{6.6.0} Bardin In-depth Guide [Legend & Cataclysm] - All careers, all weapons

[Updated to version 6.6.0]

This guide is meant both to teach the specific mechanics of weapons and talents of the character, as well as to showcase many different builds for distinct playstyles.
The goal is that you can find interesting, yet effective builds that best suit your preferences, even those weapons and talents which everyone keeps saying are trash simply because they are not "meta".
Everything you see here has been properly tested throughout several games.

Disclaimers:
When talking about breakpoints, I don't consider Wargors specials even though they technically are. What I mean is, if you read "all specials", that means all specials EXCEPT Wargors.

I tried to adjust the properties' percentages to the bare minimum required to reach the intended breakpoints, but sometimes it's just impossible. If you want to make sure you reach them without perfect stats, use the breakpoint calculator (link below).

Legend:
THP = Temporal Health Points
Pv* = Power vs *something* (S for Skaven, C for Chaos, I for Infantry, etc.)
BCR = Block Cost Reduction
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
AS = Attack Speed
DRv* = Damage Reduction vs *something* (S for Skaven, C for Chaos, AoE for Area of Effect)
SBS = Shot Body Shot
SHS = Shot Head Shot
CW = Chaos Warriors
SV = Stormvermin
LAtt = Light Attack
HAtt = Heavy Attack
PAtt = Push Attack
L* = Light attack number *something*
H* = Heavy attack number *something*
BlockCancel = Pressing block input to reset attack combos

Check my other guides:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3032728547
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3035006334
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3081382002
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3176406871
Here are some links to other great stuff made by the community:

• Breakpoint calculator v14.11b (thanks to OrangeChris [original author] and VernonKun [current author]): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n8fq0MF6xvZlwSSM__O6N8mEsgHbPKbrBWA8NJOSPx8/edit?gid=62597031#gid=62597031
  
• Royale w/ Cheese guides (thanks to, well, Royale w/ Cheese): https://steamcommunity.com/id/dylanrong/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=552500&p=1
  
• Armory mod wiki: https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/guide-armory-weapon-stats-info/49286
  
• Vermintide 2 Arsenal comparator (by me. This a WIP spreadsheet made to quickly compare different weapons): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NfBK30PuLJGwoOSqrah24tMRUh53WGE2AwvZzbijSyU/edit?usp=sharing

Bardin is a simple character with easy to understand careers. They have very clearly defined roles while still being flexible thanks to the wide variety of both melee and ranged weapons.

• Ranger Veteran is a hybrid that can be strong at both melee and ranged combat while supplying the team with consumables.
  
• Ironbreaker is absurdly tanky, ideal for holding the frontline.
  
• Slayer is a "melee only" career with super high dps and an extremely aggressive playstyle, which makes him strong but hard to master.
  
• Outcast Engineer is a ranged dps that can always put insane amounts of damage thanks to its career skill (the Crank Gun), while also having great buffs to both melee and ranged weapons.

Most of Bardin's melee weapons are really good at controlling hordes and generating THP, making him a reliable frontliner no matter what career or build he's playing.
Being a dwarf comes with a very unique perk, you are short.
This has one big advantage and two disadvantages:
- You can stand "in front" of your allies without blocking their vision nor putting yourself at risk of receiving friendly fire, allowing you to frontline for your team without having to worry at all about your positioning relative to your allies.
- It's harder to land headshots with melee weapons on taller enemies (like Chaos Warriors).
- You angle of vision is different than that of any other character, which can take some time getting used to.

Armor penetration, shieldbreaker
The Axe is a weapon with fast attack speed and very high damage per hit and armor penetration, which makes it incredibly strong against elites. Unfortunately it can't cleave through enemies, making it terrible at fighting hordes.
The Axe has decent stamina, high dodge distance and good and cheap pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: LAtt spam
- vs elites: HAtt spam

Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger
The Hammer is a well rounded weapon, not too fast but not too slow either, with good stagger, good horde-clear and high damage against armored enemies. It can straggle against mixed hordes though, but it's still capable of holding the ground.
The Hammer has high stamina, good dodge distance and good and cheap pushes.

Combos:
- vs hordes: PAtt+L1+L2
- vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L1+L2
- vs elites: HAtt spam

(Slayer only)
Fast-strikes, armor penetration
The Dual Axes have very fast attack speed and high damage per hit and armor penetration, which makes it strong against elites. It can't cleave through enemies, but the high attack speed compensates for it, making it kinda good at fighting hordes and mixed hordes.
The Dual Axes have low stamina, high dodge distance and good pushes.

Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam
- vs elites: LAtt spam

Fast-strikes, horde-clear
The Dual Hammers have very fast attack speed and very high cleave, making them excellent at controlling hordes. And I mean controlling instead of killing, since they have pretty low damage.
The Dual Hammers have high stamina, good dodge distance and good pushes.

Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: L1+H2+H3
- vs elites: H1+BlockCancel

Armor penetration, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Greataxe has very high damage per hit and armor penetration on top of high stagger strength, which makes it incredibly strong against elites. Unfortunately it has very low cleave, making it bad at fighting hordes.
The Greataxe has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Light attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: PAtk+H2+L3
- vs mixed hordes: PAtk+L2+L3
- vs elites: LAtt spam

Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Great Hammer is a slow but reliable weapon, it has excellent stagger with (almost) unstoppable cleave on heavy attacks and really high damage against armored enemies on light attacks. It takes some time getting used to its slow speed, but once you do, you will love it. Try to get attack speed buffs to improve heavy attack chains.
The Great Hammer has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Light attacks 1 and 2 break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: (PAtk+)H1+H2
- vs mixed hordes: HAtt Spam
- vs elites: LAtt spam

Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger, shieldbreaker
The War Pick is the slowest melee weapon in the game, but it has amazing finesse modifier. This means that crits and headshots gain a lot of bonus damage.
Light attacks have high cleave and decent damage and stagger strength, while the heavy attacks have a lot of damage, armor penetration and stagger strength, making it a well-rounded weapon as long as you can get attack speed buffs from career talents or gear properties.
The War Pick has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
Heavy attacks have two different charging stages, each dealing different amounts of damage.
Charging heavy attacks increases movement speed after reaching stage two, but the initial slowdown makes it even.
Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: LAtt spam
- vs elites: HAtt spam

Horde-clear, armor penetration, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Cog Hammer is an all-in-one weapon with basically no weakness.
Light attacks have high cleave and decent damage and stagger strength, while the heavy attacks have a lot of damage, armor penetration and stagger strength. Both of them are relatively fast considering how strong their stats are, making it Bardin's best melee weapon.
The Cog Hammer has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: LAtt spam
- vs mixed hordes: LAtt spam
- vs elites: HAtt spam

(Not Slayer)
Armor penetration, improved block, high stamina, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Axe & Shield is slightly weak in all departments. Low cleave, average damage per hit and just a bit of armor penetration barely makes the cut. The shield aspect though compensates for all of this.
Shield slams, strong pushes and improved blocks makes this a reliable all-rounded defensive weapon, but expect only mediocre damage numbers in the score screen.
The Axe & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

Heavy attack 1 is a shield slam that breaks wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: L1+H2
- vs mixed hordes: L1+H2
- vs elites: (PAtk+)L2+H3

(Not Slayer)
Armor penetration, improved block, high stamina, stagger, shieldbreaker
The Hammer & Shield combines a well rounded weapon with the addition of a shield. This gives it better block, a shield slam attack and more stagger strength without sacrificing too much damage.
The Hammer & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

Heavy attack 1 is a shield slam that breaks wooden shields.
Combos:
- vs hordes: (L1+)L2+H2
- vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L3
- vs elites: PAtt+L3

Long range, armor penetration, special sniping, pinpoint accuracy, ignore shields
The Handgun is an excellent sniper weapon, capable of one-shotting specials and even some elites (depending on buffs and difficulty) from very long distances. Since it's hitscan and it has a nice zoom in when pressing the secondary fire button, it's very easy to aim with it. Handgun's shots ignore shields.
The only drawback is that it has to be reloaded after every shot, which takes a long time.

(Not Outcast Engineer)
Long range, armor penetration, special sniping
The Crossbow is a nice sniping weapon for Bardin.
It has less damage than the Handgun, but it also has a much faster fire rate, a bit more of cleave and it's more forgiving on bad aim.
It has a decent amount of ammo and reload speed, so missing shots is not as punishing as with other sniping weapons.
Holding right click zooms in the camera and improves your accuracy.

Short range, horde-clear, AoE
Left click
The Grudgeraker is a powerful shotgun, with narrow area of effect and super high damage against unarmored enemies, specially Plague Monks and Savages. It has more range than other shotguns, so don't be afraid to shoot at targets that are at mid range (except Packmasters, they take less damage from all shotguns).

Right click
Throws a quick bash that staggers and pushes enemies away. Useful against regular infantry and idle elites to gain a bit of time and space to reload safely.

Mid range, armor penetration, special sniping
With a decent clip size, good breakpoints on both specials and elites and huge dps against monsters, the Masterwork Pistol is a reliable and flexible weapon with only one weakness, it has very short effective range (8 meters). It's also relatively hard to aim with it past that range.
While holding Right Click, holding Left Click will shoot bullets very quickly. Shooting this way is only faster, the projectiles are exactly the same and deal the same damage, but it also has terrible aim.

(Ranger Veteran and Slayer only)
Mid range, armor penetration, special sniping, infinite ammo
Pressing left click quickly throws an axe that deals a good amount of damage, but the projectile's trajectory has a lot of fall-off.
While holding Right Click, pressing left click throws the axes with more strength, reducing the projectile fall-off at the cost of slower fire rate. The damage is the same though.

It has infinite ammo, but recovering ammunition by holding the reload button is slow and leaves you vulnerable, so it's very important to not miss shots against key targets (specials).
You can also pick up the axes if you get close to where they landed, which can be extremely useful if used at close range or if you are marching forward.

(Ironbreaker and Outcast Engineer only)
Close range, horde-clear, rapid fire, burn, friendly fire, overcharge
Instead of using ammunition, it generates overcharge. To learn more about this mechanic check my Sienna guide here.
Left click
Sprays some fire in front of you, slightly damaging and staggering enemies, although the stagger strength is not high enough to interrupt elites' attacks.
Generates a big amount of heat.

Useful if you see an elite getting a little too close to you, but has to be used before they start an attack, since you won't be able to interrupt it.

Right click
Charge the gun, then hold your fire button to release a constant stream of fire that inflicts a lot of damage to unarmored enemies and burns them. The more you charge it, the more time you can keep on the stream at an exponential rate. Learning how much charge time you will need requires a lot of practice, but helps prevent overcharging.
Charging generates a lot of heat and shooting the fire stream generates a super small amount (still enough to cause you to overheat if you are at the limit, so be careful).

Drakegun is one of the best anti-infantry weapons in the game, capable of melting dozens of enemies in a matter of seconds. The only problem is that it does almost no damage to armored enemies which, in Legend and specially Cataclysm, tend to mix themselves with infantry hordes quite often.
Additionally, being a close ranged weapon puts you at risk of being hit; that would interrupt the stream of fire and you would be surrounded by enemies in no time. All in all a high risk, high reward type of weapon.

(Ironbreaker and Outcast Engineer only)
Mid range, horde-clear, special sniping, rapid fire, burn, overcharge
Instead of using ammunition, it generates overcharge. To learn more about this mechanic check my Sienna guide here.
Left click
Shoots a slow projectile with a big hitbox that deals a bit of AoE damage on impact. It's ok at killing specials at mid range and at thinning down hordes and hurting elites from a safe distance.
Each shot generates a small amount of heat.

Right click
Press left click while holding right click to shoot a fire blast that applies a burn DoT on all enemies right in front of you. It has extremely short range though.
Great to deal with concentrated masses of infantry.
Holding right click generates very little heat per second, while shooting the blast generates a decent amount.

(Ironbreaker and Outcast Engineer only)
Mid range, horde-clear, armor penetration, special sniping, AoE, stagger, friendly fire
Shoots a torpedo that deals massive damage on contact and in a big AoE. Low ammunition and very slow reload.
The projectile cleaves through allies and regular infantry, but explodes when colliding with terrain, armored enemies or monsters.
Trinket traits Grenadier and Shrapnel work with Trollhammer Torpedo ammunition, as well as the weapon's own trait.

It can be used to block and push just like a melee weapon, which allows you to interrupt the reload animation to protect yourself.

Ranger Veteran is a ranged dps and a solid frontliner with nice supporting skills

His core passive "Survivalist" generates a pickup that restores ammunition whenever a special is killed, giving a nice ammo sustain to the whole team, specially in high difficulties.
He also has two passives that improves a ranged playstyle (50% extra ammo capacity and 15% reload speed).
His last passive is "Ingenious Improvisation", which grants him a 10% chance to not loose consumables after using them.

• Strengths: Decent horde-clear, tanky, high ammunition sustain, a few supporting skills.
  
• Weaknesses: Low single target damage, poor mobility, builds can only excel at one thing.

After a short delay, you throw a smoke bomb at your feet, staggering and pushing all enemies away (including CW and monsters/lords), and also covering with smoke a large area around you. While inside this area, you gain a lot of extra ranged damage, armor piercing with ranged weapons and stealth that's not interrupted by any action.
Another career with stealth mechanics. Another career to suffer this game's spaghetti code. Yes, enemies will still attack you while invisible *sometimes*, so, yeah, don't trust it completely.

"Disengage" is best used to create a safe space for yourself in tough situations. This moment of respite allows you to snipe specials and elites very comfortably, while also providing a long time window to generate THP and take back control of a horde. It can also be used to stagger and increase your dps against monsters/lords quite significantly.

Its main weaknesses are the very high cooldown (two whole minutes) and the small animation before the effect pops-off, which can make it dangerous to use in clutch situations, that's why pushing and dodging before casting it is advised.

• THP on stagger is extremely strong and reliable with most of Bardin's weapons, since they usually have high cleave and stagger strength but low damage per hit.
  
• THP on cleave is a bit weaker than THP on stagger in Cataclysm except for the Axe and the Greataxe. For lower difficulties, since enemies die much quicker, THP on cleave is actually better.
  
• THP on kill is a viable choice in high difficulties where elite enemies are more frequent, but it's less reliable than THP on cleave and should only be picked for very hard-hitting weapons like the Axe and the Greataxe.

• "Last Resort" provides a substantial buff to your melee capabilities when out of ammunition. Unfortunately it's usage is limited to Throwing Axes builds due to this requirement. Note: The buff actually applies to the last bullet/projectile unless you regain ammo from that shot (Conservative Shooter/Scrounger traits).
  
• "Master of Improvisation" is by far the most solid and most useful of the three talents in this row, providing a lot of CDR with all ranged weapons except Masterwork Pistol.
  
• "Foe-Feller" is an ok buff to melee combat. The attack speed is quite nice for slow weapons such as Greathammer, Great Axe and War Pick.

• "Bulwark" is good at supporting the team with defensive playstyles. Not Veteran Ranger's thing unless you are using a shield weapon a lot and don't need "Enhanced Power" to reach breakpoints on your ranged weapon.
  
• "Mainstay" is generally speaking a weak talent, but the high cleave and stagger strength of Bardin's weapons make it a very solid choice to boost your melee damage.
  
• "Enhanced Power" is the only option that increases your ranged weapon's damage, but it also gives some extra cleave to your melee weapon, which can help during hordes.

• "Drunken Brawler" provides attack speed and damage reduction buffs to the whole team with no downside at all. You can never go wrong with this talent.
  
• "Grungni's Cunning" makes the pickups from your passive restore triple the amount of ammo. Very useful with ammunition-hungry weapons such as Grudge-raker and Masterwork Pistol. It's also nice if the team consists of multiple characters with ranged weapons that use ammunition.
  
• "Scavenger" has a chance to change the passive ammo pickups with potions. It can be good if you are not using a ranged weapon that requires the extra ammo like Handgun or Throwing Axes.

• "No Dawdling!" is a permanent movement speed buff. Nothing crazy, but it feels nice to have some extra mobility.
  
• "Exuberance" provides an almost constant 30% damage reduction, making it very solid in any build and difficulty. It affects attacks that hit you from behind but, if you land a headshot with either weapon, the buff temporarily affects all damage taken.
  
• "Firing Fury" increases reload speed by 35% after hitting 2 or more enemies with the same projectile of your ranged weapon. This is amazing for the Grudge-raker and the Crossbow if you are planning on using them as your main weapon.

• "Exhilarating Vapours" not only grants a lot of THP for any party member who stays inside the smoke area of "Disengage", but it's also a very powerful attack speed buff (8% attack speed to each player, meaning a maximum of 32%). Always a good choice.
  
• "Surprise Guest" allows you to maintain the stealth when outside of "Disengage"'s area. Useful for specific situations and tactics. Only pick it when you are sure on how to get advantage from it.
  
• "Ranger's Parting Gift" grants you a free bomb usage everytime you cast "Disengage". It's quite strong in high difficulties where consumable items are more scarce; allowing you to use bombs more frequently in tough situations. I would only recommend it for Cataclysm or if you tend to have trouble at fighting patrols.
  Unfortunately, other players don't know/care about this talent and you will have to beg for a bomb and even then there is no garantee that they will pass it to you. The tooltip is misleading, the free grenade usage lasts forever.

A standard ranged dps build that relies on hard hitting ranged weapons with long effective range while also having access to strong melee weapons to defend oneself or to help in the frontline.

---

If using a shield weapon choose between "Enhanced Power" for better stagger breakpoints or "Bulwark" to increase the melee dps of the rest of the team.
Level 20 talents "Drunken Brawler" and "Scavenger" are equally good in this build since none of the three ranged weapons requires additional ammo sustain.
Any level 30 talent is viable with this build, but "Ranger's Parting Gift" makes an exceptionally good combo with Throwing Axes and level 10 talent "Master of Improvisation" for very frequent free bombs.
Your main priority should be to kill specials and elites at long range while helping the frontline against regular infantry. Or you can just play as a slightly weaker frontliner for a while, it's not mandatory to stick to a ranged playstyle.

• Crossbow is faster and more flexible, but less accurate and has worse breakpoints than the Handgun. It can also be used to thin down infantry numbers.
  
• Handgun is easier to use than the Crossbow, has better breakpoints, accuracy and ignores shields; but it's less flexible due to its slower reload speed, cleave and ammo.
  
• Throw axes constantly to refresh the career skill and have "Ranger's Parting Gift" always ready. This variant allows you to throw bombs very frequently and, with good management of your career skill, never actually loose them.

Shield weapons stagger breakpoints:
Interrupt Plague Monk combos with pushes: Opportunist + Enhanced Power + 17%PvS/PvB

Crossbow breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvS and +11.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Leeches and Blightstormers
2SBS all elites, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
- With Enhanced Power, +5%PvS, +5%PvC and +17.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +15%PvS and +20%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV and any other special
1SHS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Savages
- With Enhanced Power, +7%PvS, +7%PvC and +18%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Bestigors and any other special
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +7%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials
* Add +7%PvA to reach 1SBS Bestigors and 2SBS Wargors
OR
* Add +5% PvB to reach 1SHS Monks and Savages

Throwing Axes breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +15%PvS, +5%PvC, +10%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
- With Enhanced Power, +7%PvS, +7%PvC
1SBS SV and all specials
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
* With "Disengage" buff:
1SBS all enemies except Wargors and CW
Cataclysm:
- With 18%PvS, +5%PvC and +5%PvM:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
3SBS Bestigors and Maulers
1SHS all specials
2SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
- With Enhanced Power, +9.5%PvS, +9.5%PvC, +7.5%PvA and +5%PvM:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
3SBS Maulers
1SHS SV and all specials
2SHS Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
* With "Disengage" buff:
1SBS all specials
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW

A mid range dps build with great crowd control and insane damage against elites and monsters.

---

The first setup, with "Mainstay" and "Exuberance" focuses a bit more on melee combat, but both variants play very similarly.
The Masterwork Pistol is very flexible, with excellent breakpoints on both elites and specials, even with it's low effective range; and the high amount of ammunition allows you to use it against most elites you may encounter in a match.

Your main priority should be to kill specials at long range while helping the frontline against regular infantry and elites. Wait for elites to get close so you are not penalized by the Masterwork Pistol's damage falloff (it starts at 8 meters).
Use your melee weapon against regular infantry and to help your frontliners.

While fighting a monster/lord, you should be focusing on it due to the high dps you have with the combination of "Disengage" and Masterwork Pistol's right click mode. If your allies are not taking care of the other enemies though, you can always swap to your melee weapon and deal with them yourself.
Masterwork Pistol breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +10%PvS, +6%PvC, +5%PvM and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
2SBS Maulers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1SBS at >15m Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS at >15m all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
- With Enhanced Power, +7%PvS, +18.5%PvC and +10%PvI:
1SBS all enemies except CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1SBS at >15m Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS at >15m all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS at >15m all specials except Packmasters
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +7%PvI and +7%PvA:
1SBS SV, Bestigors and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks and Savages
2SBS at >15m SV and all specials except Packmasters
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials

A short range dps build that can easily annihilate hordes and berserkers no matter their density.

---

You can either equip additional power against dangerous enemies (armored/berserker) or add more PvI to push its strengths even further and Crit Chance to trigger traits more often.
For Level 10, "Master of Improvisation" will give a lot of CDR throughout the game, but "Foe-Feller"'s extra attack speed is very strong on slow weapons like War Pick and Great Axe.
Level 30 "Ranger's Parting Gift" can very very helpful against patrols, since the Grudge-Raker struggles against armored enemies. For any other situation though, "Exhilarating Vapours" brings more value to the team and is easier to take advantage of, specially with the slow melee weapons featured in this build.
Grduge-raker is super strong against big clumps of most unarmored enemies (that is infantry, maulers and berserkers) but, with the bonus armor pierce from "Disengage", it can also kill Stormvermin very efficiently; but the long cooldown makes it too unreliable.

Ideally you want to pair the shotgun with a melee weapon that's good against elites, even if it struggles against infantry. Even then, the one handed Axe is not all that good for Ranger Veteran, since he lacks proper melee buffs.
Since the Grudge-raker is a shotgun, talking about breakpoints is always very inconsistent, but there are some in Legend that are worth mentioning.
- With +27.5%PvS/PvM OR Enhanced Power +19%PvS/PvM: 1SBS Packmasters
- With +22.5%PvS/PvA OR Enhanced Power +14%PvS/PvA: 1SBS Ratlings and Warpfires
With a few buffs of PvS/PvA, you can kinda oneshot Stormvermin in Legend if you manage to land at least half of the pellets in its head.

A very micro intensive melee focused build that takes advantage of the talent "Last Resort". Very hard to play, but strong and fun.

---

Greathammer is super strong in this build. The extra +20% power from "Last Resort" increases its damage and cleave just enough to clear hordes effortlessly, even with elites mixed in.
With "Last Resort" active you become an absolute power house in melee combat with super high damage and stagger strength with the hammer weapons.
The only bad thing about this build is that you have to micro your ammunition efficiently, staying at 0 ammo the entire game is not a good thing, you will still need to kill specials once in a while, so make sure to reload one Throwing Axe after you hear a special spawn, just in case.
High risk high reward build, unless someone else in the team can kill specials, in which case there is only the reward!
Headshots with Conservative Shooter don't apply the extra power from "Last Resort".
Throwing Axes breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +15%PvS, +5%PvC, +10%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
- With Enhanced Power, +7%PvS, +7%PvC
1SBS SV and all specials
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
* With "Disengage" buff:
1SBS all enemies except Wargors and CW
Cataclysm:
- With 18%PvS, +5%PvC and +5%PvM:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
3SBS Bestigors and Maulers
1SHS all specials
2SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
- With Enhanced Power, +9.5%PvS, +9.5%PvC, +7.5%PvA and +5%PvM:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
3SBS Maulers
1SHS SV and all specials
2SHS Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors
* With "Disengage" buff:
1SBS all specials
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW

- With Enhanced Power, Last Resort, +8.5%PvS, +8.5%PvC, +10%PvI and +5%PvM:
1SBS all specials (with last axe)
1SHS all specials

Ironbreaker is the tankiest career in the game, with lots of defensive buffs coming from both passives and talents. So tanky in fact, that it is infamously known in the community as a noob trap, since it allows players to make mistakes and not get punished as hard as they would with any other career, tricking the player into thinking that they are more skilled than they actually are.
Unfortunately, what he gains in defensive stats, he loses in damage output, making him the career with the lowest damage in the game.

His core passive is "Gromril Armour", a 'shield' that blocks any incoming damage once. Upon activating, it replenishes 20 seconds later.
This effect is triggered when receiving any damage from any source except venting overcharge and fall damage. This means that low damage ticks like those from Warpfire Throwers, Poison Globadiers and Packmasters attacks also trigger it.

The other passives grant him 30% damage reduction, an extra stamina shield and a decrease of the stun duration after getting hit by an attack by half.

• Strengths: Decent horde-clear, insanely tanky, very easy to play.
  
• Weaknesses: Low damage, poor mobility, teaches bad habits.

"Impenetrable" taunts all nearby enemies that are not CW, monsters or lords, grants +50% damage reduction (stacking with +30% passive for a total of 80%) and makes blocking attacks not consume any stamina for 10 seconds.
Under these effects, you can become unkillable in any situation, gaining a lot of time for you and your team to take back control of the situation when in a pinch.

You can use "Impenetrable" to gather aggro from as many enemies as possible and let your team reposition or to play hyper aggressively thanks to the extra damage reduction.

• THP on stagger is extremely strong an reliable with most of Bardin's weapons, since they usually have high cleave and stagger strength but low damage per hit.
  
• THP on kill is a lot weaker than THP on stagger for Ironbreaker, since your job will never be to focus elites. It still is better for the Axe and the Greataxe though.
  
• THP on cleave is a bit weaker than THP on stagger in Cataclysm except for the Axe and the Greataxe. For lower difficulties, since enemies die much quicker, THP on cleave is actually better.

• "Under Pressure" only affects Drakefire Pistols and Drakegun, decreasing the damage and increasing the fire-rate at low overcharge, while increasing the damage and decreasing the fire-rate at high overcharge. Additionally, it removes overcharge slowdown so your movement speed and melee weapon are not penalized by being at high overcharge.
  You need to micro your overcharge levels correctly in order to really take advantage of it. Try to stay over half overcharge at all times for the damage boost to really pay off.
  
• "Blood of Grimnir" is the best choice in this row if you usually play near your allies, or if you are playing a very aggressive playstyle.
  
• "Rune-Etched Shield" is a nice team buff, providing 2% bonus power to all nearby allies (and yourself) for 6 seconds after blocking an attack (up to 5 stacks). The downside is that it forces you to play very defensively so, unless you are playing with a full-tank shield build, it's hard to justify it over "Blood of Grimnir".

• "Bulwark" increases the damage taken by enemies that you stagger from melee attacks. It's a great option to boost your whole team's dps consistently if playing a defensive build with high stagger weapons such as shield weapons or Greathammer.
  
• "Smiter" is a consistent boost to your single target damage, specially useful against elites and monsters.
  
• "Enhanced Power" can help reach both damage and stagger breakpoints, although if we are strictly speaking in terms of damage, any of the other two options for this row are better.

• With "Vengeance", while Gromril is active you gain a stack of Rising Anger every 7 seconds (up to 5 stacks). When Gromril is lost, you gain 8.0% attack speed per stack of Rising Anger for 10 seconds. This is the only attack speed buff Ironbreaker has, and it's actually very strong if you don't get hit often. Perfect to boost your damage output with slow weapons.
  
• "Gromril Curse" makes you push nearby enemies away when you loose Gromril. A great crowd control tool that improves the whole team's survivability, preventing you from getting stuck even in the worst situations.
  
• "Tunnel Fighter" reduces "Gromril Armour"'s cooldown to 10 seconds, allowing you to take hits more frequently without getting punished. The more balanced option between the three talents in this row, making aggressive playstyles safer.

• "Dawi Defiance" is a nice defensive bonus, giving you a 50% chance to restore your stamina when your guard is broken. Useful with weapons that rely a lot on stamina for pushing like the Hammer and two handed weapons.
  
• "The Rolling Mountain" is a nice cdr buff that you get by simply killing enemies, specially for non-shield weapons that rely on "Impenetrable" more to increase your survivability. It's not going to work on weapons that rely on push attacks like Hammer though, since the effect only triggers when you are at full stamina.
  
• "Miner's Rhythm" increases your stamina recovery rate by 40% for 2 seconds every time you hit an enemy with a heavy attack, which is awesome with weapons that rely on them like Greathammer, Greataxe and shield weapons.

• "Drengbarazi Oath" transforms "Impenetrable" into a team buff that boosts nearby allies power by 20%. Very solid with a nice 10 second duration and great in all situations.
  
• "Oi! Wazzok" makes "Impenetrable" taunt monsters too. If you hate to see your allies get rolled by monsters, this is a nice choice. It has a very niche use, specially considering that your job while fighting monsters is to hold back regular enemies so that your allies can focus on the big thing. Without a shield weapon it's not worth it, since you can't reliable block all of their attacks.
  
• "Booming Taunt" increases the career skill's basic effect considerably (50% more taunt range and duration), making it an even greater defensive buff. Great in all situations, even greater in teams with random people that tend to split up.

Full tank build with insane survivability
*You can use Trollhammer Torpedo since it's very strong at killing elites and groups of enemies, but the low max ammo means that you won't be able to kill specials consistently.

---

There are two variants for this build, one with drakefire weapons (higher damage output) and another with sniper weapons (more focus on tanking and capable of quickly dealing with specials).
Both 'Oi! Wazzok!' and 'Booming Taunt' work well with this build, so pick based on personal preference.
With very high base damage reduction and THP generation on stagger, neither Barkskin or Boon of Shallya are worth it. Additionally, due to the ultra-defensive playstyle of this build, you should not be getting hit often. Natural Bond also allows you to vent heat from drakefire weapons basically for free.
- Drakegun/Drakefire Pistols:
Full tank build with insanely high dps against unarmored enemies.
With this variant, you loose the ability to reliably kill specials at mid and long ranges, but you gain a lot of damage against infantry, monsters and berserkers, allowing you to safely contain hordes with your shield weapon just to later dispatch all of them in a few seconds with your ranged weapon.
Make sure to be at the very front of your team, grabbing the aggro of as many enemies as possible and forcing them to move towards you in clumped-up groups (for example through narrow corridors), then stagger them with a shield bash or a push before switching to one of the drakefire weapons and start scorching them.

This variant is much harder to play, but it allows you to do a lot more damage than a regular tank build. You can even surpass the highest DPS careers in the game!
In Legend difficulty and below, Drakegun is total overkill. Even with the low damage of shield weapons you should be able to easily kill infantry. It still is very fun though.

- Handgun/Crossbow:
Full tank build meant to hold the frontline. Focus always on staggering enemies and grabbing their attention. Give your team time and space to do their things safely. You can also clear hordes slowly but safely and buff your allies with the level 10 talent "Rune-Etched Shield" and "Bulwark".
While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to take all the pressure off of them or to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
Shield weapons stagger breakpoints:
Interrupt Plague Monk combos with pushes:
- With Opportunist + Enhanced Power + 17%PvS/PvB
OR
- With Opportunist + 26% extra power from combining PvS/PvB from gear and "Rune-Etched Shield" stacks (2% power each stack). A bit more unreliable, but it allows you to pick "Bulwark" as your level 15 talent instead of Enhanced Power.

Crossbow breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvS and +11.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Leeches and Blightstormers
2SBS all elites, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
- With Enhanced Power, +5%PvS, +5%PvC and +17.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +15%PvS and +20%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV and any other special
1SHS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Savages
- With Enhanced Power, +7%PvS, +7%PvC and +18%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Bestigors and any other special
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +7%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials
* Add +7%PvA to reach 1SBS Bestigors and 2SBS Wargors
OR
* Add +5% PvB to reach 1SHS Monks and Savages

Drakefire Pistols breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +10%PvI:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
4SBS Packmasters
2SHS Monks, Savages, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
Cataclysm:
- With +8.5%PvS, +8.5%PvC, +5.5%PvI and +9%PvB:
3SBS Assassins
4SBS Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
5SBS Monks and Savages
6SBS Packmasters
2SHS Assassins
3SHS Monks, Savages, Wargors, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers

An offtank build with higher dps and speed without sacrificing (much) stagger power. Every weapon listed has at least one weakness, so play around your team to compensate for it.

---

You could use the Crossbow as your ranged weapon, but its breakpoints don't allow you to reach the breakpoints on your melee weapons, which are pretty important in this build.
Dual Hammers have low damage against armored enemies; hence, the Masterwork Pistol is great in combination with them.
Boon of Shallya is necessary for the Axe, but a complete overkill for the Hammer and Dual Hammers.
This build is a mix between a tank and a bruiser. Capable of staggering enemies, although without the consistency of a shield weapon; and also capable of killing enemies quickly, just not as quick as a career specialized in a dps role.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it (unless you are using Trollhammer Torpedo). If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
The Masterwork Pistol is strong and efficient against armored elites, making it really good in combination with Dual Hammers.
Hammer stagger breakpoints:
- With Opportunist and +10%PvC or +19.5%PvC good stagger breakpoints on Chaos Elites with heavy attacks
- With 19.5% PvC and Opportunist:
Push attack/heavy attack/light attacks 1-2 stagger all attacks except CW overheads and Plague Monks combos

Axe (killing) breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With Smiter and +7%PvI (or +7%PvS and +7%PvC):
3SBS marauders
1SHS skavenslaves, ungors, fanatics and clan rats
2SHS gors and marauders

Axe stagger breakpoints:
- With Opportunist, +9%PvS and +8%PvC:
Heavy attacks interrupt all attacks except CW overheads and Plague Monks combos
Light attacks and push attacks interrupt all Stormvermin attacks

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials

Masterwork Pistol breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +10%PvS, +6%PvC, +5%PvM and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
2SBS Maulers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1SBS at >15m Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS at >15m all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS at >15m all specials except Packmasters

Bruiser build with high damage and good crowd control that takes advantage of Ironbreaker's passive tankiness and high THP generation to keep a constantly aggressive playstyle.

---

Level 20 talent "Vengeance" is what makes these weapons viable. Whenever things start getting out of control, getting hit and loosing Gromril Armour will significantly increase your attack speed to regain control.
Level 25 "Miner's Rhythm" is a nice buff for Greataxe, which relies a lot on pushes to keep hordes under control.
Boon of Shallya is necessary for the Great Axe, but a complete overkill for the Hammer and Dual Hammers.
As a bruiser, your job is to hold the frontline by killing every enemy that gets close to you. All the melee weapons listed above (with the exception of the Great Axe) can kill regular infantry very easily and safely thanks to their high damage, cleave and stagger strength.

• War Pick is slow but, thanks to its high finesse, it can deal pretty good damage against all types of enemies. Spam light attacks against hordes and heavy attacks against elites.
  
• Greathammer has very high stagger strength on all attacks, making it reliable in all situations. Use heavy attacks against hordes and light attacks on elites.
  
• Greataxe has high damage and armor penetration in all its attacks, but slow speed and low cleave, making it weak at clearing thick hordes of pure infantry. It can quickly dispatch elites though, even if they are mixed in with infantry.
  
• Cog Hammer is much faster than the War Pick, but plays exactly the same.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it (unless you are using Trollhammer Torpedo). If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.
Crossbow breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +20%PvS and +11.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Leeches and Blightstormers
2SBS all elites, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +15%PvS and +20%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV and any other special
1SHS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Savages

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials

Slayer is a melee-only* career with insane dps but low defensive stats.
He can kill both infantry and elites easily as long as the build is balanced.
While he can gain a lot of damage reduction though two level 25 talents, there are no buffs to improve blocking or stamina regeneration available to him. This makes him specially vulnerable if his career skill is on cooldown. Because of this, "hit-trading" with Slayer is not as safe as with other bruiser careers such as Zealot or Mercenary.

The core passive, "Trophy Hunter", is a very strong buff with a short duration. It increases Slayer's damage by 10% for 2 seconds for every enemy hit with an attack. This buff can stack up to 3 times, and more than one stack can be gained per individual attack.
His perks permanently increase his attack speed by 7.5% and make his charged attacks uninterruptible by enemy attacks.

While you don't have ranged weapons, your career skill provides great mobility at a short cooldown, which comes handy at killing specials if necessary. Still, your priority in those situations should be to peel for your allies with proper ranged weapons so that they can deal with them more easily.

• Strengths: Insane dps, great horde-clear, great single target damage, high stagger strength, good mobility.
  
• Weaknesses: No ranged weapons*, tankiness not high enough for Cataclysm to compliment its hyper-aggressive playstyle, only one playstyle.

*Slayer actually has access to one ranged weapon, only obtainable after buying the Winds of Magic DLC.
"Leap" is a short cooldown (40s) skill that makes you jump forward, staggering enemies near the area where you land and increasing your attack speed by 30% for 10 seconds.
Thanks to the attack speed buff and the natural high cleave/high attack speed from Bardin's melee weapons, you can refresh the cooldown of this skill extremely quickly during fights against hordes.

"Leap" is an excellent mobility tool that balances the lack of a ranged weapon, greatly increasing both your survivability and your potential to play aggresively.

The stagger on landing and the extra attack speed allows you to aid an ally that's getting surrounded, hold the frontline even better on your own or simply reposition yourself in case you're getting surrounded or separated from the rest of the team.
It gives a lot of agency to a career that already has very high stat numbers, giving you a lot of potential to make plays and carry the team to victory.

• THP on cleave is the most reliable THP talent in any difficulty, and thanks to Slayer's high attack speed and focus on melee combat (on top of Bardin's melee weapons having very high cleave), you can never go wrong by picking this talent.
  
• THP on kill is a viable choice in high difficulties where elite enemies are more frequent, but it's less reliable than THP on cleave and should only be picked for very hard-hitting weapons like the Axe and the Greataxe.
  
• THP on crit/headshot is less reliable than the other options, but it definetly pays off with low cleave weapons if you have good aim. Axe and Dual Axes are good weapons for this talent.

• "A Thousand Cuts" increases attack speed by 10% permanently if you have two "one-handed" weapons equipped. These weapons are: Hammer, Axe, Dual Hammers, Dual Axes and Throwing Axes.
  
• "Skull-Splitter" increases power by 15% permanently if you have two "two-handed" weapons equipped. These weapons are: Great Hammer, Greataxe, Cog Hammer and War Pick.
  
• "Hack and Slash" increases critical hit chance by 10% permanently.

• "Smiter" is a consistent boost to your single target damage, specially useful against elites and monsters. The most reliable and useful of the three choices in this row.
  
• "Mainstay" is generally speaking a weak talent, but the high cleave and stagger strength of Bardin's weapons make it a very solid choice to boost your melee damage against hordes when using Great Hammer, Cog Hammer, War Pick, Hammer and Dual Hammers. Since Slayer can already kill regular infantry very quickly, "Smiter" is a better choice in most situations.
  
• "Enhanced Power" is a decent power boost, but it gives less damage than the other two talents to your melee weapon and you don't need it to reach breakpoints on your ranged weapons either. It's best to ignore this talent unless you need it to reach specific stagger breakpoints.

• "Impatience" increases movement speed by 10% permanently. A nice buff for a melee focused career to help you kite enemies and reposition without depending solely on "Leap".
  
• "High Tally" increases the maximum amount of "Trophy Hunter" stacks by 1 (up to 4). Useful if you need the extra damage for specific breakpoints. Otherwise, the other two options are far superior. On Cataclysm, +10%PvC and +10%PvI already gives you enough extra damage to reach breakpoints on most weapons (with "Smiter" and 3 stacks of "Trophy Hunter" that is).
  
• "Adrenaline Surge" makes "Leap" 's cooldown recharge three times as fast while you have 3 stacks of "Trophy Hunter". This affects cdr gained over time, by hitting enemies and by receiving damage. With how important "Leap" is to Bardin's survivability and utility, having it available as often as possible is extremely good.

• "Oblivious to Pain" reduces the damage taken from elites and monsters by half (or to 10 points, whichever is highest). This reduction is applied after all modifiers (Barkskin). If you're not going to use heavy attacks, this is a good choice, as it's always active.
  
• "Grimnir's Focus" gives a 40% damage reduction buff that lasts for 5 seconds every time you hit an enemy with a charged attack. Very easy and reliable to trigger, making it more versatile than "Oblivious to Pain". Unless you are not going to use heavy attacks often, this is the safest option.
  
• "Barge" makes your "effective dodges[vermintide2.fandom.com]" push nearby smalll enemies out of the way. This talent is very weird and deserves a whole article to properly explain it. I personally don't recommend it as the other two are much easier to take advantage of.

• "Crunch!" doubles the stagger effect of "Leap" when landing on enemies. Allows "Leap" to interrupt almost every attack in the game, and it also increases it's effective range. Adds extra safety utility to the career skill.
  
• "Dawi-Drop" increases attack damage while airborne during Leap by 150%. Great in combination with weapons that have high damaging attacks like Cog Hammer and War Pick heavy attacks. It's hard to take advantage from it, but it's fun to use "Leap" as a tool to one-shot elites on top of its other functionalities (even CW in Cataclysm!).
  
• "No Escape" makes "Leap" also increase Slayer's movement speed by 25% for 10 seconds. The added mobility is great if you jumped into a bad spot or if you want to kite away from enemies more effectively.

Bruiser + melee dps build with a big focus on speed. Has to be played extremely aggressive to reach its full potential.

---

This build is centered around the Level 10 talent "A Thousand Cuts", so you can only equip one-handed weapons.
Dual Hammers and Hammer are the horde-clear weapons since they are incredibly strong against infantry, while Dual Axes and Axe are the anti-elite weapons due to their high damage and armor penetration. Still, both axe weapons are perfectly fine at killing infantry in low numbers.
If you have Throwing Axes, you can use them in combination with either Dual Axes, Hammer or Dual Hammers to snipe specials (and even elites if you can hit them in the head).
The idea is to combine one horde-clear weapon (Dual Hammers and Hammer) with one anti-elite weapon (Dual Axes and Axe), that way you can virtually deal with anything that the game throws at you (at melee range at least).

There are two talent combos:
- "Adrenaline Surge" + "No Escape" gives you an almost permanent 30% attack speed and 25% movement buff with "Leap" cooldown being reduced greatly (against thick hordes, you can even recover it in less than 10 seconds).
- "Impatience" + "Crunch!" combo gives more utility to "Leap" and also grants a constant (although weaker) movement speed buff.
None is straight up better than the other, so choose based on your personal preference.
With Slayer you can always fill both the bruiser and the melee dps roles, capable of dealing with hordes, elites and even monsters.
During hordes, focus first on killing elites or controlling the frontline depending on your team composition. Look at what your allies are prioritizing and try to compensate for that.
While fighting monsters and lords, ideally you should focus on them but, if the team has a Shade or a Grail Knight, you should leave the big guys to them and deal with the horde instead.

When a special shows, run towards your teammates and build a safe space for them to kill it. Even if you have Throwing Axes, it will be faster and more efficient for your allies to deal with it.
Dual Axes breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With 3 stacks of Trophy Hunter, Smiter, +10%PvC and +10%PvI:
1SBS Skavenslave and Ungors
2SBS Fanatics and Clan Rats
3SBS Gors and Marauders

Axe breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With 4 stacks of Trophy Hunter, Smiter, +5%PvS, +10%PvC and +10%PvI:
1SBS Skavenslave, Ungors, Fanatics and Clan Rats
2SBS Gors and Marauders

Throwing Axes breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +15%PvS, +5%PvC, +10%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With 10%PvS, +10%PvC and +8%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
3SBS Bestigors and Maulers
1SHS all specials except Packmasters
2SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages, Wargors and Packmasters

Bruiser + melee dps build that uses big, slow weapons to tear through thick masses of enemies in just a few swings

---

This build is centered around the Level 10 talent "Skull-splitter", so you can only equip two-handed weapons.
For the Charm, pick PvS for the Greataxe breakpoints, otherwise, PvC is generally better.

Great Hammer and Cog Hammer are far superior at clearing hordes, but they can also kill elites very effectively.
Great Axe and War Pick on the other hand are a bit too weak at dealing with hordes, but they compensate with their huge single target damage and armor penetration, making them excellent support weapons to quickly dispatch isolated elites.

"Dawi-Drop" has a fun combo with Warpick's fully charged heavy attacks that allow them to 1SBS Chaos Warriors if you hit them while jumping with "Leap" even in Cataclysm.
"Crunch!" though is much more useful in any other possible scenario.
With Slayer you can always fill both the bruiser and the melee dps roles, capable of dealing with hordes, elites and even monsters. You want to use heavy attacks all the time to maximize the value of these weapons (except with Cog Hammer, with which both types of attacks are super strong), but also to trigger "Grimnir's Focus" buff constantly.
During hordes, focus first on killing elites or controlling the frontline depending on your team composition. Look at what your allies are prioritizing and try to compensate for that.
While fighting monsters and lords, ideally you should focus on them but, if the team has a Shade or a Grail Knight, you should leave the big guys to them and deal with the horde instead.

When a special shows, run towards your teammates and build a safe space for them to kill it.
Great Hammer stagger breakpoints:
- With "Skull-Splitter" and +17%PvC/PvB:
Interrupt Savages combos with push attacks and heavy attacks

Greataxe stagger breakpoints:
- With Skull-Splitter and +7.5%PvS/PvB:
Heavy attacks interrupt Plague Monk Combos

Greataxe breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With Skull-Splitter, 3 stacks of Trophy Hunter, Smiter and +5%PvS/PvA:
3SBS SV
2SHS SV

War Pick breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With Skull-Splitter, 1 stacks of Trophy Hunter (or +5%PvS/PvA) and Smiter:
Fully charged heavy attack 1SBS SV

Bruiser + melee dps build with lots of possible combinations to fit every player's taste.

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While you can theoretically pair up any two weapons, the ones I list and the way I list them in the table shown above are an indicator of which ones can work as main weapons (more reliable therefore higher uptime) and supporting weapons (very strong at specific tasks).
This build is the best way to play a two-handed weapon with Throwing Axes for example, as any of the other two level 10 talents would not work with that combination.

Obviously, you don't want to use two one-handed weapons or two two-handed weapons together since the other builds are straight up better with those combinations.
Dual Axes + Throwing Axes is the only exception since the 10% extra attack speed from "A Thousand Cuts" is barely noticeable due to how fast Dual Axes attack with just "Swift Slaying" and "Leap" buffs active, and the extra crit chance increases your dps in a more meaningful way.
"Hack'n'Slash" is also pretty good with Greataxe, since the extra crit chance increases not only your damage, but your survivability as well. Crits have more stagger strength and, on top of that, you can trigger Swift Slaying more consistently.

I personally really like the Cog Hammer + Greataxe combo, even though they work with "Skull-Splitter" too. Spam light attacks with both weapons for either horde-clear (Cog Hammer) or killing elites (Greataxe) has proven to be very strong even in Cataclysm.

There are two talent combos:
- "Adrenaline Surge" + "No Escape" gives you an almost permanent 30% attack speed and 25% movement buff with "Leap" cooldown being reduced greatly (against thick hordes, you can even recover it in less than 10 seconds).
- "Impatience" + "Crunch!" combo gives more utility to "Leap" and also grants a constant (although weaker) movement speed buff.
None is straight up better than the other, so choose based on your personal preference.
With Slayer you can always fill both the bruiser and the melee dps roles, capable of dealing with hordes, elites and even monsters.
During hordes, focus first on killing elites or controlling the frontline depending on your team composition. Look at what your allies are prioritizing and try to compensate for that.
If you choose "Grimnir's Focus" as your level 25 talent, remember to throw heavy attacks once in a while to refresh the buff.
While fighting monsters and lords, ideally you should focus on them but, if the team has a Shade or a Grail Knight, you should leave the big guys to them and deal with the horde instead.

When a special shows, run towards your teammates and build a safe space for them to kill it. Even if you have Throwing Axes, it will be faster and more efficient for your allies to deal with it.
Dual Axes breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With 3 stacks of Trophy Hunter, Smiter, +10%PvC and +10%PvI:
1SBS Skavenslave and Ungors
2SBS Fanatics and Clan Rats
3SBS Gors and Marauders

Throwing Axes breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +15%PvS, +5%PvC, +10%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With 10%PvS, +10%PvC and +8%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
3SBS Bestigors and Maulers
1SHS all specials except Packmasters
2SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages, Wargors and Packmasters

Outcast Engineer is a ranged dps career with very strong damage buffs, an awesome career skill and great defensive melee weapons to keep himself alive.
The most unique part about Outcast Engineer (a.k.a. OE) is his career skill, the Crank Gun (Mk II).
This career skill works different than all others in the game. Instead of being a one-time use skill, it pulls out a minigun with virtually infinite ammo that can shoot super quickly and melt unarmored enemies in the blink of an eye at the cost of consuming the career skill bar. I will explain its unique mechanics in more detail a bit later.

His core passive, "Build Pressure", is related to his career skill (check below).
The other three passives he has increase his max ammo by 50%, another one gives him an aura that increases the Ranged Power of nearby allies by 10% and the third one allows him to carry up to 3 bombs (of any type) at the same time. Pressing the Bomb keybind cycles between them.

• Strengths: Highest dps in the game, excellent horde-clear, decent tankiness, infinite ammo.
  
• Weaknesses: Low single target damage, no mobility, hard to play, requires constant protection from allies to unleash its full potential.

The "Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (Mk II)" is a unique career skill, completely different to all others in the way it's used and how it refreshes its cooldown.

Pressing the career skill keybind will equip the Crank Gun, which you can then shoot by holding the Attack keybinding as if it was a normal ranged weapon. You can equip and unequip it at will without penalty, think of it as a third weapon.
Crank Gun's shots deal decent damage against unarmored enemies and little and no damage against armored and superarmored enemies (CW).
Its strength is its fire rate, which increases the longer you keep shooting it, up to a point where you can melt hordes with ease. It takes time for it to reach that point though, and it only shoots in a straight line, making you vulnerable if enemies are too close and surrounding you. That's why when playing this career you need protection from your team.
You can hold right click to precharge the Crank Gun and to not loose the fire rate gained when you stop firing.

Now we get to the weird part. Each shot reduces the Ability Bar, which won't be recharged simply by time.
Holding reload with the Crank Gun equipped builds Pressure. Each stack of Pressure lasts for 12 seconds and gradually restores the Ability Bar, stacking up to 5 times. Building Pressure at max stacks will only refresh their duration.
After 12 seconds without Building Pressure, you will loose all stacks at once.
If you keep Building Pressure within 2 second of reaching 5 stacks, an animation will play and you will receive a debuff that prevents you from doing it again for 5 seconds.

Consider the Crank Gun your main weapon with any build and equip specialized melee and ranged weapons.

• THP on stagger is extremely strong and reliable with most of Bardin's weapons, since they usually have high cleave and stagger strength but low damage per hit.
  
• THP on cleave is good on weapons with high cleave and attack speed, but most of Bardin's weapons have very high stagger strength which is usually stronger (although less reliable).
  
• THP on kill is strong on high damage-per-hit weapons like the Axe and the Greataxe.

• "Ingenious Ordnance" gives you a free but weaker bomb every 80 seconds. It also makes your bombs not cause friendly fire damage (including Trollhammer Torpedo's explosions).
  
• "Armour Piercing Slugs" works on Crank Gun, Handgun, Masterwork Pistol and Grudge-Raker. It essentially spawns a second projectile after hitting the first target, so it doesn't loose damage for cleaving through. This talent is very effective at cleaving through elites, making it strong in Cataclysm and against patrols.
  
• "Bombardier" makes bombs thrown by you have both the effects of explosive bombs and incendiary bombs, making them lethal against all kinds of enemies. It also gives you 3 bombs at the start of the game. Bombs already are very strong even in Cataclysm and this talent doubles their value. Very strong overall.

• "Bulwark" is good at supporting the team with defensive playstyles. Definetly not what you want to do with Outcast Engineer.
  
• "Mainstay" is generally speaking a weak talent, but the high cleave and stagger strength of Bardin's weapons make it a very solid choice to boost your melee damage.
  
• "Enhanced Power" is the only option that increases your ranged weapon's and Crank Gun's damage, but it also gives some extra cleave to your melee weapon, which can help during hordes.

• "Full Head of Steam" increases attack speed by 15% when at 5 stacks of Pressure. Attack speed is usually most noticeable when using a melee weapon, but that requires you to constantly swap between it and the Crank Gun, which is not ideal.
  This talent comes very handy at increasing the fire rate of the Crank Gun, specially important when you start shooting, since it speeds up the "charge" process (faster initial fire rate equals faster ramping). If you want to play a more standard/balanced Outcast Engineer, this is the best choice.
  
• "Perilous Overclock" adds an extra mechanic to building pressure called Overclock. If you Build Pressure within 2 seconds of reaching 5 stacks of Pressure, instead of receiving the debuff that prevents you from doing it again, you will take a bit of damage, instantly restore 25% of the ability bar and gain a stack of Overclock, which increases your Critical Hit chance by 8% (stacks up to 3 times). The only way to refresh their duration is to gain a new stack, making it very hard to maintain. Still, the CDR alone makes this talent worth it.
  This talent allows you to shoot the Crank Gun way more often during extended fights as long as you are healthy. Farm THP before triggering it or wear a Necklace with Natural Bond trait to sustain the damage taken.
  
• "Superior Gaskets". Pressure is now lost when firing instead of over time. Each stack of Pressure grants 4% power. Since it virtually lasts forever, you can use your melee and ranged weapons with a constant 20% buff and reserve the Crank Gun for very specific moments.
  You can shoot a short burst of bullets and only loose 1 stack, so don't be scared of using the Crank Gun if it's a good situation, this talent simply makes you more polivalent and simplifies the process of replenishing the ability bar throughout the game. Good choice for more melee focused builds or if you don't want to worry about microing the Pressure stacks.

• "Ablative Armour" grants 5% damage reduction every 5 seconds (up to 5 stacks). Taking damage removes a stack.
  Strong and consistent defensive buff that fits in any build.
  
• "Combined Arms" is an awesome buff for both your melee combat (constant 10% melee power increase) and ranged combat. With it, every 5 melee hits you gain a buff to the next shot with your ranged weapon or the Crank Gun, increasing your ranged power by 15% for 10 seconds.
  
• "Piston Power" empowers your next heavy attack on a 15 second cooldown. The empowered heavy attack gains massive stagger strength and recharges all of your stamina, which helps a lot at holding the frontline with pretty much every weapon. Due to the long cooldown, it's important to not overextend after using it.

• "Gromril-Plated Shot" severely modifies Crank Gun's shots by making it shoot heavy anti-armor shells that deal pretty decent damage each at the cost of a lot of fire rate. If you want to play with horde-clear melee and/or ranged weapons (shield weapons, dual hammers, grudge-raker, etc.).
  
• "Linked Compression Chamber" increases Crank Gun's fire rate by 30% and makes it start firing at full speed, rather than taking time to ramp up.
  This talents reduces the vulnerability of using the Crank Gun in short bursts, greatly increasing your dps in pretty much every scenario.
  Pairing this talent with level 20 "Full Head of Steam" is a waste!, pick "Superior Gaskets" instead.
  
• "Innovative Ammo Hoppers" increases the ability bar by 50%, allowing you to shoot for longer before having to wait for it to refresh. Additionally, killing a special (by any means) grants a buff that allows you to shoot the Crank Gun for free for 4 seconds. While you might not always find value in the 4 second buff, the ability bar increases combines insanely well with the level 20 talent "Perilous Overclock".

Bomb your way to victory. A unique and absurdly strong build that can deal with anything the game throws at you.

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First setup is faster and more reliable.
Second setup (with Trollhammer Torpedo) requires more skill, but has higher potential.
Use your melee weapon as your main weapon.
Kill armored enemies (elites and specials) with your ranged weapon.
Shoot at dense hordes or unarmored elites and specials with the crank gun to quickly dispatch them.

Try to keep your cranking stacks at 5 at all times to gain the bonus attack speed.
Remember to use the free bombs when fighting against mixed hordes and to give bombs to your allies, otherwise you might end up having too many and "waste" the freebies from "Ingenious Ordnance".
Trollhammer Torpedo breakpoints (direct hits):
Cataclysm:
- With "Enhanced Power" and 25.5% extra power:
1SBS any enemy except monsters and lords
- With 35% extra power (for example, 2 PvC/PvA properties and 4 stacks of "Superior Gaskets"):
1SBS any enemy except monsters and lords

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +7%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials
* Add +7%PvA to reach 1SBS Bestigors and 2SBS Wargors
OR
* Add +5% PvB to reach 1SHS Monks and Savages

A ranged dps build that focuses on using the Crank Gun as much as possible and take advantage of its high dps against infantry to melt hordes and specials.

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Natural Bond mitigates the health cost of using the level 20 talent "Perilous Overclock".
Pick THP on stagger for shield weapons, THP on kill for Hammer and Axe, and THP on cleave for Cog Hammer.
Just like any other ranged dps playstyle, focus on specials first, then you can focus the horde and melt down the infantry.
Stay behind your frontline at all times and make sure to protect their backs.

This build has the highest Crank Gun uptime, so use it as much as you can.
If enemies get too close to you, swap to your melee weapon to gain some space.
If an armored elite is blocking your shots, swap to your ranged weapon to quickly deal with it.
Masterwork Pistol breakpoints:
Legend:
- With Enhanced Power, +7%PvS, +18.5%PvC and +10%PvI:
1SBS all enemies except CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1SBS at >15m Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS at >15m all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +7%PvI and +7%PvA:
1SBS SV, Bestigors and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks and Savages
2SBS at >15m SV and all specials except Packmasters
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +7%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials
* Add +7%PvA to reach 1SBS Bestigors and 2SBS Wargors
OR
* Add +5% PvB to reach 1SHS Monks and Savages

A hybrid dps build that focuses on using the Crank Gun to annihilate anything that crosses your path.

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THP on cleave for Greathammer and Cog Hammer, THP on kill for War Pick and Great Axe.
The combination of level 10 talent "Armour Piercing Slugs" and level 30 talent "Gromril-Plated Shot" makes the Crank Gun super strong at killing mixed hordes, even Chaos Warriors!

Grudge-Raker can immediately deal with high density hordes, complementing the "Gromril-Plated Shot" Crank Gun.
Handgun can help with long range special sniping though.
An anti-everything ranged dps build. Use the Crank Gun to kill dense hordes from a safe distance.
Swap to your melee weapon to defend yourself at close range or to keep killing stuff while the Crank Gun is reloading.
Use the Grudge-Raker for quick bursts of damage, ideal to kill big clumps of unarmored enemies (maulers, plague monks and savages mixed with regular infantry).
If you chose Handgun instead, use it to snipe specials and elites if they are very far away or if the Crank Gun is reloading.

Handgun breakpoints:
Legend:
- With +6%PvS, +6%PvC, +9%PvI and +5%PvB:
1SBS all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +15.5%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Bestigors, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS SV, Bestigors and all specials
- With Enhanced Power, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +7%PvI:
1SBS SV and all specials
2SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Wargors
1SHS SV, Bestigors, Wargors and all specials
* Add +7%PvA to reach 1SBS Bestigors and 2SBS Wargors
OR
* Add +5% PvB to reach 1SHS Monks and Savages

A mid-range build for scorching rats and heretics. "I love the smell of napalm."

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THP on stagger for shield weapons, THP on kill for all the other weapons.
Very solid bruiser and dps build, with high damage, cleave and stagger strength on your melee weapons, ideal to kill armored elites.

Use the Crank Gun only for specials and mid range armored elites. That way you can easily keep a constant 20% bonus power on "Superior Gaskets".
Drakegun and Drakefire Pistols can easily melt thick hordes, Maulers, Plague Monks and Savages with how much additional power the talents provide.
Great Axe breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
- With "Combined Arms", "Superior Gaskets" with 5 stacks of Pressure, Enhanced Power and +8%PvI (or +8%PvC and +8%PvS):
Light attacks:
1SBS skavenslave, ungors, fanatics and clan rats
2SBS gors and marauders

Drakefire Pistols breakpoints:
*"Superior Gaskets" doesn't really change Drakefire Pistol's breakpoints all that much, but it does increase the range at which you can hit them.
Legend:
- With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +10%PvI:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
4SBS Packmasters
2SHS Monks, Savages, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
Cataclysm:
- With +8.5%PvS, +8.5%PvC, +5.5%PvI and +9%PvB:
3SBS Assassins
4SBS Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
5SBS Monks and Savages
6SBS Packmasters
2SHS Assassins
3SHS Monks, Savages, Wargors, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers