For nearly a month now Fatshark has been experimenting with the Big Balance Beta update on the test servers. For good reason too, because the update has pretty much rebalanced, reworked or just tweaked every single weapon, career, enemy, boss and even map. It is by far the biggest update Vermintide 2 has ever received, and after quite a few rounds of changes, it's also among the very best!
With that in mind, I am very happy to say that Fatshark has now released yet another batch of changes, as well as revealed that the Big Balance Beta's time is quickly coming to an end. If "nothing outlandish happens", it is expected to finally make its way onto the live servers early next week!
There are far too many changes for me to summarize, but what I will say is that I fully approve of the direction Fatshark is currently taking Vermintide 2 in. Despite playing for dozens of hours on the Big Balance Beta, I have not found a single weapon that feels bad to use, not even the traditionally terrible weapons such as Mace & Shield or Saltzpyre's Brace of Pistols. I'm sure someone will find a weapon I missed that's still kinda mediocre, but from everything I've seen on the beta, it's all going to come down to what sort of playstyle you prefer.
However, the changes I find particularly appealing have nothing to do with the weapons themselves, but rather with the enemies you use them against. The Big Balance Beta has finally made it so Chaos Warriors no longer ice-skate towards you, zombies no longer do crazy 180° turns in order to hit you, and those damnable marauders no longer appear out of nowhere in order to do a charge attack from behind fifteen different enemies! It is truly astonishing how much these changes have improved the overall flow of gameplay, especially when fighting hordes since their behavior is now a lot less erratic and a lot more manageable for even a solo player.
No more power-sliding Chaos Warriors, thank Sigmar!
As far as problems are concerned, there is one issue I have with the Big Balance Beta - it has made the game just a bit too easy. With newly buffed weapons and rebalanced enemies, a skilled player can quite easily go through an entire map without taking much damage. Some might argue that's exactly how it should be, and I fully agree, but I do feel like the skill requirement in order to achieve that is just a bit too low. I shouldn't be able to take a class I rarely play, pick up a weapon I've never used, and then still cruise through Legend difficulty without as much as a scratch. I can only hope Fatshark will either correct this, or at the very least add another difficulty level for us weirdos that like to get smacked around by ratmen on occasion.
Once the Big Balance Beta goes live I'll make sure to let you know, and just in case you haven't already seen it, allow me to end this by mentioning that the upcoming Back to Ubersreik DLC will bring 3 remastered classic Vermintide maps into Vermintide 2. The details are currently few and far between, but you can expect to see the DLC at some point this December.