Exterminatus Mastery

[Servius]

This is my codex of accumulated knowledge regarding effective tactics in Exterminatus. It's probably a work in progress. Some of these tactics may also work well vs. human opponents.

In general, the most optimal kill order FOR ORCS is
1) squigs
2) ranged boyz
3) ranged nobz
4) melee boyz
5) melee nobz
This is because you can simply run away from the melee orcs and completely neutralize them, but you can't run away from the shooters. And you don't want to fight melee while you're being shot at, though you can kill the shooters while avoiding melee. Also, the boyz should be targeted before the nobs because they have a more dangerous damage/health ratio. Most boyz seem to die with 1/5 the effort a nob takes to kill, but the boyz seem to 1/2 the damage a nob does. THE ONE EXCEPTION to this is the Bonus Round, primarily because of those damn Plasma Cannon Chaos guys. In the Bonus Round, it's actually better to draw the melee Chaos (the red daemons and the hammer guys) to your position in cover, kill them there with AoE and Meltas, and then use hit-and-run attacks to take out the Plasma Cannon Chaos, leaving the Bolter Chaos for last.


The AoE stun attacks are really quite powerful. Especially if you use a perk that boosts them like Sure Strike or Furious Stomp. A lot of people don't seem to use them though. Stun attacks with a Thunder Hammer and Sure Strike can win you 90% of your fights. Please note that the AoE stun for swords doesn't always fire. It seems to require a few conditions be met first:
1) If you have Sure Strike and Swordsman's Zeal, Sure Strike should be the 1st (top) perk and Swordsman's Zeal should be the 2nd (bottom) perk
2) That the 3 standard attacks you need to chain before you get the double-stop option must hit, but not kill, eneimes. Just to be clear, the sword's AoE stuns come from this chain: Attack, Attack, Attack, Stun (should give the big blue stuns), Stun (seems more damage than stun)


There are only 4 things that will ALWAYS interupt/knock back the Nob Bosses and Chaos Hammer guys:
1) Grenades (Frag for sure, maybe the Flash ones too)
2) Assault Pack landings (powered landings, not gliding ones)
3) Meltas
The only thing I know that will actually stun (like, the bluish/purplish aura stun) nob bosses is:
4) Thunder Hammers + Sure Strike IF you land BOTH stun attacks (1st the single-target and then the subsequent AoE one)
They will almost always ignore your standard stun attacks, even if you have stun-boosting perks like Sure Strike or Furious Stomp, so don't rely on them. In addition, the Chaos Hammer guys can be kept in a stun lock by a Thunder Hammer provided you get the first hit in and then just keep hitting them with the standard attack. This sometimes, but rarely, also works on the Orc Bosses.


The Power Axe may be the least effective melee weapon (well, besides the knife). It doesn't make up with damage what is loses with speed (and the corresponding reduction in healing if you use the Zeal perks). The Hammer is best, but the swords work well too on the early maps that have mostly unarmored orcs.


When in doubt, use this:
First Few Arenas
Assault Marine, Thunder Hammer, Plasma Pistol, Frag Grenades, Sure Strike, Impenetrable
Make sure that Sure Strike is your first/highest perk, because there's a bug that will sometimes prevent it from working if it's the 2nd/lower perk. Spam your stun attacks. The first one is a single-target stun, but the 2nd one in the chain is a huge AoE one that not only stuns almost everything but also does a lot of damage. It's the simplest way to be pretty effective in any of the arenas.
Last Few Arenas
Tactical Marine, Plasma Gun, Melta Gun, Frag Grenades, Weapon Versatility, Improved Melta Charge
IMO, the Tactical has the best survivability, primarily due to the ability to roll and sprint. With this build, you should use
- melee or the pistol to take out Squigs, Gretchin, and Slugga/Shoota Boyz
- Plasma Gun to take out Nobz and Skar Boyz at range
- Melta Gun to take out Nobz, 'Ard Boyz, and Skar Boyz when they get close


2-3 Bolt Pistol shots, 3-4 Plasma Pistol shots, or 3-4 knife hits will kill any shoota boy, slugga boy, or flash git. If you're a Tac or Dev playing with other shooters on your team, help conserve ammo by using melee or your pistol against these weaker orcs.


If you're using a Tactical, try to bring a Melta. They're very useful weapons, probably the single most useful Tactical weapon. They're effective vs. armor, they have an AoE attack like a shotgun, and they stun/knockback everything, including the heaviest melee guys. Because they work like shotguns, they also require less aiming, which is great given how many fights are vs melee swarms.


In the first arena, you will not encounter many armored orcs. The one exception could be the shooter nobs. But other than that, everything's very squishy. Bolt weapons (Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Storm Bolter, Stalker Bolter, and Heavy Bolter) are very effective against Health but not that effective vs. Armor. So, in the first Arena, bolt weapons are fine. The second arena tends to have a balance between armored and unarmored orcs, so bolt weapons will still work okay, but you'll notice a performance hit. By the third arena, you really shouldn't bring any bolt weapons because they're just too weak against all the armored orcs that will be thrown at you. So please, for the good of your team, if you reach the third arena, please be sure to bring any of the following:
- Plasma Pistol
- Plasma Gun
- Melta
- Plasma Cannon
- Lascannon
- Power Axe (or better yet)
- Thunder Hammer


Also, don't bring flash grenades. Bring frags or stims. The reason is that frag grenades and stims don't hurt your teammates, but flash grenades do, in that they blind your teammates too, not just the orcs. Plus, there are plenty of other ways to stun a mass of orcs that DON'T also stun/blind your teammates.


Try not to die at all. You may not succeed, but just trying is what's important. If you set that as your goal, you'll learn to play smarter. It also helps your team by not wasting lives.


Learn where the tactically advantageous locations are on each map. These locations usually have two characteristics:
1) They're on high ground. This usually grants you cover from shooters on the lower levels.
2) They usually can only be attacked via no more than 2 narrow paths, which help you focus your defense and act as choke points ideal for AoE stuns, frag grenades, and Meltas.
Examples include the bridges in the 2nd and 4th Kalkys arenas, the central hill in the 1st Hab arena, the 3-story building that you can glitch up in the 4th Hab arena.


If you're already 41, keep the younger ones alive and let them get more kills. The EXP is wasted on you, but it helps them get stronger and be more useful.


The Bolt Pistol has a governor on it that limits the Rate of Fire. The Plasma Pistol doesn't have this governor, which means you can fire as fast as you like, but the game doesn't seem to register all those shots if you fire too quickly. It may just be caused by lag, but whatever the cause, be sure to pace your shots with the Plasma Pistol or you'll just waste ammo.


ARENA-SPECIFIC NOTES:

HAB CENTER

Arena 1 - the hill to the left of the spawn point is the single most important site on this map. A single Dev can draw and kill off 2-3 spawns worth of orcs by themselves if positioned at or near the top. A pathing bug helps with this by tying up the orcs who try to get you. Just keep your eye out for shootas as they don't suffer this limitation and are your single biggest threat up there.

Arena 2 - The spawn point is the best place to fight from most of the time because it's the best choke point on the map. Orcs can only come from one direction and you have cover on both flanks.
Wave 7, a single Assault Marine can hold the porch of the building on the left if they use a lot of AoE stuns.
Wave 9 has lots of squigs spawning from two points in the building on the right.

Arena 3 - DON'T HIT THE WEIRD BOY UNTIL THE FINAL WAVE (15)!!! This map tends to bug out a lot, and I think I've narrowed down the cause to messing with the Weird Boy. If you manage to kill him before the last wave, you'll definitely bug, but it seems even just damaging him too much will prevent him from appearing to trigger other set-pieces in earlier waves either, which also bugs you out. So, just don't touch him until Wave 15.
Wave 14, cap point A first (the one on the ground level) because there's no cover there and it's much harder to hold later in that wave. Everyone should cap A first, then move to B. Point B is the one upstairs on the opposite side. There are tons of shooters on this wave, but you can take cover from all of them by simply standing behind either of the two pillars flanking the point, and you will still be close enough to contribute to the cap. Just watch out for the melee rushes. On the plus side, the melee rushes can only get to you after navigating a staircase, which makes a great choke point for frags, meltas, plasma bombs, etc.

Arena 4 - There is a glitch on the staircase of the 3-story building to the right of the spawn point that can enable Tacticals and Devs to get to the 3rd floor where almost no orcs ever spawn and where no orcs seem to come up to get you. So, if you like sniping or bombarding, this is a good vantage point for you. The temple at the far center end is the best place to fight, particularly on the staircase. The staircase acts as a great choke point, funneling melee guys to a narrow path (great for AoE attacks), and so long as you're actually on that central staircase, the building provides cover from shooters. If you need a place to fall back to and to limit the disadvantage you have in numbers, that staircase is it.
Wave 19 has 3 capture points. In general, try to cap all 3 at the same time, putting 1 Marine on each of the two side seals and two on the middle seal. Devs tend to be terrible at this because they're too slow, but if possible, put Assaults on the two side cap points and Tacticals on the center point. The Tacticals are best at rolling and melting everything around them, which is probably the most effective tactic for capping that center point.

KALKYS

Arena 1 -

Arena 2 - Once again, the spawn point is the most strategic position as it funnels all the bad guys down a single path and provides some cover on the flanks. Because the vast majority of orcs are melee, and the shooter orcs that do spawn have lots of obstacles in front of their spawn points, a single 41 marine could do this arena by themselves, so there aren't really any special tricks needed.

Arena 3 -
Wave 15, there are a bunch of squigs. If you're in a bind, have 2 marines cover each end of the bridge on the upper level. there are only 2 ways onto that bridge, and even 1 marine could hold each end since squigs die in 1 shot, so that's the best way to defend against the swarm. Just be careful, the very last spawn of squigs comes from the tube that's in the middle of that bridge.

Arena 4 -
Wave 17, the seal is on the bridge. This is one of the best positions on the map because melee can only come at you from 2 directions, down a narrow path, and you have some cover from shooters on the ground.
Wave 18, the seal is on the ground closer to the spawn point. The key to this round is to suppress the orc shooters that appear on the bridge above you. Tacs and Devs can shoot them, or Assaults can take turns jumping up there, killing a few, and jumping away. The trouble for the Assaults is that there are a ton of shooters on the far side of the map who can hit anything on the bridge, so if you go up there, you won't be able to stay there for long. I've seen a Dev on the spawn-point-side of the bridge, in cover, keep that bridge clear of shooters before, so you may want to try that.
Wave 19, the seal is on the opposite side of the map. If an Assault Marine stands atop the pipe that acts as a pathway near the seal, and if everyone else is on the seal, the orcs (who are dumb) will simply move to the inside of the pipe and stand there. The Assault on the top of the pipe is the closest target to their spawn points, but they can't get him, so they just chill in the pipe, waiting for the seal to be capped and to get fragged and melta-ed to mush.
Wave 21, the Bonus Wave, has those damn Chaos Plasma Cannons again. The best position to fight in is actually right by the spawn point. There are 2 broken pipes that stick up in the air, and the area around the base of them provides perfect cover. If you need a place to fall back to, or to fight the melee guys without simultaneously being shot at, that's where to do it.

[Zallis]

The Plasma Pistol is better than the Bolt Pistol because, in exchange for a slightly weaker shot, you get the ability to fire grenades from your pistol.


The Bolt Pistol has a governor on it that limits the Rate of Fire. The Plasma Pistol doesn't have this governor, which means you can fire as fast as you like, but the game doesn't seem to register all those shots if you fire too quickly. So, be sure to pace your shots with the Plasma Pistol or you'll just waste ammo.

The charged plasma pistol shot doesn't do anywhere near as much damage as a grenade and uses a lot of your ammo, and if you want to knock people back, you may as well just ground pound instead.

Bolt pistol also kills shoota and slugga boys much more effectively. You're only going to kill 33 to 25 sluggas/shootas with the plasma pistol, but you can kill 40 to 26 with the bolt pistol. If you can score a bunch of headshots, you could kill with 1 shot, whereas the plasma pistol would still take 2. The lag causing shots not to register would actually make the bolt pistol better, sicne your limited rate of fire makes sure all your shots register.

Weapons with a high rate of fire just suck in exterminatus because you can end up wasting ammo on a guy who is dead but has not yet fallen over. The heavy bolter and storm bolter are the most obvious offenders, where you can burn through half a magazine on a single guy because he won't fall over fast enough.

[Integrity]

Hammer Bros and Choppa Nobz can be reliably (read: barring lag, always) purple-stunned with a Sure Strike amped Hammer, provided you land BOTH the first stun attack and the superpound in succession. Two ASMs landing roughly simultaneous superpounds will pull it off, too, but it's tricky without vox.

Also don't be hatin' on the Devs, I finally finished the Chaos Invasion bonus with a pub team of four Devastators.

[Dimension]

lascannon devs are pretty damn good. I usually don't bother with headshots, instead I stay mobile like a tactical, killing with the BP and switching to the LC for scarboys, hard boys and nobs. if they're close enough, you can kill them easily while shooting the LC from the hip.

also, PP charged shots are good for stunning hard boys and getting them to stumble back and turn your back to you, something which you can follow up with a shoulder charge and then get some good clean hits in.

Also, try to stick together and cover each others blind spots.

Also try to be aware of where people are aiming and shooting. walking into their line of fire will waste ammo.

By the way, grenades do no friendly fire. They only hurt yourself.

[Imperial Honour]

Lascannon Devs are very useful, I can attest to that from experience, though they aren't everyones cup of tea it seems. I've become accustomed to no-scoping and quick scoping with the Lascannon to wrack off kill after kill in quick succession, to the point that my teams often call me the designated ranged killer marine. Probably one of the best things is despite being a Dev I can solo often cap points by running rings around the capture point and my foes while no-scoping them due to the Iron Halo. Having a stable firing platform can be important, but once one gets use to sniping on the move it doesn't really matter if one stays still or not. Sure you might not rack up the most kills most days, but for taking out annoying or high value targets nothing gets my vote like a Lascannon, Plasma Cannon Marines are easy to pick off if you can get two headshots on them (and they don't even hurt if you can dodge and shoot).

As for Tactical since I often seem to run in to ammo hungry ammo hoarders I often take Larraman's Blessing and Serrated Blade as perks with the Plasma Gun. The 'Ard Boyz might look tough but really as long as you strike them first, before they strike you, with a stun you got free reign to kill them in three or four blows (IIRC). Since I cannot carry a backup weapon beyond the trusty Bolt Pistol I find the Plasma Gun a good fit for this build when used well in conjuction with conserving ammo via use of the Combat Blade and Bolt Pistol. The Plasma Gun seems to do pretty well against the tougher Orks in my experience, hey it's no lascannon or such but it still takes out things like Melee Nobz quick enough. Tactical class is even better for trying to solo cap points as well really, as long as the enemy is mainly melee based since ranged guns can hurt bad.

Fear not the 'Ard Boyz to live, rather just S->M->M->M->M them and repeat until dead while making sure to stun them before they stun you.

[Servius]

Updated to remove my bias against Devs and Bolt Pistols, and to insert arena-specific advice.

[Aquila]

Melee Nobz should be higher priority than melee boyz. Melee boyz are a danger to... well, no one except Derphammer ASMs that are trying to rack up kills, while the Nobz can and will murder you with Stun. They are still easier to deal with than massed Shootas, but they have a charge attack, and if they get in one good hit the stun will ruin you.

Oh, and Squigs should be a priority over EVERYTHING.

[Zallis]

The plasma gun seems to be one of the best weapons for the tac. 2 shots to kill a regular shoota or slugga (or 1 headshot), 5 shots to kill a scarboy. Never bothered counting for the 'ardboys, nobz, or any chaos units, but it seems to work reasonbly well.

You can also tap r at the same time you're firing to chain up a continuous stream of fire. The idea is basically to hit r as quickly as you hit the trigger.

[Dimension]

huh? I must be missing something, they always take three shots. I'm also not sure if one headshot kills them. I just played it a few hours ago, but I guess I'll see for myself.

But yeah, you get an awesome return of firepower for your ammo. bolter with targeter might be a headshot machine once you align, but it just doesn't put out enough firepower, and performace will decrease dramatically once you're constantly running from melee.

Also, I playtested serrated blade. I'm not overwhelmed with it. I wanted to kill boys with a shoulder charge, but it doesn't. Even with stims active I didn't really do it. guess I'm sticking with larramans, melta, and plasma with frags/blinds for now.

I'll also second aquilas remarks about melee nobs and squigs.

I also tried to FF stun hard nobs as a killing blow hammer without sure strike. It does not work, even if both stuns hit.

[Gorb]

Squigs are more terrifying, rage-inducing and generally annoying than Banshees in ME3 MP. This is the truth.

[Aquila]

Yeah, I think you are right Dimension. Plasma should take three shots to kill, or two if one is a headshot.

Serrated blade is underwhelming. I can't think of any situation in which extra melee damage would be more helpful than the faster healing provided by Larramans, especially when you already put pretty substantial firepower at all ranges. Improved melta charge is also a good option if you often find yourself jamming the mouse button waiting for the whoosh.

It IS possible to stun the heavy nobs and Chaos Champions, but just two consecutive sure strike hits won't do it. You'd actually have to have two-three chain stuns and ground pounds, or two people using stun attacks in succession. You can also try ground pounding with the jump pack. It's not reliable and in general I'd say you're better off rolling away and shooting them in the face. Assault Marines just need to stop trying to melee them. I don't know why Derphammer Assault Marines are so obsessed with trying to punch them, but seriously, just leave it to the Tacs and Devs.

[Dimension]

stunning chaos champions is piss easy. a normal hammer melee attack will do the job. hard nobs however are in an entirely different ballpark. not even back when I was playing an SS + KB hammer and FFing the shit out of everything did I ever get a single stun. back then, I did not consciously try to land the shoulder blow however.

what I know will reliably stun hard nobs is melta fire and frag grenades. there may be other methods (mastercrafted blinds?), but I'm not aware of them, or they're unreliable. I have never seen a purple stunned hard nob myself.

[Zallis]

I think 2 or 3 hammer slams with SS will stun hard nobz. I was doing it last night with 3 other assaults (bad team, but whatever), and 2 of them could almost keep the nobz stunned perpetually so long as one of the others helped out occaisionally.

[Servius]

Updated to show squigs are the worst and that the only way a hammer will stun an nob boss if if you have Sure Strike (and get both stuns in).

I have tried that stun move with the big nobz and it does work. Hammer + Sure Strike + both stuns WILL stun the boss nob. I haven't tried it yet on the Chaos hammer guys only because you can already stunlock them with normal hammer attacks, just make sure you get the first hit in.

For now, I'm leaving the rest of my kill order because I think melee boyz have a worse damage-to-health ratio than melee nobz. In short, they're more like glass cannons. It's like cutting down a tree. First you trim the branches, then you go in for the trunk. Of course, all this is just my opinion, and preferences, not a commandment from the Emperor...

[Servius]

Updated to clarify the grenade situation (frags don't hurt your teammates but flashes do) and to make the point that, by the 3rd arena, bolt weapons are relatively useless due to all the heavy armored orcs.

[Servius]

Updated with new Arena-specific notes.

[Kien]

My input.

Meltagun
1 melta shot > 'ard boys (make sure you're damn close) and everything below. Maybe at some rare miraculous times a melta headshot can kill shoota nobs. Need confirmation by others. With the faster reload perk meltagun is actually effective enough to be used without extra weapon.

Lascannon
The most underrated weapon. 2 laser headshots will kill club and shoota nobs. 4 will kill a black nob. The headshots will also give them a short stun. Laser is awesome against thick hordes of enemies burning through them all. The beam will even go through your team mates but cause no damage to them. The chaos marines seem to have quite unreliable hit detection from lascannon. They die from 3 shots but most of the time I find myself shooting 4 for some reason. Headshotting is just not worth trying. 99% you will not succeed. Havocs will always die from 2 shots though. It's a cost effective weapon but is in somewhat need of the faster reload perk.

Plasma gun
4 plasma gun shots will kill a scar boy. Maybe it's capable of killing a 'ard boy just before overheat, needs confirmation from others. It can kill club nobs before overheat. The charge up attack is often not cost effective. Only use against tight hordes of low level orks, preferably when you're on high ground so the ball lands on the middle of the horde.

Stormbolter
Might have just enough bullets to kill an 'ard boy before reload. It can kill club nobs before reload.

Plasma cannon
Very low armor damage makes it almost useless against anything but low level orks. You will find even scar boys taking more shots than you would expect. Use for fun, not because it's effective. Against chaos it's simply useless. I have red rumors that it takes 4 charged shots to kill a chaos marine. The anti-over heat perk is quite necessary to make proper use of the weapon. A good thing is that it's the most cost efficient weapon in the game. Plasma devs will be the last ones to run out of ammo.

Heavy bolter
Highly benefits from the anti-over heat perk. With it you will be able to keep firing surprisingly long times. The weapon is good against anything but 'ard boys, black nobs and chaos marines.

Boltgun
Even with both perk this gun isn't even good enough for scar boys. A beginners weapon or a weapon of just fun.

Stalker bolter
Rarely used by people and effectiveness is questionable. Poor damage against any hard targets (5 shots against scar boys), painfully slow reload and you find yourself running out of ammo often. Good for taking out shoots far away. Can kill a club nob before reload if aiming for the head. Headshots on low level orks is a good way to save some ammo. The double shot perk nullifies that opportunity and is mostly just a waste of ammo, every shot you miss wastes twice as much ammo.

Axe
Questionable effectiveness. Unlike what you might think the 2nd stun strike (slamming the ground) is actually just an AOE damage without stun. One time i had a game with a very skilled guy managed to duel and stun black nobs with this thing, amazing.

Chainsword
Only the most skilled ASM players seems capable of using this weapon effectively on map 3 and 4, a good choice until that.

Hammer
Very powerful against everything. As long as you land your first and all the rest of the hits, it will stun chaos champions enough to kill them without them hitting a single time. Black nobs on the other hand is the one enemy to not try dueling with. Very skilled hammer players will end up with superior kill count.

Grenades
Blind grenades has very questionable usefulness since they have friendly fire and frag grenades has a bit of stun of their own plus damage. The damage of frag grenades is often lower than expected. Even with the perk that makes grenades stronger you will be surprised how often it does not kill low level orks and you will be amazed how easy it is to kill yourself with it. Grenades are mostly used either to stun big targets for a second or to kill tight group of shooters, which are quite rare.

A note about chaos marines
When just a little more damage than bring downs their shield these guys will get aggressive and move towards the player. This is useful save ammo by luring them one by one to come close to you so you can kill them with melee and save ammo. A single laser shot is most of the time enough to do this. Shoot them once and let them come to your friends ASM.

Note about the big open city map 4
Wave 17, at the lower point always pay attention to the shooters coming from the force field spawning point in the house or they will rain rockets and bullets on you while defending against 'ard boys and scar boys.

Wave 19, a single lascannon dev will do a great job at the west point (left from starting position). He will be able to kill the scar boys coming and spend his free time sniping enemies at the mid point.

Some perk notes.
- Power stomp for devs will remove any worry of being surrounded by low level orks. 1 stomp stuns them,the other one kills them. It's even good enough for red daemons.
- Blast Off perk for ASM should not be used to cause damage but rather make use of the fact that it stuns all it's targets for a second, including black nobs. This gives times for friends to take advantage.
- Serrated knives is questionable in it's usefulness. Most of the time the knife is just a weapon for fun or ammo saving against easy single targets like a shoota nob or shield boys. The perk will just make the job go a little faster. It's north mentioning that the perk gives a little green glow to the knife. I have noticed this perk affect stun attacks as well, including shoulder charge. Being enough to kill rocket boys.

[Arbit]

Just some tac marine tips I'd like to add. Some of this has already been covered but I must purge my brain of this information ANYWAY.

Plasma + melta is probably the optimal build. The plasma gun is accurate, ammo efficient and is useless only against 'ardboys. It will kill choppa, shoota, and rokkit orks in two head shots, and it is VERY lenient about headshots, so much so that I don't even know how many body shots they take . The melta compensates for every weakness the plasma gun has - it's AoE, high burst damage, and can interrupt literally anything. With the quick recharge perk (my current favorite) no melee can touch you, and since it excels at taking out large hordes at once you're likely to get several ammo pickups and grenades out of the deal. If you can find a sheltered chokepoint you can hold it yourself with only quick forays into the choke to pick up ammo and nades.

Use the bolt pistol and melee if you are in good health and there are 4 or less choppa/shoota orks. Your knife will kill them in two hits, or one pistol shot plus one stab, or two head shots with the pistol. The third melee strike is slow and has a limited swipe so pause and let the combo reset. A stab + teh boot (stun, that is) is solid and can break up larger hordes of choppa orks, but it it's pretty useless against anything else. The pistol is good for picking off shoota, rokkit, and choppa orks at long range during low intensity moments but you must fire slowly so the reticule shrinks back down to minimum.

You can repeatedly shoulder charge and effectively stunlock a lot of stuff as long as it has enough mass to stop you i.e. 'ardboys, nobs, and the like. Don't back up; just quickly press forward + sprint and attack again. The charge has a small AoE on it so you can even hit multiple targets, although it's risky. It's mostly useful as a delaying and ammo conservation tactic, but it can also be used to fend off enemies while your melta recharges. Amusingly, you can stunlock a hammer champion... for a reeeeeaaaally long time.

Quick weapons rundown:
Grenade launcher - fires too slowly to be effective against heavier orks and is 100% awful against marines. Bad against 'ardboys too, and has ammo problems. Definitely an arena 1/2 weapons against orks only.
Bolter - is possibly more efficient w/ kraken bolts against basic boyz than the plas gun but the tradeoff is it is terrible against 'ardboys and skarboyz. Pretty decent against shoota and club nobs since all the shots will fall on their big dumb heads. However, it eats up your second perk and has lower overall dps so it's really only viable on arena 1/2.
Stormbolter - Not of fan of this. Seems to have many of the weaknesses that the bolter has along with limited ammo. Maybe it's good w/ signum or whatever that perk is called? I've seen people do pretty well with it.
Melta and plas gun - covered above.
Stalker bolter - Just... awful. Low ammo count, ineffective against... well pretty much everything. It should at least one-shot basic boyz but it doesn't, making it a plasma gun with a scope that's super inaccurate when fired from the hip and with an extremely limited ammo supply (10 round clip, 50 rounds total). It's just bad.

Perk notes:
All ammo capacity perks are awful. They should give you double ammo from pickups or something.
Fast melta recharge is awesome.
Bolter perks are not good enough given high bolter resistances, esp. skar and 'ardboys.
Super grenades are good but holy shit is it easy to kill yourself! If you can coordinate with your team so you get most of the grenades I can see this being pretty good, but since I'm playing pub matches it's always a scramble for grenades .
Larraman's is good; good enough to compete with melta recharge.
Plasma gun perks are shit. I'm a big fan of the fast charge perk in MP but overcharge simply does not do enough damage in exterminatus.
Serrated blade is bad. It still takes two hits to kill a choppa ork! It might shave off a hit versus 'hardboys and nobs and stuff but there are better perks.
We don't need to discuss teleport homer, rapid redeployment, and tactical readout, right?
Favor of the armory falls into the same category as the ammo perks - they need to give you double pickups too as the larger capacity is simply not a good enough benefit.

Other notes:
HB dev is garbage as soon as a 'ardboy shows up
Lascannon dev is surprisingly good
Blind nades aren't bad! They only blind you and teammates for a second or two but STUN orks for a much longer time. Just don't use them while under heavy ranged fire.
Guardsmen are too durable >

Well that's all for now. Good idea to write up a guide, Servius!

[Dimension]

I'd like to break a lance on the stalker bolter. using it with burst fire (which is my MP build) is the fastest and most reliable way to get rid of multiple shoota and rokkit boys. nothing is faster at doing that. also good against shooty nobs. not so great against anything else, so I still prefer plasma, but don't knock the burst fire stalker. taking it probably means losing something really useful, such as larramans though. but its very fun

serrated blade isn't good enough presently. I expect it to kill a basic boy in one shoulder charge. it doesn't.

frag nades are super awesome because they throw everything smaller than nobs to the ground. perfect to help a buddy out who's getting swamped. blind nades are also pretty good for stunning many guys. what I used to do is throw a blind, jump in with a hammer and go crazy before even my own blind wears off, then when blind fades, follow up with FF stun, then either get out of dodge or kill whatever is left.

tac shoulder charge is super awesome in general, and against hard boys in particular, as it will allow you to shoot them without their shield in the way. its also awesome for countercharging club nobs.