For empire soldier Konrad Vollen, your main options are either to go the ultra high DPS route, or to be a heavily defensive tank. In either instance, these are the base stats you are aiming for to be competitive on the later Chaos difficulties:
Attack: 20,000+ Defense: 520,000+
Below we outline two major build options for Konrad – one focused on fire area effect damage, and one on devastating ranged attacks. When building Konrad in any style, be sure to note that the Superior and Mastered versions of some skills are only helpful if you are playing co-op.
Pay close attention to the text of the skills so you aren’t wasting skill points that aren’t actually improving your survival. For instance, the Superior version of Bastion Against Corruption is exactly the same as the base skill except that it also grants a bonus to other players.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the Sigmar’s Herald and Master Pistolier builds!
Sigmar’s Herald
This soldier build revolves entirely around area effect fire attacks that absolutely melt the health of any horde of enemies.
The Empire Herald heroic armor set is what you want for this build, as it grants bonus counter attack damage to all nearby enemies and lets you equip Justice Of The Empire for free. Note that any Meteoric equipment also works well with Sigmar’s Wrath, since they drop extra fire meteors.
On the weapon front, Magnus’s Gift works very well as it adds fire damage to skills like Break Through The Ranks. For your God skill tree choices, in addition to picking up either the Superior or Mastered version of Sigmar’s Wrath, you want anything that reduces cool down and increases overall damage.
Left Click Main Skill
Incisive Breakthrough (Mastered): Generates bonus energy, reduces damage taken while being used, and deals extra counter attack damage
Right Click Advanced Skill
Justice Of The Empire (Mastered): Push back and slow enemies in a wide radius while dealing damage and regenerating energy
Advanced Skills
Whirling Slash (Mastered): Increase block chance and add counter attack damage. Banner Of The Empire (Heroic): Increased damage and reduces cooldown so you can use Sigmar’s Wrath more often. Break Through The Ranks (Superior): Quickly escape area effect damage or slow effects plus add counter attack damage.
Passive Skills
Bastion Against Corruption (Mastered): Increase damage and block chance for each nearby enemy, which makes this more useful in a mob of enemies. Tireless (Superior): Energy regenerates out of combat and cool down skills like Sigmar’s Wrath also generate energy. Indestructible (Mastered): Increase block chance and grant bonus damage based on block chance %.
God Skills
Sigmar’s Wrath (Mastered): Automatic fire damage in a circle around Konrad, but note that if you are playing co-op the Superior version is actually better with its +30% damage boost to all other players near you.
Master Pistolier
This build focuses on gaining energy through high block chance regular attacks, then firing off a rapid succession of high damage shots with the Pistolier skill.
The Skaven Killer heroic armor set is incredibly useful here, as having all 5 pieces increases damage from the Pistolier skill and allows you to equip the skill at no cost, in addition to giving a big boost to the Banner Of The Empire skill.
For your other equipment, focus on any gear that increases block chance, max energy, and energy regen to work in tandem with our skill selection outlined below.
Note that cool down reduction isn’t as important with this build, since Pistolier doesn’t have a cool down period, but anything that increases max energy or energy gain can be helpful since it has a much higher energy cost than Konrad’s other abilities.
Left Click Main Skill
Defensive Strike (Mastered): Increases block chance and regenerates extra energy if more enemies are hit.
Right Click Advanced Skill
Pistolier (Heroic): Massive long range damage with chance to stun enemies and partial energy reimbursement if at least one foe is killed.
Advanced Skills
Banner Of The Empire (Heroic): Increased damage and reduced energy cost within the area of effect. Shielded Charge (Mastered): Reposition Konrad and gain energy for each enemy hit by the charge. Taunt (Mastered): Increase block chance and gain energy for each enemy taunted.
God Skills
Divine Judgement (Mastered): Close range enemies deal 20% less damage and take 20% more damage. Sigmar’s Blessing (Mastered): Bonus energy regeneration, damage, and block chance for 14 seconds.
Passive Skills
Indestructible (Mastered): increase block chance and boost all damage based on total block chance %.
What’s your preferred Konrad build, and do you have any skill picks we didn’t mention here that work well with these builds? Let us know your strategy in the comments below!
Not sure how to link gem fragments and bless your gear for better stats on the higher difficulty levels? Check out our full guide to blessing items with different gem combinations over here.