zerker's are very powerful, kick [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot], extremely fun class, can tank, can solo, can deal tons of damage... and... yes... we DO get all the women. once you go troll, you never go back... unless it's with 2 trolls. lol
I'm a beserker and i'm pleased being one. I wanted to play a fighter, a fighter that can stand its ground and keep all eye's focused on him. The beserker makes it all possable, for me the beserker is very similar to the Pen and Paper Dungeon & Dragons (3rd edition) Barbarian class. Thats what I wanted to play, thats what it feels like i'm playing right now. A Beserker Dwarven Warrior. The ongoing struggle, hear on the boards between the beserker and the guardion is a big waist of time. Both are equally good. What the beserker lacks in defense, the guardian lacks in offense. The both can take out similar kind of monstors solo, the guardian takes less damage, but needs more time to kill the monster, while the beserker takes more damage but kill the monster alot faster. Both classes make good tanks, the problem however is that both classes don't work optimal if there are not taking damage! One can neglect/absorb/counter (what ever its called a guardion does) the damage, the other only gets angry about it and start hitting alot faster and harder. So we will ALWAYS have a problem when we have both a guardian and a beserker in one group. If you don't like this "beserk" kind of playing style, doing more damage when ever you get hit. Then a beserkers live isn't for you. If a monster can't hit us, or only tickles us one in a while we beserkers will not be as effective then when we get hit often and become angry about it and hit it even harder back at the attackers. Play what you consider to be fun, if this isn't it. Stop now, start a new one and keep this one in the cooler for now and look at the differances when you have your guardian at equal level.
I have played a 24monk 23sk 25zerker in EQ2 so far. First off no one holds hate like a zerker. My RL friend Guardian rerolled cuz it made him so mad. I rarely have to taunt even to keep hate on me. Bloodlust and start the fight off with a AoE taunt HO. Some mobs rip thru any tank. Zerker is better then my mnk and sk because I know I can keep hate w/o any problems. No matter how many heals I need ect I never lose hate. Plds/sks mnk/bruisers not great taunters. Anyways I am staying a zerker now super combo for DPS and tankage. /90percent of my skills are Adept 1 including bloodlust, fury, focus rage, ect this is important to every zerker in my opinion. Message Edited by Prothos on 01-01-2005 02:12 PM
Just turned level 43 tonight and had my parser going all day. I got my FBSS yesterday. I was doing more DPS per mob than a wizard, warlock, and necro. I was doing more damage than a swash 2 levels below me. I had the best DPS out of all of them 70% of the time, especailly on a group of mobs. The only times I lost on the DPS race was when I got stunned and couldn't use specials as I was tank all day. All this with a one hander I got out of a master box, which allows me to get the same DPS as a 2 hander I had. So with my tower shield and that axe, I was kicking butt. Zerkers are a great class and very much worth it. -Karg 43 Zerk Lavastorm PS - and this was against level 50 ^^ mobs.... Message Edited by ReconEQ on 01-01-2005 11:55 PM
I've done quite a lot of parsing of a lot of classes, sadly I haven't gotten to dps a high level zerker yet, but anyways, I'm finding that the differences in DPS isn't that large between all the tanks. At 42+, all melees, including guardians out damage all casters. With haste buffs up, a guardian completely dominates a wizards DPS, paladins and SK's do slightly more DPS than a guardian. I imagine a Zerker does a little more damage yet, but I bet the difference between a guardian and a zerker 42+ isn't more than 20% different. I've grouped with a lot of tanks too. While a zerker might out taunt a guardian, both taunt plenty well enough to be MT. Guardians, at least with upgraded taunts, hold agro just fine. Zerkers do too. I have noticed however, that a zerker in zerker mode gets hit a lot harder than when he's not. On easier mobs it's not an issue, but on tougher mobs, it's wise for the zerker not to zerk. Had a major problem doing basic RE stuff with a zerker until he stopped zerking. While his AC reads the same, he noticed he definately got hit more often and for higher damage. Been running parsers at low levels, and it's shocking just how good of DPS all the tank classes can do when they attempt to do DPS with a bard or enchanter in the group (been running a lot of the parsers with a dirge or my illusionist, so haste is there). At levels 1-17, my warrior has been out DPSing a rogue 1 level higher than me equally equipped (she probably could do a little better). Basically what I'm getting at is all tanks do good DPS, and the difference isn't that large. ( was in a group with a zerker and paly, 25 paly was doing 29 DPS to the 24 zerker's 32 on average). The paly playing main tank only had about 9 DPS. Many times those playing main tanks for go all offense, not that they can't, but frequently because they don't know they can do DPS, or don't care. Message Edited by Padien on 01-02-2005 01:04 AM
Tbh rogue DPS really isnt impressive till post 20-a warrior has better skills in the 10-20 stage than the rogue Also power is the issue-how much power are the classes using to attain that DPS-i hear rogue skills are low power, pally has high damage abilities but at a cost of lots of power Message Edited by asteldian on 01-02-2005 11:11 AM
"Many times those playing main tanks for go all offense, not that they can't, but frequently because they don't know they can do DPS, or don't care." I'm willing to bet while the zerker and paly were focusing on dps, the paly who was mt was warding and healing himslef and focusing on holding agro and maintaining a decent level of power so he could chain pull. Really, by the mid 20's your group should be easilly putting out over 120 dps, otherwise you need to rethink your group makeup or find the "special" person and replace them. The mt is there to take the hits and hold agro first and foremost. Burning his power every fight for an extra 10 or even 20 dps would only hurt the group by causing downtime. Remember, while you spam attacks he is spamming taunts which do no damage, and since he is always face to face with the mob he fights he get parried a lot. Also the more offense he tries the more chance of a mob riposting which could be bad news in a tight fight. Oh, and let me guess, the two doing damage were using 2handers while the mt was sword and board? The basic damaging crusader attack at that level conveniently requires a 2handed weapon to use. Many of us forget that, lets face it, Blood Lust is broken. The only taunt I ever use is the lvl 3 taunt(app1) which I still keep on my hotbar to finish/advance ho's with because it only costs 8 power. That leaves a lot of power and time to cast abilities in orded to do damage. As for outdamaging guardians, on single pulls the difference isnt that big. It's when the aoe's and counterattacks come in that the zerker shines.
I never intended to say that a MT should try to do a lot do a lot of damage. Only that most MT's aren't aware they can do damage when they want to (other MT or what ever reason). Point being, at 40+ levels, even guardians are pulling 80-100 DPS while casters are doing under 80 DPS when they pull out damage weapons. Heck, they auto attack at 50+. A lot of people always knock the DPS of guardians, palies and SK's. In truth, it's not too bad, especially 40+.
what are you guys smokin? Berzerker is a very effective tank, with high DPS, at low power cost. I never have trouble putting out high DPS while effectively tanking, holding aggro, and not using alot of power. In fact, i usually have more power than anyone else in my group. And as the parser showed last night, i did almost the same damage as my assassin friend, with less power, while tanking. With the exception he was saving assassin's blade for emergencies. and since when is bloodlust broken? it's not a huge buff for the group, just minor, but when it triggers berzerk, and stacks with the triggered focus rage berzerk... [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] that's some killer haste. When both berzerks stack, the swinging animation cant keep up with how fast i'm swinging my halberd lol. Message Edited by Toxaur on 01-02-2005 03:59 PM
Tox you need to do some more reading buddy... Bloodlust IS broken. It generates excessive aggro to the point where the ONLY thing than can take agro from a bloodlusted berserker spamming arts is another bloodlusted berserker spamming arts with faster dual wield weapons. Period. No class has a snowball's chance in hell of doing it. What this means is that I NEVER taunt to get agro. EVER. The only time I use taunt is to finish an HO. That leaves me with a lot of power for all the fancy damage arts we get, while other tanks need to waste power taunting to maintain agro. The other side of this is, others dont expect you to hold agro as well as you do, they are used to grouping with other classes for mt which dont hold agro as well (often the result of bad players they have ran into) and hold back on their damage. When is the last time you joined a pickup group and the wizard started chain aeing straight from the first pull? As for outdamaging your assasin friend, sounds like he needs to upgrade some arts or figure out what he's doing wrong. By the way, did you tell him you were parsing?
he was parsing, well upgraded both weapons and skills. I know how to play my class :smileyvery-happy:
If anyone is having problems with Power Level, they need to get better drink. Buy those crafted drinks/foods relative to your tier, and power shouldn’t be an issue. Stack that on top of Group HO, should be no reason for power to ever be significantly low (minus maybe a long drawn out named or highlevel encounter). Course if your stuck in a group with n00bs that don't understand group HO or the benifits of drink/food, then bang head on keyboard.
i havent had to use anything but summoned or cheap food/drink. but when going somewhere i know will be a big challenge, i take better drink.
Zerker are definately worth playing, we hold agro the best and we really shine when we kill mob a lot of mobs. I mean I got so far 4 aoes on 4 differents timers I mean how bad can u get ? If u combine your aoe powers and a 2 handed weapon your dmg output would be so good that most mobs will die pretty soon. Sure zerker takes a beating but really since the beginning it was clear, zerker are offensive tank we are not here to play defensive, sure we wear heavy armor we can wear tower shield. But really I tested with a healer defensive mode with a tower shield healer spent 2 mana bars on an encounter ( took a long time), went out all offensively with a 2 handed weapon, healer barely used 1 mana bar and fight ended much faster.
A few days ago while I was out pulling the group got an add. By the time I got back to them they had it below half health. I hit it with wound, followed by my auto attack swing, and before I finished casting my taunt the mob was already on me from the two procs of bloodlust. If that is not broken.... please....for the love of god..... tell me what is.... Yes zerker is king of agro. They would have to hard code special skills for us otherwise. Buffs generate sick agro and every time you go berserk you are buffed, with only a 10 second duration we have to do it often. But read the bloodlust description and tell me its working as intended. If it was meant as a quick fix for letting us stay perma zerked they should have just made it a berserk state with a 3 min duration. "What's broken about that? Every class needs to be special and someone has to be the King of Aggro." That's like saying a wizard with a spell that does 10000 damage at lvl 30 on a 4 second recast would not be broken because someone has to be king of damage. If you think that's an outrageous comparison and bloodlust is not broken roll a guardian and try to taunt off me. I dare ya. The only time I have lost agro since I got bloodlust was when an assasin used his assasin's blade to open the fight and my first 4 attacks/arts got parried by the mob (ie: bloodlust did not proc).
It's not the same thing at all. There are two important differences that jump out at me. First, one is anecdotal and the other is numerical. You and I don't have any numerical information about how much hate bloodlust generates. We just have stories. Many are like yours, but some are not. Some people claim that bloodlust can be used by careful berserkers who are not the MT without drawing aggro. If these stories are true, then it is not at all the equivalent of a 10000 damage spell with a 4 second timer. My post simply responded to the "Berserkers spamming arts w/ bloodlust always get aggro so its broken" argument. I'm not saying bloodlust isn't broken, just that nobody here has posted a rational and compelling argument that it is. Sony doesn't give out the numbers, so until someone reverse-engineers them we'll have to rely on Sony to make the call. Second, damage and aggro are not at all the same. If you do 10,000,000 damage on a 4 second timer, the game is gone. Everything dies and you have no fun. If you generate "10,000,000 hate" all the time, the game is still fun. You have simply bypassed the hate mechanic. _If_ that's what bloodlust did, berserkers simply wouldn't have to worry about aggro...they'd still have to worry about killing and being killed. Just as scouts can track stuff so skip the "hunt for some idiot in the forest" mechanic. I'm quite confident that Sony will balance aggro management just fine. Message Edited by Dirtbeard on 01-04-2005 11:58 AM Message Edited by Dirtbeard on 01-04-2005 11:58 AM Message Edited by Dirtbeard on 01-04-2005 11:59 AM Message Edited by Dirtbeard on 01-04-2005 12:00 PM
============ " Some people claim that bloodlust can be used by careful berserkers who are not the MT without drawing aggro. " =========== It can, just use a big slow 2 hander, something like Heavy Skullbuster. Its a challenge but it possible to adjust agro with bloodlust. I'm hoping that a lack a creativity for agro mgmt on the part of the part of this community doesnt necessitate an unneeded skill nerf.
