Did something recently change with zerkers?

[Tuna]

<DIV>Note: I am a fanboi.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My naive optimism turned into sour dissapointment and sulking after about two weeks of playing my beserker post combat changes.  Highlights of my journey into disillusionment include:</DIV> <OL> <LI>Losing aggro to a scout (granted he was 53 and I was 51) and all of the healers breathing a sigh of relief cause they could stop the frenzied button mashing trying to keep me alive.</LI> <LI>Fighting a named triple up mob 2 levels higher than me and having it drop me in 5 seconds.  Then having a pally guildmate tank the mob with no problem.  Checked and the mob was doing slashing damage.</LI> <LI>Having monks out tank me AND double my dps.</LI> <LI>Running and getting significantly better gear and spells (all adept 3's or masters, buying 3 pieces of cobalt armor), and having it change nothing.</LI> <LI>Having my wife (healer) tell me I was no longer her favorite tank.</LI></OL> <P>It wasn't just that I wasn't the best tank option in any situation (was that ever the case), it was that I was never the best tank option, unless I was grouped with a bunch of guys in robes.</P> <P>Having said all that, last night I tanked in clefts of rujark with guildies and suddenly... I ROCK!  I fought the entire time in offensive stance with a two handed weapon.  I was even able to tank nameds this way (tho it got really hairy once).  </P> <P>The difference is night and day... so I am wondering, is anyone else is suddenly noticing a difference?</P> <P>I did level from 52 to 53 but I really haven't made any other changes that I can think of.  Certainly the group composition has a lot to do with it, and I can't really offer any info that can control for those variables, but perhaps you guys have some insight.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Dak-D]

<div></div><div></div>  I will be honest with you, I hated the combat changes ... I couldnt even play a month before lu13 after reading what they was doing to our class. When DOF was finally released I sucked it up and bought it and saw right off the bat I sucked some serious rear. People here said I didnt know how to play my class and such which was bull ... (I believe that my T5 rare gear and adept 1s and app4s where hurting me among other things), I spent much time going over my new arts after a week of trying I posted the Half the Man thread. I play no differently now then I did then, meaning I have basically all the same combat arts (except now alot are adept 3) and use them for the most part the same. I had rl issues and took about a month off ... when I came back I concentrated on harvesting to get the rares to upgrade my gear and Arts then LU 15 hit ... As for changes to our class, I havent seen anything in any of the updates about major changes to the berserk class but LU 15 had changes to mobs and armor which for our class was very, very good in my opinion. With the lowering of arcane damages and buffing T6 armor our Mitigation is a factor again. With arcane damage you may as well been naked because it only read your resist as countering it and our avoidence just was not cutting it ... Unless you had major raid gear with fat resists, had enough money to invest in gear to counter almost every arcane or had huge Wisdom you was hurtin. Also T5 weapons and armor is basically junk to t6 mobs at least mine was ... I was wearing ebon with a fabled axe and the sbs and sm when the situation called for it and I would get the snot beat out of me by almost everything no matter what I did or how I played. My life also changed when I had a Pristine Imbued Cobalt Claymore made for myself ... I am now in Full Cobalt Gear, IMbued Cobalt 2 hander, Rare rings and invested in the cambric +sta doll (had the linen str and agi doll before, dumped the agi) and awhole lot of Adepts 3s and having a blast.  You can have all the skill in the world but with crappy gear your up [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] creek without a paddle ... The change I have seen since upgrading was insane ... I upgraded chest, legs, arms, helm, gloves and bracers plus got my two hander and saw a HUGE difference pre LU15 but those pesky arcanes where still whoopin me up pretty bad. Now after LU15 I am truly a viable tank and rarely have an issue with aggro, unless someone or myself screws up ... but I am balancing upgrading my taunts and damageing arts together instead of just one sphere as our aggro control relies on both. So no I do not believe they did any major changes to the Berzerker class, they changed a few things in the game that made us a fun class to play again. I FEEL like a zerker, truly love playing and tanking once again for my friends.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Dak-Dod on <span class=date_text>10-24-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:42 PM</span>

[Tudd]

<span><blockquote><hr>Tuna99 wrote:<div>Note: I am a fanboi.</div> <div> </div> <div>My naive optimism turned into sour dissapointment and sulking after about two weeks of playing my beserker post combat changes.  Highlights of my journey into disillusionment include:</div> <ol> <li>Losing aggro to a scout (granted he was 53 and I was 51) and all of the healers breathing a sigh of relief cause they could stop the frenzied button mashing trying to keep me alive.</li> <li>Fighting a named triple up mob 2 levels higher than me and having it drop me in 5 seconds.  Then having a pally guildmate tank the mob with no problem.  Checked and the mob was doing slashing damage.</li> <li>Having monks out tank me AND double my dps.</li> <li>Running and getting significantly better gear and spells (all adept 3's or masters, buying 3 pieces of cobalt armor), and having it change nothing.</li> <li>Having my wife (healer) tell me I was no longer her favorite tank.</li></ol> <p>It wasn't just that I wasn't the best tank option in any situation (was that ever the case), it was that I was never the best tank option, unless I was grouped with a bunch of guys in robes.</p> <p>Having said all that, last night I tanked in clefts of rujark with guildies and suddenly... I ROCK!  I fought the entire time in offensive stance with a two handed weapon.  I was even able to tank nameds this way (tho it got really hairy once).  </p> <p>The difference is night and day... so I am wondering, is anyone else is suddenly noticing a difference?</p> <p>I did level from 52 to 53 but I really haven't made any other changes that I can think of.  Certainly the group composition has a lot to do with it, and I can't really offer any info that can control for those variables, but perhaps you guys have some insight. </p><hr></blockquote>As previous poster alluded to, the changes made to mobs and gear in game is what boosted our tankability. Previous to the latest changes, many mobs were using arcane damage for their melee. Which meant that your mitigation did zero for you, since your mitigation was now dependent on your resists. So all that plate gear was no better then VLA against these type of mobs. It also meant any gear and defense buffs that gave you slashing, piercing, or crushing resist were worthless. This is also why brawlers tanked much better, because avoidance is not dependent on the type of damage attack, it avoids melee attacks regardless of whether the melee type was arcane or trauma. Now, mobs are using slashing, piercing, and crushing again for their melee attacks. This one change brought mitigation tanks back to where they should have been all along. Having T6 armor when fighting T6 mobs is a necessity. T5 gear takes a huge penalty when fighting T6 mobs. Doesn't matter what quality the T5 gear is, it all takes a hit. Same goes with weapons. As far as monks doubling your DPS, that may be true at lower levels against single mobs. Put a zerker against a group of mobs though, and we can easily outdps a monk without too much effort. Offending/Taunting Defense+Weapon Guard/Aegis+AE's+Rampage+Open Wounds+Fury...well, you get the idea. The more mobs, the higher our DPS. As far as the named triple up mob, I bet if you look through your logs, the mob was probably doing arcane damage for it's auto-attack. In which case, pallies would probably out-tank anyone due to their wards and heals. If the mob was doing cold-based auto-attacks, you might tank it comparably, but pally would probably still have tanked it better. So yeah, since the changes, we are pretty much back to being able to tank most mobs again.</span><div></div>