Heretic Hammer (Havoc 40)
 Zealot Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

This thunder hammer build allowed me to breeze my way into havoc 40 from 20 in about 2 weeks. Here how I use it

Shroudfield:

Dont be shy about using it.

• Kill Bosses
• Revive Teammates
• Pop it and run into the middle of a gunner horde(the extra damage resistance will help you survive, and using it this way adds immense value to your team)

• It can also be used as an "oh shit" button due to the toughness and damage resistance you get for 8s after use

   

Bosses are the priority, but don't save shroudfield all the time for them. You can kill them just fine without it.

For bosses: You don't want to activate shroudfield too early or the bosses are just going to run away from you. To one shot bosses, you need to have shroudfield active, use your special attack, and hold leftclick until it is fully charged and hit the boss on the back(ideally the back of the head). It will swing on it's own when it's ready. The bosses will run away from you when they realize they're about to die, so you can remedy this by holding sprint and sliding and you're charging your big attack.

For weakened bosses, you don't need to fully charge your attack. Just shroudfield & special attack is enough.

FUN FACT: Plague ogryns have a second weakspot on their backs, the smoke stack also counts as a head.

For trappers/dogs/bombers. Use bolt pistol or throwing knives.

For CC, You can spam heavy attacks. If you notice you are getting hit between heavy attacks, there is a combo you can do to attack faster and still keep some CC. When your heavy attack swings from left to right, do a light attack and a push attack after. Repeat Heavy -> Light -> Pushattack. Heavy spam is preferable due to the increased cleave, but if you can't nail the spacing this is a really good way to still do good CC and stagger anything about to hit you.

For Mauler/Rager/Crusher spam. Spam light attacks with the occasional push attack to get the extra attack speed. IF you find a good corner or doorway, your light attack is more than capable of keeping 8-10 maulers/ragers on the ground staggered.

Special attacks are generally reserved for crushers and bosses, but you can sprinkle it in for flavor when necessary. For more than one elite, using light attacks will be faster to kill than multiple special attacks.

3 WOUND CURIOUS ALLOWS YOUR UNTIL DEATH TO MAX YOUR MATRYDOM.

Bringing 2 wound curios or less means you have to take some damage after your until death pops. That is dangerous and I'd rather just have the matrydom buffs at the rip. Bringing 3 wound curios means when you get 25% health back from until death, you will have 5 missing wounds and therefore reap the maximum benefits from martyrdom.

Blessings: I find skullcrusher to be far superior to thrust, as you can still one hit most bosses without thrust, and skullcrusher ensures that all elites/specialists are a 3 hit kill max. Slaughterer just makes the thunder hammer a horde clearing machine.

ADRESSING COMMON MISTAKES WHEN BUILDING THUNDER HAMMER(my opinion)

The bolt pistol is optional, but I recommend bringing a ranged weapon to deal with ranged enemies. Bringing a weapon that favors crowd control, such as the flamer, is redundant. When the hammer is built properly, you will have no problem dealing with heavy crowds(even mauler crowds) if you use it right.

Using Martyr's purpose insted of pious cut-throat for ability regeneration. Martyr's purpose maxes out at 50% cooldown regeneration. Most builds I see though arent' using 3 wound curious, meaning most of the time they're going to be capped at 40%. Pious cut throat gives 75% for 2 seconds after a back of weakspot hit. In practice this will be up all the time. 75%> 50%. Martyr's purpose doesn't make sense to bring in havoc where there is no shortage of enemies to kill.

Thunder hammer blessings. Slaughterer is non-negotiable. It is the best blessing available for the thunder hammer. Once it gets going you will shred all mixed horde in front of you. Skullcrusher is often substituted for thrust, which gives more single target damage, or trauma which staggers enemies more and for longer. Of the two, I find trauma to be more reasonable, as most enemies will already be one hit with a fully charged special attack making thrust a redundant blessing. Additionally, the biggest benefit trauma provides is in staggering enemies for longer. However, the thunderhammer already does fantastic stagger without this blessing. I find it redundant as well for this reason. Skullcrusher is the best option, especially if you're running solo and can't guarantee somebody else on your team will have it. Reminder that skullcrusher applies the debuff to enemies from ALL DAMAGE TAKEN, including from your teammates. +%80 damage is unbeatable in my opinion.

That's all, good hunting.