Shield - Sniveler Stomper
Build for Darktide

"I 'ate snivelers, sah. What? No I don't EAT em, not anymores at least."

Basics: 

• IMO the easiest Ogryn build to use at a high level
• Shield deals with all enemies. With Heavy Hitter stacks and +Flak the first heavy can 1-shot bruisers. 
• Brutal Momentum ensures that more enemies get hit by each heavy attack, causing more bleeding
• Heavy 1 and Push attacks are great against elite enemies. 
• Shield synergizes surprisingly well with attack speed increases from Heavy Hitter and Bullrush. It has long attack animations that get shortened by attack speed buffs and fairly short delays and windups between heavy attacks. 
  • Windups and attack delays are longer in other Ogryn Heavy attacks and those are unaffected by attack speed buffs, so basically Shield gets more value out of attack speed than most Ogryn heavy attacks.
• Rocks or Grenade Gauntlet will handle gunners and specialists with ease.
• Rumbler or Nuke are for surviving FUBAR situations. 
• Two nodes I switch up often: Bruiser and Get Stuck In. You can switch them for No Pushover, for Unstoppable (keystone modifier) and either extra toughness, Too Stubborn to Die (only talent in Ogryn tree that actually increases toughness restored from heavy hits) or both Soften them Up and Slam if you pick the box of hurt. 
  • No Pushover is very strong, but I like to use push attacks often so it usually gets wasted on some random attack and I don't have it when I need to push a bulwark. 

Why should you run this with Shield rather than Feel No Pain and Loyal Protector?

• Taunt doesn't add all that much with Shield. Attention Seeker is all the taunt you need most of the time. Often the enemies you taunt were already attacking you anyway, and you sacrifice a lot of offensive power for a small defensive boost. Taunt's main use is opening up Bulwarks and applying a debuff to bosses. The attack speed, longer stagger, repositioning and bleed from Indomitable adds way more utility for Shield. 
• Shield gets more effect from attack speed than most other ogryn melee weapons, plays well with Bleed, and Heavy Hitter helps get bleed stacks up fast enough to actually be relevant. 

Slab Shield

Dump stat is Defenses (50-60) or Cleave Damage, depending on preference. Dumping Cleave Damage is usually fine because of Brutal Momentum, but you won't always hit headshots and the stat also helps when you surpass Brutal Momentum's 4 kill limit. Basically, dump Defenses unless you really like having a little extra dodge distance and slightly longer sprint. 

Brutal Momentum is the core blessing. The second blessing you can use either Skullcrusher or Opportunist, they're functionally similar but I prefer Opportunist. Skullcrusher at max stacks (8) contributes slightly more damage against a staggered enemy, but you have to hit that enemy multiple times to make use of the bonus.  Opportunist takes effect no matter who staggered them or how, meaning you don't have to hit an enemy 2 times to get the full bonus and it will also apply to your bleed from charge hits. 

You can either spam heavy attacks or block cancel after the first heavy and just do Heavy 1 over and over. The benefit for doing so is that while Heavy 2 has a wider arc, Heavy 1 has higher damage, making it easier to hit the 1-shot breakpoint. 

Maniac is still useful on the Shield, but most of the time you will fare better by whipping out your ranged or rock to deal with specialists. 

Your main combo against a Crusher is Heavy 1 + Block cancel + Heavy 1 + Block cancel + Heavy 1 + Push attack (if needed). You can also repeat Heavy 1 + Push attack for more stagger value when there's several layers of enemies behind your target. 

Grenade Gauntlet + Nuke or Rocks

Don't think of Grenade Gauntlet as a grenade launcher or a crusher killer. Think of Grenade Gauntlet as a reloadable rock. With Maniac, Flak, and Pinpointing Target, you can reliably 1-shot flamers, trappers, bombers, gunners, and snipers with it at up to 40 meters and 2-shot Reapers. 

The second blessing doesn't really matter, I go with Explosive Offensive because the special attack is quite good in mixed hordes or panic situations in Heavy Hitter builds, especially against flak like scab ragers and maulers mixed into a horde. It can even take out Crushers so using all 4 attacks is pretty decent panic crowd control. It's not as good as a Rumbler in FUBAR situations but the weapon is way better than Rumbler for taking out specialists and Gunners. If you don't like the special attack go with Gloryhunter. 35% toughness on Elite Kill is nice when you've got 6 gunners shooting at you. 

Big Boom + Towering Presence is a decent option when going Nuke and Gauntlet, but you would have to free up 3 points to get it. 

Rumbler + Rocks

Rumbler is not really a good weapon right now due to its inconsistency, bad blessings, and low max ammo, but Shield is so gruttin' strong you rarely need a ranged weapon for the most part. The rumbler's main purpose to be used in complete chaos situations that would normally call for a nuke (while giving you more than one), to stagger enemies and kill trash. Rocks are necessary with it because it's unreliable against gunners and specialists even if you put Maniac on it. 

I recommend Adhesive Charge and either Marksman's Reflex for the reload or Blaze Away for more FUBAR situation power, but my highest recommendation right now is Shrapnel for its combination of a little more FUBAR power and helping finish off enemies you hit in the end but barely don't kill. Keep in mind that if you try to use blaze away your Heavy Hitter buff will be lost. 

In FUBAR situations, you can switch to it and fire 2-3 shots in a row, reload, then use a special attack to refresh heavy hitter, then fire 3 shots and repeat. Or you just switch to it and fire one shot then go back to melee and reload once you get a chance (not using marksman's reflex).

Outside of FUBAR stagger power, use it to take out poxbursters, trappers, and possibly gunners (if you have heavy hitter stacks up) to conserve rocks. 

Kickback + Rocks

Kickback strong. Blaze Away + your choice of Inspiring Barrage or Surgical. Keep in mind that Blaze Away is the #1 thing that makes Kickback strong and you'll often lose your heavy hitter stacks while building it with ranged spam.