Reduces Heat buildup by 3-6% and increases weakspot damage by 1-4% for 3s on chained weakspot hits. Stacks 5 times.
Hitting at least 3 enemies with an attack, increases your damage by 24-36% for 3 seconds.
Ranged hits add 1-4 stacks of bleed to enemies.
Target receives 1-4 Stacks of 2.5% Brittleness on direct projectile hit. Debuff lasts for 5 seconds and can have a maximum of 16 stacks.
For havoc 30+, swap out cranial grounding for wrath due to increasing hitmass of enemy hordes. Also consider swapping the boltgun for a Flamer if you have a vet, need more hordeclear, or just want something that's not a bolter.
Flamer for high havoc would have damage dumped, Flak and Maniac damage for perks, and overpressure + blaze away. For Crusher hate you could swap maniac for carapace and blaze away for penetrating flame.
Also feel free to swap unyielding damage on the relic for flak if you're not melee killing bulwarks / reapers / monstrosities with it. You can dump collateral on the boltgun if you're not using it to open bulwark shields. For curious, taking a single stamina curio or swapping a perk on one for sniper resist also works well. If you're having issues with survivability changing out sustained assault and the node above it to go for thy wrath be swift works as well.
If you have a bubble psyker on your team, just stick as close as you can to them and make sure they have room to continue using their staff and bubble without being threatened. If no bubble psyker, consider why the emperor has abandoned you and seek repentance before choosing a different squishy damage teammate to defend.
Relic blade performs well against armor, monstrosities, and bosses and can handle hordes but is slow and has terrible dodges. Using your reach to stay out of melee range and hit ranged enemies sooner is key to surviving with it. Using the edge of your relic blade's reach can make it easier to hit weakpoints on enemies. Use the charged blade as much as you can, but stop at half heat charge and allow it to fully cool unless you're fighting a large mixed horde, armored targets, or a monstrosity. In these cases, keep using it until just before it overheats, then either switch it off and keep fighting uncharged if you have only weak targets remaining or activate Chorus to hold things off while your blade cools down. You can use QQ to quickly turn off your blade charge if you're not already in an attack animation. The Sprinting Heavy thrust can be used during a slide as well as a sprint.
I try to keep at least 2-3 mags of bolter / flamer for emergencies, but otherwise be free to help kill shooters with them. If you're at full throwing knives make sure to use a few on shooters so you have room to make use of your regen and save some ammo.
Use your throwing knives generously since traditional ammo is sparce on havoc and there's plenty of specials and elites to help you refill them. Throw a knife to quickly pull out your boltgun or flamer. You can also throw a knife or block after using the Sprinting Heavy to enter sprint and use the Sprinting Heavy again. Alternatively, you can use a Sprinting Heavy, throw a knife, then dodge slide and use another Sprinting Heavy.
Horizontal Sweeps for horde clear - Light 1, Light 2, Heavy 3, Heavy 4 are all horizontal sweeps and Heavy 3 and Heavy 4 can be repeated in a loop
- Light 1, Light 2, Heavy 3 also works with looping Light 2 and Heavy 3
- Push (with no attack), Heavy 4, Heavy 3 can access heavy sweeps more quickly and you can either loop it or just the heavies at the end
- Push, Light 2, Heavy 3 can loop as well, or just loop Light 2 and Heavy 3
Strikedowns and stabs for single target
- Heavy while sprinting is a stab and leads into Light 1 (right to left sweep) or Heavy 1 (right side strikedown)
- Push Attack is a stab
- Heavy 1, Heavy 2, Light 3 you can loop for strikedown, strikedown, stab
- Push attack, Heavy 2, Light 3 can be looped and used to attack with only single target attacks on left side for hitting around bulwark shields
Switching between them
- If you're doing a horizontal sweep from left to right, you can follow with Light 3 (stab) and start a single target combo
- If you're performing single target attacks, use Push to cancel your combo and loop Light 2, Heavy 3 or Heavy 4, Heavy 3
- A Push attack is a quick and reliable way to interrupt a hordeclear loop for a single target attack if you need one
If you use disdain, you can build stacks with a sweep and expend them on a stab by using Light 1, Push Attack, Light 2, Light 3, which loops.
