Gunslinger Revolver 1 Shot Specials/Elites
 Veteran Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Tldr

Great build for Auric Maelstrom but requires your team to horde clear.

• Kill specials and elites
• Let your team horde clear and learn to dodge lesser enemies
• Voice of Command is your team's panic button
• Save your krak grenades for killing bulwarks
• Space your revolver shots to gain surgical stacks

Build Summary

Your role as a gunslinger is to kill all the specialists and elites for your team, you want to give them breathing room so they can deal with the hordes. This build comes packed with the panic button that is Voice of Command to support your team through the tough moments and the jump scaring pox bursters. 

This is a crit focused build that will with a bit of practice will 1 shot the majority of specials and elites and 2 shot ogryns / armour. This is done primarily with the surgical blessing on the revolver which allow you to gain increasing critical chance the longer you aim between shots. Increasing your base crit chance reduces the time required between high crit chance shots. 

A goal of this build is consistency, while it depends on crit chance which is inherently luck based it should be able to consistently one shot and sometimes two shot without crits all specialists and elites except for heavy armour.

You will rarely use your melee weapon and instead dodge lesser enemies as your team deals with them. As such your melee weapon is a combat blade as it gets the job done but more importantly gets you the hell out of dodge when cornered.

Role

• Killing specials and elites with a priority on ranged elites (snipers, gunners, etc)
• Team support
  • Voice of Command - 'gold' toughness and stagger (stagger also provides revive opportunities)
  • Ammo regen
  • Toughness regen
  • Damage buffs
• Boss damage (not the primary focus of the build but it keeps up)

Pros

• Incredible special and elite killing potential (1 shot majority, and 2 shot ogryns / armour)
• God tier panic button ability that supports the entire team (Voice of Command) that you are able to spam
• Decent survivability
• Decent boss damage
• Can deal with every enemy type

Cons

• Awful crowd control / horde clearing
• Poor at clearing lesser shooters/stalkers
• Less effective at lower difficulties due to less special / elites
• Can only deal with bulwarks through using krak grenades which are limited

Gameplay

• Stick with your team, this will enable you to maximise the benefits of Survivalist, Voice of Command, Close Order Drill, and Born Leader.
• Don't kill lesser enemies. Discuss your role with your team and let others deal with the hordes.
  • Learn to dodge lesser enemies, you should rarely use your melee or waste a shot on a lesser enemy.
  • You can dodge while reloading but make sure you space them out so you don't reach your dodge cap.
• Spot each special and elite before you shoot to gain your Focus Target keystone damage.
  • I would recommend binding your spot button to something you can easily press.
  • You can spam your spot through hordes and less visible areas to identify special and elite targets.
  • Don't be afraid to re-spot an enemy, your Focus Target keystone will not be reset if it is on the same enemy unless it can apply a higher stack. I.e. if you spotted the target with 3 stacks and try to spot it when you have 2 stack it will not eat your stack, if you then waited till you had 5 stacks and spotted the same target it will apply the 5 stacks to the target.
• The enemies that are the biggest danger to you are trappers, hounds, and bombers and they bypass your toughness the most. Pox-bursters are always dangerous but Voice of Command offers you a great counter.
  • Lesser shooters/stalkers are also a weakness of this build due to the high cost of revolver ammunition and its reload speed. Another player who can easily deal with lesser shooters/stalkers is hugely beneficial.
• You should use Voice of Command whenever your toughness goes below 50% or pre-emptively use Voice of Command in the following situations:
  • Whenever there are lots of specialist enemies (not elites) as you can quickly regain your ability due to your Tactical Awareness talent.
  • To interrupt a big attack from a boss, crusher, etc that would cause great harm to a team member.
  • To knock back a pox-burster, 'gold' toughness is very effective for keeping the team alive in this situation
  • To quickly rescue a team member from a hound (or a mutant but not as important)
  • To stagger a horde so you can revive a team member
• Space your shots so surgical stacks accordingly. Spamming all 5 shots into a crusher and getting no crits has the same time to kill as waiting a second between each shot to stack surgical and killing it with 2 crits, leaving 3 shots in your revolver.
  • Where you can, try to position yourself to maximise the benefits of the revolver's ability to penetrate through multiple enemies. Reloading the gun is expensive time wise and if you can take out multiple enemies in a single shot it saves us that precious time. (The revolver can used to effectively horde clear in narrow hallways but ideally this job should be left to your teammates anyway)
• Your krak grenades are strictly to be used for bulwarks, larger groups of armour, and extra boss damage. You can 2 shot armour with crits so crushers and maulers are usually not an issue unless that are in a big group. If you have a team member who easily deals with bulwarks then your kraks should be used for large groups of armour and boss damage (also consider switching to shredder grenades too). 

Go into the meat grinder and play some games to get a feel for the build.

Talents

Talent Breakdown (in tree order)

1. Longshot: To get to volley adept but also helps us hit some key breakpoints even without crits
2. Volley Adept: +30% reload (the things revolvers suck at) on the enemies our build is made to kill? Yes please!
3. Close Order Drill: We have a toughness based build, this talent and Iron Will (later in the tree) will save your life more times than you can count
4. Confirmed Kill / Exhilarating Takedown: Both of these talents serve a similar purpose and you shouldn't need both with Voice of Command. I found Confirmed Kill more reliable in high tier play when getting consistent weak spot kills is not always reliable, however the toughness damage reduction offered by Exhilarating Takedown is better on paper.
5. Take the respective Health Boost or Stamina Boost talent (I tend to prefer Stamina which also helped me choose Confirmed Kill)
6. Toughness Boost: Needed to get to rest of tree but toughness is great for our build
7. Krak Grenade: Kraks are great, everyone knows this. This is your single tool to easily deal with bulwarks, don't waste them on crushers (unless there are lots) as you can 2-shot crushers with your revolver. Kraks also give you a bit more boss damage and surprisingly come in clutch against a chaos spawn as they provide significant stagger. *Please see alternative talents section on Shredder Grenades if your team handles bulwarks already.
8. +5% Health: Needed to get to Survivalist
9. +5% Ranged Damage: Needed to get to Survivalist but damage is great
10. Get Back in the Fight / Catch a Breath: Get Back in the Fight can come in clutch when you need it, Catch a Breath which is good passive toughness regen but we get that from Coherency and Confirmed Kill / Exhilarating Takedown already. You should only take Catch a Breath if you feel you are getting no value from Get Back in the Fight.
11. Survivalist: Mandatory talent for auric difficulty levels due to sheer amount of specials/elites and limited ammo resources.
12. +5% Reload Speed: Needed to get to Voice of Command and flat reload speed buffs are hard to find
13. +5% Toughness Damage Reduction: Needed to get to Voice of Command and more survivability is good
14. Demolition Stockpile / Field Improvisation: Both of these talents are great but serve the similar role in this build of restocking grenades. Demolition Stockpile is more consistent so that is why it is the default pick for this build. If another Veteran on the team has Field Improvisation do not pick it! If you find you don't need your kraks for dealing with bulwarks, bosses and groups of armour then pick Field Improvisation, and then consider picking shredder grenades to gain back a talent point. Field Improvisation adds a bit of support to the build, allowing the team to heal corruption in key moments. It additionally enables your team mates with hard hitting grenades to quickly gather them back to great effect, i.e. place an ammo crate when a boss appears and let your Ogryn nova. Taking both is also good if you managed to find a spare talent point.
15. Voice of Command: This talent is the best ability in the game. 30s base cooldown to stagger, replenish toughness, and +50 'gold' toughness gives your team the best panic button they could ask for. This ability single handedly has saved my team from poxbursters countless times. The stagger is also just enough time to revive teammates too (no need for Only In Death Does Duty End).
16. Duty and Honour: *see above info on Voice of Command
17. +25% Suppression Dealt: Needed to get to rest of tree but can be handy
18. +5% Ranged Damage: Needed to get to rest of tree but damage is good
19. Precision Strikes: We are primarily going to aiming for weak spots and 30% extra damage is massive!
20. Determined: You need to be reliably taking our special and elites, you can't do that if supressed
21. Fully Loaded: More ammo is good and at time necessary
22. Superiority Complex: Allows you to more consistently hit the 1-shot headshot breakpoint on elites (primarily gunners are our concern)
23. Born Leader / For the Emperor: Born Leader provides toughness regen for the team which is a is a great way to keep your team alive. For the Emperor means more damage for everyone on ability use which is good but Born Leader is more consistent so take your pick.
24. Tactical Awareness: Amazing talent, especially with our focus on killing specials. This will allow you to spam your already god tier Voice of Command ability which benefits the entire team. (This perk is another reason why we only care about killing specials, it enables us to keep our panic button on demand for our team)
25. Iron Will: You heard me mention this earlier under Close Order Drill, this perk is near mandatory. It allows you fully tank a crusher's overhead and ensures you are alive to hit that panic button for the team.
26. +25 Toughness: Needed to get to the rest of the tree but more toughness is great
27. Rending Strikes: +10% rending might not seem like much on paper but it allows our revolver to hit like the cannon it is through all armour types.
28. Bring it Down: Allows us to consistently 2 shot ogryns with crits and deal good boss damage (this perk has allowed me to solo a plague ogryn on Auric Damnation with this build)
29. Focus Target: A great keystone for this build, you spot every enemy before you shoot them and stack up to 32% extra damage between bouts or when facing a tanky enemy. This damage mainly comes in handy for bosses as it benefits everyone not just you.
30. Focussed Fire: more stacks = more damage

Notable Alternative Talents

Some alternatives with an obvious swap are already mentioned in the breakdown above (Exhilarating Takedown, Field Improvisation, Catch a Breath, and For the Emperor). 

Here is a list of talents I recommend considering when tweaking the build. (ordered by importance for build)

1. Shredder Grenades: Allows you to gain back a talent point (by ditching the +5% health talent). Decent for horde clearing and supporting an Ogryn/Zealot that benefits from bleed. You lose your ability to deal with bulwarks and a bit of boss damage but if you team can compensate shredders are good.
2. Deadshot: More crit chance at the cost stamina management. I found having my stamina drained led to me dying more as I wouldn't have the stamina to sprint/block when it really counted. This is still an amazing talent for this build but is not mandatory and is down to personal preference. Deadshot also de-incentivises aiming down sights which Surgical requires so the blessing Crucian Roulette may be a better fit if Deadshot is used. Additionally, the  Target Down talent does return some stamina on target kills so it could be used to help mitigate the stamina drain.
3. Critical Chance Boost: +5% crit chance is great for a crit focused build. (I have considered dropping Superiority Complex for this talent but found Superiority Complex more consistent to secure kills)
4. Toughness Damage Reduction: +10% Toughness Damage Reduction is great if you have a spare talent point and are looking for survivability.
5. Tactical Reload: Extra reload speed when you have at least 1 bullet left. Great if you can reach it but it costs 2 talent points (-20% sprint cost is a wasted point).
6. Charismatic: Extends your aura radius, great to get more value out of Survivalist, Close Order Drill and Born Leader. I found it useful but not as required as other talents.
7. Target Down: If you team is struggling with toughness this is an option. You will likely need to sub out a damage talent, I would recommend Bring it Down if you team is already out performing for boss damage. Also returns some stamina which is good for support but may also be useful if you chose to use Deadshot.
8. Redirect Fire: More damage for the team is good (12% at max stacks). I found Bring it Down (for boss & ogryn damage) and Superiority Complex (elite damage) more important to hit breakpoints reliably however. You are the elite/special killer, help your team by giving them breathing room from all the special and elites not by giving them 12% more damage.
9. Grenadier: More grenades is good though we are not a grenade focused build. If you already have the prior Critical Chance Boost talent this could be worth it if you have a spare talent point. (Take Grenadier over Grenade Tinkerer if choosing between)
10. Grenade Tinkerer: If you find an extra talent point and are struggling for boss damage, this is a great candidate even though we are not a grenade focused build. (Make sure you have Bring it Down talent for boss damage first though).

Talents You Could Potentially Drop

• Krak Grenade (in favour of Shredder Grenade): Already detailed above, nets you 1 extra talent point as you don't have to take the +5% health talent.
• Superiority Complex: Drop if you find yourself meeting the breakpoints without it.
• Bring it Down: Useful for boss and ogryn damage but your team might be okay without it.
• Fully Loaded: Only drop if your team isn't ammo hungry.
• Determined: Only drop if you really don't mind being supressed.
• Close Order Drill: If you opted for Exhilarating Takedown over Confirmed Kill and don't mind losing some survivability this could be an option.
• Rending Strikes: The Hand-cannon blessing may be enough rending for your needs.
• Focussed Fire: You might not need the 3 extra stacks.

Zarona Mk IIa Quickdraw Stub Revolver

Weapon Summary

The power of the revolver is its sheer damage and its buffed crit chance. Its drawbacks is its expensive ammo and long reload speed. Thankfully ammo is mostly accounted by Survivalist and the sheer number of Elites/Specials you fight are higher difficulties.

Stats

Most stats are important for the revolver but mobility is the dump stat which is unfortunate for us as we will dodging while reloading a lot.. (just make sure you have your cap of 4 dodges at least) I would recommend the following stat preference. Any high base stat roll should do you.

1. Damage
2. Critical Bonus
3. Reload Speed
4. Penetration
5. Mobility

Perks

• Increase Ranged Critical Strike Chance 5%: More crit chance on a crit build is a no-brainer 
• +25% Damage (Maniacs): Allows you to hit the breakpoint (1 shot) without a crit on more enemies and allows you to 2 shot mutants with crits. (If you are able to hit the breakpoints without this perk, take +10% reload speed instead)

Alternative Perks:

• +10% Reload Speed: The perk I really want to take instead of +25% Damage (Maniacs)
• +10 Critical Hit Damage: We are primarily aiming to get crits so more damage could be good but it practice we actually don't need it to hit the breakpoints we are after, especially if we crit on a headshot.
• +10% Weak Spot Damage: We are primarily aiming to get headshots so this is a great catch all, I found maniacs helped me hit the breakpoints I was after on more enemies but you mileage may vary.

Blessings

• Surgical: The blessing that makes the build, neigh but guaranteeing critical hits that allow us to be the gunslinger that protects our team from all the specials and elites that chaos throws at us.
• Hand-Cannon: Allows your revolver to be the hand-cannon it deserves to be with a +60% rending on critical hits (which we get often thanks to surgical). This is required to be able to 2 shot crushers.

Other Blessings:

• Trickshooter: We're doing chained weak spot hits but we should be doing enough damage to hit our break points already.
• Point Blank: +20% crit chance is great but requiring a melee kill for our ranged build isn't.
• Speedload: More reload speed is awesome but this requires us to get a close kill which we won't be getting consistently.
• Crucian Roulette: Extra crit chance would be great, Surgical is better for this build. You could potentially stack Surgical with this blessing but the benefits of Hand-Cannon are too great.
• Gloryhunter: Gaining back toughness on an elite kill is great, especially with our ability to share it without our Born Leader talent but we already get enough toughness regen from our talent tree.
• Sustained Fire: Don't know why the blessing is on the revolver..
• Terrifying Barrage: Sacrifices damage, learn to dodge close range enemies.
• Run 'n' Gun: We're not hip firing.

Alternative Weapons

Find a different build..

Catachan Mk VI Combat Blade

Weapon Summary

You will primarily be using your revolver so being able to quickly switch to your combat blade and gain mobility at a moments notice is our goal. Your team should be handling the majority of the hordes but you need to be able to handle the occasional straggling lesser enemy, mutant, and be able to block a boss.

Pros

• Best mobility
• Decent single target damage
• Allows you to charge attacks while sprinting increasing your speed

Cons

• Poor horde clearing

Stats

All stats for the combat blade are important, especially with our mobility use case but I would recommend the following stat preference.

1. Mobility
2. Damage
3. Finesse
4. First Target
5. Penetration

Perks

• +2 Stamina: Allows you to sprint and block more which are the times you will have your blade out
• +25% Damage (Flak Armoured Enemies): Allows you to deal with bucket heads easier

Alternative Perks: Really this is personal preference as the combat blade is more for survivability than damage. Take whichever balance you feel helps you. Maniac damage, crit chance, crit damage, etc are all good picks.

Blessings

• Ruthless Backstab: Primarily for quickly dealing with mutants/chargers
• Haymaker: Not reliable but may come in clutch when you need it, and we don't have the talents to gain the full effectiveness of the other blessings.

Alternative Blessings: Really again this is personal preference, whatever makes you survive more. Precognition and Executor are good alternatives or you can go for the bleed blessings.

Alternative Weapons

Catachan Mk IV "Devil's Claw" Sword: 

• Pros
  • Decent mobility
  • Parry gives you a melee option against many heavy hitting enemies and can enable you to tank bosses (though in high-tier gameplay can be finicky to pull off effectively)
  • Good reliable high damage heavy overhead swing (this is why you choose the Mk IV)
• Cons
  • Mediocre horde clearing ability (it's enough to not get overrun but not to clear)

Monitorum Mk VI Power Sword:

• Pros
  • High damage
  • Cleaves through hordes incredibly well
  • Charge is animation cancellable into a block / block stab (this is why you choose the Mk VI)
  • Block stab and overhead swing combo to deal lots of damage
• Cons
  • Poor mobility (this is its major con and the reason why it's not the pick for this build)
  • Requires a bit of prep time (which you don't have if you need to use your melee over your revolver)
  • Requires power cycler tier 4 to be decent

Others I haven't tested enough but would likely be good (you want good mobility and okay horde clear/stagger with enough damage to clear a lesser enemy or two when cornered alone):

• Mk VII and Mk III Shovels (Allows you to switch modes to a high damage overhead which kills most flak)
• Combat Axes
• Tactical Axes
• Assault Chainsword

Curios

Blessing

• +17% Toughness: This is obvious, we have lots of toughness damage reduction talents, talents to regain toughness and an ability to not only give us our toughness back but to give us extra. More toughness benefits all of these talents to improve our ability to survive. 

Alternative Blessings

• +1 Wound: You could have one curio have a +1 wound if you find yourself going down as this will give you an extra down where you won't die outright.
• +3 Stamina: If you are taking Deadshot you will need more stamina, balance this with your toughness needs.

Perks 

• +5% Toughness: As above, this is obvious.
• +4% Combat Ability Regeneration: Our Voice of Command as detailed already is our god tier ability, while we already gain it back often through killing specials this makes our default cooldown 26.4 seconds (30-30*0.12). 
• +20% Damage Resistance (Bomber/Gunner): Make this whichever enemies are causing you strife, lots of gunners are very common at higher difficulties and bombers can be tricky to track down so I have preference to these enemy types.

Alternative Perks

• +20% Damage Resistance: Take more as require instead of combat ability regeneration. If there was a perk for the lesser shooters/stalkers I would take it but alas.
• +12% Stamina Regeneration Speed: If you are taking Deadshot Stamina is much more important.