Rise of Kunark announced; What that means to Berserkers?

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=361208 Major notes: All level caps moving to 80. Achievements being touched up. Class specific equipment quests. The level cap moving to level 80 isn't a huge factor one way or another for Berserkers, though it might be painful to hit level 80 and still have insolent gibe so low level. This change will mostly have us waiting to see how we do on any new skill lines, hopefully we're not shafted by another completely **** skill like Juggernaut. Touched up achievements: All I can say is uh-oh. Unless they plan on bringing achievement lines up to par universally, this might end up as a nerf. I plan on personally writing a review of both achievement trees to discuss possible changes. If we as the Berserker community can come to some consensus on abilities that need changing we might be able to convince the developers to fix at least a few broken skills. We should consider expressing our desire to see lines that offer viable paths to 2h users and DW users. And finally class specific equipment... Another big uh-oh as last I checked our class symbol was a 2h axe. I don't think I have -ever- seen a berserker out there using a 2h axe, and it would really be a pain if we were shafted in such a way. Most berserkers favor 1h swords. Also it would be good if we discussed what kind of gear we'd like to see in RoK so we don't end up with Focus: Group Regen again.

[p]What another 10 levels! Omg I am still lvl42. Thats means I am still half way through :cry:. [/p][p] Joking apart, I really do not mind the level cap and I fully agree that 2H handers should be given some love. The reason I am currently using a 2H is just because it feels unnatural for me to use a 1H weapon, more than for dps which is much lower than the 1 hander. [/p][p]However what usually happens in this instance if 2H weapons are made more viable for berserkers there could be a possibility that our already nerfed tanking abilities are reduced. Yet I am with Kemt on this, as I really want to see berserkers using more and more the awesome 2 handers out there.[/p]

/agree Kemt

They will prolly nerf our overpowered EoF AA's. :mrgreen: When i read the announcement interview, my only concern was that Scott said they won't be adding new Achievement trees, just tweaking old ones. I'm happy with guild/adventure/ts level cap rise, but i'm a big fan of alternative advancements so i was bit dissapointed that we don't get new ones this time. I just hope they will come up with some good ideas.

[p]Personally i'd love to see bloodcraze changed. add the regen onto our group regen one, and turn it into some self heal? as in every time the berserker he has % chance to reheal small chunks of health? say 1% or 0.5% etc, what ever balances it.[/p][p] would also love to see a 2hand tanking line, if u can imagine the beserker weilding his 2hander and blocking attacks with it type.[/p][p] if we're making requests. i'd love buckler to become semi dps tank spec, and 2hander to becaome huge dps type, this would mean u could use a zerker as ur off / main tank, and have another specced for 2handers to do nice dps. (Would also prove a use or all those kos and pre avatar fabled 2handers to be taken by more than paladins or sk's)[/p][p]another buff maybe is a 1minute duration or such huge hp gain buff for say 10k hp but you loose % in mid? so if your near death you pop it healing and adding 10k hp for 30secs - 1min but at cost of mid. its kind of a about to die buy some time for heal to land style.[/p][p]as kemt said changing our aa's to something more useable, inproved unyeilding will, regen increases... bleh we should have dmg and such increases, or dmg reductions so when we pop them we ignore % of dmg taken on xx numbe rof hits, for xx amount of time etc. like a frenzy ignoring wounds style berserker .[/p][p]only some random ideas whilst in work.[/p][p] [/p][p]oh, and some decent looking armour... eof set makes us look like our grannies knit our armour for us.[/p][p]dark colors maybe? (sound slil emo huh), reds, blacks, dark blue, or bright green[/p]

Guardians are already calling for equal dps vis-a-vis zerkers on their forums. Now that imo is a nerf to us if it goes through.

Why the heck should guardians get our dps?

[p]If Guardians get our AoE dps, then I want stonesphere and reinforcement and a self HP buff.[/p][p] [/p][p] [/p]

Rofl, Guardians can (if DPS specced) allready get Zerker DPS and still have more taunts, more HP and Reinforcement. Anyway, I don't think we you have to fear Insolent Gibe being so low, I think ancient spells will very likely be upgraded every 20 lvls like the lvl 50 special.

[p]For the love of GOD please separate the cyclone talent into a) reduced resistance to taunts and b) increased range on AOE abilities -- I literally wince and bite my lip whenever I hit Insolent Gibe in any instance small enough to have doors, for example. [/p][p]Unrest or CMM? Forget it. Hai2u Barb boned skellington in the nursery while killing billy dolls...[/p]

Sormr@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Haha so true. Gibe in instances is one of those things that either saves your group in an overpull or wipes you by pulling even more mobs. Agreed, they really need to seperate out the radius and resist decreases. Luckily most raid zones are spread out enough that it's not an issue. As for Guardians getting on par with us DPS-wise... gimme a break. Last time I checked we got the DPS and they got the survivability. A guardian will live a little bit longer tanking an epic mob, but I've never seen our guardian break 2.5k dps on raid fights even though he's a high DPS spec. The best I've ever seen him do is about 1.5k-1.8k. He does alot more DPS while tanking then I do while tanking, probably because of the nice weaponskill buff they get, plus the guardian offensive stance is pretty weak so the difference in offensive DPS vs. defensive is alot smaller then ours.

Personally, I'm pretty happy with our AA's as they are now and don't like the idea of them changing too much, especially the ones I picked from the Perseverance and Debilitation lines. People downplay the HP regen we get and say it's worthless when they just don't know what it's like to play without it. It does make a difference. When you have 210 points of hp regen per tick just from your own buffs and a Guard has like maybe 10 at most unless he picked some HP regen from his character traits instead of max HP, which I don't think many do, there is a difference there that is quite noticeable. The extra 500 points or so of straight HP they can get from their buffs is not worth it compared to our regen, whether you are a raid MT or not. And ever since they changed the last ability of the Perseverance line to 100% instead of 100 points, it works nicely and overrides any HP regen cap that is in place when you are below 30% so you can get a 420 point heal every 6 seconds until you are above 30% again. Maybe that doesn't make a huge difference when you are being a raid MT, but I don't know how many times it has saved me from dying to adds in heroic zones.

[p] The only reason this is the case is because of the weapon restrictions on some of the AA's. If there were AA's available for 2h that provided a slightly greater offensive output in exchange for some survivability, then we'd see more variety instead of Buckler + Sword. [/p][p] That said, there is light at the end of the tunnel for those of us who don't want to be a Gladiator anymore:[/p][p] Galenite wrote: [/p]

[p] Part of the power-curve upgrade might be that you no longer need a buckler to utilize your 76% double-attack. Which, if you favor 2h weapons, is a really exciting prospect. Given the tiny gap between the "end-game" 1h and 2h, this may indeed be the compromise of sacrificing defense (block, parry, riposte from buckler or tower) with offense (a giant 2h weapon!).[/p][p] One can only hope that they create a scenario where it's ok to not equip a buckler. [/p]

[p]If 2-handers get a DPS boost over buckler/1h, then I'll be happy.[/p][p]And lets face. it...warriors have some of the very best AA's in the game, and are due for a bit of a nerf. I almost expect to see it.[/p][p]I really hope that we maintain our position as top DPS tanks. It's kind of....our role. If not, then what IS our role?[/p][p] [/p]

[p]Let me start by saying that I have no problem with 2-handers getting a boost. However I would ALSO like to see more tanking options and not just more DPS options.[/p][p]My berserker is a raid MT and has been since KoS came out. The EoF tree was a huge disappointment for me as the defensive/aggro options were too limited in my opinion. Mayhem was nice but the changes to mit minimized how much that helps. I like the 10% taunt resist reduction but it was a last second addition and was added to an ability that no one seems to want. The regen, while nice if soloing, grouping or dps'ing in a raid, really is completely worthless to a MT. 210 hp every 6 seconds (which is the current cap) when you are getting smacked by a level 75^^^ epic = almost nothing. I would much rather have the extra hp of a guardian than that. Not to mention that we were already almost at the cap without any achievement enhancements (I sit at 165 self-buffed with 3 points in blood rage which I had to take to get suppressed rage, not counting any gear). Add any other class with regen to that and you are way over the cap.[/p][p] At any rate, I'm all for being able to DPS spec a zerker. Its very nice having the option of doing different things with your class. I just really hope they don't remove other options to make that happen. Giving us an epic that is only a 2-hander would kill the class for me. Now a weapon that can change weild style (as was suggested earlier) would be very nice even if it was a one time choice.[/p][p]Nummy - 70 berserker Lucan Dlere[/p]

[p]A b-a-s-t-a-r-d (censored if spelled normally) sword would be great for us berserkers.[/p][p]You should be able to wield it as a two-handed sword offering more damage and less defense and as a one-handed sword with more defense qualities combined with a shield. Maybe together with two buffs, i.e. weapon stances transforming the b-a-s-t-a-r-d sword into a two- or onehanded sword.[/p][p]Let us pray they do NOT give us a two-handed AXE. They should rather change the symbol then following this random symbol. A zerker is more a tank than anything else. So pls give us sth. usuable in TANKING (group and raid).[/p][p]Or simply offer a choice when receiving your epic reward (maybe with the same stats, procs, etc). So people liking and people hating this or that kind of weapon would be satisfied.[/p][p]For guardians there might be equipment 100% made for tanking. The berserkers' equipment should at least be 90% suitable for tanking. We are no DDs, we cannot resurrect dead, we have no other supporting abilities. WE ARE STRAIGHT TANKS. [/p][p][size="large"]So please, SOE, don't disturb this concept. Think twice before giving us two-handed weapons making us tank worse while DDs like assassins still laugh at us trying to do "damage".[/size][/p]

When I hear the word "berserker" i think of the scandinavian vandals or vikings. The buckler and 1h was a good leap from this, however the only "real" choice. The other thing i think of is a frothing at the mouth crazy with 2 bigass AXES in his hands. Picture the barbarian from diablo 2 with frenzy for a good picture maybe. Any berserker that tries to go 2h or dw gets laughed at, myself included. Even with the limited offensive spec choices I can still do quite well for myself without any fabled/procing items on him yet. One idea is maybe make a limitation if they give berserkers a really strong offensive ability is to counter it with lifedrain much like the necromancer lifeburn. That way, we can only sustain this "true" berserk stage for a short period of time without direct healing. Or simply make the offensive stance much more pronounced so that it's impossible to tank in it at all, but makes being a dps class viable. Just a few ideas because i would like to see the berserker become truly a berserk.

We already have an ability that does exactly what you say: Juggernaut drains life, makes it impossible to tank hard content, and increases our DPS quite a bit while in it. It is one of the most unpopular and contended berserker skills. The community at large would likely strongly reject -another- skill that does the exact same thing. Thankfully the level cap raise will actually mitigate Juggernaut's debuff, but the buff is a multiplier, so it will scale nicely into the future. Other than that, Berserkers don't need another temporary offensive buff that lowers defense. Similarly, you will likely never see much more on our Offensive Stance. If it were possible for us to put out even MORE DPS just by switching stances, while at the same time we could still just go into D stance and be the second toughest tank again we'd be even more precariously balanced than we already are. As it stands right now Berserkers are hated by a lot of classes, almost every other fighter hates us, because we are the #1 DPS from fighters, and the #2 tank from fighters, while also having exceptionally solid buffs to bring to raid groups. Try reading other fighter boards, or even some of the general discussions sometimes, Berserkers are not looked upon with a lot of friendliness, instead in some cases it is anger and jealousy. We should NOT be looking to gain any more "tier" positions DPS wise in Kunark, because it would put us head and shoulders above many pure DPS classes. Instead, we will likely be losing some DPS relative to other classes. Our next skill will likely be non-offensive to help with this balance. Edited to fix a word.

if we get 2 hander aa it means we can kiss our *** goodbye to raid tanking. Or we need to get the same amount of block + the same amount of avoidance the best tower shield a guard will be allowed to get through raiding while we are speced with 2hander AA. 2 hander are for monk end of the story. i want to become a better tank not a better DPS. i want to get ride of the single target HP regen i want self +melee skill boost in order to not require a warden in my group in order to hit as often a guard with his GROUP melee skill buff. i want our group HP regen to disappear and become something actually usefull. ideally i want our single HP regen buff a stone skin proc since zerker are supposed to be able to just be in frenzy and not realize they are injured, but that would be absolutely overpowered.

If the lack of a melee skill buff was that detrimental, I'd rather see the penalty on the defensive stance relaxed. We're not the only class that suffers from the lack of a melee skill buff. Let the guardians have their accuracy. We more than make up for it elsewhere. I don't imagine someone swinging in a crazed frenzy is all that accurate anyway. Just look at the accuracy of Rampage/Destruction. Regarding the HP regen, I really don't like having two abilities that serve the same purpose. Especially since it makes capping in combat HP regen very easy. Having a self berserk proc, and a group berserk proc that overrides the self proc, is kind of pointless as well. If they were to modify base abilities and not just AA lines, I'd like to see the self berserk proc be something else that stacks with the group proc. The fact that there is a 3rd berserk that doesn't stack in our EoF AA tree is just awful. A stone skin proc might not be overpowering either. It would depend on the rate at which it procs. It could have some negative effect (like Tower of Stone damages shields), or even only work when we're in the berserk state.