Warhammer: Vermintide 2: Kerillian Comprehensive Guide [Legend & Cataclysm] – All careers, all weapons

[Updated to version 5.2.3]

This guide is meant both to teach the specific mechanics of weapons and talents of the character, as well as to showcase many different builds for distinct playstyles.
The goal is that you can find interesting, yet effective builds that best suit your preferences, even those weapons and talents which everyone keeps saying are trash simply because they are not “meta”.
Everything you see here has been properly tested throughout several games.

Disclaimers:
When talking about breakpoints, I don’t consider Wargors specials even though they technically are. What I mean is, if you read “all specials”, that means all specials EXCEPT Wargors.

I tried to adjust the properties’ percentages to the bare minimum required to reach the intended breakpoints, but sometimes it’s just impossible. If you want to make sure you reach them without perfect stats, use the breakpoint calculator (link below).

Legend:
THP = Temporal Health Points
Pv* = Power vs *something* (S for Skaven, C for Chaos, I for Infantry, etc.)
BCR = Block Cost Reduction
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
AS = Attack Speed
DRv* = Damage Reduction vs *something* (S for Skaven, C for Chaos, AoE for Area of Effect)
SBS = Shot Body Shot
SHS = Shot Head Shot
CW = Chaos Warriors
SV = Stormvermin
LAtt = Light Attack
HAtt = Heavy Attack
PAtt = Push Attack
L* = Light attack number *something*
H* = Heavy attack number *something*
BlockCancel = Pressing block input to reset attack combos

Check my other guides:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3032728547
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3035006334
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3081382002
Here are some links to other great stuff made by the community:

• Breakpoint calculator v14.09 (thanks to OrangeChris [original author] and VernonKun [current author]): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-4YkWtWoyKu4lEqqyVANINRGm1dLnKtqosxg7Y14SWw/edit#gid=62597031
• Royale w/ Cheese guides (thanks to, well, Royale w/ Cheese): https://steamcommunity.com/id/dylanrong/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=552500&p=1
• Armory mod wiki: https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/guide-armory-weapon-stats-info/49286
• Vermintide 2 Arsenal comparator (by me. This a WIP spreadsheet made to quickly compare different weapons): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NfBK30PuLJGwoOSqrah24tMRUh53WGE2AwvZzbijSyU/edit?usp=sharing

Kerillian is the squishiest character in the Ubersreik Five. Her weapons sacrifice stagger strength and stamina for more speed and dodge distance

Generally speaking, Kerillian is more suited for damage-dealing roles, specially if she can stay far from the frontline to wreak havoc with her powerful ranged weapons.
She can deal a lot of damage, but can easily get overwhelmed if left alone in the frontline due to the low cleave and stagger strength on her melee weapons.
They are very fast though, which makes it easier to react, dodge and punish enemies.

Kerillian’s careers specialize in one specific role each. This doesn’t mean that their gameplay is not varied or flexible, but that the general playstyle will always be very similar.
Therefore, playing Kerillian is a great way to learn how to play the different roles in the game (except tank).
We will talk about each of them later in the guide, but a quick summary would be:
Waystalker = Ranged dps
Handmaiden = Offtank/Bruiser
Shade = Melee dps
Sister of the thorn = Support

Fast-strikes, armor penetration, cheap pushes, shieldbreaker
The Sword is a weapon with very fast attack speed and good damage per hit, it can struggle against hordes though, so it relies on pushes.
The heavy attacks have good armor penetration, but most importantly, the first one can be easily aimed at the enemies’ heads.
The Sword has decent stamina, high dodge distance and good and cheap pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
– vs hordes: LAtt spam // H2+L2
– vs mixed hordes: LAtt spam // H2+L2
– vs elites: H1+L3

Fast-strikes, armor penetration, headshot bonus, cheap pushes
The Dual Daggers are the fastest melee weapon in the game, but the light attacks lack damage and cleave, which can make them struggle against hordes if you can’t land headshots.
The heavy attacks have excellent armor penetration and are easy to get headshots with, making it extremely strong against armored elites.
The Dual Daggers have low stamina, very high dodge distance and weak but cheap pushes.

Push attacks ignore shields and apply bleed DoT.
Combos:
– vs hordes: LAtt spam
– vs mixed hordes: LAtt spam
– vs elites: H1+BlockCancel

Fast-strikes, armor penetration, headshot bonus, cheap pushes
The Sword & Dagger are the second fastest melee weapon in the game, but the light attacks lack damage and cleave, which can make them struggle against hordes if you can’t land headshots. Still, they are a bit more balanced than Dual Daggers.
The second heavy attack has excellent armor penetration and is easy to get headshots with, making it extremely strong against armored elites.
The Sword & Dagger have decent stamina, high dodge distance and cheap pushes.

Push attacks ignore shields and apply bleed DoT.
Combos:
– vs hordes: LAtt spam
– vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam
– vs elites: PAtt+H2

Fast-strikes, horde-clear
The Dual Swords are very fast and can easily cleave through unarmored enemies, making it extremely good against hordes.
Unfortunately it doesn’t have good attacks against armored enemies.
The Dual Swords have decent stamina, high dodge distance and good pushes.

Push attacks ignore shields.
Combos:
– vs hordes: LAtt // HAtt spam
– vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam
– vs elites: PAtt // HAtt spam

Horde-clear
The Greatsword is not particularly fast, but it’s high cleave and damage against unarmored makes it excellent at fighting hordes.
The heavy attacks have armor penetration, which increases its damage and cleave considerably against armored elites.
The Greatsword has decent stamina, average dodge distance and good pushes.

The push attack is extremely fast.
The second heavy attack willl always be thrown as a follow-up of the first heavy attack, even if you don’t hold the button.
Combos:
– vs hordes: LAtt spam
– vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam
– vs elites: H1+BlockCancel

Horde-clear, armor penetration, shieldbreaker
The Glaive is a weapon with very balanced stats, good damage, cleave and armor penetration, making it decent in all situations. It can serve as a multipurpose weapon.
The Glaive has decent stamina, short dodge distance and good pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
The second heavy attack willl always be thrown as a follow-up of the first heavy attack, even if you don’t hold the button.
Combos:
– vs hordes: LAtt spam
– vs mixed hordes: HAtt spam
– vs elites: HAtt spam

Fast-strikes
The Elven Spear is a safe weapon that relies on pushes to clear hordes. It struggles against armored elites though. It has above average range, but it’s not that big of an advantage.
The Elven Spear has decent stamina, average dodge distance and strong pushes.

Combos:
– vs hordes: PAtt+L2+L3 // H1+BlockCancel
– vs mixed hordes: Run
– vs elites: L1+H2

Armor penetration, shieldbreaker
The Axe is a weapon with fast attack speed and very high damage per hit and armor penetration, which makes it incredibly strong against elites. Unfortunately it can’t cleave through enemies, making it terrible at fighting hordes.
The Axe has decent stamina, high dodge distance and good and cheap pushes.

Heavy attacks break wooden shields.
Combos:
– vs hordes: PAtt+L1
– vs mixed hordes: PAtt+L1
– vs elites: HAtt spam

(Handmaiden only)
Horde-clear, improved block, high stamina, shieldbreaker
The Spear & Shield is a well-rounded weapon with good horde-clear and it’s very safe to use due to the improved block and strong pushes. It can kill armored elites, but it takes time and good aim to land headshots.
The Spear & Shield has very high stamina, short dodge distance and very strong pushes.

Unlike other shield weapons, it doesn’t have a shield slam attack.
Heavy attack 2 breaks wooden shields.
Combos:
– vs hordes: H1+L2+L3
– vs mixed hordes: H1+L2+L3
– vs elites: PAtt+H2+H3

Mid range, horde-clear, special sniping, rapid fire
It has a lot of ammunition but deals very low damage per shot, specially to armored enemies, making it tricky to use efficiently if you don’t have ammo sustain. With good aim though, it’s more than enough to snipe specials during a normal game.
Left click
Shoots a super quick arrow. It doesn’t have a long range, but thanks to its fire rate it can kill hordes very quickly.

Right click
Holding right click improves your accuracy and the damage of the arrow. Good to land headshots on elites and snipe specials at mid and long range.

Long range, special sniping, armor penetration
It has average ammunition and damage. It’s a well-rounded weapon capable of killing both elites and specials even at long ranges. It’s main problem is that it can run out of ammunition if not careful. Requires good aim.
Left click
Shoots a quick arrow. It doesn’t have a long range, but it can be useful when in a pinch to quickly finish off an enemy.

Right click
Holding right click improves your accuracy and the damage of the arrow. Good to land headshots on elites and snipe specials at mid and long range.

Long range, horde-clear, special sniping, AoE, stagger, poison, friendly fire
It has low ammunition, but it can deal a lot of damage against groups of enemies and monsters thanks to its AoE poison.
Left click
Shoots a quick arrow that applies a poison with decent damage. Useful when in a pinch to finish off an enemy or against monsters to maximize the dps.

Right click
Holding right click improves your accuracy and improves your shots, they will create an AoE poison cloud that damages, applies poison DoT and staggers with great strength all enemies in a decently sized area. Amazing for crowd control and horde-clear, but also good to land headshots on elites and snipe specials at mid and long range. At the same time, it’s very easy to hit allies with the AoE, so it’s best to not use it on enemies that are near them.

This weapon is most effective when used as a support weapon. Think of it as AoE stagger that can slowly chunk down enemies’ health. Don’t use it to get kills, that will only make you waste ammo (which is scarce), think of it as a bit of extra damage to finish them off with your melee weapon (or let your allies do it), or to interrupt any enemy with charged shots (CW included, although for armored units you will need to hit the head).

Mid range, horde-clear, special sniping, rapid fire
Volley Crossbow shoots very quickly and has a high capacity magazine, but it deals very low damage.
Left click
Quickly shoots a single bolt that deals very low damage.
Useful to quickly hit regular infantry, but not very effective.

Right click
Shoots three bolts in quick succession. Useful to quickly snipe specials at mid range.

Low range, armor penetration, special sniping, infinite ammo
It has infinite ammo and the ability to do melee attacks. Recovering ammunition is slow and leaves you vulnerable, so it’s very important to not miss shots.
Left click
A quick melee attack that deals good damage against unarmored enemies. Holding it increases its damage, similar to a melee weapon’s heavy attack. Great for defending oneself from close enemies. These attacks don’t spend ammunition.

Right click
Holding right click allows you to throw a javelin, spending ammunition and dealing high damage against unarmored enemies (infantry, monsters and specials). It has low armor penetration, but with good aim, headshots can still kill them easily. Be mindful of its low effective range to properly reach breakpoints.

Hold the reload button to recover ammunition. During the animation you will be vulnerable, so better be careful when doing so.

Infinite range, special sniping, burn, infinite ammo
Instead of ammo, it uses a special resource that is regained automatically but slowly over time, which means that it’s imperative to only use it to kill specific targets. There is no way to speed up the process. It deals damage from applying a burn DoT effect, not from the impact itself, so it’s not affected by the distance traveled by the arrow.
Left click
Shoots a quick arrow. Useful when in a pinch to quickly finish off an enemy.

Right click
Holding right click increases the damage of the arrow’s burn DoT. Good to land headshots on elites and snipe specials at any range.
While aiming like this, the energy bar won’t refill.

A great combo to improve special sniping is to shoot a fully charged arrow and inmediately release right click and shoot a quick arrow. This combo, when performed correctly, is almost instant and will reach lots of breakpoints. It will deal the same damage as 2 partially charged shots.

(Sister of the Thorn only)
Mid range, special sniping, stagger, rapid fire
Instead of using ammunition, it generates overcharge. To learn more about this mechanic check my Sienna guide here. The only differences are that it doesn’t have overheat slowdown and that the overheat “explosion” deals 40% of your max hp instead of knocking you down.
Left click
Shoots four quick projectiles. It doesn’t have a long range, but the damage dropoff is relatively small. Also, thanks to its fire rate it can kill infantry and specials quickly. With headshots, it can also kill armored enemies efficiently (not Chaos Warriors though).
It generates a smalll amount of heat.

Right click
Hold it to aim. While doing so, one enemy will be outlined in red (it overwrites the blue outline from tagging). While aiming, press the shoot button (left click) to make the enemy float in the air, staggering it and making it unable to move or attack for 8 seconds (4 seconds on Chaos Warriors). It doesn’t work with monsters/lords.
It generates a significant amount of heat.

Waystalker is the basic ranged-dps career in Vermintide 2. Having a wide variety of buffs targeted at ranged combat such as ammunition recovery, extra damage for ranged weapons and even a zoom in command.
You can either use ranged weapons with infinite ammo or build your talents in a way that you never run out of it. Either way, with this career it’s possible to use your ranged weapon as much as you want during a mission without having to worry about ammo.
Kerillian’s melee weapons are fast and can do a good amount of damage even without buffs, but their low cleave and stagger strength make them less reliable for self defense. Think of them as tools to cover your ranged weapon’s weakness.
Her core passive “Amaranthe” gives her health regeneration when below half health, which makes this career very forgiving to new players.

• Strengths: High horde-clear, high single target damage, high ammunition sustain, easy to use.
• Weaknesses: Squishy, poor mobility, requires good positioning.

“Trueshot Volley” is one of the best damage-dealing career skills in the game.
Upon releasing the button, you will shoot 3 arrows that seek the head of any enemy that’s in the general direction you are aiming at, damaging everything they go through. The target prioritization (auto-targetting, whatever you wanna call it) is very good, which makes it very reliable at killing specials and elites.
It can be used both for horde-clear and killing either specials or elites, and it doesn’t require to aim at all. Just a quick tap is enough to do the job.
It’s only weaknesses are Chaos Warriors and Monsters, specially in Cataclysm.

• THP on crit/headshot can generate tons of THP if you can land headshots consistently with melee weapons.
• THP on hit is very strong and reliable with how fast Kerillian weapons are. A great option with high cleave weapons like Glaive, Dual Swords, Elven Spear and Greatsword, or if you are not good enough at landing headshots.

• “Blood Shot” is perfect for hybrid playstyles. Unfortunately, this means that only Briar Javelin and Hagbane Shortbow can truly benefit from it, as the other weapons require to stay at a safe distance.
• “Serrated Shots” is a great dps boost for some ranged weapons, allowing them to reach additional breakpoints.
• “Drakira’s Alacrity” is a fun talent for Swift Bow to increase its dps, and a decent option with Briar Javelin since it increases its reload speed. The effect can’t be triggered by melee weapons, but the attack speed buff also works on them, so it’s possible to land a headshot and immediately swap to your melee weapon for better horde-clear.
  The other two options in this row increase each shot’s value instead of their fire rate.

• “Mainstay” is hard to take advantage of and Kerillian’s melee weapons have very low stagger strength. The Elven Spear has a good push attack combo, but even then it’s not that good.
• “Assassin” requires landing headshots consistently (or being lucky with the crits), but it provides a lot of extra damage and bypasses the stagger system completely. This is the best choice by default if you want to boost your melee damage.
• “Enhanced Power” is the only option that increases your ranged weapon’s damage, but it also gives some extra cleave to your melee weapon, which can help during hordes. If you want to focus on ranged combat, this will be the best choice.

• “Isha’s Embrace” increases the effect of “Amaranthe” but, since it’s still limited to half of your health, it doesn’t make much of a difference and “Rejuvenating Locus” will always have more value.
• “Spirit Arrows” removes the survivability from the health regeneration, but it grants a lot of CDR in return, making it very strong at high skill levels. Even though it’s not written in the description, the new effect is always active, not only when below half health.
• “Rejuvenating Locus” grants the effects of “Amaranthe” to the entire team. Incredibly high value, specially in lower difficulties.

• “Fervent Huntress” is an interesting option for repositioning after killing a special or elite. Very useful for the Briar Javelin, since its effective range is relatively low.
• “Ricochet” sounds fun, but it’s mostly useless. The terrain in most maps is way too irregular to be able to fully take advantage of this talent. Plus, it only grants missed shots an extremely low possibility to hit a different enemy, not providing any real benefit if you have decent aim.
• “Asrai Focus” is extremely strong, allowing you to use “Trueshot Volley” way more frequently. When combined with the Level 20 talent “Spirit Arrows” it becomes crazy (if my maths are correct, it reduces the cooldown from 80 seconds to somewhere around 40 seconds).

• “Piercing Shot” can be devastating against chaos warriors and monsters, but it worsens the career skill in any other situation because you loose the homing/autotarget effect. Pick it if you are confident in your aim.
• “Loaded Bow” is a decent upgrade to the base career skill, increasing the chances to kill additional elites and/or specials, while heavily increasing its horde-clearing power.
• “Kurnous’ Reward” grants a super strong ammo recovery effect, and it’s absolutely neccessary on the Swift Bow and the Hagbane Shortbow. With this talent you want to spam the career skill as much as possible against elites and specials. When combined with the CDR talents, it basically gives you infinite ammo with no effort at all.

A standard ranged dps build that relies on hard hitting ranged weapons which can both thin down hordes and snipe specials and elites from a safe distance.

---

Dual Swords have high base crit chance, which makes Crit Power a nice stat for them.
There are two setups for the Briar Javelin, with and without “Enhanced Power”. The only difference are a few breakpoints in Cataclysm that are worth considering, but only if you don’t mind loosing the extra melee damage from “Assassin”. “Enhanced Power” also increases the effective range at which you reach breakpoints.
With this weapon, you don’t need to use your career skill as often, making the Level 20 talent “Rejuvenanting Locus” a very good option.
Level 10 talent “Blood Shot” is activated by javelin’s melee attacks aswell.

Playstyle is relatively simple, use your ranged weapon to kill elites and specials from a safe distance, and swap to your melee to defend yourself from enemies that get close. Stay behind your frontline at all times, protecting their backs and sniping priority targets.

Each ranged weapon has some specific differences in playstyle.

• Use the Briar Javelin to kill specials, thin down hordes and damage or kill elites. Swap to your melee weapon when enemies get too close.
• For the Longbow, learn your breakpoints and wait for the bleed DoT to finish off specials so that you won’t waste ammo. If you have good aim you can kill pretty much anything with ease. Play behind your frontliners to be able to aim properly. Spam “Trueshot Volley” to recover ammunition. With the high CDR stats in this build, you can use it nonstop and have basically infinite ammo in Legend difficulty and above.

Once there are a bunch enemies near you, use your melee weapon to quickly dispatch them. If the horde is too thick though, push and dodge to reposition behind your frontliners. Waystalker is very weak in melee combat and you can get overwhelmed very quickly.
When fighting against mixed hordes, block attacks from elites, then push, dodge backwards, swap to your ranged weapon and shoot an elite. Rinse and repeat until they are all dead and only infantry remains.

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters
– With Enhanced Power, +18.5%PvS, +5.5%PvC and +10%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Savages and any other special
1SHS SV, Monks, Wargors and all specials

Longbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With Enhanced Power, Serrated Shots, +9%PvS, +9%PvC, +9%PvI and +8%PvB:
Charged shots:
1SBS Monks, Savages and all specials
2SBS SV, Bestigors and Maulers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With Serrated Shots, +20%PvS and +20%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Globadiers, Leeches, Blighstormers and Packmasters
1SHS all elites and specials except Maulers and CW

A high dps build that excels at clearing hordes thanks to very high fire rate or AoE damage. It can also deal very high damage to monsters/lords.

---

Scrounger is a valid option for the Hagbane Shortbow due to its low total ammunition, but you are loosing some breakpoints by doing so. Still, with good ammo management and by spamming the career skill, ammo should not be a problem.

You can consider picking “Piercing Shot” as your Level 30 talent to increase your damage against CW, but loosing the ammunition recovery is a big deal for this build, so make sure that you can take full advantage of this talent. If you don’t have near perfect aim, don’t even bother.

The complete opposite to a regular ranged-dps build. Use your ranged weapon to kill hordes and swap to your melee weapon to kill elites as they get close. While these weapons are not the most efficient at killing specials, it still is your job to do so. Thanksfully “Trueshot Volley” is very good at it.

• Swift Bow is insane against hordes, but its damage against armored enemies leaves a lot to be desired. Still, with good aim you can kill them with charged shots in the head. CW are the exception, even with headshots you will only tickle them.
• With Hagbane Shortbow you have to be very careful with friendly fire, both direct shots and the AoE from charged shots, since the poison is extremely annoying to allies.
  Another problem is the damage. Don’t take me wrong, its really high, but it takes a long time to “pay off”, which means that specials and elites will still be a threat for a few seconds after you shoot them.
  This weapon is most effective when used as a support weapon. Think of it as AoE stagger that can slowly chunk down enemies’ health. Don’t use it to get kills, that will only make you waste ammo (which is scarce), think of it as a bit of extra damage to finish them off with your melee weapon (or let your allies do it), or to interrupt any enemy with charged shots (CW included, although for armored units you will need to hit the head).

Spam “Trueshot Volley” to recover ammunition. With the high CDR stats in this build, you can use it nonstop and have basically infinite ammo in Legend difficulty and above.

Elven Spear is a pretty safe weapon thanks to its range, it has great THP generation on cleave and it’s decent enough against hordes. The only downside is its low damage against armored enemies.

Swift Bow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With Serrated Shots, +8%PvS, +8%PvC, +14.5%PvI:
Quickshots:
1SBS skavenslaves, ungors, fanatics and clan rats
2SBS gors, marauders, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
3SBS Maulers, Monks, Savages and Packmasters
1SHS all infantry except marauders
2SHS Wargors
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Monks, Savages and all specials
2SHS Stormvermin
Cataclysm:
– With Enhanced Power, Serrated Shots, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +17.5%PvI:
Quick arrows:
1SBS skavenslaves, ungors, fanatics and clan rats
2SBS gors and marauders
1SHS gors
2SBS/1SHS Assassins
3SBS Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
4SBS Monks, Savages and Packmasters
1SHS+1SBS Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
Charged arrows:
3SBS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
4SBS SV
5SBS Bestigors
2SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
3SHS SV
4SHS Bestigors
1 Quick arrow + 1 Charged arrow (both bodyshots):
Kill Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers

Barrage stacks increase the range at which you reach breakpoints on specials and can even help at reaching some new ones, but, since its not reliable, I’m not writing them down.

Hagbane Shortbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With Barrage, +20%PvS, +10%PvI and +10%PvC:
Quick shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Packmasters, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins, Packmasters
2SBS Globadiers, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Cataclysm:
– With Barrage, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
Quick shots:
2SBS Assassins and Packmasters
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters (only if they are really close!). Theoretically assassins die in 1 shot too, but the aoe poison doesn’t always affect them (seems like a bug)
2SBS any other special
3SBS SV, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Assassins and Packmasters
1SHS+1SBS SV

This is a melee focused career with all offensive, defensive and supporting buffs.
Kerillian’s ranged weapons are strong nevertheless, so you can always snipe specials and elites if need be.
The most important trick to master this career is dodge-dancing, which means learning when to dodge and in which direction while fighting. You do this to dodge attacks, retrigger your level 20 talents buffs and reposition yourself to cover a wider part of the horde, attracting more aggro away from your allies. You can only learn this with time and practice, but there are some nice guides out there that explain dodging mechanics.
Thanks to the extra stamina regen passive, you can spam pushes without risking running out of stamina. This changes the whole playstyle with Kerillian’s melee weapons (except for the Greatsword and the Glaive), with which you no longer have to constantly kite and can instead mix pushes mroe frequently. You can compensate the low cleave and stagger strength of her melee weapons with lots of pushes, granting a lot of safety to maintain constant aggression.
That extra stamina regen passive also applies to nearby allies, so try to stick close to them so everyone can benefit from it.
Handmaiden has another passive that increases revive speed considerably, and also heals 20 permanent health to an ally when reviving them.
These passives emphasize Handmaiden’s role as a support.

• Strengths: Great horde-clear, high mobility, tanky (great crowd control and THP generation), flexible builds.
• Weaknesses: Low dps, hard to learn, no damage reduction.

“Dash” is a low cooldown skill that makes you swiftly move forward, moving through enemies.
It’s extremely useful to reposition yourself, quickly get to an ally that’s in a pinch or to quickly revive an ally that has just been knocked down.
You can also use it to gather attention from enemies and bait them away from your team, giving them some breathing room and space. Thanks to the defensive passives and talents Handmaiden has, this strategy can be pullled off without dying every time.
Still, you have to use it carefully, for while it has low cooldown, you can put yourself in very bad situations. Remember to cancel it by pressing the block button while dashing to not go too far.

• THP on hit is very reliable. The best choice by far in this row for Handmaiden.
• THP on kill is only really better than THP on hit with Elven Axe, since it has very high damage per hit and specializes at killing elites. Otherwise, better ignore it.
• The heal share talent “Eternal Blossom” can be safely used with spear & shield and elven spear, since they are very defensive weapons thanks to the push attack combos and extra range. It’s very situational and hard to capitalize on but, if you are playing on a premade team, well, it is viable with one specific build, which is extremely rare.

• “Focused Spirit” is a big damage boost, but taking damage removes it so it won’t be active when you need it most. Still, once you are good at aggressive playstyles, it’s very strong and can also help reach breakpoints on your ranged weapon (or extend their effective range).
• “Oak Stance” is a boring +5% crit chance. Not bad, but not too good either. Safe option if you don’t find yourself comfortable with “Focused Spirit” and don’t spam push attacks.
• “Asrai Alacrity” greatly boosts your attack speed and power for two attacks after blocking or pushing. Extremely strong if you tend to push frequently, which you should with some weapons like Spear & Shield and Elven Spear.

• “Smiter” is a solid damage increase for low stagger weapons, which are most in Kerillian’s arsenal.
• “Mainstay” is exceptionally good with Handmaiden due to its playstyle relying on constantly pushing enemies to abuse the additional stamina regen. Unfortunately most weapons don’t have enough stagger strength to interrupt elites, so you will be sacrificing a lot of damage against them when compared to “Smiter”.
• “Enhanced Power” doesn’t benefit a melee focused career as much as the other options and it’s not necessary to reach breakpoints on ranged weapons either.

• “Willow Stance” is basically a constant +15% attack speed buff. Very strong and reliable in every build.
• “Dance of Blades” increases your power by 10% for 2 seconds after dodging while not blocking, or dodge distance while blocking. Even though the duration is short, during a fight you should be constantly dodging, making it a consistent buff. Unless you are looking for specific breakpoints, “Willow Stance” will be more useful.
• “Wraith-Walk” allows you to escape when surrounded by enemies. Excellent when using “Dash” aggressively in combination with “Bladedancer” or “Power from Pain” and not getting stuck in the middle of a horde.

• “Heart of Oak” increases your max health, which allows you to take more hits when playing very aggressively. {{looks very good on paper, and while health is the best stat in the game, it’s only useful to tank more hits, which ideally should never happen.}}
• With “Birch Stance” you can prevent dying in tough situations, and due to the low amount of stamina that Kerillian’s melee weapons have, it gives you better survivability.
• “Quiver of plenty” is necessary if you are using the hagbane shortbow, and very important for the swift bow. If you are using neither, ignore this talent.

• “Gift of Ladrielle” is always a good choice, allowing for more clutch plays. It’s incredibly useful both offensively (easy elite and special kills) and defensively (scaping, resurrecting allies).
• “Bladedancer” is fun in combination with Sienna’s burn effects or the hagbane shortbow poison, but other than that is useless, since using Dash aggressively to hit as many enemies as possible is usually a suicide and the damage is not high enough on its own to really work. Maybe worth considering if using Elven Axe or Dual Daggers. Trick: Dodge-dance around the horde and away from your allies, then Dash towards them, going through as many enemies as possible and finishing the dash in a safe place at the same time.
• “Power from Pain” is good for more dps-like builds to trigger Swift Slaying more frecuently and get extra damage (specially against armored enemies). It’s very important to cancel Dash after you get the stacks from this talent, otherwise you might get yourself in very bad situations (level 20 “Wraith-Walk” can help with getting out). You need to go through an enemy completely, not just touch it, so cancelling the dash early can prevent you from getting stacks. Trick: Dodge-dance around the horde and away from your allies, then Dash towards them, going through as many enemies as possible and finishing the dash in a safe place at the same time.

A tank build that can soak a lot of aggro, gaining time and creating space for the rest of the team to dish out damage.

---

Level 5 “Eternal Blossom” can be safely used with spear & shield and elven spear, since they are very defensive weapons thanks to the push attack combos and extra range. If you pick this, you can safely run “Healers Touch” on your necklace.
Never pick “Gift of Ladrielle” as your Level 30 talent, you want to take as much aggro as possible.

Try to gather as much aggro as possible and hold the enemies by pushing and killing them.
Play near your allies and create space for them with your melee weapons. You should also try to snipe elites and specials by quickly swapping to your ranged weapons.
Use “Dash” only to get out of very dangerous situations or to help teammates that are far from you, allowing them to reposition and recover their stamina.

Spear & Shield stagger breakpoints:
– With Asray Alacrity active and +14.5%PvS/PvB:
Pushes interrupt all attacks except Chaos Warriors overheads.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters

Longbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvI and +5%PvA:
Quick shots:
2SBS Monks, Savages, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
3SBS Maulers and Packmasters
1SHS Assassins
2SHS Monks, Savages, Wargors and all specials
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +13,5%PvS/PvB and +14,5%PvC/PvA:
2SBS Monks, Savages and all specials
3SBS Stormvermin and Bestigors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW

A bruiser is a frontliner that controls hordes through doing damage and killing multiple enemies quickly. Handmaiden’s talents can boost her attack speed and power enough to make her very strong at this role.

---

Both Level 10 talents “Focused Spirit” and “Oak Stance” increase your damage, but in different ways.
“Focused Spirit” gives more cleave as well as damage, so it’s better against hordes, while “Oak Stance” grants more triggers of Swift Slaying and more damage overall.
With Dual Swords you want crit power and as much power as possible to increase your damage against elites. The extra power from talents is great to increase the damage dealt by your ranged weapons as well, increasing their effective range for breakpoints.

Similar to the offtank build, but with more independence.
You become a horde killing machine thanks to the extra attack speed from your talents, without sacrificing the ability to kill elites on your own. You do loose some survivability due to the lower range on your melee weapons, so better positioning and dodging skills are necessary.
You can also use your dash aggressively, but it’s risky.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters

Longbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvI and +5%PvA:
Quick shots:
2SBS Monks, Savages, Assassins, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
3SBS Maulers and Packmasters
1SHS Assassins
2SHS Monks, Savages, Wargors and all specials
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS Stormvermin, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +13,5%PvS/PvB and +14,5%PvC/PvA:
2SBS Monks, Savages and all specials
3SBS Stormvermin and Bestigors
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW

A melee dps build that focuses on killing elites first and then helps the frontliners to keep the hordes under control. Thanks to Handmaiden’s attack speed and stamina regen buffs, you can do both things at the same time, so don’t ignore the regular infantry to chase around an elite.

---

If you get hit frequently, “Asrai Alacrity” might be better for you than “Focused Spirit” at Level 5.
For the Level 25 talent, “Birch Stance”‘s extra BCR is nice to have with these weapons, but “Quiver of Plenty” is mandatory with Hagbane Shortbow.
For your Level 30 talent, pick “Gift of Ladrielle” if you have trouble at kiting elites or “Bladedancer” for better horde-clear.

Strong against hordes thanks to these weapons’ fast attack speed and push attacks. In addition to the high damage against armored elites, these builds are exceptionally good at any situation, although you will have to play for yourself instead of as a support in order to stay alive.
You should use your Dash for self defense or to get closer to groups of elites that are bullying your allies.
For the Elven Axe you should combo push attack followed by two light attacks to annihilate hordes safely.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Swift Bow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With +8,5%PvS, +5%PvC and +10%PvI:
Quickshots:
2SBS Assassins
2SHS Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
Charged shots:
2SBS Monks, Savages and all specials except Ratlings and Warpfires
3SBS Ratlings
2SHS SV, Ratlings, Wargors and Packmasters
Cataclysm:
– With +16%PvS, +6.5%PvC and +9%PvA:
Quick arrows:
3SBS Assassins
5SBS Monks, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
2SHS Assassins
3SHS Monks, Savages, Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Wargors
Charged arrows:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Monks and all specials except Assassins
1SHS Assassins
2SHS Monks, Savages, Wargors and all specials
1 Quick arrow + 1 Charged arrow (both bodyshots):
Kill Assassins

Barrage stacks increase the range at which you reach breakpoints on specials and can even help at reaching some new ones, but, since its not reliable, I’m not writing them down.

Hagbane Shortbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With Barrage, +20%PvS, +10%PvI and +10%PvC:
Quick shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Packmasters, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials and elites except CW and Wargors
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters
2SBS Globadiers, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
1SHS SV, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Cataclysm:
– With Barrage, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
Quick shots:
2SBS Assassins and Packmasters
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters (only if they are really close!). Theoretically assassins die in 1 shot too, but the aoe poison doesn’t always affect them (seems like a bug)
2SBS any other special
3SBS SV, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Assassins and Packmasters
1SHS+1SBS SV

Shade is the assassin career in Vermintide 2. A melee dps who specializes in dealing high burst damage to quickly dispatch big threats like elites and bosses. Her whole kit revolves around hitting enemies on the back and landing critical hits for massive bursts of damage, capable of one-shotting CW consistently.
And that’s what makes her main role in the team to focus on elites and bosses and kill them quickly, while the rest control the rest of the horde and kill specials. Don’t separate too far from your allies though, you will need them to cover your back.
While she might not be the most solid frontline, she can stand her ground and be of good help to the rest of the team. On top of that, Kerillian’s ranged weapons are always good at sniping specials, making this career very flexible and useful in any team composition.
Her core passive doubles the damage dealt on enemies when attacking them from behind and, with another passive, her charged critical backstabs instantly slay man-sized enemies.
Since her melee attacks while on stealth are always critical hits, the best way to take advantage of all of her passives is to use heavy attacks during invisibility effects.
Becoming invisible also helps at getting behind the enemies.
There are two ways for Shade to enter stealth: using her career skill or dodging after parrying an attack (also known as “Timed Block”).

• Strengths: Insane single target damage, insane dps.
• Weaknesses: Bad horde-clear, squishy (can compensate with high THP generation in high difficulties), hard to play, low build variety.

“Infiltrate” makes you become undetectable (stealth), able to pass through enemies and to deal greatly increased melee damage on your next attack. The effect lasts for 5 seconds or until she deals damage.
While it can work as a panic button, it is best used aggressively. Move behind enemy lines while invisible and hit an elite with a charged attack on their back. This will do crazy amounts of damage, and it’s even garanteed to kill any human sized enemy hit (everything except CW and bosses).

Be mindful of your team when using the career skill as it immediately puts you in stealth, forcing the enemies to aggro your allies instead and putting more pressure into them. Sometimes saving yourself can mean killing an ally.
Pushes with your melee weapon don’t cancel stealth, so you can open yourself a path through the enemies and still be useful to your team while you safely move to a better position.

• THP on crit/headshot can generate tons of THP if you can land headshots consistently with melee weapons.
• THP on kill can be good on specific situations in Cataclysm, where elites are abundant. Considering that killing elites with Shade is relatively easy, it is a great choice, specially if you struggle at landing headshots.

• “Cruelty” for stealth plays (killing elites and bosses) Good in combination with level 30 talents “Shimmer Strike” or “Cloak of Pain”.
• “Exploit Weakness” can increase Hagbane Shortbow’s damage. Dual Daggers and Sword & Dagger can also apply bleed, but by the time they do, the enemies should already be dead. Pick only if both weapons can apply poison/bleed. Still, the low ammo on Hagbane makes this talent very hard to capitalize on.
• “Exquisite Huntress” gives the most consistent dps. Great in any setup, but requires landing headshots.

• “Smiter” is a very solid damage increase for most of Kerillian’s weapons, but it’s most noticeable against elites, since they are much harder to stagger. Pick if you have trouble landing headshots with your melee weapon.
• “Assassin” combines greatly with Shade’s passives and playstyle. Pick if you can land headshots consistently with your melee weapon or if you are playing with a stealth build.
• “Enhanced Power” gives less melee damage than the other two options and it’s not necessary to reach breakpoints on ranged weapons either.

• “Chain killer” grants a huge increase in dps against bosses. Note that hitting an enemy with anything other than a melee charged attack on the back removes all stacks. This includes bombs and cleaving through multiple enemies (if at least one enemy is not hit in the back, you loose the buff. This means that it only works on isolated targets like CW and bosses).
• “Focused Slaying” allows you to use your career skill very often, specially good when combined with level 30 talent “Shimmer Strike”.
• “Bloodfletcher” grants a way to recover ammunition. Good with Hagbane Shortbow and Longbow, but due to the two second cooldown, it’s not very noticeable unless you really want to diversify your playstyle.

• “Blood Drinker” is a very solid choice when playing as a frontliner (Greatsword, Dual Sword, Glaive…) for extra protection.
• “Spring-Heeled Assassin” combines extremely well with level 30 talent “Shimmer Strike” to chain kill elites and specials; and it’s also great for aggressive frontline playstyles, allowing you to move faster through the battlefield as long as you keep landing critical hits.
• “Gladerunner” is good in more situations. The key difference with “Spring-Heeled Assassin” is that it also helps at getting in and not just at getting out.

• “Shimmer Strike” works great with melee weapons that can one-shot elites and specials without the extra damage from the career skill. With the right positioning and movement, you can solo an entire patrol as long as they don’t aggro you (stealth is bugged and enemies might still follow/look at you). The second stealth you gain with this talent doesn’t go off when you attack, so you can play more aggressive for a short time. It’s bugged and sometimes the second stealth will dispel after hitting an enemy (therefore, obviously, the duration won’t be extended).
  Use heavy attacks on elites backs’ to kill them instantly and extend the duration (except CW).
• “Hungry Wind” is a good choice for a bruiser-like playstyle, helping you hold the frontline better thanks to the extra power, although you sacrifice a lot of the elite-killing potential that the other two choices provide since it removes the empowered strike. I’m not entirely sure, but it seems like sometimes you don’t execute enemies with the garanteed crit while on the initial stealth if using this talent.
• “Cloak of Pain” is ideal for increasing your damage against bosses, and gives you the ability to one-shot two chaos warriors in a row.

A melee dps build with high headshot and crit bonus damage that can benefit from killing both elites and hordes alike.

---

Neither THP talent is good with Greatsword, so pick your favorite.
Level 10 talent “Exquisite Huntress” for horde-clear and front to back fighting.
Level 20 talent “Bloodfletcher” is a must with the hagbane shortbow.

This build is more balanced and plays exactly like a melee dps should. Help your frontliners by killing the hordes alongside them, then change your focus to elites whenever they get close to your team. Try aiming to the head to gain bonus damage and generate more THP.

Elven Spear’s combos mix heavy attacks and light attacks, which makes it harder to take advantage of Shade’s passives and talents. On top of that, it’s horde-clear combo relies heavily on pushes and, since Shade doesn’t have any increase to stamina or stamina regeneration, it quickly becomes a nuisance.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.

Greatsword breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
– With +10%PvS/PvA reaches breakpoint on stormvermin (1SHS heavy attack).
– With +10%PvC/PvA reaches breakpoint on chaos warriors (2SBS backstab heavy attacks).
PvS and PvC are better individually than PvA, so you can pick both on your charm and open 2 properties on your weapon, but that compromises breakpoints on your ranged weapon.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters

Volley Crossbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +12.5%PvI:
2SBS all specials except Ratling Gunners & Warpfire Throwers
3SBS Ratling Gunners & Warpfire Throwers
3SBS Maulers
2SHS Ratling Gunners & Warpfire Throwers
Cataclysm:
– With +11.5%PvI:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
4SBS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
– With +5%PvS, +5%PvC, +6.5%PvI and 9.5%PvA:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
4SBS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SHS any special
4SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors

Hagbane Shortbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With Barrage, +20%PvS, +10%PvI and +10%PvC:
Quick shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Packmasters, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials and elites except CW and Wargors
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters
2SBS Globadiers, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
1SHS SV, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Cataclysm:
– With Barrage, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
Quick shots:
2SBS Assassins and Packmasters
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters (only if they are really close!). Theoretically assassins die in 1 shot too, but the aoe poison doesn’t always affect them (seems like a bug)
2SBS any other special
3SBS SV, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Assassins and Packmasters
1SHS+1SBS SV

Anti-monster build. It plays just like the headhunter build, but talents focus more on monster damage instead of chain-killing elites and clearing hordes.

---

Choose as your level 20 talent “Chain Killer” for more dps or “Focused Slaying” for killing elites with career skill.

With garanteed crits while on stealth and the crit damage bonuses from “Cruelty” and “Assassin”, these weapons can annihilate entire hordes with elites included (well, except Chaos Warriors with Dual Swords). The main difference with the Headhunter build is that the damage is less consistent, since it depends on crits instead of headshots. The extra backstab damage is very good against bosses though.

Sword is a well-rounded weapon and, thanks to its cheap pushes, it has decent horde control; not as good as the Greatsword or the Glaive, but good enough. Spam heavy attacks against armored enemies
Elven Axe’s breakpoints with “Assassin” and “Cruelty” make it very decent against regular infantry, but extremely strong against elites, even CW.
Hagbane Shortbow compensates for the Elven Axe’s terrible horde-clear, and with Level 20 “Bloodfletcher” you will have just enough ammunition sustain to be able to shoot it consistently, even at the frequency and thickness of Cataclysm hordes.
During hordes, you will need to play patiently with the axe. Wait for your allies to come help you or push the enemies away and make yourself space to shoot the Hagbane Shortbow. After the horde has thinned down considerably, get close with the axe and start killing the remaining enemies. Dodge sideways to try and hit backstabs to recover ammo.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to gain some time to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill a special.

Elven Axe breakpoints:
Cataclysm:
– With Assassin:
Heavy attack backstab during infiltrate: 2SBS CW
– With Cruelty and Assassin:
Heavy attack backstab during infiltrate: 1SHS CW
– With +18%PvC/PvI:
Light attack crit kills gor in 1 bodyshot.
– With +0.1%
Light attack crit backstab kills marauders in 1 bodyshot and SV in 2.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters

Volley Crossbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +12.5%PvI:
2SBS all specials except Ratling Gunners & Warpfire Throwers
3SBS Ratling Gunners & Warpfire Throwers
3SBS Maulers
2SHS Ratling Gunners & Warpfire Throwers
Cataclysm:
– With +11.5%PvI:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
4SBS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
– With +5%PvS, +5%PvC, +6.5%PvI and 9.5%PvA:
2SBS Assassins
3SBS Globadiers, Leeches, Blightstormers and Packmasters
4SBS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SHS any special
4SHS SV, Bestigors, Monks, Savages and Wargors

Hagbane Shortbow breakpoints:
Legend:
– With Barrage, +20%PvS, +10%PvI and +10%PvC:
Quick shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS Packmasters, Globadiers, Leeches and Blightstormers
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Assassins
2SBS all specials and elites except CW and Wargors
1SHS Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters
2SBS Globadiers, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
1SHS SV, Lifeleeches, Blightstormers, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
Cataclysm:
– With Barrage, +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
Quick shots:
2SBS Assassins and Packmasters
Charged shots:
1SBS Packmasters (only if they are really close!). Theoretically assassins die in 1 shot too, but the aoe poison doesn’t always affect them (seems like a bug)
2SBS any other special
3SBS SV, Maulers, Monks and Savages
1SHS Assassins and Packmasters
1SHS+1SBS SV

Sister of the Thorn is a dedicated support career, arguably the only one in the game.
Her passives, talents and career skill are meant to improve the whole team’s performance in many different areas, making her some sort of all-rounder career.
Her core passive grants her a buff called “Radiance” every 60 seconds. When active, this buff allows Sister of the Thorn to use her career skill even when it’s on cooldown. Obviously, when doing so, “Radiance” is consumed and its cooldown restarts.
tl;dr free career skill use every 60 seconds.
All of her regular passives (perks) are very strong, let’s take a look at them:
– “Blackvenom Blades” makes her melee attacks apply a long duration poison that deals a bit of damage and increases the damage received by 12%. This is extremely useful to boost the damage dealt by the whole team, and it’s extremely easy to apply as well.
– Thanks to “A Sustenance of Leechlings”, Kerillian will gain excess THP generated by allies. This can be seen as “if you protect your team, your team will protect you” (quite literally).
– “An Attendance of Munificents” increases all healing received by the whole team by 25%. It affects both permanent health and THP.

• Strengths: All rounder, good dps, good crowd control, tanky (high THP generation), strong team buffs.
• Weaknesses: Low burst damage, no mobility, career skill can be detrimental to the team if used incorrectly.

“Thornwake” casts a wall of thorns/plants that prevents enemies from moving through it it also blocks their attacks (including specials’), messing with their AI quite effectively. The wall lasts for 6 seconds. Upon creation, the wall also inflicts a bit of damage.
Despite this sounding like it’s super op, it is very hard to position it in the right place, since leaving even just the smallest opening will render it much less effective.
Another potential problem when using this skill is that the wall also deflects attacks and projectiles from the players. This means that it can interrupt long-range, wide horizontal attacks such as those from greatswords and the like; or it can even block bombs and career skills used by your allies. Despite players being able to move through walls, since they can’t attack while traversing through them, they will be very vulnerable.
Pressing left click while holding the career skill button will change the wall’s direction from horizontal to vertical and viceversa.

“Thornwake” is the hardest career skill to use correctly in the entire game, not only because it requires you to be very precise when using it, making it extremely hard to get value from, while it’s also very easy to mess up and annoy your teammates.

My recommendation is to use it to block entire paths/roads, forcing enemies to stay behind the wall for a few seconds and effectively making them useless for that period. But, you should never use it where your allies are looking at.
For example, if an ally is in position to fight an incoming horde, don’t wall in their face, that will only make them angry (which is entirely reasonable) and also make them useless for the 6 seconds it lasts.
Another great use is to make a wide space narrower, forcing enemies to stay very close together and making them more vulnerable to AoE abilites and bombs.

It has relatively low cooldown on top of the “Radiance” passive, so don’t be afraid to use it frequently, specially if you have talents that trigger when using the career skill.

• THP on crit/headshot can generate tons of THP if you can land headshots consistently with melee weapons.
• THP on kill is only really better with Elven Axe, since it has very high damage per hit and specializes at killing elites; or if you struggle a lot at landing headshots. Otherwise, it’s best to ignore it.
• The heal share talent “Eternal Blossom” is actually viable for Sister of the Thorn thanks to one of her passives granting her THP generated by allies that are at full health.

• “Surge of Malice” grants a lot of attack speed while at high health. Since it takes into account your temporal health as well, it should almost always be active during fights, even if your green health is not full.
• “Atharti’s Delight” is the default go to in this row. A nice boost to your dps against all types of enemies.
• “Briar’s Malice” gives 2 garanteed crits upon casting “Thornwake”. These can stack and last indefinetly, so you can use your career skill more than once in a row without being afraid of wasting its effects. The garanteed crit is also consumed by non-damaging attacks like Deepwood Staff’s alternate fire (lifting enemies).

• “Smiter” is a solid damage increase for low stagger weapons, which are most in Kerillian’s arsenal.
• “Mainstay” is hard to take advantage of and Kerillian’s melee weapons have very low stagger strength on their own. The Elven Spear has a good push attack combo, but even then it’s not that good.
• “Enhaned Power” usually grants the least amount of damage for melee weapons, but Sister of the Thorn’s poison DoT (and the other DoTs available through talents) also benefit from it. Additionally, the extra cleave is always welcomed.

• “Incandescence” allows you to use your career skill more times in tough situations, great if you are still learning how to propeprly aim and position the walls, or if you want to contribute more to the team as a support.
• “Bonded Spirit” is similar to “Incandescence”, but instead of being able to use the career skill three times in a row, you can use it two times in a row more often. The drawback of increasing the cooldown when taking damage can be problematic though. Between these two, pick by personal preference. Good in combination with Level 10 “Briar’s Malice”.
• “Radiant Inheritance” is overall good, since it boosts everyones dps for 10 seconds every time you spend “Radiance”. Really good choice with Level 30 “Blackvenom Thicket”.

• “Recursive Toxin” is the default go to in this row. A nice boost to your dps against all types of enemies.
• “Lingering Blackvenom” applies the passive poison in a small area around enemies you land crits on, hence increasing your horde-clear. Overall, “Recursive Toxin” is more dps, but this talent can be very useful for weapons with low cleave like the Elven Axe.
• With “Repel” your pushes at full stamina double in range and strength. By default can interrupt almost every enemy attack (except berserkers’ combos and chaos warrior’s overheads). This talent makes “Mainstay” much stronger, since it’s almost garanteed that you will stagger enemies with the empowered push.

• “Ironbark Thicket” increases the width and duration of the Thorn Wall. Ideal for more tactical uses of the career skill.
• “Tanglegrasp Thicket” gives more utility to the career skill, pushing enemies between you and where the wall will be created back. Sometimes enemies don’t get pushed all the way back, but at the very least they will be staggered. Very good with weapons that lack crowd control and horde-clearing, creating more space than normal for you and your team.
• “Blackvenom Thicket” gives more immediate value and AoE damage at the expenses of the zoning capabilities by changing the Thorn Wall into a spiky attack. Only consider this if you lean more into a dps playstyle or if you don’t feel comfortable with your skill to place walls.

A melee dps build that can melt hordes and monsters alike through DoT effects.

---

Kills with poison or bleed DoTs don’t grant THP with “Martial Blessing” (THP on kill), making “Weavebond” (THP on crit/headshot) even better for this build.
DoTs damage increases with power, that’s why you should pick “Enhanced Power” (Level 15) and “Radiant Inheritance” (Level 20).
For level 30, “Ironbark Thicket” can compensate the lack of horde-clear from Dual Daggers and from Sword, but “Blackvenom Thicket” does the same that without forcing weird AI behaviours.

A melee dps usually focuses on killing elites first and then helps the frontliners to keep the hordes under control. Sister’s talents are not that noticeable against elites, but the listed weapons are naturally good at dealing with them, so you shouldn’t have much trouble there.
The fast light attacks from these weapons though can apply DoT effects super quickly, ideal to melt hordes and monsters alike.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to block a special, or you can reposition in order to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill (or lift) a special. If there is a ranged dps in your team, protecting them will usually be the right strategy.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With EP, +20%PvS, +5%PvC and +5.5%PvI:
1SBS SV, Assassins, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Globadiers
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except Maulers, CW and Wargors
– With an additional +8.5%PvM: 1SBS Packmasters
– With an additional +5.5%PvI: 1SBS Leeches and Blightstormers
Cataclysm:
– With EP, +9.5%PvS and +18.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratlings and Warpfires
2SBS any other special, SV and Bestigors
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo SV and all specials except Packmasters
– With additional +5%PvC: 1SHS Wargors
– With additional +5%PvS/PvM: 1 combo Packmasters

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters
– With Enhanced Power, +18.5%PvS, +5.5%PvC and +10%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Savages and any other special
1SHS SV, Monks, Wargors and all specials

An all-rounder support build that can control hordes, disable elites and kill specials no problem.

---

The level 25 talent “Repel” is the star of this build. In order to take advantage from it, you have to push when you are at full stamina, so push always before blocking attacks and wait fot the stamina to refill.
Level 10 “Surge of Malice” has nice sinergy with this build, but “Atharti’s Delight” is more consistent and helps a lot with horde-clear.
Both Level 30 talents are good, choose based on personal preference.
If you want, you can adapt your charm properties to reach stagger breakpoints (check below), but you might have to change one property on the weapon to either PvC or PvS in order to not compromise your ranged weapons’ breakpoints.

This build focuses on supporting your allies while keeping yourself safe.
Push enemies, keep your team healed and help clearing the hordes or sniping elites and specials. Keep your playstyle flexible.

All three ranged weapons listed are great at dealing with specials and elites, although in Cataclysm the “ammunition” might be a bit too tight to kill the increased amount of elites. Because of that, I recommend focusing on protecting your allies first instead of doing the job yourself.

Elven Spear stagger breakpoints:
– With Repel and +5%PvS/PvA:
Pushes interrupt Stormvermin all attacks.
– With Repel, Opportunist, +8%PvC and +10%PvA:
Pushes and heavy attack 2 (stab) interrupt all attacks except CW overheads and Plague Monks combos. Can’t interrupt CW and Plague Monks idle either.
Heavy attack 1 (sweep) can interrupt all attacks from Stormvermin, Wargors and Savages.

Greatsword stagger breakpoints:
– With Repel and +5%PvS/PvA:
Pushes interrupt Stormvermin all attacks, Bestigors and Wargors idle and sweep attacks, and Maulers idle.
– With Repel, Opportunist and +5%PvC/PvB:
Pushes interrupt all attacks except CW overheads and Plague Monks combos. Can’t interrupt CW and Plague Monks idle either.

Glaive stagger breakpoints:
– With Repel and +5%PvS/PvA:
Stormvermin all attacks, Bestigors and Wargors idle and sweep attacks, and Maulers idle.
– With Repel, Opportunist and +5%PvC/PvB:
Interrupt all attacks except CW overheads and Plague Monks combos. Can’t interrupt CW and Plague Monks idle either.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters
– With Enhanced Power, +18.5%PvS, +5.5%PvC and +10%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Savages and any other special
1SHS SV, Monks, Wargors and all specials

A melee dps build with a good mix of horde-clear and elite killing power.

---

Level 20 “Bonded Spirit” gives more casts of career skill to trigger Level 10 “Briar’s Malice” more often.
The garanteed crits are great to combo with Scrounger on the Hagbane Shortbow, making those shots effectively free.

A melee dps usually focuses on killing elites first and then helps the frontliners to keep the hordes under control. With the garanteed crits after casting “Thornwake” make it very easy to kill elites on command.
On top of that, Dual Swords and Greatsword are excellent at killing hordes, while the level 25 talent “Lingering Blackvenom” and the Hagbane Shortbow can compensate the Elven Axe’s and Sword’s weakness at dealing with them.

The elven axe with the garanteed crits from “Briar’s Malice” (Level 10) works surprisingly well against monsters and chaos warriors. Add a Hagbane Shortbow for horde-clearing and you will be very strong in both aspects. Although ammo can quickly become an issue.

While killing specials is not your priority, there is no reason to not help your team when the situation allows it. If you see your team struggling on their own, you can always use the career skill to block a special, or you can reposition in order to swap to your ranged weapon and quickly kill (or lift) a special. If there is a ranged dps in your team, protecting them will usually be the right strategy.

Moonfire Bow breakpoints:
(Regular are fully charged shots. “Combo” is 1 fully charged shot + 1 quick shot or 2 partially charged shots)
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC, +5%PvA and +8.5%PvI:
1SBS all specials except Packmasters
2SBS all elites except CW
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
1 combo all enemies except CW and Wargors
Cataclysm:
– With +20%PvS, +6%PvI and +7.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS any other special, SV and Monks
1SHS SV and all specials except Packmasters
1 combo all specials

Briar Javelin breakpoints:
Be mindful of the low effective range.
Legend:
– With +10%PvS, +10%PvC and +20%PvI:
1SBS Assassins, Globadiers, Blightstormers and Leeches
2SBS SV, Bestigors, Maulers, Monks, Savages, Ratling Gunners, Warpfire Throwers and Packmasters
1SHS all enemies except Maulers and CW
Cataclysm:
– With +18.5%PvS and +16.5%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks and any other special
1SHS SV and Wargors and all specials except Packmasters
– With Enhanced Power, +18.5%PvS, +5.5%PvC and +10%PvA:
1SBS Assassins, Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers
2SBS SV, Monks, Savages and any other special
1SHS SV, Monks, Wargors and all specials

Here you have links to some examples of the builds showcased in this guide.

– Sniper (Briar Javelin): https://www.ranalds.gift/build/oNGDbYQL9VfB5SzKfS5X/view
– Sniper (Longbow): https://www.ranalds.gift/build/ogjqa13K6qbO8ZWAYmY8/view
– Trash-killer (Swift Bow): https://www.ranalds.gift/build/o0ud5CizP8UPZSXDgI6K/view
– Trash-killer (Hagbane Shortbow): https://www.ranalds.gift/build/M3GWUBjoi2WBqbs6Oe4Q/view

– Off-tank: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/9GgCpwJV63SRcAi6XRrD/view
– Bruiser: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/C2EsbuOJwkDk6qccvfb2/view
– Clapmaiden: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/Kp6SRjoWAywPJ1yqUfZH/view

– Headhuntress: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/PxSh3LvbUwerUZhEMYI9/view
– Backstabber: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/7Yi6QEOMkbjyg5pM2Mb8/view

– Poisonous Witch: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/OXkiaR0UI2nUjbfbZMAK/view
– Untouchable: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/vXJOwvYYTVw9VDmrtUR3/view
– Briar’s Malice: https://www.ranalds.gift/build/gu4ijfMn07APeap0PQAm/view