After spending a little while on the test servers, Vermintide 2's Update 1.0.5 has now arrived alongside some major changes. First and foremost, all weapons have had their cleave tweaked in order to give them a more defined role within a team, while all of the enemies have been made more resistant to staggering, with the effect being the most pronounced on the heavily armored Chaos Warriors. The goal behind these changes is to promote a greater variety among the classes and weapons, as well as shift the overall focus towards close quarters combat.

Since nerfs alone wouldn't exactly be fun, I'm glad to say Fatshark has dished out a whole bunch of buffs to all of the underperforming classes as well. So now the Shade can use her ultimate twice as fast, the Slayer and Zealot are a lot more resistant to damage, while the Huntsman and Handmaiden have received some rather lovely buffs to their talents. Whether all of this is going to be enough to make each class equally viable, I can't really say for sure, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Speaking of which, Fatshark has also made it so you can receive 300 Hero Power items from Veteran difficulty (up from 200). This might not sound like a big deal, but it essentially gives players an ability to progress regardless of the difficulty setting they're comfortable with, while also giving seasoned players a nice little incentive to help beginners out. Naturally, the highly sought after Red-tier items are still locked behind the biggest Champion and all Legend chests, so there is definitely a good reason present to try and push towards the higher difficulty levels.

There's a ton of other changes to go over, most of which aren't very interesting on their own, so if you're looking for all of the details you should head on over to Steam. Have fun with the new combat, and good luck with those supposedly more common Red items!