This guide is comprehensive but you do not need to read all of it. Just read section 1.2) Enhanced Power, Stagger Talents & Temp hp and section 1.4) Non-weapon slots. After that go to the section for the character you are interested in. At the top there will be a table that compactly describes the recommend properties and traits.

The 1.2) Enhanced Power, Stagger Talents & Temp hp section will explain how your level 5 and level 15 talents interact with your melee weapon choice. The 1.4) Non-weapon slots section will cover what to do with your Necklace, Charm and Trinket.

Melee weapons will include the recommended temp hp generation talent and Stagger Talent to use. Ranged weapons will indicate if they need Enhanced Power. Under the table is a paragraph for each weapon that will describe what new breakpoints each property reaches.

The guide uses the phrase "1 Property" as shorthand for "1 Power vs X property that applies to the following enemy". If you are unfamiliar with what enemies are impacted by the different Power vs X properties, Appendix 2 - Power vs X chart will concisely show it.

Power vs Infantry makes a weapon deal 10% more damage to certain enemies. In the abstract this could be thought of as making the weapon 10% better. But in practice that isn’t the case.

If a weapon does 10 damage and an enemy has 12 hp, getting 10% more damage won’t help. It will still require 2 hits to kill that enemy. Getting 20% more damage is huge, it will let you kill the enemy in 1 hit, twice as fast as before! Going from 20% to 30% doesn’t help as the extra damage is wasted, you’re already killing the enemy in a single strike. Instead a property like Critical Chance or Attack Speed would be more useful.

At level 15 each character has a choice between two Stagger Talents (Mainstay, Bulwark, Assassin, Smiter) or Enhanced Power. Stagger Talents only help your melee weapon while Enhanced Power helps your melee and ranged weapon. If you care more about your ranged weapon than your melee weapon you should use Enhanced Power. Otherwise you should use one of the Stagger Talents.

When the guide talks about melee weapons it will include a column that lists the best and second best Stagger Talents to take, if you are using one.

When the guide talks about ranged weapons it will include a column for if Enhanced Power is required. The column will say Yes, No or Either. Either means Enhanced Power is optional. The weapon will work with or without Enhanced Power.

The melee weapon you use will determine which Stagger Talent (level 15 Talent) you want to use. The tables will list the best and second best option for the weapon.

There are 4 Stagger Talents, with each character having 3 and every career having 2 of those 3. They are:

1. Mainstay: You do even more damage to staggered enemies
   
2. Bulwark: Doesn't provide as much damage as Mainstay but increases ally damage
   
3. Smiter: More damage on your first hit (ie: against enemies that haven't been staggered yet)
   
4. Assassin: More damage on headshots and crits

The melee weapon you use will determine which temp hp generator (level 5 Talent) you want to use. The tables will list the best and second best generator for the weapon.

There are 4 generators, with each character having 3 and every career having 2 of those 3. They are:

1. Cleave: Health on damaging multiple enemies
   
2. Stagger: Health on staggering enemies (works on pushes, does not work on enemies who died)
   
3. Kill: Health on killing enemies (mostly elites)
   
4. Head: Health on headshots and crits

Properties
Attack Speed and Crit Chance are generically useful. Unless there is a specific breakpoint you are going for, you should use these. The character specific sections later in the guide will describe which weapons have breakpoints worth sacrificing these for.

Traits
Swift Slaying (attack speed on crit) is a generically useful offensive trait. Some Careers that value their ultimate will use Resourceful (ult on crit). Parry (timed blocks cost zero stamina) is a powerful defensive oriented trait that helps when fighting multiple elites.

There are too many variations between ranged weapons and Careers to give a useful heuristic here. Please see the character specific sections for each ranged weapon.

Properties
20% Health is superior to the various damage reductions. +2 Stamina is superior to block cost reduction. Extra Stamina helps you block, push and use push attacks. Block cost reduction only helps in the first case. Block cost reduction is only worth running if you are also using it on your melee weapon. But if you want to block that much, running Parry on your melee weapon will help more.

Traits
If you are using the heal share talent you should use Healer's Touch (25% chance not to use) on your necklace. It is the only necklace trait that allows a team to get more wound resets out of a fixed quantity of healing items. It also provides more hp than Hand of Shallya (healing an ally with a medkit also heals you).

If you are using a temp hp generator talent you should use one of: Shallya's Boon (30% more healing), Natural Bond (regeneration) or Barkskin (40% damage resist after taking damage).

If no one on the team is using the heal share talent, Shallya’s Boon is best. It will enhance everyone’s ability to generate temp hp and ensure any draughts the team finds will be useful.

If someone on the team is using the heal share talent, Natural Bond is best. It provides the most hp and its drawback is irrelevant as any draughts can be handed to the person with heal share to drink.

Zealot Saltzpyre is a special case. He should always use Shallya’s Boon instead of Natural Bond. The power boost he gets for missing hp is based on his green hp, not his total hp. Shallya’s Boon will increase his ability to generate temp hp, while Natural Bond’s green hp will reduce the power boost he gets.

See Appendix 3 - Efficient Healing Heuristics for a more detailed analysis of why these Traits are best.

Properties
The Charm you use will depend on the melee and ranged weapons you are using. The properties on the Charm supplement the properties on the weapon, allowing you to hit specific breakpoints. Power vs. Chaos & Attack Speed is a generically useful Charm.

See Appendix 2 - Power vs X chart for more details on why certain Power vs X properties are generally superior to other Power vs X properties.

Traits
Decanter (+50% duration) provides the most potion duration for you, while Proxy (teammate also gets potion) provides the most potion duration for the team. If you are playing a class that can make use of repeated Ults (ei: Shade, Bounty Hunter, Pyromancer, etc) than you should use Decanter. Otherwise you can use Proxy.

Decanter outclasses Home Brewer (25% chance not to use) because Decanter provides +5 seconds for potions while Home Brewer only provides an expected value of +3.33 seconds.

Shade should use Decanter, not Concoction (all-pot). The benefit of having Strength pot effects while Infiltrating is small. See Appendix 4 - Shade's Infiltrate Breakpoints for more.

Properties
Crit Chance will help you trigger most of the common melee and ranged weapon traits (Swift Slaying, Resourceful, Scrounger, etc) in addition to the bursts of extra damage the crits provide.

If you are getting Grims, Curse Resist is mandatory for reaching “toughness breakpoints”. Many enemy attacks on Cataclysm (and Legend) do 50 damage and Curse Resist is the only way for characters with less than 150 base hp to have more than 50 hp after Grims. Characters with 150 base hp value Curse Resist even more because they get more absolute hp from the property.

If you are not getting Grims than Cooldown reduction is good for many Careers. If your talents provide move speed benefits getting move speed on your trinket is reasonable.

Traits
A team only really needs one person with Shrapnel (Bombs make targets take 20% more damage). A lone boss is easy to kill and if you are facing a boss + something else, the kill order is always boss last.

Grenadier (25% chance not to use) can allow a second bomb on a Patrol or elite cluster if a team bites off more than they can chew.

Kruber's most effective weapon right now. The light attacks will quickly kill commons if you can hit the head. The heavy attack is very good at killing elites.

Mercenary can use the Smiter version, which is better against elites but worse against hordes. With at least 2 stacks of More the merrier (Power from near enemies) a heavy attack headshot will kill Stormvermin.

You can use block cancelling to repeat the first sweep attack when fighting hordes. Against elites do a push attack followed by a light attack to get two overheads in a row.

The light attacks deal good Armor damage and its sweeps can knock hordes with elites mixed in. The sweeps won't kill hordes quickly but will stagger them enough that your teammates can kill them safely.

The 2h Sword is effective against Infantry and it push attack is ok against Stormvermin. But it will struggle against Rothelms.

It plays similar to the 2h Hammer but is faster and with better dodging. However, its sweeps don't stagger as much, making it less effective against dense hordes or elites mixed in with hordes.

It plays similar to the 2h Sword but more with less armor damage and better dodging. Its fast attacks make it even better against Infantry than the 2h Sword.

Shields have better blocking and pushing, as well as a stamina free pseudo-push in the form of shield bashing. But they lose attack speed and dodging, which are more valuable than blocking and pushing.

Shields have better blocking and pushing, as well as a stamina free pseudo-push in the form of shield bashing. But they lose attack speed and dodging, which are more valuable than blocking and pushing.

The weapon plays like a 1h Mace, with better light attacks and slightly worse Stamina.

With the Spear you want to use the range and speed of the light attack to kill hordes as they approach. Use positioning spread the horde out and come at you one at a time. Use heavy attacks against elites.

As Mercenary you can use a push attack at the start of a fight to activate Paced Strikes (Attack speed after hitting 3 enemies). The sweep attack in the light chain will keep Paced Strikes refreshed throughout the rest of the fight.

This plays similar to the "2h Sword" but with better light attacks. Its armor damage is not great though. While this weapon works better with Bulwark and temp health from Stagger. If your other weapons needs Smiter to kill elites you will need to decide which is more important to you.

It is possible to make it kill Fanatics in one hit (Smiter, full stacks of Power from kills, and Chaos + Infantry on Charm). Or you can just push the horde first.

This plays similar to the "1h Sword & Shield" but with better light attacks. It is still a shield weapon though so Grail Knights should switch to their other melee weapon when they want to kill things.

The Handgun can be made to kill Stormvermin and Beastigors in one bodyshot. Or it can be made to kill Infantry specials (Gas Rats, Leeches and Sorcerers) in one bodyshot. Enhanced Power makes it easier to meet multiple breakpoints.

Mercenary & Foot Knight
Without Enhanced Power the Handgun needs a headshot or crit to kill most elites or specials.

• 1 Property: bodyshot Stormvermin, bodyshot Packmasters
  
• 2 Properties: headshot Wargors, 2 shot Maulers
  
• 3 Properties: bodyshot Beastigors, bodyshot Infantry specials, 2 shot Wargors

The recommended Handgun will reach all of these breakpoints except the Infantry specials and Packmasters. If you want to reach the breakpoint for Infantry specials use: Chaos & Armor on the Handgun plus Chaos & Infantry on your Charm.

Huntsman
With Enhanced Power and Make em Bleed (crits make target take more damage) the Handgun will already kill Stormvermin and Packmasters on bodyshot. Crits will kill Berserkers.

• 1 Property: 2 shot Maulers, head or crit Wargors.
  
• 2 Properties: bodyshot Beastigors, bodyshot Infantry specials, crit shot Maulers, 2 shot Wargors

The recommended Handgun will reach all of these breakpoints except against Gas Rats. However, they will be injured enough by a bodyshot that they will start a suicide run. Giving you or a teammate time to chip them for their last bit of health.

The Blunderbuss provides exceptional Infantry and Berserker damage, but very poor Monster damage. It does almost nothing to bosses and Packmasters.

1 Property reduces the pellets needed to kill Berserkers from 6 to 5. 2 Properties reduces the pellets needed to kill Maulers from 9 to 8. 3 Properties reduced the pellets for Maulers to 7 and lets you kill Infantry specials in 4 pellets.

Mercenary & Foot Knight
By default the Repeater Handgun kills Stormvermin, Beastigors and Maulers in 4 shots. 1 Property will reduce the shots on Stormvermin and allow you to kill Infantry specials in 2 shots. 3 Properties will reduce the shots on Maulers. 4 Properties will reduce the shots on Beastigors.

Huntsman
With Enhanced Power and Make em Bleed, 1 Property will allow you to kill Stormvermin in two shots if one is a crit. 2 Properties will let you kill Maulers in 3 shots and Berserkers in two shots if one is a crit. 3 Properties allows you to kill Beastigors in 3 shots or two shots if one is a crit.

With Enhanced Power and Make em Bleed 1 Property will allow a fully charged crit to kill Maulers. 2 Properties will allow a fully charged crit to kill Wargors.

Power from nearby enemies outclasses every other option at this level. The extra cleave is unnecessary with Mercenary’s passive that provides a similar effect. The automatic crits aren’t an improvement because of Mercenary’s passive that increases his crit chance.

Extra power helps increase your damage without making it harder to activate Paced Strikes.

Paced Strikes will have near 100% uptime during hordes. Having consistent extra damage reduction will help you avoid going down in possible crisis situations.

Damage resistance after ulting is the best preventative option, while On your Feet is the best reactive option. Use the former if you use your ult before people go down. Use the latter if you save your ult for recovering from crisis situations.

In theory the ranged weapon you are using would determine what talent to take. But extra crit damage is the best for every weapon. Handgun and Longbow already kill everything on headshot so extra crit damage will help you bodyshot enemies when you crit. Blunderbuss won’t get value out of headshots or Maim (more damage against injured targets) and so should take crit damage. Maim doesn't reduce the shots Repeater Handgun needs to kill targets so you're better off taking crit damage so your lucky crits reduce the number of shots needed.

The ranged weapon you are using will determine what talent to take. Reload speed will help Handguns kill more enemies faster. Ranged weapons that use Scrounger will get ammo and killing power out of Crit Chance on headshot. Despite being a single shot weapon Longbow does not benefit from reload speed.

Ammo on special kill supplements your other ammo generation to ensure you can liberally use your ranged weapon without risk of running dry.

Attacking does not break stealth allows you to safely dispatch multiple elites no matter how much pressure you are under. The other options are useful but neither are as important in crisis situations.

Many of Kruber’s melee weapons can stagger elites, consistently activating the extra power buff. Attack speed after pushing is useful, but the short duration makes it hard to take advantage of.

The damage reduction will increase the effective health you and your teammates have. Only take the 10% power if there is an amazing breakpoint that requires it. 20% damage reduction is an expensive sacrifice for 10% power.

The damage reduction provides an easy way to further increase your effective health.

Take invulnerability after charging if you want better defense or take attack speed after charging if you want more offense. Attack speed outclasses charged enemies take more damage. As the attack speed is effective against hordes and elites. The extra damage will only work on the initial targets, making it only effective against elites.

Sweep will make it easier for your ult to kill elites mixed in with hordes. Double ult provides more boss damage, but is not helpful. When fighting bosses the goal is to face them alone.

Virtue: Knightly Temper (Crits instantly kill) outclasses the other options at this level because it helps in the following three situations:

1. It allows your ult (which always crits) to kill Rothelms.
   
2. When fighting commons, crits will kill the first 2-3 targets (depending on the weapon).
   
3. When fighting elites, crits will save you the follow up attacks you normally need.

Virtue: Ideal (Power from kills) in theory helps when fighting commons. Some 3 or 4 hit kills could become 2 or 3 hit kills, depending on stagger levels, Bulwark, cleave damage, and teammate damage. Knightly Temper gives you a 15% chance to instantly kill 3 commons, saving yourself 9 attacks.

Virtue: Heroism (Heavy attacks do more damage) in theory helps weapons like the Executioner's Sword, 1h Mace, and Mace & Sword. But with Smiter and Knight's Challenge (more damage to the first target hit) there aren't any meaningful new breakpoints this talent reaches. You'll get more out of ensuring a random crit finishes the elite in a single strike.

Note: This conclusion is highly sensitive to the exact damage of various weapons. The conclusion may change if the "Big Balance Beta" changes the damage of the weapons.

Having more quests ensures you'll start getting a benefit sooner in the map. If there is a specific boon you want, the extra quest makes it more likely you'll get it.

The repeatable Strength potion option can help generate a few extra potions over the course of the map. This can be helpful if you want some insurance against a large group of elites or other crisis situation.

Regen hp after taking damage provides you extra hp when you need it, like crisis situations where you've taken damage. It also helps in extended fights against hordes or when a special grabs you.

Sweeping ult makes it easier for you to clear groups of elites mixed in with commons. Double ult in theory provides more boss damage, but not in a way that is useful. When fighting bosses, your goal is to kill everything else and then fight them alone. When bosses are alone, the extra boss damage is superfluous. When bosses have support, Sweeping ult makes it easier to kill everything else.

This section is only for readers who want to know more about the process that went into the recommendations for the Grail Knight.

To start, I evaluated the damage that could be achieved with Grail Knight's passive, Smiter, and level 10 talents. Looking at the Executioner's Sword, Bretonnian Longsword, 2h Hammer, 1h Mace, and Sword & Mace, I identified any new breakpoints that could be reached with either Virtue: Ideal or Virtue: Heroism.

To evaluate Virtue: Knightly Temper, I calculated the damage these weapons did to the second and third targets on crits. This let me determine how many uninjured commons a crit swing could kill. I also determined if any additional power was needed for the crit to kill uninjured elites.

I expect the recommendation for Virtue: Knightly Temper to attract comments. Its alternatives appear promising. But close examination of the numbers indicate that they do not reach meaningful new breakpoints.

Evaluating melee breakpoints is tricky. The stagger system means there is no clean way to explain the circumstances where a melee weapon will kill in one less attack. Most weapons can't reach breakpoints where they can kill commons in a single hit without pushes, crits, or headshots. I use generalities because I want to describe the forest from the trees. I have examined all the trees myself and that detail isn't necessary to understand the forest.

Lastly, after working through the numbers I verify my theories by playing lots of games as Grail Knight. Using different combinations of weapons and talents, I see how effective different combinations feel in game. This lets me see if there are aspects I under or overvalued.

So far I've focused my testing around weapons I expect to remain strong. Executioner's Sword, Bretonnian Longsword, 2h Hammer, etc. With more time I will expand this process to include the marginal weapons in Kruber's arsenal, to see if any of them have become diamonds in the rough.

The 2h Axe's heavy attacks provide good Infantry damage while the light attacks provide good Armor damage. Compared to the 2h Hammer the 2h Axe will kill Infantry slightly faster but kill Armor (Stormvermin, Beastigors and Rothelms) slightly slower.

The Slayer version of the 2h Axe is intended to be combined with the Slayer Pick. With Skull Splitter (Power with 2h weapons) and 3 stacks of Trophy Hunter (power after attacking) the light attack can one shot Gors. But Slayer can still be better off sticking to a normal 2h Axe.

The 1h Axe provides great Armor damage but will struggle against hordes. It is unable to kill Gors in one hit and can only kill Fanatics when they are staggered using Mainstay. Right now the 1h Axe is so weak against commons that it is only worth using on Slayer who can couple it with a melee weapon that is good against hordes.

The 1h Axe gets 10% extra crit chance on light attacks and push attacks, making Swift Slaying (attack speed on crit) even better. The attack speed provided by Swift Slaying will help offset the poor cleave the weapon has.

The light attacks deal good Armor damage and its sweeps can knock hordes with elites mixed in. Its sweeps stagger better than the 2h Axe, making it safer to use but less effective at killing hordes.

It plays similar to the 2h Hammer, but faster and with better dodging. However, its sweeps don't stagger as much, making it less effective against dense hordes or elites mixed in with hordes.

Even with Smiter it takes 2 Properties to make the Pick's heavy attack kill a Stormvermin in one bodyshot. The 2h Hammer provides safer Armor damage that does not require long charge time.

Pick is more reasonable on Slayer. With Smiter, Skull Splitter and Trophy Hunter the Pick's heavy attack can already kill Stormvermin. 2 Properties allows it to kill Beastigors. The Slayer specific Pick is intended to be combined with the Slayer 2h Axe. As they will reach both of these breakpoints.

However, Slayer may be better off using a normal 2h Hammer to quickly kill Armor in a couple of light attacks.

Shields have better blocking and pushing, as well as a stamina free pseudo-push in the form of shield bashing. But they lose attack speed and dodging, which are more valuable than blocking and pushing.

Shields have better blocking and pushing, as well as a stamina free pseudo-push in the form of shield bashing. But they lose attack speed and dodging, which are more valuable than blocking and pushing.

The shield pushes offset the weakness of the 1h Axe. But a 2h Axe or 2h Hammer can provide similar stagger as a shield while doing more damage. The main advantage of the 1h Axe & Shield is its safety. It is much safer to use the Axe & Shield than the 2h Hammer.

The Dual Axes are generally outclassed by the Dual Hammers. The light attacks do slightly more damage to Infantry than the Dual Hammers, but the loss of cleave makes them perform much worse overall.

The weapon plays like a 1h Hammer, with less Stamina in exchange for better attacks. Its fast attacks and good cleave make it safe to use against hordes. While its heavy attack is decent against Armor. It won't kill elites as fast as a 2h Axe or 2h Hammer but it is safer and more effective against hordes than those two slower weapons.

The Grudgeraker provides exceptional Infantry and Berserker damage, but very poor Monster damage. It does almost nothing to bosses and Packmasters.

1 Property reduces the pellets needed to kill Berserkers from 6 to 5. 2 Properties reduces the pellets needed to kill Maulers from 9 to 8. 3 Properties reduced the pellets for Maulers to 7 and lets you kill Infantry specials in 4 pellets.

The Handgun can be made to kill Stormvermin and Beastigors in one bodyshot. Or it can be made to kill Infantry specials (Gas Rats, Leeches and Sorcerers) in one bodyshot. Enhanced Power makes it easier to meet multiple breakpoints.

The Crossbow reloads faster than the Handgun while killing the same elites on headshot or crit. But its bodyshot damage is much lower. Crossbows get +10% Crit Chance when aiming, so Scrounger is superior than Conservative Shooter (1 ammo on headshot).

Without Enhanced Power

• 1 Property: 2 shot Stormvermin, 3 shot Maulers, headshot Wargors
  
• 2 Properties: head or crit Beastigors, headshot Berserk

Use shotgun blasts to kill hordes. Use the basic shot to pester specials from medium range.

For the Trait, Thermal Equalizer (less heat generated) will give you more shots, while Barrage (consecutive attacks boost power) will give you more damage with your melee weapon. The Barrage version will require more venting, making it more taxing on your own hp.

For the flamethrower trait, use Resourceful (ult on crit) if you want more Taunts or Barrage if you want more damage. The heat related traits are overkill.

The flamethrower kills hordes, but does little damage to Monsters or Armor. It is usually better to use the Drakefire Pistols, as they provide almost as good horde clear while not being helpless against medium range specials or damaging Bosses.

Throwing Axes can kill most elites in two shots or one crit. You won't have many of them and they take a bit of time to "reload" so don't miss.

For the Trait, use Hunter (25% power on crit). It will allow crits to one shot more enemies and give you a damage boost for your melee weapon.

Ult charge on reload is an easy way to get more damage boosts over the course of a map. Handgun is the only weapon that reloads slowly enough that it won’t be able to get lots of value out of the talent.

If you are using an ammo intensive weapon take more ammo from caches. If you don’t need ammo then get bombs and potions.

Do not use ammo when ally picks up caches. More ammo from caches is better. With 4 caches divided evenly between the team, the former generates 40% ammo for Bardin, 10% for each teammate. While the latter generates 30% for Bardin and 30% for each teammate. If a teammate lets Bardin get two of the caches Bardin gets 60% while the teammates average 20%.

The Crossbow and Grudgeraker can easily trigger the extra reload speed. Other weapons will struggle to and should use something else on this level. Both options are reasonable second best choices.

Move anywhere during ult opens up a bunch of options and tactics. It gives you an easy way to break banners, ensure you can move and kill more elites or reposition as the situation demands.

The free bomb allows you to bomb more often. Softening up elite clusters with explosive bombs or burning down hordes with fire bombs. If using this talent run Explosive Ordinance (larger radius on bombs) on your Trinket and Bombs from special kills at level 20.

If you’re using a fire weapon take the extra power. Otherwise use Power from nearby allies. Power from nearby allies outclasses power after blocking because it is more consistent and rewards you for doing what you already want to do -- be near allies.

Knockback on Gromril can allow you to escape from an incap by yourself. The crowd control it provides also makes it easier to take advantage of level 25’s melee kills at full stamina give ult charge.

Cooldown on Gromril will generally save you more hp over the course of a map but doesn’t provide as much advantage when it triggers.

Taking advantage of ult charge on melee kills requires you to minimize pushing and blocking. Instead you’ll need to rely on dodging, aggression and teammates while fighting in melee.

Duration provides better defense by giving you more time with extra damage reduction and free blocking to kill the enemies you’ve taunted. If you want raw offense use extra power on ult.

Do not use boss taunt. Most of the time you taunt there will not be a boss alive. In those situations you are sacrificing 5 seconds of extra defense, or power for your team, for no benefit. When a boss is alive boss taunting it is not helpful. The easiest way to deal with a boss is to face it alone. Taunting everything but the boss means the person who is fighting the boss will be unhindered by other enemies. If you taunt the boss as well you put yourself in much more danger of going down.

Many talents depend on what weapons you are using. This level just takes that literally. What is considered one-handed vs two-handed is listed. Throwing Axes are considered ranged not one or two-handed.

Ult charge on max stacks makes it easy to have nearly 100% uptime on the buffs from Slayer’s Leap.

It is easy to keep 100% uptime on damage reduction from heavy attacks. While it is slightly worse against elites the fact that this damage reduction works against everything makes it more useful than the anti-elite damage reduction.

Extra move speed during ult allows you to freely reposition and avoid attacks without having to dodge. It protects you from being surrounded in melee and allows you to escape if you bite off more than you can chew.

Of the three dual weapons (Daggers, Sword & Dagger, Dual Swords) the Daggers are the best against elites but weakest against hordes. The heavy attack can kill most elites in one or two swings (assuming you hit the head and are using Assassin).

The light attacks have poor cleave but attack so fast that they can still be ok against hordes. It is paramount to fight the horde one at a time, rather then wading into the middle of them. When using Assassin 1 Property allows headshots with the light attack to kill Fanatics without waiting for the bleed DoT.

For the Trait, Shade can use Resourceful (ult on crit) to get her ult back faster. Other careers will want to stick to Swift Slaying (attack speed on crit).

Compared to the Dual Daggers the Sword & Dagger has more cleave on its first two light attacks but lower damage and no bleed. This makes the Sword & Dagger safer to use against hordes but less effective against elites.

When using Assassin a heavy sweep plus heavy stab will kill a Stormvermin if all four swings hit the head. But it will take 2 Properties for that attack cycle to kill a Beastigor.

For the Trait, Shade can use Resourceful to get her ult back faster. Other careers will want to stick to Swift Slaying.

With high cleave and fast attacks this is Kerillian's best anti-horde weapon. But it will struggle to kill Armored elites.

For the Trait, Shade can use Resourceful to get her ult back faster. Other careers will want to stick to Swift Slaying.

Compared to the Dual Swords the 1h Sword is slightly worse against hordes but better against elites. Its anti-horde light attack is a bit slower, but it has better Armor damage on its heavy attack.

If you follow the first heavy overhead with a light attack you will get a stab. This heavy overhead into light stab combo is an effective anti-elite attack cycle.

Due to its slower light attack the 2h Sword is not as good as the Dual Swords at killing hordes. But its heavy stab attack is slightly better against Armor.

The Glaive fills a similar role as the Dual Daggers. It is very effective against elites but is not great against hordes. The Dual Dagger has better mobility and damage, while the Glaive has better range and stagger.

The Spear does more damage to Infantry than the Glaive but less Armor damage. With Assassin it is able to kill anything smaller than a Gor in one headshot.

When fighting hordes try to use your positioning to fight the horde one at a time. Use the long range and fast attack to make up for the light stab's poor cleave.

The 1h Axe provides great Armor damage but will struggle against hordes. It is unable to kill Gors in one hit and can only kill Fanatics when they are staggered using Mainstay. Unlike the other 1h Axes this weapon does not get extra crit chance.

The weapon has quick low cleave stabs similar to the Spear, but they do such little damage that they can't even kill a staggered Ungor in one hit when using Mainstay. The stagger from the shield will make it easy to knock down hordes but it will be slow to actually kill them.

The Longbow is Kerillian's best ranged option for killing elites and specials. It can kill most elites in a single headshot or crit. But it will take multiple bodyshots if you miss the head.

The following breakpoints are without Enhanced Power. If you are using Enhanced Power you need one less property for all of these breakpoints.

• 1 Property: 3 shot Beastigors, 2 shot Infantry Specials, 2 shot Maulers (if one is a crit)
  
• 2 Properties: headshot Beastigors, 4 shot Berserkers
  
• 3 Properties: 2 shot Stormvermin, 3 shot Maulers
  
• 4 Properties: crit shot Maulers

Getting the properties to headshot Beastigors is huge. After that you could add a Power vs Infantry to help against Maulers.

The Trait can be either Scrounger (ammo on crit) or Conservative Shooter (1 ammo on headshot) depending on your aim.

Compared to the Longbow, the Swiftbow will have a much harder time killing elites. In exchange, the Swiftbow can thin out incoming hordes better and kill Maulers without running out of ammo.

1 Property allows the aimed arrow to 3 shot Infantry specials. 2 Properties allows the aimed arrows to bodyshot Fanatics, 5 shot Maulers and 3 shot Berserkers.

Waystalker's Serrated Shots (ranged attacks cause bleed) allows a single aimed shot plus DoT to kill Gors. This talent dramatically increases the effectiveness of the Swiftbow.

Handmaiden and Shade should use Scrounger as their trait. Waystalker's ability to generate ammo through her ult means she can use a different trait. Hunter will make it possible to one shot more enemies with crits and increase the damage of your follow up shots. Resourceful (ult on crit) to get more Trueflight Volleys off.

The Hagbane provides exceptional damage against Infantry and Monsters. You should always fire aimed shots, to generate an area DoT. When shooting armored targets you must hit them directly to apply the DoT.

The Hagbane bow is extremely ammo intensive, yet Barrage (consecutive attacks boost power) is still better than an ammo Trait because it reduces the number of arrows needed to kill hordes and increases boss damage. The Hagbane bow provides the highest boss damage of Kerrilian's ranged weapons.

The Repeater Crossbow is not worth using. The Longbow is better at killing elites. The Swiftbow is better at killing hordes (and has a bunch more ammo to work with). And the Hagbane is better at damaging bosses.

It takes 7 shots to kill Stormvermin, 8 to kill Beastigors and 7 to kill Maulers, 8 to kill Berserkers. 1 Property will reduce the shots need to kill Stormvermin, Maulers and Berserkers. 2 Properties will reduce the shots needed to kill Beastigors.

The Repeater Crossbow is very ammo intensive. Scrounger will help it last a bit longer before running out.

Piercing shot will kill everything short of a Rothelm on headshot. But, its bodyshot damage is poor and will fail to kill elites and specials if you miss.

1 Property will allow a single homing arrow to headshot Beastigors. It will also allow 4 homing arrow headshots to kill a Mauler.

What talent you use will depend on your ranged weapon. Swiftbow can rapidly place the bleed on multiple targets. A couple of charged shots plus bleed will finish off most non-Armor targets.

Hagbane can’t benefit from the bleed so should use double shot. Longbow already kills most targets in 1 headshot or 2 bodyshots. Double shot will allow you to quickly kill elites after meleeing a common.

For this level you will need to decide if you want more Trueflights or if you want more health. If you are using Trueflight to provide ammo and are using a Longbow, Hagbane or Swiftbow without Scrounger then the extra Trueflights will help you sustain your ammo.

If you are using Piercing Shot at level 30, you may not need any additional ultimate charge. If you are using Healshare, having an additional source of health generation will help offset your inability to generate temp health.

If you are using Trueflight to provide ammo, cooldown on ult is the best. It provides more ammo to help you sustain your ranged weapon.

If you don’t need ammo, or are using Piercing Shot, you can take the extra move speed when killing elites or specials. It is easy to keep this buff up all the time and the move speed will help you kite enemies while safely thinning their numbers with ranged attacks.

If your ranged weapon wants extra ammo, you need to take ammo on special kill at this level. If you do not need ammo you can use Piercing Shot. If you don’t need ammo but don’t trust your aim, you can use extra arrow on Trueflight.

Extra Crit chance provides more uptime for Swift Slaying, more ammo for your ranged weapon and more bursts of extra damage.

It is trivial to keep this buff up 100% of the time. 15% attack speed helps kill enemies faster.

More max health helps you survive crisis situations. If you are using Swiftbow taking the more ammo talent allows you to get an additional arrow each time Scrounger procs.
Stacking 90% block cost is a cute but not great strategy. In general you are better off dodging and pushing than blocking. As dodges and pushes give you openings to attack and reduce the number of threats against you. Blocking delays an inevitable defeat rather than progressing toward victory.

Invis after ulting will make it easy to escape from poor locations or give yourself space to shot a special or elite.

Ulting makes enemies bleed provides a way to kill hordes but you need to be careful when using it to avoid getting yourself surrounded and punished when the dash ends.

Dual Dagger lights along with Sword & Dagger’s 3rd and 4th light attack all cause bleed. Dual Dagger can easily maintain the extra damage but Sword & Dagger will find it hard to. Hagbane will often run out of ammo trying to sustain the buff on every target.

The extra crit power will help Infiltrate kill Rothelms and provide a minor increase in boss damage.

Invisibility after a backstab kill allows the Shade to quickly and safely kill hordes that are focusing on her allies. This ability synergizes with her passive ability to instantly kill anything smaller than a Rothelm with a crit backstab attack.

Ammo on backstab allows you to use your ranged weapon more, but generally isn’t as useful as invisibility after backstabbing.

As long as you are attacking it is easy to keep the move speed buff up all the time. The extra move speed will let you kite enemies safely and can help more than the damage reduction. When you have extra move speed minimize jumping or dodging as those actions use your base move speed and give enemies an opportunity to catch up.

Remaining invisible after killing a target with Infiltrate means you can run into dangerous situations, kill an important elite or special, and back out without being punished.

With fast attacks and high headshot damage the Rapier is able to kill Fanatics on a light attack. WHC will be able to do it with his extra headshot damage while. Zealot will need to be a low health. Bounty will need 2 Properties.

The Falchion plays similar to the Rapier but has higher bodyshot damage. The Falchion's light attacks do slightly more damage to Infantry but its heavy attacks do less damage to Armor. However, its heavy attacks don't require charging up as long which makes it a bit safer to use if you don't feel comfortable with the Rapier.

The Flail is similar to the Falchion but has a slower attack with more stagger. This makes it better at keeping you safe when fighting large hordes but it doesn't kill the hordes or elites as fast as they Falchion or Rapier can. The vertical attacks will do damage through shields, making the flail is uniquely good at killing shield Stormvermin.

The 2h Sword focuses on killing hordes. Slightly slower than the Falchion but with more range and cleave on its attacks. The anti-Armor push attack is ok against Stormvermin and Beastigors but will struggle to kill Rothelms.

The 1h Axe provides great Armor damage but will struggle against hordes. It is unable to kill Gors in one hit and can only kill Fanatics when they are staggered using Mainstay.

The 1h Axe gets 10% extra crit chance on light attacks and push attacks, making Swift Slaying (attack speed on crit) even better. The attack speed provided by Swift Slaying will help offset the poor cleave the weapon has.

Saltzpyre's generally strongest weapon currently. The fast light attacks are decent at dealing with hordes while its heavy attack is effective against elites.

This plays similar to Kruber's and Kerillian's spears. Its light attack has poor cleave but good range. Allowing you to thin out hordes as long as you face them one at a time. The special attack can stagger most elites other than Rothelms.

The Crossbow kills most elites on headshot or crit, but its bodyshot damage is poor. Crossbows get +10% Crit Chance when aiming, so Scrounger (ammo on crit) is superior than Conservative Shooter (1 ammo on headshot).

Witch Hunter Captain
With WHC's ping and extra headshot damage, 1 Property allows headshots or two bodyshot to kill Berserkers. 2 Properties allows 1 crit to kill Maulers and 2 bodyshots to kill Beastigors.

Bounty Hunter
40% Crit power combined with Enhanced Power and Open Wounds (crits make target take more damage) allows crit shots to kill everything short of a Rothelm, Wargor or Berserker. 1 Property allows the crit to kill Berserkers.

Zealot
At zero stacks of Firey Faith (Power on low health), 2 Properties allows the Crossbow to kill Beastigors on headshot or crit.

At max stacks of Firey Faith 2 Properties allows crits to kill Maulers and 2 bodyshots to kill Beastigors.

The Volley Crossbow is generally outclassed by the Brace of Pistols. They both need similar numbers of shots to kill the various elites but the Brace of Pistols often needs one less shot.

Bounty Hunter can use the triple shot to instantly kill many elites. But the normal Crossbow kills elites better at longer range because you do not have to get up close to make all 3 shots hit.

Witch Hunter Captain
With WHC's ping and extra headshot damage:

• 1 Property: 5 shot Stormvermin, 5 shot Maulers, 6 shot Berserkers
  
• 2 Properties: 6 shot or 3 headshot Beastigors, 3 shot Armor Specials
  
• 3 Properties: 4 shot Maulers (3 shot if one is a crit)

Crit & Armor on the weapon with Chaos & Attack Speed on the Charm reaches all the breakpoints except Armor Specials and 4 shot Maulers.

Bounty Hunter
With Enhanced Power and Weight of Fire (power based on clip size) three critical shots (delivered via the burst shot) will kill Stormvermin, Maulers, Armor Specials and Infantry Specials.

• 1 Property: 5 shot Stormvermin, 3 shot Armor Specials
  
• 2 Properties: 3 crit or 5 shot Berserkers
  
• 3 Properties: 3 crit Beastigors

Zealot
At max stacks of Firey Faith 1 Property allows you to 6 shot Beastigors. 2 Properties allows you to 4 shot Maulers.

With Crit Power and Hunter (more damage on crits) shotgun mode will kill all Elites and Specials in a couple of pellets. It is not possible to make the shotgun mode kill Rothelms. But the recommended Repeater will put them on death's door. A single attack should finish one off.

The Brace of Pistol damage is slightly different between each of the three careers due to different talents. But in general it kills Stormvermin in 4 shot, Beastigors in 5, Maulers in 4, Berserkers in 3, Armor Specials in 2 and Infantry Specials in 2.

1 Property will let you kill Stormvermin in 3, Beastigors in 4 and Maulers in 3.

With Enhanced Power and Open Wounds Bounty Hunter's ult will kill Rothelms on a crit bodyshot. 2 Properties allows a non-crit headshot to kill a Rothelm. Double shot allows non-crits to kill a Rothelm on bodyshot.

1 Property allows a non-crit center bullet to kill Maulers. Everything else is already killed by a non-crit center bullet.

The melee bleed helps WHC kill hordes much faster. It is useful for any melee weapon except the 1h Axe.

100% crit after timed block synergizes with WHC’s instant kill on crit headshots to help you kill non-Rothelm elites in a single swing.

Only take headshot damage if there is a specific breakpoint your weapon needs.

Since elites spawn with hordes on higher difficulties, it is easy to keep the attack speed buff up all the time. If you aren’t fighting anything taggable than you’re probably not in much danger.

Pushing is useful for creating openings that allow you to damage enemies. Having more Stamina allows more pushes, which generates move Stamina. The extra Stamina helps avoid death spirals where your block gets chain broken over and over until you die.

100% crits during Ult can allow you to rapidly headshot kill a huge number of elites, who will all be staggered by your ult. You can prevent patrols or other mass elite crisis from ending a run.

Cooldown when your ult hits lots of enemies doesn’t help as much against elites but does help more against hordes. A 50% crit rate is lower than 100% but it can still be enough to headshot kill enough elites. And you’ll get extra follow up staggers too.

What ranged weapon you are using will determine which talent you want to take. Volley Crossbow and Brace of Pistols both benefit from the power based on clip size. Getting a universal 15% and 12% boost respectively.

Crossbow and Repeater Pistol will want to use Open Wounds to reach their elite killing breakpoints.

Repeater Pistol and Volley Crossbow will want to use Blessed Shots don’t consume ammo to get free shotgun blasts or volley bursts respectively.

Crossbow and Brace of Pistols can’t get more than 1 shot out of the free ammo and are better off using melee resets to get more crits.

With Blessed Shots it is easy to keep the move speed buff up all the time. This can allow you to kite large hordes of enemies with minimal risk to yourself. All the while thinning their numbers with your ranged weapon. This ability to kite enemies helps more than the damage reduction.

In theory the ammo talent could allow Bounty Hunter to take weapon traits other than Scrounger (ammo on crit). But the fact that the ammo is only given when completely out (unlike Huntsman’s talent) means Bounty Hunter have multiple instances where he was completely out of ammo, limiting his effectiveness. Plus Blessed Shots don’t consume ammo at level 20 supports these builds better.

Double shot allows Bounty Hunter’s ult to kill Rothelms without needing a crit or headshot. It also increases your damage against bosses. Otherwise use Just Reward to get more ults.

Unless there is a specific breakpoint that requires one of the other talents at this level, you should take Attack speed. Zealot only needs his green health to be low to activate the extra attack speed. And he can easily fill his health bar with temp health through his level 20 talent.

Extra healing at low green health allows Zealot to rapidly max out his health bar with temp health. The move speed at low health is redundant with the move speed option at level 25.

Damage reduction at low health is potentially more useful than extra healing, as it allows the Zealot to survive more hits in situations where they are unable to effectively generate temp health.

Move speed when hit allows you to escape almost any dangerous situation. Not getting slowed after being hit is why this movement speed makes the level 20 move speed option unnecessary.

The move speed is generally better than damage reduction at this level because you are getting 30% move speed vs 10% damage reduction. While at level 20 you were choosing between 30% move speed vs 30% damage reduction. But it is reasonable to take damage reduction at this level as it can allow you to stand, fight and win. Rather than escape, only to delay your defeat.

Cooldown after Ult can allow you to achieve near 100% uptime on Zealot’s ult. The inability to die during ult can help in crisis situations, but the short duration of the ult makes it hard to use.

If you don't have the DLC weapons, this is Sienna's best weapon for dealing with Rothelms and Stormvermin. Two enemies her staffs will struggle to kill quickly. Use the first charged attack and then block to repeat the anti-Armor attack.

If you plan on blocking often as Unchained consider running Parry (timed blocks cost zero stamina) as the trait instead of Swift Slaying (attack speed on crit).

Better against hordes than the Mace but slightly worse against Armor. Unchained's extra cleave from high heat can allow this to hit additional targets, making it much safer to use to kill hordes.

The best horde killing melee Sienna has but will struggle against Armor. Since most of her staffs can already kill hordes it is usually redundant to use the Sword as your melee weapon.

Similar to the 1h Sword but worse against Rothelms. The shield bash style heavy attack has a small DoT that does no damage to Rothelms.

This weapon plays like a 1h Axe, with worse Infantry damage but better Armor damage. It is superior to the Mace in terms of its ability to kill Armor. The worse Infantry damage is not a concern because most staffs tear through Infantry.

The light attack has higher Infantry damage than Sienna's other melee weapons and its overhead heavy attack is effective against Armor. Because of the long wind up it won't kill Armor as fast as the Crowbill, but it still does a reasonable job.

When damaging bosses, hold the beam on them. When fighting hordes, holding the beam does minimal damage. Use shotgun mode to kill hordes.

For the Trait, Pyromancers should use Heat Sink (reduce heat on crit). At high heat her 45% Crit rate will give multiple free shots. Other careers should use Thermal Equalizer (20% less heat).

Battle Wizard
Using Enhanced Power and Famished Flames (less impact damage, more DoT damage) and 0 properties, one shotgun blast plus DoT tick will kill Skaven Slaves. Two blasts will kill: Ungor, Fanatics and Clan Rats. Three blasts will kill Gors.

4 Properties lets you kill Ungors in 1 blast and shaves off the last DoT tick for Fanatics and Gors.

Pyromancer
Using Enhanced Power and 0 properties, two shotgun blast plus DoT tick will kill Skaven Slaves and Ungor. Three blasts will kill Fanatics and Clan Rats. Four blasts will kill Gors.

3 Properties lets you kill Fanatics in 2 blasts and shaves off the last DoT trick for Gors.

Unchained
Because Unchained doesn't have the extra ranged damage and usually won't be using Enhanced Power, she can't reach the same breakpoints as the other careers.

For the Trait, Pyromancers should use Heat Sink. At high heat her 45% Crit rate will give multiple free shots. Other careers should use Thermal Equalizer.

Battle Wizard
Using Enhanced Power and Volcanic Force (fully charged attacks do more damage) a fully charged fireball explosion can be made to kill all the common horde enemies. It takes 1 Property to kill Fanatics. 2 Properties to kill Clan Rats. 4 Properties will allow Gors to be killed in one explosion plus DoT tick.

At 0 Properties the light attack kills Maulers in 6 hits. 1 Property will reduce this to 5 hits. 4 Properties will reduce this to 4. 1 Property also lets you kill Gas Rats, Leeches and Sorcerers in 3 hits instead of 4.

Pyromancer
Pyromancer can not use charged fireballs as effectively as Battle Wizards (lacking both charge speed bonuses and Volcanic Force). Instead of fulling charging fireballs you will need to shoot multiple partially charged fireballs at hordes. Keep crit chance on the staff for extra free shots.

Unchained
Stacking Power vs Infantry and Chaos will make it easier for your partially charged fireballs to kill hordes.

When not using Enhanced Power 2 Properties will reduce the number of light attacks needed to kill Gas Rats, Leeches and Sorcerers to 3 instead of 4. 3 Properties will reduce the number of light attacks needed to kill Maulers from 7 to 5.

Conflag staff is effective on Battle Wizard but not so much on the other Careers. Unchained can get utility out of the stagger it provides but other staffs provide killing and stagger.

For the Trait, the firepatch can not crit so Thermal Equlizer is superior to Heat Sink.

Battle Wizard
Even small geysers stagger enemies and put the DoT on them. When using Famished Flames and Lingering Flame (DoTs last forever) you want to avoid charging the geyser. The geyser damage will be minor and the heat cost will be high. Instead place small geysers everywhere to get the DoT on every enemy and then wait. Additional geysers won't provide much damage but will stagger enemies, buying you the space and time you need for the DoT to work.

Pyromancer
By default the light attack kills Maulers in 5 hits. 1 Property will reduce this to 4 hits. 4 Properties will reduce this to 3 hits and let you kill Leeches and Sorcerers in 2 hits. Unchained needs an additional property, making the best she can do is killing Maulers in 4 hits. Power vs Infantry and Power vs Chaos will also make it easier for the firepatch to kill Fanatics.

Unchained
When not using Enhanced Power 2 Properties will reduce the number of light attacks needed to kill Gas Rats, Leeches and Sorcerers to 3 instead of 4. 3 Properties will reduce the number of light attacks needed to kill Maulers from 7 to 5.

For Battle Wizard and Pyromancer, 4 Properties allows uncharged bolts (hold right mouse & left click), not sparks (the left click attack) to kill Fanatics in one shot. Sparks don't cleave while uncharged bolts can kill multiple Fanatics per shot. This breakpoint makes the Bolt staff much more effective against hordes.

For the Trait, Pyromancers should use Heat Sink. At high heat her 45% Crit rate will give multiple free shots. Other careers should use Thermal Equalizer.

Battle Wizard
Using Enhanced Power and Volcanic Force a fully charged bolt will kill Stormvermin, Berserkers, Armor Specials (Gun Rats, Flame Rats) and Infantry Specials (Gas Rats, Leeches and Sorcerers).

2 Properties allows a fully charged bolt to kill Bestigors. 4 Properties allows a fully charged bolt to kill Maulers.

Pyromancer
Fully charged bolts are less effective for Pyromancer (lacking both charge speed bonuses and Volcanic Force). She should still use uncharged bolts against hordes. But Sparks will be more effective against Maulers and Berserkers.

Unchained
Unable to make uncharged bolts kill Fanatics, bolt staff is not great for Unchained.

For the flamethrower trait use Resourceful (ult on crit) if you want more ults or Barrage if you want more damage. The heat related traits are overkill.

The flamethrower kills hordes but does little damage to Monsters or Armor. It is usually better to use the Beam or Fireball Staff as they provide almost as good horde clear while not being helpless against medium range specials or damaging Bosses.

What talent you use on this level will depend on your staff. Fireball and Bolt need extra power at full charge. This allows Fireballs to instantly kill Fanatics, or fully charged Bolts to kill any enemy other than Rothelms and Standard Bearers.

Beam must use Famished Flames! It can not benefit from the other two options. It doesn't charge up for Volcanic Force. And Lingering Flame's inability to stack DoTs massively reduces the damage of Beam Staff's continuous beam attack.

With Famished Flames the shotgun blast plus DoT tick nets more damage without the talent. Allowing you to kill hordes in less total shots. It also greatly increases the damage done when you hold the beam on a target (like bosses).

Conflag can make use of Lingering Flame, but Beam and Flamestorm staffs stack their DoTs so should avoid Lingering Flame.

Tranquility starting sooner outclasses the faster Tranquility venting. It takes a long time for the later to catch up to the former.

Flamestorm staff doesn’t really need to worry about heat as much as other staffs. So you can give up some heat for better charge speed.

The damage reduction is easy to keep up all the time. The extra ult charge will allow you to stagger with your ult much more often. Both are good, pick whichever you like.

The attack speed option is generally to small a benefit to be worth it. As it doesn't help Sienna's staffs.

Kaboom lets your ult buy more space and kill more stuff when it goes off. Double ult allows you to chain multiple staggers against an elite cluster, spread staggers against multiple fronts, or jump in and then back to safety.

Pyromancer’s high crit chance has natural synergy with Heat Sink (no heat on crits). Extra crit chance will give her staff even more free attacks. Temp health will help you meet the requirement to keep the buff online.

If you care more about your melee than your ranged, you can use attack speed instead. But Sienna’s ranged options are generally stronger than her melee.

Free heat after killing a special (can be easy to activate with ult) allows large amounts of free shots. If you care more about melee, take Attack speed at high heat instead.

Avoiding high heat slow down allows Pyromancer to maximize her crit chance. This can fuel free shots for ranged players or maximum attack speed for melee players.

Health on Ult outclasses Vent on Ult. The health it provides can be used to vent multiple times, sustain high enough health to keep level 10’s crit chance online, or to provide extra durability in fights.

Unchained will often want to run high heat to maximize Unstable Strength’s boost to melee damage. Extra attack speed at high heat synergizes with this strategy.

Blocking vents heat is the best defensive option at this level. The free venting it provides can also be useful if you want to rely on your staff more. While it will help you avoid overheating, it also makes it tricky to sustain full stacks of Unstable Strength.

Faster venting generally beats out damage reduction after venting. This is because the damage reduction window is short and the prevented damage is fairly small, making hard to get value from.

Enfeebling Flames provides an easy way to increase your whole team’s durability (but may be non-functional as of 2.0.7). All of Sienna’s weapons (excluding 1h Sword and Bolt staff) can activate the debuff. If you are using weapons that struggle to activate the debuff try running Searing Grasp (push attacks ignite enemies) at level 10.

You will often be using your Ult after getting hit into overheat. Health from Ult gives you what you are likely in need of. The Power after Ulting doesn’t offset the lost stacks of Unstable Strength. The low damage of Ult makes radius unappealing.

This guide generally adopts the tone that you have decided on a weapon to use, you just want to know how to optimize that weapon. But what if you want to know what weapon to use? This section will recommend some weapon pairs that work well together.

These are a starting point, not an exhaustive list of all good combinations. The recommendations focus on being easy to use, generally powerful and not requiring perfect rolls. The absence of a weapon pair below should not be taken as an implication that it is bad.

When multiple weapons are listed in a single table cell it means “pick one of any of these”. Use the Properties, Traits and Talents described in the previous sections.

Charms can have a Power vs Race and Power vs HP Category (ei: Infantry, Armor, Berzerker, Monster). Melee weapons can have a Power vs Race. Ranged weapons can have a Power vs Race and Power vs HP Category.

This means that melee weapons can have at most 3 Properties (1 on the weapon, 2 on the Charm) while ranged weapons can have at most 4 Properties (2 on the weapon, 2 on the Charm).

In general ranged weapons tend to start out doing more damage per attack than melee weapons. This higher base damage combined with more spots for Power vs X Properties means that ranged weapons are more often able to reach new and useful breakpoints than melee weapons (especially low damage melee weapons).

Each enemy has a Race, HP Category and HP number. Power verse X will refer to one of the Races or HP Categories below. To see which enemies a Power verse X applies to follow the row (for hp category) or column (for race). "Power vs Chaos" will apply to the Chaos and Beastmen races. "Power verse Armor" will apply to the Armor category and Super Armor category. The number in parenthesis is the amount of HP the unit has.



Each player weapon attack has an amount of damage it does for every HP category. For example:

Enemy HP categories and associated Power vs. X do not change based on where an attack lands. Attacking a Mauler in the head does not change its HP category. Power vs. Infantry will still apply, Power vs. Armor will not. Nor is a Stormvermin's head "unarmored" in the sense that it uses Infantry damage.

The keep contains dummies that are "Chaos & Infantry" and "Skaven & Armor". When you attack them you will see your attack's damage times 100. (So 1225 = 12.25 damage). Without using mods you can not easily see what your attacks do to Monster, Berzerker or Super Armor HP.

Not all Power vs properties are equally useful. In general you will be using Power verse Infantry, Skaven and Chaos.

Power verse Berserker < Power verse Race
Berserker only applies to two enemies in the whole game. Using race instead will apply to one of them plus a bunch of other stuff.

Power verse Monster < Power verse Race
Monster only applies to the bosses and Packmasters. Using race instead will apply to half the bosses and a bunch of other stuff.

When fighting bosses, the easiest scenario is when the boss is alone. In these situations doing 10% more damage isn’t really important. When fighting a boss that has other enemies supporting it, your goal is to kill the supporting enemies first so that you can then face the boss alone. In this situation your ability to rapidly kill the non-boss enemies is more important for success than your ability to damage the boss.

Power verse Armor < Power verse Race
The only reason to use Power verse Armor is to help against Stormvermin or Rothelms. In both cases using Power verse Race will apply to what you want and a bunch of other stuff.

There are a few situations where you will use Power verse Armor because you need an additional property against Stormvermin (such as on Crossbows) or because you need a small boost against Stormvermin and Rothelms.

If you are using the Heal Share talent Healer's Touch (chance not to use) is the best trait to use on your necklace. It is superior to Hand of Shallya (healing an ally with a medkit also heals you) because it lets the team get more wound resets out of a fixed quantity of healing items, while providing roughly similar amounts of hp.

If someone on the team is using the Heal Share talent, everyone else should be using Natural Bond (regen) because it provides the most hp and its drawback is irrelevant.

If no one on the team is using the Heal Share talent, then everyone should be using Shallya's Boon (30% more healing). This way the team can still get green health from the draughts they find over the course of the map.

Natural Bond is recommended because it generally provides the most hp. At ~20min a map you'll get ~240 hp from it. Its drawback is essentially irrelevant since any draught can be handed to the person with heal share to drink.

The main draw of Shallya's Boon is that it enhances your ability to generate temp health. Compaired to Natural Bond you will have more hp during battles while having less hp between battles. Since situations where a horde is active tend to be riskier than situations with no horde, this can be a worthwhile trade.

It requires taking a large amount of damage during the mitigation window before its mitigation will equal the extra hp Natural Bond would provide.

It requires taking ~600 damage during the mitigation window for Barkskin to provide the ~240 hp that Natural Bond would. Since the hit that activates Barkskin is not reduced, you actually have to take more than 600 damage. Looking at your damage taken number at the end of a map isn't a good way to tell how much damage you've taken because that number gets artificially high by any damage taken while incapped on the ground.

Warning: These numbers are out of date. They have not been updated for Winds of Magic yet. I will be updating them soon.

The following table shows how each weapon should be used with Shade’s Infiltrate. It lists which attack does the most boss damage and which attack is best at killing Rothelms. Certain weapons need additional properties to kill Rothelms. These calculations assume the attack hits the body from the front. Backstabbing or headshots will provide more damage.

Bosses have damage reduction. The lower number is how much damage the attack does to the boss with the reduction. The higher number is how much monster damage (without reduction) that the attack does. On Legend bosses have 2100 hp, with the Bile Troll having 1500 hp.

• Dual Dagger
  
• Sword & Dagger
  
• Spear
  
• Dual Sword

All of these weapons are able to kill Rothelms without properties. Dual Dagger's heavy stab does the most boss damage while the Dual Sword's heavy sweep does the least.

For Charm property, Shade should stick with Decanter (+50% duration), just like other classes. As the table below shows, the benefit of having Strength pot effects while Infiltrating is small. See the Decanter vs Concoction section below for more.


The Dual Daggers are able to kill Rothelms with 0 Properties. It also has the best boss damage. Unlike the Sword & Dagger or Spear, accessing this anti-boss attack does not require missing a different attack. This makes the Dual Daggers the easiest to use weapon for Shade. Just be aware that its poor cleave will mean it will struggle with hordes.

A flexible if awkward combination of the Dual Daggers and Dual Swords. Use the heavy stab against bosses and the heavy sweep against everything else. When fighting bosses try to miss with the heavy sweep and hit with the heavy stab.

The light stab attack will kill Rothelms with 0 Properties but the heavy sweep will not! When fighting bosses try to miss with the heavy sweep and hit with the heavy stab.

The boss damage is much lower than Dual Dagger (or Sword & Dagger), but it is still able to kill Rothelms with 0 Properties. Use the sweeps to clear hordes or groups of enemies.

It requires 1 Property (usually Power vs Chaos on the Charm) for the heavy stab attack to kill Rothelms. The 2h Sword is outclassed by the Dual Swords, which provides similar horde killing potential while doing much more boss damage.

It requires Hekarti's Bounty (15% Power from Grims) plus 1 Property for the Glaive to kill Rothelms. The glaive’s poor boss damage combined with its inability to easily kill Rothelms makes it a poor option for Shade. The Spear provides a light attack that is also able to kill Fanatics in one hit while having better boss damage and the ability to kill Rothelms.

It requires Hekarti's Bounty plus 2 Properties for the heavy attack to kill Rothelms. This is not worth it. The 1h Sword is outclassed by the Dual Swords, which provides similar horde killing potential while doing much more boss damage.

It requires Hekarti's Bounty plus 2 Properties for the heavy attack to kill Rothelms. This is not worth it. The boss damage is also poor. The Spear (if you want to kill Fanatics in one light attack) or Dual Daggers (if you want to kill armor) are better choices for Shade.

Concoction (all-pot) can get 2 Strength boosted Infiltrate attacks while Decanter can get up to 5 Infiltrate attacks with a purple pot. If Decanter gets at least 3 Infiltrates off it will be ahead of Concoction.

When considering all possible potions, Concoction does ~2.6x damage per pot (where X is the non-Strength Infiltrate damage). Decanter does ~5x with purple pot, ~1x-1.5x with others. Treating Strength and Speed pots as 1x would undervalue Decanter as those pots help when damaging bosses.

Potions are not acquired at random. The more potions a team has found, the more likely that one of them is a purple pot. The table below shows the odds of a team having at least one purple pot based on the number of potions seen. It uses that to calculate the expected damage a Shade with Decanter can do. Where having a purple potion is worth 5x and not having a purple potion is worth 1x.
Decanter outperforms Concoction consistently. If you account for the value of Decanter boosted Strength and Speed potions as 1.5x Decanter outperforms Concoction even at 1 potion seen. If you are using a weapon other than Dual Daggers or Sword and Dagger Concoction's value falls to ~2.3x, making it worse than Decanter.

Fighting a boss is not the only time potions should be used. In these non-boss situations Decanter is also better than Concoction (for the same reasons why other classes use Decanter). 15 seconds of Strength or Speed will help more against a patrol, large elite cluster or dangerous horde than 5 seconds of all three potions.