Hello and welcome to my top 10 builds in Darktide!

I'm a pretty experienced player in Tide series, and I wanted to share some of my favourite builds with you. All of these builds were made by me with some help from my friends and thoroughly tested in a lot of Auric Hi-Intensity Shock Troop Damnation - Maelstrom Damnation runs.

I'm making this guide for people to find new builds they like playing while being effective at all difficulty tiers. All the breakpoints specified in this guide is for Damnation difficulty.
Feel free to copy any of these builds for your own, and change them to suit your purposes.

Every build here will be ranked in six categories to try and assess a more fair ranking, with an overall rating given by me at the end, using a "0-10" scale:

1. Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: How strong a build is at holding a frontline for your team / how effective it is at melee combat.
   
2. Ranged DPS: How strong a build is at range damage.
   
3. Boss Damage: How good a build is at damaging bosses.
   
4. Survivability: How good a build is at not dying.
   
5. Flexibility: How good a build is at adapting to changing situations in a run.
   
6. Team Utility: How good a build is at supporting your team.

NOTE: Some of my weapon rolls are NOT PERFECT. I'll specify what needs a change above the item's picture to be perfect in BIS (Best In Slot) sections.

Please keep in mind that every ranking on this guide is subjective and ranked by me, so if your favourite build didn't make it in, I'm sorry.

if you think a build should be in the top 10, or a build needs it's spot changed, feel free to talk about it in the comments section.

This guide was made for Patch #14. I may or may not update this guide in the future.

Hope you enjoy the builds, if you like them, make sure to leave a like on the guide itself. Would make me really happy :).

Special thanks to:

• Zanthue for being a great player and a gigachad. We spent countless hours playing and discussing these builds. He also provided some Ogryn pictures for this guide.
  
• No thanks to Lexy for trying to ledge me with barrels while I was finishing up this guide.
  
• Amrik for somehow creating the worst builds possible yet still making them work.
  
• Andy for his awesome culinary skills and really tasty bacon cooking.

Talents:


Weapons: Mk 4 Duelling Sword + Surge Staff
BIS: Make sure you have Tier 4 Rampage on your Sword.
Make sure you have Unyielding instead of Crit Chance on your staff.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 135 / Max HP: 202

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 7/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 11/10
  
• Boss Damage: 7/10
  
• Survivability: 8/10
  
• Flexibility: 10/10
  
• Team Utility: 8/10
  Overall: 10/10

This build right here, is ridiculously overpowered.

This build takes advantage of the fact that currently in Patch #14, the stacks for Empowered Psionics and Smite improving talents also work for Surge staff. That means the Surge staff is getting a lot of boosts, mainly to it's damage and cleave.

You use your Surge staff for %90 of all situations. You can use it to kill bosses, elites, specials.
If a trash/mixed horde shows up, charge up your Smite, stun everything in the crowd, use your ultimate when you reach very high heat (%90). The warpfire stacks and smite damage itself will melt everything in front of you. If something survives, use your Surge staff to finish it off.

If you get surrounded, Kinetic Deflection + Duelling Sword's mobility will save you from any situation you get yourself into. You can tank bosses, Demonhosts, lots of trash enemies. You can revive people safely.

Use your Duelling sword to remove Mutants that escape your lightning. With this setup, the Duelling sword can one shot headshot Mutant with 2 stacks of Uncanny Strike.

With Surge staff in this setup, after getting an Empowered Psionics stack you can:

• 3 burst Crushers
  
• 3 burst Bulwarks (2 burst if you switch crit chance for unyielding or crit once)
  
• 3 burst Reapers (2 burst if you switch crit chance for unyielding or crit once)
  
• 2 burst Mutants
  
• 2 burst Berserkers Flak and Maniac
  
• 1 burst all Gunners and Shotgunners
  
• 1 burst all Specials except Mutants

Try it for yourself. This will %100 get nerfed next patch, play it while you can for some really easy runs.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Combat Blade + Flamer
BIS: Make sure you have %25 Unyielding and Flesh Tearer 4 on your knife.
Make sure you have %25 Flak instead of Groaners, Poxwalkers on your Flamer.
⠀
Curios:
BIS: Ordo dockets are for speedrunning purposes. For actual gameplay, bring +%5 Toughness perks instead.


Max Toughness: 115 / Max HP: 200

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 9/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 6/10
  
• Boss Damage: 9/10
  
• Survivability: 9/10
  
• Flexibility: 11/10
  
• Team Utility: 4/10
  Overall: 9/10

This build turns the game into easymode by turning you into the God of Speed.
As long as you keep moving, sliding, dodging; you will be nigh-invulnerable to damage.
Because you have Combat Knife Speed + Heavy Attack holding trick + %10 Movement Speed from skill tree + %10 Sprint Speed increase from Swift Certainty, you can literally outrun anything. You can catch up to Mutants to backstab them, you can run laps around Chaos Spawns.

Bleed is still very strong after the nerf to it's damage (200 to 175). This build kills enemies by inflicting bleed on top of very high knife base damage. Keep in mind bleed stacks up to 16, and if you crit once, you will inflict 9 stacks on a Flesh Tearer 4 knife. So two stabs is max bleed, and next crit will refresh the bleed duration.

Flak would also be a great choice on the knife, but killing important targets like Ogryns a bit faster while you are zipping through enemies is crucial. Also the increased bleed damage on bosses is a great addition.

Your push attacks have the same damage profile as your heavy attack, but way faster. Make sure to spam them after inflicting bleeds with light attacks to kill off important targets faster.

Until Death will give you safety to make the last push into a safer area/medkit/healing station and will save you from instant deaths from overheads.

Most of your toughness recovery comes from Loner aura, kills you got without the Bleed and your Ultimate's residual Toughness gain; so it's a bit low. If you feel like you are struggling to keep up with Toughness generation, put on Second Wind by removing a point from Righteous Warrior. You will have %10 less crit chance, but you will have way more consistent Toughness generation.

Use your flamer when you see mixed hordes. The real danger in a mixed horde comes from trash enemies overwhelming your stamina. You can remove a huge chunk of a horde by just spending around 10-15 ammo to build up burn stacks.

Use your throwing knifes to remove Maniacs and important targets. They deal great damage and can penetrate one trash mob.

Tips for Throwing Knives:
1- Throwing knives override the pullout animation of the flamer. If you throw one knife while pulling out your flamer, you can instantly start bracing to fire the weapon.
2- Throwing knives are affected by guaranteed crit chance from your Ultimate and rending buff from your knife with Uncanny Strike. If you have 5 stacks of Uncanny Strike, you can ult and throw a knife to deal around 2000-3000 damage to a Crusher. Two knives will kill him.
3- Throwing knives have a really punishing drop arc. If you get the hang of it, you can use it to outsnipe snipers from 50+ meters (lol)

Disclaimer: Yes, you can use this build to speedrun the game. Please don't do it in Quickplay and ruin people's fun. Use your mobility to support your team by reaching dangerous enemies and removing them. Use your stealth to revive people safely and get out of situations.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Sapper Shovel + Plasma Rifle⠀
BIS: Make sure your shovel has %25 Flak damage.
Going for the perfect Plasma Rifle is really difficult. You will need %80 Damage, %80 Stopping Power and %73 Charge Rate for maximum damage.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 150 / Max HP: 267

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 8/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 10/10
  
• Boss Damage: 8/10
  
• Survivability: 10/10
  
• Flexibility: 8/10
  
• Team Utility: 10/10
  Overall: 9/10

Alright, we've been debating what's the best Veteran build for a while. Some people even said Veteran is completely unviable in high level gameplay. Well, here we are.

Plasma rifle has gorgeous breakpoints for all enemies some of which are incredibly tight. The main breakpoint we were going for in this setup, is the Flamethrower all distance OSBS (One Shot Body Shot). To reach this breakpoint, you need:

• %25 Maniac and at least %8 Specialist damage on perks.
  
• A good amount of Charge Rate (Around 70-80). This is really hard to test because you need to get a perfect %73 Charge Rate plasma rifle if you are going for absolute maximum damage, but estimated damage loss if you don't have a perfect one is around 20-30 damage per light shot.
  
• %80 Damage and %80 Stopping Power for maximum damage. 79 percent damage is NOT ENOUGH if you have %8 Specialist damage with %79 Charge Rate.
  
• 4 x %5 ranged damage nodes from the skill tree.

After you get all of these together, you can finally OSBS a scab/dreg flamer at any range. Flamers will never exist again in your games.

Another option you have is running %25 Maniac and %25 Flak on your plasma rifle. This with the help of Longshot from your skill tree (up to %20 ranged base damage based on how far you are away from your target) or one stack of Skirmisher, you can OSBS scab gunners from any distance. (2 stacks of Skirmisher for OSBS'ing Scab/Dreg Flamers). This gun also starts OSBS'ing Scab gunners after 1 stack of Blaze Away, so if you are firing into a couple of them you will start one shotting them.

Because we are bringing a shovel as a melee weapon + %15 attack speed we are getting from our talent tree, you are really, really good at creating space for yourself with Shovel heavy attacks. Shovel has good mobility, +4 Stamina bars, good damage and cleave, great stagger and very wide sweeps that are completely horizontal. The heavy attacks are incredible to spam into mixed hordes. Uncanny Strike stacking up + damage from shovel itself + bleed stacks you are accumulating will kill everything in the horde you are controlling.

Your ult will give you space, ledge monsters and fill you and your team with +100 Toughness for 15 seconds, which is incredible. With a full +100 Toughness you are getting from your shout, you can survive a Poxburster explosion/sniper shot without taking a single point of DAMAGE. You can use the shout just before objectives, before reviving downed players, before rescuing players, to stop specials etc. The more you use it the better it gets.

You can also use a lot of nades with this setup because we are bringing grenade regen. You can use these grenade as mini ultimates to clear space and delete mixed hordes. You can also use a nade before you start hitting an enemy in melee to get a headstart in accumulated bleed stacks, so it dies way faster. You can use this for example: against monsters.

If you feel like you aren't using a lot of grenades you can always switch Demolition Stockpile to Field Improvisation. Don't underestimate improved medkits. They are really powerful in keeping your team's HP full when you are in a bad situation. They cleanse curse as long as it didnt reach your wound, they heal you at double the speed and they give you toughness as long as you are standing in the medkit's range.

On top of that the buff to ammo crates act as a pseudo-demolition stockpile. One pickup will give you full ammo + full grenades. This works even better on Enhanced Blitz Maelstroms with Ogryn Nukes. You can throw 15 Ogryn nukes back to back if you leave all charges to the Ogryn. Try it, it's so fun.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Mk 4 Dueling Sword + Surge Staff
BIS: Make sure you have Unyielding instead of Crit Chance on your staff.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 135 / Max HP: 202

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 4/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 10/10
  
• Boss Damage: 7/10
  
• Survivability: 8/10
  
• Flexibility: 7/10
  
• Team Utility: 3/10
  Overall: 8/10

Assail as most of you know, has been top tier ever since it came out. Even with the nerfs to it's primary attack damage, it's still incredible at what it does, hence why this build is at number 4 spot.

This build functions by spamming Assail on anything that isn't Armoured-Ogryn-Boss, and shocking everything that is. Assail will make sure anything you see on the screen is dead, and Surge staff will clear the high HP targets.

Very simple to play, not many mechanics to explain. Spam Assail, vent, spam Assail, vent, spam Surge, vent etc. Just don't blow yourself up.

Kinetic Deflection will keep you safe until you reach your teammates/a safer area so you can resume spamming Assail. Makes this build very survivable.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Shield + Rumbler
BIS: The reason why we are running the extra impact (Thunderstrike) is to knock Crushers and Reapers on their backs with repeated Heavy 1 -> Block Cancels. If you go for the Slam talent by changing your grenades into Rocks or Boxes, you can choose another blessing here.
Make sure you have %25 Flak on your Rumbler.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 194 / Max HP: 393

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability:11/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 4/10
  
• Boss Damage: 9/10
  
• Survivability: 11/10
  
• Flexibility: 7/10
  
• Team Utility: 8/10
  Overall: 8.5/10

Shield, after Patch #13, has been one of my favourite weapons in the game. It has incredible stagger, wide sweeps, good damage/cleave, consistent attack chains. With this build, there is nothing you can't frontline against. Your attack combo is Heavy 1 into block cancelling or Heavy 1 - Heavy 2. If you want, you can also use Heavy 2 - Light 1 attack chains for less dense enemy crowds.

Shield combined with Bleed (Batter - 4 stacks per heavy attack) + Rending (Dominate - %15 when an elite enemy dies) from Ogryn skill tree will kill anything in the horde you are holding. The only thing that won't stagger is bosses, which you are bringing a Rumbler for.

Use your Rumbler to clear space, CC enemies, destroy bosses. It is good for single target damage but it won't do great against shooters. Try to use your cc to push shooters, or let your team kill them while you are holding the frontline. You can also use your block / shield bracing to block bullets. Unless it's a Scab/Dreg Gunner or a basic scab shooter, it will be taunted to pull out their melee weapons instead of shooting you because of Attention Seeker talent (Blocking or pushing enemies taunts them for 8 seconds).

With Feel No Pain + lots of Toughness and Toughness damage reduction + Gunner and Ogryn damage resistances, as long as you do heavy attacks into enemies you are practically immune to damage. Use your tankiness to push risky enemies if they are posing considerable danger to your team.

You can use your Dash to clear space, inflict bleed on enemies and regain Toughness. Using it to speed up the killing process of an Elite crowd or rescue a teammate from danger is recommended. The attack speed buff you get afterwards will help you clear out whatever is left in front of you after dashing.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Crucis Mk II Thunder Hammer + Autopistol
BIS: Getting a perfect Thunderhammer is ridiculously hard. You'll need 80 in all stats except defences, Headtaker 4 and Thrust 4. Also make sure you have %25 Carapace.
Make sure you have %25 Flak instead of Crit Chance for your Autopistol.


⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 144 / Max HP: 262

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 8/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 5/10
  
• Boss Damage: 30/10
  
• Survivability: 8/10
  
• Flexibility: 6/10
  
• Team Utility: 5/10
  Overall: 8/10

So, I'm aware that Martyrdom builds do exist, and they do more damage than Momentum. But hear me out:

The damage increase you can get from Martyrdom isn't enough to reach a clean OSBS backstab combo for any bosses. It helps you reach one hit less on Plague Ogryn and some light charged attack breakpoints for maniacs, but I like Momentum more just for the fact that I don't have to run a million wounds and stay at high HP without going into danger zone.

For example: Plague Ogryn has 60000 HP in Damnation.

• 1 stack of Disdain + max Martyrdom damage nets me 41077 damage on a Plague Ogryn.
  
• 1 max hit + 2 charged bodyshots are enough to kill the Plague Ogryn.
  
• 1 stack of Disdain + max Momentum damage nets me 35021 damage on a Plague Ogryn.
  
• 1 max hit + 3 charged bodyshots are enough to kill the Plague Ogryn.
  
  
• You OSBS backstab kill Demonhosts in both of these setups.
  
  
• You OSBS backstab kill Beasts of Nurgle in weakspots in both of these setups.
  
  
• 1 max hit + 1 charged bodyshot is enough to kill a Chaos Spawn with max Martyrdom.
  
• 1 max hit + 1 charged backstab/headshot is enough to kill a Chaos Spawn with max Momentum.

The damage difference here isn't enough to risk going around with 1 wound left of HP. Not to mention my base stats are bolstered a lot more because I can actually run HP and Toughness curios instead of Wound ones.

NOTE: The testing here was done with the Thunderhammer in the pictures with: 1 Stack of Disdain, %20 Unyielding from Purge The Unclean, %20 from Desperation, Perfectionist, %20 backstab bonus from Backstabber, %10 from melee damage nodes, max Momentum/Martyrdom stacks, +3 Thrust stacks for %60 Power.

Now to talk about the build itself:

It does have great frontlining capabilities now that Thunderhammers don't have a cleave cap anymore. It is great for removing chunky elites and completely make bosses irrelevant. Light attacks are decent for single target damage.

Autopistol is here for fast Maniac-Unyielding removal + shooter cleanup + toughness gain from Inspiring Barrage. With Inspiring Barrage going, you can cosplay as a Veteran and jump into incoming fire to shoot back at the shooters. Since Thy Wrath Be Swift won't let you get interrupted at all, you will get full benefits from Inspiring Barrage bursts.

Momentum will keep you supplied with Toughness as well. Since we will be frontlining a lot, it complements the playstyle of this build a lot.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Krourk Mk IV Cleaver + Mk II Ripper Gun
BIS: Make sure you have %25 Maniac on your Knife.
Make sure you have %25 Unyielding instead of Maniac on your Ripper Gun.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 157 / Max HP: 378

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 6/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 11/10
  
• Boss Damage:10/10
  
• Survivability: 7/10
  
• Flexibility: 5/10
  
• Team Utility: 6/10
  Overall: 8/10

This build is great for fighting against every single type of enemy in the game. Be it bosses, elites, specials etc. Gunlugger build is enough to clear the entire screen with the combination of:

Burn from skill tree/ult, bleed from fletchette + cavalcade (and crit chance buffs + lucky bullet extra chance to crit), rending from Ogryn talent tree, base damage of the Ripper gun.

With all of these combined, no enemies including Bulwarks and bosses won't survive the onslaught you are bringing in to the battlefield. If they do, you have a backup plan in the shape of an Ogryn sized frag grenade.

Ripper gun without the ultimate is still strong enough to remove important targets, decimate hordes and chunk tanky enemies. Flechette + Cavalcade combo is really strong for amping up your damage.

Your melee weapon is a great all rounder, with frontline capabilities and single target damage.
For trash-mixed horde clear Push attack once into Heavy attack -> Light attack chain for sweeps.
For single target damage go Heavy attack -> Light attack -> Light attack repeat or Light attack -> Light attack -> Special Attack (Punch)

Combination of a great melee weapon with an excellent range weapon makes this build a great all rounder. Definitely give this a try.

Keep in mind you can also path through Big Friendly Rock for a great tool to remove Mutants. If you find yourself not using your frag grenade often or grenade economy of the team is struggling you should consider switching to Big Friendly Rock.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Mk IX Heavy Sword + Revolver
BIS: Change the block efficiency into Flak damage for the Sword.
Change the Carapace damage into Flak for Bolter.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 151 / Max HP: 262

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 10/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 6/10
  
• Boss Damage: 6/10
  
• Survivability: 8/10
  
• Flexibility: 7/10
  
• Team Utility: 5/10
  Overall: 7.5/10

Heavy Swords are really powerful frontline tools with incredible mixed horde clear + insane Maniac damage on the heavies. When you combine the power of it with a lot of crit chance + dashes + damage amps from skill tree, you get a weapon that annihilates flak armor.

For Mk IX, Heavy 1 being a consistent overhead that can reset with a special attack is really powerful. With the buff to it's cleave in Patch #14, it can cleave through several enemies now.
If you want to deal single target damage with a MK IX, use Heavy Attack -> Special attack repeat. If you dash for the first heavy attack, it will deal even heavier damage.

Heavy 2 and Heavy 3 attacks are consistent heavy cleave swipes. You can use them if you are struggling with mixed hordes, otherwise just mash light attack into the hordes until everything is dead.

Rampage is bugged in Patch #14 and it's giving you a lot more damage than it's supposed to. Combining that with %40 Power from Headtaker turns you into an actual lawnmover.

Because you have %65 crit chance (at max stacks), your light attacks are better to spam into a boss initially. Spam some light attacks, get the bleed stacks ramped up and switch into heavy attack chains. The bleed stacks will let you kill the boss without wasting resources pretty fast.
In a pinch you can use your Bolter to magdump the boss as well.

Since Heavy Swords struggle with Bulwark Shields and Carapace armor (unless you dash into it), we are bringing a Bolter as a backup. You can pull out your Bolter way faster by throwing one knife while pulling it out. Bolter with Inspiring Barrage will give you a quick boost of Toughness for panic situations and remove big armoured elites.

Use your Throwing Knives to clear Maniacs and important targets real quick. You can dash into Carapace and throw your knives to kill Crushers.

Mk VI is also very viable. If you like the attack patterns, go for the Mk VI instead. Only difference is the Light 1 - Light 2 attacks on Mk VI is a bit low damaging compared to Mk IX, but it has the ability to consistently heavy chain for single target damage without using special attacks if you want to.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Mk VI Power Sword + Mk VId Recon Lasgun
BIS: Make sure you have %25 Maniacs on your Sword.
Make sure you have %25 Flak on your Recon lasgun.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 160 / Max HP: 204

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 6/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 9/10
  
• Boss Damage: 5/10
  
• Survivability: 5/10
  
• Flexibility: 6/10
  
• Team Utility: 5/10
  Overall: 7/10

This build is really fun and really high damaging if you know what you are doing.
The single target rending skill + burn stacks from Infernus + great crit chance from Veteran tree + bullet hell from recon lasgun combined turns enemies into paste as long as you point your gun at them for a moment.

You are going to struggle against mainly Bulwarks and sometimes Crushers so we are bringing Krak grenades. This build has grenade sustain as well, so you can use your Krak grenades to remove Bulwarks / Crushers and inflict damage and stun against bosses. In a pinch, Krak grenades will clear mixed hordes as well.

To be really effective with this build, pop your ultimate, make sure you are aiming at the enemies head (this weapon has literally 0 recoil) for Headhunter stacks, let it rip. Shoot it until Infernus reaches max stacks and switch targets. The burn will finish the job and save you a lot of ammo.
But, always make sure the specials are dead (keep your gun on them until they die), sometimes burn can be deceptive.

The ammo will become an issue if you are too trigger happy. Don't spam recon lasgun into hordes, use your Power Sword to remove mixed hordes. Your power sword is really good at removing chunks of hordes, so use it instead when dealing with hordes.

For bosses, inflict max burn with Infernus, use Krak grenades and charge in with Power Sword. Burn ticks 8 times before starting to drop off , so make sure you reapply the burn every 6-7 seconds and keep swinging with power sword.

Positioning is important. Do not get cornered with this build, it doesn't have a lot of resources that can save you if the horde overwhelms you.

Talents:
⠀
Weapons: Sapper Shovel + Kantrael Mk IX Combat Shotgun
BIS: Make sure you have %25 Flak on your Shovel.
Make sure you have %25 Unyielding and %10 Elites on your Shotgun for 2 shot burn Bulwarks breakpoint.
⠀
Curios:


Max Toughness: 150 / Max HP: 267

• Melee DPS/Frontlining Capability: 9/10
  
• Ranged DPS: 4/10
  
• Boss Damage: 7/10
  
• Survivability: 10/10
  
• Flexibility: 7/10
  
• Team Utility: 10/10
  Overall: 7/10

This build is mostly a pure melee Veteran build but don't let that deceive you. The tankiness of Shout + Toughness and HP stacking + safety of shovel + Toughness Damage Reduction talents and nodes + Confirmed Kill will keep you at Max Toughness + 100 Bonus Toughness all the time (bonus Toughness gets regenerated by you gaining Toughness from a source). This will let you freely fight any enemy in Melee, except Crusher stacks.

If you encounter Crusher stacks, play it safe and make sure you use a lot of special attacks. You also have Krak grenades for heavy armor removal, so save them for here. Don't waste Krak grenades on Bulwarks, because 2-3 fire shots from Kantrael (Depending on your build, 2 shots if you are running %10 Elites + %25 Unyielding) will burn a Bulwark through their shield.

For bosses, stack burn using Kantrael shotgun and go in for melee. Bleed stacks will max out fairly quickly and they will keep replenishing every time you hit the boss. Together with rending from Uncanny Strike, your bleed and burn will decimate the bosses.

Your shotgun is a great tool. Use your fire shots a lot to remove high density/elite stacks because of it's infinite cleave. Use your primary shots when you need to snipe a special or quickly remove an elite.

You also have great team utility because of Veteran shouts. They clear space, stagger all enemies, give you and your team +100 bonus Toughness.

After playing with this build, you will be surprised how strong the Veteran can be in melee, and probably even more surprised to see how good the Shovel is.