Space Marine 2: Max Damage Heavy Bolt Rifle Tactical Build - True Solo Absolute Decapitation

...yes I know it's not technically maximum damage because I could use the firepower variant. However the reload speed and magazine size on the ammo variant feels way better to me. We're already buffing the damage as much as possible anyway so I think the faster reload and fatter mag are more valuable. Other good options to take here are the Melta Rifle (range variant) or the Combi-Melta since having a source of stagger helps compensate for the many issues created by going for all the ranged damage perks over other options. The main thing I wanted to try out here was Relentless Pursuit, which was buffed to a 10s duration up from 5s. Combined with Aligned Aim we have a 40% ranged damage increase for 10s after a gun strike, which is quite substantial and feels very good on the Heavy Bolt Rifle. However, this perk is in the same column as Heightened Vigour, which means it is basically never worth picking if you care about staying alive. Not having a source of no knockback is brutal for Tactical since he can easily die in a single bad sequence if you get stunlocked by Lictors, Raveners, Sword/Whip Warriors, Chaos Spawn, etc. Many very close calls in this run. Bringing a block weapon would help a lot when fending off Lictors/Raveners, but to consistently trigger Relentless Pursuit we want a balanced or fencing weapon. Without a source of no knockback you have to be very careful about which gun strikes you decide to commit to. It's just a very uncomfortable and stressful experience playing the squishiest class in the game with zero defensive perks whatsoever. Secure Stockpile would have also helped a lot since Melta Bombs and grenades in general are very useful for handling aggressive melee enemies, but I was going full ranged damage for this run. The secondary is the heroic Heavy Bolt Pistol because we have infinite primary ammo so we never have to actually shoot the gun outside of interrupting reinforcement calls. For the melee I took the Power Gladius for the funny boss damage and to have a balanced weapon to gun strike with. For a detailed explanation of how to set up the damage on the Hive Tyrant see this video by For4:    • Tactical ERASES The Hive Tyrant With Onesh...  . Overall I think this setup highlights a problem with perk trees and stunlocks/knockback in general. Not getting knocked around feels mandatory to play the game at times since the entire combat system is designed around fighting over contested health by dealing damage, which you can't do when you're getting staggered by every Lictor slap. But because such an essential effect is something you have to opt into with a perk, there is no real choice to be made in that perk column 99% of the time. The only class where I think it feels fine to pass on a no knockback perk is on Sniper since Lingering Concealment is just so strong, and he has the safety of cloak to let him strike first and help compensate for lacking no knockback. Things like Upper Hand for Vanguard, Heightened Vigour for Tactical, Merciless Resolve for Bulwark, Heavy Immunity on heavy weapons, Adrenaline Boost in Assault's prestige tree - these are basically auto-picks unless you are doing something specific like this where I just decided to stack all ranged damage perks instead of picking based on effectiveness. Honestly I cannot offer many suggestions for solutions here. I think some sort of baseline no knockback effect on parry/block/dodge like Upper Hand or Adrenaline Boost would make perk selection feel much less restrictive because you wouldn't be forced to take specific perks to avoid a frustrating experience dying to stunlocks. However this would require a huge rebalance/redesign of other no knockback perks and we all know that is not going to happen. Something for them to think about for Space Marine 3 I suppose. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Mission start and build 00:25 Proceed to the Bridge Tower 09:10 Locate and Deploy Explosive Charges 17:25 Hold Until the Hive Tyrant Arrives 21:05 Find the Hive Tyrant 24:15 Carnifex Boss Fight 31:23 Defeat the Hive Tyrant 35:18 Stats 35:43 Build hover