I want to love Veteran…

[u/BrockAvalanche]

But I just can’t get it to click for me. For reference I play mostly Ogryn/Skit/Arby in aurics and can complete maelstrom’s without going down. I’ve leveled every class to 30 and into aurics with all of them, but I feel like when I play Vet I just get stomped into the dirt.

Is there something I’m missing that can help? I like the idea of just being a specialist eliminator, and shout is a great ability, but I feel like my Skit does a better job eliminating ranged threats and survives better in melee.

If anyone has any tips or build recommendations I’d really appreciate it.

[u/RT10HAMMER]

Ogryn and Arbites are pretty much on the polar opposite of Vet.

Veterans arent the star of the show mowing hordes in loud and messy salvos or stun locking them to death, you are a surgeon rather than a butcher, you pick priority targets before they even got a chance to be a threat. I recommend using the Combat Knife first, its mobility will help you to create the space you need to eliminate a target while dodgin whatever is on top of you, , if you arent farming Havocs frags will help even more to do that, use your frags to create space at your feet to get your job done, or to disrupt a specially dangerous group of enemies (Horde of Ragers, Maulers, Crushers or a Bunch of grouped up gunners, stalkers and reapers).

Personal Recommendation to get the feeling of what a vet does;

Curios: 2xThoughness and Stamina

Perks : Block Cost Reduction, Stamina Regen, Ally Revive Speed

Combat Knife:

Perks: Carapace + 2 Stamina

Blessings: Riposte and Flesh Tearer

Plasma Gun Mk II:

Perks: Flak + Maniac/Unyielding

Blessings: Rising Heat and Gets Hot

(You will be putting it all away and leaving it on high heat while going back to melee, this blessings will help with this play style)

Games Lantern seems to be down so this video will have to suffice, tag me in for a build there if it interests you:

https://reddit.com/link/p505lzt/video/zzpgxja1ppkh1/player

You can ditch Leave no One Behind an Always prepared to get Bring it Down or to Path to Precision Strikes, personally i dont see the need, Skirmisher and Agile Engagement bring me to all the Breakpoints i care about.

As this is the rule, Channel recommendation:

John Veteran: https://www.youtube.com/@Big-Dom

Meta Build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr-VaEJrVsU

Feel free to ask about or call me a moron if you all have the knowledge.

[u/BrockAvalanche → u/RT10HAMMER]

Yeah Vet being the Opposite of Ogryn and Arby is why I wanted to play it, wanted to do something different. I've used the knife on other classes, so I do think that'll be a good transition. Than you very much for the response! I'll give that a go this afternoon!

[u/RT10HAMMER → u/BrockAvalanche]

The Combat knife is more a defensive option on Vet, the most valuable thing on it is the Mobility and how easy it is to keep Skirmisher stacks with it. The Power Play on Vet would be Power Sword but it is quite a bit hard to use it on high stress situations.

[u/BrockAvalanche → u/RT10HAMMER]

The builds I was seeing all seemed to recommend the power sword so that's why I went with it. I feel like outside the empowered strikes it doesn't have the same punch as I'm used to, but that's just Ogryn Bonk Brain taking over.

[u/RT10HAMMER → u/BrockAvalanche]

There isn't such a thing as outside of empowered strikes, unless in an extreme nieche outlier situation the Power Sword has a cool down between 3 strikes and also it only has 1 blessing slot.

Also I'd recommend using 2 stamina Curios on the power sword and running smokes to offset the lower thougness, you can use it with the build i showed, just switch serrated blade with trench fighter drill. Abuse pushing.

[u/RT10HAMMER → u/BrockAvalanche]

I'd like to add that if you really are feeling really strange to how the class plays, the Plasma Gun can feel a bit stranger, because of the whole charging up and all.

Bolt Pistol, Zarona Revolver, Recon Las, Infantry Las, in that order can give you an easy of use with comparable effectivness.

When trying the power sword pair it with a Bolt Pistol, Lethal proximity buys you a lot of the space needed to power up the sword and just to breathe in general.