Ogryn Shovel Knight
 Ogryn Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

"Boss says I hit 'em so hard with the shovel they shits themselves"

Note: Shovel V is off-meta right now because it struggles to meet breakpoints and Pickaxes generally outperform it. Only recommended for Monstrous Specials maelstroms and masochists. 

How to play a Shovel Knight

Using Shovel V, use short heavy sweeps against hordes. Use activated heavy (fold up) against single target elites and Vanguards. Occasionally use charged sweeps (with thrust and/or crunch) against spread-out weaker elites and brutes for stagger and finishing blows. One method is a quick wide sweep followed by a fully charged sweep to kill multiple at once. Against bosses, acquire aggro then do thrust-charged folded attacks. Rumbler is my ranged of choice as a panic button if surrounded by armor, as the shovel is weak to mixed hordes. You can easily use another blitz for that same purpose though. 

Activated heavies can reliably 1-shot Bulwarks, Reapers, and Maulers, depending on charge level and buffs. 

Activated lights can often 1-shot muties, sometimes light elites if you have enough buffs. The activated light attack is very useful against unarmored high HP enemies because it has a much shorter recovery time after being used. Very nice for waves of muties or quickly taking out a light elite.

It is *technically* still possible to 1-shot Crushers with it, but you have to stack literally every buff at your disposal, including +damage on taunt which is generally way worse than having the faster cooldown. Or if an ally if boosting your damage you can make the breakpoint but that's unreliable. How the mighty have fallen. 

Shovel XIX vs V

XIX has strikedown heavies that are slightly faster, deal more damage and swing almost straight down, so you'll kill Specials and Elites more easily without having to activate your special. Unfortunately, you'll be weaker in a horde.

V has relentless unactivated heavies that cleave horizontally in a perfectly straight line, potentially killing a whole slew of trash. Just beware of Vanguards or other high HP enemies messing up your cleave. Regular heavies are enough for basic enemies, but you'll generally want to charge the heavies fully when against Brutes or when light Elites are mixed into a horde.

The activated Heavy is effectively identical for both shovels.

Shovel V Stats and Blessings

Perks: Carapace is good for most Shovels and lets you get the 1-shot reliably. Flak, Maniac, and Unyielding are all good for the second slot but none are necessary for the weapon to work well.  Without +Flak, Bruisers will be a slight annoyance, but most will die to either the bleed or a second hit, depending on your weapon's stats, and you can always take the extra second to do a charged hit. Even with +Flak you won't 1-shot bruisers unless you got a lot of enemies with your last heavy attack anyway. +Maniacs is strong. It can let you 2-shot Dreg Ragers with unactivated Crunch heavies without HH stacks, so if you do roll with Maniac on one I recommend using Rock and Slam. It also lets you kill muties with a light special instead of a heavy one. Unyielding only really matters against bosses but it makes big number feel good.

Thrust (IV): necessary to make good use of the shovel's special. It's non-negotiable on the weapon right now.

Brutal Momentum (I-IV): This is what lets you dome multiple non-ogryn elites in a single swing and gives it great horde clear despite its slow speed. The 15% weakspot damage bonus at max is actually a lot less than it seems. It only increases the difference between base damage and weakspot damage, and the difference on this weapon isn't particualrly high so instead of doing 15% more damage, you're doing like 1% more damage. This blessing also makes the crowd control stat less important. 

Ranged Weapons

The biggest weakness of the Shovel is that while it's great against Armor or a horde, it's not particularly good when you have both at the same time or the threats are spread out. For this reason I recommend Grenade Gauntlet which sures up all its weaknesses. Rumbler is great too.  

Keystones

I recommend trying both Heavy Hitter and Feel No Pain to see which you prefer. Heavy Hitter doesn't change very many breakpoints for the weapon, but it is very useful in Monstrous Specials which is where this weapon will see the most use anyway.