Love that sword, don’t get why I never see anybody use it besides myself. The parry in it is awesome

On Psyker, kinetic deflection gives you an almost endless amount of "parry fuel" works great if you got aggro on chaos spawn or a pack of ragers in your face.

I'm liking this Weapons Codex series! Very helpful when I been needing to get more use and insight with some weapons On another note, Fatshark has been holding out on releasing (or re-releasing) any Catachan cosmetics for even Commodores Vestures, like I really want to have a green tank top or a green sleeveless flak vest to get the most lore accurate aesthetic Catachan For the Veteran as much as Voice of Command is great, I want to run this build with the Infiltrate (stealth) talent because I love the idea of going full Catachan Devil Jungle Fighter

SUGAR COATED

Good video. Thank you.

Very informative and well-structured! As a new player videos like these are immensely helpful in understanding core aspects of the game that aren't easily accessible elsewhere, please keep this "Weapon Codex" series going!

In order to increase the aura by plus 25 percent to restore strength for the entire team, I have to turn my unnecessary talent into a strong attack. It really pisses me off!

Could you do a video about the sapper shovel in the future🥺

Holy crap this guide is awesome. Thank you, looking forward to the next installments.

I'm always disappointed by how game Devs treat "melee tank archetypes" 🤦‍♂️ my favorite...

MORE TIPS, INFORMATION, AND BUILDS: As an avid user of the devils claw swords, I have amassed a a lot of knowledge on how they best function. This will be a long, unordered list of facts and information so peruse at your own leisure. Zealot specific tip: the devils claw pairs best with fury of the faithful, as if you can time using the ability right before parrying an attack, then you can give the fury effects to the parry attack. This attack is the single highest damage attack the devils claw can do, and due to the nature of fury, will one shot everything up to crushers on a headshot. It's an excellent way to quickly dispatch crushers and maulers when times correctly. The parry has a hidden mechanic where after parrying an attack, you are given about a third of a second window where the game still counts you as blocking. This makes the devils claw arguably the best rager counter in the game, but can make attempting parries on crusher or mauler overheads very risky, as the actual parry is only given to the first enemy that hits you. So, if a crusher is in a horde and starts an overhead and you try to parry it but a trash unit you didn't see hits you first, you will parry the trash unit, and then normally block the overhead, to which it goes straight through due to the nature of overhead attacks. As stated in the video, the best combo of blessings on this weapon is rampage and shred. Savage sweep can replace shred if your build already consistently gets more than 50% crit chance, but there is one issue with cleave improving talents that makes it less optimal. Each weapon loses some percent of damage with each target it cleaves through, until it reaches its lowest number after around 6 targets (which for the claw swords is about 1/3 of its initial target value). Increasing the cleave of a weapon weapon does not lower how fast its damage is decreased, so increasing the cleave of this weapon will only have you doing that 1/3 modified damage to more targets, and generally isn't very worth it. Psyker specific tip: Always pair this weapon with kinetic deflection when possible. Kinetic deflection will make it so you can face tank literally everything that is block able. Stuck in a corner with a plague ogryn? Just parry away. Getting surrounded by a mob of ragers? Just parry away (for about 10 seconds, you will overheat eventually lol, but it buys you a lot of time). Etc, it makes it so you both never have to worry about stamina when going for parries (so you will always be able to push dogs and bursters) and can get out of situations that would normally auto kill a psyker. When going for a parry against maulers or crushers in hordes, always try to push slightly before going for the perfect parry, it will reset all horde attack animations and should give you the time to guarantee that the perfect parry is triggered by the elite and not a horde unit. When trying to land the parry attack, aim very high. Unfortunately the attack very often will hit other units or the body of the enemy you are aiming at because it sweeps bottom up rather than top down, so especially on monstrosities or organ enemies, aim high. The devils claw very much so benefits from block efficiency, as it allows you to be much more offensive with your parries with less punishment from stamina cost. Some of my favorite builds with the devils claw (yes they are off meta, but still very potent and fun): Preface: almost all good builds need to do four things, counter hordes, counter melee elites, counter gunners, and counter specialists. The devils claw is exceptionally good at countering hordes, ragers, and any enemies with flak armor that aren't maulers. So when making builds with the devils claw you will need to fill in the ability to counter the three heavy melee elites (maulers, bulwarks, crushers), gunners, and specials Veteran doom slayer build: Weapons: devils claw mk4 (flak armor damage, maniac damage, rampage, savage sweep), double barrel shotgun (flak armor damage, maniac damage, man stopper, flechette) Curios: 1st: 3 stam, combat ability regen, stam regen, block efficiency 2nd: 17 toughness, combat ability regen, stam regen, block efficiency 3rd: 17 toughness, combat ability, regen, stam regen, block efficiency Talents: Close order drill, Confirmed kill, Stam boost, Toughness boost, Krak grenades, Health boost, Ranged damage boost, Get back in the fight, Survivalist, Reload boost, Toughness damage reduction Field improvisation, Demolition stockpile, Voice of command, Duty and honor, Suppression boost, Ranged damage boost, Melee damage boost, Precision strikes, For the emperor, Reciprocity, Fully loaded, Tactical awareness, Desperado, Superiority complex, Iron will, Toughness boost (right side), Trench fighter, Weapons specialist, Always prepared Description: this build excels in using the double barrel shotgun like it has infinite ammo. Getting any melee kills auto loads a round into the shotgun, and getting three kills makes your next shot a guaranteed crit. With manstopper, the shotgun has absurdly high cleave and damage. This build is insanely good at shredding mixed hordes, with the claw mincing horde, and the shotgun vaporizing anything with a bit more health. The only thing this build lacks is carapace damage, which is why kraks are taken. And before I get crucified, I know shredders are usually better, but when you have a build that excels in mixed horde clear as much as this, shredders don't add much, so being able to counter bulwarks and crushers more effectively is more valuable. Lastly, the shotgun is very similar to the kickback in that it is shockingly effective at long range, so don't be afraid to snipe specials and gunners with it Psyker all rounder build: Weapons: devils claw mk4 (flak, maniac, shred, rampage) Void blast force staff (carapace, ranged damage elites, rending shockwave, warp flurry) Curios: Exact same as veteran build above Talents: Soul stealer, Mettle, Quietude, Warp expenditure, Perfect timing, Toughness boost, Assail, Ethereal shards, Quick shards, Toughness damage reduction, Malefic momentum, Toughness damage reduction, Lightning speed, Warp splitting, Seers presence, Toughness damage reduction, One with the warp, Telekine shield, Telekine dome, Sanctuary, Critical chance boost, Health boost, Warp rider, Kinetic deflection, Movement speed boost, True aim, Toughness boost, Disrupt destiny, Lingering influence, Cruel fortune Description: this build covers all of your bases several times over. Void blast staff may not be as directly potent as the flame staff, but it is incredibly safe and versatile, and with rending shockwave it's really good support as well. You will be using the staff as your primary weapon, as it wipes chunks of horde at a time, and does respectable damage against gunners and melee elites. Plus, the stagger and stagger aoe on this thing makes genuinely better than smite in some instances, as it can knock enemies backwards, whereas smite just holds them in place, allowing you to not just slow the enemies but actually clear space. Assail is your specialist and gunner counter tool. It is one of the best things in this game for countering shooters that are spread across a room, and can kill gunners and specials respectably quick. You will use your devils claw as a get out of jail free card for when you don't have time to charge your staff to stagger enemies, you can also take chaos spawns or plague ogryns into corners and just parry spam face take them while your team deals with other things until they can help you kill it, just make sure to dodge chaos spawn grabs. This is also my go to havoc 40 build, as it staggers and controls enemies as well if not better than smite, while also applying a big chunk of rending to armor. That's about it, if you made it this far then I commend you, and hope you learned something!

I have an item level 300 pistol, but the boxes still give 260-300

5:45 thank you for showing you returning to pick up that medkit, I would have been wondering until the end of my days if you left it behind

Everything makes sound cues, that is if they work. My favorite part is definitely Snipers that shoot first and do their sound cue and animation after.

This was extremely informative and I'm really excited to see what you come up with next!

This is almost 100% not worth it but if you wanted to run the VII would running carapace get you new break points on maulers, captains, and crushers? What if you went full unhinged and added weak spot damage? I find this can be a shockingly good strat on my main (ogryn) when using the power maul since hords..... You just can ignore and the weapons utility still helps while having a good single target with brutal momentum and a blessing of choice. Curious if the same abstract theory applies here.

but when are we getting a felinid claw care guide?

I love Against the grain, it just that tall field in the beginning that make the whole map, and the STAKE and horde placement is so good. I can't get enough of it

Catachan Mk1 my beloved

on veteran you should always path to the starting right nodes (one motion + out for blood) when playing weapon specialist build, its not even a debate

First of all looking forward to all weapons being part of this "weapons codex" series cuz The Emperor only knows how much i need these guides given to me the bigger the bonk the better the weapon is 😂😂😂. I heard ppl talk of the devul's claw but frankly i always tought it's the worst melee in the game, hell the knife can stack bleed like crazy so even that can be useful but this is just bad, didn't lnow of the parry thing but i don't see myself using it tbh.

Hey i'm new to the game and was wondering: what is finesse ?

*JTC proceeds to show the same skill tree build I already favor* This is my jam, yes. :)

As always, the video is pure gold :)

Amazing content, would love to see this with the other trios of melee weapons!

Your voice is sounds oddly... reliable? Like a tech priest is patiently but thoroughly explaining my weapons to my stupid self

17:38 whut r yu doing step-rager 😏

top shelf darktide content!

🫃

nice, i was just being absolutely shite with 1 of these. good timing.

I wish these swords had a little more oompf to them. Anytime I use them, I wish I was using something else primarily because I need to be able to deal with every type of enemy.

i really wish they clamped down on solo's, this is a co-op game why are you running ahead pulling bosses and leaving your team to now deal with the now aggroed enemies you triggered, only to then complain about needing to babysit 24/7

How does parry work with psyker peril blocking?

I'm a big fan of the mk4. As well as the Heavy Sword 6, which is kind of a clone weapon. I don't really go for parries and that I think further supports the Mark 4 as a choice, as parrying isn't key to killing elites faster with this version. I'll try to incorporate more parries on bosses and Rager though.

This is awesome! Thank you especially for someone liike me who just came into the game on PS

To add to your disclaimer. The one thing that will spare your sanity (especially now with the new players) change out your contracts to get rid of completing games with no deaths or completing 8 missions etc. Definitely will bring your blood pressure down...

I can't believe no one ever told me this thing had a "perfect" parry window before... I have 1k hours in this game...

Controversial opinion: I don't like using rampage on my weapons. The high damage increase looks extremely alluring but I find it only reliably triggers against hordes where that increased damage isn't as crucial. I run my mk 7 sword with wrath and shred.

My go to rule with this sword (prefer the mark IV) is to only parry single attack lone enemies, like ragers, crushers, maulers or when i encounter a lonely footsoldier. Against hordes, parrying is to reactionary, therefore i just attack, attack, attack,this should be ones motto in this game anyways. Also, parrying only works against single attacks, and leaves you vulnerable for a few microseconds after an attack. So if 3-5 poxwalkers cue up the available attack slots around you to whail on you, you may parry the first one. But the second, third and maybe fourth will get ya because youre still suffering the immobillity penalty after succesfully parrying and counter attacking the first swing on you. So for hords i recommend performing 1 or two attack combos while moving, kiting the horde, then block/push/attack, then repositioning and repeat. Also, this is a very informative video and a good idea for a series. I am looking forward to more of it. Have fun covering the ogryn weapons lol. Keep up the good work.

Idk, mashing the parry button with increased melee speed has never let me down.

Love these weapon deep dives

I thought I was the only one who loved this sword lol

This is incredible content. Thanks so much.

Great vid jtc 👍, very informative, say did u happen to finish havoc last stream? o:

Such a strange dev team man. In my eyes they crafted an incredibly fun, addicting game, but all the choices and systems around that are just so bad. So many useless perks, Ogryn needs so much, so many weird balance decisions and systems, crafting/inventory only recently feels good. It makes me think the teams that do the skills and perks are completely different from the devs who crafted the gameplay experience, or maybe those people left idk.

Two corrections and one addition I forgot to mention: 19:49: You need 36% Block efficiency PLUS Conditioning in order to non-perfect parry a maulers overhead - Not worth the point either way though 21:40: Skirmisher helps to hit that breakpoint if you run maniac instead of unarmored damage - Otherwise its primarily used to give extra damage to the bolter 20:17: In addition to these recommendations, i would also recommend the +10% damage operative modifier node under the smoke grenade blitz. An alternate build you can consider is removing a point from Invigorated and placing it into that operative modifier node to really maximize your damage (and to always hit that scab bruiser breakpoint without having to worry about proccing Skirmisher, if you end up running manic instead of unarmored), but with vet's reduced stamina regen I would personally leave it as is.

Something to note is that they deal corruption damage in an aura around them, so even if you've got a build that can easily deal with them it's still better to just leave them be. At lower difficulties where they only kill one person, it's sometimes better to just let whoever aggroed it die and avoid it to avoid the corruption damage; if they're going to die anyway there's no point in taking more damage than you need.