

Cause of x1.5 more pellets and a bit more dmg of each vs armor, blunder deals noticeably more damage to stormvermins than raker. To deal maximum damage bash stormvermin with secondary attack and shoot in the head (or a bit lower) at point blank range. You can potentionally kill stormvermin with 2 shots, with 1 precise shot dealing from 10 to 12 damage. But thats not easy in a combat situation when normal rats are mixed. Also shotgun shot will interrupt only sweeping attack of stormvermin, but not overhead. Secondary bash interrupts all stormvermin attacks, but overhead attack interruption works like from shield's charged attack, you can interrupt overhead only if you hit that stormvermin as your first target.

It wrecks patrols with strength potion active, a stormvermin will die in 1 bodyshot at about 0-8m, and each pellet penetrates 2 targets. No need to get very close, the main thing is to make it so every pellet will hit some stormvermin.


Full melee+ranged setups:
I recommend using this shotgun with those 1h maces that i marked, cause they have scavenger, they are good for killing single rats and will keep you mobile with those long dodges.

Examples:
1)
1h mace [scavenger + regrowth_light + devastating blow]
blunderbuss [mastercrafted + scavenger + bloodlust]

2) <- damage boon is needed for cataclysm
blue 1h mace [scavenger + killing blow]
blunderbuss [mastercrafted + scavenger + bloodlust]

3)
1h mace [bloodlust + devastating blow + perfect balance]
blunderbuss [mastercrafted + scavenger + rupture]

^ 1-2 variants are more universal, 3rd variant have rupture, which is worth it only in very close quarter maps (Castle Drachenfels, The Dungeons, Khazid Kro, etc.), where you often have a horde that runs through a single corridor with very high density.


When 3-4 clanrats fly away as dead meat just from 1 shot, you understand how awesome blunderbuss is.

============SHIELDS:========================================

                                                     

There are 4 shields, axe+shield and hammer+shield are for the dwarf, sword+shield and mace+shield are for the soldier. They have much in common, so they are combined in a separate section.

If you want to play as a shielder on cataclysm, then, in my opinion, the best choice is blue hammer+shield and blue mace+shield with traits: killing blow+regrowth_light. If you are on nightmare, then i can recommend orange quality shield of any type. Although sword+shield have the light attack that feels underpowered, both in fights vs clanrats and hordes.

Note: You cant roll killing blow trait on orange shields, but the trait is available for blue shields.

To explain my opinion, i'll start with the damage:

Most of 1h weapons without shield and all shield weapons have damage values, that are balanced around nightmare.
On nightmare:
Slaverat have 3 HP.
Clanrat have 6 HP.
Sword/mace/hammer type weapon deals from (3)-(2) to (3)-(2)-(2)-(2) damage with light attack, sword types have x2 headshot multi. Light attack of axe deals 6 damage. Shield charged attack deals 3.5 damage to 1 target, with no headshot bonus.
So on nightmare with any orange shield your killing speed of clanrats/slaverats is good enough.


On cataclysm:
Slaverat have 5 HP.
Clanrat have 10 HP.
1h swords/hammers/maces (without shield) can be made effective again by adding the killing blow trait.
But killing blow is unavailable for orange shields. And light attacks of shields - are the nerfed versions of 1h weapons, with worse speed, more delay between attacks, etc. As if that wasn't enough, the 1h axe and 1h sword (soldier's) even without a shield have some issues on cataclysm:

-1h axe feels out of place, because it can't one-body-shot clanrats anymore (with light attack, and charged attack is way too slow). It feels as a high risk - low reward weapon.
-1h sword hits 4 targets with light attack - it might be not enough. Weakest stagger (from light attack). Combo breaking takes a relatively long time (compared to 1h mace). Charged attack have little use (1h sword should have high damage charged attack vs single target, like the charged of 1h mace).

If you use shield charged attack, your killing speed is practically halved when you fight a slaverat horde (compared to nightmare).
Thus, any attack of all orange shields is too ineffective at killing toughened up rats. All that remains to you is pure crowd control.

Pure crowd control.

And pure crowd control means you are bashing with shield, or pushing, or attacking with mace - to keep the rats of a horde stunned.
Obvious problems arise:
1st: your attack/push reach is limited - by doing 1 action you stun only those rats that stand close to you. By pushing the horde once, almost instantly you become targeted again by many rats, that were out of reach in the moment you made the push. Rats of a horde tend to flank you and they don't get in contact with you all at once, by pushing/bashing you too make them more dispersed.
2nd: stun times aren't long, it's cataclysm where the rats have
"stun time" = "stun time on normal difficulty" x 0.6.
3rd: for example, you push a rat with devastating blow shield push, he starts to fly away, right after that the rat is hitted mid-flight by a teammate that wields 1h sword. That rat will suddenly appear standing on the ground, playing stagger animation from 1h sword, and after 0.5 second he will continue his hostile actions. So the last stagger+stun overwrites all previus staggers+stuns. In the current example your honest work of crowd controller is devalued by your teammate.

^ Considering these 3 points, to do something useful in a horde fight, you must bash/push rats non-stop. If there is maximum 1 other player helping you killing enemies that you control, you are stuck in contact with the enemy for an extended periods of time. And that is very risky, except when you hold very narrow passage, but even then there is an unneeded risk, depending on the number of rats you control. This action (always staying in contact) is the opposite of the General tip #2, that uses the trading of rats aggro and the fact that players can go through each other - these 2 things give you an ability to kill rats and stay safe at the same time.

Rats, when they have the numbers (>3-5 rats) try to surround you, if you move back or to the side (to not get surrounded and attacked from all sides) - then every single rat will start to make fast attacks on the run, that have a high chance of hitting you between your (for example) charged shield attacks.
If you stay on place - it isn't ideal too:
1) They might surround you and force you to attack in multiple directions, then you won't be able to control them all just by yourself, blows will start to land on you or your block. And if you stopped attacking and put a block on, then the rats won't let you start an attack simply because a horde can attack you each ~0.5 second. A one rat doesnt wait its turn to strike you.
2) Even if they won't surround you (narrow passage), the rats have about the same attack reach as you, but the crucial difference is, that they use it to the full extent. Because their attack range is presented as a circle with the rat in the center of it. If you stand inside it - you will get hit. Your actual attack range, if we talk about mace/hammer's light attack, - depends from the position of your weapon relative to the rat's body. Or on what level your weapon is when it passes a rat: ground, leg, chest, head, air. If you fight 1 rat - you might not notice this - cause you aim with the crosshair directly at that rat and at the chest-head level. The swing passes through the crosshair and hits the part of rat's body which is the closest to you (chest-head area). But when you try to hit multiple rats - problems may occur, like not reaching 1-2 rats from the group of 8, you may not notice this and get wounded. This was about mace/hammer light attack. Shield charged attack works in a different way, you actually hit 1 target, and from that target a push effect is created in a form of a mini explosion, or a "bubble", that pushes away other rats in a certain radius. So the results may wary. For example, the 1st rat is very close, then the bubble might not reach some distant rats that making an attack at you.
3) Half of the rats (roughly speaking) have the tricky animation of standing attack, that put them further from you while it plays and right until they will land their blow. While preparing an attack, these rats do 2 short steps back and also they lean back. (More in General tip #8)

[shields, pt.2]

Shield charged attack also have other issues:
(of axe/sword+shield)
It takes time to charge the attack, you can't do it instantly - the game needs to register that you're holding the mouse button. Charged attacks are only feel fast when you continue doing them non stop after the first one. And it's important how fast you can finish the first attack from the block state: after you made a push or blocked an attack. Even when you start the push action from the block state against many rats - an enemy can hit you before your push will happen (lag adds the possibility of this scenario).

Because shield attack rewards spamming and may punish stoppings, usually a shielder will do this attack non-stop and will push frontside rats away quite noticeably, or multiple groups of rats in separate directions with a less effect. Shield charged attack have similar power as 2nd level push, rats do a few steps back from it.
That brings these problems:
1) Every rat gets pushed away far enough, so teammates attacks have less chance to hit them, and crowd killing melee weapons are most effective when their attacks hit the maximum targets allowed. Again, with how rat's aggro is easily traded, even with 2 players it's not hard to kill a horde. If a shielder will be pushing/bashing rats away, the rats will just return again, spread out, every rat will be launching an attack at a different time.

2) By doing this a shielder might encourage the team to break formation and pursue the stunned rats, that makes any player more vulnerable. In corridors it's not a big deal, the team can move forward then, no problem, but anyway the team doesn't need much help in crowd control there.

^These 2 problems also concern the shield push, especially with devastating blow trait.

Combining everything i said:

(About controlling just the horde, on cataclysm, with an orange shield)
Pure crowd control is too risky, gives not much benefit to the team, and may reduce the DPS of other 3 players vs a horde. While doing pure crowd control, the shielder heavily depends on somebody that will kill the aggroed rats. And not always there will be a teammate to babysit the shielder: someone can die, someone might need to hold another direction vs rats, or kite the ogre, etc. In stressful situations, like when only 2 players are left alive, the shield shows its true weaknesses, which you may not notice when you have a full 4 player team.

Crowd controling (of a horde) with negligible damage - by using shield charged attacks or mace/hammer light attacks - can be illustrated with a bathtub half full of water and a man that is trying his best to keep the water at one side of the bath, by using a shovel. And he also risks his life doing this.

Just throwing normal rats around - is not the way to truly make the situation less dangerous. First moments of combat vs a horde are the most tough: there is a lot of rats in contact with you. When you're equipped with 1h/2h weapon that have a multi-target attack, then to not get wounded you can use the aggro-trading tactic as described in General tip #2, kiting tactic as described in Waywatcher's 1h sword, side-ways dodging, and of course the attacks themselves give you crowd control capabilities. You use your skill to kill rats and avoid getting hit. By reducing the amount of rats by killing them you make it easier to deal with the rest, and so on, until every rat is dead. But with an orange shield on cataclysm, you are being under pressure full-time by a large amount of rats (unless somebody kills all rats for you, and quickly), your attacks don't do enough damage to make a difference.

Another reasons why the killing speed of normal rats is important:
- Specials can be a problem when you're swarmed. Imagine you are defending near the window at the final event of Horn of Magnus. Waves of normal rats spawn periodically. If your team kills the waves quick, then the periods of time when no normal enemy is around (or there is little of them) - these periods will be longer. Should an assassin or a packmaster spawn in these moments of respite - they are easy targets. When your kill speed is slow, hordes will stack near your team, and taking out any special becomes a harder task during the whole event.
- You need to move and do some objective (carrying barrels/statues, breaking chains), or you need to escape, while rats spawn periodically. The only way is to kill on the move.

On cataclysm not only shields kill slower, of course, but other weapons as well. So the team needs all the power it can get, and by bringing an orange shield you handicap your team even more. Theoretically 3 players can do good enough damage, but it still be roughly 75% of max potential. If they are skilled and alive, which you certainly can't guarantee in a pub cata game.

I encourage you to test orange shields on cataclysm, or observe what a shielder does, to see for yourself whether my statements were true.

The real purpose of shields.

A shielder can control stormvermins better than anyone. Either with high reach push and a lot of stamina (10), or with charged shield attack.
If stormvermins will suddenly disappear from the game, there will be no point in shields, imo.
All other players without shields can control and kill normal rats with no problem (as was said before). But when a stormvermin approaches the team, mixed in horde, the attacks of other players are become stuck in the stormvermin, in result, some normal rats will be free to continue hostile actions. Plus, not all melee weapons can interrupt stormvermin's horizontal attack, and very few of them can interrupt stormvermin's overhead attack, which brings the most trouble. So it's dangerous to attack with melee the stormvermin, that is surrounded by a horde, and usually it takes some time to kill even a lone stormvermin using melee attacks.

A shielder pushes stormvermins and gives other teammates time to shoot them. Because the stormvermin is pushed away, other player's attacks now can control the normal rats again. A shielder is important in case of holding a spot with no place to retreat, for example when 1-3 stormvermins come at you with a horde at the final event of Horn of Magnus, Cursed Rune, Wizard's Tower etc.

When a team moves through a level fighting ambient clanrats and stormvermins, usually there is enough place to evade stormvermins, so a shielder is less needed in these fights.

Don't try to control the stormvermin patrol, except when in dire need.

2 shields in 1 team - is too much. A team needs 1 player to control the stormvermins, no more, no less. When a team is already have a shielder, more damage per second is a priority.

[shields, pt.3]

Blue mace+shield or hammer+shield.

^ they can control stormvermins good enough and also they can do real help in clearing hordes (on cataclysm) (and also the 2h hammer).

Recommended trait combo: killing blow + regrowth_light.

About light attack:
- While being slower, than the light attack of 1h mace/hammer, it retains the most important qualities: infinite targets per swing, the same decent stagger and stun values, good angles of attack.
- Slower speed isn't purely a bad thing, it has its advantage: you can attack in wider angle (by moving the camera). But remember, when the 2nd light attack is in motion, assist it by moving the crosshair up at the end, to mimic the 1st light attack which have almost horizontal angle. Also you can crouch during that attack, so you'll have less chance to miss any rat in your attack area. And you can do side-dodges to extend your hitting area even more, while evading some of enemy attacks.
- Mace/hammer+shield have not bad speed of combo breaking, not as good as on 1h hammer/mace, but still it's decent. So you can do series of 2 light attacks with little delay between the series.
- Light attacks don't throw the rats out of melee range, they make rats move sideways in relation to the team, so rats will remain in hitting range of any teammate, being stunned. Although some rats can get too far to the side, other teammates and you too should watch out for these rats. But it won't happen when you fight in a narrow passage or near a wall.
- Damage of blue mace/hammer: (2.5)-(1.5) vs normal. Of orange: (3)-(2) vs normal. This downgrade isn't really matter on cataclysm. But on nightmare blue mace/hammer will have major disadvantages: it won't kill a slaverat in 1 swing, or a clanrat with 2 swings.

When fighting just the normal rats (slaves/clanrats) you can act as a normal fighter, killing enemies, doing real help for the team, no one needs your pushing/bashing, except in rare occasions, when someone is downed for example. Although, your damage output will still be weak against single clanrats. Killing blow will matter much more when you face more than 2-3 enemies. Don't think that 15% chance means every 6 attacks 1 rat dies, in fight vs many rats this chance increases because you hit multiple targets per swing.

With blue hammer/mace+shield you are more likely to survive if separated (for example when others are busy dealing with other threats, such as rats from other direction, or ogre), than with an orange shield (on cataclysm). Even a stormvermin with rats isn't a big problem. Your light attack can stun the stormvermin for a little time if he isn't doing the overhead attack, and also have the chance to instantly kill him.


Shield push vs shield charged attack (of sword/axe variant):
(in context of controlling a stormvermin mixed in a horde)
- The push is quickier and safer to do, because you start it from block state, no need to charge the attack.
- The push works 360 degrees. Shield charged attack have not bad area of effect, but it might be not enough, considering how the normal rats like to flank players.
- The push interrupts any stormvermin attack. Shield charged attack will interrupt the stormverin's overhead attack only if he is the first target that got hit.
- The push uses stamina. Shield charged attack can be done without any limits.

Mace/hammer variant, unlike sword/axe variant, have very slow shield charged attacks - they are not worth using.
The push is the main tool for stormvermin control of mace/hammer+shield.
When controlling stormvermins mixed in a horde, push when necessary - when the stormvermin prepares his attack or if he is close enough. Your light attacks provide decent crowd controling of normal rats, so you can save the stamina for stormvermins mostly. You can control 1-3 stormvermins long enough to give teammates time to shoot them. Don't forget that if you dodge - your stamina regeneration stops for a moment.


2nd downside of blue quality shield (hammer/mace variant):
(the 1st is damage, which is negligible on cataclysm)
2 trait slots instead of 3.
On blue quality we have [killing blow] + [regrowth_light], on orange quality the most reasonable trait combo is:
[regrowth_light] + [devastating blow] + [some stamina related trait].

As stated before, the main reason of having a shielder in a team - to keep stormvermins under control. I tested how the shield push affects stormvermins, with and without devastating blow. In my experience, the only difference is, that the stormvermin travels more distance (a few steps more), when pushed with devastating blow. But the duration of throw back animation of the stormvermin - remains the same. The throw back animation simply plays faster, when the stormvermin is pushed with devastating blow. After that animation, in both cases, the stormvermin starts to move freely. And stormvermins have relatively fast move speed. Considering everything, devastating blow trait is unessential for stormverin control.

Stamina traits give slight benefits you may not even need. The most important qualities of crowd control weapon are already there: the push have highest reach, 10 stamina (5 pushes).

Killing blow trait, which upgrades the light attack damage output of blue hammer/mace+shield from weak to quite decent (vs horde) - is worth 2 of stamina/devastating blow traits. Healing trait is important too. Both traits are directed at keeping you alive, and killing blow helps your team too by reducing the amount of rats.

Tanking tactic:

You can just put a block on and stand infront of your team, blocking the passage for a horde.
When tanking, dont dodge - it'll stop your stamina regeneration. Always keep an eye on your stamina level. When you are close to 0 stamina, start moving to your team (with block on) to hide from the rats. After you regrouped and most of the rats changed their target, start attacking the horde.

+ of this tactic:
1) Rats that are aggroed to you become easy targets for other teammates.
2) When a horde comes, you can gather a lot of rats in a small area. It's a dream come true for a player with conflagration staff, fireball staff, beam staff, shotgun, drakefire pistols, hagbane bow, or for any player with a grenade.
3) You can take the attention of most of the rats on yourself - so your teammates will have an easier time shooting some dangerous special.
4) With red mace+shield this tactic makes the most sense when you play on cataclysm, as you can debuff enemies quite good (with off balance trait).

- of this tactic:
1) Many rats (>6) will break your block quickly, with any stamina trait. Without a help, you can hold the horde only for a short periods of time. Teammates should watch over for you, killing those rats you stopped by shooting or attacking with melee, not aggroing too much rats on themselves.
2) Useless if teammates will rush into the horde non-stop.
3) When traversing the map and fighting clanrats and stormvermins - usually there is not enough rats to justify this tactic.

[shields, pt.4]

Shield charged attack and the interruption of stormvermins attacks:
Charged shield attack interrupts stormvermin's sweeping attack no matter if he is first or not the first target that got hit by your attack. And overhead stormvermin attack can be interrupted only if he is first target that got hit (for example if he is alone).

Note about devastating blow:
I dont know what part of it is a bug:
Devastating blow trait can upgrade weapon's attack so it will be able to interrupt stormvermin overhead attack. The general rule is: if an attack of your weapon can interrupt only sweeping attack of stormvermin by default, then with dev.blow trait your attack will be able to interrupt overhead attack too. This affects shields like this: If devastating blow trait is on the shield, then with charged shield attack you can interrupt overhead attacks of stormvermin no matter how many targets got hit before your attack reached the stormvermin in question (example: you'll interrupt 2 stormvermins that do overhead attack at you). But the whole thing only works for the host, lol. 3 other players with dev. blow on their weapons wont have this upgrade.

[shields, dwarf]

-1h axe and shield

bloodlust

devastating blow

perfect balance /
improved guard /
improved pommel

The comparison of light attacks of axe+shield and 1h axe:
1h axe is faster.
1h axe deals 6 dmg vs normal and 5 dmg vs armored with x1.7 headshot. Axe+shield deals 6 dmg vs normal with +1 headshot and 3.5 dmg vs armored with +0.5 headshot (3rd attack-overhead, have x1.5 headshot vs all types of enemies).
Axe+shield deals less stagger vs normal type enemy than 1h axe.
Light attack of axe+shield wont interrupt any stormvermin attack, 1h axe can interrupt sweeping attack of stormverimn.

-1h hammer and shield

bloodlust	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved guard / improved pommel / endurance		<- orange, for nightmare
regrowth_light	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved guard / improved pommel / endurance		<- orange
killing blow	regrowth_light			<- blue, for cataclysm

With killing blow trait you can kill full hp stormvermin using light attacks, it's usually faster than using weak and slow charged attacks.

Light attack damage of blue hammer+shield vs normal type:
1st-2nd attack: (2.5)-(1.5)
3rd attack: (4)
All with +1 headshot.

On nightmare, blue quality have a disadvantage compared to orange: light attack deals 2.5 dmg instead of 3 dmg. You'll need 2 swings to kill a slaverat and 3 swings to kill a clanrat. Damage boon (+25% dmg) can compensate that though.

[shields, soldier]

-1h sword and shield

bloodlust / regrowth_light	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved guard / improved pommel		<- for cataclysm
bloodlust	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved guard / improved pommel		<- for nightmare

Charged attack have the same damage and about the same speed as the charged attack of Dwarf ranger's axe&shield.
Light attack is weaker against single rats, but better vs multiple slaverats.

Light attack damage vs normal type:
1st attack: (3)-(2)-(2)
2nd-3rd attack: (2)-(2)-(2)
x2 headshot.
^ It's inconvenient, that 2nd and 3rd light attacks don't deal 3 damage to the first target. Because on nightmare slaverat have 3 HP, and clanrat have 6 HP.

If you attack right after the push, it will be the last attack in combo (3rd), and of course, after the combo ends, there is a delay before you can start attacking again. That isn't good. While mace+shield after the push starts with 1st attack in the combo.

Be aware that the stun by the sword is very weak.

-1h mace and shield

bloodlust	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved guard / improved pommel / endurance		<- orange, for nightmare
regrowth_light	devastating blow	perfect balance / improved guard / improved pommel / endurance		<- orange
killing blow	regrowth_light			<- blue, for cataclysm
killing blow	improved guard	off balance		<- red, for enemy debuffing on cataclysm

Same thing as Dwarf ranger's hammer+shield.

Except red quality have Off balance.
Off balance works like this: a rat hits your block, he gets stunned and have red particles above his head, during these 2 seconds the rat will recieve increased damage by your teammates, but not by you.
Damage buff depends on enemy type:
- x3 times more dmg vs normal type enemy (clanrats, slaverats)
- x2 times more dmg vs resistant type enemy (ogre)
- Damage against armored type (stormvermin) is replaced with damage vs normal type enemy
^ It is the same buff like from strength potion (about strength potion look at the end of the guide).

^ Because Off balance buffs damage the same way as strength potion, shotguns will easily kill a stormvermin that got blocked. That opens up an opportunity for this tactic: Dwarf ranger waits with grudge raker, Empire soldier blocks a stormvermin, Dwarf ranger kills him with 1 shot, high5.
Red mace+shield have improved guard, so Empire soldier may not lose any stamina at all.
Handgun is also will be able to kill with 1 bodyshot.

Red mace+shield is useful for debuffing anything with off balance trait, when you play on catalcysm. But the teammates must be patient, which is impossible in most cases.

About blue shield: Blue shield while blocking gives much better view, than orange. I think that soldier's blue shield is the best of all shields in that aspect.

---------------GREEN WEAPONS:---------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                

In this section i'll give you a list of green melee weapons that are cheap to make and are not too bad even on cataclysm (green weapons have only 1 trait, so maximum number of combinations is around ~13).

When the quality of weapon raises from white to orange, the only thing that changes is damage and the maximum number of trait slots. For some weapons we can compensate less damage with killing blow.

Trait - Killing blow:

-2h sword
-rapier
-1h hammer and 1h mace
-hammer+shield and mace+shield

These ones have weak stagger, be aware:
-1h sword (Waywatcher's) <- this one is the hardest to use due to bad angles of attacks
-Sword+dagger <- nice
-Dual swords <- nice
-1h sword (Bright wizard and Empire soldier) <- ok

A good idea is to add regrowth_light if making blue weapons of these types.

---------------DAMAGE BOON--------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                             

Boon is a reward for completing and giving in a quest in quests&contracts table. Damage boon will increase your damage by 25% for ranged&melee vs all types of enemies, for a limited time. It wont expire mid-mission.

It will benefit some weapons more than others, cause enemy is not a single boss, but many many rats, and weapons have all different damage values. The more rats is against you, the more dangerous the situation, so the quicker you reduce enemy numbers, the safer you will be. Ability to one-shot enemies is highly valuable then. And this +25% buff can make some weapons that barely dont reach needed damage values to oneshot enemies, or two-shot them with relatively high speed.

Okay, you got the damage boon, now with what weapon and on what difficulty it will benefit you? Below are tables that show what abilites some weapons will get:

                                                                Cataclysm

Weapon	Attack type	1-body-shots	2-body-shots	1-head-shots
falchion	light	1 slave	1 clanrat
rapier	light		2 slaves
	charged			1 clanrat
2h sword	light	1 slave	1 clanrat
	charged	3 slaves	3 clanrats
glaive	light	2 slaves
	2nd charged	stormvermin
2h hammer	light	1 clanrat / rattling gunner	stormvermin / assassin / globadier
2h axe	light	packmaster
	charged	4 slaves	4 clanrats
2h pick	light	2 slaves	2 clanrats
	partially charged	1 clanrat / packmaster
blue 1h mace	charged	1 clanrat	assassin / globadier
xbow	-	rattling gunner / packmaster	stormvermin
longbow & trueflight	charged	3 clanrats	assassin / globadier / rattling gunner	stormvermin
hagbane bow	charged	all slaves in 2m radius (without 50/50% chance for them to survive with 1 HP)
drakefire pistols	light	1 slave (at distances more than 13m, to unlimited)	1 clanrat (at distances more than 13m, to unlimited)
beam staff	shotgun blast	slaves at 0-2m
	beam explosion	rattling gunner / packmaster	stormvermin	stormvermin
repeater handgun	-	2 clanrats	assassin / globadier / rattling gunner

On cataclysm the damage buff is also good on:
-handgun, it won't oneshot stormvermin in the body, but will deal 15 dmg instead of 12, leaving him with only 5 hp. And it will kill packmaster with 1 bodyshot.
-brace of pistols - 7 shots instead of 8 to kill a stormvermin, 3 shots instead of 4 for assassin and globadier.
-repeater handgun - 4 body shots instead of 5 to kill a stormvermin.
-axe+shield - on single or spreaded clanrats. 1 charged attack and a quick followed light attack to the body will finish a clanrat, after that the next light attack will be overhead, with headshot damage: 7.5*1.5=11.25, just enough to 1-shot-headshot an another clanrat.
-fireball and conflagration staff primary attack vs a clanrat: normally deals 6+2 damage (2 from DoT). With +25% it'll be 7.5+2.5=10 damage, enough to 1-body-shot a cata clanrat. Although, the total damage from DoT can be 1.25 or 2.5, depending on 50/50% chance. Cause the number of damage ticks can be 1, or 2.

                          Nightmare

Weapon	Attack type	1-body-shots	2-body-shots
rapier	charged	1 clanrat
2h hammer	light	packmaster
	charged	1 clanrat
wizard's 1h mace	1st light	1 clanrat
blue 1h mace blue mace+shield blue hammer+shield	light	1 slave	1 clanrat
handgun	-	stormvermin
drakefire pistols	light	1 clanrat (at distances more than 5m, to 13m)
	charged	clanrats at 0-3m

On nightmare the damage buff is also good on:
-repeater handgun - 3 body shots instead of 4 to kill a stormvermin, 1 shot in the body to kill a packmaster.

For more details look in the main guide, i wrote damage numbers for some of these weapons.

---------------GENERAL TIPS---------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Equipment of the team

You need at least 1 shooter that will kill globadiers / rattling gunners quickly at long ranges. And you should have someone that can control stormvermins, like a shielder, 2h hammerer or 2h swordsman with devastating blow. Taking 2 shields in one team isn't recommended.

For cataclysm: If you start a map as a 2 player team, and the probability that more players will join is relatively low, then you should equip accordingly. Any weapon i described is suited well for a duo run (considering difficulty), except:
- any shields
^(except for blue hammer/mace+shield with killing blow+regrowth_light)
- 2h pick
- longbow
1 player should have devastating blow trait to push stormvermins when needed. Equip your 2-player-team like that if you don't want to be dependant from anyone else.

Also, when choosing what melee with what ranged to equip, think about your role. Obviously u cant have both ranged and melee in your hands at the same time. The idea is that ranged weapon should compensate weak sides of melee weapon and vise versa, so you will be helpful to your team in more than one way, and you will be harder to kill too. Choices wont matter much in some cases, for example all Witchhunter's ranged weapons are designed to kill specials, for the most part. Anyway, a right mindset is: "Kill stormvermin with melee? No problem! Kill horde with ranged? Yeah!"

2. Vs horde

This method works with almost all melee weapons:
For example, when you fight the horde, that is coming to you from one direction, as a duo of 2 players, you (i mean you, personally) should get into contact with rats only for a brief moments, to deal strike or two-three, after that break the contact for a moment, cause rats will start focusing all attention to you, then it's time for the other player to get into contact and hack&slash, and those attacks that rats prepared against you wont do him any harm. This player deals 1-3 strikes without risk and when rats, finally recovered from the blows become aggroed to him, it is your turn to get close and do 1-3 strikes (you can do it earlier), when your teammate should block and fall back. This way you trick AI and nobody among you takes damage at all.

Example 2: your team of 3 players is surrounded 180 deg., you move to attack those rats that coming from the right, then those rats that coming from the left, then those to the right (and other players do the same thing as you), and so on, each time you move to do a new swing, targeted rats dont expect you and wont hit you, cause they are aggroed to other players. This is because rats in the first moments of the fight attack closest target. And after a bit of time, the rats, that chase you cause you attacked them - they usually prefer not to go through a player. Basically, you hide behind the teammate from the chase, attacking those rats, that aggroed to that teammate. A rat that is aggroed to you, is getting confused for a moment, when he runs into another player. Only after a second he wakes up and starts to attack that another player he bumped into. The rat may still continuine chasing you (if he's getting close for example), but another player should already be on his way to attack that rat and get his attention. Your teammate helps you by taking aggro of rats that chase you, and you do the same for that teammate, at the same moment. You constantly trading aggro between you and other players. Exploit this AI behaviour to avoid all damage and kill rats at the same time. And yes, 1 or more teammate is needed to make this tactic work! Better if he understands it too.

Also a good advice is to switch "player outlines" to "always on" in settings. Maps are usually dark, and a lot is going on in the heat of battle. Always knowing where your teammates are is key for assisting them and vice versa.

3. Vs ogre

To fight ogres open space is always better (if there is no way to fall off the map).
If ogre spawns with horde, well, all depends on different factors:
If:
1) you have strength potion (and potion share trinket);
2) you have effective ranged weapons vs ogre (one very powerful or several less but still effective weapons);
3) ogre is coming before the horde;
- then you can kill it right away. If at least one of these factors is not present, then you probably should deal with the horde first. 1 or 2 players are distracting the ogre, while 3 or 2 players are clearing the horde with bombs, potions, designated ranged weaponry asap. Exceptions: On DLC map The Dungeons the only choice is to kill ogre asap, cause hordes won't stop coming untill you do that. And on The White Rat hordes wont stop spawning untill you finish the level.

Here is how i rate effectiveness of ranged weapons against ogre, from most to least effective:
1. Perfect
-repeater xbow
-hagbane bow (light shots)
-trueflight longbow (charged headshots)
-repeater handgun (rapid fire)
2. Good
-beam staff (constant ray)
-longbow (charged headshots)
3. Average
-bolt staff (2-3 lvl charge headshots)
-swift bow (light shots with macro command)
-repeater pistol (light shots with macro command)
-brace of pistols
-fireball staff
4. Bad
-conflagration staff (slightly charged attack spam)
-drakefire pistols (light shots)
-xbow
-grudge raker and blunderbuss
-handgun
^This list is here to give you a rough idea, these weapons function differently and effectiveness also depends on combat situation, your skill with each weapon and availability of strength potion and ammo.

Sometimes there is a lot of pre-spawned clanrats sitting around, and when you engage the ogre, they jump in, distracting your team from the ogre. Shotguns in particular can alert rats in a very large area. So in some cases it's better to clear clanrats first, part of the team kites the ogre, only when ogre is alone someone shares strength potion and the team focuses all its firepower on the ogre.

Ogre alone is not dangerous if you know how to evade his attacks. When he's coming to you, keep your distance at your attack reach + a bit more, backpedal to keep distance, but no dodges and blocking, wait for his attack. If he'll start his overhead smash attack (which breaks through block), he'll stop where he was and only then perform an attack, so if you keep backpedalling like you did then this attack won't hurt you (you can dodge to be sure). If he'll start his running attack which is slower, you'll have time to put a block on and mitigate all damage. As a rule, attack him only after he missed you, you have a window for 1-3 strikes depending on your weapon, and do attacks at your maximum reach, you should not get close cause ogre can break through your block. When you attack, aim at rat ogre's head, not only more damage, but also you can attack from a longer range, because the head is the closest part of the rat ogre's body to you. Also you can attack after he hit your block and you were not thrown too far away, but then you do less attacks.

To see what type of attack have better DPS vs ogre on your melee weapon, look for damage values vs resistant targets in the melee spreadsheet, and combine it with a speed of corresponding attack. Note: killing blow trait (from a light attack) can proc on the ogre, replacing default damage of the attack with 40 dmg.

---------------GENERAL TIPS pt.2---------------------------------------------------------------

Reviving a teammate that is under attack by an ogre is not recommended, ogre have AoE attacks and can hit you too, and even if you manage to revive the teammate, there is a chance that ogre will instantly kill him through block. Explosive bombs can be used to win some time for reviving. If you have enough players, try to make the ogre change his target. But if reviving is aboslutely necessary (to save grim or else), do it between ogre's attacks, Bone Saw trinket will help greatly.

4. Vs packmaster

Weapons with powerful attacks, like falchion, 1h/2h hammers/axes, elf's 1h sword... can be used to melee packmasters. This tip is also helpful if you do not intend to kill him but to evade him: when packmaster approaching you, run fast towards him, dont chase him ever, run towards him only when he runs to you, so your speeds are combined and you meet very close. You need to be as close as possible to the packmaster when he will try to grab you. When he makes a first move to grab you (he stops and prepares his hook), you start moving to the side with simultaneous dodge. Then you have an opportunity to witness his disappointed face staring at you for a moment. Or opportunity to hack his skull, your pick.

Packmaster can be staggered only by handgun, longbow charged shot, drakefire pistols charged attack and by a ranged attack with knockback trait.

When packmaster runs through a horde to catch you, effective solutions against him include:
-handgun with rupture
-drakefire pistols (charged attack)
-longbow (charged shot)
-xbow shot (which pierces through 4 normal targets)
-fireball staff and conflagration staff (charged attacks)
-beam staff (2 quick normal attacks)
-hagbane bow (but it takes time to kill)
-repeater handgun
-brace of pistols with rupture
-repeater pistol with rupture
-firebombs and explosive bombs

When packmaster strangles a player, he deals very little damage, the main danger for the caught player are normal rats. So when you save someone, choose your targets depending on the situation, when there are few rats around the hero, then most likely its better to kill / stun normal rats first, only then kill the packmaster. Of course if there are much rats around, then ideally you throw a grenade, if you have none - you shoot the packmaster.

5. Vs assassin

An assassin moves quick, but before jumping on a player he stops moving and crouches. If you have low fps, or not confident in your shooting skills, you can wait for this moment and kill/shoot him while he is stationary, but this moment before the jump is quite brief, less than 1 second. Assassin is a normal type enemy, so shotguns are effective against him. Also trueflight longbow and bolt staff can oneshot assassins no matter how zig-zaggy or quick they move.

Melee is also an option, but less preferred. You need to attack assassin non stop with average-speed or fast-speed weapon to prevent him from teleporting or jumping on you, and he rolls away every time he gets hit. He have high HP for normal type enemy, so your melee attacks will be weak vs him, except for those weapons that deal a lot of dmg vs normal targets like charged 1h hammer, light 2h axe, etc.

How to evade: Keep your crosshair always on the assassin and hold "move right" key or "move left" key, without dodging. When assassin crouches for leaping, you already need to be on the move with max running speed. That way no matter how close or far the assassin is, even at point blank range, he wont be able to get you. Be careful though, after you evade his first leap, he can make 2nd leap quite fast, so try to keep him in your crosshair at all times. Push works in 360 deg. radius around you, so you can evade that assassin and at the same time catch him with your push mid-leap and beat him up after. Its harder with weapons that have slow running speed with block on, but still doable, you need to time when to press block button.

Assassins can be a pain in the ass when they show up and you already fight some clanrats/slaverats. Only teammates or your perfect shooting&moves will get you out of trouble. Also you should not forget about dodges, its only when assassin is alone you dont need dodges, but clanrats can prevent or slow down your perpendicular movement in relation to assassin's leap.

Concerns both assassin and packmaster:
When you free a teammate from these 2 specials, the teammate doesn't get his controls back instantly - the character needs to get up or recover, so during this time protect the teammate from rats with your attacks or better with pushes.

Note:
There is 1 rule - every 30 seconds the game checks the positions of players, for example if 1 player ran away further than 30 meters from the main group, then after the check something will spawn: an assassin, or a packmaster, or even a horde with 25% chance. Therefore it's recommended to move at least in pairs. If 1 player is left alive, this rule is disabled.
Source: steam forum

6. Vs rattling gunner

He fires for 8-10 seconds, then reloads for ~3.5 seconds. Gunner moves his gun very slow when he fires it, so if you get close to him, you'll be safe behind his back.

To stop his loading/shooting animation, your attack is required to have the stagger power, that can interrupt overhead attack of a stormvermin, or throw the stormvermin back.

7. Vs globadier

He gets staggered from any ranged weapon, you can stop his globe throwing animation even with little damage. The most important thing is to not let him throw and turn him into suicidal state, then he poses less of a threat. If he threw a globe, immediately look at the flight trajectory to evade it, covered area is huge.

When he runs at you to suicide and there is enough free space behind you, killing him with ranged is not the only option. You can run backwards non stop, globadier runs faster and at certain range from you he will start his pre-explosion animation, which makes him stand on place for a moment. This moment is enough for you to get out of explosion zone if you keep backpedaling. Also another way is to stand and wait for globadier to enter his pre-explosion animation, and right after that do 2 steps back and dodge backwards. Combination of these two methods will be a more safer approach. But i have to mention, this stunt can be ruined by a teammate that will shoot and kill the globadier running at you to suicide. This way the globadier can explode without completing his pre-explosion animation.

---------------GENERAL TIPS pt.3---------------------------------------------------------------

8. Vs clanrat (slaverat)

If one clanrat is chasing you while you're moving through the level, he will eventually catch up with you and will do his fast running attack. To murder him quickly, when he is getting close, start running towards him and do a surprise attack.

You can dodge both running and standing attack of a clanrat by dodging to the side, timing is not hard, if you get used to rat's attacks.
Dodge to the side (relative to the rats) - is a good move, this way:
- you don't let them circle you
- you can extend the hitting area of your melee attack (by starting the attack and dodging with it and rotating the camera)
- you dodge attacks. Even if there is a lot of rats, you have a chance to not get hit
- since you evading, you attack more, without the need to block or push
^ But this move won't work at any moment in time, depending on how rats are positioned and how many of them there are, what are they doing - dodges to the side might not save you from beating.

There are rats that wield small one handed weapons: torch, knife, flail. And they have the standing attack animation, which i hate:
I will show this with an example:
You stand still, a rat comes to you and stops at his almost maximum attack distance, just a few steps closer - that's the first annoying thing - rats always do these types of attacks from the most advantageous distance. There is ~1m between you and that rat. Now if they came closer, it will be much easier to control multiple rats with your weapon attacks.

Then the rat starts his attack animation, in which he makes two short steps back, hitboxes (that is the body you will want to hit) of the rat become further away from you, but by the game mechanic the rat still occupies the same position on the ground, so he will hit you at the end of his attack animation. He makes these 2 short steps back and stays like that to the end of the animation, until he strikes. If you keep standing on the same place, and if you will try to hit the rat while he's in that animation, there is a probability that you don't reach him, but he will hit you afterwards. The probability is higher if:
1) You use weapons (attacks) with lower reach. Generally speaking, 1h weapons should have less reach than 2 handed, but the difference in reach is subtle.
2) If you will try to hit several rats that do this attack, with a weapon in hand that don't have pure horizontal angle of the swing.
3) If you do a few steps back and only then you attack. The rat starts to attack at maximum attack distance minus a few steps, remember?

That's why you should be careful when attacking groups of rats, you might think you staggered them all with your attack, but no, some rats were out of reach and they will hit you in the next moment.
It's more important to remember, that the push with standard reach - is already have less reach than rat's attacks. So reaching rats that are in that animation with push - is very hard. When there is a lot of rats around, do not expect much from that push.
(Weapons that have more push reach: shields and 2h hammers +25%; 2h swords +12.5%).

Not only these rats have tricky animations of attacks, but also they hit further, than a weapon's model and the animation should allow. It's called ghost reach (of attacks). At least every melee weapon have roughly the same attack reach as that of the clanrats.

Note: The more rats are in state of combat with you, the less damage each of them is gonna deal to you. And if a rat is alone and hits you, its gonna hurt.
source: reddit

9. Vs stormvermin

About his overhead strike: It will remove all your HP on cataclysm. This strike have huge range, it's more than the range of any of your attacks. Like was said before about the clanrat, this attack have ghost reach. Stormvermin makes two short steps back too, so during almost the whole animation it's harder to get him. Be careful.

When you defend from a horde near a wall or a corner, do not let a stormvermin to pin you to the wall, one player should run towards him and stand with a block on, if the player have a shield or devastating blow trait - he can push, else at least he'll make the stormvermin to stop and attack - then the player dodges back. During this time other players try to kill the stormvermin with means at hand.

About patrol:
Be careful when dealing with patrol of stormvermins, in tight corridors stormvermins can run straight through you (for example chasing other player) and lock you down from all sides, so stay mobile, do not try to stop this train even if you have a shield, except when you have to risk your life to save other players. Stormvermin attacks go through other rats, you will just get hit by a stormvermin from 2nd row, which you can't even see. If you attack in melee, do no more than 1-2 strikes each time, then retreat, and attack again when they come and so on. Remember, stormvermins can move very fast. If you being chased by little rats also, try to kill them first.

One player with a shotgun and strength potion can deal with a patrol by himself in a narrow passage or kill most of it in the open.

---------------GENERAL TIPS pt.4---------------------------------------------------------------

10. Vs сhieftain Krench

Or the boss from Stromdorf DLC.

He have high HP values for armored type enemy.
It's important to have the right equipment for the team. Effective weapons:

1) Witch hunter
-1h axe or falchion with backstabbery.
-repeater pistol with extra capacity, charged shots closer than 5m, x3 times better with strength, also helps in clearing stormvermins.
2) Waywatcher
-trueflight longbow, also helps in clearing stormvermins.
3) Dwarf ranger
-1h axe.
-2h axe with backstabbery, dodges are bad though.
-grudge raker with extra capacity+mastercrafted, targeteer helps, shoot only under strength effect.
4) Bright wizard
Better not take her.
5) Empire soldier
-1h mace or 2h hammer, both not too good, but okay.
-repeater handgun, charged mode, also helps in clearing stormvermins.
-blunderbuss with mastercrafted, targeteer helps, shoot preferably under strength effect.

You should gather as many strength potions and explosive bombs as possible.

1st phase.
He appears and fights alone until his HP drops to 80%. Then does AoE attack around himself, puts a shield, that halves incoming damage and protects him from headshots, also the damage buff from strength potions is ignored, and summons stormvermins, and after a moment normal rats appear all around. Help yourself with strength potion to kill stormvermins, if your ranged weapons can't kill them quickly otherwise. After you kill the wave (+ some delay) or a timer runs out, Krench engages you.

2nd phase.
Krench fights you, and 3-5 clanrats spawn quite frequently in different spots, they are very dangerous, check your back often. Krench won't try to hide until a timer runs out, so if you have enough DPS (and strength potions), you can kill him in the 2nd phase. After the timer runs out, Krench will do AoE attack around himself, put the shield on and summon the wave as before. And so on.

How to fight face to face.
His attack animations are fast, some are borrowed from stormvermins, like overhead and sweeping attack. You can block the sweeping attack with no damage to you, all other attacks can be blocked with not much damage. 1H weapons are preferred. You should dodge with raised block (just in case), look at him, when you feel he is about to strike, move diagonally - back and to the side, and dodge in that direction, this way you will evade any attack (sweeping attack have wide and short hit area, and overhead have long and narrow hit area). Then attack once and prepare to evade again.

Bombing.
When Krench decides it's time to hide behind the shield and summon the wave, he does AoE attack, when you see it, throw the explosive bomb at him (or close to him), if he will be knocked down, he will not summon the wave. You can manage to knock him down and prevent the spawning even after he finished the attack - when he started running to the corner, until he gets there. Not always he gets knocked down though, the exact reason is unkown. Usually he gets knocked down more often in the 2nd phase, then in the 1st.

---------------GENERAL TIPS pt.5---------------------------------------------------------------

11. About bombs, potions, meds

-> Bombs.
Against the ogre both types of bombs wont do significant damage. Firebomb - 30 dmg on detonation and about 30-50 dmg from DoT, explosive bomb - 80 dmg. Strength potion doubles the damage against resistant enemies, but still it's not much. Makes sense to use explosive bombs for stunning the ogre to win some shooting time or for saving a teammate.

Against a patrol both types of bombs work well if strength potion is active. Explosive bomb kills in the center, but quickly loses its damage with increasing radius. Firebomb will deal more distributed damage to a larger area with explosion+DoT, burning ground will deal additional damage to passing rats (it burns for about 5 secs). Trinket that increases grenade's explosion radius helps good. You might kill whole patrol or most of it, when stormvermins are gathered more closely, with just 1 explosive bomb and the grenade trinket.

Firebombs set the ground on fire for ~5 seconds, normal rats will try to run around the burning ground or will stop, if there is no way around. Stormvermins will try to run around or will go straight through it.

To cancel grenade throw press RMB.

-> Potions.
Multiple strength potions do not stack, but speed potions do.

Strength potion's duration is 10 seconds.
It modifies damage of any melee&ranged attack this way:
- x3 times more dmg vs normal type enemy (clanrats, slaverats, assassin, globadier)
- x2 times more dmg vs resistant type enemy (ogre, packmaster)
- Damage against armored type (stormvermin, rattling gunner) is replaced with damage vs normal type enemy

^ So the dmg buff vs armored enemies that you recieve from strength potion depends on your weapon. For example, shotguns become ridiculously powerful: x8-10 times more damage. Regular xbow will be buffed from 8 to 10 dmg, 1h axe light attack - from 5 to 6 dmg.

Some safety measures are required when you use strength potions against ogres or patrols. After someone shares strength potion effect, players need to focus all firepower on the ogre/patrol and at the same time to minimize friendly fire. Therefore, firstly, do not put yourself under fire, do not move too much, only back or forth facing the target, secondly, shoot carefully, remember about penetration (if behind the ogre stands a teammate). And of course, don't throw bombs when teammates are in explosion radius. Under the strength effect the lethality of friendly fire increases many times.

When fighting just the horde/group of clanrats, if the strength potion is active, then better to not take risks and everyone should use melee only. You can shoot if you're careful, for example, shooting over the heads of teammates in a jump, or if you're not standing close to each other.

Speed potion increases movement and attack speed by x1.5, duration is 10 seconds.
Some people think that it is wise to drink it when there are no enemies around to save ~5 seconds of traveling time. And if horde spawns from all sides when we have a bad spot, or worse - with ogre, we have nothing to improve our chances. Speed potions are like firebombs, their primary use is vs hordes of rats. There are exceptions though, like the final events of The Enemy Below, Castle Drachenfels, where you need to run from unending pursuit of rats.

The speed potion can cause the fake sense of invulnerability. I see very often when under the speed effect players rush into the fight, attacking non-stop and forgetting about blocking and looking around. The melee targeting system of normal rats is very good, they will almost always hit you if you're in their attack range, unless you dodge to the side.

-> Medical supplies.
Meds, use them only if you or your teammate have a white healthbar, or there is a spare med on the ground. Teammate with least HP or a grim carrier should heal with that spare med.

-> Passing of items.
You can pass grenades, potions, healing draughts by pressing "use" key (E) or "block" key (RMB). Listen and remember who have what trinkets, to use items more effectively.

12. Recommended trinkets

They can be divided into two types:

1) useful to a player
- lichbone (or mitterfruhl flask), that decreases the HP penalty from grims
- anti-gas, 60% less damage from poison clouds of globadier
- poison flask, 12% chance to apply (4 or 5) / (4 or 5) / (16 or 20) total damage over 3 seconds [vs normal / armored / resistant], from all attacks even with 0 damage (except for shield charged which procs only on 1 target) (except for armored - they must be damaged)
- seal of swiftstrider, 12% faster movement speed, infinite dodge stamina

2) useful to a team
- healshare (or garlic), after self-healing the allies within 15m will replenish 20% of missing health, also they will be healed from the pre-death state (white health bar)
- potion share, the effect will spread to all allies in 15m radius
- saw, 50% faster reviving of downed teammates
- luckstone (or dried head), increases the chance of spawning the loot die after the wearer opens a chest (from 5% to 10%), makes sense if you farm for the red weapons on cataclysm, on maps with 2 grims and 3 tomes
- duplication of picked up items, with 12% chance
- wine, 25% chance to keep the potion after its consumption
- fish, 20% chance to keep the medical item after using it
- book, that increases grenade explosion radius by 60% and causes no friendly fire
- bomb dupe, with 40% chance

13. About the proper use of healshare trinket

Healshare trinket - restores 20% of missing health of teammates in 15m radius when you use a healing item on yourself. This effect also will turn the white healthbar into normal one of any teammate in radius, giving them another chance to survive should their HP drop to 0.

Healing draughts can be given to other players, and medpacks can be used on other players. With healshare trinket equipped, you decide what to do when someone in a team have white healthbar:
1) heal yourself, for example when you're low on HP and the revived player hasn't bled too much (after the revive he will have 50% of max HP and it will start to drop). Or when there is more than 1 player in bleed-out state
2) pass a healing draught (if possible)
3) use a medpack on a bleeding teammate

Just imagine how much total HP of all players will be restored if you do this or that. For example: revived teammate with white healthbar got hit and now have 10% of HP left, you are carrying a medpack and healshare trinket, your HP is at 90%, in this case healing yourself is unreasonable or selfish.

Another idea is called tactical downing:
Example: Everyone carries a meditem (medkit or draught), you have a healshare trinket. In result of the fight vs a horde 1 player gets downed, revived, starts to bleed from 50% HP. 2 other players recieve bad wounds, their HP is 10%, but they remain on their feet. Do not heal right away, first shoot those 2 players with low health, revive them, their HP is now at 50%, now you use a med item on yourself, that way you increase the benefit from 1 med item by about 1.5-2 times.

---------------GENERAL TIPS pt.6---------------------------------------------------------------

14. Bad weapons (relates to cataclysm)

On cataclysm you should not take weapons that hit only 1 target like daggers, 1h axes, or that hit a small ammount of targets with slow speed like glaive (2 targets), because enemies can stand, hit and move through each other easily, that means you're gonna get hit a lot more. You risk a lot with these weapons, and the reward for it is low.

15. You can revive allies while blocking

Block is a wonderful thing indeed, protects you 360 degrees from most common threats: normal rats and stormvermins, although it's not advised to block stormvermin attacks. If you got separated from the team and you are starting to get swarmed by a lot of rats, then move to your allies: run with a block on, or move by dodging with a block on (when you don't have an 1h weapon). Loot chests while blocking, revive teammates while blocking. The active use of block in combat is described in Waywatcher's 1h sword.

16. Other

Don't waste too much ammo on ambient encounters (clanrats, stormvermins).
[Swift bow on nightmare is an exception.]
Vermintide isn't Left 4 dead, ranged weapons are less effective and, more importantly, have much less ammo pool (except for staves and drakes). Ranged weapons are here to prevent or solve dangerous situations, think about them as a sort of power-up: limited, but with great damage per second. The danger comes from specials, ogre, large groups of rats, or a combination of these threats.
Also think about your teammates ammo too, when you see an ammo pack.

The spawning of dead teammates is tied to the position of alive players.
Imagine that a map length is a line segment, the position where the dead will spawn is calculated by adding a fixed distance to the position of alive teammates. But spawn points for players can't be everywhere, they are placed in certain locations, so if your team is too close to the closest point, then the next one will be used for spawning of dead players.
Conclusion:
When someone dies (especially if 2-3 players), run back when possible, so the dead will spawn in earlier parts of the map, which you already cleared of clanrats and stormvermins.

17. Settings

I set my fov to 100, i like it overall, good awareness with not so strong fish-eye effect. 1 side-effect to remember though, and i still forget about it: both my character's and skaven's attacks have greater reach than i usually presume.

Advise you to bind the dodge to a separate key, for example on the side mouse button (farthest). And to disable Dodge on Jump Key,

Camera Shake and Head Bobbing - disabled.
Player Outlines - always on.

Ping, or the spotting of objects and special enemies - on a convenient key, for example Q. Spot all specials, and you can use this function to scan for a packmaster through a horde, for example.

Gamma at 3.0 (can depend on the monitor settings) - to see clearly on dark maps - and that's all maps really, except for the Cursed rune from DLC.

18. Last word

Never underestimate ratmen, they flank you and attack all at once. Good awareness, quick reflexes, knowledge about mechanics and enemies, availability of good weapons, the skill to work in a team - all this only when combined will give you maximum chances to win.

[CHANGELOG]

Starting from 1.5 patch

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                             Entry 7.04.2017

                                                              Updated to 1.7
                                                              Patch related:
-Skullcracker trait now works on projectile weapons (xbows, bows).
-Nerfed falchion damage against ogre and a bit against armored (HS bonus).
-Rapier level 2 charged attack is easier to do.
-"Added buffer to all push chain actions to remove accidental double pushes" - now you can break the combo and start attacking much faster.
-DoT damage applications are more consistent (from poison and fire).
-Drakefire pistols normal shot: reduced HS bonus from x1.5 to +1 vs normal targets.
-All Bright wizard staves are rebalanced, except for beam staff.
-Resolved an issue where the Rat Ogre would get killed if pushed into walls by explosions.
-Changed resistant damage on a lot of weapons, you can see the exact changes in spreadsheets by UnShame[docs.google.com].

                                                        My fixes and updates:
Medium importance
-Cata-nightmare comparison at Intro.
-1h axe (for both heroes).
-2h sword.
-Glaive.
-Dwarf ranger's features.
-Axe+shield (general info about shields).
-1h sword of Empire soldier.
-Updated Damage boon table.
-Almost all General tips.

Major importance
-Brace of pistols and repeater handgun.
-Hagbane bow.
-Scavenger on all ranged weapons procs on hit (see hagbane bow).
-Stormvermins in General tips section.
-Off balance trait explained, and also tactics in grudge raker and mace+shield.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                             Entry 11.05.2017

                                                              Updated to 1.8.1
                                                              Patch related:
-New weapon - 2h sword executioner.
-Light attack of 2h hammer is buffed (see 2h hammer of Dwarf ranger).
-Repeater handgun received very strong buffs.
-New enemy - Chieftain Krench, only in Stromdorf DLC. See "Rats" at the start and General tip #10.
-Packmasters now affected by knockback trait.

                                                        My fixes and updates:
-Added sack rat info, see "Rats".
-Added link to a new trait calculator at Intro.
-Updated info on how the knockback trait works on shotguns, at Intro.

-Killing blow variants of 2h sword and falchion - are for cataclysm.
-Brace of pistols, why hail of doom instead of skullcracker.
-1h sword of Waywatcher, added more words about push reach.
-Dual swords - added. Didn't notice its strong sides before.
-Swiftbow is deemed weak for cataclysm.
-Longbow, removed knockback. Overall this weapon is hard to use and it gives not much benefit.
-1h hammer, a bit more info about the light attacks.
-2h axe, added a legal way to speed up light attacks.
-1h sword of wizard, about manual venting, at the end.
-Fireball and conflagration staves, small notes on practical use.
-1h sword of soldier, is a bit weak on cataclysm.

-I discovered for myself a new weapon quality: the speed of getting in and out of block state. The thing is, the faster those animations are, the quicker you can attack after breaking combo (to avoid doing overheads/stabs). The relative rating is (by feel):
       Good: falchion, dual swords, 1h hammer/mace;
       Average: elf 1h sword, sword+dagger, hammer/mace+shield;
       Bad: 1h axe, wizard/soldier 1h sword.
-Added trait combinations that are suited for nightmare - for almost all 1h weapons, and also for repeater pistol.
-Added devastating blow to weapons with 1st level push.
-A lot of other minor things.

-Shields now have their own section. I reconsidered my views. There is a huge wall of text.
-Updated Damage boon table.
-Recommended trinkets - General tip #12.
-About the proper use of healshare trinket - General tip #13.
-"Other" - General tip #16.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                             Entry 01.07.2017

                                                        My fixes and updates:
-Glaive deemed more or less viable for cataclysm, with damage boon - better.
-Added Bright wizard's 1h mace to Damage boon table, nightmare difficulty. It's funny and awesome to smash clanrats with such speed and brutality (using only 1st attack).
-Explained how the damage from constant beam increases.
-Repeater pistol. Charged attack isn't ammo effective vs ogre.
-Rapier. Nightmare traits added.
-Shotgun+melee setups, see in grudge raker and blunderbuss.
-Added link to my game recordings at Intro [youtube playlist].
-Added endurance trait to executioner sword, 2h sword, 2h hammer. A good help for soloing hordes.
                             
                             

[CHANGELOG 1.9.10] Traits

Starting from 1.8 patch

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll just paste here most important things in 1.9, reorganized.
It will take a very long time to update this guide, as i want my recommendations to be perfect and explained in detail.

Edit: although, i think i'll wait untill balance shifts will stop, or maybe won't update the guide at all. The thing is, i can't take recent updates seriously, well, half of them. Other half are ok, some of them even good. Why would i rewrite tons of pages, explain things, recommend traits, if the game become easy mode? So i'll just post under my list of strong/interesting/OP red combinations, and explain trinket&trait changes.

Edit2: I decided to do updates like this: main guide remains 1.8, changes will be listed at the end for each patch with my comments. Damage boon table will be up to date, and maybe General tips too. Russian version is abandoned, it's too much hassle.

--------------------------------------------------------TRAITS-------------------------------------------------------

Click here to see descriptions of all traits (Kyrial's spreadsheet).[docs.google.com]

============SPEED MELEE

Berserking - Damage taken reduced for duration of the effect by 50%

Swift Slaying (Charged Attack) - Increase move speed for duration in addition to the original benefits
Author note: Run speed bonus: +50% for 5s (1.9.4). Shield charged attacks proc it on all targets hit.

Swift Slaying (Normal Attack) - Increase move speed for duration in addition to the original benefits
Author note: Run speed bonus: +50% for 5s (1.9.4).

============HEAT

Channeling Rune - Increases vent speed
Author note: its venting 25% faster (Kyrial's data). Also from ingame descr: damage taken from venting is reduced by 50% (from 5 to 2.5), that's strong. Imo this trait is the best heat related trait now and actually worth taking.

Earthing Rune (Charged Attack) - Increased vent amount slightly
Author note: from 4 to 5 (it's a quantity, not %)

Earthing Rune (Normal Attack) - Increased vent amount slightly
Author note: from 4 to 5 (it's a quantity, not %)

============STAMINA

Endurance - Restores all stamina when effect triggers
Author note: same 20% on hit (any attack).

Improved Guard - Blocks cost half stamina
Author note: in addition to 30% free block. The cost of blocking is reduced by half - that's more correct. With trait you block a hit for 1/4 shield icon (or 1/2 stamina), if it's a normal rat. Stormvermin overheads are now blocked for 2 shield icons, instead of 4 or guard break. Good for kiting or tanking.

Improved Pommel - Pushes costs half stamina
Author note: in addition to 40% free push. The cost of pushing is reduced by half - is a more correct description. Very good for many weapons, especially on 2h hammers and 2h swords.

Perfect Balance - Reduces stamina regeneration start delay
Author note: in addition to +1 shield. After you push or dodge, the stamina will start regenerating earlier, that delay is halved.

Second Wind - 30.0 - 50.0% chance to instantly replenish all stamina if the player's block is broken as well as now reducing stun duration when block is broken
Author note: the difference is noticeable and may save your life. A good fail-safe trait, great for solo. Although i don't play solo and prefer improved guard more for that purpose, it feels more solid.

============HEALING

Regrowth(Normal Attack), proc chance 3-10%: No changes
Regrowth(Normal Attack), proc chance 1-5%: Changed healing value from 10 to 5 (1.9.4)
Regrowth(Charged Attack), proc chance 3-10%: Changed healing value from 5 to 10 (!)
Regrowth(Charged Attack), proc chance 1-3%: Changed healing value from 5 to 10, in addition shield heavy attacks proc regrowth on all targets hit
1.9.4: Reduced healing received from ranged regrowth from 10 to 5

Author note: Buttstock bash procs on all target hit, like shield charged.

============RANGED

Rupture - Penetration increased to two targets, up from one
Author note: ingame descr is outdated. Nice for handgun and other things like brace of pistols, grudge raker...

Hawk Eye - Adds 2 to your current headshot multiplier (eg: 3x becomes 5x) as well as increased zoom distance
Author note: using extra zoom from the trait isnt necessary. Both normal and charged attacks are affected. It wont upgrade an attack that have +1 HS bonus vs normal enemies.
Examples:
-Swift bow [hawkeye] normal attack will hit a clanrat head for same (6+1)=7 damage, charged attack will hit a clanrat head for 6*(2+2)=24 damage.
-Longbow [hawkeye] normal attack will hit a stormvermin head for 2.5*(2+2)=10 damage, charged attack will hit a stormvermin head for 4*(4+2)=24 damage, charged attack will hit an ogre head for 24*(4+2)=144 damage.

Scavenger - Restore 5% (ver. 1.9.4) of ammo based on amount available to the weapon. Ranged attack Scavenger attacks now properly apply on kills and not hits
Author note: calculation includes ammunition holder. To know how much ammo regens per proc for each weapon, see this tab.[docs.google.com]

Skirmisher - In addition to 50.0% increased movement speed while aiming with this weapon, spread no longer increases while moving
Author note: for example, handgun is now accurate while running.

Haste - Ammunition is not consumed for a short duration after the effect triggers
Author note: ~3 secs of unlimited ammo (or no heat generation), haste effect is 5 secs. Berserk works the same way, but procs on kill.

Targeteer - Decrease of weapon spread up to 50% (from 40%)

============OTHER

Off Balance - Increase debuff duration from 2 to 4 seconds
Author note: debuffed normal rats recieve x3 damage, resistant rats - x2 damage, armored rats recieve the same amount of damage you deal to normal rats. Debuffing is now more viable, can be comboed with improved guard, still requires discipline and some skill from other players.

[CHANGELOG 1.9.10] Trinkets

----------------------------------------------------TRINKETS-----------------------------------------------------

========ANTI-SPECIAL

Spine Rune Fetish - Reduce ALL damage taken when hooked by the Packmaster from 60 to 80%
Author note: aka masochist trinket. When you are released from the hook you are in animation for ~1s and can't protect yourself, during this time the rats will do the usual damage to you.

Assassin's Skull - Increased damage reduction from 60% to 80% reduction from Gutter Runners

Badge of Warding - Increased damage reduction from 60% to 80% reduction from Ratling Gunners

Pouch of Relaxing Herbs - Increased damage reduction from 80% to 60% reduction from Poison Wind Globadier clouds. 1.9.4: Reverted to 20/40/60%.

========HEALING

Silver Dove of Shallya - When using Medical Supplies to heal an ally, you heal 40/60/80% of your missing health. Up from 10/15/20%

Sturdy Emblem of Shallya - When using Medical Supplies, you will now automatically block incoming attacks in addition to being uninterruptible. Whew!
Author note: 3.5 shields of stamina (7 stamina) when medpack is equipped or used. You still run slow while blocking with med-kit.

========GRENADES

Master Engineer's Tools - When throwing a grenade there is now a 20/30/40% chance that it won't be consumed (up from 10/15/25%)

Gunnery School Guide, Expert - While equipped, the effective radius of all grenades you throw is increased by 60% still, but now additionally causes no friendly fire

========PERSONAL BUFFS

Arcane Lustrian Flask - While equipped, your attacks have a 4/8/12% chance to apply a deadly poison, up from 2/4/6%
Author note: The damage of flask when it procs: 4 or 5 damage (depending on chance) to normal and armored targets, 16 or 20 damage (depending on chance) to resistant targets (these are total damages from poison effect, which have random amount of ticks - 4 or 5 ticks). Also, shield charged attack can proc poison effect only 1 target per attack. This trinket is a natural choice for 2h hammers, 1h hammers, hammers+shields, and for beam staff, drakefire pistols, conflagration staff. 1h sword (of Empire soldier and Bright wizard) will also recieve much needed punch for both normal and charged attacks (the charged is fast with infinite targets btw) (i'm talking about cata now).

Seal of the Swift Strider - While equipped, your movement speed is increased from 2/4/6% to 4/8/12%, and now in addition allows for infinite dodges…!
Author note: still can't simply outrun clanrats/slaverats, they will catch up and do running attack and hit you. But you will have much easier time kiting.
Very helpful for 2h sword vs horde for example, which have medium quality of dodge (dodge distance and speed) and limited dodge stamina, the trinket solves the main problem - giving you infinite dodges to keep evading rats attacks by doing sideway dodges. But you should have stamina trait like endurance, perfect balance or improved pommel to compensate the absence of stamina regen (because non stop dodging).
Low quality dodges (2h hammer, shields) aren't effective for evading hits due to low distance and speed, making them infinite helps, but not much.

Bale Taurus Head Ornament - While equipped, your health is increased by 25/50/75% while knocked down, up from 20/30/40%

[CHANGELOG 1.9.10] Weapons - Part 1

------------------------------------Interesting RED and ORANGE combos-----------------------------------

All red weapons now have a 2nd set of traits that the players can access via the shrine
To see combinations for all red sets click here (Kyrial's spreadsheet).[docs.google.com]

Witch hunter reds:

1h axe - bloodlust, berserk, backstabbery
2h sword - killing blow, regrowth_light, swift slaying_charged
falchion - regrowth_light 10%! for 5hp, swift slaying_light 7%!, backstabbery
crossbow - mastercrafted, hail of doom, rupture (dead trait, that's why pointing this wpn out)
repeater crossbow - extra capacity, hail of doom, skullcracker

Witch hunter oranges:

brace of pistols - rupture, for 2nd-3rd slots: haste / ammunition holder / scavenger [haste is a very strong trait for BoP, 7% on hit] [rupture is mandatory]
repeater pistol - rupture, scavenger, ammuntion holder / extra capacity [for run&gun Nightmare]
falchion - regrowth_charged 10% for 10hp, scavenger, improved guard/second wind/perfect balance [IG is preferred] [pair with brace of pistols - rupture, haste, scavenger/ammo holder; it'll be viable for cataclysm; falchion is for ambients, pistols are for hordes]
rapier - regrowth_charged 10% for 10hp, off balance, improved guard [good support role, charge attack ambients, tank and debuff hordes/many rats] [strong healing on ambients] [equip seal of the swiftstrider trinket to be ahead of a team, debuffing rats, or to reposition faster with block]

Waywatcher reds:

glaive - bloodlust, scavenger, berserk [beast on nightmare] [while scavenger and berserk are good, the weapon will benefit greatly from perfect balance+devastating blow - it's much needed survivability]
1h sword - killing blow, scavenger, bloodlust [multi-tool]
dual swords - bloodlust, swift slaying_light 7%!, devastating blow [swift slaying is 7%, while on orange its 4%] [this weapon already have high speed of attack&combo cancelling, and attacks are angled, so improved attack speed is helpful, but not great] [the problem of angled attacks is described in 1h sword of Waywatcher in the main guide, with speed buff your attack sector becomes much narrower]
sword+dagger - killing blow, regrowth_light, improved guard [perfect for kiting, great survivability and damage]
swift bow - haste, ammuniton holder, scavenger [another run&gun for NM as well for cata hordes]
hagbane bow - bloodlust, ammunition holder, scavenger

Waywatcher oranges:

trueflight longbow - hawkeye, mastercrafted, scavenger/ammo holder/skirmisher [hawkeye: 1 shot-headshot cata stormvermin, +50% damage increase vs ogres <- that is still a lot] [seal of swiftstrider+skirmisher allow you to quickly increase the distance to a stormvermin that got too close, to make guided arrow hit the head easier]
hagbane bow - ammunition holder, bloodlust/scavenger, mastercrafted/haste 5% [with patched scavenger on ranged weapons, you can't spam shots into still alive horde rats and regen ammo on hit] [scavenger/bloodlust will work if you have a team that covers you from melee or there's a lot of distance, so you can shoot and keep the bow out] [a great pair is red 1h sword]
1h sword - off balance, improved guard, bloodlust [good support role, charge attack ambients, tank and debuff hordes/many rats] [equip seal of the swiftstrider trinket to be ahead of a team, debuffing rats, or to reposition faster with block]

[CHANGELOG 1.9.10] Weapons - Part 2

Boi, i hate the character limit for guide sections.

Dwarf ranger reds:

1h hammer - killing blow, regrowth_light, devastating blow {the definition of insanity OP }
1h axe - bloodlust, berserk, scavenger [cousin okri would be proud] [actually a good pair for shotgun even on cataclysm, regen ammo on ambients, shoot hordes, although team help will be needed sometimes]
grudge raker - scavenger 24%!, extra capacity, rupture [increased scavenger %] [great combo, and the sound of the gun is satisfying] [suited more for close quarter maps, than the grudge raker - extra capacity, scavenger, bloodlust, which allows you to carry the 1h hammer - killing blow, scavenger, off balance]
drakefire pistols - channeling rune, distraction, bloodlust [not bad, but look below for orange version]

Dwarf ranger oranges:

axe+shield - regrowth_light / bloodlust, improved guard, devastating blow [a heavy team oriented weapon] [check the Damage boon table for cata]
2h hammer - endurance/improved pommel, devastating blow, bloodlust [poison trinket is mandatory] [pommel is more preferable]
crossbow - hawkeye, mastercrafted [157.5 damage per headshot for ogre] [easier to headshot ogre in close range, right after you dodged his attack] [best anti-ogre ranged for the dwarf, still quite average and hard to utilize in a chaotic fight]
drakefire pistols - regrowth 7% for 5hp / bloodlust 8% for 10hp, haste 7%, channeling rune [almost OP] [with poison flask you can kill even groups of stormvermins in narrow passages with relative ease, spamming charged shots]
1h axe - bloodlust, improved guard, off balance [good support role, slay single ambinet rats, tank and debuff hordes/many rats] [equip seal of the swiftstrider trinket to be ahead of a team, debuffing rats, or to reposition faster with block]
1h hammer - bloodlust, improved guard, off balance [same role as 1h axe above, fast charged attack]
handgun - mastercrafted, rupture, skirmisher [skirmisher gives comfort in use]
2h pick - bloodlust / regrowth_light, devastating blow, improved pommel [pair with drakefires - regrowth, haste, channeling rune] [pick is used rarely, it's a tool for oneshotting cata stormvermins, drakes will deal with most of clanrats and hordes] [a fun playstyle, don't take this pick if there's a stormvermin destroyer in a team: repeater handgun, trueflight, bolt staff, repeater pistol, skilled crossbow] [same trait combo works well for 2h axe]

Bright wizard reds:

fireball staff - bloodlust, channeling rune, hail of doom [the model of the staff is too bulky compared to exotic one, blocks vision during charging]
conflagration staff - channeling rune, regrowth 5% for 5hp, distraction [regrowth on oranges is 7% for 5hp]

Bright wizard oranges:

beam staff - regrowth 7% for 5hp, channeling rune, hawkeye [can take poison flask to damage groups of stormvermins with shotgun blast] [poison is also helpful in many combat situations, vs horde, clanrats, ogre] [hawkeye is for headshotting SVs with beam explosion, check
this tutorial from Fiber_and_Bacon]
fireball staff - bloodlust / regrowth 7% for 5hp, hail of doom, channeling rune [poison trinket is also good for this]
conflagration staff - regrowth 7% for 5hp / bloodlust, channeling rune, haste 7% [haste gives no heat generation for 3s] [haste will proc very often on hordes. Do a firepatch to block their advance, if haste procs - do a 2nd full charge asap for no heat cost] [channeling rune suits this staff as it generates a lot of heat from full charged spells] [again, poison trinket]
1h sword - regrowth_normal, improved pommel, devastating blow [survival tool] [regrowth is best for healing with 1h sword on cataclysm, and health is wizard's ammo] [during hordes you cast&vent&cast&vent (except for bolt maybe), during ambient fights you can regen your hp with regrowth on the sword] [pommel and dev.blow allow for good SV control, which the wizard may need very badly with any staff (less with bolt staff)] [equipping poison is recommended, as it'll benefit both the sword and staves very good]

Empire soldier reds:

1h sword - regrowth_light, devastating blow, swift slaying_light [good combo for a mediocre weapon (at least for cataclysm)] [regrowth and swift slaying have high % and work on hit, which suit this weapon good] [2nd light attack have purely horizontal angle which is good for swift slaying] [3rd light attack helps in killing off spreaded out ambient rats] [poison flask is awesome vs horde, using charged attacks] [one of my favourite reds now]
2h sword - regrowth_light, improved pommel, perfect balance [almost infinite pushes with decent (but not highest) reach, but no dev.blow, so no SV control. If you like 2h sword lmb spam, try it]
executioner sword - regrowth_light, killing blow, devastating blow [blue exec.sword 2.0] [very strong]
1h mace - killing blow, bloodlust, swift slaying_light 7% [the definition of OP #2]
mace+shield - swift slaying_light, killing blow, improved guard [strange combo, why have improved guard on this?] [blue quality with regrowth_light + killing blow is still what i prefer more]
mace+shield - off balance, killing blow, improved guard [moving tower, debuffing aggroed rats] [repeater handgun with regrowth, ammo holder, HoD - will somewhat compensate the lack of heal on melee]
repeater handgun - extra capacity, hail of doom, skirmisher [skirmisher - while charged firing you still move slow as turtle, this trait removes accuracy penalty when running, not worth it imo]

Empire soldier oranges:

2h hammer - endurance/improved pommel, devastating blow, bloodlust [poison trinket is mandatory] [pommel is more preferable]
repeater handgun - haste, scavenger, ammunition holder/extra capacity/rupture [haste is 7% on hit, as long as you have at least 1 ammo in magazine, you can fire non-stop (including charged mode) for ~3 seconds after haste procs]
blunderbuss - mastercrafted, rupture, bloodlust [for close-quarter maps (khazid kro, castle, dungeons), or for ammo-rich maps (garden of morr, wizard's tower)] [pair with mace - regrowth_normal, scavenger, devastating blow; +poison flask - to not be ganked from horde in melee contact] [seal of swiftstrider also helps in shooting and keeping distance] [for a more general setup i recommend the blunderbuss - mastercrafted, scavenger, bloodlust]
handgun - mastercrafted, rupture, skirmisher [skirmisher gives comfort in use]
executioner sword - scavenger, regrowth_light, devastating blow [as a pair for repeater handgun, to regen ammo] [it naturally have good killing power vs both ambient clanrats, and hordes, so you efficiently regen ammo anywhere anytime, to use it for specials/SV/ogres, or even for normal rats] [have ammo holder on repeater to increase ammo gain from 3 to 4 per proc]

A final word for you, my reader

                             

> The beginning

I want to express my thoughts on this guide and its state. I started writing it at 1.5 game version, in the end of 2016.

I was ~800 hours in, and thought i knew the game pretty well, i enjoyed its depth and learning curve. When you have lots of knowledge, you feel like it's a waste not to share with people, getting some fame in the process =).
It seemed to me, that majority of players didnt see how much complexity there is to this game, how there's so many unobvious and improvised tricks with weapons or movement.

Particularly, players didn't knew enemy AI&mechanics pretty well - nobody will be able to study them good in a normal battle of course, simply no time. These kinds of observations have lead to some false superstitions, more so on rare enemies like ogres.

Another thing is the loot system which prevents (to this day) people from free experimentation. Costly trait rerolls forces to stick to 1-2 proven (meta) combo. Aquiring a new exotic of desired type to try a new combo while keeping the current - is also very slow and RNG based. Blue tokens to unlock, %-es rolling - all of it serves as unnecessary sticks in a wheel.

> My aim

I wanted to affect this stagnation, by rigorously going through all Vermintide aspects about weapons and enemies. It was only possible with Iamlupo mod, with enemy spawner functions and /giveitem commands. Checking every single weapon with how every trait worked on them. Then designing trait combos with some role in mind, testing them in pubs, then tweaking replacing some traits, repeat. The constant question was: how do i make this weapon work best? Or in a different and fun way? Picking a trait that improves its strengths, or that compensates its drawbacks? The data spreadsheets[docs.google.com] for weapons properties from Kyrial were paramount in this process of making optimal weapons - you need to understand the weapon first, secondly you need to know enemy hp and behaviours.

[but of course, spreadsheets doesn't give you all the info. attack angles + ranges + speeds -> you need to experience them yourself]

It's all connected: Weapon <-> Trait <-> Enemy type, you change one variable of 3 - the picture inevitably changes.

The important part in trait selection for your weapon - is to separate the wheat from chaff (for a weapon type you're testing!). You need to evaluate the abstract benefit of a trait - from the real use, not from fancy description, sound fx or theoretical benefits. You test a trait on a weapon, counting how much and how many times in a run it helped you / your team, against how many enemy types. Killing blow from 1.9 on 1h sword/hammer was such a powerful trait, because it could benefit you every time you hit something (with a high %), resulting in a good DPS increase on cataclysm against all main targets - clan / slaverats and stormvermins. Backstabbery is a different thing entirely, very situational, it wont benefit you in serious fighting when you're surrounded and outnumbered.

A very nice tool for trait combo designing - by Goomi.[rats.nyaasync.net]

The problem of trait system with Vermintide - traits arent balanced for each weapon individually. Useless traits play the role of filler - with RNG trait reroll, to make people grind for tokens in order to get good traits. Yes, what i done is basically created my own new meta, but at least i tested lots of useless and promising combos, finding some viable playstyles, that people might overlooked.

So my advice is: think as there's always something more to the weapon handling, movement, enemy mechanics, or trait system, than you know right now. Doubt everything you hear about a trait / weapon. Trust only your own experience and datamined information. When trying a weapon / trait - force yourself to find good in the bad, it means try to solve the drawbacks by adjusting your tactic, or by finding a workaround -> only then make a verdict. I myself, from the start of making the guide, many times completely changed opinions on some weapons or traits (not because of rebalances), learned some new playstyles & tricks from other people by trying them out.

Yes, the loot system is detrimental for experimentation and equipment variety (that people have in their inventories). I'm not however promoting /giveitem command from Vermintide mod framework (previously Iamlupo mod), but i definitely fine with it, if you're gonna use it. A less cheaty approach is made by Unshame, a mod changes trait rerolling system:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/75j0yo/mod_locktraits_lock_down_traits_before_rerolling/
You need Vermintide mod framework:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/vermintide-mod-framework

> Updates... duh!

As you can judge by the length of this guide - it's no small feat to write playstyles, all subtle tricks, the ways to fight different enemy types, including how different trait combinations affect your tactics - all this individually for each of ~50 weapons. It was like an obsession, the more i wrote the more i needed to write in order to explain either my opinion, or a mechanic. There's no minor details in weapon tactics - all matters and combined - form viable playstyles. The fact that i'm not a native english speaker makes it harder, as well as the topics that i cover - it's a task to explain them with words correctly, because they're about mechanics in the fast and complex action game.

Also i was crazy enough to "translate" this guide to russian language, every sentence has the same meaning.

Now i learned, that when you write a tutorial with large amounts of subjective information - i mean it's no raw data from spreadsheets or trait descriptions, but evaluations and tactics, then you got a pretty ugly situation, when the balance of traits&weapons shifts quite noticeably with updates. I feel like i'm a slave to what i wrote now =D. Even not considering the updates, currently i have opinions on some things different from what is written (mostly on bright wizard staves - don't play her often myself). So going through the guide, removing outdated info, then testing & troubleshooting new changes, forming playstyle & trait recommendations and writing them in the same detail - this is hell.

I'm sorry to break my word about keeping updating the guide (with changelogs at the end). Its just my maximalism prevents me from keeping doing these low effort updates. On the other hand, to rewrite the guide as a whole - just the idea of it is morally and physically sickening to me D=. Although now i think better of Fatshark with how they go about 1.10 beta rebalances, these changes are very solid improvements to the game, reducing the powercreep level, with reasonable buffing for some underpowered weapons.

Video guides were a fresh thing, quite fun to do. They contain mostly universal knowledge that isn't tied to a specific weapon, so watching them is an effective way to learn something new, some info or a trick that you could use. Here's the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdvr7Lcn61bs86H-5MVZWNEztRLuGSXAN

If you got questions about weapon setups or traits - i will be happy to answer them in the comments.


                             
                           

[pacolux]

Hi Professor Vermintide, been using your guide to a lot of effect, but then decided to switch to Vermintide 2 recently. Do you know if base mechanics stayed the same?

[ProtagorasEmber]

Still can’t get over how great this guide is. On my phone’s new tab screen it is one of my 8 most visited websites. I use it every day and if any Vermintide guide was ever worthy of being in print it would be this one. I don’t know how I’d go without it. Again, a million thanks!

[ProtagorasEmber]

This guide is incredible. Been here many times but haven’t thought to comment until now. I have it bookmarked and come often as I’ve started trying to learn more about my least favorite classes.
(I main elf, used to main wizard, and I’ve been picking dwarf over wizard at the higher difficulties. Liking the axe and shield and I’m trying to get better at swinging the one handed hammer twice and then disrupting the chain with a block and then going back to the first two swings that hit for more damage. It’s tricky.
Anyhow, when I get a new weapon for a class I don’t know as well and I think I might be using it, I come back here to see what traits I should be rolling for and what the author’s thoughts are about that weapon. Huge thanks on the tip regarding the blues that are worth hanging on to and I’m about to spend some tokens right now trying to get one of those blues for the soldier.
Many thanks!

[-=(SOTN)=- nachtmensch]

Thanks for your Work and Time, good & usefull Guide!

[doom_hamster]

Oiram_ESP, RNGesus is playing tricks on you. The combo is still ingame, i have it at least. Check trait calculators in the Intro section, both are valid to see what triat combos are possible.

[Ori]

Nice guide man!
But i have 1 questions, i expend 101 trys to the blue shield for dwarf and i dont find "killing blow and regrowth_light" at once i find whit regrow---charged 3 or 4 times but not whit normal atack, they patch this? or i just dont have luck?
Thanx man ^^

[dodochamalow]

Thanks a lot, excellent work, very useful.

[ATG0270]

You are my get-go for weapon info and follow your traits combination as close as i can. Keep up the great work man! I look forward to see your guide in vermintide 2. :D
Also, Red executioner is soooo good. :3

[doom_hamster]

Crowe, thanks for the kind words =D

@all, have an announcement too big to put here in the comments, see it in the last section.

[ChickenTarTar]

Amazing very well detailed guide!!!! I commend the effort you put into this indepth analysis despite my comment beings months late after this guide's publication. I wish you success in your real world endeavors!!!!