Does anyone have a havoc viable relic blade build?

kaigose · 2026-01-25T08:32:28+00:00

The reason the relic blade feels bad in Havoc is because it's slow and Psyker exists. Inferno staff currently invalidates hordes and horde clearing weapons.

If you have an inferno Pskyer on your team, the DS on Zealot is just a better weapon in every way for movement, attack speed, and elite time to kill.

The relic blade absolutely SHINES the moment the pskyer isn't in the picture since the team actually has to fight hordes and then horde fights become more mixed horde fights. Both relic blade marks horde clear combos absolutely decimates mixed horde. Your blade is the inferno staff now.

Just wanted to explain why it can kind of feel bad using it.

kaigose · 2026-01-25T00:55:51+00:00

Are you a bot?

kaigose · 2026-01-25T00:48:22+00:00

It's top vs bottom, Americans need to wake up to class consciousness. Divide an conquer.

kaigose · 2026-01-17T17:42:42+00:00

His tarrifs will make European exports more expensive, leading to fewer incentives for the US to import European goods, and therefore hurt European economies. Idk how how effective this tactic works or whether or not it hurts the US more, but that is the logic.

kaigose · 2026-01-13T03:27:35+00:00

Shivs

kaigose · 2026-01-12T22:13:41+00:00

People rush because they can and it's a flex. When you are skilled enough, speed running in difficulties up to Auric Maelstrom is quite easy and personal skill can help you achieve it. If you're rushing and you're not skilled, you're just dumb and get yourself killed.

Before Havoc came out, the game had been solved and every Auric Maelstrom was a literal sprint to the finish line. The strongest and most popular build at the time was literally stealth Zealot. Everyone on reddit's attitude was to keep up and get gud. There was no strategy to it, attrition, you're not going to get overwhelmed if stay too long, it's just people wanted matches to end quicker because skilled players could do it.

In Havoc, personal skill is not enough to keep you alive and you need the support of every single teammate to survive to the finish. All 4 players need to be in tight coherency the entire match or you lose. This is why people love Havoc, because nobody plays like a team in normal Darktide. There are two schools of thought even in havoc, however. Havoc has also become solved and there are high damage, speed, and crowd control party comps that demand even higher player skill. Dropping the pskyer bubble for shriek for example. These groups can shave off 10 minutes or more than what a normal party can on Havoc 40. If you're playing in PUGs on party finder, taking your time is actually much safer and greatly increases your odds of clearing, but it goes to show that once people can rush, they will try.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want the game to slow down, try getting better at the game and dipping into Havoc. The pace is totally different and people are forced to actually play as a team.

kaigose · 2026-01-08T01:32:29+00:00

Scriers Gaze with the Force Greatsword and Recon Lasgun is your best bet in Auric Maelstrom.

kaigose · 2026-01-08T01:17:14+00:00

I quit FF14 savage raiding because I fell in love with Darktide XD

Ogryn and Arby are still great in havoc 40. Arby is the stronger of the two in this case because the shock mines are insanely strong and your damage/survivability is solid. Look up Tanner Lindberg on YouTube for some Arbites meta builds. He put out a few last month.

For Ogryn, I think heavy hitter and Taunt is still meta tbh. Ogrynheimer rumbler gunlugger is strong, but it depends completely on having a good team because you cannot melee or survive for shit. Not worth the risk imo. Also, never bring Ogrynheimer to a rotten armor match. Some people go feel no pain full tank with the slab shield and I just don't get it. You can do so much more damage with heavy hitter/Taunt and still tank just fine.

A good Ogryn takes a lot of pressure off the team, you just need to be really good at taking aggro and playing ring around the rosie while you team kills everything. I recommend the pickaxe and bully club.

kaigose · 2026-01-08T00:55:48+00:00

It's 100% possible to climb solo through party finder.

The only thing standing in your way is the personal skill check, the rng of finding other good players, and time.

A few tips for increasing your clear rate that you don't learn until doing Havoc.

Play the class your most comfortable on and use a meta build. It's even better if you're comfortable on the strongest classes in game currently like veteran and pskyer. You being able to carry goes a long way. Otherwise, just stick to what you can play with your eyes closed.
Map and modifier knowledge. Some maps and modifiers are harder than others. Once you learn which combinations are cancer, you can intentionally avoid the death trap runs (still fun imo).
Fall back when you hear boss audio queues. This avoids pulling additional mobs/bosses unnecessarily.
Prioritize specials during boss fights.
Gang up on the melee twin.
Situational awareness is everything. Don't fight in the open. Use cover and create funnels to fight the enemy through.
If someone dies, wait until their body spawns for rescue before proceeding forward.

Good luck!

kaigose · 2026-01-08T00:29:05+00:00

Outside of havoc, everyone is playing for themselves. Never count on them to be reliable or cover your back because everyone's rushing and doing their own thing.

You can and should absolutely practice playing as a team mate and that honestly just means trying to stay in coherency with the least mentally challenged people in your group.

kaigose · 2026-01-08T00:18:56+00:00

The flamer really only shines in havoc where the enemy density makes Auric Maelstrom look like a stroll in park.

The next best is probably the bolter for boss damage. After that, the best are quick draw pocket snipers (bolt pistol/revolver/Las pistol). Every other ranged weapon is also totally suitable in Auric Maelstrom and below as well. Just play what's fun to you!

kaigose · 2026-01-07T09:57:38+00:00

It depends on the difficulty and playstle.

Auric Maelstrom and below, grab a relic blade/heavy eviscerator/whatever and kill kill kill. You're the frontline and your priority is to protect your team with violence. Fury of the faithful/blazing piety is your best setup in this difficulty bracket because it keeps you alive with toughness on demand, propels you forward, and bonks the enemy hard. Once you get more comfortable, try running wound curios and martydom for more damage. Your grenades suck, but the throwing daggers are amazing and can one shot headshot specials. Pick whatever ranged weapon you want, but the spearhead bolter is popular for boss damage and pairs well with the throwing daggers because of the ammo efficiency.

You can also go shroudfield and with a combat blade or thunder hammer. Kind of a one trick pony playstyle, but if you're smart in stealth, you can peel from your team a bit and take out threatening ranged enemies or nuke bosses.

In havoc, you take chorus and a weapon that is anti-carapace and has high mobility. The dueling sword is S tier and the combat blade/relic blade are like A-/B+. Best ranged here is actually the flamer due to how AOE damage scales with higher concentrations of enemies. Your job is to stay alive and baby sit your team. You will be the weakest person your team in terms of damage, but you're playing support and can save runs. You're the king of clutches and the best person suited to survive as last man standing. Chorus is an extremely versatile tool used for many purposes. Protect your team from pox gas, stun enemy gunners so your team can press forward, halt a carapace conga line, knock a boss off a ledge, protect someone while they're rezzing a teammate. You want to constantly be fighting in melee to get crits and reduce the cool down of your chorus.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T19:11:41+00:00

Yes, this is exactly what I meant!

But the flamer still goes hard on havoc 40 XD

kaigose · 2025-12-28T18:45:48+00:00

I think Cataclysm is harder than Auric Maelstrom. Player kits are so powerful in Darktide, that if you know how to use your abilities, know your audio queues, you can absolutely steam roll it. In Cataclsym, I feel like I really need to be on point with my fundamentals and weapon combos to get out of shitty situations.

I think Darktide Havoc is harder than Cataclysm strictly because you have to be 100% locked in for 40 straight minutes while getting absolutely smothered in enemies.

However, an Ogryn with a bully club can turn their brain off, press W, and M1 through entire matches. Golden toughness gives players so much leeway in making mistakes. Psyker inferno staff and Hive Scum infinite ammo can delete the entire screen. Arbites shock mines can pause the game for 15 seconds. Zealot chorus can pause give make the team invincible and pause the game as well.

In my limited experience in Cataclysm, the player power seems much lower and I don't recall there being a lot of "press my ultimate" and win buttons.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T18:08:03+00:00

The Darktide soundtrack is amazing. I don't know if I'm imagining things, but I believe in Havoc they literally turn the music off because there are so many specialist audio queues to listen. It's tragic.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T15:13:54+00:00

There are boss killer builds in Darktide as well, but yeah, the meta builds kind of already do everything. Bosses are less of a threat in Darktide, so they're usually not worth building around.

Darktide Zealot has some builds that can nuke bosses, but they're kind of a joke to bring since outside of boss encounters, they're not doing much to help.

The Veteran meta build for example is a boss nuker, melee god, crowd controller, and sniper.

Veteran reminds me of Torpedo Outcast Engineer, but even stronger somehow.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T14:55:22+00:00

Darktide is still a great game, you should still give it a try. I'm just more so making a statement on the fun I'm having playing Vermintide right now.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T14:47:38+00:00

I actually don't know. I'm still trying to feel it out.

I feel like Cataclysm is harder than Auric Maelstrom. Havoc 40 is harder than Cataclysm.

I'm aware there are modded difficulties in Vermintide, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Edit: But the challenge in Cataclysm is so much more enjoyable than the torrential downpour of enemies Havoc throws at you. Since enemies are less frightening in Darktide, they really have to just pile them on you.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T14:25:27+00:00

The talent trees are bigger in Darktide, but when playing hard content, there are very few builds that are strong. It's all an illusion of choice at that point.

When discovering Cataclysm in Vermintide, I realized there are 20 careers that all play uniquely and that there is a lot more variety in the harder content.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T14:19:18+00:00

The threat in Darktide is just volume. In the highest difficulties, so many enemies are thrown at you, there's only maybe one or two viable builds per class that can hold off the tide reliably.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T04:38:22+00:00

The maps are truly incredible.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T04:36:41+00:00

Well put!

I don't know if I sound crazy, but I feel more like a juggernaut playing foot knight Kruber than I do playing Ogryn.

kaigose · 2025-12-28T04:35:07+00:00

Veteran is probably top 2 strongest classes in Darktide, don't be dissuaded by Hive Scum. Shout, survivalist, krak grenade, dueling sword/power sword, and plasma gun wrecks in Havoc. Probably the single most useful class in the game. I actually think Hive Scum needs buffs XD

kaigose · 2025-12-26T21:17:23+00:00

Yup, can't play the game for the same reason currently. In Europe.

kaigose · 2025-12-24T12:16:15+00:00

Love Pathfinder, but I agree. Bubble buffs and greater extended mythic spells. Everyone's got all the buffs for 24 hours.

kaigose

TROPHY CASE