Im pretty clueless as to the berserker (or monk for the matter) class. But my image of the berserker is not an armorered tank, but of a half naked madman with braids and two axes.... like an english football hooligan with better hygiene. I imagine them having a lot of hp, but little mitigation and no avoidance, but putting a massive damage load down. Id have them outdamge assassins, but have zero tank ability and zero utility. its just how I see them I guess But then I would also have monks dps the same as scouts, and tank exactly the same. In many ways they are similar classes. Both use speed and dodging rather than armour, they both use precision attacks rather than massive double handed sword type swings. monks have more health, scouts have stealth. Id have berserkers as melee wizards with absolutely nothing else. Id have monks as similar to assassins/rangers with regards tanking and dps. Leave the tanking to pallys, sks and guardians I mean seriosuly, who wants david caradine tanking Vox??
I would have to agree with you here, but unfortunately SOE does not have the same image of the berserker that we share.
Let me put it a different way: How would it harm the game to allow berserkers to be a full dps class like wizard IF they have zero tanking ability? Mad McHamish and his two best friends Axe1 & Axe2 is not exactly prime candidate for swashbuckler or ranger class DPS can mean scout, or mage ... why cant it mean fighter? As a scout myself, my only problem with berserker as a dps class is that its also a tank class. Remove heavy armour and shield option from zerkers and crank up their damage and it wont upset me as a scout.
Sorry but it was said cleary at the beginning of EQ2 that Berserkers are offensive Tanks. In EQ1 you had Berserkers that were more dps since they could not wear heavy. So if you want to play a ''real'' Berserker go to EQ1 :smileyvery-happy: I am just fine with tanking stuff and meanwhile doing some damage
Nor I. I chose Berserker on my most recent character specifically for him to be the point-man after I found myself disappointed with my Paladin.
Dizzi, I don't want to come off as attacking you on a personal level, but just what in the HELL made you want to post this? Berserkers as a DPS only class? [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] that man, we're tanks with attitude, you want DPS? stick with what you got man. I don't even understand why this would come up!! How bout we make furies DPS class instead and let templars do all the healing? tank + drunk +(pissed off like he just got kicked in the balls really hard) = berserker
I would also have to say that the tanking ability was what I signed up for when I made my zerk. Also, if you were to convert the zerk class to "a meleeing wizard" with uber dps and no mitigation or avoidance to speak of, we'd be doing a lot of face planting. Other dps classes have ways to handle being the glass cannon. Mages get roots, pets, and stuns to keep the bad guys at bay. Scouts have stealth, aggro lowering skills, flanking attacks, and all have at least some ranged skills which help keep them alive in groups, and allow kiting when solo. A pure melee dps with no defense would become more of a liability in a group than an asset and would be suicide in a raid. When the aoe's and ripostes started flying the zerk wouldn't have any ranged skills to fall back on and wouldn't be able to take the damage to stay in close and melee.
To OP: Why 9 months into the game do you want to completely redesign a class? Isn't that a tad bit unfair to folks who have played a Bers every night over that time period? Bers != what you want them to be in EQ2. Kinda late to alter that at this point.
I think the OP should read this, especially my reply! http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=4&message.id=12933
tank + drunk +(pissed off like he just got kicked in the balls really hard) = berserker HAHA, lol i like that !!!! you should put that in your bio !!
What actually promted me to post this was actually berserkers themselves. 1) Whenever I see people arguing over whos DPS is the most l33t its always a zerker and assassin Zerkers in general seem to have a thing about dps. 2) Zerkers on the boards are going wild about the dps nerf. 3) Lots of people are pointing out that 34% of the player base plays fighters, and only 18% can be tanks, which leaves a lot of fighters having to fill a different role, which is almost always dps. 4) I also posted it because its an option and Id like to see peoples thoughts. The vast majority accept that Zerkers as a balanced class should not be capable of being a tank and a major dps player, but it seems like the only option discussed is nerfing their dps. Nerfing their tanking seemed like an option to at least explore. 5) Finally many people picked their class not because of a 'role' or the sony manual description, which I never even read. Many people seem to think this is a roleplaying game and chose a swashbuckler because it sounded cool, or a berserker cos they thought it was like a viking berserker from some book they once read. Perhaps for some people the bezerker is not supposed to be a guardian that dual wields Anyway, wasnt looking for abuse, just hoping to get some views and insight. If I were sony I would actually split berserkers into 2 new classes: One a DPS (berserker) similar to assassin that used large axes/maces/swords / light armour only, and suicidal moves instead of precise ones; The second similar to the exisitng berserker - a dual wielding offensive tank (Stormtrooper), with a nerfed dps so they dont make rogues useless, but more than a guardian. After the patch id have all berserkers choose a path.
LOL i would be surprised if most of these guys even remember the onld Kung-Fu TVseries And if so I can handle the hoard of middle aged grasshopper fans. My point was that few people who coose a monk see them selves as a meat shield. I personally dont think ALL fighters should be tanks. There should be fighters who believe the best way to defeat an enemy is to hit him a lot, as hard as you can, preferably in the goolies. 34% of players are fighters, only 18% can be tanks. Thats almost half the tanks left doing some other job. Anyway, just spitballing ideas here. Not got anything invested in it either way. Fighters can be tanks or dps in my opinion. As long as they aint both I dont see the problem.
The problem is that SOE says they are tanks, and SOE makes the game. That and there are already 12 DPS classes, which is 50% of available classes.
Frankly, I think the most elegant solution to the whole tank-balancing issue is to do what Sony intends to do with the summoner sub-classes: two different tiers of damage-dealing, one in offensive mode, one in defensive mode. In that way, all six tank archetypes could tank almost equally (via whatever combination of mitigation and avoidance) and all three would have something useful to do when they weren't tanking. Right now the basic flaw is that one third of all players play tanks, but only one sixth of the members of a full group need to =be= tanks (ratio is even worse for raids, obviously). The Hold the Line ability should be the benchmark for how this works: turn it on, you become a tank, turn it off you become third-tier DPS. I sincerely =hope= this is what SOE is planning....
Having tanks able to swtich to DPS mode is a good solution to make tanks feel useful, but how would you handle the dps classes? Should a swashy be able to switch to tank mode to be useful? Ive heard sony said that fighters should be tanks, but I wonder how well thought out that was. They had to know that a lot of people would play fighters. Bascially as it stands, 1 in 3 people play one. Unless groups are maxed at 3 players thats a lot of tanks not tanking. So why not have some fighter classes as DPS rather than tanks. The biggest hurdle seems to be that people have played these classes for a long time. But realisitically, whats the alternative? Give wizards and scouts the ability to tank or heal? We know they are gonna get nerfed and currently it seems they will nerf the dps. Is there noone who would prefer them to nerf the tank side instead? BTW Im really not bothered which they nerf, im just in curiosity mode right now
