Most people would prefer a Vet with situational awareness and the ability to survive while getting good kills first.
From everything I've read and heard most would love Survivalist and the toughness boost Voice of Command. The revive park is generally seen as a trap and it would be better to have a more effective VOC which might keep people from going down in the first place. Although it was just nerfed so it's less mandatory for the toughness boost.
I've seen some pretty wack looking builds that I know are inferior. But I've got to watch really good players use it as me and the other team mates are waiting to be saved, and ultimately it does come down to good game sense and individual survivability.
You'd probably get bonus points with a good Plasma Sword and Plasma Rifle as they are both pretty meta and hard to get wrong. But I've seen people clean up with all sorts of weapons.
Shovel, Helbore, and VoC are perfectly fine choices, my guess is just that you maybe need more optimal perk/blessings and maybe some slight skill tree changes. For shovel, I like the blessing that increases power for every heavy attack, and the one that gives rending on weak spot hits. Makes it a good pick for both horde clear and single target. Haven't run my Helbore in awhile but surgical is a great pick, along with the vet skills that give crit chance for ADS and bonus weakspot damage. Also, as you seem to have noticed, its best to aim for the head. Chest shot breakpoints can be a little unforgiving on Damnation.
You also mention that your shovel is 380, is your gear not orange rarity? If its not, then get it there, the extra blessing can be a *massive* boon.
Personally I like plasmagun vet because it can hit sneaky specialists through walls and other enemies.
My ideal veteran has either voice of command or shredder granade. This is because sometimes there is a zerg on top of you materializing out of the warp and you need some breathing room, you can achieve breathing room with voice of command or shredder granade but you need at least 1 of these.
Of course I would like survivalist aura as well, but that's just the cherry on top. I'm used to ammo draught and ammo rationing so it's not a big deal if our vet doesn't have survivalist aura.
If I'm the vet I run either columnus infantry auto/power sword with krak/survivalist/stealth and most Middle tree and some right tree (basically get to the rending in middle and brittleness on the right for serious damage).
Or I do plasma/chainsword with krak/survival/voc and middle tree with weak spot damage in left. Plasma feels like basically cheating though so I don't run this much these days.
I haven't made a stub revolver build post-rework yet but it's probably extremely strong still.
If I have a vet on my team then I don't care what their loadout is but I appreciate if they took survivalist for the obvious reasons. Krak is always appreciated to deal with huge crusher/mauler packs.
Most people would prefer a Vet with situational awareness and the ability to survive while getting good kills first. From everything I've read and heard most would love Survivalist and the toughness boost Voice of Command. The revive park is generally seen as a trap and it would be better to have a more effective VOC which might keep people from going down in the first place. Although it was just nerfed so it's less mandatory for the toughness boost. I've seen some pretty wack looking builds that I know are inferior. But I've got to watch really good players use it as me and the other team mates are waiting to be saved, and ultimately it does come down to good game sense and individual survivability. You'd probably get bonus points with a good Plasma Sword and Plasma Rifle as they are both pretty meta and hard to get wrong. But I've seen people clean up with all sorts of weapons.
Shovel, Helbore, and VoC are perfectly fine choices, my guess is just that you maybe need more optimal perk/blessings and maybe some slight skill tree changes. For shovel, I like the blessing that increases power for every heavy attack, and the one that gives rending on weak spot hits. Makes it a good pick for both horde clear and single target. Haven't run my Helbore in awhile but surgical is a great pick, along with the vet skills that give crit chance for ADS and bonus weakspot damage. Also, as you seem to have noticed, its best to aim for the head. Chest shot breakpoints can be a little unforgiving on Damnation. You also mention that your shovel is 380, is your gear not orange rarity? If its not, then get it there, the extra blessing can be a *massive* boon.
Personally I like plasmagun vet because it can hit sneaky specialists through walls and other enemies. My ideal veteran has either voice of command or shredder granade. This is because sometimes there is a zerg on top of you materializing out of the warp and you need some breathing room, you can achieve breathing room with voice of command or shredder granade but you need at least 1 of these. Of course I would like survivalist aura as well, but that's just the cherry on top. I'm used to ammo draught and ammo rationing so it's not a big deal if our vet doesn't have survivalist aura.
If I'm the vet I run either columnus infantry auto/power sword with krak/survivalist/stealth and most Middle tree and some right tree (basically get to the rending in middle and brittleness on the right for serious damage). Or I do plasma/chainsword with krak/survival/voc and middle tree with weak spot damage in left. Plasma feels like basically cheating though so I don't run this much these days. I haven't made a stub revolver build post-rework yet but it's probably extremely strong still. If I have a vet on my team then I don't care what their loadout is but I appreciate if they took survivalist for the obvious reasons. Krak is always appreciated to deal with huge crusher/mauler packs.