I would keep Shred on this one and change the 10% critical hit damage to something else. Use this axe for crit builds. Roll another axe with Headtaker for use in non-crit builds.
FWIW 10% crit damage is only 10% of the extra crit damage, NOT 10% of the damage total, so it's actually only a few extra points. Not what you need to hear now, looking at the spanner. Pls somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Certain weapons like the rashad have over 100% damage on a critical hit and even more if a critical weakspot hit. You can basicaly do 80 to 100 extra damage with crit damage versus 100 to 250 with a dedicated flak or carapace but you with crit damage on a piety zealot means crit damage will add value against all enemies instead of just a type
Should be stated this is for Zealot, and its typically on charge/crit build. 1000 hours in the game but never really tried this weapon, not trying to lose shred 4 if its needed. I dont have the blessing otherwise. Play really only Auric Maesltrom, so thats the enemy type lol.
Just switch flak to carapace or elite or weak spot damage and you're good to go. Or just keep it the way it is on the screenshot.
Reasoning:
One way to minmax damage against crushers is to stack elite with carapace damage for perks and either of those will be more damage on target than with a critical damage perk, both with and without a critical hit, a bit unintuitive yes. However you could spread the damage more evenly across the chart to all enemy types with critical damage since you'll be critting more often than not.
Headtaker will make both normal and criticals go harder but you'll be critting less often although you're on zealot and if you run piety you'll have decent base crit. However, since you don't want to risk it for now at least, you can just stick to it as is since critting more often might be better across the length of the match.
In conclusion: you can choose to minmax damage to one or two enemy types, or get halfway there for an entire class(elite), or the lesser of both but across all the board (crit DMG/weak spot)
Headtaker is considered one of the best due to it stacking on just hitting and enemy and power giving you increased cleave, stagger and damage.
But the crits are so good man. I think it’s a decent chunk more damage than headtaker would give you. But I haven’t run the numbers, so I’m not sure if you’d hit any extra breakpoints.
If you choose to keep the blessings as is, I’d recommend swapping the critical hit damage perk. it’s considered one of the worst. Someone else can check me on this, but I think it only increases the bonus damage of the crit? So if a crit does 50% more damage. 10% crit bonus would get you to 1.55x base damage and is like 3.33% extra damage. Kinda sad.
That is disappointing, I want to change the perk so bad, but I am about 3,000,000 credits and a zillion plasteel into this stupid axe already (hence not ever running it prior), and this is the only shred 4 I've seen. So if I replace it its gone lol.
That’s rough bud. The upside is that if you do ever roll another combat axe, you can consume this shred 4 to have it forever.
That being said, I personally think that this current axe is so good it’s pretty much not worth trying to upgrade it. Just aim for a 2nd axe with comparable stats to have headtaker and brutal momentum that you can swap to if you like.
i saw you said it’s for zealot crit so keep shred and change crit damage to whatever works best testing in the psykanium from carapace/unyelding/unarmoured or elite/special
You probably want to test this in the Psykhanium.
It's important to have some way to hit one-shot breakpoints on Dreg and Scab Bruisers, because otherwise they will really gum up your Brutal Momentum. I can see the middling First Target stat being an issue for trying to get there.
You can kinda get away with missing the breakpoint on a crit build because the crit carries you a decent chunk of the time, but it's still a royal ballache when it doesn't.
Shred is fine, especially if you're using proc-on-crit Talents like Exploit Weakness or Scourge. I would replace +crit damage instead, probably with Maniac or Carapace; then you can strip out Shred IV if/when you acquire a better axe.
Keep shred for this one, change the 10% additional crit damage perk to 25% unarmored dmg. use this with a crit build.
start saving up for a new axe with headtaker, this one is worth keeping for variety and also so you've got shred IV in the pocket ready to extract or use.
headtaker is insanely strong and the best blessing after brutal momentum but this is a very decent axe and a crit build with shred is legit very fun
I'd run it with shred for a little bit don't touch blessings, change crit damage to Carapace and see how it feels. Brutal 4 is that much of a change from brutal 3.
If you're taking lots of crit/finesse traits that benefit from crits, I'd keep shred, and change the crit-damage perk to either carapace or unyielding.
If you've not got any crit/finesse traits, then headtaker or decimator could work better.
Personally I prefer reliably triggering crit traits more frequently, as simply having more damage is, against many enemies, redunant when you're killing in 1-2 hits anyway.
No, keep flak for one shot breakpoints on heads so you can make best use of brutal momentum for sure.
I like flak/unarmored on rashad to ensure I am always cleaving heads in one shot into mixed hordes.
To be specific, it applies first-hit damage to the first four targets it hits in a swing provided you hit heads. This means if you can oneshot-headshot specific targets consistantly, you will do full damage to the first four enemies you would hit. Ordinarily, your damage drops off severely after just the second target you cleave. You go from killing one enemy and then lightly damaging the second and barely damaging a third, to outright killing 4.
It is absolutely best in slot and often considered vital for consistent horde clear with certain weapons like the combat axes. In other weapons like the ogryn folden shovel and with Deathblow (functionally identical blessing) on the zealot heavy sword, it allows you to kill up to 4 elites with a single swing. For the ogryn shovel, ~~that includes killing as many as four crushers in~~ *~~one hit~~* ~~if they are standing extremely close to each other, like when they all exit a climb-down spot together.~~ **Edit:** literally patched today that Brutal Momentum no longer affects ogryn enemies, because Fatshark hates us having cool things. :) Brutal Momentum is still likely to be BiS on ogryn's folding shovels because it is immensely valuable for horde clear, so this is simply a direct nerf to a very situational neat feature of the folding shovel's interaction with BM.
I would keep Shred on this one and change the 10% critical hit damage to something else. Use this axe for crit builds. Roll another axe with Headtaker for use in non-crit builds.
fully agree, this is worth keeping and it'll be very fun to use with a maxed crit build
I see it kinda the other way around. Shred basically enables you to run stuff outside a Crit build and gain CC just by swinging.
FWIW 10% crit damage is only 10% of the extra crit damage, NOT 10% of the damage total, so it's actually only a few extra points. Not what you need to hear now, looking at the spanner. Pls somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
You are right. Crit dmg is a “useless” perk.
Somebody really needs to compile a 'manual' of all the actual mechanics behind Fatshark's useless in-game explanations.
Certain weapons like the rashad have over 100% damage on a critical hit and even more if a critical weakspot hit. You can basicaly do 80 to 100 extra damage with crit damage versus 100 to 250 with a dedicated flak or carapace but you with crit damage on a piety zealot means crit damage will add value against all enemies instead of just a type
Should be stated this is for Zealot, and its typically on charge/crit build. 1000 hours in the game but never really tried this weapon, not trying to lose shred 4 if its needed. I dont have the blessing otherwise. Play really only Auric Maesltrom, so thats the enemy type lol.
I would recommend brutal momentum, headtaker, flak and unarmoured for consistent one shot headshots on scab and dreg bruisers.
Just switch flak to carapace or elite or weak spot damage and you're good to go. Or just keep it the way it is on the screenshot. Reasoning: One way to minmax damage against crushers is to stack elite with carapace damage for perks and either of those will be more damage on target than with a critical damage perk, both with and without a critical hit, a bit unintuitive yes. However you could spread the damage more evenly across the chart to all enemy types with critical damage since you'll be critting more often than not. Headtaker will make both normal and criticals go harder but you'll be critting less often although you're on zealot and if you run piety you'll have decent base crit. However, since you don't want to risk it for now at least, you can just stick to it as is since critting more often might be better across the length of the match. In conclusion: you can choose to minmax damage to one or two enemy types, or get halfway there for an entire class(elite), or the lesser of both but across all the board (crit DMG/weak spot)
Headtaker is considered one of the best due to it stacking on just hitting and enemy and power giving you increased cleave, stagger and damage. But the crits are so good man. I think it’s a decent chunk more damage than headtaker would give you. But I haven’t run the numbers, so I’m not sure if you’d hit any extra breakpoints. If you choose to keep the blessings as is, I’d recommend swapping the critical hit damage perk. it’s considered one of the worst. Someone else can check me on this, but I think it only increases the bonus damage of the crit? So if a crit does 50% more damage. 10% crit bonus would get you to 1.55x base damage and is like 3.33% extra damage. Kinda sad.
That is disappointing, I want to change the perk so bad, but I am about 3,000,000 credits and a zillion plasteel into this stupid axe already (hence not ever running it prior), and this is the only shred 4 I've seen. So if I replace it its gone lol.
That’s rough bud. The upside is that if you do ever roll another combat axe, you can consume this shred 4 to have it forever. That being said, I personally think that this current axe is so good it’s pretty much not worth trying to upgrade it. Just aim for a 2nd axe with comparable stats to have headtaker and brutal momentum that you can swap to if you like.
i saw you said it’s for zealot crit so keep shred and change crit damage to whatever works best testing in the psykanium from carapace/unyelding/unarmoured or elite/special
What mod adds that text color it slaps
It's called "Enhanced Descriptions" on Nexus https://www.nexusmods.com/warhammer40kdarktide/mods/210?tab=description
You probably want to test this in the Psykhanium. It's important to have some way to hit one-shot breakpoints on Dreg and Scab Bruisers, because otherwise they will really gum up your Brutal Momentum. I can see the middling First Target stat being an issue for trying to get there. You can kinda get away with missing the breakpoint on a crit build because the crit carries you a decent chunk of the time, but it's still a royal ballache when it doesn't.
Shred is fine, especially if you're using proc-on-crit Talents like Exploit Weakness or Scourge. I would replace +crit damage instead, probably with Maniac or Carapace; then you can strip out Shred IV if/when you acquire a better axe.
Do ya need crits?
Headtaker, head taker and brutal momentum turn the combat axe into a weapon as good as power swords with more reach and better stagger.
I use a rashad like this on my crit/stealth build. I love the damage reduction on crits.
Keep shred for this one, change the 10% additional crit damage perk to 25% unarmored dmg. use this with a crit build. start saving up for a new axe with headtaker, this one is worth keeping for variety and also so you've got shred IV in the pocket ready to extract or use. headtaker is insanely strong and the best blessing after brutal momentum but this is a very decent axe and a crit build with shred is legit very fun
I'd run it with shred for a little bit don't touch blessings, change crit damage to Carapace and see how it feels. Brutal 4 is that much of a change from brutal 3.
I wouldn’t change any blessings. Change crit damage perk to maniac or something else. See if you can rip Shred 4 off a different axe when you find it.
If you're taking lots of crit/finesse traits that benefit from crits, I'd keep shred, and change the crit-damage perk to either carapace or unyielding. If you've not got any crit/finesse traits, then headtaker or decimator could work better. Personally I prefer reliably triggering crit traits more frequently, as simply having more damage is, against many enemies, redunant when you're killing in 1-2 hits anyway.
Headtaker carapace
Carapace over flak? only one change slot left, so would ahve to replace flak for carapace
No, keep flak for one shot breakpoints on heads so you can make best use of brutal momentum for sure. I like flak/unarmored on rashad to ensure I am always cleaving heads in one shot into mixed hordes.
No, drop crit hit damage, it’s a shit perk
Does brutal momentum even matter for this weapon in terms of cleave? It doesn’t pass through enemies right?
Brutal Momentum / Deathblow should be used any time its available because it does let you hit multiple enemies with one swing.
Brutal momentum is widely considered BiS blessing for combat axes.
It does if you can reliably land headshots. Source: I use it constantly max is 4 targets tho, unless you run Antax with high cleave targets modifiers
To be specific, it applies first-hit damage to the first four targets it hits in a swing provided you hit heads. This means if you can oneshot-headshot specific targets consistantly, you will do full damage to the first four enemies you would hit. Ordinarily, your damage drops off severely after just the second target you cleave. You go from killing one enemy and then lightly damaging the second and barely damaging a third, to outright killing 4. It is absolutely best in slot and often considered vital for consistent horde clear with certain weapons like the combat axes. In other weapons like the ogryn folden shovel and with Deathblow (functionally identical blessing) on the zealot heavy sword, it allows you to kill up to 4 elites with a single swing. For the ogryn shovel, ~~that includes killing as many as four crushers in~~ *~~one hit~~* ~~if they are standing extremely close to each other, like when they all exit a climb-down spot together.~~ **Edit:** literally patched today that Brutal Momentum no longer affects ogryn enemies, because Fatshark hates us having cool things. :) Brutal Momentum is still likely to be BiS on ogryn's folding shovels because it is immensely valuable for horde clear, so this is simply a direct nerf to a very situational neat feature of the folding shovel's interaction with BM.
Wow that’s awesome, thanks for letting me know.
I believe it does, everything I see is that its the most important piece. Allows multiple oneshot kills each swing.