Long before the elves divided, their empire spanned the globe, united underneath the Phoenix King’s banner. Though these times are long forgotten, remnants of traditions, stories, and older ways of life can be found in what ruins remain.
Every character in Vermintide 2 has access to three career paths and one DLC path, representing the hero’s potential paths after the events of Vermintide 1. Today, we will focus on the best agile tank Handmaiden build in Vermintide 2. It provides tons of crowd control and is arguably the best tank to have when your team is on its last leg.
Handmaiden Skills and Traits
Career Skill: Dash
Kerillian swiftly dashes forward, moving through all enemies. Dash can be canceled by pressing block, and Kerillian can block during charge by using her block before and holding it throughout her change.
Dash is an underwhelming ability, but the level 30 talents improve upon it. However, outside of talent upgrades, it’s a simple dash that’s great for repositioning or closing the gap on important enemies. It has the lowest cooldown compared to other career skills, allowing you to spam it without repercussions.
Passive Abilities
- The Dance of Seasons: Gain increased dodge distance by 15%.
The Dance of Seasons is vital for survival when playing the Handmaiden character class in Vermintide 2. When playing as the Handmaiden, you don’t obtain damage reduction or ways to ward off damage outside of blocking or dodging, and staying on the move is vital for any class’s survival.
Gaining extra dodge distance is so impactful in the greater difficulties it can make a difference between life and death. Newer players can underestimate the usefulness of this passive, but it’s insanely strong once you know how to utilize it properly.
- Renewal: Aura that increases stamina regeneration by 100%
Renewal is also one of the best Auras inVermintide 2. Gaining stamina Regeneration allows for more push attacks, and blocks allow you to recover significantly faster. Handmaiden not only helps damage careers with this Aura since a lot of non-defensive weapons only have three stamina shields but this Aura significantly buffs other tank carriers like Ironbreaker.
- Ariel’s Benison: Increase revive speed by 50%. Reviving allies heals them for 20 health.
- Unlisted Passive: Gain +1 stamina shield
All Handmaiden Melee Weapons
- Sword
- Dual Daggers
- Dual Swords
- Sword and Dagger
- Glaive
- Greatsword
- Elven Spear
- Elven Axe (Requires Back to Ubersreik DLC)
- Spear and Shield (RequiresWinds of Magic DLC)
Best Melee Weapons for a Great Handmaiden Build in Vermintide 2
The Handmaiden has a lot of weapons to choose from, more than other careers. However, the best primary weapon for Kerillian is the Spear and Shield. The Spear and Shield is the best tank weapon for the Handmaiden, from utilizing the buffs to Kerillian’s stamina regeneration.
On top of having a shield, the weapon’s first heavy attack is fantastic for crowd control, allowing you to effortlessly drag your spear through a crowd of enemies to build temp health. The second heavy attack is also a heavy downward slam that easily devastates armored targets. As a third bonus, it’s a spear, which gives you good range while continuously dodging enemy attacks.
However, the significant downside to a Spear and Shield Handmaiden build in Vermintide 2 is it has terrible boss damage, even from spamming the second heavy attack. Overall, it’s a fantastic weapon for crowd control; be sure to utilize the first heavy sweep attack with blocking afterward so you reset the combo.
Honorable Mentions for Melee Weapons
For other melee weapons, use the Dual Swords. The Dual Swords have a lot of damage potential, excellent crowd control, and still quickly builds temp health. However, the Dual Daggers and Sword and Dagger are also fantastic weapons, but the Dual Daggers are best on Shade and the Sword and Dagger for a Waystalker build.
All Ranged Weapons for Handmaiden
- Swiftbow
- Longbow
- Hangbang Shortbow
- Moonfire Bow (Requires Forgotten Relics DLC)
- Briar Javelin (Requires Sister of the Thorn DLC)
The Best Ranged Weapons for Your Vermintide 2 Handmaiden Build
Most Kerillian mains, regardless of career, will say the Briar Javelin is her best-ranged weapon. We agree that the Briar Javelin is Kerillian’s best-ranged weapon; we prefer it most on Handmaiden. Due to Handmaiden’s lack of reliable boss damage, thanks to the Spear and Shield, the Briar Javelin helps offset this downside.
The Briar Javelin is amazing for your Handmaiden build in Vermintide 2 for its endless ammo and devastating power. This throwing javelin can one-shot a Stormvermin by hitting them in the chest, like the Slayer’s Throwing Axes. The Briar Javelin can also be used as a melee weapon in emergency situations, but it fits the Handmaiden’s playstyle since it’s not the main weapon.
Related Article: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Ironbreaker Build and Guide
Honorable Mentions for Ranged Weapons
The Moonfire Bow is a good alternative for ranged weapons, even if we believe it’s better on Shade. The Moonfire Bow also doesn’t use ammunition. Instead, it has a meter that depletes every time you fire an arrow.
Both the Moonfire Bow and The Briar Javelin are good secondaries to pull out when you need to deal with one or two ranged threats, then switch back to melee.
The Swiftbow or Longbow suits the Waystalker significantly better since the Handmaiden prefers melee combat.
Best Handmaiden Talents
Level 5 Talents to Include in Your Handmaiden Build in Vermintide 2
| Spirit Echo | Martial Blessing | Eternal Blossom |
| Striking multiple enemies in one swing grants temporary health based on the number of targets hit. Max 5 enemies. | Melee killing blows 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. |
Since our primary weapon is the Spear and Shield, we take Spirit Echo. Striking multiple enemies with the Spear and Sheild’s first heavy attack easily allows us to stack temp health with Spirit Echo. However, if you take the Dual Swords, Martial Blessing is better.
Level 10 Talents
| Focused Spirit | Oak Stance | Asrai Alacrity |
| After not taking damage for 10 seconds, increases Kerillians power by 15%. Focused Spirit resets upon taking damage. | Increases critical strike chance by 5%. | Pushing or blocking an attack grants the next two strikes 30% attack speed and 10% Power. |
Since we are leaning into the more defensive side of Handmaiden, we take Asrai Alacrity. With this talent, you gain extra attack speed and increased power for your next two attacks every time you push or block an attack. This drastically increases the power of your Spear and Shield by allowing you to perform one sweeping attack into a push, followed by two more attacks before repeating.
Level 15 Talents
| Smiter | Mainstay | Enhanced Power |
| The first enemy hit always counts as Staggered. 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. | Deal 40% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 60% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect. | Increases total Power Level by 7.5%. |
Take the Smiter talent to continue building your Handmaiden build in Vermintide 2. The Spear and Shield doesn’t have much natural stagger power, so Smiter helps fix this problem. Mainstay is viable, but Smiter allows you to stagger enemies consistently.
Related Guide: How to Get the Perfect Battle Wizard Build in Vermintide 2
Level 20 Talents
| Willow Stance | Shifting Seasons | Wraith-Walk |
| Dodging grants 5% attack speed for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. | Dodging while blocking increases dodge range by 20%. Dodging while not blocking increases Power by 10% for 1 second. | Kerillians dodges can now pass through enemies. |
For this row, take Willow Stance or Wrath-Walk. Willow Stance allows you to gain 15% attack speed at max stacks for continuously dodging. This opens up a more aggressive playstyle while leaning on your extra dodge distance.
However, Wraith-Walk is amazing for saving your team. Because of Handmaiden’s Dash and increased revive speed, you are the best at saving your teammates when they are downed. Gaining the ability to dodge through hordes of enemies with your shield up is fantastic. This talent doesn’t come into play unless you are overwhelmed, but if you are the last member of your team, no other talent beats it.
Level 25 Talents
| Heart of Oak | Birch Stance | Quiver of Plenty |
| Increases max health by 15%. | Reduces block cost by 30%. | Increases ammunition amount by 40%. |
Birch Stance is easily the best talent in this row. Gaining a 30% block cost reduction is insane. Bitch Stance is so powerful when combined with your Stamina regeneration. You can tank two Chaos Warrior overhead slams before your guard is broken. It’s undeniably strong, and we always take Birch Stance regardless of build.
Level 30 Talents to Finish Off Your Handmaiden Build in Vermintide 2
| Gift of Ladrielle | Bladedancer | Power from Pain |
| Kerillian disappears from enemy sight for 2 seconds after using Dash. This Invisibility allows Kerillian to freely move through enemies. | Dashing through an enemy causes them to bleed for damage over time. | Each enemy hit with Dash grants 5% critical strike chance for 15 seconds. Stacking up to 5 times. |
Lastly, for upgrading our Dash, we take the Gift of Ladrielle. This talent elevates our Dash by making Kerillian turn invisible for two seconds after the Dash ends. The gift of Ladrielle and Kerillian’s increased revive speed and Wraith-Walk makes her the best tank for saving runs.
Thanks to her unique passives and talents, the Handmaiden has unrivaled power for saving runs. She can push back or block an entire horde with the Spear and Shield while dashing through a dozen Skaven to save her teammates.
Conclusion for our Vermintide 2 Handmaiden Build & Guide
That’s our build and guide for the Handmaiden in Vermintide 2. The Handmaiden is an extremely strong tank, which doesn’t get enough praise until they are the last person standing. While the Ironbreaker is the best first line of defense in Vermintide 2, Kerillian’s Handmaiden class is undoubtedly the best class for saving runs.
If you enjoyed our guide and want to learn more about Vermintide 2’s classes, check out our guides. Fore more of an assassin-style build, check out our Bounty Hunter guide. If you are looking for an awesome in-your-face dwarf, look into our best Vermintide 2 Slayer build.
For now, Good Hunting!
