Heroes!

For this Big Balance Beta we are aiming to shake up the meta that has settled in the game. The primairy goal is to focus on bringing up weapons that are struggling with a low pickrate where they have a hard time to perform their role compared to existing competition. Some of the weapons with an overwhelming pickrate (>25%) has seen a slight reduction in their performance. We have taken the same approach with the talent trees of a selection of careers. Looking at data and investigating community discussion indicates that these careers struggle compared to the options and needs to find a better niche. Specific low pickrate and problematic talents have been targeted and reworked throughly to allow for new interesting build options. The goal is to be able to give each career a similar treatment in due time. We made an evaluation regarding which careers needed the change most immediately and started out focusing on them.

The core of the Weapon changes for this Beta comes from a really cool mod created by a group of highly dedicated players in the community. Thank you to @Pershing, @Sleezy, @Incandescent, @Core and @RwAoNrDdOsM for their work on this.

Access Details

• Right Click Vermintide 2 from your Steam Library
• Select ‘Properties’
• Select the ‘BETAS’ tab
• In the dropdown, select:
  balance_beta_summer_2020

You may need to restart Steam if the download does not automatically trigger.

PROGRESSION WILL PERSIST BETWEEN THE BETA AND LIVE GAME

Big Balance Beta Bugs:
https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/c/bbb/BBB-Bugs/64

Big Balance Beta Feedback:
https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/c/bbb/BBB-Feedback/65

Future changes to the Big Balance Beta will be documented in the following thread:
https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/big-balance-beta-patch-notes/40220/7

Melee Weapons

Kruber

1H Sword (Kruber + Sienna)

• Finesse multiplier (headshot/crit multiplier) increased to ~2 for all attacks, up from 1.4 for light attacks, 1.5 for heavies.

Modder comment: While the change is simple, this will increase the horde damage of 1h sword to a point where it will feel like it performing its niche adequately. As an added bonus, the armor damage should feel somewhat better on headshot.

Designer comments: Sensible change. Generally the archetypes that are contained in the sword doesn’t lend itself to a headshoting focused playstyle, but being a 1h weapon means it’s a fine tweak.

1H Mace / 1H Hammer

• Light attacks 1 and 2 and push attack now have Tank hit mass multiplier.
• Light attacks 3 & 4 now have the same single target damage profile.
• Light attack 3 now has 20% bonus crit to compensate for being an uppercut animation.

Modder comment: One handed hammer will remain largely unchanged. It already had high stagger on light attacks, but against many targets it essentially did single target damage which could make it feel like a worse one-handed axe (it failed to cleave marauders or gors on Cataclysm). We’ve now increased its damage cleave and gave some more punch to light attack 3 while making it single target which lines up better with its animation.

Designer comments: Part of the “hitting and staggering many targets” class of attack is to deal a bit higher damage but to the first few targets hit. But this only matters if the weapon also fulfills the role of adequate crowdcontrol. More damage cleave is interesting, might feel to similar to a sword. Really liking the additional critchance on uppercut attacks. Applied across the board for attack with uppercutting animations. Also increased the bonus from an original 10% to 20%.

2H Hammer (Kruber + Bardin)

• The push attack now has the same damage profile as the heavy attacks. No tank hit mass count.
• Heavy tank attacks now properly puts enemies into stagger level 2 (fixes a bug).

Modder comment: By changing the push stab, we are attempting to make this weapon a little more forgiving on classes not named Slayer, giving it better horde control. Slayer already has the attack speed to get off heavy attacks reliably, and the push attack was mostly used as single target DPS. Push stab can now be used on other characters to make space to get off a heavy charge attack.

Designer comments: Making the push attack more similar to the heavy attack leans the weapon more into it’s crowd control core.

2H Sword (Kruber + Saltzpyre)

• Move speed charging heavy attacks increased to 60% from 20%
• Light attack animation speed sped up by approximately 10%

Modder comment: In the first iteration of the mod, light attacks were inadvertently increased by 15%, making the weapon feel overtuned. The goal is to make light attacks useful so you aren’t always just spamming heavy attacks. Lights should be better against pure horde and heavy attacks should be better against mixed hordes due to being able to cleave armoured enemies and maulers (both of which require armour sliding properties) unlike light attacks.

Designer comments: The charge movespeed on heavy attacks makes the 2h sword a very mobile weapon. Could make it abit too strong compared to 1h alternatives. Need alot of feedback on this.

Mace + Shield/ Hammer + Shield

• Light attack 3 has 20% additional critical strike chance.
• Heavy Chain now begins with shield bash.

Modder comment: Making the shield bash more accessible was needed to put it more in line with Axe + Shield and Sword + Shield.

Designer comments: Slightly worried this change eats into the identity of the weapon, without necessarily solving it’s issues that it lacks compared to the other shield alternatives.

Mace + Sword

• Lights 1 and 2 now have the same damage profile as 1H Mace.
• Lights 3 and 4 now have the same damage profile as 1H Sword.
• Each weapon in the heavy attack now has the same damage profile as the original Falchion Heavy.
• Heavy attacks and light attacks 3 & 4 now have Linesman hit mass count.

Modder comment: The goal here was to make the weapon actually feel like a mace and sword rather than 2 swords stuck together (the original damage profiles were too similar). Now the first 2 light attacks will provide control and stagger while the sword light attacks provide horde clear and damage cleave. This should allow you to push-stab heavy heavy for maximum horde dps. The change to heavy attacks make the slow, low range heavies now feel far more rewarding.

Designer comments: Cool changes, makes the weapon more versatile.

Halberd

• Heavy chain order reversed, the first heavy is now the Heavy Stab, and the second heavy is now the Heavy Sweep.
• Intact Attack Chains:
  • Light chain and push-stab chain remains intact
  • Light 1 -> Light 2 -> Heavy stab, Lights -> Heavy stab chain intact
• New Attack Chains:
  • Light sweep (L1) chains into Heavy sweep (H2) -> repeat
  • Heavy stab (H1) chains into light stab (L2) into light overhead (L3) -> repeat
  • Heavy stab (H1) chains into light stab (L2) -> repeat
  • Light sweep (L1) chains into Heavy sweep (H2) -> repeat
  • Heavy sweep (H2) chains into Light sweep (L2)
• Heavy Linesman added to Heavy Sweep (H2) Armory mod will not reflect the change in heavy attack order
• Dodge range increased from 0.95(-5%) to 1.0 (0%)

Modder comment: Halberd had a lot of complexity to it, hidden behind suboptimal weapon chaining, the idea with the animation swap of the heavies was to create some new attack combos that would be quite useful while retaining the useful orginial weapon chains. Should be quite an interesting buff, give it a try!

Designer comments: Was very difficult to wrap head around the changed moveset but once you get used to it it’s pretty cool. Need alot of feedback on this one aswell.

Executioner Sword

• Reduced animation speed by 8.5% for all attacks.
• Light attack 3 now has 10% bonus critical strike chance.

Designer Comments: Executioner Sword is highest pickrate melee weapon for Kruber together with Tuskgor Spear currently. It performs extremely well in almost all situations, wether it’s hordeclear or elite slaying while staying relatively safe. To make the weapon abit more high risk high reward we’re reducing the animation speed slightly so you have to commit and open up yourself to danger abit more to get the maximum possible output.

Tuskgor Spear

• Reduced max stamina from 4 to 3.

Designer Comments: Alot of the power of the Tuskgor Spear is frontloaded in the push attack having the same profile as heavy attack 2. This change should make it so you have to play abit more conservatively.

Bardin

1H Axe (Bardin + Saltzpyre)

• Animation pause after Light 3 reduced from 0.42s to 0.3s
• Light attack animation speed increased by roughly 8%
• Move speed while performing light attacks increased (from 75% to 85%)
• Heavy attack charge time reduced from 0.6s to 0.5s
• Heavy attacks now share a damage profile with 2H Hammer light attacks

Modder comment: One handed axe should be a high damage armor killing weapon that struggled somewhat with hordes. This was already the role of the weapon, but unfortunately, it did not perform that role adequately. These buffs should help it with its place relative to Axe and Falchion. Heavies were buffed to be a bit faster to keep them competitive with lights and similarly the damage profile change was mainly to put it significantly ahead of lights in super armor damage.

Designer comments: 1h Axe becomes a super aggressive weapon with these changes. Cool stuff!

2H Axe

• Heavy attacks now have linesman hit mass count.
• Light attack 3 now has the same damage profile as light attacks 1 and 2.
• Push attack now has linesman.
• Light attack 3 has 20% additional critical strike chance.
• Now has 6 stamina (3 shields), up from 5 stamina (2.5 shields).

Modder comment: 2H Axe has long been stuck as 2H Hammers’ anemic little brother. Now, 2HH will still provide superior control and super armor damage. 2H axe will be better damage against single target infantry damage and monster damage. The heavy attacks will have more horde clearing potential than 2HH at the cost of stagger and control.

Designer comments: Heavy attacks cleaving through more enemies is definitely gonna be a big change for the performance of the Greataxe. This together with more stamina should help in the situations where it struggled previously.

Axe + Shield

• Light attacks sped up slightly
• Charge time required for heavy attacks decreased slightly

Modder comment: Attack chaining should feel a little bit smoother with the attack speed buff.

Designer comments: Minor tweak, should make it abit more choppy, as is appropriate!

Dual Axes

• Finesses multiplier on all attacks increased to ~ 2.0 (up from ~1.5)

Modder comment: Dual axes will now have higher damage potential for the skilled dwarfs who can reach for the heads of rotbloods.

Designer comments: Finesse multiplier on an axe weapon is abit controversial. But since it’s specifically on a slayer weapon it’s pretty appropriate.

Warpick

• Linesman hit mass count added to light attacks

Modder comment: Warpick is the highest armour dps melee weapon in the game, limited by overkill damage and long charge times, but it has a niche. It retains that niche, but is now less punishing against hordes due to increased cleave and increased stagger cleave for its rather slow light attacks.

Designer comments: Interesting addition. Needs testing to see if it’s enough to up the pickrate of the weapon.

Kerillian

Elven 1H Sword

• Light attack Finesse multiplier increased to ~2.0 from ~1.4
• Heavy 2 changed to the damage profile of Crowbill Heavy 1
• Light 3 armor damage increased by 20%

Modder comment: This weapon should be the highest armor dps of any 1H sword. It received a buff to light 3’s armour damage to make it more useful in comparison to heavies. The change to heavy 2 will allow users to chain heavies for better armour damage. The horde clear of light attacks was increased via improved headshot damage to reward skillful play.

Designer comments: Good changes all around. It sticks to and enhances the identity of the weapon.

Elven 2H Axe (Glaive)

• Reverted WoM nerf. Linesman added back to light attacks
• Now has 6 stamina (3 stamina shields), previously 4 stamina (2 shields)

Modder comment: 2 stamina shields on the weapon was too punishing relative to its mobility, so it was buffed to 3 stamina shields. Reverting the nerf to linesman on light attacks helps it to be less overshadowed by Sword and Dagger in horde clear.

Designer comments: With how important stagger and pushing have become it’s hard to justify weapons having less than 3 stamina shields nowadays. Appropriate change.

Elven Axe

• Heavy attacks now share a damage profile with 2H Hammer Light Attacks
• 20% bonus critical strike chance added to push stab

Modder comment: *The bonus crit was added to the push stab to make up for a lack of bonus crit on the other lights in comparison to 1h axe. This weapon compensated for the lack of crit chance on light attacks by having increased attack speed. However, this buff was partially negated by having reduced swift slaying uptime. The crit on push stab should alleviate this issue. Heavy attacks were also buffed to be more rewarding in comparison to light attacks. *

Designer comments: Tying more power into pushattacks is a cool concept, especially when it comes to procing effects. Going to be interesting to see how this and the heavy attack change will effect attractiveness of the weapon.

Elven Dual Daggers

• Removed bonus 10% crit from lights 1 and 2

Modder comment: Dual Daggers perform extremely well even against hordes for a single target weapon because of its excellent headshot/crit multiplier(finesse multiplier) on light attacks, its 10% critical chance reduces the necessity to land headshots, and is now removed from lights 1 and 2 to encourage headshotting (high finesse weapons should encourage around headshotting). Critical chance is left on lights 3 and 4 to compensate for the slower animation time of light 4.

Designer comments: Dual Daggers have been one of the weapons with highest pickrate for Kerillian ever since the launch of Vermintide 2. Definitely one of the few weapons that should be targeted for a nerf in the current landscape of the game.

Elven Sword and Dagger

• Removed bonus 10% crit from all attacks

Designer comments: Sword & Dagger, similar to Dual Dagger has been one of the most highly used weapons of Kerillians for a long time. It’s one of the most versatile weapons having both proficient crowdclear, single target damage and mobility. Removing the additional critical strike chance aims to take some off the top end off of the weapon.

Elven Dual Swords

• Dual swords light attack damage increased by 25% against infantry.
• Push-stab armor damage increased by 20%

Modder comment: Dual swords are a horde clearing specialist weapon that was too heavily reliant on critical fishing on lights 3/4 for damage, and with extremely poor armour damage that limited its usefulness off Shade. The boost to infantry damage should help it better excel at its role, and the boost to the push stab was to help it have a better way to deal with armour that also increased the usefulness of its push-stab.

Designer comments: The change follows the weapons niche appropriately.

Elven Greatsword

• Light attack animation speed increased ~10%
• Light attacks have 20% additional critical strike chance.

Modder comment: This will make the weapon less dependent upon the push stab for horde damage. (push stab is about 30% faster than a light attack with +25% critical chance by default)

Designer comments: Kerillians Greatsword is an often forgotten weapon due to her strong melee weapon kit. The light attack animation speed is a good step on the way. With the change to uppercuts having an innate increased critical strike chance modifier to compensate for harder headshots I added this to these light attacks aswell.

Elven Spear

• Push attack, Light 3, & Heavy 1 now all have Linesman hit mass count.
• Reverted 25% nerf to light stabs that came with WoM, (base damage up to 0.25 from 0.2)

Modder comment: The goal for the elven spear is to make it a high-skill high reward weapon. The weapon should be focused on landing headshots, but the nerf to its base damage in WoM and the removal of 50% headshot bonus talent on Waystalker made the light stabs and the weapon itself struggle, so the nerf to its base damage has been reverted to help it against armour and superarmor. At the same time, we wanted to make the various attack chains (push attack chain, entire light chain, heavy sweep opener light chain) have a place, so you are incentivized to not cancel out of light 3 in the light chain against hordes, so light 3 received linesman. Similarly, the push stab and the heavy 1 sweep received linesman to help them cleave.

Designer comments: Should definitely see an increase in popularity of the spear.

Elven Spear + Shield

• Light 3 changed from a poke into a sweep, added linesman to light 3

Modder comment: More of a consistency change with Elven spear, but does not change much about the weapon itself.

Designer comments: Abit of an odd one, but it does add to the crowd control capabilities of the weapon. Appropriate with a shield weapon.

Saltzpyre

Axe + Falchion

• Removed heavy linesman and bonus 20% crit from push attack
• Increased dodge count from 3 to 4
• Increased dodge distance from 1.1(10%) to 1.2(20%)

Modder comment: Its mobility was the lowest of any dual weapon, while its components, the 1H axe and 1H falchion were not the least mobile 1H weapons, so its mobility(dodge count/range) was buffed slightly. Heavy linesman and +20% critical chance were a bit much for its push attack when it already has an excellent light attack chain.

Designer comments: Axe and Falchion has some of the highest occurance rate for Saltzpyres weapons, and with changes to mobility am not sure if this will necessarily change much from just the push attack change. Will need testing.

Falchion

• Now has 6 stamina (3 stamina shields), previously 4 stamina (2 shields)
• Heavy attacks 1 & 2 now have the same damage profile as Elf 1H Sword Heavy 1
• Light attack 3 now has the same damage profile as Heavy attacks 1 & 2

Modder comment: The goal for Falchion is be an “in-between” weapon compared to Kruber/Siennas’ 1h sword and Kerillians’ 1h sword. It will have better armor damage than Kruber/Siennas’ 1h sword, but worse horde clear. Compared to Kerillians’ 1h sword, it should have worse armour damage but better horde clear. Stamina was buffed because 2 stamina shields was way too punishing for a 1h sword analogue on Saltzpyre.

Designer comments: Originally the Falchion was designed as an intermediate between a 1h sword and an axe, with armor piercing light attacks and high headshotting damage traded for low stamina. Seeing how Kerillians 1h sword has the best armoured damage out of the bunch the intent isn’t too far off. Looks good.

Flail

• Lights 1 & 2 now have Tank hit mass count
• Damage of Heavy attacks increased by 30%

Modder comment: We wanted flail to keep its unique feel and its unique role as an anti-shield, high control weapon. In order to buff its control and damage slightly, we added tank hit mass count to the first lights. The change to the heavy attacks was to make the long charge up feel more rewarding.

Designer comments: Adding more crowdcontrol to the flail is appropriate.

Billhook

• Increased dodge distance to 1.15(15%) from 1.1(10%)
• Decreased dodge count from 99 to 3

Modder comment: Billhook is a two handed weapon, 99 dodges does not make a whole lot of sense. 3 dodges with 15% dodge distance puts it on par with elven spear.

Designer comments: This is going to be huge for users of the billhook. They will need to be alot more conservative with their dodges now that it functions similar to other 2h weapons. It still has the extremely strong stagger special attack so should have a niche still, but should bring down the high pickrate for other considerations.

Sienna

Dagger (Sienna)

• Now has 6 dodge count instead of 3

Modder comment: Weapon doesn’t struggle with dodge count, but 6 dodges instead of 3 was more for consistency with dual daggers and the mobility a dagger should have.

Designer comments: Sienna isn’t the most nimble character out of the bunch, but with a dagger in hand this is fine.

Mace (Sienna)

• Max dodge count increased to 4 from 3
• Heavy 1 now has the same damage profile as 2H Hammer Light attack (23% buff to damage)
• Animation time of Heavy 1 sped up slightly
• Range of Heavy attacks increased slightly
• Damage of Heavies 2 & 3 increased by roughly 30%
• Animation speed of Heavies 2 & 3 increased slightly
• Light attack 1 damage profile changed to Halberd L3 Damage profile (30% buff to infantry damage, 60% buff to armor damage)
• Range of all light attacks increased slightly
• Animation speed of all light attacks increased slightly
• Move speed during all light attacks increased to 80% from 60%

Modder comment: Siennas’ mace has long since been left behind ( at least since Back to Ubersreik). Our goal was to take a weapon with clunky and complex move sets and make it feel powerful and rewarding. Overall buffs to damage, attack speed, and range should make the weapon feel way better to play. Light attack 1->block cancel was buffed to be an excellent single target option, Heavy 1 similarly but excelling specifically for super armor.

Designer comments: The weapon definitely deserves some love and care to be brought back into the spotlight. Concerned that it’s missing out on some of it’s flaming identity with these changes, but might just add those back later into the beta. Weapon should have gained a big bump to it’s performance atleast.

Flaming Flail

• The explosion of Heavy 1 now deals direct explosion damage

Modder comment: Heavy 1’s explosion is no longer an empty animation. This attack will now deal AOE damage as an explosion. Previously it applied a DOT only to the primary target, created an AOE stagger, and only visually set multiple enemies on fire. Oddly, its intended damage profile is a direct damage explosion and not a DOT as its animation of lighting enemies on fire would suggest.

Designer comments: The reasoning behind this comes from being conservative about the number of fire dots from a performance perspective. So it was intended and not a bug. Adding it back in to see if it takes a hit. Flaming Flail is a highly popular pick for Siennas loadouts so not sure how much of a buff it truly needs, even if this can be seen as more of a “bugfix”.

Ranged Weapons

Beam Staff

• Overcharge generated by shotgun blast reduced significantly (~33%)
• Weapon switching while charging the weapon is reduced from 0.2s to 0s (matching all other staves)
• Weapon switch window after a shotgun blast reduced from 0.4s to 0.3s to match the 0.31s animation time of the shotgun blast.

Modder comment: The weapon has a target limit of 10 (quite low relative to other staves) within its AOE cone, which can be quite punishing if you fight hordes dense enough to reach that target limit, overcharge was reduced with this target limit in mind.

QOL changes like instant weapon switching while charging are to help reduce the jank with the weapon, and similarly, the weapon switch after a shotgun blast is to prevent missed inputs (if you queue up a weapon switch and light attack immediately after a shotgun blast, you will hold down the left click beam before weapon switching, generate additional overcharge and blow up).

Designer comments: Quality of Life changes definitely appropriate. Shotgun blast overcharge is going to be interesting to see how it performs.

Drakefire Pistols

• Overheat of the shotgun blast reduced ~33%
• Dodge range buffed from 85% (-15%) to 100% (0%)

Modder comment: It has a similar target limit of 10, rationale for the reducing the overehat of the shotgun blast is the same.

Designer comments: Same as above.

Empire Longbow

• Forced zoom delay is now 2s instead of 0.4s (allows full charge without being forced to zoom in)
• 25% move speed while holding a full charge (increased from 0% previously, 25% is similar to the full charge move speed of bolt staff)

Modder comment: The forced zoom delay previously meant that you were forced to zoom in well before the arrow would finish a full charge, the full zoom is still there, but now you have much more time to shoot prior to being forced to zoom in. The move speed debuffs on Empire longbow did not make much sense previously, (quick shots by default have 50% move speed, partial charges have 100% move speed and full charge is 0% move speed.) These changes should make the weapon feel much smoother and less sickening for people that dislike forced zoom. Also, the slight move speed buff will allow you to re-position slightly when friendlies run in front of you while you’re charging a full charge.

Designer comments: Good quality of life change. Perhaps could be looked into as being togglable instead. Maybe Kerillian thought some of her waystalkery aiming techniques to ye 'ol huntsman. But this is a fine change for now.

Handgun

• Reload time reduced from 2.0s to 1.5s
• Max ammo = 16, up from 12
• Cleave buffed 50% to match crossbow

Modder comment: Changes were made to reload time, ammo count, and cleave to make them more competitive in elite killing and special killing relative to crossbow and repeater handgun

Designer comments: Good thing to make the Handgun a more attractive option.

Repeater Pistol

• Linesman is now on the bullet spray ( linesman on ranged weapons gives shotgun mass reduction)

Modder comment: Additionally the bullet spray has been given 50% additional penetration against Chaos Warriors on crit (now deals 75% superarmor damage relative to armor damage on crit, previously 50%)

Damage of the critical on bullet spray versus superarmor was boosted with the intention of being able to one shot chaos warriors on Bounty Hunter with max power and at least 50% of pellets hitting the head, previously you were 24% short in damage assuming max power and every pellet hitting the head. Linesman will help bullet spray cleave more like a shotgun, the pellets will have triple the cleave of a shotgun pellet, and deal more damage overall per pellet, making it a more impactful niche weapon. Changes keep it a very niche weapon for Bounty Hunter, intention was to avoid buffing it into a situation where it becomes too similar to Brace of Pistols.

Designer comments: Buffing the bullet spray is a good call since it’s the identifying characteristic of the weapon.

Swiftbow

• Increased armor damage by approximately 100% on charged shots
• Increased monster damage by 30% on charged shots
• Increased cleave by 100% for quick shots and 100% for charged shots

Modder comment: Its specialized niche is killing hordes, the cleave was buffed to reflect that, and the improvements to monster damage and armour damage on the charged shots were mostly to help it kill specials in a reasonable manner.

Designer comments: This huge for the Swiftbow. It’s very much been overshadowed by the Longbow and Hagbane bow for quite some time now so it needed the tweak. This should push it over the edge and make it quite competitive.

Throwing Axes

• Increased monster and berserker damage by 30%

Modder comment: Reload speed on these can be pretty crippling, made them more rewarding by buffing a few of their weak areas, the monster and berserker damage in particular are lacking.

Designer comments: Appropriate, especially since the Throwing Axes is a popular pick for the Slayer.

Volley Crossbow (Saltzpyre)

• Ammo pool boosted by 50% (from 30 max ammo to 45)
• Cleave increased by 150% to match crossbow
• Reload time reduced from 5s to 4s
• Dodge count increased to 3 from 1

Modder comment: Volley Xbow is now a valid horde clear ranged weapon, primarly on BH, but it can be made to work on the other careers. The increased cleave allows it to actually cleave hordes, the reduction in reload time and dodge count makes it less punishing to reload during hordes, and the ammo pool was boosted so that you have the ammo to actually use it for horde clear and have the ammo to be able to shoot at specials.

Designer comments: Giving the weapon equal cleave to crossbow might push it over the edge where it becomes exceedingly efficent at clearing out hordes and chaff at range. Needs to be monitored. Reload speed, ammo and dodge count is all appropriate changes.

Volley Crossbow (Shade)

• Cleave increased by 150% to match crossbow

Modder comment: Damage profile was shared with Volley Crossbow on Saltzpyre, needed a buff anyway.

Designer comments: Same as above, Shade crossbow being in abit more dire straits than Saltzpyres from a pickrate perspective.

Talents

Markus Kruber

Foot Knight

• Have at Thee! - (Reworked)
  Staggering an elite enemy grants Kruber and his allies 100% increased cooldown regeneration rate for 0.5 seconds.

• Taal’s Champion - (Reworked)
  Kruber takes 50% of the damage the closest ally takes instead of them. This damage can be blocked. Effect dissipates if Kruber falls below 10% health. Removes passive aura.

• It’s Hero Time - (Reworked)
  Resets the cooldown of Charge when an ally is incapacitated.

• Trample - (Reworked)
  Doubles the width of Krubers charge and allows him to charge through great foes.

Bardin Goreksson

Ranger Veteran

• Share and Share Alike - (Reworked)
  Killing a special has a 50% chance to drop an Ale that increases attack speed by 3% and movement speed by 4% for 300 seconds.

• Exuberance - (Modified)
  Bardin takes 30% less damage from the back. Headshots reduce damage taken by 30% for 5 seconds

• Ranger’s Ambush - (Reworked)
  Allies inside of Bardin’s smoke gains 8% increased attack speed.

• Ranger’s Parting Gift - (Reworked)
  Allies inside of Bardin’s smoke regenerate 8 temporary health every second

Ironbreaker

• Drakki Wrath - (Reworked)
  Increases drake fire damage up to 120% and reduces attack speed down to -50% depending on overcharge.

• Crushing Counter-Blow - (Reworked)
  Blocking an attack grants Bardin and his allies 2% power for 6 seconds. Stacks 5 times.

• Ironbreaker’s Resolve - (Reworked)
  Periodically generates stacks of rising anger every 7 seconds while Gromril is active up to a max of 5. When Gromril is removed Bardin gains 10% attack speed per stack of rising anger.

• Tunnel Fighter - (Reworked)
  Each time Gromril is removed, decrease the recharge time of Gromril by 0.5 seconds, down to a minimum of 5 seconds.

Kerillian

Handmaiden

• Asrai Grace - (Reworked)
  Blocking an attack makes Kerillians’ next two attacks 30% faster and deals 10% more damage.

• Shadow Step - (Reworked)
  Dodging while blocking increases dodge range by 20%. Dodging while not blocking increases damage by 10% for 1 second.

• Bladedancer - (Reworked)
  After dashing Kerillian can instantly revive allies. If she does they gain more health back and 50% critical strike chance for 8 seconds.

• Power from Pain - (Reworked)
  Dashing through an enemy grants Kerillian 100% increased cleave power for 10 seconds.

Victor Saltzpyre

Bounty Hunter

• Necessary Means - (Reworked)
  Upon firing his last shot Victor gains 15% attack speed and 15% power for 10 seconds.

• Inspired Shot - (Reworked)
  Melee strikes makes up to the next 6 ranged shots deal 15% more damage. Ranged hits makes up to the next 6 melee strikes deal 15% more damage.

• Hunter’s Pursuit - (Modified)
  Ranged critical hits grant Victor and his allies 20% increased movement speed for 10 seconds.

• Duty’s Gift - (Reworked)
  Melee kills reload Victors ranged weapon.

• Just Reward - (Reworked)
  Each 30 seconds Victor generates a target on an enemy. Killing the target grants Victor permanently 10% faster cooldown generation.

• Buckshot - (Modified)
  Added shield penetration to the blast. Added effect: Each kill with the blast increases the amount of pellets of the next blast by 1 up to a max of 20.

Sienna Fuegonasus

Unchained

• Searing Grasp - (Modified)
  Increased duration of DoT effect to 4 seconds. Heavy attacks increase the push angle of the next push by 80%.

• Chain Reaction - (Modified)
  Increased chance of explosion to 40%

• Numb to Pain - (Modified)
  Added effect: Venting decreases the amount of overcharge generated by Blood Magic by 16%. Stacks up to 3 times.

• Burning Dregs - (Reworked)
  Overcharging makes Sienna start rapidly exchanging 3% of her health to 10% cooldown.

• Flame Wave - (Reworked)
  Massively increase the stagger power of Living Bomb.

• Fuel fo the Fire - (Reworked)
  Living Bomb grants Sienna a scorching aura that ignites nearby enemies.

I’m loving these changes! Specially the talents, holy hell! It’s Hero Time looks -amazing-!!

wait, is this permanent for the match? Holy hell that’s huge
There’s some other talents that also look like they work as a permanent buff that you work towards and it seems bloody amazing, I love it.

As for the weapons, I agree with most of them, but not all, I’ll have to see those in particular that I disagree with.

I disagree with this approach for nerfing the executioner’s sword, but I agree with the intent. I’ll have to see ingame to give proper feedback, but my first impression is that this tackles the problem of the executioner’s sword wrong, as it hurts it in absolutely all aspects and probably makes the weapon just feel unsatisfying to use (which is the worst kind of nerf - when you nerf how fun it is to use rather than its actual effectiveness)

Its main problem is, precisely, that it performs well in all situations, and I’d say we all agree that it’s the absolute best hordeclear weapon. I’d work on giving it specific weaknesses that make it less of a versatile, jack of all trades weapons, while still keeping it top-tier at horde clear.

For example, I’d nerf the armor piercing damage on all heavy attacks a bunch (but keep its high headshot multiplier so that it can deal with armor properly if it headshots, but badly if it bodyshots), and I’d nerf its stamina to 2 shields (to emphasize its weakness when overwhelmed)

This would give the weapon clear weaknesses (performs badly under pressure), while keeping its performance high against hordes and when in the hands of a skilled player who can pull off headshots.

If you find bugs, be sure to post them in the #bbb:BBB-Bugs channel for best visibility!

Hey there.

I’m the game designer in question when it comes to vetoing and implementing these changes into the game. None of the tweaks implemented with the balancing goes beyond the possibility of any of the decisions that I would have made myself. If they did, they would not have been included in the game and it’s the reason that the mod could be utilized as the starting position of having this balance beta.

I’d love to hear your feedback on what it is you disagree with regarding these changes. The sole reason behind having this as a beta is to gather feedback and test changes before we put them into the live game. If you feel uncomfortable with sharing this publicly, feel free to PM me directly.

Best regards,
Kasper

Thank you @Argonaut14 , very interested in hearing more thoughts on the beta as a whole!

Regarding the concerns of power creep, it is something we’re always being mindful about when it comes to more involved and sweeping changes to the game, such as this balance beta. The goal is never to trivialize content, but rather to explore making different options feel just as viable when it comes to playing the game compared to what everyone is used to. Given your example with the new Unchained talent, that should not be the end all be all for how you want to play Unchained. If you love the “life on the knife edge” playstyle that is core to Unchaineds identity you shouldn’t have to feel forced into picking a talent that negates this. If this talent does so in it’s current state, chances are it’s because it’s overtuned and needs to be adressed like such. It’s there to try and yield some more safety to the career for people that might feel they love the idea of Unchained, but are daunted by the skillfloor for playing the career.

We try and get everything into as much of a balanced state as we can internally, but it’s a difficult task to solve perfectly before we can show you all whats going on. In this case in particular it was a situation where we had some concepts we thought were pretty cool and wanted them out to you all as soon as possible so we could hear your thoughts on them and change them where needs be.

The plan is to have this beta up for an extended period of time (no confirmation yet but we’re looking to try and have it running until the end of July) to really try to find and adress as much of the feedback as possible to make the game feel as good as can be. Everything here is subject to change and it would be helpful if it was treated as such. The lofty goal is to try and have daily patches that adress feedback and fix bugs, and barring technical difficulties I believe that’s fully achievable. We want to try and be very reactive to feedback when it comes to this balance beta and see how that approach works out.

Then I don’t understand why you care about the nerf to the crit chance of these weapons light attacks. You don’t use light attacks to kill bosses, you pop an ult and heavy attack them, and the heavy attacks are untouched. Shade’s dual dagger monster damage potential is basically untouched with these changes, yet the dual daggers’ and sword & dagger’s ability to deal with hordes (which they do by spamming light attacks) is diminished thanks to these changes.

I think only the non-shield bash heavy attacks.

Please let’s try to be constructive with the feedback and stick to dedicated threads for it. It’ll help us! This thread is getting noisy and what we need right now is signal. So make feedback threads where needed and be sure to give support to feedback you agree with.

You should find the updated notes here.

Be sure to check all subsequent changes through the patch notes thread: