shobel
 Ogryn Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

hello fellow gamers

this is my ogryn build that has suited me best and fits my playstyle. in my humble opinion it is the best ogryn build currently. this may change when the crafting system is implemented.

i have chosen the shovel as it is fantastic for clearing hordes with a wide sweep for its light attacks, and a large reach that helps hit as many enemies as possible to either stagger or kill. i enjoy the combo of l1 h2 on loop because it is simply 2 wide sweeps for horde clear that will also be applying bleed and regening toughness. h1 is also useful for landing crits on the heads of enemies, so i primarily use that for single target damage. i am not a huge fan of the slab as it effectively acts as a slowness debuff with the way you're meant to use it. ogryns are notorious for standing in the way of their teammates, and as a support class that isn't very supportive. the shield promotes this style of stand in the way and wait for your teammates to do something while feeling like you're doing something gameplay that is not at all useful to the team. the only person benefitting from the shield is the ogryn holding it, and proper movement and positioning can negate the damage you would be blocking with it anyway. with the shobel you are able to sweep and stagger enemies and fulfill your purpose of peeling for teammates and actually protecting them and assisting them with killing hordes and brawler specials. we have the ability to be regening toughness on hit and on kill so you need to be swinging that shobel at everything within range. ogryn is not so much of a tank in that he cannot effectively block damage on a consistent basis, but as a bruiser he is able to get up in the face of threats and peel for teammates that don't have the health pool that we do. 

for the range weapon i have chosen the rumbler as the grenadier gauntlet is just less useful at cc and suppression, and its melees and special attacks are borderline useless when we have our trusty shobel to do all that dirty work anyways. the idea behind the rumbler is to eliminate or stagger groups of far away enemies without needing pinpoint accuracy. our right click gives us a good estimate of where the round will end up, and for our purposes that's enough. the actual round has a delay to the explosion that can be useful for bouncing around corners and spamming choke points. our goal isn't necessarily to rack up kills, but rather to give breathing room for our teammates and reduce the amount of sources for incoming damage. the perks on the rumbler are pretty much up to personal preference as they all are pretty bad. we probably wont be the ones killing the elites, and especially not with our one round per magazine grenade launcher. rending can possibly be useful in a sort of passive way to reduce enemy armor, but i'm still not sure if this only applies to melee hits or if it applies to the projectile/blast as well. the special attack is decent for applying bleed and staggering immediate threats, but it is not a viable melee damage option so it seems a waste to dedicate a perk slot to it. i ended up choosing the sticking to monstrosity perk as even though it's extremely niche and situational, it's basic and has an active effect on the gun's usage. again, it's all up to personal preference on the perks. it is very very highly advised that you have reload speed on it, but everything else is up to you and your priorities.

overall ogryn doesn't have a whole lot of build variety in terms of talents/feats. still unsure about the difference between the t1 heavy attack feats, so single target for now. t2 t3 and t4 are pretty much best in slot no matter what, as any ogryn build that doesn't involve bleed and heavy attacks is just missing out and isn't as condusive. t5 is up to you, and i switch it out every once in a while. normally do raging bull just to clear hordes faster, but knife through butter may be a viable option for the shobel if you find yourself doing primarily heavy sweep attacks. i choose bull gore for t6 for the painfully obvious synergy with t4's bloodthirst. i chose this over nonstop violence because of this synergy and the damage reduction viability. i care more about my health than my toughness as i can effectively regen toughness by smackin dudes, and at higher difficulties damage reduction is a no brainer.

using this build you need to first accept that ogryn has tanky aspects, but can not sustainably be a tank. we are most useful when supporting and protecting our dps teammates and clearing hordes. i wouldn't call this a front-line sort of build or character, as that isn't exactly how i view this game's combat. everyone that isn't an ogryn is busy doing their own thing eliminating targets, but we have the immense capability to cc and bleed enemies. everyone's positioning should be in line of staying within coherency, while maintaining self-preservation. if you have a gunner firing at you and you wish you had a slab, mark him and get behind cover. lob a rumbler grenade at him if you can to stagger him and prevent him from shooting. we do not have the kit to eliminate those targets, so it's best to instead promote and assist the classes that do. putting up your shield and walking slowly towards him does not accomplish this. it instead leaves your teams coherency and leaves them to fend for themselves as you go out of your way to take out a single special unit that could have just had his head popped. other classes would much rather have their ranged weapons out for serious engagements, and having melee units overrunning them prevents that. we can avoid this problem by staying close and taking out those units. 

i hope you find this build as useful and effective as i do, and remember the gameplay tips i put in there as well. ogryn has potential to be the biggest team player, and all of your squads will love you for helping them frag out and look like super good gamers. i may or may not come back to update this as patches come through, but if i do i'll leave an update log at the top of this text post. 

for the emperor.