The Skill Celling in Vermintide 2

Fatshark Lounge
#1

(Please let me know if posts like this are against the rules).
Here’s a potentially bad idea for a topic: What career setup takes the most skill to play and has the highest skill ceiling? Try to focus on ones that can do a lot but with a high level of skill rather than ones that are just weak (like a build with Blacksmith weapons on Cata).

We’re all mature individuals here, so hopefully we’ll all take well to any purely analytical observations.

I think Shade with Exquisite Huntress + Dual Daggers has a pretty high skill celling. WHC with Riposte is fairly high skill I think.

#2

Piercing Shot Waystalker (Sword and Dagger, Longbow), it deletes everything in the game without exception in a few seconds - as long as you hit your shots.

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#3

This is probably it on a purely theoretical level, HOWEVER even a perfect aimbot would miss headshots on this because enemies will randomly shift their heads around due to pathfinding/aggro switching inbetween the point of release and the actual hit.

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#4

So, it has a damn high skill ceiling, doesn’t it? That’s what this thread is all about.

I’ve put some effort into learning Piercing Shot (in fact, I’ve abondoned Kurnous’ Reward completely as it’s quite dull and less fun to me, in comparison) and I’m able to get good uptime with it deleting all monsters and lords. For elites, I only use it to kill CWs and Maulers. Standing still, they’re easy targets and while moving, the overhead animations of both have perfect windows of opportunity to get 100% headshot hits. All other elites die to Longbow headshots anyway, or even bodyshots with Blood Shot. If you’re preemptive and aware about specials (and have decent aim no matter the distance) you don’t need any autoaim shenanigans. It can also be amazingly effective against congo-lined hordes. Piercing Shot is one of the most satisfying off-meta builds out there.

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#5

Practically, i think crossbow BH is the one. And DD backstab shade is second one. I don’t understand why people bring piercing shot on this question. Nobody can shoot headshot per 0.5s.

Exquisite shade is a bit strange. Shade already has enough dmg to kill almost anything with bodyshot or backstab.Backstab also gives you great survivability.

#6

The thread is about maximum potential, not what can be realistically expected. While I doubt there are many players that can reach the max use of something like Piercing Shot, I’m sure there are some that can push it pretty far, at the very least into Cata Chaos patrol solo territory.

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#7

You said about play so i told about realistic play. For just theory, you can stand still on cheese spot and shoot piercing shot 24/7. I don’t know this kind of idea is meaningful.

Even bounty hunter’s maximum skill floor cannot be reached by human.

Piercing shot can kill chaos patrol as solo practically. I also can do that only if i’m intact from stagger interference and there are enough space. On narrow corridor, any chaos warrior can pop up from behind but you cannot see. So you miss headshot even though aim was on head.
I practiced piercing shot for hundreds of hours but I found that Shade and GK are always more consistent in real game. Map and allies are so important factors.

Theorically, if you never miss head shot per 0.5s and intact from interference, piercing shot would be king because it pierce so kills many at once and fast.

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#8

Convincing points. I’ll refrain further judgement and concede as I have not played much Piercing Shot Waystalker.

#9

Huntsmen handgun build and bow. Gotta land those headshots. I’m of course biased towards the elf though. Longbow WS with piercing shot is a very high risk/high reward play style. The obvious build is hagbane with kurnous reward. Works well on any difficulty and packs a lot of damage with a lot of CC. But it’s not exactly high skill… Unless you mean not DoT’ing your team to death.

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#10

I’d add RV handgun build with 2h axe to that too. Can be absolutely brilliant when used properly and utilising his ult to plough through a patrols/boss damage, but you get punished immediately and forcefully for a single mistake.

Unchained surely has an honorable mention - even more so prior to BBB 2.0 as there was no panic button to rescue you if you got in trouble like there is now. Managing your heat to stay red zone and cause damage through stacks is surely a very high skill requirement and again - can be devastating in the right hands.

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#11

I think what you are saying is just being weak. 2H axe, handgun and unchained’s melee are normal weapon. Every career need at least that kind of skill and those lisks like bad mobility and maintaining high heat mean doing something is impossible while other can.
Comparing handgun and BOP. With conservative, if you can land consistent headshot even from distance, BOP is absolutely better. Landing headshot while moving without zoom is imaginable skill.
BOP’s left has high accuracy. I saw someone using consevative shooter on BOP. That was quite impressive.

I personally don’t use 2H weapon because dodge is bad. Sometimes you need consecutive dodge to evade multiple disabler. Critical in clutch situation. Consistent clutching with 2H weapon is impossible. I don’t think that’s high skill ceiling.

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#12

I don’t understand. Are you saying having higher dodge count and being able to dodge disablers easier is more skillful?

I’d also argue that Unchained is absolutely not weak. It takes more skill to be successful as RV or Unchained as you cannot suck up a careless hit like Zealot/Merc/FK or IB can. Being more vulnerable takes MORE skill, not less and that’s why DD backstab Shade is higher skill. It’s a vulnerable class that has to be in just the right place and used properly to deliver high damage and success.

You’re also comparing the weapons Handgun and BoP rather than the skill requirement. BoP On Zealot is mindlessly skill-less when his buffs are up. Huntsman Handgun requires you to consistently get headshots with no option of a quick-fix if you miss and by definition this means you have to be highly skilled at pulling off repeated and consistent headshots.

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#13

Handgun Huntsmen was very high skill pre BBB buffs. Now with the reload speed buff only every 3rd shot needs to be a headshot to keep the buff up. Since it bodyshots most things, headshots are now optional for two subsequent shots.

I think there’s merit to both points here. RV with Handgun and Greataxe is a more difficult build. It requires a lot of positional and thinking skills rather than the reactive skills required for builds like WHC with Rapier, Shade with DD etc. I also get what jiyakelma is saying, as there is a limit to what that RV build could do, compared to the insane clutches careers like WHC can pull off due to their combination of mobility and dps.

Zealot is definitely mindless with BoP. Makes the left click way too fast.

This is my answer to the topic post:

I’m putting forth WHC with Rapier, Riposte or Deathknell and Charmed Life as a very high skill celling career. Even on DWONSC3, the only thing that can really limit you is your headshot %. He can get out of almost any situation, but not by getting away from it or using stealth, but by kiting and killing everything at the same time. Very high use of reaction skills and lightning fast reflexes, but positioning is still important to some degree as WHC’s get out of jail free card is not as safe as Shade’s stealth, as good for escaping as Slayer’s leap etc.

#14

I will also say WHC with rapier. The damage difference between landing headshots on elites during hectic kiting of hordes and bodyshots is game-saving . Maybe that’s just the case with weapons that have high finesse, but its especially true with WHC due to all the headshot bonuses.
Slayer can also be a good candidate, but it mostly applies to axe builds (daxes, 1h, 2h) due to low cleave.

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#15

Is kru hunter + gun better than bow? I find gun headshot completely not consistent, kind of highly random, compared to the long bow ones.

#16

There is just a slight delay on full accuracy for the right click

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#17

do you mean once I targeted, I should wait slightly more, using the gun? How long? (btw, ty)

#18

If you use the default crosshair and check it out in the keep, you can see how the crosshair has to close in when you are aiming down sights

It’s like half a second or something

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#19

The Longbow will out dps the Handgun on high headshot ratios vs all targets. With the Reload talent the speed difference is negligible. Handgun has better bodyshot breakpoints, penetrates shields, has less ammo and its bullet hitbox is tiny (smaller than bolts/arrows) so it’s less likely to friendly fire. Once held for long enough it’s very accurate. The handgun can fire immediately since it’s preloaded.

You can use them in a similar way, just go for the one you like the feel of the most.

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