Pro's and Con's to Berserker

[TemporaryAccou]

<DIV> <DIV>im having trouble deciding whether i should become a beserker or shadowknight on my character, so i have come to find out why a berserker is/isnt better than a sk and why i should become one. Any tips on which to choose or the pro and con's to berserker, thanks for any help!</DIV></DIV>

[Thibor24]

<P>There are cons to being a berserker?</P> <P>:smileyvery-happy:</P>

[RaunII]

<DIV>well, i havent found any cons yet cept that we arent the best tanks at lower levels, just my observation...i always had a hard time keeping aggro even with app1-app3 taunts, and it seemed like at lower levels the armour mitigation didnt do much, so an avoidance tank like a monk or bruiser could take the hits better, and a gaurdian-pally-sk could hold aggro better. after 30 i never noticed that problem, and at 41, my character seems quite well balanced. he can tank well, grab aggro when he needs too, but yet still dish out a beating.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>anyway, would you want a dps'er and heavy tank...or a heavy tank that has wards and life taps??? thats what it really boils down to, what you would rather play. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[morningmists]

<P>I'll answer as far as up through mid lvls go, since I have a 39 SK and 35 zerk.</P> <P>Agro is and always will be a challenge for the SK, you will work hard for it, often you can pull it off...it is reasonable at my lvl still, but my friends tell me post 50 it's a total nightmare.</P> <P>On the other hand you solo like a fiend, ad3 your ward and you can start farming certain master drops in your high 20s and always be able to find ones you can all the way up</P> <P>Agro with the zerk is awesome so far, I found 15-30 I could keep agro with autoattack and a couple CAs, I almost never had to hit taunt. Now I do use more stuff, but have never lost agro really, I don't sweat it to have a warlock bombing the whole encounter like on my SK</P> <P>DPS wise, the zerk does about 20% more than SK if i pull out pet, without pet a lot less for SK(they both have rare weapons) This holds true even on AE fights because pre rampage/open wounds SKs area effect stuff is pretty nice too(I'm guessing once zerks get those there's just no comparison)</P> <P>Tanking, zerk wins vs melee mobs hands down, SK wins vs spell casters easily due to wis on def stance, more knockdowns and lifetaps right after taking a nasty nuke(Cept cold based ones obviously since that is on zerk def stance)</P> <P>They are both a lot of fun, best thing about having one of each is always something to do when the vit runs out on the other <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Boli32]

<P>The trick with a 'zerker is your offensive stance. With it you can hold agro but take more damage... without it agro can sometimes be a problem (but not allways)... that is the fine line you have to tred.</P>

[hockeyplayer43]

As a zerker the best way to keep aggro is to tell your groupmates to hold on  a minute so you can beat the living crap out of the monster for a second and get massive aggros .... Zerker taunts are generally just used as emergency aggro or just to get that poor monster a bit more [Removed for Content] at you. <div></div>

[Pegesus]

There are no real cons i can see for being a zerker.  We have the best armor second highest Mitigation can use every type of weapon made and we are by far the highest dps of all the plate classes.  Zerkers can hold aggro better than any other class if like stated in a previous post get a chance to use 2 CA's before the rest of the group/raid attacks.  Getting our taunts to Adept 3's is the key.  IMO our best taunt is our lvl 54 lengedary Insolent Gibe.  Once you cast this you can pretty much hold off any dps from pulling aggro.IMO we are the best all around tanks due to our great offensive attacks.  A zerker can solo better in my opinion slightly better than an SK since we have alot more AE's.<div></div>

[tyrinon]

<div></div><p>Lol i cant believe no one mentioned our crappy taunts. Yes we solo great  but at 60 who solo's anything unless your farming stuff.  Yes we have an awesome AE outside area taunt and another 1200 point one that at master level is nice but thats pretty much it.  I have all my taunts at master level now and have lots of problems with aggro management, this is in offensive and defensive stance.  Prime example we did rog the other day just for kicks and i am building hate via the 1200 pointer , i get 4 taunts off for bout 5000 hate plus my auto attack damage, a 50 wizard hits him with ice comet.....and well you know the rest.  Anyone who plays with rangers/assassins or wizards as much as i do knows exactly what i am saying.</p><p>I am not saying bezerkers arent a great class, lord knows i love playing mine BUT the taunt issue's really need to be addressed.  When a ranger can use one bow attack and grab 8 minutes of aggro building theres a problem somewhere.  Hell ive had necro pets grab and keep better aggro than me, and if rescue is down theres very little chance your gonna get it back.</p>