"THE CRIME IS YOUR FOUL EXISTENCE, THE SENTENCE IS DEATH!" - The Doctrine of Our Hearts.

Important Note:
I really don't want to call it a "Guide" but "Recommendations". Because I think this wall of text is more about my thoughts and experience during "blessings with this ravaged body". Along your personal way of BH you may (most likely) find some combinations better stats wise or better matches your play-style. I don't know how others play BHs since I play him 95% of the time in V2 (so yeah, I don't matched with other ppl on BH). But anyway I want people to acknowledge this career over any other ranged and be better with it. This is why you are currently reading this text. That's all. Actual text below.

I played at least decent amount of time with every weapon with no favorites. And I want to say EVERY BH’s ranged weapon is viable and usable. You just execute them a little bit different from weapon to weapon. For example: most likely you cannot one-shot Chaos Warrior with pistols (pistols does not penetrate armor After 1.3.0 they deal increased damage to armor) but pistols has mentionable sustain potential or you want to hold trash mobs in line in front you while holding volley crossbow in your hands, with repeater pistol you want them to come a little closer.
In a bit more detail:

Brace of Pistols has an utility. No reload, quick “run and gun” mechanics, good headshot dmg. But in case of pistols I want to mention that you have to change your talent tree. About this scroll a bit (but better keep reading).
New pistols now have reload mechanic. Also normal damage, armor damage and the most interesting part: boss damage has been increased.
If you want exact numbers.

Volley crossbow. Long reload, in most cases after alt-fire you want to “reload” it by resetting your passive skill (on melee kill) rather than shoot several times and do “fulltime reload”. Has great dmg if you hit all of 3 arrows in alt-fire. Almost no dmg reduction for far distances.

Repeater pistol. Quick reload. Great burst fire in alt-fire mode. Normal LMB shots provides you with mobility to react. E.g.: leech behind your back, assassin rat’s jumps, another “jump scares”.
You can shoot alt-fire with this gun for about 20 meter away with minor damage reduction. So yea, not necessary to come/wait for face-to-face.

Crossbow. Great one arrow dmg and penetration. Likely to one-shot specials on far distances. One-shot Chaos Warrior in the head on closer distances.
Very popular choices are Volley Crossbow and Repeater Pistol.

Griffon-foot. AKA griffon-ass. I'd say definitely not competitively the best weapon of choice. But probably on a higher level than Brace of Pistols. Good wave clear potential. But you have nothing to offer for far distance foes. You either unload whole magazine or let it do to someone else.

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Overall, Griffon-foot are fun but Repeater and Volley X-bow are still my favorites. Pistol and Crossbow, well, usable if on Chaos wastes random gives it to you but not prio in everything else.
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Melees pros & cons are more obvious than side-arm’s.
First of all, want to point out cold weapons I don’t like:

2-handed long-sword. Someone may argue like “It has much stamina, great cleave etc”. But I really dislike this weapon. You get no additional dmg to compensate it’s slow swings and cleave isn’t good enough to overshadow falchion's cleave. I won’t recommend to start your BH progress with this weapon.
And general thought: if slow weapon doesn't have big dmg or doesn't one-shot then ♥♥♥♥ it.

Rapier.
Has it uses but generaly I don't like it. No stagger potential, bad cleave, also who gonna let you charge a heavy attack to hit Chaos Warrior's head?

Axe. Deal halved dmg to shields, penetrates armor, decent cleave, decent attack speed. Well rounded weapon.

Flail. Completely ignore shields (direct body dmg), has no armor penetration, low stamina (2 points), good attack speed, below average cleave compensates with better attack speed. Also now can damage through armor for several first hits in attack chain.

Falchion. Probably the best cleave (after long sword but we don't mention it here), good attack speed, penetrates armor, 2 stamina, good headshot dmg.

How do you choose:
Want cleave, penetration and good attack speed? Falchion.
Want be at easy when you face shields, has enough stamina to defend yourself and armor penetration? Axe.
Want to give 0 f about shields, satisfy yourself with juicy headshots, and have enough ability to clear trash? Flail.

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These 3 above are really good well rounded weapons in this game. Along the way I just switched between them when I received more powerful kind.
On Legend difficulty (people play Legend and looking for guides, really?) you most likely take falchion or axe. Because amount of armoured enemies are enormous. You face them more often than shields. But on any other difficulty flail is a variant to pick.
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As of now, the standart path I see is this talent tree



Why:
First of all, the key word of this build is "consistency". With this build you don't count on luck, crit, situation, your party members or whatever. You will have solid and reliable runs and playstyle every time.

• Level 5
  Tithetaker is the most consistent way to "preserve" your health. Even tho I run full crit build I see it not reliable to bet on crit chances and even less headshots.
  
  
• Level 10
  First of all. I love BH for his range power, so I won't consider Steel Srescendo as viable choice untill I want to play mostly with melee. I think this talent goes really well with Repeater Pistol. You give 2 burst shots and then swap to melee.
  Open Wounds in numbers doesn't give that much power increase as it supposed I think. Also Open Wounds doesn't stack with anything else. With Weight of Fire you have consistently high dmg.
  
  
• Level 15
  Almost the same reasoning as on Level 10. Consistency. 1) You have more power for everything, even range. 2) Assassin perk is exluded right away coz you have no luxury to aim your headshots in a mess and you need several stagger to proc 40%. 3) If you don't like 7% then I think Smiter is second best. Tho first hit doesn't stagger, it applies it's effect. So basically you don't have anything to do but just hit enemies for 40% buff.
  Also just to note, 7% is an increase in power and 20%/40% is an increase in atk dmg. 7% might sound small but it's actually a big value overall.
  
  
• Level 20
  I don't think you even need to choose anything here. Normaly Prize Bounty is the best choice. On the other hand Cruel Fortune is good with Volley X Bow and it's perk Scrounger. You don't lose much ammo since consistent 6 seconds crit restores some.
  
  
• Level 25
  Job Well Done. If your party members let you destroy elites then you'll make those 30% in no time. If no then at least 15 is guaranteed which is really good. Damage reduction is always good. It allowes to forgive some mistakes you might make.
  10% speed is barely noticable also I don't see how you utilize it during waves or holding a choke point.
  Salvaged Ammunition if for some reason you don't like Prize Bounty. Reload on melee kills sounds good but you probably won't shoot again without your Blessed Shot ready and if you are playing without Prize Bounty u'll have no ammo anyway.
  
  
• Level 30
  Compared to original talents, these ones are pale. I'd say everything's bad but among them (AMOGUS) you have to choose one and it will be Double-shotted. With Indiscriminate Blast I didn't notice "noticable" increase in power. For example after releasing ability on a wave and the boss after it I don't see it does tremendous dmg. Just Reward imo is second best just because you can spam it every 30 seconds. Compared to other choices Double-shotted at least let you restore 40% of it's cd and it packs all Locked and Loaded dmg into 2 bullets instead of a spreading blast so yeah, it lets you concentrate it's power where you want to.

Hit 'n' Shoot tree



The best with this build goes Volley X-bow, Crossbow and new Griffon pistols. Because of the potential to unleash fast burst fire between melee swings. Repeater doesn't go well coz you need to charge alt-attack for sum time.

Viable traits:


With level 25 talent we can spam ability every minute (normal ability CD is 90 secs). And with first mentioned trait you can decrees it even further. Since you already can one-shot Chaos Warrior. Resourceful Combatant let you use your ability whenever you in need for it freely. Like clear trash, one-shot any special (or several), more often Crowd Control bosses. With 10% Crit Chance roll crit procs often enough.
Opportunist and Parry are just useful in any situation. If you do combo: attack -> block-push -> attack, or attack x2 -> block-push then those traits most likely to proc.
Off Balance is great with coordinated team or when you are sure your dps (apart from you) will do anything.

Stats you are looking for:

• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Crit Power
  
• Stamina

Block Stamina Cost ain’t bad either. But I less often block and more push, so just look what you need.


Viable traits:
Honestly, smh BH has no traits that fit his kit and style in my opinion. During progress I didn’t bother myself about traits on ranged weapon or about orange weapons generally. But we have some gems here.
You may like:


I would like to recommend use Scrounger (2 ammo restoration) for your Volley Crossbow or Repeater Pistol. With this talent you literally can forget about ammo packs. You will restore 2 ammo for every enemy critical hit. So, you shoot alt-fire with these 2 guns with your Blessing Shots ready - you refill 2 ammo into your pocket per enemy hit.
Resourceful Sharpshooter - if you are fan of skill spam.
I think Hunter is way better and outperforms Barrage. Share your thoughts if you think otherwise.

Stats:

• Crit Chance
  
• Crit Power
  
• Power vs Armored
  
• Power vs Infantry

Armored so you can deal even more dmg (just in case) with your alt-fire side-arms and in case you has Axe/Falchion.
Infantry stat for better mass clear trash.


Viable traits:


Hand of Shallya in every situation. Natural Bond if solo with randoms and you have enough overconfidence in your skills. I won't recommend take Natural Bond on higher levels of play with random. Good tho in pre-mades.

Stats:

• Block Stamina Cost
  
• Stamina

Sometimes take a look for Damage Reduction vs AoE attacks.


Viable traits:
Most interesting traits are here.


Concoction imo is the best but you are free to experiment, for example in pre-made party Proxy might be better.

Otherwise you want to pick Strength/Concentration potions. Former gives you damage, second - let you spam 2-3 ults (abilities) with 1 potion.

Stats:

• Attack Speed
  
• Crit Power
  
• Power vs Armored
  
• Power vs Infantry

Viable traits:


Shrapnel is very usefull with coordinated team. Against boss/patrols.

Stats:
Also interesting stats placed here.

• Cooldown Reduction
  
• Crit Chance
  
• Curse Resistance
  
• Stamina Recovery Rate

CD reduction - if you get big numbers like 10%.
Curse Resistance - you WANT this. I believe you want handle grims in this game for better loot. Even if you won’t then your teammates will do. In any case, this is the most important stat for trinket.
Stamina Recovery - not that bad if you feel yourself offended by many enemies. Or you just don’t want to reroll 33% Curse Resistance.

Save Commendation chests until you are ready to step into Champion difficulty. Or even further than that. Logic here is: more you save untill the very end game - faster you progress to achieve 600 character power or better your perfomance on Champion/Legend.
At around level 25 or 300-400 character power you may think to open it. But it's up to you. If you feel like you don't get good items and stuck for too long at some difficulty/"suc way too much" - go on.
Forget about stats and traits before Champion difficulty. Equip the most powerful items. White, green, blue - doesn’t matter. You want to accumulate power ASAP. Power come by items and level. If you are passionate about this game then you want skip recruit and veteran difficulty. And you will do it really fast.
Don’t craft. Maybe only rare items you are unlucky with. But don’t upgrade for sure at all. Reroll stats if you have some dust to spare. Like 50 green or above. You will need many resources later for end game content.
If you want to walk through this game as If it's an easy mode then find party and make a group. Groups transform this game into casual one. Honestly I would recommend play in group only of 2 people or go for Legendary difficulty if you are pack of 4.

Most important tip:
Don’t shoot left and right after Champion difficulty. Don’t be like those elf/siennas plebs. You are better than them. You don’t waste ammo on trash. At least do it with passive skill reset in mind. And be aware of your mate’s position most of the time. Why: so you won't friendly fire them smh and sometimes probably they'll even save you.

Often asked question:
When do I go higher difficulty?
1) Difficulties has power caps. 200 for recruit, 400 for veteran and 600 for champion.
2) Watch your item power. If you are at 100 then there's no reason to play recruit anymore since chests will not give you more powerful items. And you don't want to stuck on Veteran with 200 item power. Etc etc.
3) Your confidence. If you clear stage easily, then maybe it's time to change it?
If I remember correctly, I switched from Veteran to Champion at around 300 character power.

In normal cases, what you do is: Shoot alt-fire with your side-arms (a.k.a repeater pistol / volley crossbow) -> Cut with melee some trash mob or deny your prior target -> Shot another one or go on with bullet hell.
If you are too lazy even for this then just go with this in mind: be prepared to alt-fire Chaos Warrior/Mauler or another special enemy and cut with your melee everything else. Usually with enough power you deny Mauler (dude with only helmet as armor) with just 2-3 hits by your falchion/axe/flail. Blessing Shots gives you an opportunity to one-shot Chaos Warriors (full armored dudes) or at least leave them with 5% hp.

Interesting thing:
You can reset your Blessing Shots by killing rats. Real rats (smol things all around) and pigs.


Your Blessed Shots have to be ready.
First, you drink your potion if it's Strenght potion (If you have Concoction it doesn't matter).
Next, throw your grenade if you have Shrapnel perk.
Then, shoot your alt-fire with side-arms (if you have burst fire like repeater pistol or just unload on everything else).

Next, release your Locked and Loaded skill. If instead of Strength potion you have Concentration potion then drink it right away. (Note: Usualy I don't shoot Locked and Loaded when fased against Spawn of Chaos. It isn't that hard to dodge his grab but if one of your mates didn't then it's in your power to save him and deny boss' heal).
Effect of Strength potion applies to grenades.
Keep shooting. Boss most of his life time will be agroed on YOU since you most likely deal the biggest damage. Dodge and block. 2/3 of your dodges should be to the sides. Unless you met Spawn of Chaos (Kraken tentacle hentai rival). Kite around your teammates in their line of sight. Don't stuck in a corner, some maps knowledge may help.
You want to shoot your ranged weapon with Blessing Shots ready before Locked and Loaded because it (ability) was nerfed and Bosses resistance to damage increased. Generally, you deal more dmg with your gun if you have Blessing Shots than with your ability.
Also keep in mind special enemies. Again, you can count on your teammates that they will kill them or react in time to rescue you. BUT, don't count on that too much, you will be dissapointed.
Tip: if your teammate was caught by Spawn of Chaos you can CC (stun) boss with your skill. So this way you prevent it from healing. When Bile Troll sits down you can aim your ability with greater accuracy for headshot damage.

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Please upvote if you liked or found this guide useful.
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Credits to:
BradMusic. With help of his guide I managed to change my mind on something and make this "recommendations" better. Even if you don't plan to play on Legend I recommend you to check his wall of text[docs.google.com]. It has some usefull and interesting information about maps you may like.
You may find it usefull:
Damage & Breakpoints Calculator[docs.google.com]

[01.09.2018]

• I've returned to the game since new DLC release. Fast TL;DR:
  Repeater pistol & Crossbow seems pretty much viable. And particulary nothing has changed. Apart from ammo nerfes and dmg to armored with pistols. I want to try Volley Xbow but need to drop decent one first.
  About melees: Falchion is 100% great choice. I believe nothing changed about Axe as well. These two are in a great spot, well balanced and usable. People reporting that Rapier's pistol got nerfed: you cannot skip reload animation with rapier attack. I really want to try Flail in the new pach. So I do plan to test Flail and Volley Xbow. Let's see how it goes.

[08.05.2019]

• Hello everyone. I took a "little break" again. Excited to jump back into the game with the release of Winds of Magic. So this guide is partially actual. I think it might help you to get into the game with no problem. Most of it is still a relevant information. Just some weapons being changed a little bit here and there but overall playstyle remains the same. I think along your way in Vermintide 2 you will figure out what suits you better and you gonna start to make decisions on your own. Have fun.

[19.05.2019]

• Several changes in weapons about pistols change, added a link to "effectivness" calculator in outro. And some fixes/comments here and there.

[22.04.2021]

• Updated talent tree. Added new weapon. Revisited and updated here and there on every section.