+7.5-15% Weak Spot Damage. Weakspot Kills also ignore Enemy Hit Mass.
Target receives 1-4 Stack(s) of +10% Damage if already Staggered. Lasts 5s.
+5-8% Strength for every shot fired during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
+1-4% Toughness for every shot fired during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
"I 'ate snivelers, sah. What? No I don't EAT em, not anymores at least."
Why should you run this with Shield rather than Feel No Pain and Loyal Protector?
Dump stat is Defenses or Cleave Damage, depending on preference. Dumping Cleave Damage is usually fine because of Brutal Momentum, but you won't always hit headshots, won't always kill when bigger enemies are mixed in, 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 and benefits your team, 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 immediately to enemies bleeding and knocked down from Indomitable.
You can either spam heavy attacks or block cancel after the first heavy and just do Heavy 1 over and over. The benefit for using Heavy 1 is that while Heavy 2 has a wider arc, Heavy 1 has higher damage, making it easier to hit the 1-shot breakpoint. That said, Heavy 2 is still useful. At 5 stacks of Heavy Hitter it will still 1-shot trash, it will hit more of them, and you can use it strategically to get a whole bunch of bleeding enemies around you (that will quickly die to bleed) for damage resistance or to help a throwing knife Zealot fighting alongside you build up crit hits.
+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.
Kickback strong. Blaze Away + your choice of Inspiring Barrage, Run n' Gun, 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 spamming ranged. Run n' Gun is great at close range, but keep in mind the downside of being more accurate is that at long range accuracy is actually a downside against large groups due to the minimum pellet count mechanic.
Rumbler is not really a good weapon right now due to its inconsistency, mostly mediocre blessings (except 3) 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 is for complete chaos situations that would normally call for a nuke to stagger enemies and kill trash. Rocks are necessary with it because it's unreliable against gunners and specialists even if you put Maniac/Flak on it. That's why I recommend using Blaze Away and Blast Zone, and simply using your ammo pool as a panic button. The only other good blessing is Adhesive Charge since it lets you 1-shot Reapers and do better damage against monstrosities, but there's nothing to combo it with that is more valuable than the other combo (bleed AoE is okay) and you really should save your ammo outside of panic mode anyway.
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.
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. You'll need 1 stack of pinpointing target and +Maniac to 1-shot flamers.
The second blessing doesn't really matter, I sometimes 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 really nice when you've got 6 gunners shooting at you.
Ogryn in Havoc has three roles: Controlling aggro, DPS, and taunting shooters. A good Ogryn can be very valuable in high havoc.
As you go higher in Havoc, your max HP decreases by a %, up to 35%. This is calculated before HP% from curios.
As you go higher in Havoc, your max toughness decreases by a flat amount, up to -50. This is calculated before TN% modifiers, so flat +TN nodes are super important to negate it. As a result of these, TN% curios becomes way less useful if you have fewer base +TN nodes so plan accordingly. Some players thrive on low toughness with the talent points spent elsewhere and a large HP pool. I personally stick with 1HP 2 TN.
Against shooters: Taunt by blocking. Shooters will always target the closest enemy, so you need to be in front of the team in order to taunt any of them. If you only have 1 dome psyker, you can help the dome stay alive much longer in some situations by moving just in front of it and taunting all the regular shooters. But don't do this against Gunners and Reapers. You'll be more helpful if you sit inside the dome and suppress them with your ranged or take them out with rocks. If there's no dome, gunners will try to blaze you down; you can either keep the shield special up and hope your team kills them, or if they're close by slide forward and use shield special in between slides, then slide into them again with a Heavy attack. You can also fire a shot to suppress/knock down a few then slide in.
Against hordes: Heavy 1 + Push. You can strategically switch directions and keep most enemies taunted while your team kills them, or just handle one side by yourself while your team handles the other.
Against melee Elites: Heavy 1 block cancel, then push when they're about to attack. You're going to be doing this a lot. If you need to knock them down again while No Pushover is recharging you have your charge. Try to save your charge for later in big fights as your team will likely use Shout & relic early in the fight and not be able to help later. If everything is on cooldown and dodges are running out, push for a taunt and then retreat.
For moebian 21st you'll want to switch your shield's carapace perk to unarmored in order to meet the 1-shot breakpoint more consistently. Without it you need 5 stacks of heavy hitter and they can't be strengthened by anything.
For Blight Spreads (goo on death) modifier, you can be very valuable by Pushing enemies away from your front line before killing them. This will prevent the team from having to contantly retreat. Most of the time the goo is best neutralized by Beacon of Purity zealot.
Kickback is my ranged of choice for havoc, especially for the parasites modifier. With how fast enemies attack, you often don't have the luxury of spamming rumbler grenades or gauntlet specials in a chaotic situation, you'd just die. Kickback is for taking out a clump of shooters or specialists and to apply quick stagger or suppression.
