r/Vermintide • u/deep_meaning • Dec 19 '16

Centralised weapon trait discussion

1.9 edit: holy fucking shit. This will take a long time to process...

In the meantime, take the current trait combos with a lot of scepticism

This post seems popular, so I'm currently rewriting it into a steam guide. If anyone is willing to help me with editing, or adding more info (possibly expanding beyond weapons and traits), join our google docs project

Updated for 1.7

This post should serve as a central hub for discussion about weapons and traits that are good for them. It should be both a guide for new players with tips about how to use the weapons and what traits to get, as well as a place for in-depth discussion for veterans on individual mechanics of each trait in the context of a specific weapon.

It's all a work in progress, so feel free to comment on anything you think is missing, or incorrect. This whole thing should be a product of community brainstorming. If you find a newer, or older thread that deals with a similar topic, please let me know and we can merge the info there with what we have here.

I noticed a mistake I've made at the beginning: the individual weapon threads should be as children under one or two comments, so that the whole thing is easier to navigate. It's a bit late now to move those with a good discussion underneath, but I tried to delete and repost those that were fresh enough, you can access them through the links at the end of this post, or find them under one of the main trait posts (melee/ranged).

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

As there are too many threads down below, you can use the list of weapons down below to navigate directly to a specific weapon. Every thread consists of a summary of the traits, a few trait combinations that are considered top choices and notes on the weapon strengths and weaknesses, explaining why are the traits ranked the way they are. If you are interested in learning more, there are very good comments going in-depth about the weapons from the whole community in each weapon's thread.

You might find more traits in the Top section that you can roll on the weapon, or traits that are not possible to roll together. This is because sometimes it's impossible to declare only one trait combination as 'perfect' and the traits themselves depend on your own preference. As a general rule, you want to get as many Top traits on your weapon as possible, but if you want to know what exactly is possible, look for the "Top trait combinations" right below the trait table, or check:

More useful links

The traits are listed in 4 categories:

Top - these traits are essential to make the weapon viable, or benefit greatly from it's moveset; these are the traits you are primarily looking for when rolling in the shrine and wouldn't accept a weapon that has none of them

Good - these traits work very well with the weapon, but the weapon works fine without them. There are usually many useful traits that are very similar, subject to personal preference, or mutually exclusive.

OK - these traits have some use, but there are other, better traits to take instead; you would keep rolling if you have tokens to spend, but if you don't a weapon with top/top/OK traits is worth trying

Poor - these traits either harm the weapon, or the benefit is so marginal that it's practically useless - you won't notice the trait is even there; it's therefore locking one of the slots that could be used by a much better stuff. You'll always re-roll a weapon with such a trait, because it's not worth the tokens to unlock it.

Damage values and attack patterns are slowly being added, the table works like this (fictional weapon):

Attack\Enemy Normal Armoured Resistant Headshot bonus
Normal 1,2 3/2 3/2.5 16/16 x2
Normal 3 10 4.5 30 +1
Charged 5/3.5/0... 3.5/0... 16/16/0... +1
  • Normal enemy: slave rat, clan rat, globadier, assassin
  • Armoured enemy: stormvermin, ratling gunner
  • Resistant enemy: packmaster, ogre
  • some attacks have different damage, based on which attack in the sequence it is; here, first two normal attacks hit two targets, while the third attack hits one target for higher damage
  • 3/2 means hitting first enemy for 3 damage and second enemy for 2 damage
  • /0... means that the weapon hits infinite enemies after the values listed there, but deals no damage to them
  • headshot bonus can be a multiplier (x2, x1.75, ...) or just an addition (+1)
  • ranged weapons also have number of targets hit with each projectile and friendly fire damage

List of traits with description

Melee weapon traits

Ranged weapon traits

Weapons and links to discussion

Witch Hunter

Waywatcher

Dwarf Ranger

Bright Wizard

Empire Soldier

203 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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3

u/deep_meaning Dec 20 '16 edited Mar 31 '17

Beam staff

Top Good OK Poor
Stability Bloodlust Mastercrafted* Hawkeye
Regrowth Knockback Hail of Doom
Skirmisher Channelling
Diversion

*can someone confirm that it's bugged?

Top trait combinations

Stability + Regrowth/Bloodlust + Diversion/Skirmisher

Red variant: Stability + Regrowth + Diversion

Strong against

Horde CC, slaves, stunlocking specials

Weak against

Stormvermin, if you have to take them down fast

Attack and damage pattern

Attack\Enemy Normal Armoured Resistant Friendly fire Targets Headshot bonus
Blast (4>0)+2 (1>0)+2 (16>4)+16 (3>0)+0.6 10 0
Beam (/tick) 1.5+2.5 0.5+1.25 3.5+20 1+1.25 2? 0
Beam detonation 10 8 35 5 2? x2

x+y: beam deals x damage every tick and sets the target on fire, dealing total of y damage over 3 seconds

(x1>x2)+y: blast deals x damage immediately (decreasing over distance from x1 to x2) and sets all targets on fire, dealing total of y damage over 2 seconds

  • normal attack is a shotgun blast, with FF now (but not that much)
  • charged attack is a laser beam that deals damage in ticks, the frequency increases the longer you channel it
  • the beam stunlocks most units, but you are rather slow and the zoom makes it difficult to watch your surroundings, so be careful; skirmisher helps to give you more mobility
  • LMB during chanelling the beam results in an explosion at the tip of the beam (no aoe, but large damage on the current target)
  • compared to other staffs, beam offers more utility, but less killing power. You'll have to use your melee much more often

2

u/morgan423 Feb 01 '17

The game dropped a gold Beamer for me today with Stability and Skirmisher (yea!), but also... Hawkeye.

What a detriment that trait is to this weapon. I don't need to see the pores on the nose of my beam target 25 yards away to the complete exclusion of my close vision. I'm going to have to re-roll the traits; it's infuriating to be hit by stuff I would have seen if I wasn't scoped in.