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Bardin Goreksson is one of five playable characters in Warhammer: Vermintide 2. His default Career is the Ranger Veteran, allowing Bardin to specialize in a long-range sniper or a close-range brawler. The Ranger Veteran Career is versatile, providing numerous solutions to any problem you will encounter.

Related: Warhammer Vermintide 2: The Best Engineer Build

The Ranger Veteran has access to several melee and ranged weapons, and each of its talents can change how the Career plays. Let's take a look at everything you need to know about playing this Career, and the best talents to use for each of its playstyles.

Career Overview

Vermintide 2: Bardins Ranger Veteran Class In Action

Ability

Description

Career Skill - Disengage

  • Bardin throws down a smoke bomb, hiding him from enemies for 10 seconds while he is inside the smoke bomb's area of effect. Ranged weapons are 50% more powerful while in the smoke bomb.

Passive Ability - Survivalist

  • Any Special that dies near Bardin drops an ammunition pack that restores 10% percent of the maximum ammo capacity. All allies can pick up the ammo pack.

Perk - Loaded for Battle

  • Bardin's maximum ammo capacity is increased by 50% for all weapons.

Perk - Fast Hands

  • Bardin reloads ranged weapons 15% faster.

Perk - Ingenious Improvisation

  • Bardin has a 10% chance that, upon using a potion, grenade, or medical supply, the resource will not be consumed.

General Gameplay

As a Ranger Veteran, you have versatile build options depending on what you want your role in the group to be. You can support your allies by picking off Specials to drop ammo packs and ale or brawl in the front lines with blunt or sharp melee weapons.

Overall, you'll want to decide what type of Ranger Veteran you want to be before you choose your weapons and talents. With the versatility of weapons, passives, and talents, Ranger Veteran can easily fit into a melee-focused build, a ranged-focused build, a support build, or a combination of all three.

Weapons

grude raker shooting rats

Melee Weapons

For melee weapons, Bardin has access to the following.

  • Great Hammer
  • Great Axe
  • Hammer and Shield
  • Hammer
  • Axe
  • War Pick
  • Axe and Shield
  • Dual Hammers (Back to Ubersreik DLC)
  • Cog Hammer (Outcast Engineer DLC)

Ultimately, each of these weapons are viable options, except the War Pick, which isn't as good as the others. If you want to use a blunt-type weapon, the Great Hammer or Dual Hammers will do well, and any of the three axes are good for slash-type damage. Take your damage type into consideration when choosing your first Talent ability, as blunt-type weapons stagger enemies more than slash-type weapons, with some exceptions.

Ranged Weapons

The Ranger Veteran Career can use the following ranged weapons.

  • Crossbow
  • Handgun
  • Grudge-Raker
  • Throwing Axes (Winds of Magic DLC)
  • Masterwork Pistol (Outcast Engineer DLC)

Overall, the Grudge-Raker is an extremely powerful ranged weapon that can easily deal with most Special enemies at close range, and only takes two shots to kill them at longer ranges. The crossbow is the second-best choice, allowing you to snipe enemies from further distances, but leaving you vulnerable during its longer and more frequent reload duration.

Talents

ranger veteran talents page
An example Ranger Veteran build for general playstyles.

Level 5 Talent

Roots Running Deep

Ranger Reaper

Hardy Heart

  • Staggering an enemy grants temporary health, proportional to the strength of the stagger.

  • Hitting multiple enemies with a melee strike grants temporary health. The amount of health restored increases with the number of enemies struck (maximum of 5).

  • Healing yourself using medical supplies also heals nearby allies equal to 20% of their maximum health.

For Bardin's first talent, Roots Running Deep or Ranger Reaper will be your best options. Ultimately, which talent you choose here depends on your weapon of choice. If you are using any of the Hammer weapons, Roots Running Deep will provide more temporary health due to the weapon's high stagger damage but low cleave effect.

Alternatively, if you are using any of the Axe weapons, Ranger Reaper will be better, as this weapon type has low stagger damage but cleaves more enemies with each swing.

Level 10 Talent

Last Resort

Master of Improvisation

Foe-Feller

  • When Bardin runs out of ammo, he gains 25% increased power.

  • Reloading a weapon reduced the cooldown of Disengage by 2%.

  • Increases Bardin's attack speed by 5%.

Again, your choice of talent here depends on your weapons and playstyle. If you are running a melee-focused build, Last Resort is extremely useful, as it allows you to quickly dump your ammo, then enjoy a 25 percent power increase.

Conversely, Master of Improvisation is great for weapons that have to be reloaded after every shot, like the Crossbow or Handgun. With these weapons, you will be able to maximize the activation of this talent, reducing your Career Ability's cooldown with each shot. This talent is especially good when paired with talents or passives that increase your maximum ammo capacity or the amount of ammo restored through Bardin's Survivalist passive.

Foe-Feller is a good overall talent for builds that don't specialize in melee or ranged, instead playing both styles equally.

Level 15 Talent

Bulwark

Mainstay

Enhanced Power

  • Staggering an enemy causes them to take 20% increased damage from melee attacks for 5 seconds. Staggered enemies take 20% more damage. Staggering an enemy that is already staggered will add another count of stagger, increasing the damage they take from attacks to 40%.

  • Staggered enemies take 40% increased damage from all your attacks. Staggering an enemy that is already staggered will add another count of stagger, increasing the damage they take from all attacks to 60%.

  • Increases power by 7.5%.

As Ranger Veteran, staggering enemies isn't necessarily your first priority. Instead, you should be relying on your ranged weapon to kill Special enemies as they appear, letting your allies focus on fighting hordes. Enhanced Power will help with that, increasing the damage of your ranged shots, making it easier to one-shot Specials on higher difficulties.

In more melee-focused playstyles, Bulwark and Mainstay are best used with weapons with high stagger, like the Hammer and Shield or Axe and Shield. Both of these weapons' charged attack strikes forward with the shield, dealing high Stagger in a short animation. Pushing the enemy after a Shield-charged stagger, you can quickly stagger groups of enemies, triggering Bulwark or Mainstay.

Level 20 Talent

Drunken Brawler

Grungni's Cunning

Scavenger

  • Killing a Special enemy has a 50% chance to drop a Bottle of Ale. Consuming the Ale grants a stacking buff that increases attack speed by 3% and reduces damage taken by 4% for 5 minutes. This buff can be stacked 3 times, and all allies can drink the Ale.

  • Increases the amount of ammo restored by Survivalist ammo packs to 30%.

  • Killing a Special enemy has a 20% chance to drop a bomb or potion instead of the Survivalist ammo pack.

For your level 20 Talent, Grungni's Cunning will give the most value, no matter the playstyle. Because allies can also pick up the Survivalist ammo pack, this talent will increase the amount of ammo your team can scavenge between ammo crates, which is especially useful in ammo-hungry parties. Grungni's Cunning is particularly strong when Bardin is the only ranged specialist, as the amount of ammo restored will keep you from running out of ammo for a long time.

Level 25 Talent

No Dawdling!

Exuberance

Firing Fury

  • Increases movement speed by 10%.

  • Reduce damage taken from behind by 30%. Headshotting an enemy causes all damage to be reduced by 30% for 5 seconds.

  • Hitting 2 enemies with a single shot increases the speed of the next reload by 35%.

Firing Fury is a great talent for weapons the Grudge-Raker, as you will likely hit two enemies with a single shot without even trying. With other weapons, like the Crossbow, you may have to line up your shot first, but against hordes of enemies, this is easily done.

Exuberance, at first glance, may seem useful, but can be tricky to get value from in practice. Usually, when using a ranged weapon, you don't want to be near enemies at all, meaning you won't be taking damage anyways. To use Exuberance effectively, you need to headshot an enemy while being attacked from the front and back, which is never a position you would want to be in the first place.

No Dawdling! can be good in certain scenarios, especially for melee-focused builds, but doesn't do enough compared to the reload speed granted by Firing Fury.

Level 30 Talent

Exhilarating Vapors

Surprise Guest

Ranger's Parting Gift

  • Allies received 8% increased attack speed and restore 3 temporary health per second while inside Disengage's smoke.

  • Bardin will not leave stealth after moving outside Disengage's area of effect.

  • After activating Disengage, the next bomb Bardin throws before the ability expires will not be consumed.

Exhilarating Vapors is an extremely strong support talent that all of your allies can take advantage of. Disengage lasts for 10 seconds, meaning you will restore a total of 30 temporary health if you remain in the smoke for the duration. The power of this ability is even stronger if your allies stay in the smoke as well, healing them while granting a potent attack speed buff.

Surprise Guest can be useful for escaping a dangerous group of enemies, but good positioning and awareness can solve this problem before it happens.

Ranger's Parting Gift can be strong when combined with the Scavenger Talent, allowing you to use bombs from ranged to kill specials. However, Exhilarating Vapors is almost too valuable not to use, making Ranger's Parting Gift not as good of a pick.

Next: Warhammer Vermintide 2: The Best Grail Knight Build