Overview
Builds for Cataclysm run. Some of the breakpoints cannot be reached without perfectly rolled items. Use this Reddit post to calculate your own breakpoints.
Introduction
Cataclysm is a difficulty for players who have finished the gear grinding and looking for high-level challenges gameplay.
This guide highlight two builds on each career as recommendation for non-modified Cataclysm difficulty. These two builds have high skill floor and good skill ceiling, strong to play and fairly easy to use. For more builds, check out the last section with Ranalds Gift links.
For my Cata Twitch 200% and C3DWONS build guide, check out this spreadsheet[docs.google.com]
Extra Resource
My Cata Twitch 200% and C3DWONS build spreadsheet[docs.google.com]
Builds & Items Spreadsheet for my Legend & Cataclysm Guides [docs.google.com]
Credit to RedBeardedGiant
Legend Builds Collection:
[link]
To learn basic information/strategy about Cataclysm difficulty:
[link]
To learn the best combo for melee weapons mentioned in this guide:
[link]
To learn some Vermintide Mechanic including the lvl15 stagger system:
[link]
To learn how to fight all Monsters:
[link]
To learn how to tailor your build to your playstyle:
[link]
Changelog
Patch 4.3
- Remove 1h axe from RV grudge build. From feedback, even with lvl30 talent most players can’t get enough THP nor buy enough space for grudging with this weapon.
- Add hammer & shield to handgun/mwp build.
Range Veteran (Hammer/Axe & Shield + Grudge Raker)
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Hammer: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won’t stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Axe & Shield: With shield bash and shield push, THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites.
LVL 10
Range Verteran is a range focus career and has strong utility career skill. It also synergizes greatly with Grudge Raker and LVL 25 talent.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output on all situation. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
Grungni’s Cunning provides the best ammo sustainability (30% max ammo per special kill). Core talent of this build. Without bash to trigger Scrounger, this is your ammo regen resource most of the time.
Share and Share Alike mathematically only gives 20% max ammo per special kill.
Scavenger has 20% chance of dropping potion OR bomb, meaning you have 4% chance of getting an item you want from a special. Its utility is way less than large ammo pouch for range spam.
LVL 25
Greatly increase Grudge Raker damage output. If you somehow cancelled reload and need the buff again, you can use your shotgun bash to trigger it.
LVL 30
Gives your whole team THP regen and attack speed when necessary. It also enables all melee weapon choices for Range Veteran, since it solves the THP issue.
On Grudge Raker build you should be able to crowd control efficiently with range weapon first. You will also one~two shot unarmoured elites. After that, cut down armour units or farm some thp with your melee.
1h Hammer has good stagger, good AP damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield. It is one of the best defensive weapon on RV. It has decent THP sustainability with THP on cleave. With Opportunist it also has the ability to stagger most of elites.
Axe & Shield has better block, better crowd control and better THP regen than other weapons. It suffers a lot from dodge and its AP damage is not the best. Still, a very solid choice if you are not confident about your melee or your teammates already covered the majority of armoured damage.
Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Chaos, Opportunist
Push attack/heavy attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor all attacks
Axe & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks
Even with the nerf to Grudge Raker, it is still the best horde clean weapon in the game. Although with the nerf on Scrounger, you need to save your ammo from low-density enemies. Only shot high-density horde and unarmoured elites.
Breakpoints: 10% infantry, 10% skaven, 20% chaos, Enhanced Power
One shot all specials except hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
Two shot hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
Reduce the pallets you need to kill Mauler/Gor
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Use it on Axe & Shield since shield bash doesn’t need stamina to perform.
With the high damage on Cataclysm, low HP pool character can’t survive two hits even with Barkskin. Use Boon of Shallya to get away from instant kill threshold faster.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.
Due to the enemies deal massive damage on Cataclysm, reviving becomes crucial in a lot of situations. Revive speed + Stamina regen can basically guarantee a successful revive against horde. You can switch revive speed to crit chance for more damage.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It’s also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Range Veteran (Dual Hammers/Hammer & Shield + Handgun/Masterwork Pistol)
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Dual Hammers: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won’t stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Hammer & Shield: With shield bash and shield push, THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites.
LVL 10
Range Veteran is a range focus career and has strong utility career skill. Use it to reduce your career skill cooldown.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output on all situations. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
Depends on your range weapon, choose different talent.
Handgun build: Drunken Brawler provides good melee boost and damage reduction for the whole team. And you still have 10% ammo back every time a special died. Handgun has consistent breakpoint and high accuracy does not consume a lot ammo. Use this talent to boost your melee damage and survivability.
Masterwork Pistol build: Grungni’s Cunning provides the best ammo sustainability (30% max ammo per special kill). It allows Masterwork Pistol to spam onto elites and specials, since due to its high damage drop off and low accuracy on alt-fire mode you might need multiple shots to kill one.
LVL 25
With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol build, Range Veteran need to clean horde in melee. Exuberance can proc on both melee and range, and provides enough damage reduction for a semi-front liner.
LVL 30
Gives your whole team THP regen and attack speed when necessary. It also enables all melee weapon choices for Range Veteran, since it solves the THP issue.
With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol, the main job of your melee weapon is to regen THP and kill close horde. Leave the elites to your range weapon.
Dual Hammer is currently the best horde clean weapon for Bardin with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.
Hammer & Shield at current patch has great balance between stagger, cleave, horde damage and elites damage for a shield weapon. A good weapon focus on stagger/defence while does not lose too much damage.
Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks
With Handgun/Masterwork Pistol build, use your range weapon to take down big threat/elites inside horde, then switch to melee to kill the normal horde units.
Currently, Handgun is the most consistent elites/specials killing option for all Bardin careers. It already had amazing one shot breakpoints for specials and most elites on Cataclysm. The reload buff from the previous patch makes melee/range combat switching way more smoothly and your base boss DPS increased by 25%.
The Masterwork Pistol has the same base damage as Handgun. Combine with the alt-firing mode, it can delete Skaven/Beastman patrol in a second and serve as the highest Monster DPS Ranger Veteran weapon. The downside, however, is it has a very early damage drop off, and cannot penetrate Chaos Warrior armour by default. The two fire modes also have high fire delay or low accuracy as drawback.
Handgun/Masterwork Pistol Breakpoints: 10% infantry, 10% chaos, 10% skaven, 10% armour, Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Beastgor at effective range
Two shot-bodyshot Gas/Blight/Leech at max range
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk at effective range
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. Dual Hammers range veteran also kinda fits in this category. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Iron Breaker (Cog/Great/Shield/Dual Hammer + Handgun)
Temporary HP on Stagger talent is very viable with high stagger weapon. It generates more THP on skaven horde than THP on kill.
LVL 10
Provides some extra damage. Essential for some stagger breakpoints.
LVL 15
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Shield Weapon: Bulwark provides bonus melee damage to the whole team. Use it if you want to provide team more damage or when you have 3~4 melee careers in the team.
Non-shield Weapon: Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit. Use it if you want to boost your own elites damage or when your team has 1~2 melee careers.
LVL 20
The knockback range is not great, but it can stagger all types of units including Monster. This means it can save you from hookrat/assassin/chaos spawn grab and all types of stuff.
LVL 25
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Use The Rolling Mountain for Cog/2h Hammer/Dual Hammers. They do not spend a lot stamina on both horde clean and elites kill. It helps recharge your career skill greatly since the damage/charge ratio on Iron Breaker is very low and its cooldown is very long.
Use Miner’s Rhyth for Hammer & Shield. It keeps your stamina full all the time when you are doing shield bash combo, so you can spam push when there is tight situations.
LVL 30
Extra radius and duration suit the scenario that you want to use your career skill the best.
Cog Hammer is the new DLC weapon with all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.
2h Hammer has high stagger on all attacks. The light attack has fantastic armour damage. With the recent patch buff, Its push and heavy attack can cleave through multiple elites/armoured units, great for dealing elites mixing in the horde, making it respond very fast even with low attack speed. However on its cleave attacks, the stagger cleave is higher than damage cleave. Meaning you stagger more units than you damage. Choose your choice of attack wisely.
Hammer & Shield at current patch has great balance between stagger, cleave, horde damage and elites damage for a shield weapon. A good weapon focus on stagger/defence while does not lose too much damage.
Dual Hammer is currently the best horde clean weapon for Bardin with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.
Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Blood of Grimnir, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage all attacks
With one stack of Blood of Grimnir, push stagger Monk all attacks
Cog Hammer Breakpoints: 10% skaven, Smiter
Heavy attack oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin
Handgun can reach all the important one-shot breakpoints for specials on Cataclysm. Plus the fast reload speed and fairly large ammo capacity, it is one of the best special sniping weapon in the game right now.
Breakpoints: 20% infantry, 10% skaven, 10% chaos
One shot-body shot all specials except Wargor
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. DIf you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Iron Breaker (Cog Hammer/Hammer/Axe&Shield + Drakefire Pistols)
Temporary HP on Stagger talent is very viable with high stagger weapon. It generates more THP on skaven horde than THP on kill.
LVL 10
Core talent for Drakefire build. Increase your Drakefire weapons damage overall without decreasing your melee uptime with overhead. Although it changes Drakefire weapons’ behaviour so need to learn and practice with it.
LVL 15
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Shield Weapon: Enhanced Power boost your damage output on all situation. It is also essential for some shield weapon stagger breakpoints.
Non-shield Weapon: Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit. Use it if you want to boost your own elites damage or when your team has 1~2 melee careers.
LVL 20
The knockback range is not great, but it can stagger all types of units including Monster. This means it can save you from hookrat/assassin/chaos spawn grab and all types of stuff.
LVL 25
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Use The Rolling Mountain for Cog Hammer/Hammer. They do not spend a lot stamina on both horde clean and elites kill. It helps recharge your career skill greatly since the damage/charge ratio on Iron Breaker is very low and its cooldown is very long.
Use Miner’s Rhyth for Axe & Shield. It keeps your stamina full all the time when you are doing shield bash combo, so you can spam push when there is tight situations.
LVL 30
Extra radius and duration suit the scenario that you want to use your career skill the best.
With Drakefire build, you should be able to crowd control horde mobs with range your pistol. Cut down or stagger elites units and maintain THP with your melee.
1h Hammer has good stagger, good AP damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield. It is one of the best defensive weapon on Bardin. It has very good THP sustainability with THP on stagger. With Opportunist it also has the ability to stagger most of elites.
Cog Hammer is the new DLC weapon with all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.
Axe & Shield has better block, better crowd control and better THP regen than other weapons. It suffers a lot from dodge and its AP damage is not the best. Still, a very solid choice if you are not confident about your melee or your teammates already covered the majority of armoured damage.
Cog Hammer Breakpoints: 10% skaven, Smiter
Heavy attack oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin
Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Chaos, Opportunist
Push attack/heavy attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor all attacks
Axe & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks
Drakefire Pistol becomes a very efficient weapon on Cataclysm with the new talent Rising Pressure. It provides great horde damage and CC. The left click also has enough damage to quickly kill close range non-armoured specials. Plus it does not consume ammo and the overheat no long slow down your melee action with new talent.
Use left click for single elite, use blast for multiple mobs. Vent once can before switching to melee weapon will cancel the switch delay; or do blast – vent once – blast to keep your blast speed on high heat.
Breakpoints: 20% chaos, 10% skaven, 10% infantry, Rising Pressure
Above 60% heat:
1 blast kill slave rat
2 blast kill fanatic
3 blast kill gor
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. DIf you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Slayer (Dual Hammers + Axe/Great Axe)
THP on cleave gives the most consistent regen. Especially when there is a horde for you to cleave. Plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
LVL 10
Choose it according to your weapon setup.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, helping Slayer eliminates key targets.
LVL 20
With the high cleave/stagger on Dual Hammers, you already have no downtime on Leap. However Crunch gives way more utility than extra 10% damage. So choose Adrenaline Surge to spam career skill to stagger elites.
LVL 25
Grimmir’s Focus provide a flat 40% damage reduction in all situation. It requires more micromanagement now since you need to land a charge attack on enemies every 5 sec. Still better than Oblivious to Pain since it doesn’t apply to mobs.
LVL 30
Crunch is the best talent in the game if you want to be a stand-still front liner. On Cataclysm, it can stagger SV/Mauler/Beastgor all movesets (including their overhead attack and Beastgor charge). It can stop berzerker/monk even they are doing the combo attacks. It can stagger hook rat when it’s not in the hook animation or when it already hooked someone. It can stop ratlin/fire rat firing. For Chaos Warrior, only the overhead and running attack cannot be interrupted.
Dual Hammer is currently the best horde clean weapon for Bardin with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. Benefits a lot from the stagger system.
1h Axe can deal with multiple armour units better than any other weapons due to its high AP damage, high dodge and high crit chance on its light attack. Its heavy attacks gain a lot stagger this patch and deal very high Super Armour damage now. 1h Axe also has 2nd highest Monster damage in all Bardin 1h weapons. Compare to Great Axe, 1h Axe has better dodge ability and better Super Armour damage.
The new buffed Great Axe has devastating single-target damage now. Chain light attacks can deal with all kinds of elites. Heavy attacks have less DPS on elites(not a lot) but have way better stagger and good cleave. Its dodge is not the best, but chain lights give slightly speed boost so not bad among 2h weapons. Compare to 1h Axe, Great Axe has better single target DPS (excluding Super Armour) and better crowd control.
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. DIf you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.
Increase horde clean damage, especially for Beastmen.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire..
Slayer (Dual Axes + Cog Hammer/2h Hammer)
THP on cleave gives the most consistent regen. Especially when there is a horde for you to cleave. Plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
LVL 10
Choose it according to your weapon setup.
LVL 15
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, helping Slayer eliminates key targets.
LVL 20
Cog/2h Hammer has high stagger cleave but low damage cleave and Dual Axes don’t have cleave at all. It is hard to keep Leap 100% uptime without Adrenaline Surge.
LVL 25
Grimmir’s Focus provide a flat 40% damage reduction in all situation. It requires more micromanagement now since you need to land a charge attack on enemies every 5 sec. Still better than Oblivious to Pain since it doesn’t apply to mobs.
LVL 30
No Escape has a better time on dodging and positioning. Although the stagger from Crunch is very valuable, this build plays around high mobility and dodge. The best option for this build.
Dual Axes are Slayer’s best utility weapon. Brings a lot survivability on the table with the best dodge ability in the game. It is also the highest Monster damage among all Slayer’s choice. Although with the high stagger resistance on Cataclysm, you need to play it with caution.
Use Dual Axes for dodge, kill hook rat in the horde, kill berzerker/monks, kill single mauler, kill monster, clean up horde when the density is low or your teammates are helping to stagger them.
Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, Trophy Hunter
With full stacks of Trophy Hunter:
One shot-bodyshot slave rat with light attack
One shot-bodyshot hook rat/fanatic/gor with heavy attack/push attack
Cog Hammer is the new DLC weapon with all rounded ability, efficient in all situations. Its light attack has great crowd control and THP generation. The heavy attack has the same damage/headshot multiplier as Executioner Sword, meaning with a headshot you can deal devastating single target damage.
On Slayer, his insane attack speed + Opportunist making the Cog Hammer very efficient at dealing with elites mixing in horde situation. WIth Opportunist, your light attack can stagger most elites out of overhead. Although it lacks armour cleaving ability, the fast speed + crossing attack pattern compensates for that.
2h Hammer has high stagger on all attacks. The light attack has fantastic armour damage. With the recent patch buff, Its push and heavy attack can cleave through multiple elites/armoured units, great for dealing elites mixing in the horde, making it respond very fast even with low attack speed. However on its cleave attacks, the stagger cleave is higher than damage cleave. Meaning you stagger more units than you damage. Choose your choice of attack wisely.
Use Cog Hammer/2h Hammer to crowd control high density horde, stagger elites or elites mixing in the horde, kill armoured elites.
Cog Hammer Breakpoints: 10% Chaos, Smiter, Trophy Hunter(passive)
Oneshot-headshot Storm Vermin with heavy attack
With full stacks of Trophy Hunter, oneshot-headshot Bestigor with heavy attack
Cog Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: Opportunist
Light attack stagger SV/Bestigor/Mauler overhead
Extra stamina for CC from push and extra health.
With high THP farm speed and high HP pool, Barkskin is very decent for heavy-melee front liner. DIf you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily.
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Outcast Engineer (Axe Shield/Hammer Shield/Hammer/Dual Hammers + Handgun/Masterwork Pistol)
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Hammer/Dual Hammers: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won’t stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Shield weapons: With shield bash and shield push, THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites.
LVL 10
Increases your Crank Gun horde clear efficiency significantly, and partially ignore shield and armoured elites mixing in horde. For handgun, it’s very helpful to kill specials hiding behind high mass enemies or delete SV/Bestigor patrol since you can kill two units with one shot.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output in all situation. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
With this build, ideally you would use your Crank Gun to kill all the horde and non-armored elites. Experimental Steam Capacitors provides the best Crank Gun up-time.
LVL 25
Ablative Armor gives you the most consistent benefit. As a squishy range career, any damage reduction is good for Engineer.
LVL 30
Best horde clear and long term boss damage version of Crank Gun. The extra duration + your lvl 20 talent increases the Crank Gun up-time by an absurd amount. And with the high amount of specials on Cataclysm + your insane special killing ability, the free shot from killing them provide an extra bit of shooting time.
On Engineer all of these weapons can provide a lot of space for you so you can crank your gun safely. Use them as your defence option and help you increase range uptime.
Both shield weapons have better block, better crowd control and better THP regen than other weapons, while Axe & Shield can shield bash faster, better AP damage and Hammer & Shield provides better horde damage.
1h Hammer has good stagger, good AP damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield. It is one of the best defensive weapon on Bardin. It has decent THP sustainability with THP on cleave. With Opportunist it also has the ability to stagger most of elites.
Dual Hammer is an all rounded weapon for Bardin with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. It’s the most offensive option among these weapons.
Axe/Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Monk/Savage all attacks
Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Chaos, Opportunist
Push attack/heavy attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor all attacks
Use range weapon to kill long range and armored specials. Use Crank Gun to kill close range non-armored specials.
Choose Handgun for consistent special sniping and better ammo efficiency. Choose Masterwork Pistol for close range emergency burst and extra Monster damage.
Currently, Handgun is the most consistent elites/special option for all Bardin careers. It already had amazing one shot breakpoints for specials and most elites on Cataclysm. The reload buff from the previous patch makes melee/range combat switching way more smoothly and your base boss DPS increased by 25%.
The Masterwork Pistol has the same base damage as Handgun. Combine with the alt-firing mode, it can delete Skaven/Beastman patrol in a second and serve as the highest Monster DPS Engineer weapon. The downside, however, is it has a very early damage drop off, and cannot penetrate Chaos Warrior armour by default. You also run out of ammo fairly easily if you spam them mindlessly.
Handgun Breakpoints: 20% chaos, 10% Skaven, 10% Armoured, Spotter(passive), Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Bestigor
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk
Three shot-headshot Chaos Warrior
Masterwork Pistol Breakpoints: 10% chaos, 10% Skaven, Spotter(passive), Enhanced Power
One shot-body all specials(except War Gor), SV and Beastgor at effective range
Two shot-bodyshot Gas/Blight/Leech at max range
Two shot-bodyshot Mauler/Savage/Monk at effective range
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
As a backline range career, Engineer doesn’t take hit often, but will get stab from behind from time to time and suffers a lot from THP decay. Use Boon of Shallya to farm THP faster and prevent from getting oneshot by trash units.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
All potion effects benefit Crank Gun greatly. Concentration increases your firing time, Strength increases your damage, Speed increases your fire rate. Concoction can give you very good DPS boost and guarantee some ult charge with any potion.
Due to the enemies deal massive damage on Cataclysm, reviving becomes crucial in a lot of situations. Revive speed + Stamina regen can basically guarantee a successful revive against horde. You can switch revive speed to crit chance for more damage.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It’s also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Outcast Engineer (Axe Shield/Hammer Shield/Hammer/Dual Hammers + Drakegun)
Depends on your melee weapon, choose different talent.
Hammer/Dual Hammers: THP on cleave gives the more consistent regen. Your melee weapon won’t stagger elites constantly, plus you can farm THP on single target, like Monster/Lord.
Shield weapons: With shield bash and shield push, THP on Stagger gives you loads of health from horde and elites.
LVL 10
Increase your Crank Gun DPS on Monster and effectiveness on Chaos Warrior. Also easy damage boost for your Drakegun since it can proc Hunter almost instantly with this talent. After proving Hunter, the damage increase also apply to your Crank Gun and melee weapon.
LVL 15
Enhanced Power boost your damage output in all situations. It is also essential for some range weapon breakpoints.
LVL 20
Superior Gaskets lets you put the least amount of attention to Pressure stacks since you need to use Drakegun and take care of heat with this build most of the time. The attack speed also counters the high heat slow down from Drakefire weapons when you need to use melee.
LVL 25
Ablative Armor gives you the most consistent benefit. As a squishy range career, any damage reduction is good for Engineer. Especially for the Drakegun build, the damage reduction also reduces the amount of damage you take from venting.
LVL 30
Covers the downside of no special sniping ability of Drakegun. With a potion, you can also deal a considerable amount of boss damage, or kill SV/Bestigor patrol very easily.
On Engineer all of these weapons can provide a lot of space for you so you can crank your gun safely. Use them as your defence option and help you increase range uptime.
Both shield weapons have better block, better crowd control and better THP regen than other weapons, while Axe & Shield can shield bash faster, better AP damage and Hammer & Shield provides better horde damage.
1h Hammer has good stagger, good AP damage, ok horde clear and dodge ability, plus tons of stamina shield. It is one of the best defensive weapon on Bardin. It has decent THP sustainability with THP on cleave. With Opportunist it also has the ability to stagger most of elites.
Dual Hammer is an all rounded weapon for Bardin with good dodge and high block. Its wide high stagger sweep, providing great crowd control. It’s the most offensive option among these weapons.
Axe/Hammer & Shield Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Opportunist
Push stagger Stormvermin/Bestigor/Mauler/Monk/Savage all attacks
Hammer Stagger Breakpoints: 20% Chaos, Opportunist
Push attack/heavy attack/light attack 1/2 stagger Stormvermin/Mauler/Bestigor all attacks
Drakegun is the most efficient horde clear weapon in the game. The old problem of you not being able to deal with long-range/armoured specials. This changed with the Engineer’s armour piecing version of Crank Gun, making this build way more well-rounded than Iron Breaker.
With the guaranteed crit talent, you can proc Hunter very easily. Hunter last longer than Barrage, so you can get extra duration buff. After proving it on Drakegun, the damage buff also apply to your melee weapon and Crank Gun, give you a nice damage boost on all slots.
Use your Drakegun to kill horde and close range unarmoured specials. Use your Crank Gun to kill armoured or long range specials.
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical.
As a backline range career, Engineer doesn’t take hit often, but will get stab from behind from time to time and suffers a lot from THP decay. Use Boon of Shallya to farm THP faster and prevent from getting oneshot by trash units.
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above.
All potion effects benefit Crank Gun greatly. Concentration increases your firing time, Strength increases your damage, Speed increases your fire rate. Concoction can give you very good DPS boost and guarantee some ult charge with any potion.
Crank Gun Breakpoint: 10% Skaven, Enhanced Power, Spotter(passive)
Two shot bodyshot SV/Assassin/Fire rat/Gun rat
Three shot-bodyshot rest of specials
Due to the enemies deal massive damage on Cataclysm, reviving becomes crucial in a lot of situations. Revive speed + Stamina regen can basically guarantee a successful revive against horde. You can switch revive speed to crit chance for more damage.
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It’s also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire.
Check out my other build guides on Steam
All my Bardin builds on Ranalds Gift
**Masterwork Pistol Range Veteran – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Masterwork Pistol: 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor at close range; 2 SBS Gas/Leech/Blight at max range
**Grudge Range Veteran – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Monk/Berzerker.
Grudge: One shot all specials except hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
Two shot hookrat/firerat/ratlin at close range.
**Crossbow Range Veteran – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Crossbow: 1 SBS assassin/ratlin/fire rat, 2 SBS rest of specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS all specials/SV/Beastgor/Wargor/Berzerker/Monk
**Handgun Range Veteran – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Handgun: 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor
**Fake Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Throw axe: 1 SBS assassin/firerat/ratling, 1 SHS all specials except Wargor
2 SBS Leech/Gas/Storm/Hook/Savage/Monk/SV/Bestigor
Last axe trigger Last Resort: 1 SBS all specials except Wargor
**Drake Fire Pistol Iron Breaker – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Cog Hammer:
1 SHS SV with heavy attack
On medium ~ high heat, 1 blast slave rat, 2 blast fanatic, 3 blast gor
**Basher Iron Breaker – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Use shotgun bash to kill/stagger horde. Use shield push/bash to stagger elites.
Shotgun bash stagger all horde. Shield push stagger elites overhead.
You should prioritize stagger elites>kill horde>kill elites.
**Cog/2h/Dual Hammer Iron Breaker – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
All melee use attack speed/bcr/swift slaying
Handgun: 1 SBS all specials
Cog Hammer: 1 SHS SV with heavy attack
**Hammer & Shield Iron Breaker – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Savage/Monk.
Handgun: 1SBS all specials/SV/Bestigor
**Trollhammer Ironbreaker**
[link]
Notes:
Cog Hammer: 1SHS SV with heavy attack
Trollhammer: 1SBS all specials and elites with direct hit
**Flame Thrower Iron Breaker – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Push stagger SV/Mauler/Bestigor/Berzerker.
High damage but extreme high heat. Learn the minimal charge to kill different types of units.
__**One-handed & Mixing build**__
**Dual Axes + Cog/2h Hammer Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
*Cog Hammer*: use opportunist, use it for staggering high density horde, kill elites. 1 SHS SV with heavy, 1 SHS Bestigor with heavy when full Trophy Hunter stacks
*2h Hammer*: use it for staggering high density or mauler/sv mixing in the horde, killing CW/multiple SV
*Dual axes*: use light for skaven horde, heavy/push attack for chaos/beastmen horde. Use it when you are clutching, have a co-front liner, killing boss.
With full stack passive: 1 SBS slave rat with light, 1 SBS fanatic/gor with heavy/push attack
1 SBS hookrat with heavy/push attacks on full stacks
**Dual Hammer + 1h/2h Axe Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Use same property for 2h axe
Compare 1h axe to 2h axe, 2h axe has more stagger/monster/armour damage, 1h axe has better dodge/super armour dmg.
**Dual Hammer + Pickaxe Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Pickaxe:
1 SBS SV/hook/wargor with full charge heavy, 1 full charge heavy + 1 push attack kill Bestigor/monk/zerker
Full charge heavy stagger CW overhead
**Throwing Axe Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Recommend to pair with Dual Axes, Dual Hammers, 2h Hammer. For dual hammers/2h hammer, use attack speed + block cost reduction + swift slaying, and use health + block cost reduction on necklace.
Dual axes: use light for skaven horde, heavy/push attack for chaos/beastmen horde
With full stack passive: 1 SBS slave rat with light, 1 SBS fanatic/gor with heavy/push attack
1 SBS hookrat with heavy/push attacks on full stacks
Throwing axe: 1 SBS assassin, ratling/fire rat with 0 stack passive. 1 SHS all specials with 0 passive. 1 SBS Gas/Hook with full stacks passive.
__**Two-handed build**__
**2h Hammer + 2h Axe Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
2h hammer stagger horde + kill CW, 2h axe kill horde + kill rest of elites/monster.
2h axe heavy stagger SV/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks.
**Cog Hammer + 2h axe Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Cog hammer stagger horde + kill elites when you have time to charge heavy, 2h axe kill horde + kill elites when you can only light + kill monster.
2h axe heavy stagger SV/Bestigor/Mauler/Savage/Monk all attacks.
**2h Hammer + Pickaxe Slayer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
2h hammer stagger horde + kill elites with small window, pickaxe kill horde + kill elites with big window.
Breakpoint:
for pick axe
Storm Vermin: 1 SBS Heavy 2
Beastgor: 1 SBS Heavy 2
Berzerker: 1 SBS Heavy 2
Monk: Heavy 2 + Push attack
Mauler: Heavy 2 + Push attack
Wargor: Heavy 2 + Push attack
CW:2 SBS Heavy 2 + one Push attack or 1 HS + BS Heavy 2
**Cog Hammer + Masterwork Pistol Engineer(Okri farm build) – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Cog Hammer: 1SHS SV with heavy attack
Pistol: at close range, 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor, 2 SBS Monk/Savage/Mauler
**Handgun + Horde Clear Crankgun Engineer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Handgun: 1 SBS all specials and SV/Beastgor, 1 SHS wargor, 3 SHS CW
**Drakegun + Armour Piercing Crankgun Engineer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Crankgun 2 SBS SV/Gun rat/Fire rat/Assassin, 3 SBS rest of specials
**DFP + Armour Piercing Crankgun Engineer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Crankgun 2 SBS SV/Gun rat/Fire rat/Assassin, 3 SBS rest of specials
DFP:
Left click 2 SBS Gor/Clan rat/Marauder
Right click 3 SBS Fanatic/Clan rat with dot, 4 SBS Gor with dot
**Trollhammer Engineer – Cataclysm**
[link]
Notes:
Trollhammer: 1SBS all elites and specials with full AoE damage