Small Speculation About Future Careers

Hello!
I’d like to share some thoughts about future careers, their “specializations” and possible lore background. But before we proceed, let’s define several career skill types used in game at the moment:

  1. "Shout" – Area-of-effect crowd control skill type. It’s a small explosion that staggers infantry and optionally deals damage or also staggers bigger targets.
  2. "Dash" – mobility related skill type. It forces character to chrage forward or move to a certain point with some optional effects.
  3. "Stealth" – that skill type allows character to become invisible to enemies. Again, there are always some optional effects.
  4. "Extra Weapon" – fire-and-forget skill type. It allows character to do a lot of damage within a fraction of time and can do critical damage. Usually comes as a weapon.

With that done, let’s get back to the point.
As you probably noticed, there’s a pattern of every hero’s careers.
After getting premium career every roster of every character’s careers contains all four skill types mentioned above.
To make sure of it, let’s take a closer look. I’ll add extra description for some unclear moments.

Kruber

Our best boy has the most pattern fitting careers.

  1. Mercenary – “Shout”.
  2. Huntsman – “Stealth”.
  3. Foot Knight – “Dash”. Though can be considered combined with “Shout” at some point.
  4. Grail Knight – “Extra Weapon”. Extra sword that deals a lot of damage.
Bardin

There’re some tricky skills dwarf can posess, but he fits the pattern as well.

  1. Ranger Veteran – “Stealth”. Though it staggers enemies within a certain radius and thus can be considered “Shout”, its primary function is to make Bardin invisible.
  2. Ironbreaker – “Shout”. Plain and simple – Bardin staggers enemies nearby and gets their attention for himself. Monsters are optional.
  3. Slayer – “Dash”. Bardin literally jumps forward. It also has effect of “Shout”, but, again, its main goal is to reposition dwarf.
  4. Outcast Engineer – “Extra Weapon”. Literally a minigun. The very defintion of an extra weapon. The only exception is that it deals small damage per bullet.
Kerillian

Wutelgy doesn’t break rules as well.

  1. Waystalker – “Extra Weapon”. Though Trueshot Volley can hardly be called a weapon, it fits description of the skill type. Kerillian shoots homing arrows dealing a lot of damage to one or several enemies.
  2. Handmaiden – “Dash”. “Stealth” part can be added via talent is optional.
  3. Shade – “Stealth”. “Dash” part can be added via talent and is optional.
  4. The Sister of Thorn – “Shout”. Though Kerillian doesn’t really shout, this career skill does exactly what “Shout” does. It staggers enemies in a small area and controls their movement. Even more so in its alternative version.
Satlzpyre

Victor doesn’t have all his careers yet, so let’s observe existing ones and make conclusions later.

  1. Witch Hunter Captain – “Shout”.
  2. Bounty Hunter – “Extra Weapon”. Pew-pew.
  3. Zealot – “Dash”.
  4. ??? – ???
Sienna

Sienna has her last career yet to come, let’s look at the current ones.

  1. Battle Wizard – “Dash”. It also has effect of “Shout”, but the main function is to teleport wizard.
  2. Pyromancer – “Extra Weapon”. This time it’s a spell, not a weapon, but does exactly what “Extra Weapon” does and is homing as well.
  3. Unchained – “Shout”.
  4. ??? – ???

Can you see what skill type Sienna and Victor lack at the moment? Correct, it’s “Stealth”. The new careers will most likely be the stealthy ones, but not necessarily infiltrators like Shade. How can this happen? Hear me out.

Let’s start with Saltzpyre. He also lacks a tanky career.

And before we proceed further, we need to set a rule about tanks in Vermintide 2

Tank is career that meets 4 conditions:

  1. Has 150 health and damage reduction.
  2. Can provide decent crowd control.
  3. Has access to bashing weapons, such as sword/axe/mace/spear and shield, fire sword and dagger, making it easier for them to provide even more crowd control.
  4. Has Bulwark talent.

Currently, there are 4 tanky careers in the game: Foot Knight, Ironbreaker, Unchained and Grail Knight.
Kerillian is a special snowflake, but it’s not about her.

As you can see, Zealot is not a tank, he doesn’t meet the rule we established before.
Thus, Victor’s last career is gonna be a tanky and stealthy one at the same time. And there are at least two possible options depending on lore development.
At the moment, Saltzpyre has just gone through crisis of faith and has two possible outcomes for him (maybe even more).
Firstly, he not only restores his faith, but even boosts it all the way beyond reason. And becomes SIgmar/Ulric War Priest. In this case god matters only in terms of new weapons, outfit and special effects (axes/hammers, normal armor/wolven cloak and light/lightning). His career skill is going to be a flashbang (Saltzpyre raises his weapon, call to his god and creates a strong shining around him). They can’t see you if they’re blind.
Secondly, he has no response from any god in Citadel and his hopes and dreams get crushed. After that he either seeks for another source of power to defeat Pactsworn or stumbles into it accidentaly, but he finds a vampire (or a certain vampiress, to be more exact) and get Blood Kiss. So, his next career is going to be Vampire with a skill that transform him into a flock of bats for short period of time. They will remain invulnerable, making Victor effectively invisble, bite enemies and drink their blood, restoring Victor’s health. Also I want to see vampire being slapped to death by some random slave rat, it’s gonna be hilarious.
In both cases he’ll have access to shield weapons, be it sword, hammer or axe and something heavy.

Now let’s have look at Sienna. Recently we’ve discovered that she has evil twin sister Sofia. She’s alive and well and this time keeps low profile.
Sienna, remembering how her previous attempt to kill Sofia ended, wants to try a new approach. She thinks a little, consults with Olecia and decides to use smoke related Aqshy spells (there are some actually), puts on some rags and goes stealthy. Most likely, we won’t be allowed to kill Sofia by ourselves, but there’s going to be another Lohner arctile or career reveal trailer where we can see her doing that.
So, the career is going to be called Master Vigilant. Or Smoke Wizard. It doesn’t really matter. What actually matters is that this career is an actual stealthy infiltrator. My call is that her skill will turn her into a smoke cloud and let her move really quickly. Skill type combinations are quite possible and already exist in the game.
Her first new weapon will most likely be throwing knives. We have spears and axes, knives are the only ones left. Maybe not even just knives, but stealthy explosive ones. Killer Queen style.
Second weapon will probaly be another staff that has something to do with putting traps. Maybe landmines.

That’s about it.
Thank you for your attention!

2 Likes

I think this is a pretty poor definition of a tank, they dont need high health or damage reduction built in. They just need to be able hold down the frontlines to a degree, by any means. Which Zealot, UC and handmaiden can do.

If we go by “how many hits can they take in a fight without going down be it by trading hits or blocking them” then zealot and HM are both top tier.

Because lets be real, the only real tank if we wana be strict about it in this game is ironbreaker because he is the only one with a taunt to really hold down aggro.

Anyone else, even with damage reduction, health and a shield, will ultimately still watch hordes of enemies just ignore them and attack their teammates, even if this “tank” is holding off a larger group on their own.

Particularly visible with monks.

As for career speculations, i do not think we´ll get a non mage Sienna or one that doesnt use fire. Half because she herself said that´s the only magic she has any talent for and half because she really likes fire magic.

At best we might see her with a new magic weapon of some kind. But as for saltz…i wonder. vampire doesnt fly with the rest of the team (keri and bardin would kill him on sight) but war priest feels too similar to zealot.

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Oh, that’s pretty easy to solve. Zealot, being a failure of game design, gets replaced by war priest. And the final slot is taken by vampire or some other career.

Sienna will always be Bright Wizard, there are lore reasons and the fact, that it’s simply too much work to do with voice lines and overall personality switch.

I completely forgot one thing. All three careers I put into tank category share one stagger talent - Bulwark.
From my perspective, what makes tank a tank is ability to not die, provide crowd control and stagger. UC, IB and FK (GK too, forgot about him as well) have everything to do this. They’re designed this way. So we can call them “Designed-to-be tanks”. Sure, other careers can do their job as well, but they don’t have the same design. They can be called “Wannabe tanks”. Zealot is a “Wannabe tank”, Saltzpyre has yet to become a real one :stuck_out_tongue:.
Of course, it’s my point of view, and I might be delusional. Or you might be delusional. Possiblities are endless.

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Just curious, what do you call a Zealot with billhook?

I really think it’ll be a Warrior Priest for Saltzpyre, but I think people get too hung up on the ult tropes. I don’t think the devs will force themselves to stick to this idea; they’ll go with whatever they come up with that isn’t too similar to an existing ult.

The career will probably have a Sigmarite hammer as a weapon along with maybe some book of miracles that will be a new type of ranged weapon for him. If I had to guess at an ult, it’d be a “sanctified ground” sort of thing. Give allies damage reduction in an area, maybe some offensive buff or debuff/damage for enemies.

Sienna - I’ve heard some decent ideas, but all her current careers are very slightly different forms of the same general type, so I don’t think we’ll get anything too crazy. Best idea I’ve thought of is something like Scholar, as a more support-oriented career.

4 Likes

I guesss there are indeed patterns in ults, but it’s a bit of an assumption that it’s some rigid law that the new careers just have to follow. And I feel like your classifications are a bit forced here and there. Your guesses about the new classes and their abilities are also hardly the only possibilities, but you present them as inevitable. It’s not like it was possible to deduce the mechanics of the new classes so far from analyzing the old ones, after all. (Also, your “definition” of a tank is a bit “just so” for my taste.)

I think Lohner’s ramblings present the best clues for new classes we have. Especially retroactively one could say that Engi and SotT were heavily foreshadowed by them. From those posts about Saltz the latest info we got is that his faith was renewed / strenghted by the Chaos Wastes expedition and that he is preaching in the village, which hints to Warrior Priest if you ask me. For Sienna it’s a lot harder. It is inevitably going to have to do something with her history with her sister, but there is too little information to deduce what her new class is going to be. We need to learn more about how Sienna reacts to that history, because the reactions and actions of Bardin and Keri where what foreshadowed their new careers. Saying she will be a necromancer herself or a secret agent magehunter throwing knives is nothing but random guessing at this point.

4 Likes

rofl, aight i can get behind a big rework x)

I recall some chinese proverb stating that a lie about something like “i am a nice person” that is upheld by a person (with a lot of evil thoughts) until they die is in practice actually a truth. An impostor who yields the same result as the real deal…is quite the thing. And in the same vein Handmaiden(shield) and a zealot with a flail can both also easily stagger&hold hordes down on their own.

As for really powerful crowd control…only IB and FK can be said to have it, UC does but only with high heat at which point she cant really take a lot of damage.

But even FK has this problem where he can stun a horde/target with his charge but then those guys will still just go about their business anyway at which point he isnt any better a tank than handmaiden.

This is always a possibility, one can never be too sure xd

In VT1, you could pull an enemy’s aggro by pushing them. It doesn’t really seem like that’s a thing in VT2, though. Or if it is, it doesn’t matter because there’s just so many enemies.

I love the idea of the vampire career, not only because I like the vampires of Warhammer world in general, but because this is a good opportunity to develop Victor’s character. He was a faithful servant of Sigmar and becomming an undead will make him move forward and look on his life from another angle. Make him battle against not only pactsworn, but his own lust for blood and dark desires. And at the end of his struggle he may keep his humanity, overcomming the dark vampire nature and dedicating his newfound powers to protect people of the empire, being blessed by Sigmar, like Jerek von Carstein was blessed by Ulric.

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The talking about her sister and how Sienna tries to stop/kill her makes me think Master Vigilant is probable because don’t they go after rogue wizards?

I don’t really know the lore about Master Vigilants exactly, but sure; they probably go after necromancers. But they’re hardly the only ones that do! My point is that nothing whatsoever so far has pointed in the direction of Master Vigilant specifically. You might as well argue she’s going to become a Witch Hunter or Priestess of Morr because those go after necromancers as well. And those fit Sienna’s character just as “well”. It’s all wild guessing about things that could theoretically be possible. Even if it eventually turns out it’s going to be Master Vigilant, you wouldn’t have “predicted” it as much as you randomly guessed right.

If we’re going to do guessing based on the very limited info we got, I’d guess Sienna’s new class will have something to do with Myrmidia. At least we got info about Sienna making a connection to her, at the very least. “Justice” and “Strategy Over Savagery” are also themes that fit with both Myrmidia and Sienna’s backstory well. Where Sienna finally learns not to be so hot-headed anymore and approaches the problem of her necromancer sister a little more strategically because of Myrmidia’s teachings, finally letting justice prevail. Or something. Fits her character a lot better than her becoming a smoke ninja with throwing knives out of nowhere.

And if it turns out I’m going to be right-ish eventually, this post is still nothing more than a semi-educated guess at the very most.

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I forgot who said it first, but trying to classify V2 characters into Tank/Ranged/Support archetypes doesn’t always work. It’s too narrow and skews player expectations. Like how Footknight is a “Tank” but also one of the most difficult classes to play with restrictions and abilities so tightly constrained that he’s not at all enjoyable to play as without an understanding of the game, versus Ironbreaker who does exactly what everyone expects a tank to do, when they want him to tank, with every passive and talent doing exactly what their description says with no 4 year degree in meta required.

But you can label careers based on what position they’re supposed to be in while facing a horde first and break them down further from there; like Frontline, Backline. Flex is a word i heard tossed around (by Core, maybe?) to explain whatever tf Handmaiden is supposed to be.

So now you have a big label to give a clearer picture of careers.

Krub’s got 3 frontline careers

  • Merc: Frontline/Horde DPS or Support
  • Footknight: Frontline/CC
  • Grail Knight: Frontline/DPS anti-elite & monster

Or Bardin’s

  • RV: Backline/Support
  • IB: Frontline/Tank
  • Slayer: Frontline/DPS

Like wise, Saltzpyre can’t fit the mold either

  • WHC: Frontline/DPS
  • Zealot: Backline/Still waiting for a single slave rat to take away his green health while having NB.

/rant

Rat Catcher Saltzpyre when

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Not to mention some careers can do very different things depending on your talent and equipment selections. I’ve had ranger veteran runs where I feel very special-sniper backline support and others where Ive felt very horde frontline CC.

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Well yeah all of this is just speculation, we’re all kind of just throwing things out there based on limited info, that’s kinda the fun of it while we wait. I’m not trying to sound as definitive about is as OP is, I just think it’s possible. Saying Master Vigilant is just as likely as a Witch Hunter is pretty disingenuous and a weirdly bitter sounding response. I agree Priestess of Myrmidia is another likely guess as well. I’m actually hoping I’m wrong about the Master Vigilant, and this chronicle, like Bardin’s Daughter discussion from a previous Chronicle is actually hinting as possible adventure maps in the future that tackle a personal story of each of the 5’s past so we get more backstory and content.

Looks like fatshark are dismounting Cav units. I would suggest a route for Victor and Sienna that take them off their respective horses.

Grail Knight, Sister of Thorn.

Victor : An Outrider with a Grenade Launcher Ult? That would be nice. (Kruber seemed like a Demigryph or Blazing sun fit.) The Arch Lector seems too obvious, but none-the-less, a very good fit for old saltzy.

Sienna : Prophetess (Heavens Magic)
image
Kruber finally calling Sienna a Lady?

Doesnt work, Sienna has no affinity for anything except fire magic and any change clashes with her lore&backstory way too hard.

I understand it’s all speculation and that it’s fun to guess and fantasize. But I just wanted to put things into perspective a little, especially because of the original post presenting their wild guess as something very likely. About the comparison of master vigilant and witch hunter: I did not mean to be bitter or disingenous, but I do sort of feel it is almost equally as unlikely. What about Sienna’s character would fit that? Nothing about what I understand a master vigilant to be fits Sienna’s character. Ans what about the lore posts so far has even pointed vaguely in the direction of that career? Nothing at all.

I feel like it’d fit because the 4th career seems to be the best/truest version of themselves kinda. She’s also never been especially religious but Priestess of Myrmidia seems another possibility. This would be like a redemption of her past indiscretions by going after other wizards who have become dangerous/rogue/evil. Masters Vigilant (according to the WH wiki page) go after those who practice dark magic & necromancy, and the last lore post was devoted to Sienna killing (allegedly) her necromancer sister/hinting that she might need to look into it because Sofia might still be alive. Also (and this is more thin) Vigilants are typically more secretive and Sienna doesn’t have any kind of stealthy career yet so it would fit in the pattern of careers (even though I don’t love strict adherence to the Stealth/Shout/Attack Ult scheme and would like something more creative. From all i’ve read on here and Reddit it seems Priestess of Myrmidia and Master Vigilant are the 2 leaders in speculation, I just hope we don’t have to wait 6 months for it.

I like the Master Vigilant, but do we really want a Stealth ability ? I want to see something more grandiose and fun to see/use.

Like maybe a transformation (Embodiment of Aqshy, Crown of Fire) or a firenado or something not yet seen

I don’t want another stealth ability either, If I’m paying for a new class I want something more unique like you said, so I’m kinda hoping that I’m either wrong about MV or they give her a cool ult for MV that isn’t just stealthy. Something more supporty like Inferno Blades which imbues allies’ weapons with flames for a time could be fun. Like if she could ignite their weapons and she gained some amount of THP or attack speed for the duration could be fun.