Chaplain Build Guide - Aspect of the Aegis

We’re returning to our three-part series of build guides for the Aspect of the Aegis.

If you missed the first part which focused on the Justicar, check it out here! Today we’re building the second unit in our defensive squad: the Chaplain. This unit offers support within our Aspect of the Aegis squad. It serves to enhance our Grey Knights’ capabilities and massively boost Aegis Shield’s effectiveness. This build will focus on:

• Refrain of Convergence
• Litany of Faith
• Invocation of Focus
• Maxed out Core
• Litany of Hate

Ranking Up

Our initial priority is to invest in Refrain of Convergence. This will help us access Litany of Faith as soon as possible to boost our squad’s Aegis Shield ability. As a support build designed to make our whole team more resilient, this is crucial.

Ranks 4-6

At Rank 4 we want to complete the Refrain of Convergence discipline. We’ll activate the extra Wargear Slot to buff our Grey Knight even further. Ranks 5-6’s Ability Points can be spent filling out the Invocation of Focus discipline. This includes the passive +25% Focus buff that will supplement Invocation of Focus’ activation chance. We will want to have this Litany available to us to supplement our Willpower pool for our other units. 

Ranks 7-9

For our last three Promotions we will complete the Core Discipline, bolstering our Chaplain with plenty of Willpower and extra Armour. We can then go into the Hatred Discipline with a Litany upgrade and finish off our Promotions with the final Willpower upgrade. We want as much Willpower as possible to fuel our passive Litany maintenance cost.

Equipment and Wargear

This is our most defensive Grey Knight as part of an Aegis-based squad. This Chaplain is designed to support his brothers in maintaining their defenses and provide them Willpower refunds through abilities rather than fight at the front of the pack. For this reason, we recommend a Halberd that has the First Strike Auto or a Warding Stave which has the Aegis Reaction Auto (which will automatically activate Aegis Shield on a % chance activation). If neither of these options are available, the Crozius Arcanum can deal the Vulnerable Affliction to enemies that get too close.

For this build, we recommend the following weapons: 

Halberds

• Scorn (Tier 1): While this weapon has a relatively low activation chance for First Strike, it can make up for it in its Force Strike ability. When using Force Strike with this weapon, instead of focusing on a single target its attack will shift into a Blast AOE encompassing an Area of 2 around the Chaplain. This is handy if your Chaplain suddenly becomes surrounded by enemies that may make it past your Justicar. This weapon’s damage can also be upgraded along with the size of the blast area, its effectiveness throughout the length of your campaign may surprise you.

Warding Staves

• Brothers Diligence (Tier 1): Compared to its Tier 1 brethren, Brother’s Diligence boasts an extra +10% Focus for a total activation chance of 35%. This is the highest activation chance we can get based on bonuses that come from the weapon itself amongst Tier 1 Warding Staves. It can be upgraded with extra crit % and crit damage as well for extra damage should you end up needing it.
• Rod of Heracus (Tier 2): Rod of Heracus is a direct upgrade from our Tier 1 choice of Warding Stave. It has a 50% Aegis Reaction activation chance compared to the previous 35% from Brother’s Diligence. This weapon also has a Force Strike ability that deals +2 DMG on your melee attack so it can still deal a respectable amount of damage if needed in a pinch. This weapon can be upgraded to provide an additional 25% activation chance to Aegis Reaction and +1 Armour to the Knights Aegis Shield which complements the defense style of build. 
• Rod of the Ancients (Tier 3): Rod of the Ancients is a clear contender for best Warding Stave for your Chaplain. It has a 100% Aegis Reaction activation chance and comes pre-loaded with an automatic +1 Armour to Aegis shield which can be upgraded to a total of +2 Armour.  This weapon also comes with a +1 DMG upgrade which is a nice upgrade to round out our weapon. 
• Stave of Supremacy (Tier 3): The Stave of Supremacy is our second choice for Tier 3 Warding Stave. It immediately offers us a +2 WP which we need to maintain our Litanies for as long as possible. Though it initially only offers a +25% Aegis Reaction chance it can be upgraded to offer 50% instead. The WP bonus can also be upgraded to a total of +4 WP which is plenty of WP. This should be a backup choice in case Rod of the Ancients is not available.

Crozius Arcanum

• Hammer of the Righteous (Tier 3): While there are other options available for the Crozius none of them really fit better than Hammer of the Righteous. The main draw of this weapon overall is the Enhanced Litanies passive ability which grants the Chaplain to maintain his Litanies without spending WP. This weapon also offers fair damage for a Tier 3 weapon which can be upgraded in addition to afflicting Vulnerable on enemies that are struck by it.

Stormbolters

• Truebolt (Tier 1): Considering our Chaplain is our backline support; we will want to outfit him with something that he can still deal damage with. Truebolt fits for a playstyle such as this as the added range can make up for being part of your squad’s backline. This Stormbolter has an innate 12 range, which is higher than all other Tier 1 Stormbolters and can be upgraded to a maximum of 15 Range. The additional range will make up for some damage drop-off due to long ranges allowing you to make use of any AP you may have left over.
• Heretic’s Lament (Tier 2): This is the Tier 2 version of Truebolt. It innately has 14 Range which can be upgraded to 17 which is the highest possible range Stormbolters can achieve. 
• Traitor’s Due (Tier 3): This is the Tier 3 version of Truebolt. Like Heretic’s Lament, it has an innate 14 Range that can be boosted to 17 through an upgrade. Additionally, this weapon has 5 DMG as opposed to 4 which means you’ll get more value for your Range and more consistent damage with your periodic Range Attacks. 
• Ire of Phoros (Tier 3): Though this does not strictly follow our Ranged focus Stormbolter choices, this would be a good secondary choice should Traitor’s Due not be available. Ire of Phoros comes with an innate 12 Range and impressive 5 DMG which can be upgraded to 6 DMG. It also comes with the Rapid Reload auto with a base 25% Activation chance. It can be upgraded to a total of 50% activation chance. Being able to reload for free can be crucial in saving AP in dire situations when you need an edge over the enemy.

Armour

• Scholar’s Diligence (Tier 1): Starting out, the Chaplain’s WP pool cannot carry a Litany for very long. To maximize our squad’s efficiency, we will want armour that can boost our WP to keep our buffs up for longer. This armour offers an immediate +2 WP with a +1 Upgrade on top of offering an additional +1 Armour as an upgrade. This gives us some durability on top of extra WP.
• Scholar’s Acuity (Tier 2): This pairs very well with the Chaplain overall and not just for this build. This armour offers +3 HP, and +2 Armour upgradeable to +3 Armour total. It also provides potential Max WP bonus of +4 and can be upgraded to provide Immunity to the Drained affliction. This means that any pesky enemies trying to deplete your WP pools will be unable to do so and will keep your Litanies up for longer.
• Scholar’s Devotion (Tier 3): This is the Tier 3 version of Scholar’s Acuity. It offers more HP, Armour, and WP than its predecessor with the same upgrade for Immunity to Drained.

Grenades, Servo Skulls, Passive Equipment

Grenades

• Blind Grenade: This is a good option for your backline as it can buy you some breathing room and time to reposition if things get dicey. Use this if enemies start closing in too close for comfort or you are being assailed by several ranged enemies.

Servo Skulls

• Disruptor Skull: Another good choice for a backline support - This skull will help you free up any of your Knights or perhaps the Chaplain himself from excessive damage from template Autos such as Overwatch or the Fleshmower’s Charge. This is a useful but indirect means of keeping your team’s Armour up high by negating attacks.

Passive Equipment

• Sanctic Shard: Having the Sanctic Shard on your Chaplain will help boost its Invocation of Focus activation chance. This is good for when your Knights need to dish out that extra damage through Warp Charging their abilities as they receive the Focus benefit your Chaplain has on the Litany. 
• Sacred Incense: More WP means more Litany time and that means your Knights are stronger for longer. Sacred Incense is very valuable on this Chaplain build and should not be ignored. This does not have as much value however if you should manage to obtain the Hammer of the Righteous Crozius, as it removes the maintenance cost for Litanies.
• Emblematic Pauldrons: This item increases Max HP. Our Chaplain, despite wearing Terminator Armour, is not the most durable of Grey Knights. Any additional HP is a welcome benefit and compliments our tank playstyle. 

Team Composition

This build is versatile and able to stabilise any squad composition through its defensive support. However, including at least one dedicated high-damage dealer will be crucial, especially if this build is paired with a defensive Justicar. While these two units will massively improve your defences, they are not designed to destroy enemies quickly. Rather they should be used to make units which are effective offensively more sustainable.

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

The Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters Team