The Unchained is Sienna's third unlockable Career in Warhammer: Vermintide 2. Unlike her other two ranged-focused Careers, the Unchained wields melee weapons on the frontlines, treading the line between life and death through Overcharge management.

Related: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - Handmaiden Build Guide

The Unchained is by far Sienna's most difficult Career to play, but can be extremely rewarding if played correctly. If you like high-risk, high-reward classes, Unchained is the Career for you. Below, we'll take a look at each of her abilities, weapons, and talents, and some tips for building her.

Career Overview

General Gameplay

The key to the Unchained is in her Blood Magic passive and general Overcharge management. Essentially, Blood Magic means that the Unchained always takes 50 percent less damage from all attacks. The cost, however, is that damage taken is converted into Overcharge, which can quickly push you toward an implosion if you're not careful.

You will want to keep your Overcharge level high at most times to take advantage of the Unstable Strength perk, drastically increasing your melee damage while Overcharge is high. This means that you will always be at risk of exploding, but you can mitigate this risk by keeping your Career Skill ready for emergencies. Living Bomb will instantly clear all Overcharge, and can be used in conjunction with the level 25 Talent Abandon to quickly save yourself if you start exploding.

Weapons

Melee Weapons

The Unchained can use the following melee weapons.

• Sword
• Flame Sword
• Dagger
• Mace
• Crowbill (Back to Ubersreik DLC)
• Flaming Flail (Winds of Magic DLC)

As a melee-oriented Career, it's important to choose a melee weapon that you like using. In general, the Flame Sword and Flaming Flail are great for cleaving hordes, while the Dagger and Crowbill are good for single-target staggering. The Dagger has low damage per attack, but high attack speed, meaning it stands the most to gain from the Unchained's Unstable Strength perk, drastically increasing the damage of each attack.

Ranged Weapons

The Unchained has the following selections of staves to choose from.

• Fireball Staff
• Flamestorm Staff
• Bolt Staff
• Beam Staff
• Conflagration Staff
• Coruscation Staff (Forgotten Relics DLC)

For the most part, you will be using melee weapons more than ranged weapons to take advantage of Unstable Strength, but the staff you use is an equally as important decision. As the Unchained, your staff will be used to snipe specials and elites from afar, using your melee weapon to cut through hordes and armored enemies.

The Fireball Staff and Bolt staff are great choices for single-target damage, while the Flamestorm Staff, Beam Staff, Conflagration Staff, and Coruscation Staff are excellent AoE options. Choose the staff you like to use the most, as this is the weapon you will play the best with.

Talents

Level 5 Talents

Your first Talent choice depends on the melee weapon you are using. You will be relying heavily on this Talent to keep you alive, so choosing the right one is important. For weapons with good stagger, like the Dagger and Flame Sword, Soul Quench will generate the most temporary health. All other melee weapons will heal more with Reckless Rampage.

Level 10 Talents

Frenzied Flame will provide the highest damage increase while at high Overcharge, which is where you will want to be anyways to take advantage of Unstable Strength. With these two passives combined, your melee attacks will hit hard and fast, granted you can keep your Overcharge above 50 percent.

Outburst and Chain Reaction aren't as good options here, as Outburst's burning damage isn't very good and Chain Reaction can be unreliable.

Level 15 Talents

For melee-oriented Careers that rely on staggering enemies for temporary health, Smiter is usually the best option. Unchained, however, does not have access to this Talent, so Enhanced Power is the second-best choice. Although the Unchained is a melee-focused Career, you will still be relying on your staff to kill high-health enemies from afar, and Enhanced Power will better allow you to do this.

Level 20 Talents

The Unchained's level 20 Talents all provide powerful defensive bonuses, with Dissipate being the best option. This Talent will allow you to manage your Overcharge the best; blocking will vent Overcharge, and you can dodge backward instead of blocking to keep Overcharge high. Conduit can be good in lower difficulties if you can generate more temporary health to use for manually venting, but can be difficult to do if health is scarce.

Numb to Pain falls into a similar category, as it requires you to be constantly manually venting your Overcharge to retain its bonus damage reduction. This can be hard to do, especially if you don't have enough temporary health to vent. Especially when compared to Dissipate, which makes venting Overcharge free and easy.

Level 25 Talents

Abandon is almost essential for not exploding when playing as the Unchained. This talent will essentially allow you to save yourself from exploding after reaching maximum Overcharge, as long as Living Bomb is ready. If Living Bomb is not ready, you'll need to play very carefully anyway to avoid Overcharging yourself and getting knocked down.

Level 30 Talents

Bomb Balm is an incredibly powerful defensive Talent that can save you in dire situations. Especially when paired with Abandon, you can intentionally Overcharge yourself before using Bomb Balm to drastically increase your damage, then quickly generate temporary health and clear your Overcharge. This Talent lets you play a bit more aggressively as the Unchained, which perfectly suits the Career's intended playstyle.

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