25-40% Cleave on Hit. Stacks 5 times.
2.5-4% Bonus Critical Chance on Chained Hit. Stacks 5 times.
Target receives 1-4 Stacks of 2.5% Brittleness on direct projectile hit. Debuff lasts for 5 seconds and can have a maximum of 16 stacks.
3.5-5% Critical Chance for every 10% of magazine spent during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
This is my first build, but this is what I've been running Auric Maelstroms with for the past few days.
Explanation/TLDR: So this build was created purely out of morbid curiosity. "How can I take ALL of the grenade perks, and take the bolter along for even more explosions, but also make it viable for Auric Missions?" The result is a build where you can blow things up and have fun while still contributing to the team in very important ways.
The idea is to deal massive damage with bolter, use the claw to clear hordes as well as parry monstrosities, and use nades to bust up gunner nests and assault hordes as well as just throwing them for fun sometimes because we're constantly getting more.
Voice of command is there to knock down hordes, elites, stagger monstrosities, and to bolster the squad against shooters. Focus Target! is there for the added damage simply because every little bit helps.
Skill Tree Notes: Shredder frag, because the bleed makes up a solid 1/5th of our total damage at a staggering 150k. We take Survivalist to keep up on our ammo supply, as to not be too greedy with the very hungry bolter, and we take every single grenade perk we possibly can on the way to Focus Target!
The only really notable node might be Tactical Awareness, as it allows us to use Voice of Command more often, provided we get those one-shot kills on Specialists like Trappers, Flamers, Bombers, and Snipers, this synergizes with Demolition Team somewhat as well. The first three nodes can be spent wherever, honestly. I just wanted the higher aura radius so that my team could benefit more regularly from the extra ammo. If you wanted to go for Volley Adept or Tactical Reload instead, it would probably synergize very well.
Weapons: The holy bolter, the key to crumpling Crushers, breaking Bulwarks, and bringing down the Emperor's wrath on Ragers, as well as being the key to one-shotting critical Specialists as mentioned before. There are arguably better options, but the bolter is crucial to the identity of this build in my opinion. We're here to blow things up. You can pick what Perks you like best for it, I'm not super knowledgeable about break points so I just roll with +Maniacs and +Carapace because I don't know any better. But the Blessings are essential. Cavalcade and Shattering Impact are crucial to demolishing Ragers and Crushers.
We take the Mk IV Devil Claw simply for the parry. You could put anything here. I personally like the Devil Claw with +Infested so I can one-shot those pesky Poxwalkers with a charged heavy, and +Unarmored for a little extra damage against most enemy types. I'll be honest this is a bit of a throwaway, but it's my preferred melee across 430+ hours of gameplay.
Playstyle: I typically keep the bolter equipped when walking around to take potshots at promising targets. Switch to claw for hordes. The ultra-combo I keep going back to when faced with heavy melee or ranged squads is to use Voice of Command, and while they're on the ground throw a nade or two (up to four nades when Twinned Blast procs both times,) and then full auto the bolter into the chunkiest targets. Mark targets when your Focus Target! stacks are maxed, doesn't matter what you mark, really, unless you're fighting a monstrosity or a boss. If you run into big groups of gunners or shotgunners, hit em with grenades to get them scattered and bleed them out. Use single shot bolter to take out previously mentioned Specialists and to clean up the stragglers of gunner squads or shooter squads.
Conclusion: Idk. I just wanted to share this goofy little build. There's probably a few improvements you could work in there to really make this an S+ tier build, but this has been my go-to for Auric Maelstrom for the past few days. It's just too much fun to put down and it works shockingly well. Give it a go for yourself, and give it a fair shake as there's definitely a little bit of a learning curve, but in the end I think you'll be rocking and rolling through missions with as much boom as can be brought.
