Screenshot: Warhammer: Vermintide 2
While I knew there was going to be a an announcement at the Video Game Awards for
Vermintide 2, I wouldn’t have guessed with 100 percent certainty that it was going to be a new career, but it was definitely the safe bet to make. Now that we have Saltzpyre’s fourth career, we’re just waiting to see what Sienna’s last career is going to be—and then shortly after, we (hopefully) should be enjoying
Darktide. But in the meantime, we have a solid support Saltzpyre that can take damage, and help his team.
If you’re not familiar with it,
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is a first person action role-playing game that plays like a sword and sorcery
Left 4 Dead. If you haven’t played it, you’re definitely missing out: it’s still one of my favorite four player co-op games, and it’s my preferred even over more recent releases, like
Back 4 Blood. I’ve always maintained that
Vermintide 2 has some of the best (if not the best) first person melee combat. Weapons feel great to use against the hordes of Ratmen, Beastmen and Chaos touched Norsemen. It’s not all melee in
Vermintide 2, however, with plenty of guns and bows to rain hell on the hordes of enemies you and your three companions will face off against, with each character playing one of five characters, and having four careers of their own . I had a chance to put Saltzpyre’s new career through its paces, and I’m a little mixed on the results.
Screenshot: Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Saltzpyre’s new career sees him as a Warrior Priest of Sigmar, which is right at home with Satlzpyre’s fanatical ways. What that means gameplay-wise is a character with a good amount of tankiness and decent support options for the team. On paper, his talents and passives made him sound like a beast that could dish out damage, heal the team, and survive where others can’t—but the truth of it was a little more tempered, at least through my Chaos Waste runs (which is the primary mode we play since it released.)
Warrior Priest Saltzpyre has a new resource gauge called Fury. It doesn’t really fuel any of his new abilities, but once the bar is full, it does impart extra damage to enemies while providing an extra bonus, bestowed by a talent (your options are heal your team, pushing causes shockwaves or extra stagger power—I chose healing.) If you like to go on runs for Grimoires and Tomes, Warrior Priest is built for it, with his built-in one hundred percent curse resistance—Grimoires don’t reduce his health like they do for the rest of the team. Warrior Priest also has the ability to shield himself or an ally (or both, depending on talent) for five seconds of invulnerability—that doesn’t’ sound like a a lot, but it’s plenty of time to get out of a hairy situation, or deal damage to a rampaging Monster. This invulnerability shield can also be used to revive fallen comrades, if you chose that as your level 30 talent.
Screenshot: Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Warrior Priests are known for their usage of hammers, and that means there is a whole new set of weapons for Saltzpyre to use as Warrior Priest, and Zealot—his other two careers, Bounty Hunter and Witch Hunter Captain, can’t use the new weapons. Even Zealot is limited to what weapons he can use from the new Warrior Priest arsenal, since Zealot can’t use any of the shields. I was genuinely surprised on how many new weapons were introduced with this career, and I’m even still trying to figure out my favorite from the bunch.
These weapons aren’t entirely unique, however, and feel like variations of weapons that other characters/careers could already use. For instance, the dual hammers function and feel a lot like Bardin’s dual hammers, and the Holy Great Hammer feels a lot like Kruber’s hammer, and even has much of the same move set. Some might say this is lazy, but each career has their own set of talents and passive talents that make these weapons feel good, and different enough in the hands of a new character/career that these “copycat” weapons feel exciting.
Screenshot: Warhammer: Vermintide 2
While I was hoping Saltzpyre’s Warrior Priest would be a powerful companion to the overpowered Sister of the Thorn, Fatshark has made a much more balanced release. Warrior Priest is a good support that can take damage, but he won’t really ever be the most damage dealing on the team. Still, Warrior Priest takes Saltzpyre in a new mechanical direction that makes sense for the character’s fervency for Sigmar. This Saltzpyre career represents a radical new way to play the one-eyed fanatic, and makes him one of the characters with the most diverse set of careers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTK2_yQqhok&t=3s
Saltzpyre's Warrior Priest career is
available now as downloadable content for Warhammer: Vermintide 2.
A Steam key for the career and accompanying cosmetic pack was provided to us for this review.
