Introduction
This setup starts out begins with using a well-rolled Lucius Mk III Helbore Lasgun (with the +25% Carapace Damage perk) to kill Crushers in three non-critical headshots. Activating Executioner's Stance and scoring a critical hit headshot on a Crusher tagged with 5 stacks of Focus Target! (plus your other talent choices) boosts your damage enough to kill a Crusher with one shot.
To take advantage of this, this build aims to maximise your critical hit chance while working around the Mk III Helbore's clunkiness. Your Helbore is built to blast max-powered shots; your melee and grenades are chosen to control the hordes and thereby give you the space to take your shots. You are a glass cannon. Make sure you're comfortable with melee or else you will suffer with this build.
Note: Most of the testing was done using a Helbore with 80 Damage and 73 Stopping Power. Test this out in the Psykhanium to make sure you can hit the same breakpoints.
Terminology
Bolded text - Talents
Italicised text - Stats, Perks, and Blessings
ES - Executioner's Stance
ES Bonuses - The 25% Ranged Damage and 25% Ranged Weakspot Damage boost from ES, plus the 10s of +20% Power from Marksman and 5s of +10% base Damage from For the Emperor!
Crit - Critical Hit
BP - Breakpoint, the amount of damage needed to do something
TDR - Toughness Damage Reduction
xS BP - x Shot Breakpoint, having enough damage to kill the target in x shots where x is an integer (ex. 1SBP meaning One Shot Breakpoint)
DPS - Damage per Second
ADS - Aim Down Sights
OOS - Out of Stamina
Equipment
================ Ranged ================ ----- Stats -----
You're looking for as much Damage and Stopping Power as possible, preferably >70. Having a high Charge Rate stat on your Helbore will let you make the most out of Executioner's Stance and the talents activated by it, especially since the Mk III has the slowest charge rate of the Helbores. It's not necessary to have it maxed out to hit the Crusher 1SBP, but it will feel much better to use overall. Ammo is nice to have to increase your magazine size but can be easily sacrificed; Shock Trooper and Survivalist will keep your reserve ammo topped off throughout the mission. You can dump Stability because it has little practical effect on Helbores.
(Damage, Stopping Power) > Charge Rate > Ammo > Stability
----- Perks -----
As mentioned in the introduction, you need the +25% Carapace Damage perk for the Crusher BP.
For secondary perks that are nice to have (from most to least useful for this build specifically)
+25% Unyielding Damage to melt Monstrosities
+10% Elite Damage takes some of the burden off Focus Target! for the Crusher and Mauler 1SBP.
Probably Flak/Maniac, but I haven't tested this rigorously
Stamina is nice to have
Reload speed isn't the worst thing in the world
+10% Specialist Damage helps with Flamer bayonet 1SBPs
Crit/Weak point damage helps less than you'd think. It only works off the difference in damage, not the entire damage amount. I'm not aware of any BPs that are affected by this. Feel free to replace any other perks without remorse. Remember, these perks are just quality of life additions. Don't go dumping your Plasteel when you already have a good Helbore! The picture is an Anointed gun for a reason.
----- Blessings -----
The only blessing you need is Surgical. This build thrives with a high crit rate, and Surgical allows you to guarantee a critical shot with 10 stacks (8 if you have Deadshot active).
For the other blessing, you can either take Weight of Fire (WoF) or Sustained Fire (SF). WoF is the best overall; nothing else lets your Helbore clear out a room of Elites quite like WoF's increased charge rate. As stated in the Charge Rate stat section, it will also let you make the most out of moments of opportunity. Think about how long a Beast of Nurgle stays turned away from you; faster charging lets you unload more into its weak point.
As a less optimal but still useful blessing, SF lets you build up more Surgical stacks before firing and can let you reach the Crusher 1SBP without Focus Target stacks active (as long as Kill Zone is active). To make the most out of SF, you'll have to pause after each salvo to start another one, but this DPS increase is realistically only relevant against Monstrosities.
Showcasing Sustained Fire and Kill Zone. The current active Stimm is a Concentration Stimm, which was just to recharge ES faster to speed up testing (so damage is unaffected).
================ Melee ================ Your melee weapon's job is to deal with hordes. Feel free to skip the spoiler-tagged text if you already have one you're comfortable with.
I prefer the Catachan Mk IV Devil's Claw Sword (DClaw). It has an insanely fast trash clear speed, and your high Stamina levels allows you to use the parry (special action) more often. While it easily slices through infested and unarmoured trash, the DClaw struggles against Dreg Bruisers with their flak-armoured helmets, though I find that it can stagger them enough to not be a threat. Consider using the +25% Flak Damage Perk to mitigate this weakness.
For blessings, you need one DPS blessing and one Cleave blessing. I recommend using Rampage and Savage Sweep, respectively.
Rampage actually gives a Power boost, which affects damage, stagger, and cleave by the given percentage value. You can also use Shred as your DPS blessing to take advantage of the DClaw's high Finesse; however, I dislike losing all my stacks from missing a swing. Skullcrusher helps clean up those staggered Dreg Bruisers.
Savage Sweep is easy to activate with the DClaw Mk IV's wide heavy swings, and its bonus is equal to 5 stacks of Wrath. Either are good; I'm actually using Wrath myself since that's what I got from Hadron and wanted to have the Flak damage perk.
----- Alternatives -----
Despite their insane killing potential, I dislike using Power Swords here since you're already a slow, fat karker. The Chainswords, Standard Issue Shovel, and Mk VII Shovel are my preferred alternatives for their speed and movesets.
Chainswords have great horde clear and can deal with Dreg Bruisers, but swings slower than the DClaw and can't parry.
Shovels have good horde control (but slower killing). The Standard Issue Shovel's poke (special action) can interrupt Mutants and Maulers on headshots, which can quickly give you some breathing room. The Mk VII Shovel's folded attack (special action) can deliver a stupid amount of damage against a single target, but that's your Helbore's job (which this entire build hinges on). It still has the wide heavies, and the folded attack is still useful against Mutants. Oh, and if you make a Krieg shovel joke I'll slam your balls in a waffle iron.
================ Curios ================ At least two +3 Stamina curios (base rating >= 76) with at most one +17% Toughness curio. The perks on your curios aren't crucial; I like having some amount of extra Toughness and faster Stamina Regeneration. The main focus here is just getting more stamina for Deadshot.
Talent Tree
================ Talents for the Breakpoint ================ Taking Superiority Complex, Rending Strikes, and Bring it Down! puts your Helbore just shy of the Crusher 3SBP with all headshots (2SBP with two crits, and actually reaching 3SBP with just one). If you take Precision Strikes, you will always hit the 3SBP. Alternatively, 2 stack of Focus Target! will also reach the 3SBP.
The magic comes from activating Executioner's Stance. This, in addition to taking Marksman and For the Emperor!, pushes your crit headshot damage just under the Crusher 1SBP. Applying 5 stack of Focus Target is the final boost needed to hit the 1SBP (only 4 stacks with Precision Strikes or with 5 stacks of Redirect Fire! active).
Because a crit is required, take Deadshot to increase the chance of this working.
================ Starter Subtree ================ You have two choices here:
Go left for Longshot, Exhilarating Takedown (ET), and the Health boost node
Go middle for Close Order Drill, Confirmed Kill (CK), and the Stamina node.
The main benefit of going left is Longshot; it can help you reach Crusher and Mauler BPs when you're being affected by damage falloff, and it also can help when you don't have enough Focus Target! stacks active. Exhilarating Takedown is a good source of Toughness regeneration and TDR. However, it requires you to hit headshots. As you will see in the Breakpoint Breakdown, there are a good amount of enemies you can kill with a fully charged bodyshot. Having ET heavily pushes you towards only headshotting enemies, which can backfire if your aim isn't the best during hectic situations. The health boost is inconsequential.
Going middle gives you access to Confirmed Kill. This gives double the amount of Toughness as ET and doesn't require a headshot kill. Close Order Drill makes up for the TDR from not taking ET as long as your team sticks together, which I find easier to maintain than chaining headshots. CK gives double the Toughness as ET, and 2/3 of it is fed to you over time. This means you can kill the Elites and finish off the shooter trash while still regenerating Toughness, which ends up being just as good as ET without needing to actually hit your shots. Plus, the Stamina node helps Deadshot
================ Blitz ================ Shredder Frag Grenades are a great generalist tool. They'll stagger enemies and give you space when getting overwhelmed, and two of them will clear a room of everything besides Ogryns. Krak Grenades are good for dealing with Bulwarks but are redundant for Crushers and Monstrosities in this build. Smoke Grenades are too expensive point-wise to even consider here.
================ Flex Talents ================ The talent point requirement to hit the Crusher 1SBP is incredibly expensive, so there's not many talents you can take out.
Redirect Fire: 5 stacks of this lets you hit the Crusher 1SBP with only 2 stacks of Focus Target!, which helps when dealing with multiple Crushers in a row. When you still have the ES bonuses up, a crit headshot will almost one-shot a Scab Mauler depending on your damage rolls and falloff. The buff from Redirect Fire helps you meet that BP more consistently when they're up close. However, if Kill Zone is active, this won't change anything.
The Bigger They Are...: If you time it correctly, you can one-shot a Crusher and quickly snipe a nearby Elite/Specialist to extend ES. With this talent, you won't need to scramble to refresh ES. I don't recommend swapping this out since it makes dealing with Crusher trains harder; however, those don't happen every game, and it's fair to want to be more effective in general cases.
Shock Trooper: You're going to be almost ammo positive throughout missions. This may be overkill if you only play in teams that don't use much ammo, such as having friends who mainly play staff Psyker. Please do not switch off of this if you're going to play with randoms.
Demolition Team: Grenades are not required in this build, but they are incredibly powerful. As this is not a general Veteran guide, I won't elaborate beyond the Blitz section above. Only consider changing this if you're not consistently playing in missions with a lot of Elites/Specialists or if every teammate you have is allergic to coherency (this is usually not the case; you're usually just lagging behind if this happens every time).
Relentless. If you do this, you're absolutely insane. This will cripple Executioner's Stance to a nearly unusable state where its only uses are as a quickdraw for your lasgun and letting your team spot elites so you can mooch of their hard work easier (if you swap this for Enhanced Target Priority). It was dreadful to test this. DO NOT DO IT. Not paying the Executioner's Stance Tax only brings doom and gloom to your room.
With your extra points, you could take:
Precision Strikes: This only hits the Crusher 1SBP with the Sustained Fire method. However, you will also hit the 1SBP for the bayonet against both Flamers without needing to tag them and lets you hit the 1SBP for the bayonet against Stalkers with 4 stacks of Redirect Fire! active.
Counter-fire: This lets you easily deal with shooter trash. Synergises with Catch a Breath since you can regenerate toughness while picking them off. Plus, it still helps with extending ES after a Crusher kill. Shooters are everywhere and die in one uncharged headshot, as opposed to needing to find a Specialist with the same BP (such as a Scab Bomber) or needing to charge up half a shot (such as against a Dreg Gunner).
Stamina Regeneration Boost node: This helps with Deadshot uptime and melee pushing more often.
5% Melee Damage Boost node: The melee boost lets you one-shot shooter trash (Stalkers) in the event you're forced to use the bayonet. You can't this BP without the node, even with an 80 Damage 80 Stopping Power Helbore. Only consider this if you have an unconditional love for one of the following talents:
>>>> Reciprocity helps keep your crit rate high when you're shooting quickly (building up less Surgical stacks) and when you're out of stamina (no Deadshot bonus). It will also help out your melee, especially if you took a melee with high finesse, such as the DClaw.
>>>> Duck and Dive is another source of stamina regeneration. I personally haven't been able to activate it often enough to feel good, but I've seen people swear by it.You could also swap Focus Target for Marksman's Focus (MF) and still maintain the Crusher 1SBP, but have fun playing with that. MF stacks are a pain to build up with low RoF guns, and you're losing out on Focus Target's subnodes. Bad ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥' idea in my opinion. However, with the recent buffs from Path of Redemption, you won't be penalised as much for jittering like a cracked out rabbit as long as you can hit headshots, so feel free to experiment. Just keep in mind that you may feel Stamina starved after shooting for a while.
Gameplay Advice
================ Taking the Shot ================Say you've seen a Crusher. To kill him in one shot, you need a crit and ES active. If possible, ADS and build up Surgical stacks to guarantee the crit, then activate ES just before taking the shot.
Don't worry about getting this every time. Realistically, you won't always have the time to guarantee the crit, and even when you can, you may just miss the head (especially if the Crusher moves erratically). You also might have just tagged the wrong Crusher. A lot can happen on the battlefield.
Here's me hitting the one-shot, only to miss it on the following Crushers. They still died pretty quickly, so the only thing I lost was the chance to ejaculate.
================ Stamina ================Since you're using Deadshot with ES, take at least 2 +3 Stamina curios (you can take 3 if you're not a ♥♥♥♥♥; I'm a lil ♥♥♥♥♥). Mk III Helbore's bayonet is sluggish and has a hipfire accuracy akin to pissing with morning wood, which means you'll be ADS'd for basically every shot. These Stamina curios, in addition to the +1 stamina node in the starter subtree, lets you liberally snipe shooters without going OOS when Elites/Specialists arrive.
The Target Down! node of the Focus Target! keystone helps prevent you from going OOS the middle of a firefight. It returns stamina whenever a yellow-tagged enemy dies, and you should be tagging a lot. You don't need to wait for 5 stacks every time; I value dealing with targets faster more than getting 5-10% extra stamina back.
================ Melee and Hordes ================You'll be using your melee a lot and will probably have it equipped when roaming around because of the Helbore's slow movement speed. However, the Helbore's sluggish equip time makes it harder to deal with surprise elite groups. You could activate ES, but that could leave you without it if Crushers show up just as ES ends and you won't be able to do the funny. Since I like doing the funny, I play suboptimally and slowly waddle around with my lasgun out in case a Crusher shows up.
The Mk III Helbore's bayonet is hot ass but not unusable; it has a fraction of the speed of the Mks I and II bayonets with basically the same damage. It's good enough to deal with meandering trash and can one-shot various Specialists (eg: Poxhounds), and it lets you deal with random trash while ES is active. However, you need to swap to melee when you spot ~5 enemies charging you.
Here, you can see me stubbornly swinging my bayonet at the horde. This clear speed is complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥; I would've been overran if I was alone, and I'm barely helping my team. However, you shouldn't be alone in most cases, and having my lasgun out made it easy to kill the Scab Trapper. In this specific situation, it would've been difficult to kill her with melee before she shoots a net, but simultaneously, it would've been easier to reach her if I just had my melee out and helped clear the horde. Essentially, using your bayonet in situations such as this means you're resigning yourself to being dead weight and putting full faith in your team for the trash clear.
When elites spawn during hordes, give the horde a shove and pray that your team can manage it while you dodge backwards and shoot. The horde will keep coming, so dodge on sound cue while maintaining fire. The Helbore's low mobility makes this hard, but it's doable with practice. I've danced away from hordes for just long enough to kill most of a Gunner squad before needing to refocus on clearing trash. I like to use my dodge to get my crosshairs vaguely near the target then actually aiming and shooting at the end of the dodge.
[WIP] The only clips I have saved are just after we cleared most of the horde, and I'm running low on disk space. This generally showcases the kind of dodging you'd do, even though it's only a handful of enemies.
Don't forget that a charged up Helbore shot has cleave, so fire away even when the elites you've marked are standing behind trash mobs (you ARE marking them, right?). Beware, it can take a few shots if the horde is too dense. Additionally, you can hide behind your local Ogryn and shoot through him. He'll be fine; it just tickles him.
In this horde, there were only one or two Groaners between the Poxhounds and me. The Helbore can cut right through them.
================ Sustain ================In terms of ammo, having Survivalist and Shock Trooper with a high crit rate gun makes you incredibly sustainable. Even after the Survivalist nerf, I've consistently ended Auric Damnation missions with 0 ammo picked up and without hitting orange ammo; you can leave most of the ammo for your team. Shock Trooper also makes your magazine last longer, so I don't find reload talents necessary.
Demolition Team will regenerate your frag grenades, on average, every 20 Elite/Specialist kills. This may feel underwhelming on missions without the Shock Trooper Gauntlet modifier. Because of the regeneration, I'll be liberal with my frags when I'm sitting on 3/3 grenades. I'll reserve the two for the following situations: throwing one to cover a revive/retreat or throwing two to clear out a room of Elites. It's more inconsistent than the 60s from Demolition Stockpile, but takes one less point to access.
================ Monstrosities ================Shoot it in the weak point until it dies. It can be tough hitting the Chaos Spawn's weak point, though. If you're in position to hit the weak point, it's probably about to jump you. So just defend and shoot it in the ass when it aggros someone else.
DClaw parry helps when the Chaos Spawn or Daemonhost is jumping you. Plague Ogryns and Beasts of Nurgle can be danced around; slide and shoot (use melee if you want to play it safe).
This isn't even close to optimally taking down a Chaos Spawn, but demonstrates how you can quickdraw the Helbore with ES to take advantage of the pause between attack chains. Since this is a weakened Chaos Spawn, you won't normally take off that much health.
Shoot it in the face.
Breakpoint Breakdown
I've listed the shots to kill in various scenarios below. I gathered this information in the Psykanium with my Helbore (80 Damage, 74 Stopping Power). Some sections have multiple options available; I bolded the preferred options. Note that wherever you see a shot + FT stacks but no ES, you can also hit the BP with a shot + ES.
================ Crusher 1SBP ================[WIP: Math ♥♥♥♥ for nerds]
A Crusher on Damnation has 3600 health.
Base Crit Headshot Damage against Carapace
bonuses from passive talents
ES bonuses
other activatable bonuses (ex focus target)
FAQ
This sounds like a lot of effort just to end up with a worse plasma gun in 95% of cases.
Yeah
I'm pretty sure the Zarona Revolver is better in 95% of cases.
Yeah
How did you get a reflex sight on your Helbore? Why is wrapped up with tortilla strips? What is that ax doing at the tip?
I'm using the Enhanced Weapon Customization[www.nexusmods.com] mod, which is available on Nexus Mods. Some of the parts come from the MT Plugin[www.nexusmods.com] and Syn's Edits[www.nexusmods.com] addons for the mod. As this is not a modding tutorial, I'll direct you to the Darktide Mod Framework mod installation tutorial[dmf-docs.darkti.de] page. These weapon modifications are purely cosmetic and don't change any stats.
Why did you spend so much time talking about melee weapons when the focus is the Helbore Lasgun?
There's something to a bit of smack and stab that you don't get from a rifle.
What's the win rate of this build?
Too lazy to go through my game history and there's enough factors affecting win rate outside of build that I don't care.
Scabs are getting worried, they've all gone underground.
When One Shot Franzy sees them, they'll know they're going down.
And next time when see the Scabs with their faces full of fright,
remember One Shot Franzy and her friend named Eamon Wright!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216195287
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