BOLT CARBINE IS WAY TOO FUN: SNIPER STALKER BUILD for Space Marine 2

[@SuperBrannflakes]

I would recommend switching renewal with efficient readiness in the sniper perk tree. Squad renewal is more than enough to keep cloak off cooldown. Using this perk I can shred through minoris enemies while being almost permanently cloaked and never having to reload. Give it a try, makes the build even more fun.

[@josecruz8803]

I like it; trade some some rechange speed with less reload time. this is made even better when you pare it with Adaptability: going into Camo Cloak while at low ammo with Effective Readiness will auto-reload and activate Adaptability's bonus melee dmg.

[@benleeper332]

100%

[@ccpIz]

Absolutely. Saw this tip on True Vanguard’s Bolt Carbine video and it still holds true today. Way more fun not having to reload

[@emochipmunk218]

Thank you for this! As someone who is horrendously inept at shooters and is pretty much consigned to melee classes this finally gives me a way to play sniper without feeling so useless

[@josecruz8803]

I have pretty much the same build but with 2 changes, the second of which is much more impactful to overall team tactics: 1. Adaptability instead of High Capacity: I do not find I am worried as much about ammo with the carbine, but that extra melee dmg is worth it. Plus, it gives reason/use for Dexterous Hands increased reload speed. Bonus: Going into Camo Cloak while at low ammo with Effective Readiness will auto-reload and activate Adaptability's bonus dmg (I have not tested this). 2. Ambush instead of Lingering Concealment: Instead of staying hidden for 2 seconds you stagger enemies for about 2-3 seconds, which helps you AND your allies. This has the added bonus of knocking things out of calls and prepped attacks around you.

[@Carnun009]

I wonder if Adaptability why I'm getting Majoris to executable after one shadowstab from cloak.

[@josecruz8803]

@@Carnun009 Right but you are not shadow stabbing all the time because you are not in cloak all times. You can stack this with the shadow stab, but that's just a bonus. Majoris are also not the only types in the game, so every little bit counts verses an extrimus and terminus. Also, not everyone uses shadow stab, likely preferring more area clear with the shoulder attack. lastly, If you are switching between melee and ranged with the carbine then ammo shouldn't be much of an issue, which makes more melee damage more appealing in a melee build.

[@VexicaRae]

that build is how I played and leveled my sniper to max level before patch 3.0 (still don't even have the las fusil maxed lol). It felt terrible, but I was committed to trying to have fun with it. Glad to see it's way more viable now.

[@FatherAntithetical]

INFO: I have physically gone in and tested this with both the Las Fusil and the Bolt Sniper Rifle. On Lethal, the 20% extra damage for standing still perk, with either of the sniper rifles, does not change the time to kill on majoris weather you are facing Chaos or Nids. It takes the same number of shots to full kill, and the same number of shots to put into execute, with or without the perk. So if the perk is working then the only time you get any value at all is when facing Extremis or Terminus level enemies. So unless you really want that extra damage for Extremis/Terminus, you are significantly better off taking the extra ammo.

[@vineveer4358]

I really like the reload on gunstrike perk for the bolt carbine. I think it's the bolt carbine that has that.

[@keithn8852]

it is, it is just tricky to get to it without losing out on some damage buffs, I wish it was earlier in the tree because it would make this build even better. That all said, I have been using this build for a few days and I love it. I skipped the extra weapon spread at the top of the circle because you can then grab +10% damage at the end of the tree instead. I feel like it is already accurate enough and I personally don't often shoot from the hip with anything.

[@charlesmaclellan8124]

​@@keithn8852 What exactly is "Weapon Spread" Just hip fire?

[@keithn8852]

@@charlesmaclellan8124 yes so the circle that is the aim reticle when you are in hip fire, my understanding is that narrows so the bullets have less spread around. Makes hip fire end up in a smaller circle from my understanding.

[@ryanclough8967]

@@charlesmaclellan8124 When you fire weapons in space marine, you'll notice your aiming reticle is segmented, and the longer you hold the trigger down, the wider apart those segments bloom as you become less accurate due to recoil and the like. It's most noticeable with automatic weapons but does also apply to semi-auto if you quick fire them.

[@charlesmaclellan8124]

@@ryanclough8967 Copy that.

[@Nyadnar]

Been waiting for this playstyle to become viable. Took my sniper from 1-11 today using this build. Thanks!

[@Bkruska]

Super great video, thank you! I built a similar sniper. But so far I have chosen a ranged attack as the first attack after the invisibility cloak and thus selected "aimed shot" as a perk for 75% more damage. But I'll test "tactical ambush" It's definitely a change, as I've previously been skilled at "shoulder bash“on the combat knife.

[@austinhoff66]

I am very thankful for this build, not sure if I’m going to actually use it, as it doesn’t fit my playstyle with sniper, but if I get bored, I have a fantastic blueprint to build off of. Thanks as always for the great video!

[@kyleleon9301]

I’ve been really loving the carbine recently, for tactical it’s really fun to play as up close as possible, stomping, hitting as many gun strikes as you can to increase damage, and spraying down everything, would highly suggest it with the normal carbine

[@natemalec8373]

Same it's been awesome for breaking down hordes right when you start to get a bit overwhelmed. And gives you a minute to react or position.

[@CalAndAly]

At 13:12 the gaunt died next to the one you were actually aiming at. You def weren't anywhere near aiming at the one on the right -- so is this the thing people noticed that when you add a second penetration perk to the gun, it actually effectively acts like a bolter would in the lore, doing like a splash damage explosion to surrounding targets in all directions, rather than just who's behind him like a normal bullet would penetrate to? Would love to see a vid on this with you exploring it further

[@HarryVoyager]

Ok, just tried this with my tactical, and it was absolutely awesome. Literally, lvl 1 gun on a Substantial mission, and it was putting in the work. Highly recommend. :)

[@xephyrexe5246]

Sniper and Heavy are my least used classes, this build easily inspired me to play Sniper more.

[@nicolasgiglio7084]

BROTHERS!! After a perfect block you can aim to shoot a bit before doing a gun strike to maximize damage. Even if the enemy comes at you with an unblock-able attack, the gun strike will stun it. Or to make it more simple Block - melee attack - melee attack - gun strike - melee attack - melee attack - heavy melee - roll away

[@spysong1324]

This is pretty important when fighting ranged majoris in close range. Always weave in a few headshot after melee attacks or parries because ranged enemies have higher defense vs melee than vs ranged attacks.

[@Carnun009]

I love this build. It's like a Stealth Vanguard, just camo your way to Majoris and Shadowstab them. I don't know what I'm doing differently, but I often get them to executable after Shadowstab. I go all top row on the perks because of the wider range combo when you're surrounded by minoris.

[@EKk8819]

I use the same exact knife build, the shadow stab stun locks, you still have the dodge attack 2 piece and fencing of course! Best knife set up in the game! Combat Knife is my favorite melee weapon and this IS the best set up for it. Shoulder bash is good too, but you lose the regular dodge/running attack which is very good, with the shadow stab you don't lose anything and gain a charge attack!

[@jesserenobato7613]

So having experimented with the shadow stab since the beginning of the game I think it is absolutely true that now it is understood to be best used by quickly releasing it that is to say as soon as your sniper gets into position you release the Shadow stab ,NO CHARGE, it has powerful invincible frames and can knock back enemies and send minoris into executable or gunstrike states! The charge attack is just the icing on the cake and the stun lock actually destroys the hive tyrant! It is far and away better than the shoulder bash in my opinion

[@Epic_Badger69]

Bro, you dropped this build the day after I decided to do an smg sniper. Perfect! Thank you.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

If you’re going team recharge, I’d recommend full reload on stealth perk instead as you’ll be getting your ability back very quickly shooting into minors enemies, so a 30 round magazine can be significantly larger than appearances may suggests.

[@frankwieser478]

I just played a lvl 11 build and I was playing out of my mind. Hitting all parry’s spray and pray up close killing warriors left and right. The few games I was top. It was nuts. Best Iv played in a bit

[@poo55555]

The Carbine used to get real silly back when you were at 30% or under meant your abilities always trigger. I would get under 30% HP and just switch weapons and it would always reload my gun no matter if I have reserve ammo or not. Sniper was just a camo using Heavy with more mobility. I used to have my massive Dakka but it makes sense that it was removed, lol

[@Bigborian92783]

I do the exact same sniper build and combo with sniper when i want to change it up 😅. I found that both this bolt carbine smg and surprisingly the occulus bolt carbine both are amazing against chaos because of their fast contested health regen. I leveled my occulus bolt carbine on my vangaurd and played lethal fall of atreus and i was destroying chaos marines with it. You can literally stand in front of a chaos marine while he is shooting you and not lose health because the bolt carbines regenerate your contested health so quickly. i stood in front of a terminator while he was shooting his missle things and i was able to out dps it and not lose any health 😅.

[@feircy]

Ive been leveling occulus alongside the new pistol and was surprised at how good it felt yeah

[@feircy]

@@Scheckler27 he's talking about the contested (white) health

[@Bigborian92783]

​@@Scheckler27like the previous guy said. It's your contested health which with vangaurd you need to refill by doing damage because you're going to take damage especially since the armor goes down so quickly on lethal difficulty and you are going to get the minoris trying to chip you away.

[@Bigborian92783]

​@@Scheckler27like the previous guy said. It's your contested health which with vangaurd you need to refill by doing damage because you're going to take damage especially since the armor goes down so quickly on lethal difficulty and you are going to get the minoris trying to chip you away.

[@Scheckler27]

@@Bigborian92783 yes my vangaurd gets health from killing elites and up but I was asking about the carbines...How do they re-gen health?

[@RiftNinja]

the buff was actually more than 50%, within 10m the base damage was doubled from 1.5 to 3.0 damage

[@linkthesloth2867]

I've tried this but with the block knife and the invis dodge perk. I found out that I'm not good enough most the time but it is fun when it does work.

[@Prockski]

Why choose a block knife over fencing?

[@Dinawartotem]

​​@@Prockski@Prockski extra damage, and you rely on Dodge anyway to auto-cloak and then strike back after they break aggro. I use the block knife with shoulder bash and you can pretty much charge into a horde and never parry. Instead, you spam the shoulder bash and gun strike.

[@linkthesloth2867]

@@Dinawartotem i did do that until I tried the shadow stap and cloak melee combo to embrace my inner tf2 spy. It takes chunks out of bosses

[@MercTechBenny]

Really cool build! I’ve played the marksman version of the bolt carbine and liked it well enough, but this take is waaay different and looks like a lot of fun!

[@feircy]

I've been leveling up the occulus along with the neokite because why not and at least on average it hasn't felt terrible. I'm ruthless will knock it back down

[@socksleeve]

Nah, occulus still rips on substantial, even with a green tier gun. The recoil is so low you just drill headshots all day

[@coletam]

Brothers, if you already havent known this, unless they patch it, Shadow Strike on combat blade will perpetually stun lock everything to include the Hive Tyrant, except the Carnifex.

[@robvogl7178]

It’s not placebo, that thing takes heads like no other. Love this build been running it all weekend to shake up the gameplay. Only thing I do different is the ability to go into cloak with a dodge and I still prefer the shoulder bash.

[@TurboTwinky28]

using the occulus post buff, its definitely quite usable now. But I do wonder if vang's offensive playstyle would benefit much more with the normal bolt carbine

[@Robert-fr9wl]

Hey guys. Is the only way of adding content to this game is by making more operations and maps for pvp🤔???????????????????????????????

[@clementfortot545]

Most fun build as of now for me ❤

[@kevinstorie6179]

Reload on stealth feels great with that gun

[@The1wiysguy]

Try the tactical +25% damage on gun strike + scan on parry with this weapon. Fastest ttk. It’s actually insane. I’m missing executions because the enemies die too fast. The hip fire accuracy is really good too to mow down groups of minoris.

[@BanzaiWanderer]

I know the value of parry makes block melee weapons much worse than balance or fencing, but for a build like this where you are using the melee more for alpha strikes and not doing a lot of parrying, I wonder if you could get to the one-shot level with the blocking knife and rely on dodging more. Maybe with the sniper perk that puts you in camo with perfect dodge? Might be a fun way to play it - alpha strikes, dodging, and SMG to the face.

[@ArkhonXIX]

I would drop the hipfire spread reduction for the last 10% damage increase in relic. I’m so up close and personal already I don’t need the spread decrease

[@meonkrishnanan5920]

Can you imagine how the Astartes would view people who are only drawn to the easiest strategies?

[@lamquangtrien9549]

shadow stab make fighting the hellbrute easy, you can just stun lock it.

[@CalAndAly]

The dmr stalker is what I think they meant to give a scope to, not the trash vanguard carbine. Its weird though, bc when you scope in on the vanguard carbine, its all of a sudden waaaaay more accurate spread wise

[@charlesmaclellan8124]

3 Blood Ravens! Hah that's awesome.

[@Siisjoonperkele]

Thank you for always bringing top tier content🖤

[@Sinsofcarolina]

Thank you for saying Las Fusil like it’s not a French dish

[@Sargatas]

On tactical it's stupidly strong now. That's what I call "from zero to hero".

[@paulomarciosubtil2291]

i ve been playingthe occulus in the Vanguard lately and after the patch it is pretty viable....using the scope the damage increases

[@samfish2550]

I don't have enough xp on knife to test the hold still damage buff but it's a pretty sizable buff, a full charged knife stab with it may legit one shot majoris into exe. I'm not certain but it looks likely.

[@justincasebro1567]

Every vid that front loads data gets instant like and comment. Also, I wonder if you are on mouse and key or controller. I get the headshot lock on feel too but that it was the aim assist from controller.

[@jerondiovis6128]

One thing you don't mention is that for this playstyle you really want a vanguard teammate with the perk for ability recharge on execution. That's what keeps you cloak ready all the time, regardless whether you do headshots or not. Without it it's way, way less fun.

[@XcSADFACE]

Hey that’s me!!!

[@tay_paradox]

i dont think the headshots is placebo - i think its purely the higher fire rate gives more chances to gain a headshot trajectory considering spread

[@ZzVinniezZ]

bolt carbine would be great if they get the refund ammo based on how many rounds is hit to the enemy perk

[@DesOttsel]

How do you feel about the stalker. I feel like it functions way better on tactical

[@survivalevvariussteppin]

I’m literallyyy gunnna wait for next update asap

[@hewhocantBEstopped]

What’s next update?

[@Horusbonrea]

Did the oculus bolt carbine received the same upgrade?

[@Dcully]

Ive gone back to Darktide and vermintide2, SM2 was a fun distraction but it cannot compare long-term.

[@thethrongler3070]

nice vid

[@The-Grim-Reiver]

i wish we could change the colour of the hood and cloak!!

[@Scynn]

tried it, hated it, see it has potential, but my gameplay style does not mesh at all. I'll keep trying since it does get boring just clicking heads with the bolt sniper after a while.

[@RonanMathieson]

I hate usings the snipers, so I went to use the bolt carbine and it was broken. Instead of being rapid fire, it was single shot, went back to the armoury after the mission to make sure I chose the bolt carbine and it was still bugged, anyone else have this problem?

[@christopherstephens2699]

I've seen a fair number of snipers running a build like this who run as soon as even a single zoanthrope shows up. Carbine or not, you still have a mag dump primary and cloak. If you're leaving thropes for an assault to solo you're trash. I almost never see anyone playing this who actually understands what the sniper's role is, which is kind of sad. You should be killing the high threat shooty bastards. The venom cannon snipers, the barbed strangler warriors, the warp flamers, even the cultists who will chip your armor to nothing in seconds if they amass. You have the ability to pistol shoot a thrope a couple times to make it shield, cloak, go over to it's buddy and mag dump that giant floating head into oblivion while invisible as it's trying to bombard your team. It can be obscenely good for a team, yet most people who run it seem to be terrible players trying to overly rely on camo cloak just to survive.

[@greytging]

Anyone notice a difficulty spike on PVE the last 2 days? Had been regularly beating ruthless, now substantial feels harder than ruthless had been. I'm max level with fully maxed out weapons on 2 classes, and nearly maxed out on sniper too. This game is like a f'n rollercoaster in terms of difficulty, and its getting real annoying.

[@Bkruska]

Yes, i noticed that after the last patch with the new laser pistol. Difficulty 3 is like ruthless….

[@DesOttsel]

I just got up to substantial 5 days ago and I haven’t noticed any difference

[@Zergbit]

I noticed a sudden increase in extremis and above. One average run had 6 extremis and a hell brute. Looks like they screwed with the AI Director again. The spawn rate seems more aggressive.

[@DesOttsel]

@@Zergbit maybe you've been unlucky. I average 2-4 extremis on substantial

[@chetmanley1885]

AI director is being a dickhead again; substantial solo run, Inferno. Zoanthrope first wave (normal), second wave in the last part seemed to come early, a carnifex between the second and third and two Zoanthropes on the third wave.

[@Valou67Bave]

had a game with a player on the team with this build. he did 10k less dmg than the rest of the team. this wep is still ass

[@survivalevvariussteppin]

Heal button broken can’t heal and can’t move glitch

[@ВладиславБулаев-л3э]

69th like Nice

[@eddieadams354]

Hey bro is the game dieing some people bin so negative community saying the the developers aren't listening and thay now the negative community wunt the game to die

[@PrimitiveBeast]

The game is fine. Don’t listen to negative people for everything will be negative.

[@AJ-zu7ct]

Its okay for now, they are a lil slow on updates and if you’ve been playing from launch then you have most likley maxed out all classes/weapons. Wish they added more skins unlocked through lethal

[@loreofmetal5604]

The game is only getting better, don't listen to the people saying that it's too easy or whatever. They are trying to make more weapons viable which can only be a good thing.

[@spencerjeffers722]

I think people are way too critical of games nowadays. But the game is fine.

[@Phil_3491]

@@spencerjeffers722 Most AA(A) Games are shit nowadays, thats the issue. If something good is available people tend to get overly critical about some things in these games that can be fixed easily. SM2 has its issues but its far away from something deeply rooted in the engine/source code like it is in Veilguard, Starfield, etc.

[@thebiggestoneg7823]

It’s a shame you all are blood ravens 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@TomSp88]

Nah , I think that is the best part

[@thebiggestoneg7823]

@ oh no. It’s retarded

[@Nyadnar]

Been waiting for this playstyle to become viable. Took my sniper from 1-11 today using this build. Thanks!