Smiter talent seems quite underwhelming

Vermintide 2 Vermintide 2 - Feedback
#1

From what I understand from the patch notes, Smiter just seems to not be worth picking… The notes say that smiter damage bonus at 0, 1, and 2 stagger is 20%, 20%, and 40% (and only on the first target hit, but that is the point of the skill I guess). Any other option still seems to be better though, since enemies will be staggered after the first hit anyways:

In comparison (assuming fighting one target):

  • Bulwark is 0%, 30%, 50% (and your team benefits).
  • Mainstay is 0%, 40%, 60%.
  • Power increase is 7%, 28.4%, 49.8%.

All of these seem mathematically better choices (especially when fighting >1 target), and only become even better when you are fighting together with a teammate.

And how does Smiter interact with, for example, a one-handed axe? Will it be pointless because that always counts as 1 stagger anyway? That would seem very counter-intuitive since you’d think Smiter would pair well with your single target weapon…

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#2

Aye that’s a problem I thought of with Smiter, I don’t know why you would take it to work around CC when you could instead take a weapon with good CC and get higher damage.

e.g. instead of taking the two handed axe, take the two handed hammer (as that can quickly go to level 2 now) and initiate combat with CC + either Bulwark or Mainstay slotted.

#3

Because lacking Assassin talent, Sienna needs the Smiter for crowbill to not suck utterly.

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#4

I think even for Crowbill Smiter might not be the best choice.

EDIT: Especially since power increase also benefits her ranged attacks as well.

#5

With your math, 20+20 is still better than 7+28,4.

#6

That’s a fair point I guess; if you take 2 hits to kill Smiter might indeed be the better choice.

#7

True, I forgot about that. Did they make the transitions between blocking/pushing/meleeing any smoother on Crowbill or is it still a liability? On anyone else you could take another weapon.

How is the burning flail?

Edit: Breakpoints are going to be so confusing

#8

I did some tests here that show some numbers. Just some simple stuff to get an idea.

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#9

Don’t have WoM, don’t have flail.
Crowbill is better now. You don’t have that huge gap of nothingness after a pushstab.

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#10

Nice work. Those numbers seem to support my point I guess.

EDIT: Funny how the axe doesn’t seem to have any bonus unlike the patch notes said it would. How did you test by the way?

#11

I used Handmaiden and Shade against the unarmored target dummy - no bonus power talents (besides the one on the stagger talent row when I tested it specifically) or power vs anything. Power 600, filtered out crits and headshots.

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#12

Personally, I really don’t trust the game to give me enough time to hit a staggered target. Especially if it’s a beastmen horde where staggered targets get immediately replaced and they recover from being staggered extremely fast. Also Chaos Warriors. Smiter is basically free damage.

I don’t know how it works with axes and other things, but I’ve been having more luck with it while using flail (Zealot) and 2h hammer (Merc) than I am with the the other talents.

Those numbers are hard to argue with.

#13

Had to make a correction - by mistake I still had 10% vs infantry on Shade, so I had to redo the Assassin numbers. They are correct now, and are the only ones that were incorrect.

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#14

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