HI there. Its been a while since I played my berserker but he's only lvl 60 (as of tonight). I do have some questions though. 1. While leveling, should I dual wield or use a 2h weapon to make things die faster or should I just sick with a shield & sword? 2. What stats should I focus on besides defense & strength & potency? 3. What deity do you guys recommend? 4. Is berserker dps decent or will I be pigeonholed into tanking? Thanks for the time & any tips you could give me about the class is helpful too.
The best away is finding your own game style. Many players say that is better or better, but everyone plays differently, it is important that you learn your class to play what your spells do and how they work. For because end range in the game are the best items shield and razor weapon for tanks. Best deity for tanks is hard to say there are many, find out about wiki the individual Deitys of your mind out and choose in the end which suits for you the best. Dps comes only really end range of the game with pot cb ab mode. To name a few of them is 4150cb is cap 15k pot is a base 200000-300000 from fashion is nice. 100% Strikethrough - 100% aoe autoattack - 200 haste - 125 to 200multi - hate mode 75-100% Resolve and Cast speed up to 100% Resolve comes with gear 190-300 is a base for Heroic zones. Crit Chance comes with mount Food and other stuff nice Base 1500-2000. Mitigation is the point too go 20000-25000 on gear and jewel. Uncontested Block Base is 70-100%. Fervor is a nice stat too get 25-100 for a little dps boost too For the levels in the low range, the stats do not really play a role or which weapons you take there you can also take two one-handed
My motto for anything in life is do what suits you; however, you came seeking a different kind of answer - so I'll give you some ideas to think about that I've put into use. When it comes to leveling a zerk, let's say you're not using any mercs... I usually overpull on my zerk, always. I start the fight with dual wielding two fast swinging weapons and most of my defensive temps running. I pull the room around until I've grown comfortable with the parade I've gathered and once you get the hang of this like I have, you'll know when to start using your offensive temps so you don't have to keep running around to avoid necessary damage. Then you unload. The reason why I don't ever use 2h weapons on a zerk is this... The swing rate is slower, you get more stats from the combo of dual wielding, you can change your weapons in combat between dual wielding and sword and shield than you can from two handers to sword and shield, thus making the amount of button pressing you do smaller. Now let's answer the same question but instead of over pulling, it'll be for one or two mobs at a time. Depends on what you're fighting, if you're with a healer or not, if your healer can keep you alive, if you have defensive procs and etc. I still say dual wielding is better. Especially when you have items that heal you when you hit. More swinging means more instances where your items might proc. Besides, you can always switch to a shield faster like I mentioned. And even then, you can slap on a two hander for your appearance if you still wanted that "feeling" of using a sword large enough to cut through five men in one blow. As for the stats to focus on... I haven't played since level 95 was cap, but it goes without saying that your ability casting speed, ability recovery speed, AE auto attack chance, strikethrough, and flurry should be at 100% After that, the stats you'll want to be raising are crit bonus and potency. Haste is good too. Faster swing rate on a zerk with auto attacks that spread faster than nitroglycerin is disgusting. Especially when you crit like God on steroids, Meth, and pcp. I can't recommend any dieties, I haven't used them since the original pvp servers were popular. I would imagine whichever one gives strength and critbonus to be your best choice. If you want to do the research, have a playstyle in mind, and look through on Zam or wiki for which deity best suits you. The zerk isn't dps for single target. They parse high when they have lots of targets close to them. You can go dps in dungeons, but don't expect to be outparsing anyone except the tank and healer in single target fights. And watch your hate mods and AA builds. Nobody drops AE damage as fast as the zerk when the zerk has all of their offensive buffs running. And whether or not you'll be forced to tank all the time depends on who you run with. Me personally? I exiled over go Guardian and served some time as a raid tank like that first, got the best of my gear, and switched back to zerk with that same gear and went dps Main Tank for raids and dungeons alike. Just remember though, just because you started the fight with two swords, doesn't mean you have to stay that way. Switch up your defensive and offensive buffs as needed and switch to a shield when you do if you think the extra armor will help. Plus, you can make the secondary sword you swing an offensively adorned weapon and the shield adorned for keeping agro. All up to you and whether or not you want people to still group with you.
I guess I should also be asking, is berserker actually fun to play once you get 100 or is it just boring? What about how does it compare to tanking & dpsing as a shadow knight? (I know paladin is supposed to be THE tank currently but I don't want to play a good aligned character)
Out of 21 characters, I play my zerk the most, and have had him the longest. The replay value is definitely there for me with zerks. Every expansion that comes out that I am there for, it's my zerk I do the first run troughs on. As far as the zerk comparison to sks go... The sk is better than the zerk in a few areas but it's clear that at level 100 with Max AA, the zerk outlasts and outdamages the sk. Whereas with the sk, what you get is debuffs and an ability that strips temp buffs of nearby enemies. I personally don't think the paladin to be the best choice of the six tank classes. The Guardian will always be to me the best pure defensive tank. It has numerous stone skin abilities instead of Divine Aura and nothing else. Also comes with death triggers. And when you don't wanna play the guard anymore, exile to zerk. Overall, I think the zerk is great. It's easy to figure out, it can be an end game tank, it can be an off tank hybrid dps for raids, and if the game is dead enough... Or you've managed to somehow secure a spot in a raid guild as a dps zerk... Then you can say you're a dps zerk. Just don't be expecting to be in the top ten for dps on a single target boss in a full raid. Unless of course you pulled the boss when nobody was ready and the raid wiped before anyone but you can do damage. Honestly? The only reason I play the zerk to end game first is this... He's my PL toon. Outside of PLs... When the new expacs comes out and I don't know the quest line, I bring the zerk and trollop around flat footed because the zerk is a behemoth that can do that. It's better this way so that when I come back to do the quests on my other toons, I know where the bar is set.
