Power Maul Rework New Synergies
 Ogryn Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Now that the Power Maul's energized hit explosion deals real damage instead of just being a 0 damage stagger/suppression wave, the "additional shockwave" from Power Surge that happens simultaneously with the first also deals damage. As a result, the explosion actually ends up dealing double damage to all enemies in its massive radius.

The energized hit explosion also now inflicts Burn Stacks from Fire Away, which is completely new and most likely happens now because the explosion no longer deals 0 damage. It may not seem like much when you have to wait 12 seconds between each instance just for 1 or 2 Burn Stacks, but it has some pretty fun synergy with Power Surge due to how that blessing is implemented. Since a second simultaneous explosion is happening instead of it just being one bigger, more powerful explosion, the Burn Stack amount inflicted upon enemies is actually doubled, which ends up being fairly substantial. Stacking on top of the Rumbler's stacks or setting up the Rumbler to inflict even more with its stacks magnifies the amount of damage you can deal to a horde while saving precious Rumbler ammo.

Also, it still has the same Skullcrusher synergy as before, where the double explosion will max out Skullcrusher stacks on the enemy you hit plus any staggerable enemies in range, so it is just amazing as a team support and damage-enabling tool for your squad. It may not be applying brittleness on every hit like the Mk3 Club does, but the energized hits can definitely apply Skullcrusher to more enemies at once than the Club can to make it easier for your teammates to clean up enemies that may not even be near you.

The default setup pre-rework would generally be bringing Brutal Momentum alongside Skullcrusher, but this unique synergy with Power Surge is fairly potent, especially considering that the energized Power Maul hit can now stagger bosses. You effectively have a free grenade every 12 seconds.

You could honestly just throw the Power Maul with Power Surge onto any Rumbler-centric build, and it will most likely work perfectly fine as well, but it does work great as a melee weapon on its own now, even without being powered up. It can definitely hold up in a melee build like this one because of its new combos, smoothened chain times, and buffed damage+finesse on heavies. The new heavy strikedown's non-energized single-target damage output rivals the Pickaxe's heavy strikedowns which keeps it from falling behind with the new Scab faction health buffs. Also, the 3rd and 4th light chain getting an attack speed boost when looped is amazing for shredding Captain bubble shields since it revs up to being just as fast as the Mk3 Club.

With the energized explosion's massively buffed impact easily clearing the stagger breakpoints to knock thick hordes of even the heaviest enemies to the ground, the Power Maul is for sure a lot more Havoc viable than before. It has been transformed into yet another strong pause button for Ogryn to cycle through in runs to control/clear mixed hordes, rescue teammates, maintain run stability, and trivialize bosses.