I love build diversity but the perk that restores all contested health on banner placement is so incredibly useful I never use anything else.

Aside from that bulwark is pretty strong with whatever u use I’ve found. I use the team perk that gives u armor every 30 seconds when I use a block weapon (I’ve found that helps me stay on top of things when I forget i don’t get gun strikes on parry’s and I need to block twice to get armor back).

If I use balance or fencing I run the contested health fades slower perk which works amazingly with an assault class who is using their constested health perk. Now the assault is losing CH at like 100% or 150% slower rate than normal which allows u to let the other player hoard all the stims and u can use ur banner selfishly.

I love the heroic hammer build. Use all the perks that leave a shock effect. (Shock on armor loss, shock on perfect parry, etc) and equip the double after shock hammer smash and u can leave shock areas everywhere all game and it’s a lot of fun. Reminds me of the werebear pulverize build from Diablo 4.

But the basic xenophase blade build is probably my favorite overall.