Fun Shotgun/Melee Vet
 Veteran Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

This is my fun build I use for auric maelstrom. It’s not super powerful, but I find it’s the most enjoyable, but still viable (in a game where certain builds make soloing easy). 

This one requires quite a few explanations (as the choices might seem rather odd).

a lot of these choices revolve around reaching the breakpoints of the shotgun. It’s special in that the damage drop off is an exponential to the power of three, R^3, due to effective range, damage drop off, and the pellet spread cone. And the pellet spread cone is randomized.

Shotgun spread:

It’s really bad by default, and makes hitting important breakpoints nearly impossible unless at less than 8 meters. Therefore, both deadshot + run and gun are required to have at least some consistency.

Shotgun range:

Surprisingly, the rending mechanic effectively increases range (as damage drop off is in same calculation as rending). Rending strikes therefore is very valuable.

Shotgun criticals:

Not required, but it’s kinda nice. Weapon specialist gives guaranteed crits when it’s needed most, and manstopper is really nice in case poxwalker is standing in front of target.

Damage bonuses and breakpoints:

Because damage drop off is r^3, with a randomized input, breakpoints can be missed by a simple random calculation. In order to compensate, it’s important to get all the damage bonuses possible, including temporary ones.