First ya nerf THP and then you nerf sienna some more, do you, hate her or something? or is there some kinda outstanding meta that’s just so obscenely broken it HAS to be fixed, you know, nerfs are a lazy way to balance a character, why not i dunno…give players diversity, make her other careers look more appealing in their own ways rather than “adjusting” and “tweaking” her again and again, because all i ever see you guys do to my girl is nerf everything about her, she’s basically trash tier of the 5, kerillian is obscenely strong, and very customizable, kruber is solid and very good at what he does, bardin can seamlessly use a couple careers with reasonably equal capability, saltzspire is good at doing similar but in a different way than bardin.
But every time i play sienna it makes me wonder, what is viable and flexible about sienna? she can burst dps and nuke hoards if they line up but even then kerillian can easily outdo sienna in that regard with no risk to the party, kruber too, she’s so niche that she can’t really do anything like the other 4 can, on lower difficulties she’s a god sent aoe nuke that that wipe the floor with weak AF hordes, but you take her to champion or legendary, or even cataclysm and she struggles hard as hell, why? because the skill gap from veteran and champion is large, the damage to companions doesn’t hurt much if you do champion sure, but you hop to legendary and it’s punishing, not because it hurts metric ton but because of the nature of her character, she doesn’t need ammo, and her abilities are often target seeking, aoe oriented. she in a niche place and i wish she’d get some love as well, so she has her ability to shine outside being a support dp.
She can’t be a special or armor slayer, all the others do that better, unless you use her sword and fireball staff, she’s terrible at horde suppression in most cases, and anything above veteran risks hurting teammates 95% of the time, there’s never a game where a sienna hasn’t hit me at least once, or instances where teammates get grazed by a fireball or by local (casting the attack) or the splash aoe (attack impact radius), even when being meticulous it takes high amounts of skill to moderately perform as sienna.
With the recent nerf to THP she can’t rely on niche builds to sustain her health or keep her from using potions, literally god-tier sienna relies around one cheeseable aspect about her and working around it, it’s not that she’s solid you have to MAKE her solid, i use her very often on champion and legend, occasionally cataclysm if i’m feeling a bit sadistic to myself, or others.
The point of this topic isn’t really just to complain about sienna or whine about how she’s not a god-tier healer-tank-damage dealer, it’s that she just is extremely niche and the last pick in most scenarios when running cataclysm or legend. and her spawning as a bot is a bad sign for a run
so now that my opinion regarding her place in vermintide isn’t very good, is out of the way, i’d like to suggest a few changes to her
a relook at her weapon usage, you’ll find no experienced sienna uses the mace, like ever, her go-tos are three weapons as of the current update, the fire sword, the crowbill, and the flail,
the underperforming weapons
Her dagger, and her two handed mace, the dagger can easily dump out dps like mad but it’s maneuverability doesn’t provide sienna with much and often times other heroes will steal elite and special kills sometimes it will just all around under-perform , it doesn’t have any particular specialty and the lack of horde control makes it a once decent THP sustaining weapon, now that THP drains extremely quick, it’s borderline useless to bring as armored and specials tank the dagger and set up other heroes to easily snatch kills from sienna, hordes too.
Her mace is just an all around dumpster fire, it’s slow, it doesn’t have any follow-through, no cleavability, it’s charge up is slow, slow, sloooooow, by the time the animation begins you’re already wide open and the cancel is also very slow, leading to sequential punishes by elites, specials and infantry, it’s dps is to say the least, underwhelming and in no way will i ever use that waste of a weapon space in any circumstance other than to nerf myself in a match which is counterproductive since sienna isn’t in a good place already.
fire-sword is essentially her bread and butter jack of all, it’s horde control, got a quick and punishing charge, and it’s satisfying to use, it’s not good for armor which is fine i suppose, i don’t have much to complain about this weapon, it’s balanced and the staple of most sienna starting out and for those centered around horde control and support dps
flail is an example of what the two handed version should be, it’s charge up is quick and chain-able, it’s punishing to hordes and EXCELLENT at what it does and breaks up horde dps, staggering small group after small group not only allowing sienna to perform as mid-tier dps but also horde suppression without relying on fireball or conflag in some circumstances. it’s only downside is that it’s cleave is…somewhat underwhelming sometimes, mostly against cowmen when seeming aren’t very phased by her normal swings, sometimes even her charged swings, although latency could be a factor in this.
Her staffs
Fireball staff: it is the staple of sienna users, it’s mid-tier aoe, and provides excellent coverage against small horde groups at a distance and her primary fire allows for some easy kills on elites and special, sometimes killing them in one shot (gutter-runners) if it’s a headshot, it’s solid but a look over could never hurt.
conflag staff: i won’t lie, i’ve used it rarely, since it’s alt fire is okay but the charge up is just a SMIDGE too slow to max size, and ends up under performing at it’s task, it’s flash burst is okay, but that’s just it, it’s…okay, it’s not bad, BUT it’s not good either.
flamewave staff: veteran and lower, it’s god-tier cheese weapon, charge it up and fire off while your teammates slaughter the staggering enemies through it, it’s overheat generation is a bit punishing unless you spec it for heatsink, when you go above veteran, unless sienna is front and center and no one else, this weapon will ALWAYS hit allies if they are within sienna’s field of view with this weapon, and the higher difficulty you go, the more troll-like this weapon gets as you can very easily damage allies using it on legend and it will wittle small chunks at a time too. it’s terrible for anything above veteran unless you’ve got an experienced team that knows immediately situations where sienna should use it, which is in small areas and hallways, it’s an infantry slayer nothing more.
beam staff: …i don’t think i need to explain this weapon much, it’s horrible in just about every aspect you can think of, the only upside to using this is to help career skills shine and a tight damage lane (no aoe damage unless allies literally walk INTO the beam). it’s damage is lackluster, it’s dps is lackluster, and i don’t see myself using it really at all in any case scenario with sienna as she is
Bolt staff: it’s niche, but it’s got it’s uses, it’s good for crits, it’s good for sustained tight dps, it’s overall dps hurts a little but if you build for it, it can perform well and assist your career skills decently, it’s only on downside is that i feel it’s charge fire should penetrate multiple enemies and stagger as well, given it’s literally a large bolt of fire being flung like it’s been fired out of a sniper class rifle.
closing proposal
I really can’t claim to know everything and anything about sienna, but right now it’s just something feel i can’t ignore anymore, she’s has problem builds, her weapons are lack luster for the most part and her ability to dps is highly dependant on the situation and often times it requires excessive levels of skill to perform as a sienna effectively the higher level you go, at first it seems pretty silly, of course you need to have more skill to survive on very hard difficulties, it’s not that, it’s that sienna is dependant on key factors that allow her to proficiently survive, and often times she will still down, be it from a sticky key, causing a fast handed player to snag on her staff, firing it off to the point or immediately exploding without a chance to vent via ability at all, she needs certain conditions to be met and a player with either a foolishly cheesy build or an extremely solid team to provide them a shield they can support dps behind, she for all intents and purposes above veteran is a support dps, that really has it’s moments when she shines and does amazing often piggybacking off the other heroes to do so, or when the player is skilled enough and their team is a good enough meat shield for her to abuse, there’s no case where she just “does great and actively supported front-line”.
So all i’m saying fatshark is, as a sienna player through and through and someon who has worked with other sienna users, she’s…not in the best of places and she could use some serious TLC and some relooking, maybe even a weapon rework.
if you read to this point, thank you for listening to me ramble about my feelings towards sienna at this point in vermintide.