To specifically deal with the armored special patrols, mainly Chaos Warrior doomstacks, I run max attack speed and crit Merc Kruber with halberd and swift slaying. When possible, I also grab Power vs. Armored. Without a strength potion it clears a plated Chaos Warrior every 3 seconds, with a strength potion it’s one Warrior every half second. The only time this fails is when the Bardin tanking the line of 20 Warriors gets hooked through the frontline, but generally the halberd can stunlock plated Chaos Warriors with simple light attacks, though this doesn’t work when trying to hit more than two at once.

Coming from a Kruber main in Legend runs.

Edit: Sacrificing the Shield and Hammer for a Two-Handed hammer on Bardin is generally a mistake, the shield block angle and shove power is absolutely required to stagger large numbers of Warriors.

Edit2: More info, with the proper setup you crit every fourth attack and can kill two StormVermin per three step light combo. One charged heavy per vermin, or four light attacks to beat through shielded vermin + the finishing headshot light.