+2.5-4% Bonus Critical Chance on Chained Hit. Stacks 5 times.
+12-24% Rending on Enemy Weak Spot Hit for 3.5s. Stacks 5 times.
+1-4 Burn Stack(s) on Critical Hit to a maximum of 3-12 Stack(s).
+4.5-6% Close Range damage on Repeated Hit. Stacks 5 times.
After 800+ hours in Darktide, I have a few simple rules when it comes to Curios. Melee classes (Ogryns and Zealot) should take 2x Toughness and 1x Health Curios to give a good mix of defensive stats. Veterans should take 3 Toughness Curios, as they benefit more from Toughness than other classes, owing to their larger toughness pools and skills such as Iron Will. Psykers should run 2x Toughness and 1x Stamina curio to make up for low Base stamina, and to benefit from their faster stamina regeneration. Obviously, there are some caveats to that. A melee centric Veteran might want to run 1x Health Curio and certain knife and stealth builds might want to run a stamina curio. But for the most part, I find this a good rule to stick to to ensure you have curios that are effective for the vast majority of your builds, especially when starting out when it is difficult to find any curios, much less good ones. Oh and Wound Curios should only ever be used on Zealot Martydom builds. Having Wound Curios actually means that health stims will now heal less on you. I know some people like to take a wound curio 'just in case they go down', but in higher difficulties, there is no guarantee your team can pick you up. It's far better to invest in defensive abilities which prevent downs as much as possible.
For Perks, Always take Extra toughness and gunner resistance. Gunner Resistance is the most useful resistance node as it applies to Scab Gunners, Scab Shotgunners, Dreg Gunners, Dreg Shotgunners and Reapers. This is the largest collection of enemies out of any of the resistance perks. These enemies can absolutely shred you in seconds, and make up a significant portion of the enemies encountered in Auric Maelstroms. The ability is multiplicative, so does have some diminishing returns. 0.80×0.80×0.80=0.512 meaning that we end up with a total gunner resistance of 0.488, just below 50%. I can certainly see the argument to only running two gunner resistance curios (with an overall damage resistance of 36 %) and opting for something else (potentially sniper OR Flamer), but I still value that extra 12.8%.
For the final perk, it depends on your build. If you are using a build which relies heavily on your ability, then run cooldown reduction to more frequently make use of said ability. I find this to be especially powerful on builds which make use of Voice of Command for instance. If your build is not too heavily reliant on your ability, then run for extra health. Again you can tweak this to suit individual playstyle (and the mercy of the RNG-gods as Hadrons bricks yet another piece of equipment), but this is a pretty good rule to aim for.
Question: Why do the stats/weapons/abilities in the video posted not reflect what is written in this guide?
Answer: I am constantly changing, updating and working on my builds. As patch notes come, certain weapons and abilities become more or less powerful. As my skill and knowledge increase (hopefully) and what I think is the best version of a build changes. I try to make sure there is always a video showing me completing a damnation level, Auric run as proof of concept to all my builds. Sometimes they will be outdated. I try to keep everything I do updated, but Darktide is my hobby, and I'm not always able to keep everything up to date. What I put in these guides is the most up-to-date version of my current mindset, and should be taken over whatever is posted in my videos.
Question: Why don't you run the Accatran Mk XIV Recon Lasgun?
Answer: I have had a lot of people on the discord swear on the Accatran Mk XIV Recon Lasgun with Headhunter & DumDum. When I have gone into the Meat Grinder and compared this variant to the one I'm using. When comparing the two, I haven't noticed a significant difference in the time to kill or most elite and special enemies. Maybe it's technically slightly quicker, but given that the time to kill differs based on the amount of crits recieved, I can't confirm if the difference is statistically significant enough. What I can assess is the objective statistics. The Accatran Mk XII Recon Lasgun fires significantly faster, meaning that stacks Onslaught faster, reacts faster, can clear out hordes MUCH quicker and does not need reloading as frequently. Some argue that Infernus is not a good as most enemies die too quickly for it take effect. In practice, this just isn't true, especially when there are mutliple targets stacked ontop of eachother. Infernus does not require headshots (I don't care how good you think you are, you will not be hitting headshots 100% of the time in the thick of battle), meaning the damage is more consistent. I can't count the amount of times I have just clipped a dog or trapper as they run around the corner to safety, only for them to die a second later thanks to the burn. Also the burn damage is HUGE on Unyielding enemies, massively increasing Damage per second against Repaers and Monstrosities. These things simply melt under the onslaught.
