Fatshark said it would continue to support Vermintide 2 after the launch of Darktide and has done just that, with additions like new free levels and remastered levels from the original Vermintide. Next up, pyromancer Sienna will finally get her fourth career: the necromancer.
Each of Vermintide’s other heroes has had a fourth career added as DLC, with Kruber getting the option to become a grail knight, Bardin an engineer, Kerillian a Sister of the Thorn, and Saltzpyre a warrior Priest. We’ve been waiting a while for Sienna to receive a similar treatment, and design director Joakim Setterberg explained why in a recent dev blog. “Looking at the career designs it was clear that the Necromancer would be the most complex class of the bunch,” he wrote, “and that it made most sense for it to go out last”
What makes necromancer Sienna so complex is that she can summon skeletal minions with her career skill, Raise Dead. “Sienna’s skeletons are actually rather like a friendly faction of their own,” Setterberg went on, “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.”
Hinting at what’s ahead, Setterberg mentioned that “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.” In response to a comment on the Steam forum asking if we’d see another new map or additions to the Chaos Wastes, Settererg replied, “Right now, it’ll just be Necromancer, but we definitely have some things lined up in the future you will enjoy based on what you’ve commented!”
In addition to Raise Dead, necromancer Sienna has a passive called Malediction of Nagash that turns her fire attacks into an eerie energy that makes targets suffer 20% more damage from her attacks, and those of her pets. (Meaning the skeletons, not the other players.) Her perks are Mistress of Death, which lets her give attack or defend commands to skeletons as well as dismiss them to ventilate some overcharge; Lifetaker, which gives a bonus to crit chance whenever she kills someone; and Cold Flames, which doubles the duration of her damage-over-time effects. She also gets some new weapons in the Soulstealer Staff and Ensorcelled Reaper.
The minions are the main draw though, giving Vermintide 2 a summon-focused class that doesn’t play like any other. The Necromancer DLC will be out on October 19, and Fatshark has emphasized this won’t be the last addition to Vermintide 2. “There is plenty of new content being worked on”, one of the developers said on Reddit. “This isn’t even close to being the last DLC”.