Zealous Vet
 Veteran Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Veteran for chorus relic blade zealots looking for a change, and players who like to go fast. Generic elite killer with melee bite.

Lethal Proximity bolt pistol for enhanced frags (the increased explosion radius affects frags), better shooter suppression. Puncture is generally extremely good and stacks bleed with frags, but Deadly Accurate could be funny since you'll have 100% crit chance with 3+stacks of ranged specialist. Haven't tested if it hits any notable breakpoints or does appreciable extra boss damage though. +Unyielding helps killing reapers (and sometimes emergency boss contributions), +Flak helps with killing scab gunners and maulers.

Focus Target! is probably better than Weapons Specialist for havoc if you're the only vet, esp if your team lacks burst boss damage, but the lack of on-demand crits will hurt elite/special hunting abilities. As built this is a great second vet.

Can theoretically swap the health curio for more toughness - intentional activation of On Your Toes should make it easier to maintain Iron Will. In that case, make sure to take a +5% health bonus to put you over the 100 health breakpoint for poxburster instagibbing. I'm more comfortable having the extra health cushion but up to personal preference

Power Falchion Notes

• You can dump either mobility or heat management. Dumping heat management instead of mobility is great fun but requires a bit more intentional activation and deactivation. With Agile Engagement you can clear chaff pretty well even deactivated.
• Blessings are somewhat flexible. 
  • Cranial Grounding is probably the most solid all around. 
  • Heatsink helps with uptime and is probably the best choice if you dump heat management, since it will also apply when deactivated. 
  • Energy Leakage helps with single target and also applies while deactivated. It's a another good choice when dumping heat management since the stacks will build more quickly and when you need to deactivate you'll have a bonus, but it requires some more conscientious heat management.
  • Overload technically makes your cooldown faster from the max when triggered, but at the expense of not having the flexibility to reactivate for a few seconds when it pops.
  • Wrath seems to be meta but it doesn't feel strictly necessary to me.
• Perks are also somewhat flexible. I always take +Carapace for the capacity to quickly kill crushers and maulers. Second perk is a tossup between +Maniac and +Flak - better performance against a) dreg ragers and muties or b) scab ragers, dreg bruisers, and scab captains.
• PF functions similarly to relic blade - activating and deactivating windows count as blocking, and it's always quicker to deactivate by swapping weapons
•  Both marks feel equally usable / good but I'm not an expert. Meta seems to favors Lawbringer Mk IIb Power Falchion but I feel comfier with the Aridin Mk I Power Falchion - its CC doesn't require block cancelling and all hits are extremely horizontal so it's easier to proc weakspot blessings imo. Single-target rotation feels a bit slower though

• Crowd control rotations

  *  Lawbringer Mk IIb 

    - H1 -> L2 -> L3 -> block cancel -> H1 ...

    - H1 -> L2 -> H1...

    - Push attack -> L2 -> L3 -> block cancel

  * Aridin Mk I

    - L1 -> L2 -> H3 -> L2 -> H3 ...

    - Push -> L2 -> H3 ...

• Single target rotations

  * Lawbringer

    - L1 -> H2 -> L1...

  * Aridin

    - Push attack -> L3 ...

    - H1 -> H2 -> L3 -> H1...

    - For Lighter targets:  L1 -> H2 -> L3 -> L1/H1 ...

Flex Talents

• Survivalist is likely the better aura for your team if you're the only vet.
• If you spend most of your time chopping heads / don't feel confident sprinkling headshots into your game, can swap Exhilarating Takedown for the 10% TDR gray node. ET grants higher peak TDR and instant toughness regen, but may require some tweaking to your gameplan.
• Precision Strikes is free damage in melee and helps with picking elites and specials, but may not be strictly necessary.
• Can swap the 15% melee damage boost for Rending Strikes
  •  Will marginally increase your melee damage output against carapace and flak with no tangible loss vs unyielding. I prefer the extra damage against maniacs from the gray node though. 
  • Marginally increases bleed DoT damage
  • Provides no tangible benefit to direct bolt pistol damage
• Close Quarters Killzone isn't essential but has neat synergies
  • Frag damage gets buffed by CQK! If you're within 12.5m, the full 15% extra damage is applied to both the initial explosion and to the bleed DoT!
  • This build is pretty angry and will probably spend most of its time chopping stuff up at shorter ranges
• Grenadier is good for maximum fragging but isn't essential imo
• Having some kind of stamina regen is neat. I like Duck and Dive since it provides a constant movement speed buff and seems to have no internal cooldown / can proc multiple times from dodging a single shooter burst. Invigorated is also an option, but the power falchion has a decent stamina pool and doesn't need to chain push attacks for maximum damage output unlike something like a knife or power sword - by the time you complete a PA->L3(->H1...) you'll have regenerated a decent amount if you have multiple stamina regen curio perks.

Alternative Talent Suggestions

• Reciprocity , though I have mixed feelings on it
  • Weapons specialist provides guaranteed ranged crit generation, so extra crit chance isn't as crucial for specialist removal
  • Reciprocity doesn't always have great uptime (I typically have ~15-35% with an average of ~2 stacks or less)
  • Post 1.13.x changes to vet's stamina regen though, it's easier / less costly to chain dodges and slides than in prior patches. Has good synergy with Duck and Dive .
  • Would also make Exploit Weakness more attractive on weapons without Shred 
• Out for Blood for greater toughness sustain
• Born Leader for team sustain. Good synergy with Exhilarating Takedown, Out for Blood, and On Your Toes 
• Serrated Blade for even stronger melee performance

Bonus: Knife Variation

• Same ranged weapon
• Catachan Mk VI Combat Blade
  • Blessings: Uncanny Strike. Either Mercy Killer (preferred) or Riposte 
  • Perks: +2 Stam. Either +Carapace (preferred), +Unyielding, or +Crit chance
• Talent swaps
  • Serrated Blade in exchange for Exhilarating Takedown or melee damage boost
  • Rending Strikes in exchange for melee damage boost or Close Quarters Killzone 
  • Exploit Weakness in exchange for Grenadier 
  • Invigorated in exchange for one of Duck and Dive or On Your Toes