The Berserker - Round 3

[Yoshiro]

Discuss the beserker post round 3 changes

[Nekomancer]

Gentlemen, start your engines.

[scary ghost]

See the video I posted in the general balance patch 3 thread for the berserker changes, starts at the 1:43 mark:

http://forums.tripwireinteractive.co...67&postcount=8

This change for scrakes:

Scrake:
- Put the anti headshot multiplier back to 30% (started at 30, went to 40, now back at 30)
- Improved his rage ability (was not always raging at low health when he should have been)
- Stopped the Take Hit animation from playing when the stun should be locked (after first stun has been achieved)

Means that mindless katana spam no longer works against the scrake as the berserker since you can only interrupt 1 attack and it takes 10 katana head shots to kill a scrake on 6 man suicidal. See the 2:15 mark of the video for katana vs. scrake.

With the chainsaw's headshot multiplier returned to 1.0x, alt fire chainsaw does some pretty good damage, 380-540 perked (level 6), with a much faster firing rate than an axe alt fire, 0.6 vs. 1 sec/attack perked (level 6). This change lets alt fire chainsaw drop a scrake with ~7 head shots, usually resulting in only getting hit once. Chainsaw alt fire vs. scrake @ 1:45.

I was able to achieve some success with the axe though. Careful positioning and timing, saving that 1 interrupt for when he rages, seems to let me drop a scrake without taking a hit in return. 4 primary swings to the head, while staying out of his attack zone, followed by 3 alt fire head shots did the trick. First alt fire swing interrupts the charging attack, which stunned the scrake long enough to get in the remaining 2 head shots. Axe alt fire only vs. scrake @ 2:45, the other attempt I came up with @ 3:33.

All in all, the new scrake makes the berserker work for the kill if he wants to come out unharmed. It also gives another reason to pick chainsaw over the katana as the chainsaw disposes of the scrake far faster than the katana thus minimizing return damage. The axe trick in my video requires good positioning to keep the scrake from retaliating, and uses proper timing to interrupt the attack from when he charges via damage, your high risk high reward kind of deal. Of course, that is just a sandbox map so we'll see how this plays out in an full 6 man game later today.

[9_6]

I can see how people could call the "new" saw too strong but it kills you with slowness.
Feels like an actual katana sidegrade now. Well kinda as the katana remains gimped, it is an upgrade, actually.

[EonSeig]

I still see no point to katana alt-fire. It just kills clots in one hit to the torso, and this is a lot less useful than rapid-fire headshots. Then again, perhaps there shouldn't be any point.

Since flinch stun locking is now impossible, can we please re-buff regular stun? I don't mean the full 1 second, more like 0.5.

All I can say about Chainsaw is thank you. It actually has a definite purpose now, though it is still impractical in some cases.

[scary ghost]

Originally Posted by EonSeig

Since flinch stun locking is now impossible, can we please re-buff regular stun? I don't mean the full 1 second, more like 0.5.

Hit him from behind with axe or chain saw alt fire and he'll be stunned for a while, as the damage then would be equal to the damage dealt pre-beta (for axe anyways)

[Evilsod]

Doesn't an Xbow bolt still do massive damage so it'll stun it for longer while the Zerker works on it?

[҈Oc†ө]

Originally Posted by scary ghost

Hit him from behind with axe or chain saw alt fire and he'll be stunned for a while, as the damage then would be equal to the damage dealt pre-beta (for axe anyways)

indeed! in a 5 man suicidal i've been able to stunlock and kill a scrake from behind with 4 or 5 chainsaw alt fire while he was raging at a mate. The hardest part is the rest of zeds atacking you from behind as well, but it's nice that there's still "a way" to kill scrakes as zerker without taking a lot of damage. Much harder to achieve than before thought, and that's nice too.

[Wannas]

I'm pretty sure beta patch 1 reduced the Xbow stun length to 0.3 seconds or something.

But overall, the actual use of timing and thinking to kill Scrakes safely is a big plus towards Berserker balance.

[Zonker]

I don't have the berserker routine and expertise some other guys here seem to have, but in my opinion the chainsaw works like it should now. It's more or less back to its pre-katana door- and corridor-blocking days. FPs and scrakes can break those blocks, though, and husks and sirens can wear such tanks down, so it doesn't feel overpowered. It's still making berserkers slow as hell, so the katana keeps its role for maneuverability.

I'll try to play a few katana rounds to get a final impression about it, but so far I'd say the berserker works quite well now.

[EonSeig]

Chainsaw is perfect.

Good strategy for use of Chainsaw is to get your team to chuck a bunch of nades onto the Fleshpound, make him rage, then you run in and shop away at his head as he's pumping up.

[Merin Redplate]

IMO, berserker is good right where it is.

[Fedorov]

Originally Posted by Zonker

I don't have the berserker routine and expertise some other guys here seem to have, but in my opinion the chainsaw works like it should now. It's more or less back to its pre-katana door- and corridor-blocking days. FPs and scrakes can break those blocks, though, and husks and sirens can wear such tanks down, so it doesn't feel overpowered. It's still making berserkers slow as hell, so the katana keeps its role for maneuverability.

I'll try to play a few katana rounds to get a final impression about it, but so far I'd say the berserker works quite well now.

I played yesterday and I share this opinion

[EricFong]

Thanks for rising Chainsaw from the grave.

[Deafmute]

I'm a terrible Zerker, but I tried the Chainsaw yesterday and I thought it was ace.

[҈Oc†ө]

I really love the chainsaw buff, it makes it a very interesting and usefull weapon, and bring us a "new" kind of zerker: a "heavy zerker" with powerfull attack and slow velocity.

But this change has a collateral effect, we loose the "light zerker" we used to have, a fast and light guy. That's 'cause now the katana fire rate is too much nerfed IMHO, and makes the katana a nonsense choice comparing it to the new and wonderfull chainsaw.

I'd like to have the choice to be a light or a heavy zerker depending on the situation (map), so i vote for a katana rebuff!

Why has the katana to be so much slow if the stunlock has been removed?

[Compass]

Because you no longer have to break your mouse to use it.

[Aze]

Originally Posted by ҈Oc†ө

I really love the chainsaw buff, it makes it a very interesting and usefull weapon, and bring us a "new" kind of zerker: a "heavy zerker" with powerfull attack and slow velocity.

But this change has a collateral effect, we loose the "light zerker" we used to have, a fast and light guy. That's 'cause now the katana fire rate is too much nerfed IMHO, and makes the katana a nonsense choice comparing it to the new and wonderfull chainsaw.

I'd like to have the choice to be a light or a heavy zerker depending on the situation (map), so i vote for a katana rebuff!

Why has the katana to be so much slow if the stunlock has been removed?

Since im not in the beta i would like to ask: What is the katana's attack speed in beta contra non-beta?

[9_6]

Originally Posted by Aze

Since im not in the beta i would like to ask: What is the katana's attack speed in beta contra non-beta?

It's barely fast enough to chain ZED-times.

[Aze]

Originally Posted by 9_6

It's barely fast enough to chain ZED-times.

Seriously? That sounds really, really slow. Why such a nerf? It already had it's damage nerfed by 50% (backstab fix), definitely enough to keep Zerdics from being too good, so why further nerf it so dramatically?