Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader — Best Marazhai Build Guide

Though this companion joins late and requires tweaking your setup, he’s well worth keeping to slice and dice your foes to see them bleed and suffer. To make the best use of him, here’s my guide on the best Marazhai build in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader.

How to Make the Best Marazhai Build in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

My Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader best Marazhai build guide emphasizes the Drukhari’s expertise in close-quarters combat. Needless to say, by the time I recruited Marazhai (near the end of Act 3), my group setup was mostly complete. As such, he had to fill a fairly niche role — someone who can quickly swoop in to deal damage in melee, while also having enough survivability.

Another factor to consider is Marazhai’s Joyful Torture unique ability. It causes him to bleed, though the bleeding status effect unlocks additional boons based on certain talents.

Best Attributes and Skill Options for Marazhai

Here, I opted for the following selections in characteristics and skills to boost the effectiveness of this Marazhai build:

• Characteristics: Stack Agility whenever possible. Marazhai needs it to dodge more often, and the stat also boosts his initiative so he can take his turn earlier. Apart from Agility, both Weapon Skill and Toughness are viable options, too.
• Skills: A few Medicae levels should be enough just so Marazhai can use Medkits. As for other skills, the choice is entirely up to you. Characters like Pasqal, Yrliet, Argenta, and Cassia will likely handle most skill checks anyway.

Marazhai’s Best Assassin and Drukhari Origin Abilities and Talents

The biggest problem I had with Marazhai was that he joins the party too late. As such, coming up with the best Marazhai build in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader meant that I was stuck with all the Warrior class’ abilities and talents (i.e. Breakthrough and Reckless Strike). Moreover, most of the Assassin class tree already had pre-selected options, such as Danse Macabre and Elusive Shadow.

In any case, I suggest grabbing these for his last few levels as an Assassin, as I’ve seen them be highly effective and useful options in my experience with the game:

• Ability: Death Whisper — Make an attack that doesn’t count toward the limit, but it only deals 25% damage; cause the target to hemorrhage.
• Assassin talents:
  • Carmine Whisper — +10 damage from the hemorrhage effect applied by Death Whisper.
  • Killing Spree — Gain bonus damage whenever you hit an opening.
• Drukhari Origin Talents:
  • Prey on the Weak — +5 bonus to Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill as long as Marazhai is bleeding.
  • Mantle of Agony — Gain additional armor based on your Toughness bonus as long as Marazhai is bleeding.

Best Examplar Talents for Marazhai

At Level 36, Marazhai becomes an Exemplar. I recommend the following Exemplar-specific talents:

• Tricky Defense — Gain dodge equal to half the armor bonus from an armor piece; remains active as long as the character wears light armor.
• Critical Velocity — Crit chance and crit damage are increased by a percentage of your dodge.
• Flesh Wounds — At the start of your turn, restore 10-20% of your maximum wounds/HP.

Don’t forget that you can still learn Talents from your basic and advanced archetypes at certain intervals. You’ll certainly want some of Marazhai’s remaining Drukhari-specific talents, such as Emboldened by Bloodshed, as well as those from the Soldier class (i.e. Thick Skin). You can also learn about the other options in my more extensive Exemplar class guide.

These are our suggestions when looking at the best build for Marazhai in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader. The idea is to give this Dark Eldar all the tools needed to survive, then dash and slash through foes, all while avoiding even friendly-fire. In any case, if you’re already min-maxing Marazhai, you might want to know about the builds for other characters, such as Yrliet, Heinrix, and Ulfar. For those other tips and tactics, check out our WH40K: RT guides hub.