Heinrix's Warrior Vanguard Build

Build Heinrix as a tank in warhammer 40k rogue trader using Warrior and Vanguard talents for maximum survivability and crit synergy.

The core tenets of the Heinrix build in warhammer 40k rogue trader involve using a mixture of Willpower for magical buffs, crit enhancing, toughness, and dodge to make him a tanky beast. This is important, thanks to you needing Parry, critical hit and chance through weapon skill, willpower for your magic synergy, and toughness for tankyness. Throw in some Agility and dodge modifiers, and Heinrix is capable of surviving heavy melee and ranged encounters. Keep these facets in mind for the Archetype builds still to come.

Note that throughout this build, you will find the word preference. This largely indicates options for party role checks or additional services like using Medicae items in combat. So, go with whatever version of Heinrix is better suited for your party, and based on what holes there are to fill. Medicae is okay since you’re front-lining and taking a beating, but, there are more dedicated Med-care characters with the likes of Argenta builds and Pasqal builds for that role. But it is not necessary.

Warrior Build:

In the Warrior section, we’ll largely be taking Warrior talents that make you more tanky, while offering you the movement, and basic Psyker magic to get the build started. The key mechanisms of the build involve Defensive Manoeuvres for dodge increase on charges. You’ll be using this a lot to get around, and keeping up a nice dodge buff for evading annoying shooter enemies, especially when there’s a lot of them. In addition, you get some early sustain with Pulse of Life, and that gets improved through Enrage’s crit modifiers, offering a handy crit burst heal when the dice is on your side. All in all you get some good early synergy. You also want to grab Taunting Scream as your final warrior skill, which sets you up nicely to have a great Taunt ready for Vanguard, since you’ll need to get Priority Targets to make Vanguard’s talents work.

1. Order 1: Dash
2. Order 2: Coercion
3. Order 3: Endure
4. Order 4: Daring Breach, Defensive Manoeuvres
5. Order 5: Enrage, Agility
6. Order 6: Invigorate, Coercion
7. Order 7: Toughness, Blade of Light
8. Order 8: Preference, Pulse of Life
9. Order 9: Daring Breach 3
10. Order 10: Psy Rating 1, Toughness
11. Order 11: Taunting Scream, Nimble
12. Order 12: Weapon Skill, Preference
13. Order 13: Thick Skin, Preference
14. Order 14: Willpower, Dueling Mastery
15. Order 15: Daring Breach 1

Vanguard Build:

Taunting groups of enemies to force them to hit you and build your Unyielding Stacks up turns you into a sturdy tank.

1. Order 1: Unyielding Beacon
2. Order 2: Wall of Rockcrete, It Will Not Die
3. Order 3: Wall of Ferrocrete
4. Order 4: Unyielding Guard Preference
5. Order 5: AP increase, Weapon Skill
6. Order 6: Strength, Taunting Defense
7. Order 7: Defensive Stance, Preference
8. Order 8: Formidable Distraction, Edge of Dawn
9. Order 9: Toughness, Psy Rating 2
10. Order 10: Enduring Shield
11. Order 11: Preference, Toughness
12. Order 12: Unyielding Guard 3
13. Order 13: Renitent Beacon
14. Order 14: Preference, Willpower
15. Order 15: Enfeeble
16. Order 16: Psy Rating 3
17. Order 17: Willpower, Preference
18. Order 18: Power Weapon Expert
19. Order 19: Combat Master
20. Order 20: Unyielding Guard 1

Your talents in the Vanguard tree are all designed for supporting your ability to cast Taunting Scream and live to the following turn. Enemies in Chapter 2 and beyond get more punishing and numerous, so, having the defensive abilities like Endure, Rockcrete, and other supporting talent buffs via Armor, Dodge, Reflection and more are all key to the class. From there, you can start picking up other talents handy for proving support by lowering enemy dodge, aiding your operators in their role, alongside buffing your own self-healing and psyker magic capabilities when possible. You can even do some cheesy taunt traps with parrying enemies, provoking attack of opportunity, and then successive attack of opportunity taunting them again if you really want to. All in all, you will become the frontman of the band, garnering all the attention from the heretics in the moshpit and coping with it.

In addition, there’s some really nice armor and other Psyker related accessories you can grab from around Chapter 3 and 4 onward. You can find lots of Psy items from Commorragh, and the Kasballica faction have specific Psyker heavy armor purchases, alongside items like the Warp Surge Brooch that enables you to attack as many time as your Psy level is for the first turn of combat. That’s a lot of whacking for some incredible damage.

Exemplar Build:

When you reach Exemplar, you’re largely taking Exemplar talents that bolster your crit for synergy in the warrior tree, and more Exemplar buffs to support your survivability. Below is an example of what the first few levels can look like for the Heinrix build.

1. Order 1: Tough As Steel, Strange Vitality
2. Order 2: Preference, Still Mind
3. Order 3: Toughness, Subtle Manipulation
4. Order 4: Regeneration, Preference
5. Order 5: Full Attention, Psy Rating 4
6. Order 6: Willpower, Inscribed Soul
7. Order 7: Warp Speed, Willpower

From here, feel free to spec into whatever you prefer. There are still a few psychic spells available to grab to boost that playstyle, including other warrior and vanguard talents. It all really depends on what your party role is by this point in the game. Also, when more Exemplar talents come up, grab Flesh Wounds and Critical Velocity. Flesh Wounds is a nice heal, and Critical Velocity is handy for crit strike chance and damage, which also affects your Pulse of Life. Relentless is also a good option for self healing. This concludes the Heinrix Build in Rogue Trader, showing you how to build this magical tank class, and become the Cleric that the 40k universe deserves.