Heroes & Careers

Heroes
There are five playable characters in Vermintide 2, each with three career. Each career has its own Talent tree, an Active ability, and several Passive traits.

Victor Saltzpyre, a Witchhunter who can be a Witch Hunter Captain, a Bounty Hunter, or a Zealot.

Kerillian, a Wood Elf who can be a Waystalker, a Handmaiden, or a Shade.

Sienna Fuegonasus, a Brightwizard who can be a Battle Wizard, a Pyromancer, or an Unchained.

Markus Kruber, an Empire Soldier who can be a Mercenary, Huntsman, or a Foot Knight.

Bardin Goreksson, a Dwarf who can be a Ranger Veteran, Ironbreaker, or a Slayer.

Each Hero starts with 100 Hitpoints, but some careers have more.
 * 150: Knight, Ironbreaker, Zealot, Unchained
 * 125: Mercenary, Handmaiden

Careers
Careers are a new feature for Vermintide 2, bringing variety, flavor, and more viable build options into the game. Each Hero has 3 careers, which represent potential paths for that hero after the events of Vermintide 1.

Each Hero has a progression career (staying true to their Vermintide 1 style: ie Saltzpyre as the Witch Hunter Captain, Bardin as the Veteran Ranger, etc), a more “tanky” career (Kerillian as a Handmaiden, Bardin as an Ironbreaker, etc), and a "dark" career (Kruber Huntsman, Sienna Unchained, etc).

Each Career has a few Passive abilities and one Active ability, which do different things for the team and that hero. Passive abilities are static bonuses to the character and sometimes the team. Active abilities are bound to F by default and have a cooldown between uses that varies by career. The purple bar at the bottom of the screen shows whether or not this ability is ready to be used.

Different Careers also have different Equipment options, for example a Waystalker cannot use a Crossbow, while a Shade can.

Talents
While Careers already give a variety of options, Talents allow you to customize your character even more.

For every 5 levels gained on a hero (through level 25), a new tier of talents is unlocked. There are 3 talents at each tier, and only one talent from a given tier may be selected. Each talent can greatly influence your abilities, leading to hundreds of unique builds.

Abilities
Each Career has several passive bonuses but also an ability they can activate by pressing F. Each ability has a cooldown, listed below. Kruber:
 * Mercenary - 3:00
 * Huntsman - 2:00
 * Foot Knight - 0:30

Bardin:
 * Ranger Veteran - 2:00
 * Ironbreaker - 3:00
 * Slayer - 0:30

Kerillian:
 * Waystalker - 1:30
 * Handmaiden - 0:25
 * Shade - 2:00

Saltzpyre:
 * Witch Hunter Captain - 3:00
 * Bounty Hunter - 1:30
 * Zealot - 0:40

Sienna:
 * Battle Wizard - 1:30
 * Pyromancer - 0:40
 * Unchained - 3:00