My Two Cents About Berserkers

The last few days have been somewhat uneventful. Well ingame at least. Managed to get my barbie up to 68 yesterday and saying I will be 80 in a week from now seems like a realistic estimate.

Currently roaming the Atzel’s Approach area which provides mobs and quests from early 60’s all the way up to early 70’s at least. The Thunder River area also provides some nice quests in the 60 – 70 level range and is totally worth checking out. There are also a few group dungeons with quests available for my level range which I have left untouched so far. Mainly because at this level people tend to prefer going with their clan rather than with random people, which is also a good reason for me to start thinking about finding a suiting clan for myself. If you play on Soulstorm and got a clan that could use an awesome barbie just /tell Odefi ingame. ^^

Barbarian’s Berserker Tree Unplayable?

This is the image you will get if you read the official forums.

I personally think there is nothing wrong with the barbarian’s berserker tree apart from a couple of feats far down the tree which are mandatory to grab to get to the last feats. The image I got from the forums was that the berserker tree is good for nothing and if you want damage you should just spec dual wield.

First of all berserkers have excellent crowd control abilities. I currently have two stuns and two knockdowns and have taken all possible feats that improve their effects. If I use them all I can disable a group of mobs for good 14 seconds at least. Of course doesn’t work that well in PvP due to the stun and knockdown immunities, that stunning and knocking down generate. But still that is some serious crowd control right there.

Also the damage is not bad at all. I got Staggering Blow IV yesterday as I hit 68 and did some testing. It was constantly doing around 60% damage on mobs four levels higher than me, non crit and on the unshielded side of course. If it crits it one shots the mobs. Now I have not tested dual wield, but seriously Cyclone of Steel would have to one shot all mobs and players for me to give up the awesome CC abilities for the extra damage.

After yesterday’s fixes to finishing blow and decapitation the only feat that I feel is somewhat useless is Rampage. The damage it deals is around 40 on my current level and it doesn’t really trigger often enough to make it worth the whole five feat points I’ve spent in it to be able to advance towards Thirst for Blood.

I have to admit I haven’t done too much PvP, but so far I have been able to stand up for myself against almost all classes even though soldier classes give me some trouble. I have this code of honour which means I don’t attack players unless they provoke me in some way. When I am alone that is. If I am in a group and they want to fight another group I wont say no simply because group PvP is really enjoyable. I don’t get ganked much, but if someone attacks me I will make it my job to get revenge one way or the other; some times over and over again. ^^ My Kill/Death ratio is around 2/1 even though the deaths include quite a bit of traveling from the time when I still didn’t have a horse and getting killed by a player was the easiest consequence free way to travel.

That’s my two cents about the current state of berserkers. Dual wield is something I will definitely have to try out in the near future to get more perspective of the matter. My berserker build has changed quite a bit from the last time I posted about it and I will be posting my new build with details in the near future.

This Week’s Patches

The most significant change this week was definitely the speed boost for all mounts, which was really significant. I was already traveling purely by horse before this boost now it’s even faster. You are still piss easy to get knocked off of the mount, but it is a matter that one of the devs has said they will look in to. The information I provided about riding a horse a while back was also a bit flawed. You can’t actually sprint as much as you want with your weapon sheathed. It was due to a bug that wouldn’t update your speed until you unsheathed your weapon. This bug was fixed this week though so you can now ride a horse just as fast regardless if you are holding your weapon or not.

Also there was an announcement concerning the buddy keys, that came with the AoC Collectors Editions, which we did not receive on the launch. The word is that we will get our hands on them in the ”not too distant future”. Could they be any more vague? ^^ This will be a great chance for me to get some friends hooked on AoC and also to get some company for when I get in to the alt game after hitting 80 on my barbie.

That’s all for today. Keep watching the skies! ..or something. ^^

- Odefi