I’m of a mind that maybe all specials should be better, but used more sparingly. However, as it is…
I find the tox grenades, and the tox grenadier, a much tougher opponent than the other specials. I’m probably revisiting an old thread, but
1 - he’s hard to visually pick out. Compared to our fire grenade buddy anyway, which leads to …
2 - tox smoke grenades just arriving almost without warning. I don’t have spidey sense, and he’s often too quiet to realise he’s on the playing field 'til there’s a grenade bouncing along.
3 - tox grenades do a hefty chunk of tick damage; but unlike fire when you can see the exit point easily, or jump up on to a box, the grenade cloud is just huge, ill defined (“looks thinner over there… no, I’m wrong, still taking damage”), and because it’s a cloud it’s harder to find your way out of
4 - you’re also impaired visually within it (to target enemies)
5 - clouds last for ages
6 - it buffs enemies too
Easily my most disliked special right now! Especially when two turn up.
I’m trying to think how I’d suggest changing it without making the challenge trivial, but it’s just the sum of its parts that makes it annoying in the tougher games. Maybe (5) reduce the time before it dissipates, that’s a sensible small change?
Or … buff the other grenadier but stop two or three turning up like a tag team!
also, the tox gas clouds aren’t as easy to see as globadiers gas in VT2 and that SUCKS - you can’t like see the extent of it and stay out of it - hard to tell where it is you just get smoke on your screen - vermintide gas rat gas is much better visually to see it
I actually quite like the tox gas as a whole as it forces a more positional play without being too “floor is lava”. I like that if you’re shielded or regenerating a healthy amount of toughness you can tank the gas. More so in the mission modifier, you’re forced to clump up in a safe zone and then disperse with the gas. It’s different!
I do find the bombers are easy to hear — if you don’t hear a nade soon after the iconic pin-pull it’s a tox bomber. The ambient VOs are distinctive but also quiet — they’re not a disabler per se so I’m ok with that priority. Glowing eyes on the tox bomber/heads for visibility would be amazing though!
I think that’s the only problem with the tox bomber. I swear sometimes spawn sound just doesn’t play.
Otherwise I like the new bomber, it’s a great addition. It also increases the value of Bomber resistance modifier on gear. 2+ bomber resistance makes the damage lot less dangerous while still making the tagbreak and general visual impairment an interesting challenge to deal with.
On top of that bouncy balls challenges players to actively hunt down the special in certain situations which is nice.
With a 50m engagement range he’s like the sniper in thrown shrunken head form. Tox gas is itself a weak effect though. I would call him an enhanced bomber 100% though, because in the same situation where they deal direct damage to you (when you’re stuck in their AoE from other enemies) you’re very likely to skip past your wound from corruption and die without being downed. And the AoE is massive and can’t be cheesed with terrains that put you 1mm above ground level.
Kinda want the other specialists to be threatening again though, particularly the mutant…he’s so stupidly nerfed its almost beneficial to just let him charge through a room and knock stuff over for you, and then kill him at your leisure whenever you feel he’s done yodeling.
The melee damage modifier could be lowered to 2X so it has the same effect of limiting all the one shots on mutie without punishing everything already weak on maniac. Thunderhammer needs a Maniac buff yesterday and could have a bonus modifier like with unyielding so swing batter batter could stay. Most other non-latching weapons I don’t want to one shot him.
yeah not having to respect enemies or specialists is part of the massive power creep issue, and if you think a dueling sword pokie should be rewarded on the same level as a chainsword latch headshot then you are once again smoking serious bad take. I want some of the specialist enemies to be outside the player’s power trip, there’s enough trash to clean up without not having to worry about anything ever. 4000 HP meatshield enemy = should not get one hit killed by light weapon melee attacks on the ‘highest’ difficulty.
I made a thread talking about how he needs voice callouts for when he spawns in, as well as unique death callouts. He does talk pretty much nonstop, but you cant really hear him when the audio starts being crap. Definitely he needs more unique audio ques though
Killing an unarmored Mutant/Rager with the well placed headshot is exactly the thing that makes the weapon feel good, and it is its supposed niche I’d say.
I think the problem with DS is uncanny allowing to 2-3 shot Crushers not that you can have a high stabbing a mutant charging right at you. Killing it with 2-3 stabs after it passes you is. That’s why I think increasing health while keeping TTK the same is the way to go.
Compared to chain weapons they already out do it against hordes and should do the same against armor, sadly it’s not the case.
I care little that hitting a mutant head with a chain weapon does only similar effect while being harder to hit. It’s not their niche. It’s one specific situation where we can allow different output in weapons.
a nuisance by itself but getting more pesky the longer you leave him be.
being an oggy main the gas itself isnt something to worry about but even playing my vet again i found ample time to traverse the cloud without getting past that second health bracket.
the buffed enemies also make for a nice change of pace.
not familiar enough with the warhammer lore, but as a further variant at a later stage could an enemy open small sized warp rifts that’d not lead to an “exterminatus” in the end?
so area of denial going from fire<gas<lesser demon spawns
