I am returning to EQ with a couple friends after a long, long break. I played a zerker to like 80 before i think but never got to invest much into the character. I wanted to return and try again on one and see alot of people complaining about them. So any input from you experienced zerkers would be much appreciated.
Let some ppl get into my head about it being a broken class. Just hate to be in a position where i need 5k AAs to compare to a naked rogue with 500.
The complaints that you saw when you were level 80 are pretty much still the same complaints that you see today. Notably the root & blind that we have to deal with - and that no other class has had to since before we were created, the ludicrous level to which we are adps dependent, and our relatively low sustained dps. We're the red-headed step children of EQ but no more so than we were when you stopped playing. All that said, it's a fun class. Your burns do good damage and, in the group game, the root/blind can be worked with. Depending on what the others in your group happen to be, you may or may not have an adps issue. If two in your group are a bard and a shammy you have it made.
Fl!p, to your AA point, if you come back under the all access banner (even if it's just for a month) you can get autogranted any AA's you don't have up to the level you are - with a few exceptions like tradeskill AA's are not autogranted. When my ranger was autogranted, she had about 1500 AA's or so and that bumped her up another 3,000-4,000 or so. My enchanter got around 1500 (she was already around 3500).
My honest advice would be to consider rerolling. I have played berserker since GoD the class has been at one point op then it has had its ups and downs. In its current state it is overly fragile and without an abundance of support pretty mediocre damage. Our best dps stack involves being rooted which angered me so much that I quit for two years. I now play a Sk currently lv 88. At lv 100 the Sk is by no means perfect, but at least when I am on my own it offers a good diverse style of play and does not feel like a total afterthought. With the heroic toon option you could have a fully base geared anything. And as much as I hate to say it I genuinely feel anything is more fun than the current 'vision' for the berserker. If you are not going to be a raider a group pure melee would not be advised as they are terrible in group gear when in a dps role compared to a silk dps. If you are very personally invested in your berserker by all means play him/her and hope they come up with some nice new features and rectifications for the next expansion. I don't want to dishearten you, but I feel playing a zerk when you have other far better and diverse approach classes it is not worth the bother given your level. You could start at 85 with a well geared toon on the class of your choice.
This is obviously an exaggeration, given the recent boost to rogues all requires high level and a lot of AA to obtain. Regardless, although I view the levelling journey as an important and fun part of EQ (I can't stand powerlevelling), you do still have to look long term as sooner or later you'll be max level and heavy into the AA count, especially with the autogranting ones as noted above. If you have a ready made group of friends for support most nights then the rogue is a good choice atm, but so is berserker and I'm sure things will swing again (the pendulum always does). However if you're going to be "molo"ing a lot then discount rogues as we're hands down the worst of the dps classes for soloing. Berserker would be OK, but better still in those scenarios are monks with comparable dps to the rog outside of a few short burns and much better defensive capabilities than either ber or rog. (Better still are the hybrids I guess, ranger and beastlord, but it depends on what game style you prefer.)
What you do in the game matters here. Want to raid ? Rogue or Ber are both good options. Want to group ? Play a wizard At the end of the day if you're playing a class just because they're #1 dps you're playing that class for the wrong reason.
Thanks for all the replies everyone, I greatly appreciate them. We will group of course for our leveling exprience, but we plan on raiding together when possible. I personally was wanting to play another war ><, but my guild currently has several War mains, so I would hardly ever really get to tank. Just loldps and keep telling myself, "I'm Halping!!". That aside, zerker seems pretty neat. I just wanted to make sure they were not on the level of rangers in classic/kunark. Once again thanks for the convo guys.
