Career General Overview

 

Career Orientation

 
A melee focus career with consistent team buff and strong crowd control ability. 
 
Pros: High health sustain for the whole team and more for herself, can provide one of the best crowd control career skills and best elite control weapon in the game, passive with talents can be one of the strongest buffs in the game. 
Cons: Low burst damage without certain talents, fairly low mobility. 
 

Basic Stats

 
Base HP: 125 
Career Skill Cooldown: 40 sec 
Unusable Weapons: Spear and Shield, Volley Crossbow 
 

Perks

 

A Murder of Spites	Kerillian deals up to 50% more damage to wounded targets depending on their current health.    Damage Increase = Enemy Missing HP/(2 x Enemy Full HP)
A Sustenance of Leechlings	Whenever another party member receives temporary health while at full health, Kerillian gains temporary health instead.    ‘Full health’ means Permanent HP + Temporary HP is full. The effect is global.
An Attendance of Munificents	All healing received by the party is increased by 25%.    All Sister of the Thorn healing related talents do not include this perk when listing numbers.

 

Career Skill & Passive

 

Thornwake	Kerillian conjures a Thorn Wall that hinders enemy movement. The Thorn Wall lasts for 6 seconds.	The default Thorn Wall direction is horizontal, you can change its direction to vertical by holding Career Skill(default key: F) and click mouse left click.  The Thorn Wall does some little eruption damage.  For enemies, they cannot path through the Thorn Wall. They either have to change their routes or break the wall with their attacks. The Thorn Wall blocks all enemy attacks, including range attacks like Ratling Gunner and Ungor Archer.  For players, you can walk through the Thorn Wall, but your movement speed is reduced. The Thorn Wall also blocks your melee and range attacks too, and your weapon also deals damage to the Thorn Wall.  Should try to either completely block enemies, for them to reroute/break wall to buy your team some breathing room, or creating a choke point for better DPS opporunity.
A Cluster of Radiant	Kerillian is granted Radiance (a free use of her career skill) every 60 seconds.	When using a career skill with both base skill recharge and Radiance ready, Kerillian will consume your natural recharged career ability first, and then the Radiance charge.

 
 
 

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part I)

 

LeveL 5 Row

 

Weavebond	Melee critical strikes and headshots restore 2 temporary health. Critical headshots restores twice as much.	Should be used if you have consistent headshot rate or you are using a high crit chance/fast attack speed weapon.
Martial Blessing	Melee killing blows restore temporary health based on the health of the slain enemy.	Should be used if you melee weapon has strong elites killing power.
Eternal Blossom	Healing yourself with a First Aid Kit or a Healing Draught also heals your nearby allies for 20.0% of their maximum health. Clears any wounds.	With the perk A Sustenance of Leechlings and An Attendance of Munificents, Sister of the Thorn is the best heal share user. If you have multiple teammates that can farm THP easily(e.g Mercenary, Zealot), this talent is very viable. However, it is not recommended in most of the pub games, since it requires your team to be able to maintain at full HP most of the time, and in that case heal share ability doesn’t matter too much.

 

LeveL 10 Row

 

Surge of Malice	While above 90% health Kerillian gains 15% Attack Speed.	Very consistent boost suited for heavy weapons  When your Permanent HP + Temporary HP is over 90% of your max health, you gain 15% Attack Speed. And thanks to her perks A Sustenance of Leechlings and An Attendance of Munificents, it is very easy to maintain this buff. Although in theory this talent does not provide the same amount of DPS as Isha’s Bounty but is very close, and it suits some heavy weapons like glaive/2h sword better than the other talent.
Atharti’s Delight	Critical Strikes make the target Bleed.	Inconsistent boost suited for high crit chance/fast attack weapons  The bleed can be applied to multiple target by cleaving them and can be applied by both melee and range attacks. It last 5 sec, can stacked up to 5 times, has a base tickrate of per 0.75 sec(average tickrate). It is a very strong damage boost, but due to the nature of Critical Strikes, it is very inconsistent and may not be applied to the target you want/when you want, especially on single target. Still, on high crit chance/fast attack weapons like Dual Swords/Sword and Dagger, it can trigger often enough to be a strong viable pick, especially paring with Level 25 talent Morai-Heg’s Doomsight.
Isha’s Bounty	Gaining health grants 5% Power for 8 second. Stacks up to 3 times.	Strong boost requires picking other Talent/Trait for consistency  As a power boost, it increases your damage/stagger/cleave. With 3 stacks, it is the best damage boost skill on this row. It does trigger on both Temporary gain and Permanent HP gain, so with the help of perk A Sustenance of Leechlings you can trigger it very easily inside horde. If you want max consistency, especially in patrol or boss fight, it requires either Necklace trait Natural Bond or LeveL 25 talent The Pale Queen’s Choosing. Natural Bond itself can provide basically 100% uptime of this talent but you have the common downside of unable to heal Permanent HP with items, though it is slightly reduced by perk An Attendance of Munificents. The Pale Queen’s Choosing requires a bit of micromanagement on your range weapon but doesn’t have other side effects.

 

LeveL 15 Row

 

Smiter	The first enemy hit always counts as staggered. Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increases your single target DPS. Should be picked most of time.
Mainstay	Deal 40% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 60% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increases your horde clear DPS. However, Sister of the Thorn already has strong area denial ability but lacks single target burst. Should avoided most of time.
Enhanced Power	Increases total Power Level by 7%. This is calculated before other buffs are applied.	Increase both your melee and range damage. However, Sister of the Thorn does not have consistent strong range attacks and can already reach breakpoints easily. Should be avoided most of time.

 
 
 

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part II)

 

LeveL 20 Row

 

Incandescence	Radiance can stack 2 times.	Low use case Utility  Allows you to cast up to 3 career skills in a short period. However, this talent only starts to work after 120 seconds into the game and requires the player to play very conservatively, which is very inefficient in a fast pace game like Vermintide in general. The Sister of Thorn’s career ability also doesn’t have that huge amount of impact to make the conservative playstyle very good. Though if you can/want to save your career skill to only Patrol/Boss fight, this talent is fairly powerful.
Hekarti’s Cruel Bargain	For each Elite enemy slain near Kerillian, the cooldown of Radiance decreases by 1 seconds.	High use case Utility on high difficulty  Basically an alternative way to charge your career skill, allows you to spam it more often. The range of this talent is fairly large, so as long as you are fighting in a team formation, this talent will be triggered consistently. Though this talent scales with difficulty greatly, meaning its performance varies depends on the difficulty you are playing. The higher the difficulty is, the more benefit this talent brings.
Radiant Inheritance	Consuming 1 Radiance charges grants Kerillian vastly increased combat potency for 15 seconds.	Short duration powerful damage boost  During the 15 seconds, increase Kerillian’s Movement Speed by 30%, Attack Speed by 20%, Power Level by 50%, Crit Chance by 20%, Crit Power by 40%. It is an extremely powerful buff, one of the strongest in the game, granting enormous damage boost against all types of enemies. The only downside is that in order to maximize its efficiency, the player needs to have some ability to predict tough situations, like patrol trigger and boss trigger, since it requires you to have your Radiance charge active at the time you need it.

 

LeveL 25 Row

 

The Pale Queen’s Choosing	Every 8 seconds, Kerillian’s next Ranged Attack consumes no resource and restores 3 permanent health.	Health and Ammo sustain  The next range attack does not consume ammo or heat. But in order to restore Permanent HP, the free range attack need to hit an enemy. Fairly strong sustain talent, helping range weapons that need to recharge/reload/low ammo(Moonfire/Javelin/Hagbane) performs more consistently over the long run. The health regen part can also be used to active LeveL 10 talent Isha’s Bounty, thought, in that case, it requires some micromanagement skill.
Morai-Heg’s Doomsight	Gain 3 guaranteed Critical Strikes each time a career skill is used.	Damage boost  Can be stacked beyond 3 stacks. Whenever/wherever you and your teammates(exclude Bots) use a career skill, your next 3 attacks are guaranteed Critical Strikes. Although if your attack missed, it will still consume the stack. A very straightforward damage boost skill.
Repel	Pushing at full stamina increases the strength and range of the push by 100%.	Crowd control/defence tool  The full stamina push will knock down all trash units and push them quite far away. With 10% power vs, it can interrupt Stormvermin overhead on Cataclysm. WIth 20% power vs, it can interrupt Mauler/Bestigor overhead on Cataclysm. Unfortunately, it still can’t one-hit open shield. The downside of this talent is that you might push trash units too far away from you so you can’t hit them after the control.

 

LeveL 30 Row

 

Ironbark Thicket	Increases the Duration of the Thorn Wall to 10 seconds.	Crowd control enhance that requires skill  Allows Thorn Wall to block enemies for longer duration. With good wall placement, this talent can provides even more damage opportunity. However, bad timing/wall position can actually harm your teammates even more with this talent, slow down pace and wasting time.
Bloodrazer Thicket	Increase Thorn Wall’s eruption damage and makes it apply Bleed, but lower both size and duration.	Small AoE stagger and high burst damage  The eruption damage is increased drastically, and stagger everything inside its AoE. The bleed last 10 sec, cannot be stacked, has a base tickrate of per 0.25 sec(way above average). Very good talent if you prefer some easy to control damage over crowd control, or want to spam your career skill over save it for better timing/terrain.
Blackvenom Thicket	Poisonous thorns explode outward when the Thorn Wall is broken, making nearby enemies take 20% increased damage for 10 seconds.	Large AoE damage boost  The damage increase does stack with similar effect, like Huntsman talent Make ‘Em Bleed and WHC passive Witch Hunt(Tag). Though It requires the wall to be broken to apply the debuff on enemies, so if the enemy decides to reroute instead of breaking the wall, it would be hard to make the debuff part useful. However, if you prefer your wall duration to last shorter so it doesn’t block you and your teammates for too long, it is better than Ironbark Thicket, and with a little bit of benefit of the damage increase.

 
 
 

New Weapons Overview – Briar Javelin

 
 
 
Career Accessibility 
Waystalker, Handmaiden, Shade, Sister of the Thorn 
Basic Stats 
Dodge: 
120. dodge distance, 6 dodge count 
Armor Piercing: 
Pierce Super Armour with all attacks. 
Crit chance: 
No extra crit chance. 
Mass modifier: 
No mass modifier. 
Additional notes: 
Only melee attacks can trigger LVL5/LVL15 talents. Only ranged attacks can trigger Traits/ranged attack specific talents. 
The last light melee attack applies bleed, the bleed last 4 sec, cannot be stacked, has a base tickrate of per 0.5 sec(above average). 
Cannot be picked up like Throwing Axe, have to recall with reload key. 
 
Briar Javelin provides a very interesting range choice for Kerillian. It is an infinite ammo mid range special sniping weapon while compensating some of the melee DPS. The range part is similar to Throwing Axe charge attack, has infinite ammo, has good cleave and great stagger(can even stagger Chaos Warrior overhead on Cataclysm), but has better parabola than Throwing Axe and less bodyshot/higher crit and headshot damage in comparison. The melee attack is very similar to Elven Spear poke attacks. The light chain has one of the highest monster DPS and unarmoured elites damage in the game, while armoured damage mostly comes from heavy attack headshot/crit and even with a decent headshot rate it is still lackluster, so you would want to pair it with a melee weapon that can clear horde and kill armoured elites decently well but lacks fast attacks and lacks monster damage(like Glaive). Its low ammo count and bodyshot damage, however, means you need decent headshot rate to be able to kill multiple specials in a short session. Unable to block with this weapon may also trick you into some dangerous position when you just start learning this weapon. 
 
Pros: High dodge ability, infinite ammo, high crit/headshot damage, melee light chain has high monster DPS, ranged attack has strong stagger, versatile. 
Cons: Low bodyshot damage, cannot block, ranged attack has its own parabola to learn. 
 
Recommended Weapon Combo: 
Melee Attacks: 
Against horde: 
When fighting horde, use chain light attacks. 
 

 
Against elites: 
When fighting unarmoured elites, use chain light attacks. 
 
When fighting armoured elites, use chain heavy attacks. 
 

 
Against elites: 
When fighting unarmoured monster, use chain light attacks. 
 
When fighting armoured monster, use chain heavy attacks. 
 
Ranged Attack: 
Use Ranged Attack to snipe long range elites/specials, clean lined up horde from distance. 
 

 
 

New Weapons Overview – Deepwood Staff

 
 
 
Career Accessibility 
Sister of the Thorn 
Basic Stats 
Dodge: 
100. dodge distance, 2 dodge count 
Armor Piercing: 
Pierce normal armour. Does not pierce Super Armor without headshot/crit. 
Crit chance: 
No extra crit chance. 
Mass modifier: 
No mass modifier. 
Additional notes: 
Has no overheat slow down. Overheat explosion deals 40% of your max hp, then Deepwood Staff starts cooling automatically, and lock you out of using Deepwood Staff until the heat bar is grey or lower. 
Primary attack release 4 fast projectile darts with low damage drop off. 
Holding right click then click special attack(default key: Mouse 5) can zoom in. 
Alternative attack lifts and disables one enemy you select for 8 sec, 4 sec if it’s a Chaos Warrior. All enemies that are not Monster can be lifted and disabled. 
During the lifted duration, the enemy cannot move or attack, but they do not gain Stagger State. 
During the lifted duration, if the enemy has a shield the shield will drop automatically. 
 
Deepwood Staff is a unique magic weapon that only Sister of the Thorn has access to it. The staff can be treated as a shield weapon in range form. Its primary attack has a decent fire rate and unarmoured damage, performing fine at killing roaming enemies and a couple unarmoured specials/elites quickly, but it struggles very hard at killing armoured enemies. The alternative attack is where its true functionality comes from. It can lift and disable all enemies in the game except mini boss monsters(e.g Rat Ogre) and lord(e.g Nurgloth). You can only select and disable one unit per cast, but the disable lasts 8 sec(4 sec on Chaos Warrior) and has no max target limit. You can use this ability to disable and kill elites enemies during pacing super easy or pick up specials you cannot easily bring down like Ratling Gunner. Most importantly, it makes fighting patrols and elites inside horde situations way smoother. Although your damage to the Patrol from the staff is very low, you can just keep using your alternative attack to lift elites and then vent, disabling most of them so the team can take them down one by one, divide and conquer. 
 
Pros: Accurate, fast react, easy to use, strong disable. 
Cons: Low armour damage. 
 
Primary Attack(left-click): 
Left click and release 4 darts with small delays. 
Each dart count towards cooldown on hit. They are all pinpoint accurate and all darts land on the same spot. 
Should be used to damage unarmoured elites or specials. 
 

 
Alternative Attack(right-click): 
Right click to select a target with the outline, left click to lift and disable the target. Holding right click then click special attack(default key: Mouse 5) can zoom in. 
No limitation on how many enemies you can disable. 
Should be used on elites or specials that you cannot kill quickly. 
 

 
 

Day 1 Cata Build – Glaive + Javelin

 

Talent

 
 
LVL 5 
THP on kill is very consistent with high elite killing power build and weapons. 
LVL 10 
Very consistent powerful buff with her healing amplify perks. Especially good on heavy weapons like glaive. 
LVL 15 
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient in providing melee Elites/Monster damage. 
LVL 20 
Increase your DPS drastically in its duration with a fairly low cooldown. Normally if your first naturally generated career skill can’t solve the problem, using the Radiance generated skill with the strong damage buff will. Need to have a good amount of Patrol/Monster trigger knowledge to maximize its efficiency. 
LVL 25 
Reduce the amount of time you have to recall Javelin, as it took quite a while if you can’t trigger headshot refund ammo consistently. The HP regen is also a very consistent sustain through the game. Although you need your range attack to hit a target to trigger the regen. 
LVL 30 
The default wall duration is long enough in most scenarios, 20% increased damage taken is just cherry on top. If you feel like you can place good wall and prefer blocking enemies(and your team) longer, use Ironbark Thicket. 
 

Melee weapon

 
 
 
Glaive has strong stagger power and high single target damage even with bodyshot. With the good cleave and stagger, it’s back to one of the strongest all rounded weapons now. Use the high cleave/stagger light attacks and dodge to create an opening for heavy attacks on elites. 
 

Range weapon

 
 
 
Javelin range attack has ok special sniping breakpoints and good trajectory, it also has good cleave and very strong stagger, enough to stagger all elites overhead. Unlimited ammo also helps a non-ammo regen melee career, though recalling the javelin takes quite a while. Its most unique part is its melee attacks. The chain light attack provides one of the strongest monster DPS in the game, and heavy attack also does decent armour damage when you land a crit or headshot. 
 
Breakpoints: 20% skaven, 20% armour 
One shot-bodyshot all trash units except Marauder 
One shot-bodyshot Assassin/Gunrat/Firerat 
Two shot-bodyshot Leech/Blight/Gas/Hook/SV 
One shot-headshot Leech/Blight/Gas/SV 
 

Necklace

 
 
 
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical. 
With high THP farm speed and high constant damage reduction from talent, Barkskin is very decent for tanking unavoidable damage. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya. 
 

Charm

 
 
 
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above. 
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily. 
 

Trinket

 
 
 
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability. 
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire. 
 
 

Day 1 Cata Build – Sword & Dagger + Javelin

 

Talent

 
 
LVL 5 
With high crit chance weapon and high attack speed, THP on crit/headshot is more consistent than on kill, especially when you have multiple range careers in your team or on a Skaven map. 
LVL 10 
Very powerful damage boost, fairly consistent in horde fight with her perk A Sustenance of Leechlings. With necklace trait Natural Bond, the uptime is close to 100% through the whole game. 
LVL 15 
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient in providing melee Elites/Monster damage. 
LVL 20 
Increase your DPS drastically in its duration with a fairly low cooldown. Normally if your first naturally generated career skill can’t solve the problem, using the Radiance generated skill with the strong damage buff will. Need to have a good amount of Patrol/Monster trigger knowledge to maximize its efficiency. 
LVL 25 
Reduce the amount of time you have to recall Javelin, as it took quite a while if you can’t trigger headshot refund ammo consistently. The HP regen is also a very consistent sustain through the game. Although you need your range attack to hit a target to trigger the regen. 
LVL 30 
The default wall duration is long enough in most scenarios, 20% increased damage taken is just cherry on top. If you feel like you can place good wall and prefer blocking enemies(and your team) longer, use Ironbark Thicket. 
 

Melee weapon

 
 
 
Sword & Dagger has the best balance between horde clean, elite damage and easy to learn. It also has low default block cost and extra crit chance on multiple attacks, synergize greatly with all kinds of damage buff. 
 

Range weapon

 
 
 
Javelin range attack has ok special sniping breakpoints and good trajectory, it also has good cleave and very strong stagger, enough to stagger all elites overhead. Unlimited ammo also helps a non-ammo regen melee career, though recalling the javelin takes quite a while. Its most unique part is its melee attacks. The chain light attack provides one of the strongest monster DPS in the game, and heavy attack also does decent armour damage when you land a crit or headshot. 
 
Breakpoints: 20% skaven, Isha’s Bounty 
One shot-bodyshot all trash units except Marauder 
One shot-bodyshot Assassin/Gunrat/Firerat 
Two shot-bodyshot Leech/Blight/Gas/Hook/SV 
One shot-headshot Leech/Blight/Gas/Hook/SV 
 

Necklace

 
 
 
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical. 
Natural Bond synergizes greatly with your level 10 talent Isha’s Bounty, giving you 15% power all the time. The downside of being unable to gain Permanent HP with items is also reduced by perk An Attendance of Munificents. 
 

Charm

 
 
 
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above. 
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily. 
 

Trinket

 
 
 
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability. 
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire. 
 
 

Day 1 Cata Build – Glaive + Life Staff

 

Talent

 
 
LVL 5 
THP on kill is very consistent with high elite killing power build and weapons. 
LVL 10 
Very consistent powerful buff with her healing amplify perks. Especially good on heavy weapons like glaive. 
LVL 15 
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient in providing melee Elites/Monster damage. 
LVL 20 
Allows you to spam much more career skills, especially on Cataclysm where elites are very common and come with horde. 
LVL 25 
Good DPS boost without setups. Your teammates using ability will also give you two stacks of crit, making it trigger very often. Though your missed attacks also consume the guaranteed crit. 
LVL 30 
Straight forward AoE stagger and good damage. Perfect for spamming or bursting key targets. 
 

Melee weapon

 
 
 
Glaive has strong stagger power and high single target damage even with bodyshot. With the good cleave and stagger, it’s back to one of the strongest all rounded weapons now. Use the high cleave/stagger light attacks and dodge to create an opening for heavy attacks on elites. 
 

Range weapon

 
 
 
Life staff is one of the greatest control tools in the game, having the ability to disable all types of specials and elites in the game. Its left click has great DPS against unarmoured enemies too, but not efficiency on armour. 
Weapon trait wise, Thermal Equalize provides more heat to use alternative mode and the same amount of damage in the long term, since 20% less heat generation equals 25% more damage with the same amount of heat, where Barrage is straight 25% more damage without heat reduction, means higher burst but less crowd control time. 
When fighting armoured or long range hard to aim specials, use your staff’s alternative mode to disable them first, then try to kill them with left click. 
When fighting groups of elites, life some of them, back off, vent, until only a small amount of elites can move around freely to provide a max amount of save DPS window for your team. 
 
Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 20% infantry 
One shot-bodyshot Assassin 
One shot-headshot OR two shot-bodyshot Leech/Blight/Gas 
Three shot-bodyshot OR two shot-headshot Hook 
Two shot-headshot OR four shot-bodyshot Gunrat/firerat 
 

Necklace

 
 
 
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical. 
With high THP farm speed and high constant damage reduction from talent, Barkskin is very decent for tanking unavoidable damage. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya. 
 

Charm

 
 
 
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above. 
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily. 
 

Trinket

 
 
 
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability. 
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire. 
 
 

Day 1 Cata Build – Sword and Dagger + Life Staff

 

Talent

 
 
LVL 5 
With some guaranteed crit talent and high attack speed, THP on crit/headshot is more consistent than on kill, especially when you have multiple range careers in your team or on a Skaven map. 
LVL 10 
Very powerful damage boost, fairly consistent in horde fight with her perk A Sustenance of Leechlings. With necklace trait Natural Bond, the uptime is close to 100% through the whole game. 
LVL 15 
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient in providing melee Elites/Monster damage. 
LVL 20 
Allows you to spam much more career skills, especially on Cataclysm where elites are very common and come with horde. 
LVL 25 
Good DPS boost without setups. Your teammates using ability will also give you two stacks of crit, making it trigger very often. Though your missed attacks also consume the guaranteed crit. 
LVL 30 
Straight forward AoE stagger and good damage. Perfect for spamming or bursting key targets. 
 

Melee weapon

 
 
 
Sword & Dagger has the best balance between horde clean, elite damage and easy to learn. It also has low default block cost and extra crit chance on multiple attacks, synergize greatly with all kinds of damage buff. 
 

Range weapon

 
 
 
Life staff is one of the greatest control tools in the game, having the ability to disable all types of specials and elites in the game. Its left click has great DPS against unarmoured enemies too, but not efficiency on armour. 
Weapon trait wise, Thermal Equalize provides more heat to use alternative mode and the same amount of damage in the long term, since 20% less heat generation equals 25% more damage with the same amount of heat, where Barrage is straight 25% more damage without heat reduction, means higher burst but less crowd control time. 
When fighting armoured or long range hard to aim specials, use your staff’s alternative mode to disable them first, then try to kill them with left click. 
When fighting groups of elites, life some of them, back off, vent, until only a small amount of elites can move around freely to provide a max amount of save DPS window for your team. 
 
Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 10% chaos, 10% infantry, Isha’s Bounty 
One shot-bodyshot Assassin 
One shot-headshot OR two shot-bodyshot Leech/Blight/Gas 
Two shot-bodyshot and headshot Hook 
Two shot-headshot OR four shot-bodyshot Gunrat/firerat 
 

Necklace

 
 
 
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical. 
Natural Bond synergizes greatly with your level 10 talent Isha’s Bounty, giving you 15% power all the time. The downside of being unable to gain Permanent HP with items is also reduced by perk An Attendance of Munificents. 
 

Charm

 
 
 
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above. 
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily. 
 

Trinket

 
 
 
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability. 
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire. 
 
 

Day 1 Cata Build – Glaive + Moonfire bow

 

Talent

 
 
LVL 5 
THP on kill is very consistent with high elite killing power build and weapons. 
LVL 10 
Very consistent powerful buff with her healing amplify perks. Especially good on heavy weapons like glaive. 
LVL 15 
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient in providing melee Elites/Monster damage. 
LVL 20 
Increase your DPS drastically in its duration with a fairly low cooldown. Normally if your first naturally generated career skill can’t solve the problem, using the Radiance generated skill with the strong damage buff will. Need to have a good amount of Patrol/Monster trigger knowledge to maximize its efficiency. 
LVL 25 
Good DPS boost without setups. Your teammates using ability will also give you two stacks of crit, making it trigger very often. Though your missed attacks also consume the guaranteed crit. 
LVL 30 
Straight forward AoE stagger and good damage. Perfect for spamming or bursting key targets. 
 

Melee weapon

 
 
 
Glaive has strong stagger power and high single target damage even with bodyshot. With the good cleave and stagger, it’s back to one of the strongest all rounded weapons now. Use the high cleave/stagger light attacks and dodge to create an opening for heavy attacks on elites. 
 

Range weapon

 
 
 
For a melee focus career, Moonfire bow is superior to any other range weapon due to its amazing special bodyshot breakpoints and additional AoE attack for crowd control, easy to use and fast react. It also has no ammo sustain issue and provides some decent monster dps. 
With Moonfire bow build, you can shoot ambient elite or elites in horde with a quick charged arrow to weaken them, so when they are in close range you can finish them with melee attack easily. 
 
Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 20% infantry 
One shot-bodyshot Assasin/Gas/Leech/Blight Storm/Hook with quick fire arrow 
One shot-bodyshot all special except Wargor with quick charged arrow 
 

Necklace

 
 
 
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical. 
With high THP farm speed and high constant damage reduction from talent, Barkskin is very decent for tanking unavoidable damage. If you struggle with farming THP or hit trade a lot, use Boon of Shallya. 
 

Charm

 
 
 
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above. 
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily. 
 

Trinket

 
 
 
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability. 
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire. 
 
 

Day 1 Cata Build – Sword and Dagger + Moonfire bow

 

Talent

 
 
LVL 5 
With some guaranteed crit talent and high attack speed, THP on crit/headshot is more consistent than on kill, especially when you have multiple range careers in your team or on a Skaven map. 
LVL 10 
Very powerful damage boost, fairly consistent in horde fight with her perk A Sustenance of Leechlings. With necklace trait Natural Bond, the uptime is close to 100% through the whole game. 
LVL 15 
Smiter provide a flat 20% increase melee damage on the unit you hit, making it super efficient in providing melee Elites/Monster damage. 
LVL 20 
Increase your DPS drastically in its duration with a fairly low cooldown. Normally if your first naturally generated career skill can’t solve the problem, using the Radiance generated skill with the strong damage buff will. Need to have a good amount of Patrol/Monster trigger knowledge to maximize its efficiency. 
LVL 25 
Good DPS boost without setups. Your teammates using ability will also give you two stacks of crit, making it trigger very often. Though your missed attacks also consume the guaranteed crit. 
LVL 30 
Straight forward AoE stagger and good damage. Perfect for spamming or bursting key targets. 
 

Melee weapon

 
 
 
Sword & Dagger has the best balance between horde clean, elite damage and easy to learn. It also has low default block cost and extra crit chance on multiple attacks, synergize greatly with all kinds of damage buff. 
 

Range weapon

 
 
 
For a melee focus career, Moonfire bow is superior to any other range weapon due to its amazing special bodyshot breakpoints and additional AoE attack for crowd control, easy to use and fast react. It also has no ammo sustain issue and provides some decent monster dps. 
With Moonfire bow build, you can shoot ambient elite or elites in horde with a quick charged arrow to weaken them, so when they are in close range you can finish them with melee attack easily. 
 
Breakpoints: 10% skaven, 20% infantry 
One shot-bodyshot Assasin/Gas/Leech/Blight Storm/Hook with quick fire arrow 
One shot-bodyshot all special except Wargor with quick charged arrow 
 

Necklace

 
 
 
BCR is way superior to stamina if you have enough shield to perform push. Extra health is critical. 
Natural Bond synergizes greatly with your level 10 talent Isha’s Bounty, giving you 15% power all the time. The downside of being unable to gain Permanent HP with items is also reduced by perk An Attendance of Munificents. 
 

Charm

 
 
 
To reach the breakpoints mentioned above. 
Proxy provides more potion efficiency since a team should play very tight on Cataclysm difficulty. Also, two people on potion effect can get out of emergency situations more easily. 
 

Trinket

 
 
 
Crit chance provides more damage. Stamina regen provides more push to crowd control/survivability. 
Due to the massive Monster health on Cataclysm, Sharpnel works best on monster burst down. It also the best option for Patrol kill if a team can focus their fire. 
 

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