Power Sword worked out for me on Auric and above. The cost for this is having to turn it on every other combo (particularly after shove) and also having pitiful dodge stats (sits on -10% distance minimum iirc).

Tactical Axe VII with damage blessings of your choice.
Block attack -> heavy

Catachan Devils claw is great for cleaving hordes while dodging and comes with a nice parry mechanic to make ragers ♥♥♥♥ off, the only problem is that the damage and knockback per swing is a bit low so while you can cleave 10+ people in a single swing, you’ll probably have to hit dodge and lot and hit them a few more times to actually kill any of them. Fortunately dodging and swinging quickly a lot are two things that the devils claw excels at.

The Chainsword has good damage and knockback with some decent cleave on it’s swings to keep hordes at bay and it’s special ability allows you to make short work of any big guy dumb enough to let you stay close, especially if you bless it to apply 14 stacks of bleed.

And the Heavy Sword is just a good sword with solid stats, moveset, and range. No fancy tricks.

The Power Sword is an option, but only if you hate yourself. In powered mode it pretty much shreds anything, but you have to keep turning the weapon back after swinging, and when it’s unpowered, it sucks ass. It’s entirely reliant on it’s special ability to be functional, and that special ability is itself entirely reliant on having Power Cycler on the sword to make using it bearable. Yeah it’s theoretically good, but even when you’re shredding things it doesn’t feel good to use, which is what should be more important in a game made for fun.

knife is fine, but u have to spin horde like in old VM2 days
I mean u hit horde with bleed and spin them to attack those who u didnt attack yet, till u attack new one, old one already bleeding out

Frags. Seriously it doesn't even come close inf cleave vs melee debate for vet.

Outside of Frags likely caxe or Psword, with lsword been a decent utility stick against mixed chaff+ragers...but only if you do have ragers or enemies that ignore stagger via havoc, otherwise it's mediocre. Caxe is an all rounder with high overkill lights that uses bromentum to be useful in hordes and unlike other bromentum weapons doesn't fall off due to breakpoints for havoc. Psword while annoying for activation is the single best mixed horde weapon vet had access to in melee, inferior to other options in pure chaff but highest and easiest deal with any in-horde threat like a crusher, it also is NOT that bad unpowered if you really need a get off me solution.

Hswords are good against just chaff or light elited but without attack speed it's just serviceable, lacks armor deal in a pinch which is why it's better for zealot.

Ds as knife is mediocre for hordes, taxes are great for crit fishing...but you are kinda the only class without good talents for synergy... Chsword is good but falls off in havoc hard due to requiring cleave blessings, chaxe is in a similar spot but has decent single target to compensate, but may as well run caxe

Thank you for sharing, I will try out the mentioned weapons again as I have all of them leveled to max.

Chainsword with Weakpoint and Melee Finesse skill tree talents will oneshot first targets per swing, up to Auric.

But not so good on Havoc 21+

Originally posted by Fingeris:

Chainsword with Weakpoint and Melee Finesse skill tree talents will oneshot first targets per swing, up to Auric.

But not so good on Havoc 21+ :angry_yeti:

Yeah I can believe that, I have been primarily using chainsword or dueling sabre when I played before the break. Yet I feel I can barely hold the line with it anymore when ♥♥♥♥ actually hits the fan in auric/maelstrom/havoc.

And that is the issue even with large hordes, I keep running out of dodges eventually and sometimes get stray damage. Even though I specifically built it to cleave and damage hordes... Kinda disappointed in that because if there's a good mix of enemy types with a horde I just can't "dance" them properly anymore, even if I react to each trigger and action correctly.

I like Rashad Axe + Revolver where you lean into right path, get ammo regen on melee kills, and aim for headshots with brutal momentum or whatever makes your weapon have infinite cleave on weakspot hits. Really strong against everything, cleaves through hordes, and just generally feels amazing. Goes well with a commando style build too.

Cadia Mk XIIIg Assault Chainsword.
Perks: Dmg Flak
Dmg Unarmoured
Blessings:
Savage Sweep
Rampage

Easy for Havoc or Auric it clears everything

Probably the chainsword, it's the best all rounder.

Power sword is great BUT, you need the keep spamming special and once you're getting swarmed you will have moments where you can't activate it in time. Unpowered the thing doesn't do any damage.

Other then that there are the tactical axes, i wouldn't bother with the catachan swords since they faill of hard after tackling basic horde enemies.

Define higher difficulty:

Up to auric maelstorm, whatever, everything works.

On 30+ havocs, you have no options really
Either go dueling sword which gives you everything (infinte dodge which is the best stat, while giving insane stagger and burst damage to deal with everything non-trash) but lacks horde clear, especially against damage reduction mobs.

IF you really want to go antihorde (which you shouldnt, as that is NOT the job for veteran) go powersword, that will delete trash waves, but sux at everything else, especially against Lt and captain bubbles.

I tried multiple melee on havoc 40, but everything seems a pale shadow of dueling sword, simply because you lose soo much just to be good at clearing trash.

- Chainsword is okish against horde, but you will not have time to use special attacks, while having no mobilty at all.
- Knife gives you mobiltiy and the bleed is somewhat nice, but overall huge loss in damage and 0 stagger potential.
- Catachan sword is mehh, no real damage, the parry is clunky as hell and does single target damage.
- Havent used shovel in ages ever since the crafting rework the only thing i have not maxed out.
- Heavy sword, again, no mobilty but okish damage, still feels a lot weaker than power sword.
- Axes are useless, nobody in the right mind would use them in havoc 40, unless you want to intentionally gimp yourself.
- Shock maul is horrible, especially if you compare to arbites maul which is 100 times better.

Psyker staffs delete trash, ogryns chew threw trash, arbites eats trash, so there is really no reason for veteran to focus on something that everyone else can do better.

Originally posted by Brezelbube:

Cadia Mk XIIIg Assault Chainsword.
Perks: Dmg Flak
Dmg Unarmoured
Blessings:
Savage Sweep
Rampage

Easy for Havoc or Auric it clears everything

That is exactly the setup I have been using primarily and it is lacking hard unfortunately.

Originally posted by Apo:

Define higher difficulty:

Up to auric maelstorm, whatever, everything works.

On 30+ havocs, you have no options really
Either go dueling sword which gives you everything (infinte dodge which is the best stat, while giving insane stagger and burst damage to deal with everything non-trash) but lacks horde clear, especially against damage reduction mobs.

IF you really want to go antihorde (which you shouldnt, as that is NOT the job for veteran) go powersword, that will delete trash waves, but sux at everything else, especially against Lt and captain bubbles.

I tried multiple melee on havoc 40, but everything seems a pale shadow of dueling sword, simply because you lose soo much just to be good at clearing trash.

- Chainsword is okish against horde, but you will not have time to use special attacks, while having no mobilty at all.
- Knife gives you mobiltiy and the bleed is somewhat nice, but overall huge loss in damage and 0 stagger potential.
- Catachan sword is mehh, no real damage, the parry is clunky as hell and does single target damage.
- Havent used shovel in ages ever since the crafting rework the only thing i have not maxed out.
- Heavy sword, again, no mobilty but okish damage, still feels a lot weaker than power sword.
- Axes are useless, nobody in the right mind would use them in havoc 40, unless you want to intentionally gimp yourself.
- Shock maul is horrible, especially if you compare to arbites maul which is 100 times better.

Psyker staffs delete trash, ogryns chew threw trash, arbites eats trash, so there is really no reason for veteran to focus on something that everyone else can do better.

Great points. My goal is to be able to do everything as good as it is technically possible to find the optimal all-rounder build on auric/maelstrom/maybe some havoc (with my current build I got to 27 months ago and stopped caring about it, as I got all skins and gameplay did not feel that captivating). I do not like to leave complete weak spots in my build as I prefer to be capable to carry my own weight in different situations.

I understand that is not the role game for havoc 40 most likely, which I do not intend to bother with ever unless I have a premade. Which I do not as I prefer to generally play with randoms, more action somehow.

Since nothing was said about blessings for power sword - power cycler and sunder - sunder is better than wrath/brutal momentum because it makes it so power attack of your weapon can hit 5 mauler heads without stopping, and also will not stop on 1-2 bullwark shields while slaying some smaller enemies
And for weapon model try VI - it have push attack-light attack combo which can kill crusher in a second or deal a good damage to head of chaos spawn if it staggered by something,(otherwise you can get hit, and it is a bit annoying to do this attack against plague ogryns/beasts of nurgle so i just use usual heavy attacks against them) against horde/mixed horde it is best to do light attacks and cancel combo with block after each 3 hits(press block at once with charging power sword and it will not slow your attacks and will give better combo)
Here is some ancient 40 seconds long video with how those hits look, first half is push attack, second is anti horde - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJTrPJe8ydQ

*oh and somewhere higher it is said that it is bad against captains and leutenants, but it finely deals with shield with powered light attacks, and push attack does great damage to hp when you hit their heads if you can do it, and just any powered attack goes nice against hp
**here and there it is said that is sux against something or that you sacrifice everything for horde clear, but it is just because it have bad mobility and if you are fine with and at dealing with this it works good against anything