The Grail Knight is the living embodiment of Bretonnia, blessed with supernatural power by the mysterious Lady of the Lake. Those chosen by her may drink from her chalice, blessing them with magical might and indoctrinating them into a life of service to the Lady. Despite not being a pure-blood Bretonnian, the Lady of the Lake chose Markus Kruber to become one of these rare knights.
Every character in Vermintide 2 has access to three career paths and one DLC path, representing the hero’s potential path after the events of Vermintide 1. Today, we will focus on the Grail Knight, a melee-only career in Vermintide 2 with devastating close-quarters power capable of standing toe-to-toe with any enemy. For other great builds, check out our ranked Vermintide 2 class tier list to find other strong characters you may want to try out.
Grail Knight Skills and Traits
Career Skill: Blessed Blade
Markus equips a blessed blade and slashes down with tremendous force, smiting any enemy caught in its wake and dealing heavy damage.
Blessed Blade is one of the strongest Career Skills in Vermintide 2. It can do enough damage to one-shot any Elite or Special enemy, including Chaos Warriors!
Passive Abilities
- The Lady’s Duty: Upon entering a mission, the Lady of the Lake grants Markus and his party two random duties to complete. Upon completion of a Duty, the party is given a buff for the remainder of the mission.
Here is a list of every Duty the Grail Knight has in Vermintide 2 and its reward:
| Slay Elites | +10% Power Level |
| Slay Specials | +5% Attack Speed |
| Slay Monsters | +10% Cooldown Regen |
| Find Tomes | +10% Damage Reduction |
| Find Grimoires | Health Regen |
- Knight’s Challenge: Markus deals 25% more damage to the first enemy hit.
- Thirst for Glory: Increases movement speed by 10%
- Bastion of Bretonnia: Markus can use shields to block Warpfire Thrower attacks.
All Grail Knight Melee Weapons for Your Build in Vermintide 2
The Grail Knight has a fairly wide assortment of melee weapons in his armory that you can use. These include:
- Sword
- Greatsword
- Executioner Sword
- Great Hammer
- Sword and Shield
- Mace
- Mace and Shield
- Mace and Sword (Requires Back to Ubersreik DLC)
- Bretonnian Longsword (Requires Grail Knight DLC – available here)
- Bretonnian Sword and Shield (Requires Grail Knight DLC)
Best Melee Weapon for Grail Knight
Hands down, the best melee weapon for a good Grail Knight build in Vermintide 2 is the Bretonnian Longsword. This is the best melee weapon in all of Vermintide 2 due to its unique ability to automatically parry or block attacks while charging a heavy attack.
The Bretonnian Longsword’s heavy attacks are devastating; when paired with the passive Knights Challenge, Markus can easily sever the head of almost any Specialist or Elite enemy in Vermintide 2.
The light attacks also have good speed, damage, and cleaving capabilities for dealing with hordes. Overall, it is weapon that deals insane damage with first-strike headshots, can parry while charging heavy attacks, and has decent horde-clearing capabilities, making it one of the best weapons in Vermintide 2.
Honorable Mentions for Other Viable Grail Knight Melee Weapons
The Grail Knight in Vermintide 2 is one of the few careers that is melee only. This means Markus must carry two melee weapons instead of a ranged weapon. In turn, this makes the Grail Knight weaker against ranged targets, but that’s about their only weakness.
We will highlight two melee weapons to pair with the Bretonnian Longsword for our honorable mentions. Firstly, we recommend the Mace and Sword due to its high attack speed, amazing horde-clearing ability, and the fact that its heavy attacks hit twice since it is a dual-wielding weapon.
The Mace and Sword only beats the Bretonnian Longsword in horde clear because of its light attack spam and extraordinary push attack, but it is decent at eliminating armored targets.
We recommend using the Bretonnian Sword and Shield if you want a more defensive option. We prefer the move set of the Bretonnian Sword and Shield as opposed to that of the regular Sword or Mace version.
Additionally, because of the Bastion of Bretonnia passive, the Grail Knight can shield against the Warpfire Thrower’s flames in Vermintide 2. It doesn’t have an impactful use in every game, but it’s a nice defensive bonus.
Related Guides: 10 Great Tips and Tricks for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Beginners
Best Grail Knight Talents in Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Level 5 Talents
| Lady’s Generosity | Lady’s Wrath | Gift of the Grail |
| Staggering an enemy with a melee attack grants Temporary Health. The amount of Temporary Health gained is based on the strength of the stagger. | Killing an enemy with a melee attack grants Temporary Health based on the health of the slain enemy. | Healing yourself with a First Aid Kit or a Healing Draught also heals nearby allies for 20% of their maximum health, also removing any Wounds. |
We recommend using Lady’s Wrath as our choice of weapon because the Bretonnian Longsword prioritizes damage over stagger. If you opt for the Mace and Sword for your Vermintide 2 Grail Knight build, you must choose Lady’s Wrath. Yet, if you go with the Bretonnian Sword and Shield, you can select Lady’s Generosity.
Level 10 Talents for the Grail Knight in Vermintide 2
| Virtue of the Ideal | Virtue of Knightly Temper | Virtue of Heroism |
| Killing enemies increases Markus’s Power by 10% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. | Critical strikes instantly slay enemies if their current health is less than four times the amount of damage of the crit. Half effect versus Lords and monsters. | Power level of heavy attacks increased by 25%. |
Newer players might think Virtue of Heroism is the best talent since the Bretonnian Longsword is mainly used for its heavy attacks, but Virtue of the Ideal completely out-scales it. Virtue of the Ideal gives you 30% additional power for 10 seconds from slaying three enemies. It’s an insane amount of power, which you will easily keep stacked during hordes or most encounters.
Level 15 Talents
| Bulwark | Smiter | Enhanced Power |
| Enemies that you stagger take 10% more damage from melee attacks from 2 seconds, and you deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect. | The first enemy hit always counts as staggered, and you deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect. | Increases total Power Level by 7.5%. |
Smiter is the best option for our Grail Knight build since we are not relying on a stagger weapon. Smiter fits the Bretonnian Longsword and Mace and Sword’s aggressive playstyle, especially with the Knight’s Challenge passive.
Level 20 Talents
| Virtue of Duty | Virtue of Purity | Virtue of the Penitent |
| The Lady’s Favour grants an additional Quest. | Increases the buffs from completing a Quest by 50% | The Lady’s Favor grants a repeatable Quest that rewards Markus with a Potion of Strength upon completion. (The Potions drop on the floor if Markus can’ carry a potion.) |
It’s important to note that the quests are randomized upon entering a mission, making it a coinflip on obtaining good buffs or decent ones. Because of this, we recommend taking Virtue of Duty since we value getting three buffs over two. However, we will agree that Virtue of the Penitent is a good alternative option, but only in standard missions, as its value is wasted in the Chaos Wastes.
Level 25 Talents
| Virtue of Stoicism | Virtue of Discipline | Virtue of the Joust |
| 50% of damage taken is regenerated as temporary health after five seconds. | Timed blocks increase power level by 20% for six seconds. | Increases push arc and stamina regeneration by 30%. |
For this row, Virtue of Stoicism is our favorite to use in our Grail Knight Vermintide 2 build. Any time you get hit, you will gain half of that health lost as temp health, which can help a ton, even if you don’t get hit often. However, we understand taking Virtue of the Joust, not for its push arc but because the stamina regeneration is very helpful.
Level 30 Talents for Your Grail Knight Build in Vermintide 2
| Virtue of Audacity | Virtue of the Impetuous Knight | Virtue of Confidence |
| Adds a second stab attack to the Blessed Blade, dealing devastating single target damage. | Killing an enemy with Blessed Blade increases your movement speed by 35% for 15 seconds. | Blessed Blade now cleaves with a horizontal slash, cutting through and staggering multiple enemies. |
Virtue of Audacity and Confidence are great picks for the Grail Knight, but it comes down to your preferred strength. Virtue of Audacity is amazing for an insane amount of damage against Lords or monsters or allowing you to cut down two Chaos Knights if they are close together.
However, Virtue of Confidence lets you cut through half a Patrol in one swing and can eliminate at least five Shield Vermin effortlessly. Virtue of Confidence doesn’t lose any damage and will still cut down a single Chaos Warrior in one swing, but you can’t reliably cut through two.
Overall, it’s your choice if you would rather have more single target damage or an enhanced cleave move. We personally pick Virtue of Confidence because you can get more resets from a Potion of Concentration, whereas the Virtue of Audacity only begins to recharge after the second stab. Both are amazing, and it comes down to personal preference.
Conclusion for our Vermintide 2 Grail Knight Build & Guide
That’s our guide for the Kruber’s Grail Knight career in Vermintide 2. Overall, this is one of the strongest melee classes in Vermintide 2 for its effectiveness at dispatching Elites, Specials, and bosses. Its only drawback is its lack of ranged power, making Bightstormers or Rattling Gunners their worst nightmare.
If you enjoyed our guide and want to learn more, check out our guide for Sienna’s Battle Wizard build in Vermintide 2. It pairs exceptionally well with Grail Knight as the strongest ranged class in Vermintide 2.
For now, Good Hunting!
