Veteran
25-40% Cleave on Hit. Stacks 5 times.
2.5-4% Bonus Critical Chance on Chained Hit. Stacks 5 times.
Ranged hits add 1-4 stacks of bleed to enemies.
10% Critical Chance for every 0.3-0.45 second while aiming. Stacks 10 times. Discharges all stacks upon firing.
Let me start by saying this build is NOT optimal. Using Infiltrate is a borderline challenge run. However, Infiltrate has the unique ability to suppress all enemies in an absolutely hilarious radius (it's roughly the same radius as Blazing Piety , and it works through walls). Contrary to Shroudfield , though, Fatshark has annoyingly decided not to give Infiltrate any functional damage buffs. Surprise Attack , Marksman , For the Emperor! , and Close Quarters Killzone are not what they used to be. These buffs would EACH need to have at LEAST a 15 second duration for them to be worthwhile, in terms of Infiltrate's usability (...even then, VoC is stupid with or without damage buffs, and Arbites is currently cannibalizing this poor class). Even then, I feel all 4 of these nodes should just be compressed into one node specifically for Infiltrate. Oh, and Overwatch should NOT increase the cooldown by 33%, and I firmly believe Low Profile shouldn't even be in the game. If you're solo, Low Profile either completely breaks the enemy AI or just doesn't do anything. If you're not, then Low Profile effectively makes you not a teammate anymore. But without it, Vet is WAY too squishy to use the hit-and-run tactics that this ability actively encourages without getting caught out and dying; usually by spread-out shooters/gunners or some random dreg slapping you in the ass and devouring half your HP. This is not a high-risk, high-reward playstyle. The opportunity cost of not taking VoC is too high to justify it, in most cases. You may survive Havoc 40, you'll probably survive Auric Maelstrom, but using this ability automatically slashes your survivability in half. It's rather counterintuitive. I don't know why Fatshark didn't just make this a ranged version of Shroudfield--remember when Fury of the Faithful affected Zealot's ranged weapons? Please, give that tech to Infiltrate.
However...
With some proper fighting lads and lasses, or on your own (if you're solo, use the Catachan Mk III Combat Blade ), this build practically turns off enemy gunners. Which, on Havoc 40, are the single-most threatening and problematic enemies on the field. Considering Infiltrate will not give you any extra damage seeing that we are not using the four aforementioned nodes, this ability serves almost exclusively to allow the Veteran to freely reposition and assault enemy lines and then retreat back into coherency. The reason we will not be using the Shredder Frag Grenade is twofold: talent point cost and utility. We would not have enough points to take a keystone, which is usually how I build Infiltrate, but--more importantly--the Smoke Grenades have really shown their utility in high Havoc. BUT KEEP IN MIND, SMOKES ALSO BLOCK YOUR TEAMMATE'S LINE OF SIGHT AND PUT MORE SHIT ON THEIR SCREEN! You either need to know how to use these, or communicate with your team. Do not throw these things around willy-nilly. And if you're playing Ventilation Purge or Lights Out? Just forget using this build.
Consider Infiltrate to be your Catastrophic Fuck-Up Solver. If someone goes down, if no one can nick the objective, if your toughness gets nuked, press Infiltrate like it's your big red "GO!" button on an Ork WAAAAGH ship. Lamentably, if you just had VoC and Shredder spam instead, it may have prevented the Catastrophic Fuck-Up from happening in the first place. Alas, if you pay keen attention to your positioning and dodge management, hit your weakspot hits on your Bolt Pistol, and don't get caught out of cover/smoke without Infiltrate off cooldown, there's a select few things that will give you direct trouble. The Beast of Nurgle is one of those things. So is the Slab Sandwich and Crusher patrols. And if you get stuck in and do your job right, your teammates won't even notice you practically weren't a teammate for half the game. Smokes will force gunners to reposition to try and shoot you, and the smoke "explosion" actually suppresses enemies in its radius. Essentially, you use it like mobile cover. And mobile indeed, because it's only around for 15 seconds. Whatever you were smoking out needs to be dealt with.
Alas... I can speak on Infiltrate and Smokes for 1,000 years. But I'm not gonna sit here with the facade that I'm smarter than you are. VoC is, objectively, the better, more effective pick. Who gives a shit what you're suppressing if VoC can stagger monstrosities...
As for the weapons of choice, things are pretty flexible. Of course, considering the name of this build, the Devil's Claw is sort of the crux of the Catachan warrior schtick. The Graia Mk IV Braced Autogun with Ceaseless + Terrifying Barrage is quite the opponent to shooters and gunners. However, if you take the BAG, you NEED to take the knife (or the Achlys Mk VI Power Sword ) to be capable of fighting armour. And, obviously, the dueling sword is (currently) the most effective choice... Sadly, Fatshark still thinks, for some reason, that the D. Claw doesn't deserve respectable Damage vs Flak and Damage vs Carapace in it's attack chains, or, better yet, on its parry. Imagine if one of the D. Claw variants had a tighter parry window and more punishing cooldown, but could parry overheads and negate knockback... On the bright side, this thing is an absolute behemoth against hordes, Plague Ogryns, and Chaos Spawns. Oh, and it blitzes Ragers. As a treat. Smoke, rush gunner lines while they reposition, and hack them down--if they fix bayonets or draw their sidearm, so what? You have a parry. If trash mobs decide to aggro you, or are chasing you around? So what? You have a parry. Oh, and the melee Captain can go frag himself. Devil's Claw can spam parry against their melee combos, and (if you're lucky) can chain parries against the ranged Captain's kick if he decides to spam it. This weapon does need Cleave and/or Crit, however (it will get bogged down by Flak in mixed hordes), so be mindful of that. *I have not yet done enough testing with the blessings on the Devil's Claw. Blessings are subject to change. Feel free to make educated changes as you see fit.
The Bolt Pistol needs no introduction. On high Havoc, especially, be extremely mindful of your ammo, because you do NOT have Survivalist, and if there is a Rumbler or Boltgun on your team you'll have even less ammunition to work with. This weapon is, effectively, your Reaper, Bulwark, and Crusher solver. It can be used against Maulers and Dreg Ragers as well, but they can be dealt with in the rest of the horde by targeting them with parries. Mauler light attacks can be parried, but be wary of their overhead. Get them with parry attack cleave by parrying trash mobs into them.
And... that is about it. Sadly... The "Reaper" build (iykyk) was what seduced me into buildcrafting and investing more of me into getting better at this game. In the hayday of the Columnus, Close Quarters Killzone, Raking Fire, and Dumdum used to chew up Crushers. But things have changed, and the battle for Tertium got harder. So, we gotta fight harder.
