Combat Axe Arbites
 Arbites Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

The recently-reworked Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe is probably the strongest combat axe variant now, although its attack patterns are slightly more complicated than the others. The biggest selling point is its first heavy attack, which is a horizontal sweep that's very effective at triggering Brutal Momentum for ~4 kills per swing if you can line up some heads. The weapon has poor base cleave (which is why I skipped Drive them Back), so you're entirely reliant on getting weakspot kills for good horde clear. That's why this build focuses heavily on maxing damage per hit, to ensure as many one-shots as possible for Brutal Momentum to bypass the target's cleave mass.

The axe kills most things on Auric difficulty in 2 hits or less with typical buffs active. Crushers take 3 weakspot heavy attacks; mutants, maulers, ragers, bulwarks, and reapers die to 2 weakspot heavy attacks. Everything else besides bosses/monstrosities dies to 1 weakspot heavy attack. Light attacks on the Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe are decent and can one-hit shotgunners and most specialists, and can two-hit many more including mutants and ragers; however, the light attacks only do about half as much damage as strikedown heavy attacks, and only about a third as much against carapace armor. It's generally best to focus on heavy attacks against elites and monstrosities, and just use lights to pick off isolated trash mobs and lower-health targets.

Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe special action can bypass bulwark shields if you stand close and aim for their head; it's unclear whether this is a bug or intended behavior, but this makes it one of the easiest melee counters to bulwarks and kills them even through their shield in 3-4 hits. The special attack also has good stagger and is situationally useful for stunning single targets like crushers.

Ranged weapon is personal preference. Godwyn-Branx Mk IV Bolt Pistol is versatile, effective at all ranges, highly mobile, and its Lethal Proximity blessing also increases Arbites Grenade explosion radius. Other good options include Godwyn-Branx Mk VI Bolt Pistol, Exaction Mk III Exterminator Shotgun, Locke Mk III Spearhead Boltgun, Agripinaa Mk VII Combat Shotgun, and Zarona Mk IIa Quickdraw Stub Revolver.

You can take Voltaic Shock Mine instead of Arbites Grenade if you prefer. You could also play with the dog instead of Lone Wolf if you want, but it will take an extra hit to kill some enemies without Lone Wolf's +20% damage and you will likely get fewer Brutal Momentum procs. For a dog version of the build, I would swap Lone Wolf for Voltaic Mandibles Augment and Arbites Grenade for Remote Detonation. I would also probably swap Strike Down for Canine Morale. Strike Down is mostly relevant to crushers and packmasters, so you can swap that point elsewhere if you don't mind taking longer to kill those targets, regardless of playing Lone Wolf or dog build.

Any of the abilities can be used with the build, but I find Break the Line the most generally useful. This build can't afford to spend more than 1-2 points on the ability because we need as many damage nodes as possible. Cleave Boost would be a point tax to take Castigator's Stance, since the axe benefits little from direct cleave scaling.

You can path through Shield Plates instead of the 10% TDR node below Walk It Off if you prefer. Shield Plates is a decent toughness recovery node and will proc at random sometimes when you get hit while doing push attacks, but its average value will depend on how often you need to block during a mission.

The +3 stamina curio is optional since you'd have 6 stamina without it. I like to have a little extra since this weapon benefits from spamming push attacks to loop back into the sweeping heavy attack, and having extra stamina for blocking can be clutch in some situations. A good alternative is taking a 20+% health curio with 5% health perk to get an extra proc from True Grit (outside Havoc), or just another 17% toughness curio.

RECOMMENDED COMBOS

• Cleave: heavy > push-attack > repeat
  OR heavy > block-cancel > repeat
  OR  heavy > light x2 > push-attack > repeat
• Single target: light > (heavy > repeat)
  OR heavy > repeat
  OR light > repeat
• Stagger: special-action > heavy > repeat