The Bladedancer - Heavy Sword 6 & Needle
 Hive Scum Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

THE BLADEDANCER is a melee-focused Hive Scum build which uses the Heavy Sword's Perfect Strike blessing to cleave, cleave cleave. This crit-build combines the Heavy Sword's fantastic mixed horde clear with the Chem Toxin status effect to deal with all enemy armour types. 

RECOMMENDED WEAPONS:

Melee: Heavy Sword 6 / 7

Ranged: Needle Pistols, Bolt Pistols

BLITZ: BOOM BRINGER

Boom bringer is our point-and-click armour-deletion tool. This ability is cracked. Have fun :) 

Tip: If playing in a coordinated group, communicating when you use this may help your teammates (read: Vet) avoid throwing nades needlessly into a pack that's about to turn to mist. It hurts their feelings, even if they don't show it. 

ABILITY: RAMPAGE

Rampage provides a huge offensive buff with a surprisingly long duration during prolonged engagements. We take Boiling Blood for the additional duration when hitting elites/monsters, Pulverising Strikes for the +melee power (cleave is less important here), and most importantly, Channelled Aggression gives us +25% rending on heavy attacks, juicing our Heavy Sword up for armoured enemies. Rampage also replenishes all toughness on use and can be used defensively in a pinch. 

KEYSTONE: CHEM DEPENDENCY (CHEMD)

ChemD provides offense, defence and utility (CDR), what's not to love? We take Chem Fortified for the 15% TDR and most importantly, Chem Enhanced for the +15% crit chance when at max stacks (3). With each stack lasting 90s vs. our stimm cooldown being 45s, this allows us to easily maintain max ChemD stacks, whilst still having flexibility in choosing when to use our stimm to maximize impact in combat. 

STIMM LAB: STRENGTH + CRIT %

We take Crit % to synergize with Perfect Strike & Coated Weaponry as much as possible. 

ALTERNATE TALENTS: 

This talent tree is 30/30 and is my preferred way of running this build.

To free up talent point(s), I'd suggest dropping: Channelled Devastation / The Sweet Spot / Virulent Strain. 

CURIOS: 

The curios listed above are my preference for this build however this is based on how I like to play. 

Use whatever best fits your playstyle however I find the most value in the set ups below, YMMV:

2 x Toughness / 1 x Stamina

2 x Toughness / 1 x HP

3 x Toughness 

(Minor node priority picks are +toughness / +gunner res / +revive speed / +stamina regen).