First of all, I would like to say that this is the most fun I’ve had in the game since I started playing. I have almost 1300hs in the game, so stuff that keeps the game fresh is always appreciated, even if the objective of the game is not to keep the people playing for so long (as has been stated by the devs).
Regarding Chaos Wastes, it is a fun game mode where we get to explore and use a lot of new properties and talents we’ve never seen before, which could lead to an explosive and unstoppable build. And this where my first problem is, we escalate too much, were our enemies stay the same and at the end of the expedition it feels a little bit unbalanced. I’ve played with friends in cataclysm and twitch, and it wasn’t that much of a challenge at the end (we didn’t reach the citadel, though, we had to stop before). It was fun, I cannot deny that. Maybe the objective of the game mode is not to be challenging, just to be fun, and there is nothing wrong with that really. It makes the game mode more accessible to all the players that are willing to adventure themselves into the Chaos Wastes, even if they are not used to played in higher difficulties.
Here is a list of changes that I would like to see:
- Weekly rotations of maps and mutators/curses: Just to keep the game mode as fresh and re-playable as possible.
- Starting the expeditions with random equipment: I feel it could help with the randomness of the game mode, and it would make it feel more like a rogue lite.
- More “high risk high reward” talents: We are entering more and more into the realms of Chaos after all, if you want something you should work for it. From my perspective, this would help re-balance a little bit the situation because, like I said before, we are kind of unstoppable and overpowered at the end of the expeditions.
- More ambient enemies: The maps can feel a bit too empty sometimes. Like I said above, we are entering the realms of Chaos.
- Maybe Lords?: This is a very long shot, but I think that Lord like fights would be very fun. I’m not asking for new Lords, it could be the same ones with the names and colors changed. We have a map that is basically a reflection of the Reiklands.
- Enemy recolouring depending on the Dark God’s presence: Simply for aesthetical reasons.
Even though CW is a rogue lite, the “Vermintide” part is still the most strong and present, so I can’t expect the game mode to changed too much (or at all) in the future.
To conclude the Chaos Wastes section, these are all changes that I personally would like to see. However, the game mode is almost perfect as it is now, accessible to almost every player in terms of difficulty and the fact that it is free. Hats off to everyone in Fatshark for this incredible DLC.
About Forgotten Relics, the new weapons in general are pretty fun to use. I think FS nailed the in-between part of being too OP to be unfair to people that doesn’t own the pack and being too bad that it’s not worth the money. I always said that you can play vt2 without any paid DLC and that almost (if not all) of the DLC weapons can easily be replaced with ones from the base game.
- Moonfire Bow: It’s perfect, more energy would make it too OP in comparison with the other ranged options. I see a lot of people complaining that Waystalker’s passive should affect the energy amount, but I think that actually WS it’s not the best career for the bow.
- Trollhammer Torpedo: Same as above, its pretty good in its current state. It serves its purpose very well, which is crowd control of Monsters and Patrols (or armour in general) in my opinion.
- Spear and Shield: I have mixed feeling with this one. The first time I heard about the special attack I thought that it was such a cool concept, but now that I’ve played with it, I hardly find a situation where using that attack is the best option. It’s better to use push block attack + heavy for armoured elites, being behind a shield is no good if the defence can be broken with an overhead from a Chaos Warrior or you can be pushed out of it (besides the fact that it doesn’t deal too much damage to them). The same goes for berserkers, standing still spamming the special attack is no good given it consumes stamina in its own and the berserker’s fast attacks are going to delete your shields. It’s better to have opportunist and try to stagger them or just wait for them to stop attacking (you can use the special attack there, but I would rather use a more powerful attack). For hordes, I usually use light 1 + light 2 + block cancel and repeat (with some occasional push) which I’ve found especially efficient with Mercenary.
- Coruscation Staff: I’m not a big Sienna player. Actually, the only Sienna I play is Unchained, so I might not be the best person to judge this weapon. In my opinion, the lack of stagger is a big downsize, I would rather use a conflag staff that can stagger chaos warriors. For what I’ve seen it deals a lot of damage, but with the nerf to the diameter before the release I don’t think it’s the best staff option for sienna.
- Griffon-foot: This is the one that I’ve had the most fun with. It is a blast to use with BH. Yes, it’s not great against armour and far-away specials, but that’s what your career skill is for (and if you use double shotted, as you should, you get the ability bar back). I think it serves its purpose very well, specially against berserkers.
Like I said before, this pack has a great balance between of being too OP to be unfair to people that doesn’t own the pack and being too bad that it’s not worth the money. The weapons are fun to use and each one is different from what we are used to seeing in the regular game.