Heroes & Careers

Summary
Heroes are any of the five playable characters in Vermintide 2. Each one has 3 careers available, the first being available from the start, while the second and third unlock by leveling the hero up to level 7 and 12 respectively.

Careers
Each playable career has its own Talent tree, an Active ability, and several Passive traits.

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 Ranger Veteran, etc), a more “tanky” career (Kerillian as a Handmaiden, Bardin as an Ironbreaker, etc), and a "dark" career (Kruber as Huntsman, Sienna as 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 Kerillian Waystalker cannot use a Crossbow, while a Kerillian Shade can.

In addition to having different abilities and weapons, careers also have different Hit Points. Most have only 100, but the Mercenary and Handmaiden have 125, and the Foot Knight, Ironbreaker, Zealot, and Unchained all have 150.

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 base cooldown, listed below. However, hitting enemies or receiving damage reduces the cooldown by the seconds listed below. Damage is per 1 damage received.