12-24% Rending on Enemy Weak Spot Hit for 3.5s. Stacks 5 times.
Target receives 1-4 Stack(s) of 10% Damage if already Staggered. Lasts 5s.
4.5-6% Close Range damage on Repeated Hit. Stacks 5 times.
5-6.5% Strength for 3.5s on Close Range Kill.
This isn't an end-all-be-all build. But it makes you pretty competent at just about anything. It focuses on the Columnus Mk. V and keeping you doing respectable damage while maintaining your ammo. It's also worth noting that your melee weapon of choice can easily be substituted for my shovel here. Almost anything can work if it works for YOU. It's just a general suggestion of my personal favorite.
You have good survivability while still pulling solid DPS too. A great build for fresh level 30 players. Also great for players just looking for a competent build that maybe aren't set on a single specialization. This can likewise be a great build to follow while leveling if you haven't decided how you intend to specialize later. I'll even include a leveling build path at the very bottom if you're a new player.
Stay on your feet with toughness buffs and Voice of Command. Stay stocked with ammo with Survivalist and Fully Loaded, as your Columnus chews through it quickly. Do respectable melee crowd control with the excellent shovel and a few solid melee talents.
And just generally do solid, consistent DPS with a multitude of small damage bonuses that stack up. The Columnus Mk. V can thin hordes before switching to your shovel, drop most specialists quickly, and even do respectable damage to bosses.The grenade choice could change for you, as most all Arounder builds prefer Shredded Frags. I personally prefer Krak grenades to drop heavily armored Ogryns quickly. Does great Monstrosity damage too. And it's big explosion can still thin out a horde in your face as well. It is worth noting that Shredder Frags do have synergy with Onslaught. This isn't a grenade heavy build regardless. Though it's still nice to not have to worry about grenade pick ups much thanks to Demolition Stockpile._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Standout Talents:1: Survivalist: It may not seem like a lot on paper, but this adds up quickly during a match. You and your team will be killing a LOT of specialists throughout any single given mission. You'll see a surprising amount of ammo from this. Yes, it's capped to ever 5 seconds, but if 15 specialists are in killed in the span of a minute and a half, that's you gaining back 15% total of your ammo in less than two minutes without picking anything up.2: Demolition Stockpile: Again, this isn't a grenade heavy build. That said, it's very nice to not have to rely on grenade pickups. It's a real bummer to find a situation where you need a grenade (Such as when a Crusher comes out) and find you don't have any. This very rarely happens with this perk. You're not constantly spamming grenades here anyway, so when you need one, you more than likely have at least one ready with this. It's just a solid quality of life perk for this build. This build uses Krak grenades as it's biggest tool against heavily armored enemies in a pinch. You'll be glad you have it.3: Voice of Command/Duty and Honor: I roll these into the same value here, as you can't have the latter without the former anyway. And overall this ability is just massive utility for both you and your team. VoC's cooldown is already pretty short, but when you're in a Damnation mission and there are a dozen specialists coming out at once, it's an ability that can be seriously almost constantly in use. In Hordes it's going to clear some space for you and knock enemies over to better position, or capitalize on easy weakspot damage. But more so than that it's going to not only refill your toughness if it's broken or breaking, but also overfill it in most cases. This is wonderful and can be essential to surviving some rough encounters. Your entire team will be glad you have Duty and Honor.4: For the Emperor!: Remember how above I said you'll be using Voice of Command a LOT? Why not also give you and your team a decent damage bonus while you're at it? It's not a game changing talent, but with how often you'll be using your ability, it's an absolute no-brainer to include this. A short, sweet and simple damage boost you'll regularly have up.5: Iron Will: Point blank, I honestly think this is probably one of the single best talents in the entire game. It's not only insanely strong on it's own merits, but again, combined with regular use of Voice of Command with Duty and Honor, you're going to be above 75% Toughness often, even in clutch moments on command. It's going to naturally make you a much tankier player. Some consider it a crutch, I consider it an essential talent on higher difficulties. An absolute MUST, especially with this build.6: Onslaught: This is a REAL nice bonus for your weapon of choice, the Columnus Mk. V. With it's fast rate of fire, you're going to see a lot of use from this. Keep in mind that Brittleness affects your whole team. So you stacking it on an enemy means your teams damage sees benefit from it as well. Even if you're not killing something, if you're putting upwards of 40% brittleness on something, it's going to get hurt one way or another from someone on your team. This isn't always an essential talent in every build, but for this particular build, it comes highly recommended._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Leveling Build Path:(This obviously is pretty static for the first several levels. But gets a bit less straight forward after getting your combat ability.)1: Close Order Drill2: Confirmed Kill3: Stamina Boost4: Toughness Boost5: Krak Grenade/Shredder Frag Grenade (Your Choice here. I prefer Kraks.)6: Health Boost7: Ranged Damage Boost8: Get Back In the Fight!9: Survivalist10: Reload Boost11: Toughness Damage Reduction12: Demolition Stockpile13: Voice of Command14: Duty and Honor15: Suppression Boost16: For the Emperor!17: Tactical Awareness18: Iron Will19: Melee Damage Boost20: Close Quarters Killzone21: Stamina Regeneration Boost22: Onslaught23: Ranged Damage Boost24: Precision Strikes 25: Fully Loaded26: Superiority Complex27: Toughness Boost28: Rending Strikes29: Bring It Down!30: Focus Target!
