Legend Pubs: Complete Weapon Tier List (Caution, Opinions Inside)

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Gameplay Feedback
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Tier lists are a great way to spark discussion. Everybody will have their own experiences and expertise, so let’s share and compare! As an avid player of all classes and all weapons, pre and post wom, I enjoy discussing weapon balance across the board. Ranks are not ordered within tiers (at least not yet). For the purposes of this list, I will try to disentangle weapon strengths from their classes and evaluate them in a vacuum, impossible as it is.

S Tier:

  • Axe and Falchion: Not as heinously op any more. Mobility nerf wasn’t enough, and didn’t address why it was broken. Axe attack cleave nerf is mildly annoying. Heavies still do 21 damage base to armor, are ridiculously fast and chainable, and have great headshot angles.
  • Kruber Spear: Push attack and H2 cleaves the world, backed up by characteristic spear push angle and some extra stamina. Spear stabs also cleave. Powerful stabs are somewhat headshot reliant for armor damage, but heavy bodyshots still do acceptable damage (more than elf spear, and faster too). Spear sweeps are nonsensical and make you feel like you’re using a lightsaber, which would be overpowered, which it is.
  • Sword and Dagger: Good horde killing, good armor killing, versatile moveset, great dodges, shieldpiercing push attack. Possibly the most overkitted weapon. Why does this thing have 10% bonus crit again?

A Tier:

  • Rapier: Top tier dodges with high mobility. Armor piercing stabs were buffed to insane levels. Side pistol in block remains incredible utility under pressure vs berserkers in particular, and is just fantastic utility all around. Pistol will two shot zerkers and maulers with 30%. Heavily reliant on headshots on lights as well to deal good damage.
  • Flame Sword: Supreme horde control with good damage; shield bashes with decent dodges. Decent sv damage, no cw damage. Light chain and push attack are lackluster.
  • 2h Hammer: Great horde control and damage. QQ cancel is still exploitative with incredible dps. Push attack combo dps is now a competitive, safer option without risking qq error. Another beneficiary of raising the dodge distance floor.
  • Executioner Sword: Easy headshot angle for horde mowing. Push attack chain is usable for horde control. Heavies decapitate with good aim.
  • Sword and Shield: The premiere shield weapon, with a H1 bash and a good armor piercing push attack H2 combo. Moderate infantry damage on lights and cleaving heavies.
  • Dual Daggers: Relies on headshots to carve through hordes, but the dot changes made it less feast or famine. Heavies are once again spectacular for damage. Base attack speed is fast enough to use new crit power as a property.
  • Dual Hammers: The weapon you tell your friend to use when starting legend. Mouse 1 spam not only controls 180° of horde, it deals great damage too with the help of stagger. H1 still does great damage, even when not qq canceled.
  • Dagger: Bashes are good. Excellent push attack still applies a potent dot, and light chain deals good damage. Poor vs cw, as they do not burn.
  • Billhook: Great push attack for horde control. Access to powerful, easy headshot heavies for armor piercing. Alt fire staggers anything not a cw. Has characteristic spear push/block and good stamina.
  • Glaive: Push attacks are in, and the horde mower returns with a vengeance. Heavy chain will body sv with no power boosts. Three will kill a cw.
  • Great Axe: Somewhat overshadowed by 2h hammer in control, but makes up for it with massive damage potential. Has more horde and infantry damage, but perhaps less effective total team damage considering staggers. First two lights have more damage than 2hammer and can be block canceled quickly. Armor damage is a little weak compared to 2hammer qq cancel, but is generally safer and uses smiter to compensate. Can stagger zerkers out of combo, and sv and maulers out of any attack with heavy.

B Tier:

  • Elf Sword: H1 L3 loop is still fantastic damage, armor or otherwise. Light chain is lackluster now with stagger changes. Still has great mobility and dodges.
  • Elf Spear: Push attack chain is excellent on hordes. Incredibly headshot reliant to deal armor damage still, and headshotting infantry matters more now with the nerf to pokes. Good monster damage.
  • Crowbill: Still massacres armor, synergizes with most staffs dealing with hordes. Light/push spam is not enough against hordes any more.
  • Mace and Sword: Push attack is incredibly strong, but the light chain is worse without smiter. Heavy attacks don’t deal good damage, and don’t stagger without crits. Still a decent mobility option.
  • Elf Greatsword: One property + assassin will one shot sv and zerks on H1 hs. H2 is still garbage. Light chaining is good horde damage.
  • 1h Hammer: Ridiculous stamina with good dodges is incredibly safe. Push attack and light cancel are low dps, but have good control. Heavies crush armor and infantry alike, and have a good headshot angle.
  • Axe and Shield: A step below sword and shield mostly due to the lower armor damage. Chaining heavies on cw at dwarf height to deal damage feels terrible. Lights are decent for dispatching infantry.
  • Dual Swords: Comfy horde clear, but lacks armor damage. Has synergy with new assassin trait, as armor damage remains headshot reliant. Push attack stab is somewhat redeeming.
  • 1h Sword: The value of horde control has risen, and chaining heavies deals acceptable damage. Excellent mobility and dodges. Light chain is nice. Armor damage is passable with H1 H2 L3.
  • Dual Axes: Good monster damage, elite damage, and mobility. Previously was acceptable on hordes with dodge spam, now things are more dicey.

C Tier:

  • Pickaxe: Charged heavies still delete things incredibly well. Horde power is low. Heavy is in an awkward spot where it doesn’t serve a purpose other than bodying clans.
  • Flaming Flail: The explosive heavy is often a detriment to you and your team. Enemies flung behind your ranks and knocked down to the sides often get up to everyone’s surprise. Staggers compensate for lowish damage.
  • Flail: I don’t think the heavy does enough damage to justify its windup. Reliant on push attack shortcut and headshots for mediocre armor damage. Benefitted from stagger changes but horde damage is only good, not great.
  • Mace and Shield: Bash attack is on H2. Low damage, low armor damage. Better suited to premades or Cata where you want dedicated tanks, and even then seems gimped compared to the other shields.
  • Halberd: Light 1 spam just isn’t enough to keep the hordes at bay. Push attack chops no longer stagger all sv attacks. An all:rounder that ends up not quite handling anything well.

D Tier:

  • Shield and Spear: Heavily obscures vision and lacks the characteristic shield bash heavy. Low dodges and damage output.
  • Falchion: Used to have a niche as a horde cleaver, now struggles without smiter or assassin. Light chain is still a standout. Poor armor damage. Unlike 1h sword, cannot H1 H2 L3.
  • 2h Sword: Has good horde clear, but that’s about it. Low armor damage that is reliant on push attack. Turnaround time going from heavy to light attacks is painfully long. Low mobility and attack speed.
  • Sienna mace: L1 spam is the only redeeming thing about this dumpster fire. H1 is always inferior to L1 canceling now with stagger. Cannot reliably stagger sv now. Poor cw damage with L1 spam. Poor light attack chain angles and damage, cannot chain sweeps without push attack. Poor heavy 2/3 angles. Stagger values are anemic on H1, but H2 can stagger a sv overhead (???). Hitstuck duration is ridiculous.

F Tier:

  • 1h Axe: Did not get buffs to compensate for removal of 2nd target cleave. Was already niche before as a pickup to one tap fanatics to the body and 2 hit marauders with no properties, now feels terrible and requires smiter or assassin with properties to do this. Heavies have no purpose.

Overarching Trends:

Some of my justifications are universally rolled into all weapons’ evaluations. Here are a few of my salient criteria.

  • Dodge is much less valuable with the floor being raised and effectiveness nerfed.
  • Ability to abuse thp on stagger is extremely valuable. Thp on crit/hs is very strong with fast weapons that have good hs angles.
  • Headshot weapons with assassin are very strong, but very feast or famine. Heavily rewards skill investment.
  • Stamina is a much more valuable resource now. Elites cannot be stagger locked, so you will block more often. Pushes are sometimes necessary to corral a horde or reset your kite.
  • The ability for dual weapons to roll twice for crit is now even more impactful, because crits come with more stagger with translates to more damage.

Overall, weapon balance is reasonably even compared to pre-wom era. There a few nails that need to be hammered down, and some weapons could use some assistance, but even the worst of the worst are usable and the vast majority of weapons are competitive options. With the stagger changes many weapons fill a newly created niche, and having roles for different weapons to excel in promotes healthy teamplay.

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Yeah making spear worse than s&d, hmm yeah we have different opinion and flaming flail even lower when that weapon is monster in everything.

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I strongly disagree about Heavy Spear. It’s very strong, no doubts, but totally not overpowered. Nerf it means just make the game worse and more boring… And ready to receive a nerf about the “next strong weapon”.

Spear has two weak points:

  • damage vs armors: sure, it can still something, but clearly it’s not meant to deal with them;
  • to do a decent crowd control, it needs push attacks… This means that you must pay attention about your stamina.
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Heavy spear is right now best weapon, amazing stagger (kinda even on bug side that it can stagger overhead sv) amazing attack pattern, great accuracy (dont have different placed center of hits like elf spear) completly horizontal push/heavy, great ap, very high damage, and range. Need to be nerfed for sure

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Totally disagree and I have already written why (two objective weak points).

But I can continue: Halberd has less power toward hordes but more armor damage. Exe sword is less versatile but it has more damage toward both hordes and elites.

We must nerf some enemies’ unfair things and the various bugs (or buff the unused weapons) … Not the funny weapons that make the game funny.

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Spear have no problem with armor at all, every attack outside of 3rd light (sideways swipe) have ap
And it dont need to push at all, light + heavy is good or even better often than spam pushing mostly because you can damage armor or priority enemies in crowd and trigger swift slaying (push heavy is same attack )
Halberd have always problem with armor mostly because it need to use stamina thats way spear wins because its stagger and hits through armor on heavies, halberd dont stagger them, already point for halberd defeated.
And halberd was mainly for hordes now spear outshines it.

Exe have lower damage for hordes and elites, mostly because its way slower and have less cleave (and slows you down on attacks, spear is opposite) and have no ap
Exe on heavy got absurd buff but its still very slow and not so ease to hit attack, you can get nearly 2 spear heavy hits in that time and thats damage + CC (and insane stagger)

We need nerf weapons that outshine every other because spear have same stagger as 2 handed hammer and way higher damage, faster, easier to use, more stamina, dont slow you on attacks

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Totally nope. Exe has good damage vs armors, Halberd, 1h mace… Not Spear. And yes, you can use light, heavy combo, but it’s slow. If you are in a clutch situation, you must spam push attacks.

That Exe has less damage, it’s false.
That Halberd sucks against armor, it’s false again.

There will be ALWAYS a stronger weapon… It’s impossible to have a perfect balance. But if we continue with these nerf, we will fight with bare hands. The important thing is that every weapon has its utility/niche (as it happens, because Halberd and Exe have their advantages) … And buff the worst one light 2h sword or 1h mace.

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+1 for at least adding a bit of context to each weapon.

Tier lists are generally completely pointless as 99% of them just list things from best to worst but no weapon is ever just “good” or “bad”. It always depends on the situation and one weapon can easily go from garbage to S tier based on what you are trying to achieve with it or in this case - which career (and build) you use it with and what the team composition is like.

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Its not slow at all and push well they need to be in your face to need to push with that amount of stagger that spear have, did you even play with spear at all ?
Halberd sucks against armor its true, its literally have less and slower damage than spear against armor.

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You must do before the light attack (a thrust one), and only then you can do the heavy sweep attack. It’s totally slow in a clutch situation (as Cata is, where hordes just spawn on you).

How can you say that Halberd has a worse armor damage… Push attack, light attack combo does everytime headshot. And also hitting the body, it has a decent damage. Spear instead MUST hit the head, or it will not be nothing. But its attacks and anyway the hitbox seem very bugged: often you just don’t hit the head. It’s not always possible do an headshot. Also because the strange movements of enemies’ heads.

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Tier lists are generally completely pointless as 99% of them just list things from best to worst but no weapon is ever just “good” or “bad”. It always depends on the situation and one weapon can easily go from garbage to S tier based on what you are trying to achieve with it or in this case - which career (and build) you use it with and what is the team composition like.

I definitely kept that in mind. Like I mentioned in op, this is more about seeing where people weigh in on things. Broadly, generalist weapons I rate very high especially in the context of legend pubs, while more specialist tools I rate lower. When your pubs are random, I favor proficiency at dealing with many scenarios. There are certain synergies that could absolutely boost a melee+ranged+class combo much higher than the sum of its parts. An example I like is crowbill+… well most sienna staffs on pyro, because the staff takes care of control and the crowbill picks off what’s left. I rate crowbill at B tier which seems absurd at first, but there are times when I’m critical heat as Battle Wizard with no ult and I think… huh… wish I could do something about this horde other than give ground. I try to think about the base weapon as a classless, faceless, talentless character using it in a training map vs a few different scenarios.

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Yeah and its waste of stamina, and its deals 3/4 of damage of first spear heavy and with second heavy you have cc and more damage for armored enemies.
And lol spear dont need to hit head to have better damage because its literally in stats better ap than halberd
And halberd always hiting head, nice bs :smiley:

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I agree spear is op, but Markus has not really any good melee weapon, especially on huntsman

Keep the cleave to allow defensive play and reduce damage.

Stagger is indeed a bit too strong with cancelling a group of stormvermine heavies.

Or, they could buff 2h sword a bit, before it was the lighsaber, now, it is meh

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I wasn’t talking about Cata at all. I’m with @Perteks on this, the Spear heavy still does 12 damage on body 5.5 with the light and you loop H1L1. Halberd used to be able to stagger storms with the chop that let you follow up with an easy headshot for the second one, now you have to waste stamina and dodge the sv attack at the same time. I have no problems doing stab H2 on spear to hold a horde.

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Most of my runs with huntsman spear is lower than 120 dmg. CC is outofwack its literally 2hd hammer with halberd and little more

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1H axe being bottom tier? Which 1H axe specifically? I favor 1H axe on Slayer and Bounty Hunter. I have a very specific build around them as they have a natural crit bonus I take advantage of.

Some of your listings says “not good without X talent”. So are you rating the weapon WITH synergy talents or without?

No mention of 1H Mace. Where does that fit for you?

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I still disagree. Halberd can deal perfectly with every armoured enemies without stamina’s problem. And that Spear has good damage to armors without headshot is totally false. Anyway the only nerf I can accept, it’s less armor damage.

And I still think that some other weapons must be buffed. With some of them seems beat a wall with a spoon. I hate 2.0 stagger res on hordes.

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I believe he meant kerillians axe

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But weapons must be balanced for the highest difficoulty; this is valid for every videogame. If you are saying that, when you are surrounded, you have the time to do “stab, H2” combo… we are playing different game.

I had said that less damage vs armor is the only nerf that “I could accept”. But also a little bit less stagger toward ONLY armors, could be ok.

Even if, I repeat, imho the right way is buffing weaker weapons. I really don’t like 2.0 feeling, where it seem you are beating a wall with a spoon. More weapons should have more stagger.

I loved ELF Spear in 1.6. Now, I hate it. It’s NOT the nerf to damage (the damage is still good), but it really seems that enemies are just immune to every attack (push attack included).

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With talents in mind. Bounty and Slayer are probably the two best cases as you mention, I used to use Falchion and 1h Axe for quick Blessed Shots resets.

Mace I have listed under 1h Hammer.