[Taskin]

Wondering what the heck a berserker is and what they can do? Welcome to the club!!

I thought I would post this here because 90% of the people I group with still tell me "I've never grouped with a zerker before... what do you guys do?"

A berserker is basically a warrior / rogue cross. We can tank, but not as well as a warrior.. and we can do major DPS, but not as good as a rogue (until we reach the very end game at which point we leave rogues choking on our dust). Berserkers are on the Knight HP table (I personally have 7200hps unbuffed and can get close to 11k buffed) and we are restricted to using 2-Handed weapons only.

Berserkers have a basic DPS boost in the fact that we have Frenzy instead of Kick. Our Frenzy skill is basically the same as kick except it is 3 strikes instead of 1, and each strike can do up to 300 damage (with max AA's).

Berserkers also have some special combat skills based on our throwing axes. These skills are: Snare, Stun, and Jolt and they are all on the same timer of once every 12-seconds (and the new volley ability is also on this timer so I hear). So, every 12 secs a zerker can either Snare, Stun, or Jolt the mob (Jolt is a skill that gives a big chunk of negative agro when we use it, and smaller chunks of negative agro over time... basically allows us to ditch agro whenever we want and pass it on to someone else).

These abilities are all ranged, melee-based (ie. on a special melee resists table), and INSTANT. When I say instant, I mean that I click the button and the ability hits the mob, no delay whatsoever (the axe doesn't even fly through the air to hit the mob, it just hits it the instant the button is clicked). The fact that these skills are insta-click like that is what really makes them useful.

As for snare... our snares only last 1 minute and do not stack/overwrite any other snare effect. This means our snare is not great for the usual group-grindage situation (if you snare near the start of battle, it usually wears off right about the time the mob is running away). BUT, since it is an instant effect and is very very rarely resisted, it is the perfect emergency snare (mob starts to run... BAM, snared.) I have also found this snare to be useful on raids when nobody else is bothering to snare... around 30% I stick the mob to the ground and nobody has to shuffle about to get that killing blow in there. This snare is also our main taunt ability... it gets us major agro from a mob whether it sticks or not (ie. a taunt that never fails).

The stun is probably the most useful of our abilities. The stun lasts for 4 seconds and can affect most mobs up to and including level 70. A good zerker will be using this ability in two ways... one, to save lives when the CH is just a second or two off from landing in time (an extra 4 seconds of stunned mob can do wonders for helping CHs land). Two, this skill can be mega-useful for helping chanters get mobs mezzed before getting their robes handed to them. None of our main three skills do any damage, so a good zerker can be quite useful as "melee-CC"

The stun is also what makes us a step above the other "secondary tanks" ... but only while we have the endurance available to use it (and if the mob is under level 71 and not immune to stuns... heh). A tanking zerker can stun the mob he's fighting for 4 seconds every 12... this basically means the mob is stunned for 1/3 of the battle. Unfortunately, a zerker doing this will run out of endurance after awhile and force the group to "med" (ugh).

Zerkers have a range of Discs, most of which are uber-DPS increasers that we can only really use when not tanking (tanking makes us use endurance to taunt, so we can't afford to waste endurance on DPS discs while tanking). We also have some of the warrior defensive discs... such as riposte all attacks for 12 seconds, fearlessness, and complete immunity to spell effects (can't remember the duration on that one, I rarely use it).

We also have the War Cry ability which is our only group-disc. We can use this one roughly every 30 minutes and it grants a (roughly) 30% overhaste component and +50 ATK to all groupmembers (can be TGB'd). This ability goes in a bard song slot when in use, and is a good reason to put a zerker in a group with the other main DPS (melee) classes on raids.

And that's probably a lot more than any of you wanted to read about the berserker class so I'll stop yammering now

- Taskin

edit: two things I forgot to add...
1. Zerkers are restricted to chain armors only.
2. Zerkers are supposed to be the #2 ranged DPS in the game (throwing axes), but very few zerkers actually bother with the throwing AA's so our ability to be ranged DPS is more of an afterthought than anything else.

[Kelset]

Funny that I see this now after saying, I have no idea what a berserker does last night Good info, thanks.

[Korinne]

LOL ....well that helps alot Taskin /bonk Kel
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It takes talent to lose oneself. Now where was I?

Korinne Neverfound, Lost Druid of Norrath