Random thought as I play Halloween Madness.
Berserkers are a bit under-powered, and one of the reasons is panic.
Remove it. It should even them up a bit.
Berserkers
How about a new Skill for berserkers.
Second Wind.
let them have it at level 25 or so, and make it be like a field dressing or monk healing or something - but have it kick in automatically on a % if they are raged and they drop to 25% hps - what % it kicks in based on how high % they have it at.
I actually like that idea.
Good call.
I don't think they should remove panic so much as up the hit/dam of it since with lack of blind fighting they lose more hitroll than they gain.
A few ideas from my thread before on this...to be considered individually, not as a group:
Allow rest/sleep during panic. Or make panic relaxable out of combat (giving use to the relax skill)... Zerks need to play the attrition game too, or they will be dominated by it (as they have been).
Weapondam bonus (similar to ogre). Zerks SHOULD hit harder than any other class and a lot of times they don't. Warriors get more attacks and unblockable (fired weapons), (not to mention rangers) making their damage potential way higher than even rage allows..without the penalties of rage.
Edge/throw/doublesheath skills. Allow zerks to make throwing axes and auto-toss them during murder or flee. Can also be used for unblockable damage in combat via throw. Might even consider them adding some substance to it (such as paralyze/poison).
Rage grants very good mental saves. This will solidify their role as 'mage' killers, while making sense with their clouded mind.
Roar causes auto-flee into random direction. This allows the zerk a chance to survive if things go wrong while raged, but isn't that useful against PCs since it has a 2 round lag and they can attack again. Put a timer on it so it can only be used once every few ticks.
Roar causes the "fear" effect...much like hysteria...
Haymaker + headbutt as combat openers.. As explained before, this gives them an offensive edge.
Headbutt may cause thunderclap directional sense. Also showcasing zerks ability to confuse casters/communers enough to maybe kill them. (instead of heabutting and them just dancing around you for a tick...)
Give zerks +moves at levelup. This shows the hardiness of zerks and gives them a little perk over the other melees.
Rage grants +1 size due to bulging muscles, etc. This bonus obviously can't be used when not raged, so nobody will have a suprise super laglock.
Weapon cleave: Be able to cleave off-hand weapons!!!
Some damn solid ideas.
I agree with a lot of those ideas. I think the commonly held opinion that berzerkers are the ultimate melee machines began when Kentry was around because he was doing more melee damage than anyone had ever seen before.
The mud is a very different place nowdays, and most of the skills/perks/items that Kentry was able to use are no longer in existence. Also, general player skill has increased a great deal, and most people are better able to protect themselves against melee damage.
As a result, berzerkers as melee machines have taken a back seat to warriors, rangers and often blademasters. It was my understanding that berzerkers were meant to be huge melee powerhouses, able to dish out loads of damage with the disadvantage of being much more vulnerable to attacks. Right now, due to the reasons Celerity mentioned, they aren't dealing out as much damage as their peers, and they are left only with the disadvantage of being far less defensive.
They don't have blind fighting, pugil, riposte, fired weapons, 4th attack or dual parry, and the supposed extra melee strength they are meant to have to make up for this is just not there.
Right now to be truly powerful a berzerker has to rely a fair amount on getting into certain cabals and using their skills.
think that they are quite balanced now.
"Weapondam bonus (similar to ogre). Zerks SHOULD hit harder than any other class and a lot of times they don't. Warriors get more attacks and unblockable (fired weapons), (not to mention rangers) making their damage potential way higher than even rage allows..without the penalties of rage."
Actualy a raged zerk depending on path/race can get a 45-50% extra damage, disregarding Damroll.
"Weapondam bonus (similar to ogre). Zerks SHOULD hit harder than any other class and a lot of times they don't. Warriors get more attacks and unblockable (fired weapons), (not to mention rangers) making their damage potential way higher than even rage allows..without the penalties of rage."
Actualy a raged zerk depending on path/race can get a 45-50% extra damage, disregarding Damroll.
Individual blows, yes. Average damage per round, no. Or at least, that's the argument being made, and I'd agree with it.
I played one last year and went path of devastation and had a laugh died a lot but got some kills, tried it again this year and did squat, seemed like damage was well low compared to previous year. Some good ideas there though, they def need something.
good stuff, celerity. i agree zerks could use a tone up.
I was doing dismembers/lacerates through sanc with mine.
Beast berserker is pretty awesome imho.
The only problem though is rolling the character, you get all prepped with a were-bear, were-wolf or tiger desc and keep getting falcon and having to reroll a dozen times.
Actually after all of the others I have found falcon to be the one that is most useful for beserkers and rangers....
Really? Falcon? Why is that? I assumed falcon was... well, pretty gimp.
Play one and find out 
Berserkers do need something to give them the oomph back.
I really think they would benefit from having shield bash - and yes I know it has certain affects that zerks should have access too so perhaps rename it to sheild slam and take those (two?) effects and give others. Zerks are the strong men of the land and it doesn't take much imagaination to see them slamming someone with their shield. They'd have to have a shield eq'd (obviously) so they can only use one weapon at a time while doing this.
I also think that all zerks need some way to come out of rage - devastation last an insanely long time and chasing someone who flee's from you is just a pain when you attack any other player you come across.
I also think zerks need to be able to sleep while raged and/or panic'd. Attrition widely used these days and not being able to sleep really puts them on the back foot.
L-A
Random thought as I play Halloween Madness.
Berserkers are a bit under-powered, and one of the reasons is panic.
Remove it. It should even them up a bit.
I played Helloween too and with my ogre zerker I managed to score more kills than with anything else, but with everything else I died like 2 times and with the zerker I died like 10 for the same ammount of time...
My oppinion on the question is, okay, you have a class which ABSOLUTELY sux defensively. Hell you can autorage against a strong mob even if you are completely naked. Now, you need to get something in exchange for such a huge lack of defense... make them stronger offensively. At the current state a warrior, a ranger, a blademaster, a monk, a dark knight and basicly 90% of the classes can dish out more damage than a berserker, that is just not right. Not talking that some of the mage classes don't even need wares to do it.
When talking about defenses, I see the zerkers ranked somewhere close to invokers... which is right. But hey, zerkers are quite far from the invokers capeabilities to dish out damage and they don't even have sanctuary.... not talking that zerkers autorage left and right... so again, why should I make a berserker instead of invoker (just a small example)?
Just my two cents.
Zerkers have excellent defense.
They have 3 defenses, or 2 if raged. And they know all weapons except whips.
To say a Zerk has the same defences as a invocker is quite incorrect.
Zerkers can also drop your sanctuary and other protectives. And as a skill, which means they do not factor saves.
Zerks are very fine.I just go my *** whooped to a zerker.