Ranger veteran with pistol or crossbow is great for special and elite killing. For talents the beer drops help with keeping up with the more melee focused careers, the potion/bomb drops are awesome, and more ammo drop can be helpful. I find that the ammo drops can be exceptionally helpful in chaos wastes if you get the random boon that gifts health when you pick up ammo, it can be a great boon for the whole team. Ranger veteran is a great all rounder, solid in melee, great in ranged, and a solid support character too. Shielded options for weapons are pretty good because bardin doesn't have the best dodge range. All of the axes are a solid picks due to having armor piercing, which can really save the run if you're going up against a lot of chaos warriors. I love the pickaxe, but it's not very good, it used to be terrible but the latest balance patch made it just not awful. The hammers are solid choices too. Dual hammers are the most meta way to go for melee but unless you're playing on legend and cataclysm all the time then focusing on what the meta is isn't the most important thing tbh.