Xandax1
12-07-2006, 11:57 AM
<DIV>Alrighty, before you flame me for starting another versus thread, hear me out. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is a freshman argumentative college essay. I chose the topic of why Berserkers can perform just as well if not better than Guardians in nearly every situation (solo, group, raid). The paper is no where near as complete or informative as I could of made it, but I had a 3 page limit. I feel that as a lvl 70 berserker with 80+ AA's and 60 days played I can add something to this discussion. I've been in a casual raid guild, currently in a hardcore raid guild. I've soloed and grouped everywhere. I'm about half mastered, half ad 3 so I know what a Berserker can really do. The paper is based off a guardian and berserker that are specced exactly the same in the warrior line with full fabled and master spells. Honestly, even though this is from the perspective of a end game character I believe you will see similar results throughout the different types of gaming styles.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The beginning paragraph is just to introduce where the argument is from to atleast give my instructor and classmates a point to relate. Throughout my leveling, I've seen an unjustifiable preference for people to choose the guardian class over berserkers. Although after a while, your name gets around and people start remembering you for your skill and not your class name. This is some information to disprove their preference. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If you can give feedback, good or bad, about the grammar or argument (whether its pro-zerker or pro-guardian) I would appreciate it. The idea that my instructor was cool enough to let me write on this topic was pretty awesome, there was enough trust that if I posted it on the internet for you guys to dissect that my instructor would be able to look past the jargon and eq2 language. Just remember I was limited to 3 pages...and my writing abilities are not great. Edit: I've reread my paper a few times and noticed a few flaws in my argument, but I'll leave it as is.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <P>How often do you cheer for the under dog? Do you ever find yourself wanting to be the indians instead of the cowboys? This rivalry clearly sets the scene for a long debated dispute in the massive multiplayer online roleplaying game Everquest II. In the game two player chosen classes, berserkers and guardians, are similar yet very unique. The guardians most accurately portray the role of the cowboy in Everquest II. They have access to very powerful skills and are often chosen over berserkers for their presumed definitive tanking abilities. Being a berserker can be characterized as the indians in an old western style conflict because they are often underestimated for their capacity to perform many different tasks throughtout the game. Often throughout my Everquest career, while playing my berserker, I have seen an unjustifiable preference for guardians over berserkers. Given similar gear and spell quality, a berserker can equate to and even excel beyond a guardian in every aspect of game play.</P> <P>While soloing, the key to maximize kills and experience is to have the perfectbalance between offense and defense, swaying from one to the other with certain utility and depending on the circumstances of the fight. While guardians have a mildly higher boost in hit points and avoidance, the diminishing returns curve of the recent Echoes of Faydwer expansion has proven to tone down the effectiveness of their avoidance buff. A fully mastered, regeneration specced berserker will have in upwards of two hundred hit point regeneration every six seconds, below thirty percent health you can tack on another one hundred points of regeneration nearly reaching the cap set for in-combat health regeneration. This regeneration makes up for the guardian hit point buff within twelve seconds of combat and continues to boost the berserker's hit points way above that of a non-regenerative tank. This reduces down time for the next fight. The regeneration bonus from berserkers is a group wide spell that can ease the healing duties for group encounters and raids.</P> <P></P> <P>Both guardians and berserkers will be doing average amounts of damage with buckler in hand, both classes recieve a few high damage hits and quite a few mid to low damage skills as well. Berserkers gain a few very unique skills in their last fifteen levels appropriately called juggernaut, destruction, and open wounds. With a cyclone specced Berserker, the short duration skills are usable every two minutes once the buff wears off. For a short period of time, thirty-five seconds give or take a few seconds, the berserker turns into a damage machine without losing any benefits to defense, although unable to touch any of the tier one dps classes, berserkers will often sit far above guardians on the damage parse at the end of a fight. Guardians, however, have much of their skills invested in taunts and gaining aggro and hate utility for groups and raids, whereas a berserker relies more heavily upon dps to generate hate. </P> <P>Following the law that one point of damage equals one point of hate, why would you not want to do damage in the first place. Since hate only affects who the mob is attacking, this is not lowering the mob's health. Although aggro control is invaluable to a raid and even in many group situations, a well seasoned warrior will have no problem controlling mob hate with an aggro transfer and solid dps. Guardians get many skills that focus on aggro control and management, where as a berserker relies on damage generated hate instead of moderates and actual hate increasing buffs like reinforcement and inflaming defense. This is what most uniquely seperates the berserker from the guardian, their methods of hate gaining. </P> <P>In groups as well as raids, berserkers offer quite a few buffs that affect their group's damage output. Adding over one hundred points of a strength as well as a high percentage chance to gain nearly thirty percent haste and dps. Unless you are closing in on one thousand strength, there is always room for more as well as haste and dps modifiers. Guardians have defense and offensive skills buffs that result in higher hit percentages as well as higher avoidance. Guardians also offer a larger hit point pool to everyone in their group.</P> <P>Everything taken into account, I believe guardians are absorption, avoidance, and control tanks. Guardians cover large amounts of aggro, but lack the overall usefulness that would result in needing more than one guardian per raid. Having atleast two berserkers in a raid can result in a marginal increase in raid dps as well as providing sturdy back up tanking. Much like their name suggests, berserkers truly are chaotic damage output tanks. </P></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV><p>Message Edited by Xandax1 on <span class=date_text>12-06-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:58 PM</span>