We are incredibly excited to announce the launch of Patch 5.1.0 and with it, the release of Sienna's new Career: the Necromancer! Just in time for Geheimnisnacht...

On top of the Necromancer, this patch introduces some bugfixes, feature tweaks, and optimization improvements, including a massive shrink to the install size of the game!



The Necromancer is a new Career for Sienna Fuegonasus. This DLC contains the new playable career with its own talent tree and abilities, two new weapons, cosmetics, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2585630/Warhammer_Vermintide_2__Necromancer_Career/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2585640/Warhammer_Vermintide_2__Necromancer_Cosmetic_Upgrade/

Necromancers raise the dead to fulfill their every command. Drawn to the Dark Magic following a battle with her twin sister Sofia, Sienna now strides into battle at the head of a company of skeletons, wielding a Soulstealer Staff and Ensorcelled Reaper to bestow the gift of death upon her foes.

As a Necromancer, Sienna will be able to slay her foes with most of her existing arsenal, as well as the two new, unique weapons!

The Ensorcelled Reaper is a threatening two-handed weapon with fantastic cleave and powerful impact. Its special attack causes Sienna to slam the weapon into the ground, releasing a blast of energy around her. This weapon is useable by all of Sienna's careers.

The Soulstealer Staff is a vile conduit of Necromantic magic. The primary attack fires a cursed bolt that bounces between enemies, staggering and applying a damage over time effect. The secondary attack earns the staff its namesake, by letting you target an enemy and ripping at its soul, dealing massive damage. This weapon is only useable by Sienna's Necromancer career.




Sienna’s flames now burn with a cold, unearthly light that saps enemy vigour, causing them to suffer 20% additional damage from Sienna and her Servants.

• Mistress of Death: Sienna can command her servants to Attack or Defend. She can also Release them to ventilate Overcharge.
  
• Lifetaker: Killing an enemy grants 2% crit for 4 seconds. Max stacks 5.
  
• Cold Flames: Sienna’s damage over time effects last 100% longer.

Sienna calls the dead to do her bidding, raising a company of 6 Skeleton Warriors to fight at her side. They last until destroyed, or until Sienna casts Raise Dead again.


Wielding this Icon, Sienna can issue commands to her skeletal minions! This Icon is stored in Sienna's potion slot when playing as a Necromancer. Don't worry, she still has room for a potion, as well!

• Attack Command: Orders your skeletons to attack target enemy and increases their damage by 60% for 8 seconds.
  
• Defend Command: Orders your skeletons to defend target area and reduces the damage they take by 80%.
  
• Death's Release: Release a Skeleton from its servitude, instantly Ventilating 70% Overcharge.

• Corpsemaker: Damaging multiple enemies in one swing with a melee weapon grants temporary health. Max 5 enemies.
  
• Deathdealer: Melee killing blows restore temporary health based on the health of the slain enemy.
  
• Life Leeching: Healing yourself with a First Aid Kit or a Healing Draught also heals your nearby allies for 20.0% of their maximum health. Clears any wounds.

• Vanhel's Danse Macabre: +12% attack speed when 4 skeletons are alive.
  
• Death Ascendent: Casting spells grants 5% ranged power for 6 seconds. Max stacks 5.
  
• Reaping: Critical attacks have +25% power and unlimited cleave.

• Mainstay: Deal 40% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 60% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.
  
• Smiter: The first enemy hit always counts as staggered. Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.
  
• Enhanced Power: Increases total Power Level by 7.5%. This is calculated before other buffs are applied.

• Cursed Blood: Critical attacks against enemies afflicted by the Malediction of Nagash cause them to burst, damaging nearby enemies based on the damage of the attack.
  
• Soul Harvest: The Malediction of Nagash rips the soul from targets that die. Harvesting 8 souls causes the next attack to be a guaranteed Critical Hit.
  
• Withering Touch: On releasing a Skeleton, all Sienna's attacks for the next 15 seconds ignite enemies, causing damage over time.

• Spirit Leech: Killing an elite enemy restores 15% cooldown.
  
• Curse of the Undeath: Casting Raise Dead reduces damage inflicted on Sienna by 80% for the next 3 hits.
  
• Lost Souls: Venting 20% overcharge unleashes a soul that steals health from a nearby enemy restoring 2 temporary health.

• Army of the Dead: Raise Dead now causes Skeletons to remain for 20 seconds before decaying.
  
• Barrow Blades: Skeletons now carry two cursed blades. When raised, and when attacking, they ignite enemies, causing damage over time.
  
• Dread Seneschal: Increase Skeleton health and damage by 50%. Command Attack now orders a charge. Command Defend can be issued simultaneously.

With this patch, we are reworking how we store assets in the game files. Previously, each level kept a copy of each asset it would use in its own file, so even if the same asset was used in different levels, each level would have its own copy. This was done to optimize loading times on HDDs, as storing assets this way would make loading into the map much faster.

However, as the game kept expanding, and specially after the addition of Chaos Wastes, the resulting install size was becoming a bit much. We've rebundled the game so that now we only store a single copy of a good chunk of our assets. The result is that we've managed to shrink the install size from 100.89 GB (pre-Necromancer install size) to 58.87 GB for this patch! Hell yes.


The above mentioned change should mean that while the install size got smaller, the load times for HDDs might've become worse (SSDs should be unaffected). However! With the same patch we're also introducing changes to our loading algorithm (particularly in the compression part of the loading process) to improve our loading times. We're expecting a slightly longer loading screen when booting up the game, but much faster loading screens when loading into levels, overall reducing loading times.

Overall, according to our tests, this should mean that HDDs should not see any changes to load time speed despite the rebundling change, while SSDs will load faster!


Some of you may already be familiar with this. Usually when we patch the game, we essentially add files on top of the existing files, which does mean that the game increases in size as we keep patching (even if it's just changes to existing features) and every now and then we need to re-base (we've sometimes called this a re-master). This means deleting all of the 'extra' files and updating the core files so that they contain all the changes, thus reducing the install size to the minimum possible.

Well, we've done that with this patch but ALSO, we're re-working our patching strategy so that we don't need to do the whole extra file thing again. This should mean that, moving forward, patches won't result in the game taking up more and more space.

Fair warning, though, because of this rebasing, the patch might take a while to download and install, as you're essentially downloading the entire game again.

We've updated some in-game systems to consume less RAM memory while in game. While these might seem somewhat minor for players who have plenty of it, systems such as consoles or PCs with lower RAM should have a more stable experience.



We've implemented both Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR 2.2 technologies into the game's options, allowing players with lower end hardware to enable them to greatly improve performance at minimal loss of graphical fidelity. We've seen several requests to add these in the past few months so we're glad to be able to deliver there! Please note that these options are only available in the DirectX 12 version of the game.

Unfortunately, we've realized that the introduction of DLSS will mean that the game will cease to be compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. As Steam is going to cease supporting these operating systems in January, we've decided to go ahead with the implementation and cease support of these operating systems ahead of time. We're sorry if there's any fans we're disappointing with this change.





It's probably no coincidence that Sienna's spooky new outlook on (un)life coincides with the return of Morrslieb and with it, Geheimnisnacht! Our Geheimnisnacht event will be live again for all platforms, running from October 26 to November 5.

We'll have more info to reveal about the event when it drops! There will be goodies, and it will be spooky!

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We've heard a lot of comments worried that Necromancer will be the last piece of content we release for Vermintide 2. We want to take the opportunity to put you guys at ease! While we can't mention any specifics, we can confirm that there is more content being developed for this game, and we can't wait to be able to announce it to you all! But for now, enjoy Necromancer, enjoy the upcoming Geheimnisnacht, and look forwards to our next announcement!

Without further ado...



With the addition of DLSS, the game will cease to be compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. As Steam is going to cease supporting these operating systems in January, we've decided to go ahead with the implementation and cease support of these operating systems ahead of time. We're sorry if there's any fans we're disappointing with this change.

• Added a system to dynamically load projectiles into memory, rather than always load them, to save memory.
  
• Various tweaks to the way player animations work that saves some memory and simplifies things internally.
  
• Implemented DLSS.
  
• Implemented FSR 2.2.
  
• Rebundled the game to take up much less space.
  
• Improved our level loading algorithm.
  
• Re-based our game files and changed our patching strategy to prevent file size bloat from future patches.

• Added visual effects for players who are on fire!
  
• Chaos Wastes: Outcast Engineer's 'Bombardier' talent now works with Morgrim's Bomb. Hehehehehe...
  
• Chaos Wastes: Potions of Endless Bombs no longer replaces a player's incendiary grenade with regular bombs.
  
• For Winds of Magic owners, Minotaurs are now an option for the Barn monster in Against the Grain. Surprise!
  
• Enemies set ablaze by a shot from the Moonfire bow now have an appropriately colored on-fire effect.
  
• Added a voice chat indicator that highlights which player is currently talking, when using ingame voice chat. This was added several updates ago, but it was missed in the patch notes so it's being mentioned here!

• Fixed a client crash when players join a lobby while Sister of the Thorn is moving. Damn elves can't stand still, can they?
  
• Fixed rare crash that causes joining client to occasionally crash if the team transitions to another level while client is joining.
  
• Fixed a visual bug which kept the Grauber's Arms illusion from displaying the proper glow.
  
• Fixed our heroes not always being chatty enough on the start of banter of Convocation of Decay, Skittergate & Blurblebla Haylesplurge
  
• Players won't get punked on by other Heroes for healing themselves when they have low permanent health, but a lot of temporary health.
  
• Chaos Wastes: Outcast Engineer no longer loses his stacks of bombs when drinking a Potion of Endless Bombs.
  
• Fixed the following weapon illusions having the wrong icon:
  
  • Kruber Spear and Shield:
    • Grauber's Arms
    • Weave-Forged Spear and Shield
    • Dantov's Guard
    
  • Trollhammer Torpedo:
    • Grobbok
    • Bugritbok
    
  • Coruscation Staff:
    • Elvarin's Rod of Destruction
    • Aqshy's Lament
    
  • Moonfire Bow:
    • The Voice of Lileath
    • Cadai-galand
    
  • Griffon-foot:
    • Meffler's Never-Fail Crowd Controller
    • Gunner's Judgement
  
  
• The elf-thing's ricochet projectiles now ricochet properly for clients.
  
• Fixed Huntsman Kruber not complaining about a lack of ammo when using his longbow.
  
• Fixed missing voicelines for clients when gaining Overcharge.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Trollhammer Torpedo illusion "Bugritbok" left particles in the air if swapping weapons quickly back and forth.
  
• Chaos Wastes: Fixed a bug where Morgrim's Bomb would ricochet when thrown by a Waystalker with the ricochet talent.
  
• Fixed Beastmen sometimes not playing their landing sound when jumping down from a height.
  
• Fixed a purple thingie in a level that shouldn't have been visible, but was visible. Blame Tzeentch.
  
• Fixed issues with occlusion culling in the Garrison section of Righteous Stand.
  
• Fixed bug where using Disengage as Bardin Ranger Veteran with "Exhilarating Vapours" before another smoke bomb disappears would not give stealth. Bardin can now have multiple smoke screens out without losing the effects of the older ones.
  
• UI: Fixed the Input Method Editor (IME) being opened when receiving a chat message, causing the game input to freeze. Now the IME only opens when typing a message. (Thank you Iskierka for the detailed report!).
  
• Fixed perk names in the old talent menu being the career name instead of the respective perk names

Hello there, my name is Karl and I'm one of the designers on the v2 team. My task is to follow up our glorious leader's post on general necromancer production with some insight into some of the challenges and decisions we made on the gameplay level.

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Creating a career starts with a fantasy plucked from the Warhammer universe that we want to translate into our game. Usually the fantasy gives you a hunch about what tools the career possesses, how it is going to play and what role it will fill. The Necromancer deviated slightly from this. We knew that she was going to summon skeletons and throw death magic around. How exactly she was going to play and what role she would fill was a bit more of a uncertainty as player minions as a concept was completely new.

Raised skeletons in Warhammer lore are not known to be the most kill-y unit. They serve as a vanguard to keep their master and their more important units safe. A replenishable undying frontline. We drew inspiration from this and decided that this is what Sienna's skeletons should achieve at a base level. A sorcerer summoning their own frontline.

To keep this post to a reasonable length I won't go into detail about every iteration that the skeletons and AI versus AI fighting went through. Every aspect about the skeletons saw intense iteration, aspects such as summoning, formation, combat, health and duration to mention a few. The skeletons bounced between being her career skill and passive multiple times but finally landed as the career skill at the center of the necromancer kit. 6 summonable Skeletons that engage enemies near Sienna.



Process of tweaking aggro and leash range of skeletons when Sienna is not actively fighting.

As the skeletons grew into proper minions assisting Sienna in combat we could start to consider questions that a lot of summoner classes in games have to answer to. How are the minions tied into the second to second gameplay? Summoner control has two extremes with each their own audiences. One side being the micro intensive extensive control over the available minions, high skill floor and satisfying skill ceiling with a lot of expression. The other side is the more passive way where the summoner does little to impact the actual behavior of the summons but rather supports them with things like debuffs and control, letting their servants do the work for them. We wanted to place the Necromancer somewhere in between, allowing for some level of control to gain more from your skeletons without making it a barrier of entry to the career.

Without any player input the skeletons will stay near Sienna, attack nearby enemies and soak up enemy threats. To give players control (and tying in the skeletons in the second to second gameplay), we created three commands: attack, defend and release, granting players the ability to issue targets, reposition and even sacrifice their skeletal servants.

The nature of being a spell caster with 6 extra bodies around to soak enemy attention gave way to her two main roles. A backline spell caster using her personal frontline as a buffer while dispensing death and a control focused summoner utilizing the great threat soaking potential of minions to grant the party breathing room. This we felt slotted into the Sienna career lineup.



To reduce vision blocking when controlling a lot of skeletons only 4 are forced to move in formation in front of Sienna.

Regarding her weapons, one side was already solved. The Scythe, a staple to necromancers in any rpg and Sienna's first proper two handed weapon. Great weapons with great cleaves are nothing new to Vermintide and Sienna was missing out on the fun.

The Soulstealer Staff required a bit more pondering. Here the challenge was to find gameplay in the form of spells that were different from her other staves but still befitted the Warhammer lore of necromancy. The staff saw many iterations and we decided on the flavorfully on point soul drain which is slow but tackles even the biggest of brutes. Building on the theme of control we also gave the staff a haunting curse allowing the necromancer to keep multiple elites under control as they are brought low by her Necromantic magics and servants.



Trying out the Soulstealer Staff with the “Cursed Blood” talent.

To go along with her weapons and calcium crew, Sienna's main passive Malediction of Nagash causes her Necromantic magics to increase the damage the enemy suffers from her. The intent behind this passive is to transform Sienna's damage over time effects into a way to enable other parts of her kit whilst also tying in the fantasy of necromantic magics draining enemy vigor.



Which brings us the Necromancer’s talent tree. The main purpose of the Vermintide talent trees is of course offering different ways to play the career within its allotted gameplay space, but also to extend the career into more specialized versions of the power fantasy. The challenge then is to provide the players relevant options for specialized playstyles that slots appropriately into the lore. The identities we selected that would serve as guidelines were summoner, caster and melee. 

• Vanhel’s Danse Macabre: Sienna gains 12% attack speed when 4 or more Skeletons are raised.
  
• Spirit Leech: Killing an elite enemy restores 15% cooldown.
  
• Army of the Dead: Raise Dead now causes Skeletons to remain for 20 seconds before decaying.

• Death Ascendent: Casting spells grants 5% increased Ranged Power for 6 seconds. Max Stacks 5.
  
• Lost Souls: Venting 20% Overcharge unleashes a soul that steals health from a nearby enemy, restoring 2 temporary health.
  
• Barrow Blades: Skeletons now carry two cursed blades. When raised, and when attacking, they ignite enemies, causing damage over time.

• Reaping: Critical strikes have Unlimited Cleave and 25% increased Power.
  
• Soul Harvest: The Malediction of Nagash rips the soul from targets that die. Harvesting 8 souls causes the next attack to be a guaranteed Critical Hit.
  
• The Curse of Undeath: Casting Raise Dead reduces damage inflicted on Sienna by 80% for the next 3 hits.

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While the goal is to create talents that enhance the tools and feeling of a specialized build, the aim is to create talents that don't pigeon-hole players too much and are useful on their own to allow for tinkering and mix-and-matching.

So whether it is halting the enemy advance with shambling walls of bone, shriveling the enemies life essence or swinging big scythes around we hope that you will enjoy bringing death to the enemy in one way or another and we look forward to your response on the necromancer. As we pick up on our efforts to balance and evolve the game, we will keep a close eye on the numbers as the necromancer and her bad to the bone crew of restless dead enter the fray.

My name is Joakim and I'm the design director on Warhammer: Vermintide 2. I've been a part of Fatshark even longer than Lohner and for 15 years I've been working mainly with level creation and design in pretty much all of our games. Earlier this spring I took on the role of leading the design vision and direction of Vermintide 2 - like being the resident mission giver.

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Now that the long-awaited career for Sienna - the Necromancer - is just around the proverbial Ranaldstrasse corner, I want to look back at the journey leading up to this point and show you some behind the scenes production footage in this dev blog.

But first, if you haven’t read the narrative lore post then go here to get the story.
When the team started exploring what Siennas new career could be, they started with our three general career goals in mind:

• To create a career that was fun and cool, and that had its own gameplay space in the lineup.
  
• To explore something new that helped us innovate a technical aspect.
  
• To delight you with something unexpected yet plausible for the Hero.

The idea of a Necromancer has been kicking around for a long time - it was already in the back of our skulls when starting work on the Grail Knight. The team knew from the onset that we had to explore something that wasn’t a fire wizard simply because it would be challenging to carve out a gameplay role that didn’t cannibalize on her regular careers. From a tech perspective we also dreamt of something akin to a pet class with a summon & control type of gameplay. Together with the End Times storyline a Necromancer ticked all of those boxes.

We started out creating a concept for the Necromancer. We do similar concepts for all things that we create, highlighting details and material references so that our outsourcing partners have a clear idea of the direction we want.



Looking at the career designs it was clear that the Necromancer would be the most complex class of the bunch, and that it made most sense for it to go out last. That would give us confidence in figuring out good practices for careers in general and it gave us time to plan and lay the groundwork for the technical side of things. Most work was put into the career highlight: the skeleton minions.



We call them minions rather than bots because even though they feel similar they don’t share the same code or design space. Sienna’s skeletons are actually rather like a friendly faction of their own, sharing behavior and movement with Vermintide’s enemies. That meant a lot of work, both from a pure visual and combat behavior perspective but also balancing their presence and relative player positioning so that they didn’t end up being too noisy or obtrusive. It also meant a lot of bug fixing.







So having done the groundwork we now have a bit of tech in place for enemies fighting enemies. We’re pretty excited toying around with that for the future. :)

After a lot of prototyping the skeleton behavior was getting to a good spot, enabling us to focus on presentation and tweaking.

Career production started in earnest earlier this year with creating the Necromancer's basic building blocks - her weapons, the character model and the minions. The initial idea was of Sienna using ranged attacks to soften up enemies but having a heavy hitting toolkit to finish them off. In the beginning it might have been a bit too heavy hitting.



This combat style saw several iterations in both functionality and appearance, and the way she played was changed and tweaked over several months - a special shoutout to our alpha testers who provided invaluable feedback and insight on direction.

The team worked hard to ensure we fulfilled what players would expect from a Warhammer Fantasy Necromancer. The career not only had to play well, we also had to make sure she looked the part, and stayed in keeping with the miniatures and Warhammer Fantasy lore. Extra care was put into nailing down how she could summon skeletons, which saw us going back and forth with it being an active or passive ability (and trying out different alternatives for visual presentation).



Of course, having figured out a design doesn’t mean the work ends then and there - it’s all about finding that sweet spot between gameplay balance, performance targets and sheer fun. Some ideas didn’t make it, but the team sure had fun exploring them. :)



We’re super happy to soon release the Necromancer and the recently deceased upon Helmgart and surroundings, and we hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes blog. A big thank you to all our players and our fantastic community. And rest assured, we’ll be back soon enough with more cool things to reveal in the next dev blog showing you what actually made it into the career.

Come along Darlings, let's go save the world.

— Joakim, on behalf of the Vermintide 2 team.

The Ubersreik Five have been through some stuff haven’t they? Confounding the evil machinations of the Skaven at Ubersreik (even if they couldn’t quite save the city in the process). Then thwarting the Pactsworn alliance in the depths of Helmgart (again, a bit late to actually save the city, but who’s quibbling?). Little did they know that these weren’t isolated invasions of the kind the Empire has endured since its founding, but harbingers of a new and terrible age: the End Times, when the laughter of the dark gods finally swallows the world.

The Five have known for a while that something isn’t right, of course. Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Change, has been dabbling away with the causality of the mortal world, tangling fate and destiny into new designs for no other reason than because he can.

This isn’t to say that our bold Five have drawn the attention of the Chaos Gods … well, perhaps the odd curious eyeball from time to time. It’s more that they’re caught in the ripples as the dark brothers hurl stones into the pool of reality. They’re not alone in that. The wider world has problems of its own beyond marching armies and bloodthirsty warriors.

But nor have the Five been completely untouched. Other entities have manipulated our heroes for their own ends. The goddess Lileath - known to Bretonnians as the Lady of the Lake - anoints Kruber as one of her Grail Knights, even as Kerillian falls from her light and under the sway of the bleak Cytharai goddesses. Be’lakor, the Dark Master, deceives the puritanical Victor Saltzpyre into seeking the Citadel of Eternity - and then a Warrior Priest’s mantle - for reasons of his own. And it may yet be that Bardin’s embrace of the newfangled and oft-cursed engineer’s vocation is not so whimsical as it seems.

Now, as Geheimnisnacht draws near, it’s Sienna’s turn.

Since time immemorial, a network of elven waystones has channelled the eight Winds of Magic - the stuff of Chaos itself - into the Great Vortex at the heart of the high elven realm of Ulthuan. But as the End Times gather pace, this network is failing, and one being in particular seeks advantage in that calamity.

When Nagash, the Great Necromancer, conspires to yet another resurrection this fateful Geheimnisnacht, he has more in mind than a simple return. Reborn, he lays claim to the Wind of Death, becoming a veritable god … and in the process making his dark art of Necromancy more accessible than ever before.

As the End Times gather pace, countless wizards dabble in necromantic magic out of pride, desperation, greed or simple curiosity. Balthasar Gelt, Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic will become the most prominent of these, wielding the dead as a weapon to contain the northlander invasion.


The sorceries that empower Necromancy are hollowing and dangerous. But then all magic is corrosive to mortals, to greater or lesser degree. It’s why so much of even the simplest spellcraft is bound up in ritual and somatic conjuring - it gives a wizard a means to minimise their exposure and their risk. And of course, necromancy’s great power arises through the most selfish of means: the binding of other creatures (albeit dead) to one’s own will - and having absolute dominion over anything - much less (once) living creatures seldom ends well.

Given these physical, mental and spiritual pressures, it’s no wonder that Necromancers turn evil - or else go so mad as makes no difference. When the boundary of mortality becomes so blurred, death loses its meaning - especially the death of those who stand in one’s way. And death is … so much tidier than living. Skeletons don’t talk back. They don’t need food or encouragement. They simply await their next command. And is it really so evil to press the dead to service if it saves the living?

Such was certainly Balthasar Gelt’s logic during the End Times, and he was by no means the first. So many of the Necromancers who rose to bedevil the world first began as wizards driven by simple curiosity, only to be led astray, one misstep after another.

Perhaps Sienna’s reasoning is much the same? Of all the Ubersreik Five, she’s the first to be appalled at the carnage and cruelty they encounter. More than that, though Saltzpyre has struggled to give her the benefit of the doubt, her impetuousness and her addiction to magic have always threatened to lead her down darker roads. Perhaps Nagash’s unshackling of the Wind of Death simply presented an irresistible opportunity?

Maybe - just maybe - a third party fanned those flames during her recent periods of absence from Taal’s Horn Keep? The daemon Be’lakor has manipulated our heroes at least since they returned to Castle Drachenfels. Is Sienna his latest toy? Or perhaps Sienna found a secret mentor, just as Gelt fell under the sway of Vlad von Carstein? Stranger things have happened in the shadow of the Chaos Gods.

Or is Sienna’s twin sister Sofia to blame? She’s always served as Sienna’s dark mirror, a soul free to act however she wished - to embrace all that magic has to offer - while Sienna strove for discipline. Did the Five’s battle to reclaim Olesya’s tower gather old resentments to the surface?

It may even be the case that Sofia’s influence is of a more direct kind … there is little more dangerous - or desperate - than a Necromancer’s spirit.

Whatever the truth, we’re going to find out together in the weeks and months to come.

The End Times have barely begun, and the Ubersreik Five have battles yet to fight.

We’ve seen some questions regarding Sienna’s arsenal with the launch of Necromancer so we’ve gone ahead and prepared this graphic for you all to reference at a glance!




The new weapons coming with the Necromancer career are the Ensorcelled Reaper, a slow but powerful scythe weapon, and the Soulstealer Staff, which seeks out lives to snuff as it lives up to its name…

While these spooky weapons perfectly fit the withered hands of any Necromancer, this is still our Sienna! As a Necromancer, she will still have access to all of her existing staves and melee weapons, with the exception of the Flamestorm Staff.

Additionally, of her new weapons, the Ensorcelled Reaper will also be available to her previous careers, while the vile magicks of the Soulstealer Staff are exclusive to the Necromancer career.

We know you’re anxious for more news and information! In the coming weeks we’ll be releasing some dev blogs about Necromancer, starting with one focused on the lore and narrative of the career. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, in case you missed it, the people at Gamereactor interviewed us during Gamescom and they got to ask some questions and have a go at Necromancer Sienna, here’s the link to the article.

Is this real? ... Is it a dream? ... A nightmare? Or perhaps ... it's truth.

We're excited to announce Sienna's fourth career, the Necromancer, will release on Steam, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 on October 19!

Sienna’s Necromancer career is born from a fight with her twin sister, Sofia, granting her new powers and abilities that allow her to command the dead. How, exactly, these powers were obtained by the once Bright Wizard have yet to be revealed.

We know it's been a long time coming, and we can't wait to see you all try your hand at this new forbidden magic! Stay tuned as we get closer to her launch date for more information on her talents, abilities, and gameplay.

We've just put out patch 5.0.2, a collection of fixes, a few tweaks, and an update to the Collector's Edition Soundtrack to include soundtrack versions of the Chaos Wastes OST.

Bonus Content (~300 MB)

• The Collector's Edition has been updated to include the soundtrack for Chaos Wastes.

Hotfix 5.0.2 (~100 MB)

• The Crimson Greatsword (Executioner Sword) illusion now has the appropriate icon.
  
• Fixed various localisation issues.
  
• Twitch mode: Changed Spawn Size setting widget from a stepper to a slider, allowing setting values like 199% from in-game. Also bumped up the maximum allowable value from 200% up to 300%. Happy Twitching!
  
• Twitch mode: Added a failsafe against setting the minimum vote time and time between votes externally to prevent crashing.
  
• Fixed the "Weapon Trail VFX" setting not affecting flail skins (Dressad's Roaster, Cruciform Firebox & The Brass Flail). Furthermore, particles on the Feeble Mace have been disabled for consistency with other maces.
  
• Fix a crash that would occur when trying to apply a weapon illusion from a sign in reward in the same session.
  
• Fixed an issue where fire grenade, frag grenade, and explosive barrels dealt damage over time for a longer duration than intended. Lowered DoT instances from 3 to 1 on beings hit by impact damage.
  
• Fix rare crash when spawning orbs in the Chaos Wastes. Orbs are also now much more prone to successfully spawn in complex landscapes.
  
• Fixed ranged weapon proc buffs not triggering on target dummies in the Keep.
  
• Against the Grain: Fixed an issue where enemies could be partially submerged in the ground while progressing the "Reach the Farm" objective.
  
• Festering Ground: Fixed an issue where the skybox looked all kind of jank when viewed from within the Waystone portal at mission's end.
  
• Fortunes of War: Fixed a cheese spot.
  
• A Grudge Served Cold: Bomb Cart objective marker now follows the cart when moving. Cart should now be suitably destroyed after the explosion.
  
• A Grudge Served Cold: Fixed a snowpile that had no collision allowing players to fall through the floor.
  
• A Grudge Served Cold: Fixed a lighting issue in the area proceeding the Bomb Cart event.
  
• A Grudge Served Cold: Fixed a hangledge that was very distant from the ledge itself making pick up near impossible whilst progressing the "Locate the Vault" objective.
  
• A Grudge Served Cold: Fixed an issue where enemies could walk through a closed gate whilst progressing the "Locate the vault" objective.
  
• Into the Nest: Fixed a spot where players could get stuck.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed an issue where the objective icons could be shown incorrectly/not update appropriately.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed a spot where Ratling Gunners could shoot through a closed gate.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed an issue where there were one too many Tomes up for grabs in the mission.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed a rocky outcrop in the bridge area that had no collision.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed a spot during the 'Escape the Hilltop' objective where players could get stuck.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed an issue where players could respawn behind the group during the mid-event.
  
• Khazukan Kazakit-ha!: Fixed an issue where players could respawn in exactly the same spot as opposed to in a neat little row.
  
• Mission of Mercy: Fixed the Bell Ban challenge.
  
• Mission of Mercy: Added additional player respawn points to the mid-event.
  
• Mission of Mercy: Fixed a spot in the lava fall where players could get stuck.
  
• Mission of Mercy: Fixed the ending terror event where specials could be stacked between waves.
  
• Mission of Mercy: Clients can now fail the 'Come Prepared' challenge appropriately should the party not meet the criteria.
  
• Skittergate: Fixed an issue where clients who hotjoined during the finale could not see the Skittergate VFX.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed an issue where a player could hotjoin in to an already completed puzzle and be softlocked from progressing/catching up to the group.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed an branch on a big tree that had no collision but looked really interesting to jump on to.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed some rocks beside the same big tree that had no collision.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed a spot in the library where Saltz could see through a ceiling and kill stuff he shouldn't be able to from such a position.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed the poison pool not dealing any damage to players.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed a potion that didn't spawn appropriately unless the host themselves smashed the vase that encased it.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed an issue where battle music would not wind down in the Library area even when combat had ended.
  
• Tower of Treachery: Fixed an area where players could get out of bounds.
  
• Righteous Stand, Convocation of Decay, Athel Yenlui, Dark Omens, Trail of Treachery & Tower of Treachery: End of level explosions should now appropriately kill remaining enemies.

Hotfix 5.0.3 - June 26

• Fixed a crash that would manifest should a player hot join a Tower of Treachery mission if any of the five urns have been destroyed.

Hotfix 5.0.1 - June 14th at 13:00 CEST

• We're switching the rewards for Recruit and Cataclysm 'Karak Azgaraz' mission completion Okri's Challenges, where now the Recruit challenges will offer the Keep paintings, and the Cataclysm challenges will offer Shillings.
  
• Fix for valve door sounds being triggered on 'Mission of Mercy' level load.
  
• Fixed a crash on Mission of Mercy when more than one person activates the elevator.
  
• Fixed a crash when shooting at Sister of the Thorn's wall on Recruit or Veteran difficulty.
  
• Fixed a crash happening when client picks up the key to the Grimoire chest.
  
• Fixed a crash when client picks up potion at the same time as someone else hands them a new one.
  
• Fixed a crash when using Life Staff lift attack on a dummy in the Keep.
  
• Fixed a crash with the 'Blessings of Valaya' challenge should a player die in the spot where the challenge takes place.

• Three remastered levels to explore - Revisit Khazid Kro in three fan-favorite adventure maps, newly remastered specifically for Warhammer: Vermintide 2.
  
• New Okri’s Challenges & rewards - Challenge yourself with new Okri’s Challenges and show your accomplishments with new Keep paintings and animated portrait frames.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2445960/Warhammer_Vermintide_2__Karak_Azgaraz/





Equip your heroes in the adornments styled only for the most brave and valiant of adventurers. The Helms of the Valorous collection contains 5 premium cosmetics - one hat each for Bardin Goreksson’s Ironbreaker career, Kerillian’s Shade career, Markus Kruber’s Huntsman career, Sienna Fuegonasus’ Battle Wizard career, and Victor Saltzpyre’s Bounty Hunter career.

• The Lost Helm of Karak-Hirn - Ironbreaker Hat: I don't know. Can't put a thing down for five minutes without someone stealing it and putting it up for sale…
  
• Gladiatorial Gaze - Shade Hat: There's no mistaking the gilded mask of one who pledges themselves to Eldrazor, the Lord of Blades.
  
• Sneaker’s Helm - Huntsman Hat: Some hunters believe that adopting a fox as their totem makes them sneakier. It certainly makes them look distinctive when seen.
  
• Tri-Skull Crown - Battle Wizard Hat: A Bright Wizard seldom has a shortage of skulls close to hand, although most will need wiping clean first.
  
• Tax Collector’s Cap - Bounty Hunter Hat: Always have a dagger close to hand. You never know when someone's going to seek a rebate.

• Added a new setting, Weapon Trail VFX, to control what first-person weapon visual effects are shown on melee weapon attacks. It has 3 levels: Normal, Disabled for criticals, Off for all effects.
  • Currently the Feeble Mace, Dressad's Roaster, Cruciform Firebox & The Brass Flail are not effected by this setting, which will be corrected in the next update.
• The game window icon will now flash in the taskbar if it is not in focus when a level starts (start of the intro cutscene).
  
• The scoreboard now shows the completed level and difficulty.
  
• Fixed Witch Hunter Captain Saltzpyre's "Heretic Sighted" talent refreshing when tag duration ends and triggering on tagging downed allies.
  
• The Heroic Masquerade Collection bundle should now correctly include Sienna's Thyrus Gormann collection.
  
• Fixed an issue where quest objective markers weren't updating for clients in the brewing area of Tower of Treachery.
  
• Fixed some cases where bosses could slide about.
  
• Fixed two missing dialogue sound events for Kruber (subtitles were showing but no sound).
  
• Fixed a rare issue where the same weapon skin would show up multiple times in a player's inventory.
  
• Fixed a bug where two characters could say that they hear a ratling gunner at the same time.
  
• Fixed a crash from firing Waywatcher or Pyromancer ability after aiming it while all nearby enemies die with ragdolls turned off.
  
• Fixed a Twitch mode crash that could happen when connected to a channel with a high amount of chat activity.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur if you force closed the game on PC while playing a video.
  
• Damage dealt by Adept's Battle Wizard's ability 'Fire Walk' and Unchained's ability 'Living Bomb' now count towards end of round statistics. (fixed the use of the internal career name in this patch note, sorry for the confusion)
  
• Fixed various localisation issues.
  
• Fixed various miscellaneous crashes.

The Captains Series is an coaching event designed to help people try out modded and higher difficulties, help them grow by being paired with a coach from their region, welcome them to the modded community, and introduce them to the various Onslaught Series events and formats. How exactly it works, you can find in the official Onslaught Series discord under #announcements.

The signup period is open from now until June 26th. You can sign up alone or with your friends and you will be paired with a coach available in your timezone. The coaching period runs from June 30th–July 14th.

How to sign up
Signups are open now on the Onslaught Series discord in the #signups channel where you can find an exemplary format for how to join. Be aware, that there are only a limited amount of spots, so it's first come, first served!

During the Skulls event until June 1st, avail of mega discounts across all Vermintide 2 DLCs, and even deeper discounts on the game itself if you need to recruit some friends to the cause!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/552500/Warhammer_Vermintide_2/