After playing this mode for awhile, I have a few simple suggestions to make it way more enjoyable and balanced. I know most players don't even care about the mode, but I feel Versus has potential to be a fun mode for players to enjoy as a break from the base game. In its current state, Versus mode is a joke game-mode that rewards players for picking overpowered perks that require little skill to use. Here are my suggestions:
1. Remove level 25 Zed-time perks from the mode.
This game mode is just filled with level 25 Berzerkers running around in real time being untouchable gods. Teams can win just by getting lucky with Zed-time when fighting Fleshpounds and Scrakes, using their level 25 perks to annihilate everything. One team may get wiped by Scrakes because Zed-time didn't activate, while other teams win entirely off of a lucky Zed-time that allow perks like SWAT and Berzerker to chew up everything. Being a Zed stuck in slow-motion while players gain a huge upper-hand with no counterplay is a ridiculously anti-fun game mechanic.
2. Perks need to be specifically balanced for Versus.
Perks like Berzerker, Firebug, and (maybe) Field Medic need to be nerfed due to the high amount of damage, tanking and healing they can do with so little skill required on the player's part. Precision Perks like Commando, Gunslinger, and Sharpshooter are woefully under-powered in contrast. They do not posses enough damage to effectively deal with the trash player Zeds, despite being the high skill perks. Precision classes are not rewarded enough for having the skill to aim at enemies. Player Zeds are always spastically jumping and dodging around, so the shots precision classes can get in are not enough to make up for how hard it is to kill enemy Zeds. Simply put: Firebug, Berzerker, and Medic need nerfs, precision classes need slight buffs.
3. All perks players use in Versus should be automatically set to level 25 for ease of balance.
So many times games are decided entirely because one team is filled with level 25's, while the other team has level 0-10's. Versus shouldn't be a place where people come to level their perks, it should be a for-fun game mode where any perk you chose will be set to level 25 to make a team's strength more consistent. This way Tripwire can more easily balance Versus without having to take in the impossible variable of players being anywhere from level 0-25.
And that's all I think Versus mode needs! These 3 simple changes can drastically change how this game-mode is played and viewed by the community. Versus doesn't need to be perfectly balanced to be fun, it just needs to be kinda balanced. Nobody is expecting a perfect Versus mode, but the current state in which it is played is way out of whack. The game mode is fun, it has potential, all it needs is a little tweaking and it can become a great way for players to take a break from the base game and engage in some fun PvP. Tripwire already invested a huge portion of development time creating Versus, might as well make it good. Any other suggestions and discussion you guys have would be great as well.