[UPDATED] Melee Weapon Tier List - Bardin Goreksson

[@PapaJafari]

Damn son. I'd love to see these lists redone for each character. This is really informative and allows for really in-depth comparison.

[@WetMagic]

That’s my plan in doing this. Each character will receive an updated list done in a similar fashion to this one.

[@PapaJafari]

@@WetMagic legend

[@captainbarnark8709]

It makes me a little sad how the axe weapons are, for the most part, not great. I think axes look infinitely cooler, but I feel so much more effective with the hammers

[@pubcle]

The cog hammer has an axe on the side, it's what I usually stick with. I think the cog part looks kinda dumb honestly but it's nice to have the hammer + axe

[@WetMagic]

I think the axe weapons should receive linesman or heavy linesman modifiers so they can deal with more than just elites. They did it with the great axe and I think that weapon is infinitely better because of that decision.

[@nolanchap7092]

Great axe stacks bodies on iron breaker if you build for attack speed.

[@severintw]

@@WetMagic In your video on bots you recommended axe and shield for the Ironbreaker. Is that still the case or what do you recommend now?

[@JPG.01]

Just a little explanation on the attack modifiers "linesman" "heavy linesman" and "tank". These three are mass modifiers and affect different enemies differently. You will have to check in the bestiary how they do that. I'll use the clan rat and the Stermvermin as an example. The clan rat has a linesman modifier of 60% a heavy linesman modifier of 60% and a tank modifiert of 50%. That means an attack with a linesman modifiert would treat a clan rat as if had 60% it's normal mass(depending on difficulty, again you'll have to check the bestiary). An attack with the tank modifiert would treat a clan rat as if it only had half of it's mass. So effectively you can hit twice the amount of clan rats if your attack has a tank attribute. The Stormvermin does not have a linesman modifier, a heavy linesman modifier of 50% and a tank modifier of 50%. Same applies as above. I did not use the chaos warrior as an example because with him Fatshark is kind memeing on us. No linesman, 50% heavy linesman. 1000% tank. So if I understood it correctly, then a chaos warrior should stop any attack with a tank modifier dead in it's swing because his mass is multiplied by 10 for that attack. While a heavy linesman attack will cleave through easily because it multiplies his mass 0.5.

[@WetMagic]

Good to know. I will look more into these.

[@JPG.01]

@@WetMagic steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1816101198 Royale w/ Cheese has a very in debth guide here. I don't like stuff that goes so much in depth and starts to throw formulas at people. Kinda takes the game part out of "meta-game" and just makes it math. But with this subject matter it might be a necessary evil.

[@captainbarnark8709]

Thanks for this explanation! Super helpful

[@The_one_with_many_names]

I don't think you'll read this at all. but I'll still write. I did some experiments on the damage of the ax shield and the hammer shield. Combo 2 heavy on the ax and the shield work very well. All you need to do for him is to land the first light blow and then not miss the heavy ones. Mathematically, this rotation deals more than twice as much damage as the hammer and shield rotation. I didn't take into account the loading speed of the heavy attack in the calculations, but I don't think it would affect the result much. Chaos Warrior kill times are pretty similar on both weapons given my rotation misses, but the ax has a faster shield hit. What did I mean by this? It's entirely your choice which weapon to use. They both do their job well.

[@dinkleberg684]

This is a big step up from the old series. One suggestion I’d recommend is talking about which career goes best with each weapon as ones like the one handed hammer would work better for defensive rangers and engineers but not for the other play styles

[@WetMagic]

That’s a good idea. I’ll do that for sure.

[@catwave8310]

Since the patch there are a lot of changes that haven't been reflected in the armory mod yet. For example at 4:30 when you talk about the axe and shield, the correct stats would be to swap "Heavy attack 2" and "Heavy attack 3". The sideswipe with the axe following the shield bash is the attack that has 23.8 stagger and tank modifier. Its the follow-up overhead that has 22.5 armor damage and low cleave/stagger. I think it's also very important to discuss the geometry of the attack animation: eventhough the shield bash only has 4.48 cleave/stagger limit, it's attack pattern allows to hit all enemies in front at once so it effectively behaves like it had way more stagger than 4.48 and so even with that low of a cleave/stagger limit, that shield bash is a THP beast.

[@WetMagic]

Ok that’s good to know. I’ll make sure to double check for the next one.

[@dinkleberg684]

Funny how the tides have turned for the mace and shield. Went from being ranked the worst to the best, quite the underdog story

[@WetMagic]

Yep. Amazing what a few tweaks can yield.

[@Wastelander1337]

It’s a shame how much power creep affected dual axes I can never find reasons to run it over other weapons. Need hordeclear with decent armor damage? Pick dual hammers or coghammer. Need good armor damage with decent hordeclear? Pick 2h hammer or Coghammer. If I remember right, the main draw of the dual axes was the crazy damage you got on the push attack, and then they nerfed the push attack.

[@ProDeathblow]

Man, nothing keeps you alive better in this game than one handed hammer. Great for engineer since that's all you want from your melee weapon

[@biggussoupius9713]

I doubt anyone who's seriously used the 1 h hammer would put it as his worst weapon. Gaxe, 1 h axe, pickaxe and axe and shield are far less useful. 1 h hammer gives you good dodges, good stamina, the lights are good on horde clear as is the push attack and the heavy is great for armour and headshots. It benefits RV and OE the most but IB also can get good mileage though I don't think he needs what it offers. Its too defensive for Slayers purposes however. B tier. Minimum. But on RV and OE A tier bordering S tier. Tldr Its a lighter coghammer with more mobility and defence with a better push attack at the loss of the coghammers more spammy lights and higher damage but much slower heavy.

[@Mithguar]

You obviously never got proper miners rhythm with axe and shield. Push (not push stab) heavy1, heavy 2 repeat. No horde will get to you or your team and you can even stagger patrols. Just aim for the heads.

[@biggussoupius9713]

@@Mithguar Axe and shield is a weaker alternative to Hammer and shield. Hammer and shield rotates back to shield bash automatically after the second heavy attack. Generates way more THP too. 1 h hammer gives you more damage output and mobility with faster light staggers and better anti armour and lets you better alternate between fighting hordes and fighting armour. Would run hammer everytime over the axe and shield. And If I do ever use a shield, its the hammer and shield for borderline immortality.

[@danielsandul952]

Thank you for these kind of videos. They are very informative.

[@floofysheep7654]

Now this... does put a smile on my face.

[@kareluhlir8320]

I actualy realy like one handed Hammer on ranger veteran, that weapon deal very high stagger in short period of time, which means that you have almost permanent temp HP, only few push block attacks and your HP Is full. It also makes you very tanky when you have +stamina enchants on it...

[@Inigo_0]

yeah for real 1h hammer is for sure one of my favorites for RV

[@AbstractArchitectureEnthusiast]

Agree, 1h hammer is awesome.

[@gangatalishis]

Whats better than 1 hammer on ranger veteran? 2 hammers.

[@sholahverassa8582]

Used to pick it for my RV as well, but I've changed my build lately, so I decided to swap it for 2h axe. Still, I find 1h hammer a decent pick.

[@achicirno8523]

Also, don't forget 1h hammer has the fastest movement speed while blocking.

[@gabem.2795]

Been a while since I played Vermintide 2; good to see you're still going Wet :D Thanks also for this great video. So glad to be playing Bardin again and having fun with the Dual Hammers and Cog Hammer again. Weird seeing Ranger Vet and Mace/Shield at the top of list when they were previously middling to low.

[@WetMagic]

Thank you 😁 Yea if it’s been that long for you some things will seem really different, but in any case welcome back brotha.

[@zinstonehead]

I agree with almost everything except 1H Ax and 1H Hammer. I would put them higher than their double variants. Anyway, you made me happy with Hammer + Shield, I think it is the best weapon this dwarf has. :-)

[@flintlickteig4603]

One thing that isnt taken into account for most of this ranking chart (and something that typically really matters to me) is attack pattern. For example a weapons ability to naturally swing at enemy heads. The pickaxe is slow for example, but it always swings overhead so when swaying back and forth, i always have headshots rolling in. It also makes a difference since Bardin naturally likes the swing at kneecaps for obvious reasons. My personal chart would look different due to those factors

[@littlegoblin2667]

I Personally really like the pickaxe, the heavy animation is really satisfying, and i just love running around as a dwarf with a pickaxe instead of an actual weapon.

[@bossmanjan2521]

I don't think it should be any higher or lower on the list, but I've gotten good use out of my 1H axe with any careers, but mostly from RV and IB. I think the dps is solid and the cleave isn't great but is surprisingly ok. Push if you're feeling crowded, and just wail on elites. It's not a meta weapon or anything, just a lil hidden gem for me.

[@zinstonehead]

Yeah, 1H Axe is great. I use it even with Saltz. :-D

[@ediblemussel532]

I was waiting for the updated tierlists.

[@WetMagic]

I was getting so many requests for them that I couldn’t put it off any longer 😆

[@pushrod3022]

Love the vids and love the explanations. They’ve helped me out considerably, thanks man!

[@WetMagic]

Hey no problem. That’s what I’m all about here.

[@thefiend8380]

I feel like axe and shield on iron breaker is definitely an unbreakable combo. I rarely use heals, rarely go down with a stagger build, which allows my teammates to melt everything bc I stun lock everything. It has low damage but the utility on iron breaker is undeniable. Doing damage as an iron breaker outside his troll hammer torpedo defeats the purpose of the tank class anyways.

[@claudealpha2090]

Axe and Shield should still be B tier, C is too low. Don't forget its attack sequences got sped up in the BBB and its bash comes out faster than the hammer and shield's bash.

[@Banor]

As a slayer the heavy charged pick attack with another 2h weapon that handles mobs (great axe) does wonders. I never liked the cog hammer because I tend to use melee being defensive as engineer but I will try to use the cog with slayer and see what madness I can achieve there

[@torm0]

Iron breaker is alot of fun with the cog hammer. You can afford to be less defensive. Go for the power based talents and smiter and you can decimate all types of enemy. There's a good cog hammer / trollhammer torpedo build on this channel.

[@WetMagic]

Yea I think slayer would be the only class I would ever seriously use the war pick on.

[@torm0]

@@WetMagic I use war pick with the great hammer for slayer but I'm wondering if war pick / great axe is a better pairing due to better horde clear, what do you think?

[@Banor]

I found if I had 2 x 20% crit power I could 1 shot headshot chaos warriors running slayer and war pick if I critted

[@Banor]

@@torm0 great hammer used to be the best but the cleave is better on great axe so it's a better horde clearer I find

[@michaelyencha1068]

This was really helpful. I would love to see a similar video for Kruber.

[@WetMagic]

Definitely 👍

[@EddyZorn]

Could you please do an updated version for this for all the players that have come in now that Vermintide is free?

[@gadereel2]

tbh I thought this game has more creators doing videos but is disappointing to see all guides and stuff being 1 or 2 years outdated. x(

[@jeremytan739]

@@gadereel2there has been no major weapom changes for the last few years

[@CComrade]

Call me crazy, but I actually really like axe and shield on my IB. Started using the hammer and shield on my ranger vet, but for IB, I just really enjoy the certainty that is every attack hurting armor. I dunno, maybe I'll appreciate the H&S more as I get better at combos, but az and shield been doing me good.

[@WetMagic]

I feel that. Axe and shield is like old faithful for me. Even though its not meta I still love it as well.

[@Zbeads712]

I got the dual hammers on your reccomendation and I'm thoroughly enjoying them 👌

[@Sonarchyy]

I hate how hard the dual axes have been shafted, i love using them on my slayer as they truly give off that dwarven berserker feel but i constantly feel like im shooting myself in the foot with em

[@miguelmialichi6367]

Tbh i always saw these tier lists more as a "higher difficulty tier list" In easier difficulties like recruit you can just use anything and be good

[@Mithguar]

You armoury stats don't tell the whole story about the weapon. Swing pattern and reach are 2 very important factors. 2h Axe is terrible in hordes because it's reach is terrible and push really weak. 2h Hammer has better reach on charged attacks and can actually keep enemies at bay when charging rats in thick horde will bleed through when using 2h axe. Also, 2h heavy attacks high cleave stat is pointless since these are overhead swings. 1h Axe and Shield are still great weapons because of amazing animations for shield slam followed by horizontal swing (heavy 1 and 2) regardless of difficulty. It can push through anything. It doesn't kill super fast but it kills consistently and works well even in confined spaces. 1h hammer and shield is way worse because of move set. It's not good against armour and if you have armour in horde you are fucked.

[@wsmiles8677]

Love the War Pick. Elites run at the sight of it.

[@knowledgespreader353]

Out of the s tier ones, which one is the best. Also any ranged tier list for bardin?

[@WetMagic]

It depends what you wanna do. cog is offensive, hammer and shield is defensive, dual hammers is in between on both. all are great. i’ll probably do a ranged list at some point.

[@paulgallagher5889]

Great video! Just getting back into V2 on PC from the XBox version and this is a huge help. My big question, what is the difference of Light and Heavy attacks? Like Light 1,2,3? Is that just the different directions? What about Heavy 1,2 etc vs Heavy charged? Keep up the good work, looking forward to the other characters lists!

[@WetMagic]

So on pc light attacks would be clicking a single time resulting in usually 2-4 attacks. Heavy attacks also known as charged attacks are when you hold down the mouse button. These attacks are usually slower but deal more damage. Whereas lights are faster but do less. Not always, but usually.

[@paulgallagher5889]

@@WetMagic I kind of figured but wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything in the transition. I still use a controller cause I'm way bad at keyboard and mouse these days. Thanks!

[@twixtwix2915]

One h hammer does shine in cc. It has a fuck ton of stagger so you just push into the horde then start going hame with light attacks. How ever it is very bad against armor but that’s what you have masterwork pistol for.

[@lerenardroux]

WHEN Are you going to do a tier list for his ranged weapons?

[@WetMagic]

dunno yet, but it'll happen.

[@Lancelot2000Lps]

1 handed hammer is s tier or a tier for all dwarf classes is gives so much and lacks nothing!!!

[@justaturtle4130]

Id pretty much agree with this list besides 1h hammer, since there is absolutely no way that its worse than warpick, 1h axe, axe and shield, and greataxe. Like wtf???????

[@szerasthenecron2026]

I love the video but I have a question does vermintide 2 has a large player base

[@WetMagic]

The player base is not that big unfortunately. However the community is extremely dedicated for the most part. To put this into perspective, Warframe’s discord has about 123k members currently while V2’s Discord has roughly 17k. This hopefully gives you an idea of the difference.

[@captainbarnark8709]

It’s not a big playerbase, but it’s also not really that small. I usually can find a full lobby at anytime of the day, or if I start a level alone, it’s usually full by the end

[@nolanchap7092]

Salty zealot boy next if this is going to be a series.

[@davidkolacny6673]

Is it only my feeling or axe weapons do more dmg to "flesh" than hammers?

[@phierle1061]

well yeah, axes would deal more damage to flesh since they chop and rend it, while hammers would bludgeon and crush which would be more effective against armor than flesh

[@lMarcusl]

I think this is looking way too much at the numbers and way too little at the practicality. Ranking the Greataxe above the War Pick seems crazy to me. Yes, the numbers on the Greataxe look way better than the War Pick. Incredible damage, high damage against armor, faster too. What the numbers don't say is the angle of those attacks. Yeah the axe does a ton of damage. To one target. Its initial light attacks are completely vertical. If a horde's coming, the greataxe won't do shit unless your spamming heavy attacks. And again, while the heavy attacks look fast on paper, they're not fast in practice because you need to hold down the attack button to execute heavy attacks. Your input on getting that horde clear will be much slower, effectivelly negating the high attack speed advantage. Meanwhile, the War Pick attacks horizontal on its light hits. So yeah, they're weaker. Who cares when they're hitting 5x more targets than the axe is?

[@Spiror]

Cog hammer is a monster…….just spam light attacks and kite and you kill everything……with slayer you can spam ulti all the time and obliterate hordes or monsters even…… i tested many times with the tech tree chosen

[@Ulfhednir9]

Trollhammer is always tops :D

[@TheAtaru17]

I'm gonna try and get in quick and ask for the updated list for the melee power house that is Markus Kruber next 🤤

[@WetMagic]

Can do 👍

[@severintw]

Which one is good for an Ironbreaker bot now?

[@noobgayfer9041]

So does +%Crit increase crit damage or crit chance?

[@EndohFr]

Crit chance.

[@WetMagic]

It’s crit chance. I just misspoke that one time. Sorry.

[@noobgayfer9041]

Got it, thank you guys for the answers

[@TheZhadd169]

My man 👊 main Bardin since VM1. Your builds and breakdowns are awesome. Cleared Chaos Waste last night on Legend and looking to push into Cata playthrough now. If I main Ranger vet, what would you recommend for weapons? I rock the Cog and Masterwork Pistol. Is the hammer and shield a better choice?

[@WetMagic]

Cog is always solid. Hammer and shield is a safer choice if you don’t mind doing less melee damage. Dual hammers are also not bad on him. Any of those would be nice.

[@one7decimal2eight]

1 handed hammer is D tier? Lots of dudes I play with on cataclysm use this weapon, especially on ranger. Even cata3 deathwish onslaught I see players using this weapon.

[@rhythmmmmm.]

This tier list is so unrevealing tbh. Great axe + cog hammer on slayer for example is absolutely S-tier, but great axe on like, IB or something right, sucks. Or axe/shield on ranger vet is pretty worthless, but on a premade team with an ironbreaker it's the only thing me and my buddies run while I play shade and just backstab everything while my friend blocks for days... I think each career deserves its own tier list for bardin's weapons because they perform drastically different depending on the career.

[@WetMagic]

The point of this list was to compare weapons against each other while going over various changes that were made. I’ve already done tier lists that were class specific and for the most part I don’t think I’d change those older videos a whole lot. Now I have received some feedback and I will be including what classes do well with certain weapons going forward. That being said the weapons people like are going to vary alot. For instance I would disagree with you that the great axe would belong in the s tier column even on slayer. I would also disagree with your take on the axe and shield currently. So what you see as being unrevealing is honestly just a different opinion.

[@rhythmmmmm.]

@@WetMagic What you day is fair but it doesn't address what my point really was- Bardin in particular has a lot of weapons and with few exceptions all of them can do reasonably well with only a few standouts that work everywhere. For the most part though, like you said, it's an opinion and specific to the class and player. I just don't think tier lists like these mean a whole lot

[@VChong1991]

I went hammer and shield for tank build, but i find that i shield bash more than using the hammer 😵‍💫

[@zacharywiggans1763]

Did they remove the dual hammers? I have a lvl 35 Bardin and havent seen them once

[@MrBruceHerrera]

Must beat all Back to Ubershreik missions first

[@Alex.af.Nordheim]

one handed hammer is good if the dual version of it doesn't exist

[@RenzorTheRed]

So Tank is like cleave for armored targets?

[@PapaCritical]

yes, tank modifiers on weapon attacks will give them alot more cleave for pretty much every unit in-game, except for chaos warriors and maulers. everything else will see their mass reduced by attacks with a tank modifier, which essentialy means that attack will cleave more enemies

[@nolan5189]

Hammer on ib is really good tho

[@Crizzly122]

Why would you not want the shield tho

[@WetMagic]

It comes down to how you define good I suppose. The undeniable fact of the matter is that this weapon is the most awkward to use of any on this list. That combined with low damage I would argue doesn’t make it good on anyone.

[@yngveerlandsen5319]

I usually play ranger with the 1h hammer when I use the grudgeraker. The reason is, I want a mostly defensive weapon with good dodge that can stagger well (so others can kill them and I can go back to shooting, pow pow 😉)

[@andrewc.4279]

It also has annoying light combo animation when you sometimes get hit in-between windups even if you're strafing

[@KingFatty11]

Can you do an updated list for Kruber?

[@ShiniestMeatManKrieg]

Someone already said it but I prefer when you talk about weapons for the classes much like the party knife. One handed hammer isnt bad for ranger vet where you are more ranged and defensive. Pickaxe is decent on slayer but not anyone else. When lumping all the weapons together, you make people think they shouldnt use those weapons in general, even though they can be decent depending on the class

[@WetMagic]

This is fair. I will attempt to include different classes for the next one.

[@CrusaderJackaran]

My reaction to your list. (Great Axe = B tier) - ???? WTF? (Dual Axes = A tier) - ?!?!?! WTF?! (Great Hammer = A tier) = Reasonable. (Pickaxe = C Tier but, Cog hammer = S tier) = WTF?!?!?!? (Hammer + Shield = S tier) = Do you even play VT2? My List. S Tier = Dual hammers, Greataxe, Pickaxe, Cog Hammer A Tier = Axe + Shield, Great Hammer B Tier = 1h axe C Tier = Dual axes D Tier = Hammer + Shield, 1h hammer Old shields were really good, but since the last weapons update (over a year ago)...Hammer and Shield is useless and garbage. Axe and Shield are top notch for tanking weak for DPS. If you're an Engineer who needs more survival, the Axe + Shield is your best choice.

[@sholahverassa8582]

Just an opinion here, but I don't realy feel that it was a good idea to put all Dwarf classes in one bucket for a weapon review. For instance, RV and Slayer can get bonus attack speed and damage, Engi is fairly swuishy and range-oriented and IB, admit it, looks simply awesome with a shield xD Jokes aside, class bonuses an detriments can affect the weapon choice. For instance, 1h axe is indeed underwhelming as an only melee weapon, but I prefer it on my Slayer as a secondary when I rock the 1h build. Cheap and cheerful anti-armour option, and I have dual hammers for everything else.