Very much disagree on Eviscerator - Yes it has chain special attack that locks you into a small animation, it does however also lock the things you are hitting in the same stun animation, which means a good few seconds of even Crushers getting stunned and their heads opened for others to bang on. You think the push - heavy combo is good for horde clear, try charging the special and using the push attack with it, it will shred everything in front of you. Heavy attacks also have very high cleave and stunlock elites and specials which is super nice to have when a horde comes in and Maulers or something else is in the ranks, you can shred through them. Absolutely A minimum but I'd risk S tier too, the MArk 5 axe and this go really nicely hand in hand.
Agree. To rank the eviscerator that low, coupled with his description of how he uses it, makes me think he doesn't understand how to use it optimally, or what the best attack patterns actually are. I absolutely shred my way through damnation with the eviscerator + bolt gun or flamer.
the combat knife can definitely deal with hords, its light attacks easily cleave through multiple enemies, just aim for heads and sweep your camera to increase its attack arc. It takes a few hits but it attacks so fast it doesnt really matter. Also shreader with cleave perks is insane, ive never had it get stuck, dont really need to use its rev skill.
Not to mention you can weave in pushes with the autos so you constantly stagger anything that would hit you. Yeah, top tier horde weapon, I'd take it if I didn't always run flamer as my gun.
@@Specopleader yes, sweeping the camera does extend the swing in these games! Specially with the slower wide arc attacks you can almost hit in 270 degress in front of you if you time it right.
The Thunder Hammer at times gave me a lot more utility in horde clearing and even helped me clutch games on tight maps like Hab Dreyko and Hourglass. The animation lock for me isn’t much of an issues since using Chastis the Wicked would often stun stagger nearby enemies so you can get a powered swing on a Crusher or Bulwark in tight horde. You can even one-shot a mutant in its mid charge to save a teammate. But I agree with your tier list, it isn’t great due to the animation lock so hoping they can add new blessings for it or just fix it. Still I would rank it higher than the Crusher just got it’s Heavy being very versatile in horde clearing and creating space for veteran and psyker.
Agreed. I think its more of a B tier. Personally I find it to be the most comfortable cc weapon for the zealot. Its comical taking so many enemies of their feet
@@emcdavee best CC weapon is the 2H crusher. I’ve seen a zealot who clutched a horde with it and ending up rescuing us. The hammer can CC but not as good as the crusher. But if you roll for a god tier hammer with impact and power bonus blessing, it is pretty broken with interruptible feat. Still, I would use combat axe or blade if the map is too open like raid Hourglass or Chasm just for mobility.
there is nothing to fix with the thunder hammer... it already has the highest single target dps... it needs to be balanced... that is what the animation lock is for...
i have to heavily disagree with you on your placement of the tac axe (especially ranking them all in the same place), the chainsword, the eviscerator and the crusher. the MkIV tac axe belongs where you place it (maybe even C tier), as its lights really don't have the dps for horde clearing and its heavies are directly vertical. The MKVII is better, and belongs in A where the knife is (tho i think the knife should be lower, a weapon that needs to rely on the most broken ranged weapon in the game, flamer, to not be useless against any group of enemies isn't good). it has faster light attacks than the IV, two of which are diagonal, and thus maintains your damage resistance best when killing hordes, having its first heavy be diagonal is good too. However the MKII is the best, fully diagonal, extremely quick heavies make it slightly better than the antax mkV for horde clear (the antax does less damage on targets after the first, which both kill) and lets it kill non-ogryn elites faster than the antax. it's worse against ogryns but that's what a boltgun is for, and to make up for that you're able to easily utilise crit synergies which are really strong for zealot. IMO MKII goes in S tier, MKVII in A tier, MKIV in B or C tier. The chainsword i think you've missed how its best used. The chainsword is the chain-family crit weapon. Put shred and savage sweep on it (devastating strike messes with the weapon special) and it's a crit synergy weapon that can kill everything efficiently. It however has unfortunately awful attack paths and combo routes so i wouldn't put it higher than B. Also the chainsword doesn't have the worst pushattack in the game, Thunder hammer does (srsly why is it effectively just a horizontal light swing? it's garbage) something i think you've missed with chain weapons in general when used with zealot is that they have special synergy with his ability that massively increases their damage output. If you hit F then do a special heavy the dps is pretty matchable with other weapons, however if you do the special heavy then hit F once it's started grinding you get a MASSIVE damage increase, this allows eviscerators to have DPS on par with or even better than the thunder hammer against ogryns and bosses. Finally the crusher. i think you're concentrating too much on the special spam people do, which is fair considering how many people use that and nothing else, but the regular light spam or light-> heavy chains are very serviceable against hordes, definitely dealing more DPS than a thunder hammer and are WAY less interruptable. Also, what's the deal with you taking points off the thunder hammer and chain weapons for having animation commitments while they do their single target thing, but then ignoring the fact the crusher can single target anything bar monstrosities effectively WHILE CCing everything around you? that's a huge advantage, especially considering the quantity of mass elite mobs in higher difficulties.
the knife is the best weapon without a doubt if you have a well rolled one, with +4 bleed on crit and shred with 360-380 base, it breaks the game, what it allows you to do is stupid and needs to be nerfed, you do ungodly damage and never die, granted damnation is a joke, but still i would never use anything else. once full crafting is in the game, it will expose how stupidly broken giga rolled weapons are, its obnoxious.
@@Dalkoragaming All good! really appreciate the content, picking the right lasgun totally turned around my heretic+ veteran gameplay. just wanted to give back a bit :)
I very much think that the eviscerator is rated too low. The key with this weapon is to reset your swings with block. You can easily slide it charge in rev it and do a wide sweep attack demolishing hordes. Two sweeps and block. It also has an amazing block push attack that cuts right at head height for mobs. It's versatile in that you can take on both armoured enemies and chaff, you just need to know how to use it as it's far less forgiving than a knife build.
I've been following your vids Dalkora, excellent points with reasoning behind. Zealot has become my best character because he's Doomguy on berserk, rip and tear. I've been switching between antax 5, tac axe and dagger lately, all with good results. Crusher and thunder hammer, well they're often insta kill, but take a long time to prepare, and I take damage during these seconds. While axes clobber them so quickly that they barely get to respond. It's just unfortunate that getting a good weapon needs plenty of grind and luck, and then the shop gives my psyker a better MG12 than my vet has, and a better axe than the zealot's...
Imo Mark 7 Heavy Sword (the one with the forward tilting wing guard) is the better horde clearer than the 9, as all of its light attacks are horizontal swipes and also its heavy 1. (In contrast to Mark 9's swipe on heavy 2) Having swipe on heavy 1 instead of 2 has the advantage of: 1. Heavy swipe does not get reset to overhead by sprinting; 2. Can immediately start a heavy swipe after parrying/pushing; 3. Can start combo in ANY order (2 light 1 heavy for fast crowd control, heavy light loop for high alpha damage, special into heavy and light to stagger rager/mauler in a horde, etc.) and have great cleave. And if you want high single target damage you can alternate between push thrust chaining into heavy 2 overhead.
Just lock on to the furthest out enemy crusher/bulwark with the eviserator and use the enemy's large mass to block all the rest behind it. Then keep dancing and select the one furthest out of the horde. For ragers trigger all their 4-attack animations, dodge out, then lock on to the one furthest out too. For risky situations, switch to just the heavy attacks. That's how I use my eviserator in every damnation game, and getting quite good at it, lol. The special is a situational use to exploit certain situations, not something to be used in all situations. So it's not a disadvantage at all if you use it selectively.
I've found the activate ability is really nice for dogs too. Rev up, light attack to clip dog as they run by, and now that the animation locked, it's dead.
Crusher goes hard even on a bad roll. I tend to only use the activate when I'm overwhelmed or trolling elites/ specialists. I think crusher is easily a low A tier with the right feats and bonus vs carapace. I consistently kill crushers and shit on hazard 4 fairly quickly with a decent damage roll and that carapace multiplier.
I love the tactical axe mk IV. If you have shred and brutal momento on it, it becomes a wave clearing crit monster. doing a heavy light (in that order and keep doing that) makes it into a real fast cleave hit that will melt hordes and elites a like. For me mk IV Tac axe with shred and brutal momento is s
Imho Evisc is A or higher. If you get stuck just duck&slide out. You're tetheted but can still slide and duck attacks and enemies tend to pause if they run into a slide. Also you can do the opposide and stick on more than one opponent when you've revved it. At least vs poxwalkers. And it's the very act of revving and getting the sword stuck in that wrenches and produces that massive cleave that can cut even armored ogryns in half right through the waist. Also my experience with the S ranked axe is that it's good 1 vs 1 but it doesn't go through multiple opponents like the Evisc. Maybe it does with the right blessings?
Thunder hammer has great horde clear with it's heavy attacks and 1 or 2 taps most trash mobs. I admit it's not the best weapon, but it's a lot of fun and my standard go to. It's also my insurance policy against demon hosts for when someone inevitably wakes it up.
It has great horde control, not great horde clear. You can be there for several minutes swinging away just to actually kill a group of 20-30 walkers. Literally any other melee weapon will kill them faster.
I'm using a m9 heavy sword with t3 savage swing. 175% cleave dmg. With headhunter 10% power stacks 5 times. Omg when u get rolling u walk threw hordes.
List looks good. though, I have to strongly disagree on the regular chainsword if you get one with shred and devastating strike it will crit on par to the tactical axes (if not better) you basically have infinite cleave and you can run the bleed build. also the stun on flak armor is very good with regular chainsword so you can stunlock hoards of flak armor no problem as long as you have your devastating strike proc.
Kinda disagree, the Rashad MkII CA certainly is no F as it packs quite a punch in general and is well suited to deal with armored enemies. Contrary i don't see why one put up cleave weapons that high up on a zealot. Eviscerators is one thing..... but those swords? Don't see why i would pick one up when we have access to the flamer. But, to each their own.
The Mark XII Heavy sword is an incredibly versitile sword, but it has a little more learning curve than other weapons. My combos: - special attack, light/heavy attack is a good way to kill single targets and can also be used against tightly packed groups (such as through a doorway). You can also use this to spam against a horde that includes more armored enemies since these attacks won't get blocked or interrupted. - heavy attack, light attack (spam this for clearing hordes) - block counter spam is great for sniping heads on elites, mutants or ragers. - block counter, heavy attack (verticle strike) is a good finisher - block counter, double tap light attack, heavy attack is to do horizontal slashes instead of vertical. This is a good defensive way to start your horde clearing spam of horizontal slashes. - slide, special (this is great as an initial hit and it allows you to be offensive while moving). The way you do this is actualy by doing the special first and then sliding. This requires a bit of practice to get used to. - slide, heavy attack (Great for an initial hit as well, but is more delayed) - when you want to use the special ability, you can do the heavy hit upward or just do an initial light attack to alternate to the heavy attack vertical slash. The upward heavy hit is also decent at aiming for heads. - block push is OP since it knocks down the lighter enemies. I put this sword at S tier because it has a lot of useful movesets for different scenarios. It's incredibly good at clearing hordes so you won't need a flamer. It's also decent at single targets. I'd pair it with a shotgun, heavy laspistol, or the bolter. The flamer is obviously a good weapon to pair it with too, but is kind of OP. The shotgun and bolter are better to handle elites although the shotgun is not so good against crushers. If you're handling a lone crusher or rager, block counter to head snipe them will kill them fast. I've had the most success on damnation with the laspistol, which I think is a little OP, but the other weapons kill armored enemies better too.
The ability of the Thunder Hammer to stunlock groups of enemies with heavy sweeps AND stunlock stronger enemies makes it better at higher difficulties, where you are more concerned with keeping things from hurting your team than killing them outright.
I love MKII Combat Axe. It has a really simple one-two heavy swing, and the heavy swing is extremely fast. There is also hardly any slowdown when you're releasing the heavy swing, so you can stay extremely mobile while swinging widely left and right. You can do pretty much anything with the heavy swing combo. Give it Shred and Brutal Momentum and you have a monster of an axe that crits every other swing.
I agree with all this tierlist. I would've just put the devil claw ans evicerator in A. I agree also with the combat axe MkV being the best. I got one with the right blessings and perks and it destroys anything. Feels a little bit overpowered compared to the rest actually...
Imho the CC on the Crusher is amazing and makes runs so much smoother than the usual group setups were everybody just runs highest dps/single target and then struggle with hordes/any kind of overwhelming situation, which I've seen way too often in random groups. In those situation the maul is just a big "pause" button when shit hits the fan, while other weapons would require you to kite the horde, the maul just stops the horde, allowing you and your group to hold the ground, no matter what the AI director throws at you. If you position yourself the right way you can compress whole hordes into a tight little ball, quickly building up stacks of Punishment until max to cleave trough all the enemies, while keeping them stunlocked. Extra nice; On the Zealot the light attack is a horizontal strike, while on the Ogryn maul the heavy attack is the horizontal strike. So the Zealot can charge spam it at hordes that much faster.
Its all up to taste really. If you really like the weapon you can make it work even if its not meta. Eviscerator is my top pick, the s tier axe is probably really good but I found it extremely boring to play with and only tried it once. To standard of a moveset in my eyes. But whatever floats each ones boat.
I too prefer the Evisc. It's misunderstood and should be S rank imho. I tried all other weapons but I prefer it. Once you get the sidestep & hold and release button for heavy swing, sidestep & hold and release opposite side heavy swing tempo going it mows hordes.
Evicerator on B... I almost closed the damn video. Are you using it right? I mean it has fantastic wave clear with the heavys + push/attack combo that you can do infinitely that absolutely shreds a horde, you can activate+normal to lock or kill instantly a berserker (btw once you hit that chainsaw effect I believe you can still move around and still do the full DMG for safety), does decent damage on carapace or at the very least lock them down. It just does way too many good things to send it on B tier.
You can't kill hordes with movement speed ;) It's a great weapon and I've used the combat dagger for possibly a hundred games, but it's comperativly low dps really gets to you after a while on damnation. Also, the combat axe has surprisingly high mobility too, increased sprint speed, dodge distance etc, it's no where near as hefty as it looks!
@@Dalkoragaming Try out a Mercy Killer + Uncanny Strike combat blade and aim for heads with leaping heavy attacks. Easy S tier, esp with a Roulette+Trickshooter Revolver. With Lacerate I agree CB only A (probably B imo) tier. Also the fact you mention shred makes me doubt your information. It's listed on wikis as possible for CB, but isn't actually in game afaik.
I could possibly quibble a bit over some of the placements here, taxes vs knives for example, but it's overall quite decent tiering. However, respectfully, as you have a very good idea of what you're talking about tbh, I believe you have entirely missed the mark on the chain sword. Def imo not an F tier weapon when played to it's strengths on a crit build combining shred with perfect strike to reliably proc CDR from level 5 and CAR from level 30 (the ability cool down on this is remarkable compared to the knife when facing a horde, as is it's actual ability to deal with said horde). Using a few lightning quick lights and then chaining beautiful horizontal heavies just melts hordes like I couldn't believe until I tried it myself while maintaining a high degree of mobility with +4 stam and 5 dodges. The rev is particularly quick compared to the evisc and is ideally really only reserved for specials and crushers
i'm not sold on CAR, as hordes aren't typically the time i need more than 1 F the most. gapclosing on ranged enemies and dealing with elites you'll always want a 2nd ability usage more than just blending a horde, so i never switch off the 2 charges feat.
@@nickq8093 that's fair enough, I actually almost always run the 2x ability feat, but when every hit on each individual enemy in one cleaving attack counts towards it, as well as regular crits on individuals, it's much more compelling
@@blakemorris2753 agreed, but after testing it myself i always found that i ended up being able to use my F more with the 2 charge one than with the refund on crit one, just cos i don't spam charges into hordes when i don't need to.
@@nickq8093 thinking about it, I think I'm going to try doing a curio CAR load out with the 2x ability feat as sort of a middle ground solution, I haven't rolled many good CAR curio but I think something in the range of 10-12 reduction might be a nice edge for my general play style. It wouldn't have the maximal potential of crit based CAR obv, but there have def been times in the game where it would be nice to be able to proc my CTW just a bit sooner and over the course of a mission might add up to several extra uses to expend as needed
Isn't that axe S tier only because of Brutal momentum? If you include builds and blessings, some weapons turn to easy S tier. Take Curtian Roulette on Autoguns. It turns Chain sword into S tier with Devastating strike (ignore hit mass on crit). It works even better then axe because of better move set. You also get great mobility and reap through damnation like it's nothing.
How is the chainsword damage wise? Better than Antax? I've been using Antax Bm+headtaker, Revolver Crucian+Trickshooter. I just tear through damnation, I wonder how it compares with chainsword with the same Revolver blessings build.
Mk II and Mk V Combat Axes have the same move set. Mk II is very bugged when it comes to registering headshots atm. Mk V gets Cleave and Mk II gets Finesse (Attack Speed).
So I like your basic points about these weapons but I think you missed a critical point for ALL weapons on the zealot (and probably will for the ogryn). Toughness regen via Momentum. Some weapons have the blessing but most don't. The antax V is my go to melee BUT it lacks it and you notice it on the zealot. The eviscerator has it. The eviscerator has a move set with a head high cleaves (and cleave blessings too). The antax V lacks momentum (but has brutal momentum) so it loses a tier. The eviscerator has momentum (and a good move set) so it gains a tier. I also wonder if the Eviscerator has some s around the lockon? I dont take the damage I think I should around it.
I would only argue against 2 of the tact axe. Firstly do NOT use light attacks on these 2 axes. Mk8 > use push attack to heavy > repeat. This clears horde, armored, whatever. I would put this below combat blade. Mk2 > the best tact axe. I would rate this ABOVE combat blade. Use heavy heavy combo and add push attack where needed. This combo can kill everything and does it BETTER than mk5 combat axe due to the swing speed. And for damnation, 2 headshot (heavies for mk2 are diagonals already so east headahot) kills every non specialist mob in the game. You don't need to bother with breakpoints. Just take crit or against carapace/flak. Mk2 tact has higher dodge distance than mk5 combat which helps with escaping (replaces sprinting). It has much much higher attack speed than mk5 combat for much more safety when attacking. If you "drag" your heavy attack with a dodge, you attack wayyyyy more enemies. The only downside is these 2 weapons NEED brutal momentum. Well dont take my opinion at face value. I posted 2 videos on horde control. There's one for each and especially for mk2, you can see it works extremely well for veteran (slower attack speed, longer stam recharge delay), so it will work perfectly for zealot. ruclips.net/video/2j5EggbXRRA/видео.html Lastly, CC has a place (referring to crusher). Every single melee weapon cannot deal with crusher + bulwark + rager + horde (common in heresy+). ONLY the crusher with the charge light charge light spam can handle all of them with EASE. this it why I love this weapon for pubs. People freak out from bulwark + crusher. I just go forward and CC the hell out of them. Otherwise good list.
You have to get into a really practiced rhythm with your eviscerator. It’s an S rank weapon IF you can get the momentum and the dance down. Push, power1, power 2, dodge back, charge up, power 1, push+attack. You can keep a horde in place or move it to a better position. Go heavy on damage tho and get 1 blessing for unarmed opps, 1 for crit and 1 for flak
I do love this meme tier list, but I think you should make a genuine one. Chainsword F-tier when it has very good damage decay values on cleave, literally deals more damage to second flak units on cleave, 2 shots scab shooters with lights, and is an all-around workhorse weapon. Meanwhile, Knife, a worse version of the chainsword which plays selfishly and costs your team runs is A. 10/10. Anyway, I'm going back to spamming High-Intensity Damnation with Chainsword and carrying the occasional knife Zealot that stumbles in from Heresy.
Knife can't deal with hordes? Are you kidding? This what I take for hordes even not on zealot. It's kill them superfast, but fast enough, as hit speed is insane, and meanwhile you dodge around like a fly avoiding their hits. It's awesome.
In comparison to something like the MK5 or Heavy swords it's not even on the same planet for horde clearing. It can deal with hordes it's just much slower than other choices on the list.
as someone who's started and mains vet who usually runs a power sword, i've really liked the mk 2 thunder hammer. with thrust 2, iirc, i can one-shot crushers with a powered heavy, or stun them with a powered light. that's only on heresy tho, i haven't had time to get properly sweaty yet.
I have a mk vi heavy sword, and I love it. The light strikes are a horde clearing machine and the heavy strikes are very vertical but they aim right for the head on the strike and backstroke, i have zero problem taking heads with the heavy on more powerful enemies.
For me at least, Thunder Hammer is the most fun to use and is more than capable of dealing with hordes even in Damnation with repeated heavy strikes. That said, I always carry my flamer when I really need a clear. Its actually a very versatile pairing for taking out absolutely anything in close/mid range. The weakness is the inability to hit long range snipers and things of that nature so you are dependent on your team or closing the distance with your special for that.
The hammer is not capable of dealing with hordes on damnation as its damage output and cleave distribution is pathetic. All a zealot with a hammer on damnation is is a liability that makes a mess of enemies and makes it harder to clean up.
@@kathewings MK V w/ Brutal Momentum allows you to have effectively infinite cleave for 4.5 seconds after killing a single enemy with a weakspot hit. This is extremely easy to do with the attack pattern of the MK V and MK II. It does insane single target anti-armor on heavy attacks, and can eviscerate hordes with light spam.
I know Most darktide players don't like the feel of the chain axe but if you get used to it like with any weapon with the right blessings its becomes very powerful. From my experience the chain axe base with no blessings functions just like the tactical axe family but with more damage and just slightly less speed it kills pretty much all basic enemies in 2 hits regardless of armor type and has the best shredder in the game killing crushers in 2-3 revd up heavy swings. Imo I would put all chain weapons in B tier except for the Eviscerator that belongs in A for the fact it can clear hordes, has high damage that have the same values between light and heavy, and has 2nd best shredder.
I pretty much agree with all of this. I think your crusher is a bit low but I'm biased as well and just don't enjoy the weapon, I've just seen it used to great effect in pugs. This is one of those weapons that I like when someone else other than me has it because frankly it makes random pugs more useful because its shear cc. Heavy Sword gets a special version of headtaker that is better than normal headtaker. I think its like 80% increased damage at max rank or something. It pretty much makes it required on heavy sword and without it the sword drops a tier or two IMO. I feel like your take on the evis and thammer are accurate as well. The community likes them but frankly they just aren't that good. Evis with the right blessings can be very good. Thammer in the right situation can really smash some big targets but overall they both kind of fall short in one way or another. One of the issues a lot of people seem to have in this game is confusing cool factor with it actually being good. I would also comment that the crucian roulette bug makes literally any weapon kind of viable but your top three with it are just massive. Specially the heavysword. Dodge sliding a cleave into a horde with massive critical attacks is just way to fun.
The Thunder Hammer's power charged attack is one-shotting a running Mutant on Damnation (with specific blessings). It's absolutely the best weapon and I can't stop playing and enjoying it. A-tier at the very least.
Crusher is underrated. You can perma cc a horde, every kind of ogryn special, ragers, maulers etc indefinitely. If you have good positioning, you can effectively keep your Veterans safe, so they never have to pull out their melee weapon. You can also stagger ogryns and force them to lower their shield, or stagger Crushers out of their heavy attacks. Yeah its not a dps and hordeclearing beast, but I can still oneshot Specials with charged heavy + charge so im not losing that. ANd if you pair it with a mk12 Lasrifle you are insanely versatile.
Wait didnt the chainaxe be a thing for very long? why did that get forgotten? Or did that get added later on? I remember having that weapon for a while now...
I am a Psyker main, but for the amount of time I played Zealot I agree with this list. Thunder Hammer, like you, I want to like it, but it falls short.
I feel like Assault Chain Sword is rated too low. The chainsaw special gives it the ability to fight armored targets that the other one-hand weapons just don't seem to have. It's the best all-around option, designed to do a little of everything but not be excellent at any one thing. Apparently, I feel the exact opposite way you do about it- it's the only melee weapon I ever use....,I would rate it mid to A tier. You are correct, it is not great for sweeping/cleave attacks....avoid blessings that trigger after hitting 3+ targets. (Switch to your Flamer when you need to go full C.C.)
I think you're massively underselling the chainsword. There is debate over whether it's worth running over the eviscerator, but it's definitely not in the same tier as that garbage axe.
i either run thunder hammer with a purgation flamer or the heavy chainsword with a boltor... have yet to meet a problem on any difficulty that i cant handle^^ but like you said in the beginning: every weapon is viable^^ in the end it comes down to: what do you personally like the most?!^^
The Atrox Mk IV (blue one) is better than the others because the alternate attack has 2 quick jabs in a row of its 3 alternative attack pattern vs the 2 hit alt-attacks of the other axes; and it hits faster. Because of this, u can continuously flurry alternate between normal and fast alt attachs like a lawnmower vs. hordes. Or constantly stagger elites and kill em faster.
Combat blade belongs in S. It can 2 shot reapers and bulwarks on heresy difficulty. It can also easily kill hordes because of its cleaving if youre running full crit with crit chance perk and then crucian roulette secondary your crits are easily 1-2 shotting horde enemies and applying bleeds. Lacerate is good on the knife and very convenient but you do not need lacerate and the highest DPS knife you could theoretically use is a knife WITHOUT lacerate since the knifes crit chance is so high already.
@@fntksgaming Mercy killer, shred, executor and uncanny strike are all powerful. However, until you have a high modifier knife or have a crucian roulette secondary it is probably best to run lacerate for smoothness and ease. Best build is 75% damage reduction on crit, crits apply bleed, melee attacks cant stop you (this feat also makes it so shooters cant stop your sprint which is great for gap closing), 4% damage on hit stacking 5 times since you attack so fast. Then cooldown reduction on crit since youre critting so often you always have your dash up to insta nuke specials or top off your toughness if you get hit by fire or something.
@@RKWARLORD good to know, I have an exalted 380 modifier combat blade, but, only with Ruthless backstabbing blessing, still need to upgrade to legendary and see what I get…but, but also have a 355 anointed blade with mercy killer, but, only 58% damage (against 72% damage on my 380 one)
I just gotta put the tac axes in A, better for hordes and imo that's the most important, plus after finding out that the crit cooldown reduction works on cleave? yeaaaa
I agree with the some of the thunder hammer criticisms but you didn’t take into count that it is crazy at hoard killing even if they do get knocked down they get right back up and get killed with 9 other zombies the light combo is terrible but you can do light heavy light heavy and it feels a lot better
I feel the darktide community is really underselling the power of wide swing(hammer and eviscerator) combod with a simple back kiting just watch your surroundings to not fuck yourself space wise and you can mow through ANY and every horde with just proper kiting esp since you can dodge and charge heavy swings
My question is, why does the move set matter? does that effect anything or its just personally pleasing to see??? Still learning on Darktide weapons and want to know more
Attack patterns dictate the actual area of effect for the weapon so a broad sweep will hit many more enemies than a vertical strike. Depending on what you're using the weapon for, certain patterns fit those roles better. :)
crusher is the best weapon for survivability. you can stop a horde with 5 crusher and maulers just by yourself, letting your teammates deal with elites that need to be prioritize. It just carry everything in damnation
Not to be rude but I think complaining about the chainsword lock in animation means you have poor awareness, the special ability should be used carefully while checking your position special have a audi que if you get stuck in that 1-2 sec animation means you are bad at timing and awareness of what's going on around you and that animation will stun your target so you cannot get hit by them... Chainsword is an A tier weapon maybe S if you are a skilled person yes prob lower if you are bad at the game its more skill depended.
The thunder hammers animation lock can be cancelled by simply tapping the key to swap to your melee weapon after the attack connects. With good blessings the horde clear is more than enough with the heavy attack cleave, on top of just being able to 1-2 hit every elite on damnation with the use of special. I'd still rank the MK V combat axe higher, but I feel it definitely deserves higher than a c tier here. ruclips.net/video/C5vmlrSmXeI/видео.html (Just to show what I'm on about) Everything else I pretty much agree with :v
A lot of mistakes in this list: 1st - combat blade become s-tier after you got lacerate + ruthless backstab or +50% weak spot dmg on bleeding targets. The reason is - extreme survivability pared with decent solo target dmg and ability to kill bulwarks with light spam through their shields. 2nd - this electric maul is at least A-tier. Reason is - you can COMPLETELY trivialize any fights with heavy groups by PERMANENTLY stagger EVERYTHING in your melee range including bulwarks and crashers by just spamming special attack. INSANE utility for team. And 3rd and most important - tactical axe is S++ tier - it is the most overpowered and versatile weapon for zealot. With shred and decimator it can do around 800!dps on crasher, it has 13-15% base crit and amplified crit dmg. So you can run it with crit build with no troubles of keeping permanent 75% dmg mitigation you have enough mobility to go in melee with group of shooters, completely destroy any horde with brutal momentum, you will also stagger crashers and EVERY special enemy with single heavy attack. The amount of solo clutch-saves i performed on damnation or damnation+ with this weapon is just unbelievable
Crusher being able to cc an entire horde is amazing you have an entire team behind you that dosent have to deal with a massive part of a horde or stopping yhe entire horde at an choke
I mostly agree (especially about the Thunder Hammer), but one important factor that you didn't mention is the talents you would use with each weapon. I've been unimpressed with the Antax V, but maybe I need to switch off my usual knife-crit build talents? I thought that particular axe didn't have very high finesse/crit bonuses, so how do I maximize using it without sacrificing toughness (aside from the abilities you recommend here)? Thanks for the vid!
This video is a perfect example of how min/maxing takes the fun out of games. If you feel like you jeed to take a dinky little knife instead of a chainsaw, something is wrong.
Mk V axe is weaker to build bleed with, that pulls it back to combat blade levels or even below imho. Utmost prio is to have all toughness buff up and blade is absoluteky the best therefore.
imho chainsword is better then eviscerator, kekw Turtolsky swords family dont need any hit mass blessings at all, they have basic sweep up to 7 bodies and thats more then enough, go full crit/dmg blessings and u are set, also those swords are not that bad at killing armor as he said, they have medium dmg to armor when u use heavy-special loop on mk 9
I think you vastly underrate the Crusher. Sure, maybe it's nice to kill things faster, but the Crusher's special can infinitely crowd control every horde in the game and every enemy mixed in with it including ogryns. If you have infinite crowd control you have zero risk from melee enemies. Sure, maybe you could kill them faster with other things, but zero risk is zero risk, and I can clean them up at my leisure without taking any hits. It's so blatantly overpowered I've stopped using it because it just gives me bad habits. The easiest damnation run in my life was just two zealots with crushers infinitely CCing every melee enem we came across. It's busted. The only thing it's mildly lacking on is damage against bosses and monsters, but it's both adequate in those situations and that weakness could be mitigated with a proper ranged weapon selection.
I'm shocked you put mk 6 & 7 heavy swords on the same line as tac axe that absolutely rocks, i'd put it up there with combat 5 & blade, especially mk 4 which with shred and brutal momentum does everything the combat blade does but with better horde clear okay yeah it doesn't lay down a thousand bleeds but damn its way more viable in far more situations. I've read comments below that place the viability of other tac axes with varied movesets but mk4 doesnt need the varied moveset, you just light attack to victory and use heavy for stubborn single target. Whereas the heavy sword is a c or d pick imo with even the 9 being a b pick.
H swords: headtaker isn't a recc, it is a necessity; up to 75% DMG cleave and stagger? Rampage is no comparison tbh, it's a nice cherry on top, as is deathblow, extra damage and cleave (where it already has 7+ on it's light sweeps) is nice but already covered quite well in the one blessing
I can't quite objectively disagree with your placement of IX above VII, but will say that I much prefer it over the IX as personal preference, the opening and closing vanguards bookending two perfectly horizontal relentless attacks hits the sweet spot and, unlike most, I prefer the reversal of the heavy combo on the VII (right to left horizontal opener, then downward chop) as compared to the others. It can directly, nearly instantly, follow a very quick special, deal the full strike down dmg of the other swords downward chop, which will delete any shooter mobs in the game and DMG whatever surrounds it as well. Advantage of the IX is that it can chain the horizontal heavies after the initial chop but with the slight downside of losing some of the DMG the heavies normally achieve. With stacked HT and rising conviction you can easily kill either rager variety with two heavies or open with the special, which I recommend, to quickly stagger and 3 shott them in quick order. At any rate, I'm happy to see them receive love here at all as they still carry something of a bad rep from early days and many still believe they are straight F tier
@@blakemorris2753 Deathblow is more for ignoring armour hitmass than anything else, nothing more annoying than an armoured unit stopping from cleaving a horde :
@@Dalkoragaming to be completely honest, I am *dying* to get a nice deathblow/headtaker sword, every single time I try for one, I end up with deathblow and perfect strike lol. It's the worst of all worlds situation, I may have understated how nice deathblow can be out of my sheer frustration haha. If I could attach screenshots of all the ps/db swords I have in my inventory, it would tell a tale of extreme woe xD
combat blade is s-tier, very good at killing everything but crusher, bleed thru bulwark shield is op, you can also ult for armor pen to make up for its one weakness. mk2 combat axe is A tier not as good as mark 5 but that doesn't make it bad.
For me his best melee weapon and the thunder hammer. Simply because this weapon is effective against all mob's in the game and is a boss destroyer... You can manage hordes on charged attacks without problem and destroy Ogryn, bosses and ragers with the charge. The knife is I find overestimated... Simply because this weapon certainly allows a good tankiness but not very effective against the bosses... The Ogryn elites and useless against the hordes... The Turtlesky MKVI is better than the other two as well.
Combat knife and flamer though. I rate the CK as S because it gives me an excuse to bring the flamer. I'm still waiting for Brutal Momentum to show up on the good combat axe at all on my Zealot. I have blown all my mats upgrading them to blue as I see them, but no luck. There is far too much reliance on certain blessings for certain weapons in this game when you have absolutely no reliable way of ever getting them.
I play alot with tactical axes, I would rank them Mk4 > Mk7 > Mk2, the movesets differ alot actually, they're not as effective as Antax V obviously, but mk4 is pretty close.
You are definitely wrong about the hammer. The destruction you can do with it is just crazy. Oh three shoot gunners…. No problem just do two swipes and they rag doll all over the screen. I have literally killed a group of them before my teammates can even say god emperor . So its S tier for sure
![OhGeesy x Lefty Gunplay - What It Iz [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/L0yzW9t2ixk/mqdefault.jpg)
Very much disagree on Eviscerator - Yes it has chain special attack that locks you into a small animation, it does however also lock the things you are hitting in the same stun animation, which means a good few seconds of even Crushers getting stunned and their heads opened for others to bang on. You think the push - heavy combo is good for horde clear, try charging the special and using the push attack with it, it will shred everything in front of you. Heavy attacks also have very high cleave and stunlock elites and specials which is super nice to have when a horde comes in and Maulers or something else is in the ranks, you can shred through them. Absolutely A minimum but I'd risk S tier too, the MArk 5 axe and this go really nicely hand in hand.
Agree. To rank the eviscerator that low, coupled with his description of how he uses it, makes me think he doesn't understand how to use it optimally, or what the best attack patterns actually are. I absolutely shred my way through damnation with the eviscerator + bolt gun or flamer.
Locking 1 player to lock 1 enemy in a game that you fight packs of 20-100 at time is a really bad trade
@@morioh6623 locking "the" enemy that tou have to lock. Best melee wep in the game 4 me. U can deal with anything.
you don't deal with 20-100 elites at a time
@@TheWhoamaters hyperbole bud, but on 5's you are dealing with 5-15 on any encounter that matters. Its a shit weapon and. Shit weapon ability
the combat knife can definitely deal with hords, its light attacks easily cleave through multiple enemies, just aim for heads and sweep your camera to increase its attack arc. It takes a few hits but it attacks so fast it doesnt really matter. Also shreader with cleave perks is insane, ive never had it get stuck, dont really need to use its rev skill.
Not to mention you can weave in pushes with the autos so you constantly stagger anything that would hit you. Yeah, top tier horde weapon, I'd take it if I didn't always run flamer as my gun.
It can but compared to mowing them down with the combat axe it's several leagues behind, not to mention lacerate only works on non weakspot hits.
@@Dalkoragaming It is however, much more mobile than the combat axe.
Does sweeping camera actual do that? Like the Chivalry game?
@@Specopleader yes, sweeping the camera does extend the swing in these games! Specially with the slower wide arc attacks you can almost hit in 270 degress in front of you if you time it right.
The Thunder Hammer at times gave me a lot more utility in horde clearing and even helped me clutch games on tight maps like Hab Dreyko and Hourglass. The animation lock for me isn’t much of an issues since using Chastis the Wicked would often stun stagger nearby enemies so you can get a powered swing on a Crusher or Bulwark in tight horde. You can even one-shot a mutant in its mid charge to save a teammate.
But I agree with your tier list, it isn’t great due to the animation lock so hoping they can add new blessings for it or just fix it. Still I would rank it higher than the Crusher just got it’s Heavy being very versatile in horde clearing and creating space for veteran and psyker.
Agreed. I think its more of a B tier. Personally I find it to be the most comfortable cc weapon for the zealot. Its comical taking so many enemies of their feet
@@emcdavee best CC weapon is the 2H crusher. I’ve seen a zealot who clutched a horde with it and ending up rescuing us. The hammer can CC but not as good as the crusher. But if you roll for a god tier hammer with impact and power bonus blessing, it is pretty broken with interruptible feat.
Still, I would use combat axe or blade if the map is too open like raid Hourglass or Chasm just for mobility.
Yeah. It's constant sweeping is very useful for the larger hordes. And you've got the power hit combined with the charge for the big stuff.
there is nothing to fix with the thunder hammer... it already has the highest single target dps... it needs to be balanced... that is what the animation lock is for...
i have to heavily disagree with you on your placement of the tac axe (especially ranking them all in the same place), the chainsword, the eviscerator and the crusher.
the MkIV tac axe belongs where you place it (maybe even C tier), as its lights really don't have the dps for horde clearing and its heavies are directly vertical. The MKVII is better, and belongs in A where the knife is (tho i think the knife should be lower, a weapon that needs to rely on the most broken ranged weapon in the game, flamer, to not be useless against any group of enemies isn't good). it has faster light attacks than the IV, two of which are diagonal, and thus maintains your damage resistance best when killing hordes, having its first heavy be diagonal is good too. However the MKII is the best, fully diagonal, extremely quick heavies make it slightly better than the antax mkV for horde clear (the antax does less damage on targets after the first, which both kill) and lets it kill non-ogryn elites faster than the antax. it's worse against ogryns but that's what a boltgun is for, and to make up for that you're able to easily utilise crit synergies which are really strong for zealot. IMO MKII goes in S tier, MKVII in A tier, MKIV in B or C tier.
The chainsword i think you've missed how its best used. The chainsword is the chain-family crit weapon. Put shred and savage sweep on it (devastating strike messes with the weapon special) and it's a crit synergy weapon that can kill everything efficiently. It however has unfortunately awful attack paths and combo routes so i wouldn't put it higher than B. Also the chainsword doesn't have the worst pushattack in the game, Thunder hammer does (srsly why is it effectively just a horizontal light swing? it's garbage)
something i think you've missed with chain weapons in general when used with zealot is that they have special synergy with his ability that massively increases their damage output. If you hit F then do a special heavy the dps is pretty matchable with other weapons, however if you do the special heavy then hit F once it's started grinding you get a MASSIVE damage increase, this allows eviscerators to have DPS on par with or even better than the thunder hammer against ogryns and bosses.
Finally the crusher. i think you're concentrating too much on the special spam people do, which is fair considering how many people use that and nothing else, but the regular light spam or light-> heavy chains are very serviceable against hordes, definitely dealing more DPS than a thunder hammer and are WAY less interruptable. Also, what's the deal with you taking points off the thunder hammer and chain weapons for having animation commitments while they do their single target thing, but then ignoring the fact the crusher can single target anything bar monstrosities effectively WHILE CCing everything around you? that's a huge advantage, especially considering the quantity of mass elite mobs in higher difficulties.
the knife is the best weapon without a doubt if you have a well rolled one, with +4 bleed on crit and shred with 360-380 base, it breaks the game, what it allows you to do is stupid and needs to be nerfed, you do ungodly damage and never die, granted damnation is a joke, but still i would never use anything else. once full crafting is in the game, it will expose how stupidly broken giga rolled weapons are, its obnoxious.
Timestamps:
0:57 Catachan MkIII Combat Blade (perks, pause at 1:35)
1:50 Rashad MkII Combat Axe (perks 2:09)
2:12 Tactical Axe Family (perks 2:58)
3:00 Cadia MkIV Chainsword (perks 4:00)
4:00 Heavy Sword Family (perks 5:16)
5:43 Heavy Eviscerator (perks 6:55)
6:58 Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe
7:20 Antax Mk V Combat Axe (perk: brutal momentum ofc)
8:10 Indignatus Crusher (perk: Skullcrusher)
9:23 Catachan Devil Claw Family (perks 9:55)
10:00 Thoondar Hammer (perks 11:30)
11:35 Chain Axe i guess (perks 12:12)
Goddamn I forgot to do this thanks for doing it lol xD
@@Dalkoragaming All good! really appreciate the content, picking the right lasgun totally turned around my heretic+ veteran gameplay. just wanted to give back a bit :)
Combat axe just doesn’t crit enough - that’s enough to keep it from s-tier.
I very much think that the eviscerator is rated too low. The key with this weapon is to reset your swings with block.
You can easily slide it charge in rev it and do a wide sweep attack demolishing hordes. Two sweeps and block. It also has an amazing block push attack that cuts right at head height for mobs.
It's versatile in that you can take on both armoured enemies and chaff, you just need to know how to use it as it's far less forgiving than a knife build.
You forgot to mention that pressing the hammer button also makes it worse at killing more than 2 enemies at a time.
This is spot on. People shouldn't be so zealous about using the Thunder Hammer's charge attack - save it for the big boys.
@@0_expectations Zealot's, shouldn't be Zealous...
I've been following your vids Dalkora, excellent points with reasoning behind.
Zealot has become my best character because he's Doomguy on berserk, rip and tear.
I've been switching between antax 5, tac axe and dagger lately, all with good results.
Crusher and thunder hammer, well they're often insta kill, but take a long time to prepare, and I take damage during these seconds. While axes clobber them so quickly that they barely get to respond.
It's just unfortunate that getting a good weapon needs plenty of grind and luck, and then the shop gives my psyker a better MG12 than my vet has, and a better axe than the zealot's...
Imo Mark 7 Heavy Sword (the one with the forward tilting wing guard) is the better horde clearer than the 9, as all of its light attacks are horizontal swipes and also its heavy 1. (In contrast to Mark 9's swipe on heavy 2)
Having swipe on heavy 1 instead of 2 has the advantage of:
1. Heavy swipe does not get reset to overhead by sprinting;
2. Can immediately start a heavy swipe after parrying/pushing;
3. Can start combo in ANY order (2 light 1 heavy for fast crowd control, heavy light loop for high alpha damage, special into heavy and light to stagger rager/mauler in a horde, etc.) and have great cleave.
And if you want high single target damage you can alternate between push thrust chaining into heavy 2 overhead.
*top secret don't read*
(if you know, you know)
Antax bm+headtaker
revolver crucian+trickshooter
Awesome, now we just need an Ogryn Weapon Tier List, and recommend build combo video
Just lock on to the furthest out enemy crusher/bulwark with the eviserator and use the enemy's large mass to block all the rest behind it. Then keep dancing and select the one furthest out of the horde. For ragers trigger all their 4-attack animations, dodge out, then lock on to the one furthest out too. For risky situations, switch to just the heavy attacks. That's how I use my eviserator in every damnation game, and getting quite good at it, lol. The special is a situational use to exploit certain situations, not something to be used in all situations. So it's not a disadvantage at all if you use it selectively.
I've found the activate ability is really nice for dogs too. Rev up, light attack to clip dog as they run by, and now that the animation locked, it's dead.
@@philipfahy9658 Yup it also kills the dogs in just one chain swipe! Two for mutant chargers.
Crusher goes hard even on a bad roll. I tend to only use the activate when I'm overwhelmed or trolling elites/ specialists. I think crusher is easily a low A tier with the right feats and bonus vs carapace. I consistently kill crushers and shit on hazard 4 fairly quickly with a decent damage roll and that carapace multiplier.
DRG-moment
I discovered your videos about an hour ago and wished you had a zealot tier list. 30 mins later you posted this lol
I just knew ;)
I love the tactical axe mk IV. If you have shred and brutal momento on it, it becomes a wave clearing crit monster. doing a heavy light (in that order and keep doing that) makes it into a real fast cleave hit that will melt hordes and elites a like. For me mk IV Tac axe with shred and brutal momento is s
Imho Evisc is A or higher.
If you get stuck just duck&slide out. You're tetheted but can still slide and duck attacks and enemies tend to pause if they run into a slide.
Also you can do the opposide and stick on more than one opponent when you've revved it. At least vs poxwalkers.
And it's the very act of revving and getting the sword stuck in that wrenches and produces that massive cleave that can cut even armored ogryns in half right through the waist.
Also my experience with the S ranked axe is that it's good 1 vs 1 but it doesn't go through multiple opponents like the Evisc. Maybe it does with the right blessings?
Thunder hammer has great horde clear with it's heavy attacks and 1 or 2 taps most trash mobs. I admit it's not the best weapon, but it's a lot of fun and my standard go to. It's also my insurance policy against demon hosts for when someone inevitably wakes it up.
It has great horde control, not great horde clear. You can be there for several minutes swinging away just to actually kill a group of 20-30 walkers. Literally any other melee weapon will kill them faster.
I'm using a m9 heavy sword with t3 savage swing. 175% cleave dmg. With headhunter 10% power stacks 5 times. Omg when u get rolling u walk threw hordes.
List looks good. though, I have to strongly disagree on the regular chainsword if you get one with shred and devastating strike it will crit on par to the tactical axes (if not better) you basically have infinite cleave and you can run the bleed build. also the stun on flak armor is very good with regular chainsword so you can stunlock hoards of flak armor no problem as long as you have your devastating strike proc.
in my experience it outperforms the eviscerator too, not sure if something has changed since then, but i just have a much easier time with it
Thanks for the info Dalkora. Your reasoning appears sound and gives us something to play around with. Very much appreciated.
Kinda disagree, the Rashad MkII CA certainly is no F as it packs quite a punch in general and is well suited to deal with armored enemies. Contrary i don't see why one put up cleave weapons that high up on a zealot. Eviscerators is one thing..... but those swords? Don't see why i would pick one up when we have access to the flamer. But, to each their own.
The Mark XII Heavy sword is an incredibly versitile sword, but it has a little more learning curve than other weapons. My combos:
- special attack, light/heavy attack is a good way to kill single targets and can also be used against tightly packed groups (such as through a doorway). You can also use this to spam against a horde that includes more armored enemies since these attacks won't get blocked or interrupted.
- heavy attack, light attack (spam this for clearing hordes)
- block counter spam is great for sniping heads on elites, mutants or ragers.
- block counter, heavy attack (verticle strike) is a good finisher
- block counter, double tap light attack, heavy attack is to do horizontal slashes instead of vertical. This is a good defensive way to start your horde clearing spam of horizontal slashes.
- slide, special (this is great as an initial hit and it allows you to be offensive while moving). The way you do this is actualy by doing the special first and then sliding. This requires a bit of practice to get used to.
- slide, heavy attack (Great for an initial hit as well, but is more delayed)
- when you want to use the special ability, you can do the heavy hit upward or just do an initial light attack to alternate to the heavy attack vertical slash. The upward heavy hit is also decent at aiming for heads.
- block push is OP since it knocks down the lighter enemies.
I put this sword at S tier because it has a lot of useful movesets for different scenarios. It's incredibly good at clearing hordes so you won't need a flamer. It's also decent at single targets. I'd pair it with a shotgun, heavy laspistol, or the bolter. The flamer is obviously a good weapon to pair it with too, but is kind of OP. The shotgun and bolter are better to handle elites although the shotgun is not so good against crushers. If you're handling a lone crusher or rager, block counter to head snipe them will kill them fast. I've had the most success on damnation with the laspistol, which I think is a little OP, but the other weapons kill armored enemies better too.
The ability of the Thunder Hammer to stunlock groups of enemies with heavy sweeps AND stunlock stronger enemies makes it better at higher difficulties, where you are more concerned with keeping things from hurting your team than killing them outright.
An enemy that is killed outright isn't going to be hurting your team though
I love MKII Combat Axe. It has a really simple one-two heavy swing, and the heavy swing is extremely fast. There is also hardly any slowdown when you're releasing the heavy swing, so you can stay extremely mobile while swinging widely left and right. You can do pretty much anything with the heavy swing combo. Give it Shred and Brutal Momentum and you have a monster of an axe that crits every other swing.
I agree with all this tierlist. I would've just put the devil claw ans evicerator in A.
I agree also with the combat axe MkV being the best. I got one with the right blessings and perks and it destroys anything. Feels a little bit overpowered compared to the rest actually...
Imho the CC on the Crusher is amazing and makes runs so much smoother than the usual group setups were everybody just runs highest dps/single target and then struggle with hordes/any kind of overwhelming situation, which I've seen way too often in random groups.
In those situation the maul is just a big "pause" button when shit hits the fan, while other weapons would require you to kite the horde, the maul just stops the horde, allowing you and your group to hold the ground, no matter what the AI director throws at you.
If you position yourself the right way you can compress whole hordes into a tight little ball, quickly building up stacks of Punishment until max to cleave trough all the enemies, while keeping them stunlocked.
Extra nice; On the Zealot the light attack is a horizontal strike, while on the Ogryn maul the heavy attack is the horizontal strike. So the Zealot can charge spam it at hordes that much faster.
Its all up to taste really. If you really like the weapon you can make it work even if its not meta. Eviscerator is my top pick, the s tier axe is probably really good but I found it extremely boring to play with and only tried it once. To standard of a moveset in my eyes. But whatever floats each ones boat.
I too prefer the Evisc. It's misunderstood and should be S rank imho.
I tried all other weapons but I prefer it. Once you get the sidestep & hold and release button for heavy swing, sidestep & hold and release opposite side heavy swing tempo going it mows hordes.
Evicerator on B... I almost closed the damn video. Are you using it right? I mean it has fantastic wave clear with the heavys + push/attack combo that you can do infinitely that absolutely shreds a horde, you can activate+normal to lock or kill instantly a berserker (btw once you hit that chainsaw effect I believe you can still move around and still do the full DMG for safety), does decent damage on carapace or at the very least lock them down. It just does way too many good things to send it on B tier.
Nice list, I'm only familiar with the bleed/crit build, what feats/gun would you run when using the mk5 combat axe?
Just the regular old boring zealot build 3,3,2,1,2,3
the bonus movement speed and dodge itself is enough for me to put combat knife in S tier
You can't kill hordes with movement speed ;)
It's a great weapon and I've used the combat dagger for possibly a hundred games, but it's comperativly low dps really gets to you after a while on damnation. Also, the combat axe has surprisingly high mobility too, increased sprint speed, dodge distance etc, it's no where near as hefty as it looks!
@@Dalkoragaming Try out a Mercy Killer + Uncanny Strike combat blade and aim for heads with leaping heavy attacks. Easy S tier, esp with a Roulette+Trickshooter Revolver. With Lacerate I agree CB only A (probably B imo) tier.
Also the fact you mention shred makes me doubt your information. It's listed on wikis as possible for CB, but isn't actually in game afaik.
I could possibly quibble a bit over some of the placements here, taxes vs knives for example, but it's overall quite decent tiering. However, respectfully, as you have a very good idea of what you're talking about tbh, I believe you have entirely missed the mark on the chain sword. Def imo not an F tier weapon when played to it's strengths on a crit build combining shred with perfect strike to reliably proc CDR from level 5 and CAR from level 30 (the ability cool down on this is remarkable compared to the knife when facing a horde, as is it's actual ability to deal with said horde). Using a few lightning quick lights and then chaining beautiful horizontal heavies just melts hordes like I couldn't believe until I tried it myself while maintaining a high degree of mobility with +4 stam and 5 dodges. The rev is particularly quick compared to the evisc and is ideally really only reserved for specials and crushers
i'm not sold on CAR, as hordes aren't typically the time i need more than 1 F the most. gapclosing on ranged enemies and dealing with elites you'll always want a 2nd ability usage more than just blending a horde, so i never switch off the 2 charges feat.
@@nickq8093 that's fair enough, I actually almost always run the 2x ability feat, but when every hit on each individual enemy in one cleaving attack counts towards it, as well as regular crits on individuals, it's much more compelling
@@blakemorris2753 agreed, but after testing it myself i always found that i ended up being able to use my F more with the 2 charge one than with the refund on crit one, just cos i don't spam charges into hordes when i don't need to.
@@nickq8093 thinking about it, I think I'm going to try doing a curio CAR load out with the 2x ability feat as sort of a middle ground solution, I haven't rolled many good CAR curio but I think something in the range of 10-12 reduction might be a nice edge for my general play style. It wouldn't have the maximal potential of crit based CAR obv, but there have def been times in the game where it would be nice to be able to proc my CTW just a bit sooner and over the course of a mission might add up to several extra uses to expend as needed
Isn't that axe S tier only because of Brutal momentum? If you include builds and blessings, some weapons turn to easy S tier. Take Curtian Roulette on Autoguns. It turns Chain sword into S tier with Devastating strike (ignore hit mass on crit). It works even better then axe because of better move set. You also get great mobility and reap through damnation like it's nothing.
How does it work? The crucial roulette combo? Should i leave it empty and just use melee?
How is the chainsword damage wise? Better than Antax?
I've been using Antax Bm+headtaker, Revolver Crucian+Trickshooter.
I just tear through damnation, I wonder how it compares with chainsword with the same Revolver blessings build.
Mk II and Mk V Combat Axes have the same move set. Mk II is very bugged when it comes to registering headshots atm. Mk V gets Cleave and Mk II gets Finesse (Attack Speed).
Did you get your axes mixed up Antax mk V has no cleave in either heavy or light chain.
So I like your basic points about these weapons but I think you missed a critical point for ALL weapons on the zealot (and probably will for the ogryn).
Toughness regen via Momentum. Some weapons have the blessing but most don't.
The antax V is my go to melee BUT it lacks it and you notice it on the zealot.
The eviscerator has it. The eviscerator has a move set with a head high cleaves (and cleave blessings too).
The antax V lacks momentum (but has brutal momentum) so it loses a tier.
The eviscerator has momentum (and a good move set) so it gains a tier.
I also wonder if the Eviscerator has some s around the lockon? I dont take the damage I think I should around it.
I would only argue against 2 of the tact axe.
Firstly do NOT use light attacks on these 2 axes.
Mk8 > use push attack to heavy > repeat. This clears horde, armored, whatever. I would put this below combat blade.
Mk2 > the best tact axe. I would rate this ABOVE combat blade. Use heavy heavy combo and add push attack where needed. This combo can kill everything and does it BETTER than mk5 combat axe due to the swing speed. And for damnation, 2 headshot (heavies for mk2 are diagonals already so east headahot) kills every non specialist mob in the game. You don't need to bother with breakpoints. Just take crit or against carapace/flak. Mk2 tact has higher dodge distance than mk5 combat which helps with escaping (replaces sprinting). It has much much higher attack speed than mk5 combat for much more safety when attacking. If you "drag" your heavy attack with a dodge, you attack wayyyyy more enemies.
The only downside is these 2 weapons NEED brutal momentum.
Well dont take my opinion at face value. I posted 2 videos on horde control. There's one for each and especially for mk2, you can see it works extremely well for veteran (slower attack speed, longer stam recharge delay), so it will work perfectly for zealot. ruclips.net/video/2j5EggbXRRA/видео.html
Lastly, CC has a place (referring to crusher). Every single melee weapon cannot deal with crusher + bulwark + rager + horde (common in heresy+). ONLY the crusher with the charge light charge light spam can handle all of them with EASE. this it why I love this weapon for pubs. People freak out from bulwark + crusher. I just go forward and CC the hell out of them.
Otherwise good list.
Thank you for showing the weapon names and not just the picture!
I hate that a shitty little knife that looks like the knife I cut carrots with is the more powerful than a chainsword
You have to get into a really practiced rhythm with your eviscerator. It’s an S rank weapon IF you can get the momentum and the dance down. Push, power1, power 2, dodge back, charge up, power 1, push+attack. You can keep a horde in place or move it to a better position. Go heavy on damage tho and get 1 blessing for unarmed opps, 1 for crit and 1 for flak
I do love this meme tier list, but I think you should make a genuine one.
Chainsword F-tier when it has very good damage decay values on cleave, literally deals more damage to second flak units on cleave, 2 shots scab shooters with lights, and is an all-around workhorse weapon.
Meanwhile, Knife, a worse version of the chainsword which plays selfishly and costs your team runs is A.
10/10.
Anyway, I'm going back to spamming High-Intensity Damnation with Chainsword and carrying the occasional knife Zealot that stumbles in from Heresy.
Knife can't deal with hordes? Are you kidding? This what I take for hordes even not on zealot. It's kill them superfast, but fast enough, as hit speed is insane, and meanwhile you dodge around like a fly avoiding their hits. It's awesome.
In comparison to something like the MK5 or Heavy swords it's not even on the same planet for horde clearing. It can deal with hordes it's just much slower than other choices on the list.
as someone who's started and mains vet who usually runs a power sword, i've really liked the mk 2 thunder hammer. with thrust 2, iirc, i can one-shot crushers with a powered heavy, or stun them with a powered light. that's only on heresy tho, i haven't had time to get properly sweaty yet.
I have a mk vi heavy sword, and I love it. The light strikes are a horde clearing machine and the heavy strikes are very vertical but they aim right for the head on the strike and backstroke, i have zero problem taking heads with the heavy on more powerful enemies.
For me at least, Thunder Hammer is the most fun to use and is more than capable of dealing with hordes even in Damnation with repeated heavy strikes. That said, I always carry my flamer when I really need a clear. Its actually a very versatile pairing for taking out absolutely anything in close/mid range. The weakness is the inability to hit long range snipers and things of that nature so you are dependent on your team or closing the distance with your special for that.
The hammer is not capable of dealing with hordes on damnation as its damage output and cleave distribution is pathetic. All a zealot with a hammer on damnation is is a liability that makes a mess of enemies and makes it harder to clean up.
I have been using the combat axe since launch w/ brutal momentum. I was secretly hoping nobody figured out how op it was so it would go un-nerfed. ⚰️
which one are you talking about ? And how is it op ?
@@kathewings MK V w/ Brutal Momentum allows you to have effectively infinite cleave for 4.5 seconds after killing a single enemy with a weakspot hit. This is extremely easy to do with the attack pattern of the MK V and MK II. It does insane single target anti-armor on heavy attacks, and can eviscerate hordes with light spam.
Woah, your list is pretty spot on to what I would have done. Totally expected to roll my eyes and argue. Honestly dont disagree with any of it.
I know Most darktide players don't like the feel of the chain axe but if you get used to it like with any weapon with the right blessings its becomes very powerful.
From my experience the chain axe base with no blessings functions just like the tactical axe family but with more damage and just slightly less speed it kills pretty much all basic enemies in 2 hits regardless of armor type and has the best shredder in the game killing crushers in 2-3 revd up heavy swings. Imo I would put all chain weapons in B tier except for the Eviscerator that belongs in A for the fact it can clear hordes, has high damage that have the same values between light and heavy, and has 2nd best shredder.
I pretty much agree with all of this. I think your crusher is a bit low but I'm biased as well and just don't enjoy the weapon, I've just seen it used to great effect in pugs. This is one of those weapons that I like when someone else other than me has it because frankly it makes random pugs more useful because its shear cc. Heavy Sword gets a special version of headtaker that is better than normal headtaker. I think its like 80% increased damage at max rank or something. It pretty much makes it required on heavy sword and without it the sword drops a tier or two IMO. I feel like your take on the evis and thammer are accurate as well. The community likes them but frankly they just aren't that good. Evis with the right blessings can be very good. Thammer in the right situation can really smash some big targets but overall they both kind of fall short in one way or another. One of the issues a lot of people seem to have in this game is confusing cool factor with it actually being good. I would also comment that the crucian roulette bug makes literally any weapon kind of viable but your top three with it are just massive. Specially the heavysword. Dodge sliding a cleave into a horde with massive critical attacks is just way to fun.
The Thunder Hammer's power charged attack is one-shotting a running Mutant on Damnation (with specific blessings). It's absolutely the best weapon and I can't stop playing and enjoying it. A-tier at the very least.
Crusher is underrated. You can perma cc a horde, every kind of ogryn special, ragers, maulers etc indefinitely. If you have good positioning, you can effectively keep your Veterans safe, so they never have to pull out their melee weapon. You can also stagger ogryns and force them to lower their shield, or stagger Crushers out of their heavy attacks. Yeah its not a dps and hordeclearing beast, but I can still oneshot Specials with charged heavy + charge so im not losing that. ANd if you pair it with a mk12 Lasrifle you are insanely versatile.
Wait didnt the chainaxe be a thing for very long?
why did that get forgotten?
Or did that get added later on? I remember having that weapon for a while now...
Perhaps they could buff chain weapons by having them stack on hit effects more quickly, as if the teeth biting in were multiple hits
I am a Psyker main, but for the amount of time I played Zealot I agree with this list. Thunder Hammer, like you, I want to like it, but it falls short.
I feel like Assault Chain Sword is rated too low. The chainsaw special gives it the ability to fight armored targets that the other one-hand weapons just don't seem to have. It's the best all-around option, designed to do a little of everything but not be excellent at any one thing. Apparently, I feel the exact opposite way you do about it- it's the only melee weapon I ever use....,I would rate it mid to A tier. You are correct, it is not great for sweeping/cleave attacks....avoid blessings that trigger after hitting 3+ targets. (Switch to your Flamer when you need to go full C.C.)
I think you're massively underselling the chainsword. There is debate over whether it's worth running over the eviscerator, but it's definitely not in the same tier as that garbage axe.
i either run thunder hammer with a purgation flamer or the heavy chainsword with a boltor... have yet to meet a problem on any difficulty that i cant handle^^ but like you said in the beginning: every weapon is viable^^ in the end it comes down to: what do you personally like the most?!^^
Have any of these been buffed since this video? Been playing zealot a lot and sad to see all the weapons i like on the lower end of tuning.
The Atrox Mk IV (blue one) is better than the others because the alternate attack has 2 quick jabs in a row of its 3 alternative attack pattern vs the 2 hit alt-attacks of the other axes; and it hits faster.
Because of this, u can continuously flurry alternate between normal and fast alt attachs like a lawnmower vs. hordes. Or constantly stagger elites and kill em faster.
Good blessing advice, do you have a video with perk advice for zealot?
I have a couple: ruclips.net/video/prg3MYGhD-A/видео.html ( crit bleed )
ruclips.net/video/3O0GMhY88PE/видео.html ( Regular )
I knew I wasnt crazy when I started slicing, bleeding and always ulting on the Heavy Sword
Combat blade belongs in S. It can 2 shot reapers and bulwarks on heresy difficulty. It can also easily kill hordes because of its cleaving if youre running full crit with crit chance perk and then crucian roulette secondary your crits are easily 1-2 shotting horde enemies and applying bleeds. Lacerate is good on the knife and very convenient but you do not need lacerate and the highest DPS knife you could theoretically use is a knife WITHOUT lacerate since the knifes crit chance is so high already.
I have a lacerate knife, buts it’s only 318 on modifier…
If I’m not running a lacerate blessing, what glamours I look for and what build?
@@fntksgaming Mercy killer, shred, executor and uncanny strike are all powerful. However, until you have a high modifier knife or have a crucian roulette secondary it is probably best to run lacerate for smoothness and ease.
Best build is 75% damage reduction on crit, crits apply bleed, melee attacks cant stop you (this feat also makes it so shooters cant stop your sprint which is great for gap closing), 4% damage on hit stacking 5 times since you attack so fast. Then cooldown reduction on crit since youre critting so often you always have your dash up to insta nuke specials or top off your toughness if you get hit by fire or something.
@@RKWARLORD good to know, I have an exalted 380 modifier combat blade, but, only with Ruthless backstabbing blessing, still need to upgrade to legendary and see what I get…but, but also have a 355 anointed blade with mercy killer, but, only 58% damage (against 72% damage on my 380 one)
I just gotta put the tac axes in A, better for hordes and imo that's the most important, plus after finding out that the crit cooldown reduction works on cleave? yeaaaa
It fell so god chain the ability 3 times into a horde and stil have it off colddown after you killed the horde
I agree with the some of the thunder hammer criticisms but you didn’t take into count that it is crazy at hoard killing even if they do get knocked down they get right back up and get killed with 9 other zombies the light combo is terrible but you can do light heavy light heavy and it feels a lot better
holy shit. A tier list where I actually agree with everything.
I feel the darktide community is really underselling the power of wide swing(hammer and eviscerator) combod with a simple back kiting just watch your surroundings to not fuck yourself space wise and you can mow through ANY and every horde with just proper kiting esp since you can dodge and charge heavy swings
My question is, why does the move set matter? does that effect anything or its just personally pleasing to see??? Still learning on Darktide weapons and want to know more
Attack patterns dictate the actual area of effect for the weapon so a broad sweep will hit many more enemies than a vertical strike. Depending on what you're using the weapon for, certain patterns fit those roles better. :)
The knife does everything the tax axe does but worse you mean. It sucks at hordes, can't cc, and relies on bleed cheese.
well now i cant wait for your Ogryn weapon tier list~
crusher is the best weapon for survivability. you can stop a horde with 5 crusher and maulers just by yourself, letting your teammates deal with elites that need to be prioritize. It just carry everything in damnation
I find the Thunder Hammer to be more B tier with its special attack. But yes, Antak V Combat Axe is king.
Not to be rude but I think complaining about the chainsword lock in animation means you have poor awareness, the special ability should be used carefully while checking your position special have a audi que if you get stuck in that 1-2 sec animation means you are bad at timing and awareness of what's going on around you and that animation will stun your target so you cannot get hit by them... Chainsword is an A tier weapon maybe S if you are a skilled person yes prob lower if you are bad at the game its more skill depended.
The thunder hammers animation lock can be cancelled by simply tapping the key to swap to your melee weapon after the attack connects. With good blessings the horde clear is more than enough with the heavy attack cleave, on top of just being able to 1-2 hit every elite on damnation with the use of special. I'd still rank the MK V combat axe higher, but I feel it definitely deserves higher than a c tier here. ruclips.net/video/C5vmlrSmXeI/видео.html (Just to show what I'm on about)
Everything else I pretty much agree with :v
A lot of mistakes in this list:
1st - combat blade become s-tier after you got lacerate + ruthless backstab or +50% weak spot dmg on bleeding targets. The reason is - extreme survivability pared with decent solo target dmg and ability to kill bulwarks with light spam through their shields.
2nd - this electric maul is at least A-tier. Reason is - you can COMPLETELY trivialize any fights with heavy groups by PERMANENTLY stagger EVERYTHING in your melee range including bulwarks and crashers by just spamming special attack. INSANE utility for team.
And 3rd and most important - tactical axe is S++ tier - it is the most overpowered and versatile weapon for zealot. With shred and decimator it can do around 800!dps on crasher, it has 13-15% base crit and amplified crit dmg. So you can run it with crit build with no troubles of keeping permanent 75% dmg mitigation you have enough mobility to go in melee with group of shooters, completely destroy any horde with brutal momentum, you will also stagger crashers and EVERY special enemy with single heavy attack. The amount of solo clutch-saves i performed on damnation or damnation+ with this weapon is just unbelievable
Crusher being able to cc an entire horde is amazing you have an entire team behind you that dosent have to deal with a massive part of a horde or stopping yhe entire horde at an choke
Do you use the hammer's animation cancel?
I mostly agree (especially about the Thunder Hammer), but one important factor that you didn't mention is the talents you would use with each weapon. I've been unimpressed with the Antax V, but maybe I need to switch off my usual knife-crit build talents? I thought that particular axe didn't have very high finesse/crit bonuses, so how do I maximize using it without sacrificing toughness (aside from the abilities you recommend here)? Thanks for the vid!
This video is a perfect example of how min/maxing takes the fun out of games. If you feel like you jeed to take a dinky little knife instead of a chainsaw, something is wrong.
On the heavy sword I got a 10%+ power per hit on head taker. It's amazing at clearing hords.
Bruv I hope you get your self a tac axe mkVII with good rolls and brutal momentum. Amazing weapon imo. My favorite so far
Mk V axe is weaker to build bleed with, that pulls it back to combat blade levels or even below imho. Utmost prio is to have all toughness buff up and blade is absoluteky the best therefore.
Chain Axe is Z Tier? Its curiously missing in the selection here. ^^
It was the last weapon on the list, I forgot to add it until I was about to upload this video haha but I did get it in last minute xD
I really wish they'd let Zealot use the power sword, or if they had their own combat shield weapon set
imho chainsword is better then eviscerator, kekw
Turtolsky swords family dont need any hit mass blessings at all, they have basic sweep up to 7 bodies and thats more then enough, go full crit/dmg blessings and u are set, also those swords are not that bad at killing armor as he said, they have medium dmg to armor when u use heavy-special loop on mk 9
I think you vastly underrate the Crusher. Sure, maybe it's nice to kill things faster, but the Crusher's special can infinitely crowd control every horde in the game and every enemy mixed in with it including ogryns. If you have infinite crowd control you have zero risk from melee enemies. Sure, maybe you could kill them faster with other things, but zero risk is zero risk, and I can clean them up at my leisure without taking any hits. It's so blatantly overpowered I've stopped using it because it just gives me bad habits. The easiest damnation run in my life was just two zealots with crushers infinitely CCing every melee enem we came across. It's busted.
The only thing it's mildly lacking on is damage against bosses and monsters, but it's both adequate in those situations and that weakness could be mitigated with a proper ranged weapon selection.
I'm shocked you put mk 6 & 7 heavy swords on the same line as tac axe that absolutely rocks, i'd put it up there with combat 5 & blade, especially mk 4 which with shred and brutal momentum does everything the combat blade does but with better horde clear okay yeah it doesn't lay down a thousand bleeds but damn its way more viable in far more situations. I've read comments below that place the viability of other tac axes with varied movesets but mk4 doesnt need the varied moveset, you just light attack to victory and use heavy for stubborn single target. Whereas the heavy sword is a c or d pick imo with even the 9 being a b pick.
The hammer might be bad, but god damn its a fun weapon to use
Check my other Tier Lists for Daktide!
Zealot Ranged: ruclips.net/video/rCAX2pjrXM0/видео.html
Ogryn: ruclips.net/video/YsmMNcAcUJ8/видео.html
Pskyer: ruclips.net/video/LO2RjMzBtCQ/видео.html
Veteran: ruclips.net/video/me6d3Cfjb0M/видео.html
H swords: headtaker isn't a recc, it is a necessity; up to 75% DMG cleave and stagger? Rampage is no comparison tbh, it's a nice cherry on top, as is deathblow, extra damage and cleave (where it already has 7+ on it's light sweeps) is nice but already covered quite well in the one blessing
I can't quite objectively disagree with your placement of IX above VII, but will say that I much prefer it over the IX as personal preference, the opening and closing vanguards bookending two perfectly horizontal relentless attacks hits the sweet spot and, unlike most, I prefer the reversal of the heavy combo on the VII (right to left horizontal opener, then downward chop) as compared to the others. It can directly, nearly instantly, follow a very quick special, deal the full strike down dmg of the other swords downward chop, which will delete any shooter mobs in the game and DMG whatever surrounds it as well. Advantage of the IX is that it can chain the horizontal heavies after the initial chop but with the slight downside of losing some of the DMG the heavies normally achieve. With stacked HT and rising conviction you can easily kill either rager variety with two heavies or open with the special, which I recommend, to quickly stagger and 3 shott them in quick order.
At any rate, I'm happy to see them receive love here at all as they still carry something of a bad rep from early days and many still believe they are straight F tier
@@blakemorris2753 Deathblow is more for ignoring armour hitmass than anything else, nothing more annoying than an armoured unit stopping from cleaving a horde :
@@Dalkoragaming to be completely honest, I am *dying* to get a nice deathblow/headtaker sword, every single time I try for one, I end up with deathblow and perfect strike lol. It's the worst of all worlds situation, I may have understated how nice deathblow can be out of my sheer frustration haha. If I could attach screenshots of all the ps/db swords I have in my inventory, it would tell a tale of extreme woe xD
combat blade is s-tier, very good at killing everything but crusher, bleed thru bulwark shield is op, you can also ult for armor pen to make up for its one weakness. mk2 combat axe is A tier not as good as mark 5 but that doesn't make it bad.
what is the main different between Antax mk v combat axe & Rashed? they seems to have similar moveset
For me his best melee weapon and the thunder hammer. Simply because this weapon is effective against all mob's in the game and is a boss destroyer... You can manage hordes on charged attacks without problem and destroy Ogryn, bosses and ragers with the charge.
The knife is I find overestimated... Simply because this weapon certainly allows a good tankiness but not very effective against the bosses... The Ogryn elites and useless against the hordes... The Turtlesky MKVI is better than the other two as well.
Combat knife and flamer though. I rate the CK as S because it gives me an excuse to bring the flamer. I'm still waiting for Brutal Momentum to show up on the good combat axe at all on my Zealot. I have blown all my mats upgrading them to blue as I see them, but no luck.
There is far too much reliance on certain blessings for certain weapons in this game when you have absolutely no reliable way of ever getting them.
how is decimator different than headtaker? (blessings)
Any changes to list since new update?
I play alot with tactical axes, I would rank them Mk4 > Mk7 > Mk2, the movesets differ alot actually, they're not as effective as Antax V obviously, but mk4 is pretty close.
I love the 2 handed chainsword
Not sure what eviscerator you are using. Did they give you a wooden training sword by accident? 🤣😂
Missed out on the limbsplitter Axe.
Whats the reason you didnt list the normal swords?
You are definitely wrong about the hammer. The destruction you can do with it is just crazy. Oh three shoot gunners…. No problem just do two swipes and they rag doll all over the screen. I have literally killed a group of them before my teammates can even say god emperor . So its S tier for sure