General Feedback:
FS mentioned that Weaves should be an ENDLESS competitive mode up to the point where no team can progress anymore. When you take a look at the Leaderboard, this approach clearly failed because 160 got beaten. Archiving a difficulty increase through dmg scaling is a very bad way for Vermintide. Its a melee focused game and getting onehit by every single enemy is not fun at all and pushes the focus towards range spam meta. I think the main problem is the huge amount of “cheesy” talents/carrers/mechanics that makes it impossible to create a weave that cant be beaten. As long as these overpowered things exist, i cant see a fun way to increase difficulty and bring it even close to endless.
The main Problems:
Invisibility: This is one of the biggest issues the game has atm. Its literaly the opposite of a skill based mechanic. The game simply stops for you and you dont have to worry about getting hit or good positioning anymore. When invis gets also paired with no collision its even worse. I had big hopes that FS would finally rework invis in 2.0, but it just got worse (Huntsman, Shade, Handmaiden,…). I cant see why anyone would think that its a healthy mechanic. Especially objectives in Weaves can be trivialized, for example seized ground, bringing objectives from point A to point B, or simply escaping into the bridge/clutching.
Shield Meta: Shields went from barely usable to broken in 2.0. They are super easy to use (hold block and push) and also super effective. You can litteraly control an unlimited amount of enemys while you are basicially invincible and also giving huge dmg bonus to your allys, thanks to the stagger system. In my opinion things that are easy to use shoudnt be super effective. Thats the same problem pre 2.0 flamethrowers had (and its still rly powerful, even after the nerf). This is most noticible on Footknight: Thanks to the “free pushes for blocking an attack” talent its nearly impossible to die with fk while he can make the job of 3 normal frontliners alone (mb even better). They need a nerf!
Battle Wizard: BW is the most broken class in the game right now. Combining Lingering Flames with Famished Flames (or also Fires from Ash) and Kaboom! might be the most broken build that has ever been in the game. Its super safe to play, deals ridiculous amounts of dmg and offers good clutching capabilitys. You can litteraly kill a whole patrol (exept CW´s) while holding block. Even without lingering one Kaboom can kill a stacked up Beastmen horde (on Cata3 with 650 HP) by pressing one button and holding block while everything dies. And if its safe from time to time you can also use your conflag to burn the rest of the enemys, followed by holding block and waiting till everything burns to death. I dont think i have to go on with BW, i can just say that this build made the Weaves significantly easyer.
Careers:
I will just talk about balance issues here. Every career i dont mention is fine in my eyes, or at least not too powerful.
Huntsman: I already mentioned the problems with invis in general. I think the reworked talent “Concealed Strikes” shouldnt exist. It takes away the awareness of positioning, one of the main skill based things a Backliner should work at. The frontline should enable the backline by creating space, but thats not necissary with this talent.
Footknight: already mentioned above
Ranger Vet: He is very problematic because he is basicially a walking ammo crate that can enable the ammo sustain for every other carreer. A few examples are Hagbane, Shotguns, (Brace of Pistols). He is ment to be a support class, but he is also super powerful himself (ammo sustain for shotgun) and again, he got invis. Suprise guest is another example for a very poorly designed talent. Why dont go full support and remove invis, while also removing the delay of his ult and adding any kind of buff (like a small dmg increase or atk speed) in the smoke cloud area. There could be one talent that increases the buff but only applys to himself, another one could be a spread to allys that stand in the cloud aswell. Another overpowerd interaction is potions + shade. Even infinite ammo for shade can give here nearly infinite invis time by spamming the hagbane into dense enemys for cdr. The item drops have to be nerfed or reworked (for example every 3rd special drops an item).
Waystalker. Her ammo sustain is way too high, especially on hagbane. Kurnous Reward should give less ammo back + just apply to kills on specials and it shouldnt give 30% ammo for EVERY elite/special you kill with your ult (limit it to 1 max).
Handmaiden: Invis is her biggest issue because it makes clutching/certain objectives (object a to point b) way too easy. Even without invis her ult is a very powerful tool to get out of nearly every bad situation. Dodgeing through enemys falls under the same category as invis, just not as powerful.
Shade: Shade is just broken atm. Her dmg is just way too high, even without her ult, duo to the interaction of the stagger system/crit power and “Assassin”. Another problem/bug is the fact that she gets multiple guaranteed crits after ulting (i think you can get a heavy and 2 light off, or 5 lights, before Cloak of Pain comes in. Cloak of pain also gives you at least one more guaranteed crit). The most efficient way to abuse it might be just to use your ult --> sneak behind a group of elites ur team is fighting --> just spam lights for onehitting an absurde amount of enemys without any risks (because invis). This cant be the way FS wants her to be! I think i dont have to argue why invis for backstabs is just bad and shoudnt be in the game. Shade need a hard rework! Remove her invis and fix the multiple crit bug (i rly hope that this is a bug) and give her something else to sustain in melee range, like a small radius around her that stuns enemys for a short duration, and bring back dodge range. She is ment to be a glass cannon (high risk high reward) but i cant see the risk with her potential invis time.
WHC: Flense is a good idea, but need a nerf. The dmg output is way too high in its current state. Another big problem is his ult cdr talent (The Unending Hunt), because it can trigger multiple times. For example 40% cdr for 10 enemies hit, 80% for 20,… . In my eyes an ult should be a valuable ressource instead of a tool you can just spam every few seconds. Another small thing i want to mention is that the guaranteed crit talent takes away the buff for your allys. I would like to see a change there that actually move the focus from spamming lights (during Fervency) to aiming for the head with precise attacks. I could imagine a change from guaranteed crits to guaranteed heavy attack crits could solve the problem (+ buff to allys, a weaker version would be fine too).
Bounty Hunter: Its a similar problem with his Ult talent Double-shottet: It can also trigger multiple times, so you get 80% cdr for scoring a ranged headshot with two bullets of your ult.
Sienna: I havent played much wizard, but something i always noticed is the absurde dmg output the wizard does compared to every other class. I think Sienna is just overtuned and needs some adjustments (not just the wizard burn build). All her staffs got infinite ammo and most of them also got some kind of aoe with very high dmg. Pyro for example also got temp hp on ult what gives her a lot of additional vents.
Weapons:
Hagbane: I didnt understand why Hag got buffed in 2.0. It offers great control, less aim than every other bow, and high dmg (even before 2.0). So where is the balance there?
Flamethrowers: They can still stagger armored enemys and melt every unarmored enemy within seconds, even after the nerf and they are really easy to use.
Handgun: Compared to every other weapon with the same role (special sniping), like crossbow or even Repeater Handgun, the Handgun is still underwhelming. I think it needs a bit more ammo, because it already got a high reload time.
I think that a weapon that is easy to use/master should be less effective than a weapon thats hard to use/master. The same should apply to the balancing between control and dmg, but this is often not the case. Another point i want to mention again is the Ult as a valueable ressource. That was in a much better state before 2.0.
The last thing i want to talk about is the design of Weaves: I think even some of the existing weaves (even without dmg scaling) could be nearly impossible, but there are too many overpowerd mechanics/builds in the game that makes it litterly impossible to design a weave that cant be beaten. As long as the things i mentioned above exist, Weaves will never provide a competitive environment. At the moment the Leaderboard is only representing cheesing instead of skill. And i want to make clear that i think every kind of invisibility should be redesigned, because its such a terrible mechanic (not skill based at all). This game has a lot of potential but this potential has to be used, otherwise it will just lead to more and more frustration. I can also see a big conflict between the Leaderboard and Balancing, especially during seasons. I can understand that it would be a bit unfair to remove certain overpowered builds in a running season, because it could make weaves way harder and would give everyone who progressed further a bonus. But having to deal with broken builds is way more frustrating in my eyes than the other problem i mentioned. Balance uptades are more important!