I’m just very happy my favorite map in Vermintide ever is back again, and this time it even has Cata difficulty! Glorious! Everything about it is brilliant. The plot, the zany events, the challenge, the music, and especially the hilarious drinking mechanic and extraordinary voice acting. Wish it stayed forever.
I’ve been playing it (exclusively on Cata so far) the last days, and even though I’ve been having a ball, it’s quite a bit more difficult than I expected. It took quite a few tries (with randoms) before I even finished it, and it’s definitely harder than most normal maps. The barfight is pretty much Fortunes of War level difficulty, even. That’s not something I consider a bad thing though, don’t get me wrong! I want nothing changed! But I figured I’d make this topic so we can discuss the map and maybe share some tips to help people finish it on whatever difficulty is hard for them, as is the essense of Vermintide.
Here’s my main takeaway points:
- The drinking mechanic hampers classes that derive a big part of their strenght by having a powerful Ult ready when they need it, like Shade or Huntsman. Those might not be the ideal classes for this one. Classes like Zealot are less disadvantaged here.
- Pacing can be tricky. You sure do not want to dawdle, but the ambient spawns and events on this map, combined with the locations of monster and patrol spawn points, can be brutal. It takes a few tries to get the pacing right here, as pushing too fast can cause you to be overwhelmed easily.
- After The Hungry Troll is tragically taken away from us, there’s a point when a bunch of Berserkers and Chaos Warriors spawn. Staying where the doors that would have led to sweet, sweet libation used to be can get you surrounded. A good strategy is to jump back down the ledge to the ruined house with the ammo box and kite / fight them around there.
- The main reason for wipes (and the greatest thing about the map!) is the barfight at the end. My observation is that wipes mainly happen in the beginning of the fight, when you don’t deal with the first bunch of Chaos Warriors & Friends fast enough, and more of those Friends show up soon after. If a team survives that part, the chance of them finishing the map seems to be pretty good. What I found works best: Just before taking the barrel, everybody should get lvl 3 drunk and then go absolutely crazy in the beginning with Bombs and Ults and Potions. Take them out fast, or be on the backfoot until you get overrun. Although something like Shade is overally disadvantaged in the map, classes like her are actually pretty good in the barfight because of freely available beer, funnily enough. I also find WHC to be really good here. (Nothing deals with a mob of Stormvermin, Berserkers, and Maulers faster than WHC with a beer-powered guaranteed crit Ult and unrelenting Rapier light attacks aimed at the eyes.)
Anybody else has some experiences to share, or just praises to sing of FS’ magnum opus? I’ll probably be playing this map for the next days when I find time to play, so hope to see you there!
