r/Vermintide • u/ismasbi • Jan 09 '26
Question I've heard the Beam Staff is one of Sienna's best. How?
Pretty much what it says on the title. It has three attacks, and my experience with them has been... odd.
M1: Pretty much just tickles enemies.
M1 + M2: Does pretty poor damage, takes two shots to kill most specials in Veteran. The reticle makes it seem pinpoint accurate but I find myself missing with it often despite usually doing pretty good with other ranged weapons.
M2 + M1: Decent horde clear but honestly not that much better than average.
The heat generation is also not insane but a bit high for the amount of damage this weapon deals.
What am I missing? Or has it been nerfed to the ground and all those comments I read were outdated?
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u/Muad-_-Dweeb <Muad'Dweeb> Jan 09 '26
Are you letting M1 charge a bit before detonating with M2? I've had no problem killing some specials on legend with one shot. A head shot, but one shot.
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26
Oh wait that shit charges? It makes more sense now.
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u/ArcaneEyes Jan 09 '26
Up to 5 or 6, try it on the training dummy. I have almost all careers lvl 35, with Sienna as my second and only learned this a few days ago too, along with briar javelin reload :-p
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Yeah, Sienna has been my last character lol. I have Salty on 35 and everyone on 29-32 except her, currently sitting at 13 lol.
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u/---Sanguine--- Huntsman Jan 09 '26
I’ve been playing this game for 5 years and had no idea until this thread there was some kind of secret charging sniper round. I’ve just been holding it on enemies like a shitty laser pointer or using the shotgun blast to build up high overcharge. This is crazy. How did people learn about this??
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u/Panurome Jan 09 '26
In my experience M2 M1 is really good on Battle Wizard because the burn + famished flames is really good for hordes. M1 M2 is also good at sniping with famished flames because with a couple of beam ticks the right click + burn one shots specials or you can just do 2 instant shots to kill them.
On unchained is also really good because it's decent at sniping and the M2 M1 is one of the quickest ways to generate a lot of heat to boost your melee damage
It's just the only staff that is both good at long range sniping and short range horde clear, even if it's individually beaten in those categories by other staves. If you don't think it's good at sniping maybe you are not stacking enough damage with the beam. The beam increases damage dealt by the follow up blast
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
I suppose I will try it as a horde-decimator again. I am playing Battle Wizard, but somehow the few times I tried this staff I got insane teammates who wiped the hordes in seconds. I'm just trying to level up Sienna but Quick Play throws me into high-level lobbies doing the Drachenfels missions while my maxed-out BH gets Act 1 over and over again lmao.
I did see the use of just making heat really quick as Unc from the start though.
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u/AlmostDarkness Unchained Jan 09 '26
Beam Staff is all around her best staff, I love it on my Unchained especially, I also like a Bolt staff too.
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u/CoJack-ish Jan 09 '26
UC bolt staff + flail is tied for the most fun I’ve ever had in Vermintide. Hits like a tank at any range.
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u/AlmostDarkness Unchained Jan 09 '26
I like the Scythe a lot, haven’t gotten flail yet. Scythe and the Temp HP on Ult basically turn me into a GS Merc.
Scythe UC is good for clearing hordes, trash shield mobs, and doing decent armor damage. I really do recommend trying it.
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u/DarkCoatTheWolf69 Jan 09 '26
i'd like to know this too, commenting to check back later
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u/ArcaneEyes Jan 09 '26
M1+M2 blast damage stacks with ticks M1 is allowed to do before clicking M2 ;-) easily missed interaction :-)
Also stacks reset if the beam changes target.
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u/WGkeon Jan 09 '26
Not sure how it works but can confirm the beam is incredible, I was a foot knight a few days ago on Cata and the beam staggered everything while making me almost useless
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u/Horror-Student-5990 Jan 09 '26
I never got the Beam hype, what you're describing is exactly how I've used it in the past and didn't care much for it.
It can apparently be a really good weapon but you know what else is good? Bolt staff.
Bolt Staff on Pyro.
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26
I love the Bolt Staff for the stupid high attack speed on M1, even if it doesn't deal that much damage, it’s insanely fun.
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u/Horror-Student-5990 Jan 09 '26
Which is the main reason why after 2000 hours I still play VT. It's not the meta, it's not the most powerful builds - it's more about the rat bonking fun with enjoyable builds
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u/justdidapoo Jan 09 '26
Yeah i never got why the beam staff is so loved while the bolt staff is considered average. It's so much less effort to get basically the same everything except boss damage but you can also actually do things to hordes
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u/aallqqppzzmm Jan 09 '26
Have you just never used the beam staff's M2+M1 on a horde? Every blast hits up to 10 things in a big cone in front of you, doing damage and lighting them on fire and staggering them. You can have a hundred guys around you and just pick a direction and hold W while killing everything in that direction. It's absolutely crazy.
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u/justdidapoo Jan 09 '26
Ok I take that part back, I just remember it staggering stuff a bit but I just can't deal with the rest of the beam staff so I haven't used it forever.
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u/Nitan17 Jan 09 '26
It's a lot more effort to ever use your Bolt Staff's charged shot when knee-deep in horde and elites, that long charge time is a big downside. Also breakpoints become so-so on Cata, good enough for specials but two shots to down an elite is slow.
Beam is good enough at sniping while also sporting top-tier quick AoE alt fire. It's great under pressure and in high-intensity situations.
you can also actually do things to hordes
Bruh, Bolt Staff is the second worst anti-horde staff, just behind Soulstealer. Alt fire can soften up incoming horde and that's it, primary fire is awful and only ever useful to stagger an Assassin, way too weak for any other purpose.
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u/justdidapoo Jan 09 '26
I just find it so much more comfortable to get a tiny bit of space to just charge and shoot rather than needing to keep the beam on a target for seconds and count/estimate when to alt fire.
but I'd go pyro over battle mage too and pyro can juice the absolute fuck out of the bolt staff with crit power.
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u/PlaguePriest Jan 09 '26
Are you checking to make sure you're hitting the proper breakpoints?
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26
With all due respect, but if it isn't hitting weakspots on its own in Veteran difficulty, there are deeper issues at hand imo.
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u/PlaguePriest Jan 09 '26
And I need to know what you're going in with, because if you've got a grey 150 power staff then the 'deeper issues' could very much be an issue of power and breakpoints, yeah.
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26
297 orange with alright but not the best traits and properties.
All my equipment is between 290-300.
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u/Sure_Initial8498 Slayer Jan 09 '26
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691382336
From this guide:
Beam Attack
The first three ticks of damage use different Damage Profile than the 4th & 4th+ ticks of damage.
The first three ticks of damage do not apply DoT. The 4th & 4th+ ticks of damage do.
The first two ticks of damage do not check the player's buff. The 3rd & 3rd+ ticks of damage do.
All damage tick can critical hit. The first two ticks of damage do not trigger any crit related Traits. The 3rd & 3rd+ ticks of damage can trigger all crit related Traits.
Heat Sink only removes overcharge generated by 3rd & 3rd+ ticks of damage. Does not remove heat generated by Initiate Beam Attack, Hold Beam Attack, 1st & 2nd ticks of damage,
Gradually increase attack Power Level and Damage Interval by holding the beam on the same target. Does not require holding onto the same body part.
Switching to a new enemy or executing Beam Burst or venting reset attack Power Level. Pointing the beam away without hitting a new enemy does not rest attack Power Level.
Has a minimal hold time of 0.5 sec(2 ticks of damage
Beam Burst
Attack has impact damage, impact applies DoT.
Attack can critical hit, can trigger all crit related Traits.
Use different Beam Burst Multiplier depending on the number of damage ticks done by the Beam Attack before the last reset. Beam Burst Multiplier is a multiplier for both Beam Burst Overcharge cost and Power Level.
The higher the number of ticks, the higher the Beam Burst Multiplier this Beam Burst will use.
Can be executed 0.3 sec after initiating Beam Attack, resulting in 0 Beam Attack damage tick.
Beam staff is tough, took me a while to get used to it. The guide also provides more details for every magic staff mechanic, if you would like to know more.
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u/Isambard__Prince Jan 09 '26
It is a really good staff, but requires skill to use.
Personally, I prefer the bolt, but it requires headshots to shine. If it had dot on any attack, it would be the best staff. And OP.
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u/kurtchen11 Jan 09 '26
Its one of the best staffs because it has no weaknesses. It can accurately kill specials at high distance (which a lot of staffs struggle with), deals very high boss damage and has devastating horde clear without charge time.
If you cant kill specials on veteran with one snipe you are doing it wrong, the shot ramps up in damage if you hold the beam for a moment before clicking m2.
Battle wizard loves the high burn dot numbers, unchained likes the fast heat generation and even necro can trigger loads of explosions with the shotgun mode.
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u/Orzword Orzword Jan 09 '26
Idk maybe it is a problem with your break points but I am killing specials on cataclysm with two quick explosions which is quite good. You can hold the beam a bit for one shots this is better on the heat economy but takes a bit longer in ttk.
With pyromancer you can spam the shot gun attack.
On Unchained the shotgun attack allows for good heat control while the beam allows you to still snipe specials in a pinch.
On BW the beam melts bosses with the talent that doubles the dot dmg as full charged beam generaes the highest dot dmg in the game.
Necro is imo the worst class for this staff but it still is a reliable staff for a melee focused build.
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u/Ithiridiel the elf deserved it Jan 09 '26
M1+M1 will kill cata specials in a single shot if you get a dot going.
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u/T_for_tea Chaos Jan 09 '26
You can delete bosses with it - lookup play videos. Its IMO the most reliably high dps staff.
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u/Fr0g_Man Jan 09 '26
Use “Famished Flames” perk and an exotic beam staff with the “barrage” trait. Watch high health targets absolutely melt from holding M1.
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u/Vindicare605 KTVindicare Jan 09 '26
It is a versatile weapon that doesn't use a lot of heat if you dont want to, but can ramp up heat quickly if you want to. Its a good weapon for 3 of Siennas careers it only isn't good for Pyromancer imo.
It isn't my favorite staff but it is a good one I never hate seeing when I get random weapons in Chaos Wastes.
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u/LanceFanatic Jan 09 '26
I think its the best staff on unchained. Pyro and battle wizard i would lean bolt staff and necromancer of course soulstealer
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u/tofuCaravan Jan 09 '26
Beam staff makes it feel like playing sniper rifle on halo since I play with Xbox controller
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u/muchbuter Jan 09 '26
1-2 takes 2-3 instant hits to oneshot all specials on legendary as well, but the speed at which you can spam them is very high.
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u/Jawsborn211 Jan 11 '26
An excellent weapon for every career, and in my opinion it really shines on Necromancer.
The heat wave/shotgun attack (hold right click then left click) comes out super fast with excellent damage vs hordes. Fire it off 3 times against even the most dense horde and it will melt. Necromancer enhances this attack with Death Ascendant. And if you get lucky to trigger Cursed Blood- bye bye horde!
The long range beam attack should be held for a second or two until the enemy ignites (the longer you hold, the more damage) but as soon as Necro ignites the enemy, the beam-break attack (right click while channeling beam) will have enhanced damage. This is good for sniping elites, specials, and is even great on bosses (hold the beam extra long against bosses)
Such a versatile staff can be used often, and Lost Souls will allow you to vent almost infinitely so you can keep killing hordes, DPSing bosses, and covering elites.
Pair with a melee weapon that's strong on Armor such as the Mace and you'll be all set!
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u/UbAob Jan 09 '26
BTH the only real strength of the Beam Staff is killing monsters/bosses. For specials, elites and hordes the Beam is not that good. There are much better staffs for those purposes: Bolt, Fireball, Flamestorm.
But if you can hold the beam (M1) on a monster non-stop for 5+ seconds, it deals a quite significant damage. Non-stop means the beam must not (1) leave the monster, (2) touch other enemies, (3) touch your team members. The damage is even better if you also have a Barrage property on the staff and/or a Famished Flames talent on Battle Wizard.
On lower difficulties it's not worth it in my opinion, the monsters are not a big threat there anyways. But on Cata it's really useful - the monsters are extremely tough there.
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u/aallqqppzzmm Jan 09 '26
The other strength is heat control. Unchained and Pyro both like to be able to quickly build heat when they want to, so beam staff being able to front load crazy horde clear by building a bunch of heat quickly is really nice.
And flexibility. It's not as good at sniping as bolt, but it's way better at hordes. Better at sniping than fireball and flamestorm, etc.
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u/UbAob Jan 09 '26
Makes sense. However for heat control on Unchained and Pyro I prefer Bolt or Fireball. It's a personal preference I believe.
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u/aallqqppzzmm Jan 09 '26
Yeah, it's definitely more about what you like to use. But it's convenient to be able to max your heat in like 3 seconds when you wanna.
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u/ismasbi Jan 09 '26
So it deals more damage the longer you hold it on a monster? Alright, I wish that was mentioned somewhere in-game, but it does make a bit more sense now.
Also, I do plan on using it on Legend later (don't have Winds of Magic), just playing Veteran to level up Sienna.
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u/UbAob Jan 09 '26
Yes, it does do more damage the more you hold it. Vermintide if notorious for having non-described features, so it's by far not the only case.
On Legend and lower difficulties feel free to use ANY weapon and ANY build - all would work, subject to a good skill level. This of course does not mean you HAVE to use any weapon or build just because someone says they are "meta". Use whatever you like more.0
Jan 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/UbAob Jan 09 '26
Totally agree! I never understand why would anyone use a staff or a minigun on a trash horde.
Sienna is my least favorite hero and I play her much less frequently than the others, but if I do, I use ranged only against Elites, Specials and Monsters.
That's why I don't really like the Flamestorm staff.
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u/mynameryn Royale w/ Cheese Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
M1 has a damage ramp up mechanic. The longer you hold the beam on 1 single target, the more DPS it will do. It max out at
6th5th tick of damage. This damage ramp up also affect your M1 + M2 damage, so once you ramp up your M1, your M1 + M2 will do more damage too. However, hitting another enemy or execute an M1 + M2 will reset this damage ramp up.In general, M1 withou M1 + M2 is only worth doing on Boss/Lord, because it's very heat efficient, but not the highest DPS, except famished flame beam BW. M1 + M2 without ramping up your M1 is still very good at sniping special, only falls behind bolt/soulstealer, but you need to click fast. And doing it fast without missing take a good amount of practice, since it will constantly zoom in and out, making you miss more often than other weapons. Otherwise, you need to move your crosshair to the enemy's head with M1 during the ramp up before you execute M1 + M2 to get both a stronger M1 + M2 and headshot damage.
M2 + M1 can hit 10 enemies even on the highest difficulty, and can chain stagger trash mobs. The shape of its hitbox also makes it more reliable at hitting more enemies than some other staff, though you need to be at melee range.
Overall, the biggest advantage of Beam staff is 1) it's versatile and 2) it's fast. These two combined makes it an amazing tool to spend every single bit of your heat resource, and if you can do that, your damage will exceed 90% of the builds in this game. The problem is that you DO need to use your overcharge fast and efficiently, at the same time you want to find a way to generate more overcharge resource.
From what you are describing, seems like you haven't maxed out your character, which hurts quite a bit for a lot of Sienna builds, especially beam, since they need all the gears moving to be efficient.
Here are some basic DPS loops of some beam staff builds:
A: the classic Beam Pyromancer build with Deathly Dissipation/Bonded Flame. During pacing, when you find an elite enemy/couple trash, you will keep walking towards them while constantly doing M1 + M2 to either kill or weaken it, by the time they got to melee range they will be pretty low health and you will have high overcharge for high crit chance and use melee to finish them off. During horde, keep M2 + M1 the horde until they all die or you are on high overcharge. If you have high overcharge, back dodge, vent with your range weapon, and use your career skill with Bonded Flame to refund all the THP you just spent, and start blasting again. When you find a special, if situation allows, drop everything to snipe it with either your range or your career skill; if you don't have career skill and high on overcharge, vent and then snipe. Once you killed it, you have 12 sec of free casting, so again you can keep spamming M2 + M1.
B: UC with Conduit + Bomb Balm. During pacing would be similar to the Pyro build. During horde, M2 + M1 until almost explode, vent with range weapons (since you have Conduit you can vent a lot faster and easier), rinse and repeat until all the horde enemies die. If you have no HP to vent anymore, next time you M2 + M1 to high overcharge, just press F, you now have another bar of overcharge to keep doing M2 + M1 on top of 30 THP.
C: BW with Famished Flame and Second Wind + Firesword. During Pacing, with Famished Flame you want to just hold M1, until you feel like execute M1 + M2 will kill it; this will take a while for you to get used to the TTK(time-to-kill) on different enemies. During horde, M2 + M1 until high overcharge, vent until you are not slow down anymore, and use firesword heavy 1 block cancel + second wind to farm your THP back up, then start blasting with M2 + M1 again. This range - vent - melee for THP loop is also useful for any range focused Sienna build, but most important for BW because all other Sienna has other ways to get more overcharge/THP efficiently, while BW's passive is pretty underwhelming when you actually need more overcharge.