Hitting an enemy gives them 1-4 stacks of 2.5% Brittleness. Debuff lasts for 5 seconds and can have a maximum of 16 stacks.
Continuously chaining more than 2 attacks gives 2-5% Power. Stacks 10 times.
5-8% Strength for every 10% of magazine spent during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
1-4% Toughness for every 10% of magazine spent during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
A build created because I wanted a build that could utilize the Combat Axe with weapon specialist well, and this ended up being the one I came up with. It's an interesting one, but works pretty well, and lets the Combat Axe certainly thrive. The Combat Axe III has all of it's wave clearing potential 'locked' behind it's push attack, so with you using that very consistently, I actually ended up taking Invigorated of all things to constantly feed stamina back into you as you keep your attack speed going. I then through on a Shredder Autopistol, partly for varieties sake, to somewhat make up for the low movement speed, deal with anything far off (eventually), and, be able to 'store' the melee specialist proc until I reach the next engagement zone/thing to melee. I originally used a Laspistol here for even greater movement speed, but I noticed On Your Toes was having a bit of trouble keeping me topped off on toughness due to getting shot here and there occasionally/your melee not being the MOSt effective at wave clear, so I tried it out with the autopistol and it's like night and day. Sure, super far off snipers are a bit of a pain, but everything else is just solved thanks to Inspiring Barrage being so incredible, to the point I drop On Your Toes all together for Rending Strikes to make everything on this build that much better. With the increased fire rate from weapon specialist, you can dump a clip so quick, get your full toughness bare from zero, and drop 2-3 specials along the way. Or, you can pot shot a partial mag if you don't need the toughness just to re-proc the melee bonus, and keep the rest for when you need it. Both pistols have quick reload speed so neither need Always Prepared, so it was a no brainer choice, and 'felt right' as the Shredder Pistol just fixes all the Combat Axes weaknesses, while making you immortal as you fire it to boot.I also take upgraded shredder grenades, as while you do dump shots, ammo isn't to much of a concern given the amount the pistol can hold, and having that '1 grenade wave clear' is INSANELY needed, while also helping start the bleed for Serrated Blade to pick up with gusto. Shout obviously is also super helpful, used in order to always have a 'get out of the wave' ticket that keeps you from ever truly getting overwhelmed, that also gives you the ever broken golden toughness that makes inspiring barrage that much more insane. Serrated Blade also helps the Combat Axe quite a bit, allowing you to drop most targets rather cleanly thanks to Thunderous, Decimator and the bleed. Your push attack cleaves are able to cut through all bits of flesh in the wave as well, letting the bleed finish things off as you wait for your stamina to come back, or get it back with another hot swap specialist proc. Feels pretty nice, given you will normally take multiple hits to kill things, so stacking bleed as you do is nothing but helpful.Overall, my most 'experimental' Veteran build, but nice to 'get a taste of the old days but with a modern spin', would recommend if you just want something to f around with that won't hold your hand, but will work for you if you work for it.
