Gifts of the Wolf Father and Patch 5.2.0

Heroes,

A Merry Mondstille to all of you! The Wolf Father is coming around again this year and shall be handing out some lovely gifts for all of you! We wanna take this moment to thank you guys for being with us throughout the years, and to express our hope that you continue accompanying us into the content that awaits us in the future!

This patch includes the activation of the Gifts of the Wolf Father calendar and a balance pass on careers and weapons to address some of the bigger pain points regarding balance!

Gifts of the Wolf Father

Starting from today December 13 all the way to January 7, log into Vermintide 2 each day to receive a gift from us! Most of these gifts are Premium Cosmetics, but there’s some other, equally attractive goodies in there that we hope you’ll like!

All players have a 2 day grace period to claim each of the items from each calendar day as they unlock (plus the day of release itself, for a total of 3 days), so even if you miss a day or two you won’t miss any rewards if you log in regularly!

For console players, please note that you must be in online mode to claim items from the calendar.

Balance Changes

We heard your feedback regarding certain overperforming and underperforming careers and weapons, and so we’ve done a balance pass on some of the biggest offenders (Looking at you, Battle Wizard and Javelin!). In case you missed it, we released a dev blog going into the changes and the thought process behind them, check it out here.

And, if you’re interested in the detailed changes themselves, check out the patch notes below!

New Premium Cosmetics: The Frost Guard Collection

Perfect for this cold Festag, a lovely new collection of cosmetics has arrived for our heroes, with a new hat and skin available for the following careers:

• Pyromancer

• Slayer

• Mercenary

• Waystalker

• Witch Hunter Captain

You can learn more by visiting this post on the Vermintide website!

Regarding Bot AI

We’ve heard you guys loud and clear that you’re dissatisfied with the performance of Bots as of late, particularly as the previously sanctioned Bot Improvements mod became unsanctioned with the launch of Necromancer.

While most of the features in said mod had already been integrated into the base game in previous updates (alongside the features of other sanctioned mods that were integrated as QoL features), there’s some features that are still missing and that we’ll be looking into adding in the near future, such as making bots not heal Zealot players unless they’re on their last wound, or making bots follow the Host more consistently (instead of splitting up among all the players or acting indecisive).

That said, a lot of the complaints related to Bot AI are not related to these missing features, but rather to bot performance being lacking in other areas. We are investigating these issues to hopefully also address them in the future.

Controller Support

We’ve also added native support for Dual Sense and Dual Shock 4 controllers, showing the correct prompts and letting you use the controller without needing to use interpreter software!

Developer Stream Today - News about upcoming content!

We’ll be having a stream Monday on Twitch! Hosted by the fantastic Ishka alongside our developers: Game Designer, Karl; Design Director, Joakim; Product Owner, Erik! Tune in at 5 PM CET Monday to chat with our developers, ask questions, and learn about what we’re working on next!

Without further ado…

Patch Notes for Patch 5.2.0

Balance Changes

Class Changes
Outcast Engineer

• Increased base health to 125. All that metal he’s lugging around has gotta count for something!

• Bardin no longer loses stacks of pressure while firing or when the bar is filled. Bardin can also build stacks of pressure while the bar is full.

• Reduced base Crank Gun starting fire rate by ~33%.

• Reduced base Crank Gun fire rate gain per shot by ~33%.

• Talent 2-1: ‘Armour Piercing Slugs’ replaced by new talent ‘Ingenious Ordnance’ - Bardin creates a bomb every 80 seconds and explosives no longer deal friendly fire damage.

• Talent 4-1: ‘Head Full of Steam’ - Changed to: Bardin now gains 15% attack speed on max stacks of Pressure.

• Talent 4-2: ‘Experimental Steam Capacitors’ replaced by new talent ‘Perilous Overclock’ - Building Pressure at Max stacks restores 5% charge and grants 10% crit but damages Bardin. Each Overclock increases damage suffered.

• Talent 4-3: ‘Superiour Gaskets’ - Changed to: Pressure is now lost when firing instead of over time. Each stack of Pressure grants 4% power.

• Talent 5-2: ‘Bombardier’ - Bardin now also begins missions with 3 bombs in his pocket, on top of the original effect. It pays to be prepared, eh?

• Talent 5-3: ‘Piston Power’ - Changed to: Every 15 seconds Bardin’s next Charged Attack gains massive stagger and restores all stamina.

• Talent 6-1: ‘Gromril Plated Shot’ - increased damage by 100%.

• Talent 6-2: ‘Linked Compression Chambers’ - increased fire rate by 20%.

Slayer

• Talent 2-3: ‘Hack and Slash’ - Increased crit chance to +10%.

Battle Wizard

• Increased the cooldown of the career skill ‘Fire Walk’ to 50 seconds.

• Talent 2-2: ‘Famished Flames’ - Reduced bonus DoT damage to +100%, reduced the base damage reduction to -15%.

• Talent 2-3: ‘Lingering Flames’ - Increased the tick rate of DoT damage by 100%.

• Talent 5-1: ‘Soot Shield’ - Reduced the damage reduction per burning enemy to 8%.

• Talent 6-1: ‘Volans’ Quickening’ - Increased Cooldown Reduction from to 40%.

Pyromancer

• Talent 5-2: ‘Volans Doctrine’ has been turned into a passive ability.

• Reduced the cooldown of the career skill ‘The Burning Head’ to 50 seconds.

• Added new Perk: ‘One with Aqshy’ - 50% increased max Overcharge.

  • Dev Note: (The bar is visually bigger to fit increased max overcharge, too :^) ~Karl).

• Talent 2-1: ‘Ride the Fire Wind’ - Increased max power bonus to 25%.

• Talent 4-1: ‘Deathly Dissipation’ - Increased duration of effect to 12 seconds.

• Talent 4-2: ‘On the Precipice’ - Increased power bonus to 20%

• Talent 5-2: ‘The Volans Doctrine’ replaced by new talent ‘Flamestrike’s Tutelage’ - Sienna gains 80% reduction on Venting damage. Each nearby enemy decreases the damage reduction by 20%.

• Talent 6-1: ‘Exhaust’ replaced by new talent ‘Dissipating Rictus’ - The Burning Head grants 50% charge speed and Overcharge explosion immunity for 12 seconds.

Necromancer

• Talent 5-3: ‘Lost Souls’ - Reduced amount of overcharge needed to trigger to 12%, increased stagger, increased base damage, increased damage vs armour, increased damage vs monsters. (Whew, that was a lot of buffs, eh?)

• Talent 6-1: ‘Army of the Dead’ - Changed so that Raise Dead now reanimates 12 Skeletons, 6 of which decay after 20 seconds. Spooky!

Bounty Hunter

• Talent 6-2: ‘Double Shotted’ - Fixed a bug where it could trigger multiple times in one shot. To compensate, increased the Cooldown Reduction reward on headshot to 60%.

Warrior Priest

• The base version of Shield of Faith now renders the hero immune to ranged knockback and allows them to trample through lesser enemies.

• Talent 4-1: ‘Divine Excoriation’ replaced with new talent ‘Blazing Bright’ - Taking damage grants Victor Fury. Entering Righteous Fury grants Victor Shield of Faith.

• Talent 4-2: ‘Empowered Smite’ replaced with new talent ‘See My Wrath’ - Shield of Faith grants Victor 50% Fury. Smite now deals 40% of the attack’s damage.

• Talent 4-3: ‘From Fury, Fortitude’ - Changed it to ‘Each Kill now grants Fury and during Righteous Fury restores Health to the party.’

• Talent 5-1: ‘Prayer of Vengeance’ - Changed it to bless the party with 25% power versus Monsters instead.

• Talent 6-1: ‘Unyielding Blessing’ - Changed it to ‘Shield of Faith now lasts 10 seconds. The shielded hero’s attacks cause the shield to pulse staggering nearby enemies.’

Grail Knight

• Increased the cooldown of the career skill ‘Blessed Blade’ to 60 seconds.

• Talent 2-1: ‘Virtue of the Ideal’ - Reduced Power per stack to 8%.

• Talent 2-3: ‘Virtue of Heroism’ - Increased Heavy attack power bonus to 30%.

Weapon Changes
Sienna’s Coruscation Staff

• Reduced the amount of pellets in the primary attack to 9 (down from 12)

• Reduced the overcharge cost of the primary attack (to 6).

• Reduced the duration of the fire patches from the secondary attack to 6 seconds.

• Reduced duration of the Damage over Time from the fire patches to 2 seconds.

• Increased the overcharge cost of the secondary attack (to 9).

• Reduced max stacks of Damage over Time from the fire patches to 5.

Kerillian’s Dual Daggers

• Reduced damage vs monsters by ~20%.

One-handed Sword (Kruber & Sienna)

• Reduced the cost of pushing to 1 stamina (Half a shield).

• Increased damage and cleave damage on light attacks 1 and 2.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 1 for light chained attack 1 and 2 by 20%.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 2 for light chained attack 1 and 2 by 48%.

• Increased overall damage and cleave damage of heavy attacks.

  • Increased overall damage on hit index 1 for heavy attacks by ~7%.

  • Increased overall damage on hit index 2 for heavy attacks by 80%.

  • Increased overall stagger on hit index 2 for heavy attacks by 20%.

  • Increased overall damage on hit index 3 for heavy attacks by 100%.

• Increased heavy attacks’ damage vs armor for the first target by 20%.

• Increased cleave stagger of heavy attacks.

  • Increased overall stagger on hit index 3 for heavy attacks by 50%.

Two-handed Sword (Kruber & Saltzpyre)

• Increased damage and cleave damage on Light Attacks.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 1 for light attacks by 11%.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 2 for light attacks by 76%.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 3 for light attacks by 80%.

• Increased damage and cleave damage on Heavy Attacks.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 1 for heavy attacks by 11%.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 2 for heavy attacks by 40%.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 3 for heavy attacks by 66%.

  • Increased damage vs hit index 4 for heavy attacks by 44%.

• Replaced the damage profile of the push attack with the damage profile from the Bretonnian Sword’s 3rd heavy attack.

One-handed axe (Bardin & Saltzpyre)

• Reduced the cost of pushing to 1 stamina (Half a shield).

One-handed hammer (Kruber, Bardin & Saltzpyre)

• Reduced the cost of pushing to 1 stamina (Half a shield)

Kerillian’s Javelin

• Added damage drop off range similar to Bardin’s Throwing Axes.

• Reduced thrown javelin damage & stagger at dropoff range.

• Reduced thrown Javelin overall damage by 5%.

• Reduced thrown Javelin headshot damage modifier by 7%.

• Reduced thrown Javelin cleave by ~80%.

• Reduced thrown Javelin damage modifier vs Super Armor by ~20%.

• Reduced thrown Javelin damage modifier vs armor by 8%.

• Reduced Javelin melee headshot damage modifier by 12%.

• Reduced Javelin melee non-crit damage modifier vs monsters by 12%.

• Reduced Javelin melee crit damage modifier vs monsters by 5%.

• Reduced Javelin melee’s damage boost when using Shade’s career skill to 2.8.

Kerillian’s One-handed Axe

• Changed the order of the light attack moveset.

• Added new damage profiles for light attacks 3 and 4.

Kruber’s Sword & Shield

• Replaced the damage profile of the 3rd heavy attack with the damage profile of his one-handed sword’s first heavy attack.

Features & Tweaks

• Added native support for DualShock 4 and Dual Sense controllers.

• The souls from the Necromancer talent ‘Lost Souls’ now ignore unalerted patrols. Hehe, whoops.

• Equipped portrait frames now also show up in the Main Menu / Hero Selection screen.

• [Controller] Removed unnecessary button prompts in the pause menu.

• Fixed an issue with scrollbars when using smaller screen resolutions.

Fixes

• Fixed the bug where claiming a Daily Reward while in Offline mode would bug out all of your hats. No more bald Kerillian!

• Fixed issue where effects that would let you throw a grenade without consuming it would re-equip the grenade (Except for the Potion of Endless Bombs, he he he).

• Fixed UI bug with the Emporium where an icon could get stuck on the screen.

• Fixed a bug where disconnecting while in a chaos sorcerer vortex would make the game silent.

• Fixed a bug where teammates’ attack voices could interrupt themselves.

• Fixed lots of issues with Outcast Engineer’s sounds.