Zerker noob looking for help

[Lethalweff]

<DIV>Hello, my name is Aegir, and I'm a Berserker.  I've been a Berserker for about 27 levels now.  I still consider myself a major noob and would like some of your suggestions and/or comments.  I have about three and a half bars of combat spells, two-thirds of which seem to be some sort of buff.  Only about 5 of the spells last more than 2 minutes, which makes the other 20 or so seem completely useless, or is that just me?  Also, I am not sure if this is inherent to being a Berserker, but I tend to get hit an awful lot, which makes being the main tank somewhat difficult.  Off hand, at level 27, I believe my AC is around 2750, my STR is 80, AGI 56, and STA 50.  Those stats are with dual wield weapons equiped.  I do use a shield when I am main tank, but it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference in how often I'm hit or damage I take, probably because it drops my AGI and STA proportionatly to how much it raises my AC.  Do any of you have any suggestions as to how I might go about becoming a better MT?  I have all the AQ pieces, I'm still working on getting the helm from some dude in the Baubbleshire (sp?), and everything else I have equiped except for maybe a piece or two is yellow or orange to me.  Thanks!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Aegir</DIV> <DIV>27 Barbarian Zerk</DIV> <DIV>Splitpaw</DIV>

[Scarax]

Well from reading your post it definitely sounds like your primary issue is ability ignorance. I didn't mean that as mean as it sounds, but if you are not even sure what your abilities do then yes, you're probably not doing too well. Step 1 - Discover and Learn Your AbilitiesYou really need to go through your knowledge book and examine each of your abilities and see what it is you do. If you don't know what it is you can do then you can't expect anyone else to know what you can do for the group, can you? Find out which abilities share the same reuse timer. Find out which abilities generate hate. Find out which of your abilities work very well and which ones don't do much.I have a hotbar of nothing but skills that generate hate, a hotbar of attack skills, a hotbar of buffs for myself and groupmembers, and a hotbar of miscellaneous crap. You could try seperating your skills out like that. Honestly, it helped me a lot because when I want to generate hate I know exactly where to go and can even mess up and click the wrong button. Any button on that first hotbar is going to generate hate for me.If you learn your abilities then you will be far far better off than you are now. Make sure you always have Soldiers Stance or Reckless Stance up. Have Focus Rage up. Step 2 - What the hell am I fighting and why?What I am about to tell you is the honest truth. Always try to fight multiple mob no-arrow encounters. Berserkers were built for destroying those types of encounters. Can we take on single, double, triple and higher arrow encounters? Sure. We can even solo double arrow greens easily. The real sweet spot though is with no arrow mobs. Remember that we are an AE mass damage melee class. Click blood rage and let the good times roll. If you're in a group with some damage dealing classes then strap on a shield (make sure the shield cons white or higher to you or it's worthless!!!!) . If you're in a group with a bunch of tanks and some healers then go for two handed or dual wield. Understand that depending on the group the highest encounter you should ever mess with IMO is double arrow orange, and even then there should be a good reason as to why you're doing it. Stick to double arrow blue, white, yellow with blue being the fastest and safest exp. If you're solo then stick to greens. They're fast and easy with little downtime. If you don't have "little downtime" then you need to get better food and drink. This turned into a kind of rambling post, but I hope some of it helps. I honestly think that you're problems are mostly because you don't know your class and you might be taking on stuff too hard for you perhaps.

[Lethalweff]

<DIV>I do appreciate the reply and take some good knowledge away from it.  I didn't take your statement as being mean, but I do know most of my spells pretty well.  I guess I was more complaining how if I, being a Berserker, am supposed to be this supreme offensive weapon, why does it seem I have so much fluff spells that don't seem to help much?  I have divided most of my spells up similar to what you say.  I have them set up more for HOs than straight lines of either extra melee attacks or aggro spells.  And I do have my soldier's stance and focus rage on nonstop.  But I just picked up a new spell before I turned 27.  I can't remember it's name, perhaps havoc or something like that.  It's a buff that increases AC and something else for the whole group, but it looks to me like it lasts less than 1 minute.  I don't know about you, but when I'm in a group, I don't have many encounters that last less than 1 minute, or even close to a minute, so what's the use of this thing?  And this isn't the first or only spell that I have in my hotbars like that.  It seems most buffs that I've gotten when I hit a certain lvl of xp are like this.  That said, I have not really spent much time going through my spell book, and maybe I'm not using some very good spells.  I tend to use a spell as soon as I get it, and make up my mind whether to use it or not right then.  And I did not realize that we were meant more for fighting non-arrowed creatures.  I will have to pay more attention to that.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks again.</DIV>