Dawn of War II - Squad Build - Thaddeus

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Squad Build - Thaddeus
(Not for Chaos Rising)

Overview
The traits we aimed for were in this order: Aegis of Fury, Improved Load Out, Chapter's Fury, Blessing of Zeal.

In Terminator Armour, he is melee-only and actually pretty decent against Fire Prisms, because the D-Cannon seems to do little against him and it seems he cannot be trampled by vehicles. However, Banshees and Seer Councils (on Primarch Difficulty) can still chew through his squadmembers with surprising speed.

Skills

Starting Skill

• Assault Jump
• This is basically a grenade, except it cannot harm buildings or vehicles and you cannot leap onto an enemy structure. By going so far ahead, you will probably also attract even more enemies, so after trying to kill priority targets (e.g., a Tyranid Warrior), your next priority is probably to get out. If you're feeling brave you can use a Merciless Strike before running out, especially if you have Aegis of Fury.
• Probably more useful to get out of trouble, or a combination of getting out of trouble by leaping into a more vulnerable clump of enemies.
• If some members of his squad are presently knocked down or out of range, they will Jump when they are able. In this way, sometimes the squad will not all jump at the same time, which may be a good thing since each jump knocks down all targets in a small radius. Not clear how Aegis of Fury works in this case, however.
• You CAN be shot at while you are in the sky (you can do the same to ork Stormboyz).
• Terminator Armour have teleport packs, which means you lose this power.

Stamina

• Strike from the Skies! - Assault Jump causes suppression as well as damage and knockback.
• Aegis of Fury - Upon landing a jump or completing a teleport, Thaddeus and his squad are temporarily invulnerable.
• With this you can fearlessly jump into anything as long as you clear out quickly. Prior to this skill, getting out (in Primarch difficulty) could mean forcing a Retreat.
• There should be enough time to do a Merciless Strike.
• This does not take effect until after the jump is complete. If you jump onto a Ravener crater (where a Ravener is hidden), you will take damage when it bursts out.
• Blessing of Zeal - Thaddeus regains Health with every strike in hand-to-hand combat.

Range
Skill here is completely useless in Terminator Armour because you cannot equip anything other than a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield while in Terminator Armour (IF you even want him in Terminator Armour, which causes him to lose Assault Jump). Not even a Storm Bolter, no matter what traits you have.

• Bolter Aptitude - Thaddeus and his Assault Squad become able to equip bolters.
• Ranged Aptitude - Thaddeus becomes adept with plasma guns and flamers.
• Like Tarkus, if Thaddeus equips a flamer, he is the only one in the squad with a flamer. The rest of the Assault Squad have bolters.
• When using a flamer, unlike Tarkus, Thaddeus does not close to flamer range, which means his squadmates fire bolters while he stands idle.
• Ranged Specialist - Thaddeus becomes able to fire plasma guns and flamers while moving. Adds passive chance to stun with any ranged weapon.

Melee

• Merciless Strike - Lash out at a specified target with an explosive short-ranged melee attack.
• This is targeted at a LOCATION. Once targeted you cannot abort it, so if enemies have died or moved away, it is wasted.
• Fire Prisms swim around quickly and constantly seek to avoid melee, so this is pretty much impossible to use against them unless they are distracted by something else.
• Power Weapon Aptitude - Learn to wield power swords, power axes, and power fists.
• In Primarch difficulty, it is basically suicidal to melee enemy vehicles or vehicle-class creatures (such as Carnifexes). Their ability to run you over (if a tank) or cut you down (Carnifex) is extreme and will probably cost you one or two squadmembers immediately, if it doesn't wipe your entire squad including Thaddeus. Therefore, although you can use these weapons, you really want to equip whatever gives you the best bonuses, even if it is a chainsword, and leave anti-armour for ranged weapons.
• Terminator Honors - Gain the ability to equip Terminator armor. Thaddeus wields a mighty thunder hammer as his default weapon in Terminator armor and is equipped with a teleporter.
• A teleporter disables the Assault Jump.
• Chapter's Fury - After taking a large amount of damage Thaddeus can enter a reckless state, stretching his abilities to their limits. During this time, abilities cost no energy and have no recharge duration.
• It would be interesting to try this with Aegis of Fury since you could theoretically maintain invulnerability. Too bad Assault Jump takes so long to set up and execute.
• It is confusing how this activates or for how long. But it does work.

Will

• Improved Load Out - Adds an Accessory slot.
• Get this so you can either load up Thaddeus with armour or damage resistance items, or give him an accessory so he isn't useless against vehicles.
• Larraman's Blessing - After being revived in combat, Thaddeus cannot be harmed for 10 seconds.
• I would prefer tactics that involved Thaddeus not having to be revived.