Bloodlust

I was thinking it would be neat, not something to implement though. Just wanted to share my idea.

When a Berserker rages he loses all control of right and wrong, his fight or flight emotions get turned into fight or die. So the closer the berserker is to death, the harder he fights.

Also, When a berserker rages, he loses dodge and thats one main reason zerks were never my cup of tea. I thought awhile ago, when a berserker rages if he were to get in too close to the melee class hes fighting, they would be too close for them to get a decent swing in, the berserker still takes damage, just at a reduced amount where he would have dodged.

It's a trade of. You lose Dodge but gain a lot of HP and Hit/Dam.

This is good vs Mage types, less good VS Warrior types.

I have always felt berserkers are underpowered, though the recent changes to the cleaves and haymaker being made an openable option hasnt really been felt by the populace yet. so..meh

Yeah I really think those changes could help a lot as one of the main problems with both of those skills at the moment is that all they tend to do is make the person flee and run a few rooms to re-spell etc... The lag on them means you can't get anything else in.

Being able to open with them means you should get at least 1 round in after the skill before the person flees, and maybe even more if they lag themselves at all.

Only real concern is whether or not these skills will be effective at all unraged, as not all berserkers can be raged before engaging to take advantage of opening with haymaker/cleave.

Choose path of devastation perhaps...

L-A

I really think the changes to Zerks need to set in a little first though. Allowing combat to be opened with haymaker is a very welcome addition to their arsenal, one that I think shouldn't be underestimated...

Dey

Wait... Does this mean that minotaur zerks might do something other than charge;flee;charge;flee ?

Damn right. I pity the blademaster that annoys a zerk now.

Dey

Blademasters aren't all that terrible for a zerk with the right weapon choices.

I like the change to haymaker a lot, because it means people can get taken by surprise, and suddenly find themselves losing protections while they may still have directions or other commands spammed in.

I've found it's especially useful mid combat, to flee and chase with it, since the usual reaction is to kick dirt immediately as combat begins. The new roar is very nice as well.

Blademasters aren't all that terrible for a zerk with the right weapon choices.

I like the change to haymaker a lot, because it means people can get taken by surprise, and suddenly find themselves losing protections while they may still have directions or other commands spammed in.

I've found it's especially useful mid combat, to flee and chase with it, since the usual reaction is to kick dirt immediately as combat begins. The new roar is very nice as well.

Blademasters aren't all that terrible for a zerk with the right weapon choices.

Yup, but the change to haymaker makes them even more deadly against those slimy bastards.

Dey

I just want to see someone spamming a dirt kick get hit by the haymaker before the dirt kick comes in - get full dispelled and bodyslammed in dirt lag!

Well having just played a zerk here's my two cents.

Zerks are made to get in combat, if you're really outdamaging your opponent then you do nothing but lag, same as a warrior except a warrior is probably pumping a lot more damage. If you're not, then you're fiddling with haymaker which is either missing WAY TOO MUCH (That needs to be looked at), or failing, or being blocked one way or another unless you take a certain path. If it's a caster messing with you you're smacking headbutts which okay, totally work. Now if all that isn't working you try some cleaves, but lo'an'behold your opponent's weapon/shield is most likely burnproof so that was totally useless. Okay, now providing you're still alive you rage in hopes you can up your output. Cool, you're doing more damage and now you're rolling but whoops! a very heavy defense is gone so guess what, your opponent is now landing more blows so the output ratio is still AMAZINGLY the SAME! (Give or take) Unless you took a certain path and now your haymaker is useless. Cool eh? No, not at all. Zerks have a VERY slim chance of doing well, not to mention it's NIGH IMPOSSIBLE to get eq solo so unless you have friends who aren't chumps and are willing to help you're SOL my friend.

So what is the remedy to this? Well this seems to be a bit like this supposedly P.O.'d and scary dude is kinda a featherweight doesn't it? Well what about this, perhaps give all opponents an extra half round lag while fighting a zerk for all skills/spells they cast? Or! Maybe when a zerk rages the opponent gets a message like.

co flamestrike/c hell/co harm

With PieMan's Onslaught you have trouble concentrating.

You lost your concentration.

bash/trip/grapple/charge

With PieMan's Onslaught you have trouble aiming.

Your (blank) misses PieMan.

I mean because you have this crazy mofo flailing his arms and blades in a million directions as his eye burn with the flame of 1 million burning feral hides trying to rip your face off you'd be a little put off too

[Radio Edit] Now I'm not talking like every time they do this, but make it a zerk skill that only works while raged and has it's own roll.

I've played 3 Zerks to pinn, one to condeath, and never had a problem with haymaker landing/failing all the time. Infact, it was quite regular landing. Strange. What race were you?

I think that change might be a little extreme. Zerks need, if anything, a very minor tweak, and I haven't had chance to see how they do with the latest changes in. I think they are looking very balanced at the minute, but I haven't had chance to play or fight one with the latest changes so I could be wrong. A lot I found with my Zerks was with timing, and not entering commands as soon as previous command lag wore off.

Dey

I've pinned 5 zerks, 2 stormies to (1 before changes, 1 after), 1 dwarf (pre-change), 1 minotaur (pre) and 1 ogre (way pre).

Only 1 of my stormies was anger, which was after the changes and I landed it okay, but still missed quite often mastered, and I fought a lot of the current zerks who were not anger who really got shafted by not being anger with their haymaker. All my other zerks (2 fury, 2 devas) I could see my devas ogre and stormie as doing much better than they did with the new changes, and Fury is still pretty flat.

I still think they definitely need something, maybe use my earlier idea with the headbutt skill since it pretty much already does that, but a rage headbutt affects skills like charge, bash, throw, and maybe even fired weapons too?

berserkers are one class, if any, that will never be "balanced." the skillset lends itself to lopsided tactics that will fail often. they will always have more bane problems than other classes. imo the best way to play a dedicated berserker is to fully accept the plight when upon creation. as well as keeping in mind that gaining a good IG friend to help you requip will make your berserker stay in battle condition more often.

Talk about just giving up on a problem instead of seeking as yet unimagined solutions...

Strange. Zerker is one of the few classes who have received only tone ups, and not a single tone down ever since 1.0. Yet apparently, people have adopted a 'consensus' that zerkers are extremely weak, despite many successful zerkers having been played in the past.

I think part of it is that a lot of the other classes are not feeling the EQ-weakening as much... but yeah, it's weird to me too. As I don't play zerks, and my ego likes to chalk me winning vs one as me kicking butt instead of the class being weak, I can't really comment.

That doesn't make sense either. With their massive boosts to hitdam and damage from rage, zerkers should be feeling the EQ-weakening least of all. Not to mention, they now have staff, removing one of their greatest weaknesses in the past. And it can't be that new classes are weakening them either, since blademaster for example is very vulnerable to berserkers.